Ward slowly opened his eyes and looked down at his chest. He groaned as he saw the bandaging wrapped around his torso.

He groaned over dramatically, "am I dead?"

Skye jumped and quickly let go of his hand, "you're awake! I can't believe it!"

"I may be lazy," he joked, "but I'm not the kind of man to sleep all day."

"No," she laughed, "you only slept for two and a half days."

"That long? Gross," he grimaced.

She laughed, "I'm glad you're ok."

"Me too."

She was about to stand up and leave when she saw him flex his hand.

"This is for you."

She picked up what he was holding out to her and she brought a hand up to cover her mouth.

"How did you get this?"

He smirked, "It caught my eye as we were leaving so I went back to get it for you. They probably wouldn't even have gotten close to us if I hadn't done that."

"You let us almost get captured by pirates so that you could get me this?"

He nodded, "well I couldn't let this trip be a waste of time for you, now could I?"

She smiled and leaned down to kiss him on the cheek, "thank you."

"Anytime."

___________________

Skye sat on her bed as she absentmindedly fingered the dirt stained locket. She didn't care one bit that it was dirty, that could easily be fixed, the inside however, was priceless.

She opened the locket and stared at the portraits inside. On the left hand side was a tiny portrait of what she assumed was her mother. She heard stories about this picture, it was a famous painting of the legendary pirate, she just had no idea that the original was so tiny and the big one was just a copy.

She let a tear trickle down her face when she saw the picture beside it. It was Melinda May smiling while holding an infant. She brushed her fingers along the painting of her mom's face.

"Oh mom, why did you have to go and die on me?" she joked through her tears.

"Thank you, Grant," she whispered as she cradled the locket and kissed it.

____________________

"Wow, I'm surprised to see you up already," Skye raised her eyebrows as she watched Grant steer the wheel of the ship.

He shot her a small smirk, "I've had enough injuries that I'm pretty used to being on my feet again quickly."

"I can see that," she laughed.

"Besides, couldn't let my men scare you off the ship while I was asleep. You must've been so bored while I was sleeping."

She shrugged her shoulders, "not really, I kept busy."

"Well now you're just trying to hurt my feelings."

She laughed, "I'm only joking. Who else was going to keep me sane on this ship?"

She pointed to the crewmen who were singing another verse of "Drunken Sailor," happy to sing again now that they knew their captain was going to be okay.

Ward sent a small smile their way as he watched them dance around the deck.

"Well with me being unconscious for so long they must've not gotten any of their chores done."

She knocked his arm with her elbow, causing them both to sway slightly, "you're right, they were just busy helping me patch you up."

"You patched me up?" he said raising an eyebrow.

"Course," she smiled at him, "just because I'm a princess doesn't mean I can't take care of a gunshot wound," she scoffed.

He held a hand against his chest and teased her, "so you saw me without a shirt on? Well now I'm embarrassed."

She laughed and tried to hide the faint blush that covered her cheeks, "nothing to be embarrassed about," she said quietly to herself.

She watched as a small smirk grew on his face and inwardly cursed her inability to keep her mouth shut.

__________________

"Why did you give this to me?"

Ward looked up from behind his desk in his cabin and smiled at the small locket she was holding up for him to see, "like I said, princess, couldn't let your trip be a complete waste of time, now could I?"

"No, I want the truth."

"That is the truth."

She shook her head, "no it's not. I've seen you play poker against your men and I know the look you get when you're bluffing. You're a good liar, Ward, but everyone has a tell. When you keep telling me that you gave this to me to make my trip worth while, I know that you're lying. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out why else you would give this to me, but I want to know."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he stood up and walked towards her. He grabbed her hands in his and looked deep into her eyes, "look Skye, as much as it scares me to say it and as much as it will probably scare you to hear it, I've been fighting this thing ever since I met you," he looked away for a moment and then slowly turned his head to meet her gaze again. She smiled at him, silently telling him to continue, "I care about you, Skye. Ok? That's why I did it. I saw the necklace and knew that I wanted you to have it."

"So..." she trailed off with a smirk, "you like me."

"Well I wouldn't say lik-"

He was cut off by a pair of lips. It took him a few seconds before he realized what was happening and by the time it finally register that she was kissing him, she had already pulled back, "if you wanted to give me something memorable," she said as she gave him a lopsided grin and turned away, heading towards her cabin, "you should've given me that too."