I don't own SHIELD and never will. No copyright infringement intended.
When both the dog and Ward looked at him like he would be the bad guy for separating them, Coulson knew he was fucked. "You rescued this puppy?"
Ward nodded. "I found her hiding behind a dumpster and I had to sit there and wait for her to come out. There aren't any tags so I don't think she has an owner. And I know that we shouldn't have a dog living on the Bus with us, but she doesn't have anyone. Please, she's just a baby."
Yup, Coulson was fucked. He sighed. "You're going to explain this to May, and if she says no we're taking her right back to the shelter." He had a feeling May wouldn't be able to resist the dual puppy dog eyes either, especially since it looked like Ward was already attached to the dog. They all knew about Buddy, and he really didn't want to be the one to tell Ward he couldn't have a pet that already clearly adored him (and the feeling was obviously mutual).
Ward's smile lit up the entire room. "Thank you, sir." He picked up his new dog and bounded off to the cockpit to talk to May.
When May saw the dog she sighed. "You want to explain this?"
Terrified May was about to separate them, Ward held on tighter to the (his) dog. "I found her and she doesn't have a home, May. How can I leave her?"
"There are animal shelters," she pointed out.
"But she's shy. Please, I'll take care of her and you won't even know she's around. I know how to take care of dogs."
May cringed at the reminder of Buddy. Garrett had killed Ward's only pet and was still pretty traumatized by it even though he'd deny it until he was blue in the face. "You promise?"
The dog licked Ward's face and he grinned. "May, I swear to you that I will do everything in my power to take care of her."
"Fine, you can keep her." She wasn't looking forward to the pouting that surely would have come out of her forcing Ward to give the dog up. He probably would have held on to the grudge too and she wouldn't have blamed him. But hey, this made him happy. Grant Ward was rarely ever happy – she wanted to hunt down the people in his life who turned him into the man he was today – and he deserved some love like this. The team loved him, but a pet was different. They love unconditionally.
His delight made her smile. "Thank you so much, May!" Ward carefully set down his puppy and awkwardly hugged her (until that day on the plane when everything was shot to hell, he had never hugged anyone until Skye came into his life).
"You're welcome. Now get out of here and try to come up with a good name for that dog."
"Will do. Thank you again. Come on, little one. Let's go introduce you to the others." Ward watched as the dog trotted down the hallway, next to him. He picked her up to go down the stairs as he headed towards the lab.
Jemma looked up and gasped when she saw Ward's new companion. "Who is this?"
He shrugged. "I don't know her name yet but she's mine." Ward struggled to tamper down his growing terror that someone was going to shoot her because he would die before he let that happen again. This wasn't going to be like Buddy; he'd make sure of it.
"She's beautiful, Ward." And then she went back to work just as Fitz walked in and dropped to the ground the instant he saw the puppy.
"I don't know why this puppy is here but I'm okay with it," he told Ward.
He laughed. "I'm glad, Fitz."
Skye melted the instant she walked in and found Ward and Fitz playing with the puppy. "Coulson told me and I had to come see for myself. You have a name for her yet?"
"I'm still trying to figure it out because I can't come up with anything. Naming something is harder than I thought it would be." Ward wrapped his arms around the puppy when she climbed into his lap and instantly fell asleep.
Skye quickly and quietly snapped a picture on her phone and decided she'd have to frame it later so Ward could have a permanent reminder of the moment. And then she started shouting out random names – which Ward vetoed – and the four (five when Trip wandered in halfway through) of them started debating. By the time Coulson and May came in they were all shouting at each other. The puppy walked over to them and sat down on Coulson's feet. "What's going on with them, puppy?" he questioned.
The dog whined and stared up at them. "Have you at least narrowed the choices down?" May finally asked.
"We're down to Captain Stark, Queen, Leia, Alexis, and Science," Trip responded, rolling his eyes.
"I already vetoed Captain Stark!" Fitz cried.
"And I vetoed Science because it's not a good name for a dog. Somebody choose something better and do it quick," Jemma ordered. She glared at them, tired of this argument.
"I liked Captain Stark," Skye mumbled underneath her breath. Everyone had shot down her superhero names until the point she started combining them for the hell of it.
That's the exact moment Ward realized what her name should be. "Lake!"
The puppy cocked her head and stared at him. "Lake?" asked Skye.
"Yeah, her name is Lake. Don't ask me why I chose it, but the decision is final. And now she's overstimulated so we're going to go." Ward picked Lake back up and waved as he left the lab.
"She can be a great therapy dog – we've been saying he needed one." Trip just wanted Ward to get better – he always offered his shoulder for the other specialist to lean (and sometimes cry) on when he couldn't talk to the others. He had worked under Garrett for a while and understood the man in ways the others hadn't ever seen.
"She'll be good for him. He'll protect that dog like his life depends on it." May then departed the lab and headed back up the cockpit. Coulson, FitzSimmons, Trip, and Skye ended up in a conversation about dog breeds for some reason and that took up a lot of their time.
Ward actually fell asleep on the couch with Lake lying on top of him that night (Skye took another picture). She became a part of the team in time. And the two of them always took care of each other when the situation warranted it.