Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground

"Grant."

"Grant."

Agent Grant Ward moaned in his uneasy sleep, as an insistent, frail voice continued to call to him.

"Grant, please, help me. I'm so cold."

Grant's eyes jerked open and he was suddenly aware of a cold body lying next to him in his narrow bed.

"Grant." The familiar voice said again as freezing hands reached out to clutch his arms.

"Skye," Grant groaned, and he enveloped the precious body close to him. He tried to warm her with his heat.

"Please. I'm so cold."

Grant looked down at the frozen girl and immediately noticed her pallor, glazed eyes, and blue lips.

"You're all right. You're going to be all right," Grant assured her desperately, holding her body tightly to his own. Only then did Grant notice the wetness seeping onto the sheets he was still wrapped in. He looked down and saw for the first time the gruesome wound in Skye's abdomen, bleeding profusely.

It all came rushing back to him. The train, being separated, Ian Quinn. Finding Skye alone and bled out in that dusty old cellar.

"NO!" he yelled loudly, clutching Skye to himself as closely as possible.

"You're going to be fine! You can't leave me Skye, you can't leave me," Grant moaned into her hair, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Help me please. I'm so cold," Skye whispered against his neck.

"I am helping you! I will help you! Just stay with me, please!" Grant begged brokenly. He noticed blood leaking out of her mouth and noted the rattling breaths passing her lips.

"Skye! Please!"

"Grant," she whispered one last time, then went completely still, the room totally silent.

"SKYE!" Grant bellowed, lurching upright in his empty bed, sweat clinging to his forehead.

Reality slowly returns and he drags his fingers through his dark hair and sits on the side of his bed.

"A dream. Just a dream," he mutters to himself as gazes at the digital clock on his bedside table.

11:56pm. They should be arriving at a S.H.I.E.L.D medical airbase in three hours.

Knowing he will not be able to go back to sleep, Grant tugs on some sweatpants and a t-shirt, giving in to the urge to check on her.

Quietly, he makes his way downstairs, making sure not to disturb anyone. He doesn't understand why he feels he has to make sure she is still there, sleeping where she is suppose to be. Perhaps his dream is influencing him.

When he gets to FitzSimmons's lab he pauses at the doors. There, in plain sight, is the large hyperbaric chamber. And resting within, visible through the clear glass, is Skye. She looks just the same as she did in his dream. Her normally tan skin completely white, rosy lips tinged blue and stained red, and a macabre wound standing out starkly on her abdomen.

Pain pierces his chest and he uses all his control not to cry out in pain.

This is why he never let's himself feel. This is why he never lets anyone in. Because it hurts so badly when he does.

Hitting the button with more force than necessary, he open the sliding glass doors and steps into the room glowing with different computer screens. He notices for the first time Simmons, passed out in a chair to the side, blood still staining her hands in some places. Obviously, she is suppose to be monitoring Skye's condition, but she is just as worn out as the rest of the team.

Walking quietly as not to disturb her, Grant makes his way closer to the hyperbaric chamber, coming to stand next to it and gazing intensely at its occupant. He puts his hand on the glass, above her head and feels sorrow overwhelm him.

How can she possibly survive this? Looking at her now, only an inch removed from death, he can feel his hope dwindling.

He has never met anyone like her before. Unbelievably smart, funny, quirky and more courageous than anyone he has ever known. He was immediately attracted to her, despite being weary of her intentions. He slowly started to warm to her, drawn to her upbeat personality and daring nature. When her secret agenda was revealed it didn't shock him, life has taught him nothing good is trustworthy, and felt betrayed. He has treated her differently ever since, though she had earned forgiveness a thousand times over. He was so angry at himself and the way he acted. Shutting her out and starting things with May, just to distract himself from her. It didn't work and now here he was in infinite pain because he let her down, again.

He starts stroking the glass as if he were caressing her cheek. Thinking back on the last couple of weeks, it was obvious something was bothering her. She was different, more focused, and not her usual self. He wanted to ask what was wrong, but stopped himself. He felt he had to keep some barriers up because he was continually drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

Grant scoffs at his self-delusion with May. What was he thinking? Nothing could ever keep Skye out and he should have stopped trying, because looking at her now, body lifeless and pale, he knows he was wrong. She is everything. Everything he ever wanted or needed. Skye lit up his life in ways he never thought possible. He had been alone for so long, joining this team, meeting Skye has changed his life so much and he has been happier than he has ever been before in his life.

"Skye," he whispers hoarsely, hoping Simmons won't wake-up. "I'm here. I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you, but I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere. But you have to promise me that you won't go anywhere either. Can you do that? I need you," he says, voice breaking with emotion, tears unwillingly filling his eyes. "You can't leave me. You've changed me so much, I don't know what I would do without you. So keep yourself alive, you're strong. The strongest person I know. So please, please, stay with me."

Skye remains still, giving no sign she heard him. Despair threatens to overtake him and he has to clench his fists to keep from crying out.

"Agent Ward? Are you alright?"

Grant whips around, surprised to see Simmons standing behind him, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"I'm fine," he says gruffly, taking his hands off the chamber, but unable to step away.

"She's still stable," Simmons says, staring at Skye's pale, bloody face and putting her hands on the glass cylinder.

"Hmm," Grant grunts in acknowledgment, not moving his gaze from Skye's face.

"We'll be at the airbase in just under three hours. We'll get her straight into surgery and she'll be fine," Simmons says almost tonelessly, running her gaze over the computer screen showing Skye's vitals.

Grant grunts again. Of course she'll be alright. Anything else is unacceptable.

"Agent Ward? Perhaps you'll rest better in your quarters?" Simmons asks timidly.

"No, I'll stay here," Grant says, unwilling to return to his lonely room. He needs to be here with her while he still could.

"Okay," Simmons says and then she pulls another chair out, he guesses is Fitz's, and brings it over to him. "Here. This will be more comfortable," she says kindly.

"Thanks," Grant says, grateful she's not trying to make him leave.

"You're right you know," Simmons says suddenly, looking him in the eye.

"What?" Grant says, confused.

"Skye is strong and she'll be okay," she says with a conviction she didn't have earlier.

Grant looks at Simmons with surprise. She must have heard his one-sided conversation with Skye, but he found himself unable to be embarrassed. He is has no more will to deny how he feels about her and is glad of Simmons support.

"She is the strongest person I know," Grant repeats roughly, trying not to look at the horrifying wound at her stomach. He has to block out the voice in head telling him that it doesn't matter how strong she is, nobody can survive an injury like that.

No. If there was one thing Skye taught him, it was to hope. No matter what, he had to hope.

"She's the best person I know."