AN: Hey... First of, I want to apologise in advance for the long AN. As always, many thumbs up to the awesome Beta called MegaDiary123. Now... this week there's going to be, unfortunately, only one update (this one). I'm not gonna try to make up any excuses, so here's what's going on. For starters, I hit a writers block and I only have one chapter after this one ready to go. Also an old problem that I had with my hand came to the surface and I cannot write for long periods of time without it hurting, so this has diminished my productivity as well. I want to be as punctual as possible towards all of you who support the story, so instead of uploading twice and maybe running out of chapters, I'll upload once and try to write a few chapters in the in-between time. I will let you know next week if we will be back into the 2 cpw schedule. Thanks you in advance for your understanding and hope you are all doing well.

All rights go to Marvel

Skye's POV

"Jemma?" The girl walked further into the room, a slightly sad smile on her face. She was wearing one of those medical gowns that the doctors usually wore and that was when I made the connection. "You are my doctor?" The disbelief was clear in my voice, but I received a nod from the girl. "But you are a biochem expert" I countered.

This made her stop dead in her tracks. "Though these are my two PhDs, I am on the top of my class and have been trained as a doctor in case I need to go into the field. My expertise in biology and chemistry even provide an advantage when it comes to treating people whose biology is quite different than that of a normal person" she replied and it was as if she was reading it from a text, her face blank. Then she moved in closer to the IV and checked the medical equipment. I thought she wasn't going to say anything else, but apparently I was wrong. "Seriously?" She asked, laughing a little bit almost bitterly. Her eyes darted from the IV to mine and I could see the pain behind them. She didn't even try to hide it or lie about it, she was a terribly liar after all. "After all these years and this was what you chose to say?"

My mouth hung open, getting stung a little bit from the roughness and honestly, as well as all the feeling that she poured into that one question. "Are you in any pain?" She asked and I shook my head trying to get a grip on my raging mind. The movement was a bad choice, because it suddenly felt like my head was going to explode. My good hand found its way to me forehead and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get the pain under control.

"You silly" I heard Jemma say approaching my bed. I felt her remove my hand and placing her own under my chin. "Can you open your eyes for me?" She asked with a soft tone.

I did as instructed, though with a bit of difficulty. Soon there was a light shined to my eyes and then I was asked to follow a pen which she waved in front of my face. "You have a heavy head trauma from when you crushed with the wall after the explosion" she spoke while examining me. "So, no sudden movements" she didn't yell, but she didn't have to, to make it clear that I better not disobey her. "Anywhere else?" She asked when she moved a little bit away, writing something on her notepad.

"My ribs" was all I said but was enough for her to understand.

She backed up a little bit, her hands moving to touch the part that I had just mentioned. As soon as her fingers brushed over my skin I flinched away, not really meaning to. I had to re-get accustomed to people touching me, and my years away had made my flinching reflex reappear.

I saw the pained expression on Jemma's face as she retracted her hand. "Sorry" I whispered and turned my gaze away, not being able to meet her eyes.

"May I?" She asked for permission and all I could do was nod, slowly this time.

She gently placed her fingers back on my chest and she poked in a few places. I may have been facing away but I had no doubt she was registering my reaction every time she pressed a more sensitive spot.

The poking was finished quickly and she moved a few feet further away. From the corner of my eye I could see that she was writing some other stuff down in her notepad, before she closed again and grabbed the IV. She was about to let the morphine, or whatever drug they gave me flow in my blood, but in the last second she stopped. She turned in my direction and caught me looking at her in secret. "Are you even gonna try to explain yourself?" She asked, voice breaking a little bit, and with her voice my heart broke slightly as well.

It was as if we had a mini staring contest which eventually led me to sighing. "Natasha?" I spoke up, loud enough for my sister to hear me from outside. Though I had a feeling that even if I just whispered her name she would have heard me as well.

"Yes, Skye?" She immediately came in and stood by my side, looking questionably at Jemma.

I smiled a bit at her. "I am guessing you brought my bag from Pepper?" I asked and received a nod. "Could you please bring it over?" I requested. I could see the curiosity flashing in Nat's face but she left the room, closing the door on her way, and let the two of us alone once again.

"I am guessing we are doing this now then?" I asked Jemma, who was still looking at the door where Natasha had disappeared off to. Her attention was back on me and she crossed her arms over her chest, a pouting grimace on her face which made her so damn cute. Maybe it was the bits of morphine running through my veins, or maybe it was the years that I had to physically see Jemma and not through a picture. But I just realised that I had missed her almost as much a I had Natasha.

"You left…" she broke the silence with a small voice. "You said you would keep in touch, yet you did not. I can't say that you left without saying goodbye, because you did, but a letter doesn't even compensate what I felt like when I found out that you had vanished" she spoke so quietly.

I knew she was not going to yell at me. It was not in her character to do so, unless she had changed that much in the five year span that I had to see her. So her soft reprimanding was expected.

"I did not" I verified. "I did not keep in touch" Ι added in a matter-of-fact way. "I did however look after you as I promised. Checking into the S.H.I.E.L.D. servers to see how you were doing" She gave me a pointed look that I remembered all too well and I raised my good arm in a surrendering manner. "I don't say that as an excuse" I smirked and a small laugh actually escaped my lips. This was the Jemma I remembered.

"Why?"

I took a deep breath and prepared myself. "You know I can't lie to you?" I asked and got a raised eyebrow in return as if she was telling me 'seriously?'. "True, I could if I wanted to. But I vowed, long ago, that I would never lie to you". I looked at her dead in the eyes as I spoke, "You are here" I stated and she rolled her eyes. "This means that you were briefed into the whole situation and know about my… powers"

I heard a knock on the door and Natasha peaked from the entrance, showing me the bag. "Thank you" I told her as she placed it on the chair next to the bed. "Can you give us a moment?" I asked when I saw her a bit reluctant to leave.

"Call me if you need anything" she said and exited the room, giving us some privacy to finish the conversation.

"Is that the protection that you referred to? You were afraid that you would hurt me with your powers?" Jemma put the pieces together quite quickly. God I had missed that about her. So, when I didn't reply and averted my eyes from her, she understood. "Oh, Skye" she came and sat on the chair, moving the bag on the floor. "You know that's utter nuisance" she playfully nudged my right shoulder to lighten up the mood. "You would never hurt me" she said with such confidence that it made me turn my face to meet hers.

"You don't know that Jemma. You were not there when I lost control. Hell, I still have no idea how I got the powers in the first place. What if, let's just speculate, I didn't indeed run and stayed in the Academy. How long would it be until I lost control again? And based on the experience that I got once I left, it wouldn't have been that long. It took me years, years Jemma, to get a glimpse of control and I have yet to fully understand how the whole thing works. You getting hurt would have been inevitable had I stayed"

I didn't get to say any more because I was practically interrupted by the scientist. "And you think that you leaving hurt me less? That this letter" she emphasised as she took her hand off the pocket of her medical gown and threw the letter that I had written all those years ago on my lap. "This letter, hurt me less than you would if you had stayed?"

I was too stunned to reply immediately.

My eyes still glued on the piece of paper that had gone a little bit yellow, stained by time. The photograph that I had taken of her sleeping was printed and pinned on it as well. My hand carefully reached and picked it up, as if it was a fragile treasure. "You kept it?" I asked almost as if speaking to myself, but the room was all too quiet for Jemma not to pick up on it.

"Of course I did" I could hear the smile in her voice. When I didn't say anything in a while she continued. "You have yet to answer my question though…"

Out of habit I shook my head a bit to clear it and was rewarded by the usual pain. I heard Jemma scoff next to me and laugh a little bit at my antics. "I know that the letter and my disappearance hurt you, but I'm going to tell you what I told my sister a few days ago. I am not regretting any decision that I made, no matter the consequences, since it meant that I would keep you safe"

"Come on, Skye. This is just–"

"Just what, Jemma? Bullshit? That it would all be better had I stayed? No. I know it would not be because, as I said before, you have no idea what I went through to gain the little control that I have right now. You all act as if I had been on vacation these last five years, when in truth you have absolutely no idea what was going on in my life. How much I struggled to…" I clinched my fist, not being able to finish that sentence. I knew that snapping at Jemma wouldn't help but I was reaching my limit with people accusing me, lately, for my actions.

The sad smile returned to Jemma's face. "And whose fault is that?" She asked and we both knew the answer. "You know that I would have been there for you, even lie for you, for crying out loud, had you asked for it"

She placed her hand on top of my fist and I slowly unfolded my fingers to wrap them around hers just as a smile played on my lips. "But you were there" I said.

Jemma straightened her back at this and titled her head a little bit to the side. She looked so much like a puppy not understanding what its owner was saying that I wanted to laugh so hard, but thought of my ribs and ended up just giggling. With my chin I pointed to the bag on the floor and Jemma put it on the bed so that I could reach it. I carefully unzipped it and searched inside for the item of interest. The moment that it appeared out of the bag Jemma's face lit up.

"She was always there. So, I kind of felt like you were there as well" I extended my hand and offered the peace offering to Jemma.

She took the hula girl as if it was the most precious item she had ever held and she looked at it in awe and wonder. She examined every single side of it and when she looked back at me I could see the tears shining in her eyes. "You kept her?", her voice properly breaking.

"Of course I did" I honestly replied. "You gave her to me, how could I not? Truth, she did almost break a few times from my quakes, but she is a strong girl. Just like you"

Obviously without thinking much about it, she threw herself at me and wrapped her arms around me. I was shocked at the beginning and fought the urge to escape the grip, instead trying to ease into it. I held on as much as I could before my side couldn't take it anymore. "Ribs, ribs, ribs" I said quickly.

It was Jemma's turn to flinch away and look at me in horror. "I am so sorry Skye" she said as she got up and moved to the IV and allowed the morphine to run in the liquid connected to my forearm. "I am such an idiot" she said, her British accent becoming thicker when she was upset.

I felt the drugs kick in almost immediately and I laid my head on the pillow.

Jemma must have noticed that because she went back to her seat, after dropping the bag back on the floor and placing the hula girl on the night stand. "You never mentioned that your sister is the freaking Black Widow" she said with a mischievous smile on her face. " I wonder who the rest of your family is" she added.

"Jemma…" I complained, turning my head to the side to look at her and trying to keep my eyes open. It was getting a bit hard if I were honest. "Not fair" I mumbled.

The girl laughed at that and once more grabbed my hand with hers. "Go to sleep Skye. I'll be here when you wake up". I didn't need to be told twice.