Author's Note: As promised as people guessed the Avengers' reference here is another update. This is one of my favourite chapters so can you please review and let me know what you all think.

Chapter 11 – London Calling

Skye decided that being stuck in Fury's secret London base wasn't so bad, at least this base was above ground. It was an old building, technically classed as university accommodation, so as long as the team pretended to be either students or staff they were free to roam London as they saw fit. The team had a good laugh when Simmons all but dragged Fitz to the British Museum. Skye had even managed to drag the entire team to a musical, she regretted the decision when Fitz wouldn't stop singing for a whole week. Secretly she was happy to see the engineer being his usual annoying self but Skye complained about the singing right along with everyone else.

Today it was Fitz's turn to choose the team's activity and he chose the London Zoo, to no one's surprise the first thing the engineer wanted to see was the monkeys. The second that arrived at the zoo Fitz was off and talking, "Did you know the enclosure is 1500 square metres, it houses a breeding group of black-capped squirrel monkeys." Barely pausing to breath he continued, "The habitat was designed to recreate the Bolivian rainforest as closely as possible."

Natasha was currently walking beside Skye, the assassin turned to the hacker, "Do you think Coulson would be angry if I gaged him?"

Skye smiled, "You can use my sock."

Natasha raised an eyebrow, obviously confused.

Skye sighed, "To put a sock in it." When the assassin didn't laugh Skye through up her hands in defeat, "Never mind. Just my luck, loose one robot, gain another."

Suddenly Skye stopped, the meaning of her own wards seeping in. She stopped, sitting on one of the seats along the path. Skye sighed, she'd fought so long and so long to keep the memories of Ward at bay and today they had come flooding back. Breathing deeply Skye tried to push the memories, the feeling she had felt for the man, back down. She looked up when someone sat down next to her.

Natasha smiled, "I'm sorry I didn't find your joke funny. People don't usually joke about my line of work."

Skye shook her head, wiping away a tear that had escaped, "It's not you."

Natasha gave the hacker a worried look, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Skye nodded weakly, "If you don't mind. It might be good to talk to someone who wasn't actually involved."

Natasha stood, holding out a hand to Skye, "Talking helps, believe me," She smiled, "Food also helps."

Skye smiled, letting Natasha pull her up, "Where to?"

The Black Widow shrugged, "I'm sure there's a café around here somewhere."

Skye looked at the rest of the team, soon to be lost in the crowd, "What about the others?"

Natasha gave a devious smile, "We can get food or we can listen to Fitz go on about monkeys for another hour before the others decide they've had enough and want food and even then I doubt we'd be able to talk."

Skye nodded, "Food it is."

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Sitting in a small café Skye didn't know where to start. She sipped her coffee wondering if it would have been better to stay and listen to Fitz talk about his monkeys. Sighing Skye rubbed sleep from her eyes, "What do you want to know?"

Natasha sipped her own drink, "What do you want to tell me?"
Skye starred at the table, "What do you already know?"
Natasha shrugged, "Your S.O. was HYDRA. I assume that's what this is about."

Skye nodded weakly, "He was close to being more than just my S.O." She sighed, "He was…He could have been…" Skye through up her hands, almost spilling her drink, "I don't know what he was."

Natasha gave a half smile, "For what it's worth, I understand."

Skye looked doubtful, "You understand?" She almost laughed, "You're just like May, cold as ice. I doubt either of you have ever been in my situation."

Natasha actually smiled at Skye's outburst, "Not recently, but when I was your age, before SHIELD."

Skye raised an eyebrow, "Did he betray you? Did he shoot at you? 'Cause if he didn't then you don't understand."

"He shot me. Twice. One of those times was very recently." Suddenly Natasha scoffed, "Do you know what's funny? I hardly ever tell anyone about my past and this is the second time I've had this conversation in as many months."

Skye looked surprised, "Who else could you have possibly had this conversation with? And what does that have to do with Ward?"

Natasha smiled, "It doesn't matter who I had the conversation with, what matters is what he said and it's the same thing I'm saying to you. No matter what he did you still love him. You will always love him and no matter how many time you tell yourself you hate him, that he's a monster you will keep loving him, hoping for his redemption. You keep hoping he will find his way back to you."

Skye gave a half smile, "I never said anything about love."

Natasha returned the half smile, "It's written all over your face. It's my job to notice these things."

Skye pushed herself up from the table, "I need some time to think." She nodded to the assassin, "I'll see you back at base."

Natasha merely nodded in response.

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As she left the zoo and headed out into the busy London streets Skye got the feeling she was being followed. So much for not thinking about Ward, he was the one who taught her evasion techniques, the same ones she now put in place. Unfortunately Skye didn't know London very well, she ended up in a dead end alley. Three men followed her into the alley and Sky began to panic as her escape options became very limited.

Standing her ground Skye looked at the men, "What do you want?"
One man stepped forward, giving a smile that chilled Skye to the bone "We want you to come with us."

Skye actually laughed, "Yeah, like that's going to happen."

One of the other men stepped forward, "We weren't asking."

The man moved so fast that Skye didn't have time to block the blow to her head. She fell to the ground, trying to stand she failed to block another blow. Suddenly the first man fell to the ground, then the second and finally the man who had remained at the alley's entrance. As everything began to go fuzzy Skye felt someone pick her up, she saw a worried face looking at her and before everything went black Skye briefly wondered what Grand Ward was doing in London.