From Darkness into the Light

Spoilers: All Episodes, mainly focused on the 1x21 "Ragtag" promo

Disclaimer: I don't really own anything here.

Ward found Skye in the cargo bay with May in the early morning hours, he'd been to wake up Skye for training but she hadn't been there. Looking down from the balcony, he watched as the once semi-trained girl took blow for blow from May, matching her until the moment she hit May in the shoulder, swiping her legs from under her. The Calvary went down on her back and looked up at Skye from where she lay on the floor.

"Skye?" May stood up and took a step towards Skye, hands up in the air. "Your eyes…they're blue."

The specialist was immediately down the stairs as soon as he heard that, sure enough when Skye looked at him her eyes were bright blue. A few blinks and the blue dissolved away, returning to brown. "I think Simmons should take another look at you."

"I feel fine, better than fine."

"You just put May on the mat using Level 5 techniques and your eyes are changing colors." Ward placed a hand on her cheek and stared into her brown eyes. "Please, we don't know what Hill did to you."

Nodding, Skye headed into the lab and May headed upstairs to get Simmons while Ward stayed with the rookie agent. He pulled her into his arms and held her, Skye rested her forehead against his chest and closed her eyes as his fingers made patterns against her skin under her shirt. "What if I'm not human anymore, would that matter to you?"

"No." He kissed her forehead and pulled back to stare into her brown eyes. "I love you Skye, human or not. I fell in love with your personality and heart, not your looks or biology."

She smiled at him and nodded, "good enough for me."

A hand on her head and a thumb sweeping back her bangs, Ward pulled her closer to hold her against him. The rookie agent wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes, suddenly becoming stiff as she seemed to witness a memory not her own. Gasping she pulled away and stumbled a few feet, his hand going out to stabilize her but she pulled away as she tried to catch her breath.

Looking up at him she had tears in her eyes. "You couldn't save him, your brother…Maynard stopped you from throwing a rope and he drowned." Skye shook her head and turned around away from him. "It's like I can see your deepest darkest secrets. I did something yesterday, when Hill asked who I was." Skye turned back to look at him and shook her head. "I pushed the burning sensation I had onto her, to let her know how I felt."

Moving over to her, he took her hands and held them. "We'll figure this out." She shook her head and he caught her chin. "Yes we will and I'll be right here with you. Hill doesn't want us anywhere near Garrett and as much as I'd love to put a bullet in his head, being here with you is more important." He pulled her into his arms and held her, "don't think about anything or anyone, especially about me. I'll tell you my secrets but you don't need to live them."

He looked up to see both Simmons and Coulson enter the lab and pulled back, gently lifting Skye onto the table for examination. She folded her arms as Simmons pulled on gloves to start the exam and a scowl found its way to her face when the scientist pulled out the necessary equipment to take blood.

"You're worse than a vampire."

"Well I shall take that as compliment." Simmons chuckled and looked straight at Skye with a penlight. "Okay, look at my finger." She examined Skye's eyes and spoke as she did. "How are you feeling? Agent May said that your physical conditioning has improved faster than humanly possible."

Skye shrugged, "I feel fine, better than fine."

"She's absorbing memories or pushing memories onto other people." Ward folded his arms from where he stood beside Skye. "I wouldn't say that's fine, something's wrong Skye and ignoring it's not going to help you get better."

The rookie agent put up her hands and pushed Simmons back, "just stop, I'm tired of all the poking and prodding, I'm not some lab rat." She pushed off the table and started towards the door till Ward blocked her. "Grant move, now."

Coulson walked over, seemingly having enough and looked at the young agent. "You need to let Simmons help you."

"I don't want help!" She yelled and instantly her eyes turned blue, she pushed them aside forcefully and they stumbled when she did. "I'm tired of everyone telling me what I need, none of you know what I need!"

She was gone up the stairs and Simmons looked at both men, "I really shouldn't have pushed her."

"No it was me." Ward sighed and rubbed his shoulder where she'd pushed him.

They heard yelling and looked up at the ceiling, Coulson turned to leave with Ward following immediately. They found Skye standing a few feet from Hill, yelling at her about what she'd done.

"Stop lying, what did you do to me?"

Hill put up a hand, "I activated your natural abilities, we developed a suppressant during Project React in 1970s and knew for you to be normal we had to use it. It masks the compound that is in your blood, we think alien in origin but we can't be sure whether you're human or not." Hill lowered her hand and shook her head, her gaze softened. "The Director of SHIELD at the time had to make a call, kill you or suppress what you were…" she looked down and shrugged. "Like everyone that meets you now, even as an infant you were impossible not to ignite hope in their lives. You became Project Hope, our last defense and one we swore never to use unless there was no other option. HYDRA is slowly falling and if Garrett were to rebuild…"

"So I'm your secret weapon? What were you planning on doing, sending me in alone?"

"No," Hill quickly stated, "you are more important than any of us, Skye you are impossible to replace and I would see SWORD fall like SHIELD did before I let HYDRA have you."

Skye had tears in her eyes as she folded her arms, "because I'm a weapon, not because I'm an agent. That's why SHIELD protected me all my life, why you guys didn't put me in a dark hole when you could have…you just wanted to make sure your weapon was safe." She pointed at her side, "that's why when HYDRA shot me, Fury didn't stop Coulson from finding a cure because me being alive was top priority!" Shaking her head, Skye looked straight at Hill. "You're no better than Garrett and right now, SWORD or SHIELD is no better than HYDRA. Using people as weapons to fight a war."

Without a second thought she moved to her bunk and slammed the door closed. Hill found Coulson and Ward starring at her, she sighed. "We tried to give her a normal life…"

"But you're still using her as a weapon."

It was around midday that the door to her bunk opened and Skye looked up from where she was curled up on the bed to see Ward in the doorway. He leaned just outside the door, unable to go in due to his tracking bracelet. Moving off the bed, she was in his arms within seconds. He held her close and kissed her head.

"I'm right here." Ward pulled back and looked at her, wiping away tears with his thumb. "Just give me the order and I will put a bullet in her somehow without killing her."

Skye shook her head, "no, I can do so much worse if I wanted to." Wiping her face with her hand she shrugged, "does feeling used ever not feel like you mean nothing?"

"When the right person cares, you aren't being used. Coulson and May are about ready to kick Hill's ass and I suspect Romanoff is holding her tongue on what she really wants to say." He pushed back her hair and pulled her back into his arms, holding her close. "This team is your family and we'll never use you. I think I heard Coulson describe it as 'Hill hurt the baby of this family and we aren't going to stand for that'."

She looked up at him and found his eyes, "I love you."

Ward heard the clink of the bracelet hitting the floor before he felt the weight leave his wrist. He looked at the ground and found the black piece of metal that had been his control ring for months. His eyes met Skye's and she just smiled at him, her eyes full of trust and love.

"That was…"

"Yeah," she bent down and picked it up. "I programmed it that way, so that I would only tell you when there was complete trust between us."

Cupping her cheeks, he bent down and kissed her fully. Skye smiled at him as he pecked her lips gently with his own. Pulling back Ward found her eyes, rubbing her cheek with his thumb. "My loyalty is to you and to the team thru you, no one else…it'll always be you Skye."

A/N: Skye used the phrase 'I love you' as the key to his bracelet, knowing she'd only be able to tell him when she completely trusted him.

Next we see Skye and Ward disobey Hill and go after Garrett, they also find the madman tells Ward something to change how Ward views his connection to Skye. Will Ward turn to HYDRA again after Garrett talks to him or is his loyalty to Skye too strong to fall?

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