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Skye always found that she somehow ended up closest to that which she wished to be farthest from.
She hated S.H.I.E.L.D and then one ordinary day she found herself on The Bus, talking to the director himself. Then she hated HYDRA and the next thing she knew, they had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. Raina, Whitehall, Garrett, HYDRA, HYDRA, HYDRA. Everything she wanted far away always found a way back to her.
Grant Ward, for example, who is currently tied to a chair just a few feet away from her, staring her down.
“What?” she finally asks. She doesn’t want to talk to him.
“I’m not sorry I brought you here. I figure right now you’re thinking of how angry you are that you’re here, but I’m not sorry for it.”
She snorts. “Of course you’re not. You’re not sorry for anything you’ve done to us. If you were, you’d still be in handcuffs right now, under the supervision of your brother.”
He shakes his head and closes his eyes to try to remain calm. The brother issue always hits a nerve. “My brother was not a good guy. Yes, for a while, my judgment on what is “good” was a little off, but I get it now. Garrett was a bad guy. Coulson is a good guy.”
“Most people don’t have such a hard time seeing things that are so black and white.”
This time he snorts. “I seem to recall someone working overtime in her van to try to take down S.H.I.E.L.D.”
That was different. She didn’t know any better. She never murdered anyone or betrayed her friends. She thinks all of this while glaring at him because now she really doesn’t want to talk to him.
“Like I was saying, I’m not sorry for bringing you here. I was just trying to keep my promise-“
“Your promises don’t mean anything to me.”
“-But I am sorry for the way I brought you here. It wasn’t my intention to kidnap you. I knew you wanted to meet your father, I knew if I just asked you to come, May would put an end to it before I even got the question out… so I adlibbed,” he shrugs as if this entire event has been nothing more than a little improv performance at a comedy club. The man sitting across from her is very different than the man she once thought she knew.
“So this is the real Grant Ward, huh? When you’re not showing blind loyalty to a psychopath or pretending to be an agent, you go around kidnapping people like it’s no big deal and just shrugging it off?
“The real Grant Ward is a man who keeps his promises, tells the truth, and does whatever it takes to keep you safe. I got you off The Bus that was about to be shot at, and I got you to your father.”
“The Bus,” she suddenly remembers. “Did they really shoot it down?”
“No.”
She expects him to point out that the reason that didn’t happen is because he didn’t follow through on his orders from Whitehall, but he doesn’t.
In the silence that follows, she hears gunshots, and something that she should have realized minutes ago finally clicks and she sees everything play out in her mind. The Bus wasn’t shot down, May told Coulson that Ward took her, and they came here to rescue her. And now they’re being shot at while she sits powerless.
“So, you’re not sorry you brought me here. Are you sorry that by fulfilling your promise you left me with my not-so-sane father?” she asks Ward just to start up another conversation to distract from the battle taking place just outside.
“I didn’t leave you. I was right outside the door. I would’ve gotten you out of there if I heard him turn into the Hulk or something. The man’s got some anger issues.”
She agrees, and even finds it a little funny, but refuses to admit to either. “Right outside the door? You really don’t have much faith in the person you trained.”
He looks over at her, staring right into her eyes. “It’s not about faith.”
She thinks back to what Raina said just a few minutes ago and realizes that he’s still trying to play it up. “Don’t bother. You don’t love me any more than you love whatever organization you’re currently pretending to work for. Raina is just as oblivious to reality as you are.”
He listens to her and doesn’t bother. More silence. More gunshots. She tries tapping her foot, even pressing one ear against her shoulder to dull the noise. Ward looks over at that.
“So what’s your plan?” he asks, and Skye suspects he only does it because he knows she’s looking for a distraction. “I know you don’t trust me, but you just saw me pull a gun on Whitehall. I don’t think there’s any reason for me to dig a deeper hole with S.H.I.E.L.D. than I already have.”
“I’m gonna get out of here,” she says immediately to continue blocking out the sound of her friends fighting to the death. “And I’m going to the tunnels for the Obelisk.”
“No,” he tells her as if she has just asked him a simple question.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re not going down there. It’s too dangerous.”
“You really don’t get it, do you? You’re not calling the shots. You don’t have any say in the shots. I don’t care what you think is too dangerous for me.”
He smiles and finally looks away. “You’re pretty frustrating, you know that? I know, I know, I’m awful. I’m the enemy. I have no right to tell you what you need to hear, but your father and your other guardian, Coulson, are out there fighting each other while your new S.O. is somewhere in the crossfire, so someone has to. People are out there fighting for you, risking their lives, and you expect me to just let you walk off to your death?”
Skye rolls her eyes but doesn’t argue.
“You can handle it; whatever is down there, you’re stronger than it. But-“
“But what? What did you train me for? What did May train me for, if not for this? I need to be able to not need a rescue team every time something happens to me. You’re right. I can handle it. So “but” what?”
“But what if you can’t?” he shouts.
She’s taken aback by his outburst but quickly recovers. “So? What do you care? You’re done with me. You tricked me, you left, you got me here… what does it matter to you if something happens to me now?”
She doesn’t mean to sound so upset, but she can’t find the rage inside of her that’s been so easy to access these past few months. Sitting in a room with just him, needing to fill the silence… it’s hard for her true feelings to not come through. In the grand scheme of things, it’s easy to forget, but when it all comes down to it, beneath the anger and betrayal, this man broke her heart.
He looks at her for a long time before answering, his tone soft. “It wasn’t part of my mission to get a… love interest. If that had been part of it, I wouldn’t be working so hard to get you to stop hating me.” He clears his throat and quickly looks anywhere but at her. “Anyways, I am sorry if that’s truly what you think… that I got what I wanted from S.H.I.E.L.D. so now I’m done with you.” She’s surprised when he laughs once, and then adds, “It would be a lot easier if I was.”
So he thinks she hates him and she thinks he doesn’t care about her. Skye wonders why this is so difficult for them.
He screwed everyone over, gave her every reason in the world to hate him, and yet she feels safe with him, she trusts him now, hell, she even wants to thank him for bringing her to her father.
And he is a trained agent. He went on missions all the time, getting close to people to get something from them. Yet his mission with S.H.I.E.L.D. is over, and he still can’t put it behind him. He is risking his life just to make Skye happy. Not caring about her certainly isn’t the problem.
“Got it!” he yells, interrupting her thoughts. “I hid a knife in my jacket. I finally found it, now I just have to cut through.” He starts slicing away. “I’ll leave you here while I go help. This is the safest place for you.”
He cares about her to a fault, and that caring isn’t going to let her do what she has to do.
Skye realizes what has to happen next. She has to hate him, just for a few moments.
“Ward…” she says quietly. She looks sad, maybe even desperate. She doesn’t have to say anything else because whatever it is on her face makes Ward change his mind. Maybe it would be easier if he didn’t care. Skye keeps her eyes on his as he cuts her free.
“Please don’t do anything dumb, but you’re right. I’m not going to force you to stay behind. I’m sorry your little family reunion didn’t go as planned… the least I can do is get you out of here. Sit down while I check the door.”
She stands and crosses over to the body lying on the ground. She has to move quickly. She has to make a sacrifice. She has to stop him before he can stop her.
She grabs the gun and doesn’t let herself think about it anymore. She aims for his vest. She spent enough time with him to know where he’s shielded. She doesn’t shoot him once; he’d be able to shake that off too quickly. She shoots five times and he finally drops. He looks stunned.
“Never turn your back on your enemy. You taught me that.”
Even if the shots had left him with some strength, her words stop him from making any attempt at following her. She knows this because she knows him. And now she knows she can go save him and everyone else.