Matter of Importance

Spoilers: Season 2 promo

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Marvel owns it all!

Skye stood beside Nixon as one of the agents assigned to the cafeteria placed food on two trays. She watched the woman thank the agent who gave them several sandwiches, bottles of water and bowls of fruit. It confused the younger agent why May had asked her to help Nixon deliver food to the prisoners.

"No offense but if you wanted to talk, we could have done it in an office or my room instead of me having to help you."

Nixon looked at the younger agent, who looked as if she'd just crawled out of bed again. Jeans and a plaid shirt that seemed like it was two sizes too big weren't the normal clothes of an agent on duty. Coulson hadn't mentioned how long Skye would be off mission rotation. "I thought you'd like to do something other than sit in your room all day."

Skye just shrugged and only paused when Nixon stopped at the door labelled Vault D. "I'm not allowed in there."

"Today you are and I don't think if I open this door I could stop you from going inside, could I?" Nixon saw her just stare at the door as she slid her keycard, the light turned green and the shrink pushed at the door. "Come on, I think of the two of us he'll be more happy to see you."

Ward sat up when he heard the door and put the small battleship piece under his pillow, waiting for either Coulson or May to speak to him. He looked up to see Nixon walking down the steps with trays of food, she placed it aside before deactivating the barrier. He accepted the tray of food as she handed it to him and placed it on his bed.

"Thanks."

"I thought conversation over a meal would be more acceptable this time." Nixon moved to the stairs, "are you coming or not because I have to close the door?"

Ward watched as Nixon moved away and a figure moved down the stairs, his breath hitched at seeing Skye move down slowly. The door closed behind her and she stopped at the edge of the stairs, staring at him.

"Skye?"

She looked exactly like the last time he'd seen her in his dream, jeans and a plaid shirt with her hair down. The look on her face didn't read hard agent but tiredness and emotions, more so than he'd seen in months if not a year. "Hi." She walked closer and clutched her arms around herself, stopping just before the yellow line. "How are you?"

"How am…" he shook his head, "how are you? Coulson mentioned you were recovering but nothing else."

Shrugging, Skye grabbed a bowl of fruit from the tray on the chair and moved over to sit on the bottom stair. "Therapy, removed from missions and allowed to do whatever I want." Eating one of the strawberries she looked up at him. "May put me on a diet, I'm not allowed brownies or ice cream anymore."

He smiled, "I can't do much about that but I can try to convince her to change it."

"She used to let me eat whatever I wanted but she says that since I'm not training I at least have to eat healthy." Skye sighed, "that sucks the most. Therapy sucks more but only because the guy is about as crazy as a cat. Thinks all problems will be solved by examining one's life from the moment of birth. Tried telling him I don't know about my birth parents but he just says I'm declining to look inside my head for the truth."

"Tell Coulson."

"I did but he just says to be patient." She peeled back part of her banana pieces, "I prefer talking to you because you actually listen."

Ward sat down on his bed, "it's all I can do."

"I mean you actually care about what advice you give me and you don't tune me out." Skye sighed and nodded to the tray on his bed. "You should eat, they're making meatloaf for dinner."

Nixon stood in the corner just observing them and walked towards the stairs. "I'll be back momentarily. Grant I'm trusting you won't do anything so I'll keep the barrier down." She left up the stairs before either could say anything. The door closing behind her, leaving the two in the room alone.

"Coulson is going to have her head I'm sure." He took a bite of his sandwich as he sat on the bed.

Skye chuckled, "more likely May, she oversees security."

Ward put his sandwich down and watched as Skye picked the peel off the apple slices she had in her bowl. "I'll eat those if you want the rest of my fruit, I know you hate apple peels."

She stood and walked over to him, holding out the bowl of remaining apple slices. She didn't go beyond the yellow line but Ward took it gently and handed her his own bowl of bananas and strawberries. Skye sat down on the floor right in front of the yellow line as he sat a foot away from her.

"Thanks."

"You should eat more than fruit."

Skye just shrugged, "ate breakfast late, I'm not really hungry right now." Biting on a strawberry, she put the cap in the bowl. "They took me off mission rotation and haven't made me do much. I play around on my computer and do small jobs from my bed. No training or anything, it's relaxing after so long of 'do this' and 'do that' out of them."

Ward gave a small smiled, "you know it won't last."

"Which is why I'm savoring it while I can." She chuckled and ate the other strawberry in the bowl. "Do you remember having to wake me up at four in the morning?"

"You hit me with something the first few times I opened the door." He nodded and took a bite of his sandwich. "After that I woke you through the door."

Skye laughed, "yeah so Hunter, before everything happened, he just barged in on me one morning at three. He got a knife thrown at him and it was embedded in the wall," she gave the measurement of six inches, "this far from his head. After that he knocked and yelled."

"Did he learn?"

"Yeah, turns out Trip tricked him. Everyone knows to call me or text me, something electronic but Trip told him that they physically wake me up. May knew from experience so she has an alarm on my heart rate monitor that goes off each morning." She shrugged, "or did, took it off of me when I was in the Infirmary after that damn sedative she gave me."

He bent one leg and crossed the other under it as he leaned his arm against the bent knee. "Sedative?"

"Yeah, apparently emotional overload is a severe condition in agents that has to be managed immediately." Skye just shrugged and pushed her bowl across the yellow line to him. "They said my case was caught before it was too late. May said you noticed it but didn't say anything."

Ward sighed and nodded, "there are two schools of thought on emotional overload. One is that an agent who is compromised by it can't return from it unless caught in time. Their definition of caught is treatment immediately before mental breakdown and all stimulus removed. Two, treat with direct stimulus during and after the agent has been compromised. The first just helps at the moment, pushing the cause to the back of the mind until one day it explodes again. The second, redirects the agent after the cause has been dealt with."

"Your betrayal and everything you did to me." Skye looked at him, "the cause you mentioned. Everything just boiled over after we started talking again and the additional fact of what I did to Donnie Gill. That I became just like you, a killer yet I punished you because of it." Sighing, Skye picked at the hem of her pants. "Coulson and May knew what my stimulus was so that's why the cut my access off."

Ward reached out and touched her hand with two fingers, Skye looked up at him and turned her hand over so he could take it. "The difference between us mia bella is that your soul isn't lost after everything you've done. You followed an order because you believed it was the best course of action at the time, to save lives. The lives I took, I had another choice and I chose to make the wrong one."

"I killed an innocent boy, he was brainwashed and didn't know what he was doing." Skye let the tears in her eyes fall. "I don't want to see his face when I close my eyes anymore."

He pulled on her arm till she sat on her knees in front of him. "Imagine a closet in your mind, doesn't matter what it looks like." Ward squeezed her hand, "close your eyes and imagine all the images that haunt you at night." Feeling her squeeze his hand he nodded, "shove them all in that closet and close the door. Now imagine a key in the lock, turn the key and lock the door."

Coulson and May stood watching the video feed as Nixon stood beside them, all eyes on the camera as their ears listened to the words playing on the audio feed.

"…lock the door."

"Okay." Skye spoke softly, "what do I do after I lock the door?"

"Open your eyes." They watched as Skye opened her eyes, "what do you feel?"

The agent was silent before speaking, "clear minded, I know it's there but at the same time it's not."

"Think of Gill, what do you think of?"

"Just the door." Skye sighed, "that's compartmentalizing, isn't it?"

Ward let go of her hand and nodded, "there are various ways to do it but essentially yes. The real test will come when you sleep."

May reached over and turned off the audio before looking at Nixon. The woman merely crossed her arms waiting as both turned fully to look at her.

"You're welcome."

Coulson folded his arms, "I don't see how this is helpful."

Nixon motioned to Ward, "he's right about the two schools of thought. You treated Skye with option one while he treats her with option two. While SHIELD psychologists constantly debated the merits of both, I'm of option two with application of direct stimulus. I think you can both agreed that in the span of," she looked at her watch, "ten minutes, Skye has made more progress than the last three months."

"You're saying the cause of her emotions is also the source of healing?" May just stared, "that makes no sense."

"How do you treat someone effectively without having been where they were? Like you or I, Grant Ward only wants what is best for Skye in all senses of the word. His only loyalty is to her, not to you or SHIELD or even HYDRA, just Skye. Her emotions are linked to him and her reaction to how she treated him, sees him and his betrayal of her." Nixon shrugged, "unfortunately neither Sayani nor I can fix that, only he can."

The director sighed and sat down, "what do you suggest?"

"I suggest you give Skye back her access, limit it yes but give it back. I guarantee you that you'll see a change within a week of how she behaves. Her mood will change, she'll do more besides stay in bed and before long you'll have an agent back ready to perform." She put up a finger, "oh and let the barrier stay down when she's in there. He won't harm her, in fact she's the last person he'd harm."

May and Coulson shared a look before the former spoke. "I hope you know what you're doing."

A/N: I like Nixon a little more each time I write her. So will Ward succeed in helping Skye?

Next...Don't know yet

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