Moving On But Not Forgiving

Spoilers: 3x09 Sneak Peek

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

"I will never forgive him." – Daisy Johnson about Grant Ward, 2015

None of them saw it coming, even weeks later Coulson still raged about Rosalind Price's actions that day. No one could understand why Grant Ward took the actions he did that day, why he saved his enemy at the expense of himself. Even two months after the fact, Grant Ward looked at Daisy Johnson with apologetic eyes and no answer as to why he saved them all.

Two Months Before

It had been a trap, or at least it had been by Gideon Malick and Rosalind Price's viewpoint. Coulson and Ward were going for each other and when they agreed to meet and end it, both Price and Malick had been waiting. They'd used the personal war between the two men to target two organizations at once. The four heads of four organizations all stood with weapons of some kind pointed at each other.

"I think it's time to end this little standoff." Price moved her free hand and one of her men threw a canister on the ground, nothing happened as it hit concrete.

Coulson tilted his head slightly as did Ward. "Seems your little weapon is useless." The man looked over at Price, "you sure they set it right?"

It was the grin on Gideon Malick's face that made even Ward uneasy. "No, he has something else up his sleeve."

"Coulson!" It was Mack's voice as he moved into the warehouse, a limp Daisy Johnson in his arms and both Morse and May behind him. "They did something to her, shot her with something."

Ward saw who Mack held and turned his weapon on Malick. "What did you do to her?"

"Mr. Coulson, despite Mr. Ward's attempts at rebuilding HYDRA, he's failed massively. I assure you that today SHIELD dies." He pressed his watch and the canister on the ground begain to hiss. "Either you die or your turn, at which point Ms. Price will eliminate you. Goodbye Mr. Coulson."

Malick walked away as Price's men moved around them, gas-masks on their faces. Weapons forcing them all back near the canister. Ward looked around and saw Mack beginning to cough, his grip on the woman in his arms failing. They all started coughing and Coulson looked at Ward, as if realizing they'd been played.

"Coulson." He got the man's attention. "Destroy them." With that he threw himself on the canister, to stop the gas spreading. Ward felt the rock slowly encase him, having heard about what the gas could do. As his vision slowly closed away, he saw the team fighting their way out, his former rookie laying on the ground a few feet from him. He let himself fall into death seeing her beautiful face one last time.

Two Months After Incident

Grant Ward rested against the white walls of his room, the octagonal design of the wall familiar in a wrong way. Leaning his head back, he looked at what used to be his bed but was nothing but ash. A nightmare had led to him being angry and the anger caused the flames, flames he didn't want but had to learn to accept.

The door to his room opened and he looked up to see a familiar face, at least one he'd become accustomed to seeing since his transformation. Skye, or Daisy as she told him to call her, immediately walked over and held out a beer to him. He took it and she sat down beside him, her own in hand.

"Wanna talk about it?"

He merely looked ahead, "do I look like I want to talk?"

"Apparently the new therapist likes to ask that question a lot when she asks others about their issues. Thought I'd try to be professional and ask." She took a sip of her beer, "seems like you hate sleep, you destroyed the bed."

Ward looked to the side at her. "Attempting to form art by burning things, isn't going well."

"There's a junk pile in one of the rooms, if that sense of humor becomes serious let me know. I'll bring you some of the junk to try it on."

"Why are you here Daisy?" He stared ahead at the burned object that seemed to be a topic of discussion. "Your boyfriend is probably missing you."

She just shrugged, "maybe I want to be nice after being pissed at you for so long."

Silence stayed between them for a few minutes before Ward spoke. "Coulson, Dixon, Sparky and you have all asked me the same question. Why did I throw myself on the canister that day?"

"Why did you?" She actually turned her head to look at him.

"I could either die with the rest of you or die giving you a chance to kill Malick and Price." He shook his head slightly. "Malick targeted me, I planned on killing him eventually. Price just pissed me off and I know you all wanted to kill her so I gave you a chance."

A snort escaped the agent, "Price pissed everyone off in some way or another."

"I thought you were dead." Ward turned his head to look at her. "You may hate me Daisy but a part of me will always care about you. When I thought she killed you, I wanted to do things I can't even mention."

Ignoring the statement, Daisy touched her collar where Price's men had shot her. "One was a protein suppressant, I was unable to use my gift. The second was a sedative so I couldn't kill their asses."

Ward put his beer down and shook his head. "I don't expect your forgiveness…"

"Good," she turned her head to look at him. "I will never forgive you. I'll help you learn to control your gift. I'll be friendly and considerate. I may even learn to trust you again but I will never forgive you." She looked back at the burned bed, "at least, I'll never forgive everything you did after Garrett was captured at the HUB. When I learned to understand your actions, I forgave your betrayal. The other stuff, I think my bullets made my point."

"I never wanted you to understand."

"I don't want to fight Ward." She took another sip of her beer. "The past can't be changed and unfortunately, as an Inhuman you're now my responsibility."

Her phone rang and she pulled it out, the image on the screen was Lincoln. Ward looked at her face as she looked at the screen. "You should get that, he'll be worried."

She hit decline and put it up, "I came here to help you, Lincoln can berate me later on the dangers of being in the same room as you."

"You know I'd never hurt you."

"I know, just like you'd never lie to me." She sighed, "but the truth and the world's perception of the truth are two separate things."

Ward nodded, "that is something I do understand." He looked to the side at her, "it started when I was five…"

She put up a hand, "whoa, no need to hear about your screwed up childhood. I have a feeling we'd be here for a century if that was the topic of conversation." Smiling she looked to the side at him. "After all, you have a wickedly good memory and you'd remember everything that happened."

He gave a small chuckle and motioned to the bed, "what do you see, you used to imagine pictures in the clouds."

"Abstract thought, well if you want the truth." She stared at the bed, "a really pissed off ex-director who had a massive temper-tantrum."

Ward just smirked, "partially right."

A/N: Just something that flowed after seeing that sneak peek!

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