Hey guys! Thanks for all the support so far, and who's looking forward to AoS coming back? Of course, because I live in England, I won't get it until 2 weeks after America :'(

But anyway, enjoy this and please review at the end!

Chapter Six: Snakes Hide In Small Spaces

Grant

HYDRA is everywhere.

Even now, after Whitehall's death, they still reign, even as SHIELD regains some control over the world again. I flick on the TV and watch as a representative for SHIELD - a certain Bobbi Morse, I think her name is - steps up and delivers a speech to the public. The speech is all about how SHIELD is not the enemy, and how HYDRA is, and that SHIELD are doing all they can to take HYDRA down.

"You're spouting crap." I tell the television. "Absolute crap. SHIELD is not a perfect organisation. It has flaws."

Although Garrett's logic was extremely flawed, he was right about one thing. SHIELD was willing to sacrifice people's lives if it compromised the whole organisation. Trust the system, they said. Let the higher levelled agents take care of it. And what did that ever get me? Even with that mission in South Ossetia with Fitz, Victoria Hand was willing to let us die for the greater good of SHIELD. And those are the sort of things Skye doesn't see. Her SHIELD created people like me. Her precious SHIELD created Garrett.

Skye once told me that she enjoyed working for the Rising Tide because it was like working in a huge jigsaw puzzle.

"One person might not have all the pieces to a solution." I remember her saying. "But a hundred people with 1 percent of the answer... that's beautiful, I think."

And then I had told her that I was usually told that I was the only solution to the problem. That her and I saw the world very differently.

In a way, I was right. We both saw the world differently. She only saw the good pieces of SHIELD through working for Coulson's team, and even with the whole South Ossetia mission, she still chose to ignore the warning signs that SHIELD wasn't as cracked up as they claimed to be. They were willing to sacrifice their own agents for their own good.

SHIELD wasn't any better than HYDRA.

But she was too clouded by her belief in Coulson to see it.

.

Kara walks in, carrying a newspaper. She drops it to the counter I'm standing behind, and I mute the television. Kara glares at the newspaper with disgust.

"Read that." She instructs. I glance my eyes over the bold black headline, reading: SHIELD vs HYDRA: Organisation known as SHIELD to make a comeback. HYDRA are the true villains, spokesperson Bobbi Morse says.

"It's disgusting." Kara announces. "People are actually going to believe that?"

"Kara, you are loyal to SHIELD." I remind her gently.

"SHIELD, yes. Coulson..." She shakes her head, pulling her hair back into a ponytail, securing the hair at the base of her skull with her beloved Hello Kitty scrunchie. "No way in hell."

"Why?" I ask simply. I have to know her motivations behind her decisions: just to check that they are actually hers and not someone else's (mainly mine) that she's copying.

"Because, look at me, Grant." Kara says, her voice calm. She gestures to her face. "Why did this happen to me?"

"Melinda May wasn't happy to see you wearing her face?" I guess, my lips twitching into a small smile.

"This happened because Coulson failed to find me." Kara says frankly. "He knew HYDRA had me. He could of tried to find me. But he didn't. Because he couldn't be bothered to."

"You were in a high security facility." I don't know why I'm saying these words. It makes me sound like I'm on Coulson's side, which I'm definitely not. But maybe Kara needs me to argue back against her, so she can clear her views up.

"If one of his close team, Skye maybe, had been captured, would that of mattered?" Kara points out. "No. It wouldn't of. He abandoned me."

I realise that Kara's right. Coulson doesn't care about his agents other than his close knit team. He's willing to sacrifice others, even me with the whole Christian thing, for his own good. Coulson is not the good, benolvent man he pretends to be.

He's as corrupt as all the others. But he's also one of the best men I know.

It's confusing. I hate Coulson with a passion because of how he acts, pretending to be better than HYDRA. But on the other hand, the man that was on the Bus with me, before the rise of HYDRA... He was a good man. That man sometimes makes me wonder whether betraying the team to HYDRA was worth it.

But then I think about what kind of man he is now, and I remember all that HYDRA has given me. Although they are my enemies along with SHIELD right now, they also saved me, in a way, through Garrett. At least with Garrett I had a purpose instead if just ending up as that kid that no one knew the name off, rotting away in prison for the rest of his life. At least with Garrett, I was something.

Kara opens her mouth, as if to say something, but before she can, the door is busted wide open, and gunfire fills the room.

Kara and I react fast, her ducking behind the table and me grabbing the gun stuffed into my waistband. I aim it at the door.

"Whoever you are, come out." Kara shouts, so it seems like she's the only one in the room. Slowly, I crouch down next to her, keeping my gun ready to shoot. I glance at Kara, asking her with my eyes where her gun is. She jerks her head to one side, indicating that she's left it in the bedroom.

Shit. I curse. Of all the times she could leave it somewhere, and it's when we're under attack? Typical.

"Agent 33?" A familiar male's voice calls. Next to me, Kara stiffens. They want her? Why?

My finger presses down slowly on the trigger.

"We just want to talk to you." The voice calls again.

It sounds like... I frown. Coulson? But why would SHIELD want Kara? Do they think she can be an ally to their cause? And what are they going to think when they find me here with her?

"Step into the room." Kara calls suddenly. "But if you try any funny business, I have a friend here who won't hesitate to shoot you."

Coulson, if that's who it is, is silent, probably thinking, she has company?

"What are you doing?" I ask Kara in a voice just above a whisper.

"Trust me." She mouths back.

"Okay, we're coming in." Coulson answers finally, and then he steps in the room.

I flatten my back against the counter, making my breaths even and slow. I listen to Kara get to her feet and move towards Coulson. I notice a hole in the counter, so I watch through that, ready to shoot if needs be.

My body stiffens as I see Melinda May walk in behind Coulson, her gun in clear site.

Great. I think bitterly to myself. The Calvary. Just what I need.

Coulson has his hands out bare, and Kara evalutes him with a cool, steely expression. I see May's faint look of annoyance at seeing her face on someone else's face before it vanishes off her face. I just hope Kara didn't see it. The last thing she needs is seeing how much May despises Kara's face.

"Agent 33." Coulson attempts to smile.

"How did you find me?" Kara cuts right to the chase. "Actually, scratch that: why did you find me?"

"Agent 33-" Coulson starts, but May cuts him off, her calculating eyes darting around the whole room.

"Who's your partner?" May demands. "Where is he?"

Kara ignores her. I can't help but smile. Kara's stronger now than she has been since Whitehall's death.

"My name is Kara." She says coldly.

"Okay, Kara." Coulson nods, still acting like the friendly man he pretends to be. He's acting wary of her, but his face looks tired, drawn, like something has stressed him out.

"What do you want?" Kara is curt.

"Agent 33 - Kara - we have came to offer you a job with SHIELD. Stay with us, and we'll try and find a way to get your face back to normal. You can work for SHIELD again, and start living your life again." Coulson pleads with her.

"You want me to work for you again?" Kara says slowly, as if she's considering the offer. But I know better, especially after what she said earlier. Although if she chose to join SHIELD, I wouldn't stop her. I would send her on her way with my blessing, if that's what she really wanted.

"Yes." Coulson nods. "Will you? I know you, Kara. I've read your file. You were a great SHIELD agent. Come and be one again."

"I won't." Kara answers sharply. May glances up in surprise.

"Why?" Coulson sounds genuinely shocked that she would refuse.

"Because SHIELD abandoned me." Kara raises her head high.

"We couldn't rescue you-" May says, but Kara cuts her off.

"If had been your Skye, you would of done anything to get her back. But because it's me..." She shakes her head. "I'm not important enough.

"No!" Coulson protests.

"We couldn't risk it. As an agent, you should understand this." May points out.

Kara takes a step back.

"I don't care. All I know is, without SHIELD, I've done a lot better than I ever did with you."

Her leg is right next to me. I could reach out and touch it, but I know that would give the game up. So I just keep quiet.

"Agent 33, who have you got here?" Coulson's tone turns suspicious. "Did they - whoever they are - tell you that?"

"Whitehall isn't here to control you." May chimes in. Kara visibly shudders at the name Whitehall, the name reminding her of how she used to act, under his brainwashing.

"No!" Her voice is loud and sharp. Coulson blinks, surprised by the intensity of her voice. "This is my decision. Not anyone else's. I made my mind up, myself. I am loyal to SHIELD. But I am not, and will never be, loyal to you."

Coulson and May are silent, shocked into silence. I feel a smile twitch on my lips. Kara is getting her own mind back. And maybe, if she starts to become who she really is again, I can start and build up who Grant Ward is outside Garrett, outside HYDRA, outside SHIELD, even outside of Christian. Maybe I can just be... me.

"I make my own decisions." Kara continues. "I have for a while now. And although the old Kara might of trusted you, I can't. Not until you start changing how you act, how SHIELD acts. And I definitely can not join you while you lie about SHIELD. You are not the good guys."

"Neither is HYDRA." May says quietly.

"I know that." Kara snaps. "But SHIELD isn't either. You are just as bad as each other. So no, I will not come back with you, Coulson." She raises her head proudly. "You can see yourself out."

My smile widens into a grin at her last sentence. Who knew that the true Kara could be so funny?

"Alright, if you can't be persuaded..." Coulson shakes his head and leaves the place, to my surprise. I had expected him to fight back, but maybe he realises that Kara is a flight risk. But but why isn't he eliminating the threat? I frown. Something is different about Coulson. He seems... broken. Tired. Not the man I knew. Something happened. I decide. After Puerto Rico. Something happened that destroyed him from the inside out.

But what?

May goes to follow him but pauses in the doorway.

"Ward, have you seen Skye?" She asks. Both Kara and I freeze, as still as statues. Kara glances at me, panic written in her dark eyes, asking me what to do. I stare back at her, my brain working at a million miles per hour.

She knows I'm here?

Of course. She's Melinda May, after all.

Calmly I get to my feet and face her, schooling my face into a neutral expression. Kara stands next to me, her brow furrowed as she tries to figure out my strategy here.

"No." I say in a level voice. "I haven't." I raise an eyebrow as I learn this new information. Does that mean that when I last saw her, she wasn't with SHIELD? Why? "Isn't she with you?"

May merely turns around, turning her back on me. It occurs to me that I could shoot her right now, but I don't. My gun hangs loosely by my side. My finger isn't even on the trigger.

I've changed. The old me would of shot her, no questions asked.

"I'll leave you to live another day, Ward." She calls back. "But next time our paths cross, I'll kill you, I swear."

"Looking forward to it!" I yell impulsively after her, a huge, fake smile on my lips.