Chapter Text
"How much longer are we going to do this?”
“Until the time comes.” Ward replies. “Again.”
He lifts the lid of the box for all of two seconds before putting it away and turning to his scope. They’ve been at this for what feels like forever – her training, he called it. Inside the box were objects, the kind of things one would find lying around in the house. Skye was supposed to identify each (colour, size, any other details).
“Scrabble tile. M. Yellowish, old I guess. 4 points. Eraser, blue and white. The white end’s been used. Monopoly token. Thimble. Hair tie, one of mine, purple. Broken piece from red ruler. Beer cap.” Skye closes her eyes trying to recall more, “Thumbtack, bent, rusty. Green thread.” There was something else, in the top right corner. “Copper penny, tarnished.”
“Good job, rookie.” He motions her over, tilting his head to the scope.
“Really?”
“I think you’re ready.”
To look that is. She wasn’t going to be shooting any time soon, Ward had made that very clear. (She really needed to stop saying ‘bang’, it was force of habit nowadays.) And besides, she still needed to acquaint herself with the kickback.
Skye lowers to her knees, peering through the scope at the building across theirs, equally dilapidated and definitely a place for shady business. It was aimed at a room on the fifth floor, fourth window from the left and a woman was pacing, long strides. She stops in front of the window, scanning the streets below.
“Go on.” Ward tells her.
Her finger is on the trigger. Squeeze.
The bullet travels through the air, finding its home in…herself.
“Skye!”
Her eyes fly open, hands scrabbling at her chest. Skye pulls at the neck of her sweater, her skin was smooth.
“Skye.”
She was in the Cage. On the Bus. At the Playground. Ward was here. She remembers last night when he’d come in and they’d watched reruns of X-Files until both had conked out.
“Nightmare?”
She nods, closing her eyes.
“Trip?”
She shakes her head.
“New one. It’s – stupid.”
He gives her that look, the one that says he’s not fooled. “It was like being inside during a spin-cycle, Skye.” Ward leans his weight on his left arm, creating a barrier between her and a tumble onto the floor.
“I took myself out.”
Ward freezes. He remembers the paralyzing fear when he’d seen her sprawled on the bed. “With an ICER.” He adds.
“No. A real gun. With real bullets.”
Skye catches him up to speed, with the story of the time he’d taken her on a “mission” that turned out to be just a training exercise for her. Ward had wanted her to become accustomed with the many conditions of field work. He was frowning when she reached where the narratives had diverged.
“That’s not going to happen.”
“I am a walking natural disaster waiting to happen. It’s what we’re supposed to do. Take out threats. I am a threat.” She cuts him off, “We’ve both done it.”
Ward hadn’t even flinched at the prospect of putting a bullet in Mike. She had taken the shot that took Donnie Gill out of the equation.
“This is different –”
“Because you can’t pull the trigger if I’m on the other end?”
“Because it won’t come to that. And I won’t let it happen.”
Skye sighs, scooting back to the wall, the metal a welcome relief against her skin. “You can’t protect me forever, Ward.”
“Who’s stopping me?” He says, looking her straight in her eyes. “And if it comes to that, we go. Leave SHIELD behind.” Ward moves closer, until they’re breaths width apart and she would be the only one listening. “I’ve got IDs, cash, everything for us to disappear. And you can keep us off the grid.”
“You’d do that?”
“Anywhere you want to go. We could live in the mountains, on a ranch, a cabin in the woods, a beach.”
“Not Tahiti.”
He laughs, cupping her head, kissing her. “Fuck no.”
“Are we going to live off the land?”
“If you want. And if you can cope, city girl.”
“Bite me.” He does, a nip to her bottom lip.
“Dogs, as many as we want.”
“You want,” Skye grins. “Is it just us?”
“At first, but then, I was thinking maybe someone could join us. Or a bunch of someones.”
“Grant Douglas Ward,” Skye mock-gasps. “Did you already name them?”
“I thought that would be more of a collaborative effort.”
Skye couldn’t resist the smile. “Tell me more.”
“Girls.” He says, tucking a strand behind her ear. “Beautiful and smart like their mother.”
“Headstrong like their father.”
He rolls his eyes. “As if you’re a stroll in the park.”
“Oh! We have to have a big yard. So they can run around. Tire swing. White picket fence.”
“How about a trip wire fence surrounding the perimeter, pushed back enough so they don’t stumble across it but enough to warn us, in case of intruders?”
“Same difference.”
Skye laughs freely, a first in a long time. They bounce ideas back and forth. The regret resurfaces, a normal life she had chosen to walk away from, to help protect the world. An organization that was hanging by a thread, barely scraping by. It seemed that they were winning battles, yet not making headway in the war.
Ward senses the direction of her thoughts (she really was an open book, or Ward was a mind reader and she was still somewhat convinced of this), stroking her cheek with his thumb.
“Hey, I mean it. If the worse comes, we go. We can have all that.” He wraps his arms around her, head bent just the way he’s covered her all those times in blasts, shielding her, “Say the word and we leave.”