Chapter 10

They decided to check all the boxes containing Skye's birth year. Maybe some files were misplaced and ended up in the wrong box. The chances for that were low, but it was worth a try.

The three agents spend the rest of the afternoon searching for something even remotely related to Skye. But they had no luck. They returned upstairs to join the others for dinner. They found them sitting and talking about little things, nothing important or work related, waiting for them to arrive. Fitz was talking to Triplett about a prank at the Academy, while Simmons talked to Agent Koenig about the strategic value of Iwo Jima in World War Two. They were all relaxed and didn't even notice when the three agents entered the mess hall.

May and Coulson sat down, asking Ward to join them. But he was preocupied searching for Skye, who apparently wasn't there.

„Where's Skye?" he asked.

„We thought she was with you guys" Simmons answered.

„No, she had work to do. We went our separate ways hours ago" Coulson explained.

Before he even finished his sentence, Ward was already gone looking for her. He went to her office, but she wasn't there. He then ran to their room, but she wasn't there either, nor the kitchen or the gym. There weren't many places she could have been, so he got worried. Then he thought maybe she wanted to take a second look on that file, so he went to Coulson's office. But she wasn't there. He felt despair taking over him. He didn't know what to do. And then suddenly he heard the elevator and turned to see her come out of it. He ran towards her and saw that she was not only crying but terribly afraid of something. She wrapped her arms tightly around his torso and buried herself into his chest, sobbing and trembling.

„Skye, what is wrong? What happened?" Ward asked her, clearly worried about her state.

She kept on sobbing, unable to pronounce even one word. He tried to sooth her, but at the same time he really wanted to know what got her shaking like this.

„Babe, come on. Let's go to our room." She didn't move an inch, instead held him even tighter than before, like she was scared that by letting him go she would lose him. Ward knew that it wasn't wise to just stay there in the hall way. He took her in his arm, carrying her to their room, where he sat her down on the bed. The moment he sat down next to her she attached herself again to him. He wanted to help her, but was unable to do so. The only thing he could do was to hold her and try to comfort her as much as possible. He knew that at some point she would talk to him and he would be there listening.

Since neither Skye nor Ward showed up for dinner, the others started worrying about them. Triplett knocked on their door, asking if they were in there.

„Hey, yeah, we are here."

„Is everything alright? You didn't eat anything."

„Yeah, we are fine. Skye has a little headache. We will eat later. Thanks."

Triplett took the hint and left them. He told the others to not bother knocking, cause the love birds wanted to be undisturbed.

After a long time Skye finally calmed down. She felt sore from all the crying. She was afraid of looking Grant in the eyes, especially now, since her eyes were all red and swollen. But at some point she had to do that. That wasn't even the worse part. She had to explain why she was acting like a little girl, crying over some ghosts. Ghosts...that's the right way to put it. They were ghosts. She knew she had to tell him, tell the others. But how? What she saw was terrifying. It scared her to her core. She wasn't the type of person who believed in ghost stories, but...

„Are you feeling better" Ward asked her softly. She pushed herself up, trying to hide her face as best she could. Futile. Since he cupped her face and forced her to look him in the eyes. It killed him to see her this tormented and he wanted nothing more than to punch whoever was responsible for her misery. He leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss. After they parted he really wanted to know what happened.

„Come here" Ward put his arm around her, positioning her on his lap. He figured that she needed some courage to talk to him about whatever upset her and it wouldn't be easy if he fixated her. He kissed her forehead and rubbed her back.

She enjoyed his touch and was thankfull for his understanding. She needed to get over it and start talking.

„I was downstairs."

„The archives? I didn't see you there."

„No. Further down. I wanted to get to the archives, to get you all for dinner. But I pressed the wrong button and got a level or so further down. At first I thought it was an extension of the archives. But I was wrong. It was some sort of lab. I looked around for a while trying to figure out what was done down there, but everything looked so strange. Somewhere in the back was a dim light and I approached it. I swear, that whole time I felt like something was down there with me. I know, I sound crazy but I swear that's how I felt. Like something evil was there, trying to trap me. Half way through I wanted to turn around, but that light made me curious and I went on. I wish I wouldn't have. There was a door and the light came through a crack. I opened it and I saw a monster."

„A monster? Come on, babe. You are old enough to..."

„I know. I don't mean like the ones you have under your bed..."

„Or think you do."

„Do you wanna hear this or not?"

„Sorry, babe."

„It was a monster. It must have been human once, but it looked like shit. It was in a huge glass container, in some liquid and had the freakiest look in it's eyes."

„What do you mean, in it's eyes?"

„I mean that thing stared at me. It had it's eyes open. Then I heard somenthing, got scared and ran to the elevator, pressed up and ... well you know the rest. It freaked me out. I don't ever wanna see that face ever again."

„Honey, are you sure you didn't just have another nightmare?" Ward asked honestly.

„Of course not. I never saw anything like it in my entire life. It wasn't a dream. You have to believe me. I can prove it" Skye tried to explain desperately.

„I believe you, sweetie. Calm down. If this place is down there" Skye glared at him „and I'm not saying it isn't" nice safe „we need to tell at least Coulson." Skye nodded in agreement.