Because Raina (part 4)
Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™.
Grant Ward was feeling, well, thoughtful. He has been doing this more and more lately, ever since he had found, well, closure with his family...and Skye, or agent Daisy (whatever her name truly was) had him shot. Possibly, it was just overcompensation for years and years of thoughtless service for John Garrett, but nevertheless...
But nevertheless, Grant Ward did find himself thinking...not about that pesky 'if'- he was done with that, thank you very much – but about, well, his own life and the direction it had taken him in. Ever since Christian and his family had perished, Grant Douglass had honestly half expected to die, all by himself, lonely and forgotten, as it benefitted a wretched man – but he did not. Instead, he apparently had acquired a team of his own, including Kara Lynn Palamas, a very lovely and powerful woman (in character, rather than in body), who was currently sitting across from him, observing Amanda Powers' mark, but as back-up, rather than the main strike force.
Contrary to what other people could have thought – not that he cared – Kara Lynn did not remind Grant Douglass of Skye/Daisy: the two women were quite different, even on a physical level. Kara Lynn was actually more like May (not that he was going to tell this to either of the women – he did not want his larynx crushed a second time), deceptively slim and delicate-looking, with snake-like speed and dexterity – and a mastery of knife fighting that was quite impressive even by the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s old standards. She was also dark, and beautiful, scar be damned, and Grant knew, he just knew, that she could be his, his partner, and perhaps – lawfully-wedded wife?
(Grant Ward was never religious – his biological family once gave lip service to Protestantism; he himself once flirted with Judaism and later on with Hinduism, but other than a determination not to eat beef or pork if other options were possible, nothing stuck. Well, except for the idea of the reincarnation: given a choice of an eternity in Hell and a chance of salvation via reincarnation, Grant will choose reincarnation every time. Kara Lynn, however, is very much a Catholic; she may not obsess over it, but she knows her faith's tenets, even if she had to look them up on the Internet once she had recovered. And once she did – she keeps them. Grant finds this to be very impressive, and intimidating, but so what? She believes in him, he believes in her, so perhaps their relationship can work.)
There was nothing deceptive about Skye – or Daisy, whatever she calls, or will call herself. She was always straightforward and always went for the direct confrontation. Bobbi Morse might have fancied herself to be that sort of woman, but Skye/Daisy truly was that sort of a real deal, and now that she had come into her own since Puerto Rico, she had truly evolved. There is nothing deceptively delicate about her; her body is that of a field agent, muscles and straight, powerful lines, especially below the waist, cough. (So sue him – he always cared more about the body than the face, even in a shallow manner.)
"What are you thinking about?" Kara Lynn asked quietly, she had gotten quite good at reading him over the months that they were together – or perhaps his emotionless mask had continued to slip the more he interacted with the other people on a regular basis.
"About you, about us, about Daisy," Grant told her the truth. Then, when he saw Kara Lynn's face distort in hurt, added, quickly: "not like how you think, see?" and he adjusted her glass so that she could see the reflection, and see just whom he had been observing on the sly.
"Oh," Kara Lynn instantly shifted from hurt to thoughtful. "This is going to be tricky, isn't it? Have you talked to V-"
"Yes," Grant nodded, and then Amanda Powers' plan came to a climax, as Rutzkevich the bank robber (and train robber, and a robber of other locations, etc) yelled suddenly:
"Judas!"
And there was shooting, and gunfire, and many other things that tend to occur in a gunfight – but it is not a long one. Rutzkevich is a gunslinger, not unlike those of the Wild West stories of old, but so's Dr. Amanda Powers, and this is no Wild West, but a border town between Poland and Austria of all places, so there is no story, no happy ending for Rutzkevich, if a man like that, with viper-like eyes, deserves a happy ending, that is. He is good with his six-shooter, and there is hellfire all over the floor, and Dr. Powers's gun has no mystical powers, but it does not matter: a single successful shot in the skull and the man falls, his own firearm dropping from his now-lifeless fingers.
"Quickly now," Grant shouts to Dr. Powers, as she moves, flanked by one of Alisha's clones, to pick up the gun – carefully and neatly, utilizing a mechanic grasper, built exactly for this sort of purpose – while he and Kara Lynn move to intercept S.H.I.E.L.D., however else they might've learned about this thing in the past to come here in the presence. "Johnson."
"Ward," Daisy nods, as she and Hunter glare at him and Palamas...well, no, they do not. Morse, who is also there, is staring at them with a gaze that is distinctly unfriendly; Johnson's gaze is dark and enigmatic; and Hunter's, well...
"You know, the Cavalry is going to get you, mate, you and your girl, for that dinosaur," the Englishman says brightly.
"Oh? What's wrong with it?" Kara's voice is curious at the moment, not vicious.
"There's nothing wrong with it," Hunter keeps looking at her in a funny way – Grant doesn't like it; he doesn't like Hunter, period, but he's not going to be the one to throw the first punch, not here, at any rate. "It's more, precisely, as to what it had done – brought her family together once more."
"I don't follow," Kara Lynn admits.
"Meh, her mother got the idea that her father found himself another woman, and promptly came over to see her for herself," Hunter admitted, sheepishly. "When she saw the raptor, she was rather startled, for a moment, and then she promptly declared the dinosaur to be a 'he', and promptly sued – or rather threatened to sue – her ex, or not so ex, for the custody. One thing led to another – none of us follow Chinese all that well except for the Cavalry herself and she isn't telling – and her parents made up, and then they made out, right there in the base. Melinda's mother is quite shrill, it seems, her father is more bass, but listening to them going at it then and there...it was frankly disturbing: they're old enough to be May's parents, in fact, they are May's parents, and they are old, so listening to them...we could've lived without it..." he pauses and carefully finishes, mostly for the sake of Kara Lynn, though no one present really knows why:
"And the 'best' part is that they decided to buy a house in our neighbourhood so that they could visit their daughter at work if and when they felt like it," Hunter concludes. "Make no mistake, they are good people and all, but if they're going to come on a regular basis...the Cavalry thinks about moving to Europe at least part-time..."
"Well, good luck with that, seeing how currently we are in Europe already," Dr. Powers spoke up, as she finished handling the other weapon. "Mr. Ward, sir, we're finished here-"
"Alisha?" Grant turned to the redhead. "How are things with your other clones?"
"We're here," one of the other clones replied, as they appear from the outside, armed with Glocks, flanking Leo Fitz of all people. The S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist looks even smaller than he normally does, in part because he is flanked by a bear-dog...and a giant wild boar, of all creatures. "I believe this is the brains of this S.H.I.E.L.D. team?"
"He is," Ward nodded calmly. "Fitz."
"Ward," Fitz said neutrally. "Do you know what you're messing with?"
"Yes," Amanda Powers replied instead. "They do now; after Rutzkevich so obligingly gave them a demonstration, after my explanation..." she points to the corpse in question, which is decomposing far quicker than a normal corpse would. "You can take it for study if you want to, scientist," she adds magnanimously, in her best 'I got tenure and you don't" tone of voice.
There was a pause, as the others – and not just S.H.I.E.L.D. – stared at the corpse. "You know, we cannot let you go," Daisy begins.
The giant boar, on Fitz's right, grunts and lowers his head, revealing his tusks. They are big enough, strong enough, and sharp enough, to slice right through the small scientist. The bear-dog on Fitz's left does not look any happier with Daisy's statement either.
"You know, I don't think that ICERs are going to cut it here," Hunter has estimated their foes' physical mass and is not very happy with his conclusion. "Ditto for the regular firearms. Bob, you don't have any elephant guns on you, would you?"
"No," Morse replied curtly, looking at Palamas. If a fly would fly between the two women, it would be vaporized. "Daisy, we have to let them go."
"We can take them" Daisy spoke, but not very certainly.
"Got a boatload of Semtex in the kitchen that says otherwise," one of Alisha's clones speaks up, even s she produces a KA-BAR knife. "Think you'll be able to handle it too?"
"We got Mack-"
"Mack's down for the count," Fitz admits bitterly. "He's alive, but out of it."
"Kara Lynn," Bobbi suddenly begins and stops, at the look that the smaller woman gives her. It is deadly, pure and simply.
"Don't speak to me," former agent 33 says firmly. "Otherwise I will hit you. You had your chance, and now we're done."
"Fine," Daisy speaks up, before Bobbi can continue – or not, for the look on Palamas' face effectively had caused the blonde woman to fall into silence. "Go. You won this round. Happy?"
Ward does not reply. He takes Kara Lynn by the arm, in case she does decide to go after her ex, and beckons for Dr. Powers to take the lead alongside Alisha's clone. Then he and Kara Lyn follow suit. He, for one, can feel the agents' gaze on them, but he does not care. He is honestly done with S.H.I.E.L.D., after all.
/
"...And then they just took off with the gun and all," Daisy concluded the report to Coulson. "I got to admit, I thought that they would posture a little or something. They did appear to be making nice with the dinosaur and all - it is a real dinosaur, right?"
"Nope," Jemma spoke instead in that perky tone that bordered in disturbing, actually. "I checked its cellular structure – all of its cells contain a certain large molecule that all 'natural' animals just lack. This dinosaur was created in a lab, though I am not sure if we are talking InGen here or what. Given the state of InGen and its allies at the moment, I would not discount it, not yet. They might be missing a raptor, after all."
"You mean, our new mascot really is a velociraptor?" Hunter could not help but to ask.
"Lance," Jemma gave her countryman a look, "all of InGen's dinosaurs are hybrids of some sort or another and the raptors are most of all. I do not know if they are more of a velociraptor, or deinonychus, or what. I would really need to talk to some of their scientists...but that isn't likely, not really, not right now."
There was a pause as the others thought over this statement of Jemma's. "Maybe we can get back to the business at hand?" Bobbi suggested almost shyly. "Or not, since I guess there isn't much to talk about. Price's lead checked out, we came there, got unprepared, the end. We have suffered setbacks in the past, after all."
"True," Coulson admitted, as he looked down at his hands, both the real and the attachment. "It's just-"
"Yes?"
"After the incident with the dinosaur, I thought that Ward and Palamas would actually be interested in a deal," the director continued, reluctantly. "It looked like they were trying to mend bridges and all."
"What do we have that they'd be interested in?" Daisy asked, curious despite her initial expectations. "They do have each other, some other people, and a menagerie of sorts..."
"Kara Lynn had a daughter, some years ago before she was captured," Coulson elaborated. "The girl – Suzy Therese – is currently under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s protection." Upon seeing the curious looks of the others, he elaborated. "It's sort of a daycare/school for S.H.I.E.L.D. agents' children. It survived after the initial fall, and continues to run, more or less smoothly. I talked with Hill and Fury: they are handling it, not I, because I am not any good with children, plus-"
"So what, you're thinking that Palamas might be interesting in cutting a deal with us?" Hunter frowned in thought. "Something in exchange for the girl? But...she hadn't."
"Except that now she does," Fitz could not help but to argue back. "The gun – it exhibits similar energy signatures to the Berserker staff, and-"
"She wasn't the one running the operation – the shooter, the dyed blonde, did," Bobbi spoke up. "Who says that Ward and Palamas are in charge of the outfit, anyways? Neither of them were exactly leadership material even back in the past – so why should they be now?"
"Well, the dyed blonde did address Ward as 'Mr. Ward'-"
"Just because she's polite doesn't mean that she is in charge-"
"Stop," Daisy interrupted the bickering couple. "I mean, when Hunter argues with Fitz, it's kind of cute, in a Hetalia sort of way, but you and him? Not so much."
"Oi," the couple protested, but Daisy plowed on.
"And DC?"
"Yes?"
Daisy thought over her reply some more. "I got nothing," she admitted. "Maybe next time Palamas, or Ward, or someone else of their outfit will be willing to deal, but for now, yeah, we got nothing."
"Hey," Joey, the ex-CIA agent looked into the meeting room. "Agent Mack had recovered from his beating. "Any of you want to talk to him?"
They all did.
/
It was dark. It was night. It was daytime in Europe, but in northern Australia? It was still night. "That was so not how I imagined our latest face-off with S.H.I.E.L.D. happening," Kara Lynn confessed to Grant Douglass. "How'd they even got the info? Powers did not even want to share it with Alisha and the twins-"
"I think they were just as surprised as we were, when we encountered each other," Ward confessed. "Hence why they believed the whole piece about Semtex, too. What is really bothering you, Kara Lynn?"
"I don't know," the other former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent replied. "Somehow, this whole confrontation thing went kind of dissatisfying – but then again, this is what S.H.I.E.L.D. is to me - dissatisfying. They promised once, a lot, but failed to deliver."
"And what do you want? Suzy Therese?" Grant asked quietly. He had been surprised to learn that Palamas already had a daughter, but did not really care. Perhaps it would even be fitting for him to take care of someone else's child, considering how the men in his family treated women, who knows? "Then maybe we should send some fillers out – just in case. Somehow I got the feeling that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents honestly expected us to chat some more back in Poland – you know, for the old times' sake or something."
"There's nothing I want to talk to them about...and you don't care about my daughter?" Kara Lynn raised her unruined eyebrow at him.
"Ok, first of all – I do care," Grant said flatly. "Secondly, she is going to become my daughter too. I'm not saying this out of the goodness of my heart or anything, but I do like the idea of being a father, a fact that brings me to my third point – I also like the idea of her having younger siblings in the future, you know?"
"You mean you don't care about this?" Kara Lynn pointed to her scar (she had taken her mask off for bedtime).
"No," Ward shook his head, as he gently adjusted Kara Lynn's position upon him. "I may not be the hero I pretended to be, once, but I'm not that shallow either, thank you very much – and by the way, have I told you that your skin looks as fine as dark chocolate?"
Kara Lynn giggled into Grant's chest, before turning serious once more. "What about your ex-"
"What about your ex?" Grant countered the question. "Can I be honest here? For me, Johnson is going to remain a part of 'what could've been' package, but that is it, really. And you?"
Kara Lynn promptly told Grant where her ex can go. "And there you have it," Grant shrugged. "Kara...I'm afraid our family life won't be picture perfect, but I don't think that it will be horrid either. I want to make it work, so do you, so...it'll work."
"But aren't you afraid that it won't?"
"Extremely," Ward grimaced. "My biological family was rotten from the core; I think I'm not much better-"
"Yes you are. Much better," Kara Lynn told him firmly, looking him in the eye. "Than my father was, that is. You're going to be a wonderful dad to Suzy Therese."
"I certainly hope so – which does mean, I suppose, that we start of thinking of ways to cooperate with Coulson. I mean, an IOU from us to him and his agency possibly could work, but I'm not sure – the man isn't who I thought that he was, once."
"Point," Kara admitted. "It's not that I don't want to mend bridges, but going about it all legal and all? That is also good. Plus, Suzy Therese...she's still excited about working for S.H.I.E.L.D., so I would rather give her a chance for the future..."
"And so she shall," Grant agreed. "For the moment, though, we got nothing." He looked thoughtful. "Course, neither's S.H.I.E.L.D., otherwise they would've brought it up – just to see how we react."
There was a thoughtful pause, as the two ex-agents thought about their current position in regards to S.H.I.E.L.D., and about Dr. Powers' family legacy, and-
"Am I – are we – interrupting anything?" Raina asked shyly as she and Lincoln walked into their bedroom.
"Nothing that you might think about," Kara Lynn told the younger woman. "What's up?"
"I had another vision," Raina admitted. "It involved agent Simmons."
"Well, we were thinking about playing nice with S.H.I.E.L.D.," Ward shrugged, "so if you want to contact the agency – Leo Fitz's e-mail address is over there."
Raina blinked. "You're being awfully easy-going about this-"
Grant and Kara exchanged looks and reluctantly got off their bed. "Let me explain about my slash our daughter, Suzy Therese," Palamas explained.
/
"...and this is how I lost, I swear," Mack finished telling his tale, as he sat in the infirmary. "Seriously, I know that I'm more of an engineer than a field agent, but still. That guy was big, but so am I, so I expected to be able to stand up to him, you know?"
"We get it, Mackenzie," Daisy said gently: lately she and the big agent actually became good enough friends. "It's just that, well, I think that your opponent was a shapeshifter of some sort, rather like our friend from Cuba."
"What is his name?" Mack grimaced. "I asked him, and he gave an obviously fake alias - something straight out of Steven Leacock...you know the sort of big Canadian humour author from the turn of the 20th century?" The others just looked blank. "Never mind. So, why are you here?"
"To check up on you," Fitz blinked. "What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing," Mack admitted, "it's just that I felt recently like the odd man out, or something – Morse is busy with Hunter, you – with Simmons, and the others...I'm not as close with them, I suppose."
There is an embarrassed pause. "Sorry about that," Daisy broke it first. "I guess with the latest rise of the InHumans everything is off kilter now."
"That's ok," Mack shrugged dismissively. "What happened after I got knocked out?"
"Eh, they secured the gun – I still think that it is bastardized Asgardian technology, BTW, and got away, through sheer bluff," Fitz explained. "And now Daisy and the rest of us are off kilter, as you say, because somehow the meeting got so impersonal, plus no one had time to get hurt – except for Rutzkevich, and he's something else."
"How so?"
"Judging by the rate his body is decomposing," Simmons spoke promptly, "I have to agree with Fitz – the gun is similar to the Berserker Staff, save that the effects on a human body are more extreme, the cells of the deceased aren't really even fully human anymore."
"...Jemma?"
"Yes Leo?"
"You sound more like your old self."
"Yes Leo. Thank you."
There was another pause, as no one knew how to fill it, which was done...by Joey, actually.
"Oy! Boss!" the ex-CIA spy yelled, as he entered the medical bay. "I mean director! Agent Melinda May called – she said that you promised to run interference between her and her parents, and that time is now. She didn't sound like a woman that you'd want to argue with on this topic either."
Coulson grimaced. "Ok, ok, I'm coming," he sourly said and left, surprisingly quickly – but then again, when May was in a bad mood, not even he wanted to cross her and make it worse.
"...I bet that Rosalyn Price didn't have to deal with that," Daisy muttered sourly. "Stupid dragon lady with her military minions, too."
"Just ignore her," Fitz told the confused Joey. "She's just sore that Ward had gotten over her at last."
"That's not it," Daisy shook her hand. "It's just...I don't know, this isn't right. Or rather – it is just a part of what is going on lately. Coulson is having a relationship with the head of ATCU; May is bonding with her parents...sort of; Ward has a girlfriend? That is just more of the same. Maybe I am uncomfortable, but no one else here seems to like Rosalyn Price too much either."
"Well..." before Fitz could think of a counterargument, one of his lab assistants walked into the medical bay:
"Sir you got an e-mail."
"It's actually addressed to me," Jemma pointed out in a reasonable tone of voice as she looked over the e-mail, which was more of a sketch than anything else. "Interesting."
"What's so interesting?"
"It's a depiction of a head-hunter from the planet I've been stranded on," Jemma continued in the same reasonable tone of voice. "Looks like some poor person is going to get their head ripped off, too."
"Excuse me?" Leo blanched. Somehow, even in S.H.I.E.L.D., people were not used to talking about living on other planets instead of Earth, plus there was the whole head-ripping thing.
"I was stranded on a planet in the Serpens constellation," Jemma continued to explain. "It's very far away from our Solar system, and I did get involved with some of the local politics, I must say. Now there is a headhunter after me. I think I will have to ask May and her family to loan me her dinosaur."
"Jemma," Leo spoke in a very reasonable tone of voice. "We're S.H.I.E.L.D. We can defeat any alien head-hunter-"
"You think?" Jemma was still sceptical. "These aliens are rather resilient to fire, and electricity actually makes them stronger-"
"So we'll figure out something else," Mack joined the discussion. "After all, I don't remember when ICING an alien worked out all that well from the start."
The others nodded and pretended that yes, they too had been thinking about the ICERs all along.
"But I'm still going to get the dinosaur," Jemma said firmly. "It makes me feel safe."
"I thought that I made you feel safe," Leo could not help but to argue.
"Yes, but the dinosaur has six-inch claws on its feet. You don't have six-inch claws on your feet, do you?" Jemma did not back down.
"No," Leo said firmly. "I don't. I am not getting them either – the whole animal-human hybrid thing isn't as hyped as it sounds."
"Maybe you should try lycanthropy instead," Joey suggested, even though he should have known better by now.
And as he continued to argue with the FitzSimmons, Daisy, for one, felt that things in S.H.I.E.L.D. were not so bad overall.