#myskyeward

[superzzmiller-blog]

Viva La Marriage Ch5

day 27 (still/again):

"Are you sure this will hold through the night?" Skye looked at their wonky, little, stick hut dubiously.

"I'm sure. We had ten sticks so we have a semi-sturdy base, and I know my knots, Skye." He grabbed the mag-pouch out of his pack and ducked into the hut.

Even though it was dark inside the hut, she could still see Grant rolling his eyes at her.

"So, what's for dinner? And please tell me you brought something other than those MREs? Hell, if you tell me you brought marshmallows and some matches, I swear I'll train the next two days with no complaint, including eating the MREs."

Grant smirked as he ducked back out and went to his pack. "Ready to eat your words, Mrs. Ward?" Grant noticed that he had been calling her that on a regular basis -Mrs. Ward. He never thought about it until after the words were out of his mouth. Thankfully, Skye had yet to point it out or call him on it.

"Are you serious, Grant?" Skye had a big grin and was bouncing back and forth between each foot, like a hyper four year old.

Grant stood and turned to face Skye, a grin big enough to match hers. He shook the bag of marshmallows in Skye's direction and she came bounding over. One hand reached up to grab the bag, while the other grabbed the back of Grant's neck, pulling him down for a kiss on the cheek. "And, matches?"

Grant started sliding his boot along the ground, trying to clear some of the pine needles so they could safely make a fire. "I have matches, but I want to teach you how to use a flint. Matches aren't very reliable. They get damp and break to easily. I'll go west, you go east. Try to find smaller sticks and things that will burn easy. And some moss, dry and yellow, if you can find it."

Skye started to walk towards the back side of their hut. "Okay, SO...wait. This was is east, right?"

Grant did even stop walking as he rolled his eyes, "And a little bit to the south, but close enough."

It had taken Skye almost forty five minutes to get the fire started, and by then it was all but pitch black in the forest. Skye had gotten more and more frustrated when Ward refused to start the fire for her. She would never admit to him that the unknown darkness around them scared her to no end. Not being able to see was terrifying enough on its own, but to be made unaware in he unknown surroundings made her feel on the verge of a panic attack. Every once and a while she would stop striking the flint long enough to pick Grant's breathing out of the surrounding noises, reminding herself that she didn't have to be afraid of anything in these woods, that Grant was more than capable of protecting them even if she didn't know what she would need protecting from.

After Skye had started the small fir, they didn't stay up to much longer. Grant had warmed up a can of pork and beans while Skye nibbled on some jerky. After they got some more protein back in their system, Ward had widdled one of the sticks for Skye to roast her marshmallows on. She didn't manage to scorch very many before she was falling asleep on Grant's shoulder. "Come on, Skye. Time to hit the sack."

He pulled Skye up off the ground and led her into the hut and helped her slide into the mag-pouch, before turning back to the entrance of their little shelter. "Grant?"

"I'm just gonna go dampen down the fire, then I'll be right back."

The first thing that broke into Skye's consciousness was how sore her back was and that her neck felt stiff when she tried to move it. Her front was also way warmer than her back. Grant was laying across her with his head between her shoulder and jawline. She could feel the slight breeze of his breath ghosting across her throat.

She was quiet surprised by how well she slept on the ground. She used to be able to sleep on the hard floor of her van but she had gotten used to the bunks on the plane and hotel rooms. Thankfully she wasn't to sore, just a little stiff in the shoulders. However, she really needed Grant to move so she could go pee. She tried shifting to roll him to the side, but he was to heavy. She tried shaking him a little bit to get him slightly more conscious, but he didn't even flinch. She knew it would make him cranky, but she really, really need to get up. She reached a hand up and lightly ran one finger up the outside shell of his ear, and she got an immediate reaction. He flinch and rolled away, looking back at her like she had grown another head.

"Sorry, babe. Just remember that it's your fault for not having situational awareness!" She jumped up and popped outside of their hut in just her socks. She really needed to hurry.

A/N: I am so so so sorry for the very long delay. I'm in the middle of switching between jobs so I haven't had as much time to right. Plus I just got a new laptop. Long story short, Hotmail/outlook sucks and laptops apparently don't know how to fly...

[superzzmiller-blog]

viva la marriage? 4

A/N: These starts exactly where the last chapter left off, so if you're confused rereading the last couple of lines from chapter three might be useful...I don't know a lot about magnetic science so everything in this chapter is my own gibberish.

Skye didn't respond. She sighed and leaned more of her weight into Grant. Grant smiled and moved forward so that he didn't have to spend the entire five minutes on the balls of his feet. Not that his knees would appreciate the forest floor either.

Skye leaned back, lifting her head, but kept her arms where they were. "How much time do we have carved out for exercises?"

"A good portion of the next few days. We'll only have another six miles to hike tomorrow to get near the rendezvous point. We have actual survival training to do to. That's why I want us to get most of the hiking done today."

"Well, then let's get going. Hell, if we hurry maybe we can get in more than five miles." She let go of Grant to he could stand with her.

He turned and started walking again. "I highly doubt we'll be able to do much more than five. It's still early in the year. It'll start to get dark before six."

"Seriously? Damn, that doesn't give us a lot of day light to work with..."

Grant didn't look back, in case Skye would see that he was purposefully teasing her, "Well, then you better hurry up, shorty."

There was a pause in Skye's step, out of shock. "Seriously, Ward? Shorty? Next thing you know, you're gonna be calling me 'lil boo'."

Grant rolled his eyes. "Height, Skye. I was referring to your height."

"What do you mean, you didn't bring a tent? You said you packed all the stuff we needed, dumb-ass!" Skye was pacing back and forth in front of Grant, hands firmly planted on her hips.

"It's survival training, Skye, you're not gonna have a tent with you if an opp suddenly goes bad. You need to learn how to find or make your shelter. When that's not possible you need to know how to survive the elements." Grant had to remind himself that he was the SO, that he was in charge. Skye currently looked every bit the angry, young wife -elbows cocked out, away from her body, spark in her eye, and persona crackling with held in frustration.

"Okay, all mighty SO, teach me how to make shelter. I just wanna get to bed." Skye had walked off her frustration and planted herself in front of Grant, waiting for instructions.

"Well, seeing as it's early spring, and with the region we're in, we're better off making our own shelter. There are way to many things that could be hibernating in near by caves." Grant set his pack down near hers and motioned for Skye to follow him back into the brush. "We can find some limbs to make a frame with our para-cord. We can cut some smaller sections of branch off the evergreens. The pine needles will help block the wind during the night."

"So, we're gonna sleep on the ground...under a glorified pile of sticks?"

"I brought a mag-pouch. It's the closest thing to a sleeping bag that you'd likely have with you on a mission. It doesn't offer a lot of warmth but it keeps you away from the elements and the magnetic coating messes with most forms of radar, including infrared, which is how most entities would search a large piece of land like this." He turned to face her, "And technically, pretty much every house is a glorified pile of sticks."

Skye gave him a bored expression, her head lolling to one side, "Don't be sarcastic, Robot. It doesn't suit you..."

Grant just shook his head, knowing it was pointless to argue with Skye. "I'll cut the brush. You pick up the branches for the frame. They need to be about five feet long at least and an inch in diameter. We need at least eight pieces, preferably twelve." He walked a ways ahead before she could start complaining about even more physical labor. "Oh, and watch what you touch. There's poison oak and poison ivy out here."

Skye looked down at the ground around her in distaste. She already felt itchy enough from all the sweat that was drying on to her skin, there was no way in hell she would let herself get touched by poison anything.

A/N: I know, it's kinda short, but I haven't felt like writing lately and I just wanted to get something out to keep momentum...

[superzzmiller-blog]

Viva la marriage? 3

Day 27:

Skye laid in her bunk, staring at the ceiling. For some reason she had woken particularly early this morning, and was waiting for Ward to come 'wake' her for training. She wasn't going to get up before then because then he might try to get her to do that every day. She looked over at her clock -5:48 am. Ward should have been pounding on her door three minutes ago, and he was nothing if not regimented. She rolled off the bed and slipped on her workout clothes, to go searching for her wayward SO.

She peaked into his bunk really quick to make sure he wasn't sick, but there was no sign of him. When she walked by the kitchen the coffee pot was brewing which meant he was up an moving. She didn't hear a steady thud from the punching bag down stairs, but proceeded towards the staircase to check anyway. No sign of Ward in the gym, but there were two hiking packs laid out with gear spread out around them in some type of organization pattern.

She heard footsteps in the lab, and turned to find Ward coming from the storage corridor with another stack of gear. "Morning, Skye. You're up early."

She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "It's six am. Who are you and where is my strict, early bird SO?"

Grant shook his head, with a crooked smile. "Yesterday, Coulson gave us a couple days off, so that we could do the first part of your survival training. We're being dropped off in three hours."

"Well, that would have been nice to know..."

"Well, it wouldn't have been survival training if you had a lot of time to prepare...And I thought I'd let you sleep in for a bit. It's going to be a long couple days."

"How long are we going to be gone?"

"Today, plus at least two more full days."

Skye cocked her head to the side, "At least?"

"The team is scheduled to pick us up exactly 72 hours after they drop us off, at a set rendezvous point. Their not getting time off, so they may be assigned a mission before then. If they are going to be longer, we'll hunker down and wait. If we're gone for over a week, a shield transport will be sent to retrieve us."

"So, what should I pack?"

"I've already got all our tactical gear right here. MREs, med kits, maps...Just pack a few days of versatile clothes."

"I'll pack extra in case we're gone for a full week." Skye headed towards the stairs.

"No." Skye turned back to ask him why she couldn't be prepared, "Only take what's necessary. If we stay past 72 hours we're going to move on to the second part of your survival training, which means relying more on your surrounding. Three days worth of stuff. No more. And you don't need your computer."

Skye didn't take more than ten minutes to pack everything she would need for the next couple days, and most of that time was spent trying to find suitable shoes. She hadn't even realized that almost every pair of shoes she owned had a heal on it. She took a pair of comfy running shoes and dug out the pair of hiking boots Grant had forced her to buy. She knew she was going to regret not breaking them in when she first got them, so she slipped them on to start with.

She grabbed her small bag, stopped in the kitchen to grab coffee, and headed back down to the cargo hold. Grant had the packs all but finished when she got there. He held his hand out without looking up, and she handed over her clothing bag. He zipped up her bag, and stood up, facing her. She held out the second cup of coffee she had made, which he took with a smile. They sat on the steps, sipping in silence for a while.

"So, am I at least allowed to know where we're going? What type of terrain are we dealing with?" Skye yawned and cuddled Grant's shoulder.

He smirked down at her. Just because she woke up early didn't mean she was a morning person. "We're going to an area of forest in the Cascades."

"Which state?"

"Middle part of Oregon. A little south of the Three Sisters." He threw back the last sip of his coffee and stood up, pulling Skye with him. He took her cup, while she took a seat at the breakfast bar. They had both already known how the other took their coffee before their marriage, but they had made a habit of having their first daily coffee together, even though it usually happened in silence. He would read whatever book he was working his way through at the time, while Skye skimmed news articles on one of their tablets.

Ward turned to hand Skye her cup, to see her walking towards him from their bunks. He set her coffee down on the table, where she had been sitting when they first came up. Skye sat with a smile, sliding his book over, before turning her full attention to the tablet in front of her.

Grant was tightening the straps on Skye's backpack, making sure it was in the right spot on her back. She would be carrying the weight for a good portion of the next few days, and Skye would be above and beyond vocal if her back was hurting. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the edge of the clearing where May had landed. He had to explain topographical maps to her before they could set out but they needed to be out of the way so the Bus could take off.

Grant stopped and looked back at Skye, who had stopped and sat on a fallen tree. "Come on, Skye. It's almost two in the afternoon, and we still have a lot of ground to cover. And we have to set up camp before it gets dark."

"Grant, it's hot. I'm tired. And my feet hurt. Can we, please, just stop for a little while?"

He walked back to where Skye was and crouched in front of her, "Skye, if we're going to have enough time to do our couple's exercises tomorrow, we need to cover a lot of ground today. We've gone about seven miles, but we need to go at least another five to stay on schedule."

"Seriously? We've only gone seven miles in the last four and a half hours?!" Skye slumped forward, leaning her forehead on Grant's shoulder.

Grant let out an uncharacteristic snort, "Seven miles in that time, especially in heavy woods, with no set path to follow... that's amazing time, but that doesn't change the fact that we still need to go quite a ways."

"If we're doing so well, then can we at least rest for five minutes? Please, Grant?" Skye reached up and wrapped her arms around Ward's shoulders, lacing one hand into his hair. One night when they stayed up, watching movies with Fitzsimmons, Grant's head had ended up in Skye's lap. Long story short, she figured out he had a soft spot for having his hair played with.

Grant let his head lull to the side, so that his nose was in Skye's hair, "Five minutes. No more."

A/N: I'll have another chapter out tomorrow. I already have more written out but I need to head to work...

Also, I really felt the need to address shoe choice in the show. Speaking as someone who's done the military thing, no one where's healed boots. Even within FBI or CIA unless its absolutely necessary for a cover. There is absolutely no tactical advantage in heels, and I think it's really annoying that the media always portrays women as wearing heals, even in semi-combative situations...

[superzzmiller-blog]

Viva La Marriage? 2

Day 4:

She waited until almost 10 o'clock before she headed to Ward's bunk. The rest of the team was more than likely still awake, but were in their bunks. Anyway, they were used to Skye taking over Ward's bunk when she was bored or lonely in the evening. She knocked and waited for him to ask who it was before sliding the door open. No need to make him more cranky than necessary. "Hey, it's just me. I wondered if we could talk for a bit..."

He marked his book and set it aside, while she took another step forward and slid the door most of the way closed. She tapped his calf, so he would draw his knees up, making room for her at the end of the bed. she sat perpendicular to him, with her back against the wall. "Something wrong?"

She just gave him 'that look'. He knew very well what they needed to talk about, and playing coy didn't work well for someone so bullheaded. But, okay, she would play his game. "Well, my SO, we haven't hung out in the last couple days and I thought we could play a game?"

Was he smirking at her? Maybe he really was playing a game. Setting up their conversation so everything sounded up to par to passing ears. "Okay, Rookie, what would you like to play?"

She grinned at him, then tilted her hips so she could reach into her back pocket, "Twenty questions! I found a couple premade lists on the internet that way you can't accuse me of crossing a line and getting to personal." She smirked and raised an eyebrow at the word 'personal' and was rewarded with his resulting flush.

He reached out to take the list from her, "So, do we have separate lists or are we answering from the same list?"

She took the list back out of his hand, "Some list. And you have to promise to answer every, single question, as honestly as possible."

"I'll answer them honestly, as long as you do..." That was about what she expected from Ward. She was, however, shocked when he held his hand out in he direction, his little finger extended. She lifted her hand, wrapping her pinky around his. She couldn't believe that she was making a pinky promise with Ward. It was such a simple, innocent thing. Something that kids did, and not at all something that she would expect Grant to do in a million years.

She sat back against the wall, list in hand. "Okay, first question is easy. Full name?"

"Grant Douglas Ward, but you already knew that...Your's?" He raised an eyebrow, daring her to finally tell that truth.

"Well, now it's Skye Ward. No middle name." He shook his head and looked straight ahead. "What? It is my real name as far as anyone is concerned. I didn't have a name when I was dropped off at the orphanage. At least not a name that anyone was aware of. And the nuns named me Mary Sue. Come on, Ward. Do I look like a Mary Sue?"

"Okay. Okay. I get it...What's the next question?"

"What is you're favorite comfort food? It doesn't have to be conventional, just something that you personally associate with comfort."

"What's yours?" He smiled and nodded for her to answer first.

"I don't know...I didn't really have someone to make comfort food growing up. There's this one cafe in New York, it's not very busy or well known, but they have the best chili. It isn't spicy, southern style chili, but it's so warm and I always ordered it with extra cheese on top. I used to go there whenever I was having a bad day or when it's was cold and rainy." She looked down at her hands with a small smile, like she was remembering a particular memory.

Grant reached out to grab her hand and tugged until she scooted up the bed, sitting next to him. He scooted a little further down and wrapped his arm around around her shoulders. "When I was little, about 7, we were taken away from our parents for a while. After a couple days of staying with a foster family, our Grandma came and got us. We were with her for almost five months, over Thanksgiving and Christmas. My grandma was one of those grandmas that was always baking, cooking, knitting, and keeping up her house. She had a love for flowers. Even during the winter, she would have plants in the house that she was taking care of. For Christmas morning, she already have breakfast cooking when we woke up. It wasn't overly fancy, just french toast, fried eggs, and bacon, but it was a lot better than we were ever fed when we were with our parents. So, french toast is my comfort food. No syrup, just butter and powdered sugar..." He looked over at Skye to see her tearing up and he pulled her closer. She wrapped her arm around his stomach, laying her head in the crook of his neck.

"Okay. Okay. How about favorite color?" They had taken a break after talking for almost an hour and finishing all twenty questions. They had made a run to the kitchen to grab snacks, and when Ward told her that she couldn't eat an entire bag of chips, she told him that they were off the clock and her husband didn't get to be that bossy.

"Really, Grant? Purple...Yours? And you can't say black or grey!" She was sitting crisscross, facing Ward from the side, while eating sour gummy worms.

"Dark blue. Least favorite color?"

"Yellow...I don't know why there's just something about it I don't like...and anything neon."

"Neon is definitely obnoxious. I don't like pastels either. It's not any particular color that bugs me, just the shade of the color." Skye nodded while letting out a large, drawn out yawn. "I think it's time for bed, Skye. It's already past midnight and we have training in a few hours..."

She pouted and gave Ward her best puppy eyes. "We could always do a late training?"

"No."

"Pleeeeeaaasssse, Grant?" Skye crawled into his lap, laying her head on his chest. "You can't keep your wife up past midnight and then expect her to wake up before dawn. That's just mean."

He rolled his eyes, "Technically, it was my wife's idea to stay up this late. And i'm an old man compared to her so if I can wake up early, so can she." Skye just laughed and snuggled further into his chest. "Skye, you need to go back to your own bed."

"Hmmm." She was already starting to fall asleep, and she was perfectly happy to stay where she was. Ward was warm and a lot softer than she remembered him being in Vegas. Grant rolled his eyes at her again and slid to the edge of the bed, wrapping his arms around Skye as he stood up.

"Let's get you to your bed..."

A/N: Yes, I know. I'm terrible at endings...oh well...

[superzzmiller-blog]

Viva la Marriage?

A/N: This is the Sequel to Viva Las Vegas. keep in mind this is fiction so i'm making up my own rules and laws :)

The case had been relatively simple. Someone with powers had popped up on their radar and they needed to get to the young woman before centipede did. The girl, who was barely an adult and smaller than Skye, could sense the future. She couldn't see anything overly definite or specific, just things like if someone would live a long life or be killed within the coming months, whether a person would find someone else or pass by their opportunity at a happy ending. Both sides thought she could do so much more, with some focus and training. So, she was sent to the science academy. She wouldn't actually be attending, but if Shield had someone that could properly train her mental discipline, they would be found at the academy.

Now the team was in the air again, but had no case to work on. Ward waited until their first full day of being in the air before he approached Skye. "So, what do we have to do to get the papers filed?"

Skye knew what he was talking about even though his question was purposely vague. The last thing they needed was Big Shield figuring out a rookie and SO got drunk married in Las Vegas. She nodded her head to the side to signal him to follow her before walking through the lab. She was thankful that they didn't have to make an excuse for where they were going since Fitzsimmons had taken a lunch break. She kept walking until they were in one of the far storage rooms, so no one would stumble onto their conversation. "We may have a bit of a speed bump before we can get an annulment..."

Grant folded his arms and leaned against the wall, "Like what? The longer this goes, the more likely it is that shield command will find the information. They constantly update the background information on agents and a marriage license isn't that hard to find."

"I know, Grant, but Nevada has a law about a wait period for divorces and annulments, unless a strong, valid reason is provided, and we can't exactly give our reasons to some local judge."

"Well, how long is the waiting period?" Ward slid down the wall to sit on the floor, where Skye joined him.

"It's 90 days from when the petition is first filed. And before you ask I already filed the paperwork yesterday. So, now we only have to try to keep our dirty little secret under wraps for 89 days." Ward looked at her like she had grown a second head.

"Only 89 days, Skye? You do realize we haven't even known each other much longer that that and we're married?! A lot can happen in 89 days!"

She grabbed his hand up in both of hers, making his rant stop short. "You need to calm down, Grant. You're a spy and I'm a hacker. We both manipulate for a living and we can do this." Ward took a deep breath and squeezed Skye's hands. It never ceased to amaze him, how small she was. He could easily wrap one of his hands around the both of hers, making him feel like a giant. "Besides, I still have another bomb to drop on you..."

He dropped his head into his free hand and heaved a big sigh. "Okay, just give it to me."

"Another part of the annulment period is couples therapy. I already looked into what that means as far as being on the plane. Grant Douglas, get that look off your face!"

"I don't have a look on my face. And how do you know my middle name?" She really did love the look on his face when he couldn't figure out how she knew something. It was nice to be the one explaining things for a change.

"It was on the license. Also, I may or may not have hacked the team's personal files when I first joined..." -"Skye!"- "Any who, about couples therapy. There are what basically amounts to team building exercises and 'get to know you' games. There are also little quizzes about each other to prove we're actually doing them."

"Great...that's gonna be easy to hide from the team."

"Well, most of it is pretty general stuff. We could say it's SO/rookie bonding. The rest we could hang out down here to do."

Ward turned to face her, now sitting crisscross, and Skye turned to mirror him, their knees not even an inch apart. "That only works if we plan out which days. We don't want to disappear to often or in a set pattern. And we can't during missions..."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Skye started bouncing. "I have an idea!" She was slapping her hands on his knees to work of her hyperness.

Grant reached out to still her hands, still on his knees. "What's the idea, Skye?"

She bounced a few more times, a huge smile covering her face. "Did you ever do, like, outdoor survival training?"

"Yeeess?"

"Well, we can go on a camping, survival training thing for a few days, that way we're away from the rest of the team. We can do the 'get to know you', talking stuff here, on the Bus. And the exercises as part of survival training."

Ward gave a little smile. "That's actually a pretty good idea. I'll talk to Coulson about scheduling some time to do your outdoor training. For now, we need to get back out there before the team comes looking for us."

Ward popped up off the ground with way more agility than Skye would expect for his size, then pulled her up and they headed back to the front of the cargo hold.

A/N: It's pretty short but I just wanted to get it going. I'm planning on it being multiple chapters. Please send in any ideas for their exercises or any question you want them to have to answer. I was thinking about one of the exercises being them having to cook together, which of course they have to do on the Bus, because where else are they gonna get access to a kitchen? The team thinks they've gone nuts because they're yelling at each other and there's smoke coming for the oven, which is really hard to deal with when you're on a plane...Also, should I address the whole mayward thing? This isn't set after any specific episode but it's around mid season- after the well, but before tracks.

[superzzmiller-blog]

Close to the vest

A/N: I started writing this about a week and a half ago then got caught up in a prompt and now i don't feel like finishing it, so....here ya go.

Skye knew that her team would be back by now by the time on her watch. However, she stayed in the main comm center. Trip had radioed HQ saying that they apprehended a high ranked Hydra operative that they were bringing back. She knew it probably wasn't Ward. It hadn't been him yet, of the dozens they had brought in for interrogation and 'imprisonment'. She wondered sometimes if they were actually keeping all of the Hydra members that they had caught over the last two years. They worked with the US, and they had taken some lower risk Hydra into their military prisons but Shield had been working hard to fade back into the shadows.

Skye turned away from her computer when she heard the noise level raise at the entrance. Jemma was hurrying towards her, not quite running but doing her little arms-out, speed walk. "Skye, come with me."

Skye was now confused as Jemma pulled her out of the large room by her wrist. "Jemma, what's wrong?"

Jemma stopped walking and pulled Skye to face her in a dead end hallway. "I wanted to let you know before you heard from anyone else on the base..."

Now Skye was worried. Jems had hurriedly pulled her away from everyone and was now nervously looking at her fidgeting hands. "Jemma, out with it! You're scaring me."

Jemma let out a deep breath and a small smile. "Sorry, Skye. Coulson and Trip ran into some familiar faces while we were in Poland. Garrett got away, but Trip managed to hit Ward with an ICER before he got to far."

There it was- Skye's dream and worst nightmare. That her team would have to face down Grant Ward, the great traitor. She wanted him to pay for all of the good people he had killed over the years. She wanted to give him a good, hard slap for all the lies he had told her when she first joined Shield. Back when she cared about him and trusted him implicitly. She was afraid of seeing him again. He had taught her a hard, top-notch lesson. That in this line of work you couldn't afford to trust people completely. Even when you worked with someone almost everyday and trust them to have your back in the field, there were some things that were safer kept close to the vest.

Skye kept her face impassive and nodded at Jemma, "Thank you for letting me know. Is he cooperating with the interrogation?"

Jemma shrugged her shoulders, "He hasn't said a single word since he woke up, but Coulson is questioning him himself. I'm sure that will work in our favor."

It had been four days since Ward had been brought back to the Italian Shield base. They had thought about setting up shop in Rio, but Fitzsimmons would stick out to much. They could all blend in, in Italy. Ward hadn't said anything useful, yet. In fact, he still had yet to say a single word to anyone. She had heard whispered conversations. Somme people thought that Shield should torture the truth out of him. She still hadn't been to see him, even from behind one-way glass, but she had absolute faith that Coulson would never resort to torture.

In fact, Coulson had recently asked her to meet him in the detention area before Ward's next questioning. He had said he needed her help and wanted her to observe his session.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you?"

Skye rolled her eyes, as he had been asking this all day. "Trip, I'll be fine. I promise. He isn't even going to know I'm watching."

He stepped forward, cupping Skye's face, "He doesn't have to see you to hurt you. Remember, Skye, I knew you before Shield fell and we figured out who Ward really is. I know what the last couple of years had done to you." Skye tried to look down, knowing Antoine was just as good at reading people as she was, but he simply tilted her head up further. "You're a strong woman and an amazing agent, Skye. Don't let Ward, or your guys' past, convince you any different."

Skye blinked back tears and buried her face in Agent Triplett's shirt. Antoine was her saving grave over the past couple years. He had sat with his arm around her as she cried in silence in the days following her escape from Ward and Deathlock. He had picked up her training. He had pushed her hard, the way Ward had refused to after she was shot.

She released her hold and smiled up at him, "I need to head down, but I'll come check in with you after I'm done."

"Okay, baby doll. I'm holding you to that. Don't make me worry and come looking for you..."

Skye rolled her eyes, "Laters, Annie."

Skye was in the observation room, taking deep breaths to calm her nerves. The guard hadn't brought Ward in yet but she already felt the weight of everything he had put her through baring down on her. This man had kidnapped her. He had torn their little family apart, excommunicating himself in the process. He had lied to her and played with her emotions in a way Miles had never even dreamed of. God, the way he had acted after May found her with Miles was down right cruel and ironic to a fault.