Skyeward will be cannon...again anyway. Set after they have given her the GH-325 and Grant hasn't left her side. Maybe the first in a series of AOS one-shots. Enjoy

He watched the rise and fall of her chest, relaxing slightly knowing she was alive and fighting. Her clothes had been changed by a relieved Jemma and May, he had only agreed to step into the hallway and turn to face the other way, not willing to leave her with Garrett still on the BUS. He wondered how to tell Coulson that this was Garrett's fault, that he was HYDRA and had planned to shoot Skye. He could hear her voice in his head, cutting off the thoughts of it being his fault, she would remind him that she made the choice to go in by herself. Her next words would be to stop pushing their team away, that they needed his quiet strength and she needed him to take care of them until she could. Not that he had known Garrett had sent Quinn after her until after Quinn had been captured, the sight of the man sitting in the interrogation room, thoroughly beaten by May was the only reason he hadn't left to kill him. There would be time for that later, to make him suffer in the way Skye had, the sound of footsteps made him turn. They were too heavy to be Jemma's and May wouldn't have made a sound, his back tensed he knew those footsteps. It made the rage that was always just under the surface, boil and it took all his self control to slip on the mask of indifference.

"Grant." John entered the room like he owned it, his typical smugness was setting him on edge.

"John." He kept his tone civil, keeping the desire to shoot him out of his tone. John walked around the room a smug look on his face, he stepped in between Skye's sleeping body and John. He didn't miss the flash of barely concealed glee on John's face as he looked Skye over. It made his muscles tense, he couldn't trust John to not hurt his girl...the words caused him to pause in surprise, he hadn't intended to feel anything for her. When she had blown into his life, like the hurricane she was, he hadn't known she would find her way into his heart. But she had, now she was recovering from Garrett's orders to shoot her,

"You shouldn't be here, go on to bed son." Garrett ordered, attempting to move closer to Skye.

"I'm not leaving her, good night John." His voice was steel, a part of him wondered when everything had become about Skye, when he became willing to do anything for her. Garrett was no longer playing the good guy, he stepped closer to him and for once he didn't back down. He had failed to protect Skye from Quinn shooting her, he wouldn't let John hurt her again, he stood his ground.

"I won't tell you again,Ward. Stand Down. You should be thrilled, my plan worked and now we can save my life like we always planned."

"You didn't need to hurt her, Coulson would have done everything he could to help you. Why didn't you just ask him?"

"I already told you, I did what it was that I had to do. Fury saved Phil but left me to fight my way out."

"So you shot Skye, to prove your point?"

"I always knew this girl was trouble, you changed for her, I hope she's not becoming a problem. Otherwise I will send Mike to finish the job."

"You will NOT hurt her," He snapped then, he pushed Garrett back almost out of the medical pod, before the other man could react. The self-preserving side of him told him that he had made a mistake.

"You seem to forget that you owe me, I made you Grant, and I can end you and the girl. Phil led me to the serum, now I can cross off the girl." He saw red, pulling his gun he aimed for the other man's chest.

Unknown to either of the men, May was listening in, ever since she had seen Skye almost die she had turned on the coms so she could hear her monitors. She knew Grant had barely left her side since they had saved her, so hearing him talking to Skye wasn't unusual. However Garrett had no reason to be down there, she could hear the tension in Grant's voice but the words spoken made her see red, she shifted the plane into autopilot. She needed to get Coulson and handle this threat they had brought onto their plane, she would not let Skye be hurt again. She opened the door to his office,

"May?" He was confused, and she shook her head.

"We have a traitor on our BUS." He was up his gun drawn,

"Where?"

"In Skye's pod. We need to move now."

"Let's go." She moved faster than she had in years, the sound of two gunshots, making her blood run cold. Phil paled next to her, they came around the corner to a sight that both relieved and worried them. Grant had shot Garrett, his gun was still drawn and Garrett was dying at their feet.

"He wanted to hurt Skye." Grant informed them, May nodded confirming his story. She looked at Garret with disdain, he had been the one to order Quinn to shoot Skye.

"It doesn't matter, I still won."

"You will die John, I told you to stay away from my girl."

"I always knew you were weak, letting a pair of brown eyes make you forget who you owe your life to." Garrett's snarled, his breathing laboured.

"I owe you nothing." Grant told him, "You brought me into another Hell, Skye saved me, I only owe my loyalty to her." She couldn't hide her surprise, so he did return Skye's feelings for him, good. Garrett's laugh reminded her of the problem at hand,

"Two shots to the stomach, poetic Grant." Coulson said, his voice approving.

"He won't be leaving here alive, sir." Grant's finger moved over the trigger, there wasn't a trace of emotion directed at his former SO.

"He needs to face a SHIELD committee board." Coulson told them.

"No, we handle this ourselves." She replied, Grant shot Garrett between the eyes. At last he lowered the gun, handing it to her without being asked.

"I have to tell you something, you won't like it and I want you to know my loyalty is with this team...I also want to Thank both of you for bringing me onto this team." Grant resumed his vigil at Skye's side, taking her hand into both of his.

"Whatever you have to tell us doesn't matter. You have proven your loyalty to our team." Coulson told him, waving off the strange speech Grant was giving.

"I think you will want to hear this, HYDRA is part of SHIELD. Garrett is not the highest it goes, Sitwell and Pierce are also dirty."

"HYDRA was taken out almost 80 years ago, how is this possible?"

"The real question is how do you know that?" She asked, ignoring the feeling she had in her stomach.

"Garrett was my SO, he convinced me that HYDRA was what we needed to be. I was a messed up kid, he saved me from Juvie and prison time, I figured I owed him. Until you brought Skye back to join us, for the first time my loyalties wavered, I wanted out right away."

"Alright we can discuss this in the morning. Stay with our girl tonight?" She acted as if it was a question, but she knew it would take all of them to pull Grant from Skye's side. She and Phil removed Garrett's body to the locked storage closet down the hall. They walked back upstairs and went into his office.

"He killed to protect her." Phil said his voice both approving and wondering. She sat on the edge of his desk,

"He loves her, would die for her, and she would do the same."

"Protocol..." He said the word like it was vinegar,

"I thought you hated that bull, let them be Phil." She smiled at him, "Besides we break protocol all the time."

"You make it worth while, Mel." He responded, her hand intertwining with his, she offered him a glimpse of her past self. They settled on the couch in his office, simply holding each other. She could hear his heart beating and knew Grant would be listening to the sound of Skye's just as she was listening to Phil's.

I have this annoying need to write these lately, anyway enjoy the Skyeward, Philinda, and Fitzsimmons. Plus I couldn't resist giving Grant the chance to end Garrett for real this time.