A/N: I said something about Kara crossing a line with the mediator role, and it shows up here. I might have gone a little OOC with these two trying to explain it, but hopefully it makes sense.
Thank you to Maddison1803, annavale23 and changingdestiny40 for your reviews for the previous chapter! :)
Skye slipped out the back door while Kara had Grant's attention, and strode to the tree at the back of the property. Turning around to face the house as she reached it, she leaned back and slid to the ground. Her legs seemed to curl up of their own accord, and Skye released a despairing sigh as she dropped her head to rest on her knees again.
She sat like this for a few minutes, getting more wound up, before she heard soft footsteps approaching.
"Skye?" Grant said. He sounded upset, and this more than anything else caused Skye to lift her head to look at him. His face showed concern, panic and a hint of hope. "I'm sorry if what I said caused you to think that I don't want you around, because of course I do, I love you, and…oh, I'm really bad at these kinds of things…" he trailed off, running one hand through his hair. Skye just watched him.
"I'm sorry for what I said." She eventually said. Her voice was quiet, but it got his attention immediately. "I do know why I let Kara stich me up. I'd hoped that you'd learned from what you did, and that I could trust you again, at some point."
Grant stood a foot away from her, silently contemplating what she had just said. "Do you trust me now?" he asked after a minute.
"I trust you more than a few days ago." she replied. "But I want to trust you completely, so I don't want to rush this and realise that I've made mistakes that could have been avoided."
He nodded. "Fair enough. I suppose the same should be said for me, but I tend to either trust entirely or not at all."
"We'll work on that." Skye patted the ground next to her, and Grant moved to sit down. "What did Kara say to you?"
"That you were worried about me not wanting you to stay – which will never be true," he stressed the last few words, causing Skye to smile fondly. "That she pulled me away to give you some breathing space." He faltered a little. "Did that work? I mean, did go looking for you too soon? I should've waited–"
"Grant." She cut him off gently. "You're adorable when you worry like this. But honestly, giving myself time to overthink things, especially so soon after Simmons…it wasn't doing me any good." She shook her head. "Kara's sweet and helpful and a great friend, and I love that she respects my feelings–"
"More than she does mine." He muttered.
"So talk to her about that. But my point is, I think that she could ease back on how much advice she gives. We've been so selfish thinking that we are the only problems, but she's still dealing with the brainwashing." Pursing her lips, she looked into Grant's eyes. "She doesn't know how to handle things like this properly. She said some things she shouldn't have, stuff that she wasn't involved with much. She's very blunt about how much we've hurt each other."
"She probably just wants to numb the pain of it, but it's the wrong way of going about it."
"It's the past, we've learned from it, and it's over now." Skye agreed. "We should tell her to let that go. Right?"
"Sure." Grant nodded. "I mean, her heart's in the right place."
"Yeah." Skye murmured, finally leaning against Grant's shoulder. Happily, he raised his arm to lay across hers.