Scars
An Agents of SHIELD fanfic by Aisling Yinyr Ngaio

The compound was secure, and the backup SHIELD teams were making their last inspection rounds before regrouping for debriefing and departure when Skye slumped onto the nearest person, who so happened to be her astounded supervising officer. He lifted her away from him, only to see that her eyes were closed and she was on the verge of collapsing. Steadying her shoulders, Ward had to call out her name three or four times before she managed to focus on his face.

"Liar," she murmured quietly.

Ward was completely confused by the accusation, even as he had to prop Skye up more firmly. "What are you on about?"

"You said skin deep shots are, I quote, 'nothing to worry about'," Skye laughed softly, and winced at the movement, her voice starting to waver. "I- I don't think I- feel good…"

Ward understood immediately, quickly supporting her and started half-carrying, half-towing her to their vehicle, a million reprimands going through his mind at once, some at her, some at himself. He tried not to let his annoyance show, but he had to tell her reprovingly, "Why didn't you say anything earlier? Skye, this could be serious."

"'Cuz you said it's fine," she slurred her words a bit as she spoke. "Big bad S.O. said it's fine, so I tried to-"

Ward shook his head at his trainee's stubbornness, though he could understand her need to show no weaknesses in front of him. "I've been shot at for the better part of the decade, rookie. My body adjusts more easily to the shock than yours does. This is probably your first gunshot wound, isn't it?" Skye mumbled indistinctly in return, though he caught a few words like "unfair" and "so what?" in the mix.

Laying her gently down in a sitting position in the back of their MPV, he quickly pulled out his field dressing pack, setting out the supplies before shaking Skye awake.

"Come on now, Skye. You have to be awake for this part," he coaxed patiently over her irritated "Screw you, I'm taking a nap". "You need to learn how to deal with field injuries, especially if there's no one else around when you're injured. Wake up now." She muttered and grumbled and complained some more, but after a stern "Skye!", she stared at Ward belligerently, who nodded and lifted her field uniform top to see the angry, bleeding wound, thankfully only skin deep just as she'd told him. Still, he cursed under his breath, "No more heroics, do you hear? Not until you know how to avoid these."

"For your information, I ducked," she replied in an offended manner. Ward ignored that and picked up a clean white cloth to dab around her wound, instructing her after a few moments to do the same to clean her wound while he picked up the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and the packet of cotton wool. Dabbing one with the liquid solution, he gave only a pre-emptive caution of "This might sting a bit", before rubbing the soaked cotton ball over the searing skin, earning a shout of "WHAT THE HELL, WARD" for his pains.

He persisted, telling her, "You've got to disinfect the wound beforehand unless you want an infection. Though if you don't have any alternatives like alcohol or even soap, then risk it rather than leaving the wound open. Infections can be dealt with later, so long as it is treated in time." Skye jerked her head in acknowledgement; her earlier yell was only due to the initial shock of stinging pain from the hydrogen peroxide. She was now gritting her teeth and swabbing the cotton Ward had passed on to her, carefully applying it as he had, before accepting a new cloth with orders to press it on her wound until it stopped bleeding. Having done that, she leaned back against the vehicle with a groan and closed her eyes.

"Skye…"

"I'm awake, I'm awake," she said patronisingly, refocusing on her supervising officer. "D'you think I'll get an awesome scar for this?"

Ward stared uncomprehending at his - at times - infuriating trainee. "You're excited about getting a scar?"

Skye scoffed in return. "No, 'course not, but if I'm going to get one, at least it better be an awesome scar, right?" She contemplated Ward, then grinned. "Lift up your shirt."

To her amusement, Ward immediately flamed an interesting shade of red as he swallowed reflexively before asking in a falsely steady voice, "Excuse me?"

His unrepentant little student only smirked more deviously. "Your shirt, my blushing S.O.. I wanna see what kind of scar a bullet graze is gonna give me."

"I'm not- I don't blush!" he protested vehemently, sadly only resulting in a raised eyebrow and an "up, up!" gesture from her free hand. Sighing, he lifted up his shirt only high enough to show her the area he was wounded in while they were in Peru. She examined it carefully for a few minutes, finally remarking seriously, "Wow, it's so faint. I can hardly tell you were shot there if I didn't know already."

Ward shrugged, tucking his clothes back in as quickly as possible, relieved that the embarrassing scene was over, and started unrolling the gauze. "Some scars are more permanent than the rest, but not all will be glaringly visible." He began teaching her to bandage her wound after confirming that it had stopped bleeding, only to be surprised when she took over for him pretty efficiently. "Done this before?"

Head bent over her bandaging, she replied distractedly, "Not for gunshot wounds, but I've done bandaging loads of times before. There were always bruises and scrapes and the like when you've spent your entire life around children. Though we usually made someone else do it, never on ourselves, since there were enough of us around." She finished off with a flourish that had Ward rolling his eyes in fond exasperation. His rookie was such an unapologetic showoff. "An interesting collection of 'battle injuries' too, but most of it healed well." She paused suddenly, and dropped her eyes before whispering, half to herself, "Most."

Ward, seeing her brief moment of sadness, elected to only nod in acknowledgement, unseen by his student. It was only for a brief moment, and then Skye slid off the vehicle, the pain in her side now reduced to a dull ache, and her eyesight much clearer than before. She helped Ward pack up the field dressing supplies and put everything back again. She didn't expect her lofty companion to say, almost casually, "Gotta give you credit, rookie. You survived your first shooting. That always bodes well for any agent-in-training - surviving your first bullet."

Skye only snorted in reply as she turned to leave, "Well if you don't mind my saying so, that's one sucky rite of passage you guys have, weirdo."

Behind her, Ward only shook his head, smiling at his student's retreating back. "Yeah, it is, isn't it?" he said, and followed in her wake.

- Finis -