The first time they met they hardly got of on the right foot. They were both four years old and Jemma was running to hit from one of the meaner kids in their kindergarten and decided to duck behind the large playhouse, landing on someone's back.
The girl fell forward, her head connecting with the ground with a thud. "Hey, what the hell?"
She grumbled and Jemma stumbled off of the small girl. A girl she had never seen before.
The girl was rubbing her head as she sat up, turning to glare at Jemma. "That was mean, why did you do that?"
"I'm sorry."
"That really hurt." The girl pouted, standing up as she continued to rub the little red patch on her head. "You didn't have to be such a meanie, you could have asked to use the house."
"I didn't-"
"You can play with it, I don't care." She interrupting, leaving before Jemma could explain that she didn't mean to hurt her.
Once everyone had arrived the new girl was pulled up in front of the group, the little red mark still present on her forehead, and introduced to them as Skye. Everyone was warned to make she feel welcome and Jemma tried but Skye seemed to be avoiding her, and everyone one else.
Jemma went home that night and drew the new girl a picture of both of them playing outside in the sand box, writing 'I'm sorry for hurting you' with help from her mother.
She had found Skye in the same place they had first met, sitting behind the playhouse with her chin on her knees.
Skye jumped when Jemma thrusted her drawing at her face, her eyes snapping up to look at Jemma.
"What is it?"
"It's a picture I did, to say sorry for hurting you yesterday."
Skye took the paper from Jemma, who clasped her hands nervously in front of her. Skye peered down at the picture for a few seconds before lifting her eyes back to Jemma. "I can't read."
"It says 'I'm sorry for hurting you'." Jemma explained, moving to stand beside Skye and pointed to her own messy hand writing. "That's what mummy said."
Skye looked back down at the picture, pointing one of the figures, the one with the darker hair. "Is that me?"
Jemma's face lit up and she nodded, pointing to the other figure. "And that's me."
Skye nodded. "It's nice."
"Thank you." Jemma chirped, smiling at Skye. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I was just trying to hide from the mean, bigger kids."
"Why? What do they do?"
"They say mean things, because I'm not from America they say that I shouldn't be here, call me mean names and steal the toys I play with."
"That's not very nice." Skye frowned.
"They aren't very nice."
Skye nodded lightly, patting the ground beside her. "Do you want to sit down?"
Jemma nodded excitedly, sitting down beside Skye and crossing her legs. "How old are you?"
"I'm four, five next month. How about you?"
"I am four and a half."
"And what is your name?"
"Jemma. Jemma Simmons." Jemma smiled widely, holding her hand out to Skye who eyed it warily.
"What are you doing?"
"This is what daddy does when he meets someone new, you have to," Jemma took a hold of Skye's hand and shook it.
"Why?"
Jemma shrugged, pulling her hand back. "I don't know."
"That's kinda dumb when you can do this," Skye lifted Jemma's hands and curled her fingers into her palm before gentle bumping her own knuckles against Jemma's.
"Yeah, that is better." Jemma agreed with a little smile.
"You are a really good drawer. You should be a drawer when you're bigger."
"I wanna be a scientist when I'm bigger." Jemma said shyly.
"Really? That's really cool."
"No it's not. My brother calls me a dork because of it."
"It's not." Skye shrugged, "I like Billy Nye, he is cool."
"What do you want to be?"
"I don't know. I've always wanted to be a spy."
"You two can't hide behind here all day," A voice said making both girls jump. Skye and Jemma looked up to see their teacher smiling down at them.
They had both been pretty much inseparable in kindergarten from then on. Skye was moody and angry with most people but she seemed different with Jemma, protective, happy even, and she didn't think twice about shoving the big, scary bully when he took Jemma's swing.
"You leave her alone, ok?" Skye warned and the boy nodded frantically before scurrying off, never causing Jemma any bother again.
"Do you wanna come over to my house?" Jemma asked, clasping her hands in front of her, a nervous habit Skye had noticed, and bounced lightly on her toes.
"Yeah but I don't think I will be allowed."
"You can ask your mummy when she comes to pick you up."
"That lady is not my mom." Skye looked up briefly from the picture she was drawing. "She is a working at the house I live in."
"Oh, like a cleaner?"
"No, like a lady that works in the house I live in." Skye shrugged. "I'm an orphan."
Jemma nodded, though she didn't really know what an orphan was but it was pretty obvious that Skye didn't want to come over to her house.
Skye lightly nudged her shoulder with Jemma's with her own, tapping the picture in front of her. "That's us when we are bigger. You are a world famous scientist and I am a secret spy agent."
"Are we holding hands?" Jemma asked, leaning over to look at the picture.
"Yeah,"
"Like, boyfriend and girlfriend but girlfriend and girlfriend?"
"Yeah. I asked miss and she said it wasn't as bad as some peoples say, that two girls can love each other." Skye shrugged, picking up the brown crayon to color Jemma's hair.
"You love me?"
"I'm to little to love you, that's what miss said, but when I'm bigger I will."
"Oh," Jemma's brows furrowed slightly and she nodded. "me too."
Jemma had asked her mum what an orphan was and was totally surprised when she said it meant someone didn't have a mummy or a daddy, and when Jemma had told her Skye was one she had said she would speak to the lady who came to pick Skye about Skye maybe spending the night at their house.
That became a weekly thing, Skye spending a Friday night at Jemma's house and, though Skye probably wouldn't say it out loud, it was the one thing Skye looked forward to.
It became a more frequent thing as they got older, doubling to Fridays and Saturdays when they both started middle school.
"Do you not think the universe is amazing?" Jemma sighed, moving her eyes from the astronomy show that was playing on TV to Skye, who, to her credit, at least looked mildly interested.
"Mm?" Skye hummed, looking at Jemma with a look that told her that she actually hadn't been listening and was starting to panic a little. "Uh, yeah. For sure, yeah. Totally awesome."
"It's ok that you weren't listening." Jemma whispered, resting her head against Skye's shoulder.
"I'm sorry. Tell me what he was saying?"
"You don't have to pretend to be interested."
"I'm not." Skye swore, lightly squeezing Jemma's thigh. "Come on, tell me."
"He was just talking about conservation of energy."
"You gotta dumb it down for me, Jem." Skye said against Jemma's hair, smiling when Jemma laughed.
"It's basically a law in physics that states that energy can be neither created or destroyed. So the atoms that are inside you and me could have been the atoms that made up a t-Rex tens of millions of years ago."
"Hang on," Skye pulled back and Jemma tilted her head back a little to look up at her, making sure her head remained on Skye's shoulder. "Are you saying I'm part dinosaur because that's badass?"
"No, sorry but plastic dinosaurs are made out of plastic which is made out of oil which is made from dead, decayed things so some toy dinosaurs could be made up of real dinosaurs."
Skye looked a little bewildered by that, her brows furrowing as she tried to comprehend what Jemma had said. "Why is science awesome when YOU teach me it but in school I feel like I'm going to pass out."
"Because I could read you the phone book and you would be happy to listen." Jemma teased.
"That is embarrassingly true, actually." Skye agreed.
Both girls went quiet again for a few minutes, which was strange because Skye was always talking and interrupting her programs.
"What's wrong?" Jemma asked, her eyes not leaving the tv.
"Me?"
"No, the tv." Jemma said sarcastically. "Of course you, dummy."
"Nothing."
"It's not nothing, you've been funny all day and I thought it was just because you were tired but you aren't because you go really pale when you're tired so what's up?"
"Jeez, Jemma, take a breath." Skye teased, grinning down at Jemma. "And it's nothing. I've just been thinking, that's all."
"What about?"
"I'm thirteen, Jemma."
"You aren't having a super early midlife crisis, are you?"
"No. It's just- nobody wants a thirteen year old."
"That's not true."
"No, it is. People want the cute babies or toddler not a teenager."
"I want you." Jemma admitted quickly.
"You do?"
"Yes, Skye. Of course." Jemma assured, sitting up and frowning over at Skye. "What has gotten into you? You're my best friend, of course I want you."
"I don't know, Jemma. I just don't... Know." Skye sighed, her eyes moving down to her hands that were fiddling with the little bracelet Jemma had made her. Jemma noticed this, it was what Skye did when she was upset, so she snuggled in closer to Skye's side and wrapped her up in her arms, pulling the girl to lie against her chest. "I'm sorry. I'm just having a bad week."
"It's ok, everyone had bad days, or weeks. Why didn't you just talk to me about it?"
Skye shrugged, cuddling a little closer to Jemma, resting her head against the Brits chest. "'Cause it's stupid."
"No it's not. If it's bothering you then it definitely isn't stupid."
"I'm never gonna get outta there, I know that now, I'm starting to come to terms with it."
"Well, when we are eighteen we can move in together. Get a dog or a cat."
"You'll be going off to college."
"So will you."
Skye huffed out a chuckled, playing with one of the buttons of Jemma's shirt. "I'm not going to get into college."
"You don't know that."
"I don't wanna go."
"Then come with me. When I got to college come with me."
"Maybe," Skye hummed.
"I love you, you know that, don't you?"
"Yeah," Skye nodded, peering up at Jemma and smiling. "Yeah, me too."
Skye could see the disappointment in Jemma's eyes, the disappointment that is there every time Skye doesn't actually say she loved Jemma, but she chose to ignore it, like she does any other time, and rest her head back on Jemma's chest.
"Why do you never say it?" Jemma asked randomly.
"Hum?" Skye hummed, not looking up from her laptop.
"That you love me, why do you never say it?"
"I do," Skye frowned, leveling her eyes on Jemma.
"No, you say 'me too', you never actually say the words."
"What does it matter? It means the same thing."
"Well, yeah." Jemma agreed, picking nervously at a frayed thread on Skye's shirt. "I'm just curious why you never say it?"
"Everything I love goes to shit, I don't want that to happen to you so I don't say it. I do, though, I just don't want to jinx it."
"Oh," Jemma frowned, "Ok, sorry."
"As long as you know that I do. You mean everything to me."
"I do know. I was just being stupid, I'm sorry."
Skye rolled her eyes, smiling as she leant across to kiss Jemma's forehead. "You're never stupid, Einstein."
"I'm not THAT smart." Jemma grumbled, hiding her face against Skye's side.
"Yeah you are," Skye argued, going back to typing on her laptop. "And you are going to do all kinds of cool shit like he did one day."
"I doubt it."
"Then I can't wait for you to prove yourself wrong one day." Skye lightly ran her fingers through Jemma's hair with one hand, using the other to type on her laptop.
"What are you doing, anyway?"
"Hacking into the schools mainframe, I think i earned at least a B on that English paper."
"Are you serious?" Jemma squeaked, pushing herself up onto her elbow to look at the laptop screen. "Skye!"
"What? I should have go a B on that paper, the only reason I didn't was because that idiot teacher didn't like me. I mean a D! That's ridiculous."
"That's true, you definitely deserved better than a D in that paper but you can't just hack into the school! You should get arrested for that, it's ILLEGAL!"
"If i get caught."
"Skye," Jemma huffed, batting her best friends arm. "I wouldn't come visit you in prison."
"Yes you would. Do you want anything changed while I'm in?"
"No I do not!"
"No, because you're a straight A student, aren't you, kid?"
"Don't call me kid, I'm only a month younger than you." Jemma huffed. "And what are you doing on Darren's profile?"
"I heard him call you a Queen loving loser the other day so guess who's failing math?" Skye grinned, quickly changing the boys grade before getting out, not wanting the fact she had hacked into the system to be registered.
"Skye!"
"To late, it has been done." Skye smirked down at Jemma as she closed her laptop and placed it on her bed, wrapping her arms around Jemma when she crawled up to lie against her chest.
"You are going to take down the government one day with those computer skills." Jemma muttered, lightly tapping Skye's cheek. "And it is going to get you arrested."
"I'll just get myself a prison wife, it'll be fine." Skye waved her hand dismissively.
"You are trouble."
"I've always been trouble but you're still here."
"Yeah, I can't seem to shake you." Jemma sighed playfully. "You bump into someone once and you're stuck with them forever."
"Ok, one," Skye raised her eyebrows and tapped Jemma on the nose. "You didn't bump into me you shoved me over and I hit my head, I could've died that day."
"Drama queen," Jemma muttered under her breath as she shuffled down to lie next to her, tapping her on the nose again.
"And two, you couldn't live without me."
"That's true."
Skye grinned, allowing Jemma to take ahold of her hand to play with her fingers.
"You will tell me is anyone bothers you once we start high school, won't you?"
"I don't want you fighting my battles, Skye."
"I won't be. What's mine is yours, remember? For better or worse, sickness and in health."
"You are reciting marriage vows you dope, not a best friend pact." Jemma chuckled, rolling her eyes at her best friend.
"It's the same kinda thing." Skye reasoned. "I'm gonna protect you, Jemma, whether you want me to or not."
"Thank you."
"That's how we work. You're the brains and beauty, and I'm the brawn."
"The brawn AND the beauty." Jemma agreed, smiling when Skye pulled her into a hug.
"Yeah yeah."
High school honestly wasn't as terrible as Skye thought it was going to be.
After four weeks Skye caught one of the older kids, she wasn't sure how much older, teasing Jemma, something about the way she dressed, apparently he had been doing it since the beginning of school. It never happened again after Skye landed a right hook square on his cheekbone, and the black eye he sported for the next two weeks warned most of the school off, too.
They were left alone after that, Jemma making a few friends in classes Skye wasn't in and Skye, well, she ignored everyone that wasn't Jemma.
"Why haven't you taken Matt up on his offer to the dance, yet? Every girl in that school wants to go with him." Jemma said as she and Skye sprawled lazily across her bed.
"Do YOU want to go with him?" Skye asked, averting her eyes from one of Jemma's astronomy books she was readying to look at Jemma who scoffed.
"A neanderthal football player? No thanks."
"Then stop going on about it." Skye grinned. "I don't wanna go with him."
"I just thought- Don't feel like you have to say no for me."
"I don't, Jem." Skye rolled her eyes, turning her head to look at Jemma. "Besides, I'm going to rock up to that school with the prettiest girl on my arm."
"Yeah, right." Jemma scoffed, rolling onto her front, pushing her glasses up her nose when they slid down slightly.
"You don't believe me?"
"Well, no. Have you seen how pretty the head cheerleader is? And that girl in our Spanish class."
"Yeah, they're pretty but you are definitely the prettiest girl I've ever met." Skye assured, reaching out to fix Jemma's glasses on her nose when they slips down again. "And I know you've been down on yourself since you got your glasses, don't think I haven't noticed."
"They just make me look-"
"Beautiful? Cute, smart?"
"I was going to say like a dork." Jemma huffed, rolling her eyes as an attempt to try and hide her blush from her best friend, but judging by the smirk on Skye's face she noticed.
"Ok, so you are a beautiful, cute, smart dork." Sky grinned cheekily up at Jemma, feeling a sense of pride when the Brit laughed. "We are going to go there and have fun, you and me, no worries of dates or trying to impress a guy. This is the last night of sophomore year, let's enjoy it."
"Yeah, you're right."
"I'm always right, I thought you would've known that after twelve years."
"Now, we both know that's not true." Jemma grinned, tapping Skye's forehead. "I am usually the one who is right, you are usually the one who fights even if she knows she's wrong."
"I only ever fight for you,"
"Which I have told you to stop." Jemma pointed out, giving Skye a pointed look.
"And I never will." Skye grinned cheekily, lightly batting Jemma's forehead with the book in her hand. "Are you going to go to the dance with me or not?"
"Of course." Jemma took the book from Skye's hand and got off the bed to put it back on the shelf. "But what if i feel the need to impress you?"
"I've seen you first thing in the morning," Skye rolled off the bed, walking over to Jemma who was fiddling with the ironman figurine on her bookshelf. Skye lightly took ahold of Jemma's hips and spun her around so she facing Skye. "I've seen you after you've been awake for over twenty four hours studying for some test you would've aces anyway. You ALWAYS look beautiful to me so the last thing you need to worry about is impressing me."
"You promised you'd never lie to me." Jemma murmured shyly.
"And I always keep my promises. In the twelve years I've known you you have never ONCE looked bad."
Jemma smiled up at Skye who with grinning crookedly down at her, the grin that made Jemma's stomach flip over itself.
"I love you." Jemma said without even really thinking about it making Skye's grin turn into a soft smile.
"Me too." Skye planted a quick kiss on Jemma's forehead. "You wanna watch something on tv? I heard there is this documentary on that Stark, and we know how much you love him."
"I don't- I admire him, using the technology he has for good instead of nuclear warheads like his father." Jemma explained, glaring up at Skye when she laughed.
"Yeah, ok, if you say so." Skye scoffed, reaching over Jemma's shoulder to tap the bobble head Ironman.
"He is a brilliant scientist, Skye, I kind of want to be like him one day."
"And you will be. Hell, you will be a better scientist then him one day but for now how about we learn just how Ironman came to be?"
"You have an essay to write." Jemma said as Skye pulled her back over to the bed.
"I've writing the intro, that's enough for now." Skye argued, sitting down on the bed, her back pressed against the headboard. She patted the space between her legs. "Come on, Jem, you get the best seat in the house."
Jemma rolled her eyes but climbed onto the bed anyway, settling in between Skye's legs, resting her back against Skye's front.
"His assistant is hot," Skye murmured against the top of Jemma's head, wrapping her arms around Jemma's waist.
"I don't think she is just his assistant." Jemma muttered softly, playing with Skye's fingers as she watched Stark and Pepper get into one of their overly flash cars.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Jemma asked, helping Skye fix the collar of her shirt . "Have you changed your mind about going with me tonight? Because you know we can just stay in."
"No, of course I still want to go with you," Skye assured, huffing when Jemma tugged on her collar.
"You've been funny for days now, what's going on?"
"How have I been funny?"
"You've been really quiet, has something happened?"
"Can we talk about it after the dance?" Skye sighed, unbuttoning the buttons Jemma had just done up. She hated having then done right up to her neck. "I wanna just go have a good time tonight."
"Are you ok? You aren't sick, are you?"
"No," Skye chuckled, "No, I'm fine, don't worry about it, lets just go and have fun, hum?"
"Is it something bad?" Jemma asked, a horrible feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.
"No," Skye smiled but the horrible feeling still remained. "Let's go, yeah?"
Jemma nodded, following Skye lover to the door where the girl stopped and turned back to Jemma, her eyes running down Jemma's body before returning to her face. "You look beautiful."
"So do you."
Skye smiled, leaning forward and Jemma expected her to kiss her forehead like she usually did but her heart rate skyrocketed when Skye's lips landed on her cheek, right by the corner of her mouth.
"Let's go," Skye slid her hand into Jemma's and lightly tugged her out of the room and downstairs where Jemma's father was waiting to drive them to the school.
"Are you girls ready?" The man asked, looking over the back of the sofa at the duo and smiled. "Well, don't you to look like a proper couple, all matching and stuff."
"Dad, we aren't a couple." Jemma murmured bashfully, smiling when Skye squeezed her hand.
"I know, I'm just saying you LOOK like one." The man said as he stood up, picking up his keys from the coffee table. "What time does this thing finish? Your mother and I are going over to a friends in Manhattan."
"That's ok, we can just get a taxi home."
"Ok, well here is some money," The man pulled out his wallet and handed Jemma twenty dollars. "And are staying over tonight, Skye?"
"If that's ok?"
"That's more than ok." Skye smiled at him as she got into the back seat with Jemma. "We will be home by one, you both better be back by then or your mum with have a fit."
"We will be, dad." Jemma assured, distracted by the fact Skye was running her finger along her palm.
"That's your life line. And, apparently, you're going to have three kids." Skye said, grinning up at Jemma who raised her eyebrows skeptically.
"You don't really believe that, do you?"
"No," Skye grinned cheekily, sliding her fingers in between Jemma's. "I just wanted an excuse to hold your hand."
"You don't need an excuse." Jemma murmured, the corner of her lips hooking up into a little smile, drawing Skye's attention down to them.
Jemma watched as Skye stared down at her mouth, her tongue poking out to pull her bottom lip in between her teeth and Jemma was sure best friends definitely shouldn't look at each other the way Skye was look at her.
"Are you girls looking forward to the summer?"
The sudden question from her dad seemed to draw Skye out of her little daze, her eyes moving to look out the window.
"Yeah, dad."
"What about you, Skye?"
"Uh, yeah, I guess so."
Jemma frowned at Skye's answer, wondering why any mention of summer seem to make Skye withdrawn.
"Do you both have any plans?"
"No, dad. Probably just the usual." Jemma answered quickly, "Where are you and mum going?"
"It's your mums workmates birthday, you're just lucky you had this dance or you would have been coming along, too. And then Jemma probably would have dragged you along, Skye."
"Well, thank god for that. The last party we went to was so boring." Skye groaned, letting her head fall back against the headrest.
"Tell me about it, kid."
Skye frowned over at Jemma and Matt, who seemed to be flirting with Jemma, from her position at the drinks table. To her credit Jemma didn't seem interested.
Skye quickly poured out their drinks and walked back over to the table, placing the drinks down and holding her hand out to Jemma, ignoring the fact the Matt was even there. "Dance with me?"
Jemma frowned, taking ahold of Skye's hand and letting her tug her to her feet, both of them ignoring Matt's protests. "It's a slow song, Skye."
"Mmhm, I do have ears, you know?" Skye grinned, pulling Jemma onto the dance floor and tugging her in closer to hold onto the girls hips.
"Thank you for saving me from him." Jemma sighed gratefully, her hands coming up to clasp behind Skye's neck.
"Just call me your knight in shinning armor."
Jemma rolled her eyes at Skye, looking mildly impressed at how well Skye seemed to be dancing, even it was a simple dance.
"I didn't know you could dance."
"I couldn't, still can't, really. I got a girl at the home to teach me." Skye admitted, spinning Jemma out before smoothly pulling her back in, her hand and easily finding the Brit's hip. "I wouldn't want to embarrass you."
Jemma rolled her eyes, resting her chin on Skye's shoulder and letting her head lean against the side of Skye's. "Have you had fun tonight?"
"You have no idea." Skye said, rocking them both gentle back and forth. "The dance has been shit but I've been here with you so that doesn't matter."
"You've been distant recently, what's going on?"
Skye sighed, pressing her nose against the side of Jemma's head. "Can you talk about it at home?"
"Can we go home now? I've just worried about it all night."
"You really wanna leave?" Skye leant back a little to look Jemma in the eye, lightly bumping her forehead against Jemma's when she nodded. "Ok, I'll call a cab, you grab out jackets, ok?"
"I'll meet you outside," Skye reached into the pocket of her jeans as she moved away from Jemma to head for the door.
Skye could tell Jemma was worried the entire journey back to her house, nervously playing with her bracelet.
"Tell me what's going on." Jemma demanded as soon as both of them were in her house, turning to Skye who pointed to the kitchen.
"Do you want tea?"
"Skye! Stop putting it off, tell me what's going on."
"I'm leave, ok?" Skye huffed, throwing her hands up as she turned to Jemma. "I've been adopted."
"What? By who?"
"This family from Calgary. I'm leaving tomorrow."
"You're..." Jemma gaped at Skye, not sure what to say. "You CAN't leave!"
"I have to." Skye muttered quietly, averting her eyes to the ground to avoid the wounded look Jemma was giving her.
"How long have you known?" Jemma snapped.
"Two weeks."
"And you didn't tell me!" Jemma squeaked, glaring at Skye. "How the fuck could you not tell me?"
"I couldn't."
"You can't leave me, Skye." Jemma whimpered, Skye looking away when Jemma's eyes filled with tears.
"I have to."
"You don't!"
"Ask me to stay and you know I will but I think this could really be my chance, Jemma. My chance to be happy with a family." Skye sniffed.
Jemma swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, her eyes dropping to the floor. "Okay."
"I'm sorry."
"No, I'm happy for you, I just don't want you to go." Jemma sighed, wiping the tears from under her eyes.
"We will see each other again, we are solid, you and me." Skye assured, stepping closer to Jemma.
"I love you."
"Yeah, me too."
"No," Jemma shook her head, biting her lip as she looked up at Skye with watery eyes. "No, not like that. I'm in love with you."
"Yeah," Skye whispered, "me too."
"Say it."
"Jemma, you know..."
"This is already a mess, you're leaving so let me hear it from you, just once!"
"I love you." Skye whispered, her eyes fluttering down to Jemma's lips when the girl wrapped her arms around her neck. "I probably always have."
Jemma barely let Skye finish before kissing her, pushing the girl backwards until her back hit the front door.
Skye stumbled, gripping onto Jemma's hips as her back hit the door with a thud. Jemma's hands instantly moving to the buttons on Skye's shirt.
"Jem,"
"Let's go upstairs." Jemma muttered against Skye's lips, pushing the girls shirt off her shoulders, leaving her in her jeans and bra.
Skye frowned a little, "Are you sure?"
Jemma nodded quickly, taking ahold of Skye's hand and leading her upstairs.
"You didn't drink anything at that dance, did you?" Skye asked after she lowered Jemma down onto the bed.
"No," Jemma swore, lifting her hips up when Skye bunched her dress up around her stomach.
"And you're sure?"
"Yes, Skye! Please."
Skye nodded, lifting Jemma's dress up over her head and discarding it on the floor.
Skye was gone when Jemma woke up the next and Skye was gone, leaving nothing but a note with 'I love you' scribbled on it.
Skye felt like an idiot for getting caught.
Really, it was stupid of her to hack into SHIELD in the first place but when Jemma signed up to join them, which was completely un-Jemma-like, Skye had expected her to end up in a research lab or something, she knew she had to.
She had been keeping tabs on Jemma since she went back to New York at the age of eighteen to find out Jemma had left for MIT. The idea of Jemma being away from home, away from the safety of her parents scared her more than she really thought it would.
"Listen, I know I'm, like, a prisoner or whatever but I can't get off this plane and there's someone on your team that I haven't seen in years, could I..?"
"Who is it?" Coulson asked, making Ward look at him like he was crazy.
"Sir, you can't be serious."
"Jemma Simmons. She's your biochemist."
"Arm," Coulson said and Skye held out her arm, frowning as Coulson clipped a bracelet around her wrist. "This will stop you from touching ANY electrical equipment on this plane."
"Sir," Ward started to object but Coulson held up his hand.
"Her bunk is the last one, I'm sure she is in there working."
Skye nodded, giving Ward a smug smile as Coulson opening the door and let her leave.
Skye walked up to the bunk Coulson had told her belonged to Jemma, peering inside to see Jemma -who looked exactly the same as when she had last seen her back when they were sixteen- sitting crossed legged on her bed with files and papers scattered all over the bed, her eyes perched on her nose as she scanned the papers.
Skye smiled, leaning against the doorframe and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Eight years later and you are still studying. It's like you never stopped." Skye said and Jemma stilled in her movements, slowly looking up and blinking at Skye.
"Skye?"
"Hey," Skye smiled unsurely, watching Jemma as she slowly stood up.
"What are you- Why are you here?" Jemma frowned, her eyes running all over Skye's face, like she didn't believe that Skye was really here.
"Coulson brought me in. He caught me hacking SHIELD mainframe."
"That's actually... not all that surprising." Jemma chuckled quietly, rushing forward to wrap her arms tightly around Skye's neck.
"Yeah, well, when your best friend is risking her life by being part of some branch of the government that deals with aliens you kinda need to keep tabs on her." Skye shrugged lightly, wrapping her arms around Jemma's body.
"You've been keeping tabs on me?"
"Since we were about eighteen." Skye admitted, burying her face in Jemma's neck. "I missed you."
"I can't believe you're here." Jemma murmured, "I mean I can believe the REASON you're here but not that this is actually happening."
"Hey, it's not like I'm always up to no good." Skye huffed, pulling back to grin down at a teary-eyed Jemma. Skye lifted her hand to Jemma's cheek, lifting her glasses a little to wipe the tear from just under Jemma's eye.
"You were." Jemma chuckled, smiling up at Skye as she fixed her glasses. "I didn't think I was going to see you again."
"Really? Because you and me have always been solid." Skye grinned crookedly, tilting her head a little to the side. "Remember? You and me. The scientist, the agent." Skye pointed between them and shrugged. "Being a hacker is kinda an agent."
"No, it's kind of illegal."
"Only if I get caught."
"Which you did!" Jemma reminded with a grinned.
"Yeah, true."
"Why didn't you ever come back? If only to visit."
"I did. I went back to New York and your parent said you'd left. You got into MIT on a scholarship."
"Why didn't you come see me?"
"You had this whole new life, Jem. I didn't want to just come barging back in and after how I left that night."
"You didn't even say goodbye." Jemma murmured quietly making Skye nodded, looking down guiltily.
"I couldn't. I knew if you woke up I wouldn't have left."
"Why didn't you come to Massachusetts?"
"I was eighteen, a high school drop out, homeless and had nothing, and you, you were this young, up and coming scientist who got into MIT on a scholarship. I would have done nothing but tear you down."
"Homeless? Why were you homeless?"
"The couple that adopted me, they were murdered."
"What? When? By who?"
"Two days after my eighteen birthday and I don't know, they never found'em."
"Where you harmed?"
"No, I was out with... A girl." Skye admitted, looking down and their hands when Jemma took ahold of hers, squeezing it lightly.
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine. It wasn't the big fairytale I thought it would've been" Skye shrugged, nodding to the papers all over Jemma's bed. "What're you working on?"
"Just sciencey stuff."
"As always." Skye smiled, lightly poking at Jemma's glasses. "I'm glad you kept the glasses."
"Yeah, well, it's a long list for an eye transplant but I'm holding out."
Skye chuckled, her eyes dropping nervously to the ground. "I'm surprised you don't hate me."
"Why would I?"
"Because I just left after- it was your first time and I just left you."
"I won't say I wasn't mad at you because I was, and I was hurt but I got it, I know what you're like, how rubbish you are with words." Jemma chuckled.
"You didn't deserve for me to just leave like that, though. You were the one good thing I ever done in my life." Skye said, frowning when she realised how that sounded. "Not done as in, you know, I just meant," Skye huffed out a nervous breath and Jemma just grinned at her rambling. "Your friendship was the best thing I had in my life, I shouldn't have left. At all."
"I know what you meant, Skye." Jemma grinned. "And you had to, you wanted your shot at a family."
"Yeah, that wasn't as great as I expected it to be."
"How come?"
"It's complicated, something to do with my psycho dad." Skye waved her hand dismissively, like it was nothing, which made Jemma frown.
"You found your dad?"
"Not exactly. It's all a mess, lets just forget it for now. How have you been? How have the past eight years been?"
"Yeah, ok." Jemma shrugged. "MIT for two years, SHIELD academy for four, couple of PhD's and a job working with them man who died in action which fighting with the avengers. Pretty uneventful, really."
"Oh, yeah, obviously." Skye chuckled, stepping a little closer to Jemma, bringing her her hand up to tuck a couple of strands of hair behind her ears. "Your hair is shorter. It's nice."
"Skye," Jemma whispered when Skye's hand moved caress her cheek.
"I kinda, really wanna kiss you right now but I don't know if you'd get into trouble for that since I am technically a prisoner here. Plus I don't know anything about you anymore, if you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend."
"I don't." Jemma muttered. "Have a boyfriend or a girlfriend."
"And what about the getting into trouble part?"
"I don't care." Jemma shrugged, leaning up to kiss Skye.
"Simmons, should you REALLY be fraternizing with our prisoners?"
Jemma stopped at the sound of Wards voice and Skye visably rolled her eyes. "Wow, what an asshole." Skye grumbled under her breath.
"I'm not, she is merely an old friend." Jemma called back.
"Charming." Skye huffed.
"Coulson said you are in charge of her, anything happens and its on YOUR head." Ward snapped making Skye scowl.
"Hey, T-800, don't speak to her like that!" Skye snapped but Ward ignored her, turning to find Coulson. "What a jackoff. Where does he get off speaking to you like that?"
"Eight years and you're still protecting me." Jemma said, smiling softly up at Skye.
Skyes scowl was replaced with a soft smile of her own. "I told you, didn't I? I would never stop." Skye grinned, someone proudly, her hand coming up to caress the back of Jemma's head when the girl hugged her quickly, resting her head against Skye's shoulder. "You know what this reminds me of?"
"What?"
"The dance the night before I left." Skye whispered against the side of Jemma's head. "That was one of the best nights of my life, believe it or not, it was a shitty dance but I didn't care because you were the only think I was paying any attention to. Everything else was just back ground noise." Skye pulled back a little to look at Jemma. "You were the prettiest girl in that room that night, there was no doubt about that, and everyone else knew it, too."
Smiling shyly, Jemma pulled Skye into her bunk and quickly set about cleaning up all the papers on the bed.
"What are you doing?"
"We are watching breakfast at Tiffanys like we all ways used to do."
"Really?" Skye sighed.
"What? I thought you liked it?"
"No, Jemma. Not even a little bit."
"But- we watch that movie almost every Friday."
"I know, I was there." Skye huffed.
"Why didn't you tell me you didn't like it?"
"Because you did."
"Skye," Jemma snapped, knocking Skye's shoulder.
Skye grinned as she stumbled back a little. "What?"
Jemma rolled her eyes, climbing back onto her single bed.
Skye sat down on the edge of the bed, picking up a few of the papers that were on the bed.
"What have you been going in way of a job?" Jemma asked.
"Well..." Skye hummed, handing Jemma the paper.
"Oh, God, it's illegal, isn't it?" Jemma fixed the papers into a neat pile
"Technically. I've been hacking into billionaires off shore bank accounts. It's genius, really, even if they notice money going missing they can't do jack shit because the account I stole it from is illegal to have."
"That is kind of genius, but illegal none the less."
Skye smiled sweetly and shrugged, lying down on Jemma's bed and opening her arms out to the girl.
"What?"
"It's a single bed, we can't both lie on it." Jemma rolled her eyes at Skye's reasoning but moved to lie half on top of Skye, smiling when the girl wrapped her up in a tight hug.
Jemma sighed contently, she hadn't felt this at ease since Skye had left, there had always been this little niggle, this feeling of wonder of what had happened to Skye, if she was doing ok.
"I kinda love you." Skye whispered against the top of Jemma's head, running her hands up and down Jemma's back.
"Just kinda?" Jemma arched her eyebrows, resting her chin on Skye's chest and gazed up at her.
"A lota,"
"Me too," Jemma grinned cheekily at Skye.
"I'm sure Terminator would approve." Skye rolled her eyes, twisting a strand of Jemma's hair around her finger.
"Ward isn't so bad."
"No," Skye said carefully, nodding her head. "No, he is. He is the poster child for daddy issues."
"Behave." Jemma warned, tapping Skye on the nose.
"I'm sorry but he had no right to talk to you like he did. He is lucky he is so tall and... Firm or I would've decked him."
"As stupid as that would be I know you aren't kidding."
"How's you dad doing?"
"Ok, my mum passed away two years ago so he moved back to England after that."
"I know, I sent over lilies."
"How did you know?" Jemma asked, rolling her eyes when Skye arched her eyebrows. "Right, of course. Super hacker."
"How are you doing with it all?"
"It never really felt real at first. I threw myself into work after it happened. It never really hit me until a few months later and I completely broke down, Fitz helped me through it all."
"Fitz? He's the engineer, right?"
"This would be creepy if it wasn't you."
"Well, I gotta look after my girl, don't I?"
"Your girl, huh?"
"Well, best friend. Whatever."
"No, I like it." Jemma assured.
"You know I'll have to leave again, right? After they do whatever they're planning on doing with me I'll have to go back to living in my van."
"We can still- hang on, in a VAN?"
"By choice," Skye rushed out. "Like it said, I've been hacking bank accounts, I could live in a high class flat if I really wanted to."
"Then why don't you?"
"I don't know." Skye shrugged. "I like the freedom."
Jemma just rolled her eyes at that, nestling her head under Skye's chin. "You wont just drop of the radar this time, will you? We will stay in touch."
"Yeah. Yeah, for sure." Skye promised, ghosting her fingertips slowly up and down Jemma's arm. "Though, with you jetting all over the world one this damn impressive plane who's to say you wont forget about me?"
"You are hardly forgettable, Skye."
"You're damn right." Skye grinned. "What do you think they're going to do?"
"You hacked into their systems so I think, if you're lucky, they're going to send you up in front of the firing squad."
"And if I'm unlucky?"
"They will send you to Romanoff."
"I have no idea who Romanoff is."
"Heres hoping it stays that way." Jemma teased. "No, I don't think they will do anything with you. They brought you here to scare you, show you what they are capable of, they'll probably just let you go tonight but keep an eye on you."
"I have no reason to hack them if I will be keeping in touch with you."
What Skye hadn't expected was to be taken on as a 'consultant', which then turned into her being an agent. It was a no brainer, really, go back to living in her van alone or stay on this plane with Jemma and help people like she never could as a part of the rising tide.
Sure, Ward was an asshole and May was kind of mean but she was with the girl she loved and Fitz was definitely growing on her.
She would definitely rather be here.