Came To Get You

Skye had been 17 when her mark formed; an itching, tingling sensation on her left palm that had nearly interrupted her first big hack.

It was only after the hack was finished, the information released to the masses who had a right to know what was really happening in the world, that she took the time to look at her hand. Four words scrawled just under the top curve of her palm in a dark chocolate brown, neat handwriting; 'Came to get you!'

Her Soulmark!

Not everyone had a Soulmark, but most people developed one at some point in their lifetime. Not the first words spoken between two people, but the most significant. The ones that solidified the relationship. Of course, not everyone lived by them - just stupid words scrawled on their skin, according to Miles - but after living her entire life with no-one wanting her it came as somewhat of a relief that there was someone destined to her.

Someone who was supposedly fated to love her. She'd been sent back and rejected her whole life - even her parents didn't want her - until the Rising Tide and Miles. But, Miles and the Rising Tide didn't love her, they wanted her computer skills, Miles wanted her body, her Soulmate would love her no matter what... Or at least that's what the rumors were.

Unconditional love.

The ideal dream for a life-long foster kid who had run away from the system. Somewhere to be loved, to belong, where she was wanted not because of what she could do with a computer.

The funny thing to Skye was that she'd dreamed of nameless-faceless people saying her words - or something of the like - to her for her whole life. That they had come to get her, they hadn't abandoned her, that they loved her. Her parents. That hadn't happened, though so she was left to find them herself. And how her supposed Soulmate was going to say the words she'd been wanting to hear for as long as she could remember.

At 24 (she'd later learn that she was actually 25 at the time) Skye was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D.
A redacted document had led her to them, so she had led them to her, and Mike Peterson - the Hooded Hero - had unwittingly given her a way into the organisation that seemed to be at the root of her search for answers.

She'd read once that a persons Soulmate could be any of a billion different people, but it was the decisions they made that decided who it was. She'd received her mark while hacking for the Rising Tide. Her mark felt like it was singing against her skin when she said yes to Coulson. Her mark was a warm comfort against her hand, guiding her decisions as much as her decisions had formed the mark.

"Birthmarks, Soulmarks, tattoos or piercings?" Simmons questioned when Skye was getting her S.H.I.E.L.D mandatory physical on her second day on the Bus.

"Pierced ears, no tats, no birthmarks, Soulmark on my hand." Skye reported dully. Seven years she'd had her mark and it hadn't done anything but tingle when she made some decisions. What use was it if it was just going to tingle?

"'Came to get you!'" Simmons read in her proper English accent, making a not on her tablet before taking a picture of it. "That's sweet. Have you met them?"

"You think I'd be running around with SHIELD if I had Soulmate waiting for me?" Skye rolled her eyes.

"I could run a handwriting search of the SHIELD database to see if your mark matches anyone on records." Simmons offered brightly after an awkwardly silent moment. "Though any search I do would be restricted to my clearance and bellow, and excluding specialists and field operatives - a safety precaution, you see - but, still; you never know if there could be a match."

"Sure, but I'm not holding my breath." She didn't know what she'd do if her Soulmate was S.H.I.E.L.D; her plan was to get in, get her information and leave before anyone got hurt. If her Soulmate was one of the Soulless government toolbags she hated so much it would really throw a spanner in the works.

The first time Skye met Antoine Triplett she was unconscious, so it doesn't really count. There was explosions, her heart not beating every few minutes, and an alien miracle-life-saving-brings-people-back-from-the-dead drug, so it would have been a cool story to tell if she'd been awake.

The second time he was one of the visiting Agents she was sending out to hunt down the Clairvoyant. He had an easy smile, warm brown eyes, and the sight of him made her mark tingle.

She'd heard about him from Simmons - about half of the Brit's conversations these days ended up mentioning him in one way or another - so she was excited to meet the man behind the blushing pink scientist. He was easy to talk to - and less creepy than his and Ward's shared S.O - and if he felt a burning in his mark when their hands touched when she handed him his phone, he didn't say anything.

Then he asked her about if 'her girl Simmons, what's the deal with her Fitz?' Was it romantic, platonic, had their bond formed (because everyone including the two of them knew they were Soulmates from matching the handwriting if nothing else), was she single. A tiny fissure appeared in her heart when she answered that FitzSimmons were totally platonic.

"Look out for Simmons out there?" Skye found herself requesting when Simmons had decided to stay at the Triskelion and Trip said he was staying as well.

"Anything for you, Girl." The man grinned, swooping down and pressing a kiss to her cheek before walking off. Huh.

"I'm on vacation."

Coulson and May were arguing, talking, discussing, fighting - wash, rinse and repeat - in one of the other rooms they'd rented at the seedy little motel in LA after her heroic rescue from Ward and Deathlok on the Bus. Fitz and Simmons were in a different room watching crappy sci-fi shows and drinking in the comfort of their Soul bond.

Skye and Trip were falling into bed with each other, warm hands trailing over soft skin, wet lips seeking each other out, light fingers tracing over marks on sweaty skin.

She didn't know how long he'd had his mark, but she recognised her own handwriting. 'What are you doing here?' scrawled messily over the curve of his right shoulder.

She was tempted to touch their marks, to see what sort of reaction it would elicit, but the thought was terrifying. What if it forced a bond and it made everything go wrong? What if he wasn't ready for a bond and he pushed her away? She could handle rejection better than the average person, but her Soulmates rejection?

Trip did something amazing with his tongue and all her worries flew out of her mind.

Hours later with his hand entwined with hers her mark - her whole body - felt like it was singing. That could also have been the amazing sex...
Skye really liked this vacation!

It wasn't a one-time thing, she found out, when days - days? Weeks? How much time had passed recently? - later he turned up at her bunk with his easy smile and a comedy movie that they never got around to watching; too engrossed in each other to watch the DVD.

Fitz was in Intensive Care, Simmons was prepping for undercover work, Coulson was flying in and out of the base like a yoyo. But, Skye had three constants in her life now; training with May, stopping HYDRA, and Trip.

"Maybe it's not the best time, Baby Girl, but I'm fallin' pretty hard here." Trip murmured to her one night. Maybe it was the recent sting of Ward's betrayal, or it could have been the years of being sent back to the system when she started to love someone, but she couldn't bring herself to say she was falling for him.

Instead she kissed him, her fingers brushing his beard and trailing his chest. She could feel his heartbeat thrumming under her fingertips. Strong, reassuring, anchoring. Her mark warmed with every touch, every kiss, every tremble of orgasm.

Raina had the Obelisk and she was in the tunnels of the underground city. Skye couldn't just stand by and let her activate it, unleashing untold horrors on the world.

Raina was in the tunnels, Skye was trying to stop her, Trip. She could feel Trip was close by. Why was he close by?

"What are you doing here?" Skye demanded, her hand reaching for him, not sure if she was pushing him away for his safety or pulling him to her for her comfort.

"Came to get you!" He said it like it was obvious at the same moment as her hand touched his shoulder. Even through his layers of clothes she could feel where his mark was.

The most significant words in their relationship; Trip coming to save her when she was trying to stop Raina from activating the Obelisk. She failed. Raina had already put the Obelisk on the pedestal in the middle of the room.

No no no no no. Was all Skye could think when a weird mist came out of the crystals that had grown from within the Obelisk, hitting them all. Raina looked delighted, she felt confused, Trip looked panicked.

She wanted to go to Trip - if they were going to die she wanted to at least be in her Soulmates arms when she did - but she couldn't move. She reached her arm out to Trip, a plea to save her as her whole body started to solidify. Trip - her Trip, her Antoine - looked lost, confused, desperate. He kicked at the crystal that had emerged from the Obelisk and it shattered like glass.

Trip! Skye wasn't if she could actually vocalise it as she watched in horror. Whatever was encompassing her reached her face, Trip was on the floor, reaching towards her in the same way she was reaching to him, one hand clutching his stomach.

He was turning to stone, not whatever was happening to her - she didn't feel like stone - but actual stone. Like everyone else who touched the Obelisk. He was dying.

Because of her!