Wouldn't it be simple if everything was really as you see it?
Black and white, right and wrong. But I'm afraid life is more complicated than that.
-Dr. Hudson / The Truth About Celia Frost
"Director?" The agent called, opening the door softly not to anger the new director of Hydra, who was said to be quite trigger-happy. "Yes?" Ward answered from his desk, his once prominent beard now gone, replaced by a short stubble. Although, the brown jacket that had become his trademark remained.
His office was almost empty, if only for the gray table and matching chair that stood proudly in the middle, a harsh contrast with the blue color of the sky the tall windows behind them provided. His table was filled with pending paperwork, no personal effects whatsoever nor the typical small frame with a treasured picture.
The only picture that mattered to him was safe in his wallet.
"One of the prisoners wants to speak with you, sir. A SHIELD agent. He says his name it's Fitz and he's willing to talk about Daisy Johnson." The agent said, stepping into the office noticing a hint of recognition in his superior's face. "Fitz? Are you sure?" Ward asked, standing up with a frown on his face "Yes sir." Agent Sting answered with a nod.
Out of the six people from his former team he expected to meet anytime soon, Fitz was at the bottom of the list. Coulson would no doubt try to capture him or kill him at some point, with May right by his side. Simmons had wanted revenge for what happened with Fitz before, and probably that wouldn't be her last attempt. And finally Skye, now a full-fledged agent, he knew they would meet in the field eventually.
But Fitz, he didn't know what to expect from the young scientist. Even if Fitz hated every fiber of his being, he probably wouldn't try to kill him, despite everything Fitz had faith in him until he pushed that damned button. "Take me to him." Ward ordered and both men rushed down to the interrogation room. When Ward walked in he found Fitz tied to a chair, his lower lip cut open and a bleeding nose. If there were any other injuries, he could not see them due to the terrible illumination of the place.
The scientist straightened up as soon as he noticed him, with a defiant look in his eyes. "I'm here. Talk." Ward said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning slightly against the wall behind him. He wasn't about to play nice, like Coulson said he wasn't part of the team anymore, and they had made it clear they would never take him back, not that he would return anyway, not after what they did to Kara.
"I'll talk when we're alone." Fitz said defiantly looking pointedly at the two agents by the door and Agent Sting. Ward had to give it to him, he had quite a steady tone to be a non-field agent in a hostage situation.
"Now." He answered simply. He knew better than to underestimate a scientist, he learnt his lesson after Simmons' attempt on his life.
"It's about Skye." Fitz said, looking at him straight in the eye, as if to study his reaction. "You said to my men it was about Daisy Johnson." Ward gritted as he pulled out a gun, aiming it at Fitz who visibly flinched, to say Ward didn't like to be lied to was an understatement.
"Now talk and I'll think about not shooting you, hell, I'll even let you go unharmed if you prove useful." He said in a harsh tone.
"Skye is Daisy Johnson, and she's in danger." Fitz rushed to explain, trying very hard to ignore the gun in front of him "Everybody out." Ward ordered to his men, they all looked at each other unsure for a few seconds but left without complaints.
But even when they were left alone Ward kept his gun raised "So she's in danger. What do you expect me to do?" He said with an incredulous tone. "To help me." Fitz answered truthfully as Ward let go a forced laugh "Do you think you can just say 'It's about Skye' and that I'll just drop everything to save her? Things aren't like that anymore." Ward said, his tone completely devoid of emotion as he gripped the gun in his hands more firmly.
Two weeks earlier...
"Hey there, Mr Stark." Daisy said to the fellow superhero as they crossed paths in the labyrinth that the hellicarrier -their new base of operations- turned out to be. "Daisy, have you thought better about my job offer?" Tony said with his usual charming smile "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm good where I am." She answered with a smile of her own.
"Keep those awesome powers up and someday you could join the Avengers." He joked as he turned the corner and she laughed shaking her head as she knocked on Coulson's door. "Hey, just saw Mr Stark leave. Everything good with your hand?" She asked as soon as she opened the door, Coulson was in his usual spot behind his desk.
"Yeah, everything's fine." He assured her with a small smile. "Are you sure? It's the third time he's showed up this week. People might start wondering about you two, Phil." Daisy joked with a smirk and a suggestive raise of eyebrows as she sat down in front of him.
"He's just worried about the little rebellions regarding the Superhuman Registration Act, that, or he's trying to lure more of my agents away with his job offers." Coulson joked back in an easy banter. "Yeah I know, we've been having missions non-stop and the whole thing is on TV." She commented, personally she didn't mind the act, especially since SHIELD's 'contain or eliminate' policy regarding gifteds was long gone.
"Actually that's why I called, I have another mission for you." Coulson informed her, sparking her interest "That Hellfire guy again?" She asked wiggling in her seat, she really couldn't wait to get her hands on him, maybe even convince him to join her team.
"No, for the last months many of our extraction missions have been interrupted by a rogue team of inhumans, they have no known affiliation and there's no way to be sure what their intentions are." He said as he passed a file to her.
She quickly glanced it over, no information regarding their leader -if they even had one- no public statements made either, but a few of them had showed up more than once to interrupt SHIELD's retrieving missions.
"I want you to infiltrate them, not long term exactly just long enough to get wherever they're taking the inhumans." Coulson continued and she nodded, her eyes still on the file.
"So you want me to go somewhere, cause some earthquakes and let me be taken?" She asked with her eyebrows raised. "Basically." He admitted with a shrug. "You'll have a GPS tracker within you and a tail team, just to be sure." Coulson finished.
"Good, when?" Daisy said excitedly with a grin.
"Tomorrow. Tell your team to be ready, we might need them to barge in." He explained.
"But what if they are good? What if they're helping the inhumans?" She inquired with a frown.
"Regardless of their intentions, they still have to be put in the index and registered." He said, returning his attentions towards all the paperwork in his desk and she left after a small and unconvinced nod.
"Everything alright?" Lincoln asked her, concern obvious in his features "Yeah, I'm fine." Daisy said, putting on a smile. "Tell the team to be ready tomorrow, we got ourselves a mission." She commented before making her way to the kitchen, putting out the ingredients to a sandwich.
She noticed Fitz in one of the sofas, with a bunch of papers in his hands -most likely research about the monolith- and looking quite agitated, not like she was going to comment on it, ever since the research on Simmons' whereabouts was canceled the blue-eyed scientist had become prone to snap at his teammates occasionally, especially whenever certain subject was brought up, the few times in the last months she brought herself to talk to him, she kept the subject as light and as far from that damn stone as possible.
"Want one?" She offered with a smile to Fitz, gesturing towards the ingredients "Em...no, thanks." He replied, his mind obviously somewhere else and she prepared her sandwich in an awkward silence.
Since Jemma... she couldn't bring herself to even think the words, honestly she couldn't blame Fitz for resenting them all after they stopped looking for her, but she also understood why Coulson had made that call. There were new threats everywhere, the raising of new inhumans, Lash's little tribe and that new mysterious agency that showed up out of nowhere, not to mention the rebel groups and finally Ward and his new Hydra, who still had to make a move. SHIELD was still recovering, and they simply didn't have the resources to do everything, hard calls were made and people were lost, she understood it now that she was a specialist.
"Daisy?" Fitz interrupted her thoughts, it felt weird to hear him calling her for something else than Skye and sometimes he still slipped, but he was doing his best to respect her name change.
"Did you change your mind?" She asked from the island "No, just I thought you could...you could help me with something." Fitz mumbled, stopping fidgeting to look at her. "Sure, what is it?" Daisy asked, walking towards the sofa with her sandwich in hand.
"I need you to find where the stone is." He blurted out, leaning towards her.
"What? Coulson wouldn't-" She answered, or began to do so till he cut her off.
"He wouldn't want me obsessing with it, I know. But nobody's doing anything! I know why we can't look for her. Coulson, Mack...you all have explained it to me a thousand times, but I don't engage in missions and Lincoln has the lab under control! I feel useless here and I can't- I can't give up on her!" Fitz exploded, standing up and gesturing violently, his despair written in his face.
Guilt invaded her as she looked away, breaking eye contact with the blue eyes that were silently pleading her to do something, to not let Jemma down. "I'll see what I can do." She finally mumbled meeting his eyes, registering the light surprise in them "Thank you." He said with all the honestly he could muster as she gave him a small smile in return before leaving.
In Daisy's way towards her bunker she heard Coulson talking through the speakers requesting Hunter to his office, the agent in question had just decided to take a break from his deep research on Ward's possible whereabouts and with a resigned sigh, made his way towards Coulson's office. "Yes sir?" He asked once inside "Sit down, it's about Agent Morse." Coulson instructed and Hunter's heart skipped a beat but he finally sat down, staring at his hands.
There had passed at least three months since he last heard of Bobbi, after being brought in she had just got worse, her heart stopped a few times and Coulson had her moved to another facility. "She's gone, isn't she?" Hunter asked in a barely audible whisper, he had been preparing himself for this for months now. And even if he couldn't save her, he'd make damn sure Ward paid for what he did.
"She's alive, and she'll be returning in a few days." Coulson said, making him look up in surprise "Really?" Hunter asked, not quite believing the news. "Just thought you'd like to know before anyone else." Coulson said with a small smile "Bloody hell!" Hunter exclaimed, practically jumping out of the chair with a big grin in his face as he exited the room.
As he made his way to the team's version of a living room, he silently thanked all the deities he could think of for the news. Her last words to him replayed in his mind over and over, if she couldn't do this anymore -and he hoped she meant SHIELD- then he'd let it all behind, he had done it before with the army for her and he would do it again without a second thought.