It started out pretty innocently. She was down in the lab with FitzSimmons and felt a bit cold. She noticed Ward's old S.H.I.E.L.D. hoodie hanging on the railing of the stairs. He must have tossed it there before training this morning and forgot it on the way to find out about the mission he'd had to go on with Coulson and May. "I'll just toss it back in his bunk when I go up later" she thought. Skye leaned her face into the neckline of the faded black garment and inhaled the scent of Ward.

She was a little surprised that he smelled so good. Amazing, actually. She thought that as much as he trained, he would smell like sweaty man all the time. Instead, when she breathed in, she inhaled the scent of Bulgari body wash, a warm scent that must have just been Ward, and a hint of gunpowder, because it was Ward after all. She knew when she lifted her nose from the soft, worn fabric that she was addicted.

"Skye! Skye! Earth to hacker!" Fitz's voice broke through her Ward scent-addled mind.

"Yeah, Fitz? What do you need?" she asked, wondering how long he'd been calling her name.

"Nothing, really. I just thought you'd want to know that the rest of the team will be back in about 15 minutes. Apparently there are some minor injuries." He replied, trying to not let her know that he had seen the look of fear on her face when he had mentioned that the team had been injured.

"Ok. Thanks, Fitz. I'll be right back." She called as she started rushing up the spiral stairs.

She stripped off Ward's large, black hoodie, hurrying to his bunk. After entering his code, which he didn't know that she knew, she quietly slipped in the bunk. "Really, Ward? 007?" she thought. Skye quickly hung the hoodie up and left Ward's bunk, making sure that she locked the door behind her. She then crossed the hall to her bunk to grab one of her own hoodies.

When she got back down to the lab, the bus's ramp was slowly starting to open. The SUV pulled in, with Coulson behind the wheel. Skye could see his left hand dripping blood down the steering wheel and his arm. May sat beside him, a black bruise darkening her cheek. Her right eye was almost swollen shut. Ward was in the back seat behind May, and Skye could only see his left shoulder from where she was standing.

As soon as the car stopped, Skye and FitzSimmons rushed to pull the doors open. Fitz hurried to Coulson, helping him out of the car and into the lab to take care of his hand. Simmons got May and Skye almost laughed at the exasperated smile on May's face as the biochemist fussed over her.

The laughter left Skye's body as soon as she opened Ward's door. He looked awful. A long cut just below his collarbone dripped blood down his chest. His right shoulder was clearly dislocated, and he had thin bruises around his neck and wrists. Skye put her hand on his arm, and he leaned into it, closing his eyes. They just sat like that for a minute.

Suddenly, his eyes shot open. Moving faster than Skye had ever seen him move, he leapt out of the car and drew his gun, pushing Skye behind him. Gunshots rang out, both from Ward and from the men walking up the open ramp of the bus. May came running from the lab, gun out and firing at the men.

Ward and May had already taken out four of the five men, and Ward was advancing on the fifth. Out of nowhere, a sixth man jumped up on the ramp and shot Ward. The bullet went through his already dislocated shoulder, grazed Skye's arm, and embedded itself in the glass in the lab wall. Ward's blood splattered across Skye.

She watched in horror as Ward dropped to the floor unconscious, shoulder dripping blood. The men advanced on Ward and Skye, just out of sight of May and the rest of the team. Their guns were pointed straight at Ward's unconscious form, and Skye knew that they were going to kill him if she didn't do something about it.

She saw Ward's gun laying less than a foot from her. She took a deep breath and just let her training take over. Skye lunged for the Glock 17 her S.O. had dropped when he went down, bring it up and firing as soon as it was in her hands. The men fell to the floor, dead. When Skye saw that they weren't getting up, she let out the breath she hadn't known she was holding.

"Simmons! We need you! Simmons!" she screamed, rushing to Ward's side and putting her hands on the bleeding hole in his shoulder. Simmons came rushing around the SUV.

"Oh my God! Fitz! Help me get Ward into the lab!" She called to her partner. Together, they got Ward into the lab and on the table. He didn't wake up for any of it, blood loss keeping him unconscious. Simmons cleaned out the gunshot wound, dabbing the blood off. Then she stitched it up.

"He needs blood! Fitz, what is his blood type?" She asked, running to the blood cooler.

"Um… he's O negative, Jemma!" Fitz yelled from the other side of the lab.

"Bloody hell! We had to use all of the O negative on that bloody agent we had to play extraction team for last week! We need to find the closest hospital or blood bank immediately!" Simmons said, slamming the cooler door closed.

"Jemma, that won't be necessary. I'm O negative too. I can donate some blood to him." Skye said, sliding off of the table she had been sitting on so that Fitz could bandage her arm.

"Fantastic. Get back up on the table and lay down. Fitz, get me two 16 gauge needles and one meter of IV tubing." Simmons said, before pushing a button on the table Ward was on, causing it to lower 2 feet. "We're going to have to do this the old fashioned way. He doesn't have time for me to take Skye's blood and then give it to him. It's going to have to be a direct line between them."

Simmons ran to one of the drawers, pulling out some small device. Fitz quickly handed her the things she needed. Simmons ran the IV tube through the device she had pulled from the drawer, before attaching two needles to the ends of the tube. She quickly slid one into Grant's arm. While she did that, Fitz tied a tourniquet around Skye's arm. Simmons turned to Skye, needle in hand.

"Ready, Skye?" she asked.

"Absolutely." Skye answered with complete certainty. Simmons carefully slid the needle in her arm. As soon as it was in, Fitz removed the tight tourniquet. They all watched as Skye's blood drained into Ward's arm. Slowly, color started coming back into his face and his breathing went from ragged and fast to a steady, even pace.

"Um… Simmons… not that I don't trust you or anything, but how will you know when you need to stop taking my blood?" Skye asked, nervously.

"Oh, don't worry, Skye! That's what this is for." She said, gesturing to the little device on the tube. "It will start beeping when you've given Ward one and a half pints, which is more than one would normally donate, but he needs it, and you'll be just fine giving it."

"Oh, ok." Skye said. She turned her head to once again look at Ward.

Beep! Beep! Beep! The little machine on the tube startled Skye. Simmons came over with some bandages for Skye's arm. She removed the needle and wrapped the little hole snuggly.

"There you go, Skye. Fitz, can you get Skye some juice and a couple of cookies? She needs to get her sugar back up." Simmons asked, as she removed the needle from Ward's arm. She then pulled an IV bag of some clear liquid from one of the drawers lining the wall.

"What is that?" Skye asked from her spot on the table.

"It's a special mix of mine just for gunshot wounds. It's a mixture of electrolytes and sugars that he needs to replace what he lost when he was on the mission and when he was bleeding, and a mild pain reliever to take the edge off when he wakes up." Simmons answered as she hung up the bag and slid the needle into Ward's hand.

"Here's your juice and cookie, Skye." Fitz said, as he entered the lab. He pressed the bottle of orange juice and the chocolate chip cookie into her hands.

"Thanks, Fitz. So, now what do we do?" She asked, sitting up.

Simmons watched her carefully as she slid from the table and onto a tall chair beside Ward. Simmons bent down and pushed the button to raise the table. Skye latched on to Ward's hand as soon as it was at its full height. "Come on, Ward. Wake up." She thought.

FitzSimmons watched their friend cling to Ward's hand. "Now, Skye, now we just have to wait." Simmons answered.