Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews I really didn't think I would get so many. A couple of you asked about a time line and hopefully that's addressed in the next couple of chapters. As for the cities the team stopped in I actually drew a map and a timeline for how long they stayed in each place, it's really complicated and even confused me. If people are really nice and review this chapter then I will post another chapter in a couple of hours.

Chapter 31 – The Eternal City

Skye was sick and tired of travelling, in fact she was just sick and tired in general. The team had barely stopped moving since they had left London almost three months ago. Their first stop had been Paris and Skye had absolutely loved their almost month long stay there. However since Paris the team hadn't stopped in the same city for more than two nights in a row, they would spend two nights, move on and then eventually find their way back to the first city. The worst part was that they didn't even get to stay in hotels or even a motel, they were stuck on the bus. What really annoyed Skye was that she was in some of the most beautiful cities in the world and she wasn't even aloud off the bus to go sightseeing. She had practically ended up on her hands and knees begging Coulson to let her outside when they had a brief stop in the Alps, some of the most beautiful scenery in the world and only May and Coulson got to see it. In fact no matter where they went only May and Coulson got to see it, while everyone else was confined to the bus, they got to talk to all manner of people about SHIELD operating within their borders.

The team was now on day three of their stop in Rome and Skye was desperate to get outside. Coulson and May had left at some unholy hair, before the rest of the team had even thought about getting out of bed, FitzSimmons had locked themselves in the lab on landing, only coming out for necessities in life, like food and the bathroom, which left Skye with Trip. Skye wasn't sure to act around Trip, it had been easier at the Playground and in London but confined to the bus it was easy to see him as Ward's replacement, he'd moved into Ward's bunk and it wasn't uncommon to find him in the cargo hold with the punching bag. Half the time Skye would hear Trip at the punching bag and head to the cargo hold expecting to see Ward. Skye found herself thinking about Ward a lot lately, with no advance warning of the team's movements she wondered if he managed to keep up with them. Not that there was much the team needed protecting from, Coulson and May were more than capable of protecting themselves and everyone else was confined to the bus. One of the main reasons Skye wanted off the bus was to search for a sign he was still watching out for her. She'd felt eyes on her when she'd gone shopping in Paris and she'd hoped it had been him but that had been almost three months ago and Skye was desperate to know if he was okay. Which was why Skye found herself in the cargo hold practically begging Trip to let her off the bus.

"Come on, I'll be back before Coulson even thinks about coming back. They'll never know I'm gone," Skye pleaded.

Trip didn't look amused, "We both know May will smell the lie on both of us the second she steps on the plane. That woman's worse than a damn blood hound."

Skye actually smiled at the thought, "That's if she can smell us over FitzSimmons 'activities'." Making quotation marks with her hands, "All I'm asking for is an hour, maybe two, to see something, anything. The Colosseum, The Trivi fountain, The Spanish Steps. Come on Trip, please."

Now Trip looked slightly amused, "Pick one."

A smile finally spread across Skye's face, "Seriously?"

Trip gave a small laugh and shook his head, "Do you think you're the only one tired of being stuck on this plane. Pick one sight, we'll both go and be back before FitzSimmons or Coulson figure out we're gone. We'll deal with May later."

Skye was so happy that she actually threw her arms around Trip, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

Half an hour later Skye was all but skipping through the streets of Rome. It had surprised the hacker to learn that the streets of Rome weren't exactly easy to navigate, the plan had been to walk around Rome alone, looking for signs of Ward and completing another task she had set herself but it had taken her only a few minutes to be grateful for Trip's company, she would be completely lost without him. While Skye could still look for Ward with Trip's constant presence her other task would have to wait, she wanted answers but she didn't want Trip to see her looking for them.

Despite the heat crowds still flocked to the Trivi fountain and Skye searched those crowds for a sign for her lover but there was just too many people. She had a hard enough time keeping track of Trip let alone find Ward and that was if he was even at ground level, something told Skye that he could be getting a bird's eye view and if he was Skye had no chance of spotting him.

As Skye moved closer to the fountain she felt the crowds pushing in on her, the more people pushed the worse she began to feel. Sky had never liked crowds but today was different, it was scorching hot and the crowds just added to the heat. Skye knew something was wrong when things started to go fuzzy, she had a sudden need to sit down, to lie down. Trip must have noticed something was wrong because he grabbed her arm and began to lead her out of the crowd. Skye knew Trip was saying something but she couldn't concentrate enough to hear him or even see his mouth moving. Things were getting fuzzier and she was starting to feel very dizzy. Skye could feel herself being lead out of the crowd, but it was almost like she wasn't in her body, that her movement weren't her own. Trip was leading her towards somewhere she could sit down but Skye never made it, the ground came rushing towards her and everything went black.

Author's Note: I really need to stop ending chapters like this but I can't and I'm not sorry.

PLEASE REVIEW. I promised a double update and if you review I will update in a couple of hours, after I actually finish writing the next chapter (I'm almost there I promise).