A/N: Second chapter and there's just one more! I'm taking a few things from the comics here but twitched them a little to fit the story.


42

He's getting dressed, sitting on the end of the bed as Skye studies him, his muscular back and broad shoulders; He still has the red marks of her nails. Skye bites her lip, the sight is tempting and just the thought of the past few hours make her shiver again, but it's very late or... early, and they have to stop. They have a mission.

In fact, she should be focused on the mission, getting a proper rest. They shouldn't have done this to start with. They had an agreement: wait for things to cool down and then give it a shot, go on vacation, try to make things work without… you know… a war going on. But that agreement lasted about two weeks after she brought him to one of the safe houses.

Yeah, that could have gone better. Of course, her team had been fighting him and his men for months; he was the new head of hydra, like their number one enemy. The guys were not afraid to express their point of view, and that wasn't even close to Coulson's reaction. The moment they broke him out of jail and he saw Grant he punched him right in the face and tried to grab Skye's gun and kill him.

Maybe she should have listened Grant when he said that he didn't want to tag along on that one.

It's been a month since, and while it's good that they haven't seen Phil again, the team still hasn't completely accepted the idea, even though Grant has tried to prove himself on multiple occasions. He has really tried to make this work.

And yes, this might sound really weird, because a lot of bad things have happened and they're in the middle of a war that's just getting worse, but she's kind of… happy?

She tosses his t-shirt to the back of his head with a playful chuckle that Grant also returns.

"You know I could just stay," He says, and sounds teasing but he's serious about it. "It's already 2am" He turns and looks at her. She's leaning against the headboard and he knows that there's nothing under that white sheet that covers her body. He definitely means it.

"And then we'll get no sleep at all. I know you. We still have places to be, wars to win"

Grant knows that's not the reason, at least not the only one "They know. They're not stupid. And I still think that Sparkles is jealous"

"Come on. Stop calling him that" She sighs and watches him put his t-shirt back. That's a good thing, because she was really having trouble concentrating in their conversation "Please just-"

"I've been good"

"I know I just- I know that they know. I'm supposed to be the team leader, they have to trust me, and trust my judgment and decisions, and it's bad enough that I-" she stops because something in her stupid brain decides to start working again, but Grant still turns to see her.

"That you what? Sleep with the enemy?"

"You're not the enemy. Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I don't regret anything. We just have to be careful" she tries to fix it but his expression still fades. "If we don't have our heads in the game… I don't wanna get killed or watch you die, you know?

He stands up and walks to the door "Yeah. Careful. We'll be careful. Goodnight Skye"

"Grant, wait" She holds the sheet against her chest with one hand and tries to sit up but he leaves.

Shit.

She leans back against the headboard. It's been complicated, she knows that they have a good thing here, and Grant knows that too but this can't cost her the trust of the team and the success of their missions. They need to be focused and trust her, but it's hard when she also knows that they should have waited. Steve has put a lot of trust in her.

It's hard. Not let them think that she's distracted, or loosing her ability to lead and assess the threats while not letting Grant think that she doesn't care about him. They've worked a lot of shit so far. They both decided to build everything back up, and it certainly is a very good incentive to survive, but she also intends to keep the team alive.

She has to focus now. Tomorrow is an important day; if… when they succeed it will be important for their side. Steve says that things will get better once they free all the prisoners from Stark's super high-tech jail, and they need all the specs. It should be easy, is basically stealing from a contractor, getting intel, and getting back home.


Of course, it's always easier said than done when you're a team of international fugitives. Of course, they were expecting them.

"We need back up now" Skye says. She's in comms with Coulson. She sees how Grant tenses but he doesn't protest. They do need back up. Hydra is here, War Machine is here and they can't surrender now. 42, Stark and Pym's prison, is now holding captive more than 200 inhumans and heroes. They were not only included in the registration initiative but also implanted with tracking chips and power inhibitors.

So the mission was simple enough, get inside Damage Control, the contractor that built the prison and also was in charge of cleaning the mess after every super hero related battle in the world; and steal the blueprints and project details to plan an attack to recue the prisoners.

"I don't think that Rhodes will try to kill us, but Hydra… that's a whole other story" Skye says and, of course, eyes are set on Grant.

He decided to speak "Maybe I can try to deal with them"

"You crazy? They'll shoot you on sight"

"Not if I shoot them first" Grant replies and loads his riffle. He's got that cocky grin on his face.

Lincoln sighs, "I can go with him" he says and Skye hesitates for a second.

Grant speaks again "We can't hack into Damage Control, you're the only one who can do it. So you need to go and do that while we keep guard. So, boss, what are our orders?"

That's exactly the kind of situation that she hates. They're right, and they have a mission, but… - "Ok, you two go to the southwest entrance, down the bassement. Don't let them get inside. Slingshot, take the rest of the team and go north. Wait for Coulson's team and then wait for my orders, ok?" The whole team nods and immediately obeys Skye's orders.

She grabs Grant's hand before he's gone. "Hey… about last night-" She squeezes before letting go.

"Don't worry about it"

"Ward-"

"It's ok" He smiles and then leaves.

And it feels weird. It feels like something really bad is about to happen but then, that's how they live. It's always this awful feeling… maybe she's just paranoid, tired of loosing and hoping before things go bad. She faces a few soldiers as she walks inside the building. They're sent flying against walls and their weapons blown into pieces. She doesn't use one bullet as she reaches the main office.

She puts her riffle on the desk and plugs a hard drive to start working.


As it turns out, Sparkles isn't half bad with those powers, Grant thinks. The group of soldiers doesn't pose much of a threat against them.

"You can't say I didn't give you the chance to walk away" He says to one of the Hydra soldiers as he punches him in the stomach and then grabs his vest, pushing and using him as a shield when the others start shooting.

Grant moves fast, drops the body when he's closer to the others and then grabs a pistol in each hand, precisely shooting each one of his 5 targets within seconds. Then a body flies into his line of sight and he turns to Lincoln. "Nice one"

"But there will be more coming"


Skye's almost done. She's got all the Intel on 42, the prison, and is ready to go… but then she sees it, another encrypted file, even larger that the rest of them and with layers and layers of encryption. "What the…"

She taps quickly, glances at her wristwatch. They have to go.

But this seems important.

It is important.

But then, she's interrupted when something breaks through the roof and inside the office. Her first instinct is to take the hard drive and take cover behind the desk.

"Please don't make this dificult" James says and then lifts the mask of his suit. "Daisy…" He says.

"Come on. You know that the last thing I want is to fight you" She says and then gets up, slowly.

"We agree on that. So… I'm gonna need you to come with me"

"James, you need to listen to me. I found something here, and it's bad. You can't trust Damage Control and Hydra"

"Then we'll do something about it, but that's not up to you, not even up to me"

"This is not about missions, it's abut what's really going on here." She grabs the screen and turns it around. "Look for yourself"

He frowns but steps closer, looks at the screen.

"This is… impossible," He says

"And now you gave them control over people with powers. They've been financing attacks long before the war started; they gave crossbones the means to level half a city. James, we're not the bad guys. You know that"

"We all know that, but it still seems like we can't stop this" He looks at her, his mask comes down.

"James…" She says and as her hands close into fists the metal on Rhodey's suit starts to shake.


"Lincoln!" Grant yells when one of the soldiers throws a paralyzing grenade. It explodes and immediately renders him unconscious. "Damn it"

"Look at that!" One of the guys says, the one that used to be his second in command. "He is on his own now"

"I would be intimidated by that, but I just can't take you seriously anymore. I mean, you let a guy wearing way too much purple take the reins" Grant says, counts the soldiers. There are 7 still standing, all of them already aiming their rifles at him.

"At least we know we can trust the Baron. He's got plans, you know? All you did was drag us into your personal vendetta and then leave of for a nice pair of legs. You wasted our time, all for woman"

"Come on guys, we had fun"

The man shoots at Grant's leg and he falls, growls in pain.

"You never had the balls, Ward. You always need someone to come and save your ass" He places his boot on Grant's injured leg and pushes "Are you going to call your girlfriend now?" He puts the gun against Grant's head.

Grant smiles. "Funny that you say that. That's exactly what I'm going to do" With a quick move he grabs the man's wrist to give some space between the gun and his head. "Now!"

In a second, the gun comes apart and when the rest of the hydra soldiers turn around the floor shakes under their feet, cracks open, making them loose their balance.

Grant uses the distraction to tackle the man to the ground and punch him repeatedly while Skye sends the rest of them flying and through the glass of one of the rooms.

"What the hell were you thinking!" She snaps.

He finally knocks the man unconscious, hearing the crack of his nose under his fist.

"Lincoln is out we- are you ok?" He says and finally notices that Skye is bleeding and limping.

"You should see the other guy" She sighs and then taps her comms "We need help here. Send Manifold. We have a man down and two injured. The rest of the team is ready for extraction"

"Skye…"

She takes her Icer out and aims at him. "What the hell!" He almost jumps off the other guy's body when Skye shoots the hydra soldier in the head, twice. "Skye?"

"The son of a bitch almost killed you. You could have died, you dumbass"

"But you saved me. My hero" He tries to smile but she knows that he's in pain. "You found Rhodes?"

"I found Rhodes" She sighs and rests against a wall. "Left him a present too, a copy of some interesting deals that Zemo made between Hydra and damage control. Do you think we can tie these guys up? After the things I found, Hydra's not gonna be a problem anymore"

"Maybe we should just wait and…you know, not move"


They don't go back to the house, but one of Coulson's bases. Skye is dragged to a meeting with Coulson, Wilson and Romanoff while Grant and Lincoln are taken for medical attention.

"Skye should be here," Grant says. "She's injured"

"She's fine" Jerry says. The whole team is there.

"You didn't took a metal fist to your face"

"I could"

"Look, she'll be here soon and then she'll tell us what this is all about." Lincoln adds.

"What she found there must be really important if we're here"

"Ward's just nervous because half of this base wants to kill him, starting by Coulson" Yo-yo says and then there's an awkward silence, which prompts her to keep talking "Hey, I'm just saying that maybe we should be at the house. It's not like we want you dead too. Even though you're kind of pain in the ass sometimes"

"Thanks? I guess" Grant says.

"You're part of the team" Lincoln adds "That's what she's trying to say"

"Exactly" The woman says.

He's never alone with the team like this. Always with Skye or on his own, training, reading a book, just… not this kind of team-bonding, because they used to look at him like the enemy, but things are changing now, which feels kind of good.

A few minutes later, Skye joins them in the room.

"We're staying here," She says.

"What?" Lincoln asks, "What happened?"

She sighs. "Cap is coming here tomorrow. He's going to tell you all about it, plan our next move. It's going to be soon"

"So what you found… it was big" Yo-yo says and Skye nods.

"We need to be prepared. So try to get some rest. We did good today"

The team obeys and they all retreat to their rooms. Grant stays, he's still sitting on one of the medical beds.

"Hey" She smiles at him, walks closer and grabs his hand.

"You need to cheek on your leg" He says.

"I will I… just have a few more things to do"

"It's not like we're going to loose the war if you take a break, Skye" HE says and she almost laughs at that "What?"

"A war. We are in the middle of a freaking war. Maybe we won't loose if I take a break but we might still loose. What's gonna happen then?"

"Whatever happens, we get out"

"That's your solution to everything" She looks down.

"That's what you promised"

"But a promise doesn't make us immortals, or invulnerable"

"Skye" He says, and grabs her arm. "Nothing is going to happen to us. Let's just-"

"Let's just not talk about it ok? You need to rest and I'll probably work late" She avoids his eyes, steps out of his reach. "I'll check on you later, ok?"

He doesn't protest and she knows that he's pissed. It's not like he really believes in the cause, but she doesn't blame him. She's been questioning this whole thing the last few days. It's nonsense, it's just violence and a lot of innocent people have gotten hurt.

And she's afraid. So far, nothing has ever had a happy ending for her, why start hoping for that now?


Please tell me what you think! one more chapter, the end of the civil war!