A/N: Not even proofread. Just a splurge.
"It's my resignation. I think Fitz's recovery will speed up if I'm not around anymore."
"Is this what's best for both of you?"
"I think it is, sir."
"I think you're a coward."
Simmons immediately went for her gun (it was an experimental one someone in the lab was working on) and spun around to check out the voice as the hotel room door swung shut behind her. Even though she knew who it was.
"What do you want?" she said, aiming even though his hands were up and he seemed to be unarmed. Still, in hand-to-hand, he could have taken her any day. And he was in her hotel room. He couldn't be trusted.
Ward shrugged. "Mostly to check up on you," he admitted. "Well, okay, that was a lie." He sucked on his lip for a second. "I'm not lying anymore, but it's a bit of a hard habit to break. I came to tell you that you're a coward, I guess. I didn't think too much about it. I just got mad and left. How long have you carried a gun?"
"Since I nearly drowned last year." Simmons looked at him through narrowed eyes. There was so much rage in her. She didn't remember ever having that before. "I'm not sure what to address first," she admitted. "How you got here or the fact that I am not a coward." A pause. "How did you get here? You were locked up so we could all sleep nights."
"It's a long story," Ward said. "A bit complicated. I didn't slaughter my way out of my cell."
"Your arms? Your head?"
"Better, thanks." Of course they didn't let Simmons treat him, but she knew about his injuries all the same.
"Now the bit about the coward. And how I am not one." Her arms were getting tired, yet she didn't budge.
"You know, I was dealing okay, I thought. I got to see Skye so I ignored the part where she hated me. I was grateful. I was taking what I could get. Lots of being pushed around, but if anyone deserved it, I did, so…" He cracked a smile. "And then they told me that you abandoned Fitz." His face was hard. This wasn't the face of the Grant Ward who jumped out of a plane to catch her or the face of the one who pushed her out. This was the face of the man behind the sniper rifle.
Her face turned red. "I did not. Abandon. Fitz."
"You're here, and he's there talking to a projected vision of you. Looks like you did."
"I had to leave!" The gun was hanging by her side, now. She'd forgotten it.
He took a step forward, that much closer to being in her face. "That's crap! What, was it just too hard to watch? How could you leave him? He loves you, dammit!"
"Don't you presume to judge me!" She'd actually dropped the gun now, and was across the hotel room. She could reach out an arm and touch Ward now, but she'd sworn she never would. "How dare you? You tried to kill us! You did this to him!"
"Don't you think I know that?" Ward yelled right back at her. He hadn't raised his voice in months. "But that's what I am, Simmons."
"Don't you say my name, you –"
"I'm a killer, and a stooge, and a traitor. You're supposed to be better than that! I know you hate me, who doesn't? But you're not someone we're supposed to hate. You're supposed to be brave – you were the bravest person I've ever met!" His voice began to lower as he got closer. "You were supposed to watch out for him. How could you leave him? He needs you."
Silence fell around the room as their eyes locked, and they tried to catch their breath to keep yelling, but Simmons couldn't concentrate on the words for the pain in her chest. "He doesn't need me. I didn't just abandon him. That's not what happened."
"He's hurting without you. He loves you." Ward's eyes were round and warm and pained.
"You don't know anything about love," she told him, one last stinger as she sat down heavily on her bed.
"Yeah, and I thought that was another area where you were better than me."