This is the sixth installment. You have to read the first four ("Demolishing Bridges", "Adjust Accordingly", "Finally Faded", "Steel Yourself", and "Open Wounds") to understand.
Still Bleeding (Part Six of the Academy Team AU)
"Everybody's damaged. It's just a question of how badly, and whether you're healing or still bleeding."
― Angela N. Blount
Skye trudged to the meeting room with a light frown marring her expression. She hesitated when she reached the door before forcing herself to yank it open with a fake smile plastered on her face.
"Hey guys!" Skye said as she surveyed the room.
Simmons and Fitz swiveled around to greet her in unison. Even after almost a year, it was still kind of eerie when they did that. The three other academy teams' members also acknowledged her, but Skye's attention was on the man leaning against the wall behind Fitzsimmons who had yet to turn her way.
"Hi, Ward," Skye called out as cheerily as she could.
He nodded vaguely in her direction but did not look up. Skye's smile may have wilted at bit at that.
Because it had been weeks since Ward had treated her as anything other than a stranger, Fitzsimmons did not look surprised by his lackluster response, but Simmons did throw another expectant glance her way.
Skye had been putting off that explanation for a while. Mostly, she just did not want to rehash it all. It was not that Skye did not trust Simmons per se, it's just that she knew better than to go spilling her heart to everyone she met. Besides, Skye was not entirely sure what she would say.
"So I was getting all hot and heavy with the hottest guy I had ever met in the middle of the night after we snuck off campus to break into a gym to secretly train. All is going well, even if he's a little awkward- I mean you would think someone who looks like a Greek god would be a little more, I don't know, experienced? But he fumbled around like a fourteen year old boy with his first hard on- and then he suddenly has a panic attack. This is after he suspiciously showed up in my room with bloody hands at 3 a.m. in shock, at which point he admitted to his mom slapping him around and spending long periods outside in the winter. I don't know, Simmons, that might be why he's no longer able to look me in the eye or speak two words to me."
Skye imagined that would go beautifully.
She slid into one of the two open seats besides Simmons and ignored her own miserable thoughts. "Do you know why we were we called here?"
"No, but I can only assume that we're collaborating with other teams for today's session," Simmons said.
Fitz grumbled to himself at that. When Skye peered at the other occupants of the room, she shared his lack of enthusiasm. While her inter-academy team had worked out really well, that seemed to be the rare exception rather than the rule. None of the other teams were speaking to each other. All the Comms cadets were chatting by the door while the Sci-Tech students huddled together near the whiteboard and the Ops ones grouped by the far corner.
The end of the year was quickly approached and yet none of them appeared to have made any progress in their relationships. It was depressing, and once again, Skye counted herself as lucky to have gotten such a great team whose company she enjoyed so much.
Skye's eyes cut to Ward again. Well, usually enjoyed at least.
"I just can't believe they made us come in on a Saturday. No one else is even in the building!" Skye complained loudly and overdramatically. She watched Ward out of the corner of her eye hoping that he would chastise her for her "slacking" and "laziness" as he often did when she made similar remarks while they trained privately.
Nothing. He observed the other teams without paying her any attention.
Skye's shoulders hunched in protectively. She felt a strange mixture of rejection and loss with a heaping helping of concern as well. Skye missed Ward so much it hurt sometimes. She had not realized how much she leaned on him for comfort until he abruptly cut her out of his life. But she was also concerned because there was something wrong with Ward, and he clearly needed help. Skye wanted to reach out to him and do so, but he was not even talking to her anymore.
The truth was that the academy was great, Coulson, Simmons and Fitz were wonderful and Skye had made a lot of friends. She had found a place of belonging and could seriously see herself staying in her newfound home for years to come, and yet Skye had not felt a connection with anyone the way she had with Ward.
It was not that they were particularly similar on a superficial level, but Skye just knew he understood her in ways the others did not. He knew what it was like to feel lonely while surrounded by people and what it was like to lack a home and a loving family that so many took for granted. He never said it in so many words, but Skye could tell. It was in the way he looked sometimes when Fitzsimmons blathered away about their holidays with their families. It was in the way Skye sometimes caught him smiling just a second too late when someone made a joke, as if he had to remind himself he was supposed to.
There were times Skye felt like he saw right through her, too, just as he had the day they met when he realized she was using a fake last name.
They no longer met to train together and had not since that disastrous night when she kissed him. On the next night they had been set to train, Skye waited at their meeting spot hoping he would call or show up like nothing had changed. Summer was creeping up on them, so the hour she had lingered in the flickering light of the lamppost outside of Comms campus was not uncomfortably cold, but Skye's heart had constricted more and more with each passing minute.
The next time she waited, Skye was still holding onto the hope that maybe Ward had just needed more time before resuming his tutelage. By the third time, Skye was not even sure what compelled her to leave her dorm at all. The fourth time she did not bother.
Skye had alternated between dejection over his rejection of her after she made a move and misery that she felt more alone than ever when he refused to respond to her.
Skye consoled herself with knowing that Ward had openly said it was not about her, even if he had followed that up with his strange declaration that he was pathetic. Skye was fairly sure that his distance was not a reflection of anything she did so much as Ward's increasingly obvious issues coming into play.
Her head knew that at least, but her heart was a different story. Every time he went out of his way to avoid looking at her, all Skye could think was that she was just not a good fit…
"Ward, come sit!" Fitz said suddenly. He pulled out a chair at the small table the three of them were gathered around in invitation. Since the offered seat was also next to Skye, she knew the answer before Ward spoke.
"No," he said simply before he walked over to join the group of Ops cadets who were welcoming albeit surprised when he did.
Fitz's face fell while Simmons' lips pinched in obvious displeasure. "Well, that was quite rude," she said.
"What did you do?" Fitz accused, turning to face Skye.
"Me?" Skye blurted out incredulously.
"He hasn't been like this in months, and ever since you two had the falling out you won't tell us about, he's been worse than ever," Fitz said heatedly.
Skye lost any righteous anger she had when she stared at Fitz's wobbling lower lip and forlorn expression. He was hurt. Well, of course he was. Simmons had told Skye that she thought Fitz looked up to Ward, and now Ward was ignoring all of them the way he had when they first met.
"I didn't do anything," Skye said mostly honestly. "I don't know why exactly he's become so," Skye waved a hand in Ward's general direction, "You know, but I'm trying to fix it. He just won't let me." Frustration bled into her tone by the end.
Skye was irritated at it all- at Fitz for making her feel guilty, at Ward for being such an ass and at herself for messing everything up by coming on to Ward knowing how he was. I mean he still flinched a little at unexpected contact, what did she think would happen?
"Fitz, it's probably not anything that Skye did, or that youdid. Ward can be odd as you well know," Simmons finished as tactfully as she could.
Oh, Skye thought, she did not know the half of it. Sometimes the way Ward reacted reminded Skye of the kids at St. Agnes that the nuns paid extra attention to, the ones that arrived with Child Protective Services and a myriad of bruises. They held the same wild look in their eyes that Ward did every now and then.
He said his mother used to slap him, and he also did not react at all to getting a punch to the face courtesy of Richard the Douchebag. In fact, Skye remembered he had purposely ensured he would get visibly injured so the instructor would know that Richard was the perpetrator, which was a little disturbing at the time and only became more unsettling the longer Skye thought on it. There were dozens of students standing around that could have corroborated their story, but Ward had been certain they would not or that the instructor would not believe them.
It was a level of conditioned distrust in others that even Skye could not understand. He thought the worst of people and prepared for it, even if that meant allowing someone to give him a black eye.
Ward was not "odd" so much as he was damaged. Skye wondered why she was the only one who seemed to see that.
Skye was shaken out of her thoughts when the Professor Weaver entered the room clutching what looked like an entire tree's worth of paper. She swiftly approached the desk and placed the papers on it.
"Good morning," she greeted warmly. "Everyone, sort yourself by teams, and we'll get started."
The segregated groups dispersed, and Ward returned to them. He slipped into the seat Fitz had offered him earlier without looking at Skye or Fitzsimmons. Skye clenched her fists under the table.
"In preparation for the end of the year, there is an evaluation to assess the cooperation and abilities of each individual team," Professor Weaver explained. "Take it seriously as this assessment may very well decide your future at SHIELD, or if you have one at all."
All around the room, eager students straightened in attention while others cast nervous glances to each other. Skye noticed her team just looked bored.
Skye felt the same way. Ward and she were probably the best in their respective academies and definitely in their year while Fitzsimmons were already Sci-Tech legends with established SHIELD scientists coming to them for consultations. Skye had also heard that a big shot SHIELD agent trained by Nick Fury himself had expressed interest in being Ward's S.O. Skye had personally cracked SHIELD's RSA implementation a couple times before. They had no reason to be worried.
"This test will push the bonds you have formed with your team. It will require communication and trust to operate as a cohesive unit," Professor Weaver continued.
Skye took it back. They were doomed.
"Now, everyone take a packet and begin," Professor Weaver gestured to the stack of paper on the desk.
"The only thing this assessment is testing is my patience," Skye grumbled as she put her face in her hands.
"That ends question eighty-three, so only," Simmons flipped to the back of the packet, "One hundred seventeen more to go," she said.
"Oh my god," came Skye's muffled response.
"A monkey could do this," Fitz declared with a scowl.
"Don't be so sure," Ward spoke up.
Skye jerked her head up to stare at him. He had said nothing beyond the answers to the Operations-related questions in the last three hours.
Ward subtly indicated with his head towards the other tables. Skye and Fitzsimmons looked over to where the other teams were working and very clearly only a couple pages in.
"That's honestly embarrassing for them then," Simmons said as she finished writing out a formula that looked like gibberish to Skye but had Fitz nodding along.
Abruptly the room plunged into darkness and cries rang out from the students.
Skye could barely make out the shapes of the others and wished they were not in the basement so they could have a window.
"Everyone settle down," Professor Weaver's clear voice cut through the others. "I'll go check on the circuit breaker."
Skye heard Professor Weaver's chair scrape the floor as she stood up, the clicking of her footsteps and the creak of the opened door. Her shoes echoed in the hallway for several seconds before they stopped.
"Who's there?" Professor Weaver asked all of the sudden.
Skye strained to hear what had made her ask that, but all she got was oppressing silence.
"I asked-" she began again before a bang resounded and a thump of something hitting the ground followed.
Hushed exclamations of panic immediately filled the room. Skye would have joined them had a strong hand not covered her mouth before she could. An arm encircled her waist and pulled her into a solid, warm and painfully familiar chest.
"Quiet," Ward's voice spoke softly into her ear. Skye nodded, and he unfortunately released her but kept one hand on her upper arm. Skye could feel his movements as he reached Fitz and Simmons to convey the same messaged and pull them back towards the corner of the room.
Ward's hands guided the three of them to a crouched position on the ground. "Stay here," he hissed.
Skye's hand blindly shot out as she tried to stop him from leaving. She managed to snag his shirt before he could pull away and used it to anchor him to her.
"Where are you going? You can't go out there," Skye whispered worriedly.
"You can't even see!" Fitz chimed in less quietly than Skye would have liked. The other teams' voices were still louder though, so she supposed it did not make a difference.
"Can you see?" Simmons asked lowly. "You were able to locate us relatively easily."
"I've spent a lot of time forced to see in the dark," Ward said vaguely. "I can make out more than probably anyone else in the room. Now, stay here and shut up."
Ward detached himself from Skye's grasp and made his way towards the door. His footsteps were silent.
Skye could not see enough to figure out if he had left the room or not. She hoped he was not actually abandoning them because she had no doubt that Ward could disappear if he wanted to and leave them all behind. She just hoped he did not want to.
A glow emanated from the doorway before Skye saw a masked figure enter with a glow stick and a gun positioned to shoot. Skye saw little else but the light allowed her to catch a glimpse of wherever the person was aiming the gun. Three others all dressed in black tactical gear and masked as well followed the first figure. With four glowing rods in the room, Skye could now make out most of the room.
What Skye could not see was where the hell Ward had gone.
As the intruders entered, Skye realized he had placed the three of them in the best location. They were in the corner directly to the left of the door, which was the direction the masked figures were not looking in. Everyone else was huddled along the far wall. That was where Skye would have gone had she chosen her hiding spot. It was just instinctive to move as far away from the threat as possible, but now she and Fitzsimmons could actually make a break for it should the figures move farther in to confront the others, which was exactly what they made to do.
Still, Skye was not going to abandon the others, and she knew that Fitzsimmons were of the same mindset. As easily excited and emotional as the two usually were, Skye sensed their muted seriousness from beside her and thought that if Ward expected them to run like cowards, he clearly underestimated their nerve.
"What do you want?" One of the Ops students called out. "We're just freshmen cadets."
"Shut up," a woman's voice growled, "And get on your knees, all of you. Now!"
People scrambled to obey as the woman waved her gun threateningly. Skye noticed she was the only one with one in hand, which she found strange. That probably meant they wanted them alive.
The Ops student did not follow the command and instead charged like an idiot. Maybe he thought that since there was only one gun raised, he had a chance. Or maybe he was just a moron like most Ops students Skye had met. The two other Ops students followed suit as if in an unspoken agreement.
But they were outnumbered and the leader easily blocked their attacks with only minimal help from her subordinates. She defeated them as soundly as Ward had done with Skye the one time they sparred. Skye remembered how Ward had made a show of beating his classmate the first time she went to Operations campus and realized that the skill level of a freshman Ops student was probably not all that impressive compared to a professional. There was no comparison and no substitute for experience.
"I said get on your knees," the leader said calmly as she forced the last cadet onto the ground. She did not even sound winded.
The groaning from the Ops students indicated they were not unconscious but in no position to mount another attack.
"Do what I say, and you won't be hurt too badly," the woman said as she punctuated her words with a kick to the Ops student who first charged's unprotected side. He curled into himself with a weak gasp, and Skye swore she heard his ribs crack.
The leader moved even further into the room with her team and left the door wide open for Fitzsimmons and Skye to escape.
"Perhaps we should get help," Simmons said with a voice that was barely a whisper to Skye's ears.
Skye and Fitz shook their heads at once, but Simmons paid them no mind.
"They won't kill the others as the goal is clearly to keep them alive for some purpose. If we get aid quickly-"
"We need to trust Ward. He had a plan," Fitz said.
Simmons reluctantly nodded her head, but Skye thought they were both oddly sure that Ward had not abandoned them. Even as Skye thought that, she knew that she trusted Ward had not left, too.
Several of the Sci-Tech and Comms cadets were sniffling pleas not to be killed and similar sentiments.
"Shut up," the leader snarled. "I already said you won't be harmed too badly should you cooperate. We're not here to kill you."
"Then what are you here for," one of the Sci-Tech students asked in a quivering voice.
Skye could hear the dark smile in the leader's answer. "Think of this as a recruitment opportunity- should you prove worthy and obedient that is. Otherwise…" The woman left her sentence hanging and its meaning implied.
"Who wants to join the winning team?" One of the subordinates added with a chuckle.
Skye was more than a little disappointed when that question was not met with a resounding no. Several of the cadets actually agreed while the ones who did not hesitated rather than spit in the faces of the intruders.
"Good choice," the leader said.
Just then, the door swung back around and smacked one of the subordinates down. Before the others could react, Ward had brushed past them with a couple of kicks that made them fall to the floor and engaged the leader. He was already wrestling the gun from her while the rest of the room was still in shock. He slammed the stolen gun into the leader's face to knock her to the ground and returned his focus to the recovering subordinates.
Ward held his own against three of them better than Skye would have thought. She knew he was talented, everyone knew that, but this was another level. She would have thought that he had been training his whole life from the way he fought the three professionals all at once. It was not just natural ability, it was finely tuned skill at work. What Skye could see of his expression also indicated that none of this phased him in the slightest.
Skye saw one of the men try to attack while he was preoccupied with the other two and reacted quickly. She sprinted out of her safe corner and into the fight. She grabbed the arm of the man attempting to capitalize on Ward's distraction and started bawling loudly.
"What the-" He said bewildered by both her sudden appearance and actions.
Skye pleaded incoherently as her sharp eyes watched for the moment the man decided that she was not a threat and just a hysterical, little girl.
And then she made her real move.
Using the arm she held as leverage, Skye threw him off balance and swiped his legs out from under him the way Ward had taught her. Skye slammed his head into the ground once he fell and watched as he lost consciousness.
She turned around to find Ward staring at her with an impressed smirk that made Skye feel lighter than she had in weeks despite the circumstances. The two other subordinates lay in a heap at his feet.
She could not fully appreciate the moment though because someone grabbed her from behind and held her like a human shield. The sharp tip of a knife brushed her throat, and Skye froze.
"That was impressive," the leader said. "I don't get caught off guard easily."
"Really," Ward said lightly, "Because your gun was empty of bullets, which means you weren't really prepared before."
What? Skye blinked to herself and tried to remember if Ward had time to check the magazine of the gun earlier.
"What makes you think it was empty?" The woman asked curiously and leaned in, as if she were eager for his response.
"The weight," Ward said shortly.
The leader laughed and pressed herself closer to Skye. "Well, that is interesting, but what are you going to do about the bomb down the hallway set to explode in," the woman made a show of looking at her watch, "Five minutes?"
Ward tensed but kept his cool expression. Skye wondered how he remained so unaffected given that her heart was pounding uncontrollably.
"I'll make you a deal," she began agreeably. "Let me leave with my men and this one here, and I'll deactivate it remotely when I'm clear." The leader shook Skye for emphasis.
"Not a chance," Ward growled. His face was empty of all emotion, and Skye had never seen him look so dangerous.
"Grant," she squeaked when the tip of the knife cut into her skin and a trail of blood trickled down her neck.
Ward's lips tightened and his hands balled into fists at his side. He glared viciously at the woman.
"I don't think you have a choice if you want to keep everyone alive," the woman said.
"I'll deactivate the bomb myself after you're taken care of," Ward declared.
"And how are you going to 'take care of me'?" She asked skeptically.
"I didn't say I was going to be the one," Ward said with a smirk. He locked eyes with her, and Skye knew instinctively what he wanted her to do.
Skye raised her hands to wrench the knife away form her throat at the same moment Fitz and Simmons used a table like a battering ram and knocked it into the back of the woman holding her. She stumbled and lost her grip, so Skye took advantage of that to slam her foot into the woman's knee and flip her over her shoulder. Ward was already there to give the knockout blow before Skye could.
Skye grabbed one of the glowing rods from the ground and held it up to get a good look at the masked woman.
"She's out," Ward asserted. When Skye looked to him, he elaborated, "You can tell from her breathing pattern."
"Of course you can, Super Spy," Skye teased but was far too relieved for the words to have any actual bite to them. "What took you so long to make your move? I nearly fell asleep waiting for you to."
"I wanted to know what they were after first," Ward said.
"We need to evacuate," some interrupted.
Skye turned and saw the Ops student who had led the charge was leaning against the wall in obvious pain. His comrades were holding themselves carefully as well.
"We need to deactivate the bomb first," Simmons argued.
"We don't know what type of explosive it is-" Fitz continued.
"Or its range, so it's foolish to presume we can clear the safe radius-"
"In time for it to explode. Worse still, it could decimate the entire campus if large enough."
The Ops student blinked stupidly like he had not followed Fitzsimmons' rapid back and forth.
"Fitzsimmons are right," Ward said.
"Do you even know how to deactivate a bomb?" Skye asked. It seemed like an important question to address that everyone else was overlooking.
"We've had a couple of theoretical classes," one of the other Ops students said.
"Which I paid attention to," Ward said bluntly.
"I'm by no means an expert, but I also know a little about explosives," Fitz said. "And Ross, weren't you involved in building bombs before you joined the academy?"
Everyone turned to stare at the Sci-Tech cadet Fitz posed the question to, but Ross began shaking his head. "You're all crazy. We need to get help not go gallivanting after bombs that'll get us killed."
"By then, it'll be too late," Ward said. He was holding up one of the glowing rods, which cast his face in a strange light. "It might already be if we don't get moving." With that, he turned and walked out into the hallway with Skye and Fitzsimmons close on his heels-
Only for the lights to return without warning and illuminate Professor Weaver smiling face.
It took Skye only a second to realize what was going on, and then she became pissed. She was not the only one.
"You've got to be kidding me! This was the exam?" Fitz exclaimed.
"It tested your communication and trust as a team, did it not?" Professor Weaver answered unperturbed by the complaints of the cadets.
Skye gaped. "Seriously?" She took in the others now that she could see clearly again and saw that all of the Ops students were beat up pretty badly, even Ward had not come out unscathed. Ward's lip was split and there was a cut along one of his cheeks. What kind of test was this?
Ward was also the only one not visibly surprised. He could just be hiding his emotions as usual but…
"Did you know?" Skye asked him quietly while everyone else crowded around Professor Weaver.
Ward raised his eyebrows.
"Oh my god, you did!" Skye was aghast. "You could have given me some warning, you know! When did you figure it out?"
"I suspected there was something more to the exam when Weaver first explained it. A written test was far too simple given her explanation of its purpose. My suspicions were more or less confirmed when I realized none of our attackers had a loaded weapon on them."
Skye gave him a look. She had made note of all that, too, but her mind had hardly jumped to this must be an elaborate ruse concocted to test potential. Who even thought that way?
Skye's eyes narrowed considering. The answer was obvious: the people who would come to that conclusion would be people who have reason to, likely given experience. None of the other Ops cadets thought that their instructors would trick them and beat the shit out of them for an assessment, but Ward had. He had not faltered for a second and handled everything as if this were a normal occurrence for him.
Skye did not think an abusive household explained that reaction, but she was also not sure what would. It was almost like he was accustomed to being tested in the brutal, unpredictable ways that secret agents were.
"But they actually hurt us. Look at your Ops friends- they need medical help and might be limping for weeks," Skye said in protest. In truth, she just wanted to hear his answer.
Ward scoffed. "They went easy on them. A stupid move like charging headfirst unprepared without taking in the situation and formulating a tactical solution? They're lucky the punishment wasn't worse."
That was the exact reaction Skye was afraid of. She made herself roll her eyes and say, "Yeah, but still!" as if she agreed.
But she did not, and none of the other Ops students did either given that they were still loudly complaining about their injuries. More than that, his use of the word "punishment" made the hairs on the back of Skye's neck rise. Why would he think that making a bad choice in a test would result in physical punishment worse than what the Ops cadets received?
Strangely, Skye's heart was beating faster now than it had when she was held with a knife to her throat. For the first time, she wondered if she was in over her head where Grant Ward was concerned.
She also wondered if she should be worried that Skye was beyond caring even if she was.
So the next Academy AU has arrived! I liked this one personally. I'm really struggling with Know Your Enemy right now and thought this might help break my writer's block. Thanks to those of you who answered the poll on my profile, you're a big reason I wrote this!
Please let me know what you think!