Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya. This was definitely fun to write, but not in a good way. You'll see.

Tamara: You're gonna have to wait a little while for May's reaction, but I like to think it's a pretty good one. :)

Guest 13: Yay for you! Thank you, I definitely will try. :)

This chapter is exactly 1800 words. I love when that happens, a nice even number. :)

And now, enjoy.

*May*

Skye lets out a soft grunt as her back hits the training mat hard, breathing heavily as she uses the back of her hand to wipe the few beads of sweat from her forehead. She quickly pushes herself back up onto her feet and faces her opponent once again, "Alright, that was a pretty good take down, Joey. You faltered a little bit for a moment there, so you just have to remember not to hesitate and just go right for it when you're in a real fight. One single moment of hesitation in a real fight can be the different between you or your opponent getting the upper hand. You always want to get the upper hand in a fight."

Joey nods his head in understanding, "Yeah, sorry about that."

"Don't be," she smiles reassuringly. "Other than just a few minor things to work on you're doing really well with hand to hand. You've really improved a lot since you first got here. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, Skye," he smiles back. "I'm really trying my best to...hey, what's that?"

"What's what?" Skye asks, her brows knitting together in confusion.

"That right there," Joey says, pointing to a section of the bright blue training mat.

Skye's eyes follow his line of sight and finger and then go wide when she sees her thin gold wedding band lying on the mat. Her hand immediately flies up to her neck, finding her chain on the outside of her clothes and the small links broken in one spot.

"Oh," she finally speaks as Joey picks up the ring and looks it over, "that's uh...that's mine, actually."

Joey raises an eyebrow at her and gestures to the ring, "This is yours?"

"Yeah," she nods her head. "I like to keep it close so I have it on a necklace under my clothes because I don't want it to get in the way if I'm firing a gun or doing any hand-to-hand, you know?"

Joey nods slowly, "Yeah, that makes sense. But uh, I'm pretty sure that this is a wedding ring, Skye." He looks up at her, "Is there something you maybe want to tell me?"

Skye rolls her eyes and snatches the ring from him, "It's not a wedding ring, Joey. Do you honestly think that I'm married? Where would I have even found the time to date someone, let alone get married when I'm living my life as a secret agent for a semi-secret organization? You guys would all find out somehow. And I'm really busy running this team, doesn't leave a whole lot of time for dating, let alone marriage and all that goes along with it."

"Yeah, I guess you make some good points. But what about Lincoln? Weren't you two together for a while?"

Skye sighs, "We weren't actually together for very long. He and I just didn't work out in the end. And there's not really anyone else here that I'd consider dating."

Joey nods, "Alright. So if that ring isn't a wedding ring, then what exactly is it?"

"It's nothing," she shrugs. "Just one of the only pieces of my messed up past that I actually want to hang onto. So don't worry about it, okay?"

"Okay," Joey says. "I won't."

"Good, thank you," Skye gives him a small smile. "Now go and hit the showers, I think that's enough training for today. We'll pick back up again tomorrow."

Joey smiles, "Great, thanks." He turns and makes his way out of the gym towards his bunk.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Skye clutches her wedding ring tightly in her hand and then makes her way out of the gym and towards her bunk.

...

Closing and locking the door to her bunk behind her, Skye moves over to her bed and falls down onto it, grabbing her phone off of the nightstand.

Opening it up, she goes into the shell program and finds all the pictures that she saved from Grant. She pulls them up and starts scrolling through them, like she does sometimes. She smiles and laughs quietly at a few of the sillier pictures of her two favorite people.

After a few minutes she closes out of the photos and goes into her contact list. She selects Grant's number, hitting the button for a video call. She slides her wedding ring onto her finger as she waits for the call to connect.

A second later, Jessica's face appears in the center of the screen. She grins, "¡Mamá!"

Skye smiles back, "Hi, angel."

"¡Mamá! Come home! ¡Ven a casa!"

Skye smiles sadly, "Sorry, baby girl. Not yet. Not until the Fourth of July."

"Why?"

"Because I have to stay here for a little while so that I can come and stay with you and daddy later for a few days."

"Kay. Te amo mamá."

"I love you too, Jess," Skye smiles. "Now give me a really really big kiss."

Jessica leans towards the screen and presses her lips against it.

Skye laughs when Jessica pulls back, "Thanks, baby girl. Now put daddy on."

Jessica leans back and turns her head. "Daddy," she says.

"Thanks, Jess," Grant says to his daughter, his face entering the screen. "Why don't you go and play in your room with Buddy while I talk to mommy."

"Kay," Jessica climbs down and makes her way over to the dog, gently nudging him to go down the hallway.

The camera shakes as Grant shifts in his spot and then he's smiling into the camera, "Hi, beautiful."

"Hi, handsome," she smiles back. "How has your day been?"

"It's been alright," he tells her. "Haven't actually done a whole lot, mostly just sat around with Jess and watched TV or played some games. Jess only had two accidents so far today, so there's also that. Nothing else too exciting, though. But what about you? How has your day been?"

She shrugs, "Pretty okay, I guess. Joey saw my wedding ring today while we were sparring. The chain broke somehow at some point without me realizing it so my ring fell off and he saw it on the mat after we were done. I managed to convince him that it was just something from my past, though. Guess this just means I have to be more careful in the future about it."

"Yeah," he agrees with a nod. "Or…you could always tell everyone about me and Jess and then come and stay with us forever," he smiles. "Bobbi, Hunter, and Mack already know so there aren't too many people left you'd have to tell."

She tilts her head and smiles, "You know that I want to do that, so very badly. But it's just not the right time yet."

"Well when is it going to be the right time?" he asks. "You keep saying that you don't want to leave unless you know your team is ready to handle everything without you there. And that you're slowly easing them into everything for once you do leave. But it's been two years now, Skye, I think your team will be perfectly fine without you there all the time to watch them."

Skye sighs, "I just...I want to be really sure about this. And there are a couple of new Inhumans that I'm still helping get settled into this crazy new lifestyle. I can't just leave them right now and then never come back. They're really relying on me, Grant. They need me right now."

"Well we need you too," Grant tells her seriously. "Jess really misses you, a lot more than you know. I think she's starting to notice you being gone all time and she's always asking me when you're going to be back again. She gets really sad sometimes when she wakes up and you aren't here. This isn't right, Skye. She's getting older and starting to notice these kinds of things. She shouldn't have to ask and wonder about when you're going to come home next and then get sad when you're here one day and gone the next."

"You think I don't know that?!" she asks with tears shining in her eyes. "I hate having to be away from you guys for so long and then only getting to spend a few days at a time with the both of you when I'm there. I want to stay with you two permanently, but I can't do that just yet. Not until I know for a fact that everything is squared away here with my team."

"Well I wish you'd square everything away with them all sooner rather than later."

"So do I," she tells him. "But these kinds of things take time, okay? I was put in charge of this team and I can't just up and leave them and then never come back without any plans or preparations. I have to make sure that whoever I hand the reigns over to is fully prepared to deal with all of the responsibility that comes with running this team. I've told you all of this before. Why the hell is it so hard for you to understand this?"

"I don't know. Sometimes it feels like you don't actually want to leave, Skye. That you're just stringing us along and aren't going to stay here permanently. I need my wife and Jessica needs her mom. More than just for a few days at a time every few months."

Skye looks at him with shock written on her face. "Do you honestly think that I'm doing all of this on purpose? That I'd rather be here, sometimes risking my life on missions, instead of being at home with you and Jess?"

"I don't know, you tell me." They're both quiet until Grant lets out a deep sigh, "Look, I have a lot of things I need to do so I'm going to go now."

Skye swallows thickly, "Okay."

"I'll talk to you later," he says offhandedly.

Skye nods her head, "Yeah. I love you."

"Yeah, bye," Grant says without looking at her and then ends the video call.

When the call ends, Skye locks her phone and sets it down beside her on the bed. She wipes furiously at her eyes with her fingers to keep her tears at bay and then scoots down on the bed so she's lying back on her pillow.

Turning onto her side, she holds her hands up in front of her face, gently toying with the gold wedding band sitting on her ring finger.

Pulling her hand in close to her chest, practically curling in on it, she closes her eyes as she feels the tears start to fall from her eyes, soaking the material of the pillow beneath her head as she quietly cries herself to sleep.

Don't hate me! I couldn't have everything be happy the whole time. Had to throw some kind of curve ball in there. But don't worry, it won't stay like this forever. I promise.

Also, still working on a special project for Brett. If you're interested, let me know. I'd be happy to give you more details.

Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!