Author notes: If you like my story, please leave reviews. I am still considering the bigger pictures, so I am open to different ideas.

Grant realized something was terribly wrong the minute he woke up. He could not feel his lower body, just like this part never existed. He reached for his right leg and found it still part of his body. The hand knew it was touching the leg, but the leg did not feel it was being touched. The vest he wore was one of the best in the world, unless you faced a snipe fired at you within 50 yards. The speed of the bullet could be more than 1000 yards per second. Within such short distance, he probably should feel lucky to be alive. He had several failed missions in the past, but none of them left him severely harmed like this. He began to replay the whole situation in the head and tried to find out which part he did wrong. He could not find any mistakes other than serving as body guard to protect Skye. That was the only thing he could do within 0.2 second before the bullet hit Skye.

"Awake, huh."

"You should feel really lucky now. You lost almost all your blood during the operation and your heart stopped for more than 3 minutes multiple times. If Coulson did not ask the doctors to save your life by any means, you are a dead body by now."

"Oh, by the way, you are officially paralyzed for the rest of your life. I am sure it will be a great way to enjoy your life in the prison."

Skye's words made his heart broke into pieces. Nothing she said surprised him, but he was sad about the way she said it. She was not longer that happy girl who always cracked some jokes in the most dangerous situation to make everyone at ease. The bright side of her was gone forever, just like his mobility. With his brother not in the picture any more, Grant did not think SHIELD would hand him back to the government for trial. After all, he knew too much secrets that could not never be leaked. If Coulson decided to put him into one of the Fridge-like prison, being able to walk or not would not matter much because he could not escape either way. He was just glad to make some people's lives better before being put away. He still remembered the first women he saved in Hawaii. She graduated from law school one month ago and engaged with her classmate. Now she had a normal and happy life, something Grant could never have himself.

Grant was still buried in the memory when someone came into the room and disarmed the bar. It was Coulson. He had mixed feeling about Coulson. He once thought Coulson as a father figure, second to Garrett. After his betrayal, Coulson still tried to talk to him. Unfortunately he was too lost at the time to offer any help. After that Coulson became cold and used him purely for information purposes. He indeed found such method quite comfortable and familiar because this was how he was treated the whole life. Then Coulson leaned towards the bad side and decided to transfer him to Christian. He was horrified and could not stop cursing how you could do this to me. Coulson knew great details about his childhood and of course knew his abusive brother. However Coulson still decided to trade him like a tool for the benefit of SHIELD. This was the time he stopped admiring Coulson and decide to control his own life the first time in 31 years. He thought the hand-cuff was Coulson giving him a chance to fight for his life, but then he found out it was more due to the effect of GH35. He totally lose faith in Coulson or any one. He knew he deserved punishments or execution in the worst case. However he was still human and should have a right for a non-torture living before the decision was made. He never tortured his targets unless it was the absolutely necessary method to extract Intel. With his superior espionage and interpersonal skills, most targets leaked all Intel before they realized. He was a monster, but he hated to see Coulson fall into this category.

"How are you, Ward"

"Feeling much better, sir."

"I am glad to hear that."

"Questions for me?"

"Where were you the past year?"

"Travelling through the States by public transport."

"It was a shame that we never caught you if you actually took that many bus tours."

"I changed my appearance every time and it was not like SHIELD was actively pursuing me. You had more important things than chasing a formal traitor, was it not?"

"Which side did you or SHIELD take? I was surprised you are still the director of SHIELD. I heard Iron Man was offered this position."

"Shut up Ward. Never know you are so talkative."

"I am when I want to be. By the way, thanks for saving my miserable life. How do you want to use me this time?"

"Ward, enough. I did not save you for all these craps."

"So why did you bother to save me? You were willing to hand me back to my abuser then for SHIELD. Why wasted precious resources to save me, the traitor you hate to talk? You suddenly decided to give me second chance?"

"Why..." Grant suddenly began coughing and had a hard time breathing. He heard Coulson asking Simmons to come down to Vault D ASAP. Soon he felt a mask was put on and he finally could breathe now. He saw Simmons looked at him with horrified eyes and her hands were covered in blood. He realized it was his blood. He must be coughing blood and it scared Simmons. He wanted to say sorry, but he did not even has the strength to open his mouth.

"Simmons, go find Trip and get the monitor machine down here and ask Skye to connect it with the central alarm system."

"Ward, I have my reason to save you. You do not need to know now. Your only task is to get better now."

Grant watched Coulson left Vault D. Coulson always had so many reasons or secrets. After so many years working in secret services, he hated secrets and decided only told truth for questions. After a while, Trip carried a heart monitor downstairs and began to unbuckle Grant's shirt so he could attach the machine to Grant's upper body. He looked so surprised at Grant's scars that his hand frozen for a while.

"Man, what the hell have you gone through last year? Where did you get all these horrible scars?"

Grant wanted to stop Trip from touching his scars but his effort was easily blocked by Trip.

"Damn it. How can you survive from this gun shot? It was only 5 inches from your heart."

Grant took off the mask and tried hard to speak.

"I am a survivor. That is the way I choose to live my life."

"You were not hanging out with HYDRA, right?"

"No, I was never loyal to them or their crazy ideas. I was a free man."

"Skye already connected it to the alarm system, so if your heart is not beeping in the right range, Coulson and I will get an alarm message. Don't worry, you are in good hands."

Grant grabbed Trip's hand when he turned around and wanted to leave.

"How is Fitz?"

"He is talking much more fluently now. If he miss a word, Mack can help him out. He and Simmons also become friends again. Did I tell you Simmons is my girlfriend?"

"Thanks and congrats."

"I am surprised Simmons did not try to kill me. I still remember her threated to kill me the next time she saw me."

"Man, you were almost dead when we saw you. Your vest was soaked with blood. Your face was paler than the whitest wall. How could she fulfill her wishes in that situation, when you tried to save Skye? We are not cold blood killer. She and Skye were still furious about you because they still cared about you very much. The opposite of love is not hate but indifference. Deep down their heart, both of them may still have hope for you. Do not disappoint them again."

"I won't. I cannot do much thing with this body nonetheless."

"Grant! Don't you understand? We want to see you try to become better. Both of the girls want to know the Agent Ward they trusted exists somewhere. They may be harsh to you, but they are the last person who have hope in you. Do not fail us."

"I cannot promise much, but I will try to repay my debt to the team."

"Great. Now you need to have a good rest so your body can heal."

"Yeah, I am very weak now."

"Ward, you are not weak. Taking a sniper rifle bullet in that short distance was not for weak people. It does not offset your crime, but it was a start. Take the break you deserve and we will see what we can do tomorrow. Do not worry, we will watch your back."