Renewal of the Soul

Spoilers: Season 2 Promo, my previous fic The Pain of Loss (its a follow up)

Disclaimer: Rickett maybe...

Skye groaned as she sat herself on one of the Infirmary beds, her leg felt like it was on fire but despite the bullet wound it could have been worse. If she hadn't kicked her leg up at the gun, the bullet would have struck her head instead. Sighing she watched as May walked over to sign her name onto the roster before joining her in the small cubical to wait.

"You're lucky to be alive." Her new SO was worse at stating the obvious than her previous SO. Ward had a tendency to lecture her before making her do a dozen pull-ups for disobeying orders while May tended to always go on and on even months later.

The former rookie, now full agent, groaned and rolled her eyes. "I screwed up and I got shot. I know I'll be hearing about this for the next few years so can we not talk right now?"

There was silence before a figure stood in the doorway and they both looked up to see Grant Ward. He looked between them before looking down, the tablet in his hand held against his leg. "I'll find another tech."

He started to go but Skye groaned, "get your ass back here and fix my leg before I do it myself. I don't have time for you to go find someone, argue and then shove them in here while I have six programs to write and a post-report to do."

Part of the work release program was working in non-restricted and non-hazardous areas where eyes could be kept on the prisoners. Coulson thought it might help give the prisoners something to do instead of sitting on their butts all day and while some chose to ignore people by working in stock rooms or cleaning floors, a few chose to interact with others by helping in the Infirmary or kitchens.

Ward had been given a chance to take part in the program after a year of giving up everything he knew of HYDRA. The man had expected death when Coulson had basically entered his cell, thrown two books on the table and told him to choose his work release program. Out of the cook book and the former SHIELD's medic training manual, the former specialist chose to work in the Infirmary. After six months and saving three agents singlehandedly during two crisis situations, he'd earned the right to move around without a constant guard and without a tracking bracelet. Of the five prisoners who started in the Infirmary, only Ward remained after a year and was only one of three prisoners not to end up back in solitary confinement.

Skye constantly found herself in the Infirmary with injuries ranging from gunshots to scatches and she always seemed to find her way into Grant Ward's care. When you looked at the duty roster and patient assignment, it seemed random but it even had Coulson suspicious so he put down his foot about harming the man if he so much as went near Skye again. So the three previous times she'd been in the Infirmary and Ward had been assigned to her case, he'd gone to find another tech immediately.

"I'll find you another tech." He started to leave till May's voice made him pause.

"What Coulson doesn't know can't hurt him, he's away for a week right now." May walked out to the former specialist and he turned to look at her. "Treat her before I have an irritable agent on my hands. I'm sure you remember how that is."

He couldn't stop the slight smirk at the memories of Skye and her irritability. "Like yesterday."

"Good then you understand. Treat her while I go track down Simmons, the woman gave me an unfilled med kit."

She disappeared as Ward made his way over to Skye, sitting down on the stool in front of her leg. Skye sighed, "so am I going to lose it?"

Pulling gloves onto his hands he gave a slight shake of the head. "What did you do?" Grabbing scissors he cut her pants, being gentle as he could due to the blood that had the material stuck to skin.

"Oh well this pompous ass of a HYDRA agent took one look at me and thought I wasn't worth a fight so he tried to shoot me. At the same time I went to kick the gun out of his hand he fired, it would have hit my head if I hadn't." She noticed his hand stopped moving the scissors and the hand on her ankle squeezed it slightly. It was momentary before he went back to his task. "After he shot me he laughed and despite my leg I kicked him in the face and then hauled his ass back to transport for imprisonment."

"Where?" He didn't look up as he grabbed a kit from a drawer labelled 'Projectile Wounds'. Simmons had the great idea to package kits for all type of wounds and so it was as simple as pulling a kit from a drawer and getting to work.

"Russia," Skye shrugged, "like Coulson would risk putting someone who harmed me in the same location as you. We all remember the little 'accident' that befell Rickett after he shot me." She used quotation marks with her fingers.

Ward was silent as he went about cleaning her leg, it was a flesh wound so it just required cleaning the wound and stitches. He thought about the so-called 'accident' with the HYDRA agent a year before. It had been a week before he'd been given work release when the man had been the one to put a bullet in Skye's side. She'd been fine, released from the Infirmary after a day but the man had the gall to boast about it. The others had warned him not to talk about the agent around Ward but he'd continued on, telling them all about how Skye was just an alien whore who would give herself to any organization so not to have to return to her own planet.

The so-called 'accident' had been cornering the man in the bathroom, punching his face in a few times and making it clear never to even think about the agent again. When asked about what happened, Rickett had just stated he slipped in the shower despite being pressured about telling the truth. The only link to what really happened had been Ward's knuckles the next day, red and clearly having been used in a fight. From that moment on any person Skye captured on a mission was forwarded to their Russian base for detainment.

"So this new rookie agent came on about a week ago." Skye started a conversation since she knew he didn't want to talk about her being injured or anything related to it again. "I'm giving her some pointers until she gets an SO, any tips from one SO to another?"

That got a smile to his face and he spoke as he started preparing the local anesthetic for her leg. "They'll drive you mad but the first rule is," he looked up as he held the syringe up to show her he was going to inject her. "No matter how much you want to kick their asses, you can't lay a finger on them."

"Damn, she's already annoying me. I was kind of hoping for the whole 'torture without torture' technique talk." Sighing she smiled at him, "so how is therapy, I know that last time I saw you Keller had you talking about your childhood?"

"Currently working on the woods." He started the stitches but moved his hand to grip Skye's as it itched close to the wound sight. "Don't, I know it feels uncomfortable but I need you to not touch it." He took her hand and placed it on his arm, "squeeze if it gets too uncomfortable."

Skye gave a short nod before letting him continue, "how come it's not numb yet?"

"It takes a little while, especially with your biology."

"Right," her hand dropped from his arm and she sighed as she turned to look out at the rest of the Infirmary. She ignored the uncomfortable feeling on the stitches and Ward entirely, knowing like everyone else he saw her as different.

Everyone approached her differently since finding out she wasn't human, even May and Coulson. No one said anything negative but Skye knew it was there, the division of who and what she was. Agents made snide remarks when they didn't think she was looking or listening but she heard them. Some even assumed that she was planted by HYDRA from birth, like most she ignored the most.

"It wasn't because he shot you." Ward's comment brought her back and she looked down to see him bandaging her leg. "Why I did what I did to Rickett, it wasn't because he shot you. It was because of what he said about you."

"What did he say?"

Ward pressed the tape down and moved the stool back, pulling the gloves from his hands. "He referred to your biological status in some terms I won't repeat. He also implied you do whatever you needed to and for whoever you could so you didn't have to go back to your own planet." Sighing he met her eyes, "this is your planet Skye and your home, just because your biology isn't like mine or everyone else's doesn't make you any less human. Your heart is more human than any of us could be." Standing he shrugged, "that's why I did what I did. You aren't alien, you're just a little more biologically advanced. You think, act and live like every single one of us so as far as I'm concerned, you're human."

The smile she still reserved from him two years later found its way to her face. "You didn't swing and miss this time."

"Hopefully I won't have an attempt at failing again. You need to stop getting injured."

"Part of the job." She shrugged and smiled, "besides, I'd be putting all of May's efforts to waste if I don't get injured every once and a while."

Ward nodded, "I'll have to talk to her about that. I was your SO for close to a year and you only got shot once."

Standing up from the bed she glanced up into his eyes, "well maybe she's not that good of an SO." Leaning up she kissed his cheek like she always did. "Thanks again. You always were good with your hands."

With a smirk she practically limped out of the room, Ward taking a minute to calm himself after her comment. Only Skye could make an innocent comment sound so intimate. May returned as if on cue and looked at Skye's leg before her rookie.

"You're on restrictions for a week then you start training again." May turned to look at Ward, "anything she particularly hates because she hasn't voiced anything under me at least."

Skye's eyes went wide because she knew he'd tell May she hated pull-ups and then she'd be doing them till she died. "All I ever heard her express hatred for was pushups."

"You'll start with a hundred every morning along with other training." May stated before walking away.

Looking to see if her SO was gone, Skye hurried over to Ward and kissed his cheek again. "You're amazing."

"I can only imagine what it's like training under her so I'm not going to let her torture you further." He pushed a piece of her bangs back, "SOs are protective of their rookies when it comes to other SOs training them."

She couldn't help but smile, "well this rookie will always stay loyal to her SO, her real SO. May is just taking over for you because you're unavailable. Now if you wanted to use your rec time for sparring instead of just punching a bag." Skye backed away as she spoke, "you know where to find me in the gym."

"Coulson won't go for that."

"Who do you think arranges the rotation for you to always receive me?" Skye smirked, "May's a sucker for a Romeo and Juliet story. Besides, Coulson knows if he makes her mad he ends up on the common room couch, he's not risking it."

With a smile she was gone and Ward's tablet beeped, signally the next patient he had to visit.

A/N: I had to right a follow up to The Pain of Loss, it was just so depressing and I had a good day today versus the bad day I had when I wrote it. So do you think Ward's making a turn in the right direction?

Please read and review...