A/N: I have been meaning to write an AU where we have established Skyeward during the time when Skye goes through her Terrigenesis for some time (actually, as grand plans go, it's part of my Haylie/Ada-verse), and now this pic prompt gave me an opportunity to do it. Still, there's a lot of ground to cover yet – imagine all of Grant's frustration over this situation, Skye in distress, but not haven an enemy he can protect her from. So… I guess I'll be returning to this situation :)

In Dawn's Light

It's rare that she wakens before him, and it's even rarer that she can leave the bed without rousing him – but even when she does, her absence always pulls him from his sleep in a matter of minutes.

It doesn't happen any other way that night either.

Opening his eyes, the dark, blue-grey dimness of the still unfamiliar room greets him – it's only their first night here, in Fury's secret cabin out in the heart of the forest. There's no need to try to make it sound nice: it's quarantine, it's exile, for an infinite period of time, something he willingly took up so he could stay by Skye's side during this terrifying, uncertain time. Only Skye's gone from his side.

His hand reaches out, looking for her, but finding nothing but crumpled sheets on her side of the bed. At least those are still warm, indicating that she left not a long ago. He climbs out of the bed, alert and wide awake, but not worried. The place is secure – no enemy could have gotten within its borders without them noticing, and she couldn't have gone far either. Still, there is some dark, restless emotion unfurling in his chest as he walks outside, looking for her.

She's going through a difficult time, something so much more difficult than he could ever really fathom – finally meeting her father just to learn that he's a monster, then getting caught up in a whirlpool of events and emerging from with powers she can neither control or understand –, and even though he tries, tries to be there and help, he feels he can never be enough, and it's crushing him from the inside.

In the end, he finds her outside, standing barefoot on the edge of the pond, the dawn light painting her in pale purples and blues, with a splash of orange here and there as the rising sun reflects from the water. She is standing with her back to him, looking out to the distance, hugging herself tightly, but unmoving. He approaches her slowly, carefully, not wanting startle her.

"Hey," he says once he's close enough to her that he knows she feels his presence anyway. "The bed felt lonely without you," he tries to cheer her up with a light joke, and he half-succeeds, because one corner of her mouth twitches upwards as she turns towards him, her gaze soft and loving and tired and oh so lost.

"Sorry," she says so quietly it almost doesn't even sound like her. "I couldn't sleep. I came out to think."

He takes a step towards her, so she is now close enough to touch.

"Are you okay?"

The only answer she gives him is a noncommittal shrug. She's been giving him those a lot these days – "Are you okay?" A shrug. "Do you need something?" A shrug. "Do you want to talk?" A shrug. "Do your arms hurt?" A shrug. Like nothing really mattered anymore. And he was so damn hell-bent on showing her that it did. That she did.

"I guess," she says in the end, turning back towards the water. "I'm just…" She sighs, and he can almost see her closing her eyes for a moment. "Scared, I guess."

With that overwhelming need to protect her driving him, he crosses the last of the distance separating them, and places his hand on her forearm. He only means to have her turn towards him so he can look into her eyes, but the next moment she moves – she swirls around and barrels into his chest, tucking herself under his chin while her arms go around him, encircling his torso, until she clings to him, almost fusing their bodies together. It takes him a fraction of a second to react, but when he does, he reciprocates her embrace just as eagerly.

Caressing her hair and inhaling the sweet scent of her shampoo that mixes with the morning scents of the forest, he pulls her close, without ever planning on letting her go.

"We'll get through this," he promises, whispering into her ear, although he has no idea how they'll do this. "We'll get through this, and everything will be fine in the end."

She doesn't answer, just burrows herself even deeper into his arms, like it's her haven, the only place where her demons can't reach her. And they remain standing there as the Sun rises, bringing the start of a new day.