Hey,... I know it's been a long time since I posted anything. Getting stranded on some exotic island in the middle of some big ocean, with no wi-fi or laptop, was definitely not the reason. But getting tied up with real life, was. Anyway, I wrote this after the finale of season 1 but was not satisfied with it, so I chucked it away. Only after seeing the promo and adding a few things, I decided to share this with all of you. I'm sure this topic has been touched on before. But this is my version. Enjoy!
Thank you to everyone that has been reading my ffs and adding them as their favourites. Your reviews are such a welcome sight! Thank you.
Disclaimer : I do not own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D
Summary : Skye visiting Ward for answers.
xox
"Why did you do it?"
"Why did you do it?"
"What?"
"Why did you betray the team, Skye?"
"This is not about me."
"Nor is it about me."
"Like hell it's not!"
"Well, to be fair, this is not about you or me."
"Then who is it about?"
"Us."
For the second time in two days, Ward watched the woman that he had fallen in love with, exited his cell in frustration.
xox
"Skye?"
Ward's raspy voiced echoed in the dark cell as Skye entered it. It was laced between surprised and longing. It has been two weeks since she stormed out off his cell.
Standing near the closed door, Skye watched in silence as her ex-SO and ex-team mate stepped forward out of the shadows. His hair stood in spikes and a scruffy beard obscured the lower half his hollowed facial features. She could see that he had lost weight under the prison issued clothes. The muscle that had usually filled his tight shirts were visibly replaced by bony silhouette of his collarbone and and shoulders. Skye swallowed to calm herself upon seeing Ward under the dim light of the cell.
Ward was a highly trained Specialist. An exceptional Black Op Operative. A highly skilled S.H.I.E.L.D Agent. And a snake in the grass Hydra.
Putting that all together, Skye could bet her S.H.I.E.L.D issued laptop that despite his gaunt and skinny appearance, he could still flip her onto the floor with a flick of his wrist. No matter how hard May had been training her, Skye knew that Ward had always evaluated her thought process correctly. And that makes him dangerous. She cooled her features and remain stoic.
"You can hate me Skye. But you don't have to fear me. I will never hurt you." Ward said quietly as he sat down.
Damn it! The Robot still knows my thoughts!
"Funny. I thought that's what you did." Skye turned away from him and crossed her arms. "You lied to me, you manipulating snake. And that bloody hurts."
"You've been hanging FitzSimmons too long. You are beginning to sound like them."
"Whatever."
"Skye."
"What?"
"Didn't I teach you to never turn your back on your opponent or enemy?"
Skye quickly turned around. Her heart pounded at the softness of his voice.
"That just confirmed that we are on opposite sides, Pal!"
"No. That just confirmed that I never want you hurt."
Skye was suddenly filled with anger. Her face was contorted into a rage that she was trying hard to school.
"Look," Ward said. "You are probably here because you all drew straws you got the short end. So let's just cut to the chase and ask me what they want to know."
"You think you are so smart, don't you?"
"If I am, I wouldn't be in here now." Ward answered.
"Yeah. If you are really smart, you wouldn't be caught! You'd still be slithering around for Hydra!"
"If I am really smart, I would have asked for help the moment Maynard started abusing my younger brother and sister, instead of running away from the Military School, stealing a car and setting fire to the house that that bastard was in, when I was 15. Then I wouldn't have to take up the offer Garret had offered while waiting my fate in Juvenile Hall." Ward told Skye in a calm manner. "I'd probably be a vet or animal trainer now on my Grampsy's ranch."
Skye was silent.
"Come on Skye," Ward broke the silence between them. "I have all day to do nothing but wait for the door to open and the next Agent to ask me the same questions that they had been asking for months. But I'm sure you have lots of cool things to do out there. So ask what you or they want to know so you can be off the clock to do whatever it is that you do."
At Skye's silence, Ward sighed and closed his eyes. Years of being a Specialist had seasoned him to be aware if his surroundings, even with his eyes closed. He knew he was pushing her to her limits. Just as she wanted answers from him, he wanted to tell her everything that she wants to know. But the Rookie has to learn that the art of interrogation is not always with force. If only she remembered how she had cooperated with Coulson more easily that with him during her interrogation, when they first kidnapped her months before.
As he closed his eyes and recalled the lines of a book from his memory, he could hear Skye's breathing slowed and became a little less agitated than when she first stepped in. He was only waiting for her to calm down enough to start questioning him.
"What are you doing?" Skye finally broke the silence when Ward had been closing his eyes for fifteen minutes.
"Reading Matterhorn from memory." Ward replied without opening his eyes.
"You are kidding me."
Ward could hear her exasperation and with a smirk, he said, "Just ask it Skye. I know you are dying to throw it back at me."
"What's that lecture about turning my back on my opponent when you get to close your eyes when I could be throwing daggers at you."
"First. You don't have any daggers or weapons on you. Because even if you have been sufficiently trained by now, there is still the possibility that I might over power you. Second. If you had wanted me dead, you would already have hacked into the air-vent system control and messed it with some poisonous gas or virus. Or kill me slowly by replaying one of your head bobbing songs over the speakers 24/7. Third. I trust you."
"You don't trust me anymore that I trust you."
"Since everything I said seems to be lies to you - " Ward shrugged and left the sentence hanging. But Ward knew that Skye would storm off again if he continued to play dumb. "Alright. What do you want to know?"
"Why you are a traitor?"
"Why were you?"
"You have any idea how aggravating you are right now?" Skye growled.
"I leaned from the best," he smiled. "You. Sexy growl."
Skye took a deep breath and Ward relented. "Ok. You want to know why I said you and I are the same?"
"We are not the same. You are a traitor."
"So were you."
"I was sold out by the person whom I trusted."
"So was I."
"No. You were in it to kill the team."
"Wrong Skye. I was in it only to find out about what had kept Coulson alive. That was my only role of being in the team." Ward told her before he leaned back on his chair. "Like you, I was sold out by the person whom I trusted. The person who I thought was my saviour for the wrong things that I've done. The only person who offered me a way out from where I was. My mission was not to eliminate but to seek the truth. Wasn't that your reason for being a traitor once?"
"My search for the truth was personal. I was looking for my own past. My parents. The people who gave me up." Skye told him with disdain.
"My search was personal too. I wanted to meet you. In person."
"What?"
"Garrett had me tailing you long before the team was formed. You were my personal mission, Skye."
"You are lying."
"I may lie about other things. But when it comes to you? I can't. I can't lie to you. And I can't lie or hide my feelings for you." Ward let out a soft chuckle. "Some Super Spy, huh? I can hide everything but my feelings for you that even Lorelei knows. And she was not even from this world."
"What do you know about me?"
"Irritating, annoying but cute."
"Damn it Ward! Stop being an ass!"
"Fine. You are an irritating, annoying but a cute monster."
"I'm not a monster! You are!"
"I maybe a monster but I'm not born a monster."
"What? What are you saying?" Skye whispered in disbelief.
"Raina know things about you. She knows your blood is special. She knows your history."
"You are lying."
"I admit I do not know the whole truth. But I am not lying when I tell you about what Raina told me." Ward was about to stand, go to her and wrap his arms around her but he stopped himself. "She said their was once a baby in China, that was saved at the expense of a whole village being massacred. The killer or killers were monsters."
"Why would they kill the people?"
"They were looking for their child. Their baby. Their girl."
"What are you saying?"
"You are that child, Skye. "
"No!"
xox
"What does it feel like to kill someone?"
"Hey, what's with that kind of question?"
Ward asked his former Rookie as he straddled the chair and rested his arms on its back. He cocked his head at Skye who was toying with the ties on her vest as she leaned against the cell door. It was three days ago that Ward had her told her of her parents and Ward had to called the guards to take her away. He knew if she had stay a moment longer, he would have taken her in his arms and held her tight. He didn't need for her to hate him more.
"If my parents were the monsters that killed those villages, maybe I'll be like that one day too. What if - "
"Skye, don't go there. You are not a killer."
"But what if, Ward?" Skye had almost taken a step and shook him for answers. But she suddenly remembered what he did to her and how she should revolt against wanting to touch him.
"You are not. You are too," Ward stared at her for a full minute before he said, "Nice."
"It took you a minute to say I'm nice?"
"I took a minute to sum up all the adjectives to describe you." Ward let out a chuckle. "Look, maybe the reason why they want you is because they need something from you that will make them stronger. Or you are the only one who will be able to defeat them. Hate to say it, I guess that's why either reason will result them wanting you dead after they get what they want from you."
"Why am I not surprise that you still have a tin for a heart?" Skye mumbled. "That was really comforting. Thanks."
"What's comforting is that you are safe if you keep away from them." Ward told her.
"What do you care?"
"I care." Ward's voice suddenly lowered to a level that Skye almost missed it.
Skye stood looking at Ward as he returned her stare. His eyes were in shadows as he lowered his face but Skye could feel their sharp gaze. Unspeaking, she knocked on the door to be let out.
"Tell me something?" She asked at the last moment while her hand was on the door handle.
"What?"
"Are you going to escape?"
"Even if I do, I'd be hunted. Garrett's dead. Without him, Hydra is nothing to me. The team? I mean your team. You guys rather see me dead that let me breath the air out there. I've have nothing out there for me anymore. No one. No friends. No family. Blood or otherwise." Ward told her as he slowly came to stand in front of her. "There is no reason for me to escape. But - "
"But?" Skye swallowed as he towered two inches over her. Though her heart raced, deep inside Skye knew that he would never harm her.
"But if anything were to happen to you, Skye?"
Skye's breathing hitched when his eyes suddenly flared with determination and promise before he huskily whispered his vow.
"I will escape."
THE END
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