Day 12: Christmas Eve

The team surrounded FitzSimmons' large Christmas tree, which had presents under the tree. Each member was taking turns picking out one present to open that night. Skye and Ward carried a tray of six mugs of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies into the room, setting it on the table and taking their seats.

Simmons knelt in front of the tree, unwrapping a brightly wrapped present. "My present is from Fitz," she read on the tag before she untied the bow and lifted out a chemistry set. "Oh! Fitz! It's wonderful!" She breamed at the Scot, who turned red. She popped up on the couch beside him, pecking his cheek. "Thank you."

Skye turned to her boyfriend and mouthed, "Chemistry set?"

Ward shrugged. May picked up a gift and opened it. "Ear plugs. Thanks Phil." She took them and disappeared back to the cockpit. Everyone looked towards Coulson and he shrugged.

"She said that she needed some." Simmons passed him a gift. He opened it up slowly, as if afraid it might jump up and bit him. "This looks like stuff out of my desk."

Skye grinned. "It is stuff out of your desk, from where I had to raid it to figure out why you were lying to me. Merry Christmas, Dad."

He looked down at the box of papers. "Merry… Christmas," he replied slowly.

"My turn! My turn!" Fitz jumped to the floor, opening up a box. "It's a new laser."

"And it's compatible with the holographic table. You can even move stuff with it, like a stylus," Simmons chirped. Fitz's eyes went wide.

"This is the best Christmas present ever!"

Skye leaned her head into Ward's neck a whispered, "Attack of the nerds." He chuckled.

FitzSimmons handed him a box and Ward lifted the lid. "We fixed the Night Night Pistol. Merry Christmas."

"Thanks." He lifted it and pretended like he was going to shoot.

"Is it right now?"

"Yes." He didn't elaborate.

"Where's my present?" Skye pouted. He turned to her.

"In our bunk."

With that, Ward stood up and walked out of the living room. It took her a second, but Skye stood up and followed him out.

"No sex you two!" she could hear Coulson yell after them.

"Living on a plane with your dad, major mood killer," Skye said as she leaned in the doorway, admiring her boyfriend's muscular arms and back. Her eyes were drawn to the window sill, where the itsy bitsy tree she had made sat, with a small present under it. "Is that-?" He turned and smiled at her.

Her face lit up and she crawled across the bed to the window to retrieve the box and looked at it's careful wrapping. She could imagine Grant sitting there with wrapping paper, listening out for her while he worked carefully, packing it like he would diffuse a bomb or with the same care that he used when sitting in his sniper's perch, waiting for his target.

"Are you going to open it or just stare at the wrapping, because next year I could just get you an empty box and put some paper on it." Skye looked up at him for a minute, then looked back to the gift.

"Sorry, it's just… you know, I never exactly gotten presents that looked like this." Ward raised his eyebrow and sat next to her. She pulled the ribbon, afraid she might damage it, then pushed her finger under where the tape held the paper together. Grant watched, amused. Her eyes went wide and she gasped as she took in the pretty distinctive blue box inside the packaging. She opened the box, revealing a glistening platinum key with diamonds over the entire thing. The top looked like a stain glass window's frame. It was probably the most beautiful and most expensive thing she'd ever touched.

"Do you like it?"

"It's beautiful," she whispered, still in shock. No one had ever given her something like this. "It's too much though."

He lifted the key from the Tiffany box and clasped the chain behind her neck. "It was my grandmother's." She studied the pendent gently, as if afraid she'd break it. She knew he was talking about his beloved grandmother Gramsy and couldn't believe he'd given her such an heirloom. "I love you, Skye."

Skye looked to Grant, eyes sparkling with unshed tears and emotions as she leaned up to kiss him. "Thank you. It's really- I… thank you."

"I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to say you have the key to my heart," he teased and just like that, the moment was broken.

Skye snorted. "You say that and I'll have to sent you in to get your head examined. Robots aren't supposed to be saps."

Grant rolled his eyes. "The other half of your gift is in the closet."

Again, her eyes opened so wide he thought they might fall out of her head. "Other half?" She scrambled out of the bed and opened the door to a half empty closet. "You're giving me your clothes?"

"I made room for yours," he corrected, following her across the short distance to wrap his arms around her. Still, he suddenly sounded nervous. "I thought that since you practically live here anyways, that maybe you might want to move in?"

It was phrased as a statement, but his voice ended on a questioning note. She turned, wrapping her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply. "It's perfect," she whispered in his neck where she buried her face. "Thank you." Her voice dropped even lower, "I love you so much. I've never been this happy before. It feels like I'm dreaming."

He kissed her passionately, glad she liked his presents and glad she felt the same way he did. He tried to convey everything he had trouble saying into the kiss. She pulled back suddenly and he looked confused until she spoke, "Now let me show you your present."

Yeah, so I like mushy cheesy over-romantic stories, so sue me. The last day of the 12 Days of SHIELD. I may or may not make a New Years one-shot, so look for that. If not, I'll just resume writing The Locket.

There are spaces in the link to Skye's necklace to hopefully make sure it works. I know this one isn't vintage, but let's all just imagine it is. I thought it was pretty and in my mind Ward comes from old money who's probably really embarrassed of him, all except Gramsy.

www . tiffany Shopping Item .aspx ? from Grid = 1 & sku = GRP02546& mcat = 148206& cid =573050& search _params =p+ 1-n +10000-c +573050-s +1-r +-t +-ni +1-x +-lr +-hr+-ri+-mi+ -pp+0 +6&search= 0&origin= browse&searchkeyword= &selectedsku=21803642

Salkri Kachemench, thank you for your great ideas. "Ward could get skye a key necklace or something and he could have a lock necklace, and he could say that their homes were each other now - cos skye was an orphan etc, so she has the key to his heart etc :P what do you think? Too cheesy? It could be really cute/funny though - Skye could make some sarcy comment about Robot's being overly emotional before kissing him or something, and Fitzsimmons could get them back!"

Also, I saw this lovely article and I just thought of Skye. This would be a perfect prompt for a story, if anyone wants to write it. Extra points if you somehow make it a Skyeward story.

gma . yahoo blogs abc-blogs / foster-child-davion -only-spend- christmas- prospective- family- 034828584- -abc-news-topstories .html

Thank you to everyone for all of your encouragement and comments and for reading the story. Hearing from the readers, the fans in fanfiction, make writing it so much more satisfying. I'm glad so many of you enjoyed it.

So I'll end my very long note on a very famous poem by Henry Livingston Jr. and I echo the sentiment to you all.

"But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight-

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."