Skye nearly grinned with glee as her order confirmation appeared in her inbox. It had taken a lot of work to stealthily set up the PO Box and hours of searching online before she'd finally found the perfect image. But it would be all worth it when she was able to give Ward this gift. He'd love it.

"Skye? You in here?" called Ward, prompting Skye to quickly close her browser and e-mail.

She pulled up some files so she could at least appear busy, settling back in her desk chair before calling out to him. "Yeah, just finishing some work up."

A minute later, Ward's body appeared at her left side, leaning over the back of her chair to press a kiss to her cheek. "Hey."

"Hey," returned Skye, tilting her head back to smile up at him. "What's up?"

"Just wanted to see what you were doing," replied Ward with a shrug, shifting around so he was leaning on her desk. "Trip got sick of me beating him and quit for the day."

"Probably to go have May lick his wounds," remarked Skye, snapping her computer closed and setting it aside. Beside her, Ward winced visibly. She knew that the knowledge Trip was now sleeping with May probably bothered him some, but she couldn't resist teasing him all the same.

"Can we not discuss May and Trip?" requested Ward predictably, looking down at her with puppy eyes.

Standing, Skye slid her body up along Ward's and dropped a quick kiss on his lips. "I'm sure we can think of other things to do."

"Doesn't Coulson need those files?" asked Ward, brow furrowing in a marked look of concern. Regardless, his hands slid to the base of her back, then down behind her legs in preparation picking her up.

"Nothing that can't wait until tomorrow," assured Skye as she slid her hands into his hair. Leaning close, she caught a whiff of his skin and noted he still smelled like sweat and gunpowder. It wasn't her favorite scent, but she'd grown fond of it on Ward. "C'mon, let's go take a shower. You need one."

"Are you suggesting I smell?" teased Ward as he hoisted her up.

Automatically, her legs wrapped around his waist, arms sliding around his neck. "Damn right. Let's get you clean."

The package arrived almost a week later in a discrete cardboard box with no external markings to indicate what it might be. It was a relief, honestly. Ward wasn't big on celebrating things; she'd had to hack multiple hospital archives to find his birth certificate alone. Now at least she knew his birthday though.

Entering the Playground, Skye cut directly through the base to the room that was supposed to be Ward's. Most often than not, he ended up I her room at night but he still stayed in his room during the day if he wasn't busy. And given the time, he should be in his room, probably fresh out of the shower.

It was her favorite way to find Ward most days. Today though, even the thought of her sexy boyfriend dripping wet and fresh from the shower couldn't distract her. She was too excited to give him the package in her arms.

Opening the door to his room without knocking (there was nothing she hadn't seen before), Skye was shocked when she realized Ward wasn't inside. The light in his bathroom was off as well, indicating he was clearly not in the room. Huh. He was always in his room by now.

"Looking for someone?" Ward's voice right beside her ear nearly made her jump out of her skin. Spinning with the box pressed to her chest, Skye found Ward standing behind her, sweaty and clearly just in from the gym. His towel was still flung over his shoulders and his breath was still slightly unsteady.

Relaxing, Skye leaned up and quickly kissed Ward, leaning back with a smirk. "I was, but as always he showed up at exactly the right time."

Ward winced a little, shifting the trowel across his shoulders. "I can think of a time or two that I was late."

Skye carefully chose not to answer that verbally. It had taken her a very long time to get over the whole 'Quinn shooting her' thing. It really hadn't happened until Ward had come back. There was more than one night where his screams had woken everyone in the base and usually her name was among them. The first five times were completely embarrassing and made her want to sink into the ground. After Bobbi finally got Lance to apologize and stop mocking her though, her attention turned to helping him. And it was during one of the nights when he'd fallen asleep while watching a movie with her that she'd finally learned his line about not knowing Garrett was going to have her shot was true. Namely, the way he'd started muttering and shouting in his sleep, repeatedly calling Garrett a bastard for shooting her, had confirmed it.

Kissing him quickly, Skye dragged Ward fully into his room and shut the door behind her. Ignoring his previous statement, she half shoved the box into his hands and offered him the biggest grin she could. "Open it."

"Um, what?" asked Ward, blinking down at the package he just avoided dropping like it was some kind of foreign creature.

"It's for you," stated Skye shrug, nodding towards the package. "Open it."

"Why...?" started Ward, trailing off as he looked up at her in complete confusion.

Skye sighed in mild irritation, grabbing his knife from his desk and holding it out to him. "It's a birthday present, and don't try to tell me today isn't your birthday- I hacked the hospital records and found your birth certificate."

She can't tell if he's bothered by the fact she hacked his birth certificate or not, namely because he aborts whatever look was about to cross his face and focuses on his package instead. His fingers brush the edges of the plain brown box, the addresses on which have been scribbled out.

After a moment of examination, he blinked back up at her with curious eyes. "What is it?"

"Open it and find out," insisted Skye with a grin, nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement.

The look Ward sent her clearly displayed his disbelief, but he opened the package all the same, carefully cutting away the tape with his knife. He set the tool aside then, pushing away the paper packed inside and pulling out a sealed clear plastic bag. Skye half snatched the box from him so he could open the bag, watching a grin slowly spread across his face as he unfolded the shirt to hold it up.

The front was decorated with the image of a golden lab, staring at the camera with it's tongue poking out and eyes half closed in what could be considered a childish look. What really brought the image together though was the wording around the outside. 'If you don't like dogs' was printed across the top of the image with the other half, 'I don't like you' printed across the bottom. Based on the way Ward looked like he wanted to crack up laughing, Skye had made a good call on the design.

"Where did you find this?" asked Ward with a faint chuckle, examining the shirt with clear glee.

"I had it made online," explained Skye with a grin. "You can just about get anything printed on a shirt these days."

"That's amazing," murmured Ward, dropping the shirt with one hand so he could reach out and tug Skye into a quick kiss. "I'm wearing this to the next adoption day at the shelter."

"I thought you might," teased Skye, tucking her head against his chest. "When is that anyway?"

"Next Saturday," replied Ward, dropping a kiss to her head. "Why, thinking about coming out to help?"

"Maybe," hummed Skye, pulling away from Ward and snatching his shirt to toss it on his bed. "We'll see. Right now though, I'm gonna help you get clean."

And if she showed up to support the shelter during the next adoption day just so she'd get to see Ward wearing his new shirt all day? No one would blame her. Besides, there was a certain little puppy that she knew needed a good home and she was determined to give her one.