Hey! This story was requested by Crownedtiger. Thank you so much for giving me the idea for this. I hope you like it. :) It's a little darker than originally intended, but I like the way it's turned out. Thank you to everyone who has read my fanfics and has followed, favorited and reviewed. It makes me so happy that I can write stories that other people enjoy. I have two other Skye and May mother-daughter bond stories and I'd love it if you'd check them out. They're called: She is Warm & Hidden Secret.

So this story takes place right after the season 2 finale. May is off on vacation, and the team discovers that Simmons is trapped in the monolith. I hope you enjoy!

Her stomach had dropped. It felt like a million emotions flooded through her at once. It couldn't be true. This couldn't be real. Needles pricked at her fingers, sinking into her other extremities. No. Something must be wrong. She couldn't be gone, not Simmons. Skye slowly turned away from the screen, too overwhelmed to notice her body shaking. She couldn't bring herself to look at Fitz. Her hand reached up and covered her mouth, trying to hide the sob it released. She couldn't handle this. How were they going to be able to move on?

"No! No... it can't be. She was just... No," Fitz stuttered. Skye turned to Coulson, looking at the shock in his expression.

"No, no, no! It's all my fault," Fitz yelled hysterically. He paced back and forth for a few seconds, before throwing himself to the floor.

"Fitz, no. It's not your fault," Coulson uttered, trying to hide his own pain. She only remembered screaming, feeling the tears roll down her face. The floor shook slightly underneath them. Skye didn't know what had happened next.

She remembered Coulson bringing her to her bunk, telling her that he would be back. He left to check on Fitz, knowing that he was not doing well. Skye had thrown herself onto her bed shortly after Coulson had left. She didn't know how long she had laid there, feeling the pit in her stomach grow. She was really gone. Simmons was gone. Skye couldn't seem to wrap her mind around that fact. At some point she had rolled over to stick her face in her pillow.

Skye let her mind go over the details of the last few hours. Simmons had been nowhere to be seen, causing Fitz to worry. He had been afraid that she left again. Eventually in his panic, he explained to Skye what his plans had been for the night. It now broke her heart to know that Fitz and Simmons were going to go on a date. Finally, when everything was beginning to work out for them, it all fell to pieces. Now they would never be able to get that chance again.

After Fitz had informed her of their plans, she decided to look at the security cams. Skye checked them often, usually to see where her team members were, or just for reassurance. She had called Coulson into the room, knowing that he would want to be informed about Simmon's whereabouts. Nothing could have prepared them for what they discovered.

"Fitz," Coulson began, fist hovering over the engineer's door, "Are you alright." He didn't need an answer, and he didn't get one. He lightly jostled the door knob, not surprised to find it locked.

"You need to talk about this, let it out."

"I don't want to. I…I can't," Fitz stammered.

Coulson sighed at the young man's response. He could hardly wrap his own mind around what had happened. He couldn't even imagine what Leo must be going through. Simmons, Fitz and Skye were a part of his family. Sometimes he pictured them as his pseudo children. To lose Simmons killed him, and he couldn't fathom how her death would change all of their lives.

He ran his remaining hand through his thinning hair, trying to calm down. He was having a hard time coming to terms with the loss of his hand. Sometimes it didn't feel like it was gone at all. He knew that not having Simmons would be the same way. He let his right hand trace over the cast that covered his left shoulder. How were they going to get through this? He was quickly pulled back out of his thoughts, when he heard a sob through the door. Coulson moved back towards Fitz's bunk, and let his back slide down the door.

"Well, when you want to talk, I'll be here." With that Coulson reached into his suit's pocket to pull out his phone. He needed to call May. This wasn't going to be easy.

She hadn't know how much time had gone by. It felt like she had been laying there for hours, but at the same time, only minutes. Her hands were shaking, but at this point she was glad that they were the only things that were. Tears were stained to her face, and the breeze blowing through her open window was cold. She was too numb to care about anything else. Jemma was gone. Nothing else mattered. Skye ignored the footsteps that had slowly approached her room, figuring that it was Coulson.

She wanted him to come in, she wanted to wrap her arms around him and never let go. First she had lost Trip and now Simmons. She couldn't imagine losing Coulson. He was like a father to her. She had felt closure from meeting her birth parents, but no one could replace Coulson or May. As the feet got closer, she turned so that she was facing the door. She heard a few short knocks, and was surprised when she heard a different voice than what she was expecting.

"Skye," the voice began, and before Skye knew what she was doing she was running to the door and throwing it open. She was surprised at the relief that washed through her when she saw her S.O standing in front of her.

"May," she cried, trying to ignore how broken her own voice felt and sounded. She felt May's hand touch her shoulder lightly. How was she here? She had left for her vacation. But now she was back. That was all that mattered. Skye needed to apologize. What if something had happened to May instead of Simmons, she would never have gotten the opportunity to say she was sorry. May would never know that she was like a mother to her. Her heart broke even more when she looked into May's eyes. She hadn't expected to see May's eyes filled with tears of her own. She felt herself wrapping her arms around her mentor. A sob escaped her lips as she buried her face into May's shoulder.

"Oh, Skye," May said softly, hesitantly wrapping her own arms around the girl. This movement suddenly brought back the memory of Simmons hugging her. A knot formed in Melinda's throat. Now she regretted not returning the hug. She had cared about Simmons as if she were her own child. Now Jemma was gone and she would never know that.

When Coulson had called, she knew that something was wrong before she had even answered the phone. When she heard his voice struggling to get through the words, her heart broke. But when he told her what happened to Simmons, she had felt like a freight train had hit her. The whole way back to the base was a blur. She had dealt with a lot of loss over the years, but only very few had felt this intense.

After Bahrain a new tenet had been instilled in her: there is no going back, you can only move forward. She might not be able to make it right with Simmons, but she could help the girl in front of her grieve. Suddenly, she heard rattling and she felt the room around her begin to shake.

"Skye, honey, listen to me," she said, pulling back in order to look in Skye's eyes. For a second she realized how long it had been since she had used such word choice, but she shook it off easily.

"You're OK. Look at me, only me. You can control this. You've done it before, and you can do it again." Skye nodded quickly, trying to get her emotions under control. She took a big breath before focusing on the vibrations in her bunk, and putting them to rest. She was slowly getting better at channeling the tremors, and being able to use them to her liking. But she was quickly finding that pain was a very powerful emotion, and that it took a lot of energy to control it.

"You did it," May said, a sad smile appearing on her face. May motioned Skye towards the bed, directing her to sit down. She reached down, unzipping her boots and swiftly sliding them off. She noticed that Skye's feet were already bare, her shoes discarded by the door. They sat in silence for a few moments, Skye's sobs the only thing filling the air. May rubbed Skye's arm, gently, trying to hold her own emotions together. For years she had told herself to keep everything in. She had channeled her feelings, and compartmentalized her emotions. After Bahrain it had become essential to her existence. Pretend to feel nothing, when she constantly felt anger and grief. She had taught Skye how to control her emotions, how to breath. It killed her to know that this was the reason Skye had been inflicting pain on herself. To know that she had caused Skye to hurt herself, made her feel sick.

Whenever she let people behind her walls, something would happen. They would either get hurt or leave. She knew that it shouldn't be an excuse, but some days it just felt better that way. Now that Simmons was gone, it made her want to run, pretend that none of it had ever happened. It was times like these that made her question S.H.I.E.L.D. But deep down she knew that she couldn't keep dealing with things this way. She couldn't hold everything inside, to allow it to slowly eat away the person she once was. It clearly wasn't healthy. She hadn't thought anything of it until Skye hurt herself. If she had known, she would have never taught her to hold everything so tightly.

"May," Skye began, voice hoarse, "I'm so sorry." May was shocked by this sudden statement. The shock must have been evident, because Skye continued.

"I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm sorry I didn't believe you. I—"

"Skye, you didn't know. You're own mother tried to deceive you. You did what you thought was right," May took a deep breath, dreading what she was about to say, "But that doesn't mean I wasn't hurt at the time. You chose, Skye. I thought that we had lost you for good. That all the things we had been through together didn't matter. That you chose nature over nurture. That you chose her over… well, over me. I don't resent you for it. I didn't then either. But it's OK. I know that if you could, you'd go back. You did nothing wrong. I was the one who assumed the worst of you. You never would want to hurt me. You only did what you did because you thought that it was right." The pain was evident in Skye's eyes, and it killed May to know that she had caused it. But she had said what she had needed to. Now maybe they could finally move past this.

"You mean a lot to me, Skye. I don't want this to come between us any longer," May began, hoping that it would help Skye feel better. May was relieved when she saw Skye's face relax.

"OK," Skye said, quietly, "Let's just try to forget about this, then." May smiled at this thought. She was glad that they had put this to rest. She did not want to have anything bad looming over their heads. Especially, when they knew that time was so short.

The tears still streamed down Skye's face steadily, but it was clear that she had formed some sort of peace within herself. A few minutes passed in silence. The silent words and emotions passed between them.

"What's going to happen now?" Skye asked, voice trembling. May's eyes moved up to meet Skye's. She opened her mouth to speak, but Skye continued before she could.

"Is Simmons really… gone?" the words choked out of her mouth. The tears were quickly thickening, hiccups started to shake her diaphragm.

"What if she's dead. What will happen to Fitz? How will he move on? How will we?" by now she was falling into hysterics.

"Skye, hey. Look at me," trying to sooth her. "We can't think that way. What do we know about this rock? We know next to nothing. We can't lose hope. Simmons might be out there somewhere… and if she isn't, then we'll find a way. We always do." Skye nodded, pushing herself back into May's chest.

"Come on," May said, directing her towards the bed. She wasn't surprised to find it unmade. She pulled the sheets back more, sliding herself underneath them. Skye quickly followed, finding comfort in the blankets that swiftly covered them. She felt May bring her closer, her hands wrapping around her.

Skye continued to cry, her tears soaking up in May's shirt. May was satisfied when her cries eventually slowed down, and her breathing evened out. May sighed, knowing that she would have to leave again at some point. She had been anxious to get away after she had seen Bobbi almost die. She needed to rediscover who she was outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. But now looking at the girl next to her, she felt torn.

He wasn't surprised when she walked into his office. Hours had gone by since May had been back at the base. He knew that she eventually would find him. Her expression was filled with sorrow and pain. He hadn't seen her like this in quite some time. Not since Bahrain. They walked closer to each other until they were only feet apart.

"How's she holding up?" he asked, knowing that May would have been with Skye.

"As well as could be expected," she replied after a long sigh. That wasn't a good sign.

"How's Fitz?" May asked, after a few seconds of silence passed between them.

"He's not taking it well. He's in denial. I don't want him to get his hopes up if…if she's already gone." May nodded, agreeing with him.

"So," Coulson began. "Will you be staying?" It had taken him a lot of nerve to decide to ask this question because he feared the answer. May sighed once again, the breath long.

"No. I've thought about this a lot, Phil. I need to recharge for a few months. I just need a little time to think. I'm sorry, but this doesn't change that." May said, after some thought. But she knew that she was kidding herself if she truly believed that it didn't. When Coulson had called she felt an immense guilt for not being there. Deep down she knew that her presence would have changed nothing, but she still felt culpable. Coulson nodded, his stomach felt sick.

"I'll wait until Skye wakes up. I feel like I at least owe her a goodbye. As soon as you learn anything, call me." May finished, feeling selfish.

"OK," Coulson answered calmly. "I hope you know how much you'll be missed."

"I do. But I also know that you'll be alright without me." May said, her eyes finding his.

"I know. But that doesn't make it any easier." At some point they had inched closer, now at arms length. May's hand found it's way to Coulson's cast. It was bulky and black, but most of all it was unfamiliar. That's how this conversation felt. Choppy. They usually could communicate without speaking, but now everything was foggy. Without realizing what she was doing, May traced her fingers over the thick material. How had such a short amount of time changed them so much? She needed to leave. She needed to think this through. But her thoughts were interrupted when she felt Coulson's right hand touch hers. She was surprised by herself when she didn't flinch, didn't move away. With such mistrust between them why didn't she shrink away? What were they now?

They stood like that for a minute, sinking in the comfort that they gave each other. But they both knew it couldn't last. Without warning, May's hand slowly slipped away from Coulson's grasp. She turned away to walk out of the room, but not before turning back to catch his gaze. I'll miss you, his eyes said. And with that, she left the room.