A/N: Hey guys! I know it's been a while since I updated. I was having trouble thinking of ideas. But here's one! Please, if you have more, let me know. I'll update as the ideas come to me (whether they're mine or yours). Thanks!

Drabble 8: Tech Support

Ward looked at the holographic display and sighed. He'd tried using it before, with Coulson. It hadn't worked that time. He really needed it this time, to show Skye the weapon he was teaching her to use. He was definitely not letting her have the real one until she understood how powerful it was. And the best way to get it in her head was with the tech she loved.

He'd even asked Fitz to show him how it worked, before he left for a personal day. Ward had walked in and done exactly as Fitz instructed.

The damn thing still wouldn't work.

He was starting to think Fitz was setting him up for failure when Skye walked in, and he realized he was late in retrieving her.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"For your training today I wanted to use the holographic display."

"So where's the display?"

He looked at her with a straight face. "I'm working on it."

"Let me help," she said, the traces of a cocky grin on her face. Ward almost sighed again. It was never good when she went into a training session with that attitude. The sass she gave him was unbearable.

But after a few minutes (which, with Skye, was like Ward working on it for an hour), Skye harrumphed.

"The hacktivist is having trouble?" Ward asked, playing innocent but internally grinning.

"Fitz-Simmons must have rigged it to work just for them," she said. "I'll get Simmons."

"I'm sure that's it," he said, watching her walk quickly out of the lab.

He heard Simmons before he saw the two of them. "… sure it's just a manual error," she was saying. She looked at Ward. "Skye tells me you're having trouble. Care to show me exactly what you did?"

Ward repeated exactly what Fitz had shown him. "See?" he said.

"That is right," Simmons said, her brow creasing as she analyzed the machine.

"I guess we can call Fitz," Skye said leadingly. Ward looked at her, noticing the not so subtle manipulation there. He was going to call her on it and say it needed work. Then he realized Simmons had fallen for it, standing straighter.

"It's probably just a little tired. Been a while since we restarted it!" she said in a joking manner. "Fitz and I always say: first rule of IT, turn it off and turn it back on again."

She did so, and then tried to activate the holographic projector. It stayed dark.

"That's strange," she said, with a trace of unease.

"Sometimes force helps," Ward suggested.

"Right," Simmons said, and banged her fist against it.

They waited a few seconds. "I can try to hack it with another device."

"You won't get through our security," Simmons said immediately.

Ward almost stepped back as Skye raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth. It took Simmons a second to realize Skye was looking at her, and then the scientist seemed uncomfortable. "It's not that I doubt your skills or anything, but Fitz and I had a top notch security system even before we knew you; now that we know how you work we've made it even stronger."

Skye's lips pressed together. "Fine. It might break it anyway. This thing seems pretty sensitive."

Ward walked up to it. "No offense Simmons, but your little tap didn't do much. This thing needs a little more force." He pulled back his fist and launched it.

Simmons gave a cry. Skye chuckled.

"You could have damaged it!" Simmons said. She looked absolutely affronted, and Skye started actually laughing.

"It didn't do anything," Ward said. "At this point I'd be happy with any reaction."

"Are we beating up the lab?" May asked with amusement, walking in.

"The holographic projector isn't working," Skye said.

"Why didn't you just call Fitz?"

"We wanted to prove we could do it ourselves."

May looked at the dark screen and smirked. "You did it, alright."

She walked out, followed quickly by a stoic but embarrassed Ward and a happy to get out of training (and determined to hack into Fitz-Simmons' system) Skye. Simmons stayed in the lab, looking at the display. She and Fitz had practically built this model. What Ward had done in the first place should have worked. Everything they'd done should have.

She turned to face Fitz's workstation, which was uncharacteristically sloppy. "No, he wouldn't," she said to herself. Still, she walked over to it. Mostly hidden between papers, there was a flash drive stuck in his laptop – which was open. "Alright, Fitz, I hope you've had a good laugh," Simmons said, looking into the webcam. She plastered on a smile and said "can't wait for you to get back!" and walked away.

She smiled for real as she walked out of the lab. That ought to make him keep his guard up. She didn't have any plans to get revenge. Making him think she was out to get him would be revenge enough.

Fitz watched Simmons walk away through the tablet he'd connected to the laptop, and almost dropped his sandwich. "I've made a terrible mistake," he said to himself.