Hey babes! Apparently, today it has been one year since the amazing Grant Ward died on Maveth. I didn't even realize it until I saw something on Twitter. Now I'm all sad and stuff about that.
So in honor of all that, I have this little one-shot for you. I've had it written for a little while but I just wasn't sure when to post it. And today is the perfect day to post it.
Enjoy!
"Grant?! Oh my goodness. No!"
"Skye, I'm so sorry..."
"No! Grant! Please! No!"
Skye's eyes shoot open as she sits bolt upright in her bed, breathing heavily with sweat beading on her forehead.
Looking around in the darkness of her bedroom, she tries her best to calm her rapidly beating heart.
After a few minutes, her heart not slowing down much, she pulls the covers off of her body and climbs out of the bed, shuffling towards the door.
She pulls open her door and steps outside into the hallway, making her way through the dimmed lights until she finally reaches the familiar room.
Quietly sliding the door open, Skye peers into the darkness before stepping inside and closing the door tightly behind her.
She tip toes over to the bed and feels for the edge of the covers, pulling them back and climbing underneath.
Tugging the blankets up against her body, she turns and curls against the person next to her, resting her head on their chest.
"Another one?"
Skye nods against him. "Yeah," she says quietly.
"What happened?"
"Instead of me going down into Quinn's basement it was you. And he shot you. But you died before we could get you into the hyperbaric chamber. It was awful. Apologizing to me was the last thing you said. I didn't know why you were apologizing, though. It all felt so real, Grant."
"Well it wasn't," he assures her. "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me."
Skye smiles and tilts her head to look up at him. "I'm glad."
He smiles back. "Me too."
.
.
.
.
.
"Don't you dare leave me, Grant Ward. You hear me? Don't you dare leave me here alone."
"Skye..."
"You're going to be okay. You're gonna pull through this."
"I love you..."
"I love you too, Grant. So much."
Her eyes shooting open wide, Skye lies against her pillow and stares up at the ceiling. She can feel the tears already starting to build up in her eyes.
Tossing the covers off of her body, Skye rolls out of her bed and moves to the door, pulling it open and making her way down the hallway.
When she reaches his bunk she finds the door already ajar so she pushes it open the rest of the way and steps inside, closing the door all the way behind her.
She moves over to the bed and pulls back the covers.
"Again?"
"Yeah," Skye says quietly as she climbs into his bed and curls up against his side.
He drapes an arm around her and holds her close. "What was it this time?"
"I don't know where we were exactly, but you were beaten up pretty bad, I could tell that you were dying quickly."
"What did I say this time?"
"You told me you loved me," she says. "And I said it back."
"And then you woke up?" he asks.
She nods. "Yeah. Your uh, your door was already open."
"I had a feeling you might be dropping by."
"Thank you."
"Anytime."
.
.
.
.
.
"Grant? Stay with me! C'mon, stay with me, please."
"Skye..."
"There's so much blood. It just keeps...oh my gosh. Why won't it stop?!"
"Skye...I love..."
Her eyes shooting open, Skye lies in her bed for a moment in the pitch black before she feels a churning start in her stomach.
Throwing the covers off of her body, she runs from her room and down the hall towards the bathroom.
Pushing the door open, she quickly makes her way towards the toilet, kneels down in front of it, and empties the contents of her stomach into the porcelain bowl.
The tears sting at her eyes as she does.
"Skye?"
Looking to the side, Skye sees Grant standing in the doorway to the bathroom.
"Hey," she says in a raspy voice.
"Are you okay?" he asks, moving forward into the bathroom.
"Oh, yeah, I'm totally fine," she says sarcastically.
He shakes his head. "Right. Stupid question." He moves over and kneels down behind her, gathering up all of her hair to hold it out of the way for her. "What happened in this one?" he asks her after a moment.
Skye shifts on the floor so she's sitting down on the tile, leaning back against the wall. Grant shifts his body as well so he's sitting next to her, their shoulders touching.
"You were bleeding out," she tells him. "There was so much blood and I didn't know where the wound actually was and I couldn't stop it from coming out and you just died right there in my arms when you were telling me that you loved me."
"Hey," he says softly, grabbing one of her hands and lifting it to his chest over his heart. "You feel that?" Skye nods. "That's my perfectly healthy beating heart. I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere."
"The whole thing felt so real," she whispers, curling a fist around the fabric of his shirt.
"I have an idea."
"What is it?" she asks without looking up.
"You should start sleeping in my room."
She looks up at him and furrows her brows. "What?"
"To help you sleep," he explains. "I figure since I'll be right there it might be a bit easier for me to help you. I'm not saying that it will help completely, but it never hurts to give it a try. And you always end up in my room anyways."
Skye nods. "Yeah."
"So you want to try it?" he asks.
"Huh?"
"Sleeping in my room," he clarifies. "We can try it for a week and see if things get any better."
"Oh, uh, yeah. If you're okay with it."
"If I wasn't okay with it I wouldn't have offered," he tells her.
"Right. Then yeah, I think we should try it."
"Great. And hopefully there will be no more throwing up."
"Yeah. Hopefully."
"And in the morning, we can play a few games of Battleship if you want. I'll even let you win," he says with a smile.
Skye gives him a weak smile. "Please, even in my sleep you couldn't beat me. I'm the Queen of Battleship."
Grant smiles. "Yes you are."
After a few minutes of sitting quietly, they get up from the floor and Skye moves to the sink to wash her mouth of the taste of bile. When she's done, she follows Grant back to his bunk, the door closing tightly behind them.
"Do you need to do anything before bed?" Grant asks her.
Skye shakes her head. "No, I'm good. I'm already changed and I've brushed my teeth. Just need to try and get some sleep."
"Okay. Um, what side of the bed do you want?"
"You can just sleep on your regular side," she tells him. "And I'll sleep where I usually do when I come in here."
"Are you sure?"
Skye nods. "Yeah. I'm sure."
"Okay. So uh, I guess we should go to sleep then."
"Yeah, okay."
The two agents simultaneously pull back the covers of the bed and then climb inside, lying on their backs and pulling the blanket back up.
After a moment, Skye turns over onto her side and curls up against Grant's side resting her head on his chest.
Grant responds to the action, wrapping his arm around her to hold her close and dropping a quick kiss to the top of her head.
"Goodnight, Skye," he says as he lies back and closes his eyes.
"Goodnight."
Blinking the sleep out of her eyes, Skye lets herself slowly wake up, her body naturally pulling itself out of the deep slumber she'd been in.
She feels Grant stir beneath her and freezes, her head still on his chest and one of her hands curled into a fist around a section of his shirt, right above his heart.
"You awake?"
"Yeah," Skye replies in a soft voice.
Grant shifts on the bed again so that they're lying on their sides facing each other.
"How did you sleep?" he asks.
Skye shrugs. "Okay, I guess. I don't think I woke up from any nightmares."
"You didn't," he tells her. "And that's a very good thing," he says with a small smile. "You made it an entire night without waking up from a nightmare. This is really big for you, Skye."
"Did I ever tell you that I used to get nightmares at the orphanage?"
Grant shakes his head. "You don't talk much about your time there."
"That's because there's not much to tell. I used to get nightmares when I was sent back to St. Agnes after a bad foster home, sometimes even after the good ones too. I'd have nightmares that things were ten times worse than they actually had been and I'd wake up crying, tears running down my face. I even got physically sick a couple of times."She swallows. "It didn't happen a lot, but it was enough. None of the other kids wanted to share a room with me because of it. I swear those nuns thought I was possessed or something." She looks down at the mattress, drawing random shapes on the sheet with her fingers. "The nuns were okay to have around after a nightmare, but they didn't really do much to comfort me, not in the way I wanted to be comforted, by someone who really loved me."
Grant reaches out and grabs Skye's hand, closing his fingers over hers.
She looks up at him and he gives her a small smile.
"Things are different now," he tells her. "You've got me. You know I'm always here to help you with your nightmares."
"Yeah, I know. Have I told you lately how glad I am that we all decided to give you a second chance?"
He smiles. "It definitely wouldn't hurt to hear it again."
"Well I am," she says. "Giving you a second chance after that whole mess with Hydra was one of the best decisions this team has made. And not just because you help me with my nightmares."
"I'm glad about it too. And this whole thing with you having nightmares is definitely a lot different than it was with those nuns."
"Because I'm not six years old anymore?" she jokes.
Grant shakes his head. "No." He takes a deep breath and looks her right in the eyes. "Because I love you."
Skye gives him a soft smile. "I love you too."
"I don't need this. I'm not crazy."
"No one ever said that you were. Your friends are just concerned about you, Skye. Especially that Lincoln fellow."
"What else is new?" Skye responds, not looking up to make eye contact with the man sitting across from her. She's sitting cross legged on one of the couches, picking at the ends of the long sleeves of the loose sweater she's wearing.
"They're getting really worried about you because you won't talk to them about what's been happening with you."
"Well they need to stop worrying because nothing's been happening and I'm fine," she says harshly.
The man takes a deep breath. "You've been sleeping a lot lately," he comments, switching gears.
Skye shrugs. "So what? Thought sleeping was good for you."
"It is. Unless you get too much of it. It throws off the chemical balances in your body and doesn't let you function as well as you could."
"Thanks for the science lesson, doc."
"Any particular reason as to why you're sleeping so much?" he asks her.
"Guess I'm just finally taking the time to catch up on all those sleepless nights I had from growing up in an orphanage and then in my van."
"Is there something more?" he pushes. "Some of your peers have noticed that you tend to speak in your sleep but it's all incoherent."
"A lot of people talk in their sleep. It's usually nonsense."
"Is that what you're doing while you sleep? Speaking nonsense?"
Skye shrugs. "How would I know? I'm always asleep."
"You'd be surprised how much people remember from their dreams. Sometimes all it takes is a little work and determination and then the person is able to remem—"
"Just stop talking," she snaps, leaning forward on the couch. "I didn't even want to be here in the first place, okay? I just did it so everyone would get off my back about it. But I will not sit here and discuss with you the inner workings of my mind and what I'm dreaming about. Dreams are personal, aren't they? A window into the soul that can be analyzed to find the deeper meaning? Well I don't need my dreams to be analyzed; I already know what he's saying and doing it's a whole hell of a lot better than anything that's going on out here."
"So you do remember your dreams," he speaks softly.
Skye huffs in frustration before standing from the couch. "We're done here. I'm tired." She turns and quickly makes her way out of the room, going back down the hallway towards her room, ignoring the calls of some of her teammates as she goes.
.
.
"How is she?" Coulson asks. "Did she tell you anything?"
"Doctor patient confidentiality," the man responds. "I'm afraid I can't tell you anything she told me during our session."
"I know that. But there must be something you can tell me about how she is or what you think might be wrong."
"You said she's been sleeping a lot."
Coulson nods. "Yes."
"I think she's doing that for a reason."
"She's purposefully making herself sleep for long hours?"
The man nods. "Yes. I think she's using sleep and dreams as a way of escaping something in reality, creating something in her dreams that only she has access to, something extremely personal that she doesn't want anyone else getting a hold of at the risk of it being ruined somehow. How long has she been sleeping like this?" The man asks.
"A couple of months. Why?"
"Think back over these past few months. What one significant thing happened all those months ago? I believe that could be your answer to why Skye's acting this way."
Coulson furrows his brows in thought. "I know," he says after a moment. "I think I know what it is. And it's my fault she's like this."
"Why's that? What did you cause?"
"Grant Ward's death on Maveth."
So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
The prompt I found that inspired this one was: Person A of your OTP has been having reoccurring nightmares about Person B dying (despite them being alive). They always crawl into B's bed for reassurance, having B cradle them and tell them it's alright. One night A ends up throwing up because of how bad the nightmares have gotten, and B suggests that A sleep with them for a week to see if that clears it up.It does.(Angst Ending: This has all been a dream, and Person B has been dead for a long time, and Person A isn't coping well.) Now you can see why I didn't post it up top. Didn't want to ruin it. :)
Also, I'm doing a Q&A for New Year's, so if you've got any questions for me, just leave them in a review down below. :)
Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!