The thing about Skye
Sometimes, she disappears.
Without warning or a word, she'll just be gone. Most of the time, they don't even realize it right away, because she doesn't bring any attention to it as she leaves.
May is the first to notice the pattern. Likely because she's been keeping an even closer eye on the girl lately.
So, she notices the way, after missions, the hacker lingers toward the back of the group as they flood into the lounge on the Bus. Fitz ducks behind the bar, Coulson pulls down some glasses, Ward and Jemma slide onto the stools, and Skye ducks away before the first beer cap is snicked off the bottle.
No one else notices until Ward is halfway through his fifth glass of whiskey and the two resident geniuses have become a pile of giggles and rambling scientific gibberish that May isn't entirely certain would even make sense to the two of them if they were just a bit more sober.
May is still nursing her second beer herself when Coulson's head jerks up from his amused watch of the children under his care, and turns to May with furrowed brows.
"Skye disappear again?"
May dips her head and watches Coulson shift uncertainly. He sets his glass down. "Maybe I should go look for her. Make sure she knows that she can celebrate with us and that she's part of the team."
May sighs, rising from her stool like it's some great chore, when she's really just been looking for an excuse to go check on the girl herself. "I'll go. You watch them," she jabs her fingers at FitzSimmons who appear to be trying to make… something… out of various plane mechanics no one thought needed to be bolted down to discourage people from dissembling them.
Those parts are probably not needed to keep the plane in the air.
May swirls her beer absently as she stalks down the halls of the Bus toward the bunks. When she knocks, there is a heavy pause that makes May wonder if Skye is off hiding in one of the SUVs or some other out-of-the-way location again.
But then the door very slowly slides open.
Skye peeks out, eyes drawn down to May's hands as she fiddles with the lip of the bottle. May immediately stops the movement, lest the hacker think she is nervous or something equally ridiculous.
"Yes?" Skye asks in a soft voice entirely unlike the girl's normal exuberant energy and disregard for anything rules and regulation.
It gives May pause, makes her think hard about what could be causing Skye's demure countenance. And as May's eyes drift down to the beer clutched in her hand, it clicks.
The pattern in which the generally talkative girl becomes withdrawn, sinking into the periphery to make herself scarce. Even now, she stands mostly behind her cracked door guardedly.
May winces, subtly lowering the bottle and tucking it out of view. "Coulson was worried. Wanted me to check on you."
"Oh. I'm fine."
"He wanted me to make sure that you knew you were part of the team, and could celebrate with us."
"That's okay; I'm not really in a celebratory mood."
They stare at each other for a moment, Skye still tucked safely behind the door.
May dips her head in a nod. "Okay." Then she turns and walks away, not knowing what else to do. Maybe if she wasn't currently carrying a beer bottle, she could broach the topic. Inform her that no one on the Bus would hurt her whether they've been drinking or not. Either way, now, when the girl feels so unsafe, isn't the time.
May doubts it would change much anyway in the way of survival instincts, but it might offer her some reassurance while she's hiding away.
Coulson's eyes instantly find her as she comes back into the lounge. She doesn't feel much like celebrating anymore, but May reclaims her seat after dumping the rest of her beer.
"She's fine," she says shortly to his expectant, doe-eyed, expression.
….
Fitz and Simmons are together, like most other times, when they realize. Skye likes to perch on one of the tables while Simmons works. Most of the time, her laptop is with her, propped on her knees as she peruses the web in whatever work Coulson has assigned her, but sometimes she just watches. Chin propped on her hand, eyes lazy and curious, she'll peek over Jemma's shoulder as she looks into a microscope. Fitz is a little further away, so it's more effort to snoop in on him as he fiddles with some gadget or another.
Even if Skye had wanted to climb down from her perch today, Fitz isn't in the lab just yet. He's off to grab drinks for the three youngest passengers on the Bus, though Skye doesn't know that yet. Coulson had just informed the scientists that they will be stopping to refuel and will have a few days down time before leaving for the next mission.
So, Fitz had suggested to Jemma that they use this time to better get to know the hacker, and Jemma quite agreed with this idea. The best way to do that, back at the Academy, had always involved alcohol.
She's actually surprised that they haven't done this sooner. Jemma can't, for the moment, really recall how Skye's gets when she's drunk- if she gets giggly or more wild. She actually can't recall Skye at all during their after missions celebrations, now that she thinks of it.
Jemma will have to pay more attention from now on.
So, while Fitz is off to get the drinks, and Jemma tries her hardest to get to a stopping point in her research that won't absolutely drive her mad, Skye slumps like a lazy cat on the counter, watching her work.
Skye is endearingly relaxed, eyes half-lidded and almost looking like she might fall into a doze any minute.
Jemma really likes Skye, even if she does cause Jemma a lot of anxiety with some of the rules she casually breaks like they are merely supposed to be suggestions. Skye is funny and nice, and cares more than Jemma thought someone like her would care about someone like Jemma.
The company, when she pulls all-nighters, is also quite nice. Quiet, but in a reassuring presence kind of way. She's become kind of a fixture in the lab, much like Fitz, or Jemma's microscope.
Fitz breezes into the lab in a flurry of excitement, and it's telling that Skye doesn't react to his enthusiasm any more than a flicking of her eyes in his direction and a slight quirk to her lips that somewhat resembles a smile.
"So!" Fitz exclaims, talking even before he comes to a stop and throws a cooler up onto one of the tables on his side of the lab. He has to shove away a few parts to make room, but he does it with little more attention than sweeping crumbs off his hands. "Four whole days to just relax before the next great adventure. Have to take advantage while you can."
Jemma only slightly reluctantly stacks her notes away. It's a good enough stopping point for now.
Skye sits up as she does, showing slightly more interest as things turn away from science.
Fitz flips open his ice chest, withdrawing three beers. "You're 21, right?" he asks Skye cheekily as if he himself wasn't just barely of drinking age.
Jemma has already grabbed the neck of the bottle offered to her when she notices the drastic shift in Skye's mood. She stiffens, drawing herself into a slowly upright position that also somehow makes her look smaller.
The bottle Fitz offers to her wavers in the air.
"Um," Skye says, slowly stretching out her legs toward the ground, and lowering herself in a far more controlled drop than her usual cheery leaps. "I'll just get out of your way, then."
"Don't be silly," Fitz says, wagging the bottle at her with a beaming smile, "We want you here. To spend time with you."
Sky slowly boosts herself back onto the counter, and is even slower to take the offered beer. Gone is Skye's relaxed lounging- in its place is a ridged girl with a stiff spine and so close to the counter edge that she might fall if just one muscle loosened.
Fitz looks entirely pleased with Skye staying, but Jemma is beginning to get the idea that something is very wrong. Aside from her posture, Skye has gone pale and looks a bit nauseous as Fitz twists off the cap.
"Fitz, hold on," Jemma says, and her best friend glances over with the bottle halfway tipped up to his mouth. "Skye, are you okay?"
"Yeah." She blinks uncertainly at Jemma, a weariness in her gaze that she doesn't remember Skye ever looking at her with, except when Jemma's playing with one of her more harmful bacteria. "Yeah, I'm just… not much of a drinker." She sets her unopened bottle to the side of her on the counter.
"Oh," Fitz says, lowering his drink. "Well, you don't have to drink, of course. But we'd still like to spend time with you."
"Okay," Skye responds, but to Jemma, she doesn't look any less… whatever is happening. The tense smile she offers is vastly different than the lazy contented one she gave when he first came down the steps. She still looks like she's about to hurl. She still looks ready to bolt. She looks like she might do both at the same time.
And then it clicks. Jemma not remembering ever seeing Skye when they drink. The instantaneous change in Skye that didn't happen until Fitz pulled out the alcohol.
And… oh.
Jemma should have seen it sooner. Should have noticed.
Jemma plucks Fitz's barely sipped drink out of his hands and puts it back into the cooler along with Skye's and her own untouched beverage.
"That's okay," Jemma chirps, voice intentionally light to not draw attention to the real problem and maybe embarrass her friend. She will quietly inform Fitz later if his brilliant mind doesn't connect the dots like it should. "We don't really need these to get to know each other better."
Fitz shoots her a confused look, because she's the one who agreed whole-heartedly about the tried and true academy method of socialization. It takes only a moment to pick up that there is a deeper reason to pack away the alcohol (even if Skye didn't want to drink herself), and it only takes him another two seconds to connect the same dots as Jemma had.
His face lights in understanding, and then, predictably, he becomes a bit awkward.
"Oh! Right. Well, I'll just get these out of the way then, and we can just talk. If you want to, that is. Because, well, you don't have to tell us anything you don't want to, and we won't push or anything, but if you wanted to tell us something-"
"Thank you, Fitz," Jemma interrupts, and she knows she must have an incredibly soft expression, because her chest feels all warm and mushy toward her best friend and his painfully awkward concern.
When she turns back to Skye, she looks entirely more relaxed. She actually wears a very similar expression that Jemma thinks her own face reflects. It makes her think, possibly, that Fitz's little crush on the hacker might not be so overwhelmingly one-sided- but then Skye is turning that same expression to encompass Jemma, and Jemma can feel her cheeks heat up in a flood of embarrassment that she's not even sure why she's feeling.
A/N: There's some FitzSkimmons for those of you who are fans. If you're not, no big deal. This can equally just be fond friendship feelings.
Please review!
~Silver~