Retrograde

Chapter fifteen: Last guy Standing

Skye left the briefing room abruptly, walking so fast that Ward nearly had to jog to keep up with her.

"Skye," he called out to her. When she didn't stop or acknowledge him at all he tried again "Skye, wait."

He grabbed her arm and gently pulled her to a stop.

"What Ward? You heard Gonzales. I've been given an order. I thought you were big on those,"

He sighed, raking his eyes from her head to her toes. Her eyes were sharp and her mouth straight, arms crossed in front of her. One foot was pointed to the side, widening her stance.

She was pissed.

And he sure as hell understood why. Because he was too.

"I know what he said," he ignored the part about orders. He wasn't exactly a fan of them anymore "But you need to take a second, what you just heard in there-"

"Was exactly what I expected. There's a reason I didn't want to tell anyone Ward and that's why," she pointed back to the room they just came out of.

She shook her head, a bitter smile twisting her lips "I thought I had problems with Shield finding out, now there's some weirdos out there targeting powered people? Making them kill themselves?" She lowered her gaze "That's a different kind of twisted."

"No one is going to find out," he tried to catch her eyes, to tell her with his how serious he was "Because we're not going to tell anyone,"

"That's not up to us Ward. I didn't exactly choose for that to happen yesterday, the vibrations just came out of my hands. What if that happens again but here, in front of Coulson or Gonzales?"

Ward thought about it. And she was right. He didn't understand how her powers worked but so far it had been tied in with emotion. The first time she remembered them surfacing was when she was woken up by them after her dream. The second was when she was scared he was going to get shot. Skye, or at least this Skye, was the most caring person he had ever met and he wasn't sure how they were going to stop the powers from appearing if she got worried or sad or stressed. She couldn't exactly just stop having emotions.

She wasn't him.

So, in a situation so foreign to them both, he fell back on what he knew.

"So you learn to control them. So far, the vibrations have happened when you've been overwhelmed with strong emotions right?" She nodded "Then we continue your training. Emotion check 101."

"So, you mean I'll learn the ways of the T-1000?" She smirked slightly.

He dropped his head, trying to hide his smile. He shouldn't love those nicknames as much as he did. They were meant to be insults for God's sake.

"Yes. Although compartmentalisation is the official term for it,"

"I like mine better," her smirk slowly slipped and she whispered "I'm scared Ward,"

"Me too," she looked up at him as if she was shocked he admitted it. As if she was shocked he felt fear at all. But he was scared of a lot of things. He was scared Shield would find out about her. He was scared those psychopaths they had just been made aware of would find out about her. And he was scared she would get her memory back just in time for her to scream at him that she didn't want his help with either of those things.

"But listen to me Skye. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you. And I really need you to believe that."

She stared at him, feeling a desperateness radiating from him. Not sure if that was for her to believe his words or for something else entirely, she nodded "I do." She felt safe with him. She always had. As if nothing could touch her simply because he said so.