A/N:This one is for you Salkri Kachemench! Happy birthday! Hope you enjoy!

Skye and Ward were headed around the outside of the suspect's house a few days later.

"You mean to tell me, you're not pissed off."

"No."

"You seem it."

"Why would I be pissed that you used your body to gain an advantage over someone? We've all done it."

"What?" Skye asked stopping dead, realising what Ward had just told her.

"Skye, come on." He said waving her on.

"You're telling me that you have used your body to get information?"

"Can we talk about this later? We need to get into that building somehow, without being seen."

"Just use your body. Or shall I use mine? To have some strange man's hands running down my body, through my hair. Hip lips touching me..."

"Skye, stop"

"Well answer my question."

Ward spun around, looped his arm around Skye and pushed her against the wall.

"Yes, Skye, I have used my body and the prospect of sex to get information out of a woman."

"How many times?" she asked angrily

Ward simply cocked his head and looked at her.

"We need to get this mission done." He told her as he released her.

"Seriously how many times have you done it?"

Ward felt angry with Skye, after all, she was the one who let that creep touch her, look at her and kiss her in ways Ward could only imagine doing, and he was the one, as her backup and SO, who had to watch. He wanted to kill that guy. But he kept his emotions in check, didn't make anything move and didn't let his hurt show on his face. Now Skye was bringing it up again and spinning it round on him. He felt the fire rising. He heard a noise behind him and saw Skye fall to the ground unconscious, the head of the nearest stone statue at her feet, smeared with her blood.

"Skye?" He asked in a shocked whisper, appalled at what he had done to her.

He crouched down to check that she was still alive and upon finding a pulse, picked her up, threw her over his shoulder and carried her out of there.

"Base. We have a problem." Ward radioed the 'bus.

"What's the issue Twinkle Toes?" Simmons asked using her favourite code name for him.

"Something hit Skye, she's unconscious, but alive. I'm bringing her home. Prep a bed for her."

"What about the mission?"

"I'm going to have to abort it. Can't take Skye with me to do it, and I'll need her help when I get in anyway."

"Copy that!"

Skye was soon on the 'bus in the new state of the art medical centre (with the number of injuries the team get Director Fury thought it would be a good idea for them to have this). Ward was being debriefed by Coulson in the Lab.

"I don't know what happened Coulson. We were talking, suddenly she stopped talking, I turned around and she hit the ground. The only evidence of something having hit her was a stone statue with blood on it."

"Calm down Ward, it wasn't your fault."

"But we failed the mission"

"We can go again. You managed to get in and out without being detected, so we are a go for a second try."

"We'll need a new plan. They will have seen that statue by now"

"She'll be ok. She's in good hands" Coulson reassured Ward, thinking that it was his feelings that were affecting him.

"I know" Ward replied going into the workout area.

"That's 108 punches in 90 seconds" Simmons had told Coulson nodding to Ward, as he came down to the lab for an update on Skye.

"He's obsessive punching again?"

"Yes. He's been punching like that for the last five hours! I'm worried!"

"Me too, and the only person who could snap him out of it is unconscious."

"Wait, isn't there one more person who could?"

"Who? And how do you know this?"

"There was a picture at the academy of Ward and this redhead. They looked pretty close; I mean there was a picture of her kissing him on the cheek at what seemed to be Graduation"

"Redhead you say?"

"Yes."

"Romanov. Why didn't we think of it before!"

"We will be landing for supplies in five minutes" May told them over the intercom.

Ward fastened his seatbelt in the workout room (another idea of Fury's, you know, to stop people flying out of the back of the plane!) and sat there staring into space winding and unwinding his hand strips, not realising that they were getting a little bloody from the repeated punching. The plane was soon in the air and everyone was gathered in the Lab, except Simmons who was trying to keep Skye in the medical bay.

"He's been like this for a few days now" Coulson told Romanov as she watched Ward quick punch the bag for 30 seconds before starting on rounds.

"He was like this a few months ago, but we dropped him in England for a few days and it knocked it out of him for a little while" Fitz added.

"Ok. What triggered this?" Romanov asked Coulson.

"The girl. She got hurt in the field and he's been like this since"

"He's seen plenty of women get hurt in the field, me included. What aren't you telling me?"

Knowing that what he was about to discuss was incredibly private he sent May and Fitz out of the Lab and onto the upper deck.

"He loves her, he doesn't quite accept it yet but he does." Coulson told her when he was certain they were alone.

"And you think this is the reason he's doing this?"

"What else could it be?"

"I'll talk to him. See what I can do. Would you please get me some ice for his hands?"