A/N: So hey guys! I thought that some writing was due out from me some point soon, and as I can't access my other works at the moment, I thought that completing this prompt was in order. :3 Anyway, I hope you enjoy this! Reviews, please! And when I have less on my overflowing plate to do, I'll let you know so if any of you want me to write fics based on prompts, no matter how big or small :)
Also, hope all you NZers and Aussie's had a great ANZAC Day, full of memories and gratitude! :) Sam Neill's Tides of Blood was a great documentary, don't you think?
DISCLAIMER: I don't even own this story, all credit goes to Serenity Shadowstar who gave me the idea for this! :)
Ward walked up the ramp of the Bus a week later, battered and bruised, but smiling. The mission hadn't quite gone to plan, but he accomplished what he had set out to do, and now he was back with his family.
I can't wait to see the look on Rookie's face when she sees me. He thought, scanning the assembled people. He frowned. Where is she?
Everyone who lived on the Bus with him were all standing at the top of the cargo bay; solemn, sober expressions covered their faces. In addition to their morbid appearances, FitzSimmons had red-rimmed eyes, May's mask seemed to be cracking and Coulson's face looked to be the epitome of defeat. He just stopped in front of them, every possible scenario that could have caused this running through his head, and his face showed nothing but horror.
"Sir?" he choked out. "Where's Skye?"
Coulson stepped forward, a single tear running down his left cheek as he tried to say something, but nothing came out.
"Where is Skye?" Ward's voice became more forceful as he desperately tried to cling onto his last remaining bit of hope. "What the hell happened?"
May stepped forward this time, placing her hand on Coulson's upper arm to let him know that she could do this. "We had another mission while you were gone. HQ insisted, so we had to go even though Skye was feeling off about the whole thing."
"Get to the point." Ward whipped out, not in the mood for beating around the bush.
May nodded, her lips pursed tightly as though she was struggling to hold back her tears. Which she probably was. "We had to retrieve an 0-8-4 from an ancient cave in Southern France, and Coulson touched it."
"We're not entirely sure how it did what it did." Simmons continued when May swallowed and ducked her head, tears leaking out of her eyes. Coulson put his arms around her, rubbing gently. "But it knocked out all communications, and as Skye was running that from the holocomm, she didn't know what had happened." Her voice sounded as clear as it could be when talking around a choked up throat. Her bottom lip was trembling and Fitz's hand, clasped in hers, squeezed reassuringly.
"The thing started pulsing and May was dragging me away while Jemma and Coulson were trying to stop it. Skye," Fitz stopped in his recount, dropping his head forward and swallowing thickly before resettling a courageous expression upon his face. "Skye came running out of the Bus, grabbed the 0-8-4 off Jemma and threw it away from everyone. She probably saved them when she did that, but she was…" he trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.
"She was…?" Ward prompted, anxiety curling like a gnarled hand over his heart.
"She was thrown into the side of the plane when the 0-8-4 released a shockwave." Coulson finally found his voice, speaking up from Ward's right side, and drawing the man's attention to him.
His breath seemed to be knocked out of him. Ward could hardly believe what he was hearing. "Then she's…?" Like Fitz, he couldn't bring himself to complete what he was saying.
"She's not dead." Simmons hurriedly said, and Ward looked at her with disbelief and hope warring over his features. "But she's in a medically induced coma, to help her heal."
"So where is she?"
"In a S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital. She's been there a week, but her current condition isn't hopeful."
"Where is she?" Ward demanded as he strode into the hospital foyer an hour and a half later, Simmons on his right side and May on his left.
"A couple of floors up. But Ward, you have to let reception know you're here to see her. And she isn't always allowed visitors." Simmons said quickly as she nearly ran to keep up with him. "Ward, please! It's protocol!"
"Screw protocol. I want to see her." He growled out. "What room?" His attitude wasn't helped by the doctor who suddenly stepped into his path, effectively blocking his route to the elevators.
"Sorry, but no one is allowed into the wards without checking in at reception." Even though he was a few inches shorter, he didn't relent from Ward's glare. "Who are you here for?"
"Agent Skye." May answered him, grasping hold of Ward's arm to stop him from potentially attacking the doctor. The doctor's brows creased together in thought before recognition of the name lit up his gaze.
"Skye with no last name? I'm afraid her condition is too unstable at the moment for visitors. I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave." His expression was sombre and understanding, but his voice held firm underlines that would not sway. "We will be in contact when she is stable."
"Thank you, Doctor…?" May trailed off, asking for his name.
"Smith. Dr. John Smith." The man smiled, holding his arm out towards the exit. Ward continued to glare at him before being pulled away by May and Simmons.
"Ward, please understand. We haven't even seen her since they took her into surgery." Simmons pleaded with him to calm him down, though she understood that this may be the only thing that he wouldn't be able to fully rein in his temper over.
"I understand, Simmons, I do. But I couldn't even see her through a window?" The anger was still simmering, but his voice was laced with vulnerability and despair.
"They'd know that as soon as you saw her, you'd barge in there." She replied gently. "And don't bother denying it, because we all know it's true."
Ward's shoulder's slumped and the two women sternly guided him back to the SUV.
For the next few days, the mood aboard the Bus was tense. Ward either trained by himself, drank by himself or ate by himself; no matter what the others did, nothing could shake the dark feelings of depression clouding his mind. He slipped into a rigid routine, trying desperately to numb the pain of potential loss.
It wasn't until four days after he returned that the team received good news. Simmons was briefing Coulson once again about Ward's emotional state when a call came through from Director Fury. Coulson wearily stood in front of the screen and accepted the call. "Sir." He greeted.
"Jeez, Coulson. You look like you haven't slept in days." Came the reply from the one-eyed man in charge.
"That's because he hasn't." Simmons muttered, but still loud enough for both men to hear. Coulson, if he wasn't too tired, would have given her a look of slight annoyance. Fury looked from her to Coulson and narrowed his eye.
"You haven't slept? What part of that comes under the heading 'Looking after Yourself'?" he stated bluntly, leaning forward in his seat.
"It doesn't. But right now, it's not my well-being that I'm concerned about."
"I'm well aware of your fatherly affection for your consulting hacker. Who by the way, shouldn't have been listed in the hospital files as an agent."
"It's not just Skye, sir." Simmons put in, pulling the director's attention off of her exhausted boss. "Agent Ward, as a result of Skye's condition, has become rather depressed."
A raised eyebrow met this assertion. "Relationships between members of your team, Phil?" he flicked his gaze back to the man in the crumpled suit. "You just love flouting the rules, don't you?"
Coulson kept his gaze angled downward. "I had no reason to forbid it. They work well together."
"Hmph. Well, you can give your resident Level 7 specialist a reason to cheer up. I've been told that Skye's condition has become stable, and they're about to bring her off life support."
Both Simmons' and Coulson's heads snapped up. Fury smirked, but with genuine care in his eye.
"She's expected to wake up soon, and I assume that she's gonna want her family to be there when she does."
The pair in Coulson's office exchanged delighted looks, unable to do much more in that moment than beam and laugh with relief. "Thank you, sir." Coulson eventually managed to say.
Fury chuckled warmly. "You're welcome, Phil. Now go tell your boy." He disconnected the call.
Coulson turned to talk to Simmons, but she was already rushing out the door.
"WARD!" Simmons yelled as she rushed down the stairs by the lounge, ran across the floor, and nearly slammed into the railing overlooking the cargo hold where Ward was attempting to destroy the punching bag. "Ward!"
"What." He said flatly, looking up at her and pausing in his assault.
Simmons was smiling so wide, he almost dared to hope. The next words out of her mouth alleviated that to reality. "Skye's stabilised!"
Ward's mouth dropped open and he stared at Simmons, his eyes wide with the blossoming joy in his chest. "I can visit her?"
Simmons nodded. Her excitement was seeping through into Ward, and even Fitz walked out of the lab with a delighted smile. "We all can! And the doctors expect she'll wake up soon!"
Energy thrummed through the specialist, but it wasn't the kind he'd succumbed to over the last few days. This was excitement. He rushed up the stairs to give Simmons a hug and bolted for his bunk before emerging seconds later with a towel and a bundle of clothes.
Skye's eyelids felt heavy as she slowly tried to open them. Groaning as bright light stabbed into her pupils, causing blinking white dots in her vision, she gradually became aware of the rest of her body becoming receptive to sensations.
"Oh, sorry." A familiar and comforting voice said hurriedly. The light dimmed drastically, and Skye began to take in her surroundings. Warm pressure was applied to her left hand and she looked over, a face swimming into view. "Is that better?"
"Ward?" she whispered, not quite able to make out the features of the face well enough to recognise who it was, but she knew that voice anywhere.
"Yeah, Skye. It's me." He replied softly. A grin became discernible from the rest of the blur, and Skye smiled back weakly.
"You're a blur. What did Russia do to you?" she asked, her voice rather hoarse from disuse, and her pronunciations were slurred.
Ward chuckled. "Nothing I couldn't handle. But why are you worried about me? You're the one lying in hospital."
"Hospi…" her voice died and she started blinking rapidly, obviously trying to see clearly. It worked, mostly. "What…?" she looked back at Ward again. "That damn 0-8-4."
Ward, whose face she could now actually see, smiled sadly. "What were you doing trying to throw alien junk away?" he asked in an attempt to joke, and Skye's mouth twitched.
"That was almost funny." She mused out loud. "My robot's learning humour." His warm laugh caused her to smile, which in turn caused her to groan as the muscles in her face were used to being slack.
"Careful." He warned. "You're not in here for nothing."
"Yeah, about that…what happened after that bloody 0-8-4 decided to have the final say?"
"You were in need of surgery." At Skye's confused look, he elaborated. "The 0-8-4's 'final say' was throwing you into the side of the Bus."
Skye took a few moments to process this. "But I don't feel any pain…am I paralysed?!" she panicked.
"No! No, of course not Skye. Your spine wasn't broken, just a little tender like the rest of you."
"So what is wrong with me?"
"Ah…" His brows creasing, Ward reached for the tablet hung on the end of the bed, and brought up initial results. "It says here you got 8 damaged ribs; 5 fractured, 3 broken. So you have to stay here until they're well and truly healed." He said with a stern look. "A dislocated shoulder. The immediate surgery was to stop the massive internal bleeding from the impacts–"
"Impacts?" she interrupted.
"When you hit the Bus and the ground."
"Oh. Anything else?"
Ward looked back down at the list. "Multiple cuts on your face and arms, not that those weren't already obvious…and a concussion."
"It's gonna be a bumpy ride." Skye mumbled.
"Skye." Ward said softly, and waited until she was looking at him before continuing. "You suffered all that, and stabilised after just over a week and a half. That's pretty damn amazing."
Skye smiled shyly. "Well, I always thought I was pretty amazing myself, so…" she trailed off, and Ward's laugh made the ill-timed joke worth it.
"So do I." he replied, a blush tingeing his cheeks.