A/N: I started writing this right after watching 'The Well', but didn't really get around to finishing it. Now I saw 'Repairs' and even though the first five minutes already turned pretty much every aspect of this story into nothing more than wishful thinking, I had the urge to finish it anyway. Because what is fanfiction for if not wishful thinking?

Meaningless

Skye and Agent Ward were in the cargo bay during one of their regular training sessions, but today the young hacker just didn't seem focused. Even though her punches were good, maybe even a little harder than usual, her defence was sloppy, causing her SO to keep criticising her.

"How many times do I have to keep telling you, your arms have to stay up, Skye."

"They are up," she replied angrily, hitting the sandbag again violently.

"No, they're not. Here, let me show you." He reached out to grab one of her arms and pull it up a little further, but at soon as his finger grazed her skin, Skye pulled away like she had been burned by the touch.

Stunned by the reaction, Ward just stared at her for a few seconds, while his rookie kept throwing punches at the bag, her movements uncontrolled and full of anger.

"Skye, what's wrong?" the agent finally asked, wondering how he hadn't realised sooner that something was up.

"Nothing. Everything's fine, just fine," the young woman replied unconvincingly.

Rolling his eyes, Ward stepped behind the punching bag, holding it tightly, so he could look at Skye directly.

"Yeah, sure it is." Skye glanced up at him briefly at the sarcastic answer, but then focused again on her target and kept hitting it, not at all sorry that Ward was feeling each hit the way he was standing now.

"Listen, if you're having some personal issues, I don't want to butt into that, that's your own business, but when it's affecting your training and therefore your job, I want you to tell me."

Skye had stopped hitting the punching bag and was now looking at her SO incredulously, her hands raised in disbelieve.

"You've got to be kidding me, right? You can't be serious... no, you're actually serious with this. I don't believe it!" She pushed the sandbag angrily with both hands, forcing Ward to stagger back a little. Judging by the confused expression on his face, he had no idea why the hacker was so furious at him.

"What the hell is your problem, Skye, I just...," but she cut him short, pointing wildly at him.

"You, Agent Ward, you are my problem! Now you want to talk? You go through hell and back using that berserker staff, facing your inner demons or whatever the hell it was that you were facing – because, how should I know – and even though you turn from robot to biggest douche on the planet I'm there for you. Because I'm always there for you, no matter what, and I always will be, but you don't care. You just don't care. But now, now you want to talk, because the job comes first, right?"

Skye had talked herself into a rage, but her anger subsided again as she reached the end of her little rant and finally she just stood there and looked at Ward, disappointment in her eyes.

Letting go of the punching bag, the agent stepped in front of the young hacker, trying to reach out to her.

"I did care that you tried to be there for me, Skye. And it wasn't..." But again, she didn't let him finish.

"I saw you, alright? I figured that I didn't want to sit at the bar all by myself, after all, so I went upstairs to my room practically right after you had left. So I saw you follow Agent May into her room and going by that look she gave you I don't have to guess twice what you two were doing in there."

There was a very uncomfortable silence in the cargo bay as Skye and Ward just looked at each other, none of them really knowing what to say anymore.

The agent hadn't meant for her to find out about his visit to May's room like this – preferably not at all, actually – but he also hadn't realised how much it would hurt her once she did.

He sighed, coming to the conclusion that now that Skye already knew most of what had happened, the only way of fixing their messed up relationship was telling her everything.

"I didn't sleep with Agent May, okay?"

"Yeah, right," Skye huffed, but Ward looked at her, annoyed.

"Would you just let me finish, for once?" He waited for her to nod reluctantly and then continued.

"As I said, I didn't sleep with her, although I'll admit that when I followed her into her room, I had every intention to. But I was so exhausted from using the berserker staff that once May poured me a glass of that whiskey she had taken from the bar, I fell asleep in my chair before I had even taken two sips of it."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Skye asked angrily.

"No," Ward shook his head truthfully, "I'm just trying to be honest with you."

As she obviously didn't know what to say to that, Skye remained silent, her arms crossed defensively in front of her chest.

"Look," Ward continued, his voice soft, "I appreciate that you wanted to be there for me, to help me deal with what happened, but I just really didn't want to talk about it back then. All I wanted was to get it out of my head, to forget, even if only for a moment, and a night of meaningless sex sounded like it might just do the trick."

"'Meaningless'? So you and Agent May aren't..." Skye drew the last word out slowly, knowing that Ward knew where she was going with her question.

"No," he replied, shaking his head. "I wasn't looking for anything serious and neither was she."

"Alright, I guess I get it," Skye admitted grudgingly, "It's just that...," but she broke off again and shook her head, instead resuming to hit the punching bag once more, only more controlled this time. "No, forget it. It's nothing."

But Ward wasn't letting her off the hook that easily. He looked at the hacker intensely, his eyebrows slightly raised, prompting her to continue.

"Skye? Tell me, I know there's still something bothering you."

She kept hitting her target for a few more seconds in silence, obviously trying to decide if she should tell Ward the truth. Ultimately she stopped and looked up at her SO again.

"Fine, but as I said, it's nothing really. I just..., I kind of thought that... well that there was something there, you know... between us. I know, it's stupid, and I'm not saying that I was offering what May was offering, but it just kind of hurt that you would simply ignore me like that, that's all." Skye sighed, angry at herself for spilling her guts to Ward like this, but even though the truth was out now, she had to try and save as much of their already messed up relationship as possible.

"But look, just… forget that I said anything, alright? It's stupid and I...," but she didn't get to finish her sentence, as Ward was the one who interrupted her this time, by putting a hand around the back of her neck and pulling her closer into a fierce kiss.

As their lips finally parted and Ward pulled away again a few moments later, Skye was left completely speechless, her mouth still slightly agape.

Taking advantage of the young hacker's unusual silence, Ward decided that it was his turn to talk now.

"It's not stupid, okay? It's just... bad timing, that's all. Skye, I told you, when I went into May's room I was looking for nothing but meaningless sex and believe me, if we ever sleep together, that's not going to be meaningless."

He looked at her as if all of this should have been obvious to her in the first place, but Skye couldn't help blushing heavily. She smiled happily, even though still slightly embarrassed, as she tried to come up with a reply to this confession.

"So I wasn't imagining that after all, was I? There really is something between us?" She had wanted to pronounce that as a statement, but it came out as a question anyway.

Ward nodded, but he didn't seem to share Skye's light-heartedness on the subject.

"Yes, there is, but right now I don't really feel like I'm in any condition to deal with that. I'm still feeling so... torn up inside, it's hard to describe really. I know Simmons said that what the berserker staff did to me was nothing but chemical reactions, but it felt like much more than that. The worst of the effects have worn off by now obviously, but I still have that feeling like I'm not myself, like I've changed somehow.

Skye, you mean a lot to me and I often wonder where this feeling might lead us, but for now it just has to wait. Alright?"

Skye hesitated slightly as she looked up at her SO. This conversation had definitely taken a turn she had not foreseen when she had started her training today, but as she was the one who always wanted Ward to be more open with her, she surely wasn't complaining. And if the intensity with which her heart was pounding in her chest was any indication, she was definitely looking forward to exploring this thing between them further, even if that meant having to give Ward some space first.

"Alright, I guess I can live with that. Just... one more request, or... well, more of a question, really. You and Agent May, is that... I mean... will I keep seeing you heading over to her bunk, in the future, or what?" She asked timidly, somehow dreading the answer. But to her immense relief, Ward shook his head as he replied.

"No, that was a one-time thing. I promise."

"Good," Skye answered with a smile and Ward nodded, turning his attention back to the training, trying to get this conversation back to a professional level.

"Alright! Now, that thing's not hanging here for decoration," he said, pointing at the punching bag, "show me something and remember, always keep your hands up. You can't let your defences down, not even for a moment."

"Oh, I don't know," Skye relied sweetly, smiling at her SO as she started hitting the bag once more. "Someday you might just want to risk it."

The End