"Are you sure we're alone?" Skye looked nervously around Coulson's office. "May doesn't have the place bugged, does she?"
Coulson gave a thin smile. "Not that I know of, but then again I probably wouldn't know if she did. What is it, Skye?"
She took a deep breath and sat down. "I think I've found a way to find Quinn and Raina."
Coulson waited, then frowned. "And?"
"Do you trust me?" She asked that in a rush, hoping the answer was one she'd want to hear.
Coulson's frown deepened. "With my life. What's going on here?"
"This has to stay between us, okay? It has to look real and therefore everyone's reactions have to be real. When I make my move … it might piss some people off."
"And you can't share what this move is with me? Don't you trust me?"
Skye nodded, and looked down at her hands. "You're the only person that I trust 100%, AC."
He smiled at her nickname for him.
"But, like I said, when I act everyone's reactions have to look real or else it won't work."
"I take it I'm going hate this plan." He smiled tightly, then exhaled a long-suffering sigh.
Skye pursed her lips, mockingly giving it some thought. "Yeah. I would say so."
Coulson looked at her for a few long moments. "I can't let you put yourself in danger. Last time you went after Quinn, he shot you. Twice. And then you died a couple times, you know that right?"
Skye looked down again. "Yeah. But now Fitz is the one laying out there dying and I can do something about it."
"Simmons can too."
"AC, I'm not the same poor little girl who can't defend herself. Just trust me, okay?"
Coulson shook his head after a few more moments of a grim expression. "Alright, I won't tell anyone about our conversation, but what exactly is your next move?"
At that, Skye smiled. "Well, there's this party … and I need a date."
Hours had passed. Maybe days. When the hell were they going to put him a cell or kill him?
Soon, he hoped, leaning down into his hands. His eyes closed, either out of irritation or boredom, he wasn't sure which.
Suddenly, the door opened and his head lifted. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Skye?"
She was dressed in a red formal gown, strapless and floor length. Satin, if he had to guess.
And she smiled at him, striking a pose. "How do I look?"
Beautiful, he wanted to say, but didn't. There was something going on. She sat down across from him and stared. Finally, he asked, "What's the occasion?"
She gave him a secretive smile and pushed a piece of paper across the table. He picked it up and read, as she explained.
"I'm going to a HYDRA party. Apparently, everyone who's anyone will be there."
Ward felt both nauseous and confused. "Why? The place will be crawling with HYDRA. They'll kill you."
She rolled her eyes and then handed him another piece of paper, identical to the first. "Not if I bring a date, silly."
His brow knitted together. "A date? Who? Trip? Coulson?" He snorted. "Yeah, good luck with that."
Her eyes hardened as the door opened again. Coulson. What did he want now? He was carrying a box, much like the ones he'd given to Skye and that piece of crap ex-boyfriend of hers.
Coulson put the box down in front of him. "What do you say, Ward? Care to get out of this place for awhile, maybe have a drink, spy on some of your HYDRA friends? Make up for your entire two-faced life?"
Ward's fist clenched. Since Garrett had died, he was having a little trouble keeping a lid on his anger. "What are you talking about?"
Skye broke in. "Come with me to the party and help me get what I need and maybe your stay here can be more comfortable. Your HYDRA, aren't you? That means you'd be able to sneak into their shin-dig a little easier than the rest of us."
Ward looked between the both of them, waiting for the punchline. "Am I supposed to believe you're serious? You're just going to set me free? I tried to kill Fitz and Simmons. I didn't want to, but I tried anyway. You expect me to believe that if I go to some HYDRA party that's all forgiven?" There was a disgustingly hopeful part of him.
Coulson bent down and opened the box. There was a thick silver bracelet in it. "You will never be forgiven. What you've done is unforgivable."
Ward swallowed. That was harsh. True, but harsh. "Then why should I help you? What's the point?"
Skye caught his attention. Her eyes seemed to plead with him. "Ward, listen to me. I don't care what Coulson or any of them say. There's still good in you. I know it. I've seen your eyes. There's pain in them."
Damn her and her … ways.
Coulson frowned down at her.
"You may have done some unforgivable things, Ward, but you can at least try to make it right with the only people in this world who truly cared about you. Fitz is your fault," she said softly.
Ward looked away, guilt plaguing him. "There's nothing I can do about that."
"Put on the bracelet and help me. That's what you can do." Amazingly, she slid her hand across the table again, but retracted it at the last moment, glancing up at Coulson quickly. His frown was still etched on his face. "What do you say?"
Ward looked at her and felt his stomach flip. She was so beautiful.
Pull it together, Ward, he told himself. She's obviously trying to use your feelings against you.
But, he couldn't help but like it. Slowly, his hand moved toward the box. "Why the bracelet? This hinders the use of technology. Why do I need it?"
Coulson stepped back in, taking it out. "This is sort of the same, but Simmons made a few modifications. The coolest one is the poison injector. See here?" He turned the bracelet around so that two small thin needles were visible. "When the bracelet goes on, these go into your wrist. May will be remotely monitoring you the entire night and if you make one wrong she pushes a button and a lethal combination of the worst diseases in the history of mankind will be injected into your bloodstream. Simmons made them fast-acting too so you'd be dead within an hour of infection."
Wow, Ward thought sourly, Coulson looked amazingly pleased at the thought of his death. "Anything else about it I should know?"
"The tracking device inside is still the same. We'll know where you are every moment of every day."
"I suppose the password protection's still the same," Ward said, slowly realizing what this meant for him. What they were offering him.
Potential freedom. One way or another.
Skye nodded. "Only Coulson can unlock it."
And he would never do that. Still, Ward stared at the bracelet in fascination. "So, I wear that and take you to a party … and then what? We come back here, I go back to being chained to a table? Not much incentive." He leaned back in his chair as far as he could go, wondering if Coulson was going to go for the tough approach or make concessions.
"We'll talk about it when you get back," was all Coulson would say. "Don't help us and I'll make sure to put in a place that makes this seem like paradise. Understand?"
"SHIELD has been disbanded," Ward answered, looking sharply at his former boss. "What kind of facility do you have access to?"
Coulson's smile spread and Ward knew that it wasn't good. "Oh, I forgot. You haven't heard. There's a new Director of SHIELD."
"Who?" And how?
"Me."
Ward was screwed.
After Coulson attached the bracelet to Ward's left wrist, May came in.
"Ready?" She looked at Skye instead of addressing Ward directly.
Skye nodded. "May's going to take you to your new cell to change." Coulson unlocked Ward's shackles and he stood up. She couldn't help but swallow in fear now that he was released. She knew what he was capable of and even though May had bested him before, there was no reason to believe that she could do it again.
She stood up as he was led past her to the door. In the hallway, she stared at Ward's back, watching him walk with the same confidence that had always been present. She'd seen that view so many times before in the past, but now he was walking as a prisoner-a traitor of SHIELD. A stab of pain for everything that had been ruined because of him went through her chest.
Then a different feeling, a bad feeling, settled like an itchy blanket over her, almost choking her with dread. She stopped walking for a minute to catch her breath. Coulson said something to her, probably asking if she was okay. "Fitz." Something was wrong with Fitz, but how could she know that?
Another wave of bad feeling hit causing her to gasp. Everyone was staring now. "Fitz. Something's wrong with Fitz."
Suddenly, she took off running, past them and down the hall, lifting her skirts so that she wouldn't trip. There was something wrong. She had to hurry.
She made it to the lab where Simmons was leaning over Fitz with the defibrillator. His body jerked once. She walked through the doors, fear weighing down each step. "Is he…?"
Simmons shook her head and charged the paddles again. "I won't let him. Come on, Fitz. Come on. Stay with me." She put the paddles over his chest and his body jerked again. Still, a flatline.
Skye rushed over, grabbing the boy's hand with both of her own, praying to God that he wouldn't die before she could get something to help him. Either more serum, or information from Raina, or … something.
The doors opened behind her and she knew it was Coulson or May.
Coulson.
She stared up at him, tears blurring her vision. The long beep in the background told her that Fitz was dead. It was over for him. There was no hope anymore.
Then another spasm of his body told her Simmons was still trying to save his life. Silence … then Beep, Beep, Beep.
Skye raised her head to Jemma, asking the same question as before but this time with hope in her voice. "Is he…?"
Simmons almost seemed to collapse inside from relief. With tears and big smile, she nodded. "He's alive. For now. But I don't know how much longer I can do this. He could have brain damage when and if he ever wakes up. Every time he dies … the chances of him being the same Fitz as before…" She shook her head, then something caught her eye. Something that filled her eyes with hate.
Skye turned around. May was standing outside the lab, a tight grip on Ward's arm. He was staring into the lab.
"Is it wrong that I hope he tries to escape?" The venom in Jemma's voice shocked Skye. "So May can give him a short but very painful death. He's ruined something so beautiful." Her sad eyes turned down to Fitz's pale face. "A mind like his shouldn't be ruined like this. Such a waste."
Skye had no answer or anything else useful to say to the other girl. The mission had to come first. "Jem," she said in a low voice, "Fitz wouldn't want you to hate Ward like this. He believed that Ward could be saved, that he wasn't evil." The sudden anger in Jemma's eyes when she looked up made Skye swallow hard. "I just mean that-I know it's tough, but everyone deserves a second chance. Don't they?"
"No," Simmons snapped, moving to the other side of the lab, "they don't. I can't even believe you're saying this. Fitz was your friend too and if it wasn't for his brilliance we would both be dead in a box at the bottom of the ocean because of Ward."
Skye felt horrible. "I know. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause you pain. Just forget I said anything." She backed away and then turned to leave the lab. Ward and May and Coulson had left and she hadn't even noticed. She had to make this work or else Fitz was a lost cause. And that wasn't acceptable to her. This was her family and he was a part of it.
The doors to the lab closed behind her with a whoosh. Coulson was waiting outside.
"How did you know he was in trouble?" Coulson's brow knitted together with a frown.
Skye had no answer for that. "I don't know. I just … had this feeling. This horrible feeling and I knew it was Fitz." She was still shaken by it-could still feel the heaviness in her chest. "I have to find Raina. There has to be something that she knows that will help cure Fitz."
"Ward knows more than he's telling," Coulson reminded her. "He is also emotionally compromised by you. That could work to your advantage."
Hearing him say that about Ward made her feel strange. She loved the old Ward, not the real Ward. But still … sometimes when she was around him it was hard to remember that everything he'd ever told her had been a lie. He was so good at sucking her into his misery and tough exterior. She couldn't help but still have feelings for him.
"I'll try and get more out of him," she said. "But he's probably just putting on an act. He thinks I'm the weakest member of the team and knows I have-had feelings for him. If the past has taught us anything, it's that Ward is a master manipulator. He manipulated all of us, and is still doing it, hoping I'll help him escape or something."
"That might be true. He's proven to be one of the best liars I've ever encountered. And I've known a few," he added, glancing down at her. "But I still happen to think he feels something for you-a connection on some level at the very least, however misplaced it might be."
She didn't say anything in return.
"You know, its just going to be the two of you out there," he commented.
Skye took a deep breath. "I don't think he'd hurt me. Not with the threat of being poisoned to death hanging over his head. He knows that no one here would have a problem pushing that button. Especially May." Not with Fitz almost dying, she thought.
And if it came down to it, she knew that in the end, despite her feelings for the old Ward, she would be able to push that button too.
Or pull the trigger.
