"After which he came and talked to me, wanting to know if you told me any of what Skye told you," Tony continued.

"But I didn't," Bruce pointed out.

"No," Tony drawled. "But then Jane came and told Selvig that Loki had just confirmed her theory."

"And you overheard this via Jarvis?" Bruce guessed moodily.

"That's beside the point," Tony said, hurriedly moving onto his point and thereby confirming Bruce's theory. The point seems to me to be that Skye needs help seeing that she's not a monster."

Ah, here it was – how this all related to Betty…

"And I suspect," Tony kept on hopefully. "That Betty could be the one to help her with that."

"I bet you do," Bruce replied, letting an edge creep into voice as well as darkness into his eyes.

Dr. Selvig scuttled after a moment of tense silence, but after living with Bruce since Manhattan, Tony was not to be swayed.

"Am I wrong?" the billionaire asked, looking like he already knew the answer.

Bruce's glare darkened and he stayed silent, but when Tony only smirked, Bruce relented and ground out, "Fine; I'll go talk to Coulson about her. Jarvis, tell Director Coulson I want to meet him in his office in three minutes."

"Yes, sir."

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Tony wheedled.

"Tony, get out of my lab," Bruce ordered. "Apparently, I have a meeting with Coulson to put the love of my life on a kill list."

"It's not that bad!" Tony protested as the two of them headed into the elevator.

"You'd better hope it's not."

"Director Coulson?" Jarvis' unwelcome voice cut through the quiet in Skye's bedroom, declaring, "Dr. Banner requires your presence in your office in three minutes."

Coulson sighed heavily, looking at Skye when she pulled away from him, and even Grant could tell their boss was conflicted. Skye saw it too, and nodded, giving Coulson permission to leave her.

"I'm okay now," she said with a watery smile. "You all can go about your business. Really. I'll be okay. I'm just being a drama queen anyway. I'm good." Skye wriggled her way out of Coulson's and Simmon's arms but inconspicuously kept her hand in his. "Get out, all of you. I'm fine. Go on about your lives. May, Trip, go train. Coulson, go talk to Dr. Banner, Fitzsimmons, go… be scienc-y." Skye smiled affectionately, leaving out any directives for Grant as she said, "Go on. I am fine."

What are you going to do? Fitz queried, while May watched Ward carefully, assessing him.

"I've got a couple of people I need to talk to," Skye answered easily.

Grant sincerely hoped that he was one of those people.

And he must have been, because once the others all left, Skye moved to sit on the edge of her bed, taking Grant with her since they were still holding hands. A long, heavy silence stretched between them – so many things to say, yet both were so uncomfortable at the idea of actually saying them – before Grant broke it with the one question that he could think of.

"Are you okay?"

"Are you okay with it?" Skye shot the question back at him, taking him by surprise and leaving him a little confused.

"What?"

Skye's eyes flitted closed, as if she couldn't quite bear to look at him as she spoke. "I…"

"Skye?" Grant said softly, gently tilting her chin up with one finger, watching her eyes ease open before he caught and held her gaze. "What is it?"

"I… I don't want you to think of me differently, Grant."

"I don't think of you any differently than I did before," Grant assured her, not missing her usage of his first name.

"'Before' when?"

That was a loaded question, considering all that they'd been through, and it was one that Grant wasn't sure how to answer. So he asked a question of his own instead.

"Why?"

"Because…"

Again Skye's eyes, swimming with raw, painful uncertainty, skittered away from his, and she seemed to be at a loss for words. A moment later, in answer to his question, she did the one thing that Grant had been longing to do since he'd first seen her again – she leaned into him and crashed her lips against his.

When Skye broke the contact and before she looked down at her hands, Grant saw that shyness had joined the other emotions in her eyes as she admitted, "Because I think I might still have feelings for you."

"Good," Grant whispered, leaning his forehead against hers. "Because I know I still love you."

An expression that might have been a smile flashed across Skye's face, and Grant did the only thing he could think to do to keep it there. He kissed her again.

Coulson was exhausted and possibly even upset at having been called into his office; Bruce could tell that much when he first laid eyes on the director, and he couldn't blame the other man. It had been a hard day for everyone – some admittedly more so than others.

Coulson, however, must have seen something he liked in Bruce's expression, because his own features relaxed as he took the seat behind his desk and asked knowingly, "Have Dr. Selvig and Stark actually talked you into asking about whoever they've been after you about?"

"Dr. Elisabeth Ross," Bruce answered shortly.

"Yeah," Coulson said with something that resembled a smile. "I figured as much. As a matter of fact, I've already called and talked to her the day that Thor left for Asgard. She agreed to come, but I told her that I wanted someone – hopefully you – to come to me about her first before she showed up. So she's been waiting for my call for the past couple of days. She's ready and willing to help as soon as the jet can come and pick her up."

Bruce ran a hand over his face, asking, "And when will that be?"

"Tomorrow at the very earliest."

Bruce nodded, taking a deep breath and heading for the door of Coulson's office without further conversation beyond a simple, "Okay."