Hello everyone! Thanks for the great responses to the last chapter. Maddesthatter, you're probably right that Coulson wouldn't react quite so adamantly, especially because of Clintasha, but that's the beauty of writer's license! And also the danger of writing a fan fiction story so early in the season, before we know the characters really well. I'm almost done with this one, at least for a while until we know the characters a little better and see what's actually going to happen. Probably one more chapter after this. Thanks for reading!
OOOOO
Skye found Grant in the gym not too much time later, punching the living day lights out of the bag. She could see both his arm and his head had started to bleed again, and she shook her head at his stubbornness. That man was going to kill himself.
"Hey, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be doing that yet, especially seeing as you're bleeding all over the floor." She motioned to the floor beneath him and he stopped punching to look over at her. His eyes were unreadable as she came over from the staircase.
"Come on," Skye said, trying to take his arm. "We need to get you cleaned up and re-stitched."
He pulled his arm away quickly, his jaw clenching. "I'm fine Skye."
"Uh, no you're not," she said, her tone disbelieving. "Did you see the floor?" She pointed to it but he still didn't look. His thoughts were clearly elsewhere.
Skye frowned. They still hadn't talked about the kiss, not really, and she still didn't know where he stood with that. Even though he had initiated it, she was getting a weird vibe from him and she wondered if the only reason he'd kissed her was because he thought he was going to die. He turned away and moved to get his water but she reached out and put a hand on his arm.
"Hey, what's going on with you?" she asked, "I mean, besides the obvious?"
His shimmering, dark eyes looked at her and there was obvious pain in them.
"The kiss was a mistake Skye." His jaw was clenching and his face tense. "We can't be together."
Skye looked at him with a disbelieving expression. "A mistake?"
He looked at her, not backing down, his jaw still working. "Yes. I'm sorry but I thought I was going to die in there. There are rules about romantic attachments in field work. It was stupid of me to think we didn't have to follow them."
She swallowed hard, taking a step back, pain entering her eyes. "Really Ward? A bunch of rules are going to keep you from being with me? Oh yeah, that's right, you're the robot agent, you don't FEEL anything, you live by rules." She could feel the hurt inside like a knife and she knew she was just trying to make him hurt just as much.
Grant didn't respond but she could tell how wounded he was by the look in his eyes. The shield that had been there when they first met seemed to go up again.
She shook her head. "Is this what Coulson wanted to talk to you about? In his office? About your duty to the rules? Because it's BOGUS. The rules are STUPID. And how do they know if we'll be better separated? Maybe we would be better together? But you won't even give it a chance! You won't even TRY to fight for me! You just do what you're told like a good soldier!"
Turning to go, she started jogging for the stairs but Grant went after her, grabbing her arm a little harder than he intended.
"Ow, Ward," she said as he whirled her around. "Let go of me. You're hurting."
She saw horror enter his eyes as she said it and he immediately let her go.
"I'm sorry," he said and backed up a few steps. She was on the verge of crying and she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing it so instead of answering, she bolted up the stairs before he could catch her.
OOOOO
He could hear her; hear her crying through the bunk wall. He had followed her up, but when he found her bunk door closed, he couldn't bring himself to knock. So he stood there, at her door, like a sad puppy, listening.
He didn't quite know what to do. He could have explained the situation differently to her, could have told her how he felt, how he wanted to be with her, could have explained why the rules were in place. But he hadn't. Why, he wasn't sure.
Most likely, he was scared, scared of being close to someone, scared of sharing. He almost welcomed the out Coulson gave him when he cited the rules to him. After all, most of his relationships had shown him nothing but pain. But hearing Skye crying from behind the door was enough to make him regret how he'd approached the subject. The sound was so horrible it actually made tears come to his eyes.
He stood there for a while. No one else passed by; or maybe they did and he just didn't notice. The noises seemed to lessen a bit and then finally they stopped. He wondered if he should knock now, if he should talk to her. Shaking his head to himself, he figured she would just run away from him again.
But his heart wanted him to go in. He wanted to resolve the fight, resolve their relationship. He wanted to be on good terms with Skye. But he couldn't bring himself to knock.
It was some time later when the door opened suddenly and he was face to face with Skye. She looked at him for a long moment, looking tired and sad, and then seemed to realize who was standing before her. Scowling at him, she pushed him out of the way and moved into the living space.
"You know you're bleeding all over the carpet right?" She asked, her tone harsh.
He looked down and saw the drips that were spattered at his feet.
