"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes."
Skye was swearing off men. No, swearing off relationships. The look in Ward's eyes. The soft, encouraging tone of his voice. The way he leaned forward just slightly when he spoke to her. It was all the same as she remembered. "Something bad happened."
The wolf in her chest howled at his tone. At the care and concern she could hear running through him. She had feelings of her own. But she spit out the words Coulson had given her in the hardest tone she could manage. "Do you have any information on that?" Steel. She was steel and ice bound with barbed wire. No one could touch her. No one could hurt her.
"How have you been?" he asked in an earnest, quiet voice. Like he really cared what her answer was.
Get up, she ordered herself. That was the easy part. The hard part was turning from him. Acting like she wanted to leave when his voice made her want to run to his arms. To feel safe and loved and protected. She remembered resting in those arms. He kept talking and Skye was drawn back to him. The barrier shown in sharp relief as he leaned into her. Skye would never admit it but he wanted him closer. Even as he leaned away and she saw his arms.
The story he told her...how he tried to kill himself...Skye hurt. She hurt for him and for herself. Her outside was still ice and steel but inside, she wanted to hold him. To kiss each mark until the pain inside him went away. Until it was just them once more. Just them without this stupid war pitting them against each other.
"You should have run faster," she growled. But she wanted to scream. Instead Ward kept talking.
"Your arms tell a different story. I see May's training you. She's got you favoring your left side first because you're right handed. Smart."
Smart. That was all he had to say to her. Not that he was proud of her progress or giving her tips but just that what May was doing was smart. She needed to change this conversation before it got even more off track. She had to be hard.
HIs voice changed as he spoke about the man they were hunting. Skye only paid half attention to his words. Because she didn't want to hear them. She wanted to know why he had done it. Why he had torn their pack, their family apart. Nothing was the same and it was all his fault. How could he do this to all of them?
She had to walk and his old information gave Skye exactly the opening that she needed. Then he made her wait. How they communicated with Creole was information S.H.E.I.L.D needed. But not what Skye needed.
"It's true," Ward insisted at her disbelief. "And so will be every word I say to you for the rest of my life."
Then say you're sorry, she thought. Say that you didn't mean to shred all of us like this. That you care about me, about our family, Fitz and Simmons and everyone you have hurt. Tell me this was all a lie, a mistake, that you didn't mean what you did.
Skye knew he would tell her those things if she asked. And he would probably believe him too. But she couldn't. It would hurt too much. So she changed the barrier. Now he couldn't see how much she hurt.