Title: My Best Girl
Author: snarkysweetness
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Skye/Grant with May & Coulson
Summary: "I couldn't leave my best girl, not when she owes me a drink." In which Grant finally returns to the only home he's ever known; Skye.
Warnings: Mild angst, I guess.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Notes: I started a ton of drabbles after 'Turn, Turn, Turn' and then the show broke my heart and I'm finally recovered enough to finish them so yeah we're going to pretend everything after that episode never happened for this and that Grant Douglas was a triple agent.
She thought she'd be better by now.
No more going through motions. No more fake smiles. No more pretending to be okay.
But she isn't.
She gets up. She trains. She smiles.
Says she'll move on when she finds the right guy. Jokes that maybe one of these days she'll make a man out of Trip or Fitz.
She pretends to be normal.
She ignores the ache in her heart.
Pretends she didn't put all of her faith in trust in a man who'd turned around and betrayed them all. Pretends she didn't fight for him, believe in him, trust they were wrong. Pretends she wasn't the one who was wrong.
But she was wrong.
So very, very wrong.
And the worst part is she still loves him. She doesn't know if he's alive or dead and she isn't sure which is worse; the knowledge that he's out there, still the enemy, or that he's gone from this world and she has no idea.
Somehow the latter is worse.
She can't live in a world without him in it even if the alternative is a horror story.
The truth is he broke her. She'd allowed herself to want something, to believe in someone, and it had blown up in her face once again.
She hated him.
She loved him.
She hated herself for loving him.
She was a mess.
She was a brilliant actress. No one knew the truth. The pain she still carried. She had them all fooled. All but one.
"You know…no matter how hard you try to move past something it's always there. You can't ever really erase pain. And that's okay."
Skye froze with her knife halfway through her sandwich. May stood behind her, always watchful, and Skye swallowed hard before answering.
"Shall we compare our residue then, May?" Skye whispered before glancing up to find her mentor watching her sadly. She couldn't handle pity, not from May, but this, almost mothering, wasn't so bad.
"What's the point? We'd both lose."
Skye couldn't argue with that. She sliced through her sandwich as A.C.'s voice filled the air.
"Skye, I need to talk to you."
He was using his serious voice. She turned to find him and-the world fell apart beneath her feet and she had to grab the counter for support. May was immediately at her side, pulling her up and keeping her grounded with one arm around her middle.
"What is he doing here?"
She couldn't look, couldn't see his face again. Couldn't register the sadness there.
No, he had no right.
She wasn't okay. She hadn't been okay. Not since he left. Even with all of her pretending how could A.C. think bringing him here was a good idea?
"I came home."
Her eyes met his and she threw herself at him. She punched his chest once. Twice. Three times. A.C. and May pulled her away but not before she got a punch in to his jaw.
"This isn't your home anymore! How could you let him back here?" Her face was covered in tears and she didn't care. He'd killed…so many people. He was a liar. A traitor. The enemy.
"Because his mission is over," A.C. replied calmly and she stood, allowing her breathe to even out before turning her head to stare at him in confusion.
"What?" She didn't even recognize her own voice.
"Skye, Ward was our mole inside Hydra. Their last base fell. His mission is over."
Skye shook her head.
No.
No.
No.
"I told you she would hit me," Grant said evenly while he pressed a hand to his jaw.
"Then why did you bother coming back? You're a specialist, right? You don't do teams. You are free to go on your merry way, Agent," she spat.
She should be happy. Her belief in him wasn't for nothing. He wasn't the enemy. But he'd still lied. He'd still left her. Waiting. Longing. In pain. She still hated him. This was her plucky little family, not his.
He met her eyes and her heart stopped for a moment at the intensity of his gaze.
"I told you, I came home."
She knew he didn't mean the bus. She didn't make the conscious choice to move but she was soon in front of him as his hand moved to cup her cheek. He smiled down at her as she stared up at him, unsure of what to feel.
"Besides," he added. "I couldn't leave my best girl, not when she owes me a drink."
She pulled him down by the back of the neck, not caring that they had an audience, and their lips met halfway. Soon his hands are in her hair and wow, what a kiss. When they finally break away they're alone and she thinks it's for the best. Mom and dad don't need to see the kids making out in the kitchen.
"After all this time?" She whispered.
He could have moved on. She would have never known. She could have gone on believing the worst. But he'd still come back.
He moved a hand through her hair before pressing his lips to hers once more.
"Always," he whispered.
And it doesn't undo anything but man is it one hell of a start.