"Skye, when you said you'd drive, I expected you to at least head south, not east."

"I thought this would be a good idea to try shake off your friends."

"Or a bad idea as it gives them more time to set up a strike team. And they aren't my friends."

"Well, this is the way we're headed."

"What are you planning?"

"Nothing."

"That the same sort of nothing as 'We haven't left the room'?"

"No."

Ward raised his eyebrows at her.

"Fine. I saw on the news this morning that your brothers funeral is in two days in Massachusetts. I thought you might like to pay your final respects."

"You do realise, since he outed me as HYDRA, I show up there I will be shot on sight."

"I know. That's why we're going without going."

"What?"

"It's a 45 hour drive and we're already 5 hours in, so if we drive like we did last night then we can just about make it, stopping only for toilet breaks and getting drive through."

"I meant the other thing."

"We find the cemetery, and then we watch from a safe, yet reasonable distance. Then when everyone's gone you can visit him."

"What about your dad? That's what this is all about. I then plan on dropping you off back at S.H.I.E.L.D."

"I've waited long enough I can wait a few more days."

"This is a really bad idea."

"Noted. Now if we stop every few hours to swap drivers and we get a new car as often as possible then we should be good."


They drove for the next 40 hours, travelling through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Penslyvania, and Yew York before arriving in Massachusetts.

"Typical." Skye muttered to herself as she navigated the roads to find the cemetery.

"What is?" Ward asked sleepily from the passenger seat.

"The first time I drive from one side of the country to the other and I can't stop to see the sights."

Ward stayed quiet. Skye noticed that the quieter they got to Massachusetts, the quieter he became.

"I can see the cemetery."

"Did you plan a place to watch from? We need to be at least 100 metres away from it so we don't get caught."

"I didn't realise we had to be so far away."

"My brother was a senator. This place, in about an hour will be jam packed with people and cars." WArd explained.

Skye fished the map out of the door pocket and handed it to he pinpointed where they were he proceeded to measure out a gap. Five minutes later he jabbed the map.

"Here. This is where we need to go."

"You sure?"

"Right at the end of the road."

Skye put the car back in gear and followed Ward's directions to the safe place he had identified.

"But you can't see or hear anything."

"We can see." Ward told her, leaning into the back and rifling through his bag. He pulled out a pair of binoculars and gave them to Skye, before repeating the manoeuvre and pulling a pair out for himself "Hearing isn't important."

They sat in the car watching through the binoculars as people started arriving at the cemetery.

"You'll have to provide a running commentary for me."

"You see that small blonde woman holding onto the hands of the two kids, both boys."

"Yeah."

"That's Anna, my sister in law and my two nephews."

"Oh."

"No the oh is about to come." Ward laughed.

"Really. The fact that your brother's wife and kids are burying him today isn't an oh!"

"No the oh! Is, you see that brunette in the sunglasses with the low cut top and obvious fake boobs."

"Yeah."

"That's his mistress." Ward told her laughing.

Skye looked at him, and started laughing too, before remembering she was 'at' a funeral and sobering up.

"Wow. I am suddenly glad we are so far away from there." She cried, wiping tears off her face.

"Me too. Especially seen as though Anna has a killer right hook."

"She ever used it on you?"

"She tried once when I bumped into them while out with Garrett. I have no idea what he told her, but she hates me."

"Ok. So can we finish playing pin the name on the face?" Skye asked.

"Alright. Are you watching the guy walking up to Anna?"

"Yeah."

"That's Thomas."

"Who's Thomas?"

"Younger brother. That's his wife next to him. Figures she's a redhead. He always had a thing for them."

"What do you mean?"

"I could tell you but,"

"You'd have to kill me?" Skye asked him, waggling her eyebrows making Ward laugh.

"No. But it's not pleasant."

"Oh come on."

"My sister was a redhead." Ward said, lowering his gaze to the dashboard in front of him.

"Is your sister going to be here today?"

"She died 17 years ago. She ran away from home and her body was found in the woods a week later."

"Oh Ward, I'm sorry." Skye said, the tone of her voice changing to one of sympathy and reaching for his hand.

"What people don't know is that she found a family who took her in, taught her about life, looked after her, changed her name and now she's a Doctor in New Jersey, and I would appreciate it, for her safety if that stays between you and me." Ward told her with a smile.

"You did that for her."

"I needed to get her out of there. There are things you really shouldn't let your baby sister go through."

"If she's still alive and kicking, who did they find in the woods."

"I think it was a body of a girl who had died in a car accident. I think Christian knew it wasn't her when he identified her, but wanted to give her the new life. So he said it was her."

"Why didn't your parents identify her?"

"They were too distraught." Ward told her, face clouding up again.

He watched as the coffin of his brother was lowered into the ground. He felt the overwhelming urge to laugh, and laugh, and laugh, but suppressed it by biting on his lip.

"What?" Skye asked studying his face.

"Nothing." Ward said, forcing himself to cough rather than laugh.

"There's something. I remember biting your lip indicates there's something you're trying to suppress."

Ward let out a burst of laughter before forcing himself to stop.

"What are you laughing at?" She asked curiously.

"I have no idea. I just have a seriously inappropriate reaction at funerals. " He laughed before creasing up in his seat., which made Skye laugh too.

Within the minute though, Ward sobered up, putting his hands on Skye's shoulder.

"Someone's coming."

"What?" She asked, panicking, checking the mirror.

"Hide the binoculars." Ward warned her.

Skye did what he asked and as the body came closer she realised it was a cop.

"Ward."

"It's ok Skye, I've got it."

"How about you hurt him if my plan doesn't work."

He spun his head to face her and she pulled him into a kiss.

All thoughts left Ward as he felt Skye's soft lips against his. He reached up and put his hand on the side of the face and teased her lips with his tongue. She parted them and he started running it along the top of her teeth.

Tap, Tap, Tap.

Ward pulled away from Skye and she rolled the window down.

"Is there a problem officer?"

"No problem. Just an unusual place to park is all. Do you have your license?"

"I'm sorry officer. I left it at home. I do have my passport though." She told him.

Ward passed her the passport and studied the police officer.

"What are you two doing out here in the middle of the day?"

"Well you see, we were, well, we were on a date."

"In an abandoned plant yard in the middle of the day?"

"Erm... " Skye stuttered.

"Oh I get it. You're married."

"Yes. Yes I am. And my husband doesn't know, which is why we're out here, in the car."

"Is this your car miss."

Bang.

"Why the hell did you just shoot him?" Skye shouted, pushing the body of the police officer off her.

"He was HYDRA."

"No way. How can you tell?"

"He's on his own."

"It's called being single crewed."

"Ok, so what about: we are out of the way, off the path of normal patrols."

"Someone called it in."

"I highly doubt it. For my final point: where's his patrol car? It's not like we are in the middle of woodland and he needed to park it and finish the trip on foot and get to us."

"Alright. You got me on that one." Skye admitted.

"And I recognised him from HYDRA headquarters." Ward told her, earning a punch to his shoulder.

"You could have led with that. I guess this means we have to leave." Skye asked.

"There's time to pay a visit." Ward told her. Skye had talked him into getting some flowers and placing them on his brother grave after the funeral was over.

Skye dug her binoculars out of the side pocket of the car and put them to her eyes.

"Everyone's leaving."

"We better set off slowly. Would probably be best to leave the car here and do it on foot."

"How do they keep finding us?" Skye asked, voicing the concern Ward was feeling, while grabbing her possessions off the back seat.

"I don't know." He admitted, after a long thought.

"You don't have a tracker on you do you?"

"Not that I know of, besides I was prodded and probed pretty well when I was taken into custody by S.H.I.E.L.D. They found nothing."

"There's a but in there somewhere." Skye asked, slamming her door.

"But, I was unconscious in Garrett's care about ten years ago when I did something stupid and got hit badly."

"He could have planted a passive device thinking he needed to keep a better eye on you." Skye suggested, off the cuff and spitballing ideas.

"Thinking about it, he did have an extraordinary knack of knowing where I was at any given time."

"So what do we do?"

"We stick to the plan, but we sneak into somewhere that has an X ray machine."

"Like a hospital?"

"No. It's too public and open 24 hours."

"Nuclear power plant."

"Little overkill. I was thinking more along the lines of a vet They close overnight so we won't be disturbed."

"Vets, like an animal."

"You think I'm an animal so I guess it's all good."

"We're here. I'll let you go in alone." Skye told him, arriving at the gates of the cemetery, which was now mercifully empty.

"No, you can come with me. It would make it easier to run."

Skye followed him through the gates and stepped into stride beside him.

She snaked her hand into his and squeezed in reassurance. They walked to the grave in silence and Skye stopped short, indicating that Ward needed to do this on his own.

Ward stepped forwards towards the fresh stone and turned earth, knelt down and placed the flowers.

"I'm so sorry Chris. I promise I will do what you asked me to. It may take me time, but I will do it. All of it." Ward paused, his voice cracking with emotion. "I didn't get the chance to tell you I'd met a girl I adore, would leave the life and I would die for." He said softly, keeping his voice low.

He put his hand on the grave, letting a solitary tear fun down his face, before standing upright and turning to face Skye.

"How dare you turn up here?" A man asked.

"I have every right to be here to pay my respects, same as you." Ward told him.

"Are you going to introduce us?" Skye asked.

"Skye, this is Thomas. Thomas, this is Skye, a friend of mine."

"So you're Thomas?" Skye asked, advancing towards Ward.

"I am. What has he told you about me?"

"Only that you have a thing for redheads. It's time we were going." Skye said, first to Thomas before turning to Ward.