Hello, guys! This will probably be the last update until after Christmas on this story, but I will be posting a Christmas themed post in my one shot collection Saving on Christmas eve, so if you want, check that out!
So, maybe as an early Christmas present, you guys could all leave me a review telling me what you thought? They would make my Christmas!
Thanks again for all the reviews, favourites and follows.
Enjoy!
May
"May, please!" Coulson begs. I stand on the other side of Grant's door, protecting the ones within. The other 'side' are discussing our terms with me. I lean my back against the closed door, bending one knee.
"Our terms are that Ward gets to stay up here." I say coolly, crossing my arms. "Because you did not see what you sent him into, Coulson."
"Which you shouldn't of been watching." Hunter mutters, folding his arms over his chest.
"Excuse me, Hunter." My voice drips with contempt for the ex mercenary. "I'm not the one who shot two of his team mates in the back."
"Which you already shot me for, love!" Hunter rolls his eyes. "When will you get over that?"
"When you stop calling me love." I hiss back, my fingers twitching to strangle the life out of him. Instead on indulging the want - no, need - to kill that smarmy ex merc, I grit my teeth and clench my fists.
"May, I don't want the team to be divided." Coulson says tiredly. "Can we not just agree on something?"
"Phil, trust me." I look my oldest friend deep in the eyes. "Ward can be an asset. Let him stay up here, recover a bit, and then I'll turn him into a specialist we can actually use."
"We can't trust him, May!" Coulson points out.
"I never said trust. I said use." I correct. "Give me 3 months. After that, if I've failed, take him back to his cell. Kill him if you want, even hand him to Christian if you want. But give me a chance." I urge.
"He's a mur-murderer!" Fitz manages to exclaim. "He tried to...to..."
"Kill you." Mack supplies. Fitz nods, clicking his fingers at Mack.
"And Simmons, but it looks like she converted to the dark side." Fitz mumbles, but no one seems to hear him.
"Yeah!" Hunter agrees. "The scientist dude is right. He's a HYDRA spy and murderer!"
"I thought you didn't believe in second chances, Melinda." Coulson says quietly, ignoring Fitz's and Hunter's outbursts.
"This isn't a second chance, Phil." I reflect his quiet tone in my voice. "It's his first."
I slip back in the room some minutes later. Simmons looks at me from her position in the corner, her arms wrapped around her legs, her fingers linked nervously. She's probably missing Fitz, but if she misses him that much, she should join him instead of sticking with us. But I've got to respect the girl: sitting in the same room as your would be murderer? That takes some guts.
"What's the verdict?" Simmons asks. Skye also looks interested from her seat next to Ward. Ward stares at the floor silently, motionlessly, as if he's a statue.
"Coulson's gave us 3 months." I say, leaning against the door, wiping my hands on my thighs.
"To do what?" Skye questions, frowning in confusion. I look at my trainee, who is so still into her ex it's actually painful to see, because there's no way either of them will be able to move on and start again when they are still into each other. And they aren't going to forgive each other any time soon.
"To turn Ward into an asset." I say grimly. "Can you do that?" I direct the last half of my sentence towards Ward, the man in question here.
Ward glances up, a half smile playing on his lips.
"I'm good at being an asset." He shrugs. "It's one of my few useful skills, like following orders."
"Good." I say. "Because otherwise, you're going back to that cell."
"But May, isn't that just turning Ward back into what Garrett created?" Skye argues defensively, her brown eyes fiery. So like mine at her age, before Bahrain, that is. "That's wrong!"
"I don't mind." Ward offers up quietly. I shoot him a look and he falls silent again.
"No, Skye." I assure her. "Because this time, I'll be the one training him. And I, unlike Garrett, am not a raging psychopath."
"Are we sure?" Skye mutters, a smile on her face. I frown at her, but underneath I'm laughing.
Skye
"Are you really okay with being turned into an asset?" I ask Grant once the others are asleep. Jemma is curled up on the bed, May opted for the pile of pillows on the floor (although I'm suspicious if she's actually asleep), and Grant and I are sitting on the floor, with our backs up against the door.
"Don't you have any problem with it?" I continues when Grant remains silent. I wait patiently for him to answer.
"I've always been used." Grant says finally, in an accepting tone. "You watched that video on that USB, right?" I nod softly. "So you know that first, I was used by Christian. Then Garrett. And now Coulson." He shrugs. "It's normal for me."
"It shouldn't be though." I whisper, my voice a whisper on the breeze. "You should be able to live how you want to, not how others tell you to."
"I'm not even too sure if I know how to live with out orders." Grant admits. "I followed his orders for 15 years. That's a long time."
"You're a lot more revealing now than you ever were in our relationship." I nudge his shoulder gently, but he still involuntarily flinches away from me. "It's nice." I add.
"I was alone in that box for a long time." Grant shrugs again. "It gave me some time to think."
"Yeah, why I remember." I glance at him, realising that this is the most he's spoken since the whole Christian incident. "You're claustrophobic? How come I've never noticed it before? We've been on tons of missions involving small spaces."
"I'm a - I was a specialist." Grant corrects. "I can handle my phobias, but that box was cutting it a little close. And since I had noting to distract me, it was a little too present on my mind."
"Sorry." The apology spills unexpectedly from between my lips, but he's already shaking his head.
"Don't be." He mutters. "I'm used to it now."
"Because of your mom?" I have to ask. Even though we dated for 8 months, the most I ever found out about his mom was that she gave birth to Grant. I don't even know her name.
"Yeah." He nods, swallowing.
"Why did she do that?" My mouth asks him next. I have to know why a woman who claimed to be the guy's mom would lock her son up in a small, dark closet.
"She was probably drunk." Grant shrugs, staring off into the dark. "Valerie was very fond of a few glasses of wine - every hour."
"Oh." I say quietly. "One of my foster mom's got drunk a lot. Clearly, that placement ended quickly. But she was pretty scary drunk."
"They always are." Grant agrees. There's a pause in the conversation for a moment as I'm reminded of the old times, where we used to sit and talk for hours, just relaxing in each others company.
"I am sorry, you know." Grant says abruptly. "About lying to you. I thought about telling you a hundred or so times, but the timing never seemed right, and by then, it was too late."
"'Out of the shadows and into the light.'" I quote HYDRA's catchphrase, captioning why it was too late.
"Exactly." He nods. "Out of the shadows and into the light."
Review, maybe?
