“Hey, Jemma!”
Skye ran through the corridor in an attempt to catch up with the scientist, she caught her just in time, just outside of the door. She quickly walked up to the fretting scientist and tapped her on the shoulder since apparently she hadn’t heard here teammate the moment before. Jemma turned around with a twinkle in her eye and smiled at the agent. Suddenly all of the confidence that Skye had mustered up previously was gone and she felt her face flash red.
“Yeah, Skye?”
She took a deep breathe and Jemma looked at her, confused.
“Um.. Yeah.. I just wanted to tell you before you left.. That.. Um..”
Simmons leaned in a little closer to hear her over the roar of the opening door.
“Yeah?”
“Well, I just wanted to say..”
Skye frowned and then continued lackluster
“I just wanted to say, be careful out there tonight.”
Jemma smiled and patted the agent’s arm
“I will, thanks.”
She paused.
“And I’ll see you tonight?”
“Of course! I’ll be here waiting for you.”
Skye’s face was transparent but she gave an excited thumbs up and the scientist fell for it before running off to catch up with Ward and Fitz. Once she was sure that Jemma wasn’t going to look back, Skye’s face fell and she limply shoved her way back to the main area of the bus. She made her way to the viewing room where Coulson and May were sitting quietly, messing with buttons. Skye practically sprawled onto the rolling chair and almost slammed into the opposite wall with a big disappointed sigh. Coulson looked back with a deadpan face, already knowing what was wrong with the young woman.
“No.”
Skye sat up holding her arms in the air.
“But I should be out there with them! What if they get hurt?”
“They are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves and you are still on sick leave.”
Skye glanced bitterly at the purple bruises that covered her arms from the last mission.
“You’ll be more useful to them in here where you can observe. Now-”
Coulson handed her a pair of massive headphones.
“Get to observing.”
Skye grabbed the headphones with a obvious pout, she was trying to keep it cool but honestly with everything building up she was just on edge. All she wanted right now was for Jemma and the guys to come back as soon as possible. She had a lot of things that she needed to tell that Biochemist even though she chickened out before that didn’t mean she was done trying. Skye rolled back and forth in the rolling chair as they listened to the progression of their mission. Everything was going okay and they were almost finished when a loud crack rang through the equipment. Skye, who was off in her own world, jumped violently and cringed as her own healing wounds seared.
“Oh my God, what was that?”
Coulson and May were punching buttons frantically trying to get a visual on the situation while asking for safety conformation from the away team. Even with all of the equipment that they were using, they couldn’t get any information on the attackers. The only transmissions they were getting was from Ward and they were broken up through him trying to get the team back together. There was one more loud crack that caused the home team to pull their headphones off their ears and then everything went black, the cameras, the comms, and audio.
“Jem? Simmons? Ward? Fitz? Anyone!?”
Skye stood up and was now frantically trying to beat the equipment back to working order. Coulson and May looked at each other in a silent understanding before Melinda stood up and headed for the door. Skye tried to followed the older agent but was efficiently stopped when May grabbed her arms and dragged her into the seating area of The Bus and sat her down on the couch.
“I want to come with you!”
May turned around like a scolding parent
“No we don’t need you out there when we don’t even know what’s happening. You’re emotionally compromised and you will stay here. Understand?”
Skye crossed her arms, she felt like a child. A helpless child who couldn’t do anything at all and when May left her sitting on the couch she promptly grabbed a nearby coaster and flung it across the room in a fit. This went on for about an hour of her pacing back and forth between the recreational area and the surveillance room where Coulson was sitting. When nothing would happen again she would usually come through and throw something else at the wall. She wanted to do anything but cry as the panic welled up inside her chest making it hard for her to breathe.
After what seemed like days later the door of The Bus opened and Skye headed to the entrance just hoping that everyone was alive and okay. She looked outside into the pitch darkness but couldn’t hear or see anything until without warning she came face to face with Fitz. He looked exhausted but he barely acknowledged Skye as he practically pushed past her.
“Fitz! What are you doing?”
She kept looking for the rest but they hadn’t showed up, Fitz answered from what sounded like a closet.
“First Aid.”
The blood fell from her face and she rushed down the ramp trying to see what was going on. Ward met her at the bottom and Skye ran over to him, grabbing his arm.
“Where’s Jemma?”
He didn’t say anything he just gestured lightly with his head toward the darkness. She looked out desperately but it wasn’t until they were a couple of feet away that she could see May and Jemma’s faces slowly making their way to the ramp. Skye put a hand over her mouth as the scene became clearer in front of her. May was supporting the scientist who barely looked conscience as they came closer. Skye ran over in a hurry.
“Oh God, how bad is it? What happened?!”
She was aiming the questions at May but Simmons had lifted her head and answered instead.
“Just a few grazes. It’s not that bad.”
“A Few!?”
May shook her head as if telling Skye not to pursue it and continued to make her way with the scientist onto the bus with Skye following closely behind searching over Jemma’s tattered frame. They went straight to the lab where Fitz and Coulson were waiting with a pile of first aid scattered about. Skye went ahead of them and cleared a place on the counter for Jemma and helped gently helped her get to the spot. She wanted to yell and scream and make a big deal out of the fact that Jemma had just nearly died but she knew that would only make things worse so instead she pushed herself onto the table with Jemma and let the scientist lean on her while Fitz tended to her many cuts and bullet grazes. She didn’t know if Jemma was trying to make everyone feel better or if they had already given her some painkillers but she was the calmest of them all. The rest of the team were arguing and throwing around theories but Skye blocked them out and looked down at Simmons who was actually smiling through a split lip. Must be painkillers, Skye thought. Jemma winked and pushed on her a little.
“I told you I’d come back.’
“Next time, try to come back in one piece.”
Fitz was messing with Jemma’s arm and stuck her with a needle, the scientist cringed and Skye nearly smacked the engineer instinctively. Fitz back away a little.
“Easy. It’s just some anti biotic.”
“Sorry. I’m just on edge.”
“Yeah we all are.”
Fitz turned around and gave a thumbs up to Ward who walked over and as softly as he could picked up the little scientist away from Skye.
“Hey, what are you doing!?”
“Just taking her to her bunk. Relax.”
She walked after them all the way to Jemma’s bunk where ward placed her lightly on the small bed. He said something to her and then quietly left. Skye sat down cautiously on the edge of the bunk. Jemma fidgeted trying get comfortable, obviously the wave of painkillers were starting to wear off and her face paled every time she moved.
“Here, Jem, let me help you.”
Skye walked over and gently slid between Jemma and the wall, putting a pillow on her chest underneath the scientist’s head. Jemma leaned back and sighed and looked up at Skye.
“Thank you, Skye.”
She looked down at the scientist’s dirty face and messed up hair, suddenly she was feeling herself get emotional.
“Hey, Jem?”
“Yeah?”
“You know before you left and I told you to take care of yourself?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, what I was actually going to say was--”
“Excuse me, just wanted to drop these off.’
Fitz had walked in with a few damp towels, realizing that he had basically just interrupted something he diverted his eyes but still handed the cool rags to Skye who sighed loudly. He gave her an apologetic look and sneaked out. Skye took the rags and began to dap away the dirt on Jemma’s face.
“What were you going to say?”
“Nothing, never mind.”
“No what was it?”
Skye, brushed the hair away from the scientist’s forehead as she continued to stroke her face with the cool damp towel.
“I was about to say… I was just going to say that.. That I love you, Jemma Simmons.”
A smile crossed Jemma’s face as she heard the words but it was wiped away relatively quickly as a sob escaped from the woman behind her. Skye was still washing the dirt away and stroking her hair with one hand but the other was covering her face and muffling the short strangled cries.
“I was just going to say I love you but I couldn’t! And you went on that mission without knowing how much you mean to me! You could have died and you would have never known that I love you because I was to much of a coward to tell you!
The words came out in a string of broken fragments as Skye spilled everything to the scientist.
“I love you Jemma and I’m sorry!”
Jemma tried to pull herself up but gave up as her bones screamed and instead she used her one less cut up arm to reach behind her and pull the agent’s hand away. She wrapped Skye’s arm around herself and snuggled in the agent’s elbow, it was the closest thing she could come to a hug given the circumstances.
“I love you so much, Skye, you have no idea.”
“What if you had died today?”
“I didn’t.”
Yeah, but--”
“No, I promised you I would come back and I did, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did.”
Skye placed her lips on the scientist’s forehead and gently kissed her.
“I thought I lost you today. Please don’t ever do that again, I don’t think I could take it.”
“Deal.”
The two women laid there like that for a long time in silence in the dark just enjoying the safety of the other’s presence and when they were both nearly asleep, Jemma’s soft, sleepy voice interrupted the silence.
“Hey, Skye?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re not going to leave right? After I fall asleep?”
Skye held the scientist tighter.
“I’m not going anywhere, I’ll still be here when you wake up in the morning.’
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
AND ON A SIDE NOTE....
