Chapter 1
“Grant! Grant, help me! Help me, please!”
Tommy’s screams echo off the walls of the wells and into the air above.
“Don’t even think about it.” Christian hisses into his ear. “Unless of course you want to be down there with him.”
“Please, Christian!” Now Grant’s begging again. “Please let me help him! I promise I won’t anyone! Please!”
“I said not yet!” Christian’s voice is menacing, even more so.
“Grant! Grant please!” Tommy’s voice is backed up by the sounds of the splashing water.
But suddenly someone else’s voice replaces Tommy’s. It’s female, and it’s oh so familiar, and it sounds like – oh no, she can’t be here
Grant Ward wakes up in his bunk on the BUS with the sheets tangled around his legs and his shirt soaked in his cold sweat.
“Grant,” Skye’s voice cuts through the darkness, “Wake up.”
“I-I’m up,” Grant stammers, “I’m awake.” As he finally grabs a hold of his senses he realizes just how close Skye is to him. “What happened? Why are you here? Are we being attacked?” Ward asks hurriedly.
“Everyone’s fine, Grant, but you’re not. You were having a nightmare.”
“Did I wake up everyone else?” Great, just what I need, he thinks, for everyone to know just how bad that staff fucked him up.
“No. Believe me, if they can sleep through Fitz’s snores than you definitely didn’t wake them up.” Skye says with a small smile.
“You should get some sleep.” Skye’s eyes flash in surprise at that level of caring in his voice. “We have training tomorrow.” He says to try to alleviate the feelings that he tried so desperately to hide.
“Oh, umm, okay.” She stammers as she awkwardly gets off the bed.
“Are you alright, Skye?” It’s only then that Ward realizes that her eyes are rimmed a faint red.
“It’s nothing, Ward, good night.”
“Skye.” He says sternly. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s just,” she looks at her toes, “I get nightmares, too.”
It finally dawns on Ward as to why she’s awake, why she has the circles under her eyes, and why she’s been all but throwing herself into their training sessions.
“What are they about?” He asks while feeling a gnawing sensation in his stomach.
“Ever since the mission in Odessa,” She whispers, “I dream of what could have happened if—“
That mission had been hard on all of them. It had been Fitz’s first time on an op, and no it wasn’t like the usual science fairs that Fitzsimmons called their usual missions. During the mission they had to go in, basically, blind and had to figure out for themselves that they didn’t have an extraction. If it hadn’t been for the team showing up Fitz and himself would be dead in some Russian tundra. The mission also revealed things about SHIELD that everyone desperately tried to deny; they were all disposable. In the so called “bigger picture” their lives didn’t matter and the people they worked for were okay with that and willing to sacrifice their own. All the “trust the system” crap had a whole new meaning that said that they had to trust in their selves to not trust the corrupt system.
“Oh Skye, come here,” And with a courage Ward never knew he possessed he opens his arms and invites Skye, his rookie, into his bed. She gives him a look as if to ask if he’s serious but it soon changes into one that asks are you sure? He nods.
She walks over to the bed again and crawls beneath the covers. Since the bed is so small she’s a millimeter away from being practically on top of him.
“Tell me about your nightmare.” She says boldly while turning to face him.
“It was about my brothers.” He surprises even himself. “The staff made me remember – made me relive – something that I’ve tried not to think about for years.”
“What was it?” She asks quietly.
“Do you remember how I told you that my older brother, Christian, used to beat me and Tommy up?” She nods. “I lied, he was worse than that. He made me do it. And I did.”
“Grant,” She strokes his face with her hand and she’s secretly elated when he leans into her touch.
“I knew that if I didn’t do it then he would instead but worse. I tried to make the punches weak enough not to really hurt but strong enough so that the bastard would be satisfied. The memory I remembered was when he made me push Tommy into the well behind our house. Tommy couldn’t swim.”
“Did he…” Skye trails off almost afraid to know the answer.
“No. I was able to pull him back up after a couple minutes but they felt like hours. But I can still hear Tommy’s voice begging, pleading with me to help him and Christian telling me not to.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s not your fault, you weren’t there.” But in my dreams you were.
“What will happen to us in the morning?” She asks tentatively. It’s not as if we can pretend that this night never happened and that we didn’t just confide their nightmares to each other, she thinks realistically. But at the same time they can’t act upon them because if we did, she shivers, they could be separated. The fact that he’s your SO and you’re his rookie is of no help, she goes on bitterly.
“I don’t know.” He says honestly. “Get some sleep though. We have a long day tomorrow.”
“Okay.” She turns around so that her back is pressed up against his chest.
As she falls asleep she can vaguely remember him pressing a kiss to her shoulder. And as he falls asleep he can vaguely remember his arm winding itself around her waist and pulling her closer.
They both don’t have nightmares the rest of the night.
Ward is the first to wake (at 5:00 am on the dot) but he can’t help but stay in bed to look at the small brunette sleeping next to him. In the middle of the night she must have shifted because now she is facing him with her face burrowed in his neck and an arm splayed carelessly across his abdomen.
The minutes tick by while he divides his time looking at Skye and glaring at the clock with each minute that passes. Finally when its 5:30 he lets out an internal groan and readies himself to face reality. He gently shakes Skye and whispers into her ear.
“Skye, we have to wake up.” He gives her another shake. “Skye.”
“What time is it?” She asks with a small moan. He can feel her warm breath on his neck which sends a shiver down his spine.
“It’s 5:30, we still have training at six. We can’t let anyone know you weren’t in your bunk.”
She lets out another groan and slowly rolls herself off the bed.
“I’ll see you soon?” She asks through a yawn.
“Of course.” He says as he daringly presses a kiss to her temple.
Fifteen minutes later Skye walks into the kitchen area to find Fitzsimmons and Ward already there. Fitzsimmons are talking loudly about something having to do with accelerated nano-particles or some other science related topic that Skye can’t even begin to try and fathom. Ward passes a cup of steaming coffee across the counter to her at which she shyly smiles in thanks. Why are you acting like this, she thinks to herself, you’re acting like it’s the awkward morning after but it’s not like you and him did anything! Oh but if we did you w –
“And then I shot him the chest!” Simmons’s bubbly voice interrupts her thoughts (which was probably a good thing considering the object of those said thoughts was looking at her from across the counter) “Right Skye? You saw the whole thing.” Guess they weren’t talking about science, Skye thinks.
“Yeah,” She says quickly, “But I believe you complimented him on his baldness before you delivered that oh so fatal shot.”
The kitchen erupts in giggles coming off of Fitzsimmons and Skye. Out of the corner of her eye, Skye even sees Ward give a small chuckle.
“Well,” Says Simmons, “We should be heading back to the lab.”
“Oh yes,” Announces Fitz, “Grumpy has been acting up lately ever since he collided with that buffoon of an agent at the HUB. I think it has to do with the shock absorption mechanism in its internal cavity….” Skye tunes out the rest of Fitz’s ramblings as Simmons follows him into the lab, nodding along.
“I suppose we have training to do.” Skye asks to which Ward gives a nod in reply. They both make their way down to the cargo hold.
“Let’s start with twenty kicks, each leg.” Says Ward.
“Wow you really do know how to make a girl feel special,” Skye says with a laugh but starts kicking nevertheless.
Ward starts to circle around Skye for about a minute, quietly noting her form and technique.
“Make sure to move your hips and torso,” Ward gently grips her waist causing her breath to hitch, “That way your kicks have more force.”
Suddenly realizing their position and the location of where his hands are currently placed Ward quickly tries to move away but not before Skye can turn around and grip his shirt. As they lean closer and closer to each other, many thoughts race through their heads. Fitzsimmons are right across the cargo hold…. Coulson and May are upstairs……...anyone can see……..it’s against protocol…….. I just don’t care.
When their lips finally meet it’s as if a pack of fireworks go off inside Skye. The kiss itself is soft and slow but the pent-up passion behind it is hard to ignore. Skye’s hands move to wrap around his neck and his arms wind themselves around her lower back. She can barely revel in the way Ward’s lips feel against hers and just his scent of soap and gunpowder before it all ends all too soon by Fitz’s loud voice exclaiming, “Well it’s about bloody time!”