The Lake

The scene laid out before the beautiful brunette was one of nature's true wonders, she admired the way the moonlight bounced off the large body of inky black water. It was a clear summer's night, the air was warm and away from the big city lights you could see every star in the sky for the first time in the last two days Skye felt truly calm and this is how he found her...

She looked like she stepped into a painting of an angel or a goddess, her back was to him and she had yet to register his presence. He made a mental note to address her lack of awareness in their next training session, it would not do for her not to be aware of being snuck up on especially after what had almost happened a few days ago. His attention turned back to Skye she looked serene standing by the waters edge in only a white summer dress. The air was thick with heat and humidity it had been a scorcher of a day and the temperature had not dropped much after the sun had set.

They'd been forced to take refuge out in the middle of nowhere in one of S.H.I.E.L.D's safe houses both of their lives now in danger. They'd saved a lot of innocent people but had pissed off one bad assed super villain in the process as a result it was now to dangerous for them to be in the field until said bad ass was in custody. This really pissed Grant Ward off because he had been trained to be the whole solution so sitting idly by while someone else hauled the son of a bitch in did not sit well at all. He shook of this bitter train of thought and began focusing on his beautiful rookie again.

All of a sudden she began to walk straight into the lake, the water sloshing around her, at first Grant was amused by this sight he was sweating buckets so he couldn't blame her for wanting to cool off a little. From where he stood he could not see her face so he missed the blissful smile that tugged at her lips when she threw herself back into the cold water arms stretched out at her sides, she floated for a moment before letting herself sink beneath the surface.

Grant watched the surface of the water nervously looking for signs that she had resurfaced, when he saw non panic erupted in his chest had she been pulled under? Was she so traumatised she was trying to drown herself? He ran to the water at break neck speed that would put an Olympian to shame. Crashing into the water he waded to where she had gone under and searched desperately for her, where was she? She couldn't have just disappeared! All of a sudden she burst up behind him water flying everywhere and she was laughing like a kid that had played a trick on her dad. Her laughter lit up her features and the affect was stunning she truly was a beauty but he was seriously not amused and his face set into a hard mask.

"Skye what the Hell?"

"What?" she looked at him her doe eyes full of feigned innocence.

"You scared the hell out of me, I thought you'd drowned!" he spat.

"Wow way to overreact robot, it's like 100 degrees out here, I thought I'd cool of a little"

"By making me think you'd drowned?!" his tone was incredulous.

"It's not my fault you where creeping around, you do know that's creepy right?" she was teasing him, normally he'd only find this mildly annoying but with everything that had happened it made him even madder than before.

"I was not creeping around, we're supposed to stick close together remember or had you forgotten theirs a mad lunatic on the loose that wants us both dead?!"

Her face fell and he instantly regretted being so hard on her "Of course I haven't forgotten, how could I? It was my throat her nearly cut!" she yelled her voice thick with unshed tears. Great now he felt terrible, god he was such a jackass sometimes and way to prone to overreaction but he couldn't help it, it was the only way he knew how to be. "I'm sorry Skye, I didn't mean to upset you, it's just the thought of anything bad happening to you scares the crap out of me"

Her shoulders started to shake as the tears he knew she's been holding back since that awful night began to slide thick and fast down her face and she began to sob uncontrollably. Skye being Skye did not want him to see her cry, this he knew, she was desperately trying to pull herself together dashing her tears away with her hands. He couldn't stand seeing her so raw and vulnerable it was like a knife twisting in his heart, her pain became his. He wasn't sure when it actually happened but he could no longer deny what she meant to him she was more than a colleague and he was a liar if he called her just a friend. No she'd gotten under his skin that very first day he'd met her, and he just couldn't shake her, she'd become a part of his very soul, he was helplessly in Love with her. Seeing her with that knife pressed to her throat was the single worst experience of his life, he would never forget the icy fear that had run down his spine as her blood began to trickle down her precious neck. If May had not burst in at that precise second and knocked the knife away (there was a reason they called that woman the cavalry), he closed his eyes and pushed the dark thoughts away. She was safe, she was here no thanks to him.

When he opened his eyes the hard mask was gone, his anger had abated he closed the distance between them and pulled her tight against his muscular chest he wrapped himself around her like she was the most precious thing in the world, to him she was. The guilt he felt at not being able to protect her was like bile in his mouth, it burned him and in that moment he made a silent promise that he would be the one to take the bastard down, fuck protocol he would not put Skye in danger for revenge but he was going to tear the fuckers spine out if it was the last thing he did.

He didn't know how long they stood like that but when her sobs began to quiet he lifted her chin up with his finger so he could look her in the eye and he spoke with sincere determination. "Skye I promise you, I will never let anyone hurt you again. I'll die before I let him touch you again" a single tear rolled down his cheek, Skye caught it with her thumb and wiped it away. She looked straight up at him, even tearstained she was breath taking and she did something she rarely did she called him by his first name, it felt so intimate coming from her lips. "Grant do you think I would survive if anything happened to you? What happened was not your fault".

"But I'm supposed to protect you, he never should have got close to you, I nearly lost you!"

"I'm here Grant, You're here, we made it out alive that's what matters and for the record you do a damn could job of protecting me, I can't count the times you've saved my ass" she gave him a small smile before pressing her lips to his cheek, as she pulled back he turned his head catching her lips and kissing her gently at first, deepening the kiss when she responded kissing him back. That single kiss held so much emotion love, loss, fear and pain the icy fear that had settled around Grant's heart began to thaw as he lost himself in the moment.

The cool waist deep water lapped and rippled around them as the moonlight shone down almost caressing the young lovers. When they finally broke apart he took her face in his hands and looked deep into her eyes "I Love you so much it hurts, do you know that?"

"Yeah I know that Grant, because I love you too"

That was all he needed to here he pulled her into another deep kiss. In the last two days he had had the worst and then the best experience of his life, and there was still a psycho out for their blood but for now they were safe, they were together and he intended to make sure that was how they stayed.