A/N: This is my first story on here, so it's a one-shot to see how it goes. Definitely Skyeward (shipper here). If anyone wants me to add more chapters, I could. But for now, this is it.

DISCLAIMER: I only own this story.

Enjoy!

"So!" Agent Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse said dramatically, turning to her partner in espionage. She didn't say anything else, just waited for a response.

Sighing, Agent Daisy Skye Johnson took the bait. "So, what?"

The two women were at a karaoke bar, Belt It Out, hoping to draw a suspected Hydra agent out of his or her cover.

"What martini do you want?" Bobbi continued, smiling smugly.

"The non-alcoholic one." Skye replied with a hard look. Alcohol made her lose control, and there were innocent lives here. Bobbi knew this.

"Oh, come on Skye! Not even one?" the blonde pouted, batting her eyes.

The Inhuman merely gave her a flat look, not going to fall for the puppy-dog-eyes trick. Of which the senior agent was a master, but only one person could make Skye fall for it.

"No, and even if we weren't on a mission of utmost importance, I wouldn't drink anything that's been brewed, aged or mixed." She said, turning her attention back to sweeping the room.

Pulling a face, Bobbi ordered a Pina Colada.

"You know, I don't get why Coulson insisted that we take this mission." Bobbi tried to get conversation going between the two of them. It was awkward as Skye was a lot more reserved since San Juan, but two girls not talking while being at a bar together was conspicuous. "I mean, our faces are known to Hydra. If the suspect is here, they're just going to bolt."

"That's the point." Skye replied, looking at Bobbi. She had a small smile on her face now, the ambient atmosphere in the bar lifting her mood. "We don't know what he or she looks like, but if they're here, they'll recognise us. You being you, a badass S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who's infiltrated Hydra before, and me. They'll know I'm not entirely human anymore, and likely what I can do is on their radar. It's been a few months."

"Their behaviour will change, and since we've picked up the general patterns of everyone here, we'll know if they have." Bobbi finished. She nodded. "It's a decent plan, but what if there's no one here from Hydra?"

"Then our source was wrong. Or the agent got tipped off. Either way, we still need to maintain a lookout."

Bobbi studied the younger agent wistfully. Skye noticed and shifted in her seat.

"What?"

Bobbi slowly shook her head. "Did you know I knew May before Bahrain?"

Skye blinked at the surprise change of topic. "No. But I suppose it makes sense. You were both senior agents before the fall."

Bobbi nodded this time, but waited for the sudden applause for the singer up on stage to die down before continuing. "She was somewhat like you. Joked around–" she was cut off by the host up on stage.

"Alright, here's the last solo for now! We're onto duets next, and we'll be picking from the crowd!" The crowd in question screamed and cheered as a young oriental man stepped up.

"–pulled pranks, laughed, smiled." Bobbi continued when the noise died down.

"Yeah, Coulson's told me this. I'd asked around why May was called The Cavalry."

"Sheesh! And she didn't come after you?"

"Ah, no. But she didn't like me for a while. I never actually asked her directly."

Bobbi laughed a little. "Wise move in that situation. Anyway, my point is that San Juan seems to be your Bahrain."

Skye didn't even flinch.

"You've thought about this already, haven't you?"

"I kind of figured when May offered her help. She knew exactly what to say and what to do to keep me distracted from extremely depressing thoughts." She gave a tight smile. "I guess we have more in common than what I originally thought."

"Well, as long as you don't bang a Ward, I think there should be enough differences between you." Bobbi said, trying to lighten the mood.

Skye laughed, and Bobbi felt triumphant. "Well, for all the shit he did, at May's age, if a hot guy's willing to bang me I wouldn't complain."

"You think Ward's hot?" Bobbi asked, surprised.

"He's gorgeous." Skye said instantly and quickly amended when she saw Bobbi's expression. "But how did that song go? 'It's such a pity that boy so pretty, with an ugly heart!'"

"Wow, you can really sing! They'll probably pull you up for the first duet, you know."

"Ha-ha, yeah, no." Skye focused her attention on the man who was rapping a song rather than singing it. "Damn, that guy has talent!"

"Superstar in the making!" Bobbi joked as she looked towards the man just as he finished the song.

"Grant, I don't think this is a good idea." Agent 33, Kara Palamas, said nervously as they entered Belt It Out.

"Kara, we could do with a drink. We've been on the run for a few months now and my wounds only stopped hurting a week ago." Grant Ward replied as he walked towards the bar. Sudden cheers and whoops for the solo rapper up on stage drowned out his last words, but Kara knew what he was saying.

"Hey, hey, hey, how about that, eh? Raw talent man, sign on to a record company or something!" The crowd shouted their support as Grant and Kara tried to get to the busy bar. "And now for the first duet!" Spotlights ran over the packed bar and on landed on Grant, who looked up in shock. "We have our first singer! Up on stage, my man." Grant tried protesting, but the crowd wasn't listening and tugged him towards the beaming host.

By the bar, Skye's mouth was hanging open so much it looked like she'd lost a hinge in her jaw.

Bobbi was equally shocked. "What the hell is Ward doing here?"

"Uh, probably not to sing." Skye started to say, but the second spotlight landed on her. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no."

"Look at that, man, we got you a beauty as a partner!" the host said into the microphone he was holding, either oblivious to both people's discomfort, or just plain ignoring it. "Up you come, my lady!"

Skye had as much of a choice about getting to the stage as Grant did and within seconds she was standing next to him.

"Here you go guys." The host (still beaming, Grant and Skye wondered if he had a face disorder), gave each of them a microphone and a stand. "Your song tonight is…!" he waited a moment for the random selector to finish. "Up by Olly Murs featuring Demi Lovato! Good luck!"

Skye and Grant at each other as though to say Get this over with? Then the music started and Grant was enormously thankful for car radios and Kara's love of pop music. I'm not going to make such a big fool of myself.

"I drew a broken heart," Grant started singing softly, and Skye was pleasantly surprised.

Wow, he can sing! She thought.

"Right on your window pane," Grant suddenly realised that he hadn't managed to fully bury his feelings for Skye, and singing this song with her made them rise to the surface, filling his voice with emotion. Maybe he could make Skye realise the same thing, too.

"Waited for your reply, here in the pouring rain."

Skye was somewhat shocked that Grant singing like this, with obvious emotion in his voice, made her feel so much happier than she had in…months. Although, she thought, my feelings for him were never straightforward.

"Just breathe against the glass, leave me some kind of sign."

Skye started thinking that maybe, just maybe, Ward had changed from the almost mindless soldier that Garrett had created.

"I know the hurt won't pass, yeah. Just tell me it's not the end of the line."

Skye took a deep breath as she prepared for her section of the song.

"Just tell me it's not the end of the line." Grant took a step back from the microphone. His hands were trembling and he clenched them to control the tremors.

Meanwhile, Kara had moved over to where Bobbi sat, cautiously watching her friend interact with the man she obviously still cared for.

"Ahem." Kara made herself known to the blonde agent, who then eyed her suspiciously.

"You're Agent 33, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose. Though being brainwashed by Hydra kind of puts a damper on that reputation."

Bobbi nodded, intrigued. "Do you have a name?"

"Kara Palamas. Grant helped me find my file in the Hydra database."

"Well, that was…nice of him." Bobbi was somewhat confused. Why would he help anyone who isn't Skye?

Kara was about to reply when she heard Skye start to sing.

"I never meant to break your heart," Skye started singing, and Grant let a smile creep work its way onto his face. He'd never heard her sing before, but it was like an angel.

"And I won't let this plane go down." Skye just tried focusing on singing the song, but couldn't keep the happiness out of her voice.

"I never meant to make you cry. I'll do what it takes to make this fly, oh!"

Grant was still smiling when Skye looked over, and she grinned in return. Both their eyes were sparkling with joy and hope, and their friends across the room could see that the pair were still in love.

"You've gotta hold on, hold on to what you're feeling." Skye continued singing and Grant finally started to understand the lyrics of the song. Choose love.

"That feeling is the best thing, the best thing, alright!" Skye was seeing the benefit being picked for this. She thanked whatever superior force it was that brought both her and Ward to this moment in time.

"I'm gonna place my bet on us. I know this love is heading, in the same direction…that's up!" Skye stepped back from the microphone this time and Grant stepped forward for his second verse.

"You drew a question mark," Grant was astonished at how well this song related to the situation between himself and Skye. "But you know what I want. I want to turn the clock, yeah. Right back to where it was."

Skye stepped forward again to start singing with Grant instead of just in turns.

"So let's build a bridge, yeah." Several whoops and cheers were sounded when their voices harmonised. "From your side to mine."

Bobbi and Kara merely exchanged looks during the song, knowing what the simple coincidence was doing for the tattered relationship between Ward and Skye.

"I'll be the one to cross over. Just tell me it's not the end of the line." Grant and Skye were only looking away from each other at this point to check what the words were on the screen. "Just tell me it's not the end of the line."

"I never meant to break your heart." Skye sang the first bit of the chorus and her eyes locked with Grant's. "And I won't let this plane go down. I never meant to make you cry. I do what it takes to make this fly, oh!"

The crowd watched adoringly, mesmerised by the magic happening up on stage.

"You've gotta hold on, hold on to what you're feeling. That feeling is the best thing, the best thing, alright!"

Grant knew, in that moment, that his love for Skye is something that can never be extinguished. And from that moment, he would fight to have her by his side. She was his star in the darkness that had swallowed most of his life, and he wanted more.

"I'm gonna place my bet on us! I know this love is heading, in the same direction…that's up!"

"Girl, I know, we could climb back to where were then. Feel it here, in my heart, put my heart in your hands." Grant sang his lines before they sang together again.

"Well, I hope and I pray that you do understand. If you did, all you have to say is!"

The crowd was moving to the beat, ecstatic grins on everyone's faces, especially Bobbi and Kara's.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

"I'm waiting for ya!" Grant sang.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

"Ohhh!" Skye sang out.

"I never meant to break your heart!" They sang together. "And I won't let this plane go down!"

"Let this plane go down!" Grant added while Skye sang, "I never meant to–"

"Make you cry!" They synchronised perfectly and earned a few wolf-whistles from the crowd. "I'll do what it takes to make this fly, oh!"

Grant took over singing duties for the next line. "You've gotta hold on, hold on to what you're feeling, that feeling is the best thing, the best thing, alright!"

"I'm gonna place my bet on us!" Skye continued. "I know this love is heading, in the same direction…that's up!" She finished the song with a flourish and the crowd went wild, Bobbi and Kara as loud as the rest. It took the host some time to get the noise levels down to a volume that he could be heard above.

"Do you two know each other?" he asked, pointing at the pair of them. They glanced at him.

"You have no idea!" Bobbi yelled from the bar, eliciting laughter from the patrons.

"Well, I'd say that was a pretty successful coupling! Gonna be hard to beat that, folks! But who wants to try?" Screams rent the air as people pushed forward, eager to be picked.

Grant took Skye's hand as he led her off the stage and over to a more quiet corner where they could talk without having to shout.

"Well, that was unexpected." Bobbi commented.

Kara laughed. "And to think that only a few minutes ago, I thought coming in here wasn't a good idea."

Something Kara said before Skye started singing rose to the forefront of Bobbi's mind. "Hey, what was that you said about being brainwashed?"

"Um, well, I had no idea what to do after Coulson killed Dr. Whitehall. I went to find Ward, who was lying in a pool of his own blood and he offered to help me if I got him out of there." She shrugged. "I helped him heal and he broke us into a Hydra facility and used my login to access the database. I found my file, and I've been remembering little bits about who I was beforehand ever since."

Bobbi looked skeptical.

"Look, you be doubtful all you like. But the man who was with Garrett is long gone." Kara said firmly. "Skye sees that now."

"Then how do you know if he still loves her?"

"Because people are always changing. Some never truly love anyone but their first. No one really gets over their first. But people in love change and evolve with each other. Their fates," she gestured to the couple in the corner, talking quietly. "Have been intertwined ever since they met."

For a while, Skye couldn't say anything. She was still overjoyed that Grant was still alive, but the longer she took to say something, the more agitated Grant became.

"Skye? Are you going to say anything?" he asked nervously.

"I-I'm so glad you're still alive!" she managed to get out. Grant's heart skipped a beat and hope blossomed in his chest. However, he still had to understand something.

"Did you try to kill me that day?"

Skye looked him in the eyes before answering. "No. I just couldn't let you get tangled up in whatever mess was unfolding. If anyone from S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra came across you, you'd be shot on sight. I had to keep you there, so I shot you, but afterwards I was so freaked out that I'd killed you! How did you get out?"

"Kara." Skye looked around and saw the woman in question talking with Bobbi and looking over at them.

"Agent 33?"

"Yeah. I found her file in the Hydra database, and she's starting to fully remember who she was."

Grant saw a flash of intense guilt cross her face and misunderstood. "Skye, if you're worried whether or not I'm going to hold onto what you did to me, I need to ask you something."

"What?"

"Do you still hold onto what I did?"

Skye held his gaze for a few moments before answering. "I wanted to. It seemed like a just excuse. But the anger vanished and I had to look at it from a different angle."

Grant smiled and nodded. "So is this forgive or forget?"

"Forgive." Skye said instantly. "I forgive you. You said I'd understand someday, and I do now." She tentatively placed her hand on his cheek. "I love you."

She was terrified of revealing that to him, but the look he gave her when she did so laid all her fears to rest.

Dipping his head, he wound an arm around her waist and pulled her into a kiss. Feeling the most content than they had in months, they deepened the kiss. Skye melted into Grant's embrace as his free hand came up to cradle her face.

When they pulled apart for air, Grant spoke. "I love you, too."

Skye beamed with overwhelming happiness.

"And I forgive you. Let's put all that behind us."

Skye's smile faltered.

"Skye?"

"I called you weak." She whispered. He could hardly hear her. "But you're stronger than anyone I've ever known."

Grant smiled and softly kissed her. "Why were you in this bar, of all places? It's doesn't really seem like you."

"Oh my god!" Skye exclaimed, pulling back a little. "I completely forgot about the mission!"

"Mission?"

"Apparently there's supposed to be a Hydra agent here."

Grant smirked. "You mean the one who surreptitiously glances over at you and Agent Morse every few minutes? He didn't bolt, but he knows he can't leave or you'll notice him."

"And where would this man be?" Skye narrowed her eyes playfully.

"Halfway between the bar and the stage. He was cheering for us while we were singing, to blend in, but I recognised him. Blond hair, red plaid shirt."

Skye pulled Grant's reflective aviators off the top of his shirt where they were hanging and made a show of playing with them. She was, however, using them to spy on the man Grant had described. True enough, the blond man with the red plaid shirt was glancing towards Bobbi.

"So how do we get him out?"

"If Kara hadn't walked over to talk to Agent 117, we could have used her to draw him out."

"Agent 117?"

"When I escaped, she was sitting on the first bus I got on. I'd noticed her outside and she was reading a book on page 117. She was still on that page on the bus, so I figured she was with Coulson."

"Oh."

Grant frowned. "Who was the cowboy?"

Skye burst out laughing. "Oh, man. Hunter's never gonna live that down." She laughed again.

"Well, what do you say to us getting out of here? We can beckon over Kara and 117–"

"Bobbi."

Grant inclined his head. "Kara and Bobbi. Once he thinks we're all gone, he'll leave and we can get him just outside the door."

"Okay." Skye nodded, smiling. "Let's go." She kissed Grant again, took his hand and led him to the exit.

"Kara!" Grant called out, almost drowned out by the couple now singing on the stage. Thankfully she heard and both Skye and Grant beckoned the two women over before walking out.

"What are they doing?" Bobbi hissed as she and Kara followed the couple. "We're here on a mission!"

Kara just shrugged. She didn't know Bobbi well enough to guess her reaction to an unhelpful suggestion.

They found them just outside the building, kissing against the wall. Bobbi immediately strode over.

"Skye, as happy as I am for what happened, we have to focus!" she angrily said to the younger woman, breaking up the kiss as she did so.

"Grant recognised the guy we're after. We left the bar to draw him out."

This brought the blonde up short. "Oh."

"You being angry as you saw us leave probably helped him think that he wasn't discovered." Grant spoke up. "You're good at espionage, 117, but he was watching you. Any signals between you and Skye would have put him on edge."

"117? That's what you remember me as?"

"Relax, Bobbi. You'll have a lot of fun teasing Hunter about his costume when we get back." Skye said, laughter an undercurrent in her tone.

Grant chuckled. "How ironic is it that the cowboy's name is Hunter?"

Bobbi muffled her burst of laughter with her hand. "He said to me, and I quote, 'Subtlety is key.' He's in so much trouble."

"Skye, you should video whatever happens. So any kids of theirs can laugh at it years later." Kara put in with a smile.

Skye giggled. "Oh my god, I so should!"

"Skye." Grant caught the young agent's attention.

"Hmm?"

He signalled with his head towards the door, where the blond man in the red plaid was just leaving with another man in a suit. Skye made eye contact with Bobbi, and both drew their guns. Releasing Skye, Grant did the same, followed by Kara.

"Hail Hydra." Bobbi said in a casual tone.

Both men turned around to find four guns aimed at their hearts.

"One wrong move, and we fire." Bobbi continued conversationally.

"We're on our way."

"Okay, sweetie. See you then." Bobbi smiled as she hung up. "Oh, it's going to be so much fun when he gets here."

"Skye, if S.H.I.E.L.D.'s coming here, I can't stay." Grant said quietly.

"What? No, I'll tell them you helped! We can't walk away from each other again!" Skye sounded so upset he almost agreed.

"All Coulson's going to do is put me back in that cell. And May's gonna back him up. They only give second chances if you weren't ever associated with Hydra." He said gently, containing the rage and fear he felt when he remembered that Skye would have to go back to S.H.I.E.L.D. without him.

"Well then I'll go with you."

Grant blinked. He was hoping for that outcome, but he didn't expect her to offer it, let alone so soon. "Are you sure you want to? A life on the run isn't fun."

"Neither is a life without you. I love you, I don't want to leave you!"

"We can switch places." Kara offered. "My brainwashing's wearing off, and perhaps Agent Simmons can get this damn mask off. I miss my own face."

"Really?" Skye looked between Kara and Grant then threw herself into Kara's arms. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Pulling away, she looked at Bobbi. "Can you explain? Coulson and May will only say I was emotionally compromised and it won't change a thing."

Bobbi looked unhappy but nodded. Skye had already laughed more times in the past 15 minutes than in the past few months. Maybe Ward's good for her.

"We need to go." Grant said. Skye gave Bobbi one last hug, then took Grant's hand and walked down the street.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Grant, I can wipe both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s data on the pair of us and make whole new identities. We don't have to literally be on the run."

Grant smiled. "I love you."

"I love you, too." Skye replied, happy with her decision for the first time in months.

A/N: I got the idea for this story when daydreaming about Skyeward and listening to Up. I thought it fit, so I wrote it all today. Hope you liked! Reviews, please! :3