Five Times Ward Brings Skye Flowers
The first time Ward brings her flowers is when she's lying in the bed of a SHIELD medical facility having been transferred there after waking up for further tests and observation, bored out of her mind and wishing she could get back to the Bus. She has her laptop, of course – Coulson relented after the third day and allowed Simmons to sneak it in for her – but there's no Wi-Fi signal in her room and when she asks about it, the nurses give her some load of rubbish spiel about the Wi-Fi interfering with the machines around her.
She's flicking aimlessly through the channels of the television mounted to the wall on the far side of the room when the door opens. Having not expected any of her teammates to visit for a few hours yet, Skye glances fleetingly at the door only to do a double take when she sees Ward standing there, looking sheepish, a bouquet of multi-coloured tulips in one hand and a bag in the other.
"Hey, SO." Quickly shutting off the TV, Skye gives him her full attention and the brightest smile she can muster. "Please tell me you've come to break me out early?"
"Not a chance, Skye." His expression is stern, even if his cheeks look a little flushed. "You're staying till the doctors say you're fit to leave and not a second before."
She pouts but it's (mostly) for show; she can put up with the hospital stay if it means one-on-one time with some of her favourite people.
She watches him, unable to move from her bed to help, as he replaces the flowers someone else – Coulson, she thinks – brought for her a few days before with the tulips.
"They're pretty," she tells him, delighted when the flush in his cheeks darkens and he can only shrug and avoid her gaze. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He doesn't look up at her from the bag he's currently emptying – DVDs she recognises as hers, books she recognises as his – but she thinks she can see the corners of his mouth quirk up just so. "So Simmons said you were bored. She thought you might want something to distract you."
"She did, did she?" Skye bites the inside of her mouth to keep back another smile; Jemma's advice is that she rest and relax, she knows, and the biochemist probably wouldn't approve of Skye potentially being overstimulated by books and DVDs but Ward doesn't have to know she knows that. "You'll have to thank her for me. I'm going stir-crazy in here."
"I will," Ward promises, but Skye knows the only person he needs to thank for the thoughtful gesture is himself.
The second time Ward brings her flowers she doesn't know for sure they're from him. Not until she drives everyone else on the Bus crazy with her attempts at subtle questioning and Jemma points out patiently that the one person she hasn't asked is therefore the only person who hasn't denied it.
The flowers, an assortment of varieties and an assortment of colours, sit in a pretty little vase next to her Hula doll when she finally gets released from the hospital and is allowed back to the Bus.
She doesn't ask Ward outright; she knows he'd be too embarrassed to admit to it. But when she wakes up one morning and impulsively tucks one of the blossoming flowers behind her ear before joining the others for breakfast, she sees him smile and thinks maybe that's enough.
The third time Ward brings her flowers, they're undercover. It's not really Ward and it's not really Skye but when James arrives for his date with Nina in full view of the entire coffee shop they're meeting in – the same coffee shop frequented by one of Centipede's suspected backers – he's armed with eleven pink roses.
It's a sweet gesture she hadn't been expecting – it certainly hadn't been part of their briefing earlier that day – but Skye – no, Nina – accepts them with a genuine smile, the blush in her cheeks almost matching the darker pink in the roses petals.
The roses doesn't survive the ensuing chase when their suspect flees, not from them but from someone he'd wronged before getting involved with the Centipede project, yet when Skye returns to her bunk after what feels like a never ending day, there's a single pink rose lying on her pillow.
The fourth time Ward brings her flowers, they're the hand-picked variety – and ones she recognises as growing naturally not too far from where the Bus has been parked. She sits in the back seat of the team's SUV, legs curled up against her chest as tears roll silently down her cheeks.
The secret's out; everyone knows she's a 0-8-4.
Coulson and May are discussing the situation with Fury, trying to fight her cause and defend their decision to keep it secret from SHIELD. FitzSimmons are in shock, which she totally understands, but the slight wariness she caught in their eyes when they gave her their reassurances that nothing was going to change stung.
No, it more than stung. It hurt.
Ward is the only one she hasn't seen since the secret was revealed and she doesn't know why it surprises her that he's the one who finds her when she decides to hide and cry it all out. She was expecting Coulson, to be honest, or maybe May, since they've been a little closer since her near-miss with death at Ian Quinn's hands, but it's Ward who slips in beside her without a word, closing the door behind him with a definite click.
He hands her the flowers a little awkwardly and tells her solemnly that it's going to be okay. He's had time to think it through, he tells her, when he went for a walk around the perimeter. He tells her that it was seeing the flowers that made him realise that he needed to find her; they're bright and colourful and seem to exude warmth and that's what she does, that's what she represents to him.
He tells her he'll keep her safe no matter what – even if that means the two of them run away, disappear. He'll keep her safe even if means turning his back on SHIELD because he can't imagine his life without her in it anymore.
He tells her he loves her, and because she knows he means it, it makes her cry all the more.
(The flowers are kind of crushed between them but she manages to salvage enough of them that she can press them in between the pages of one of the books he gave her in the hospital that she still hasn't given back, joining the tulip and the daisy and the pink rose that she's already collected.)
The fifth time Ward brings her flowers also marks the first time she's seen him in six months.
And her graduation from the SHIELD Academy. (Well, two Academies – she spent three months in Computer Sciences before transferring to Operations when it became clear she already knew more than they could teach her about computers – she's a tech based 0-8-4, after all.)
She doesn't know how he did it, but AC managed to persuade Fury to keep her origins a secret. Her 0-8-4 nature is once again redacted, all traces of it erased with only a select few knowing the truth. In exchange for keeping her safe, Fury asked – well, technically ordered – her to attend the Academy for an intensive course so she could qualify for Agent status.
It's been a gruelling six months, and the longest she's ever known, but it's finally over, she's finally an Agent and she's finally – finally! – being reunited with those she loves.
It's her first graduation of any kind, having dropped out of High School and disappeared off the grid as soon as she was able, but Skye stands proudly beside her fellow new recruits. Her smile grows when she spots her teammates in the meagre audience of instructors and already graduated Agents that have gathered to watch. (SHIELD Academy graduations aren't like those she's seen on TV; it's not like family members can be invited to watch their loved ones be inducted into an agency they're not supposed to know about, after all.)
She smiles when she's supposed to, shakes hands and collects her ID and then the moment's over and she's free to run towards the small group of people watching her.
It's probably inappropriate and flaunting some kind of procedure and regulation but Ward catches her as she runs towards him, holds her against his chest for a moment and murmurs into her hair how proud he is – and how glad he is their six month separation is over. It's nothing overt (they'll save the passionate embraces for later, when it's just the two of them) but she catches a glimpse of Agent Victoria Hand rolling her eyes a short distance away and finds she can only grin in response.
When Ward lets her go – reluctantly, it has to be said – she's immediately pounced on by FitzSimmons. The two scientists talk at her without pausing to take a breath but she laughs along with them and hugs them back just as tightly; whatever fears she might have had about them turning their backs on her were allayed when they joined AC in fighting against Fury to keep her on their team.
It's AC next, who grins at her like a proud father and allows her to hug him – and hugs her back – despite the audience they've kind of captured. It's not every day the once-though dead Agent Coulson returns to the public eye – especially not at a graduation ceremony – and she knows her former classmates are wondering about them, wondering about her, but she can't bring herself to care as her boss and father figure tells her she's done him proud as he'd known she would.
May is next, and there's another embrace. This one surprises Agent Hand but neither woman pays her attention (or maybe May does, smirking over Skye's shoulder, but it's not until later that Ward fills Skye in on that little detail.) They've become closer, though they're not about to start having sleepovers and movie nights like Skye does with Jemma and Fitz. May murmurs a quiet 'knew you could do it' and steps away, allowing Ward to retake his position at Skye's side.
The flowers are given to her later, when they're in the hotel AC has decided to book the team into on account of the Bus undergoing necessary maintenance they all know isn't necessary at all. They have a nice team dinner and then Ward whisks her away as the others exchange knowing smirks and grins, and there's a beautiful bouquet of colourful tulips and sunflowers waiting for her in their room.
They're bright and cheerful and brings thoughts of spring and new beginnings to mind, and as Ward calls her by her new moniker ("you're not my rookie anymore, Skye, you're my partner") as his lips brush hers, Skye thinks that's exactly what they're meant to symbolise: a new beginning she can't wait to start.
End