Without You
Or Five Worlds Where Ward Never Met Skye - Post Season 1 AOS, Grant Ward woke up in a world where Skye didn't exist.
World 1:
Grant Ward woke up in a world where Skye didn't exist.
Well, that might be the right words for it.
Ward woke up in a world where Skye never helped Mike Peterson and never ran into SHIELD. In this world, Grant Ward had never met her.
It was three months after he had been arrested and tried by the government for his crimes against the country and the world and sentenced to spend the rest of his miserable life in a prison cell that made Guantánamo Bay look nice. It had been three months since he had found out he'd never speak again, the the damage May had done on his larynx was permeant. It had been three months since Garrett had died. It had been three months since he'd seen Skye.
He was on the Bus. Coulson was in his office. May was piloting the plane. FitzSimmons were in the lab. He wanted to cry seeing Fitz alive and healthy. He had heard that Fitz had succumbed to his injuries, namely the brain damage, and died a month prior, but here was the Scotsman, walking around, joking with Simmons, and playing with the Dwarfs. But there was no Skye.
There was no Hula doll in the empty bunk. There were no hidden stashes of snack food, no duck taped laptops, no random thumb drives, and not Skye. How could it be that there was no Skye?
"Decided to sleep in today, I see," Coulson said, walking through the lounge before he looked at Ward curiously. "Why are you staring at the spare bunk?"
He wanted to ask where Skye was. Maybe this was some sort of trick, like Garrett's machine or some form of torture devised by the team to make him miss her.
"I had a dream that someone was staying in there."
Coulson laughed loudly at this, showing no signs of recognition. "That's funny. Maybe we need another team member. Five is an odd number after all."
"It is, sir."
Five was a very odd number.
There was no betrayal in FitzSimmons' eyes, no hatred in May's. The Cavalry was good, but she even she wasn't that good.
Finally, by the end of the night, Ward had had enough. He retired to his bunk and looked up Mary Sue Poots, the name that Skye said the sisters had given her at the orphanage. When he found nothing, he put in St. Agnes Orphanage and came up with results.
It had been bombed when Skye would have been fifteen. A disturbing looking man, a neighbor had recounted for a paper, covered in blood and gory, had walked into orphanage and then the entire place had exploded.
There were pictures of the deceased children. Among them was a younger looking Skye's picture. He cried himself to sleep that night.
He woke up the woods.
World 2:
Ward was in the woods in his awkward teenage body with Buddy the dog licking at his face.
For a moment, he had been happy again until he remembered that he was the reason Buddy wasn't around in the world he was from.
Garrett showed up with food and told Ward to show him what he's learned during his time in the woods. He pretended to line up a shot on a deer, then turned the gun on Garrett and shot him through the head. It was his pre-Deathlok state, so he was still human enough that a bullet would kill him. He took Garrett's gun and emptied the magazine into it just to be sure. Then he took the keys to the truck, motioned for Buddy to get in and drove to the nearest SHIELD base and demanded to speak with Nick Fury.
That's how he ended up in an interrogation room. When he thought about it, it probably wasn't the smartest thing he could do. Still, Fury showed and Ward became a whistleblower on the whole Hydra organization inside of SHIELD.
He may never meet Skye here, but the least he can do is do right by her.
The plan wasn't well thought through. Alexander Pierce showed up and decided to shoot him in the head.
He woke up on the street.
World 3:
The streets were soaked with blood and somehow, Ward knew that this was post Hydra taking over. Deathlok extended a hand to him and he took it, standing up.
There was a Most Wanted Rewards sign. Skye and the rest of the team, including Trip, were on the poster, along with him and Deathlok. Deathlok shows no recognition of the other six on the posters.
A man on the opposite side of the street had called the authorities, Hydra police. When he and Deathlok resisted, the cops, super soldiers, shot him multiple times. Everything went black.
He woke up in a fire.
World 4:
The world was on fire.
No, just the house. It seemed he had passed out after stealing the car and setting the house on fire inside the house. The floor had caved in and he was in the basement with no way out and no real muscles because he hadn't started training yet.
Instead of a quick death by bullet like in the last two worlds, this was slow, painful. His oxygen was slowly being deprived and there was nothing he could do about it. He tried to breathe in, but all that there was to breathe was carbon monoxide. He could remember Simmons lecturing him that time he'd been trapped in that explosion with the fires that had raged high about the damage he'd done to his lungs. She'd given him so much medication after that to fix it. Skye had hugged him really hard and told him she was glad he was alive.
Her face morphed into a look of disgust.
I'm going to be sick.
Serial killer.
Disgusting, backstabbing traitor.
You're right about one thing. I wouldn't like the real you.
Everything was getting fuzzier as the sounds of sirens began to fill his ears. The world was spinning and she wasn't here. Arms pulled him up and he could feel handcuffs being snapped around his wrists as the heat disappeared.
"Grant Ward, you are under arrest for the murder of-"
He felt forward, hitting his head against the pavement as his legs gave out.
He woke up in a bed.
World 5:
The bed was soft, much like a hotel bed, but Ward recognized it as Quinn's expensive house. He left the room, heading to find someone, anyone.
Quinn was sitting in his study overlooking the pool and the estate.
"You missed the party yesterday. There was a pretty little hacker Raina was hoping to set you up with."
The girl in the flowered dress looked up from her perch on the arm of one of the oversized chairs. "He got in late. The Clairvoyant favors him, so he has to go where he tells him." Raina looked to him, eyes wide. "Is he as magnificent as he sounds?"
Ward blinked. She didn't know Garrett was the Clairvoyant yet. "Uh…"
"I bet he's wonderful," she continued, not listening, "Maybe he could find that hacker again for you."
"Cocoa Puffs," Quinn interrupted her, "She came with her boyfriend."
"But maybe they're soul mates. They're just destined to meet in their own time, but they need a little push. Maybe if I could speak directly with the Clairvoyant-"
"You know he doesn't see anyone except Ward."
The two were talking like he wasn't there. It was driving him nuts.
"Which is why he should at least let him have a nice girlfriend. Look at him," Raina motioned to Ward's frowning face and set jaw, "He's all tense and always on edge. He needs someone to bring some life to him. And that hacker, she was full of life… and death."
"Alright, Cuckoo's Nest. Whatever you say."
"Cocoa Puffs? Cuckoo's Nest?" he asked, realizing where he'd heard that exact phrasing before. He'd been watching a TV show. There was a girl, she'd looked like Coulson's ex-girlfriend, and cop on it. The cop had called the girl that.
Ward woke up standing.
World 6:
Ward was gripping the kitchen counter, trying to keep steady. There was a hand on his arm, her hand. He was dreaming.
"Grant? Are you alright?" It was her voice, but it sounded like the voice of angels. He was unworthy of listening to it, but she was waiting for a response.
"Hmm?"
"I thought I lost you there for a bit."
"Skye?" He turned around, seeing her glowing, and kissed her as hard as he could, trying to express every ounce of emotion into the kiss. He hated the lives he had without her.
She shoved him off after a moment, panting hard, her eyes sparkling. "Not that I mind, but what was that about, Robot?"
"I love you. I just- I love you."
"I love you too." That was when he noticed the bump in her shirt and the gold rings on her left hand. He glanced down at his hand.
"You're pregnant…"
"You've known that for a month. Are you sure you're alright? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Are you real?"
At this, Skye put her hand up to his head, as if checking for a fever. "What's gotten into you?"
"I- you wouldn't believe it."
"Try me."
"I keep living in worlds where I never met you. Either I'm dying or you're dead. In the last one, we missed each other by a day. You went to that party at Quinn's house, that mission with the pink dress, with Miles." Skye's forehead scrunched up.
"You remember what color my dress was why?"
"Because you looked- it was the first time-" He couldn't find the right words.
"Don't hurt yourself, Turbo. Wait, did you say worlds as in multiple worlds?"
"Yeah, why?" She groaned loudly.
"A.C.!" What did Coulson have to do with anything? "I can't believe he really made a deal with Loki to do that to you."
"Deal? Loki?" Since when was Coulson buddies with the man who'd killed him?
"He was angry when we told him I was pregnant and he's never really trusted you again after the whole Hydra thing, so he made some comments about how good you have it and how you should have never met me. I'm going to kill them. I'll have May throw them out of the plane, wait, no, she was probably in on it. I'll steal Thor's hammer from England and I'll-"
He kissed her, to shut her up, but mostly because in this world he could. She relaxed against him, her arms wrapping around his neck as they clung to each other.
"Or if it makes you react like this, maybe I should be thanking them."
"I love you."
He was staring at her with an intensity that was obviously making Skye slightly uncomfortable. Her hand slid down over her stomach, over the bump, and his eyes followed the movement.
Somewhere in his mind, he knew they were expecting a girl and that FitzSimmons had forgiving him but they were no longer FitzSimmons because Fitz had married a supermodel for a short while, then got a divorce, and Simmons had been dating Trip before Trip started dating Fitz's supermodel ex-wife. He knew that Coulson still kind of hated him and that May was alright with his and Skye's relationship. He remembered suddenly that they'd been married a little over a year and a half, that they had gotten a dog and he'd named him Buddy Jr.
"Ward?" She snapped her fingers in front of his face. "I get that my stomach is fascinating, but if you keep zoning out, I'm calling in Simmons to do testing."
He paled at that.
"I'm okay now." At her look of disbelief, he added, "Really, I am."
"If you're sure…" She didn't look convinced.
"I'm sure." He smiled and kissed her once more to make it real, "Everything's perfect here with you."
AU: Coulson's blackmailing Loki, that's why they made a deal. At first, it was supposed to be this sad, serious fic where he never finds her, but this ending felt right. I realized that part of it bears some resemblance to the episode of Supernatural Tall Tales, where Gabriel/Trickster (played in this by Loki - the trickster that Gabriel is known as in the pagan world) makes Sam wake up when he realizes the truth.
Can you guess the show Ward had been watching that made him realize it wasn't real?