This one was written for a competition on Instagram on my account, a_shieldagent. Hope you enjoy reading it.
Everyone had long since learnt to steer well clear of an angry Bobbi, she could be highly dangerous to both mental and physical health in very creative ways, but this time they got almost no warning.
It had been such a peaceful week that they should have expected firework soon enough. They were never that lucky to get more than a weeks' worth of uninterrupted peace, despite all of Coulson's desperate prayers from the sanctuary of his office where he retreated to avoid the bickering more often than not. Coulson had sent Bobbi and Hunter out on a mission a week earlier and their return had been imminent for a day.
The first everyone knew of their return, however, was the angry stomping of heeled boots and raised voices coming along the hallway. Everyone was in the main room together, enjoying the quiet time to watch a film all together, like a little family, and worried and frankly downright scared looks were shared. The noises could only indicate the return of their two missing agents and, by the sounds they could here, they were not in the best of moods.
There was a mad scramble from everyone except May to get out of the room before the returning two entered, although May looked worried for her which was saying something about how explosive a Hunter and Bobbi fight could get. The potential for collateral damage didn't bear thinking about!
As the footsteps grew closer and no one bar Coulson, who showed impressive skill, speed and flexibility for a man of his age to extricate himself from the room so fast he seemed to disappear into thin air, had managed to leave the room, they all hurried to look as natural and inconspicuous as possible so as not to attract attention and anger directed at them.
A moment after they all settled down and pretended to watch the film, Bobbi stormed angrily into the room with and equally irate Hunter close on her tail, both in mid-sentence of their loud argument. Not realising they had an audience or, more likely, just not caring, they continued on at a rather high volume.
"What were you thinking?!" an irate Bobbi nearly screamed. Hunter wasn't put off at all, however, and replied in a very similar manner.
"What was I thinking?! What were you thinking?! You knew he would be in there and you nearly damn well walked straight into a trap!"
"I had a plan! And then you went and muscled in and ruined it all. You nearly blew the mission!"
"The mission?! You would have died if I hadn't stopped you!"
"I don't need saving Hunter! I don't need you to come to my rescue! I know what I'm doing! I've been doing this on my own for years! Danger is just part of the job! Why? Why do you keep changing the plan just when things might get a little bit interesting?"
"Interesting?! Is that what you call risking your life when there's another way to do the job? You just can't admit when you're wrong!"
All of the agents still pretending to be occupied with the movie winced at that one. Hunter knew just how to stick his foot in it. Mack made the mistake of turning slightly and paid for it.
"What are you looking at?" Bobbi yelled at him making him turn away sharpish. Without even breaking stride, Bobbi continued. "And I'm just doing my job. Maybe you should learn how to do that rather than risking a mission because you don't have the balls to face the risks! I know the risks. It comes with what we do! Why can't you face that anymore?!"
"Because you keep risking your life!" Hunter yelled, clearly losing whatever cool he had left, with very aggravated hand gestures getting larger and larger by the minute.
"Why does that even matter to you any more?" Bobbi shouted back, still terrifying the other agents in the room. Even May was looking worried at this stage!
"BECAUSE I STILL LOVE YOU!"
Silence fell over the room as Bobbi and Hunter both visibly deflated. Bobbi just stared at her ex-husband in shock as to what he just admitted as Hunter's eyes widened in shock as he realised the secret he'd kept well hidden had just come out. They both seemed to have forgotten there was anyone else on the room.
"What?" Bobbi almost whispered.
Skye was beginning to wish she had popcorn. This was becoming better than a soap opera! And she had been waiting for this to happen for ages! Coulson's head appeared in the doorway, having emerged to find out what all the shouting was about and whether anyone had died given the complete silence that now reigned. Seeing his two bickering agents still present, he retreated back to his office like a turtle retreating into his shell. He was rapidly followed by May, Mack and Jemma who couldn't intrude any longer. Only Skye and Fitz remained.
Still in a state of shock, Hunter answered reflexively "I still love you Bob. I always have and I always will. You scared me to death! I thought you were going to die and I was going to lose you and then I'd never get to tell you and... I knew you'd never feel the same, you divorced me after all, so I kept it secret but now you know and I'm just going to..."
Seeing her blank look and with no response, his face fell. Looks like he had been right, she didn't feel the same. He should have known. Why did he have to go and tell her? Hunter turned away and began the painful walk to the door to get away from the shame and pain he felt from the rejection.
Just when he reached the doorway he thought heard a faint voice calling for him to wait but, after a brief pause of only silence, he dismissed it as wishful thinking and left.
Bobbi stared brokenly at the now empty doorway. He hadn't stopped, he hadn't come back to her. With that, one of the strongest agents SHIELD had ever seen broke down in floods of tears, collapsing in a heap on the floor as she sobbed her eyes out. Letting out all the pain and anger she felt at herself.
Skye felt awful for Bobbi. Moving slowly from the couch she was seated on, she sat beside the older agent and quietly rubbed her back soothingly. After what seemed like ages, Bobbi's tears started to dry up and she settled down a touch although the pain was still so visible in her eyes that you could feel it when you looked at her.
"But I love him as well..." Bobbi muttered so quietly that Skye thought her ears were deceiving her.
"So go after him then!" Skye told her. "He loves you as well, what's stopping you?"
"He walked away, he left."
"Maybe he didn't hear you," Skye suggested.
"He did. He stopped, he heard, but he still left."
"Bob, excuse me for saying this, but you didn't give him any reason to stay! He confessed his love for you and you said nothing to him to indicate you felt the same. He probably feels just as rejected right now! I know you were in shock but he can't read your mind, you have to tell him."
Skye gave Bobbi another couple of minutes to mull over what she had said before, with the help of Fitz, she helped her to her feet and led her to Hunter's room. When they got there though, they looked on horrified. The door was wide open and the room was empty. Hunter was gone.
It had been two days since Hunter had confessed his love for his ex-wife and then left and Bobbi hadn't left his vacated room except to visit the bathroom. She had holed herself up there and refused to leave. The whole team was worried about her, they'd never seen her like this ever before. Skye and Fitz, who understood the best, especially given their luck with love, had brought her food and tried to get her to talk but she was vacant.
She barely ate whatever they brought, even when they tried to make her favourite food, and they kept having to remind her to drink. She just sat in a few of his clothes that had been left behind, tucked up in his bed, staring at a wall. From the little they got out of her, it was because it still smelt of him. She clearly hadn't been sleeping as Skye found out when she checked in on her in the middle of the night and found her wide awake. If that hadn't been a clear enough sign, the dark circles appearing under her eyes were a dead give away.
Skye couldn't bear to see her friend like that. After her transformation, Fitz had been there for her as he always had but Bobbi had also been there when she needed someone the most and Skye wanted to do the same for her. Now all she had to do was execute her plan... Despite it no longer being her primary role on the team, Skye was still one of the best hackers out there and she was determined to put that to good use.
The first thing Hunter was aware of when he woke was a very loud and angry sounding knocking on his motel room door. He had been holed up there ever since he had left SHIELD and he was still trying to figure out what to do with himself and his broken heart. The knocking didn't let up so Hunter was forced to get up and see who it was, lest the owner get angry at the noise.
He had slept in his jeans and he couldn't be bothered to put on any more clothes so he just grabbed his gun of the bedside table and crept to the door. Looking through the peephole, he recognised his irate visitor and was tempted not to open the door but he was well aware how persistent they could be.
The moment the door cracked open, Hunter felt it being pushed and Skye stalked into the room and whirled around to face him. From the look on his face, he was really in for it. Wasting time, he turned around and made a show of locking the door and putting his gun down somewhere safe before turning back around to face the tirade of abuse that he was, no doubt, about to face.
What he hadn't expected was the stinging slap that was delivered to his left cheek that was bound to leave a nasty mark in days to come.
"You're an idiot! A complete and utter idiot," Skye began, attempting to regain some semblance of cool and failing miserably. "Do you know what happened after you ran out like a coward? Bobbi sobbed for a good ten minutes thinking she had lost you before we got her to go and look for you. But instead of finding you and being able to confess her love for you, she found your empty room where, may I add, she hasn't left since then. She won't eat, she won't sleep, she won't do anything! I want my friend back, not the zombie you've left behind! And if I have to drag you back by your ear, so help me, I will do it!"
"She loves me?" Hunter had been so shocked by that piece of information that he had barely processed the rest yet.
"That's all you... Never mind," Skye heaved a sigh and sat down on his bed, indicating for him to sit next to her." She was so shocked by what you said, she didn't reply. She tried to stop you before you left but I'm guessing you thought you were imagining it right?" At Hunter's nod, she continued. "She loves you so much that she can't function now you're gone. You have a chance to have the woman you love, don't throw it away."
Even Hunter couldn't ignore the pain in her voice, he wasn't heartless. Giving her a comforting hug, he said, "Ward is a total moron who does not deserve you, ok?"
Skye allowed herself a moment of comfort before pulling away. This wasn't about her, after all.
She stated that, ignoring Hunter's protests, before she looked him in the face.
"Please come back Lance," she said, getting his complete attention about how serious she was by the use of his first name. "We need you... she needs you, more than you could ever know." Something in his face clearly changed at that as she smiled in victory and said, "You have five minutes to be ready leave. We're going home."
Home sounded really good to Hunter,even if it had a slightly different meaning to him than it did to Skye. To Hunter, home was wherever Bobbi was.
They survived Skye's driving back and were back in no time at all, or that's how it seemed to Hunter. His heart was thudding loudly in his ears as he made him way, or was pushed along by Skye, to his room. The door was partly open and he could just see a shape huddled in his bed. With one last reassuring smile from Skye and a final shove, he went inside.
His heart broke again at the sight of Bobbi. Skye hadn't been kidding when she had said Bobbi hadn't been eating or sleeping. He could see it in her face. She hadn't seen him yet though, she was just staring blankly at his ceiling as though nothing had happened. If he didn't know how aware she was of everything, he would have thought that she didn't even know someone was there.
Moving closer to the bed, he sat on the edge and sought out her hand. She still didn't look at him until he said one single word.
"Bobbi."
Her eyes flew to him as she recognised the sound of his voice. They were, for once, like an open book, displaying her pain and shock as clear as day to him. The glimmer of hope in them, however, was what spurred him on.
"Oh Bobbi, I'm so sorry sweetheart. I didn't want to hurt you. I'd never ever want to hurt you, please tell me you know that, Bob? I just never thought you'd never love me again and I could bear the thought of seeing you every day and knowing that you knew I was still in love with you but that I could never have you. I..."
He was cut off by a raspy, rough voice, "I'm in love with you Lance, so much. I'm so sorry I... I just..."
This time it was Hunter who cut her off with a searing kiss. When he pulled back, he looked into her eyes and smiled. "I love you Bob, always have, always will."
She grinned back and, instead of replying, pulled him back in for another kiss.
Unsurprisingly, neither noticed Skye peeking around the door and, upon seeing them, looking delighted. Her plan had worked! Now if she could just get AC to confess his love for May...
Unbeta'd so apologies for any and all mistakes. Please review :)