A/N: A MayWard fic. Something a little bit less serious than the usual stuff.
Please tell me what you think.
When she tries to sneak back to the bus, May is right there on the platform. She sees her and her first instinct is to leave it alone, to go back to the Hub and…she doesn't know… maybe, look for Coulson... They've all promised to clear away from the plane and let May run her checks and reboot the engine, and she has a very distinct feeling that May is not the kind of person who likes it when you make changes to a very well set plan.
She stops hesitatingly near the opened cargo door and tries to assess her options. May is standing there next to Lola, practicing her Tai Chi in silence. She's practically blocking the route to get in. She can probably make it, she thinks, if she'll be very very quiet, and quick, and extremely lucky… but when she decides to go for it, and starts to move, she realizes she's even more scared than during that op when they sent her to find Coulson.
"You're here!" May turns towards her sharply, almost making her jump out of her skin.
"Sorry…" Skye mumbles sheepishly "I was just…"
"I thought we agreed you are all going to spend some time in the Hub and leave me in peace to do maintenance."
"I'm sorry" she apologizes again "I really tried. I went with FitzSimmons to the research lab and hang out with them, but they met some other scientists there and they all kept talking about vectors and trajectories and multidimensional-holographic-gravitation modifiers and all that other boring crap" May only rolls her eyes and grabs a bottle of water from the floor, turning to walk back towards the living area. She's not pouting or looking at her with that menacing look of hers so Skye feels comfortable enough to walk back alongside her "they were wearing goggles" she continues and May raises her eyebrow with a questioning look "well…" she corrects "perhaps they weren't really goggles but they certainly looked like goggles and they had that green beam of light that projected measurements and molecular data and they ran the tests on that new pollutant we've found and…" Skye sighs, and shakes her head as they both head towards the cockpit "they kept saying very long and complicated words. I'm telling you, it's was really hard to follow and they kept joking with all the other STEM enthusiasts and the parts I did get wasn't even that funny… I tried to hang out there for as long as I could but I almost fell asleep standing up. I felt like I'm dying of boredom." She can see May smiling tenderly, almost unnoticeably, when she gives her that vivid description, and it makes her feel a little better.
"Why were you with FitzSimmons anyway?" May turns towards her suddenly "weren't you supposed to go for some weapon training with Coulson and Ward?"
"I was" she grumbles, dropping on the pilot's chair. May only clears her throat quietly, reminding her who's chair it is, and it makes her jump like she was bitten by a snake, and move to the other chair "I was, but just before we got there Coulson met agent Hand and she invited him for lunch, and when Ward and I got to the shooting range it was occupied, because apparently you have to make a reservation there three months in advance or something, so Ward said we'll go to the armory so he can show me the new scopes he was talking about nonstop for the last month…"
"The F-340J heat scanner?"
"Yeah" she scoffs "apparently it's a real thing and not just a part of his obsessive combat rambling."
"It's a good scope" May shrugs "couldn't hurt to try it out."
"I didn't mind trying it out" she scoffs "really, only he ditched me!"
"Ditched you?" May asks absentmindedly as she's scrolling the reboot log on her tablet.
"We ran into one of his old Academy buddies."
"Buddies?" May looks at her skeptically "Ward has buddies?"
"Yeah, right?" Skye grins at her "I was as surprised as you. But he must have, because we ran into one of them on our way to the armory and if I didn't know better I'd even say he was really excited." Skye can't help but notice that she suddenly has May's full attention. "He couldn't get rid of me fast enough after that…" she grumbles "he shooed me away to go find FitzSimmons and they went to the training center for a few sparring rounds. I couldn't believe he'd ditch me like that" She's absentmindedly playing with the controls, until she notices May's threatening glare "oops, sorry…" she pulls her hand away quickly "it was one of his academy buddies" she continues "they ran a few ops together or something, and she's really beautiful, and… you know… tall… she looks like a model… I guess Ward is a human male form after all…" She smiles. She's pretty sure the pilot stick, when May pushes it suddenly to the end of its limit, shouldn't be making this awful breaking noise.
It takes her twenty minutes to give Skye ten different contradictory assignments regarding the engine reboot, to go change to her uniform and to make her way to the Hub. Ten minutes later she enters the communication and control center, finds an abandoned computer terminal and goes to work.
There's one thing five years in administration have taught her, and that's there are battles which can be won without violence. It takes her a few minutes to find the entrance log to the training center and identify her target. It takes her a few more minutes to pull out the entire credentialing history of one, agent Gillian Brooks, who used to be in Ward's class, and worked a few ops with him after graduation. A few more minutes to rearrange several key features in the girl's access key definitions, her security permits and the expiration times of her pass codes before she feels she probably made her point. She makes her way to the big lounge in the center of the Hub and buys herself two rounds of the finest whiskey the have there. She feels that after the great amount of restrain she just demonstrated she deserves a little reward.
The next time she sees him it's seven hours later. They are almost ready to move, and she's sitting with Coulson in the living room hunched over some data he brought from agent Hand about their next mission. It's amazingly boring. Full of mission logs and new recruitment information, and Coulson must realize it because he doesn't even mention the fact that she's looking at the clock repeatedly every few minutes.
They are just about ready to go when Grant Ward steps into the bus, and crashes on the couch next to them. He looks drained; his clothes are all messed up, his hair tousled in the most adorable way. She curses herself internally, since when does she even use words like adorable? He's furious, and tired and he's four hours late. They both look at him with surprise.
"You're late" she says curtly, making him glare back at her with irritation.
"Where were you?" Coulson looks at him questioningly.
"In interrogations." He answers shortly, moving slowly to untie his shoes.
"Interrogations?!" Coulson looks at him with suspicion "what the hell have you done? Am I going to get another furious call from director Fury?"
"I didn't do anything" he frowns "I was just…" he shakes his head "I was at the training center with Gill… I mean, agent Brooks. An old colleague" She notices how he emphasizes the word colleague, at the same time he makes sure to avoid her eyes "when we got out, and swiped our badges the entire place lit up like a Christmas tree. They swooped in on us, dropped us to the floor and searched us." He leans back on the couch, rubbing his face with the heels of his hands "something in her security definitions. I have no idea; somehow her entire identity was erased from the system. They held us for hours…" He looks at Coulson apologetically "I'm sorry sir. I couldn't even call you."
"It's fine" Coulson shrugs, as he and May are rising form the couch to prepare for launch "as long as they've cleared you…"
"They did. I made sure" he says quickly "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"You should really be careful about who you're associating with." May says icily as she walks towards the cockpit, making him watch her with alarm.
An hour later he's after a nice shower, standing barefoot at the kitchen making himself a late snack. She walks in and sees him preparing a sandwich with the same amount of caution and concentration he puts in assembling an explosive device, and it makes her smile immediately.
She walks purposefully behind him, reaching for a coffee mug on the shelf next to him, her body rubs softly at his back, making him gasp, and stop what he's doing, surrendering to the mesmerizing sensation of her warm body against him.
He starts to say something, but they're in a public area on the bus, and they both know the rules, so when she moves back towards the counter behind him, and pours herself a cup of the newly brewed coffee, he is still keeping his quiet, and continues to work on his sandwich.
"Hey May" Skye is entering the kitchen, loud as ever, breaking the almost sensual quiet tension that is always there between them "agent Murphy from Hub security is on the line for you. Apparently they had a security breach. Someone used your old access code to enter the security and credentialing system. He wants to talk to you."
She looks at Skye with barely contained rage, as Ward drops the knife noisily in the sink and turns swiftly around, to look at her. She presses her lips tightly, as he watches her with amazement.
"Oh…" she mumbles quickly "weird… I'll better take it at the, yes… it must be a mistake" she declares sharply before she makes her way quickly out of the kitchen.
Skye turns questioningly towards Ward, who is still standing there, at the sink, arms crossed, and deadly quiet "what's going on?" she asks him, surprised "what are you smiling at? I don't think I've ever seen you so happy, you look like you just won the lottery."