– Hello Again –

He let out a small groan as she combed her fingers through his hair. Gently massaging his scalp. He didn't give a damn that they were in S.H.I.E.L.D custody, or under surveillance. He could stay like this, here, forever if she just kept running her hand over his head.

He'd woken up to her hands on him, and quickly relaxed into the touch. Their room was mostly quiet, save for their dog's snoring. Anyone watching probably would have thought them asleep, if Daisy hadn't resituated them so his head was on her stomach. It was an awkward position for both of them, him avoiding her leg, and her his shoulder, yet neither seemed willing to move.

He kissed the exposed skin of her stomach, rising a small smile from his inhuman. "I can't believe they've left us alone this long." She whispered, one of her hands straying to caress his cheekbone.

"They probably went back to bed." He mumbled, a teasing look in his eyes. "I bet most the team weren't even dressed for the briefing."

That made her laugh, and he couldn't resist rising up to kiss the smile on her lips. Even if they were being monitored in a base full of people that wanted to kill him. He was just moving to hold her closer when he heard the unmistakable sounds of the doors opening.

"Get a room you two!" Buddy immediately barked at the new voice, but didn't move to get off the bed, the dog was meeting a lot of new people today.

Grant frowned, still halfway hovering over his wife. "We have a room, you're in it, so leave and come back in an hour." He hissed, glaring at the man over his shoulder.

"You don't get to give the orders around here. Get up, the director's waiting."

He wanted to tell him the director could stuff it, but the look Daisy gave him made him keep his mouth shut. She sat up as he rolled off her, going to pull on the shirt he's thrown off earlier. The muscles in his shoulder protested, but he ignored it in favor of watching the larger man. He had been Daisy's partner for a while if he wasn't mistaken.

"Hey, Mack." She greeted him quietly, hands going to straighten her shirt.

He gave her a stiff nod, though Grant could see he was suffering inside. He'd missed her, and now most likely wanted to welcome her back with open arms, but being the circumstances and who had come with her, he couldn't. So he had to stand there like a brick wall and pretend he wasn't happy to see that she was back, at least for now.

Grant finished pulling on his shoes, and walked over to the man, his wrists extended. "Alright, take me away."

Mack rolled his eyes at him and turned back to the door. That surprised the ex-Hydra mole. Really? Were they going to just let him walk around the base unhandcuffed? He knew Coulson didn't trust him that much, not even close. Grant looked back at Daisy, to find that she was equally surprised. He smiled a little. Well at least someone knew he was still dangerous.

Then he noticed the slight unease she had hidden in her eyes. He knew that feeling, he was having it right now, too. "Don't worry, I won't let Coulson keep me too long." He assured her, giving her a small smirk to try and relax her nerves.

He saw just the tiniest smile rise on her lips as he stepped out after Mack. Though he knew it was for his benefit, she was still worried.

-0-0-0-

Grant tried to hide his amusement as he walked past the lab with Mack. But it was pretty impossible with the terribly hidden glances he was getting from Fitz-Simmons. They were clearly uncomfortable by his showing up on base, even if Daisy had come with him.

He wanted to ask the man walking a pace ahead of him where the rest of the team was laying low, but decided he didn't want to know. He doubted Hunter or May would think twice about killing him on sight anyway. Best to wait till Coulson calmed them down before he did anything Daisy might hate him for later.

Mack lead him to a room that largely resembled the old interrogation room on the bus. If it wasn't for the fact that they clearly hadn't walked onto the plane, or that he had been there when they blew up S.H.I.E.L.D. 6-1-6, he would have claimed that's where they'd brought him.

The human muscle told him to sit then closed the door behind him. Leaving the retired specialist alone. He thought Coulson had been waiting? Where was he? Of course, just as he was about to get up, the man came in.

"I was about to say, if you were going to be a while, I could go back to Daisy."

The director was not amused. He slammed the door behind him, going to sit across from him. "Let's just make this as painless as possible so I can get back to work and you can go back to your room."

"Yes, sir."

Coulson looked severely perturbed, as though he was reliving an old memory he had never wanted to see again. He almost repeated the words but remembered they were supposed to be covering everything they needed to know about Hydra.

Grant straightened in his seat, forcing himself to be serious, this was about keeping his wife safe, and not having to worry about looking over his shoulder every time he felt eyes on them. He would have to save the awkward conversations and uncomfortable silences for a later time. Preferably when neither he or his wife were in the custody of the shadowed organization.

"What is it you already know?"

The director looked relieved to have the conversation turn to where it needed to be for them to get this over with, pulling out the tablet he'd brought with him and pushing it across the table for Ward to look at. "Not much, I'm afraid. There's a reason we didn't know they existed for over seventy years."

Grant scrolled through the little information they had to offer. Previous bases that had been abandoned and money transfers across the globe under alias's that they couldn't trace past the first off-shore account.

"You should have Daisy take a look at those accounts when she's up to it, she could probably break through a few more firewalls, get you some names and addresses." Coulson just grunted in response, as though he'd already decided to do this. "I can also give you a list of undercover Hydra bases and hidden channels they could still be using."

There was silence longer than he thought necessary, with the other man just staring at him, almost unblinkingly. He couldn't really blame him, though, this was all very weird. It almost felt a little too much like before. Not that it could ever be like that again. He'd killed this man's second chance at love.

Looking back, he realized how stupid he had been. Revenge was only a small burst of pleasure, compared to the sea of suffering it had lead to. Killing Rosalind hadn't really made him feel any better. It had just made the man in front of him suffer, and he'd thought that would make him happy, but instead it had only made him feel empty inside.

When the director made no move to speak, Grant pushed the tablet back toward him and gave him the most sincere look her could muster under these conditions. "I'm so sorry, Coulson."

The man's eyes widened for a brief moment, before returning to normal, not wanting to give the ex-hydra spy anything to work with.

"I'm sorry for killing her. For thinking watching you suffer would make me feel better. I'm sorry I took away your love before it could really begin to grow." A darker part of his mind immediately jumped to a worse time, when it had been him who had lost the love of his life. First with Daisy, when she was Skye, then with Kara.

He quickly shook such thoughts from his head, reminding himself that trying to get revenge for that loss had only lead to a worse pain. "I'm sorry I didn't let you help me when I had the chance. We could have avoided all of this and we wouldn't have to sit here and pretend we were comfortable with the idea of working together. And most of all, I'm sorry for tearing everything you cared about apart."

Coulson was looking at him with a mask of indifference, but Grant knew better. He knew the man before him was calculating everything he said and was formulating a response that wouldn't try to stir up anything. That's why the younger man had purposely avoided saying Rosalind, knowing that could just as easily trigger this man's anger, just like Kara's had him for a time.

He watched as the man seemed to fiddle with some of the false skin of his robotic hand, not even giving the hydra mole a look to convey how he was feeling about this change of subject.

"I'm not asking for forgiveness." He clarified when the other man looked like he might start to speak. "I just wanted to let you know I am sorry."

Coulson let out a sigh, finally looking up to meet his gaze. He'd lost the surprise and traded it for something darker. A pain Grant knew only too well. The pain of being reminded of what he lost. Of losing someone very dear to them. No amount of sorry's, no matter how sincere, could ever make up for what he'd done.

"Can we get back on topic?" The director asked, seeming to brush off his apologies entirely. "Or is there something more you'd like to apologize for?"

"One more thing." Grant said, leaning over in his chair a little. "I may regret a lot of the things I've done, but taking Daisy away from S.H.I.E.L.D is not one of them."

The older man's hands clenched just enough for him to notice. Though he didn't try to tell him that he should regret it. He just sighed again and tapped at his tablet before once again pushing it toward the younger human.

"Put down everything you can remember in any way related to Hydra. Mack will come get you when you're done." With that said, the man left before he could say anything in response.

Not that he had to, he already knew how the director would have responded to his next words. He'd already seen the strangled expression when Daisy told him the same thing.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Hey everyone, so sorry for the wait and shortness. I got a little caught up writing Supposed to Stay in Vegas, and actually some future ideas for this one That are a little too far in the future for me to talk about.

But anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Please favorite, follow, and/or review!

Hopefully, I'll be back with this one sooner than later.

Till then?

Tootles!