Chapter 3
“Gee, he’s a bit of a toff ain’t he?” Hunter observed after a moment.
“I don’t know what a toff is so I can’t comment.” she shrugged as she wondered how the two of them could speak the same language, English, but she still had no idea what he was saying.
“Kind of bloke who attends a private school, dresses all smart, acts all snobby.” he explained, “Parents spoiled them rotten.”
She considered his words for a moment, checking each one to see if it was an accurate description of Ward, “He did attend a private school and his family is full of politicians.” she agreed.
“Ha! Knew it!” he exclaimed victoriously.
She winced as she felt a small crick in her neck.
Whilst most of what he had said about her former S.O was true, but there was one glaring contradiction and it physically hurt her not to mention it because it was, in the most heartbreaking way, not true, “His parents didn’t spoil him though.” she told him lowly; refusing to meet his gaze.
“You sure?” he queried, “He doesn’t seem to handle not getting what he wants too well.”
She frowned in confusion, “What makes you say that?”
There was a beat of silence as she waited for him to answer her; but as the silence stretched on, she looked over at him curiously.
He stared at her silently, raising his eyebrows expectantly, his meaning was clear; Ward wanted her.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” she dismissed as she hit the bag with a little extra force; she had the strange sensation, as if she had just been punched in the chest. She took her pain out on the bag.
“Well at the very least, he seems to want to talk to you. Badly.” he stressed.
She ignored him, gritting her teeth as she hit it again, the pain in her hand distracting from the one in her chest.
“So why don’t you?” he pressed.
“Do what?” She grunted through gritted teeth.
“Talk to him.” he prompted.
“I have nothing to say to him.” she said, punctuating each word with a different hit to the bag, “I don't want to hear anything he has to say.”
Realising punching alone was not a sufficient outlet for her anger, she brought her leg up to side-kicked the bag. Hard.
She’d been so caught up in her emotions, that she didn't realise Hunter had stepped out from behind the bag, there was no resistance for it to stop against. Meaning the bag swung back wildly before swinging forward and hitting her with unexpected force, knocking her to the ground.
Huffing in exhaustion, she laid down on the ground for a moment, looking up at the ceiling.
After so long, she thought her feelings had died out, withering away until there was nothing left; that seeing him again wouldn’t hurt so much. But the moment she saw him on the ship, they had all come rushing back, hitting her harder than the boxing bag just had.
Even if the feelings were still there, surely she had grown enough to know how to handle the situation with more maturity and dignity, but apparently not.
Avoiding him and any conversation he might want to have with her, was still her main strategy.
Suddenly Hunter appeared in front of her face, standing over her before bending down slightly, to look her in the eye.
His face was upside down from this view, but even then she could see the serious expression on his face, “Listen Skye, you can’t avoid him forever.” he told her.
She eyed him dubiously, her intention clearly written on her face; as far as she was concerned, she could avoid him forever. That was exactly what she was going to do.
He sighed as he straightened up, looking down at her with clear disapproval.
Groaning slightly she sat up, looking down at her lap, she flexed her hand slightly as her fingers clicked with pain.
“The guys a ticking time bomb; he’s gonna go off eventually.” he warned her, “dont you at least want to control when and where it happens?”
She didn’t respond as a feeling of dread settling in the pit of his stomach.
Ward did tend to get what he wanted; one way or another. If he wanted to talk to her, he would find some way to do it. It was inevitable.
But she was stubborn and determined. For however much he wanted to speak to her, her desire to not talk to him was ten fold.
As Hunter walked out of the gym, she flopped down onto the matts; avoiding someone, and the conversation they wanted to have with you, was far more exhausting than she realised.
000
She was still fully immersed in her training when Ward eventually found them again, in the garage.
“And what’s the range on that thing?” Fitz asked as he hovered over Mack’s workspace, staring at the designs he had used to create her rifle.
“About three thousand yards.” Mack informed him promptly, “though I think Skye has only shot it from about two thousand yards away.” he mused, “Right?”
“Something like that.” she shrugged as she focused on loading the cartridges of the rifle; two USB rounds and two normal rifle rounds.
“Two-thousand, one hundred and three yards to be exact.” Hunter boasted proudly, “taught her everything she knows.”
She rolled her eyes in amusement; whilst her S.O had indeed taught her a lot of things and made her into the Agent she was, she liked to think that things like her ability to shoot, and to hack were due to her own skills and not solely his tutelage.
As far as she knew, Hunter had no computer skills. He was known for his shooting accuracy with hand-guns but definitely not with the long guns, like her.
It was then that she noticed Ward had walked into the room and she automatically tensed up; his gaze weighed on her heavily, her heart beginning to race.
She knew he wasn’t just watching her; he was waiting. He was waiting for the perfect opportunity to get her alone and, she shuddered at the thought, to talk. That talk he had promised they’d have over a year ago… she didn’t want to have it then and she certainly didn’t want to have it now. But he did and the threat of it had been hanging over her head ever since she saw him on the deck of that ship.
She tried to appear unaffected and focused on the various rifle parts in front of her, refusing to meet the pair of eyes she could feel on her.
But Hunter, who had been paying particular attention to her since her nightmare, clearly noticed and took action in order to distract her.
“Alright Rook,” he began as he pulled out his phone, “You assemble that gun in under a minute, I’ll buy you a candy bar.” he challenged.
“You're on!” she grinned as she took a moment to lay out all the various parts of her rifle on the workbench, all meticulously separated to make them easier for her to identify and construct the weapon as quickly as possible.
Deciding she was ready, she looked up at him with a nod.
“Ready… go.” he declared as he started the timer on his phone.
Her hands moved in a rapid succession as she focused solely on the part in front of her; however that didn’t stop her from hearing the conversation around her.
“Is training a rookie a joke to you?” she heard Ward say, seeming to almost reprimand Hunter for how he was training her, “You turn all aspects of it into a game, how is she ever supposed to take any of this seriously?”
“Mate, do you even know her at all?” he queried, sounding curious rather than chided, “Skye’s not a serious person; she’s not going to respond well with drills and study. You turn it into a game however, a competition or a joke and she’s invested, she learns to shut me up.”
She tried to keep her expression neutral but a smile tugged at her lips. He knew her well; she did love shutting him up. That was a large and often most enjoyable part of her training with him.
“And look at her, best shot I’ve ever seen and can assemble and dismantle a rifle like a boss!” he finished, she could hear the pride in his voice.
“Done!” she announced, holding her hands up as she turned to look at him expectantly, eager to hear her time that she almost didn’t notice the sour expression Ward had on his face. Almost.
“One minute and six seconds,” he told her promptly, “no candy bar for you.” he announced with a smug grin
“Damn it.” she let out in frustration, “Let me try again.” she stated as she quickly set about undoing all her hard work in putting the gun together, only to take it apart once again.
“Why do you need to know how to assemble and dismantle a rifle so quickly?” He asked her lightly.
He was clearly trying to make a point about the effectiveness of his teaching and she felt the need to defend her current S.O over her former S.O. She had found the two of them had a far better understanding of their student/teacher relationship than she had ever had with Ward.
“So you can keep your cover until the last moment that you set up the gun to take the shot. After you take your shot, you can get out of there, before they trace the trajectory and send a squad for you.” she told him promptly as she placed the various parts of her rifle well within her reach, hoping that if the pieces were closer, she could shave those extra couple of seconds off her time and win the candy bar, “And you leave no evidence that you were ever there.”
The clock started again and her finishing time was one-minute and two seconds.
“Come on!” she complained, frustrated that she was a mere two seconds away from earning a sweet reward.
Suddenly the garage door began to open and a familiar looking SUV rolled into the parking area; a moment later, the final two members of their team exited the vehicle.
“Urgh, the hellbeast is back.” Hunter muttered distastefully, “Anyone needs me, I’ll be in the gym.” he said before he proceeded to flee the garage.
Fitz looked over at Mack for an explanation, clearly bewildered.
“His ex-wife.” he explained, “They don’t like each other very much.”
“Hence the ‘ex-wife’ part.” she grinned in amusement.
The funny thing about Bobbi and Hunter was that, even though it seemed as if the two of them couldn’t stand each other, anyone that was around them could tell in a matter of minutes that the two of them were still in love with each other; they were both just too stubborn to admit it.
“Hey Skye,” Bobbi greeted as she closed the car door.
“Hey Bobbi.”
“Hunter running away from me again?” she asked knowingly.
“I don’t know what you're talking about.” she lied smoothly.
“Mack?” she asked.
“He’s hiding in the gym.” he informed her promptly.
“Traitor.” Skye accused, eying Mack out of the corner of her eye.
He simply grinned.
“Ah Skye,” began Idaho, the final member of their team as he walked towards her, twirling the keys to the SUV around his finger, “Still playing with your BB Gun I see.” he mocked.
Her temper immediately flared at the condescension in his tone.
“I’ll show you a BB Gun.” she threatened as she cocked the rifle.
Before she could point it in his direction, Mack smoothly grabbed it from her hands, and used his height to hold it out of her reach, “How was your mission?” he asked conversationally.
“A success.” he grinned smugly, “Maybe when you're a level five Skye, Hartley will trust you to go on missions by yourself too!” he encouraged sarcastically.
In her new team, Skye likened Idaho as the middle child that was so starved for affection, that he was constantly trying to stir up trouble, in order to get attention.
She knew he was baiting her and, had she not been on edge already with the presence of Ward and May in the base, she might have been able to ignore him.
However her nerves were already fraying and adding his smug smirk, on top of everything else she was already dealing with that morning, was a little too much to bear.
Without warning, she launched herself at him, intent on hitting him hard enough to wipe his smile right off his face…
But Mack was faster and caught her around her middle, with one arm, and hauled her away from him before she could get close enough to swing at him.
“Alright,” the mechanic said as he easily lifted her off the ground, “Simmer down, let's get you some breakfast; you're clearly hangry.”
“I’m not hangry!” she insisted through gritted teeth as Idaho strutted away, unaffected by her threats of violence.
“Yes you are.” he said calmly as he practically threw her over his shoulder and walked her out of the room.
Going back to the family metaphor, she often viewed Mack as a big brother, who was always level headed and whose main purpose was to keep his younger siblings from hurting each other.
Him picking her up like that was a normal occurrence; he was so large and she was, by comparison, so small that he was easily able to manhandle her.
On their own accord, her eyes went straight to Ward.
He was casually leaning against one of the work benches. At first, he looked like a picture of ease; but upon closer expectation, she could see he was gripping the edges of the bench quite forcefully, his knuckles turning white as he seemed to be restraining himself from doing something violent.
Maybe Idaho’s comments had annoyed him too…
But she couldn’t help but feel like there was something possessive about the way he was looking at her.
That made sense; he seemed to be particularly critical of the way Hunter was training her. Perhaps it was a matter of ego, he had been her S.O first and it seemed as if her new training flew in direct defiance of his training, and he felt the need to defend his methods.
However as she looked into his eyes, they seemed to burn with some unknown emotion, his gaze was focused on the arm that was wrapped around her.
If she didn’t know any better, she would think he was jealous because Mack was holding her!
But she did know better and immediately dismissed the idea; Ward never had any feelings for her like that. That was one of the main reasons she had left in the first place.
Once they were in the kitchen, he set her down on her feet, satisfied that she was no longer simmering with violence.
By some ironic twist of fate, as if the universe was trying to reinforce her idea that Ward couldn’t possibly be jealous, May was standing in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in her hand.
She eyed her critically over the rim of her mug as she took a sip.
“Ah,” Mack began awkwardly, seeming to notice her the same time that she did, “You must be Agent May.” he greeted.
She simply lowered her mug, looked him up and down, clearly judging him as inferior, before she put her nose in the air and walked out of the kitchen, without saying a word.
He stared after her in disbelief, “Well she’s as pleasant as you described her.” he commented.
“Hmm,” she agreed, “Like a bed of nails.” she supplied helpfully before she turned her attention to the kitchen, “And she drank all the coffee.” she observed, pouting unhappily.
“Wow. What a monster.” he commented dryly.
She grinned in amusement as she went about putting on another pot of coffee and making herself some breakfast.
000
She’d only just finished eating her toast when she heard the familiar roar of a jet, signalling that The Bus, a place she had once called home, had just arrived.
Her heart fluttered with excitement and she quickly pushed herself away from the table and hurried to the aircraft hanger just in time to see the ramp of the jet lower to reveal Agent Coulson.
Skye couldn’t help but smile so widely that her cheeks began to hurt.
The moment he saw her, he smiled in delight.
“A.C.” she greeted him fondly, referring to him by the nickname she had given him.
“Well you certainly look better than the last time I saw you.” he commented lightly as he walked down the ramp towards her.
She shook her head in amusement, taking three long strides, to effectively removing the space between them, before she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.
The last time he had seen her, she had been in hospital, hooked up to a dozen different machines, monitoring her vitals recovering from a life saving surgery.
She may have looked different, but in her mind, Coulson looked exactly the same.
000
She woke up feeling dazed and confused, with no idea how she had gotten out of Quinn’s basement and now in, what she guessed, was some sort of Shield owned hospital.
That was when the pain in her stomach made itself known; she felt as if someone had slashed a hot knife just below her navel, the pain of which burned throughout her body.
Which, when she thought about it, was actually the case; she knew that she must have had some kind of invasive surgery to remove the bullets and repair the damage they had done, in order for her to still be alive.
An unfamiliar nurse was the first face she saw when she woke up.
“There you are,” she smiled, “Skye, you are in a medical facility in Zurich; you were shot and we had to perform a surgery to save your life.” she explained, “you’ve been in a coma for the last forty-eight hours.”
“I figured.” she replied, her throat dry; she winced as she tried to sit up a little straighter in bed, feeling as if the skin of her stomach was being pulled in two opposite directions.
“Easy,” the nurse cautioned and she flittered over to her nervously, “You’ll pull open your stitches.”
She then proceeded to fluff the pillow behind her head and bring it down to the middle of her back, sitting her forward whilst moving her as little as possible.
“Your team will be delighted to know you are awake.” she told her, “Would you like to see them?”
“No.” she replied immediately, a new pain twisting in her stomach that had nothing to do with her injuries, suddenly made itself known, “Can I just see Coulson?” she asked quietly.
Despite having been unconscious for such a long period of time, she was absolutely exhausted. She felt embarrassingly weak; she wasn’t strong enough to speak to everyone in the team. Even speaking to Coulson, would take a lot of energy that she did not have.
But she needed to speak to him, she pushed her pain and tiredness away and sat as alert as she could be when he walked into the room.
He’d clearly been having a tough time in her absence; his normally immaculate suit was wrinkled, his posture stooped and two dark circles beneath his eyes showed just how tired he was. She wondered if he had gotten any kind of sleep since she had been shot.
“Thought we lost you for a second there.” he greeting, smiling weakly, “didn’t know if you were going to wake up.” he sighed, seeming to sag in relief as he sat down in the chair beside her bed.
“Nah, I just really needed a nap.” she joked, attempting to lift his depressing mood.
It worked; she saw some sort of amusement flash in his eyes, before he became serious again, “the doctors are going to keep you in here for a couple of days, then we can transfer to the jet and you can recoup and rehabilitate there.” he told her.
Her stomach twisted again and she shifted uncomfortably, “Yeah, about that…” she trailed off.
He frowned as he eyed her for a moment before his face suddenly smoothed and he nodded, “You don’t want to get back on the bus.” he stated knowingly.
“Um… no. I don’t.” she admitted sheepishly, trying to avoid his gaze.
“You’ll walk into an enemy compound with no back up, like it's nothing,” he began, “But seeing Ward and May again scares you?” he posed.
She winced at his words, as he effectively summed up how pathetic and childish she was being; “I just don’t see the point.” she shrugged.
He reached out to take her hand, seeming careful to only grasp her fingers and avoid the needle that had been inserted on the back of her hand, connecting her to an IV bag; “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
She looked into his kind eyes; his comment was genuine, he truly believed that she shouldn’t be embarrassed. She wished she could believe him, but she didn’t.
“Yes I do;” she sighed deeply, “falling for my training officer and then running away when I see him with someone else?” she posed, looking down at their joined hands in her lap, unable to meet his gaze, as a feeling of shame threatened to overwhelm her, “Pretty pathetic if you ask me.” she revealed.
“Let’s not pretend that Ward is solely to blame for this.” he reminded her, “May had a hand in it too and I’m sorry for that.”
Struck by his words, she snapped her head up to meet his gaze, “What on earth do you have to be sorry for?” she asked in disbelief.
“I saw how she was treating you and I did nothing.” he said quietly, as if he was revealing some great weakness to her, “I did nothing.” he frowned, his voice growing hard, “I brushed it off that she was just giving the new recruit some tough love-”
She knew the anger in his voice was directed at himself and she immediately interrupted him, “I thought that too.” she assured him; she hated the thought that he would try to shoulder any of the blame, that had led them to this moment.
Out of everyone that was involved, Coulson was the only one she thought had acted correctly; he definitely had nothing to apologise for.
“I saw how much she hurt you and I should have stepped in.” he pressed on, ignoring her words, “I just never imagined that May, of all people, would be so unprofessional for such personal reasons.” he stated.
She frowned in confusion, “What reasons?” she asked, “I figured I just annoyed her; personality clash.”
“No, she was jealous.” he told her lightly.
“Jealous of what?” she asked in disbelief, “She’s the freaking Cavalry! I’ll never be half the agent she is!”
“Exactly. Which is why her motivations were personal.” he explained, “I suspect she started sleeping with Ward to get back at you. Maybe even to get back at me.”
“Well it takes two to tango.” she reminded him, “Though I suspect, like most men, Ward was motivated by sex.”
“Not necessarily.” he allowed, “I have a hunch over what his reasons might be.”
“I don’t care.” she retorted quickly, her head was already hurting and she didn’t want to waste any brain power in trying to understand Ward’s action, “Can you just do this for me A.C? A clean break, that’s all I want.” she practically pleaded, “Please do this last thing for me. Please.” she implored.
He sighed deeply for a moment, sounding defeated before he nodded, “I assume you have an exit strategy in mind?” he prompted.
“Yes.” she replied quickly, “Send May and Ward out on a mission. I’ll say goodbye to Fitzsimmons and be gone by the time they get back.” she explained.
“Hm, very elegant. I like it.” he commented lightly before he turned to her, suddenly serious, “You know Skye, you're going to make an amazing Shield agent one day.”
She smiled at him sadly, “I’m not even sure that I want that anymore.” she revealed, feeling overwhelmed by her own failings, “I’ve been pretty terrible at it the first time, not sure I could handle coming back for another try.”
He nodded in understanding, “If you ever change your mind, give me a call.”
“Of course.” she smiled, one that reached her eyes, “Thanks A.C. For everything.” she said, squeezing his hand and trying her best to convey with her eyes just how much everything he had done had meant to her.
He smiled, seeming to understand her meaning, “You're most welcome.”
000
She pulled back from the hug to smile at him, “Its good to see you sir.” she told him heartfeltly.
“You too.” he smiled, “Though I think there is someone else who's more excited to see you than I am.” he told her, gesturing with his head over his shoulder.
Right on cue, Jemma stepped out of the lab, her eyes lighting up the moment she saw her.
“Jemma?” she asked in disbelief; it really shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to her. Logically she knew that she would see her, she was part of Coulson’s team after all; but up until that moment, it had somehow slipped her mind.
“Skye!” she squeaked happily.
The two immediately ran to each other, embracing happily as they laughed in delight.
“Its been so long!” she said as she hugged her tightly.
“Too long.” she agreed before she pulled back to look at her, “How’s Fitz?”
“He’s fine.” she assured her, “How are you? How have you been?”
The two of them were so caught up in their own conversation, she didn’t notice that everyone else in the base had joined them in the aircraft hanger until everyone had already been introduced.
“Well look at this,” Coulson began, eying Fitz, May, Ward, Jemma and Skye, “The band is back together.” he said, smiling at them fondly.
She looked over at the members of her old team and, for a moment, it was almost like a family reunion… until May spoke, “Sir, I can have us wheels up in ten minutes.”
And just like that, the spell was broken and she was plunged back into her harsh reality; they weren’t her team. Not anymore.
That horrible feeling of being misplaced settled in the back of her mind and she pulled away from Jemma, subtly joining Hunter, Mack and Bobbi, standing behind Hartley and Idaho; they were her family now.
It was similar to what she had experienced growing up.
Coulson's team had been like a foster family; she had been thrown into an unfamiliar situation, that already had a dynamic she was not part of, and she had desperately tried to fit in with them.
Hartley's team was like the orphanage; for how different all the children all were, they had the same understanding of one another, a camaraderie that could only be achieved by suffering the same situation.
That did not mean she resented her old team; they were simply the orphans that got adopted. They had once been in the same situation, but changed once they left.
There were no hard feelings, but an acceptance that they were no longer the same situation.
“I’m afraid not.” Coulson sighed, “We took some heavy fire when we first tried to extract you,” he explained, nodding towards May, Fitz and Ward, “we need to stay until we can get some repairs done.”
“I’ll take a look inside, assess the damage, see if I can give you a time frame on how long the repairs will take sir.” Mack told him.
May released a short, impatient huff through her nose; she threw a dirty look at her, as if Skye was to blame for the damage to their plane that was keeping them stuck there, before she turned on her heel and marched away.
000
Sitting down in the lounge, she had never been more grateful for Jemma’s company than she was right then.
Mack, Tripp and Fitz were all busy working on the plane, Coulson and Hartley were in her office, Hunter and Bobbi were busy avoiding each other, and she had no idea where May was; which was probably a good thing.
Which left only herself, Jemma and Ward unaccounted for.
She was running dangerously low on people to surround herself with in order to keep him away.
Thankfully, Jemma was happy to sit with her and talk about anything and everything, that had happened to them within the last year and of course, that led to a talk about her parents.
“What did you find out?” she asked curiously.
“Well, I knew it was a Shield Agent who dropped me off at St Agnes’s, her name was Avery and she died protecting me.” she began.
“Yeah we knew all that before you left. What did you find out afterwards?” she asked curiously.
She sighed deeply, “Well it took some digging but twenty-four years ago, there was a village in the Hunan Providence-”
“So you're Chinese? That’s good to know.” she interrupted happily, “I mean, I guessed as much with your facial structure and genetic components, but now you know for sure.” she smiled.
She couldn’t help but shake her head; she’d missed her friend's ability to see every part of the world through a scientific lens.
“Yeah well, the village was massacred.” she told her pointedly.
Her face fell immediately, “Oh god.”
“Yeah; I assume my parents were among the villagers.” she continued, “a baby girl, me, was the only person to survive. Shield thought that whoever was responsible for the massacre was after me.”
“And were they?”
“Unclear,” she shrugged, “But they couldn’t risk me being in one place for too long, that’s why the foster system was the perfect solution; the orphanage was under strict orders to move me every couple of months.”
“Wow,” she let out, her eyes wide with surprise before they suddenly turned sad, “that must have been really hard for you to find out.”
She shook her head vehemently, “not at all.” she told her, “my whole life, I thought I wasn't wanted, that I didn't belong. That every family that took me in didn't want me to stay. But all that time, it was Shield protecting me, looking after me.” she explained, “It's not about the family I'll never have, but the one I’ve always had.”
“Shield.” she said knowingly.
She smiled in response, “So that's why you came back to be an agent again?”
“Yep.”
“Hey Simmons,” interrupted a new voice.
She looked up to see Tripp standing in the doorway, “Fitz is looking for you; wanted to run some ideas past you.” he explained.
She couldn’t help but smile, “Guess some things never change.”
“Been that way since college, I don’t think things will ever change between me and Fitz.” she said, sounding a little exasperated as she stood up and made her way out of the room.
Tripp stared after her intently, watching her leave.
She eyed him suspiciously, “How’s the bus?” she asked loudly, working to bring his attention back to her.
“Oh,” he let out, turning back to her as if he had only just remembered she was there, “Yeah. It's good. Should have it up and running again in no time.” he explained, “We’re just all taking a break.”
She nodded in understanding.
“So ah, you and Simmons, you go way back?” he asked casually… a little too casually.
“Sort of.” she allowed, “Only in each other's lives for a bit. We have nothing in common, couldn’t be more different-”
“But she means a lot to you.” he finished, nodding in understanding.
“You’ve experienced that, Agent Triplett?” she probed.
“I have.” he confirmed, “Sometimes a person can just take you by surprise.” he revealed, smiling to himself, “They mean nothing one day, next day you can’t imagine your life without them.” he told her.
She nodded in understanding; she knew that feeling.
“So, ah,” he began, clearing his throat awkwardly, “Did Jemma say anything to you about me?” he asked lightly.
She fought to keep a smile off her face; it was highly amusing to her to see someone like Tripp, who oozed charisma and was effortlessly cool, suddenly become a nervous wreck, especially when she knew it was due to someone like Jemma.
“In regards to?” she prompted, trying and failing, to keep the teasing tone out of her voice.
He seemed to realise that she understood, perhaps a little too well, a situation he was trying to be discreet about, and smiled bashfully.
“Yo Tripp!” she heard Mack call, “come give me a hand man!”
He shot her an easy smile before he walked away, leaving her alone in the lounge.
Still grinning in amusement before she made her way to the kitchen.
It sounded like her old team wasn’t going to be leaving anytime soon.
That felt like a double edged sword; on one hand she was delighted to see most of them again and spend a little time with them. On the other hand, there were two members she definitely didn’t want to see… the very thought of which twisted her stomach with anxiety
May seemed to want to avoid her just as much as she did, so that at least wouldn’t be a problem.
And with so many people inhabiting the base, she felt as if she could successfully block Ward from being able to speak to her, as avoiding him didn’t seem to be an option. He seemed to inexplicably know where she was at all times.
That was fine, she just had to make sure she was never alone…
Turning around, she gasped in fright when she saw Ward standing in the kitchen, looking at her with a hooded gaze.
In that same moment she realised that everyone else in the base was otherwise located.
He also seemed aware of that; from the intense way his eyes burned into hers, she had the sneaking suspicion he had somehow planned this. Or at the very least had been waiting for it to happen.
The two of them were, finally, alone.