Disclaimer: I don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Note 1: Written for Skyewardmoth Week 3, Day 1 – Role Reversal AU. I usually don't write for these sorts of things (as I always have too many projects on my plate), but I love a good Role Reversal AU, so I decided to try my hand at one.

Note 2: I tried to tell the same scene without just lifting who said what – but shifting the dialogue to fit the particularities of both characters.

This is unbeta'd.

A Sight For Sore Eyes

By Alkeni

Vault D.

He'd tried to pretend that the room didn't exist. That its occupant had died during the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., rather than... than what happened. It was preferable, to imagine her dead than a traitor. It made -

It made it easier to deal with everything. With the way every thought of her sent him into an emotional tailspin he was never ready for. To the rest of the team, Skye was just the traitor. The woman they'd welcomed onto the bus, the team... their hearts. But she'd turned on them... hadn't been one of them even from the start.

He should have suspected something. He'd served under Garrett for years – he should have picked up on the similarities between them, somehow. But there weren't any. She was too good at hiding them.

For his whole life, both with his family and when he'd finally escaped from it, Ward had always kept a careful control of his emotions. Caring about people didn't work, and nobody was going to ever help you, so why bother? It was why he'd gravitated to specialist work once S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited him. Sure, he usually had a team of some kind running back-end, but it wasn't the same thing. As a specialist, he could work alone.

And then Coulson had to go and recruit me for his new team and ruin that. He hadn't planned on liking any of them. But everyone on the team – they were his team. They were his friends. Coulson, May, Fitz, Simmons...

And Skye.

Skye had been a hell of a lot more than a friend. For the first time in his life, Grant Ward had been in love, and it was with Skye.

And in the end, that had all been a lie. He'd fallen in love with a lie. The brilliant, idealistic hacker who had been the first person in a long time to see him as more than just 'Agent Ward', who cared about everyone around, who believed in the ideals of the Rising Tide...

She was all one big lie. There was just Skye, Hydra Operative. Protègè of John Garrett. The Spy for the Clairvoyant. And she hadn't – no. Whatever she'd claimed there, on the plane, before Deathlok came in to rescue her, she didn't love him back. That had to be true. She was – god, she was a better liar than he was, and Grant Ward was one of the best liars in the world.

I can even lie to myself most of the time.

Her 'feelings' had all been a lie, and Grant Ward didn't feel anything for her but disgust and hate. She'd betrayed them all. Killed Koenig, dropped FitzSimmons into the ocean... killed Agent Hand. Been a member of Hydra and helped to bring the entire agency down.

And whatever she said, Grant refused to accept that she hadn't known about Garrett's order to have him shot. How could she not? Her whole mission was supposedly about finding out what had saved Coulson's life, and it had taken him nearly dying for that information to fall into Garrett's hands, finally.

It had been months since he'd last seen Skye with his own eyes, that last day in the Cybertek Facility before she was taken away. But now he was going to see her again. Because they needed information. Carl Creel was very much not dead, and they needed to know more about him. They needed to know how to make sure that he didn't succeed in whatever mission Hydra had set him on.

Given her connection to Garrett...

Does she really think she can manipulate me again? That I'm going to let her play on feelings for her I don't have anymore? He'd let her do that too many times. Let Garrett use that against him when he had Deathlok stop her heart to stop him from destroying the Hard Drive. He didn't have much technical savvy – especially not when compared to Skye – but he could keep it out of Hydra's hands easily enough.

But he'd handed it over to Deathlok. When the only other choice had been watching Skye die in front of him...

I don't love her anymore.

Grant Ward could lie even to himself, and believe it.

Skye was sitting on the bed when he walked into the Vault, but she was on her feet when she saw him. Even in the prison fatigues, she still looked... Ward shut that train of thought down immediately.

Her hair was longer, unkempt. His specialist instincts had him looking her over from top to bottom, even thought she posed no physical threat on the other side of that laser barrier. Even I couldn't get through that. Hell, May couldn't. Romanoff couldn't.

"Grant. Aren't you a sight for sore eyes..." Skye said softly. He forced himself to ignore the familiar tone, the tone of the girl he'd known, and focus on the words. She couldn't play him. Not again. Even the best specialists could make mistakes, but he wasn't going to make the same one twice. He said nothing as he continued to look her over – and as he saw the scars on her wrists. His eyes closed for a moment, driving away the stab of concern for her, at what those had to be from, and he brought his attention back to her face. Not that it was much better to look at that. Memories rose unbidden to the top of his mind – memories he didn't want to have. Memories he wasn't going to let himself remember.

"What took Coulson so long?" She asked, her voice calm and level. Smooth. He could only be thankful she wasn't trying more than that. "I told him weeks ago that I'd give you information on Hydra."

"I've had bigger problems to worry about than the information you might have." Grant replied coldly.

"Well, clearly that's not the case now. What happened?"

Grant stood in front of the barrier, hands crossed behind his back, standing stiff and unbending. "Carl Creel." He saw no recognition on her eyes, but that didn't mean much. "Garrett reported him dead. He's not. And now Hydra has him on a mission, and we can't let him complete it. What do you know about him?"

"You haven't changed a bit." She said with a small smile. I've changed. I've changed back to what I was before I met you. And more. Ward knew he was even less sociable than before, and that said a lot. But – what was the point? Making connections with people didn't work out. Skye had betrayed them. Fitz had nearly died and was so... he was so different now. It hurt to see him like he was now. And Simmons – it had all been too much for her and she'd just walked away. Coulson was barely there now, always locked up in his office or off on some other project for S.H.I.E.L.D. May was pretty much the same, but... even then...

"You tell me what I want to know, or I walk." Ward told her.

"You wouldn't happen to have a picture of 'Creel'?" Skye asked. Grant fiddled with the tablet in his hands and brought up Creel's file. He walked up the barrier and held it up for her. She leaned in towards the picture and his eyes fell to her wrists. She followed his gaze.

"AC didn't tell you?" No. He didn't. There was a lot Coulson didn't tell anyone these days. "I had some... issues, adjusting to everything. Had a bit of a rough stretch." Cutting your wrists? Taht's a rough stretch? "Snap a plastic spoon in half and you get something pretty sharp. That was the first one. The second time... I'm sure I don't need to tell you how sharp you can get a piece of paper if you fold it just right." She brought a hand up to her face and moved her hair away from her right temple, revealing a small, healing cut. "When that went away... I started running at the walls."

Grant bit back his immediate response. She didn't deserve sympathy. She didn't deserve anything more than what she was getting.

"I expected something more creative from you Skye. You're supposed to be about the out of the box thinking. Or was that just a lie too?" Grant shouldn't have said that, and he regretted it as soon as the words came out, but -

Skye accepted his words impassively. "When I finally came out of sedation after that... I was done. My head was – it was clear. What I needed to do – it all made sense. I know what I've done. What I am. But I can still help you." I've had enough of your help, Skye.

Ward started to turn around. He'd told her – answers or he walked. SO he was walking.

"Creel was a boxer." Ward turned back around. That much he knew, but at least she was on topic. "He had some ability – could turn himself into whatever material he touched. Touch a rock, his body became rock. Touch glass, he was made from glass. Crazy, right?" For a moment, there was a glimmer of that Skye he'd first fallen for – the girl who greeted everything with wonder in her eyes, all the crazy shit S.H.I.E.L.D. faced that he'd long since gotten used to.

"He used his powers to win in his fights – when your fists are steel under your gloves, you really can't lose. But really – he just liked hurting people." Skye continued.

"Garrett must have loved him." Ward replied

"John did. Kept him alive, reported him as dead. Thought he might be useful. Ended up handing him off to some other branch of Hydra. I don't know who he's reporting to now." Skye shook her head. "That's all I know."

"We pretty much figured all that out." Ward countered. "So if you don't have anything else..." He started to turn again. He needed to get out of the room. He needed to get away from her. He hated her – or was it himself he hated, for...

I don't have feelings for her anymore. She never had feelings for he. She's just a traitor. Just a murderer.

"I don't know who he reports to. But I know how he'd be making contact with whoever that person is."

"I'm listening." Ward didn't turn around this time. He couldn't look at her face. Couldn't handle the memories that rose unbidden.

"When Hydra was still hiding inside S.H.I.E.L.D., they sent messages to assets outside the agency... people like me... - using the white noise inside the Quantum Key Distribution Frequencies. And those frequencies, and that white noise, is still around. That's how he'll be getting his orders."

It made sense – but he couldn't trust a word Skye had to say. She was that good of a liar. "We'll see."

"It's true. I lied to you enough, Grant." He stiffened a little as she used his first name. "I won't ever lie to you again – everything I say... it's going to be the truth. For the rest of my life." She was trying to play him. Trying to use their past. Using his first name. Vowing to tell her the truth. A part of him desperately wanted to believe her, but he ignored that part. Locked it down and filed it away in a deep, dark place where he could ignore it.

"I'm not asking for forgiveness. I'm not expecting to ever get out of her." She told him, sounding for all the world to be in earnest. "I just want to help you." She said again. "And when what I just told you turns out to be true, I hope you'll come back. There's more I can tell you. More you need to-"

Grant made the grid opaque, blocking all sound. He didn't need to hear more from her.

If this turns out to be true, Coulson is going to want to send me down here again.

That was a possibility he didn't relish. But part of him...

Part of him did.

The woman I fell in love with never existed. But I still miss her. I still love that woman.

He just had to keep reminding himself that the woman behind that laser grid wasn't the Skye he'd fallen in love with.