This was for the Skyeward Secret Santa gift exchange on tumblr. It was for farmgirlusa (then smalltownethics).

A little background for the fic - it's an AU world where SHIELD is still law enforcement but think FBI-ish. And Hydra is a known criminal organisation - think like a mob type thing.

See author's note at end for update on my multi chapter fics "The Right Side" and "Finding the Way Back"

"Skye I need your help!" Jemma Simmons, Skye's best friend called as she burst through her office door, tears running down her cheeks and clearly worked up about something.

"What's wrong Jem?" Skye asked immediately, standing up and moving around her desk to the other woman's side.

The two women had been friends since junior high, and had been through a lot together. They even joined SHIELD together - Jemma a scientist and Skye a field operative and investigator. In all the years they had been friends they had never really been separated, making sure that they were always placed near each other - a task made easier when Coulson took over as director since he had a soft spot for the two young women.

Skye guided Jemma to the couch on the side of the room, her arm wrapped around her shoulder. Jemma took a few deep breaths. "It's Annabelle," she whispered.

"AB?" Skye asked worriedly. Annabelle, or AB as she was usually called, was Skye's three year old god daughter and Jemma's daughter with her husband Fitz. Everyone loved and doted on her and if there was something making Jemma this upset involving her then Skye wasn't sure she could handle hearing it. "What happened?"

"She was at the park with her nanny," Jemma started so softly Skye had to lean in to hear her. "She was taken Skye. They called me. They said if I contacted the authorities that they'd kill her. They said to tell you but we couldn't get SHIELD involved. I don't know what to do. Someone has my baby and I don't know what to do," she finished with a sob.

Skye pulled her friend into her arms and held her tightly, trying to offer whatever comfort she could but knowing it wouldn't help. There was nothing that would help until AB was back and Skye knew that. She mulled over what Jemma had said and realised there was something odd about the instructions.

"They specifically told you to tell me?" Skye asked, wanting to be sure she had heard right.

"Yes," Jemma whispered as she pulled back slightly and tried to wipe away her tears, even though she knew it was pointless as they were instantly replaced. "They said they had my daughter and would kill her if I contacted any authorities; they would be in touch again soon with instructions and that I should tell you before they called me again. That was my first instruction."

"Does Fitz know?" Skye asked.

"I do," came the voice of the man in question from Skye's door. The fact that she hadn't even realised he had come into the room spoke of how affected she was by this. "Jems called me as soon as she heard from them - they said she could tell me as well."

Skye nodded. "Did they give you any indication of what they could want?" Skye asked, slipping into work mode and trying to figure out how they were going to get her back.

"No," Jemma said quietly. "Just what I've already told you."

Skye nodded again and thought about that. Clearly there was something else at play here, especially if they wanted Skye involved. It was hard to tell what though at this point. She glanced through the window in her office door and realised they had attracted a few stares, most likely because the three of them were clearly emotional and these kinds of displays of emotion were not common for them.

"We need to get out of here," Skye said quietly to the two scientists.

They both looked up at her and then followed her gaze to the area outside her office where they were clearly attracting the attention of other employees.

"Right," Simmons agreed. "So where do we go?"

"Well we need resources," Skye said as she thought through what they would need. "We can't use SHIELD resources, since they aren't supposed to be involved. I don't have the right equipment at home to do what needs to be done - plus it all runs through SHIELD."

"SHIELD isn't the only place we know with the resources we need," Fitz said quietly looking straight into Skye's eyes.

Skye met his stare hesitantly. "Is that really the route we want to take? We could lose our jobs."

"It's Annabelle," Jemma said in reply, catching on to what they were talking about.

At that Skye simply nodded, no more needing to be said. They would all do anything for AB, no question. "I'll let Coulson know that we're all taking a few personal days, meet me down by my car?"

The two scientists nodded and left Skye alone in her office. She took a few deep breaths before she picked up her phone to ring the director. She told him that the three of them needed a few personal days and to please not ask questions and he agreed easily, sensing that there was something going on and knowing that if Skye wasn't telling him what then there was a reason. When she got off the phone she simply sat in her chair for a few minutes with her head in her hands. She wasn't prepared for what she was about to do, but knew that it was the only option.

"Will they even let us in?" Simmons asked as the three of them approached the gleaming skyscraper that was Hydra's headquarters.

"We're about to find out," Fitz muttered to her in reply as they moved through the glass doors and walked straight through the lobby, Skye in the lead.

"They'll let us in," Skye said quietly not even pausing her stride as she moved straight for the security screening to get through to the elevators.

"Please remove any weapons and place them in the tray provided," one of the security guards said as they reached him. "And I'll need to see your ID or visitor's pass."

Skye completely ignored the security guard and moved straight through the metal detectors, not bothering to remove her weapons, Fitz and Simmons following quickly behind her. The metal detector started going off instantly and the security guard stood up and approached them, the other two there doing the same.

"Hey I said-" the one that had addressed them the first time started but was cut off by Skye punching him in the face.

"Don't care," she said simply and quickly and efficiently put all three men on the floor with some well executed hits, Fitz and Simmons having continued to the elevator and pressed the call button.

Knowing that it would be mere moments before more security arrived Skye hurried after them, slipping into the elevator where the scientists had already selected the top level and pushing the close doors button. They rode the elevator in silence and got out on the top floor, where only the CEO's office was located.

Skye walked out of the elevator with a determined stride, heading straight for the door to the office without even acknowledging the assistant sitting behind the desk in the lobby area.

"Hey you can't go in there," the perky blonde said sharply jumping up and putting herself between Skye and the door she wanted to go through.

Skye looked her up and down, noticing the tight, short skirt and almost too low cut top that didn't really seem appropriate for an office. "Look I'm really not in the mood," Skye said in a dangerous voice. "I am going into this office one way or another. So you either step aside and let me voluntarily, or I will make you."

The blonde gave her a haughty look and raised her chin slightly. "I'd like to see you try."

Skye didn't hesitate to throw her fist into the other woman's face, making her stumble out of the way of the door. "Don't say I didn't warn you," she said simply as she pushed the door open and moved into the room.

The two men with their backs to the door spun around at the intrusion, surprised looks on their faces. The man behind the desk however, the one they were there to see, looked more concerned than anything else. That wasn't a surprise, given that Skye had never been to his office and had been fairly clear in the fact that she never would.

"What's wrong?" he asked standing from his chair and moving towards the door.

At that moment a commotion was heard near the elevators, security clearly having just reached the floor. Four guards moved quickly towards Skye, clearly intending to try and apprehend her and she moved to prevent that.

"Stop!" a voice called with clear authority, halting the security in their tracks. "What is going on?"

"Mr Ward, these three entered the building without showing ID or visitor's passes. This one," one of the security guards started to explain, gesturing at Skye. "Attacked Roslyn, Marks and Peters and is carrying several weapons, at least two of which appear to be firearms, which she didn't hand over upon entering the building even though no one is permitted to carry a firearm in the building."

"No one?" Fitz asked from where he was standing slightly behind Skye.

"No one," Ward confirmed. "Not even our security carry guns." He then turned to the security officer that had been speaking. "It's okay Johnson. I've got this, you can all go back downstairs."

"But sir, it's against policy for anyone to carry a firearm in the building," Johnson argued.

"I'm allowed," Skye said with a smirk.

"Even law enforcement are required to hand over their weapons," Johnson disagreed, assuming she meant she was allowed because of the SHIELD badge he could see on her hip.

"That's not why I'm allowed," Skye said, the smirk not leaving her face.

"Then why are you allowed?" Johnson asked.

"Because she's my wife," Ward answered for her. "So she's allowed to do pretty much whatever she wants. Now you four, head back down to security. Apologise to Roslyn, Marks and Peters," he addressed the security guards and received nods before they headed back to the elevator, all looking at Skye warily. "Gentlemen, I'm sorry but we're going to have to reschedule," he said to the two men in his office that had watched the proceedings with intrigued expressions. "Talk to my assistant and she will set something up." He flicked his eyes to his assistant who was glaring daggers at his wife and appeared to have a bruise coming up on her jaw. Great, that meant Skye had assaulted not three, but four of his employees. "You three," he said to Skye, Fitz and Simmons. "In my office."

The four of them moved into his office and took seats on the couches near the window. Fitz and Simmons sat close together, Fitz's arm around Simmons' shoulder, while Skye took one of the single seats across from them. Ward sank down in the single seat beside Skye's and looked at the three of them, waiting for someone to explain why they were there.

"What's going on?" he asked when the silence had dragged on for close to five minutes with no one explaining anything. "You swore you'd never come here," he said to Skye. "And you two haven't spoken to me in close to six months," he added to FitzSimmons.

"It's Annabelle," Simmons said after taking a deep breath.

"What's Abbey?" Ward asked the concern in his expression deepening. He was the only one that called her that, the tiny girl arguing fiercely against anyone else that tried, saying that was Uncle Grant's special name for her and that no one else could use it. For all they were angry at him and wanted to hate him since finding out about Hydra, no one could argue against the fact that he adored their little girl.

Simmons gave him a quick rundown of what had happened and what the kidnappers had said before she broke down in tears again. Ward got up out of his chair and moved to kneel on the ground in front of her.

"Look at me Jemma," he commanded quietly. She raised her head from where it was buried in Fitz's shoulder to meet his eyes. "We're going to get her back," he said so firmly and surely that none of them could doubt how much he meant it. "No matter what it takes."

Jemma studied him closely before nodding. "I believe you," she said softly and then threw herself forward and into his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck. He easily caught her and pulled her tighter into his arms.

Skye watched as her husband, a man she had been so angry at for the past six months that she had basically cut him out of her life unless she was spitting hateful comments at him, embraced her best friend. This was the man she had fallen in love with - someone confident and kind and willing to do anything for the people he loved. How was this man Hydra? She still didn't understand.

They had been together for almost a decade and she thought she knew everything about him, but when it had come to light that he didn't just work for Hydra but was the head of the crime organisation she hadn't known how to deal with it. So she had said some horrible things to him and kicked him out of the house they shared. He had tried to explain, but she hadn't wanted to hear it; had been too angry. Looking at the way he comforted Jemma she thought that maybe she was ready to hear his side of the story.

"We need your help," Skye spoke up finally from where she sat, causing Ward to turn his head in her direction. Even now, after all this time, she still found herself drowning in his whiskey coloured eyes when he stared at her like that.

"Whatever you need," he replied simply.

"To start, I need a secure computer so I can access any available camera footage in the area," she said hesitantly, not knowing if she was in any real position to ask him for anything but knowing it was the best place to start if they wanted to get AB back.

"Use mine," Ward said easily waving his hand at the laptop on his desk. "You set it up and no one else has touched it so it's the most secure computer in the building."

His confidence in her skill had always surprised her - she wasn't used to people being so open about saying how good they thought she was when they first met. She moved quickly over to his desk and brought the computer out of its rest state, being prompted for a password. Before she could even open her mouth to ask what it was he spoke up again.

"Password's the same," he said as he moved closer to the desk, Simmons now back beside Fitz on the couch and the two curled into one and other.

"It's been six months, you should have changed it by now," Skye said without thinking. It was something she always got on him about, keeping his passwords the same for too long, making it easier to crack them.

"I know, but I actually don't know how to change it," he said a little sheepishly. The system she had set up for him was good and she had always changed his passwords for him. "Besides, it's important to me," he added quietly.

She entered the password - the date they had met followed by the fake name she had gave him at the time - and wasn't surprised to find that the desktop image was a picture of her and AB. "It's important to me too," she admitted quietly.

Nobody spoke for the next twenty minutes as Skye got into the cameras in the area of the park AB had been at and found the right time period. "Got something!" she said suddenly causing the other three people in the room to move quickly around the desk to look over her shoulder. "I've got their faces on camera." As the images of the three men taking AB cleared up she muttered a curse under her breath, recognising one of them instantly. "Dammit. That's Mike Peterson. He's-"

"One of Quinn's guys," Ward finished for her.

"Yeah," she agreed looking up at him.

"Quinn as in Ian Quinn?" Fitz asked. "As in head of the Italian mafia, Ian Quinn?"

"Yes," Ward answered. "That Ian Quinn."

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," Simmons said quietly. "This is bad; this is really, really bad. What does the Italian mafia want with my daughter?"

"I don't know," Skye said quietly.

"And how are we going to get her back from them?" Simmons continued as if Skye hadn't even spoken, becoming slightly hysterical.

"Actually that shouldn't be too difficult," Ward said in a calm voice.

"What? Why?" Simmons asked. "It's the Italian mafia. I'm pretty sure it's definitely going to be difficult."

"Normally yes," Ward said easily. "But in this case, not really."

"Why?" Fitz asked.

"Because one of Quinn's daughters got into some trouble and I got her out of it. He owes me," Ward said, knowing that he was probably making his relationships with them worse but having decided to be completely honest. Besides, if it got Abbey back he didn't care.

"Why would you help him?" Skye demanded. "After everything he's done."

"I wasn't helping him. I was helping a ten year old girl who was born into this world with no other options. Just because her father is a horrible human being doesn't mean she deserves to suffer for it. She didn't choose to be born into that family," Ward explained.

"You think he'll just give AB back?" Skye asked. "Just because you ask him to? He obviously took her for a reason."

"Let's find out," Ward replied before pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and dialling Quinn's number, putting the phone on speaker so everyone could hear.

The other man picked up after four rings. "To what do I owe this pleasure? You usually want nothing to do with me and now you're calling me. I'm touched." his smug voice came down the line.

"Annabelle FitzSimmons," Ward replied simply. "Why'd you take her?"

"What's it matter to you?" Quinn asked.

"She's my god daughter," Ward replied.

There was complete silence on the other end of the line, the smug aura completely evaporating. "Shit," they heard him mutter before he spoke louder again. "You have to know that I didn't know that. If I had known I wouldn't have gone anywhere near her," Quinn tried to defend himself, not wanting to be on Ward's bad side.

"You'll return her. Immediately," Ward said clearly. "And if she's been harmed in any way, I will kill you. Slowly. Is that understood?"

"Yes, of course," Quinn said quickly. "I'll have her brought back right away. Where to?"

"My office," Ward replied. "And we'll be discussing this again, at length. I want to know exactly why you decided to kidnap her."

"Okay," Quinn replied in a small voice, clearly scared of what Ward might do to him.

"You have forty-five minutes to get her here. If she isn't here in that time, I'll come to you. And you know that won't be pleasant."

"She'll be there," Quinn replied quickly.

"Good." With that Ward hung up his phone.

"We need to know why she was taken as well," Skye said quietly.

"Once I find out I'll tell you everything," Ward agreed easily. "But I'm more interested in getting her back first and worrying about everything else second."

"What if someone else takes her before we find out why?" Fitz asked.

"They won't," Ward replied.

"How can you be sure?" Simmons questioned.

"Because Quinn will spread the word she's off limits," Skye answered for him. "That touching her puts you on Ward's and therefore Hydra's bad side. That's a place that no one wants to be."

"Exactly," Ward agreed. "I'm going to head down and grab a coffee while we're waiting," he said, not really interested in a coffee but knowing that FitzSimmons could use a few minutes alone to calm down before their daughter got there. "Anyone want anything?"

Fitz and Simmons both shook their heads, but Skye, realising what he was doing, spoke up. "I'll just come down with you," she said with a small smile and followed him to the door.

They were silent while they waited for the elevator and for the first few floors before Skye spoke. "I'm sorry I've been so horrible to you," she said quietly.

"It's okay," Ward said in the same tone. "I understand. I wasn't honest with you and I should have been. From the start."

"Well I wasn't honest with you either," she argued. "I didn't tell you about SHIELD or what I did."

"Yeah but it's okay to lie when you work for the good guys," Ward said with a small smile.

Skye studied him closely and was about to speak when the elevator chimed and the doors opened. Ward waited for her to leave the elevator first and then guided her to the coffee cart in the cafeteria, ordering her favourite along with a coffee for himself. They sat in a table near the corner quietly for a few minutes before she spoke.

"Hydra's better," she said hesitantly. "Since you took over. I'm not saying they're good - obviously there's still a lot of illegal stuff going on. But it's better. You've made it better."

He looked at her carefully before he nodded. "I'm trying," he said quietly. "I never agreed with a lot of their ideals, but it was all I knew. And I knew I could make it into something better. That it didn't have to be the horrible thing it had always been."

"I've started to see that," Skye agreed. She hesitated for a moment before she added what she really wanted to say. "And I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," he said easily. "So much that sometimes it's hard to breathe."

"I still love you," she admitted softly.

"I'll always love you," he responded. They were quiet for another few minutes before he looked at his watch. "We should head back, Abbey should be here any minute."

"Okay," Skye agreed standing up and following him to the door.

"UNCLE GRANT!" Ward heard screamed across the lobby as he and Skye were heading towards the elevator.

"Abbey!" he called back, a smile on his face and his arms open as she run and launched herself into his arms. He hadn't seen her in too long and he had missed her almost as much as he had missed Skye in that time. "I've missed you Princess."

"Missed you too Uncle Grant," the little ball of sunshine in his arms replied as they moved into an elevator.

She kept talking to him the whole way up to his office, her arms and legs wrapped tight around him the whole time. She disentangled herself from him when she saw her parents, moving quickly to give them hugs as Skye stepped closer to his side.

"She loves you so much," she said quietly.

"I love her just as much," he replied, not taking his eyes off the little girl.

Skye watched him watching AB and decided to be brave. "Would you like to have dinner with me?" she asked.

He tore his eyes away from Abbey to smile at his wife. "I would very much like that," he replied.

Seven months later

Ward walked into the home he once again shared with his wife after a long day in a series of long days at work. Turning Hydra from a criminal organisation into a respectable business had not been easy but he had managed it. From the moment the people he loved had found out he had worked for the organisation and turned away from him he had done everything he could to make it so that they might come back. It had been a hard road, but it was all working out. He followed the sound of his wife singing along with the Christmas carols on the stereo into the living room where she was sorting decorations for the tree.

"You weren't thinking of decorating without me were you?" he asked as he leant in the doorway and watched her.

"Never," she replied as she turned to him with a grin. "I already had to decorate one tree without you and I don't ever want to have to do that again."

He gave her a soft smile as he moved towards her and sat on the floor beside her. "You won't ever have to," he said softly as he pressed a kiss to her temple.

She leaned into him, enjoying the feeling of being close to each other as much as he did. "Let's decorate quickly so we can go to bed," she murmured to him.

"It's like you read my mind," he replied pecking her lips quickly and then standing up so he could start stringing the lights.

About an hour later they were finally finished with the tree, Skye looking at it approvingly with a big grin, while Ward watched her with a soft smile. Christmas brought back a lot of bad memories for him, but watching her unadulterated joy at the holiday always managed to drown them out.

She felt his eyes on her and turned to look at him. "I love you," she said softly as she pulled him in for a chaste kiss.

"Not as much as I love you," he replied before kissing her again, a bit less chastely.

She pulled back slightly to look at him. "I'm so glad you never gave up on me."

"As if I could ever give up on you," he replied and moved in to kiss her passionately.

They didn't make it up to bed for another couple of hours, unable to keep their hands off each other for that long. And when they were woken only a few hours after they went to sleep by their god daughter jumping onto the bed with them, they couldn't even find it in themselves to be upset with her, even if they would have appreciated a few more hours sleep. After all, if it wasn't for her - in a terrible, she got kidnapped way - they may not have found their way back to each other from where they were on opposite sides.

Author's note: I've been terrible, awful and horrible about updating "The Right Side" and "Finding the Way Back". The holidays happened and then a whole slew of personal stuff cropped up and I just haven't gotten a chance. The good news is I'm working on them again. I hope to have an update out for each by the end of this week. I really, truly apologise for the huge delay, but I promise neither fic was abandoned and I will be continuing both