Title: The Bodyguard
Chapter 01: Grant
Author: snarkysweetness
Rating: R
Characters: Skye, Grant, Melinda, Phil, Trip, Kate Bishop, Donnie, Fitz, Jemma, Maria Hill, Marcus Daniels, Ian Quinn, Clint Barton, Sharon Carter, & America Chavez; Skye/Grant, Melinda/Phil, Fitz/Simmons/Trip, & implied America/Kate
Summary: When Coulson assigns Agent Grant Ward to bodyguard duty he isn't happy about it. He's even less thrilled when he discovers he's assigned to Coulson's daughter, his old Academy frenemy turned international pop star. With an obsessive fan threatening Skye's life and a world tour filled with shenanigans our two heroes are in for a whirlwind of adventure, romance, and secrets.
Warnings: Swearing, typical AOS-type violence, very mild sexual content.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Notes: Annie demanded pop star/bodyguard AU and as always I took it too fucking far.
"Sir, you want me to do what?"
Special Agent Grant Ward stood leaning against a wall with his arms crossed watching his Supervising Officer with a mix of shock and horror. Surely he wasn't actually asking him to do this. He was a specialist, an assassin, not a goddamn babysitter. He glanced over to his partner who looked ready to piss himself with amusement. If anyone was suited for this mission it was Trip and even that would be a waste of good talent.
"You heard me, from this moment on you're going to be Skye's personal bodyguard. Wherever she goes, you go; you are to be a permanent presence at her side. If there's a threat you eliminate it. Do you have a problem with that?"
He scoffed as he pushed away from the wall. "Yes, sir, I do. I'm sorry, I know she's your daughter, but this is below my-"
At that moment The Cavalry herself walked into the room and shot Grant a look so cold his throat went dry and every fear he'd ever had flashed through his mind. It was one thing when Deputy Director Coulson was telling you to take a mission protecting his irritating daughter who happened to be an international pop star, it was an entirely different thing when Agent 'I can kill a man with my pinky' May was telling you to do it. He should have known his refusal would involve her; she was her mother after all.
"I don't even have a choice do I?"
May shot him a 'look' and he sighed, running a hand over his face. "What happened to Bishop? Last I heard she was her bodyguard, I really think she's more suited for this given her personality. What's happened? She's couldn't keep her cover as an airheaded member of her entourage anymore? Did babysitting prove to be too difficult for her? I know she's a human disaster like Barton but that seems a bit much even for her."
"Man shut the hell up," Trip snapped, shooting him a glare.
"What?" He knew they were friends but Ward had a hard time taking anyone with that kind of mouth seriously, it was why he'd always known Skye Coulson was never going to cut it as an agent and he'd been right.
"Agent Bishop was injured in the line of duty." Coulson dumped a file onto the desk. Before Grant could mutter an apology Coulson was speaking again. "Marcus Daniels, unregistered gifted. After a lab accident he gained the power to harness the energy around him, including the energies of other people which produces what Fitzsimmons call 'darkforce'; he's basically a human weapon and he's taken a liking to Skye."
"Liking is putting it lightly, Coulson. He's obsessed with her. It started with sending her letters, then stalking, and it's escalated to death threats," Hill cut in from her corner. "Agent Bishop was injured protecting her and is now in a coma; she's lucky to be alive."
Great, now he felt like an asshole.
"Fitzsimmons are working on a device that will incapacitate him long enough for us to apprehend him. Until that happens we just need you to keep her safe. Play your cover as her boyfriend well so the media along with Daniels buys it. As soon as we have the weapon a team lead by Agent Triplett will move in and take him out."
"How do you plan to-wait, you're going to use her as bait?"
She wasn't even his daughter and he was horrified.
Coulson shot him a glare. "Don't worry, he's not getting anywhere near her. I'll kill him myself before I let that happen."
"She's more capable than any of you let on. She did complete her field training, you know," May directed to Coulson.
"Yeah and now she's running around the world wearing next to nothing," Grant retorted before he could stop himself.
"Agent Ward do you and I need to take this-"
"May," Coulson warned sternly and to Grant's surprise she backed off.
"Can you do this or do I need to send you to infiltrate some insurgents in Afghanistan?"
He bit the inside of his cheek. The six months he'd spent in Jordan had been hell and he didn't doubt Hill would send him to the Middle East just for fun; she hated him and she'd do it in a heartbeat.
He shoved down his pride and shook his head. "No, Ma'am. I've got this."
Hill gave him a smug smirk. "Good boy," she said in a condescending tone before heading to the door.
May followed but stopped in front of him and gave him a sharp glare. "If you screw this up and I mean if there is a scratch on her at any point of this I will have you shackled to a desk for the rest of your career, got it?"
If it'd been anyone else he would have said something but since this was the Cavalry he just nodded like an obedient soldier.
Once they were alone Grant turned to Coulson who held up one finger. "Don't. I know this is beneath your pay grade and not in your job description but you're the only person I trust with this, Grant." Before he could open his mouth to point out Trip could always do this Coulson was speaking again. "Please, you're like a son to me, and I wouldn't ask you to do this if it wasn't important. This is my little girl, Grant, if anything happens to her…please; for me."
Coulson never played the mentor card. They both knew this was a guilt trip but they also knew he was going to do it anyway. He'd complain about it but he'd do it.
"Fine, just make sure Fitzsimmons hurry up with that device. Boy toy is my least favorite cover."
Coulson smirked and patted him on the shoulder before leaving.
Grant sighed and turned find Trip was still thoroughly amused.
"Fuck off," he muttered as he led him out of the room and down the hall to the elevator.
"Why are you complaining? I'd love to be protecting a beautiful girl; it'll be like a vacation; a sexy vacation."
Grant pressed the button to the elevator aggressively and growled beneath his breath. "Yeah, well why don't you do it? You're her best friend, you should be the one assigned to her; at least you know you won't kill each other."
"Because of my family, man, I'm the grandson of a Howling Commando, I can't do these missions that involve a big media presence, I'm too well known for that shit. That's why we always send you in to do undercover ops, bro.
Besides, what is your problem with Skye anyway," he asked as they stepped into the car. "We were all friends at one point, remember? Back in our Academy days you used to be head over-"
"Don't," Grant warned.
"Fine, then tell me why whenever anyone says her name you look ready to kill someone."
Once the doors closed Grant crossed his arms and glanced over at his partner. "Because…" he sighed. He could feel his blood boiling, a side-effect usually brought on by one Skye Qiaolian Coulson. He reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "Look, I'm going to say it but you can't get mad at me when I do it. You can't ask someone to be honest with you and then get pissed off when they tell you the truth."
Trip snorted. "Bro, I don't get angry."
Grant pulled his hand away from his face and snorted as he looked at Trip. "Dude, you're the coolest person in the world unless it involves your girls or Fitz." He was pretty sure if anyone every harmed Bishop, Carter, Chavez, Coulson Junior or either of those dumb science babies Trip would completely unleash a Hulk-rage.
Trip grinned. "Hey, man, I'd defend you too. That's what you do for family."
He rolled his eyes again. "Fine." He really didn't want to do this. "Look, aside from the fact that she's always been a pain the ass?"
"And you're not-so-secretly in love with her? Continue."
Grant ignored him. He was used to Trip's ridiculous fantasies about his love life. There was no point in arguing with him, he would just insist it was 'passion'.
"I have zero respect for anyone who can be born into a family of legends, raised in this organization, go through the Academy with top marks, and then when it's time to go into the field decides to abandon it all to pursue some frivolous career in singing. It's selfish and irresponsible and proof that I was always right about her not being cut out to be an agent. And now I'm going to have to babysit her instead of doing my job?" He scoffed in disgust as he realized he was going to be stuck with her pretending to be her boyfriend which meant he had to play nice with her in public.
Sometimes he really hated his life.
Trip didn't tell him off like he expected. Instead he gave him a long, hard stare before shaking his head. "Man, you need to get that stick out of your ass. Let it breath. It's not good for you to be that coiled up, dude."
Grant rolled his eyes and followed him out of the elevator. "And how do you suggest I do that? Start having threesomes with my co-workers?" He teased.
"You're not suave enough to pull that off my man, but yeah, something like that," Trip answered as he entered the lab.
"Something like what?" Simmons glanced up from her microscope and gave them each a smile.
Trip placed a hand on her lower back and leaned down to kiss her quickly. "Nothing, baby, Grant's just got a stick up his ass."
She furrowed her brows and snorted. "Doesn't he always? Next time tell me something I don't already know to be a fact."
"Nice to see you too, Jemma."
"Don't tease Ward, Jemma. He has to go pretend not to be in love with Skye while sharing a bed with her," Fitz called from the walled off section of the lab.
"Wait! We are not sharing a-And why does everyone think-" Grant never got to finish his protest because a huge explosion sounded through the small space.
Trip shoved Jemma to the ground as they all took cover. Grant was the first to look up to find Fitz stepping out from a cloud of smoke with a fire extinguisher in his hand.
"Jemma, take note, that experiment was a failure."
"Oh, you think, Fitz?" She called angrily as she looked over Trip's shoulder. She shoved him away and stood to go inspect Fitz's disaster. They began arguing about science and Grant tuned them out, having learned to do it long ago for the sake of his sanity.
"I think your bed is going to be short one person tonight," Grant muttered as he helped Trip to his feet.
"Nah, they're always like this," he said with a shrug as he glanced over to the bickering duo. He watched them with fond smile, totally into their argument.
Grant made a face as he moved his gaze from Trip to Fitzsimmons. He didn't understand their weird foreplay and he didn't want to. He didn't care what his friends wanted to do in their personal lives as long as they did their jobs.
"Fitzsimmons, before you start making out over there and give Trip a hard-on can you give me an update on where you are with this gadget-"
"It's a blast-gun," Fitz corrected with a glare.
Grant did his best to hide a smirk. Uptight Fitz was his favorite.
"It's going to inject Daniels with so much energy that he won't be able to absorb all of it. It'll be like…shorting out a circuit. Too much energy will overwhelm him which will incapacitate him long enough to weaken him with the ICERs and arrest him."
"Are you sure this will work?"
Fitz shot him a glare.
"Right," Grant muttered as Jemma interrupted.
"Well, it should work in theory. It could also cause him to generate so much darkforce that he will combust and die," she pointed out.
"Either way Skye is safe and a bloody mad criminal is off the streets!" Fitz sputtered angrily.
"It'll work," Trip assured as he ran a hand over the back of Fitz's neck and Grant was about to yell at them about the PDA in the lab when he pulled it back to reveal it was covered with blood.
"Oh, Fitz, this is why we can't have a monkey, the poor thing wouldn't last a week," Simmons scolded.
"I'll leave you two to handle this," Grant said with a shake of his head. He loved his best friend but he took the experiments too far sometimes. He was so used to him blowing things up he didn't even bother to worry about his injuries anymore; this was just a normal day when you were friends with Fitz.
"Where are you going?" Fitz looked up from where Trip and Simmons were in the middle of bickering over who got to patch him up. Trip had the first-aid kit in hand but Simmons was the medical doctor so she won, like always.
"To collect my fake girlfriend for the world's worst vacation."
"Ten bucks says they make-out by the end of the mission," Fitz muttered to his boyfriend.
"Nah, I got twenty they 'hate'-fuck by the end of the week," Trip answered.
Grant rolled his eyes and met Simmons' gaze. She said nothing; she just gave him a sad look before turning her attention to Fitz. "This is going to need stitches, love, I'll be right back," she whispered as she pressed a kiss to his temple and disappeared into the supply room.
Grant knew if he followed her she'd be crying. Or angry. Or both.
When Skye had left the team Simmons had seen it as a betrayal and the two former best friends no longer spoke. Fitz had been hurt but had done his best to try to understand why she felt she couldn't do this and of course Skye could kill them all and Trip would still love her. Grant knew it put both Fitz and Trip in an awkward place with their girlfriend which only added to Grant's dislike of Skye.
Plus, Jemma was like a little sister to him, even if he didn't like to admit it.
Jemma couldn't forgive her and Fitz missed her and Trip loved her and Grant barely tolerated her so they generally avoided the topic of her altogether. Though, he wondered how in the hell they handled it at home. She was basically Trip's family.
Why was he even thinking about this? He didn't care.
And he certainly didn't miss the days when the seven of them would get into trouble together like the dysfunctional little family they were. And sure, maybe he'd had a fleeting crush on her but he was eighteen at the time, everyone did dumb shit when they were eighteen. He'd even had a huge crush on Romanoff at eighteen and tried to flirt with her. It had ended with her breaking his wrist and shame that he had yet to live down. His friends never forgot anything.
After searching Coulson and May's offices he headed down to the Infirmary and sure enough there she was; sitting at Bishop's bedside with her guitar propped up against her chair. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and entered the room.
"Are you ready to go? We don't have all day, princess." His tone was gruffer than he intended, but she brought out the worst in him so really it was her fault.
He expected some snarky or snide remark from her but instead she turned to him and he could see she'd been crying. Shit, he felt like an asshole again. She gave him a short nod and turned away to wipe her eyes. She looked terrible. He knew that look; it was guilt.
He shouldn't feel this surprised, she was a bleeding heart, but he hadn't expected to see her falling apart. He opened his mouth to apologize but was nearly knocked over by fucking Chavez as she rushed into the room.
Skye quickly jumped to her feet to allow her room to clutch at Kate's hand and look her over. "I cannot believe you let my partner get hurt!"
"Excuse me, the last time I checked I was your partner; someone just doesn't want to admit she has a lesbian crush," she muttered. "Besides: it's not Skye's fault some psycho with powers is in love with her," Carter said while rolling her eyes as she strolled into the room." She crossed her arms, gave Grant a look of disdain and glanced at Skye with pity in her eyes. "Why do you always attract assholes, Skye?"
"I hate you all," Grant muttered.
All of his friends were assholes.
"Whatever, just try to keep your hands to yourself, yeah? She's too good for you."
Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. "Sharon, this is not the time."
She made a disapproving noise in the back of her throat and moved towards her partner who was whispering for Kate to wake up so she could kick her ass for putting her through this. "Of course not, because it looks like you've lost her. Ten minutes into this Op and you can't even keep an eye on her. Tsk. Tsk."
Grant snorted. Yeah, he was not going to fall for Sharon's tri-he looked around the room frantically.
"Shit," he muttered as he rushed out of the room in search of his runaway pop star while Sharon's chuckles filled the hallway behind him.