Jemma wondered what was going on every time Skye turned off the cameras.
Naturally, the entire team was crowded around the screen that gave them access whenever Skye thought fit. The cameras turned off when Skye and Ashley hit a touchy subject, and it made them all nervous. But especially Jemma. Especially Jemma, when she had no idea what had gone on between her girlfriend and the woman who attacked them both during the six months that they lived together. She knew they had been friends but she hadn't been blatant enough to ask Skye if there had been anything deeper than that.
The information Skye was getting from Ashley was impressive. Everyone was tense when the word Hydra was mentioned. Coulson knew they had been dealing with something big and he had hoped it wasn't what he thought it was, but Ashley only confirmed his fears.
Everything they heard about Skye horrified them. Jemma was interested to know that somehow the name Mary was linked to Skye, Skye had never told them about her adoptive name before. Jemma had a million questions for Skye the next time they were alone.
Before they knew it, the cell was quiet. When Jemma glanced back at the screen, her heart and stomach flipped. It looked like Ashley and Skye were holding hands. Jemma was both infuriated and terrified that Ashley still had such a hold over Skye. Then Skye left.
In a matter of seconds she came barging into their meeting room. Jemma went to greet her, but Skye had a target. She marched right up to Fitz and held out her hand.
"I need the wire." Skye demanded. Fitz looked to Jemma for permission, earning him a glare from Skye. Even though she was now dating Jemma, that didn't mean she was her dictator.
"I don't think that's such a good idea, Skye." Jemma told Skye as she put a hand on the small of Skye's back. Skye shivered with pleasure under the touch, but she had a goal to accomplish and this was no time to get flustered.
"You heard Ashley. I have a tracker in my head and I have to disable it." Skye said, moving her fingers to tell Fitz to hand it over.
"She's right." May finally interrupted the silent war going on between the three of them.
"They're going to shoot us out of the sky if we don't do something." Ward contributed. Coulson didn't say anything, but it was visually apparent that he agreed with everyone but Jemma. Jemma knew it was the right thing to do strategically, but she also knew that Skye hated plugging herself in like that. She admitted that she was acting more on the I'm-Skye's-girlfriend part of her brain than the logical-thinking part of her brain. So she sighed and nodded as Fitz gave Skye the wire and she plugged herself in to her laptop.
Coulson and May gasped a little when Skye's eyes began to glow, it was the first time they had seen it. Everyone else on the team had seen her plugged in at least once, but Jemma had seen in the most. Every time Skye's eyes glowed like that she could hear Skye's whimpering when she was tied to the chair and her screaming when she was dumping information onto the bus's computer. It seemed that almost every time she was plugged in something bad happened to her.
Skye winced a little bit and Jemma rushed to her side, pushing a strand of hair out of her face and rubbing one thumb into one of her shoulders. Skye leaned into the touch.
"You ok?" Jemma asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But they know what I'm doing and they're trying to hack into me." Skye told Jemma. Jemma was worried for just a second until she realized it was Skye, the super hacker, that they were trying to out-hack. They needed her because they weren't good enough, there was no way they were good enough to break into her systems.
"Got it. It's done." Skye said as she unplugged herself. "I disabled the tracker, blocked the only way they can hack me, and even traced their location." Skye smirked as she turned her laptop to face them, a little pulsing blue dot on a map revealing the location of the computer that was trying to hack her.
"Amazing. She's amazing." Fitz marveled. He was obviously talking about her technology, but Jemma smiled, because to her it meant something else. Skye was amazing, and Jemma told her so by leaning in and giving her a chaste kiss. Out of the corner of her eye she saw May smiling a little bit at the two.
"Fitzsimmons, how is the weapon coming along?" Ward interrupted them. Jemma and Skye broke apart, much to Skye's disliking, but the smile on Jemma's face told her they would get away later.
"Well, we've got an idea, but we couldn't say it has the power to destroy SHIELD." Fitz said nervously. He and Jemma obviously hadn't been able to complete the task.
"I can help." Skye said, mostly because she wanted to spend time in the lab with Jemma.
"I could put some nasty stuff on there." Skye was also excited at the chance to create the deadliest virus known to technology.
"Great." Coulson told them. "Go get started." Ward looked like he was going to say something, but he realized he had no power here.
"Skye, we need to continue with your training. It's even more vital now that you're a target." Jemma groaned inwardly and Skye laughed at the expression on her face. Ward had finally found his leverage, the one thing he could use to pry Skye and Jemma apart for more than ten minutes. Combat training.
"Come on, Skye! I've shown you this move a hundred times, just do it!" Ward ordered Skye, whose chest was aching from trying to get enough oxygen and whose body was sore from the workout.
"I can hardly move, Ward!" Skye complained, refusing to move from her position sitting on the ground. He had made her do way too many 'warm-up' exercises like push ups, pull ups, and anything else he could think of, to extend his time with her. They had hardly started any of the main training at all before Skye sat down and couldn't get back up.
"What are you going to do when you're in close combat with a Hydra soldier? Sit them to death?" Ward asked her, still moving around on the balls of his feet to keep his muscles from stilling for too long.
Skye stuck out her bottom lip in an adorable begging kind of way. "Probably." She told him.
"Come on. One more try?" Ward tried to convince her, holding out his hand to help her up. Skye groaned and rolled her eyes, finally reaching out to let him help her up. She didn't do much lifting though, she mostly let Ward drag her to her feet like a rag doll.
Skye was supposed to move out of the way of Ward's fist and get underneath him, where she could knock him off balance with a good kick to the kneecaps, but when he threw the punch, Skye apparently wasn't ready and took the hit on her face. It wasn't a hard hit, Ward would never risk hitting Skye full force. But it was enough to knock her backwards, causing her to fall on her ass.
"Are you alright?" Ward asked quickly, kneeling next to her. Ward was terrified he had hurt her, especially seeing her face. She wasn't making eye contact with him, but she was staring off into space in front of her, unseeing. Ward really started to worry when he waved a hand in front of her face and she didn't respond. Skye just continued to stare in front of her, not appearing to hear or see anything Ward said or did.
Ward was about to scoop her up and run her to Simmons when she blinked and looked over to him.
"Are you ok?" He asked, his brows creasing with worry. What Skye just did didn't seem natural.
"Yeah, I'm good." Skye said. It didn't even seem like she was aware of what just happened, like she didn't know anything happened at all.
"You can go, you're done for today." Ward said, releasing her. He wasn't going to tell her- or anyone- what just happened. He didn't want anyone to think he'd done something to her when he hadn't. If it happened again, he'd tell Fitz, but certainly not Simmons. Never Simmons. She would immediately blame him for anything and everything that happened to Skye under his watch.
"The robot's letting me go just because I took a little hit?" Skye asked in disbelief as she pulled herself to her feet. Ward nodded.
"Is there something wrong?" Skye asked. She knew when he was distressed, and he clearly was. When he assured her everything was fine and that he didn't want tire her out for tomorrow's training, she accepted it and left to find Jemma. If she had the opportunity to get out of physical activity, the hacker would take it.
"Hey Jem." Skye greeted Jemma cheerfully as she entered the biochemist's bunk. They had finished the decoy weapon before her training session with Ward and they were now free until they received another order. Jemma was sitting on her bed watching an episode of Doctor Who when Skye walked in, prompting her to smile at her guest.
It was nearing eight at night when Skye entered and sat on the bed beside Jemma with her legs folded up beneath her. The bus was quiet, most of the team went to bed at an early time when they could afford it.
"We haven't had much alone time since you professed your feelings for me." Skye teased Jemma and curled a strand of the girl's light brown hair on her fingers, Doctor Who still playing, unwatched, in front of them. How could Jemma even consider watching the episode for the twentieth time when the most attractive woman she had ever laid eyes on was mere inches from her?
"You've been busy..." Jemma sighed as she tilted her head. Skye was pressing soft kisses along it, nuzzling her nose into the crook of her neck every few seconds. Eventually Skye cuddled up against Jemma, who was leaning against the wall behind her.
"You're my favorite girlfriend, you know." Skye whispered jokingly. Jemma smiled at Skye's antics.
"That would be a lot more flattering if I wasn't your only girlfriend." Jemma told Skye as she began to comb her fingers through the long, wavy hair that was so tempting.
"Well..." Skye said as she sat up a little more and looked Jemma in the eyes.
"Oh, stop it!" Jemma laughed and slapped Skye on the shoulder teasingly. Skye cracked a smile and kissed the corner of Jemma's mouth. Jemma had had enough of Skye's teasing though, and used two fingers to tilt Skye's head to the right.
Skye was pretty sweaty and smelled a bit, but it didn't bother Jemma one bit. In fact, it only made her more attractive when her skin glistened in the dim light. Skye brushed her legs against Jemma's when Jemma pressed her palms against Skye's cheeks and held her in the gentle, affectionate kiss.
Jemma felt that something was wrong though. Skye had stopped moving eagerly against her. Jemma usually kissed with her eyes closed, but she opened them just this once and found herself staring into Skye's eyes, unblinking. Jemma was startled and jumped a little. Her heart began to race when Skye didn't move and continued to stare through her.
"Skye?" Jemma questioned, gently tapping the cheek of the face right in front of hers. Within a moment, Skye finally blinked and continued to kiss Jemma like nothing had happened. Jemma was positive Skye didn't even know it had happened.
Jemma brushed it off, thinking it was just some minor technological nonsense that she could ask Fitz about later. She didn't want to kill the mood, so she quickly forgot about the little glitch, she supposed she could call it.
When their kiss began to progressively get more intense, Skye sat on Jemma's lap and leaned downwards to keep her lips pressed against Jemma's. Jemma's hands hungrily traveled from Skye's hips, to her waist, and up her shirt. Jemma's fingers toyed with the edges of Skye's bra. When she remembered Skye's past reaction, she tore herself away from Skye for a moment to look into her eyes, asking for permission. Skye nodded silently. She had decided it was time to come out of her shell.
Skye tugged her own shirt over her head and continued to kiss Jemma passionately as she began to unbutton her girlfriend's shirt with one hand. Jemma could still feel Skye's tense muscles underneath her fingertips, so she drew small patterns over the scars with her fingers until she relaxed.
Jemma's shirt was quickly strewn across the floor with Skye's and Skye's fingers trailed up and down Jemma's stomach, exploring the newly exposed skin. Skye's touch alone made Jemma wild, she couldn't imagine a better feeling.
Jemma awoke with a smile still on her face. She could feel Skye's presence against her in the bed, both of them still naked. She found it amusing how Skye was such a little spoon, even though she was significantly taller than Jemma.
Jemma could feel the dryness in her throat from kissing Skye for so long the previous night and made aim to get them both a glass of water. She climbed out of her bed, which was difficult to do without waking Skye because it was so tiny, and pulled one of her oversized sleeping shirts over her cold body. She pressed a kiss to Skye's forehead before she left and smiled when Skye mumbled Jemma's name in her sleep.
As Jemma made her way to the kitchen, she slowed and took smaller steps. Someone was in the kitchen, and it didn't sound like anyone on the team. It sounded like a number of people were rummaging around.
Jemma peeked into the kitchen once and swung her head back out. Many men were looking around the bus, all of them holding guns and wearing the black uniforms she saw the day Jemma and Skye took off and left Ward to fight. They're here for Skye, Jemma realized in horror. She wondered how on earth they had gotten on the bus, no one even heard a plane land on top of them.
But Jemma didn't have time, she had to go fetch Skye and somehow get the both of them out of there with whatever other team members she could find.
Before Jemma got back to her bunk, a hand clamped over her mouth and dragged her, screaming, into a nearby closet.
"Shhh" Jemma was finally comforted by Skye's voice in the dark room. She felt one of Skye's fingers press up against her lips to form the universal sign for silence, but Jemma couldn't refrain herself.
"You ok?" She whispered as quietly as possible.
"I'm alright. What about you? Did I hurt you?" Skye asked, very much concerned.
"Yes. No. Yes, I'm alright; no, you didn't hurt me." Jemma told Skye. A bright light suddenly filled the room as Skye opened her laptop and let the screen shine against her face. She was wearing one of Jemma's sweatshirts from the SHIELD academy, and it was so big on her that it hung off one shoulder. Matching sweatpants covered Skye's legs, reminding Jemma of how she used to look when she went to bed at the academy.
"I grabbed these, I wasn't sure how much you'd have." Skye offered Jemma another pair of sweatpants and a light jacket. Jemma took them gratefully and watched with interest as Skye fiddled with her laptop.
"Do you know where everyone else is?" Jemma asked.
"The surveillance cameras found them tied up in the cargo hold. We're the only ones left unfound." Skye answered. Jemma was terrified. It was down to the two of them again, the two of them who couldn't fight.
"Do you by any chance have a plan?" Jemma asked hopefully. She could already see the smile on Skye's face.
"Of course I have a plan. But you're not going to like it." Skye said, suddenly frowning. Jemma already hated where this was going, she knew it was going to be another selfless suicide mission.
"Skye, please don't tell me that-"
"It involves you staying right here, very much out of sight." Skye interrupted Jemma. Skye was afraid that Jemma was going to talk her out of it this time, and she knew she couldn't let that happen.
"Skye if you get hurt-"
"I won't." Skye interrupted her again. "Just let me do this one thing. Just this one thing, please, Jemma. You've been saving me the whole time I've known you and it's about time I return the favor. I'm going to keep you safe." Skye rubbed her thumb across Jemma's cheek.
"But-"
"Jems." Skye said sternly. Jemma nodded. She knew there was no reasoning with her.
"You're my favorite girlfriend, you know." Skye joked, gently kissing her goodbye.
"That would be a lot more flattering if I-" Jemma started to say, going along with their inside joke.
"You'll always be my only girlfriend. I never want to have a girlfriend other than you, Jemma Simmons." Skye smiled. Before Jemma could respond, Skye took her laptop and slipped out of the closet, leaving Jemma alone to whisper 'I love you' into the dark.