The thing about Skye

Expansion 2 off: She doesn't sleep

Skye's eyes feel so heavy, it's like cement is trying to stick them together every time she blinks. She has to consciously open them each time.

She's used to feeling tired, but it's like the team has been on non-stop missions for three day's straight, meaning there hasn't really been any team meals either, so Skye hasn't had more than an energy bar in that time. Normally that wouldn't be too much of a problem, but the missions have been physically demanding, too.

It's only luck that has Jemma in the lab while everyone else goes to bed, so Skye perches on one of the work tables the doctor isn't utilizing for all her paperwork and last minute notes on the alien device it took the team forever to apprehend.

Skye does not want to sleep right now. She can hold off for a little longer before her body doesn't let her have that choice any longer, and Jemma being awake, and in the room, will only help Skye. She isn't likely to fall asleep with someone else in the room.

A biscuit tin sits between them, which is really just what the English call cookies, but Skye couldn't have any more than two. Even with her hunger pains, the sugar made her start to feel nauseous, so she had to stop.

Maybe she should sneak something from upstairs (get, she reminds herself, get something- she doesn't have to sneak it), but she feels weighed down, and weirdly at peace for the moment.

She actually might have started to doze off with her eyes still open when the sound of shuffling papers makes Skye blink a few consecutive times. Jemma is collecting her work into a neat stack and stowing her microscope and cookie tin.

Skye glances at the clock, and is disconcerted to find that it's only nearing two in the morning. Still, Jemma looks just as exhausted as Skye feels and she's rubbing tiredly at her eyes, so it's probably best that the doctor goes to bed. Skye will have to find something else to keep herself awake.

"Come on, Skye," Jemma sighs with a yawn tacked on at the end. "Let's go to bed."

Skye blinks as her arm is suddenly taken into the doctor's hands and she's being helped down from the table. She's helpless but to follow, her body moving with the guidance before her sluggish brain can question why.

"I, um," the world seems to muddle, and Skye somehow finds herself already in front of the bunks. Her skin prickles in alarm, because it's dangerous being so out of it. She needs to wake up. "Goodnight, then."

Jemma pauses, looking towards Skye with tired eyes. She is clearly ready to just go into her bunk and crash, but she still hesitates outside it. She leans back against her open doorway.

"Skye, you need to sleep," she says.

"I will," Skye automatically responds. She truly might not be able to keep herself from it much longer.

"Will you be going to bed right now, then?" Jemma asks, in a tone that indicates she already knows the answer.

Skye stiffens in discomfort, and Jemma, at least, is still sharp even in exhaustion, because she catches it. She sighs. And then she reaches out and takes Skye's hand.

Skye stares down at the appendage. At the warmth coming off of it. It's the second time the doctor has touched her so casually, without any real reason to, in so many minutes. An odd feeling, a lot like longing, crawls its way into Skye's throat.

When she looks up, she's surprised to find that she's been led into Jemma's small room, and the doctor is crawling into bed, and she's still pulling Skye gently along.

Skye's knees bump into the edge of the mattress. Her heart pulses in her throat.

She waits for the panic to come, but it's Jemma, and she just looks tired, and the ache is still throbbing in Skye's chest. She's so tired, and she's pretty sure Jemma is safe. Skye… trusts her.

Skye cautiously crawls onto the bed, kicking off her shoes, and then just… hovers, unsure what she's supposed to do.

Jemma slides forward, all the way into Skye's space, and then… that's it. She just lays there. Her breathing evens out and she's asleep. Skye stares at her face. At the fingers still linked in hers.

Slowly, Skye's muscles relax, and she lets out a breath. Jemma only wants her to sleep.

Exhaustion pulls at Skye persistently, and laying down so comfortably does nothing to stave it off. She doesn't even know if she wants to anymore. She's tired and she's safe, so… she lets herself drift.

…..

Skye jolts into an upright position, stifling a scream with a hand clamped down hard over her mouth. It's a hard won instinct, and she trembles as her mind tries to orient itself. To calm down.

She peels her fingers away and pants.

The dream is already disappearing into her subconscious, but the terror and shaken feelings linger heavily in her breast.

A hand suddenly touches Skye, and she jerks with a gasp, flinching hard as she scrambles back so quickly she nearly falls out of the bed- why is she in a bed?!

"Easy, Skye. Easy. It's just me. You're okay. You're safe."

Skye's hand is tugged slightly, and she realizes that she's clutching something. A hand. And she follows it up the arm and reaches a concerned face framed by sleep mussed hair. Jemma squeezes her fingers again, and Skye quickly loosens her grip when she realizes she had a stranglehold on it.

"Do you-"

"No."

Jemma stares at Skye wearily as Skye searches out the alarm clock. She's aghast to find that it's morning. She actually slept through the rest of the night.

"Skye-"

"I don't want to talk about it," Skye snaps, glaring at the doctor. Jemma winces, possibly because Skye had reflexively clenched her hand again, before she silently relents, falling back against her pillows.

She tugs on Skye's hand- a short, inviting thing- and Skye hesitates a few dragging moments (habit making her wonder what she wants) before diving forward and burrowing into her friend's arms. It's only after the other woman's arms are wrapped around her that she realizes that she's still trembling slightly.

Jemma squeezes Skye, and there is a similar squeezing sensation in her chest that is aching and longing and agony and euphoria all combined in a confusing ball that has Skye desperately grasping back at the doctor- air suddenly coming in quick, hitching, gasps.

"It's okay. You're okay," Jemma murmurs, again, into Skye's hair as one hand tangles in it.

But it's not the nightmare that is overwhelming Skye. Skye has nightmares every time she sleeps longer than one hour increments, and most of the time she wakes up without memories of them, besides. It's that Jemma is here. That she's touching Skye in such a kind, unselfish, way, and Skye knows that, from now on, she will crave this. She doesn't know how she will go back to a day-to-day where warm, safe, arms aren't squeezing all the anxiety right out of her body.

Skye sighs and relaxes fully into the embrace.


A/N: Please review!

~Silver~