A/N: Hey :) this is my new Skimmons fic. I'm not sure I like the title but I absolutely suck at titles. This is also way longer than most chapters will be.

Jemma looked up when the bell above the door dinged, signally someone had entered. She frowned because everyone had rescheduled their appointments because of the huge storm that had been roaring all day.

"Hi, sorry, I didn't know if you guys were open since the lights are all off." A man said, clutching a small, soaked Australian Shepherd in his arms.

"No, we are open but the power has gone out and we have to save as much of the emergency generator as possible, hence the candles." Jemma explained with a little smile as she walked over to the man, surveying the dog in his arms. The dog couldn't have been more than six months old and his left hid leg was matted with blood. "What happened to him?"

"I don't know. I was driving home from work and he was on the side of the road. I think his leg is broken."

"So he isn't your dog?" Jemma tentatively took the dog from the man, calmingly running her fingers through his fur when he whined in pain.

"No," The man shook his head, following Jemma into one of the back rooms. "I only just caught sight of him through the rain."

"It was great of you to stop, not maybe people would have."

The man nodded, pointing back towards the door. "I really need to get home. My wife is going to kill me for being over an hour late."

Jemma laughed and nodded, her attention focused fully on the dog in front of her as she washed the blood matted fur. "Ok, thank you."

Jemma washed the dog and surveyed the damage. The leg was broken, and judging by the couple of cracked ribs and cuts and scrapes all over his body he had been hit with a car. Jemma hoped the driver just didn't realize and hadn't just left the dog for dead.

"We are just going to see if you have been chipped, buddy. See if we can get hold of your mummy or daddy." Jemma cooed like she was talking to a child, scratching the puppy under the chin before placing a chew stick in front of him.

Jemma grabbed the Microchip scanned from the counter and ran it over the back of the puppies neck, sighing when the scanner beeped and a number appeared, signaling that the dog was chipped.

"Your owner is smart," Jemma murmured as she moved to the computer on the side bench, typing in the ID code into the patent list. Nothing. This dog wasn't registered at this vet.

Of course, nothing is never that easy. Jemma pulled up the email addresses of the other two vets in town and emailed them the ID number and said that the dog had been brought in with a broken leg, and that she was going to realign the bone and treat the dog.

"You are a good boy, aren't you?" Jemma smiled, turning to look at the dog who was still chewing on the chew stick, whining ever so often.

Jemma waited until the dog finished the chew stick before pulling on a pair of blue, latex gloves and set up the anesthesia to knock the dog out. The dog didn't put up a fight when Jemma pulled the mask over his nose and mouth, peacefully falling asleep.

She had just turned on the overhead lamps and was about to shave the fur from the dogs leg when the computer behind her pinged, signaling she had received an email. She pulled off her gloves and opened up the email. The dogs name was Comet and his owner was called Skye.

Jemma chuckled to herself at the names, rolling her eyes affectionately at how well the names fit together, and picked up the phone to called this 'Skye'.

"Hello?" A stuffy voice mumbled down the phone and Jemma couldn't help but sympathizes, she couldn't imagine how terrifying it would be to loose her dog.

"Hi, is this Skye?"

The woman on the other end was silent for a second before hummed. "Yeah, who's this?"

"This is Doctor Jemma Simmons, from Gotham veterinarian center in New York City. We had a puppy brought in a little while ago and we think he belongs to you."

"Yes. Yeah, my dog had been missing since last night. Is he ok? Is he alive?"

"Yes, he's alive. I think he was hit by a car, a motorist found him on the side of the road," There was an 'oh god' from the woman on the other line and Jemma paused to allow her to speak but continued when she didn't. "His leg is broken, I was just about to realign it and put it in a cast when your vet emailed me with your contact information."

"Thank god! Thank you so much. Can I come and see him?"

"Of course. Just come right through to the back room."

Skye thanked Jemma another four times as she searched around the house for her car keys and thanked her againwhen Jemma told her to drive safe before hanging up.

"Your mummy is on her way." Jemma said, though she knew the dog couldn't hear her, and changed her gloves.

Skye can bursting into the room around fifty minutes later, just as Jemma was pinning the bones in place, she was soaked through and her hair was plastered across her face. "Oh my god,"

"He's ok," Jemma assured, smiling over her shoulder at Skye and held up her bloody gloves. "I would shake your hand but…"

"Yeah," Skye nodded, looking from Jemma to Comet. "How could someone just leave him?!"

"I like to think they maybe they didn't know they hit him."

"Why is he here and not at our usual vet?"

"The man who found him brought him here and I didn't want to have to transport him, he was in a lot of pain and we didn't know how long he had been out there, so there was a high risk that his bone could set out of place."

Skye nodded, dragging her wet hair out of her face. "I was so worried, he was gone since five o'clock last night. We were out looking for him for until three am."

"He was brought in about an hour ago by a motorist, he's a good dog."

Skye hummed, bitting her nails as her eyes trained on the dog on the examination table. Then Skye started sniffing, and, at first, Jemma through her was crying, but when she glanced over there was no tears in the girls eyes, then she realized she was soaked through and probably getting sick. "There is a heater over there."

Skye glanced behind her briefly and nodded but didn't step back to heat herself up.

"Honey, you are going to get sick." Jemma leveled her eyes on Skye as she got the the stitching equipment ready. "You should heat yourself up and when I'm done here I will get you a set of dry clothes from my locker."

"You don't have to do that."

"I know. But I'm going to guess that you wont want to leave until Comet wakes up and that wont be for a few hours."

"Can I take him home after that?"

"Sorry," Jemma apologized, shaking her head lightly. "We need to keep him in over night for supervision. Then you will have to take him to your vet once a month for a check up."

Skye moved back to stand by the heater and Jemma stitched up the wound on the puppies leg.

"I'll just go get you those clothes." Jemma smiled over at Skye as she pulled her gloves off and threw them in the trash as she left.

Jemma rummaged through her locker and pulled out a pair of sweat and an old wooly sweater she had in her locker for a while, quickly sniffing them to make sure they didn't smell bad and heading back to the examination room. When she got their Skye was now crouched by the table, her chin resting on the cool metal sides, running her hand over the dogs ears as she spoke to him. "And I'm going to board up the goddamn fence, how did you even get through there?"

Jemma smiled, walking further into the room and holding out the clothes to Skye.

Skye straightened when she heard Jemma entered the room, smiling sheepishly at being caught speaking to her comatose pet.

"Don't worry about it, I sometimes have a full length conversation with my dog. It when you start answering your own questions you need to start worrying." Jemma teased, handing the clothes to Skye. "You can change in the restroom just through there."

Skye nodded, smiling appreciatively at Jemma. "Thank you."

Jemma nodded. "I will cast up that leg and put him in one of the kennels to sleep off the anesthesia."

"When will that be? I can come back."

"No, no. You don't have to leave. It's dangerous to drive in that weather." Jemma assured, smiling sweetly at Skye. "Besides, it's getting kinda creepy in here on my own, with only candles lit and with the thunder outside, I feel like I'm in a teenage horror film."

"Oh, so you think a murder is going to burst in here and kill you and you want to take me down with you?" Skye cocked her head to the side, raising her eyebrows and grinning at the vet.

"I was actually planning on using you as bait for the killer while I get away." Jemma bantered as she gathered everything she needed to make the cast.

"And what about Comet? Are you just going to leave him here, too?"

"Of course not, I'm not a monster." Jemma huffed, "I would take him home and he could meet Curie."

"Curie? As in Maria Curie?"

Jemma's eyes lit up when Skye said this. "Yes!"

"She was a chemist, right? That Polish lady who won two nobel prizes and died a horrible dead via radium?"

"Yeah, how do you know that?"

"I'm not a completely uncultured swine." Skye grinned, opening the door leading to another room where she would be getting changed. "Also, there was a documentary on about her a few days ago, I couldn't find the remote and Comet was asleep on me so I couldn't move." Skye added before disappearing through the doorway.

Jemma smiled to herself as she mixed the ingredients needed for the plaster.

Skye came back into the room about five minutes later, placing her clothes in the plastic bag Jemma had set on the counter for her and stood by the heater, waiting for Jemma to finished plastering Comet's leg, placing him carefully in one of kennels when she did so.

"Why is it so quiet?"

"Everyone rescheduled their appointments because of the storm, plus it's late so it's usually quiet around this time." Jemma shrugged off her work coat and hooked it up as they left the room, walking down to the reception.

"Are you working through the night? I saw that this was a twenty four hour vet."

Jemma shook her head, sitting down on one of the comfortable bench seats that were there for waiting patents. "I'm on until three then Fitz is taking over."

"Wow, that's a long shift, even from now." Skye glanced up at the clock as she sat down beside Jemma to see it read ten past seven. "When did you start?"

"Five."

Skye let out a whistle. "Man, you must be exhausted by the end of the night."

"I'm usually just bored." Jemma shrugged a little and they both lapsed into silence, the only sound was the rain pelting off the window and the odd roar of thunder.

"I love thunder and lightening." Skye muttered as she turned to look out the window, resting her chin on the back of the bench seat.

Jemma smiled, allowing her eyes to really run over the girls face for the first time. She was beautiful, that much was obvious from the moment she tumbled through the door, even with the bags under her eyes from not sleeping much the night before, obviously worried about her dog. She had a light dusting of freckles over the bridge of her nose and cheeks, and her hair was starting to dry into curls. And Jemma would be lying if she said that the girl knowing so much about Marie Curie wasn't at least a bit of a turn on.

Skye glanced over at Jemma when she didn't say anything, doing a double take and smiling when she noticed the girl was staring. "What?"

"Nothing." Jemma shook her head sheepishly, biting down on her lip as she mirror Skye's position and looked out the window. "Lightening struck a tree in my garden before. Completely stripped the bark from it."

"For real?" Skye's eyebrows raised as she looked over at Jemma.

"Yeah, had to chop the tree down after that, which was a shame, Winston live in there."

"I'm sorry, who?"

"He was a squirrel."

"A squirrel." Skye asked skeptically, narrowing her eyes at Jemma. "You named a squirrel Winston."

"He looked like a Winston." Jemma shrugged, her lips curving up into a little smile when Skye laughed. "Never saw him again after the tree was struck by lightening."

"Maybe he was asleep when it happened and fried."

Jemma's eyes widened because she had never thought of that.

"What? Hadn't you considered that?"

"No," Jemma pouted. "Poor Winston."

"I think it was 'poor Winston' as soon as you named him Winston."

"Winston is a nice name."

"If you say so. What color squirrel was he?"

"Red. With a little bushy Mohawk on his head."

Skye laughs again, shaking her head and turning back to look out the window.

Jemma done the same, staring out of the window for a couple of minutes before lying back on the bench.

Skye glanced over at her, "Where are you from? Like, originally. Where does that cute accent come from?"

Jemma smiles bashfully and Skye can't help but feel a little smug.

"Sheffield."

"Oh," Skye nodded, like she knew where that was.

"Do you know where that is?"

"No," Skye answered immediately.

Jemma laughed and shook her head. "It's in the middle if England. Not to far from Manchester."

"I still don't know where that is."

"Do you live far from here?"

"About fifty minutes." Skye answered. "Why did you move here? Like, to America?"

"It was for my parents, kind of. My dad got a better job in Canada so we moved to Calgary. Then, when I was done with veterinarian school I moved to New York with Fitz and we opened this place."

"And Fitz is your… Boyfriend? Brother?"

"Best friend. His dad also got transferred so we pretty much moved to Calgary together."

"Ah," Skye nodded, tapping her fingers on the windowsill as she turned back to look out the glass. "No boyfriend, then?"

"Who has time?"

"I would have thought you would have had guys hitting on you all the time, even at work."

"And why is that?" Jemma raised her eyebrows and clasped her hands over her stomach.

"I thought that would've been obvious." Skye stated, turning to look at Jemma, rolling her eyes when the Brit shook her head. "Well, I mean, you're beautiful and obviously clever. The accent just makes you extra intriguing to us Americans."

Jemma chuckled, somewhat bashfully and shook her head. "Nah, that doesn't happen often."

"And when it does?"

Jemma shrugged, picking at her nails. "They just aren't my cuppa tea."

Skye seemed to understand but didn't comment, instead just gave Jemma a little half smile. "How very british."

It was another two hours of pointless conversation, laughing and Jemma making them a cup of tea before there was quiet whining from the back room.

"Can I…"

"Yeah, of course." Jemma stood up and began leading Skye towards the back. "I thought you were here to see him when he woke up and not just for the lovely company."

Skye just smiled at Jemma, rushing over to the kennel where Comet was standing, leaning against the metal sides.

"He will be a little bit sluggish with the anesthesia but if you want to bring him through to the reception area we can feed him."

"You don't mind if I hang out here until your shift is over, do you?" Skye asked as she picked up Comet, cautiously hugging him to her chest. "I get if you want shot of me,"

"No, I don't mind." Jemma assured, smiling when Comet lazily picked up his head and licked under Skye's chin. "I will go get him food."

Skye nodded, kissing Comet repeatedly all over his head and face.

Jemma smiled at the interaction, it was amazing just how many people treated there pets like animals and not part of their family.

Jemma went into walking cupboard, picking up a tin of dog food and a disposable dog bowl.

"Will he but able to walk with that cast on?" Skye asked when Jemma walked back into the reception area.

Skye was sitting on the floor, her back against the bench with Comet lying in between her legs, his chin resting on her thigh.

"Yeah, once the anesthetic wears off completely he will be fine." Jemma explained, popping the top of the tin and dumping half of it into the foil bowl.

Jemma placed the bowl in front of the puppy and gave him a light pet on the head.

"Why are you in here on your own? I thought you would need a few vets on call?"

"There are other vets on call for home visits if they're needed but after six we only really need one vet in here because it isn't busy. During the day there are three residents in here. Fitz comes in at three tonight and two of our four other residents come in at nine."

"So either you and your friend Fitz are in here at any one time."

"Nah, Fitz gets off tomorrow at two and I start at five." Jemma sat cross-legged in front of Skye, watching Comet stumble a little to get the the food bowl. "Who did you get him with?"

Skye looked up at Jemma, running her fingers absentmindedly through the puppies fur. "What do you mean?"

"Like, a flatmate, boyfriend?"

"No," Skye laughed a little, shaking her head. "I got him on my own. My parents moved out and it's lonely in a big house."

"Your parents moved out?"

"That's what I'm telling people." Jemma narrowed her eyes, not entirely sure how to take that but smiled when Skye laughed. "I'm kidding. They bought the house I'm living in right now but recently decided they wanted to go live it up in Florida so they just left me living there."

"Ah. I thought I was going to be seeing you on americas most wanted with the heading 'daughter kills parents and feeds them to the dog'."

"I wouldn't do that to Comet."

"Ah, that's good to know." Jemma hops to her feet and moves behind the front desk, leaving Skye to cuddle with Comet as she finished off some paper work that she still had to do.

Comet seemed to become a little more active over the next ten minutes, getting more comfortable on his casted leg, and starting climbing all over Skye, obviously happy to see her again after twenty four hours away from her.

Jemma tried to concentrate on her paper work, honestly she did, but her eyes kept wandering to Skye who was playing with Comet, laughed as the puppy clambered over her, licking at her face.

Jemma took the fact that Skye was distracted by the puppy to really look at the girl without the prospect of being caught. Her hair was all frizzy because she had let it dry on its own and her face was completely void of make up, making the bags under her eyes more prominent, but Jemma would be damned if this girl wasn't the prettiest girl she's even laid eyes on. And then she laughed and Jemma's stomach rolled. After that she made herself concentrate on her paper work instead of staring at one of her patents.

It took Comet a good hour to run out of energy, stopping midway through climbing onto Skye's leg, his butt sticking up in the air while his face was planted on the cold tiled floor, and fell asleep.

"Do you want tea?" Jemma asked quietly as to not wake the puppy, peering over the desk at Skye.

Skye nodded, smiling up at Jemma as she played with one of Comet's ears.

Jemma disappeared through the back to pop the kettle on, glancing up at the clock and sighing as she leant back against the counter. One am. Only two hours left before she could go home and sleep.

Skye was in the same position as before when Jemma emerged with her tea, obviously afraid to move incase she woke Comet.

"Thank you." Jemma yawned as she nodded, about to move back behind the desk when Skye spoke up. "I'm I boring now?"

"Sorry?"

"It's fine, come sit down." Skye grinned, telling Jemma that she knew that wasn't the context she was using that word in. "Take a break from whatever it was you were doing, you seemed to be really into it before, you deserve a break."

"Ok, sure." Jemma agreed, groaning as she lowered herself to sit down beside Skye who laughed quietly.

"You sounded like you are ninety years old."

"Maybe I am." Jemma leant her head back against the bench behind them, letting her head roll to the side to look at Skye. "Maybe this is what a ninety year old looks like in England."

"Then I want to move to England." Skye bantered, grinning over the rim of her cups.

"How haven't you just passed out? Aren't you exhausted?"

"Yeah but I guess I'm just happy that Comet is ok. I will probably crash soon, though."

"That isn't safe to drive an hour away to get home."

"It'll be fine. Tea has caffeine, right?"

"Yeah but that's won't make it safe. Maybe you should stay at mine tonight." Jemma suggested before her mind could even register the words.

Skye grinned a little, arching her eyebrows at Jemma. "At least buy me dinner first, Doctor Simmons."

"No, no. I don't-" Jemma shook her head, a red tint taking over her cheeks. "I meant because of the storm. It's dangerous enough but being tired impairs your judgement just as much as being drunk would. I don't want you injuring yourself."

Skye's grin turns into more of a smile, her eyes dropping to watch her fingers run through Comet's fur. "Isn't your job to just look after the pets?"

Jemma hummed, "As a vet, yes. But I'm not offering because it's my job, I'm offering because I care about your well being."

Skye's head tilted curiously at those words, frowning over at Jemma. "Ok."

"I start at five tomorrow by then Comet will be ready to go."

"Are you in here on your own often?"

"We usually have a coupe of patents but because of the storm."

"I would be so bored. I would have to set up a gaming system on that TV." Skye nodded up to the TV that was silently playing some sort of documentary.

"I never thought of doing that. I usually just read when it's slow."

Skye nodded, her attention being caught by Comet who yawned loudly with a little squeak, moving to turn on his back, his hind legs falling open and his front legs bending under his chin. "He is a gentleman."

Jemma laughed a little and nodded.

"Do you have anymore animals? Other than your dog."

"None that are mine. I have a few rescue animals that Fitz and I are sort of rehabilitating. When they are better they go back to the animal shelter where they find them a loving home."

"What are you guys looking after?"

"We have a tortoise and two kittens."

"What happened to them?"

"The tortoise was found in someones house, it's a big tortoise so she would have been walking around the house freely. We don't really know what happened but from the looks of it something was dropped on her and cracked her shell, which is bad, but the owner didn't seem to care. The only reason we knew was because someone reported it. And the kittens were found in an abandoned home. There was initially nine. Four of which were already dead by the time they were found and three had been injured by rats to the point where they just couldn't be saved, we tried but there was nothing we could do. The two that we have right now, one is missing an eye and the other one is narcoleptic, believe it or not."

"That's really great of you guys, to look after them."

"Most people would do it given the chance." Jemma said humbly.

"No they wouldn't. Some people just get pets for how cute they are."

"You see that a lot here." Jemma agreed. "It's mad how many people bring there pets in here and turn down getting them vaccinated or de-wormed or chipped."

"I wasn't sure about getting Comet chipped because someone told me it was dangerous but, right now, I'm glad I didn't listen to them."

"It's not dangerous at all or we wouldn't suggest doing it." Jemma said with a little eye roll, turning her body to face Skye, placing her elbow on the bench beside her and probing her cheek on her fist. "Contrary to what people believe, we aren't just trying to get as much cash as we can from you, we want to look after the animals as much as the owners do."

"Are you sure about that? You look like a crook." Skye teased, grinning playfully over at Jemma.

"I am but only in my free time."

"Mm, ok. It's always good to have a hobby." Skye turned her head to grin at Jemma.

Jemma melted a little at the grin, averting her eyes to stop her from just outright starting at Skye.

"How do you turn this up?" Skye nodded towards the tv where a baby polar bear was hopping from block of ice to block of ice.

"I'll do it." Jemma pushed herself off the ground and tip toed to reach over the reception desk, grabbing the tv remote. She sunk back down next to Skye, turning up the TV a couple of notches.

"Do you live near by?" Skye asked, not taking her eyes away from the TV that was explaining how polar bears can swim for one hundred miles at a time.

"Yeah. We live over on Central Park West so it isn't even a five minutes walk."

"You live right by Central Park?" Skye moved her eyes to Jemma. "That would be so cool."

"Where do you live?"

"Greenhaven."

"And that's where?"

"Westchester."

"The suburbs?" Jemma asked and, honestly, she didn't mean to sound that surprised. "Like, not just the suburbs but the rich people suburbs?"

"Maybe," Skye answered unsurely. "If it was would it make you look at me differently?"

"No, of course not." Jemma shook her head, frowning at Skye. "You just don't look… Suburban."

"And thank god for that." Skye laughed, letting her head fall back against the bench behind her. "People act differently with you when you tell them you are from there. They think you are stuck up, which I completelyunderstand because I live there and the people suck."

"Why don't you move?"

"The house there is bought and paid for. I don't need to pay anything and if I move out I would have to pay rent." Skye shrugged lazily. "It's fine anyway, none of the people there even bother to talk to me, I'm too 'alternative', to quote one of my moms friends."

"Alternative? What does that even mean?"

"Fuck if I know." Skye chuckled, shrugging again. "I'm just not like their kids. All done up, always looking pristine and I would go to the store without make up on and in sweats, which is outrageous to them. All of them went to some top university to be a doctor or lawyer or business dude and I work for the government. If you don't follow ther dumb rules they don't like you."

"You work for the government? You aren't a secret agent, are you?"

"If I told you I would have to kill you." Skye tried to keep a straight face but a grin broke out on her lips. "No, I'm kidding. I'm just good with computers so it's just stuff like that."

"I don't know if I believe you. You look like a super secret spy to me."

"If I was I couldn't tell you." Skye grinned cheekily over at Jemma before averting her eyes back to the TV.

"I've met a polar bear before."

"You have? How?"

"One of the ones in Central Park zoo had a tooth decaying really bad so they called Fitz and I in."

"Don't they have veterinarians in the zoo?"

"No. They have a contract with us. We look after all of their animals."

"That would be so cool." Skye gushed. "They have all kinds of cool animals in there."

"Some of which bite."

"I thought you sedated them?"

"We do but the first couple of times we worked with the zoo we worked some people from other clinics and one of them was obviously new. He was shaking and nervous and Fitz and I made the mistake of letting him sedate the little baby red panda we were treating, poor little thing broke his leg playing with his siblings. The guy didn't use nearly enough and the red panda woke up during the operation and bit me." Jemma rolled up her sleeve to show Skye the bite mark just believe the bend in her elbow. "Can't say I blame him, I would want to bite the doctor too if I woke up during surgery."

"That's mean looking." Skye ran her pointer finger over the raised skin. "Have you been bitten any other times?"

"Yeah, we get reptiles in here and they tend to give you a little bite."

"I couldn't deal with spiders. Do you get spiders in here?"

"A few. Not many, though."

Skye shivered, baring her teeth in disgust.

"Yeah, Fitz is the same, he won't go near a spider. Screams if there is one in the house."

"I don't blame him."

Both girls spent the next hour and a half walking the remainder of the documentary about polar bears then watched one about cheetas that was just about to finish when Fitz came stomping through the door.

"That's bloody cat. I'm telling you, it's evil, Jemma!" Fitz snapped, taking of his coat before turning to Jemma, holding his hand up to show the scratch marks that matched the ones on his face. "Look at the state…" He trailed off when his eyes landed on Skye, his angry frown turning into a curious one. "Oh, hi."

"Fitz, this is Skye. Her dog was brought in earlier today." Jemma explained, turning to Skye. "Why don't you take him back to his kennel and we can get going?"

Skye nodded, smiling at Fitz as she stood up and picked up Comet, carrying him down the hallway.

"We can go?" Fitz asked incredulously. "Where are you both going? You can't just pick up patients, Jemma."

"I know, Fitz. She lives an hour away, she can't drive in this storm with no sleep in the past two days so I offered her our couch."

"Oh, you did. And it's nothing to do with the fact she pretty?"

"Of course not." Jemma scoffed.

"You can't pick up patents, remember?"

"She isn't a patent. This isn't her usual vet." Jemma shot back childishly.

"Jemma," Fitz warned, stopping when Skye walked towards them.

"Is everything ok?" She asked with a worried frown.

"Yeah, Fitz was just promising to look after Comet, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Fitz gave Skye his best smile, that was completely unbelievable. "I'll look after Comet and Jemma will look after you."

"Fitz!"

"Listen, if it's a problem I can drive home." Skye assured.

Fitz looked somewhat guiltily out the wind where the storm only seemed to be getting worse and shook his head, reaching over to grab his coat.

"No, I'm sorry. Here." Fitz handed it to Skye who looked a little confused. "Just bring it back tomorrow."

"Thank you."

Fitz nodded stiffly, smiling at the girls before walking towards the front desk.

"So you are both unbelievably nice, then?" Skye raised her eyebrows at Jemma who was pulling on her coat and grabbing her umbrella.

"The reason he was snappy was because of the kitten, she doesn't like Fitz and uses him as a scratching post."

"One eyed devil, that one." Fitz murmured behind the desk, riffling through the paper work Jemma hadn't done. "There is pizza on the counter."

"Thanks, Fitz." Jemma smiled, opening the door and opening up the umbrella. "See you tomorrow, Fitz." She called, stepping out into the rain, holding her umbrella a little higher than she would normally have to to accommodate Skye.

"Will this cat attack me?" Skye called over the rain and whistling wind, taking the umbrella from Jemma to save her the extra strain on her arm and shuffled a little closer to the Brit.

"Nah. She seems to only have a problem with men and, from what I can tell, you aren't a man."

"Observant." Grinned Skye, covering the hand that was holding the umbrella with the sleeve of FItz's jacket to shield it from the cold and stuffed the other one in the pocket of Jemma's sweats.

"You didn't have storms like these in England. It rained, constantly, actually, but rarely to this extent."

"You never been through one this bad?"

"There was pretty bad snow storms in Calgary but a storm like this, with thunder, rain and wind this fast, no."

"Are you scared? 'Cause I can totally keep you safe." Skye smiled flirtatiously down at Jemma who rolled her eyes to try and mask just how charmed she was.

"Charming."

"Oh, you think so? I've been practicing."

"Well, there is always room for improvement." Jemma teased.

"Ouch. Who knew little miss veterinarian had bite?"

"Who knew little miss suburbia could be charming?"

"Hey," Skye huffed, glaring playfully at Jemma. "I may be from the suburbs but I'm only, like, forty-five percent suburban at heart." She joked.

"I honestly don't think any part of you is suburban."

"That's the best compliment I've ever gotten, thank you." Skye seemed genuinely flattered by what Jemma had said and that confused Jemma a little, she didn't understand what was so bad about being from the suburbs but, then again, she had never been there.

"What's so bad about it? The suburbs."

"It's not really the place, it's the people. They're just all up themselves and think they're better than everyone else and that's just not what life's about. At least not for me," Skye explained, indicating to herself. "I don't think it's right to make people feel unsure about themselves, make them afraid to leave the house incase they don't look good enough. Their morals are all wrong and then you come down to the city and people are walking around in all these colorful clothes and skateboarding to work and people on every other corner performing magic and singing a really awesome song. And I'm just like 'dude, this is awesome. These people don't give a shit'."

"I never thought buskers and skateboarders would be you favorite thing about the city."

"There is loads of things I love about this place. It just seems to be so full of life all the time but in Greenhaven it's like there's a curfew at ten. Everybody's lights just seem to go out at that time."

"You should come down here more often, then." Jemma suggested, pushing the door to her apartment building and held it open for Skye.

"Are you just suggesting that so you can see me more often because, honestly, I wouldn't mind traveling a whole hour just to see you."

Jemma smiled bashfully, unable to hide her blush this time.

Skye grinned at the redness on the girls cheeks, watching her fumble nervously with her keys and pushed the front door open when she had finally gotten the door unlocked. Skye wasn't expecting to be rushed upon by a large, gray and white husky and two kittens about the size of the dogs pawns.

"Hey, guys." Jemma dropped her keys into the bowl beside the door and crouched down beside the animals, petting each one in turn.

"Where's the other one?" Skye asked, crouching down with Jemma, laughing when the animals turned their attention to her and the kittens began jumping at her knees.

"She's a little slower than these guys." Jemma joked, standing up straight and sliding her jacket off, hooking it onto the hook by the door. "I will just get you something to wear."

Skye done the same and followed Jemma further into the apartment, the animals following at her heels, walking over to the window when Jemma turned into what Skye assumed was her room.

The apartment was nice, Skye thought, she had always thought open plan kitchens were pretty cool.

Skye leant her hands against the windowsill, looking over Central Park, or at least what she could see of it in the torrential rain.

"Man, you must get an amazing view when it's a clear day." Skye said when she heard footsteps behind her and turned to lean back against the windowsill.

"Yeah, that's one of the main reasons Fitz and I got this place. We were looking at apartments in the winter time and it was snowing. Fitz and I looked out here and saw Central Park covered with snow. It was so beautiful." Jemma gushed, handing Skye a pair of blue pajama bottoms and a pajama shirt to match. "I had to play rock, paper, scissors with Fitz to see who go the room facing the park. I was ready to fight him for it. It has this huge window, like almost touches the floor."

"Who won?"

"Me. Fitz is predictable, always going for paper first. I have my bed against the window so, thats pretty great. Maybe not in this weather, though, I feel like something is going to come flying through the window with this wind."

Skye laughed, holding up the clothes in her hand. "Anywhere I can change into these?"

"Oh, yes, of course. Bathroom is over there." Jemma pointed towards the door just by the kitchen.

Skye nodded and smiled gratefully at Jemma before heading into the bathroom.

When Skye reemerged from the bathroom there was two blankets on the sofa, a plate with two slices of pizza and a mug full of something steaming, probably tea. "You sure know how to make a girl feel special."

"You don't mind if the animals have free rein of the house, do you? I could lock them in Fitz's room."

"No. No, of course."

"That is Squirtle just over there." Jemma pointed over to the kitchen isle where the tortoise was sitting, chewing loudly on lettuce. "The one eyed kitten is called Hook and the narcoleptic one is called Hypnos."

"Ok, wow. Slow down. One; naming your turtle after the turtle pokemon. Genius."

"Tortoise." Jemma corrected quietly.

"The Hook name is obvious but Hypnos?"

"He's narcoleptic, which means he falls asleep at random intervals, and Hypnos is the name of the greek god of sleep."

"Ah, clever." Skye nodded, looking over the back of the sofa at the tortoise. "Is that wires all over her back."

"Yeah, we had to to keep her shell together. There was honestly only about an inch or two holding it together."

"Poor thing."

Jemma hummed in agreement, rubbing her eyes with her fists. "If you wake up before me just make yourself at home." Jemma murmured, sleepiness suddenly heavy in her voice.

Skye smiled at how adorable Jemma looked, the words "You're adorable," leaving her lips before she could stop them but when she did realize she tried to back track. "I mean- you, um… Yeah, no. You are adorable."

Jemma grinned at Skye's rambling, raising her eyebrows as she waited for her to finish.

"Oh, god." Skye huffed, covering her face with her hands and chuckling nervously.

"You're cute." Jemma commented and Skye let her hands fall from her face, gazing up Jemma. "Goodnight, Skye."

"Yeah, g'night, Doctor Simmons."

Jemma smiled and rolled her eyes, spinning on the balls of her feet and walked briskly into her room.

Skye took a few bites of the pizza and a couple of sips of her tea before reaching over to turn the lap off and settled down on the sofa, pulling the covers up to her chin.

Her eyes were burning with how tired she was, and just as she was falling asleep she felt something crawl up her legs and over her torso, curling up into a ball on her chest.

Skye peeked one eye open to see a white ball of fluff on her chest, she didn't know which kitten it was since she couldn't see its face. She smiled sleepily, petting the animal a few times, causing it to purr, before letting her hand fall to her side and giving into her exhaustion.