I'm sorry.
Someone shakes her awake.
Skye blinks once, then twice. "Ward?"
Seeing she's awake, Ward springs away. "Sorry, didn't mean to be in your space. But I think I've found a way out."
"You've spent months in this cell, and you've only found a way out now? Not sure if that makes your timing impeccable or horrendous."
She stares at him, studying his features. He looks almost ashamed...and loving? She blinks at him expectantly until he talks.
"Well, I've never tried to escape before."
"Never?" She's surprised.
"There was nothing for me outside of this cell. Not much on the inside, either."
Skye looks down. "So, what's this out you've found?"
Ward points to the door. "We're gonna get out the front. They'll have to come back eventually, and if one of us can get them close enough, we can stun them momentarily by using the barrier. We'd have to move fast, but it may be the best shot we've got."
Skye nods. "And now we wait."
"And now we wait," Ward replies.
Skye looks at him. He's moved, and now he's sitting against the wall near the barrier. She gets up off the bed, and sits next to him. Their shoulders are touching, and she can tell he's uncomfortable. "So, out of all the months you've been here, you've never attempted to get out?"
Ward stays silent. He turns his head as if to look at her, but he changes his mind and stares straight ahead. "It's crossed my mind."
"But?" Skye persists.
"It didn't seem worth it. I deserve to rot for what I've done. And to be even in the same building that you've been in made me hopeful that I would get a chance to see you. I was worried that if I even tried, that hope would be lost."
She leans her head against the wall. "I wanted to come earlier, you know. It was probably better I didn't, though."
"Why?"
Skye looked up at him. "I've been able to bottle up my anger more lately. If I had come earlier, I could've hurt you. I was pretty angry."
"I haven't noticed."
Skye's mouth hung open humorously. "Grant Douglas, did you just use sarcasm? A form of a joke?"
Ward looks at her and smiles. "You know, there are a lot of things you don't know about me."
She shifts to the side. Their shoulders no longer touch. "Right. You were pretending to be someone you weren't."
"I never answered your question," he says.
"Which one?"
"Why I did it."
Skye bites her bottom lip. "So, why?"
Ward leans his head back against the wall, and clenches his fists. "I felt like I owed Garrett everything."
"You didn't."
"I thought I did, though. It doesn't excuse what I did, but I thought I was doing the right thing. 'We're all heroes in our own stories,' you know? S.H.I.E.L.D. against Hydra;-or even the Rising Tide-there's no knowing for sure who was good and who was bad. When we first met you, you were a bad person according to S.H.I.E.L.D. According to you, you were the heroine." Ward paused, making sure she was still listening. "Even the innocent body count for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra were so similar. And the ideals...it's not like Hydra forced S.H.I.E.L.D. into building the helicarriers-they were just given the idea.
"For me, I was in Hell. You've heard the stories: Abusive family. I was finally sent to a military camp, and when I got out, I went home to give them hell back. I set the house on fire with my brother inside."
Skye looks at him. "The older one?"
Ward nods. "He got out, and I was put in Juvy. That's when Garrett found me. He used S.H.I.E.L.D resources to get me out of there, and he promised me a better life. Instead, he left me in the woods with nothing but some changes of clothes and a dog."
"For how long?" Skye asks quietly. When he doesn't respond, she presses, "How long, Ward?"
"Alone for six months. Then, another five years with just him coming and going."
Skye stands up angrily. "How the hell could you think you owed him after what he put you through? And he abused you! And don't you try to deny it, because I can put two and two together. I know he's the one who gave you that scar on your cheek, and all those broken ribs from back at Providence." She's angry. At Garrett, mostly, for doing this to him-but she's also angry at him. "Why didn't you just tell me?" The words are unspoken, but he knows what she means. Why didn't you trust me?
Ward looks down in shame. "I didn't think I would survive past the words, 'I'm Hydra.' Figured you would've killed me by then."
"Maybe if you hadn't tried to seduce me, I would consider-"
"I never tried t-"
"-listening to your story."
Ward clenched his teeth. "I was angry at Garrett for leaving me there, but later, I realize - well, thought I realized - that it only made me stronger. I thought Garrett saved me, and so I owed him. Now, I realize that the only person I owe is you."
"You didn't owe Garrett a thing. You don't owe me a thing. You don't owe anyone a thing! You're your own person; you need to start owing yourself."
"I'm sorry," he says simply.
Skye puts her hand up. "Stop. Please, just stop apologizing. I have only one question, and you need to answer it honestly."
"Anything."
"Did you have anything to do with Quinn shooting me?"
Ward looks like she just punched him in the gut. "Skye..."
"Answer me, Ward. Yes or no?"
Ward closes his eyes. "It was never part of the plan. But, apparently, Garrett improvised."
Skye breathes a sigh of relief. "So it was all Garrett."
"If I had known-"
"It's okay. I don't need to know anything more. I just needed to make sure..."
"Make sure of what?"
"Make sure that my gut was right when I let my guard down and slept."
Ward gets up and stands beside her. He reaches to grab her hands, but as soon as his hands brush across hers, they both jump back. "I would never hurt you."
Skye smiles hesitantly.
Soon enough, Ward hears voices coming from beside the door. "Ready?" he whispers to Skye.
She nods.
The door opens, and Ward leans against Skye weakly. "Guard, help," she begs, "I think he's seriously injured from that beating earlier!" She clings onto him desperately, playing her part. "He needs medical assistance immediately!"
The guard chuckles and gets close to the barrier. "Bastard can't even take a few hits. No wonder he was caught so easily."
Skye scowls internally, because Ward is one of the best damn agents out there, not that she'd admit it to him. She continues to beg, "Please, just see what's wrong with him. I haven't been trained for medical yet."
The guard clicks the button for the barrier to inspect Ward. He punches him hard in the gut, and Ward groans, because, damn, it hurts. "He probably has a broken rib and internal bleeding if he's this weak. You'd probably be better off with letting him die."
Ward then uses that moment of the guard's smugness to tackle him down and push Skye outside of the barrier line. He grabs the controller and tosses it to Skye. "Turn it on now!"
He jumps out of the way just as Skye clicks the button. They see the yellow light flash and then there's a huge snap.
The guard was cut in half.
Skye closes her eyes and turns away. She sees Ward pass by her and run towards the door. "Come on, let's go."
She follows after him. There's another guard right outside of the door, but Ward manages to knock him out before he even noticed the door had opened.
Ward grabs the gun the soldier had, and hands it to Skye. "Lead the way. You know this base-I have yet to see it without a bag over my head."
She nods in understanding and takes the gun. "This way."
She leads him down the hall.
They don't run into any more trouble until they reach the hallway leading to the exit of the base.
The first thing that happens is Skye gets tackled down by Ward.
Then she realises there's gunfire.
Ward had pushed her to lay down behind the wall, and he's using his body as a human shield. When the shooting ceased, he jumps off of her and mutters, "Sorry."
"You don't need to apologize," she replies quickly, loading her gun, "You saved me."
She gets up and shoots at the guards from behind the wall until every one of them goes down. She doesn't notice what had happened until she hears Ward groan. Skye looks down and notices that he hasn't gotten up, and she can see why.
The bastard must've gotten himself shot in the leg while trying to protect her.
She leans down and uses all her strength to pull him up and lean him against her.
"Skye, stop."
She keeps leading him to walk. "We have to go now. More guards will come if we don't."
She can tell he's not even trying to walk with either of his legs (And only one is injured, for goodness sake, she thinks.) "Leave me," he says, trying to push her off of him.
"Stop trying to be so heroic and let's get out of here," she says. She drags him some more.
"Skye, you have to leave me here," Ward insists.
"No."
"I'm injured-I'll just slow you down. Please, save yourself."
Skye continues to drag him along, despite his protests. "Ward, I trust you not to kill me or to let me die, but I can't trust you not to betray me again."
Before she knows it, he's spun out of her arms and he had grabbed her gun from her waist belt. "That's why I'm going to leave you without a doubt," he says while loading the gun.
And he points the gun to his forehead.
Skye freezes. "Stop it," she starts gently. "You're not going to do this."
"Don't come closer, or I'll shoot." Ward closes his eyes. "It's exactly what I'm going to do. Once I pull this trigger, you have to run. Run until you get to Coulson. I know you don't owe me anything, but please do that. For me."
"You're not committing suicide," she exclaims.
Ward chuckles. It ma
kes her nauseous. "You're not exactly in a position to tell me what I can and can't do."
She wants to throw up. He's standing there with a maniacal look on his face, with a gun pointed at his own head. But, his eyes look sad. "Ward, please don't do this," she begs, "You said that you were done with hurting yourself." Tears are starting to escape.
He stops smirking. "Skye, the reason Coulson never told you about my suicide attempts was because he didn't want you to feel guilty. He refused to let me see you, and I didn't see a point to living anymore. Now, I can't think of anything more hellish than to see you every day hating me."
"Grant-"
"Which is surely what will happen. I'll go back into a cell-this one, the next...doesn't matter-and Coulson will send you to get information from me. Skye, do you know how much torture it is to see the person you love hating your very existence."
The elephant in the room is finally out. Sure, they've both known his true feelings, but this is the first time she's actually heard it. Her heart warms at the statement, and it scares her.
Skye steps closer, and he steps back. He presses the gun more forcefully to his head as a warning, and she stops moving. "Grant, I don't hate you." He grip on the pistol falters. "God yes, I hate that your Hydra; I hate that I can't trust you; but I don't hate you. Everytime I see you, it hurts. I'm angry. But I can't bring myself to hate you; I've tried."
Her words seem to affect him. He looks like he may put the gun down, but, Ward presses the gun to his head even more forcefully, with tears in his eyes. "Skye, I'm so sorry."
To him, it's not a suicide, it's a sacrifice.
A trigger is pulled.
Everything seems to stop.
There's a large bang, and a body hits the floor.
I told you this story would be painful.
