I don't own Agents of SHIELD nor will I ever. No copyright infringement intended.
Skye took off in the direction of the yelling, frowning when she noticed the floor was on a fire in a few spots. She slowed to a stop as she heard Mack tell someone, "Daisy's going to be here any minute to help."
"Who the hell's Daisy?" came Grant Ward's voice and she did a double take.
Skye slowed to a stop and finally glimpsed him, biting her lip when she noticed the look of fear of his face as his whole body shook. Clearly in shock, Grant didn't even notice her at first. "That would be me," she smirked.
His head snapped up and he looked at her with terror etched on his face so clearly that a wave of sympathy swept through her despite her furor at Grant. "Skye?"
"It's Daisy," she corrected. "Anybody want to tell me what happened here and why I just saw shit on fire?"
"Bobbi was right and I fucked up," Lance moaned as he leaned back against the wall, careful to avoid Grant.
Skye looked to Mack for answers since Grant and Lance clearly weren't looking to give her any. "Lance decided to kill Ward by throwing a Terrigen Crystal at him and it backfired, to say the least. He was immediately cocooned and came out throwing fireballs at us." Mack glared at Lance, who looked at them shamefaced.
She saw red. "Are you fucking kidding me right now? So Grant Ward is Inhuman too then. Welcome to the club."
"I don't know what's happening to me, Skye." Grant whimpered and he clearly wanted guidance from her.
Skye didn't know what to do or tell him but she sprung into action clearly. "We'll get you onto Zephyr-One and figure it out from here. Lance, I'll be informing the director of your stupidity so don't come crying to me when he and Bobbi kick your ass. Now, are you going to try to kill us when our guards are down, Ward?"
He shook his head. "No. I need help," he reluctantly admitted. Scared shitless, Grant clung to something (someone) familiar, disregarding all his previous plans (not that he had any help anyway, considering Malick had kicked him out of Hydra).
Despite the situation, she smiled comfortingly at him. "That's what I like to hear. You'll be somewhere safe with us, I promise you that. No one is going to touch a hair on your head now, not even me," Skye vowed.
Grant wanted to trust her but couldn't, not after everything that had happened in the past few years. "Really?" he asked in such a small voice that he nearly cringed.
"Really. Let's go. Mack, stay behind him so all our bases are covered. Just in case - you couldn't hurt a fly right now," she assured Grant.
Grant stood up and had to grab the wall to stay upright as his knees buckled. "I don't want to hurt anybody. I can't control this." And to prove his point, he lifted his trembling hands up and fire shot out. Skye, Mack, and Lance all ducked in time to avoid it.
"That's what I'm here for." Skye genuinely felt bad for him because he clearly hadn't anticipated this and didn't know how to handle suddenly having powers - just like everyone else who recently underwent Terrigenesis.
The four of them made their way out of the warehouse and onto the plane. The looks of shock on the others' faces was priceless but Skye ignored him as she led Grant to one of the containment units. "This is where you'll be staying while we assess you," Mack informed him.
"Where's Garner at? Pretty sure he's not going to want to asses me after we tried to kill him."
Skye winced. "Yeah, you don't know what happened. Well, your attempt to kill him obviously failed and he's an Inhuman now too. The ACTU is helping him."
"You can't let anybody near the ACTU. The director is working with Malick," Grant informed them as he stepped into the room.
"Fuck. One of you go tell Coulson both situations right now. In fact, Mack, I want you to do it. Lance, you go find Bobbi and tell her what you did," Skye ordered.
"You want to be alone with him?" Mack questioned. He didn't understand why.
"He's under my protection now. Just do it!" she snapped and the two men scurried away.
Skye closed the door behind them and waited for Grant to say something but all he did was lean against the wall and slide to the floor. "This is so fucked up," he finally ventured. Grant hadn't been this terrified in a long time and everything had been turned upside down. Revenge was the furthest thing from his mind right now.
She snorted. "Tell me about it. So let's talk about your powers. Seems like you can create and/or control fire. And, well, this explains why you're a fucking pyro."
"Did that look like control to you? Because we have very different definitions of the term," he snarked defensively, trying to find his footing again.
Skye rolled her eyes. "Shut up."
Much to Grant's embarrassment, his eyes filled with tears as the events of the day began to overwhelm him again. "Skye, I don't know what to do."
She went to correct him again but thought better of it. "I know. It's okay to be terrified for once, Director Ward."
He laughed shakily. "Hunter told you about that?"
"Yeah, he did. Now look at me and listen close, Grant Douglas Ward. What you did before? Even though it was just a few hours ago, that's in your past. As of now, you are a new man who gets to decide who you want to be."
Grant scoffed. "You hate me so why the fuck are you pretending to care about me now? Is it because I'm Inhuman like you? Because I don't need you to 'worry' about me."
"Did that help at all? Because I'm not buying it. Good effort, though. Yes, I'm still furious with you and we're going to argue about this one day but not until after you learn how to control your powers and are less panicked and freaked out. But like I said, this is a new era in the life of Grant Ward. It's up to you what happens from now on. We'll work on figuring out how exactly everything works tomorrow. You've had a traumatic day," Skye told him.
They were interrupted when the door opened again and Phil and Melinda stepped in. "So it's true," Melinda murmured.
"So that's three people we know who are Inhuman. Wouldn't be surprised if there are more at this point." Phil sighed. "I'm assuming he's under your protection as of now?"
Skye nodded. "And you would be right."
Phil turned to Grant and sized him up. "Unfortunately, as of this moment, you are pardoned of all your previous crimes. Seize this second chance."
"Don't waste it because I will relish the chance to get you get," Melinda warned.
"Noted." Grant didn't have it in him to get snarky again - his defenses were down and he couldn't put his walls back up no matter how much he wanted to. He couldn't even grab onto the anger that had been a constant companion for years.
"I expect a report later." Phil smiled at Skye before departing with Melinda.
Realization struck Grant - along with clarity for the first time in a long time - and he bit his lip. "Skye?"
"Yeah?" she asked.
"I think I need help," he reluctantly admitted. The guilt he had been trying to ignore resurfaced and he was cracking under the pressure again.
"Then we'll get you some. Just need to find someone we can trust since Andrew's out of the picture for the time being."
Then Skye turned around and left him to deal with everything that had just happened.
The next day, they decided to test Grant's powers. Fitz stood by with a fire extinguisher and he wasn't happy about it. "Why do I have to be here for this?"
"Because," was Skye's only answer. "Now let's see what you can do, Ward."
Even though Grant worried about hurting Skye and Fitz, he struggled to concentrate on controlling the fire. He opened up the palm of one his hands and thought about forming a ball of fire. He gasped in shock when a fireball did form. "Holy fuck." But fear seized him and he quickly started shaking his hand to put the fire out.
"You panicked. Understandable but you need to learn how to deal with the terror, too, or else you won't learn control."
Grant's hands started trembling again. "Skye, what if I hurt someone?"
"That's nothing new," Fitz muttered underneath his breath.
Skye shot a glare in his direction. "Fitz, just stay there and wait to put out any fires that might pop up."
"Fine," he sulked.
"Just take a deep breath and don't freak out, Ward. Picture a chain. You can control that, right?"
Grant nodded, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath before concentrating on a fiery chain. When Fitz and Skye gasped, he opened them back up and stared at the fiery chain he was holding. "I made that? I made that!"
"Yes, you did. Great job! I'm proud of you." Skye really was and the grin he gave her warmed her.
"Thank you." He'd never be able to tell her how much he appreciated what she was doing for him, despite the clear hatred Skye felt for him. He knew he needed to apologize for his actions too but had no clue how to even start.
"You're welcome."
They worked on his control for hours (and Fitz only had to put out two fires) that day before quitting until the next afternoon.
Two weeks after Grant underwent Terrigenesis, he was starting to learn more control and had started therapy with a friend of Andrew's (he didn't like it but it was nice to talk to someone even though he didn't want to). "You need a code name," Bobbi informed him. She was still furious with Grant Ward and didn't like him but she was trying to be nice to him (it was mostly successful).
"Really?"
Bobbi nodded. "Yes. There's a reason why Skye just chose Quake." With Grant around, the team had accidentally started slipping into old habits but Skye didn't really mind too much.
"Hellfire!" Skye cried, startling them both.
"What?"she questioned.
"Your code name should be Hellfire. It fits perfectly," Skye informed Grant.
He pondered it for a second before coming to a decision. "I like it."
"Welcome to the world of superhero-ing, Hellfire." Bobbi smirked at Grant and then went to go get lunch because she was starving.
"The world isn't ready for Quake and Hellfire to kick ass and take names," Skye joked, although she was somewhat serious about it.
That's when Grant sobered up. "Skye, I want to apologize for all the shit I did. I shouldn't have kidnapped or scared you or betrayed it. I regret it every day."
Skye inhaled. "That means a lot to me. I don't know if I can forgive you just yet."
He nodded. "I understand," he replied, his voice cracking. Grant hadn't expected forgiveness at all but at least this was something.
She surprised them both by hugging Grant. "Don't get used to this."
"I won't," but it was already too late. He'd take friendship with this woman over anything and didn't even care about anything else.
Grant was still terrified about hurting someone (a lot of other fears wouldn't leave him alone either) - especially the team - but he was working on himself and trying to heal, become the man Skye thought he could be. He hoped he could be that man too. He saw a lot of shit in a new light now and hated himself even more for it but again, something he was trying to work on.
Nobody knew at this moment in time that Quake and Hellfire would become a superhero duo that would take the Nine Realms by storm.