AN: Soooo, I've been a bad author who's been on hiatus for half of forever... In case you guys haven't noticed, I HAVE been writing a lot of SkyeWard AU one-shots lately, but I just haven't really been feeling Second Chances lately, unfortunately. However I realized that I DO have 4 and a half, almost 5 chapters written that I haven't published yet, so at least I can start by giving you guys those and hopefully the feedback from these next few chapters will motivate me to write more... In any case, here you go, enjoy chapter 12, Seed.

After the team dispersed, Grant and Skye continued into the training room, as had been their plan. Unfortunately, it was already occupied. May stood in the center of the room, taping her hands.

"Out, Ward" she barked. Skye sighed, but Grant didn't make any move to leave.

"I'm here to train Skye" he replied calmly.

"So am I. So get out, now."

Ward looked over at the girl next to him. "Skye?"

"Ohhh no!" Skye exclaimed. "You're not dragging me into this. This clearly isn't actually about me. Now, you two are both grown adults, you can sort this out."

"Skye…"

"Nope! Nope! Not happening!" Skye insisted as she started backing out of the room. "Either one of you could easily kick my ass, so I'm not picking a side here! It's about damn time you two sort this out!" She pulled the door shut behind her, leaving the two Specialists alone.

May's nostrils flared slightly, and she shook her head and made to leave.

"Melinda, wait" Ward called. "Skye's right. I know I messed up. I betrayed you. But we're on the same team now. I want to make this right."

Before Grant even had a chance to blink, Melinda's foot shot out and landed in his gut, knocking him to the floor. "And just how the hell do you plan to do that?" she sneered as she stood over him. "You think that you can ever fix what you did? That you could ever make up for the hurt you caused! To this agency, to this team, to me? You think that you can come back here and grovel and suddenly I'll forgive you for toying with me the way that you did? How can you even think for one second that you could make this right?"

"I can't. I know that. I know that I can't heal the wounds I've left behind. I know that when you cut down a tree, you can't just stick the trunk back in the ground and expect everything to be fine, for the tree to flourish as it once did. You can't, that tree is dead. But you can take the seeds from that tree, and plant a new one, and nourish it and care for it and grow a healthier tree in its place. That's what I'm trying to do here, Melinda. I want to bury the hatchet so that I don't cut down any more trees. I want to make sure that this time, I treat things right. But I can only do it if I have support.

"I'm not asking you to forgive what I did. I'm asking you to give me the chance to start over. Nothing more, but nothing less."

Melinda took her foot off of Ward's chest and crouched down next to him. "You haven't earned that" she spat. "You don't have the right to ask me that. You don't get to betray everyone on this bus, and then come back and pretend that everything is fine again. Skye may be able to look at you the same as she once did, but I sure as hell won't. So I'll work with you, fine. Because that's not my call. But will I ever trust you to have my back? Will I ever let you cover me under enemy fire?" she shook her head. "Not even if we were outmanned twenty to one."

With that she stood up and stalked out. Grant stayed lying on the mats for a few more moments, until Skye peaked her head back in.

"Well?" she asked. "I was hiding out in the lab with FitzSimmons and saw Mel walk out of here… How'd it go?"

"About as well as I expected" Ward sighed as he stood up. "At least she didn't nail my foot to the floor this time."

Skye chuckled momentarily before she sobered up and looked properly chastised by Ward's glare.

"You know what? For that, you get to do an extra twenty pushups!" he exclaimed. "And that's on top of your usual thirty." Skye opened her mouth to protest but Ward raised an eyebrow. "Do you want me to add ten more on?" Skye sighed and dropped into position and began lowering and raising her body off the ground.

"You know, the least you could do is join me" she groaned.

Ward rolled his eyes at his Rookie's sass, but joined her on the mats anyways. Eventually, Skye forgot about counting reps as she watched her SO's triceps tense with each push.

"And that makes fifty" Ward finally announced. Although she'd never admit it, Skye was almost disappointed.

The workout didn't end there though. Skye's muscles were screaming at her from the previous day's abuse, but the training room was one of the few places that she got to be alone with Ward, so she pushed past the pain and kept fighting anyways. Grant finally called a halt when he heard Skye's stomach rumbling, even with the workout music they were playing doing its best to cover the sound.

"What was the last thing you ate?" he asked.

"Umm, a couple granola bars around noon?"

"That's it, you go shower and get changed" he ordered.

Grinning, Skye gave him a quick peck and ran out the door and up the stairs. Ward followed her at a slightly slower pace, and then made his way up to Coulson's office. He knocked, and entered when given permission to do so.

"Sir, I was wondering if I could have permission to leave the bus to go purchase something?" he asked hesitantly.

"What do you need, Ward?" Coulson replied. "I can add it to the supplies list…"

"Well, I was actually hoping to buy dinner, sir. I would order in, but I don't think that many places deliver to 'a big black bus that's actually a plane in the middle of an abandoned field a few miles outside of town'."

Coulson laughed. "That they don't." He pursed his lips for a moment as he thought. "Alright, Ward. Permission granted. But, I'm coming with you. May can be in charge here for an hour or so. I'll just go tell her. Meet me in the cargo bay in ten. We can take Lola."

"Thank you, sir." Ward replied as he backed out of the room. He went into his quarters for a moment to grab his wallet and sunglasses, but stopped when he saw the object on the table in the middle of the room. There, sitting on the stainless steel table, was a small clay pot filled with dirt. Sitting on top of the dirt, just waiting to be planted, was a single olive seed. Ward smiled as he dug a little hole in the soil and placed the seed in it, knowing that an olive tree represents, among other things, the repair of a strain in a relationship.

Melinda may not have forgiven him yet, but this gift of an olive seed was a sign that not all hope was lost, and that was all that Ward was asking for that day.

AN: So that's that! Please, PLEASE review, you don't even know how much reviews fuel my writing fire! And make sure you stay tuned for Chapter 13 next week... It's an intense one! Love you all!