They landed at Phys Acc. They were only staying long enough to check Tilly was safe, pick up Romanov and drop off Fury and his plane. After the shower incident Fury decided it was safer if he didn't experience the craziness first hand. He would probably end up shooting Ward or Romanov. Besides, he wanted to test Tilly's ability levels himself.
Coulson lowered the cargo ramp and saw Tilly and Romanov walking towards the plane. He felt relieved. He trusted Romanov with his life, but if the Covenant managed to find Tilly in Oxford then anything could have happened.
Ward jumped down off the cargo ramp, the others stood watching. Orders were to stay on the plane. He spread his arms wide open and Tilly ran into them. He gave her the biggest hug he could manage and kissed the top of her head.
"You're staying here until it's over. You will be safe here, and Director Fury is going to talk to you about recruitment. Stay safe and keep your head down." He told her before letting her go. They could see she was crying.
He then embraced Romanov.
"Thanks Nat"
"Well I wasn't going to let her get chased all over Europe by herself by bad ass idiots was I? She's my sister too!"
He let her go and picked her bag up off the floor. He squeezed Tilly's hand and he and Romanov boarded the plane.
During the physical contact Ward made with Romanov, Amber looked sideways to Skye to see how she would react to it. After all, the rumours were well known. She was puzzled to see her smiling.
After Romanov had settled into her bunk (well it was Skye's bunk but it was the only bed available) Amber and Kain, feeling like they were in the presence of a celebrity, offered to show Romanov around the 'bus not realising that she had been on it before. She looked at Ward and noticed the one smile only she could interpret.
"Sure!" She agreed.
They showed her the workout room, the Lab, kitchen, shower room, and pointed her in the direction of Coulson's office. In the Lab, Romanov noticed the spider. She recognised it as a Black Widow instantly.
"Please tell me you did not call the spider Nat?"
"It was Skye's idea. She said it was cute and deadly so it should be called Nat." Amber told her eagerly.
"I will totally kill her later."
After the tour the team were taking some down time while flying to the newest crater. They were appearing so fast they were almost having difficulty keeping up!
"So why did you send Tilly to Moscow, why not straight to America?" Kain asked Ward, the answer having bugged him since he found out what the plan was.
"America would be the obvious choice and then it makes it too easy to track her. We set up a trail of passports and cash to follow to the USA without being detected, and her Russian's better than Nat's." he replied.
"That's impressive" May added.
"Why is that so impressive?" Amber asked clueless.
"Nat's Russian." Ward explained.
"Was. I was Russian." Romanov shouted across the room. She was trying to get the controls to an electronic game to work.
"Nat, with a name like Natasha Romanov, you will always be Russian" Ward shouted back.
She threw the remote control at the back of his head.
"Ow" Ward said, rubbing the back of his head. He felt a wet patch and looked at his hand. He saw blood.
"Oh well done!" He told her, showing her his hand.
"I didn't throw it that hard!" She protested, coming over to inspect the wound.
"Hard enough to rip a stitch" Skye told her.
"Stitches? What did you do?"
"Spanner" It was all he needed to say.
The AIT's were watching this with interest. Clearly some of the rumours were true. These two were insane apart, unstoppable together. They could read each other like books.
They got to the crater. It was larger than the previous ones. The team split up to look for information. Romanov, Ward and Skye noticed an abandoned building; well it was more of a ruin at this point and had clearly been for some time. Ward opened the door and went through first, just in case they were walking into a trap. Skye followed leaving Romanov to glance at the horizon before following.
Except, when Romanov walked through the door, Skye and Ward were gone.