Title: Love is the New Black
Author: snarkysweetness
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Skye/Ward
Summary: In which Skye's an inmate and Grant Ward is a prison guard.
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Notes: Melissa requested Skyeward + meeting in prison.
If anyone had told him fifteen years ago that he would be working as a prison guard he would have laughed in their face. He'd been a juvie kid back then, kicked out of military school, on his way to nowhere now here he was; nowhere which happened to be a women's correctional facility where he worked as a correctional officer.
When he'd envisioned himself being a C.O. this wasn't it.
Sure, it was better than the streets or being in prison himself but barely.
Not that the military would have been any better aside from the pay.
But this suited him. He didn't have to be polite or sociable. The inmates knew better than to speak to him, let alone flirt with him, and the other guards didn't like him so he wasn't forced to engage in small talk or after-work activities; it was peaceful. He stood around, did his job, kept the women safe (he knew how other male guards could be and he refused to stand for that shit), and at the end of the day he got to go home to his little cabin in the woods and be with his dogs.
It was a good life, or at least it had been, until she'd come barging into his life.
Out of all the prisons in this country she had to come to his.
The problem was he liked her; a lot. She was cute and lit up the room and for the first time since resigning himself to the fact that this was his life he wanted more; to be more, to have more. He'd carefully constructed a wall around himself and each time he found himself within five feet of her he could feel her chipping away at the bricks.
The more he pushed, the more the other girls warned her away, the more determined she was to befriend him until it finally began to work.
"Can I have a piece of gum?"
He glanced down to find her big brown eyes staring up at him. She knew full well he didn't chew gum but he had started carrying it once he found out she liked it; and he'd found out because she'd flat out told him.
A smile tugged at his lips but he did his best to maintain his stern composure. "I can't give you gum, if I did-"
"The other girls would think you liked me?" He didn't answer and she smiled. "But you do…like me." It wasn't a question.
He did like her and it was a problem. Not because she was an inmate, he would never cross that line, but because she would be out soon. She was only in here for staging a cyber-protest against Wall Street and she would have gotten off with a slap on the wrist had she cooperated but she was too stubborn for that. Instead she was here serving a seven-month sentence and ruining his life.
She gave him another smile and shook her head. "Later, robot," she muttered. He crossed his arms and a moment later he smirked as he heard her laugh coming from her bunk; she'd found the pack of gum he'd hidden under her pillow.
This hacker girl with her bright smile, pretty hair, and bubbly personality would be the end of him.
And when he stood in front of the prison on his day off, his dogs, with Buddy in the passenger seat of his truck, he knew she really had done a number on him.
"Officer Ward, is this appropriate?" She teased as she approached him with her duffel bag and a smile.
He shrugged and opened the door for her before he could change his mind. "You said you had nowhere to go," he offered. No family and no home, just a van that would be stuck in a New York City impound lot until she could get it out on Monday. The least he could do was house her for the weekend.
Skye smiled up at him before leaning up and brushing her lips across the corner of his mouth. "You know, you're a lot sweeter than you want others to know; I intend to find out just how sweet," she whispered before slipping into the cab of his truck.
He tried not to grin like an idiot; he could still feel her lips on his skin.
When he circled around to open his own door he stared in the window to find her giggling and hugging Buddy who was already in love with her he knew he would follow this girl anywhere.
He said a silent goodbye to Bedford Hills as he slammed his door behind him and turned on the engine. He felt her tiny hand slip into his and this time he didn't fight a smile. He was finally ready for the rest of his life to begin.