A/N: Thanks again for the reviews!

All three agents shared a look of horror before racing down the stairs.

They arrived just in time to see Skye's body arc on the table.

"Again!" Simmons cried.

Fitz pressed a button. "Charging!"

They waited a split second, watching their friend flatline before the defibrillator clicked.

"Clear!"

She arced again.

Ward pressed his face up to the glass, desperate to see what was happening. Coulson and May stood back quietly, eyes darting back and forth to take in the horrific spectacle in front of them.

No. She can't…she can't. She's not allowed to die! Not when I haven't told her how I feel!

Ward was taken aback by his own thoughts. Since when did he have feelings for…?

Since she disappeared with that idiot Miles.

He'd spent hours with the punching bag, always imagining her former boyfriend's snarky expression as the fabric caved to his blows. He had wished so strongly that it was flesh and bone snapping under his fingers instead.

He pressed his nose to the glass, watching condensation form from his breath on the glass behind which the scientists franticly attempted to resuscitate their fallen friend. He was desperate to help in yet another situation where he could do absolutely nothing.

Simmons started crying when she heard a consistent beeping.

Skye's heart was beating again.

She collapsed in Fitz's arms, quaking from terror and stress and grief. He just held her as she sobbed, rubbing her back gently. He slowly caught sight of the other agents standing outside, all looking stricken.

Fitz's heart lurched. From Jemma's reaction, they must be thinking…

No.

He shook his head and gave them a thumbs up, desperate to convey that Skye had pulled through.

Ward fell to his knees, overtaken by relief. May and Coulson leaned into each other.

Simmons pushed herself off of Fitz, tears still streaming down her face, and began checking on Skye's vitals. She went through everything twice, just to make sure she hadn't missed anything. Fitz silently cleaned up the operating tools, trying not to draw attention to the things that had caused the near tragedy. Finally, when they looked around and found nothing left to clean or fix, they let the anxious faces that had been pressed up to the glass in.

"What the hell happened?" Coulson barked as the marched in. They were all drawn to Skye's bedside, surrounding her in a lopsided circle.

Simmons looked at him with watery eyes. "She-she had a-an adverse rea-action to t-the anesthesia-a, s-sir," Simmons stuttered out. She looked down at the floor. "T-this is all m-my fault," she murmured, tears slipping out of the corners of her eyes. Within seconds, she was full-blown sobbing again, reaching for the comfort of Fitz's arms.

Coulson looked abashed. "It wasn't your fault, Simmons. Absolutely not." He looked at Fitz. "What happened, exactly?"

Fitz sighed and rattled off a quick summary. "We just weren't quick enough with the medicine," he mumbled.

Coulson looked at them. "This is no one's fault, okay? No one knew, it was a routine procedure, and you guys handled it. She's alive, and she'll stay that way. Everyone good?"

Simmons just kept crying into Fitz's chest. Ward pulled up a chair by Skye's bedside and sat down. May looked somewhat rattled, but maintained her composure and stood stoically.

Coulson sighed. After everything she had done to save him – even sacrificed the possibility of continuing to live on the Bus – why did this have to happen to her?

Skye's dreamland was clear and warm – inviting. She felt like she was on a beach – and suddenly, she was. She dug her bare feet into the sand and took in a breath of great, fresh sea air. It was salty and stung at her eyes, but she stayed.

She sat down and watched the waves crash over the shells littering the shoreline. Gulls called from a cliff just barely in view. The tide came in, and soon the edges of the waves trickled between her toes. The tide was tickling her waist before it began to recede. The sheer beauty of this place took her breath away.

It's nice here. Perhaps I should stay, she thought. Warm winds, calm sea…not like my life on the Bus. It's peaceful.

She laid out on the sand and felt herself sink into it. The sand molded to her shape, inviting her to stay in the confines of its warm embrace. She sighed and willingly relaxed, letting the sand swallow her. She felt a spark of panic as her view of the bright blue sky disappeared, covered by her newfound friend. She still wanted to see the sky!

She struggled to move her hands so she could dig her way out, but found that they were already pinned by the sand. She strained and strained against the hot, gritty substance, finding that it was not nearly as friendly as before. She was gasping for air, trying to breathe with microscopic particles of shells and stones filling her mouth.

Suddenly, the sand vanished. Disappeared entirely. She looked to her left and the sea had disappeared too. Everything was dark.

The Bus was quiet. No one had any cause for celebration. May went back to the cockpit, Coulson disappeared into his office, and FitzSimmons tried to hack into Skye's medical records to make sure they hadn't missed anything.

Ward just sat in the lab, eyes fixed on the bouncing lines and beeps that indicated that she was still alive.

His eyes ghosted over her frame and watched the rise and fall of her chest.

Still breathing.

FitzSimmons muttered in hushed voices as they tried to bypass confidentiality regulations to pull Skye's records. They didn't mention that they weren't good at this; that Skye was usually the one to find the back doors and weak firewalls. They didn't have to.

After an hour of Ward sitting absolutely motionless, nothing in his head but static, he heard Fitz whoop in excitement. He turned around and saw Skye's medical records on the holographic screen.

Simmons began flipping through record after record to find allergy tests. Ward stood up and walked over to her, watching the dizzying flash of virtual documents being flicked through from behind.

He caught her by the wrist when he spotted something that made his heart stop. She looked at him in annoyance. "Ward. I need to find her allergies!"

"Look at this," he breathed.

She turned back to the screen and found herself as taken aback as him. It was a folder of former x-rays, but it was much thicker, even virtually, than the average person's. She hesitated, but opened it.

They were immediately faced with x-rays of many, many broken bones. From her ribs to her wrists to her legs to her ankles to her fingers to her jaw to her nose – it seemed that Skye had more broken bones than whole ones.

The lab went dead quiet when Fitz reached over and touched a photograph, bringing it to the front.

A much younger Skye, no older than ten, had posed for a photograph with a vivid black eye. The caption read, "Moderate concussion and multiple contusions surrounding the orbital cavity. Suspected abuse."

Their eyes all drifted to Skye and drifted back to the screen. They stood in silence, unable to put what they were all thinking into words. Finally, Fitz took a deep breath and muttered, "No wonder she didn't want to talk about broken bones."

Ward nodded sadly. He gave the images of horror one last lingering look, and returned to Skye's side.

Simmons continued flicking through documents, and eventually came up with an allergy test. It seemed that Skye wasn't allowed to eat kiwi, but had never been tested with anesthetic. She could find no record of Skye ever having been anesthetized before, so there was no way to have known. Simmons affirmatively added a note to the allergy test, indicating that Skye was not allowed to have the typical anesthetic.

Concluding that they had done everything they could, FitzSimmons went into the back half of the lab to test their neurotoxin theory, albeit with notably less enthusiasm than before.

Ward remained with Skye. Her olive-toned skin was pale and sickly, and she looked very small curled up on the hospital bed. He had never truly realized how tiny she was. She seemed to take up a lot of room, but he was coming to the conclusion that it was her personality. Her incessant chatter, her snarky comments, her inappropriate jokes. They all made her into someone larger than life.

His gaze traveled across the locks of brown hair that were splayed across the stark white pillow. Her perfect pink lips were slightly parted.

As his eyes traveled up and down with the steady beat of her pulse on the monitor, he moved a little closer. He hated not being able to protect those that mattered to him. Physical threats were something he could conquer easily. But alien diseases? Computer viruses? Life-threatening secret allergies? There was nothing he could do, and it pained him.

The thought of losing her was almost too much to bear. Losing any member of the team would be hard, but losing her bright, bubbly personality would put an irreparable dent in the team dynamic. She understood him, in some strange way, better than anyone. Losing her would be akin to losing his link to the outside world. He'd become isolated again.

How had I not seen how much she matters to me before now? He hadn't quite fully accepted that he had fallen head over heels for his trainee without even realizing it. Seeing her with no heartbeat…thinking for a split second that she was gone…it hurt more than I could have possibly expected.

He looked back at her, reassuring himself that she was still there, to find that she was shivering. Goosebumps dotted her arms and legs and she had curled up slightly, seeking warmth.

He was pleased – this was something he could defend her from.

He immediately stood up and started looking for blankets. He didn't want to start opening drawers and cabinets in the lab because he had no idea what dangerous things they contained, but he had to get her warm. He walked in circles around the lab, examining every visible shelf and open cabinet, but came up empty.

He peeked in the back of the lab and found both scientists in biohazard suits, handling some dangerous-looking dark purple liquid. It seemed pretty unlikely that either would be able to help him anytime soon.

He stole a quick glance at Skye and immediately became concerned. She was visibly shaking with cold now, and her teeth were chattering, making tiny clicking noises as they bounced against each other. Completely at a loss for any other solution, he gently moved her to one side of the hospital bed and climbed in with her. He had always been warmer than average, and it seemed to prove true when Skye unconsciously snuggled closer to him. He carefully placed his arms around her, and watched as she sighed and smiled in her sleep.

He could feel the tingle of her breath on his skin, and gave in to the urge to give the top of her brown locks a gentle kiss. His vision of her slowly faded as his eyes fluttered closed.

Skye was in complete darkness. Her surroundings were utterly black – her eyes could not grasp the tiniest speck of light.

She sat and waited, her conscious floating. And all of a sudden, there was a flash of light, in the shape of a rectangle; it was the outline of a door.

She scrambled to get to the flicker of light before it disappeared. She pressed her hands to the cold surface and pushed as hard as she could. It resisted for just a moment before bursting open, sending her flying into a heap of snow.

She spat out a mouthful of fluffy white and looked around. She was in a light blizzard, flakes falling thick and fast as far as the eye could see. She could see nothing else beyond the looming mountain positioned just on the edges of her vision.

Watching the cascading snow fall around her, she started to shiver. It was truly starting to get cold here. She didn't seem to be adequately dressed. Snow dusted her hair and eyelashes as goosebumps traveled up and down her arms.

All of a sudden, the scenery shifted again. The image of the mountain became distant and distorted, almost like she was watching from behind a magnifying glass. And then a new image became visible – she was in a very small wooden cabin with no windows and no door. But to her, what mattered most was the fireplace and the roaring blaze flickering in its mouth. She immediately drew closer to the fire, eager to soak up its warmth. A smile flitted across her face, and a sigh of contentment slipped past her lips.

FitzSimmons clambered out of their suits and walked into the lab quietly, intent on letting Skye sleep. Both stopped in their tracks when they came across the adorable scene in front of them.

Skye and Ward were curled up into each other, his arms wrapped around her protectively. They looked so peaceful together that FitzSimmons looked at each other and grinned. There was no way they were letting Ward get away with this.

Simmons whipped out her phone and snapped a couple pictures while Fitz opened a cabinet and yanked out a blanket. He covered them gently and reluctantly pulled Jemma out of the lab, leaving the adorable couple alone.

"That was so cute!" Simmons gushed.

"Absolutely," Fitz agreed, grinning mischievously. "Now…what are we gonna do with those photos, eh?"

A/N: There's still more to come, so stay tuned! Also, for those who are interested: I'm always interested in improving my writing skills, so I've decided to start taking prompts on my tumblr. The link's here: [alpacaseatcarrots][.tumblr][.com][/ask] Just delete the brackets.

Feel free to send them anonymously or using your tumblr if you have one!