Disclaimer: I do not own S.H.I.E..L.D...sigh. If I did, then this wouldn't be just a fic. Enjoy!
Chapter One:
Things had finally started to cool off at the base. After weeks of turmoil, there was peace at last. Skye was just starting to accept the fact that she would never see her parents again, that she was going to have no one to help her with her powers (except for Lincoln), when, of course, Grant Ward reappeared in her life.
She was in her "room" (really, it was more of a large closet). It was about two a.m., and she couldn't sleep, so she was pacing the length of the carpet when there was a tap on the window. She glanced out and didn't see anything. I'm going even crazier than I thought I was, she thought uneasily. A few minutes later, the tap came again, louder. Curious, she strolled over to the window, opened it, and peered outside. Suddenly a hand grabbed hers and a voice hissed, "Skye! Get out here!" She jerked back in surprise. Skye stood there for a moment, debating whether or not she should. Of course, the rational choice would be to ignore it and return to her task. Her training warned her that it wasn't safe. Eventually, however, curiosity won out. She clambered out the window and turned to face the mysterious man who had beckoned her.
Ward's POV:
I still can't believe I'm doing this, that I'm here. This is crazy! What am I doing? Ward thought frantically. He was currently outside Skye's window, and, unsurprisingly, it ached to be so close to Skye, yet unable to touch her, to embrace her, to kiss her. It hurt more than when he killed Kara. Much, much more. Even though he knew that this mission was probably destined to fail, and she probably wouldn't come with him, but he had to try. Everything would be so much more worth it with her by his side. Gathering his courage, he reached up and rapped on the window...
Back to Skye's POV:
"Skye," the voice said again. "I'm over here, in the bush!" Up close, the voice sounded oddly familiar. Almost as if an old friend was calling her... She made her way over to the bushes, where a figure crouched. Again, the figure looked really familiar. As she neared him, she understood why. The man was Grant Ward.
"W-Grant! What the he-what are you doing outside my window?!" Skye asked, dumbstruck. He looked almost exactly the same as when she last saw him, with close-cropped hair, a clean-shaven beard, and a face covered in cuts and bruises. That adorable little scar above his upper lip was still there, and so was the burn mark on the side of his neck. He smelled like the odd mixture of sweat and cologne, like he always did. God, she hadn't realized how much she missed him. It was growing more and more difficult by the second to restrain herself from grabbing his face and kissing him all over. But, as much as she wanted to forget, he was still a traitorous killer that could NOT be trusted, under any circumstance.
"Skye, I'm here to talk to you about something important," he replied calmly. Or, calmly-ish. He was trying to act cool and collected, but there was a frantic light in his eyes. She could tell that this was important to him.
"WHAT? You're coming to my room in in the middle of the freaking night, to talk to me about "something important"?! What is wrong with you? I should turn march you down to Coulson's office right now and have your sorry behind back to jail before you even know what happened! You have NO RIGHT to be here! How dare you?!" Skye nearly screamed at him.
It was true; he had absolutely no right to be there. It was completely ludicrous that he should show up now, when things were so hard for her. Didn't he know what she was going through? Her parents just died (well, her mother did, but her father didn't remember her, which was almost the same thing), she was an Inhuman freak, and one of her best friends shunned her because she thought she was a freak. Skye didn't need this, not right now.
"Skye," he said calmly. "You won't turn me in. I know you."
"Hmmph. You don't know me as well as you'd like to think."
"Yes, I do. I know you more than you think I do. I knew your parents before you had any idea they even existed. I know that even though you pretend otherwise, you are terrified of what you can do. And, I know that there is no way you are walking away from this. You're far too curious and nosy to never hear what I have to say. You also won't turn me in because you're afraid of what Coulson, and more importantly, May will do to me if they know I'm here," he told her. Grr...she hated it when he was right, especially when he was right about her. She didn't move to deny him, but growled a short "Fine, tell me."
"I'm here to ask you to come with me when I take the Bus."
"Take the Bus?! Well, first of all, it was shot out of the sky and completely destroyed, and second of all, even if you try to take a quinn jet, you'll never get away with it! I won't tell, but someone's going to find you and you're going to end up right back where you started: IN JAIL. This is completely crazy! And you want ME to come with you and become a wanted fugitive? To betray everyone here? To loose their trust and love, like you did?!" Skye asked, furious and incredulous.
How dare he? How dare he even suggest this? She was steaming, but another part of her wanted him to elaborate on his plan. It could be an adventure! True, an adventure with the most hated man in S.H.I.E.L.D, but an adventure nevertheless. She was caught in an internal debate: should she betray everyone and go with him, or should she turn down an excuse to get away from people who thought she was a dangerous monster, and walk away from someone who would accept her for who she was?
"Please, Skye. Please. Everything will be so much more worth it if you're by my side. I will do anything you want," he begged her. "I love you. I always have and I probably always-"
"Kara," she said in a deadly serious voice.
"What? What about her?"
"Exactly. What happened to her? I thought she was the love of your life. Seriously, did you just ditch her or something? Because that's really a jerk move. Who does that? I mean, what happened to the whole, "Baby, I love you so much, I'll be with you forever!" bull-crap?"
"She died. I shot her while she was wearing May's face, and she suffocated when her lungs filled with blood," he said sadly.
"Oh. I get it. Your hot new toy broke, so you're crawling back to the tattered...old stuffed...animal thing for comfort! That isn't fair to me!" she yelled at him.
"What? No! No, that's not how it is at all! I never truly loved her, Skye. I was using her to get over you! Obviously it didn't work, because I'm still as much in love with you as I was before, if not more. That's why I need you to come with me. So, what do you say?" he sounded absolutely miserable as he said it. It made Skye want to reach out to him, to comfort him.
She wanted to go with him so badly, but how could she betray the only people who had ever cared about her? Wait...what if there was a way she could do both? A plan was beginning to form in her mind. "Grant, I need a few days to think about it...is there a way I can contact you with my answer?" she asked somewhat innocently.
"Yes. Yes, take all the time you need. If you decide to go with me, then just call this number and leave a message telling me where to meet up. Also include something that only you would know, Skye. I hope you make the right choice! I can't wait to see you again," he said warmly. "I have to go. Oh, and if you try to talk to anyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. about any of this, I will know." And with that, he stood up and walked away, leaving her to face a near impossible decision.
"Goodbye, Grant," Skye replied softly, after he was out of earshot. She shook her head. There wasn't time right now to worry about her feelings. For now, it was time to take action. He had inadvertently left her with the perfect loophole: he had said that she couldn't go to anyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. about their conversation. But what he hadn't realized is that there was someone on the base who wasn't a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. Skye climbed back through the window and went to go explain her plan to the one person she could talk to: Lincoln.
