Chapter 5
Skye woke when the light broke into the room. She never thought how much she needed blackout curtains until she was faced with sleeping without them. With the late nights in the bar and then the bright light in the morning she was running low on sleep. At least she didn’t have to get up early for training here. Her SO had kindly decided that it would cause too much of a scene in this era. Which was why he was currently sleeping beside her. It was so annoying that he could sleep through the light. She considered waking him but thought that would be mean. Moving slightly she cuddled into him, hoping that if she buried her face in his chest she could block out the light and go back to sleep. Even if she couldn’t get back to sleep she was snuggled against his chest, his bare chest, which she couldn’t complain about.
His arms wrapped around, her bringing her closer to him and making her smile. It still surprised her that her SO was such a cuddler. He wasn’t with anybody else but her, which was nice. It was something that was just for them. Something that the team didn’t know about that was just theirs.
“What’s up?” He muttered sleepily.
“Just the light. It doesn’t matter go back to sleep.”
“Come here.” He said moving onto his back and pulling her closer into his side. He pressed gentle kisses in her hair and rubbed his hand down her bare back in a soothing manner. He laughed as she pulled the covers up over her head to try and block out the light. His hand was drawing patterns that were hypnotising, slowly sending her back to sleep.
She may have been able to fall back asleep if it wasn’t for the knocking on the door. The knocking that caused Skye to be instantly awake and spring away from Ward. She quickly moved to the other side of the bed while Ward grabbed a shirt from the floor and threw it on. Skye huddled down in the bed and pulled the covers up so that only her head was sticking out. That way, whoever came through the door, May or Coulson, wouldn’t be able to tell she was naked. Ward was fine as long he didn’t get out of bed. It didn’t really seem like the best time to have a discussion on how their relationship was no longer just rookie-SO.
“Come in.” Called Ward quietly.
Skye decided her best action was to pretend to be asleep: then nobody could make her get out of bed. Plus, everyone knew how she liked to sleep. She heard the door creaked open and recognised Coulson’s voice when he spoke.
“Sorry for waking you, but we need to head out to the office soon. We’re getting an early start with the trainees.”
“Sure. I’ll just get ready then meet you downstairs.”
Skye heard the door close and then felt a pair of arms lift her from the bed.
“Grant!” She gasped, trying not to speak too loudly or Coulson and May would hear her. Smiling at her, he pressed kisses against her lips.
“Not that I’m complaining, but you better get dressed. If you take too long Coulson will come back for you.”
“Don’t want him to find out about us?”
“Eventually. But I want to tell him myself. Plus I like you alive!”
He didn’t respond but just placed another kiss on her lips before getting out of the bed. Skye watched as he gathered his clothes. She probably should stare, but he was pretty much naked and was hot. She could just lie and stare at him for hours.
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Ward was glad they had decided to test some of the apprentices’ skills. They were terrible and needed a lot of training. They had started with gun skills, as that needed the most practice to be good at. Good at the moment was defined by being able to hit a target. It wasn’t necessarily the target that they were aiming at but at least they had hit one of them. It was a good job there was nothing behind the targets otherwise it would have been full of holes. Skye was a better shot than the men and she still had issues between the magazine release and the safety. He thought he had it tough when he tried to teach her, but he thinks training the men may just break him. Glancing at Coulson you could see he was already regretting his decision to take on the men. If they let them loose on the town like this they were going to become a laughing stock. It was going to be a long day.
Ward and Coulson split the men into two groups, deciding it would be easier to teach them in smaller groups as they could then focus on the individual. Coulson took his group off to go and practice riding skills while Ward concentrated on teaching his group how to shoot. Once in the smaller group it was possible to see a difference as the men began to improve. At least all of them could now hit a target and most of the time it was the one they were aiming at.
They were just about to break and swap with Coulson’s group when Skye came along and provided a distraction. She was once again wearing a dress with a corset and long skirt. This one however had a low cut neckline, showing more than she would normally show. It certainly had all the men beside him staring. Noticing him she smiled at lifted the basket she was carrying.
“Hey, babe. I brought you some lunch.”
He bent down and kissed her in thanks. He could here the mumbling from the guys at the realisation that she was his. If Coulson caught them he would just explain that he was acting how a husband would when seeing his wife. Besides, Coulson had been kissing Skye on the head as a father would, so he should act the way a husband would.
‘Yeah, it wasn’t just because you wanted to kiss her.’ Thought Ward.
“Thanks.”
“Well I knew you didn’t get breakfast. Plus, I wanted to see you.”
“Is everything alright?”
“Yeah. I just missed you.”
He smiled and gently brushed a lock of hair off from her face. If he was honest he missed her too. He was beginning to get used to having her around a lot. That scared him slightly. He didn’t know what would happen while they were in the machine. The thought of not having her near terrified him.
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After spending lunch with Ward and Coulson listening to their stories of training, Skye headed back to the bar. May had given her lunch off, as she wanted their first new girl, Daisy, to get a feel of what it was like serving at the bar on her own. Lunchtime was quieter than the evening, so it was the best time for her to find her feet.
Arriving back Skye saw that the bar was pretty empty and May was showing Daisy how things were organised behind the bar. Still there was the jacket that had stumped them. They had brought it back down to the bar to show people, hoping somebody would recognise it. Unfortunately, so far nobody had recognised it. Noticing it again Daisy pointed to it.
“I asked my mum about the jacket ‘cause you were interested in it. She knows most of the people in the town; she’s a seamstress. She said it might be Charlie’s. He only comes into the bar once a week and doesn’t really interact with anyone. Could be why nobody recognises it?”
“Thank you, Daisy. Do you know where he lives?” Asked May
“Sure. It’s the other end of town.”
May looked at Skye. They both knew that if it was Charlie’s jacket they could be closer to getting some more answers. They might find out what was happening here. Moving away from Daisy after getting the location of Charlie’s house, both women agreed to tell the men when they got back and then go and visit him. They knew that they would want them to stay behind, but both women agreed that they want to be there when the boys went asking for information.
It was a long afternoon waiting for the boys to finish so they could tell them what they had found out. Once they had arrived they quickly told them the information. As predicted both argued that the women should stay while they went to get information. May cut the argument short by threatening to knock both men out before taking Skye to get information if they attempted to leave them behind. Skye concealed a smile at Coulson quickly agreeing with May. Although he was the leader of the team, he very often conceded to May’s point of view. Once that was settled they decided to go investigate the area once the bar was closed. May and Skye couldn’t leave the bar unattended, plus at that time there would be less people around to see what they were up to.
Skye was nervous about what they were going to do, but glad that they were finally going to find out some information. Even if it was a dead end it was a start. It was good to be doing something useful.
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They had arrived at the warehouse where their teammates were supposed to be. It was located on the outskirts of New York. The area was filled with warehouses, and this one didn’t stand out. Fitz quickly sent the DWARFs into the warehouse to see what they found. It took them five minutes to map out the entire warehouse. There were only 4 life signs in there, which matched up with the team’s trackers. Fitzsimmons both agreed that the area was safe as there was clearly nobody else in the warehouse. They found a way into the warehouse by prying open a door. Entering they found most of the warehouse empty. Nothing was in there; it was just a big empty room. At the other end Sleepy was hovering outside another room, indicating that there was something in there. Looking at the tablet Fitz quickly saw that the team should be in that room.
‘Why would they be in there?’ he thought.
Glancing at Jemma he quickly placed himself in front her as he moved to open the door. They didn’t know what they would find when they opened the door. If he was in front of her and something went wrong it might give her enough time to escape and get help. Taking a deep breath he reached for the door.
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