"Wow." Skye muttered, stealing Bobbi's scotch for the second time, before the blonde can even take a drink. "I'm gonna pretend it's the staff talking right now because that's a really asshole thing to say." Bobbi's scotch is gone, and Skye's eyes hold no light, and Bobbi can feel her anger rising.
"Excuse me?!" Skye is already off her stool and heading for the door, but Bobbi finally said it out loud with no take backsies and she's not letting her walk away without an answer. "I've been waiting for three months for you to actually admit that we're Soulmates and your reaction is to call me an asshole?" Her heart is thumping and her nails are digging into the palms of her hands. "What is it? You don't want an Agent? You're too good for me? You don't want a woman? Why the fuck-?" The questions are pouring out, her volume rising with each one, and Skye is backed against the wall in the hallway. Bobbi wants to punch something, wants to rip her own hair out, wants to scream and yell and destroy everything in sight, wants to kiss Skye again…
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Skye snaps, darks eyes angry and hurt and glaring back at her. "You get kicks out of mocking me or something? You think this is some sick fucking joke? Or are you really just this much of an asshole?"
Her brain is screaming at her to stop, to calm down, to talk to Skye and get her answers without yelling, but her brain isn't in control. The staff is. "I'm not the asshole who won't even acknowledge her fuck Soulmate, Skye. I'm the one waiting here for you to actually give a fuck. You're the one playing the sick games and acting like I'm nothing to you. Do you really hate me enough to deny that we're Marked to-"
"Shut up!" Skye's fists are clenched, her eyes are glistening, and her cheeks are flushed with anger and hurt.
Bobbi isn't backing down. "No. We're Marked, Skye, I have your words on me. Your stupid words that you said to me, in your stupid handwriting, the same colour as your Goddamn eyes. You. Are. My. Soulm-"
"I DON'T HAVE A FUCKING SOUL MARK!" The words are screamed out and it's enough to make Bobbi freeze. The tear tracks on Skye's cheeks stand out as she brushes past and a door slams seconds later, but Bobbi can't move.
Can't move. Can't think. Can't breathe.
The words echo in her brain, and Bobbi is left standing in the hallway, staring at the wall Skye had previously been standing against. It's enough of a shock to her system that the darkness inside her simmers down, and all she can do is stand in the hall and stare at the wall.
It could have been a minute or an hour or an entire decade, but Bobbi doesn't move until her phone buzzes. Maria. Bobbi ignores it and numbly walks to her room; the bed is turned down with a little mint on her pillow, the light feels too bright, the air feels suffocating, her clothes are too rough on her skin, everything sounds too loud. Her phone rings again and it's told loud, hurting her ears; Maria. Bobbi felt sick to her stomach, and she nearly didn't make it to the bathroom before she threw up. Her phone started ringing again; Maria.
A banging on the door that rattles in her skull, and Bobbi vomits again, a chill starting to creep through her bones. "Morse, I'm coming in." May called, Bobbi couldn't bring herself to respond, or move, or feel, or think.
The numbness is fading to a cold chill that is settling in her bones and her heart. Her eyes are open, but she can't see anything as May picks her up and puts her in bed. Her clothes are scratchy, the sheets feel like ice and lead at the same time, the lights switch off and even the darkness is too bright, and the white hot rage is creeping back in to battle with icy cold shock.
Bobbi doesn't sleep at night.
When her mind finally catches up with Skye's words it's hours later and she's halfway to the younger woman's room before May stops her. But, she's not in the mood for May or going to bed or anything except answers from Skye because she had to be lying.
She had to be lying.
Because the other option is that she wasn't her Soulmate and Bobbi knew with absolute certainty that she was her Soulmates. From the words to the handwriting to the colour of her eyes to the tingle in her mark every time they touched.
May's Room is the exact same as hers; the light are just as painfully bright, the silence is exactly as blaringly loud. "Sit." May gestures to one of the chairs at the tiny coffee table. Bobbi obeys, if only because her only other option at that point is to go back to her room. "Talk." A coffee mug thunks on the table in front of her, and May sits opposite with a cup of tea.
"Got anything else?" Coffee is not nearly strong enough for any conversation she's going to have right now.
May eyes her, dark eyes scanning her. "No." Bobbi opens her mouth to argue, her anger rising at the simple denial. "You don't need to drown yourself; talk."
The coffee is bitter and tastes like shit and burns her tongue and throat. "About what?" Really, is it Skye, the Bessemer staff, Skye, that she can't seem to control her own emotions, strength, or mind, Skye, or the fact that she'll apparently feel like for decades?
"Whatever you want."
"Hill is gonna be pissed I ignored her calls." The first thing that comes to mind that doesn't relate to Skye. "Probably put another note on my file just to spite me…"
Bobbi talks about absolutely nothing, and May listens and Bobbi tries not to blink too much because every time she closes her eyes she sees the anger and hurt in Skye's eyes, and every time it gets too quiet her ears ring with the last words she said to her. Bobbi doesn't stop talking until May's phone buzzes and she announces that they have a mission.
"Go shower." The older woman orders, "you look like shit."
The water scalds her skin to a bright red, but it's not enough to warm her, and even that starts to make her angry. The shower not being hot enough makes her want to rip someone's throat out. Bobbi punches the wall in frustration until she hears a crack and pain blossoms through her fingers. That's another finger broken… and a dent in the wall. Oops.
On the Bus, Bobbi half listens as Coulson briefs them on a possible telekinetic who may or may not be responsible for a factory explosion. Simmons reprimands her at the same time for breaking her fingers, and then breaking another finger without having the first breaks checked, and fighting with an injury, and, and, and, and… and Bobbi stopped listening after the first few minutes.
May is excused to set the autopilot and the to sleep, Coulson goes to his office to finish paperwork on the Berserker staff and Elliott Randolph, Fitz and Simmons immediately scatter to the lab, and Bobbi finally felt exhausted enough that she might sleep.
Except Bobbi's bunk was right next to Skye's, and the younger woman was headed to her bunk from the opposite direction. Skye froze, Bobbi froze, Skye looked away, Bobbi growled. Skye let out a surprised sound when her back is pressed to the wall, and another hand is gripping her wrist far too tightly for it to be comfortable. Bobbi stares at her, the girl is her Soulmate, she knows it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
"Come to mock me some more?" Skye's words are harsh, but her voice is resigned. "Because, just so you know, you're gonna have be really creative because I've heard all the Soulless freaks comments before."
Bobbi looks around the hall for a second before opening her bunk. "In." Skye goes silently an as soon as they're both inside Bobbi locks the door. "Do you feel anything?" Anything at all? Her fingers graze Skye's cheek and her Mark tingles at the faintest touch. "Don't you feel that?"
"Feel what?" Dark eyes glare at her. "I feel a whole lot, and most of it is the fact that not only did my parents not want me, but no-one ever will."
Bobbi growls and brings Skye's hand to her hip. Her Mark sings when she lowers the waistband of her pants and Skye's fingers touch her words. Her eyes nearly roll back in her head it's the best thing she's felt in months, the calm and the contentedness is enough to drown out the persistent dark anger the Berserker staff forced upon her. "That's your words." Her chest doesn't feel as tight, and the tension around her heart is loosened enough that Bobbi feels like she can breathe. "That's what you said to me. That's the Mark that means you are my Soulmate. That's-"
"That's a fucking sick joke, Morse." The darkness invades her system again with the force of a freight train, hitting her worse than when she was actually holding the staff, when Skye rips her hand away and glares at her. Skye is out of her bunk before Bobbi can protest and it takes all of her willpower. It to punch something and break more fingers. Simmons would be pissed if she was back in the lab less than half an hour after she left with more injuries.
Bobbi knew it was going to be a bad mission when the Welcome Wagon ended with May sedating the asset.
Bobbi knew it was a bad day when Hill called and spent an hour yelling at her about the Berserker incident and why can't she just follow a simple God damned order?
Bobbi knew it was going to be a bad week when Skye wouldn't even be in the same room as her for anything other team meetings.
Bobbi knew it was more than just her new Berserker rage when only a few hours after the end of one mission, they got a call for another.
Bobbi hates that she wanted to punch Fitz for his little failed pranks on Skye, she hates that Simmons talking too much makes her want to kill someone, she hates that Coulson singing while he cooks grates on her nerves, she hates that May kicks her out of the gym every morning - because she doesn't sleep much anymore so that's where she spends most of her time - to work on Skye's physical training. Mostly Bobbi hates that Skye seems to hate her now, and it's obvious that there's a division in the team with her on one side and Skye on the other.
The strength from the Berserker staff doesn't wear off in hours or even days, or even a week, and Bobbi gets angry and frustrated when she accidentally breaks the punching bag more than once, or when a coffee cup smashes in her hands.
The Centipede soldiers that seem to be in cahoots with Edison Po at least look like they'd be a good outlet for some of her pent up strength.
Well, you all said you wanted Skye's reaction...
Also, I've been looking it up (for all of five minutes) and Captain American can sustainably lift around 800 pounds (350+ kgs) or 3000 pounds (1360 kgs) in special circumstances, and Lady Sif, an Asgardian warrior who if she were human I think would be the same or possibly bellow Bobbi, around 25 tonnes, and Mike Peterson isn't as good as Steve Rogers (yet) so I'm putting him at a sustainable 500 pounds (220+ kgs) and 1500 pounds (680 kgs) in special circumstances.
If we put Bobbi at even half of Lady Sif thanks to the Berserker staff, even though it will wear off over time (we don't know how much time) that would mean Bobbi could lift 12.5 tonnes making her way stronger than Captain America and isn't that amazing? :-O