As mentioned, major spoilers for the season 2 finale. If you haven't seen it yet, read at your own risk.

I don't know what this is; please don't ask. I just wanted to write something and the idea wouldn't go away.


Coulson stared at the reflection in the mirror and watched as Skye's nimble fingers quickly did the buttons on his shirt. She was going the wrong way, and it made him more than a little depressed at the thought that he needed her help now more than ever. Once she reached the final button, her hands moved up to adjust and smooth the collar down. She stepped away from in front of the mirror for a second to reach behind him to the ties that Coulson had set out minutes earlier. Of course she picked the tie with Captain America's shield on it. Ever since he'd lost his hand and relied upon her to help him get dressed, his novelty tie wearing had increased greatly.

Not like he minded; they could use all of the cheer that they could get after everything that had happened.

As Skye tightened the knot on his tie, Coulson noticed that her hands were shaking slightly. He caught her hand as she ran it down the silk print to smooth it out. She gave a little jolt, as if surprised that she'd been caught in a moment of weakness.

"I love you," she said quietly. She ran her other hand down his tie.

"I love you, too," Coulson was quick to say. It wasn't as if this was the first time that they'd expressed their love for one another, but Skye was always so careful with her love. As if she was afraid that if she loved him too much, that he'd either stop loving her or leave her. But, in the past few weeks since everything had happened, she'd been completely withdrawn and silent.

Not like he didn't understand what she was going through. Skye had finally found the family that she'd been searching for her entire life, only to have it turn out to be a horrific nightmare. Skye's own mother had tried to kill her, and she'd watched as her father had killed Jiaying right in front of her.

Skye was mourning, but not the death of her mother and the memory loss of her father. She was mourning what might have been. In Coulson's opinion, that was the worst thing in the world to mourn.

"I just wanted to let you know, okay?" Skye went on after a moments hesitation. "After everything that's happened… Isabelle's and Trip's death, Bobbi getting shot in the head…" She swallowed hard and smoothed her hand down the tie again. "Simmons being missing for the past several weeks."

Lots of things went unspoken. Ward and the growing rumors that he was now in charge of HYDRA. Jaiying, Cal, and the more and more frequent reports about people being turned into stone mysteriously. Coulson's lost hand.

"Bobbi is doing much better now," Coulson whispered to her. He released her hand so that he could pull her into a hug. She clung to him, as if she were afraid that if she were to let go, that he'd disappear. "And I'm alive. You're alive. We're both still alive. We survived this, and we're going to survive the next thing. And the one after that…"

"I don't want to think about the next thing. I just want to think about this," Skye said, her voice muffled because her face was in his shoulder.

"And I don't want to think about how you're putting my clothes on rather than to take them off," Coulson said in an attempt to lighten the mood. Skye pulled away and gave him a dry smile before she grabbed his slacks off from the bed.

"Well, tough, because we've got a meeting in thirty, neither of us have eaten, and I have yet to get ready myself," she said as he sat down so that she could help him put his pants on.

"I wouldn't exactly want for anybody to see you wearing my shirt and nothing else."