The first thing Ward did was log into his email account: 19283 emails.
"Christ" he thought, "It's going to take me hours to filter through this lot"
Slowly he started deleting the 'junk emails' from his inbox. Then he started reading the ones he felt he should read and replied to the necessary ones. Skye watched him closely, seeing him engrossed in the screen. It took three hours to sort through all of the emails, but he finally did it. As Ward moved the cursor to log out of his account a new email popped up.
Sender: NRBW s.h.i.e.l. , Subject: Found these on my old computer and thought I'd share!
Ward opened the email wondering what on earth she had found. As it turns out it was old photographs. There was one of the two of them sparring and one that was obviously afterwards of them holding ice packs to different injuries. Ward continued to scroll.
Skye noticed this shift of action. She saw the natural smile. The one she hadn't seen since he had given her that compliment oh-so-long-ago. So she silently crept up behind Ward to see what had got his attention. She saw the picture of the beautiful redhead and Ward and her heart ached. She knew why he wouldn't share the bed with her and also knew this woman was one in a million. She watched him scroll through pictures of them helping each other with kit and socializing. Then he got to the ones that were just of him. Ward in full tactical gear (Skye felt a sensation she hadn't felt since she'd spied on Ward with those glasses...)
Then came one that made her exhale as if she had been hit in the ribs with a sledgehammer.
"Holy crap! Is that you?" she asked as Ward, taken by surprise (he had forgotten Skye was left behind too), closed the window quickly.
"Yes. It was a very long time ago, while I was at the Academy"
"Where was it taken?"
"During a training exercise I think."
Ward closed the laptop and handed it back to Skye before heading into the kitchen area to make some food. Skye disappeared into her bunk and immediately she started typing away to see if she could bring back those two pictures. The first one was easy to find. The second took a little more doing. But within 10 minutes it was there. Ward had obviously just landed a big jump off something and had assumed the S.H.I.E.L.D crouch position (one knee bent, the other out straight out to the side, opposite hand to bent knee in a fist on the floor and his free hand held a gun by his side). He had clearly just looked up to regain his bearings as he was staring straight into the camera's lens. What struck Skye were his eyes. They were passionate, bold, daring, pretty much the same as they are now. Except in the photograph they were bright blue.