Chapter 1
It feels so good to love someone so much it hurts. Ward and Skye know that of all people. They’d been dating for two years now. After she had become an agent, they had continued training together, gradually becoming a deadly two-agent team. (Barton and Romanov would be proud.) She was good, he had to admit. She had really began to commit herself after the “incident” in Italy and she was a good shot when she put in the effort. And he really wanted her to put the effort in now more than ever. If anything happened to her, he's 137% sure that he'd straight up lose his mind.
However, because she was a hacker, it wasn't often she was in the field, usually staying behind the front line (a very good distance behind the line thanks to a paranoid Phil). So usually, he didn't worry about her THAT much.
But it was moments like this that he loathed. Having just been given a mission, they'd received the news that Skye would be going up-front with himself, Trip, Lance and Bobbi to distract and potentially get-rid of the security at the place they were about to raid in order for Fitzsimmons to safely go ahead with Coulson and May to disarm this new super-crazy-alien-gizmo. Skye herself was pleased with the news, always wanting to prove herself to the team that worried over her almost obsessively- show them that she could hold her own! To be fair, they already knew that, it's just she was barely experienced and... well... they'd done their best to shield Fitzsimmons and Skye from the really messed up shit that they sometimes dealt with. Not that they could ever know that. Somehow everyone knew that the knowledge that they were being kept from certain details because they were too “innocent” would not sit well with the trio.
These guys they were dealing with were brutal, favouring the “torture and kill” method over the “capture and interrogate” method. Ward wasn't exactly keen to have the woman he loved beside him when they went up against them. Especially as she would prove to be a distraction, with him trying to protect her instead of completing the mission. It had happened before, and it was something he was trying to work on, but- like the rest of the men in the team- he was protective in nature. The problem was, every time he tried to plead with her, tell her it was too dangerous she'd refuse. Arguing that he was in just as much danger as her so if he was going she was. He would counter that it wasn't the same, to which she would exclaim “why?Is your life worse less than mine?! If you died out there, I'd die too!”. He would then kiss her senseless and whisper “I love you's” into her neck whilst she eagerly returned them. The same argument had come to pass so many times that Lance had taken it upon himself to mouth along with the words like it was his favourite play. This always earned him a smack from his girlfriend. Unfortunately for him, Bobbi had a good swing.
This time was no different, however instead of the scripted 'happy ending', they parted badly; with Ward telling her that if she was going in it was on her own head and that he was sick of hurting over her and her not giving a shit. He'd stormed out of their bunk, scowling at Lance before stalking to the gym, Trip hot on his heels with a cold beer in hand. Lance and Fitz followed them silently after giving concerned glances to their other halves. Watching them go, Simmons and Bobbie shared a troubled look before entering the bunk, where they found Skye perching on the bed, tears running down her face leaving ugly streaks of mascara.
Simmons immediately went into mother-mode, sending Bobbi to get some wipes and a bottle of something from the bar (but nothing too strong! We have a mission, remember?!). She then turned her attention to a pale Skye, who was strangely silent, staring into the empty space behind Simmon's shoulder. Moving slowly, so as not to startle her, she moved from her position in the doorway to sit next to her best friend on the single bed. She then tentatively wrapped an arm around her, and pulled her into a one-sided hug until Skye responded. Suddenly coming to life, she flung her arms around Simmons and sobbed into her shoulder, turning the scientists baby-blue blouse a messy black just to the right of the collar. Oops.
When Bobbi returned mintues later, she found them like this, sat awkwardly on the edge of the bed, Skye's face buried into Simmon's shoulder whilst she rubbed her back soothingly, whispering “it will be alright's” into the broken-hearted girls' ear. When Simmon's saw her standing in the doorway, she gestured for her to close the door and bring forward the 'equipment' Sighing sadly, Bobbi did as she was asked, setting the wipes next to Simmons before uncapping the Vodka and taking a swig. She welcomed the burn that hit the back of her throat like an old friend... because well it was. It did kinda help though. And they needed all the help they could get. Consoling Skye well enough to have her in “mission condition” as Lance called it was a mission in itself. Raising her eyebrows in a question to Simmons and receiving an affirmative nod, she took a deep breath and began her speech.
\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\
Meanwhile, downstairs, the boys were having no luck with Ward either. As soon as he had walked away from Skye, he had regretted it, wanting nothing more than to wipe away her tears and hold her. It hurt him even more to know that he was the one who had broken her. So there was only one place he was heading for- the punching bag. He hadn't even finished descending the stairs before he heard Trip's light-hearted voice telling him that everything would be okay before reeling off an anecdote about this one girl he dated who was a total hottie and they got into a fight like this before he moved away but everything had worked out fine in the end! The thing was, nothing would ever be okay if he didn't have Skye, but he didn't try to explain that to his friend, instead he finished wrapping his hands and began what could only be described as an “intense session”.
Minutes later when he stopped to catch his breath, he noticed that a very concerned looking Fitz and an amused looking Lance had entered the room and had moved to sit beside Trip in the lab, watching him like a lab rat.
“What?” he asked, irritated by their interest in his rare show of emotions.
“Nothing!”
“Who, me?”
“What?”
Came the overlapping reply from the 3 agents.
“Well actually-” that was Fitz “we were wondering... is everything okay? You know like I know it's none of or business or anything and you don't have to tell us I mean we ARE friends and everything but we're only here if you need us but if it's just between you and Skye then by all means carry on! Anyway we were just-” A loud groan came from Trip as he threw his head into his hands. Lance feigned falling off to sleep. Frowning, Fitz began to explain himself to the two offending parties whilst Ward turned to face the punching bag once more. It was going to be a long day.