Chapter 21 – Understanding

Skye had only been living in Stark Tower for a week and she was already beginning to go stir crazy. The hacker missed the fresh air and freedom she had had on her and Ward's small farm, but that already seemed like a lifetime ago. Skye felt suffocated being confined to one floor of the enormous Stark Tower, one that only had a single small balcony as an escape. Not to mention that her husband was fidgety in the confined space, one of the conditions of being allowed to stay was wearing a monitoring bracelet, like Skye once did, which pretty much guaranteed that the former specialist couldn't leave Coulson's floor and limiting the family's escape options. Something that that frustrated the hacker's husband to no end.

As each day past Skye became more and more frustrated not only with being stuck inside but with the distance Ward had been keeping. Skye was pretty sure she could have handled the confinement, if only her husband was with her. It wasn't that Ward wasn't physically there, he was, it was that mentally he was a million miles away, preparing himself for the day Coulson asked him to leave. The couple had a daily routine, Ward helped with the children, who didn't notice anything different about their father, and he slept in the same bed as Skye, a small concession from Coulson, but something was off and Skye knew it. Gone were the lingering touches and glances the pair had once shared. Gone was the intimacy in their relationship, Ward even avoided kissing his wife. Skye was beginning to consider it a good day is her husband planted a kiss in her hair when he passed her the breakfast he had made or given her a quick kiss on the cheek before bed. Skye was beginning to get irritated.

The team's treatment of Ward didn't help matters. He and Coulson only exchanged a few words, despite living on the same floor of the tower and in the meals Coulson did share with the small family the conversation was only ever between the hacker and the Director of SHIELD, the former specialist remained silent. May was surprisingly civil to Ward, which only meant she didn't beat him or ignore him the way Fitz and Simmons did whenever they visited. The only one who went out of their way to be nice to Ward was Romanoff but Ward was still distant with her as well. The air in the tower was ice cold and Skye had had enough.

It was almost eleven at night when Coulson finally came back down to his living floor, having spent the entire day on the floor he had aptly named his work floor. He was surprised to find May, Fitz and Simmons waiting in the lounge when he stepped off the elevator.

Simmons yawned, "What was so important that it couldn't wait until morning?"

Coulson was confused, "What do you mean?"

May raised an eyebrow, "You called a meeting."

Coulson's confusion grew and he shook his head, "No I didn't."

"Yes you did," Simmons replied, pulling out her phone, "We all got a text from you."

"Not from me," Coulson assured.

"From me," Skye interrupted, walking into the lounge. The hacker gave Coulson a guilty smile, "Sorry. I may have hacked your phone so I could talk to everyone at the same time."

"We all would have come if the message was from you," Simmons answered for the entire team, "You didn't need to hack Coulson's phone to get us here."

Skye shrugged, "I was bored and I can only mess with JARVIS so much before he reports my presence to Stark."

Coulson looked annoyed, "You hacked my phone and get the entire team here at eleven at night because you were bored?"

Skye shook her head, joining the team on the lounge, "I hacked your phone because I was bored. I got you all here because we need to talk about the elephant in the room or in this case the ex-HYDRA agent in the tower."

Fitz groaned, "You brought us here to talk about Ward?"

Skye stood up and stood in front of the team, "I did." Before Fitz could complain she spoke again, "And you're going to sit and listen."

Fitz must have heard the anger and determination in the hacker's voice because he didn't argue again. Simmons, however, did, "Look, Skye," The biochemist sighed, "We get that you've spent three years with him, not to mention the months you spent hiding your relationship when you were still with us, and that you have two kids together. So you obviously know something about him that we don't but after everything he did to us," She gestured to the engineer sitting next to her, "Especially after what he did to Fitz and I, we just can't understand."

"Which is why I called this meeting," Skye snapped, for the first time Coulson noticed that the hacker gripped a notebook in her hand, which she now dropped in Simmons' lap, "When Grant first found me I didn't understand either, hell even after I understood part of me still hated him. The first time we had sex it was more out of hate and lust than anything else."

Coulson shifted uncomfortably at the shift in topic, "Skye…"

Skye spun to face Coulson, "And that's another reason I called this meeting. Grant and I are married, we have two kids together, stop giving him the idea that if he even looks at me you'll shoot him." Coulson looked away guiltily as Skye continued, "Yeah, I noticed that. We're married, we're going to touch, we're going to kiss and god forbid we might even have sex. Get used to it."

There was an awkward silence when Skye finished. Her words needed to be said but that didn't mean the team wanted to hear them, they all shifted uncomfortably under Skye's glare.

After a while Simmons sighed, breaking the silence, she picked up the notebook Skye had dropped in her lap, "What's this?"

"Understanding," Skye replied, finally sitting back on the lounge with the team, "Look, when Grant and I found each other he couldn't talk." She glanced at May, "An unfortunate side effect of a blow to the throat." Skye gestured to the notebook, "That was his way of communicating with those who couldn't sign, like Romanoff and like me."

Simmons opened the book and looked up at Skye, "It's addressed to you."

Skye nodded, "The first letter is, a couple of others too but there are some addressed to each of you as well. There is also a couple of conversations he had with Natasha in there as well, well half conversations, only his side but you get the idea." She stood up again and looked around at the team, "He doesn't know I'm giving it to you but I think you all need to read it. I would prefer you didn't read the letters addressed to me, I've never read the ones addressed to each of you but I won't complain if you do, they're just a bit personal. After you're done I suggest you try talking to him, you might learn something."

The hacker left the lounge without another word, leaving the team alone with a potential game changer.

Coulson sighed and looked around at his team, "So… Who wants to go first?"

Author's Note: And the notebook returns! If you want to get a glimpse of the letters that Ward wrote to the team, or the half conversations he had with Natasha, then re-read chapter 19 of BROKEN DREAMS AND SILENT SCREAMS.

I have written chapters 22, 23 and 25 for the story but I'm having trouble with chapter 24 so if you have any ideas please let me know, I will try to do another double update tomorrow and then again on Tuesday so that this story is complete before season 2 starts. I know that I said that I wouldn't beg for reviews anymore but I really want to pass 200 reviews so I'm not going to beg but ask nicely, PLEASE REVIEW.