I don't own Agents of SHIELD nor will I ever. No copyright infringement intended.
When they returned home from their adventures in space, the team struggled to re-adjust after everything they had been through. So when bright light appeared and started racing towards them, Skye shouted "fuck" right before everything went black. She groaned when somebody started shaking her awake. "Leave me alone," she muttered angrily.
"Wake up, Skye!" shouted a clearly panicked Fitz.
She groaned again, reluctantly and slowly opening her eyes. "What is it?"
"We're back in the Framework somehow," Jemma replied, a troubled look on her face.
Skye stood up so fast that poor Fitz fell to the ground when he lost his balance. "Sorry, Fitz. What the fuck?" she asked as she wrapped her arms around herself.
Jemma shrugged, the look of fear and anger echoed on all their faces. "That bright light did something. What was that? And we destroyed the Framework so it shouldn't be here. This is impossible."
"How many impossible things have we been through lately?" Fitz pointed out.
"We need to find Ward," declared Skye.
Jemma squinted her eyes and glared at her friend. "Why exactly?"
"Because he helped us before, Jemma." And she was feeling some sort of strange pull towards him but wasn't about to tell either of them that.
"She's right. Let's go find, Ward." Fitz followed Skye's lead, and Jemma reluctantly walked with them both.
"Where are you even going?" Jemma questioned. At least nobody seemed to be out and about, which was strange, but she was grateful anyway.
"To the Playground," Skye answered, knowing instinctively that's where Ward was.
Fitz and Jemma exchanged worried, confused glances just as an explosion went off blocks away. All three of them flinched and started to hurry. "Why don't we take a car instead of walking?" he suggested.
Skye shook her head. "Nah, this is better."
"What is happening?" Jemma hissed.
"I think she knows deep down or something," Fitz whispered back.
Although Skye would normally call them out, she ignored their conversations and plowed full speed ahead. Another explosion and this time, she didn't even hear it because she was so deep in thought.
Half an hour later, the trio finally made it to the Playground and found no resistance - or the Resistance. "I'm sufficiently terrified beyond belief," Jemma announced, trying to quell her shaking her body.
The two of them reluctantly followed Skye into the common room and found Ward sitting on the couch. He jumped up and gaped at the three of them. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back in your world?" he questioned, worried about Skye's safety.
"We were. Something brought us back," Fitz explained to him.
"Skye - Daisy - are you okay?" he asked her.
She nodded. "Yeah. Are you okay?" she parroted back.
"I'm fine." Then he frowned. "Feels like I blinked back into existence or something. It was really fucking weird."
"Same for us." Jemma wanted to glare at him but honestly, it wasn't worth the effort. Especially with the way Skye was looking at Ward.
"I missed you," Skye suddenly admitted. Although busy in space (trying to escape and help take down other aliens), she hadn't been able to stop thinking about this version of Grant Ward.
He ducked his head and grinned. "Really?"
"We should probably go," Fitz tried.
"We're not separating. That's a terrible idea," Jemma pointed out, knowing they were about to witness something they didn't want to see but couldn't stop.
Skye laughed nervously. "Really, Ward." Then she surged forward on her tiptoes and kissed him.
He melted into it and eagerly kissed her back. The dumbstruck look on his face when they finally pulled apart made her laugh. Then the whole building started to shake. "Was that you?" he shouted at her.
She shook her head. "Definitely not me!" Panicked, Skye grabbed his hand and held onto it for dear life. Then realization struck. "We're supposed to take him back to the real world with us. That's why we're here."
"What? Why?" asked Jemma as the shaking intensified.
Skye didn't get a chance to answer because everything went black again. The four of them came to on the boardwalk - the exact spot they had been in before being deposited in the Framework. Confused, Ward refused to leave Skye's side. "What just happened? Where am I?" He could tell something was different and it was throwing him off.
Skye grinned, knowing instinctively this was supposed to happen. She kissed him again before easing him into the situation. "Welcome to the real world, Grant Ward. You're an actual, real human being now." Now they just needed to figure out why he was here and if it was a permanent trip.
After having been through so much the past few years, nobody else on the team was really surprised when Skye, Jemma, and Fitz showed up with an alive Grant Ward.