AN: Hey guys! So guess what? I'm currently in Italy! That's pretty cool, huh? It's my last day, but still exciting...

Anyways, as I said, here is the newest chapter of Second Chances! I don't want to say too much, so I'll just go now and talk to you at the end of this chapter, Leak.

Coulson met Ward on the ramp exactly when he'd said he would, and the two men took off towards the nearby city. It only took a few minutes for Lola to make the trip, and they landed in town in front of a strip mall (much to the shock of several passing patrons). Ward unbuckled his seat belt, but Coulson made no move to remove his own.

"You're not coming, sir?"

"Call it a test, Ward. I'm close enough to handle a situation if I have to, but I think I can trust you to go into a shop to buy dinner without incident."

Ward hid his grin as he nodded and climbed out of the car. He quickly scanned the options laid out before him, before setting off for the Chinese restaurant a few doors down. He ordered in Mandarin, of course, which won him some smiles on the staff's faces, and a lot of extra fortune cookies in his take out bag. With the food in hand, he was just about to return to the car when he noticed the small antiques shop next door. Quickly, he slipped into it and looked around. It wouldn't hurt to have something in his pocket to butter Coulson up with, should he ever need anything, and there were few things that that man loved more than old stuff.

He strode past the aisles of vases and china plates; none of it was of any interest to him. Instead, he went right up to the glass counter at the front of the store and peered in.

A couple of things caught his eye… An old pocket watch, two war medals from WWII, an old coin set. But then he saw it- an old brass compass. It was open, and inside the cover was a black and white picture of a woman. Grant's jaw dropped as he recognized the picture of Peggy Carter from his training days.

"Excuse me," he asked the shop keeper urgently, "I need to see that compass, please!"

The old man nodded and shuffled over to where Grant stood, unlocked the case, and pulled out the aforementioned item. Ward took it carefully in his hands and flipped it over. "S.R." was engraved on the back, and right away Ward knew he had to buy it.

"How much?"

"Seven hundred" the shopkeeper replied. "That's a fancy piece. The person who brought it in said that it belonged to a Captain in World War Two."

"That it did…" Ward breathed as he nodded and pulled out his credit card. He followed the man over to the till and was about to finish the transaction when one more item caught his eye.

"Can I have that too, please?" Ward asked, pointing at another item in the case. The old man looked Ward over a couple times, before he finally pulled it out of the case slowly and wrapped it up alongside the compass. Finally, once he had paid, Ward went back out to the ostentatious red car and climbed into the passenger's seat.

"All set" he told Coulson as he held up the bag of food. The bag from the antiques shop was tucked securely into the pocket of his jeans, since neither item was overtly large. Phil nodded and turned the key in the ignition, and the old car took to the sky once more.

When they got back to the bus, Ward put a lot of the food on the table in the kitchen, but took a couple of the takeout cartons into his cell. He grabbed the blanket off his bed and put it on the floor, then set the cartons on the blanket. He went back to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of candles from one of the cupboards, as well as two wine glasses and a bottle of Pinot Gris. He brought all of them back with him and put the candles around the blanket. The wine and glasses got set next to the food, and finally he grabbed a bandanna out of his suitcase and set off to get his favourite member of the team.

Skye was reading on her tablet while sitting all curled up in a chair next to the window. Her earbuds were in, and her back was turned to the majority of the room, which was why she hadn't noticed Ward's return from town or his trips from the kitchen to his room. It was almost too easy for him to sneak up behind her and deftly tie the bandanna over her eyes, causing her to squeal in surprise. She pulled out her earbuds and made to pull the fabric off of her face, but Grant caught her hands in his own and kissed her lips, deterring her from any further actions.

Still remaining silent, he gently took the tablet out of her hands and placed it on the table, the pulled her out of the chair and guided her towards the cell. Of course she didn't stop asking questions the whole time, but Ward didn't say a word and just kept on pulling her forwards. Eventually they arrived back at the cell, and Grant finally spoke.

"Okay, you can take the blindfold off now" he whispered from behind her. She quickly did as she was told, and whirled around to kiss him when she saw the set up before her.

"Oh my god, you did this?" she gasped between kisses. Ward smiled against her lips and made a sound to indicate yes. They both seemed to forget about the food for a moment, but Skye then remembered quite suddenly as she pulled away from Ward and laughed. "Well I for one am not going to let this go to waste!" She sat down cross legged on the blanket, and patted the spot next to her. Grant smiled at her child-like enthusiasm, but did as he was told.

"I wanted to do something to let you know how much you mean to me. To show you how much your support means to me" he said as he passed her one of the containers and a pair of chopsticks. He grabbed a box for himself too, and set his chopsticks down in favour of pouring the wine. He passed Skye a glass and was about to dig into his meal, when he noticed her struggling.

She had pulled the utensils apart, but that seemed to be about the best she could do. At the moment that he looked over, she was in the midst of holding one chopstick in each hand, and was trying to pick up some noodles in the same way that one would toss a salad. He watched her for a second, as she tried a couple of other methods of eating before he finally took pity.

"Okay, let me help you" he grinned, taking the misused objects out of her hands. He carefully rearranged her fingers and placed the chopsticks in her hand the way that they should be. Then he grabbed his own. "Like this, see?" he asked as he picked up a bite of the food. Skye watched him and then tried it herself, but one stick wound up crossing over the other, and the food wouldn't budge.

"This is hopeless!" she declared.

"No, it's fine. Look, maybe we'll just do this the easier way…" Grant took the food that was still in his hand and fed it to her with a grin. He took a bite for himself as she chewed, and then had another ready for her when she had swallowed.

After a couple bites, Skye rolled her eyes. "This is not a good long term solution" she admonished.

"Maybe not, but I don't mind" Ward replied. "But here, try it again."

Skye sighed but picked up the chopsticks anyways and put them in her hand the way that Ward had shown her a few moments before. Grant readjusted them slightly, and then wrapped his hand around hers. Together, they picked up a bite of food and it actually made its way to Skye's mouth. Skye did a little dance as she ate, and Ward smiled once again. After a few more assisted bites, Skye was even able to manage getting the food to her mouth, all on her own.

The meal was mostly filled with a pleasant silence. There wasn't anything that needed to be said; they just sat there, enjoying the presence of the other. Occasional words drifted back and forth, but for the most part they communicated only through their eyes, or through a gentle touch, a squeezed hand, a smile.

When the food was gone, Skye laid back with her head in Grant's lap. He started playing with her hair, and her eyes drifted shut as a smile graced her lips. The only thing that he could think of was how beautiful she was.

"I love you" he whispered.

Skye's eyes opened and she sat up to face him. She looked at him for a moment. "I love you too" she replied, gently stroking his face. He turned his head and landed a kiss on her outstretched hand, and she leaned forward to kiss him properly.

Cognitive thoughts all but flew out the window as they kissed. It wasn't long until they were lying down on the blanket, Ward hovering but a fraction of an inch off of her. Hands roamed freely and air seemed to lose its importance. And then all at once, Ward shook and rolled off of Skye and onto the blanket, gasping for breath and clutching at his side.

"Ward? Ward? Grant!" Skye yelled. His eyes were losing focus and the shakes grew stronger with each passing second. "Help! Somebody help!" Skye yelled out the door. "Simmons!"

The biochemist came running through the door and found Skye cradling Ward's head, sobbing. It only took a moment for her to assess him and come up with a hypothesis of the problem. By the time she had reached a conclusion, the rest of the team were already in the room.

"Bring him down to the lab!" Simmons ordered, running ahead of them to get things ready. Coulson, Fitz, and May quickly lifted him and carried him out, while Skye shakily followed behind while wringing her hands.

They had barely set Ward down on the table in the lab before Simmons injected him with a greenish liquid. Almost immediately the shaking stopped, but he also went completely limp as he went fully unconscious.

"That will stabilize him for a few minutes, but we need to act quickly" Simmons asserted.

"What the hell is even happening?" Skye demanded in a rough whisper. "He was fine and then all of a sudden…"

"I believe that a combination of the alcohol and the elevated heart rate from any… stimulation… may have triggered this. If I'm right, the failsafe in his system has sprung a very slight leak. Only a miniscule amount of the neurotoxin contained within it has entered his bloodstream, but if any more is released we'll have a pretty big problem."

"That poison pill you put in him is doing this?"

"It wasn't intentional, Skye! And you have every right to freak out but please do it later, once this issue is solved. Right now, I need everyone but Fitz to clear out, so that we can fix this."

Skye was about to protest but May silenced her with a look and lead her out of the room by the arm, with Coulson trailing after.

As soon as the glass doors of the lab closed behind them, Skye broke down. May nodded to Coulson and he quickly left the two women alone.

"Fear cuts deeper than bullets, Tian. Do not let it bite you."

"How can I not let it bite me when Ward is dying? Because of me?"

"How is it your fault Tian?"

"Simmons said it was the exertion that did it! If I hadn't kissed him…"

"If you hadn't kissed him, would he not have kissed you soon enough?" Skye looked at her lap. "Blaming yourself will not heal Ward, Tian. It will only wound you."

Sky nodded slightly before clutching the older agent tightly. May slowly wrapped her arms around the girl and rubbed her back as she shook.

Inside the lab, Simmons had just begun creating a small incision in Grant's left abdominal. When she'd inserted the device into Grant's arm, she'd done so expecting it to move about through his system. A quick body scan had shown her the exact location of the device, and now she was cutting about an inch away from its current location. Fitz held his breath as Jemma expertly sliced through the skin with her scalpel, and he kept passing her tools just moments before she was about to ask for them.

It was a surprisingly quick procedure for something so important. Once she had made the incision, Simmons used a magnet to pull the small metal capsule out through the slit and then let the wound bleed for a moment to allow any tainted blood to escape. After that it was quick work to stitch Ward back up and then they were able to run the final tests.

Jemma drew some samples of Grant's blood and ran it through several different machines. The results were pretty much what she had expected. Armed with as much knowledge as she could get, Simmons went out to the cargo bay where she knew Skye would be waiting.

May and Skye were sitting on the floor, with the younger girl all but curled up in the senior agent's lap. As soon as they saw her, Skye sat bolt upright, and Mel put a reassuring hand on her lap.

"He's stable now," Simmons began, "and I expect he'll recover nicely. We removed the capsule without releasing any more of the neurotoxin into his system, but the residual amounts that were already released will take time to work their way out. The shot I gave him before the operation will wear off shortly and I can't risk giving him any more. He'll be in pain for a while, and he mustn't do anything strenuous, but he should be back to normal in about a week, maybe two.

"We got very lucky. If the capsule had leaked even one more drop of the neurotoxin, at that concentration, he probably wouldn't have made it. But we caught it in time, and he crashed in a safe environment where he could be treated quickly and efficiently. Be thankful that this didn't happen when he was fighting some enemy agents in the field."

Skye nodded. "Thanks Jems" she whispered hoarsely. "Can I see him?"

"He's asleep, but he should wake up in a while… If you're there when he does, just tell him that I'll be down to check on him in a bit." Skye nodded once more, and Jemma climbed the spiral stairs to track down her partner.

"You'll be okay?" May asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Skye replied. "Thanks, Mel."

"Anytime, Tian." With that, May followed the biochemist's path, leaving Skye alone outside the lab doors.

AN: So some bad things! :O I guess it's unlucky chapter 13 for Ward... Also just pointing out that I started this story before season 2 came out, so pretty much everything after the hiatus is to be completely ignored for this story. I haven't even seen this week's episode yet (which is driving me crazy! Should be able to watch it tomorrow though). Anyways, that's all from me for now! Reviews are, as always, super appreciated. I got some amazing ones on the last chapter and I really appreciate them, more than you know! You guys rock! 3