A/N: No, I have no idea what this is. Mackingbird! Spoilers for recent episodes I guess?

Disclaimer: I don't anything, all rights go to their proper owners.

They were partners form time to time, Bobbi and Mack, back when they worked under Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D Definitely friends. Hell, he was at her wedding to Hunter. So many things changed when Hydra emerged from the shadows, every aspect of their lives was unsettled. Even their relationship. Bobbi didn't realize it at the time, but how could it not have changed? Mack was willing to die fighting by her side, and then managed to convince her to change her mind. Nobody made her change her mind. But Mack was right, and she sure as hell was willing to trust him.

How do you come out of that and not have the relationship be changed?

Of course, she fells back into old habits with Hunter, so maybe not everything was different.

And then they emerged from the shadows, so to speak, and yet again everything went to shit.

Gonzales had kicked them out while he talked to Coulson and Bobbi was more than a little offended, but Mack offered to spar with her to ease her mind. Lately, sparring with Mack didn't relax her. There was a weird tension in her body afterwards. But she still took him up on the offer.

"What's on your mind?" he asked, ducking a punch.

Bobbi shrugged, dodging a few hits and landed a hit on his jaw. "Same as ever."

They'd had this discussion numerous times. "I don't understand what you were expecting, Bobbi. Like I said, this wasn't gonna end in a group hug."

Bobbi's jaw tensed and she swiped at his leg, sending him down to the mat. Instead of getting up, he just pushed up onto his elbows, giving her a look. She sat down next to him.

"I know. But, god, it sucks having everyone hate me. Simmons, May, Coulson, Skye, Fitz...Hunter," she shook her head. "Everyone hates me, and most of them have left. Look, I didn't join real S.H.I.E.L.D to make friends, but that doesn't mean I want to be villainized."

Mack sat up, wiping his hands. "What am I, chopped liver? You still got me."

Bobbi smiled, shoving him down to the floor. "Yeah, I know. I wish they could just see our side. They're valuable agents, good people. And we're not the bad guys."

Of course, the team didn't really see it that way. She got it, she did. She understood how it felt like betrayal. Admittedly, she was disgruntled with some of S.H.I.E.L.D's - her S.H.I.E.L.D - decisions, but she was in this for the long run. This was right.

"That's the price we pay for doing the right thing."

Mack seemed to sense that his logic wasn't quite working on her. He stood up and toweled the sweat off of his body. Then he offered his hand to her and pulled her to her feet. He fixed the strap of her tank top before resting his hands on her shoulders. "I get it. You like these people, it's gotta sting to see them hate you so vehemently. But it's not genuine hate. It's just hurt. And until they realize that, and even after they do, I'm here for you. I've got your back." His hands slid down her arms and Bobbi offered a small smile.

"Thanks, Mack."

"Let's go again."

She grinned for real and instantly twisted out of his reach. He gave more of his all this time, and Bobbi loved the small challenge. She whirled to land a hit on him when

"Morse! Mackenzie, we need you upstairs!" Weaver said. Mack moved to answer, but Bobbi was still coming at him, her elbow connecting his face, near his eye but not actually hitting it. "Be there in twenty."

Mack was rubbing at his face, and Bobbi could tell a black eye would form. "Shit. Uh, I'm sorry about that," she said. She walked over to the cooler and scooped out some ice, wrapping it in her unused towel. "Here." She pressed it up against his eye.

"I know your pissed, but don't take it out on me. I'm a friendly."

Bobbi smiled, tilting her head as she iced the wound. "You pick a fight you can't win, you're bound to get hurt."

Mack laughed and took the icepack from her before following her upstairs.

Mack's pep talk hadn't fixed everything, but it certainly helped a little. She could take the cold shoulder from Simmons, at least. At night was when it was hard. She couldn't hang out with anyone, didn't retreat to Hunter's room.

So, naturally, she knocked on Mack's door. He looked pretty surprised to see her, so she held up a bottle of scotch, waving it in his face. Not a martini, but it would do. He smiled and let her in, closing the door behind her. The rooms here were small, so she curled in the one other seat in his room and he sat on the edge of his bed. She poured the first two glasses and handed one to him.

"To doing good and making enemies," she smiled, clinking her glass against his. He rolled his eyes, taking a drink. "I don't know what to do right now. I keep waiting for orders, but there aren't any."

Mack nodded. "Having downtime is strange, I'll agree with you on that."

"Thanks for having my back."

Mack shrugged. "It's nothing."

It wasn't. It meant a lot to Bobbi. She moved off of the chair and next to him on the bed, reaching up to touch the forming bruise by his eye. He flinched when she touched it but didn't pull away. "You're gonna have a nice black eye for a while," she said.

"I've had worse."

About a thousand memories of Mack enduring 'worse' popped into Bobbi's head. She realized she was still touching him. Her body was tense again, like after they sparred. She was starting to have an inkling that it wasn't muscle strain coiling in her stomach. Well, shit.

Bobbi was a smart person. Maybe not when it came to Hunter. And she was more emotionally competent than a lot of real S.H.I.E.L.D leaders, currently. She knew that it was a terrible, awful idea to sleep with the one person she could currently consider a friend. It was the kind of thing she'd chastise herself for, the kind of thing that if Mack saw her doing it with someone else, he'd warn her against it. She trusted her judgment, and she trusted his.

That did not negate the fact that, aside from their circumstance, Mack was actually probably the best person for her to get involved with, and, more to the point, she wanted to sleep with him.

"Bobbi, no."

"What?"

"I know that look."

Bobbi was taken aback for a second. Then she noticed that he didn't look repulsed, or firm or patronizing at all. She tilted her head. He took her hand off of his face.

"Why not?"

"Don't play dumb."

Bobbi stood up, grabbing her glass of scotch and taking a long sip. She watched him try to avoid staring. Look, she read people for a living. She knew all of the signs he was giving her. Of course, she wasn't going to do anything as long as he said no. She wasn't a monster.

"Alright. No go. I'll take care of myself," she shrugged. Mack laughed, shaking his head. This was a whole new kind of flirting for her. Normally her foreplay consisted of heated fights. This...this was something entirely new. She liked it. "Haven't been rejected in a while."

"I'm not rejecting you. I'm rejecting the consequences," Mack said. Bobbi quirked an eyebrow. "I don't think I could reject you. The history, the banter, we're two above average looking people. Chemistry's a go. But those damn consequences," he let out a sigh.

Bobbi wondered how much he'd thought about this before. More than she had, clearly. Bobbi had been about to go but she dropped down onto the bed one more time, sitting closer, resting a hand on his forearm, somewhere safe.

"The consequences have fucked us over a lot," she admitted. Mack nodded. Consequences of keeping Arnim Zola alive (and those consequences didn't even come from their own mistakes), consequences of following Fury's secrecy, of keeping secrets from Coulson's team. "Everything's a mess, and we're trying to hold our ground in the wreckage."

Mack lifted a hand to rest on her shoulder. "You're dangerous, Agent Morse. We already agreed not to do this." Bobbi nodded firmly. They had. She'd accepted it. But she couldn't find it in her to walk away. His hand slid up into her hair, sending shivers down her body. She'd never been in this kind of situation with Mack before. "Think we've dealt with enough consequences to be able to handle the ones that come next?"

Bobbi didn't even think over it twice. She nodded and let Mack guide her closer until their mouths met. They had no idea when the next crisis would hit, when they'd next be needed for a mission, so they could at least enjoy each other's company until then. Right as she thought that, Mack deepened the kiss.

Bobbi made the first move to move past kissing, but from there they seemed to move at the same time, with the same train of thought.

When Bobbi woke up the next morning, everyone was still angry at her, and she hated it. But she didn't feel tense anymore, and she was a little less resentful of consequences. She felt a little wary leaving Mack's bed, wondering what those consequences would be. But then she felt the pure satisfaction she was swimming and and didn't care. The only thing she knew for sure was that she'd be waking up in Mack's bed for days to come.