A/N: First I still don't own the characters!

This next chapter wasn't actually done but I was feeling very guilty for not posting anything recently and did want anyone to think that the story had been abandoned. I sort of swanned off on vacation and was distracted by London. I brought my computer with the intention of writing, but that just never happened.

Since I cut this chapter a little short to post today I already have some of the next one written.

Chapter Ten

"You're telling me that nothing more than kissing happened last night." Simmons said her voice colored with shock. "He really is a bloody gentleman."

Skye laughed at the obvious dissatisfaction in her friend's voice as she stepped out of the bathroom smoothing down her dress. "He really is."

"Oh wow! You look beautiful!" Simmons said.

May had convinced Skye to go with a deep blue, flirty dress that clung to her slight curves but wasn't overly revealing. "Yea?"

Simmons nodded enthusiastically. "Even better than the pink one! And that one had Fitz and Ward drooling for hours!"

Skye snorted remembering how Ward had growled at her not to screw the mission up as she had left, he sure hadn't been drooling then. "Is it weird that I'm nervous? I mean, it's not like I've never been on a date before..."

"But this is different." Simmons said. The connection between the two had been more obvious than ever at breakfast. Steve had been incredibly attentive to Skye and seemed to always be touching her, even if it was just innocently resting his hand on top of hers.

"Yea. It is." Skye quietly agreed. "He's different."

"I should hope so. He is Captain America." Simmons looked at her friend curiously. "It's a good different though, right?"

Skye nodded. "A very good different."

"I can't believe you met the Tony Stark and Clint Barton this morning!" Simmons said with another groan.

"I can't believe it either." Skye shook her head. "Did I tell you that Stark wants me to try and hack his system?! He gave me low level access so I can try and find any holes in the cyber security."

"Please tell me you cracked his system!" Simmons jumped with her excitement.

Skye laughed, a few months ago the girl currently bouncing around excited about hacking into a system would have never encouraged it. "I haven't even tried yet. Besides, I'm going to need your help with something first."

"My help? You know that I am no good with things like that. Perhaps Fitz could help-"

Skye quickly interrupted, "No, no, no! I didn't mean with the hacking part. I need you to sneak me a copy of some of Fitz's designs."

"Why do you need Fitz's designs?"

"Because I know that Stark will try and back hack my system when I break through his firewall-"

It was Simmons turn to interrupt, "How do you know he'll do that?"

"Because it's what I would do." Skye answered so used to Simmons jumping in with her questions she barely noticed when it happened. "Anyway, when Stark back hacks my system I'll let him access only certain files… Fitz's designs."

"Oh that's a fantastic plan!" Simmons caught on.

The two hashed out the details and decided that Simmons would sneak her the files in the morning so Skye would have time to set up her own trick system flaw before starting in on the Stark Industry server. As with most plans it didn't take the girls long to have a workable one. Soon enough Simmons looked at her watch, "I need to clear out of here before Captain Rogers is here to pick you up!"

"You're going to have to start calling him Steve. I think he's sick of hearing the whole Captain bit."

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

It took Steve longer to set everything up for the date with Skye than he had thought it would which made him try to rush through getting ready. He quickly made his way from his bedroom buttoning his shirt only to find his couch once again occupied by a teammate. "Come on, Barton. Again?"

Clint laughed at Steve's aggravated expression. "Don't worry, this is just a quick fly by."

"Alright. What do you need?" Steve asked.

The archer shook his head. "I don't need anything, Cap. Just here offering some friendly advice."

When Steve scoffed and looked over at his friend irritation now clear in his stance, Clint chuckled for a moment before continuing. "You'll either get my advice or Tony's. Your call."

Steve groaned and ran his hand through his hair. "Fine. Spit it out."

"Trust your gut. From what I can tell-"

"And from what Nat dug up, you mean?" Steve interrupted.

Clint nodded, completely unfazed by the way Steve almost growled the question. "Your girl doesn't trust easily. If you want her to open up to you… You've got to be willing to open up to her first."

Steve looked over at Clint, "You think she hasn't opened up yet?"

"I think she wants to." Clint said. "But I think experience has taught her to be cautious."

"Experience?"

Clint stood before saying, "It's her story to tell. Oh, and one more thing."

Steve simply raised an eyebrow and waited for his friend to finish. "Don't be too afraid to let loose a little bit. I'd say life is short but-"

"Yea, yea, here comes another senior citizen joke." Steve rolled his eyes.

"You get what I'm saying though?" Clint asked seriously.

"I do." Steve was just as serious.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

The adventure of dress shopping with the younger girls had only given May a slight headache. She felt a little relieved to steal the stool next to a clearly wary looking Coulson. "Difficult day?"

Coulson glared. "You could say that."

"Saw you talking with Barton at the Triskelion." She said as she signaled the bartender.

He nodded, "In his usual cryptic manner he gave me a heads up that we need to keep an eye on the STRIKE teams."

May raised an eyebrow at this new information and waited for Coulson to elaborate. "Barton was shot in the back during a mission with them."

This caught the entirety of May's attention. She had trained with Barton before Bahrain and knew for a fact that he was almost impossible to catch off guard even from a distance. She and Coulson shared a look. There wasn't much of a need to speak further on the subject at the time so May shifted her focus back to the TV over the bar.

After another moment Coulson cleared his throat, "So Skye is going on another date with…"

"She is." May glanced back at Coulson. "Is that going to be a problem?"

"Yes!" Coulson said instantly, then considered what he said. "I mean no. And you're clearly in favor of it."

"What on Earth gave you that impression?"

"You never shop and you despise dresses."

May sighed, "If I hadn't gone those two would still be shopping."

Coulson chuckled at the probability of May's assessment being accurate. A comfortable silence grew between the long time partners. Both sat casually watching the TV and sipping on their freshly served drinks.

Ward spotted the pair almost as soon as he came into the hotels bar looking for a quick drink after a relatively tense meeting with one of the STRIKE team leaders. Rumlow was almost constantly a pain in his ass. He quietly stalked over and grabbed the open seat next to May.

"Evening, Agent Ward." Coulson said.

"Heard you met with the Director this afternoon." Ward told Coulson. "Everything ok, sir?"

Coulson glanced over, "That would depend on whose definition of ok we're operating under."

"Sir?" Ward asked, confused.

All Coulson offered was a tight smile before getting up and leaving May and Ward alone at the bar. May turned a bit toward him, "I wouldn't push him right now."

Ward looked at her surprised she even offered commentary on the situation. "Is there a problem with the team?"

May just smirked and shifted her attention toward the door. Ward could see that there was no way May would discuss anything Coulson had told her. "I had my own run in with an Avenger this morning."

"Barton was pretty hard to miss." After his little chat with Coulson, May heard he was proving to the STRIKE teams that it would take more than a bullet to keep him down by tossing their asses around the training compound.

"Hawkeye is here too?" Ward asked. He hadn't really considered the idea that other Avengers would be here given that he'd heard Banner was over at SciTech and Romanoff was off on a different op.

May finally looked at Ward. "So which one did you run into?"

"Captain America. I guess he alternates between here and the Hub. Didn't expect to have contact again with him so soon." Ward shrugged. He'd spoken with Rumlow about it and been told that the good captain was hard to pin down since his skills were so useful.

"You really have no idea, do you?" May blurted before she could stop herself.

Her words sent ice down Ward's spine. His very survival often depended on him knowing things before anyone else did. "What do you mean?"

May snorted before calmly telling him, "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

Ward glared at her for a few moments but when that didn't push her into telling him more he switched topics. "Has Skye made an appearance yet?"

"Last time I checked she and Simmons were headed up to her room." May said. Leaving out that they were likely gossiping while Skye prepared for her date.

She watched as Ward quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and frowned. May could only assume that he was hoping that Skye had contacted him and was disappointed to see that she hadn't. Ward glared at the drink in his hand and swiftly drank it. When he stood May spoke quietly, "Maybe now isn't the best time to speak with her."

"Meaning what?" Ward ground out. To him it seemed like the only time to talk to her since she wasn't returning any of his calls.

She looked over at him assessing his tense shoulders and clenched jaw, "Just try not to pick a fight. We're back on active tomorrow afternoon and the two of you need to work together."

May wasn't surprised to see Ward making his way out of the bar. All she could do was shake her head and signal to the bartender for another drink.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Skye sat on the edge of her bed and taped out codes within her system as a way to help keep her mind off the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. Even though she knew there was nothing to be too worried about she couldn't help it.

She wasn't surprised when a sharp knock sounded at her door several minutes before Steve had told her he would pick her up. Not bothering to look through the peep hole Skye tugged the door open saying, "Why am I not surprised?"

But she was surprised. Instead of Steve standing in front of her she found a very angry looking Ward. His eyes widened slightly as he took in her appearance, but before she could say anything he snapped at her, "You've been avoiding me."

Quickly, she glanced down the hall and then back at her teammate. "I haven't been avoiding you. I've just been a little busy."

"Busy? Look, if you're mad at me for some reason we need to hash it out now. Before were out on a mission-"

"I'm not mad at you!" Skye cut him off. Sure, she had been a little upset about what he'd said to her before, but she realized she couldn't really hold it against him. She was the one to give him a reason to doubt her during the whole Miles incident and she knew that it would take time to earn back his trust.

Ward continued to glare at her, "You were told to check in –"

"And I have!" Skye raised her voice a bit. "I've checked in with Coulson! It wasn't like I just disappeared, Ward."

"I'm your Supervising Officer, you should have been checking in with me."

Skye sighed. Admittedly, she had considered at least texting him especially, when she finally took the time to actually use her phone for more than just a quick call to Coulson. In the end she kept putting it off thinking that he wouldn't want her interrupting his down time. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't think it mattered, but next time we get down time you'll be the one I call, ok?"

Ward sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. After a moment the tension drained from his stance and his expression became a bit friendlier. "Alright." Then he looked over her one more time and finally smiled for the first time. "That dress is too nice for sitting in a hotel room. Come on, let me buy you a drink."

"Uh, actually I sort of-" she faltered, unsure how to explain that she was going on a date.

Luck was either on her side or working totally against her when the elevator announced the arrival of someone else and interrupted whatever weak excuse she was about to come up with on the spot. When the doors opened and revealed Steve, Skye couldn't help but smile as their eyes met.

Well it looked like her date was going to be off to an interesting start.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Let me know how you think Ward and Steve will handle this lovely little encounter!

I have to say that I do not think that my story will have a FitzSimmons pairing. There's been a lot of damage to them this season and as much as I adore them each…. I cant find a way to make it work.