The first time it happens, there's no guns or fighting or evil, nothing of the sort in fact. Instead, there's a staircase and a pair of clumsy feet.
Skye tumbles down the steps and wonders what the heck she did to deserve this. She's hitting each step with a thud and it feels like she's found the first never ending staircase, she's pretty sure she's been falling for at least half an hour. Despite the obvious pain that's making her body feel like it's on fire, she's still thinking about Ward and May and hopes that they caught the guy.
The chase had been quick and unexpected. They'd just wanted to ask him a few questions but he'd taken off and of course they had run after him. Skye remembers rolling her eyes and wondering why Ward had dragged her along in the first place, being third wheel was painful enough. Skye had followed Ward's orders and ran in the direction he'd pointed her in; she didn't anticipate a sharp corner that would lead to the impending staircase of doom.
Skye finally hits the bottom and tries to take in a deep breath but hell if that'll be happening anytime soon. She's propping herself up against the wall when the familiarity hits her and she can't help but cough up a laugh. She gives herself a few minutes to catch her breath before hauling herself up and trying to find the way back to the bus.
"Please tell me you're not being serious." Skye cringes when she hears Jemma's tone, it's a mix of anger, worry and annoyance, nothing she didn't expect. She's limping up the ramp at the back of the plane when she sees Ward pushing a guy, who's sporting a stylish plain black bag over his head, up the spiral staircase. At least they caught him.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Suddenly Jemma's right in front of her and offering her arms for support. Skye smiles cockily and throws Jemma a wink but it doesn't seem to have the same affect when she's cradling an arm, limping painfully and wincing after every breath. Skye grins when Jemma wraps an arm around her waist, she feels the hesitancy in her touch but says nothing, Jemma's always kind of been this way with her.
"What happened?" Jemma asks. Skye is sitting on one of the tables in the lab welcoming the numb feeling now taking over the majority of her limbs. Her legs dangle over the side and she tries her best to keep steady while Jemma practically twirls around her, gathering whatever medical equipment necessary.
"You should see the other guy." Skye smirks up at Jemma but only gets a frustrated huff in response. Skye pouts and grits her teeth as Jemma begins her usual poking and prodding. "It was a staircase. A staircase beat me up." Jemma helps Skye strip down to jeans and a tank top, Skye's surprised that there aren't any angry marks littering her skin. "It was dark and I tripped, stupid dumb feet." Skye kicks her left foot with her right.
"Don't!" Jemma stands between Skye's legs and Skye's suddenly hyperaware of how close Jemma is. She doesn't mind it, not really.
"You're going to be horribly bruised tomorrow." Jemma sighs as she inspects every inch of Skye's body. Skye's unaware that she's basically ogling Jemma as she tilts her head to get a better view of her legs. "Nothing's broken, I can't be sure about fractures yet though."
"That was a quick examination, doc." Skye bites her lip and attempts to lean back on her hands before remembering that she just went head first down, like, twenty flights of stairs and her hands feel very broken at this point in time. "Will I live?"
"This time." Jemma's words are sharp and cold and Skye admits that she's a little taken back by her tone. Skye knows she's constantly getting into sticky situations, it's honestly not her fault, well, that one time where she almost died a few times because of Quinn might have been partially her fault, but that was a one time thing. She didn't intentionally throw herself down the stairs.
"I'm not trying to inconvenience you." Skye's frowning and shuffling towards the lip of the table. She hops off and clenches her jaw when her back jars and legs wobble uncertainly.
"You're not." Jemma flashes a tight smile and continues to pack away her things. "I just wish you'd be more careful."
"I'll try." Skye looks at the back of Jemma's head, willing her to turn around so they could actually have a decent conversation. She's never really thought of what Jemma has to deal with, she's not even a trained medical professional but she does the unthinkable anyway. Skye's pretty sure that if she were in Jemma's position, she wouldn't be able to do half the crap Jemma does. "If I come face to face with any type of evil, be it bad sushi or May's death glare, I will do my best to avoid it at all costs."
That's enough to elicit a soft chuckle from the biochemist; Skye smiles and classes it as a win. Jemma still doesn't look overly happy but there's nothing more to say and Skye doesn't really know what Jemma wants to hear so she just prepares herself to leave.
"Skye." Skye pauses and turns to Jemma who's wringing her hands and looking a little sheepish. "Please, just, take care of yourself. Sometimes you're so reckless." Skye can see Jemma wants to say more but doesn't bother to push her. Instead she just feels horrible for being the cause of the look currently residing on Jemma's face.
Skye finds it hard to say thank you. It's not news to anyone, there's no point alerting the press, it's just one of the things she struggles with, the fear of something being taken away from her before she got to say the words was always too strong.
So she hobbles over to Jemma, who's eying her curiously, and tries to articulate the words she wants to say so badly. She looks to her feet then catches Jemma's eyes, she's almost sure they're two of the prettiest eyes she's every seen.
Eventually she leans down and kisses Jemma's cheek. It's chaste and Skye doesn't quite know what came over her but it's a kind of thank you. Jemma's cheeks are now a little pink and Skye can tell she's taken her by surprise, but not in a bad way. Skye takes a step back and grins her usual pearly white smile.
"I shall try my upmost best not to hindrance you, Simmons." Skye adds a bit of a British twang to her voice, which amazingly, earns an eye roll from Jemma. Skye walks away with a ridiculously goofy grin on her face and a weird lightness in her chest. She doesn't question it.
The next time it's definitely the violence. They're all out in the field, even Fitzsimmons, and bullets are raining down around them. May's got Fitz pinned behind a wall and Ward's pulling Skye down behind a thick, overturned table. Skye looks around for Jemma and Coulson but doesn't see any sign of either of them. She hears Ward and May shouting at each other but doesn't pay any attention to the words; she's too busy flinching away from bullets that are flying in every direction.
"I'm gonna cover you, you gotta go!" Ward's suddenly all up in her face and he's asking her if she understood his orders but she's panicking and she doesn't hear anything, just the shrill din of bullets hitting the other side of the table.
"Where's Coulson?!" Skye shouts.
"Did you hear what I said?!" Ward gets even closer to her and Skye's a little afraid, that weird vein on his forehead is throbbing and he's beginning to sweat under the pressure. "When I say, you run! Got it?" Skye nods desperately and waits.
When Skye gets back to the bus, she's puffed out and panting helplessly. In that moment she hates Ward for not forcing her to do more cardio but she knows she'd just protest anyway so either way she loses. She sees Fitz running in her direction closely followed by May. May dashes straight past her and heads for the cockpit.
"Where's Ward?!" She yells after the woman but gets no response. "Hey." Skye grabs Fitz's shoulder as he leans over to put his hands on his knees. "Where's Jemma? I didn't see her." Fitz furrows his brow in response and just nods his head past Skye's left. She follows his line of vision and sees Jemma and Coulson hurrying towards them from the lab.
"Oh thank goodness!" Jemma's eyes are wide with concern as she gives Fitz the once over. There's a loud groaning noise before the ramp begins to draw upward, Coulson begins to push the three back towards the lab but Skye struggles past him and cranes her neck.
"We can't leave, where's Ward?" Just when her words hit the air, Ward comes crashing out of the compound and is sprinting toward the back of the jet.
They all gather in the lab when they're safely in the air, courtesy of May's rather badass plane flying skills, and Skye shoots Ward a grateful smile.
"I didn't even see you guys get out." Ward says to Coulson and Jemma while handing his damaged weapons over to Fitz.
"We were barely even in to be honest." Jemma shrugs.
"We were faster than you, what can I say?" Coulson teases Ward and earns a 'thank god we're not dead' clap on the back from the younger agent. Skye's too busy being thankful that everyone made it to notice the steady stream of blood dripping down the arm of her jacket, the adrenaline probably hadn't worn off yet. Jemma's obviously the first to notice.
"Skye!" Jemma rushes to her side and pulls off her coat before she knows what's happening. She sees the deep graze and tries to recall when that had exactly happened, probably when Ward was supposedly covering her, but everything happened so quickly, she's always been a flappy runner, her arms probably got in the way of a bullet instead of the other way around.
"Oh man, that was one of my best jackets." Skye groans, seeing the massive tear up by the shoulder. Coulson hurries to Jemma's side to assess the damage and Skye sees him puff out a breath in relief.
"It's deep, but you'll live."
"Surprise, surprise." Jemma mutters and Skye frowns as Jemma turns to the rest of the team. "I'll stitch her up, Sir." Jemma smiles at Coulson, who nods gratefully and heads up to update May. She then asks Fitz and Ward to leave seen as she needs Skye to strip down to her bra and Skye's more than happy that she's done so. She also feels rather nervous; being half naked in front of Jemma wasn't something she'd planned on doing today.
There's a familiar sense of déjà vu when she hops up onto one of the tables in the lab.
"I swear I tried to keep myself out of trouble." Skye says, watching Jemma's face for a reaction. Jemma might not be a good liar but she's definitely a good actor, at least when she's not talking, there's a difference.
"I'm aware." Skye sighs internally; she knows that tone and she's a little sad that Jemma always has to deal with the hurt.
"I was worried, when I didn't see you in there, I mean. I could see May and Ward and Fitz, but you and Coulson were gone and I was just really worried." Jemma's trying her best to peel Skye's shirt from her body but it's proving difficult. "Here, let me." Skye pushes Jemma's hands away and whips off the shirt carelessly. Jemma's glaring at her now and Skye's rather turned on, she wouldn't admit it or anything.
"Coulson got me out. He didn't want to leave you in there but he's all too aware of how useless I am in the field and decided to get me out first. We were out of sight; we knew you'd get back okay, or in your case, wounded." Jemma prods at Skye's arm and injects her with a numbing agent. Skye feels the tingling before the pain and grins at the way Jemma holds onto her hand, counting her pulse, for longer than necessary.
"You're not useless and I'm glad."
They spend the next fifteen minutes in silence. There's an occasional hiss from Skye when Jemma tugs a little too hard. She tries to push away but Jemma grabs her shoulder and pulls her back. Soon enough they're done and Jemma's throwing her gloves into the bin.
"Here." Jemma hands Skye her bloodied shirt back and shrugs off her lab coat. "Please, no more getting shot." Jemma smiles and Skye feels her heart quicken. She's happy that Jemma's not berating her for once. Skye jumps off the table and grabs Jemma's hip to steady herself before lowering a kiss onto her cheekbone. It's a thank you. Since she can't say the words outright. Jemma flushes pink and Skye thinks she'll never get bored of seeing the effect she has on the biochemist.
"No more hindrances, I promise." Skye smirks and winks over her shoulder as she leaves the lab. Jemma fidgets with her fingers and tries to busy herself with nonexistent work.
It's funny that the first thing that pops into Skye's head, after being angrily whacked over the head with a pipe, is the promise she made Jemma. She knows Jemma's going to be so pissed when she gets back to the bus, she thinks that she can maybe hide the horrible, glowing welt on her forehead by parting her hair a different way but it just looks stupid.
"It wasn't my fault, I swear." Skye hops up onto the cool table and draws tiny circles with her toes. She knows the routine by now, there's no point beating around the bush. Jemma just rolls her eyes and stands between Skye's legs, leaning into the other girl to get a better look at her forehead. Skye holds her breath, Jemma's nose is just a few inches from her own and she doesn't want to risk doing anything to ruin the view she had of Jemma's lips.
"You're lucky you don't have a concussion." Jemma tuts and turns around to grab a couple of butterfly stitches to stick across the shallow cut. Skye smirks up at Jemma and makes sure she catches her eyes.
"I think you'll find that's actually pure talent." Skye smiles slyly and enjoys the way Jemma shakes her head. Skye's pretty sure she's never looked at Jemma this way before.
She's not exactly surprised, Jemma's freaking amazing. She's smart and pretty and awkward. She's like the complete opposite of Skye, yet Skye can't help but need to be around her. Huh, interesting. Skye pokes her tongue into the inside of her cheek and waits for Jemma to apply the last butterfly stitch. Skye lists everything she likes about Jemma in her mind, she's confident but humble, she's sweet, she's ridiculously British, she's a horrific liar, she's got wonderful hair, her smile is probably the best smile she's ever seen and her eyebrow game is way better than Skye's own.
"All done." Jemma grins and moves back to allow Skye a little room to jump off the table.
"Your skills are much appreciated."
"I should hope so, since they're put to use so often." Jemma fires back with an amused look on her face. Skye likes the way Jemma's lips quirk upward just the slightest, she really wants to lean forward and kiss the corner of Jemma's mouth but thinks it's probably best not to.
"Maybe I do it for the attention." Skye raises her eyebrows, giving Jemma a challenging look. Jemma can't help but laugh and Skye's almost mystified by the beauty of the noise.
"Please, Skye, no human willingly gets hit over the head with a pipe. Well, at least, no sane human." Jemma shrugs. "So maybe you did do it willingly." Skye's jaw drops and her eyes widen.
"Oh really?" Skye smiles widely and folds her arms. Her fondness for Jemma reaches an all time high when the redhead nods like its no big deal. "You think you're so funny." Skye pushes Jemma softly, which draws a small giggle from the girl. If Jemma did that every time Skye pushed her she would literally never stop.
"If I ask you to keep yourself out of trouble for 24 hours, will you at least try?" Jemma raises a brow and now it's Skye's turn to roll her eyes.
"I already told you, it's not intentional. But yes, I will try really, really hard this time." Jemma hums and narrows her eyes, not completely convinced. "Are you coming up for food?" Skye asks as she picks up her shoes from underneath the table.
"Maybe a little later." Skye nods and swears she sees an expectant look flash over Simmons' features but it's gone in a second.
Skye quickly ducks her head and kisses Jemma, just above the jaw line this time. She knows she's getting riskier but it's nothing crazy. It's a thank you, that's it. Skye takes a few steps backwards, not quite ready to take her eyes off Jemma just yet. When she does she's panicking because Jemma's her friend and maybe she's freaking her out.
She pushes those thoughts out of her head as she climbs the spiral staircase and proceeds to do what she does best; repress. Repress everything.
They're in the lab this time, which Skye finds utterly hilarious. She's sat in her usual corner with her laptop propped up in her lap. Fitz is making some modifications to the night-night pistol while Jemma's flipping through some research paper, reading a million words a minute.
"Are you reading that or just fanning yourself?" Skye smirks when Jemma has to put her finger on the last word she read to remember her place.
"Of course I'm reading it." Skye grins at Jemma's offended look. "I just can't find what I'm looking for." Jemma adds with a frustrated grunt, turning back to the papers. Skye watches her for a little while longer before putting her laptop on the side and wandering over to Jemma's side.
"Maybe I can help?" Skye leans on the table and tilts her head to the side to gauge Jemma's reaction. She thinks she'll probably be rejected right off the bat but it looks like Jemma actually contemplates it for a few seconds.
"I don't know…" Jemma trails off; she's never enjoyed sharing the workload. Skye purses her lips and separates the stack of papers, making sure Jemma gets the top half so she doesn't lose her place.
"Just tell me what I'm looking for."
They've been looking for at least half an hour and Skye's barely half way through her stack of papers. Jemma had given her some keywords to look out for but she'd come up empty so far. She glances sideways and is surprised to see Jemma's looking stressed to the max. She's also let her hair down which Skye really appreciates; she appreciates quite a lot of things about Jemma she will probably never say out loud. Jemma sees Skye looking at her out of the corner of her eye and turns into the gaze.
"Did you find it yet?" Jemma looks almost desperate, her finger landing on the page again so she doesn't lose her spot. Skye shakes her head sadly and insists they take a break. She makes them both a hot drink and ignores the glare Fitz shoots her.
"Yeah, thanks for making me one." He slumps over and stalks out of the lab.
"Thanks for helping us out!" Skye yells after him playfully. Jemma just shakes her head and slaps Skye's arm softly.
"He has his own work to do."
"So do I, yet here I am." Skye throws her arms out to the sides, as if solidifying the fact that, yes, she is in fact here. "Sometimes I think I'm maybe just a little too amazing." Skye looks up into the abyss and takes a sip of her coffee. Jemma turns away and laughs dryly.
"A little too bigheaded as well maybe?"
"That's a little rude, Simmons." Skye feigns hurt but Jemma completely ignores it.
"You're impossible."
"I know, thank you" Skye can't help but wind Jemma up, it's like her favourite thing to do, other than looking at her obviously. Jemma's peering at her over her cup of tea and Skye doesn't know what to say. She's pretty sure Jemma's flirting with her using her eyes. Or maybe she's just over thinking it, as usual.
The two eventually continue with their search and it's proving to be a challenge. Skye almost regrets offering Jemma her services but when Jemma lets out a little frustrated huff and pouts down at the paper, Skye completely forgets what she was thinking. When her gaze finally falls back to her own stack, her eyes lock onto a word she remembers Jemma uttering.
"Hey." Skye picks up the piece of paper and tugs at Jemma's sweater. "Were you looking for something to do with the evolution of Asgardian weapons?" Skye's eyes snap up to meet Jemma's. Jemma jumps up from her seat and hurries to Skye's side. She reads a couple of lines from the paper and begins to smile.
"Yes!" Jemma hops up and down excitedly. "You found it." She goes to take the paper from Skye's hand but pulls it away rather quickly and Skye's left with a stinging finger.
"You totally just gave me a paper cut." Skye frowns overdramatically and brings her finger closer to her eyes to check out the minor catastrophe. Jemma's eyes go wide and a look of pure guilt riddles her features. She puts the paper down and takes Skye's hand in her own.
"I'm so sorry, Skye! I didn't mean to."
"Ha! Now you know how I feel when I tell you I didn't mean to get hurt." Skye feels a little smug, Jemma pouts, and Skye is quite possibly melting. Jemma stands Skye up and tells her to hop onto the table; Skye does as she's told.
"Ah, hello table, my old friend." Skye pats the table with her good hand and flicks her hair out of her face. Jemma uses a cotton ball to dab away the blood before finding a plaster big enough and sticking it over the cut. "Why do paper cuts hurt more than most things in life?" Skye holds her newly treated finger up to her face before using it to grip the edge of the table. Jemma still looks like she accidentally ran someone's dog over.
"I'm sorry." Skye can't believe how torn up Jemma looks over a paper cut.
"Jemma…" Jemma goes from looking at her feet to staring into Skye's eyes in 0.1 seconds. Skye doesn't usually use Jemma's first name and when she does it's definitely a special occasion. "It's literally a scratch, I've had worse. You should know." Skye chuckles. Jemma nods and wrings her hands together. Skye eyes her wounded finger and slips off the table.
"I'm glad we finally found the thing though." Skye wafts her hand in the general direction of the mess of papers. Jemma nods in agreement but doesn't turn away from Skye. Skye tilts her head and smiles calmly. She tips her head forward and kisses a few centimeters from Jemma's mouth. It's her way of saying thank you.
It's then that Skye sees Jemma frown. Jemma's thinking hard about something, Skye can tell because Jemma's scrunching up her nose in that adorable way she does when she's concentrating really hard. Skye's about to take a step back when Jemma pushes up onto her tiptoes and kisses Skye's lips. Skye lets her eyelids flutter close. Only a second after she does, Jemma pulls back and Skye's left wanting more.
When Skye opens her eyes, she sees Jemma nibbling on her lower lip and looking rather flustered. Her hands are clasped tightly behind her back and she's rocking on the heels of her shoes, her eyes are darting left and right and falling on basically anything except Skye's own. Skye's pretty sure she's forgotten every word in the English language.
"I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that." Jemma fumbles over her words as they speed out of her mouth. Skye's still pretty shocked but she's beginning to feel her limbs again and she might be able to string a few words together if she tries really hard. "You just, you kiss my cheek every time I patch you up…" Jemma's not completely sure where she's going with this.
Skye chuckles lowly and pokes Jemma's shoulder. Skye grins when Jemma looks at her with an absolutely terrified expression. Skye takes a tiny step forward and lowers her gaze to catch Jemma's. If this was a dream she was going to be so pissed after.
Their breathing's pretty shallow despite not having actually done anything yet. They're staring at each other and Skye has no idea when it happened but her smile had completely fallen from her lips, she feels like she's naked, completely exposed. Jemma had ultimately torn down her stupid sarcasm defense system like it was paper. She sees Jemma's eyes flick down to her lips then back up and she's really tempted to do the same thing with her own.
"It's a thank you."
And then Skye's hand is on the back of Jemma's neck pulling her up to her lips. Jemma grips at Skye's waist and pulls her in closer. Skye's pretty sure that Jemma's winning the kissing battle but she really doesn't care. Skye smiles when Jemma moans into her mouth and she swears that she will do whatever it takes to get Jemma to do that again and again. Skye's senses are drowning in Jemma, all she can taste, feel, touch, smell, it's all Jemma and she likes it so much. Jemma's fingers are dancing over her hips and she's doing everything she can to control herself. Her lips feel swollen when Jemma pulls back and she knows she needs to breathe but Jemma's like a drug.
"Okay." Jemma rasps out eventually. "This means that you don't have to go out and purposefully get beaten up, just for an excuse to kiss me anymore." Skye laughs and takes a step back so she's resting against the table.
"I'm still gonna kiss you if I get beaten up." Skye smirks when Jemma steps forward. Jemma's leaning into her and Skye's pretty sure she's going in for another kiss when she stops just an inch short. The wait is painful and she just wants Jemma to close the gap but instead she hears Jemma tut.
"From now on, you only get kisses when you're not injured." Her voice is low, almost a whisper. Jemma winks and Skye feels herself blush, that's her move. Jemma begins to shuffle through her papers while Skye huffs and folds her arms over her chest like an angry five year old.
"That's not fair! I'm always injured." Skye watches as Jemma smiles slyly to herself.
"Then maybe you'll be more careful next time."