Ward woke up that night to find Skye sat on his bed.
"Where am I?" He asked groggily removing the oxygen mask off his face, the room unfocussed.
"Med suite." She told him.
"What happened?"
"Allergic reaction. I think Coulson said it was to the laundry detergent me and Simmons picked up."
She flung her arms around his neck and cried into his chest.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know! If I had I wouldn't have got it. It's all my fault." Skye started to ramble.
"Skye. Firstly, help me sit up."
She helped arrange the bed so Ward was in a seated position. The room swam for a few seconds before clearing.
"Secondly" he said, cupping her face with his hand "If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. If I had been honest about it you would have known not to swap powders on me."
He brushed her tears away with his thumb.
"I'm sorry." He continued.
"Why didn't you tell us, or me?"
"It's slightly embarrassing."
"Why?" Skye asked, before putting on a man's voice, placing her fists on her hips, sticking her chest out and continuing "because I'm Agent Grant Ward. Nothing can hurt me, except laundry detergent."
"Something like that!" He admitted with a smile making Skye laugh. She lent in to kiss him.
"I see you're awake." Simmons said from behind them, trying to ignore what was going on in front of her. Skye moved out of the way so she could assess the patient.
"Yeah. How long was I out?"
"About a day. How do you feel?"
"Honestly?"
"It would be nice."
"Humiliated"
"I meant physically." Simmons said, checking his vital signs.
"I wanna scratch my skin off."
"That'll take a few days to settle down I'm afraid." She informed him, putting the oxygen mask back over his face.
"And you aren't leaving here until your vital statistics have normalised."
"Simmons, come on. Please?"
"No. If you attempt to leave I have authorisation to shoot you with night-night."
"Coulson."
"Fury."
"Fury knows about this?"
"When you didn't show your face at the Hub he got worried" Skye told him from the door.
Ward tried to pull the covers over his head to hide his embarrassment but Simmons stopped him.
"We have rewashed all of your clothes and bedding. We have even rewashed all of Skye's clothes just to be safe."
"Thankyou."
"We also have cream that will need to be applied to the skin irritation twice daily. I'm sure Skye can help you with the areas you can't reach" She told him with a smile.
"You hungry?" Skye asked him, realising that neither of them had eaten at all that day.
"Yeah. A little."
Skye moved into the room and kissed the top of his head.
"I'll go get you something." She told him, silently checking with Simmons that she could.
Simmons closed the door after Skye left. Then she rounded on Ward.
"What the hell were you thinking keeping an allergic reaction out of your file? Do you realise how dangerous that is? You could have died!" She shouted at him.
"Simmons." He tried to reason with her.
"Don't give me any of that macho crap. I don't want to hear it! You scared Skye to death!"
Ward took the oxygen mask back off his face, which calmed Simmons down enough for him to explain.
"It's not in my file because anyone can read it. If S.H.I.E.L.D finds another traitor in their ranks..."
Simmons looked at him like he was crazy, while simultaneously smacking his hand away from the mask and trying to force it back over his mouth.
"Don't look at me like that Simmons. First there was Garrett and all the Hydra agents and then Jefferson." He continued "If they read my file and wanted information from me knowing that washing powder would drive me crazy would make torture unbearable."
Suddenly it dawned on Simmons that he was right. If his allergy to washing powder was in his file, people could use it against him.
"Has anyone ever...?"
"Nat."
"Natasha Romanov has tortured you with washing powder?"
"She wanted to see how well it worked as an instrument of torture and how long it would take to work. If she hadn't been my best friend and on my side I would have spilled my guts to her. That's when we decided to hack S.H.I.E.L.D's files and deleted it."
"You hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D's files?" Simmons asked, slightly impressed.
"Well, Nat did most of it."
"Even if you need to keep it secret from everyone else, I really do need to know. Are you allergic to anything else?"
"No."
"Good."
"It's the itchy and scratchy show" Skye said as she came back through the door, carrying a plate and noticing Ward trying to rub his skin off.
"I can still shoot you." Ward told her with a smile.
Simmons, relatively happy with Ward's progress left to go get some food herself.
"Mmm. That looks good." Ward said as Skye settled herself on his bed, revealing the plate contained a slice of cheesecake.
"Tilly made it before Fury insisted she leave the 'bus." Skye told him, cutting a small piece off and feeding it to Ward.
"Raspberry?"
"And chocolate" Skye confirmed. "Tilly thought it would be nice for your birthday, but it would need eating before then."
Ward nearly choked on his mouthful of cheesecake.
"She told you?"
"No. I found out when I hacked into your file. Don't worry I haven't told the others" She told him with a grin.
Ward relaxed back into the med bed a little.
"I am so sorry I scared you Skye."
"Just don't do it again." She replied, feeding him more cheesecake.
Coulson watched from the Lab. He was happy that everything was going to be alright.