Skye had forgotten about the little compartment next to her bed on the Bus. When they'd arrived at the Playground she had moved her personal belongings out of her bunk and into her room, but she'd been in a hurry and had forgotten to empty the little drawer-like hiding spot. She remembered it now though, as she pulled the drawer out and rifled through its contents. At the top were a couple of hair ties, a lip balm, a pen, and a few other little odds and ends that she had wanted to keep on hand.
She paused when her fingers brushed over the envelope on the bottom. She knew exactly what was inside, knew just how much it would hurt to go through those photos, but she opened it anyway, tipping them into her hand. Nobody on the Bus had asked questions when she suddenly acquired a beat-up polaroid camera and she had spent weeks sneaking around with it snapping photos of her teammates.
The first photo was of Fitz and Simmons. They must have been arguing about something because Simmons had an exasperated look on her face and Fitz was gesturing wildly with his arms. She could almost hear them now, shooting four syllable words at each other in raised voices until one of them got that excited look that meant they'd solved whatever problem they were facing. She wondered if that's what had happened in the medical pod. Simmons hadn't told her exactly what had happened down there and she'd been too scared to ask Fitz, but she couldn't help wondering if the two of them had sat at the bottom of the ocean arguing until one of them realized what needed to be done.
Skye shook her head, moving the photo to the back of the stack. The next one was of May. Skye had settled next to her in the cockpit one night, intent on making her smile for the picture, and she was pretty sure it had nearly cost her her life, but after spending fifteen minutes making an exaggerated play-by-play commentary on everything she did May had finally cracked the tiniest of smiles. There was one of Coulson sitting at his desk, looking at her in surprise after she had walked in and said "Smile, AC!"
The next one made her smile. She had made Fitz take it while she sat in the driver's seat of Coulson's beloved Lola, pretending to fly the car. If only she'd known at the time what her next ride in Lola would be like.
The picture of her in Lola was followed by several candid photos - May doing tai chi, Simmons crushing Fitz and Coulson in a game of Scrabble, May and Coulson in the kitchen making heart eyes at each other. There was one of Simmons with her hands on her hips, making a ridiculous face. "I'm Agent Grant Ward," she would have been saying in a nasally accent, "and I can detect a threat from 500 yards. In the dark!"
She'd never seen the next ones, and she remembered that Fitz had had the camera for a while so he could fix it. He must have taken the picture of Jemma sitting in the lounge with a book in one hand and a teacup in the other, and the close-up of one of the lab rats, and the one of Simmons adjusting one of their designs on the holo-table. She smiled at the image of her scientist friend and hoped for the hundredth time that day that she was alright.
There was one of her and Ward playing Battle Ship, too. She had a hand over her heart in shock. "Did you just give me a compliment?" No. She pushed the memory away, sliding the picture to the back of the stack. She couldn't think about the old Ward, the one she thought she had known - the Ward that she had cared for.
She turned her attention to the final picture. She remembered taking this one, and that only made it that much more painful. She had pestered Ward about it for days. "I have one of everyone else!" She'd insisted, and eventually he had caved and let her snap a quick shot of them before they went to train. She had tossed it into the drawer before the photo had finished developing, so she hadn't seen it yet. She was smiling into the camera, but Ward had turned his head at the last minute to look at her. It was the same way he'd looked at her as she lay in bed healing from her bullet wounds, like she was sun breaking over the horizon. She didn't realize she was crying until a tear fell onto her hand.
Swiping away at the tears on her cheeks, she shoved the photo in back of the pile and returning the pictures to their envelope.
"Everything alright in here?" Typical. May had managed to sneak up on her again.
"Yup." Skye said brightly, gathering up the envelope and the camera that had been stashed in the back of the drawer. "Just grabbing a couple things from my bunk."
May saw right through her, just like she always had, but didn't press the issue. Skye was grateful for that. "Hey, May." She said, just as her S.O. turned to leave. "Smile."
The camera went off with a click and a flash. Skye started to feel like herself again.