AN: Hi everyone! I am SO sorry that I left you on that sad note for so long, but I'm here with the next chapter now... I also wanted to let you guys know that unfortunately I am going to be wrapping up this story sooner than I thought. I had originally been planning to play it out until the end of the mission and such, but I've pretty much hit a wall with this story so after this chapter I am going to write an epilogue, and that will be it. But the good news is that we're almost at the end, right? I might consider posting the other chapters that I already wrote later as sort of "extras" for those who want to read them, but they aren't really going to be part of the story any more, since they just throw more wrenches into the mix and would make the story longer. So, if I get enough requests for those extra chapters, I'll probably post them after the epilogue. Anyways, enjoy this chapter, Recovery.

Skye slowly walked into the lab and sat on a stool next to her sleeping S.O. He was lying on one of the steel tables, shirtless, with a pillow under his head. Skye stroked his cheek gently as she noticed the mark on his side. The skin around it was red, but Jemma's neat little sutures kept the wound secure.

A couple more tears crept down her face, but Skye quickly brushed them away. She took a deep breath to calm herself down as she took Grant's hand in her own.

"You know, sometimes, I get pissed at you" she said as her thumb traced circles on the back of his hand. "Sometimes, I think about all this emotional shit I go through for you, what with all the worrying and questioning what this is with us, and not to mention that whole HYDRA thing, and I get pissed. Because it is really hard to have to deal with all that on top of all the crap we get on a daily basis. And I get that figuring us out shouldn't be so hard and probably won't be an issue much longer, and yeah, I'm the poster child for putting the past behind us in terms of HYDRA, but the least you can do is stop making me worry that one day I won't have you anymore.

"I honestly don't think I'd make it through that day, Ward. And I'm not even talking about the whole 'you save my life on pretty much a daily basis so it wouldn't take long for me to die without you' thing. I'm talking about 'I wouldn't want to see a day that didn't have you in the world'. Because despite the fact that you piss me off, I wouldn't have it any other way." Skye stood up and was about to leave, but stopped and kissed him gently on the lips just before she did. "Come back to us soon, Grant. Come back to me." With that, she strode out of the lab and up to her room. Emotionally exhausted, she all but collapsed into the bed.

When Skye woke up from her nap and emerged from her room less than an hour later, the lounge was empty. Looking for the rest of the team, Skye descended the spiral stairs into the cargo bay and found everyone clustered in the lab. Grant was sitting up now, and Dr. Simmons was being all pokey again. Skye's heart leapt when she saw him, awake, and she ran into the lab, barreling past everyone else, and throwing herself at him, remembering to be gentle at the very last second. She wrapped her arms around him (as best as she could with Jemma in the way), and he brought one of his up to hold on to her too.

"Never do that to me again" she whispered tearfully against his neck.

"I don't plan to" he murmured back.

"A-hem." Jemma cleared her throat loudly behind Skye's back, and she took the hint and moved out of the biochemist's way, moving over to Grant's other side and holding his hand gently while Simmons resumed her poking. Looking around the room as she waited for Simmons to finish, Skye noticed something odd.

Everyone's silver bracelets that they had been issued a few days ago were missing.

"The detonator bracelets are gone?" she asked.

"This incident made us realize that this system clearly isn't working. It was a bit of overkill any ways." Coulson replied. "All the same rules still apply of course, with the hormone testing and the off-limits areas and curfew, but the consequences aren't as… permanent now. Misbehavior will result in lock-down, not a knock-out."

Skye sighed with relief. "Thank god. Fitz, get this damned thing off of me, please? I've always hated it."

He laughed, but grabbed the world's tiniest screwdriver off of the work table and undid the clasp, allowing her to yank the thing off. "Do you have any use for this thing now?" she asked him. Fitz shook his head, and she promptly threw it on the floor and stepped on it multiple times before grinding it under her shoe. Finally, she picked it up, strode out of the lab, opened the cargo doors, and threw the thing as far as she possibly could before marching back inside and resuming her spot at Grant's side.

"Right, well, as I said," Simmons said as she helped Ward off of the table "you're stable now and you should make a full recovery. But you're on complete bed rest for the next few days, and I'll be checking on you often. For now though, let's just start by getting you up there…" Jemma was clearly struggling under his weight so Skye rushed forward to throw his other arm over her own shoulder. Together the two girls brought him up the stairs and into the bed in his old bunk room, despite his protestations that he could do it on his own (he clearly couldn't), that he was fine (he clearly wasn't), and that if they put a pistol in his hand right then he would be able to hit a target fifty feet away (he nearly walked into a doorframe twice). Once he was lying down, Jemma took his pulse one last time, nodded, and then left. Skye was about to follow her, but Ward grabbed her wrist.

"Now that we finally have a real room, you're staying with me."

Skye laughed and laid down next to him, but stayed on top of the covers rather than joining him underneath them. "I'll stay, but you're on bed rest so don't get any ideas, mister."

"We would stay in the bed!"

"But I don't think that even you could call that rest."

Ward chuckled, but gave in and settled for wrapping Skye in his arms and burrowing his face in her hair.

"I have something for you" he whispered softly in her ear a few moments later.

"Hmm?"

Grant reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out the second item he'd purchased in the shop earlier that day. Smiling, he handed the velvet box to Skye, and she looked at him curiously as she took it from him. Cautiously she opened the box and inside, hanging from a fine gold chain, was an elaborate pendant. It looked to be made out of a single piece of wire, but it looped around and wove through itself so many times that it was almost impossible to follow.

"It's a Chinese Infinity Knot," he told her. "I figured, since Coulson said you came from China and all, maybe you should have a piece of that. And also because I want you to know that I will always be here for you. I was kind of hoping to even start calling you my girlfriend, if you..." the rest of his sentence was interrupted by Skye gently placing her lips on his. When they separated a moment later, she didn't speak, she just took the necklace out of the box and clasped it around her neck before curling back up against his side. Grant smiled and pulled her closer. It wasn't long before the two of them were asleep, and Simmons wasn't exactly surprised when she found them that way when she came in to check on Ward an hour later. She managed to check his vitals again without waking them, and the pair slept soundly right through the night.