Ward: I'll let you put me through, but on your own terms.

Coulson: [morbidly curious] What did you have in mind?

Ward: I don't want my entire history gone. As painful as my childhood was and how much damage it did to who I am, I want to keep that to remind me of who I am. Everything else starting with when Garrett recruited me, that can all go.

Coulson: Then what explanation do we give to you as to how you got off for nearly killing your brother?

Ward: "Easy. SHIELD recruited me through you."

[the others look to each other in shock, jaws drop]

Skye: What?

May: No way!

Coulson: May.

Simmons: It's not up for discussion!

Fitz: He gets to forget everything? All the damage he's done to us and everyone while we have to live with it? That's so unfair!

Ward: I'm gonna forget everything anyway, so why not? You get to mold me exactly the way you want me to be and never question my loyalties ever again. Plus, those personal; undying loyalties I had to Garrett, I'll get to have them for you now.

Coulson: What you're asking is that we bring you back in and pretend that none of it ever happened. That's not something we can do. Not something we want to do. Plus, who's to say it would work? Who's to say it won't backfire on us like it did with Cal?

Ward: You can take precautions so it doesn't I'm sure.

Skye: Even if we did, we couldn't treat you the way you'd want to be treated.

Coulson: It's letting you off too easy and it's a burden that we don't need.

Ward: Skye. You let your father go through with it. You don't have any bad feelings toward him anymore now, do you?

[Skye looks down and thinks about it]

Skye: My father was damaged and he misplaced his trust in my mother. I can't fault him for not realizing where it would go.

Ward: I know I'll still be Grant Ward, but a different one. The one you all hate will be gone forever. You'll never have to deal with him again. You have the chance to make me who you want me to be. Who I was always meant to be. Yes, I don't want to be hated anymore, but I don't want to hate anymore either. Bobbi selling Kara out, May making me kill her. I want to let go. I want to move on. I can't ever do that if I have to live with it. What I want back more than anything is everyone's trust. And if this is the way to do it, I'm all the more willing.

[aside, after everyone leaves the holding room Ward is in]

Hunter: Wow.

Bobbi: That is the most absurd thing I've ever heard.

Fitz: Without a doubt.

Simmons: He actually thought it was something we'd consider.

[pause as everyone but Coulson, Skye and Mack mumble in agreement]

Coulson: I'm gonna do it.

[the others look to him in shock]

Coulson: We can't undo the things he did. True. But we can undo who he is and that does count for something.

May: You can't be serious.

Mack: Ward's skills CAN be invaluable and this grudge you guys continue to carry, it's not unwarranted, but it's damaging to who we are and how we operate. We can't let it get in the way anymore.

May: Easy for you to say.

Coulson: May, easy.

Mack: If it were up to me, you'd let me kick his head in, but I'm going with what you think is right.

Coulson: I appreciate that restraint. Thank you. He wants a fresh start and that's exactly what he'll get.

Bobbi: After everything he did...

Coulson: He's not wrong though. What you did to 33, as necessary as you deemed it to be, was taking it a step too far. You could have found a safe house that was empty to give HYDRA instead.

Bobbi: I didn't have the time.

Hunter: You should have made time.

Bobbi: I didn't know what was gonna happen when they got her.

Hunter: It was your JOB to know.

Bobbi: Even then, if I had, I couldn't do anything about it. The time to blow my cover wasn't upon me yet.

Mack: And yet it was with Simmons?

Simmons: Hey!

Fitz: That's not fair.

Bobbi: I know that when Ward and Kara had me I said I'd do it again, but guess what? I was lying!

[pause]

Bobbi: [begins to start out stern, but then breaks down] Every second they interrogated me, even before they tortured me, I wanted nothing more than to scream how sorry I was and how I wish I could give her back everything it cost her! How much I regretted doing it and would refuse to let it happen if given the chance to fix it! Doing so would not only justify what they were doing to illicit it from me, but it would have undermined my operation and my authority as a SHIELD agent! As terrible as it was, I had no choice! If I let my personal feelings get in the way, too many people pay the price! Even if it wasn't Hunter at the door, I still would have taken the shot for anyone else! No one should EVER have to pay for my sins! No one, but me!

[pause]

Bobbi: And this is how he'll pay for his. He'll give up his life and who he is now. What I did wrecked Kara. What we'll do, will save him from himself.

[pause]

Skye: I agree.

[everyone but Coulson, Bobbi and Mack look to her in shock]

May: Skye, you of all people-

Skye: See what he's done? He's made us so angry with him that we've let it affect us, hurt us, drive us to constantly want the worse for him because of the hand he dealt us. It's come to the point that he knows we can never let it go and he's sacrificing himself to try to fix that. You can't say that's someone who doesn't regret all the things he's done. He'd make it so much easier if he was worth hating and worth wishing dead, but he's not. He let all his own grudges go, he does not hate us for hating him. He never has. We owe it to him, if not ourselves, to finally move on and be at peace with it. Bringing him back is not gonna be easy and doing so without his memory intact won't make it much easier, but we can finally face it and finally, FINALLY let it go.

[pause]

Skye: The damage will always be there I know. It'll never go away. But we gotta realize that we have to acknowledge it. Denying it and convincing ourselves that there's anything we can do to make it go away, it's energy we can't afford to use anymore. It's been a waste this whole time.

Fitz: Except changing him is doing that though, isn't it?

Skye: Yes, but it's the best we can do as it is.

Coulson: I completely agree. Couldn't have said it better myself Skye. May?

May: Skye's not wrong. He didn't do to you though what he did to me.

Skye: I know, but it happened. There's nothing that be done to change it.

May: [to Coulson] If it's the call you want to make, I'll support it.

Hunter: So will I. You haven't let me down yet, so I don't think you will on this.

Coulson: Thank you May, Hunter. FitzSimmons?

Simmons: Ward could have shot me when I tried to kill him and he had every reason to. He didn't though. He took the high ground when I didn't. We'll make him better this way. We CAN. We do owe it to ourselves to not let it hurt or change us anymore. Leo?

Fitz: Jemma...I've managed to get past what's happened. That's extraordinary in itself since I've been not only been affected by him, but taken it harder than anyone else. Even if he wasn't trying to save us like he said, the fact is that we survived. He'd just shot us, we wouldn't be here now. So...Yeah, there you go.

Coulson: So we're all in agreement?

[everyone quietly acknowledges or nods]

Coulson: Then it's settled. Ward comes back a whole new man. A member of the team.

Skye: [smiles] This could actually work.

Fitz: Yeah. Plus, we'll have a stick in the mud to make fun of again too.

[the team laughs]

Skye: And we still have the fact that I shot him too.

[they laugh again]

Coulson: Let's get the machine ready. The sooner, the better.