A/N: Still don't own the characters.

A/N1: As always thank you to everyone that reads and reviews!

Chapter Eight

Much like every morning Steve woke before the sun had even begun to rise. Unlike usual, this morning he was still on his couch with an amazing woman using his chest as a pillow. They had continued to let the show play in the background while talking, making each other laugh, and stealing the occasional kiss. When Skye's eyes began to droop and she yawned Steve had pulled her closer to his side letting her drift off to sleep in his arms before he pulled a blanket from the back of the couch to cover her.

He took his time disentangling himself, careful not to wake her. Steve readjusted the blanket, wanting to make sure that she was comfortable before going to change into his workout gear. He paused by her sleeping form as he made his way out for his morning run. Though she looked to be deeply asleep he didn't want her to wake and find him gone with no explanation. Pulling out his ever present notebook from his pocket he left a note on the table near one of their forgotten about movie snacks.

After thirty minutes Steve began to pick up his pace. One of the things he got a childish amount of pleasure from was finding another jogger and lapping them around the Reflecting Pool. It was always interesting to see how different people would react to the challenge. Some got annoyed and moved to another path, others pushed themselves a bit more to try and keep up. Steve paused when he got to a point where he could see the entire pool. After a quick scan Steve spotted this morning's unwitting running partner.

Ward had woken up in his own hotel room, choosing to leave May's after they had scratched the mutual itch. He'd knocked on Skye's door as he passed, telling himself that it was his job as her supervising officer to make sure that she made to her room safely. When there was no answer, he had again bypassed the meager security and again found the room empty. He'd stormed to his room and festered for the rest of the night.

When it became clear that he wasn't going to get any restful sleep, Ward left to take advantage of the running paths in the city. The bus had a treadmill but running out in the open was something Ward preferred. Running was one of the best ways that he could clear his mind and after the week he'd had a clear mind is exactly what he needed. Ward was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the approaching steps so he was surprised when he heard, "On the right."

Ward had to hand it to the other runner, he had speed. Ward's competitive nature had him picking up his pace slightly. There was no point in trying to catch up because the blond had to be sprinting so Ward planned on breezing past when endurance won out over speed. It was a little surprising when Ward couldn't see the other runner anymore but figured that the man had lost steam and chose to leave the path. Then, Ward heard the fast paced foot steps followed by, "On the right."

Ward mentally growled, wondering how this guy was still running at that speed. Again, Ward picked up his pace deciding there was no way the guy he now considered his competition could possibly maintain that speed for much longer. This time Ward wasn't surprised that several minutes after losing sight of the competition he heard someone approaching followed by, "On the right."

"Are you kidding me?!" Ward shouted as the runner shot past him again. He even heard the man laugh. There was no keeping up with this guy and Ward had reached his limit so he slowed to a walk before almost collapsing on to a bench trying to catch his breath.

Steve ran one more lap around the pond before stopping to talk to man sitting on the bench still catching his breath. "Not bad, man."

Ward looked up and instantly recognized the man that had been literally running circles around him. It helped heal his bruised ego knowing that he was beaten by Captain America. "Great compliment from you, sir."

As Steve offered his hand in greeting he realized this guy was obviously an agent with one of the intelligence agencies but couldn't place which one. Agents always addressed him as sir or Captain. "Steve Rogers."

"Grant Ward, I'm with SHIELD." Ward returned the firm grip.

The name made everything click in Steve's mind. This was one of the teammates that Skye had been determined to rescue and had spoken so much about. "Ah, nice to put a face to the name."

Momentarily confused, Ward wondered where Captain America would have heard his name. Then he remembered what Simmons had told him about the Captains help at the Hub. "I guess I need to thank you for helping my rookie out. She can be a bit of a troublemaker."

"You mean Skye?" Steve asked, she hadn't really explained all of the team dynamics. He was a little surprised that the man in front of him was Skye's supervising officer. He had honestly thought that either the older female specialist or Coulson had taken on the role of Skye's mentor.

"Yea, I heard you two met at the Hub. She told me you gave them a hand sneaking out."

Steve nodded, curious about the fact that Ward clearly wasn't aware that he and Skye were still very much in contact. He briefly considered filling the agent in but decided he should speak with Skye first. There must be a reason she hadn't told Ward about their growing relationship. "Yea…she had the situation pretty much under control. I was just happy to help where I could."

Ward nodded remembering the times he'd felt like a tag along to some of Skye's more unorthodox plans. The two men stood awkwardly for a moment before Steve finally asked, "I take it Coulson's got some business in the Triskelion."

Ward nodded, "Word is Fury wants to hear what our team has been up to. Our missions are some what abnormal."

Steve chuckled for a moment and agreed, "So I've been told."

"You know, I'm sure Coulson would love to tell you about them himself. You seem to be some what of a hero to him." The team would likely get a kick out of watching Coulson fawn over Captain Rogers and maybe he would could get a hint about what the Avengers were up to these days.

Before Steve could say anything his phone signaled that he had a message. He was confused to see it was from Natasha, given that she was on mission. Hawk and Iron think the girl on your couch is cute. Care to explain?

Steve internally groaned, he should have known that something like this was going to happen. When Tony hadn't pestered him enough as he left the tower for DC, it should have been obvious Tony was planning something like this. "Sorry, Agent Ward… I've gotta run. I'm sure I'll catch up with Coulson sooner or later."

In an instant Steve was sprinting toward his apartment. He couldn't leave Skye alone with Tony and Clint. Not if he wanted her to continue speaking to him.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

"Gooood morning, sunshine!" A strange voice had Skye jumping up from couch with a small scream. It took a second for Skye to focus on the where the voice had come from and see that it was Tony Stark, looking relaxed in the chair by the windows.

"Holy crap, Steve wasn't kidding, was he?" Was the first thing that came out of Skye's mouth, remembering his warning that she may find herself kidnapped.

Tony looked a bit confused, obviously expecting a different reaction before Skye was again startled by Clint jumping to perch on the back of the couch, "You told Cap you were going to steal her away and then drag her to the tower."

This jogged Tony's memory, "Ah that I did." Tony turned his attention back to Skye. "So what's your story? No offense but you don't exactly scream agent of SHIELD."

"You're one to talk." Clint snorted before turning to Skye. "Ignore him, we always do."

Skye sat between the two Avengers listening to them bicker in shock. It was obvious that they did this all the time much like FitzSimmons. She finally interrupted, "Uh where's Steve?"

"Rogers runs every morning, at least 12 miles, like clockwork." Clint answered.

Tony picked up from there, focusing on Skye once again, "That's not important right now, anyway."

It was pretty important to Skye given that she was beginning to feel a bit steamrolled by two pretty legendary men. She needed to stay focused or she would do something embarrassing, "Ok, so what is important then?"

Clint didn't give Tony the opportunity to speak, his hand shot over and lightly turned Skye's head so he could get a better look at the bruise she was still sporting. "Where you got this shiner, for one."

Skye blushed a bit and pulled back to look down at her hands, "A little accident while we were on a mission."

Clint could tell there was more to that story but figured it wasn't his place to press, he nodded, "I've got a few scars from mishaps on missions myself."

"We can all have a show and tell later," Tony jumped back in. "What I want to know is how you manage to crack SHIELDs systems using a laptop and public wifi…twice?"

"I thought Steve said she hacked a secure server from within the Hub?" Clint asked. He hadn't heard about the other times Skye had made a mockery of SHIELDs encryption.

Talking about hacking into systems would normally be a comfortable topic for Skye but doing so with Tony Stark turned out to be a little intimidating, "I got lucky with a remote administration tool. By the time SHIELD noticed the minor glitch in the system, I'd accessed some of the files with weak encryption."

"I had to get physical access to even start running decryption," Tony told her, thinking about breaking into the system on the helicarrier.

The conversation took off from there and with both Tony and Skye focusing on each other it gave Clint time to snap a quick picture of Steve's new flame and fire off a text to Tasha. He knew that she would have choice words with the group if she was left out on the new gossip.

When Clint finally had heard enough computer speak he interrupted, "So Coulson pulled you in to the fold, huh?"

Skye looked over to him like she had almost forgotten he was even in the room, "I guess. He said he needed someone to think outside the box, which I'm guessing isn't something most SHIELD agents do."

"That's for damn sure." Tony agreed. "At least Coulson has the good sense to shake things up now and then."

Skye laughed remembering how at odds the team had first been and Coulson's way of handling it. "I do like Coulson's style. Seems like he's less like the other agents that I've seen."

"Oh that's the truth!" Clint agreed readily, thinking of how Coulson had handled the original Thor fiasco. "He plays by the rules but they're just his own rules, not necessarily SHIELDs."

"Is this about to turn into some weird Coulson love fest?" Tony groaned.

Before Skye could even form a response Clint had was pointing at Tony, "You're still mad that he threatened to taze you that one time, so just be quiet!"

"Wait, Coulson threatened to taze you?!" Skye almost yelled, "Are you serious?!"

Tony tried to maintain the disgruntled look he had on his face, "And threatened to watch Supernanny while I drooled into my carpet, if I recall correctly."

Both Skye and Clint burst out into hysterics. Skye would be willing to bet Coulson had used the same disinterested voice he plied suspects with. Even Tony couldn't hold in his laughter anymore as he said, "It was pretty priceless!"

The three were still laughing when Steve came crashing through his front door. Tony was the first to greet him, "Took you long enough, Rogers. Moving a bit slower in your old age, huh?"

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

As Ward made his way back to the hotel room he spotted FitzSimmons as they were headed toward the elevator, "Hey guys, where are you off to?"

"We need to grab a few things from the lab on the bus," Fitz started to explain, Simmons finished with a smile, "The facilities in the Triskelion are much more comprehensive."

Even on their weekend off the pair of scientists couldn't be dragged away from the labs for too long. Ward had to take a moment to tease them, "I thought Coulson ordered no work?"

Fitz laughed a bit, "Oh we're just dropping the samples off. Simmons promised we could go to the Zoo!"

She rolled her eyes but her manners had her saying, "You're welcome to join us, Ward. It should be a lot of fun actually, even if Fitz is unduly fascinated by monkeys."

"I think I'll pass." Ward knew that these two at the Zoo would drive him insane. "But you'll never guess who I ran into this morning."

Both looked at him curiously, not bothering to guess. There were too many possibilities to even take an educated stab at the question.

"Captain America." Ward laughed a bit. "Guess he's got some business here too."

Fitz made an undignified sound and Simmons gave him an angry glare. They both knew that the 'business' Captain America had in DC was decidedly not SHIELD business. Simmons quickly began dragging Fitz away knowing that neither of them were capable of keeping what they knew to themselves. "Well we better be off. See you later, Agent Ward."

Before the two disappeared into the elevator Ward called out, "Have either of you seen Skye? I didn't hear her come in last night."

Fitz and Simmons both looked at him a little shocked, then looked back at each other. Simmons could only stammer out, "Oh well I'm sure you just missed her. Or you know she could have been out looking for you. Or perhaps she-"

Her rambling non explanation was cut short by the arrival of the elevator and Fitz kindly pulling her in and smacking the close button repeatedly. Ward shook his head and made his way back to Skye's door. Something was up and it was beginning to grate on his nerves.

Before he even knocked on the door something told him that the room was still empty. Instead he moved on to his door and roughly threw it open, while dialing Skye's number. His irritation grew when there was no answer. "Skye, you still haven't checked into your room and I haven't heard from you since you left the bus. Call me."

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

When Skye said she needed to slip out to check her messages and check in with her team, Steve suggested she use his room. He needed to have a few words with his teammates but didn't want Skye to feel uncomfortable. The ice was dripping from his voice when he asked, "You broke into my apartment?"

"Technically, no." Tony smiled smugly, while pulling out a key ring from his pocket. "As the landlord, I have the right to inspect my properties to ensure they meet federal safety requirements."

Steve groaned and collapsed on the couch recently vacated by Skye. "Of course you own this building. You own everything."

Before Tony could irritate Steve more Clint decided to jump to the topic at hand. "We were curious about your girl, can you blame us?"

"So you ambush her in my apartment?!" Steve asked incredulously. He wasn't going the correct the notion that Skye was 'his girl' because if he was being honest with himself, it had a nice ring to it.

"Now how were we supposed to know she would be asleep on your couch?" Tony asked. "We just wanted to force you to introduce us. Didn't plan on stumbling upon sleeping beauty all by ourselves."

Clint nodded before chiming in, "We didn't figure you for a sleep over on the first date type, Cap."

Steve sighed, knowing that they were being honest. No one really would expect to find her here but Steve hadn't felt ready to lose her company last night. "Ok fine. You've met her, happy now?"

Clint spoke up first, "She's cute."

"Bit too smart for you, if you ask me." Tony added on.

Steve actually laughed at Tony's remark, before firing back, "I think the same thing about you and Pepper every day, Stark."

The tension in the room dissolved as Steve asked them, "What else brings you to DC? It can't just be me and my social life."

Clint shrugged, "I'm still healing up from my last mission, so this was better than sitting in the Tower. Plus, I might try and catch up with Coulson since he's in town."

"Pepper's down here. Figured I could surprise her and drag her from work for a bit."

When Skye made her way back to the living room having competed her obligatory check in with Coulson she wasn't sure what to expect but was happy to find that the boys hadn't decided to resort to fisticuffs.

Steve was the first to notice her standing in the doorway, he looked up at her and smiled. It was the same smile from the night before that had butterflies fluttering around her stomach and her cheeks filling with color. Even when she broke eye contact Steve kept staring at her.

Tony finally coughed from his seat in the corner, breaking the moment completely, "Well as fun as it would be to watch you two making cow eyes at each other all day, I think me and Merida are going get going."

"Yea, I've got a SHIELD agent to harass." Clint agreed. Looking over to where Skye stood he continued, "You, don't get into too much trouble. At least not with out inviting us, ok?"

Skye laughed, "I'll do my best."

After Tony shook Steve's hand he pulled out a flash drive from his pocket and tossed it to Skye, "That is remote access to some of Stark Industries servers. See if you can find some weak points, Sunshine."

"Are you serious?" Skye asked. Tony Stark was willingly going to let her play crack the coding on his systems. This had to be a dream.

Tony laughed at her shocked expression, he loved throwing people curveballs. "Dead serious. I've got techs that say it's flawless, I want to see if the girl who turned SHIELDs into Swiss cheese agrees."

She nodded. There was no system that was flawless but hacking Stark Industries had to be one of the more complicated ones. "I'll see what I can do, sir."

Steve and Clint both shouted, "Don't call him sir!"

"Sunshine, can call me whatever she likes." Tony winked at her as he moved toward the door. "Catch you later, Rogers."

When it was just Steve and Skye again, he slowly made his way to stand right in front of her before speaking, "If I didn't already apologize for Stark, I'm really sorry."

Skye looked up into his clear blue eyes and smiled, "Well you apologized in advance but it wasn't all that bad."

Steve slowly wrapped his arms around Skye's waist, bringing her a little closer to him. He leaned down and whispered against her lips, "Good. I was a little worried they would scare you off."

Instead of using words to reassure him, Skye closed the gap between their lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed deeper into the kiss while Steve moved a hand to tangle in her hair. Feeling her lips part under his had Steve sweeping in to taste her sweetness and pulling her even closer.

After several moments, Skye finally broke away and looked up at him again. "Does it look like I've been scared off?"

"Nope." Steve matched her teasing tone. He heard Skye's stomach let out a low rumble and he laughed. "I guess that's a sign that I need to feed you." After she nodded, "Let me get ready and I'll take you to a great breakfast place."

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Coulson calmly waiting in the reception of Director Fury's office. When the team had been called to the Triskelion he knew that Fury would be requesting an in person run down of the missions the team had completed, especially given the directors anger after the 084 incident.

"Director Fury will see you now." The blonde assistant said emotionlessly.

When Coulson entered the office Fury had already taken a seat in the chair of the informal sitting area. Seeing this relaxed Coulson somewhat, knowing that Fury did the bulk of his strictly business meetings from behind his desk. "Good to see you, Coulson. And it's good to see you haven't ruined that plane again."

"I told you before, sir, that was a very unorthodox situation and my agents acted in the most logical way they could." Coulson was comfortable defending that choice. That was the mission that really brought them all together as a team.

Fury nodded. "So you've told me. Repeatedly. Let's talk about what happened at the Hub. Your biochemist knocked Agent Sitwell out cold while your consulting hacker waltzed through our server and then your team took your bus into the middle of an air raid to rescue two agents."

When Coulson didn't jump to defend the actions of his team Fury prodded a bit more, "Anything you'd like to add?"

"My team did the best that they could with what they had been given. And had events not transpired the way that they did that day, two of my agents would likely be dead and we would be having a very different conversation, sir." Coulson kept his tone light.

Fury looked at the agent that he had trained and felt a surge of pride. Even if he didn't show it. In a world that was fast becoming more and more complicated, Coulson was one of the few people that could still see the difference between right and wrong. "Understood. And the situation in Malta?"

As with most SHIELD operations not everything could be expressed in the after action reports. The mission in Malta was definitely one of those cases. "We infiltrated Ian Quinn's compound with the intent to rescue Dr. Hall. It became clear that Hall was no longer operating under SHIELD directives and using a very rare metal was seeking to sink the entire island. In the process of stopping the gravitonium Hall unfortunately lost his life. The substance was recovered and is locked away in the fridge."

Fury nodded. "You're team seems to be getting along well. And getting along well with others."

"Meaning what, sir?" Coulson wondered if someone had told Fury about Captain Rogers' help at the Hub and continued interest in Skye.

Fury gave Coulson a level stare. "You know damn well what I mean. Rogers has taken a shine to your hacker. She's still a risk and seems to be drawing the attention of some very important people by my estimation."

"Skye is an asset to SHIELD, sir." Coulson hedged. It made him slightly uncomfortable discussing the personal lives of his team.

"I guess we'll see about that, won't we?" Fury really would have to keep an eye on this girl.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

Before grabbing breakfast Skye and Steve went to the bus. Skye still hadn't brought anything to the hotel and she needed to freshen up and change clothes. Steve was more than a little curious to see where Skye spent the majority of her time. It wasn't a surprise to find the loading ramp lowered when they located the bus within the Triskelion's massive hanger.

"Home sweet home." Skye said lightly when she pulled Steve in. She pointed over to Coulson's cherry red corvette. "That's the flying Lola. Coulson's baby."

"Wait, this is a flying car?" Steve asked thinking of the night before Bucky shipped out and they'd gone to Howard Stark's expo.

Skye nodded, "After everything you've seen, a flying car shocks you?"

"No. Well it did the first time I saw something like it in 1943." Steve looked at the car again. "This is one of Howard Stark's ideas."

"I guess that explains why Coulson is so protective over it." Skye laughed.

Their attention was drawn suddenly do the lab doors opening and the loud sounds of FitzSimmons screaming at one another. The scientists were speaking so quickly that Steve had no idea what the argument was about. He looked over at Skye hoping for some explanation, "Did you understand any of that?"

She scoffed, "No. There are some things that I find it's just best to nod and go along with. But I can think of a way to get them to stop…"

Grabbing his hand she tugged him through the doors, "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Skye, please tell Jemma to start being reasonable-" Fitz was half way through his sentence when he finally realized they weren't alone. "Bloody hell, it's Captain America."

Steve smiled and extended his hand, "Please, just call me Steve. You must be Fitz. Skye has told me a lot about you."

When Fitz kept stuttering and couldn't seem to form an actual sentence, Simmons stepped in. "It's good to see you again, Steve."

"It's good to see you too, Dr. Simmons." Steve said politely. "Skye was just going to give me the grand tour of this place."

"I told him I don't think he'll fit in any of our cubbies." Skye laughed. It really would be a tight fit if he could. Between his height and the breadth of his shoulders.

Fitz finally found his voice, "I wonder how Ward handles it. Though he isn't quite as broad as Capt- I mean Steve."

The man in question shook his head, Skye hadn't been exaggerating that these two didn't filter what they said. "I'll take that as a compliment, I think."

"Oh you should." Jemma sighed. "You're very well formed."

Steve was beginning to feel a bit embarrassed, "Uh, thank you."

Skye laughed at Steve's obvious discomfort but reclaimed his hand and squeezed it in support. She remembered the adjustment period she went through with FitzSimmons. Steve looked down at her and gave her a shy smile.

The moment between Steve and Skye did not go unnoticed. Finally, Fitz could see what Simmons had told him about for himself. There did seem to be a connection between the two. He cleared his throat to get their attention after a few beats, "Simmons and I were considering going to the Zoo, if you'd like to joins us."

"I promised Skye some breakfast, actually. It's on me, if you're interested." Steve said looking to Skye again as she moved a bit closer to his side. "This place has great pancakes."

Fitz and Simmons briefly glanced at one another before she answered, "That sounds lovely."

Skye took Steve up the see the rest of the bus while FitzSimmons finished whatever it was they had been working on. When they'd reached her cubby after she'd indicated where the others slept, Steve stopped her from continuing. "So I actually ran into your other teammate, Ward, this morning."

Skye froze, considering how she and Ward had left one another the day before anything he said to Steve was likely not very flattering. "Oh?"

"Yea." Steve hesitated not sure how to bring up the question. "It sort of seemed like he wasn't aware of…" Trailing off, Steve gestured between the two of them.

"To be fair, I wasn't really aware of…" She made the same gesture, "until yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I wanted there to be something but I didn't want to just assume."

He nodded, everything she was saying made sense but there was still something in the way Ward had spoken. It sounded slightly possessive of Skye. Steve just wanted to be certain where he stood, "But there is something here."

"Yes. There most definitely is." Skye moved closer to him and lightly wrapped her arms around his waist.

Steve brought a hand to cup Skye's cheek. "Good." He whispered and leaned in to claim her mouth once again. This kiss was unlike the others they'd stolen along the way. It wasn't hurried, it was a wordless promise. Steve felt Skye's hands clutching at his back prompting him to tighten his hold on her.

Before the kisses could morph into anything more they heard a cough from the end of the hallway. They turned to see a very flustered Fitz. "I'm sorry. I just- we were just wondering if you were almost ready to head out."

Skye buried her suddenly flushed face into Steve's chest as he addressed Fitz. "We'll be down in moment."

When they were alone once again Steve rested his forehead on Skye's with a sigh, "I'll let you get ready."

She kissed him one more time then turned to gather up her necessities with slightly shaky hands. Skye couldn't help but wonder what would happen when there were no interruptions.

Please read and review! I'm working on the next chapter now. Let me know if you guys have any thoughts or ideas!