Matter of Importance
Spoilers: Season 2 promo
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Skye found herself watching intently as she stood between Ward and Coulson in the Command Center. She found it hard to believe that madness was the reason for HYDRA's fall, the various images playing on screen were multiple teams checking multiple locations at once. Two years after their move to Polaris, two years of fighting HYDRA and the insanity of one man and his few helpers bring it down when teams couldn't.
"Sir…" one of the agents zeroed in on a body lying on a table. "Confirmation on Whitehall sir, he's dead and Oda is stating that based on the blood and body position, it was a vivisection."
"Have you located the subject?" Coulson spoke firmly and Ward placed a hand on Skye's back as she took a step closer to him.
There was shuffling before someone spoke, "yes sir, he's been tranquilized and detained."
"Report back to base after final sweep." Coulson shut off the comm unit and continued to look at the images playing across the screen. "We knocked down a majority of the organization, enough that SHIELD can rebuild without having to fight two fronts."
"I'm going to go lay down." Skye turned away from the two and headed out of the Command Center. She paused in the doorway, "inform me when his transport arrives."
Ward looked at Coulson, "she didn't need to see the destruction he left behind. Not right now, not in her condition."
"This isn't something you can shield her from." Coulson turned to leave, "she'll have to come to terms with it eventually."
"I agree but you know what Simmons said, anything stressful should be avoided at all costs." Ward shook his head as he moved to leave, "I'll get Hunter and we'll start overseeing the upgrades of the holding cell with Fitz."
The sound of the door opening and closing woke Skye, she opened her eyes to see Ward in the corner of the room starring down at the piece of furniture that sat there. Smiling she watched as she ran his hand along the espresso colored wood.
"Another month and you won't have to stare at it any longer." He turned at her voice and she smiled at him. "I'm okay, I was upset but I'm fine."
Ward moved over to the bed and sat down beside her, resting his hand on her stomach. "He shouldn't have had you in there, not right now. Simmons said that any stress could be harmful to the baby." He stilled his hand as he felt a kick under it, a smile escaping. "No matter how much I know one time is all it takes to create a baby, I'm still amazed our mistake created something beautiful."
That gained a snort, "yeah, we're never allowed to get drunk at the same time again." She smiled and let her hand fall to where his laid. "We're going to be fine Grant, all three of us."
"I will protect this baby with my life." He smiled at her, "you two are all I have left in this world and I will protect you until I can't anymore."
It was into the early morning when the beeping of Skye's phone woke her, she grabbed it as she sat up slowly. Her hand going to her enlarged belly as she read the message from May that sat on the screen. Soft breathing on her neck made her smile slightly, turning her head to see Ward out of the corner of her eye looking down at the message as well.
"You don't have to go."
"Yeah I do." Skye put the phone on the nightstand as she turned on the light. "Last time I saw him and his companions were when they tried to kidnap me a long time ago. It's time to face reality." Sighing, she pushed off the bed and stood, "you're coming with me right?"
Ward merely looked at her as if she had two heads, "you're not going unless I'm there."
"Okay Agent Ward." She smiled at him, "do me a favor and don't kill anyone, you've done good so far with only killing when absolutely necessary."
Moving around the bed to her, he gently cupped her face. "I'm trying to be better, you've helped me with that mia bella and I am trying my hardest to keep my hands clean so when I hold our child it's with stain-free hands. The innocence this child holds is something they deserve for as long as they can have it, starting with us."
The cargo bay was large and Skye stood between Ward and May, Coulson stood in front of them as they all waited for Skye's father to be escorted off the plane with Raina and Ian Quinn, both of who had developed a taste for following the madman. The quinjet's ramp lowered and several agents walked Raina and Quinn off, both stopped by the agents holding them as they reached Coulson.
"You'll be placed in a holding cell, solitary confinement with only three meals a day as your only source of human contact until interrogation. Once SHIELD has gained everything we can from you, you'll be given to the UN."
Raina looked past him at Skye, her eyes falling to the agent's enlarged stomach. Skye put her arms around her belly and gave a glare as agents escorted the woman away. Ward put a hand on her back and she nodded, confirmation she was okay.
It didn't take long before four agents walked a man in a suit out, disheveled and looking as if he hadn't cared about his appearance in a while. They stopped him in front of Coulson, who merely looked at the man as he stared at the ground.
"You surrendered I understand, why?"
"I have nothing left," he looked up at Coulson but his eyes went past the director to Skye. "Luna?"
Skye took a few steps forward till she stood side by side with Coulson. "I hope you're prepared to pay for what you've done. While Whitehall was a monster, some of his men and women were innocent and they didn't deserve to be slaughtered."
The man's eyes narrowed, "after what they did to your mother it was what they deserved."
"It wasn't your place to delivery justice."
His eyes floated down to her belly and she instinctively placed a hand on it as if to protect her child. "What have they done to you? What human has dared to force himself on you?" He tried to take a step towards her till two agents yanked him back. "They'll pay for what they've done."
"You're a monster, a murderer, a trail of death wherever you go." Skye stared him down, "and I won't let you touch my child. You'll pay for your crimes how I see fit and I promise one mercy because you are my father, you'll be reunited with my mother sooner than you'd like."
"Luna…"
"My name is Skye!" She was harsh in her objection, "take him away, holding cell F."
They started dragging him away and he turned to look at her. "They don't know what they've done to you. I lost you but you're alive, that child won't live through birth and you'll experience madness like I did."
As soon as he was gone, Ward was beside Skye and he touched her back. "Skye?"
She shook her head, "he was just saying everything to get under my skin." Looking up at Ward she smiled, "I'm fine."
Twenty-four hours later she wasn't fine, Skye found herself in the Infirmary with Simmons speaking bluntly that the placenta was starting to rip away from the wall of her uterus, a factor mainly influenced by the scar tissue from all the damage she'd sustained by being shot by Ian Quinn nearly three years before. Ward stood by the bed starring at the scientist as she insisted they operate immediately.
"But I still have five weeks to go." Skye looked up at her friend, "you said delivering earlier than 37 weeks was a bad idea. That's one of the reasons I've been in bed a lot the last trimester, to make sure I have rest and not stressed."
Simmons put her hands up, "I know and normally I would suggest going forward with bed rest and wait to see if everything turns out fine but your uterine muscles are weak. You must remember that I told you from the first day we discovered your pregnancy that it would be high-risk, the damage done from you being shot was much more than we first perceived." Her friend sighed, "to be honest I didn't want to alarm you but I suspected an early birth. You've progressed farther than I thought you would."
Sighing, Skye nodded and looked up at Ward. He took her hand and held it, "Simmons is rarely wrong, if we wait it could hurt the baby more than being born."
"Okay."
The scientist nodded, "I'll start preparations immediately." With that she turned to leave and Skye hoped everything would turn out alright.
"I'll be right here with you." Ward bent down and kissed her head. "We just get to see him or her earlier than we expected."
Joy was short-lived when Simmons had Ward pushed from the surgical room, yelling for one of the other doctors to help immediately. Watching from the glass window, Ward saw Simmons remove the baby and hand it off before diving back into Skye's surgery. It didn't take long before she was handing something to a nurse and the woman carried it over to the corner, whatever it was it was covered from view.
After what seemed like hours, Ward watched Skye being pushed out of the surgical room into the recovery area. With her was a small incubator, inside a small baby with tubes and wires all over it. Simmons paused and looked at him, removing her surgical cap as she went.
"You have a baby girl." She smiled at him, "we had to intubate her but that was expected. Other than that she's healthy for her gestational age and in a few years she'll be no different than any other little girl."
Ward nodded his head, "thank you." Taking a step closer he looked her in the eye, "what did you remove from Skye, other than our daughter?"
"Ward I think it best you focus on your daughter and Skye."
"What did you remove from her?" He made it clear the subject wasn't going to be dropped.
Simmons looked at him with tears in her eyes, "we had to perform a hysterectomy, there was massive scarring and part of the uterine lining was torn along with massive bleeding. We had no choice, I'm sorry." She gathered herself and spoke again, "I planned on telling you both once she woke up."
"I'm going to go sit with Skye and our daughter."
"I'll be in once she's awake."
Ward left the room and made his way to the recovery room where Skye lay asleep and the incubator sat against the wall. Pulling a chair over, he sat down and looked at his daughter, smiling as he watched the baby try to open her tiny eyes despite having a tube down her through. "Hey there buddy, it's Daddy." He ached to hold his daughter but knew he couldn't. "It's a huge world but Mommy and I are going to protect you. It's going to be the three of us with everyone else as some sort of family." He stood and moved to the small sink, washing his hands and pulled on a pair of gloves that sat in a box nearby. Gently opening one of the ports, he touched his daughter's tiny hand and smiled. "I love you Aurora and I will protect you with my last breath."
Coulson stared at the man who was Skye's father, he wouldn't talk about anything other than his wife or Skye. If it wasn't for the fact he was in a similar position as Ward had been, Coulson was sure the man would have killed himself.
"I'll ask you again, what information do you have on HYDRA?"
The man merely looked up, looking at Coulson as he did every time a question was asked. Three months they'd been going around and around, silence to questions or rants near insanity. The sound of the door made both men look up the stairs to see Skye walking down and in her arms was her daughter. She paused at the bottom and looked at her father.
"I've come to show you that not all your thoughts about humans are true." Skye looked down at her daughter, gently turning so the baby's face could be seen. "Perfect combination of whatever I am and human, no genetic illness or deformities." Looking up at her father, she saw him looking at the baby in awe. "I hope you got a good look because this is the last time you'll see either of us."
The baby merely looked at the man behind the barrier and smiled, reaching a hand out as if trying to touch him as Skye made her way up the stairs. The door closed and Coulson watched the man fall to his knees, laughing hysterically. "Is something funny?"
"We misunderstood, we left our home for no reason because we feared what could become of our children upon their birth. Yet we left for the exact reason we didn't have to, for if we had not left the beacon would not have been born but we didn't need to leave because she was not to be ours." He laughed, "the universe twists fate in ways we cannot see."
Coulson took a step towards the barrier, "what is the beacon? Why did you leave your home?"
"Because a prophecy foretold that our blood would become the beacon that lights the burnt out touches in the temples. It would guide the lost, bring hope to the hopeless and she would forever be a light to those lost in darkness." He smiled, "we thought one of our children would be the beacon, my beloved wife had no siblings and neither do I, signaling that the beacon would come from us."
"What prophecy?"
The madman laughed, "oh I will tell you but you will understand why we thought it was Luna when in reality it is her daughter. The seer where we lived came to us upon our marriage and told us..."
The last of the royal bloodline shall beget a gifted child who will be treasured.
Skye rocked her daughter before standing and laying her in her crib. "Sleep well my little light." Ward touched Skye's back and looked down at the baby as Skye leaned against him. "She's everything I never wanted but everything I can't imagine living without now."
"I know the feeling." He smiled and touched his daughter's cheek. "But she's a light we both need in this dark world. It's the reason I named her Aurora, after the Northern Lights."
She shall live in two worlds, one of birth and one of blood.
Four year old Aurora played in the fields of grass as her parents looked on. She laughed as she ran to the tent and ducked inside, the family dog sniffing around the edge before moving inside. Giggles could be heard as the girl was assaulted by a wet nose.
After a while she emerged and sat in her mother's lap. Skye kissed her head, "you having fun Little Light?"
"Yeah." She smiled and then her expression turned inquisitive. "Mommy, will I do anything cool or will I be normal? You know, because I'm half-alien like you."
"Well I don't do anything cool but maybe one day." Skye smiled at her, "who knows, you might be boring like Daddy."
Ward gave a chuckle as Aurora spoke with conviction. "Daddy's not boring, he's the best Daddy ever."
Forever facing prejudice for what sets her apart.
The sound of crying made Skye and Ward look up from where they sat in the common room of the base. They found Aurora running to them and she hugged her father, not letting go till he pulled back from her with concern on his face.
"What's wrong Aurora?"
"Agent Cruise said I was an alien half-breed who didn't deserve to live. He said you only pretend to love me." With tears in her eyes she looked at her at her father, "that's not true is it Daddy?"
He shook his head and smiled at her, "no Sweetheart it's not. I love you more than anything else in the world, Mommy comes in second."
"I'm going to go talk to Cruise." Skye stood and kissed her daughter's head before leaving the room. "Ignore any screaming."
But in a moment of no hope, when all lay in despair and darkness, she will rise.
The last of HYDRA, even after ten years, decided to try to destroy SHIELD despite it's growth. They attacked the new youth academy, children lay dead and others watching as their parents and instructors fought off men who sought to harm them.
SHIELD agents fell left and right, the idea that HYDRA could win a very big possibility. Crying and screams lay among the gunfire till softly it began to die away.
Ward looked up from where he stood, bloody and bruised with several HYDRA agents on the ground. Everyone seemed to be dropping their weapons, on both sides as if giving up for some reasons unknown. Looking over he saw his wife laying an agent, the man clutching his side in pain from what Skye had done, she paused and looked towards where everyone else was. Joining her they were met with a sight of surprise.
Their daughter, still in her school uniform and black hair hanging behind her, stood in the middle of the group. She held out her hand as if to urge everyone to come to her, her brown eyes lit with so much hope they couldn't understand where she got it because of what was going on.
"Go home, go in peace and without war. Go to your families, abandon those who control you and live free." She spoke, her voice soft and so child-like but beautiful. "Go now."
HYDRA agents started to depart, picking up their dead and just walking out as if nothing else mattered but to leave as commanded. They were gone within the hour and both Skye and Ward sat beside their daughter as she told them what she felt among the fighting.
"I just sensed no one had hope and that they were lost." She looked up at her parents. "I had to help them."
She will be a beacon to the lost, a light in darkness and hope where there is none.
A/N: The End...
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