Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bobbi tries to think of Skye as one of the Powered People, the ones that are Dangerous To Our World. She tries to think of her as something abnormal to be used as an asset. She tries to think like a soldier, like Gonzales. But she can't.

When he prepares the mission to go get Skye from the safehouse, Bobbi volunteers to go along.

"It would help to see a familiar face," is her excuse, and it's a good, solid reason. She lets Gonzales detect a hint of something in her voice (affection), but of course he hadn't expected her to stay completely ice-cold towards Coulson's agents: friendship is only to be expected.

So the familiar face thing is Bobbi's cover. Because the affection she feels for Skye?

It's what she felt for Lance Hunter.

It's what she felt for Isabelle Hartley.

It's what she felt for Jemma Simmons.

Bobbi Morse is in love with Skye.

When they land in the middle of the forest, it's dark and she thinks of calling it quits. She thinks of saying, It's too dark to see anything. Let's wait until morning.

But of course, that would be ridiculous and she would get shot in the head for suspected treason. (Besides, Bobbi had volunteered for the mission and she disliked backing out.) So instead, she orders,

"Icers only."

They step off the quinjet and she feels excitement, confidence, happiness, love bubbling in her stomach. But she forces it down because Calderon is good, and she can't let him know she means to grab Skye and take her somewhere safe.

(Bobbi knows the plan is unrealistic, shaky, unstable, stupid; she knows this whole love thing is interfering with her thought process. She knows, and she can't stop it.)

Shots are fired - real bullets from Calderon, damn him - and it's as if time slows down.

Skye instinctively brings her hands in front of her face, as if to protect herself.

Her name is ripped from Bobbi's throat, and the scream rings shrilly through the air.

Bobbi starts forwards, determined to reach Skye before the bullet.

Everything goes still.

The air ripples, like water.

Then everything explodes.

Trees splinter down the middle; a branch impales Calderon; Bobbi is thrown backwards; the bullet is nowhere in sight.

Bobbi hits the ground with a dull thud, and the pain immediately pounces on her, tearing her to shreds. She can't get up.

And when she does, when she finally manages to lift her throbbing head off the ground, all she can make out through the hazy curtain of hurt is a flash of blue.

Skye is gone.

Chapter Text

Skye stumbles through the woods. She can't see a thing, but she knows where she has to go. She has to disable the fence.

Of course, that's when the helicarriers arrive. And now she has to disable the fence, and run away from Them (HYDRA? May had simply said "They're coming for you", and there's always a Them. They are always out to get you.) at the same time.

But now there are at least two more helis, and there is no way she's getting out of here alone. She has to call Gordon. She has to get to somewhere safe and call Gordon, ask him to get her the hell out of there.

So she sprints out to a clearing, away from her pursuers, using their lights to navigate the forest.

And shit, there's one landing over there, so she turns and runs in the other direction. She finds a place where she might be able to stay hidden long enough to -

"Bobbi?" she whispers the name hoarsely, not quite understanding what she's seeing. There's Bobbi, only a few yards away, an icer in her hand, standing next to a man with a gun pointed at her. It's like a punch to the gut, and Skye can't believe this is happening again, she can't believe that someone loves is doing this to her again. 

"Why?" she asks, and even though she only mouthed the word, she knows Bobbi can hear it loud and clear.

And then the gunshot rings out. It's from the man next to Bobbi and she can see Bobbi throwing herself towards Skye, running as if her life depended on it, racing against the bullet. But it's too little, too late, just like everything else. The damage has been done.

The world is moving in slow motion, and Skye knows there's physically nothing she can do to dodge the bullet. There's only one thing left for her now.

She doesn't know if it'll work. Maybe she'll just wind up with extra holes on her hands as well as one in her head. But maybe, maybe she can control all those negative feelings Andrew had told her about, channel them out through her fingers. She keeps her eyes wide open, focusing on Bobbi, on betrayal, fear, anger, sadness. Love.

The world blows away from her. There's a violent ripple in the Earth's crust and trees are torn apart. Chunks of the ground fly everywhere. The bald man gets a tree branch through his stomach, and Bobbi is flipped upside down and hits her head hard. She doesn't get up.

Skye stands on her small mound of earth, safe, regarding the chaos she's caused.

She feels good, powerful. Like all is as it should be.

Then she feels horrified, and manages get out, "Gordon."

The man shows up in a flash of blue. "I'm here," he murmurs, putting his warm arms around her. "It's okay."

And Skye feels sick because she'd just made half the forest explode, she'd just killed people, she might have even killed Bobbi. She doesn't deserve comforting words.

But then she realizes that that whole line thought is fucked up, because they were chasing her for Christ's sake, she was defending herself.

She doesn't feel better. No matter why Bobbi was here, she wasn't HYDRA. If she was, she wouldn't have told loving stories of Isabelle Hartley, or recounted the ups and downs of being Hawkeye's wife, or talked about all the times she'd gotten drunk with Natasha Romanoff, or told them about Kate Bishop.

Skye strains to see around the strands of energy surrounding her and Gordon. She needs to see Bobbi, she decides. She needs to make sure she's alive. She can't see anything clearly, but she can see a shadow lift itself up on its forearm. It's Bobbi, alive. 

Skye is flooded with relief, and slumps back against Gordon as the world slips out from under her feet.