It was a full week since the "incident" before Simmons declared Skye fit to try again. She was the only one who could access the computer servers located in the basement. Coulson, fearing Ward would freak out again and end up having a breakdown sent Romanov in with Skye. Fury had told her to take some 'down' time, so she asked Coulson if she could stick around and help. May would be running cover fire and backup should they need help. Ward was to stay in the van with him and keep Fitz-Simmons safe. They had altered their approach, due to the fact that they didn't know whether Skye's blood had been detected and the security bolstered.

Skye was being really, really quiet on the approach up the cliffs with Romanov. She didn't know what to say to this agent, who was closer to the man of her dreams that she ever felt she could or would be.

"You ok?" Romanov asked her.

"Yeah."

"You keeping up?"

"Just about!"

They creeped nearer the house and got in through the basement window Skye and Ward had originally headed for. Skye watched Romanov sliver through it like she was a cat and followed. They found themselves in a store room with guards patrolling outside. Now all they could do was wait for the shift change.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Romanov asked her again.

"Yeah! Why do you ask?"

"Because the guys tell me you're the chatterbox. The one that doesn't stop talking. But you barely say two words to me."

Skye looked at the floor.

"We're stuck in here for the next couple of hours. Why don't we get to know one another a little." Romanov suggested.

"Why are you and Ward so close?"

Romanov smiled, a rare, genuine smile before answering "We met at the academy. In the first year we were nominated as training partners. It's rare for a male and female to be paired together but our skill level was too well matched and higher than everyone else's so they didn't really have a choice. Of course everyone thought we were having it off, but it was never like that. He was like a brother I never had."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We were very similar at the academy. We were there for similar reasons. Train and work for S.H.I.E.L.D or be killed."

"What?"

"That's a story for another day"

"So what happened then?"

The first holiday we were talking about making plans. He told me he was going home to his grandparents, I said I was going to be staying at the Academy. I didn't have a home to go to."

"So he took you home?"

"Yeah. It was weird at first. His grandparent's treated me like a Russian spy, which before S.H.I.E.L.D, I was, but they didn't know that. It wasn't until Ward told them that I didn't have a family that they took to me. From then I was part of theirs.

"Like a sister." Skye pointed out, relief starting to spread through her body.

"Just like a sister." Romanov agreed. "Of course his grandparents never knew what we were really doing in America."

"What did they think you were doing?"

"They thought Ward was studying languages at Berkley, and that I was studying Computer Forensics."

"Did Tilly know?"

"You know about Tilly?

"Yeah. We met."

"Yes Tilly knew the truth. We've trained her in martial arts since she was 8, just in case something goes wrong and someone goes after her."

"It was an accident. He didn't mean to hit me." Skye blurted, needing to get the other thing that had been bugging her for the last week of her chest.

Romanov froze at what Skye had just said. Did she mean what Romanov thought she meant?

"You know?" she whispered.

"Know what?"

"Blue eyes" Romanov used to indicate Ward's 'special skill' instead of actually divulging it.

Skye simply nodded. Skye described what had happened to her that day as Romanov listened (to a story she already knew but she wasn't going to let Skye in on that), Skye hadn't even told Coulson the truth, knowing that it could reveal Ward's biggest secret.

"Now he won't even look at me" Skye finished looking at the floor again.

"The guard's have gone" Romanov said, moving to the door.

"If you want him to look at you again, you will have to make him. We are built from the same cloth. We are both heartless killers, which is how I can get under his skin and he gets under mine. Emotions don't come easy to us and when they do we have difficulty processing them properly, because we compartmentalizs absolutely everything." Romanov advised Skye as they crept the way down the corridor to the server room. Romanov picked the lock and let them both in. Skye turned the light on as Romanov closed the door.

"Holy crap!" they both said in unison.