AN: Holy Macaroni! If I'd known it would be that easy, I would have held this chapter to a higher ransom! But, a promise is a promise, so here you go. Also, a lot of the reviews I got were saying that the lethal toxin was a bit extreme... Let me just point out that it is for extreme cases only. That's only there in case something seriously major goes down, like if Ward goes back to HYDRA (in which case just icing him wouldn't matter since it would only knock him out for a few hours). So don't worry. It's literally JUST a failsafe, for dire situations only. Anyways, I'm glad that so many of you are enjoying this!

Although everyone else left the cell fairly quickly after that, Skye stayed behind with Ward.

"I'm guessing this was mainly your doing?" he asked, taking her hand and drawing circles on it with his thumb.

"I gave them the idea, they decided how to carry it out. I don't like the fact that you have little poison bombs in your body, but Coulson was right. He told me that I might not like the solution that they came up with, but that it would be better than the alternative. I get to have you here, with me. That's a lot better than having them put you in the fridge, I'd say."

"I'd say so too. I trust everyone on this bus not to push that trigger button without good reason, so these little poison bombs, as you call them, seem a small price to pay for your company." He pulled her close and the two just stood for a moment, reveling in the other's presence. "Skye?"

"Mmm?"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you trust me so much? Why are you so willing to give me a second chance, after all I've done?"

She looked up at him. "Because. I know what it's like. What it's like when you're loyal to someone, because you've known them forever. They're your family, your safety. But then you find a new family, new people to be loyal too. Until that first person comes back and says, 'hey, I need you to choose'. And you can't, it's impossible to choose, but you have to. So, you choose the one you were loyal to first, because that's just fair, right? But it eats you alive the whole time, the fact that you're betraying your new family for your old one. And when it's over, you wish you could take it back. Because you didn't want to betray anyone, but you felt you didn't have a choice. But I know, there's no going back. There's no do-overs, no rewind button on life. You just have to go forwards, and try and salvage what you can."

He stared at her. "That's exactly it. But how…"

"I've fucked up before too, Ward. Remember when I had to wear one of those?" she pointed to his newest accessory. "That's what I told Coulson. You fucked up, but you're not the only one. They gave me a second chance, so I asked for one for you too.

"Let me give you some advice. The first couple weeks, they're gonna suck. You have run of the bus during the day, but when you go out there people are still gonna look at you. They'll go quiet when you walk into a room, or they might even leave. Don't let it phase you. It's going to take time for them to trust you again but it's worth it. And you'll feel like you're trying to move a mountain just by pushing it, like nothing you do is going to help, but I swear it will. I promise you, they'll come around."

"When did you get so smart?" Ward asked playfully as he tugged on a strand of Skye's hair.

"I always have been" she winked. "Now come on, Coulson never said that you're not my S.O. anymore, and you've missed a lot of training sessions. I've tried to keep up, but I need my drill sergeant to whip me into shape again."

Ward laughed. "Sounds good to me, Rookie."

They walked hand in hand to the training room, passing the rest of the team in the lounge on the way. If anyone disapproved of their closeness, they certainly didn't say anything, but the duo knew that it would be a long time before any of them would actually understand.

Ward kicked Skye's ass that afternoon. For over an hour he made her do pushups, sit ups, chin-ups, jumping jacks. Then, he spent two hours on combat training.

"Your technique's gotten sloppy" he told her as she practiced hitting the punching bag again. He came up behind her and kicked her legs farther apart, while placing his hands on her hips to bring her torso back into the right position. "Now, tighten your core as you punch but remember to breathe while you do it. Much better" he said as she hit the bag once more. He made her continue for twenty minutes, correcting her posture whenever needed. Finally, he was happy.

"Alright, to the mats now, Rookie." he ordered. Skye stuck her tongue out at him, but followed any ways. He started to wrap his own hands, but Skye stopped him.

"What are you doing?"

"Teaching." He answered.

"You want to fight me?"

"Better for you to learn on someone who'll pull a punch than on someone who'll take you down first chance they get. Besides, I think you deserve a couple hits…"

"Ward, I'm not fighting you. Not until that bracelet is off. Sparring will spike your blood with whatever it is that that thing is testing for and you'll get dropped. It's not happening."

"You're just trying to get out of training."

"Am not. If that's what I was trying to do, I would let you get iced. That would get me out of training a lot easier. Look, if you want me to spar, I'll go get May. But you need to stay calm."

"You want to fight May?"

"No, but I'm sure she'd be willing to ease up a bit, to teach me. Besides, I could learn some stuff from her. You're a big dude, Ward. Your fighting style is great and all, but shouldn't I learn how to fight like a small person?"

Ward sighed. She had a point. "Fine. Go get May."

Skye gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and then ran out of the room and up to the main space of the bus. She checked the cockpit, but saw the Auto Pilot light on, and no sign of Melinda. She spotted Simmons as she walked back into the lounge.

"Hey Jemma, do you know where May is?"

"In her bunk, I believe. Why?"

"Thanks. I just need to borrow her for a bit." She walked down the hall and stopped in front of Melinda's door. "May?" she called as she knocked.

"Go away" called the voice from inside. It was Melinda's voice, but she sounded… different.

"Hey, what's up? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just leave."

"You don't sound fine." Skye tried the handle and found the door to be unlocked. "I'm coming in" she warned.

"You do and I'll knock you out" May replied.

"I'll take that chance" said Skye. She pushed the door open slowly, ducking to dodge the pillow that May uncharacteristically threw at her. Of course, it was May, so the pillow hit her anyways.

The room was dark. May had all the lights off and the only light was coming from the window that she was sitting next to. There was a box of tissues next to her, and one in her hand.

"Oh my god, May, What's wrong?"

"You all think that I don't have emotions, but I do. I just usually keep them in check. But, right now… they're causing me a small level of distress" she sniffed.

"Is that warrior talk for 'I'm feeling pretty blue'?" Skye teased.

May chuckled a bit, before another sob wracked through her. "More like 'I don't know what to make of the world anymore', combined with a delayed dose of 'everything is falling to pieces'."

Skye went and sat next to the older woman. "Sometimes the world doesn't make sense. But, you don't need the whole world to make sense, just your one little part of it. I'm guessing that that's the problem though, huh? Ward's thrown a curveball into your organized little world, and now it's hard to tell which way is up, isn't it?"

"You get it. I'm not sure anyone else would."

"I get it because I'm in the same boat. Only thing is, I'm used to a messy little world. You've seen my room, I've got stuff everywhere. It's chaos. But I still know where everything is because I've accepted the fact that it's going to be chaos. I've learned to work around the mess. But you, you come from a life of order. I mean, your room is spotless, you have a daily routine that you follow pretty much to the second, hell you worked in administration before, which is as organized as it gets. The world's just like that, May. The thing is, you can't control the world. It's not something that you can put in boxes and file away neatly. You've just got to take the world as it is, and figure out how to find things anyways."

"You're pretty smart for someone almost half my age" May begrudgingly admitted.

Skye laughed. "Yeah, I'm getting good at this 'being wise' thing. You feeling better now?"

"Much."

"Good. Cause I have a favour to ask…"

"And what's that?"

"Teach me your ways, oh great one." May just lifted an eyebrow in response. "Ward wants me to learn to fight. He wanted to spar with me but I wouldn't let him."

"Good, it probably would have set off his bracelet."

"Exactly what I said. But he still wants me to practice. And I was thinking, your fighting style would probably work better for me than his would anyways since we're more alike, you know, physicality wise."

"That's true. But if you want me to teach you, you have to be willing to learn. It will be hard. You might think it's boring. But you have to do exactly what I tell you, without complaining."

"Okay. I promise, May."

May nodded in response. "Okay then. Meet me in the training room in ten. Just you and me." Skye nodded and went to leave. "Oh, and Skye?"

"Yeah?"

"My friends can call me Mel."

Skye grinned and closed the door behind her.

AN: Next chapter- 20 reviews. And seriously, I can take notes! If there's something that you think could be handled better in future chapters, let me know! That's how I can get better!