I own nothing.

This is because I can't get over May's face after Skye shoots herself with the ICER. This has been banging around my head for a few days now. I've got a few chapters and I'll update as I go.

Thanks!

I turned my back to asses the oncoming threat, putting myself between her and anyone who might try to take her from me. Once the barrier came down It only took a second for her to decide to protect everyone else instead. I feel my weapon leave its place on my leg and I whirl around. Before I can even register what is going on she shoots herself and collapses to the bed. The shaking stops and I'm sure her heart does too.

"Skye?"

Her name slips out of my mouth with such sadness that I don't even recognize my own voice. I'm heartbroken.

Moving forward in an instant I recognize the blue tinge of her skin and that weapon itself is not my pistol.

By the time I'm dropping on to the bed I know it was just an ICER but it doesn't stop my fingers from seeking out a pulse in her neck. I know I can reach for the bio-meter on her wrist but I need to feel the life still in her. I need the reassurance she's still here. I find it beneath my fingers, thready, uneven and quick, too quick, but there. Certainly not the 61 BPM I've come to expect and I idly wonder if this just another side effect of the updated dendrotoxin.

It takes me half second to compose my racing thoughts and I begin to stroke her head protectively, I don't even understand what's being said behind me and I don't care, I will not let this girl go, I will not let anything happen to this girl. I cannot lose her.

I listen to Coulson as he convinces our visiting Asgardian that keeping the girl with us is the best course of action. Somewhere in the pit of my stomach I don't know if he believes that entirely, I don't know if I do either, but I'm willing to take that chance, he is too. We can do this, we have to do this.

One more check of the unconscious girl's pulse and I find it's evened out, still racing, but at this point she's resting as comfortably as she can be, and I'm still not ready to leave her side.

"You'll look after her?" Coulson asks, startling me out of reverie. He knows he doesn't need to ask, and I know I don't need to answer but a silent nod is exchanged and I know it conveys everything I need it too.

He and our visitor head back upstairs and I adjust myself so I'm cradling her head in my lap. She's going to have one hell of a headache after this, especially with the recent upgrades to the ICERS. All I can do at this point is hold her, stroke her head and be there for her when she wakes up.