Crash.
Jemma and Skye tentatively looked up from their activities, not so much surprised by the sudden noise but waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It came in the form of Grant Ward storming into the common area in the anger filled manner he had been stomping around in in the weeks following his encounter with the Beserker staff.
"Who touched my guns?" the anger in Ward's voice made both women flinch.
Skye's not quite concealed grimace gave her away.
"I'm sorry Ward, I was just practicing."
"Unless I give you permission don't you ever touch my stuff again."
"Do you understand?" the biting tone left little room for any defense.
"Absolutely Ward" Even Skye's tendency to make sarcastic comments had been dulled in the face of Ward's increasingly volatile anger.
Waiting until they were both sure Ward was far enough away to not hear them talking Skye turned back to Jemma. "OMG. He needs to chill. I don't know how much more of this I can take."
"If he's not angry over what I don't do then he's angry over what I do or how I did it, what I wear, if my shoe comes untied during training, etc. He's driving me crazy."
"Now Skye, do try and remember that he is suffering the effects of a powerful alien staff that causes emotional upheaval."
"Oh I've tried to understand, we all have but it doesn't end and it's already old. Have you come up with anything sciency that might help?"
Jemma couldn't help but wince thinking of all of the different things they had tried with little to no improvement on Ward's mood.
Meditation, tea, relaxation, soothing sounds, reading (peaceful books of course), guided imagery, aromatherapy, yoga, warm showers, massages, sleeping in, going to bed early, mild doses of mood stabilizers, alone time, comedy shows or movies, food, all to no avail. Most of them actually triggering his rage in some way or another.
Jemma was at a loss as to what to do but she couldn't admit defeat not only as a point of pride but mostly because she didn't want her friends to keep suffering either from Ward's rage, directly as in his case, or indirectly as everyone else had.
With only one possible idea left Jemma didn't want to even consider in a serious manner until there was no other option she researched and theorized and hypothesized from dusk until dawn looking for other options of try.
"We are out of time Simmons." Coulson looked across his desk at the young scientist.
"Ward could have seriously hurt someone today, and I'm not saying that they may not have deserved it but his rage is getting to the point I'm not sure he would be able to tell enemy from ally when in one of his fits."
"I understand sir. I am working on something just give me a few more days." Jemma couldn't keep the pleading tone from her voice as she begged for more time.
She wasn't ready to give up on her friend.
"I've already told May to find a friendly country to land us to give us some time to deal with this."
"Thank you sir"
"Fix him Simmons."
Jemma stood outside of Ward's bunk that night afraid not only to knock and make him angry but to tell him her latest idea to help him. Ward had been rather receptive of the first few ideas but as time went on he became less accepting and quicker to anger.
The door swooshed open before she could even give herself a pep talk to knock.
"What do you want now Simmons?" Jemma refused to allow the fed up tone deter her.
"I have another idea that may be able to help you Agent Ward."
"What's it going to be this time? Hop on one foot while patting my head and rubbing my stomach. Excuse me if I don't want to waste anymore time on these stupid ideas." Ward's eye roll gave Jemma the courage she needed for what happened next.
Jemma pushed Ward back into his bunk and pushed the sensor for the door before pushing him again so that he was sitting on the bed.
The rage inside of Ward grew but the control he had allowed him to let her push him around without immediately exploding.
"Look Simmons I don-" The rest of Ward's sentence was cut off by Jemma straddling him and pressing her lips to his.
The brief second it took his mind to change gears from anger fueled rant to being kissed allowed Simmons to wrap herself around him in an entirely appealing if slightly awkward way.
Jemma broke away. "Studies show that sexual gratification releases endorphins and endorphins in their simplest break down make people happy. Something that you are obviously not. So I thought that I could casually drop hints that if you were to sexually satisfy yourself but we all know I don't do subtle or cas-"
Ward cut off the rest of Jemma's ramble with his lips. Before she could blink he had her underneath him on the bunk. He abruptly pulled away breathing heavily.
"Simmons - Jemma, be sure you want this because if we don't stop now I don't know if I'll be able to."
Jemma reached up and grabbed Ward's shirt and pulled it up over his head.
The rest of the next few hours were lost in touches, sighs, bites, groans, grunts, roving hands, burning desire, possibly some barely concealed screams and more contraceptive packages than Jemma thought was scientifically possible.
"Well Agent Ward how do you feel now? Any feelings of rage?" Jemma's out of breath question seemed to remind the both of them who they were and why they were doing what they were doing.
Grant looked over at Jemma with a gleam in his eye, "I do feel a bit of rage building up. Best snuff it out before it gets too bad." With that he pulled Simmons on top of him and reached again for the nightstand.
Jemma slowly slipped from Ward's room and slowly made her way to the showers feeling muscles she had hardly ever, if at all, used protesting. She glanced back at Ward's room and reminded herself that she was doing this to help out a friend and that she shouldn't be hurt by the way as soon as Ward was 'feeling better' he had gotten dressed and left the bunk.
She told her self this as she got undressed and looked at the obvious evidence of what they had just done in the form of bites, scratches, bruises, and the just loved look her hair had. She stepped into the shower and felt the tension of her muscles ease as her heart grew heavier and the willpower she had to keep from crying lost and tears slipped from her eyes.