Coulson went to get some ice and Romanov entered the workout room and lowered the blinds, knowing things could get a little crazy. The others didn't need to see Ward crazy. The hand weight came out of nowhere, but having been here before and having her reaction speed she easily ducked it.

"You need to stop punching that bag, Grant"

"What're you doing here Nat?

"Your friends were concerned about you. They didn't know what else to do. Apparently you broke May's jaw the last time she tried to talk to you in this state. What did you hit her with?"

"Fire extinguisher" Coulson returned with the ice pack and passed it through the door to Romanov. She moved around the room and into Ward's eyeline.

"Coulson thinks you're punching out your love for this girl who got hurt." She continued moving closer to him. "But he's wrong isn't he?" she asked finally getting close enough to him to take his hands and hold the ice pack to them.

"I did it" Ward confessed, voice hoarse and looking into her eyes, and for the first time in the 13 years she had known Ward, Romanov saw tears in his eyes, and she knew that he blamed himself. She put one hand around the back of his head and pulled it onto her shoulder. He sank to the floor and she went with him, keeping his head on her shoulder. The emotion he had been feeling since he had hurt Skye broke and he was crying into Romanov's shoulder. It was around half an hour before he could explain further; after all, he could talk to Romanov because they knew all of each other's dirty little secrets.

"We were fighting. She'd seduced a man to get information and she was asking me if I had ever seduced a woman for the same reason. She didn't like the answer"

"So what happened then?"

"I don't know. I guess I lost it and hit her with the statue."

"Did you hit her hard?"

"Hard enough to knock her straight out without much of a sound"

"It's not your fault" She repeated

"It is. I hit her"

"You didn't mean to."

"My mind controls it, so somewhere I must have wanted to."

"Don't go there. I have never seen you beat yourself up over a woman before. She's special to you, I can see that. I also see that you would die protecting her. So why would you want to hurt her?" She asked him.

They just looked at each other, he put his head back on her shoulder and, as she started stroking the side of his face he fell into a deep sleep. He woke up a couple of hours later when the plane hit turbulence. Apparently Romanov had fallen asleep too and had also woken with a start.

"Feeling better?" She asked him, getting to her feet.

"A little."

"Well, I have something that will cheer you right up!" She took his hand and led him to the upper floor of the 'bus to the lounge. She brought over the most delicious looking homemade cheesecake and put it in front of him.

"Is that..." Ward started

"Grandma Ward's cheesecake, all the way from the United Kingdom." Romanov finished for him, handing him a fork.

"You went home?"

"Yep. Which reminds me. Tilly says she wants her flick knife back."

"I'll bet she did." he replied with a grin.

He broke off a piece of cheesecake and put it in his mouth.

"mmmmmmm... I am so glad Grandma taught Tilly how to make this before she passed! Want some?" he asked her, breaking another piece off and feeding it to Romanov.

"I brought you something else from home I thought you might enjoy" She said to him swallowing her cheesecake and pulled a beautiful chess set out from under the table they were sat at.

"You didn't?"

"Yeah. You wanna play?"

Skye, who had been released by Simmons was watching this interaction and felt her heart break a little. She knew that he was telling the truth when he said him and Romanov weren't romantic (he didn't have much choice but to tell the truth did he?), and that they were just close, but she realised that they were closer than any two people she knew that weren't sleeping together.