Staring at the files in front of her, Skye tried to make sense of the notes she was seeing. Her chat with the shrink had resulted in a lot of roadblocks courtesy of doctor-patient privilege (she wasn't even aware that still existed in the prison system) and he wouldn't even tell her anything about Ward's treatment or therapy. About the only thing the man had said was that Skye should definitely visit again. Apparently, Ward had revealed more to her in one conversation than he had to the doctor in the past six months.

Annoyed by the lack of information, Skye's first stop when she reached the Playground again was to head into the computer room Coulson had set up for her. It was like a robot's wet dream come true: every piece of equipment she could ever want, ever, was literally shoved in the room. The computers were all high end, the servers tightly secured. Sadly, she also found the room overwhelming so she barely used it. What she needed today, however, was the large ass bank of monitors set up along one of the walls. It held a lot more surface area than her beat up laptop and she'd need it to find the files she was after.

It wasn't that the files were particularly large, it was more the sheer number. When she'd erased their histories, all she'd had time to do was wipe the public records and some of the government ones as well. Her search hadn't been as...exhaustive as she would have liked, but it got most of the files out of the way. Anything she hadn't found would take a lot more digging to pull up. And when she'd erased everything, she hadn't had the time to sort it all. So now she had a flash drive full of files, all pertaining to seven different people, and she needed only the files dealing with one. And a large number of those files were SHIELD ones, to boot. Thankfully, the Playground's servers contained copies of all files originally held on all SHIELD servers. That coupled with the truly phenomenal data leak released by Agent Natasha Romanoff (who Skye was going to shake the hand of/hug if she ever met her because damn that was an impressive move), she had pretty much everything available digitally on record. Of course, she was going to make phone calls to/hack the necessary agencies once she had a little more information about where Ward had grown up and a general time line of his life; running a second, more exhaustive search of Ward's history was a must.

Digging through Ward's past like this felt like a massive violation of his privacy, but the reality was that she was ultimately doing this to help him. Before today, she'd only wanted a reason for his betrayal. She hadn't realized how complicated that simple question could be. The only one who might have known was AC, and she doubted he would discuss it. He'd been off for weeks, not that she was going to tell Ward that. Nope, whatever issues AC was having would stay with the team.

Taking a deep breath, Skye forced herself to begin going through the files. Anything and everything that even mentioned Ward was pulled. Even if he was a damn footnote, she pulled the file. Who knew what could help piece together the shattered pieces of Ward's past? The shrink's notes weren't digitized for the most part and the reports only sighted the conditions Ward was presenting. It would take a lot more than that for her to figure out what was going on.

Three hours later, however, Skye was still facing the same questions she had been when she started. All of the SHIELD files pretty much just praised Ward's field skills while admonishing his interpersonal ones. There were no signs of any kind of a psychological evaluation, despite the fact that medical had cited concerning marks on Ward's body. Specifically, they'd noted healed fractures and scars consistent with child abuse. Still, Skye could find no indication that SHIELD had pressed for information on the matter. There were no psychological examinations, no further testing, and no further remarks from medical outside of one document.

And none of that told Skye why Ward had betrayed them. None of that explained his comment about the woods or Garrett saving him from Juvie. Hell, she hadn't even found a Juvie record; not yet at least. That didn't mean it wasn't there of course, it just meant she hadn't found it during the initial search. And given she hadn't exactly been looking for a record (or suspected Ward had one; it was Grant freaking Ward, mister 'lives by the book' after all), it was probably still out there unless someone else deleted it. Garrett might have done that of course, or someone else in Hydra. But even if they had, there were other files. She would know; she'd cleared her own juvenile record before she escaped, just in case someone picked her up. Clearing those files could be a real pain, too. It definitely wasn't something just anyone could do.

Leaning back in her chair for a moment, Skye rubbed her eyes in an attempt to clear the heavy feeling from her lids. She should probably take a break from all of this, but somehow she couldn't. Not until she knew a little more. Just a little. Just another hour, then she'd take a break.

It sounded silly, even to her, but Skye couldn't stand the idea of walking away from the consoles without at least looking a little more for the answers she wanted. Part of this was her natural determination to know the truth- she knew that. But there was another part too, one Skye was trying really hard to pretend didn't exist. It was the part of Skye that felt like walking away from this research, even for a few minutes, would be like walking away from Ward. Even though the two were in no way connected, even stepping away for a moment made Skye feel like she was turning her back, just a little, on her former SO. That was stupid of course. After everything he'd done to them, she shouldn't feel guilty about stepping away from digging into his past. But the little voice in her head that kept insisting Ward was just like her, that everyone had turned their back on him so he'd turned his back on everyone else first this time, wouldn't let up. So neither did Skye. She just fell back into her research, using some preliminary information about where Ward had been born to search for police or juvie records associated with his name. It was a long shot, but she was going to at least try.

"What are you doing that's got you so hard at work?" A voice cut through the room, startling Skye so badly she jumped out of her chair and spun to physically block her monitors from view. Crap. Crap, crap, crap. Who was in her sanctuary? If anyone on the team caught her looking into Ward's past, she wouldn't have a good explanation for why. She needed to make something up, now. Maybe, she was looking for who'd turned him? Some sign he'd turned others who might still be in SHIELD? Yeah, that could work.

"Skye? Is everything alright?" Her eyes shot down as the voice from before broke through her thoughts again. Beside her chair, the one she'd just vacated, was none other than Fitz. His calm, blue eyes blinked worriedly up at her, brow drawn into a sharp furrow. One of his hand's rested on the large wheel of his chair and the other wrapped around a thermos of coffee. A thermos he lifted in her direct a moment later. "I brought you some coffee. Thought it might help you work."

Immediately, Skye relaxed a little. Fitz, she should have guessed. He was a lot quieter than the others with his chair rather than heavy boots. It explained how she didn't hear him approaching. Reaching out, she took the thermos and set it aside, careful to continue blocking the monitors from view. "Thanks Fitz, I need this."

"So what are you working on?" asked Fitz curiously, attempting to catch a glimpse of the monitors. "Anything interesting?"

"Not really," dismissed Skye easily. "Just tracking some data for Coulson, you know how it goes."

Fitz nodded sagely, wheeling backwards a bit. "Right, well, if you need anything, just call."

"Thanks Fitz," thanked Skye, watching as the engineer rolled dejectedly from the room.

A pang of guilt echoed through Skye, so much so that she almost called him back. But she bit her tongue all the same. Chances were that Fitz wouldn't say a thing to Coulson or anyone else about Skye investigating Ward's past, but she didn't want to risk it either. Simmons could get anything out of Fitz and she would definitely go to Coulson, who would not only stop Skye's research but insist the hacker not visit Ward again. And that? That wasn't an option. Skye had already decided she would go back (hell, Ward's shrink though it was a good idea), but this time she wasn't going to go back empty handed.

"What is all that?" asked Ward as Skye stepped in front of his cell. She could hear her former SO as he stood up and she peered around the stack of books in her arms to grin at him.

"Books," replied Skye with the best shrug she could manage given her over-loaded arms. She dropped the books haphazardly in front of Ward's cell, right up against the bars, and turned to fully face her SO. "Thought you'd recognize them given how much you love to read."

Ward's exasperated look told her that wasn't what he meant. Of course, she knew that. She was intentionally trying to push his buttons, just like she had before. He seemed calmer today, less callus and angry, more like the calm man she knew before. "I meant why are you carrying a large stack of books through a prison."

Okay, there was the touch of anger she'd been expecting. If he really thought being a little short with her would drive her off though, he had another thing coming. Then again, he might actually remember she was persistent as hell. His anger didn't scare her; he'd sworn once he wouldn't hurt her and, despite everything, he'd never actually done anything to hurt her. Even when she was pressing his buttons.

Shrugging again, she dropped down to sit, cross legged, in front of Ward's cell and slipped the backpack from her back. "I told AC I was going somewhere quiet to study."

"So you come to a prison?" stated Ward in semi-disbelief, shaking his head as he dropped back onto his cot. "You are insane."

"And you are basically in solitary," pointed out Skye as she pulled out a large binder and a notebook. "I can't think of a better, quieter place to study."

"A library might work," suggested Ward dryly, his irritation at her invasion becoming more apparent. Still, he dropped back to lay on his cot, staring at the ceiling. Skye just shrugged as she cracked open one of the books and began to skim the page while jotting down notes.

The quiet lasted about twenty minutes before Skye let out an unhappy groan. "Ugh, I hate these stupid reading comprehension questions. Why do we care what the bird represents? Why can't it just be a bird?"

From his cot, Ward let out a grunt. For a moment, the only sound was that of Skye grumbling as she struggled with the English portion of her studies before Ward's voice suddenly cut through the room. "Because it changes the meaning of the story."

Skye contorted herself to glance at the man on the cot, though he didn't even glance at her. "What?"

"The bird," elaborated Ward, eyes locked on his ceiling. "What it represents matters because it changes the meaning of the story."

"What do you mean?" asked Skye, turning her full attention to Ward as she leaned forward against the cell bars. Her eyes watched her former SO's face, looking for some sign that could tell her was was going through his head. She definitely wasn't a mind reader though and Ward was as impassive as always.

Sighing, Ward closed his eyes and folded his arms under his head as he spoke. "Like...freedom. A bird in a cage can represent someone trapped in a situation. When the bird is let go, it's free. If the story is about a bird being kept by a...a soldier because he saved the bird from a horrible fate, it's a story about human compassion. About someone saving another life. And if the bird represents, say, a kid the soldier always wanted but never had, that changes the context more."

Slowly, Skye nodded, unable to avoid the blatant parallels between Ward's current situation and that of the metaphorical 'bird' they were discussing. It didn't take an English genius to see he was projecting. "Okay, so a bird being held forcefully in a cage. That would change the meaning of the bird?"

"Not necessarily," sighed Ward, finally opening his eyes and rolling his head to glance back at her. "It depends on why the bird is in the cage to begin with. If the bird was injured and cared for, but wants to leave now that it's better and isn't allowed to, that bird could represent sought-after freedom. But if the bird is allowing itself to be held because it has nowhere else to go and doesn't know what to do without it's new caregiver, then the story changes again."

"Okay, I get that," dismissed Skye with a shake of her head. "But how does that change the story?"

"It determines if the man holding the bird is a caregiver or a prison-keeper," explained Ward, his solemn eyes meeting Skye's as he spoke.

Idly, Skye wondered if Ward was aware he was talking about himself: that he was empathizing with the bird in this unwritten story; wondered if Garrett was a caretaker or a prison-keeper in his mind. She knew who she thought Garrett was, but it was hard to guess with Ward. And right now, she didn't want to ask. After his clear show of rage during her previous visit, she just wanted to try to keep him calm. Clearly, Garrett is something he doesn't want to talk about. At least, not directly.

"I think it depends on the perspective of the bird," replied Skye carefully, not pushing, just speaking in calm, neutral tones that would (hopefully) keep Ward just as calm. "We never hear his perspective."

"Because the bird's perspective doesn't matter," dismissed Ward, tone just a touch bitter as his eyes returned to his ceiling. "The bird just does what it's told."

"Maybe that's because no one's ever bothered to ask the bird what he wants," suggested Skye softly, eyes never leaving Ward's reclined form. Part of her wanted to crawl up and curl beside him, but she knew it would be unwanted attention even if she could get into his cell.

Ward remained completely silent for a long moment, her words echoing soundlessly through the space. It was a question he was probably never asked and One he might not even know the answer to. After a minute or two though, he shot restlessly off his cot and pushed himself into a standing position. The violent energy that surrounded him last time he started punching the walls flared up like a wildfire in a dry forest. Almost violently, he shoved a hand through his hair with a faint growl. "The bird doesn't know what it wants."

Skye felt the wind leave her lungs as if she'd been physically punched. Those words were perhaps the most honest thing she'd ever heard Ward say, and it hurt to know he felt that way. Physically hurt in a way she'd only experienced a handful of times. That one statement, so simple, summarized everything the files she'd spent the past week pouring over had told her: that Ward never had a choice. That he'd never been given a chance to learn who he was as a person. He'd never been himself once in his life.

Without thinking about it, Skye reached into the cell, offering her hand to Ward. Yeah, it probably wasn't smart, but she couldn't stand the look on his face. No matter what had happened before, he was free to be himself now. And he didn't have to face that alone. "Then it's a good thing the bird has friends who are willing to help him figure it out."

Silently, Ward turned to stare at her hand for a moment before turning back to his cot and dropping heavily onto it. His head dropped forward, fist tightening and relaxing in a visual show of his frustration. Skye knew what it felt like to be powerless, to not know why, but she couldn't even begin to understand what it was like not to know what you wanted.

Withdrawing her hand (because Ward clearly didn't want to take it), Skye turned back to her books. Again, they fell into silence for nearly ten minutes, broken only by Skye's irritated grumbling and complaints. Her focus became so drawn into her practice exams that she didn't even hear Ward move until his voice came from right near her head. "What are you studying for, anyway?"

Glancing back, she nearly jumped a little when she realized his back was against the bars right beside her own, simply on the opposite side of the barrier Shifting around so she could look at him, Skye passed the book to him through the bars of his cell. "I'm studying for my GED."

Ward glanced at the book, scowling a touch bitterly at the bound tome. "You aren't supposed to pass the prisoners things."

"Yeah, and I'm not supposed to reach inside the cells or lean on the bars either," pointed out Skye dismissively. "I'm not afraid of you."

A dry laugh rose from Ward's throat, scoffing and bitter. "You should be, though. Monsters eat people like you."

Skye just shrugged a bit, carefully reaching through the bars to gently press her fingers to Ward's arm. He jumped at the contact, scooting a bit back but otherwise making no threatening motion towards her. "Except you promised once you wouldn't hurt me. And even when I was hitting and punching you, you kept that promise. You've done nothing to indicate you weren't being truthful, so until you prove me wrong, I'm not gonna worry about you eating me." She bit her lip to keep the rest of that sentence from coming out. It wouldn't exactly be appropriate to make a joke about him eating her, after all. Well, right now it wouldn't.

Apparently he could see the joke on her face though, because he rolled his eyes a little like he did when she was being exasperating and carefully leaned back against the bars again. But he left her fingers where they were, not bothering to dislodge the digits. "Does your mind live in the gutter?"

"Pretty much," admitted Skye with a shrug, shifting so her shoulder was leaning on the bars and she could glance at the book as well. "You should know that by now."

"Trust me, I do," assured Ward with a sigh, flipping the book open. "Your jokes made it really, really hard to train you."

"How?" asked Skye in surprise. He'd always seemed exasperated by her jokes but he'd never done anything that made her think it somehow made his job harder.

"Because every time you made one, I wanted to make a joke back," explained Ward, eyes turned down at the pages. "I'm not as tightly wound as I pretended to be and it was really hard to remain detached." A touch of what looked like a blush began to spread on his cheeks a bit. "And training isn't exactly a hands-off experience..."

Oh. Well, that explained a hell of a lot. Suddenly, Ward's clear discomfort in the face of her blatantly inappropriate jokes made a lot more sense. Now she felt a little bad, except not really because if he hadn't been lying to them that whole time, it wouldn't have been an issue. "So, basically, you got pissed every time I made a joke because you wanted to actually act like a human?"

Ward's only response was to shift and flip through the book she'd handed him. For a very long time, he was silent as he skimmed the text, eyes darting around the page. It was weird to see him so calm when he'd been so pissed off before. There was a tick in his jaw though that indicated his anger maybe wasn't as far beneath the surface as he was making it seem. Silently, Skye wondered if he was imagining what it would be like to actually take the GED himself, rather than having Garrett fake the results.

"This isn't bad, you'll do fine." Ward's dismissive comment snapped Skye out of her thoughts to find her book being held out in front of her face. He didn't look surprised that she had zoned out though as he patiently held the bound guide out to her.

She took the book back, dropping it into the pile beside her with an unhappy sigh. Yeah, sure she'd do well. If she got really, really lucky and they gave her a really easy test. "Wish I had your optimism."

"Skye, look at me." It was a quiet request, one that caught Skye completely by surprise. So much so she did as he asked without question. Which she really, really shouldn't be doing. He wasn't her SO anymore and she didn't need to do what he said without thought. Even if that had kept her alive in the field. More than once.

Leveling his gaze at her, Ward held her eyes with his own as he spoke. "You'll do fine, Skye. You're smart." She could hear that edge of bitterness that had leaked into his voice before, except now it was void of the anger he'd expressed before. "You'll pass this thing if you want to."

"You could do it too," pointed out Skye without thinking. The words were barely out of her mouth and she was already cursing bringing this up again. The guards had made it clear that she couldn't keep making Ward mad, otherwise they'd have to bar her from visiting (though his shrink said there was no way in hell that would actually happen; apparently, the anger was both expected and considered good).

"Skye," growled Ward lowly, pushing away from the bars of his cell almost immediately. He practically prowled across the small space to his cot, flopping down like he had the day before. "I already told you that was ancient history."

"I'm not talking about then, Ward," argued back Skye, rising to her knees in an attempt to see his face. "I'm talking about now. Screw what happened before, it doesn't matter. You have that option now."

For a long moment, silence hung between them. It was a silence that made Skye itch. She'd never done well with quiet before and she really didn't handle it well when one of the people involved in said silence might be having some kind of weird mental crisis.

It was a minute longer before his words broke the silence. "No, I don't. Garrett never gave me a choice. I don't have one now, either."

Frustration welled up inside of Skye, but she forced it down again. Ward had been brainwashed or, well, he was suffering from some kind of kidnapping-induced attachment issues. Everyone knew that by now. If Skye wanted to get through to him, she needed to be patient. "Why not?"

His eyes finally turned back towards her, brow furrowing in what looked like frustration. It colored his words when he spoke. "'Why not' what?"

"Why don't you have a choice now," repeated Skye, her eyes meeting his frustration with confusion. "Garrett isn't here. He's not making the calls anymore. The only person who can make these decisions anymore is you."

Fear ghosted over Ward's features like a tidal wave. It was so strong, even Skye felt momentarily terrified. So much so that she actually checked her surroundings to make sure Ward hadn't seen something she hadn't. But the hall was empty like always, Ward's cell still the only occupied space in the hall. It was something she'd just said that terrified him then. And she'd bet money she knew what. The problem was, she had no clue how to ease his fears. How do you convince someone who's afraid to make their own decisions to actually make their own decisions?

"Garrett didn't give me a choice," repeated Ward at last, his words practically choked by the fear she could see on his features. "He didn't think I was good enough to take the test. If he didn't think I could do it then, I can't do it now."

Again, Skye felt her stomach twist violently at his words. It was so sharp, she nearly threw up on the spot. "That's not true, Grant. You're so smart- smarter than I am. You could take this test and ace it. And anything you think you can't do, you can learn. I've seen you-"

"I said no!" shouted Ward, the anger simmering beneath the surface exploding forward in a single, sharp exclamation. But unlike the last time when he'd began punching walls, Ward pulled his pillow over his head and held it over his ears like the thin cotton would somehow block out her words.

It was such a childish thing to do, Skye actually questioned if any of the last five minutes was real or if she'd fallen asleep in the prison hallway. Except Ward was curled up like a child and it didn't take a psychologist to realize Ward was reacting in a way he knew. How he hadn't reacted like this before, Skye wasn't sure but she was willing to bet it was related to Garrett. At least he wasn't punching things this time. His shout hadn't brought the guards running this time either.

Falling backwards so she was resting on her ass rather than the balls of her feet, Skye crossed her ankles in front of her and just waited for Ward to sit up again. Trying to talk to him wasn't going to help, but she'd never been good at waiting either. So she picked up her study book again and tried to focus on the words on the page rather than the man curled up on the cot, tension thrumming through her body as she waited for him to say something: anything. Waited to hear any sound that would indicate he was up and moving around behind her.

When the guards showed up at 3:45 to tell her visiting hours were almost over, Ward still hadn't moved from where he was curled on her cot. Skye actually wondered if he'd killed himself somehow, but a quick glance revealed he was just asleep. Her heart broke a little as she noticed the way his body was tense and his head was still burrowed between the pillow. Ward was no child, but it was the only comparison Skye could come up with. This man had spent his whole life being abused, being told what to do. She had evidence of that on her computers at the Playground. And now, when he had the chance to break that cycle, he was burying his head (literally) in an attempt to get away.

Sighing, she gathered her things quietly, pausing only to slip a copy of her GED prep book into the cell (after letting one of the guards flip through it first of course; he scoffed but handed the volume back to her all the same). Honestly, she expected it to be gone when she came back. But if it just put the idea in Ward's head, just as a reminder that he had a choice, then maybe it would help. Maybe, just maybe, it would start helping him break out of this state. Hell, even if he said no (not 'I can't' but 'I don't want to'), it would be his choice. And that was what she wanted: for Ward to make the choice. Not her, not Garrett: Ward. It needed to be his choice. Besides, the idea he had a choice, that was the most important thing. Once that sank in, he could began to take back his life and heal.