Chapter 9

Skye sat on the upper level of the cargo bay looking down at Simmons and Ward, as they ran through some training exercises together. It had been two days since Simmons had jumped from the plane, Ward jumping after her to catch her and the two had been spending a lot of time together. It seemed that anytime he wasn't training Skye, or doing his own workout, the two of them were together.

The day before, Coulson had Fitz working on something outside the lab and so Ward had simply sat in the lab with Simmons while she worked. She talked to him about what she was doing, and even dumbed down her explanations so he could at least somewhat understand. And he hadn't just humoured her; he had truly seemed interested in what she was telling him.

Then this morning at breakfast, Simmons had asked if Ward would start teaching her to fight, and Skye had nearly choked on her coffee. The young scientist had sounded so enthusiastic, and he had given her a gentle smile and told her that they could start that afternoon.

Skye kept telling herself that she wasn't jealous, but she couldn't help it. It felt like Simmons was stealing her SO, and the two of them seemed so happy spending time together. She felt like she was being replaced. When Ward had said that he cared about Simmons and was worried about her, Skye had just thought that he meant as a friend, but this seemed like more than that – the two seemed more joined at the hip than even Fitz and Simmons had been.

The sound of laughter from below her drew Skye out of her thoughts. She looked down to see Ward and Simmons sprawled out on the mats, Ward half over her but supporting his weight with his arms, so as not to crush her.

"That was terrible," she heard Simmons say between giggles.

"It wasn't so bad," Ward responded between his own light chuckles. "You managed to knock me down, but it would probably be better if I hadn't landed on you."

From where she was sitting Skye could see the tender look Ward had on his face as he jumped up and pulled Simmons to her feet.

"Well, I didn't even really mean to knock you down," Simmons said as she regained her balance. "I mostly just tripped over and brought you crashing down with me. My balance has never been great."

"That's something we can work on. I can show you some things you can do to improve your balance. There are a few exercises you can do while you're working in the lab that won't even interfere with your work." They were walking over to the edge of the mats to grab their water bottles as he spoke.

"Oh that would be wonderful," Simmons replied before having some of her water.

"Wanna try one more time?" Ward asked as he put his bottle back down, "Or do you want me to show you those exercises now?"

"Hmm. Exercises I think," she replied, dropping her own water bottle. "I don't know if I can handle you falling on me again today," she added, poking her tongue out at him.

Skye could barely believe it when she saw him poke his tongue back out at her. She had never seen her usually stoic SO act so playful. And she was now prepared to admit, at least to herself, that she was definitely jealous that it was Simmons that brought it out in him and not her.

Suddenly she heard Ward calling her name and focused back on the cargo bay below her to see the two of them looking up at her with slightly amused and questioning looks on their faces. She hadn't even realised that they knew she was there, but then it shouldn't surprise her. Ward always had an exceptional awareness of his surroundings so he probably knew she was there from the moment she sat down.

"Uh… Sorry, what was that?" she stuttered out, having no idea what he had apparently asked her.

"I just asked if you wanted to join us for some balance exercises before we start your training," Ward repeated with what almost looked like a smile on his face.

Skye glanced at the time on her phone and realised it was just about time for her training. She didn't realise she had been sitting there watching them for so long. A part of her wanted to turn him down, because she didn't know if she could handle them up close without snapping, but the larger part of her couldn't say no and leave the two of them alone some more.

"Sure," Skye replied, pasting her best fake smile on her face and getting to her feet. "It couldn't hurt me to improve my balance a little, given my tendency to trip over air."

Ward gave her a small smile at that, and then waited for her to join them on the mats before going through some basic balance exercises with the two girls.

Something was wrong with his rookie. That was all Ward could think as they went through her training session. He had seen it when she first agreed to join him and Simmons before the session, noticing that the smile she had on her face was definitely not real. Then she had been short with him whenever he tried to talk to her as they trained.

She was hitting the bag now, with much more force than usual, and he couldn't figure out when and how he had managed to upset her. He was fairly sure it was his fault somehow though, because when Fitz had passed through on the way to the lab she was all smiles and jokes with him.

He thought back over the past couple of days to see if he could pinpoint when she had started being angry with him. Recalling their training session from that morning, he realised she had seemed a bit off even then, but she had seemed mostly okay the night before. So somehow, he must have managed to piss her off between going to bed last night, and training that morning. The only thing that happened in that time was breakfast, and he couldn't recall anything happening at breakfast that should have upset her.

"Okay, I think that's enough for today," he said, stopping her from hitting the bag again.

"What? Why?" she questioned, turning to glare at him.

"I just thought you might want an early mark from training because-"

"You've got something better to do?" she interrupted, almost spitting the words at him.

"No. You've just been working hard lately, so I thought it might be nice to have an early finish today. Maybe we can play a board game or watch a movie?" he asked hesitantly, not wanting to upset her any more. He didn't know why she seemed even angrier when he said they were going to finish up early. Usually she would jump at the chance to cut training short.

She continued to stare at him for a few moments, although the stare lost some of its heat. She seemed to be considering him now, almost seeing if he was telling the truth.

"Okay," she finally responded. "I'll go get cleaned up and meet you in the lounge?" The look on her face had softened and she was almost smiling at him now.

"Sure," he replied, giving her a soft smile. "I'll ask FitzSimmons if they want to join us and then get cleaned up as well and meet you there."

When he mentioned asking FitzSimmons her face hardened minutely again, before she gave a slight huff and turned away. "Sure, ask the scientists too," she muttered.

With that, she hurried up the stairs and away from him. He didn't know where he had gone wrong, but she had seemed to be softening towards him and now she was pissed at him again.