Having overseen the pile-on contest Skye decided it was time for an activity that didn't require someone getting squished. As it was raining it wasn't possible for the kids to go and play outside so it had to be an indoor activity. Gathering two plastic sheets she placed one under the table and one on top. Having ensured that as much of the area was covered as was possible she then dug out some paint and pictures that she had bought yesterday. It was something they could do as a group and would keep them occupied for a little while. Phil was still a bit young to be painting but Bruce agreed to hold him while he covered himself and the surrounding area in paint. May was happily painting a bunch of flowers with great care, while Simmons had found a picture of the TARDIS to paint. Fitz had chosen an image with lots of machines that he was currently painting in every colour possible. Ward simply looked relieved to have escaped having to help with the painting. Five minutes had passed and already there was more paint on the table than on any of the pictures. Skye simply rolled her eyes at the sight, glad she had taken precautions.
She followed Ward into the kitchen where he was beginning to prepare for the dinner. They were going to have spaghetti bolognese, which would cause a mess in itself. Although she had little experience in cooking she knew she could help by chopping up some of the ingredients for him. Plus if she was here then she was less likely to see the mess occurring in the other room. The recipe was relatively simple and Skye had the easy task of chopping mushrooms and opening a bottle of wine. Some was to go in the sauce but the rest was for the adults as a reward for not killing the children or allowing them to kill one another.
Glancing back into the dinning room, she could clearly see Fitz and Simmons having another fight. Jemma was using the colour that Leo wanted so he had taken the blue away from her. This had quickly escalated into them painting each other with different colours, ignoring their paintings. Bruce was too busy trying to stop Phil painting May's hair to stop the other two. She was just about to step into the room to sort it out when a pair of arms encircled her waist. By preventing her moving Ward had pulled her against his chest. Tilting his head he whispered in her ear:
"Just leave them. They're happy. We are going to have to bath them later. We might as well do them all at the same time."
Skye nodded in agreement. He was still gently holding her waist and it was starting to become distracting. She was only wearing a thin shirt so could feel the heat coming of his body from behind her.
Rap tap.
The noise on the kitchen window caused them both to break apart.
"I'll go see what that was." She muttered awkwardly.
Moving to the kitchen door she was startled by the person standing there. Looking around the back garden she quickly saw how he had managed to get over the fence and into the back garden.
"You couldn't use the front door like a normal person." She commented as she moved back to allow him into the house.
"Of course not. That would be boring. It's nice to meet you Skye. You're much prettier than I expected."
"Thanks I think. Oh, this is Grant Ward."
"Ah yes I've heard a lot about you Agent Ward."
"Ok. Nice to meet you. Skye, do you want to tell me how you know Tony Stark?" Asked Ward looking puzzled
"I may have hacked into Stark Industries and changed some settings on JARVIS. Tony tracked it back to me and we started talking."
Ward just looked at her before rolling his eyes.
"Oh yeah and she told me all sorts of interesting information. Especially about you, Robot." Stark commented.
Skye felt herself blush slightly at the tone in Tony's voice. She may have talked about her SO more than she had initially thought. Apparently Tony had picked up on that.
"Anyway, back to serious matters. I'm here because I've finally managed to retrieve some of the wiped video, which I thought you might like to see. How about you extract the rage machine and we can all talk together?"
Ward moved into the dinning room and signalled for Bruce to join them. They left Leo and Jemma still having a paint fight and May finishing her picture. Bruce left Phil in his highchair, asking May to keep an eye on him.
Ignoring greetings to Bruce, Tony quickly flipped open the laptop he had carried with him. Pulling up the footage from the Bus it was quickly apparent that not all of it was there. However, it was possible for them to find out what happened to the team. Everything was normal until a gas could be seen entering the aircraft. It reached May first causing her to pass out. Fitzsimmons were hit next, before it reached Coulson. After that the video went blank.
"I couldn't retrieve anymore video. But I would guess that the gas has caused the change in your team." Explained Tony. "May got the biggest dose so reduced in age the most, though because she was older she now appears as the oldest child. Fitzsimmons got the same dose, which was a smaller amount than May so didn't reduce in age as much."
"What about Coulson then?" Skye interjected, seeing the flaw in the explanation.
"I'm just guessing but I think it could be that whatever was used to de-age them reacted badly with the alien substance in his blood. That caused him to become much younger than the others."
"OK. So where do we go from here?"
"Well as Bruce has the blood samples we can see if there is anything left in their blood. Otherwise it's just more research."
Skye wished there was more they could do. She knew her teammates weren't in pain but it was still hard to see them like this. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Ward looking at her concerned. She managed a small smile before turning back to Tony.
"OK. I'll take Bruce and we'll get started running the blood. Besides it's probably about time to tidy up those kids and I don't deal with messy kids."
With a cheeky grin he quickly left the house, dragging Bruce along with him.
"So time to wash the little monsters then?" Skye grinned at Ward.
It took nearly an hour to get them clean. Skye had taken Jemma and May into her room to use the shower while Ward took the boys. Jemma was covered head to toe in paint so had to be carried from the room to stop her spreading paint everywhere. May fortunately only had paint in her hair from Phil grabbing her so was easier to sort. While May was in the shower, Skye stripped Jemma of her clothes. It was debatable whether it was worth washing them or whether they should just be thrown away. Once May had finished Skye lifted Jemma into the shower and made sure it was on the young girl fully. The paint had soaked through her clothes and onto her skin. In the end Skye simply got in the shower with her to ensure all the paint was cleared away.
Having got both girls clean and dried Skye was exhausted. Sending them downstairs to wait for tea, she quickly considered herself. She was soaking wet, having got in the shower with Jemma without removing her clothes. That was the first thing she had to do. Then she would check on the boys.
Dressing quickly, as she knew she couldn't leave the girls alone for too long, she was greeted by Ward entering the room.
"You got wet as well then?" He asked.
"Yep. I had to get in the shower with Jemma. How about you?"
"Phil decided he wanted to splash everyone and Leo joined in. Unfortunately as I was making sure Phil was alright they ganged up on me and covered me in water."
Skye laughed at the image that presented. She could just imagine the look on his face when that happened. They had done a good job of soaking him; his white t-shirt was going see-through, sticking to his chest. Shaking her head, Skye quickly headed to the door to give him time to change out of his wet clothes. He was distracting enough normally, but when his t-shirt was like that he managed to make her mind completely wander. She couldn't afford for that to happen, not with four mischief-makers left to their own devices downstairs.
Thank you once again to Amaya for reading this. Also thank you for all your reviews and comments. I am feeling slightly better now Next time we will see a discussion on what the kids should call Skye and Ward.