DISCLAIMER: I do not own any part of SHIELD, Marvel, or any of their characters.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is just a little one-shot I've gotten up for Halloween. It's a tad late, but I thought it was fun and fluffy, and I don't really know. I do hope you enjoy, however. I have not yet seen episode six of the second season, so forgive me if the relationships aren't quite right/the characters are a tad bit off.
At any rate, happy Halloween, and do enjoy!
SMILES
"Uh, Coulson? Has that stuff finally gotten to your head?"
Skye frowns at the bundle of clothes that Coulson's just thrown on the table, and she gives him a questioning look. Around her, others do the same - except May, which isn't too much of a surprise. These days, May knows everything to do with Coulson.
"Maybe," Coulson admits with a tight smile. "Because it's October the 31st, and I've just thrown a whole bunch of costumes at you."
"Wait, costumes?" Skye gapes openly at Coulson, and immediately hands drift towards the pile of fabric.
Hunter draws out a false set of vampire teeth with an incredulous look, flashing surprised eyes at the Director of SHIELD. "You want us to go trick or treating?"
Skye can't help but laugh at the thought of a bunch of highly dangerous field agents travelling through a town and knocking at doors for candy. Across from her, Bobbi Morse holds a similar look, and they share a smile. Skye's still not entirely sure on the likes of Bobbi Morse, but she saved Simmons and she makes Hunter aggravated, so that's all she really needs.
"I want you to have fun," Coulson amends, a strange sparkle in his eyes (one that Skye hasn't seen for a long time, actually) and a faint smile on his lips. Skye notes that his gaze drifts to Fitz briefly, but the engineer only seems to divert his gaze away. It worries her that he's not sitting with Simmons, and is perched on the other side of the room next to Mack instead.
"What if something happens back here?" Mack points out sensibly. "You'll be on your own."
"You'll have communications on you, but you might have to turn up to the battlefield in your Halloween costumes," Coulson answers simply. "It'll only be for a night."
"I'll be here, and so will Koenig," May adds, and Skye can't help but feel sudden relief. May would take care of him, there's no need for concern. Although she can't help but be slightly disappointed that she won't get to see the Calvary all dressed up.
"Sir-" Simmons begins tentatively, but Coulson cuts her off with a firm look.
"You're all going. I don't care whether you go trick or treating or head to the local bar, but just have some fun, and be careful."
There's silence for a long moment, before Bobbi speaks up again. "When do we go?"
"At night." It's May who speaks this time. "It'll be darker, you'll have more cover."
"What, to scare little kids who are trick or treating?" Skye rolls her eyes, but she fumbles through the clothes with an excited gleam in her eyes. "Where'd you get all this stuff from?"
"You'd be surprised at how much Koenig has hidden up his sleeve."
"Do you think he has any decorations?" Skye grins. "I'm thinking that this place looks kinda dull."
Coulson smiles.
...
"The Playground is offically Halloween-ified," Skye announces, hopping down from the chair that she'd been perched on top of and stepping back to admire her work. It turned out Koenig had some decorations hidden away (well, a few) and she'd gone and stolen some.
Most of them are Christmas decorations, but with the help of scissors and an old orange shirt, she's fixed them up and decorated the walls. Coulson's office is spectacularly spooky, if she does say so herself. Limp orange fabric hangs on the walls (Skye's useless attempts at cutting out pumpkins) but there's snags of fake holly strewn around and pieces of red and black cloth draped against the desk.
She's just grinning at the room when Simmons peeks from around the corner with a small smile. "It looks great, Skye."
"I know, right?" Skye smirks, beckoning her fellow agent into the room. Simmons enters the room and she notices with surprise that the bio-chemist has a tray of paper cups in her hands. "What's that?"
Simmons tugs a cup from the container and holds it out as an offering. "Pumpkin spice latte. It's a big American thing, right?"
Skye accepts it with a huge grin and moves forward to envelope her into a hug. "Thanks, Simmons."
She looks surprised, but she nods. "Your welcome," she smiles, looking around the room quietly. Her eyes flicker suddenly, and she looks to the ground. "Are you going to decorate.."
"Ward's cell?" she guesses, and her features harden automatically. "Do you think I'd let him miss out on the Halloween spirit? I've saved the scariest ones for him."
"Oh."
Skye pauses, and then holds out the remaining drapes in her hand. "Do you want to.. come and help?"
"Oh, Skye," Simmons looks apologetic, "I.. I don't think that's a good idea."
"Right." Skye's smile fades slightly, but she gathers her equipment up and nods anyway. She hadn't really been expecting any different. Going down there was daunting - even for her, but she wants some answers from the ex-team member. Decorating was more of an excuse than anything. "You have work in the lab, right?"
It's when Simmons pauses that Skye feels a jolt of anxiety for her friend. "Yes," Simmons answers finally, her features strained. "Lots of work."
"Well then," Skye announces after a moment. "You'll need a good luck charm."
She picks up a set of scissors and sets to work diligently, ignoring Simmons' puzzled looks.
Finally, she turns to press a mishapen fabric jack-o-lantern in Simmons' hand. "Decorate the lab for me, yeah? I'll come by to help scare Fitz and Mack later."
Simmons smiles.
...
"Why are you down here?"
Skye tries bites back a sharp retort (she really does try) as she sticks some black paper onto the wall and takes a step back.
"It's Halloween. You know, thought I'd bring some scary things down here to remind you of yourself," she replies snidely. Looks like she didn't try hard enough.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spots Ward's nod of acceptance as he leans back to sit on his bed.
"Is this your first Halloween?"
Skye twists her head away as he attempts to make conversation. Crudely, she sticks a ghost (a cute white one made by Simmons) to the wall, and tightens her lips into a forceful smirk. "I hope you're not scared of ghosts, Ward."
She ignores his question purposely. She's not going to tell him anything about her past, not anymore. Not when he claims to know so much about Raina and her father. Not when he knows what she might be. The truth is, this is her first proper Halloween. The orphanage never really celebrated it, and as an adult she'd been too busy to really go for that kind of thing.
Although she remembers sneaking out every October the 31st with one of her friends (a brave spark of a girl named Lily) and knocking on doors for any left over candy. It often worked, but the caretakers would often find out and confiscate the sweets. Still, those were the good times. She'd been Mary back then. Now she is Skye. Now she is better.
"I heard Simmons was back," Ward says.
Skye wonders briefly where he'd found that out, but she only stays silent.
"How's she doing with Fitz?"
"You don't get to ask," she blurts out finally, whirling around to face him. He looks weird; different with a beard, and she hates it. She hates him.
He holds up his hands in the universal sign of surrender. "Sorry."
Skye lets go of a deep breath, and her eyes flicker automatically to the corner of the room where she knows the security camera stays hidden. She can almost imagine Koenig giving her an encouraging thumbs up.
"Tell me about my dad."
Ward raises an eyebrow at her sudden request, but he gets to his feet. "Now you want to know about him?"
"Tell me about him," Skye snaps sharply. "Or I'm out of here."
"Coulson needs you back in here to interrogate me," Ward responds, but he pauses obligingly to think. "I'll tell you about your father."
"Good." Skye resists the heavy urge to slump into a chair.
"But you have to tell me one thing."
"Ward.."
He holds up his hands for her to stop. "You never answered my question. Halloween. Is this your first?"
Skye freezes for a long time. Why does he want to know? How will he use it against her? Will it do her any harm? And again, why does he want to know? Eventually, she takes a deep breath and concedes. What harm can it do?
"Yes. Kind of. Me and this girl from my orphanage - Lily - we used to scavenge houses for sweets. People felt sorry for us, we used to get a lot. So yes, this is my first real Halloween. But I'm stuck in a secret agency, talking to a man who tried to kill my friends, decorating a jail cell with old t-shirts and Christmas decorations. So yeah, happy Halloween, Ward."
Ward smiles.
(She wants to throw something heavy at him, but storms from the room instead.)
...
As she's rifling through the Halloween costumes, she spots Bobbi and Hunter arguing (yet again) in the hallways. To her surprise, it's Bobbi who enters the room and joins her in a hunt for a costume.
"You're coming?" she asks in surprise.
Bobbi only shrugs. "Director Coulson ordered it, right? Besides," her gaze shifts to the figure of Hunter stomping away, "I could do with a drink."
Skye only nods in acceptance, tugging a set of black cat ears from the pile and trying them on with a shrug. "I think we all could, honestly. What are you going to dress up as?" It's then that she gets hit with the sense that she's transported back in time to an alternate universe, and now she's just a normal teenager preparing for a night out with her friends.
"I don't know," Bobbi admits noncommittally. She pulls a plastic crown from the pile with a grin. "I could go as a princess, but I don't quite think that fits my style, do you?"
"I'm sure you'd pull it off," Skye laughs. She decides then that she doesn't really mind Bobbi all too much. Bobbi smirks and gestures to the pile with a free hand.
"Have you picked out an outfit?"
"No," Skye shakes her head, "I feel like a kid going to prom."
"Yeah?" Morse raises an eyebrow. "Who's the lucky date?"
"He's currently the phsyco-killer locked up in our basement," Skye declares bitterly. "So I'm not sure how well that's gonna go."
To her surprise, Bobbi doesn't give her any sympathy like most people tend to do. Instead, the pretty woman gets to her feet and disappears for a second. Just when Skye's beginning to think that Morse has ditched her, the agent appears again with a pitcher of beer in one hand and two glasses in the other. She sets it down on the table and pours the beer, offering a glass to Skye.
"You know how I get over my problems?" She offers. "I drink on it. And then I suck it up and deal with it."
For a long pause, Skye simply stares at the liquid swirling in the glass. Then, she accepts it with a wide grin. "You know, I think I like you."
"To Halloween," Bobbi cheers, offering out her glass.
"To ghosts, ghouls and killer exes in the basement." she nods, moving her glass to bump it with Morse's.
Bobbi smiles.
...
She spies Mack and Fitz in the lab, cups of tea steaming by their sides and their heads bent over some new project that Skye could never hope to understand. While it warms her heart to see Fitz has made a friend in Mack (God knows he needed it), a part of her can't help but think that it should be Fitz and Simmons in the lab together, chattering away about.. science, or whatever. And of course she doesn't want Fitz to give up Mack, because there's no doubt he's a good friend, but Fitz doesn't need Mack anymore. Simmons is back.
But Skye knows it's not that simple, and so instead she finds herself feeling extremely grateful for Mack's presence and hovering around Simmons for moral support and friendship. Not to mention that tiny part of Skye is helping Simmons because she herself needs a friend as well.
At any rate, she drops by the lab with the last of the decorations and tries not to smile when she notices the pumpkin she had given Simmons pinned neatly underneath a mug of tea.
"Hey guys," she greets cheerfully. Maybe even too cheerfully. When Fitz had no one but himself.. she wasn't exactly there either. Some might say that she was simply getting over her own problems. But she knew that it wasn't that. She'd been neglecting him. But she was going to change that. Starting from now.
"Got your costumes sorted out?" She continues.
Mack offers her a grin and sets down his screwdriver. "Yeah. But mine's a secret."
Skye laughs in response, and switches her gaze to Fitz. "What about you? Got something hidden up your sleeve?"
Fitz shrugs, keeping his gaze firmly locked on his work. "I'm not going."
"Why not?" Believe it or not, she does want him to come. She knows he's grown more secluded, but missing out on one of the only fun nights?
He only shrugs again in response, and Skye shoots Mack a pleading look. Mack only shakes his head and picks up the screw driver again, clearly indicating that she's on her own. Eyes searching frantically for something to convince Fitz, her eyes eventually settle on the fabric jack-o-lantern.
"Where'd you get this?" she questions, moving forward and lifting the cup off to grab it.
That grabs his attention, and he shrugs, eyes flickering. "Simmons go- gift-" He pauses for a second. "She gave it to me."
Skye frowns. She was almost certain that Fitz had been improving more, and now he was reverting back to his stuttering. "That's nice," she smiles. "Are you glad to have her back?" She knows that she sounds patronising - she's almost definitely treating Fitz like a child - but she can't help it.
Fitz doesn't answer. Skye's smile wanes slightly, and she pretends not to notice that Mack is watching her carefully, like he's afraid she'll step out of line.
"You should come along," she insists.
"As what?"
"I don't know," Skye shrugs. "A zombie or something?"
Fitz still looks unsure, but Skye desperately wants him to come. She needs him to come, so that they can all be one big happy family again. Or at least as close to it as they ever could be. "Please, Fitz? It'll be just like old times."
He freezes as his eyes catch something over her shoulder, and she fights the urge to turn and look. Right now, getting Fitz to dress up for Halloween is more important. It takes a long moment, but he nods eventually.
"Yeah. I mean.. yeah."
Although she has no clue what could have made Fitz change his mind, Skye can't help but let a grin split her face, and she smiles broadly, placing the decorations on the table with an excited flourish. "There's some supplies in Coulson's office."
Then she turns and spies Simmons, hovering outside the door with an uncertain smile. Skye suddenly thinks she knows why Fitz agreed to the Halloween excursion, and her smile only grows wider.
"Let's go rob some people of their candy," she announces.
Mack smiles, and Fitz does the same.
...
"I still can't believe that you're letting us go out on our own," Skye says incredulously as she slings herself across Coulson's desk. He eyes her posture but doesn't say anything about it.
"We trust you, Skye," he says, and it warms her heart.
"He means he trusts Morse," May clarifies, entering the room with a glass in her hands. To Skye's surprise, she's not wearing her usual black cat-suit, instead opting for something a tad more casual. She can't help but raise her eyebrows, to which she receives an eye-roll from May in response.
"What are you two doing while we're gone?" Skye asks curiously.
"Work," Coulson answers simply. Her eyes suddenly flit to the bottle of wine on the desk and the lack of papers on his desk, and she can't help but grin broadly, allowing her eyes to light up in glee.
"I don't think you're working," she sing-songs.
"Don't make me ground you, Skye," Coulson says wryly, and suddenly she's laughing. Is this what it feels like to belong to a family? Because if so, she's been missing out on a lot.
"Got your costume sorted out?" May questions, sitting down on one of the worn leather seats in Coulson's office and looking strangely.. normal without her black spy-suit. Skye makes a mental note to snap a picture for blackmail at a later date.
"Nope," she declared bluntly. "No clue. Although.." Thinking of May's cat-suit suddenly gives her a bolt of inspiration, and she shoots a side glance to the senior agent. "Can I raid your wardrobe?"
She's expecting a look of surprise, or an frown of confusion, but May simply nods her consentment. "Sure."
"Um, okay.." May's coolness throws her off a little (why, she doesn't know. She should have expected it by now, after all), and she struggles for a moment to grasp the right words. "Thanks?"
"Just don't blow up anything while you're out," Coulson sighs, but she knows that it's clearly a joke.
"No promises," Skye jokes in retaliation. They sit in silence for a minute, but it's then she finally realises that she's properly home.
"I love you guys, you know," she blurts out without quite meaning to. "As a family. A great big dysfunctional family, because we've been through some much and gotten so little in return and sometimes.." she pauses here to shrug, "I just thought that I should say thank you. For everything. And maybe I'm really annoying and I might be an alien, FitzSimmons aren't the same, Ward is in jail and we've got some new editions to the family, but.. I don't know. Thanks, I guess."
There's no response for the longest time, and it's then that the embarrassment starts creeping in, and Skye considers running away and digging herself a hole to hide in.
But then they both smile, and Skye knows she's done good.
...
Skye leans back as she completes the finishing touches of Simmons' Halloween outfit. She's gone really simple, close fitting black clothes, a golden set of wire cat ears and the cherry on top - a dark, shadowy cat-face that Skye's spent all afternoon on.
Grinning at her work, she gropes for the mirror and eventually shows Simmons her reflection. The girl smiles suddenly, and she reaches over to hug Skye.
"Thank you."
"You better be thankful; I spent all afternoon on this thing," she pretends to grumble, but eventually the façade falls away and she hugs Simmons tightly. "I'm glad you're back."
"Me too," she nods.
Skye twists to study her own reflection in the mirror, and she's pretty proud of herself. She's decided to be the Black Widow, having raided May's wardrobe and found some tight-fitting catsuits worthing of Natasha herself, and she's tied her hair up to look shorter.
"You girls nearly done?" Skye twists to see a figure dressed in green and brown, with a hood over his head, a bow grasped in his hand and a quiver of arrows slung on his back. She offers him a surprised look.
"Wow, Hunter. Impressive. Who are you supposed to be again?"
"Robin Hood," Hunter grins, drawing his hood back slightly. "We raided a costume store earlier to find the perfect clothes."
"Oh my god," Skye rolls her eyes, but she offers him a smirk. "Let's go, Cat Woman and Robin Hood. We've got some crime to solve. And candy to steal."
"I don't know about the candy, but I'm up for a drink," Hunter calls as he follows Skye from the room.
"Let's hit the bar, then."
Hunter smiles.
...
Everyone meets in the middle of the street. They look an odd sight, but it's nothing compared to the other weird costumes roaming around the street. Everybody's gone pretty classic in Skye's opinion.
Mack is dressed as the Hulk, with tatter clothes and green skin. She wonders how long it took him to paint his skin. Fitz is Frankenstein, although he's opted from painting his skin green and instead rocks a bolt through his neck and various scars. Bobbi's dressed as a fierce Amazon warrior, with excellent poise and armour that Skye notices makes Hunter's head turn. Triplett is dressed as a magnificent general, clad in a white suit with an abundance of medals embroidered across his hat and jacket.
When he notices her studying his outfit, he grins at her.
"I think I enjoyed myself too much when I was being undercover as that general," he nods over to her, and Skye laughs, elbowing him in the arm. There's something about pretending to be the Black Widow that seems to give her an added fluidness to her movements.
"Alright. Where are we going to go?" Bobbi calls out, and there's plenty of shrugs to go around.
"I want to hit the bar," Hunter declares, which recieves eye rolls.
"We've got time to get drunk later," Mack says sensibly.
"We could do some trick or treating?" Simmons suggests, a tad quietly.
All eyes swivel to her, and there's some disbelieving looks. Skye suddenly feels sorry for her - everybody thinks that she abandoned Fitz.
"I haven't gone trick or treating in forever," Trip acknowledges, but not in an unfriendly way.
"Well then, you're out of practice," Skye grins suddenly, moving forward to link her arm around Simmons'. "C'mon. We're never too old for candy."
That raises smiles, and soon they've split up and are rapping on people's doors. Puppy eyes are particularly useful.
...
By the time they finish, it's late and they've got tons of candy. No body in particular feels like eating any of it, so Trip stores it away for Coulson and May, and they visit the bar.
They perch around a table and share drinks and old tales. At some point, Hunter loses his bow and they spend the next fifteen minutes searching for the prop only to find it under the table.
By ten o'clock, it's safe to say that most of them are quite drunk (or at least pleasantly buzzed).
"-and that's how that happened," Hunter hiccups, and he provokes a laugh from everyone. The next few moments consist of merciless teasing, and it's then that the group starts to split off a little bit more. Simmons and Bobbi start to chat by the bar, and Mack and Fitz the same, although still by the table. Trip and Hunter join in on Mack and Fitz's conversation with smooth comments, and she's glad to see them laughing and having fun as she slips off to the bathroom.
When she comes back, everyone's chatting together again, save for Fitz and Simmons. When she peers outside, she spies Fitz and Simmons sitting on a bench; both talking it out. Her heart warms, and glancing back to the others again, she's hit with another sense of family.
Like.. belonging. Skye's been moving around all her life, but now.. she's finally found a place to stay.
This time it's Skye who smiles.