His Happy Ending: The Alternate Scenes

Alternate Scene 6: Voices and Past Revelations

Spoilers: ALL episodes of SHIELD

Disclaimer: I only own Colin and Milo...


Skye stood outside the room that Ward was in, she stood viewing him through the window as Banner and one of the nurses reviewed his vitals. He'd just undergone the reconstruction surgery to fix the damage to his larynx and vocal cords in order to speak again. It'd taken three months before they could do it, when Colin was spending the summer with his parents in Hamptons. Skye had filed for medical leave, citing 'significant other' on the line of who was ill or injured. She'd accumulated a year's worth of leave so she told Coulson she'd be taking off for as long as necessary to help Ward recover. The man had only smiled and asked her to check in often, handing her Tech-Ops unit over to another agent that she approved of.

Banner left the room and paused outside the door beside Skye. "He's not in any pain but there is swelling. That's normal and we'll continue to watch it to make sure his throat doesn't close, it didn't in any of the others so I doubt it will happen."

"When will the anesthesia wear off?"

"Another ten minutes and he'll come around." Banner looked at Ward before turning back to Skye. "He'll want to try to talk immediately but until the swelling goes down he won't be able to. I'll need you to help him understand that speaking is going to take time."

Skye nodded, "we've already scheduled a speech therapist to come in twice a week. Stark recommended her and said she was family oriented in that she'd include Colin and I in the sessions." Folding her arms she sighed, "how long did it take for the others to regain their voices?"

"It ranged from three months to eight months for full speech but unlike Grant they'd been without speech for years. The fact that his is recent, under 10 years, which gives him a good chance of recovering it quicker."

"He's determined to say something special, he won't tell me what it is but he says he knows what his first words will be." Looking back at Ward, the young agent shook her head. "I wanted to tell him it wouldn't be that easy, that he can't just choose what to say because it would take time but he was so excited that I stayed quiet instead. Now he has this idea of what he wants to say but realistically he won't be able to. It's going to frustrate him so much and he doesn't do well with frustrated."

Banner put his hand on Skye's arm, "give him time and support, that's all you can do. You'll be the biggest motivation he has, I've seen him with you and I know he has so much he wants to tell you but couldn't."

"Thank you Dr. Banner, you've done so much for us."

He chuckled, "I haven't done much."

"You've given us hope," looking back at Ward she smiled, "hope he didn't have eight years ago."

After Banner left, Skye went in the room and sat on the bed. She stared at Ward and thought back to years before, when darkness engulfed her life for months after they'd taken down Garrett. She thought about how she'd placed a good agent in a hospital bed for months because she'd allowed darkness to control her for just a few moments.


Seven Years Before

"Come to me Daughter, come to your father." The blood-soaked man held out his hand as Raina lay feet away covered in blood and looking like butchered meat. Men once loyal to Raina held Coulson, May and Trip with guns to their heads. "Come and I will let your friends go."

Swallowing, Skye took a step forward and the man who called himself her father grasped her wrist and pulled her closer. He gripped her chin and dragged his fingers across her cheek. "Let them go."

"I will but first you need to accept yourself." He smirked and even his grin was bloody, "I see your heart Daughter, shattered from intimate betrayal. His name sings to your blood, draws you closer to him but yet his is not here." Her father shook his head, "who took him from you?" He turned to the three who struggled but couldn't get away. "Which took your mate from you? Avenge him Daughter, avenge the one I would have called my son."

Skye looked at her father, "none of them took him, the one who did is already dead."

She watched his expression and knew the answer he wanted wasn't the one he got. He marched across the room and used a knife to cut one of his soldier's throats. Bathing his hand in blood he moved back to her and grabbed her face, "you will accept yourself, you are not a weak human like these animals. You are better, you are my daughter and you will accept it." Forcing her mouth open he shoved his finger inside and forced her to consume the blood on his finger. She pushed away and looked at her team, feeling a powerful force as her eyes became like a telescope and they became so distant they were barely there.

When she'd opened her eyes what seemed like hours later, she found a blood bath. Her team was unharmed except for Trip, who had a knife wound in his leg, and her father who stood admiring what she'd done. Her father's men were slaughtered like cattle and made Raina look merely maimed. She dropped the knife that she held in her hand and looked at her hands to see them covered in blood.

Her father smiled, "you are whole finally my daughter."

Skye looked not at him but at Coulson, who stared at her. She instantly moved over to him and he took her in his arms. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"Shh, it's alright." Coulson didn't care about the blood on her hands or that she had blood on her face, he embraced her and merely looked at May. The woman picked up a gun and held it at her father as if a move would cause him to meet a bullet.

"Daughter come, we are whole once again." He pleaded to her and she turned her head to look at him. "Think of what these humans did, they took your mate from you…your heart aches because of them."

Shaking her head the former hacker stared him in the eyes. "He is human and even after everything he's done, he will always be a better man than you could ever hope be. As for being a daughter," Skye shook her head, "I'm not your daughter. You haven't care for me, loved me or given me everything I needed. You aren't a parent, you're a monster and I wish I'd never met you."

May hadn't hesitated after that to dispatch the man, if he'd ever been a man. Trip had recovered with time and no one spoke of that day and what a drop of blood could turn her into.


Present Day

The feeling of her hand being squeezed made Skye come out of the past and look down to see Ward opening his eyes. He turned his head to look at her and opened his mouth but she shook her head.

"Your larynx are swollen, you won't be able to speak for a while so don't try." Squeezing his hand she smiled. "I've been thinking through this whole thing and I wanted to know if you could answer one question for me."

Anything.

She leaned in closer and smiled at him with her soft sweet smile. "Would you still love me even if I wasn't human?"

He looked at her and then to the side before meeting her eyes once again. As he withdrew his hand from hers Skye felt her heart sink. Preparing for immediately rejection, she watched as he used both hands to start 'talking' to her and she froze to listen.

Raina told me your parents were monsters, I knew long ago you weren't human. Human-like but not human. I don't care because I love you Skye, as you are and nothing will change that.

"If we had kids…"

They would be beautiful like their mother and have all the love we were denied. We'd hold them so close they'll be running away because we love them too much. He touched her cheek and smiled at her. It doesn't matter to me what you are, I love you Skye and that includes the dark parts. Just like you love all of me despite my past.

"Okay," she nodded and looked down. "I just remember after I realized what I was, I put Trip in the hospital from a knife wound. You reminded me of that and I thought about everything, including the fact I'm not human."

He shifted in bed and she looked him in the eyes, his hands moving to speak again. As soon as I can talk, I will spend every day reminding you how good and pure you are. Not a day will go by without you being told that you're beautiful and perfect.

"And that you love me."

A smile crossed his face, that's a given and I will never let you forget.


A/N: Well now we address Skye's insecurities about her past and her human-like status.

Next we see a bit of time jump (about 2 months) to see Ward struggling to speak but doing better.

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