Operation: Shadows
Chapter 15
Skye
November 19th 2014
Since Skye and May's heart to heart, the world had another Avenger level disaster. Thankfully, it had only involved Thor and not Natasha or Clint. By this point, SHIELD were used to Thor comings and goings from Earth due to his constant contact with his soulmate, Jane Foster. Unfortunately, as SHIELD had got used to his comings and goings, they were unprepared for the attack by the Dark Elves.
According to Maria, it was one big screw up and someone was in danger of losing their job over this mess. Speaking of messes, SHIELD 616 was one of the teams deployed to clean-up which meant the team was now based in London for the foreseeable future. This resulted in Skye watched from the sides, holding a box for Coulson, as he walked around with a frown on his face, clearly annoyed by something.
"You know, the whole realisation that what we believed to be old mythology and gods turned out to be real is insane." Skye commented, looking around at the ruble they were faced with. "Whilst I am having an amazing amount of fun sorting through all this, I really wished they left a space ship behind."
"So we can clean that up too?" May asked, giving her an incredulous look.
"No so we can fly it, duh. Like, how awesome would it be to say that you flew an actual alien ship? Don't lie May, I know that is something you would love." Skye said, swirling to face to her mentor with a grin.
May smirked at her, but did not comment.
Coulson turned to her as he deposited a bit of rock into the box that she was holding. "I would love it, if for once, Thor sent some cleaning up gods after him. Is that too much to ask? Also, when has anything alien went well in humans hands?" He grumbled.
"I wouldn't mind getting these human hands on Thor. He's so dreamy." Skye replied back with a smirk, whilst she may be mated to Bobbi, Skye was not blind to the amazing body that Thor had.
'I 100% agree. If the opportunity ever came up for a threesome with him, we should take it.' Bobbi thought to her, chuckling to herself.
Skye bit her lip to contain the laughter that bubbled up from within.
Coulson looked sceptically at her, before scoffing "Sure he has some boyish charm, but I wouldn't say he was dreamy."
"No, he's dreamy." May said, smirking again at Coulson before walking to another part of the building.
Coulson gaped at her as she passed before looking at Skye and shaking his head. "Unbelievable." He muttered, clearly put out that May considered Thor dreamy.
"Don't worry A.C, plenty of people out there think you're dreamy as well." Skye said, trying to offer some support for the ageing agent.
"Aw Skye, don't patronise me, that just make it worse." Coulson complained, taking the box from Skye, only to pass it back to her once his phone starting ringing. "Go to Ward and see what need's done" He instructed as he turned from her.
Skye shrugged but did as she was told, making her way back to her team members whilst slyly listening to Coulson's conversation. This whole super hearing thing was great.
'Skye.' May reprimanded, appear at her side and giving her a look.
"Heeeeey Agent May," Skye casually said aloud, trying to appear innocent. 'Aw come one, like you don't occasionally listen into someone's conversation.'
'I'm with Skye on this one.' Fitz thought, coming to Skye's rescue. 'When I first got the enhanced hearing, I was constantly listening in on conversation from superior offices. Was nice to know what they were looking for and for a general gauge of their mood.'
'Plus, we get a good few minutes extra to prepare ourselves for a mission! What if I'm in the shower, casually hearing that Coulson's about to call a team meeting for a new mission? Those few extra minutes would help me to finish up my shower routine quicker so I'm not all smelly.' Skye reasoned, raising an eyebrow at May.
May rolled her eyes at her pups, but the small smile on her face told Fitz and Skye that they had won this argument.
Skye and May arrived to where Fitz, Simmons and Ward were standing, just in time to hear Ward call Fitz their monkey.
Skye gave a snort. "You'd make a cute monkey, Fitz."
"I'd like to think I'm cute enough as it is and that having my own monkey would just add to my cuteness." Fitz replied, trying to look serious.
"Oh yes, that's exactly what ever girl wants to hear their mate say." Jemma retorted, rolling her eyes.
Skye titled her head as she heard Jemma's phone buzz in her pocket and watched the way Fitz gave her a disappointed look. Jemma sighed as she took out her phone to cancel the incoming call.
"I'll talk to them when I talk to them, Fitz. They just want answers for this and an update on my life. There really isn't much I can tell them about this whole mess in Greenwich and the only thing that has happened since I last phone them is that I got sick with this chitauri virus and tried to kill myself to save you lot. It's not exactly something I want to tell them." Jemma tried to reason to them.
"So, just tell them something different? Something they want to hear." Skye said back, not understanding why Simmons wouldn't want to speak to her parent. Skye would give anything to speak to her parents, but Skye also knew that her relationships to parents was different than what Simmons had.
"I'm a terrible liar Skye, they would know straightway that I wasn't telling them something. I just don't want them to worry more than they already do." Jemma said sadly, looking down the scientific instruments in her hand, clearly trying to get back to work.
Skye paused for a second, she could go on to tell Jemma how grateful she should be that there are people in her life that care for her and want to know how she is doing, but she knew that it would not help what Jemma was feeling. Her friend was constantly trying to make sure that everyone else was okay, that they were happy and make life a little bit easier for them. No matter what Skye said to her now, Jemma wasn't going to change her mind.
"How on earth did you end up working for a spy agency if you can't lie?" Skye teased, deciding to go down a safer route. She could feel the gratitude coming from Fitz on how she handled the situation.
"I'm an excellent scientist, with two PHD's by the time I was 17 and graduated from SHILED academy within a year to work in a lab, not in the field. I didn't need to know how to lie." Jemma replied back, a small grateful, smile on her face.
"Oh look at me, I'm Jemma, I'm super duper smart but I can't figure out how to lie but I work at a spy agency! Golly, this sure is embarrassing." Skye teased her in an over the top British accent.
"Haha, you're hilarious Skye." Jemma deadpanned.
"I thought it was a pretty good impression." Coulson said, appearing out of nowhere. "Hate to break this up, but we've got a mission in Oslo, Norway."
The team arrived in Oslo, in one of their National Forests to inspect a cut down tree. The team was split in two with Coulson, Ward and Simmons going on the ground and May, Fitz and Skye staying up on the bus. It had a been a while since Skye was left alone with just Fitz and May.
They were currently listening to Ward help Simmons combat her fear of heights so that she could inspect the tree and try to find a cause as to why the tree was cut down and how the two assailants managed to use extreme force without any obvious signs of enhancement.
Skye stared at the holo table as Simmons's 3D scan of the tree was coming through for Fitz to examine. Her fingers tapped aimlessly at her tablet, waiting for the programme that she wrote to pick up some information on their two assailants. She glanced over at May to see the woman staring intently at the two of them.
May had been acting weirdly recently. The sudden changes in moods, fluxing between the openly caring, older wolf and the cold, unmoving agent. The changes were starting to decrease and they were left with the cold, unmoving agent more and more. Skye remembered Natasha's warning about the older agent and how she acted, she was never the same after Bahrain and she could understand why after May allowed her to feel what she felt about that mission.
Skye just wasn't expecting the change to be a massive difference in personality. It was taking a while to get used to.
Skye glanced back at Fitz to see if he noticed how May was staring at them, but he was just babbling back to Simmons about the find. It seemed like he wasn't paying attention – or so she thought.
'Just ignore it, May has a habit of keeping us in her eyesight in case you haven't noticed' Fitz thought to her as he continued to examine the staff replica.
Skye looked back over at May again, she knew that May liked to keep them in her line of sight when they were working a mission, just never this obvious.
'It's because we are alone, no need to hide how she feels about us.' Fitz thought again, interrupting her thoughts.
Skye nodded absently as she focused back on her tablet. After what happened a few days ago, Skye had been working harder to follow orders and make it obvious that she was trying to get to know the team more as a whole. May was right, it would be easier on everyone involved if Skye acted like a good little agent in training, even if it wasn't her style. She just hoped that May noticed that during her intense staring.
'The two of you are terrible at keeping your thoughts to yourself.' May commented causing both Skye and Fitz to jump.
Fitz turned and gave her a sheepish look, his hand scratching at the back of his head at being caught talking about May. 'I just figured...'
'It's alright. I was watching you both work like a normal supervisor would. No other reason.'
'Right...' Skye and Fitz thought back, glancing at each other again before Skye's tablet made an audible noise.
May rolled her eyes, before speaking aloud "Any further progress on finding about where our mystery tree choppers are hiding?"
Skye checked her tablet, "they're not hiding."
After discovering their assailants names and their reason for looking for the staff, Coulson made the decision to go visit an old friend, Elliot Randolph, who was an expert in Norse mythology. Again, the team split up with Coulson taking FitzSimmons with them to speak with the professor. After all, those two would have the most luck keeping up with any discussion about the mythology.
It wasn't long until they returned back with some much needed information regarding the mysterious staff. Apparently it was called the berserker staff that a group of elite Asgardian warriors used to wield as they went into battle and it fed off the holder's anger and for humans, their darkest memories. Brilliant.
Skye looked back over at May at that bit of information and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Fitz giving May a similar look of worry. It was at that point, Skye promised herself that she would not allow May to touch or go near the staff.
Coulson already had a team in place at Baffin Island where Professor Randolph said there was a high chance there could be a hidden part of the staff located there, but the back up team that SHIELD sent could not find any traces of Asgardian items on the island.
Thankfully, Skye had already checked out all the Viking routes to see which one they could go to, in order to find the next part of the staff. Luckily, one of those routes was where they already were, in Seville. Between Skye and May, they had found a location which could hold a part of the staff, under a church apparently and filled with bones.
Since Skye was the trainee agent, it was decided that she and Ward would examine the underground ruins. Thankfully, there was only two main corridors and Ward had kindly agreed to take the creepier route. Skye had been complaining to Bobbi about how creepy this was as she kept an eye out for any movement or sign of the staff.
Bobbi just laughed at her and told her to focus. God, what a caring soulmate.
It all went FUBAR as Fitz tried to guide Ward to a third person underground with them. Ward finally managed to see them and reached for the staff before falling to the ground, passing out. Skye had never ran so fast in her life. She had tried to wake Ward up but when he woke up of his own accord, he looked scared out his mind. The amount of fear and hatred in his eyes was terrifying.
Once they were back on the plane, Skye tried to keep around Ward, hoping to keep him calm during his check up. It seemed to have the opposite effect as he exploded at, not only Skye, but Simmons and Fitz as well. She kept trying to remind herself, and her friends, that it wasn't him and that it was the staff causing this reaction. However, the look of utter devastation on Fitz's face as Ward yelled at him how he did nothing to save Simmons was heartbreaking.
All of the knew that Fitz could have saved Simmons, whilst they weren't the best or the most experienced field agents, they did have the basics down. Skye was ready to comfort her fellow pack mate before Simmons gave her a soft look before wrapping Fitz in her arms and Skye took that as her queue to leave.
Skye sighed as she sat in a chair in the common area, waiting for their next move. She knew that Coulson and Ward were interrogating the professor, although Skye was of the belief that Ward should not continue to work this case in his condition. He was acting irrationally, the complete opposite of how he normally was, it was worrying.
The worst part of this, is that during his rant, he said what was the team going to do without him – and he was correct, what would they do? Whilst Coulson was a field agent, the only other field agent that would be able to get them out of a tight situation was May and if she went down, then what?
She knew that they could put up a decent fight, but would it be enough? Fitz and Simmons had the basic training of a field agent. Coulson was an experienced agent but was no specialist and Skye, well, Skye still couldn't shoot a gun without saying bang.
She sighed, resting her elbows on her knee and put her head in her hands. This was all kinds of fucked up. SHIELD claimed to be a superior intelligence agency, yet here they were dealing with enhanced beings every other week whilst told to keep their own, untrained abilities contained. What use was it having these abilities and not being able to use them?
'You're moping again.' Bobbi thought softly, creating a gentle comforting pressure against her skull.
'I'm not.' Skye grumbled, turning her head as though Bobbi was sitting next to her. 'I'm just being realistic. I need to up my training, if I'm going to be of any use to this team.'
'Skye... you are an amazing hacker and have a way with people unlike many other agents, you bring a lot to this team. Just because you aren't yet there in your training doesn't mean you are any less important to this team.' Bobbi soothed, her words flowing over Skye like a tight hug. Which is exactly what Skye needed right now. She needed Bobbi and her amazingly tight, grounding hugs.
'I'll try to see you soon, I promise.' Bobbi mumbled. Skye could almost imagine Bobbi leaning her forehead against Skye's as she said this. 'It takes longer to notice the absence and the gaping hole it causing when we haven't properly bonded yet. We've not spent enough time together.'
'I know. We'll have to make arrangements, I'll think of some excuse for Coulson. Maybe met my soulmate on my down day or something.' Skye thought back, determined to spend some uninterrupted time with Bobbi.
'I'd like that.' Bobbi replied and this time, Skye could see the smile on the other woman's face. 'Better check back in with reality, May's coming.'
'I love you.' Skye thought, not wanting to end the conversation.
'I love you too, my my badass, ass kickin man slayin cutie-pie' Bobbi replied teasingly, hoping the joke helped ease Skye out of the deep thoughts. 'Good luck with the mission, we're paying attention to you guys.' Bobbi finished before leaving her, taking the gentle comforting pressure against her skull with her.
May approached Skye with caution, not wanting to spook her as she could feel the gentle fuzziness from her head that she had long came to associate with another member of the pack communicating with someone.
"Skye." She said, trying to draw the girl out of her head.
Skye blinked once and lifted her head from her hands. "Hey May, any update?"
May gave her a nod, "We're already on course to our next destination, Ireland, should be there within an hour or two," May informed her.
Skye nodded absently, thinking about her conversation with Bobbi and her earlier promise to not let May near that staff. She wondered how she was going to pull both these tasks off. Getting off this plane was not easy and she assumed she wouldn't get any days off unless she was dying. Then there was keeping May away from something dangerous whilst her pups were near, Skye almost cringed, that was definitely not going to be easy.
"Skye. Where's your head at?" May questioned, folding her arms as though she was mad but Skye knew differently, the slight crease of her brows showed the concern.
Skye just smiled brightly at her mentor. "Tacos." she replied back cheerfully, "I haven't had a taco bell in ages, just dying for one."
May rolled her eyes and the concern disappeared from her face. "Be ready for the mission." she said and with that, she left Skye alone with her thoughts again.
When they arrived in Ireland, they were already too late. The professor had lead them to the church where he hid the last piece of the berserker staff only to find that their perpetrators had already arrived with a sickening comment of making the church goers squeal and break their vow of silence.
Skye had watched with horror as she watched as Jakob Nystrom stabbed the professor in the heart with the final piece of the staff. She saw the way Coulson flinched at the action, more than anyone else and it was a stark reminder that Coulson died in a similar way.
What happened next was a flurry of motions and emotions. Ward had grabbed the final piece and with a literal growl, one she was certain only the pack could do, launched himself at Nystrom which resulted in the two of them going off the railing.
"Ward!"
Skye was still worried that he was not 100% as he fought Nystrom and she was correct. He was unfocused, his head twitching violently with every passing second and it really did not help that Nystrom was literally throwing him like a rag doll. Eventually, it seemed like Ward had enough and the anger built up into an explosion and he knocked out Nystrom with one hit.
"Ward, drop the staff." Skye cautioned, at the same time she heard May calling his name.
"Stay away from me," he growled at them, clenching the broken staff tightly.
Skye opened her mouth to say something else, but was cut off by the yelling of a group of hyped up, temporarily enhanced men. Ward gave them a look of disgust as they postured in front of him before he grabbed a second piece of the staff and with another growl, launched into an attack.
Skye tried to go forward and help him but she was pulled back by May, her arms wrapped firmly around her and using her more experienced and build up enhanced strength against her. Skye struggled against May's hold, they couldn't just leave a team mate there, struggling against the group.
"Does it look like he's struggling." May hissed in her ear. "We can't blow our cover and if we jump in now, Ward might attack us in his rage."
Skye stopped struggling against May at those words and clung to her mentors arms, watching the fight with wide eyes and hoped that it would be over soon and that Ward wouldn't be that hurt.
Finally, the group of men were knocked out, sprawled out across the broken church pews. They watched as Ward breathed heavily as some clarity came back to his eyes before his body went limp, dropping to his knees, unable to stand anymore.
Skye ran to him and pulled him into a upright position and leaned them against a broken pew. "Hey, you okay?" she asked softly, gently putting his arm around her shoulder to try and keep him from falling over again.
Ward panted next, clearly out of breath from his attack but nodded at her words. Skye let out a sigh of relief, hopefully, he didn't feel as bad as he looked. Just as she started to relax and think it was over, the far door slammed opened to reveal Petra Larsen, Nystrom's accomplice. Fuck. They forgot about her.
"You've got to be kidding me." Ward grumbled, but pushed himself forward to grab the staff pieces again. Skye gripped him tightly, yanking him back as May put an arm out to stop him.
"This time, let me help." May spoke assertively, watching for his reaction before reaching down for the staff and facing Larsen.
"May! No!" Skye yelled, letting go of Ward to try and reach her mentor. She said she wasn't going to let may touch the staff but here she was picking the staff up and she was useless once again.
"Skye. Stay. Back." May growled at her, the order clear in her voice, her eyes begging for Skye to once just listen without questioning them.
Skye nodded her head as she felt tears well up in her eyes. She failed in her personal mission. She knew May had a horrific past and was filled with pain and anger from it and she was going to relive it once she touched the staff.
As soon as May picked up the pieces, she let out a strangled yelp as the sensation flooded through her veins, instantly having an impact on the pack as well. Skye felt as all the air had been punched out from her lungs, a gasp had escaped from her throat. All of a sudden, all those horrible, forgotten memories came rushing to the surface.
Growing up with nuns; mean, racist nuns; other hateful kids; foster families; feeling unloved; moving homes; abusive families; a man standing over her with a sneer; a gun being pushed into her hands; being forced to kill her sister in all but blood to pass a test; her parents dying in a car crash; beaten for failing a test at school; beaten for being alive; being raped by her own father – wait what?
As suddenly as they came, they stopped. Skye was panting next to a barely conscious Ward, which she has never been more grateful for. What the hell happened there? She looked up to check on May, to make sure that she wasn't suffering like Skye did.
May wasn't suffering. May was standing still with a complete staff, staring at an unconscious Larsen. Her breathing was barely laboured, almost as though it was having no effect on her.
"May" Skye chocked out, attempting to get up and grab her pack mate.
May turned to Skye with an absolute storm on her face and she knew instantly May was affected by the staff for more than Ward was -but it vanished in an instant.
"Glad to see you can obey orders. Help Ward to his feet, we need to get back on the plane." May said without emotion. She looked up to where Coulson was standing with FitzSimmons and a surprisingly okay looking professor.
"What a fucking day." Skye mumbled as she stood to her feet, pulling Ward with her. She had chosen to ignore May's words about her following orders, chalking up the snappish response as a side effect of the staff.
The decision was made for the team to have a short overnight at a hotel, a rather fancy hotel in Skye's opinion. Each team member got their own room, minus Simmons and Fitz as they were soul mates. Skye had been tempted to go to the bar to speak to Ward about their day but as she stood there watching him, she couldn't find it in her to go and bother him, she had too much on her mind that she couldn't speak to him about.
As much as she wanted to force herself to be useful and offer her shoulder for him, she couldn't see him accepting it. All Skye really wanted to do anyways was make sure May was okay and comfort her about what happened and maybe get some answers on what Skye saw when May touched the staff. But May had simply avoided making eye contact with Skye since they finished their mission, preventing Skye from asking if they could spend the night together.
With a sigh, Skye made the effort to slowly make her way back up to her room to try and sort through the memories she was bombarded with and maybe get a few hours of sleep. Just as she was about to enter her room, a familiar smell wafted through her nose.
Her head turned sharply to see Natasha standing two doors down, the door to May's room. Natasha had her hand raise, clearly ready to knock on the door when she felt Skye's eyes on her. Skye had to hold back a flinch at the look on Natasha's face.
She looked absolutely terrible. She seemed to be slouching as she stood, which was something Natasha does not do. The woman looked as though she held the weight of the world on her shoulders and her eyes, well, her eyes looked like they were drowning in her sorrows.
Skye stared at her alpha, wondering what she should do but, before she could think any further, May opened the door. The older agent followed the direction of Natasha's head to see her staring at Skye and she paused. It was although she did not know what to do either, but after a moments hesitation, she went back inside and Natasha followed her in without looking back at Skye.
That hurt like a bitch, Skye thought, swallowing the lump in her throat. Natasha has never ignored her like that, Natasha was always all over her, checking to make sure that she was okay and happy. It was unreal how much this hurt.
"I wouldn't think too much of it, Skye." a soft voice came from behind her. Maria, in all her glory, was standing there with a tired look on her face. A similar look to Natasha's.
Why was it all the two of them to appear after a bad mission?
"Lets go into your room." Maria mumbled, gently taking the keycard off Skye and pulling her into her room for the night.
"Why?" Skye questioned as soon as they were inside, folding her arms across her chest as she felt her anger build up. Why was she so angry?
Maria gave her a weird look, "this mission was intense, the whole berserker staff is a nightmare. Natasha needed a cover to come see Melinda so I created one for us. I wanted to make sure that you were okay, provided you with the hugs that you love."
"Why?" She stressed again, hoping that Maria would understand, but from the confused looked on the beta's face, she did not.
Maria gave a shrug and approached Skye, wrapping her arms around her, intent on holding her close. As soon as May had touched the staff, everyone in their pack felt the effects of the staff. Their worst memories blurring as one and no one knew which horrifying incident belonged to which person as it felt like they had all lived through each of those horrid memories. Right now, Maria just wanted to hold their youngest and newest close and make sure she was okay.
But Skye didn't hold the same opinion. Normally, she was one to soak up the attention she got from Natasha and Maria, wanting them to never stop. On this occasion, it just seemed like the worst thing ever.
"Get away from me." Skye snapped, shoving Maria back, anger filling her voice.
"Skye? Whats wrong?" Maria questioned, concern written all over her face.
"Why is it always you!" She yelled, finally letting the anger bubble over. "Every time something goes wrong, you and Natasha appear. No one else!"
Realisation went over Maria's face as she understood what this was about.
"Why can't it be Bobbi for once? Huh? It's always got to be you! Are Sharon and Natasha not enough for you? Have you got to dig your needy nails into everyone who lets you? Take over their relationships and make yourself the most important person in their lives?" Skye continued to yell, unable to help herself.
She could see the effect her words were having on Maria, the way she flinched at the mention of her relationship with Natasha. She wanted to stop, to comfort the beta, but she just found herself angry at the beta for not doing enough.
"Skye." Maria growled warningly, indicating that she should watch what she was saying.
"Skye." Skye mocked back at her, "you think you're so tough, that you are in control of everything. Well you're not! You're the deputy director and yet, you allow two agents below you to dictate your every move. Do you even do anything without asking Natasha first?"
Maria growled at Skye, her own anger building. There was no need for this. Everyone in the pack felt the effects of the berserker staff, yet Skye was the only one acting out this badly.
"Watch you mouth," she warned the younger woman, the beta within her slowly rising to the challenge.
"Or what? You'll go running to Natasha? What's she going to do, she's with her actual soulmate! Not some sub-standard replace-"
Maria growled and launched herself at Skye, shoving her down onto the bed. With the ease of an experienced agent, she flipped Skye onto her stomach and removed both their shirts whilst keeping Skye underneath her.
"Get off me!" Skye snapped, struggling underneath the other woman.
Maria ignored the younger wolf below her. She understood now what she had to do. Skye was missing the pack but more importantly, she was missing Bobbi. Her other half. Skye would not feel 100% better until she could be with her, but Maria had a trick up her sleeve to get the woman calm down and feel less alone for the time being.
Maria still hasn't marked Skye yet. Skye still doesn't feel truly connected to the beta like she did with their alpha, which is why Maria was confident that if Natasha had came to see Skye instead of Maria, Skye wouldn't be yelling at her the same way she was yelling at Maria.
Looking down at the struggling wolf, she grabbed a bobble and tied Skye's hair up in a loose ponytail at the base of her head. She then gripped Skye's hair tightly and titled her head, giving Maria easy access to the unmarked side of Skye's neck and without hesitation, bit down harshly.
Once again Skye let out a help of pain and attempted to escape the grasp of the beta. "No! I don't want this! I don't want to feel connected to you, I want Bobbi!" Skye cried out, tears streaming down her face as she chocked back sobs.
Maria felt tears well up in her own eyes, this was a hard marking. It never usually was this difficult and they normally always had the consent of the wolf before they done so but sometimes, sometimes you had to take the leap and make the decision for them, as unethical as it sounded.
Right now, Skye was having difficulties following orders. A few times she had ignored Maria's words and commands, even when Maria tried using her position as a beta, it seemed to have no effect. Maria should have just marked Skye the same day Natasha did, but they didn't want to rush the girl and now that decision has cost them.
Maria just hoped that she made the right choice. She growled lowly, biting harder and allowed her own pheromones to engulf Skye. It took longer than Natasha's marking, but Skye eventually stopped struggling and fell silent.
At that point, Maria gently released her hold on Skye's neck and cleaned up the mess with her tongue, not caring how it might look to anyone else. Once she was done clearing the blood away, she pressed soft kisses to her neck, trying to sooth the mark.
Skye gave a small sob beneath her, causing worry to flash through Maria. After the marking, the person was supposed to be out of it, completely blissed out. Maria turned Skye over and moved back from her, attempting to give her some room.
The reaction was instant, Skye cried out and reached for Maria. "Don't leave me," she whimpered.
Maria felt her heart tear in two at the sound and scoped Skye back into her arms, whispering soothing words into her ear and slowly stoking her back.
"I'm sorry." Skye sobbed, her arms wrapped tightly around Maria's neck. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"Shhh, it's okay." Maria soothed, pushing out calming pheromones, hoping that they would help Skye.
"I yelled at you." Skye sniffled, calming down a few minutes after the new scent invaded her nose. "I shouldn't have even said those things, they weren't true. I'm sorry. I'm really happy you're here...I just, I miss Bobbi so much."
"I know. I'm sorry that I couldn't bring her with me. It was a last minute decision. Next time I visit, I'll bring Bobbi with me." Maria said softly. "She misses you too, she's not been her usual self. It was selfish of us to put you back in the field so fast after meeting her and bonding with Natasha."
Skye didn't say anything to that, just pushed herself closer to Maria, burying her head in the crook of Maria's neck. After a few moments, Skye decided to speak again; "I love you," she whispered to Maria.
Maria's heart swelled at those three, simple words. She looked at the exhausted wolf in her arms. Poor Skye had been through so much since joining SHIELD, so much change that they really should have expected this at some point. She pulled the young wolf closer, attempting to merge together so that they never have to be separated again.
"I love you too, pup." Maria whispered back and kissed the top of her head. "Go to sleep, we'll talk in the morning."
Skye nodded weakly against her, too exhausted to argue and allowed herself to float into a peaceful sleep knowing that whatever happens, Maria will protect her and love her.
'Well that sounded dramatic' came the tired thoughts of Natasha.
'I hope your night went better than mine Maria mumbled back, resting her head against a pillow as she manoeuvred herself and Skye into a more comfortable position.
'Slightly. Melinda wasn't screaming about me but was screaming at me. I'm just happy she was showing emotion, really.' Natasha replied.
'I hope she's okay. The staff really did a number on her. We only experienced a few seconds of it before she cut herself off from everyone.' Maria mused.
'I think we should just shoot the staff into space and hope no one ever finds it again,' Natasha angrily stated.
'I agree.' Maria thought back, tired already. Between dealing with the horrid side effects of the staff, reliving not only her own worst memories, but the entire packs worst memories and dealing with an upset Skye, Maria was beyond exhausted. She wanted nothing more than for Sharon and Natasha to appear and curl up next to her.
'Go to sleep, Masha, we will talk tomorrow,' Natasha instructed.
'Night Tasha, love you.' Maria thought back sleepily, too tired to even fight the alpha.
'Love you too,' Natasha replied fondly before slipping off into her own somewhat peaceful sleep.