Chapter Text
She wasn’t really feeling up to going out tonight, and any other night, she would have bailed. But it was her best friends’ engagement party, so how could she not be there? Especially since she is going to be the Maid of Honor. At least it was going to be a casual event at their favorite bar, that meant she didn't have to dress up. So, after a quick run of the brush through her hair and a little mascara, she was out the door.
"Skye!" came the excited squeal from across the room.
"Hi Jems," she greeted her friend, giving her a hug.
Fitz kissed her on the cheek. "Hey Skye. Glad you could make it."
"Of course. I couldn't miss my best friends' engagement party," she said as she plastered on the biggest grin she could muster. Fitz raised his eyebrow at her in that quiet way that told her he knew exactly how hard it was for her to come.
"Oh Fitz, why wouldn't she be here?" Jemma tittered. "Come on, Skye. Let's introduce you to some of my colleagues."
Jemma dragged Skye over the group of scientists and made introductions. She made small talk with them for awhile, as more people joined the party. She was in the middle of explaining the details of migrating data from a local server to the cloud, when the energy of the room changed around her. Just like that she knew he was here. Hearing Jemma shriek and Fitz shout was unnecessary; she always knows when he is near. But knowing that didn't mean she was ready to deal with seeing him, not tonight, so she excused herself and slipped away to the restroom.
She spent as much time as she can get away with in there. She fixed her hair about a dozen times, scrolled through her phone, and dreamed up a million excuses to leave early. Do you think Jemma would accept Skye coming down with mumps? Somehow she guessed the biochemist would sniff out the truth rather easily, even if she was firmly entrenched in engagement euphoria. While she cycled through the possibilities, there was a knock on the door and Bobbi's voice came floating through.
"Are you okay in there, Skye?"
"Yeah. I'll be out in a second."
"Really? Because you've been in here for 15 minutes already. You sure you're okay?"
The door unlocked and she beckoned her friend to come in. Bobbi immediately took in the shadows under the younger girl's eyes and the grimace masquerading as a smile.
"Yeah, no way are you okay. What's going on, hon?"
"It's just...." Skye trailed off and looked around the room, as if the soap dispenser would have all the answers to her problems. "He's here and I just don't think I can do this."
"Ahhh," Bobbi nodded in understanding. "But you've seen him in the last couple months. What makes tonight different?"
"I don't know. It's stupid. I need to just be a grownup."
"If you're this upset, it's not stupid. Come on, tell me."
Skye sighed and closed her eyes, to gather herself. “Yes, I’ve seen him other times. But….we were supposed to come to this together,” she whispered. “Today was just a crappy day with one thing after another and now he’s here and I don’t think I can go out and face him. I knew he was going to be here, we’re the Maid of Honor and Best Man after all. But, I just didn’t think… I don’t know what I thought. Not that it matters anyway; he obviously isn’t worried about it.”
“Oh honey, come here.” Bobbi wrapped her up in a hug. “Sweetie, I know it hurts. But you can do this. This is about Jemma and Fitz, remember? Go out there and have a good time, even if he’s around. You guys said you would stay friends, right?”
Skye sniffled, “Yeah, we did. Okay fine, you win.”
“Good girl. And if it gets to be too much, you just give me the signal and I’ll get Lance to cause a huge distraction and we’ll sneak you out. You know how much he loves causing a scene.”
Skye chuckled, “I appreciate it. But I’m going to hold you to that. Get that drama queen of yours ready to perform.”
“You got it, rock star. Now, come on. It's time to go congratulate the most sickeningly sweet, so-perfect-it-makes-your-teeth-hurt couple to ever walk the face of the earth.”
On the other side of the bar, Ward was laughing at a story Fitz was telling to the group. But it didn’t escape his attention when Skye and Bobbi walked back into the room. He had seen her disappear as soon as he arrived, but as much as he wanted to, he knew it wasn’t his place to check on her anymore. He tried to focus on the conversation around him, interjecting where it worked, but his eyes still drifted over to the brunette every couple minutes. She was smiling and chatting, just like he’d expect, but there was something missing. The light just wasn’t reaching her eyes like he was used to. And then he noticed it. It was that shirt; the purple and blue flannel that she had owned for more years than he had known her. The one that she only wore when she was upset and needed something comforting. His heart sunk at that realization. What was upsetting her so much? As much as he would like to think it was about him, that wouldn’t be it. She was the one who ended things, she was moving on, so there had to be another cause. He wanted to know (he wanted to make it better), but he couldn’t just ask. Normally, he would see if Fitz or Jemma knew what was going on, but it was their special night and he didn’t want to detract from their celebration by bringing up someone else’s problems. So, he kept it to himself and just continued to observe her from afar.
Skye was doing her best to socialize and chat with everyone. It was nice to see some of her old friends again, people she hadn’t seen in a few years. But, of course, they wanted to know how she was and what she had been up to in a time since they had last seen her. It was easy to talk about her job and the new apartment she had moved into, but it was much harder to explain what was going on in her personal life. She just gave a tight smile and said she was fine on her own. A couple of them knew that she and Grant had been together, but luckily, didn’t prod for details when it became obvious that was no longer the case. The idea of Hunter causing a disruption so she could escape was sounding more appealing by the minute, but she decided to grab another drink before giving Bobbi the signal and high-tailing it out of there. There was no line at the bar, so she quickly walked over and ordered another beer. As she waited, she turned to view the party. The happy couple practically glowed as their friends and colleagues congratulated them. The story of the proposal was being told for the 17th or 18th time, but even Skye couldn’t hold that against them. Jemma and Fitz deserved this time to shine and bask in their love for each other. Not to mention, that rock on Jemma’s left hand was catching plenty of attention on its own. But being around all the joy and affection was a little more than her heart could take in that moment. She grabbed the beer bottle and slipped outside to the patio area.
It was mostly empty, with just a few people sitting at the tables. She leaned up against the railing, looking out at the view of the bay. It was the most peaceful time of day, just after sunset, when the stars were just beginning to twinkle and it felt like there could be magic in the air. Skye let her thoughts run wild and lost herself in memories of the climbing tree at the orphanage, where she had spent many evenings just like this; by herself, imagining life with a family. She was so wrapped up in the nostalgia, she didn’t hear him approach, had no idea he was even there until he cleared his throat.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he immediately said, upon seeing her jump.
“Uh, it’s okay, don’t worry about it.” She turned back to the view, not really sure what else to say.
Ward came to stand beside her. Not in her space but a couple feet away, also leaning against the railing. The silence continued for a couple of moments, while each of them tried desperately to figure out what to do next.
Skye’s instincts were telling her to run, that it was too painful, too scary to stay and risk whatever he had to say. It didn't matter that she was the one who told him to go, her heart still ached for him. It was still recovering, still trying to mend itself from where it had been scraped raw. If she stayed here, so close to him, she wasn't sure she could stop herself from blurting out that it was all a mistake. But she couldn’t let herself do that either. Because no matter how much she missed him, things hadn’t changed. Her anger was still there, buried under her sadness, but still smoldering over his lack of trust in her, his determination to stop her, his unwillingness to see that maybe it would be different for her than it was for him. Nothing had really changed. Except it appeared he was doing okay without her, he was getting on with his life. She wasn’t going to be the one to throw a fire bomb into this tenuous peace they had reached; that wasn’t fair to him. So running, to keep her mouth shut, seemed like the best option. Yet something was keeping her here, at least for now.
He could read the tension in her body so clearly, she might as well have had a neon sign over her head flashing, “I’m uncomfortable!” He saw the way she was just barely touching the railing, poised to fly away at a moment’s notice. And he knew he had to be careful with this moment, or he would spook her entirely, which was the exact opposite of what he wanted to do. What he really wanted was to gather her in his arms, tell her he loved her, find out what was bothering her so much, and fix it. What he wanted was to apologize for his rigidity and taking out his fear on her. What he wanted, what he always wanted, was to protect her from anything and anyone that would hurt her. But she had made it clear, she didn’t need his protection. She could take care of herself and she wanted to. She could handle things without him swooping in and rescuing her. She was no damsel in distress and did not appreciate being treated like one. So he stayed quiet, waiting for her to make to the first move.
The minutes passed quietly, with the hum of the party inside behind them, and the water in front of them lapping at the shore. It was almost comforting that they're able to be near each other like this. It reminded her of all those moments together, just hanging out on the couch at his place, him reading a book and her on the laptop. Nothing rushed or crazy between them, just the companionable silence between people who knew each other in their bones.
The music drifting out from the bar took on a different sound. What can only be described as caterwauling was heard by everyone.
She giggled softly, almost as if she didn’t want him to hear. They both knew exactly what that sound was.
“Damn Hunter. Bobbi let him near the karaoke mic again,” he chuckled. “You would think she’d learn by now to hide it from him at all costs.”
“I think she has learned to pick her battles. He is totally insufferable if he doesn’t get to sing. I wouldn’t want to go home with a pouting Lance either.”
“Yeah, but the rest of us now have to suffer too. She’d be doing a public service by stopping him.”
She rolled her eyes, but the smile remained on her face.
Seizing the opportunity, since she wasn't running, he pressed forward in the conversation, “How has work been lately? Did you finish that big project?”
Her mouth twisted into a scowl. “Yes, but that turned into a giant cluster.”
“What happened?”
She realized her mistake in telling him more details and tried to smooth it over. “Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. It's all done now.’
He raised an eyebrow at her deflection. “Really? You've only been working on that project for 4 months, but it's not a big deal that something went wrong?”
“It's fine, really. Nothing I can do about it now,” she sighed resignedly.
He tried again, more gently this time. “Come on, Skye. Tell me what’s really going on.”
“I…..What makes you say that?”
He leaned forward and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. Her breath caught and she looked up at him. “Skye, I see the shirt you’re wearing. You only pull that out when you’re really upset, at least for wearing it in public. What is bothering you?”
She closed her eyes and turned her head away. It still caught her off guard how well he could read her, how thoroughly he knew her and all her tells. “It's just been a rough week.”
She knew it would be impossible now to brush him off, he would know, but that didn’t mean she wanted to tell him everything. It wasn’t like she could just come out and say, I feel like I’m torn in half because you’re not there anymore. So that was out. And after everything that happened there was absolutely zero chance she would tell him a single thing about her search. He had proven he couldn’t handle that and no way was she opening that up to him. That basically left telling him about the problems at work.
“You know about that project I was working on. I was almost finished with it, only had a couple things left. But they were tricky to figure out, so I asked Brandon for some help, you know my whole pieces-solving-a-puzzle philosophy. It was going great, he got me through a couple roadblocks, I was almost finished. Sandy dropped a couple other things on me, that needed to be dealt with right away. So I put the project aside while I did those. The next day I came in, ready to finish, only to find that Brandon had finished it and turned it in to Sandy, taking all the credit for it. Not only did he get praised for all the work that I had done, but now I look like the incompetent loser who couldn’t hack it and needed him to come in and save the day. I hate looking like I couldn’t handle it on my own!”
“What a bastard,” came the taut reply. He knew how much she hated being treated like that and she deserved every bit of credit for that project. He had a suspicion that there was more to the story than she was giving, but he was pretty sure that what she could use more than anything was a laugh. “Tell you what. Sunday night, let’s go find his car and we’ll put cover it in shaving cream. Or saran wrap it. Or both! We can go the whole 9 yards. Maple syrup under the door handles, Oreos stuck all over the windows, then saran wrap around the whole thing, and shaving cream on top. He’ll be hours late for work, if he ever makes it in at all.”
He was rewarded by the first genuine snicker he’d heard from her all night. And since he desperately wanted to keep hearing that, he piled on even more. “We’ll fork his lawn and snap off all the handles so it’s even harder to get them all out. A good old fashioned TPing is always a great option. Maybe we can even do the flaming bag of dog crap as the finishing touch.” She was full on guffawing now and it was exactly what he wanted to see. The light was finally back in her eyes and it took his breath away, how gorgeous she looked like that. He was about to reach for her when a loud crash and some rather impressive profanity grabbed their attention.
Lance, having finished his karaoke performance, was now losing a fight with a patio chair. It somehow twisted up his legs and pinned him down at the same time.
“Bloody, cheap American furniture! Where did they even get this?”
“Need some help there, Lance?” Skye called over, amusement all over her face.
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, love.”
Skye walked over and hoisted the chair off the unlucky Brit. Ward stretched out his hand to help him up as well. “What were you even trying to do, Hunter?”
“Well, T-1000, I’ll have you know I was coming out here to tell you both it was time for toasts. Your presence is required, seeing as you two are the Best Man and Maid of Honor. But if you have something better to be doing, by all means, don’t let me stop you.” His wink made Skye’s face pale considerably.
“Uhhh….no, it’s fine. I’ll go see what Jemma needs right now,” she stammered and quickly ran inside.
Ward groaned a little to himself, “Thanks Hunter. Way to freak her out.”
“Don’t blame me! You were the one out here making heart eyes at her,” he defended. But then his voice grew serious. “Ward, buddy, you gotta be careful. She’s not doing nearly as well as she tries to make it seem. She’s hurting a lot more than she wants to admit.”
“You think I don’t see that?” he asked angrily.
“Just...don’t play with her, okay? Let her move on. Or at least give her the space to try, that’s all I’m saying.” Hunter held up his hands in defeat.
Ward pressed his lips into a thin line as he thought on Lance’s words. Should he just leave her alone? Can they be friends, right now or ever? Does he even stand a chance at winning her back? He felt no closer to the answers than he did two weeks ago. He shook his head and decided to put it off until after the party was over. His heart was a mess and his mind couldn’t take any more of it tonight. So he put it aside and went back in to celebrate his friends’ happiness. But he kept thinking of the way a certain pair of eyes had twinkled when he talked about forking a lawn, and somehow that was enough to buoy him through the evening.