AN: So, here it is! The final chapter! Really not a lot to say here, so I'll talk to you all at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!


When they got to the base, the Director was waiting for them in the garage. "Well done, both of you. Your work today might just be our key to survival."

"Thank you, sir. I am… very happy to hear you say that. It makes it seem a bit more worthwhile" Grant replied somberly.

"What's worthwhile?" Coulson asked cautiously.

Grant swallowed hard and gingerly pulled off his shirt, revealing the large bite on his shoulder. Both Skye and the Director paled visibly, but it didn't take the Director long to act. He pulled out his radio and called Jemma immediately. Within moments she had joined them in the garage and then was leading Grant into her lab.

Skye didn't say a word until after he was already gone. She couldn't move. Her legs felt cemented to the ground, her stomach had somehow been replaced by a writhing knot, and her arms and hands were shaking like leaves in a tornado. Only when he was out of sight did she manage to snap back to life. "What's going to happen?" she asked the Director desperately. "I mean, I know what's going to happen, but… how are we going to deal with it?"

"Jemma's been wanting to study the transformation process; she thinks that it will help to have tissue, blood, and DNA samples from throughout the process. She's already got reference samples for him, from before the bite, and he was infected less than an hour ago. He's a perfect subject. She's going to study him right through to the end of the change and then…"

"Then we put him down" Skye concluded bluntly.

"Yes" the Director replied. "So far our research indicates that the change will happen over a period of approximately 12 hours, so…"

"I don't need to hear any more" Skye interrupted. Before the Director could say another word she ran out of the garage and didn't stop until she got to her room. The tears were already flowing before she got there, and her pillow was soaked within moments of her throwing herself against it.

Some time later she managed to compose herself and the tears gradually stopped. She brought herself into the bathroom and splashed some cold water on her face. She brushed her hair, and then went and changed out of her dirty clothes. She threw them directly into the garbage; she didn't want to keep anything that would remind her of that mission. And, finally, she took a deep breath and then strode out of her room and down the hall. As she turned a corner she saw Jemma coming out of her lab and Skye quickly hid for a moment until she was sure the scientist was gone.

When the coast was clear Skye continued down the hall and stood outside the door of the lab resolutely. She thought back to the first rule that Grant had laid down for her when she got to the BUS, and just as quickly as the thought entered her mind, she threw it out the metaphorical window and pushed open the lab door.

Grant was sitting against the wall in the cage that Skye had noticed on her first day. It wasn't until now that she realized what it was for. He looked up as she walked in and, when he saw her, he scrambled clumsily to his feet.

"You shouldn't be in here" he told her, although his eyes said the opposite.

"It would take more than a stupid rule to keep me away" she replied. She sat down on the floor just outside of the cage, and Grant followed suit, sitting down across from her on his side of the bars. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Skye finally broke. "If I'd been faster-" she began.

Grant cut her off almost immediately. "You went as fast as you could. This was not your fault, Skye, please don't blame yourself. I couldn't live with myself if you did. I mean, I won't be living with myself for much longer, but you know what I mean."

Skye chuckled weakly as a tear slipped unbidden down her cheek.

"Hey, hey, don't cry. Come on, Skye, I'm just some guy you met two days ago. Nothing to cry over, right?"

"If you honestly believe that, you're stupider than the brain-dead zombies outside" she replied.

"Going to be one of them soon" he reminded her.

"Don't say that. Just, pretend? For me? Pretend that it's going to be okay."

Grant nodded somberly for a moment, then let a wicked grin creep onto his face. "Well in that case, why don't we go back to your room later tonight and use that prize that you won from Bobbie?"

Skye smiled back. "Bet you're wishing now that you'd taken advantage of that offer last night, aren't you?"

"I don't need sex to feel how much I love you, Skye."

Skye bit her lip and more tears started to fall down her face. "I love you too" she sobbed. "I love you too."

A few tears started to make their way down Grant's face too, until his body trembled and a scream wracked through him. Things calmed down after a few minutes, but his voice was huskier and trembling when he spoke next. "Skye, I want you to remember me human, not the way I'm going to be. You have to go. Before I get worse."

"Grant I don't want to leave you. I don't want you to go through this alone."

"I know. But it'll be okay, Skye. Just do one thing for me, okay?" Skye nodded and he continued. "You make it out of this. You get to England or Australia or wherever you guys wind up going. Find somewhere safe, and live. Live a long and happy life. Live it for both of us." Skye sobbed but nodded again and placed her hand up against the bar. Grant just shook his head. "I'm not risking that, baby. I love you too much. Just go now, go back to your room and stay there until I'm gone, okay?"

Skye buried her face in her hands for a second, and when she pulled them away her face was filled with resolve. "If it helps at all, just know that meeting you makes up for the viral mess we now live in. I mean, if this hadn't happened, I'd be sitting in a café somewhere hacking who knows who, and you'd be off boring yourself to death in college. I'll take meeting you, even if it was only for a few days, over that life any day." With that she stood up and started walking out of the room, but Grant called after her just as her hand was on the doorknob.

"I wish I'd met you before all of this, Skye. Maybe then I would have been able to love you properly, the way you deserve."

Without turning around, Skye spoke one last time. "You loved me with everything you have, Grant. That is all that I could ask for and more." Before he had a chance to reply she pulled the door open and strode out into the hall. She didn't stop until she was back in her room. The second that the door closed behind her, she grabbed one of the leftover beers and popped it open. Hours later, as she was almost finished the final bottle, she heard a shot ring through the base, echoing off of the concrete walls, and she silently poured a portion of the booze out onto the floor. "To love" she whispered into the silence of the empty room before tossing back the rest of the bottle's contents and then standing up and walking out of the room to go find the Calvary.

She had some training to do.


AN: ... So, yeah. Don't kill me, please! Let me explain... see, this was originally supposed to be a one-shot, and the prompt that I started with was "maybe if we met before the apocalypse I could have loved you properly", so it was destined for this all along. It just became a lot longer than I had originally planned in the process. But anyways, that's that... So let me know what you think? And don't worry, you'll find out favourite couple alive and well in some of my other works. Thank you so much for sticking with me through this!