Hey everyone! Here's Chapter 2! I hope you all Enjoy and Please Review!:)
Ward squeezed his eyes shut against the pain radiating through his body. However, his back was screaming at him to get off of it, so with a groan, he rolled over. Burying his head in his hands, he tried to make some sense of what was going on. He wasn't sure what had happened. All he remembers was walking back to the car...and...Skye...she was yelling at him. The rest he can't recall. Where was she? Was she hurt too?
"S...Skye?" he weakly called, but got no answer. He begins to worry, so he pushes himself onto his knees.
Then he heard the shots.
His heart rate shot up.
"Skye?" He called out again, still no answer.
Adrenaline coursed through his veins, and he grabbed his gun holstered to his side and pulled it out. He grabbed hold of the nearest tree and used that as leverage to bring himself up to a standing position. He refused to give in to his body's desire to fall over because he couldn't allow that, not when he had to find Skye.
He saw the burning wreck of the car and he limped his way towards it. He scanned the area with his weapon held out in front of him. He spotted a figure limp off into the woods ahead of him and he called out for them to stop before he fired off a round, but missed him by a mile.
That's when his eyes fell on the body laying on the ground before him. One look at the brown hair, his pain disappeared into a panic.
"Skye!" He scrambled to get to her and crashes to his knees at her side. She was bleeding, and he fumbled with her tank top to get a better look at the gunshot wound that was in her side.
"God! Dammit!" He cursed, thinking he may be too late. But when he placed his fingers to her neck, he breathed a sigh of relief. Pain erupted from his back as he tore off his buttoned shirt, leaving him with only his half burned t-shirt. Balling up the shirt, he pressed it into the wound to staunch the bleeding.
"Skye?" He swept her hair out of her face and patted her cheek. "Skye..." She moaned and turned her head. "That's it Rookie. Time to wake up."
Her eyes open and look up at him.
"There you go..." He encouraged her.
"Mmmmm..." She grumbled, her eyes closing again.
"No! Hey, Skye...Stay with me."
She opened her eyes again and looked right into Ward's.
"Grant?" She asked with concern "You alright?"
"I'm fine." He told her sarcastically. "But you on the other hand..."
Skye put her hand over his and lifted it up and off of her side. "Oh. My. God!" She freaks, as she tries to come to terms with the fact that, she's been shot.
"Skye look at me!" He grabs her chins and looks into her tear filled eyes. "I know it hurts, but I promise you, you will survive...Okay!"
She nods.
He gently took her hand and pressed it back down on the wound, which caused her to hiss at the sharp pain.
"Sorry..." he apologized.
"Where is Philips? Where did he go?" She asked.
"I think he ran into the woods. He looked hurt, but I couldn't really tell."
"He better be hurt. I shot him." Skye says with pride.
"Nice job! Now, we need your phone."
"My phone...well...it's in my vest pocket, and...I kinda use it to put you out."
"Put me out?"
"You were on fire."
"That explains the back pain then. Here..." he puts her hand on his wad up shirt. "Hold this and I'll get the phone."
He slowly walked towards the car where he saw her vest. He pick it up, and noticed the melted leather. He reached into the pocket and pulled out the phone. One look at the melted plastic and he knew it was toast...literally.
"Perfect." He groaned, running a hand through his hair in frustration and let the phone fall to the ground.
He made his way back to Skye and flopped to the ground next to her.
"How are you doing?" He asked her.
"It just hurts a little." She attempted to sit once again, a moan escaping her lips. "Okay, maybe it hurts a lot." She gave him a weak smile as she managed to come to a full sitting position. Now she just has to battle against a wave of nausea and dizziness.
"We need to get out of here. We are not safe."
"Yeah, we should..." Skye agrees, then continues with a snap of her fingers, "Oh wait...that's right. Our car is on FIRE! We have no phones and that guy's trailer has a bomb waiting to go KA-BOOM! So...how do you suggest we get out of here?"
Ward closed his eyes not just in pain, but in frustration. He felt anger and knew he was hurting just as much as she was.
"How about his truck? I could hot wire it."
"You know how to hot wire?" Skye asked. "What am I saying, of course you do. You're Mr. Secret Agent."
"What? You don't?"
"No...I'm not really into stealing cars. Besides, if he rigged his own trailer to explode, who knows what's waiting inside that truck of his."
"Good point."
They sit in silence as a cold wind whipped up and stirred the leaves around them. Skye shivered and Ward took notice, wrapping his arm around shoulders. Their eyes met.
"How about we take cover in the woods, wait for Coulson and the others to come." He suggested.
"I suppose that is a good a plan. That's if the others come."
"This is Coulson we're talking about. And I'm sure FitzSimmons will find us." Ward carefully wrapped his arms around Skye and helped her to her feet. Slowly they walked towards the trees.
At last they made it to the cover of the woods, but where they could still see the clearing where the trailer sat. Ward nearly dropped Skye as they came to a stop. She fell to her knees, her stomach revolting.
"Skye?" Once Ward was on the ground, he saw her scramble away from him and was sick behind a tree. Ward could only watch as she struggled to make it back to him after she was finished.
When she came back, he was worried by the unfocused appearance in her eyes had taken on as she leaned up against the tree next to him.
"Let me see it?" Ward orders.
"I am fine." She tries assure him, but she could see that he wasn't buying it.
Without her permission, Ward lifted her shirt again and pressed the now bloody shirt back against the wound. It was still bleeding, but not as badly anymore.
With the sun continuing to set, the wind picking up and it was getting quite a bit colder, especially in the shade of the trees. He knew somewhere in his fuzzy brain that shock was going to be a problem if they couldn't stay warm.
Both of them shivered and shook as another gust of wind blew through their thin and tattered clothes.
"How long do you think Coulson will be?" Skye asked as she took over covering her bloody side with Ward's shirt. She asked more as a way of keeping he and herself distracted from their injuries and the cold than for an actual answer, but he obliged her with one anyway.
"He'll be here in time..." Ward stated softly, but with confidence while taking up a seat against the tree with Skye, their shoulders touching.
With Skye starting to shiver, Ward carefully slid her over so she could sit between his legs with her back to his chest. Skye stirred at the feel of having her back pressed against him.
Ward put his arms around her.
"N-Now...H...Here's something I...thought I would n..never experience." She joked, her teeth chattering.
"It will keep us both warm and I will still be able to keep watch." he explained, resting his gun in her lap.
She couldn't help but feel a little safer in his arms and a warm feeling rose up in her, but it was more than just a physical heat she felt. Still cold, but no longer freezing, they snuggled a little closer to conserve what little body heat they had to share. Skye felt Ward's chin rest on her shoulder as he spoke.
"This is...fun..." he began with a weak snort.
"I find nothing...about this fun." She let him know.
"No, I mean...I could get used to this." He told her softly, his hot breath near her ear. He squeezed her. "It would almost be nice if we weren't freezing, bleeding, and wondering where our suspect is."
"Yeah...it would be" Skye had to admit with a sigh. She secretly wondered what it would be like for him to hold her like this at a time and place where it wasn't necessary for their survival. But merely for the pleasure of having each other close.
When he didn't say anything else after that, she realized he had fallen asleep, his soft breaths warming her shoulder.
She rolled her eyes. "Really?"
Throughout the night, Skye did her best to remain awake as she fought against heavy eyelids. Each time her head snapped up. She knew she was not going to win out over her exhaustion and the effects of her blood loss for much longer.
Intending to close her eyes for just a moment, she was awoken by the unmistakable sound of a stick being stepped on. Still groggy, she fought to focus as she took Ward's weapon from his hands.
"Ward..." she whispered. His head was still resting on her shoulder. "Ward, wake up. Someone's coming." Still there was no response from him.
"Grant?" She turned to see his face and he still didn't wake. She could feel his pulse and concluded that he was merely unconscious. She gently pushed his head back against the tree so she could have her shoulder free to aim at whoever came closer.
Sitting up a little taller, despite the protest from her side, and the realization that she had re-opened her wound, as warm blood gushed out. She held her side with one hand and she trained her weapon in the general direction she heard the noises coming from.
Holding her breath, she painfully stood up and went behind the tree. That's when she saw a figure come into view. She tried to slow her pounding heart when a wave of dizziness took her off-guard. Despite to remain conscious, she found she was too shaky to keep her weapon trained on the figure and it grew too heavy for her to hold up any longer. Even though her vision was blurry, she recognized the glow of the back pack. She knew who it was and she mentally prepared for death, her regrets, and the things she had left unsaid. Especially the things she wanted to say to a certain unconscious Agent laying behind her.
"There you are, you bitch!" Philips limps toward their position against the tree, holding on to his leg and breathing heavily. At least she could have the satisfaction of knowing that she had at least shot him, and it hurt as bad as bad as hers.
"S.H.I.E.L.D? I should have known." He growled "You come...try to invade my home...and take away something that I FOUND!" He stumbled forward and lifted the weapon. "And now, I shall take your life."
With her last bit strength, Skye lifted her weapon. Her fingers were too cold to respond to her mind's commands fast enough and shots rang out before she could pull the trigger back.
Pain erupted from her shoulder, and the last thing she heard before falling over and sliding into sweet oblivion, was the sound of a body hitting the ground, more noise coming from the trees behind her, and a familiar voice shouting.
"Over here, Coulson! I found them! Agent Ward, put that gun down!."
