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By the time the team ran into Grant Ward on another spaceship, they just rolled with the fact that he was alive. "How?" asked a clearly annoyed Coulson.
Ward waved at them, excitedly. "Yeah, I don't know how I'm still alive, actually. Hive exploded and the next thing I know, I'm waking up in a spaceship in the future and the Earth is destroyed. Thought maybe it was Hive's fault at first but apparently not. I've been helping out as much as I can," he explained to them.
A tear rolled down Skye's cheek. She had missed him so much since the Framework fiasco and now she was getting another chance to rectify her mistakes. Acting on impulse, she flew towards Ward and kissed him.
Ward wasn't opposed to the idea but he had definitely been caught off guard. "What was that for?" he asked in amazement after he reluctantly pulled away from her.
"I missed you and I'm not wasting another minute on hating you," Skye sheepishly explained with a shrug.
"Wow, what changed your mind?" he asked, now dazed.
She laughed at the look on his face. "It's a long story that I will explain to you later, when we're not trying to escape from the Kree." She grabbed his hand and the group started heading down the hallway. May and Coulson kept glaring at Ward but he ignored them in favor of talking to Skye.
"You two need to get a room," Jemma complained when the two of them repeatedly stopped for kisses.
"We will later, Jemma. Right now, we have more important things to do," Skye told her.
"Like kicking ass," Ward added.
"Lots of ass kicking," Skye corrected, grinning at him. She had wasted so much time being angry, and although Ward wasn't blameless, neither were they. Both sides had massively fucked up, and she intended to make sure it didn't happen again.
May rolled her eyes. "We're going to have to deal with this permanently from now on, aren't we?"
"God help us," Coulson murmured.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Skye definitely was not sorry, though, and they all knew it.
"Whatever you say," Jemma told them and sighed. They did seem happy, though, and she'd try her best to support them.
After the group took care of their latest crisis - quicker than normal with Ward's help - they scattered to deal with their own issues. "Future space food is gross," Skye complained to him.
"I've gotten used to it, and honestly, not the worst I've ever had after living in the woods for five years," Ward told her.
She cringed. "Why didn't you just tell us that from the beginning?"
"I didn't think I had been brainwashed nor that Garrett was abusive. I've had a lot of time to think and come to terms with my life." It hurt but Grant was learning to accept it, moving on, and trying to make up for his fuck ups. It wasn't easy but redemption never was.
"I'm glad you're doing better." Skye was glad she had kissed him - the action had been impulsive but she didn't regret it nor would she ever.
"I want to apologize to you, Skye. I'm so fucking sorry you have no idea. And I know you can't forgive me but I needed you to know." A suddenly nervous Ward wondered if she'd change her mind about them now.
Skye smiled at Ward and then patted his shoulder. "Apology accepted - I forgive you. I hope you can forgive me for some of the shit I did - telling you you should have tried harder, selling you out to your abuser, and a shitload of other things I can't exactly remember right now."
"I mostly blame Coulson for selling me out to Christian but I forgive you too. Fresh start?" he asked her.
"Fresh start," she agreed, kissing him yet again.
Ward apologized to their other team members multiple times - neither Coulson nor May accepted them, but that was okay in his eyes. He couldn't forgive Coulson either for his actions after his initial imprisonment or for what went down on Maveth. They considered themselves even and that was that so they just avoided each other as much as possible. It annoyed Skye but she didn't try to pry because they were both stubborn and neither would change their minds anyway.
"I can't wait to be back in our own time," Jemma complained one day after killing some more Kree.
"I do miss home." Ward just wanted to be back on Earth and in the right time period. He was sick of this timeline.
"Same here." Skye didn't want to be known as the Destroyer of Worlds anymore. It was exhausting trying to defend herself every other day at this point.
Ward wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him, ignoring Jemma's eyeroll. "We'll make it back," he vowed.
"We better," Skye grumbled, and it was in that moment that the ship started shaking quite badly.
"Uh, what the fuck is happening?" Ward asked.
His answer came less than ten seconds later when Fitz suddenly appeared. He didn't even do a double take upon seeing Ward. "Of course you're here. Anyway, we need to go now," he told the urgently.
Jemma rushed to his side to hug him and wouldn't let go. "You've found me," she wept.
"I refused to give up - I already found you once before and wasn't going to let you go again," Fitz replied.
"This is cute and all but can we go?" Skye demanded.
"Grab ahold of each other," FItz ordered and sighed in relief when they did exactly that. He clicked something, everything whited out - Skye thought she had passed out for a brief second - and then they appeared in an abandoned warehouse.
"It was that easy?" asked a confused Coulson.
"I'll have you know we've been working on a plan for months," an outraged Lance answered.
Except for Fitz, they all turned to stare at him. "What are you doing here?" May asked.
"Fitz tracked me down for a favor - Bobbi and I are working for another agency now - and I did an off books mission to help him. You're welcome, by the way." Lance steadfastly ignored Ward and instead hugged everybody else.
Ward apologized to him too and wrote an apology letter to Bobbi, which Lance was willing to take back to her, but that was the extent of their conversation. "You did what you could," Skye told him after Lance left and disappeared from their lives once again.
"I know." He still felt guilty and that wouldn't change, however.
"So where are we going from here?" Coulson asked Fitz.
"The Playground is destroyed and SHIELD's been disbanded again so just to a hotel for now. We'll figure it out later." An exhausted FItz yawned and leaned into Jemma.
"Starting from the ground up. I like it," Ward said. He had a lot to make up for now that everything was back to normal but he knew he could do it.
"So do I. A fresh start," Skye declared. She winked at him and he laughed.
Their next crisis was already upon them but for now, the team sat down to relax for the first time in a long time. They were stronger together and nothing could rip them apart again.