Author's note: Thank you all so much! I'm sorry for the wait but this was very tough to write. I hope this chapter won't disappoint.
Thank you for your comments!
I will probably post one chapter per week – increased in size – because holiday's over, working days are back.
I hope you will enjoy tenth chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but probably plot :) - if you recognize something, it's probably not mine. All rights belong to their owners.
Some phrases are lifted from season 2 episode 5 "A Hen in the Wolf House" and season 2 episode 6 "A Fractured House".
"Глупый мальчишка" from Russian "Silly boy".
Ecclesall is in Sheffield, England.
Cross-posted at Archive of our own - works/5596210
Thank you for reading!
Chapter 10
Broken rib and generally shitty state of well-being put Grant in a position there Raina walking through the infirmary's doors made him audibly groan.
Raina pouted:
"Aren't you glad to see me?"
Grant tried to fight his initial reaction and came up with:
"If you're here to gloat, know that it's low to hit someone when they're down."
"As if you never did that," Raina raised an eyebrow and sat in a chair while Grant had to admit he wasn't above such behavior.
"I'm not here to delight in your loss to the Cavalry." She smiled and Grant had to remind himself that no one aside from Bobbi was brave enough to laugh at him having needed scientist's help. The same one who repeatedly failed her field qualifications.
It's not like Grant cared what other people thought about him. He was grateful for Jemma's intervention.
"And I'm not going to ask how it felt then Jemma Simmons ran to your rescue." Raina's smile turned sharp. "I'm more interested in what do you know about agent McBraid?"
Grant just knew it would mean trouble but...
"I've read his file."
Raina looked ready to start jumping in her seat and clapping:
"You should talk to him. It's such a coincidence - I could have said it's fate."
Grant fought the impulse to turn around and hide under the pillow:
"One day I'm going to figure out what game you're playing."
Raina's face unexpectedly softened and Grant was tempted to believe it was genuine:
"And on that day you're going to realize that I'm only trying to help you."
Grant snorted:
"You mean yourself."
She shrugged and didn't deny it:
"If helping you helps me... well, a girl should think about herself."
Before he could have pried something less vague from her they were interrupted by Donnie:
"You have to do something!"
The kid looked like he ran at least several miles.
"What happened?"
"It's Jemma! Agent Morse is on the way to the labs to arrest her!"
"Donnie, slow down and start from the beginning."
ooo
Grant finally succeeded in scaring a doctor enough to get out of his clutches then every single computer monitor in the infirmary flashed with the picture of Jemma with a small receiver in hands. Grant had no doubt it was the exact copy of the ones found in Dr. Turgeon's desk.
He left the room at a run not bothering to look at Raina. She knew what to do if it all went to hell.
In the corridor closest to Jemma's lab he saw her trying to get away from a security.
"Stand down."
The guard froze in his place while Jemma hastily hid behind him.
As if on cue Bobbi with flanking her agents appeared in the hallway's end.
"Agent Morse, care to explain?"
Bobbi looked pissed off and full in her hard-ass-agent-slash-bitch mode:
"Dr. Simmons is under arrest for treason. As I suspected Dr. Turgeon didn't work alone."
"What other evidence beside a photo so conveniently sent to every device in this building do you have?"
Bobbi hold up her hands and with apologetic expression started:
"I know she's your friend and it's hard to imagine she's such a good actress..."
Grant interrupted:
"I hope you remember that while Dr. Whitehall and Bakshi are away, technically, I'm senior agent here."
Bobbi sighed:
"Don't do this. You're allowing your emotions..."
"It's not about sentimentality, Bobbi. Jemma Simmons is quite frankly not capable of betraying Dr. Whitehall. Then he returns, he'll confirm it. Now how about you lock Jemma up in her quarters - under constant surveillance - and look for other possible moles?"
Grant realized her answer before she said it out loud and reacted.
He kicked the nearest guard making him stumble in the others and toppling them down. The guard got a kick in the face, the next one managed to scramble upright – Grant blocked his arm and thrown him over the shoulder.
The hit in the kidneys dropped him on the floor. Grant rolled on the back despite the piercing pain.
"Stop this, Grant!"
He kicked Bobbi in the knee and tried to stand up but she recovered faster – and tripped him. He went down again – hard – but managed to drag her with him, too.
She punched him in the face once, twice but Grant grabbed her tight and having trapped her left arm and leg pushed up – rotating them over.
He sat on her diaphragm:
"Just listen, Bobbi…"
She bucked up her hips causing him to pitch forward on his arms. Grant rolled through the fall not waiting for her to complete a combination and got up.
Bobbi jumped but Grant attacked not giving her time to get her batons out – he didn't want to be electrocuted ever again – Romanoff's bracelets were still fresh in his memory. He clinched her and thrown right in the wall. She hit her head and stretched out unconscious on the floor.
The last Hydra operative raised his hands and closed eyes. Grant would have laughed at the sight if his body wasn't on fire. Still he couldn't leave potential hostile behind and having knocked the agent out picked up his gun.
Turning to Jemma who stood wide-eyed by the wall he took her by the elbow:
"Play along." She mechanically nodded.
They entered the elevator and Grant pushed the button to the first floor.
The doors opened in the lobby and Grant dragged Jemma out trying to make it look as if by force:
"Tell agent Morse that I'm escorting Dr. Simmons."
Guards at the security desk nodded and Grant quickened his steps despite Jemma's stumbling.
They almost made it through the doors then the guards stirred. Grant sharply turned around moving Jemma behind him and aimed the gun at Hydra agents:
"Are you really ready to open fire at me?" They nervously looked at each other but didn't lower their weapons. "Think about it."
They stood indecisive until one of them dropped the gun on the floor and raised his arms. The rest followed suit.
Grant rushed out of the building keeping Jemma before him. He needed to get her away and fast but his car was in the parking lot and he just never planned for something like that – damn, he had to come up with some sort of plan right now…
The SUV drove out of the underground garage and halted before them tires screeching. The front door opened and agent McBraid shouted:
"Get inside!"
ooo
"Not that I'm not grateful and all but why did you help us?" The only free room in a motel which Grant deemed acceptable for the time being had a single bed currently occupied by Jemma. He and Hydra agent were talking in the bathroom trying not to wake her.
"One lady told me that Dr. Simmons was in trouble, sir, so…"
Grant didn't bother clarifying if "lady" was in the flower dress. But he asked "why", not "how".
"And you rushed to her rescue like a knight in a shining armor, right?"
He nodded.
Wasn't he supposed to be afraid of Grant? Damn, Hydra operatives needed some remedial training.
"You do realize that you kind of acted against Hydra? At least it'll look so until Dr. Whitehall returns and I'll explain everything to him." McBraid stiffened. Damn, he was afraid of Whitehall but not Grant? Grant was insulted and the fact that he too was afraid of Whitehall didn't matter.
"Dr. Simmons is valuable to us and that's why I helped, sir."
It would have sounded more believable if he didn't look so intensely at Grant when he was speaking.
"How about you repeat it? And now with the feeling as if you're saying the truth, agent McBraid." Grant's patience was at the end. And the bruises all over his body didn't do his mood any good:
"When you lie to people try not to stare at them too hard."
Agent was silent for several seconds and then said:
"Dr. Simmons saved Eva's life and I want to return the favor, sir."
Eva Correa was mentioned in his file as the one responsible for bringing ex-PJ in Hydra and was named "the most important figure" in his psychological evaluation.
"Haven't you already done that then you got us out from Philadelphia day ago?"
Confusion crossed his features for a moment and then he set his jaw straightening in a parade rest:
"Sir, may I make a statement?"
Grant almost sighed – typical former military:
"Yes, agent."
"We shouldn't leave our own behind, sir." So much passion but the problem was…
"You're not in the Air Force anymore." Although SHIELD kind of pretended it applied to them too. "You're not part of the military at all, agent. You're Hydra and it makes you an enemy of the majority of the world's governments and in particular, of the United States."
Agent stubbornly argued:
"We're still a paramilitary organization and there should be integrity…"
"Integrity?" Was he for real? "What part of "Hydra is a criminal terrorist paramilitary organization" did you miss?"
McBraid suddenly looked Grant in the eyes and angrily asked:
"When why have you ordered Eva evacuated? Do you think I'm that stupid to not realize that she slowed us down? Why did you do it when we're just a cannon fodder?" He paused to breathe and continued:
"And why are you here, hiding Dr. Simmons? Haven't you seen the photo? Hydra doesn't tolerate traitors."
Grant closed the distance between them and hissed:
"Jemma Simmons is not a traitor to Hydra." She couldn't be one because she never was loyal to them in the first place.
ooo
Grant knew that food from vending machines wasn't a good substitute for real thing but Jemma's mechanical chewing was worrying. As was the fact that she didn't say a word since yesterday's disaster.
"McBraid," agent looked up from his own meal. "You should watch TV. Really loudly."
He glanced at Jemma and quietly moved from the table. The news channel's noise filled the room.
Jemma continued staring ahead.
"Earth to Jemma," no changes. Grant snapped his fingers before her face. She winced and turned to him. "Finally. I think we need to talk." He nodded to the bathroom.
Jemma put away her crumpled chocolate bar and stood straightening her clothes.
Grant closed the door behind them. The TV volume went up considerably while Jemma turned away and started to fidget with the motel's scarce toiletries.
"I don't think you're the mole."
She still stood with her back to him but said:
"How you can be sure? After all you told me yourself the reasons it could be me."
"Because Dr. Whitehall will not be pleased with you if that's the case." She froze. "And you don't want him to be displeased, don't you, Jemma?"
She turned to face him. Her right hand's fingers were white with how tightly she was clutching her left wrist.
"I...I'm not..." She lifted her head up and blinked several times. "I'm not a traitor."
She made it so easy.
"Is that true? You betrayed SHIELD, an organization you were in for your entire adult life." She flinched. "Haven't you dedicated almost a decade to it - hundreds of inventions, projects? All this time, this effort, this potential - for saving people. And now you're in Hydra. Don't you find it strange, Jemma?"
She was breathing fast and her eyes were wide.
"But it gets even more mind-blowing - you spent months on Phil Coulson's dream team, in the field - risking your life for them - hell, you jumped out of the plane to protect them."
She was trembling and Grant noticed blood tricking down her hand where she dug her nails too deep breaking the skin.
"You betrayed your entire team."
Jemma whimpered and pressed her palm to the mouth trying to hold the sobs.
"You betrayed Fitz."
The low keening wail escaped from behind her shaking fingers and she slid down to the tiles catching her elbow on the bathtub's edge without even noticing.
Grant ruthlessly stomped out the shame building up inside and crouched next to her. He pried her hands away from her face as gently as he could and ignoring her half-suppressed, half-hysterical sobs tipped her chin up.
"Tell me why, Jemma. Why did you do it? Tell me how it started."
She inhaled but couldn't quite do it all the way. It took her minutes to be able to breathe without sobbing and eventually she said:
"We - me a-and...and Fitz - were cornered and we, we jumped in the river. I tried to keep him in sight - I always was swimming better than him but I...I lost him and I searched and searched but..." Jemma looked at him with so much guilt that he had to consciously keep his own breathing even. "And then Hydra agents pulled me out of the water."
She was silent for almost fifteen minutes.
"They brought me to HQ and I met Dr. Whitehall. Everything became clear. I found the purpose." She rubbed her eyes and continued:
"I had to show Dr. Whitehall that I appreciated the second chance he's given me. So I brought agents to SHIELD's base - in Canada... I never truly liked that place - underground, with those pictures changing according to the time of day outside..." Grant heard about Providence and how former agent Parker fucked up the base capture. He should have realized it was Jemma's intel that led Hydra to it.
She smiled but it was bitter and tired:
"SHIELD, Hydra - it all quite silly, you know, trying to take over the world instead of...instead of studying it. Finding answers - that's what matters. And even if I'm not the most loyal Hydra agent as long as our goals are the same - scientific discovery - I will be loyal."
Grant knew his next words were going to hurt even more but it needed to be done:
"Loyal to what, Jemma - an organization that was ready to condemn you without proving your fault? What do you think they have done to Kenneth? Without even knowing for sure that someone didn't set him up." Jemma shivered. "Or do you think that Bobbi wouldn't've done the same to you - because you're good acquaintances?"
Jemma quickly shook her head:
"Dr. Whitehall would've..."
"He would have what - intervened? Stopped it? Saved you?"
She started breathing fast again and shook her head even more vehemently:
"Yes, he would have, I'm valuable, very valuable to Hydra..."
"And how Hydra showed it? By sending you alone to Donnie who was a little too much jumpy? By allowing you to get captured by SHIELD and your former team which seemed happy to shoot you without any hesitation?"
Tears spilled again but Grant couldn't stop. Not now.
"You told me you want to live, Jemma. That you were expendable to SHIELD and you couldn't stay with them. What about Hydra?"
She wiped her face with shaking hands:
"But you're always there, with me, keeping..." She paused. "Keeping me safe."
Jemma looked at him and trust in her eyes was causing pain in his chest.
"Jemma, I'm one agent. I'm not whole of Hydra."
Grant could have said more but was debating if Jemma was ready to have her faith in Whitehall a little bit shaken when the door was emphatically pounded on:
"I'm sorry, really but you have to see it!"
Grant rose and helped Jemma up.
It better be worth it or Grant was going to start on re-training McBraid immediately.
Grant halted in the doorway upon catching the sight of the real live feed.
"...SHIELD is a terrorist organization and they should be treated as such..."
Christian. Grant almost choked on the wave of rage that washed over him. He clenched his fists trying to keep it under control but his heartbeat was already going up and the only thing he could see was Christian's self-assured smile.
Terrified child's cries echoed in Grant's head but he forcefully exhaled as deeply as he could manage and concentrated on another memory.
Soft and patient voice…
Your family doesn't define you.
Stay in the present.
Breathe in – one, two...
"...multi-national police force that will target those suspected of ties with SHIELD..."
...hold your breath – one, two...
"SHIELD is done for - if every government opens hunt on them...Wait, Massachusetts Senator Christian Ward."
...breathe out – one, two...
"Any relation?"
…three.
Damn.
Gunshot abruptly deafened every other sound. Small round hole left cracks sneaking away all over the now black surface of the TV screen.
Глупый мальчишка. Grant imagined indulgent sigh.
Hydra agent swallowed:
"Guess that means "yes".
ooo
Dropping a bag on the table of a new motel room Grant pulled out two passports:
"We're leaving in fifteen minutes."
Jemma crossed her arms and glared at him:
"Where are we going?"
Grant wasn't surprised that she was pissed at him, just relieved that she looked more contemplative of than outright rejecting the ideas he forced her to face.
"U.K." She frowned in confusion. "We're visiting your parents, Jemma. Cheer up."
McBraid dropped his passport and with a wince picked it up from the floor.
"Any comments?"
He swallowed whatever words he had but Jemma wasn't that cowed by Grant's recent violence towards inanimate objects:
"Are you insane? Hydra looks for us, UN is ready to authorize a witch-hunt on both SHIELD and Hydra and you want to visit my parents?!"
"Ouch, Jemma. I called them and they were quiet shocked to find out you were alive – did you know that Coulson told them you died in the line of duty?"
She paled faster than Grant has anyone seen to do. Unless you counted severed carotid artery.
"You wouldn't allow them to continue thinking so, now would you? I barely convinced them I wasn't mocking their loss."
Jemma just grabbed the table's edge while McBraid started to quietly move around packing their pitiful belongings.
Grant was tempted to say that he also convinced them to call one Leo Fitz.
It was promising to be memorable meeting. Especially because both SHIELD and Hydra kept watch over Mr. and Mrs. Simmons.
Very memorable.
ooo
Simmons' residence was a lovely place. And quiet.
But not for long if Grant had any say.
"Piglets one to three are in the positions. Red Hood is inside. Big Bad Wolf's ETA forty minutes."
McBraid's voice in the comm was calm and professional even though Grant didn't need to be a spy to know exactly what and how loud he was thinking about his superior's plan.
"I don't like this." Jemma on the other hand had no such qualms and spent hour and a half long drive to Ecclesall informing Grant of criminal stupidity of his actions.
"Believe me, Jemma, you'll change your mind."
She tried her best to annihilate him with her glare and marched straight to her parents' home.
Grant fought back a wince and went after her – he didn't have to worry about her safety at least for the next forty minutes. The Hydra team monitoring Simmons' parents was terrified of Grant enough to accept his authority without too much of a fuss (one broken nose didn't count). They were even competent enough as to capture SHIELD team doing the same job as them – efficiently and silently.
"Mom, Dad?" Jemma's voice was trembling and she was rigid and still but it wasn't comparable with her parents' reactions to seeing her alive.
While her mother wailed and clutched her tight her father had to lean on the wall and was fruitlessly trying to stop hysterically laughing. Grant waited just outside the front door to two storey house. He was uncomfortable witnessing Jemma with her parents. And jealous. The envy he was feeling in this moment was like an inferno to forest fire he experienced then he first saw Jemma and Fitz.
This was what parents were supposed to be like.
Grant swallowed the bile and struggled to compartmentalize.
"Jemma!" Strangled cry informed Grant about the entrance of Leo Fitz.
Grant wasn't up for witnessing this reunion so he stepped out of sight and waited until Jemma hurriedly somewhat calmed down her three closest persons and called:
"Grant?"
He walked through the doors and had dubious pleasure of being put under scrutinizing stares of Jemma's family. Her parents were still shocked and reacted to him mostly with confusion and a touch of wariness – understandable since Grant looked like went through dozen scuffles (which he kind of did).
Fitz was a little slow on recognizing but then he recovered he went wide-eyed and rushed between Jemma and Grant.
Admirable if useless.
"Why don't you introduce me, Jemma?"
Jemma startled having been struck into bewilderment by Fitz's reaction and stammered:
"Th-his is Grant, m-my friend."
Fitz's face lost any color it had left after being reunited with Jemma.
"And these are my parents, Jonathan and Abigail Simmons. This is Leo Fitz, my…my partner and former colleague."
Jemma's parents were looking from Jemma to Grant to Fitz and slowly getting that something was wrong.
Mrs. Simmons realized it first:
"Former colleague? Jemma, honey, what do you mean?"
Jemma took a deep breath and said:
"I left SHIELD." Her parents glanced at each other and Grant was amused to see that they seemed to be relieved but were trying to hide it under sympathetic concern. Before they could try and express it Jemma added:
"And joined Hydra."
Her parents just stared at her in incomprehension while Fitz stumbled back. Grant ignored anger which Jemma's hurt expression caused in him.
"Why don't you go and make some tea for your parents, Jemma? They look like they could use it." Jemma rolled her eyes at him and went in the direction of the kitchen. "And I explain everything to you three."
His wry smile did nothing to reassure Mr. and Mrs. Simmons when they realized what affiliation Jemma's new friend most certainly had.
ooo
Grant sat at the table and gestured for others to join him.
Mr. Simmons objected:
"I don't know what's going on but if you are who I think you are you will leave my home or…"
"Or what?" Grant slouched in the chair and thrown an arm over its back. "You will call the police?" He tsked. "I hope you don't want to get them horribly and painfully killed, do you, Jonathan?"
He heavily sat in the chair. His wife bit her lip and sat too.
"You probably should know that your house is under constant surveillance – from both SHIELD and Hydra." Grant smiled. "But don't worry, right now every bug is neutralized." He patted his jacket's pocket.
"Y-you're G-Gra-ant W-Ward," Fitz finally spoke and Grant wasn't expecting stammering. Agent 33's report said that she saw agent Fitz on the plane in Miami and he looked well enough.
Grant nodded.
Fitz opened his mouth but Grant was on a schedule. And Jemma won't be making tea for long.
"You can fill Mr. and Mrs. Simmons on atrociousness of my crimes later. We need to talk about Jemma."
Her mother lifted her chin up:
"What did you threaten her with?"
"Excuse me?"
"Jemma would never have worked for you if you didn't threaten her. Was it with our deaths?"
Well, he should have expected nothing less from Jemma's mother.
"Jemma is brainwashed."
Fitz flinched and though Grant was dying to shake him and demand why the fuck he haven't told SHIELD about the very real possibility of it happening in case of Jemma's capture he said:
"I'll skip details and stop on the essential. Basically Jemma was tortured and had her memory and personality slightly adjusted to convince her Hydra is the best thing that happened to our ungrateful planet and she's now as loyal to Hydra as she was to SHIELD."
Mrs. Simmons whimpered and pressed her palms to her mouth and her husband interlaced his fingers in a punishing grip but they were able to rationally analyze the situation.
Grant was impressed.
"What do you want?"
"You're asking the wrong question." Grant leaned forward and on the table. "The right question is what are you willing to do to help her?"
"Anything." Grant internally sighed. Some people just never understood what it meant – to do anything for the person you care about.
Like he did for John.
Unfortunately, some people just didn't appreciate such devotion.
But he wasn't here for John.
And luckily for Jemma's parents he wasn't going to ask anything terrible or amoral. Fitz on the other hand…
"Then you're going to do as I say." He stood up and having came round the table leaned over their shoulders. His voice was cold and quiet:
"You're going to accept Jemma's decision to come to Hydra and be supportive of her admiration to Dr. Whitehall." He ignored Fitz's shuddering inhale. "You will be talking to her about her childhood and happy memories and her dreams, aspirations, goals – from her pre-SHIELD life only. You will listen to her – you may not agree with her but do it without judgment and criticism against Dr. Whitehall – you will simply love her. Or you will lose her forever. Do you understand me?"
They quickly nodded and gripped each other's hands. Jemma's mother was silently crying and trying to not let Grant see her tears.
"And you – with me." He grabbed Fitz by his elbow and dragged him out of the room.
ooo
Out of earshot of both the living room and kitchen Grant stopped and pinning Fitz to the wall hissed:
"Tell me everything that happened from the moment you and Jemma jumped in the river."
SHIELD agent glared at him and angrily demanded:
"W-why sh-should I-I?"
"I'm trying to help. Like I did then I shot Hydra agents the last time I saw you. Like I did then I first met you. Or did you think that police was on to you accidentally?"
Fitz deeply inhaled.
"Start talking."
Fitz gritted his teeth and slowly controlling every word said:
"I lost Jemma from sight, searched, lost consciousness, regained it after almost a month in coma – Director Coulson told me Jemma died."
Grant wanted to bang his head against the wall in sudden understanding. Instead he whispered:
"What I said to Jemma's parents – applies to you, too. But I want something else from you."
Fitz tensed:
"W-what?"
"Information which Coulson has on the Obelisk."
Fitz tried to shove him but Grant pushed back:
"You didn't actually think that I was doing this out of goodness of my heart, did you?" He smiled and Fitz paled again – but not from fear. Far from it.
"Y-you're s-son of a bitch!"
Grant pushed him against the wall – again – and drawled:
"Why, thank you, that's the first time I've heard anyone say the truth about my mother. Well, besides my father. And my older brother."
Fitz looked in confusion and shock at him for a moment and then bit out:
"Y-you're sick. I-I will n-never b-betray SHIELD. A-a-and I will s-save J-jemma w-without your...your... h-help."
Grant pushed him for the third time - for good measure:
"You'll change your mind."
Grant released him just in time to turn to Jemma entering the corridor with a tray:
"And we came looking for you, Jemma. Fitz here is so glad to see you. Did you know that he was in a coma for a month?"
Grant snatched the tray from Jemma while she stumbled and having reached Fitz desperately clutched him.
Part one of the plan – ready.
Time for part two.
Grant smiled not bothering to hide it from an alarmed Fitz.
ooo
The conversation at the table reached another pause and Jemma was still a little awkward with Fitz. Grant leaned to Fitz and shared:
"Jemma is a little upset with you, Leo."
Jemma startled but Fitz stammered:
"W-what? Why?"
"She thinks that then you were captured the first time Coulson let it happen."
Fitz turned to Jemma:
"He w-wouldn't..." Grant kicked him under the table. "...I...I m-mean...as ag-gents...it's our...our..."
He was as much terrible at coming up with a lie on the spot as Jemma was.
"You see, Jemma didn't appreciate being considered expendable and sent on a mission without back-up. But she's more hurt by your reaction to this incident. What did you do? Defended Coulson, right?"
Fitz looked from Grant to Jemma and kept silent. He obviously couldn't understand what he shouldn't say.
Grant decided to be helpful - after all "wolves" were going to be here any moment:
"She thinks that because you defended Coulson's decision you would have done the same to her - left her alone with enemies."
Fitz finally got it and moving closer to Jemma took her hands in his own. Jemma was watching him with a bated breath.
"I w-will n-never d-do this t-to y-yo-ou, Jem-Jemma."
She hesitantly smiled and squeezed his hands.
Idyll lasted for almost ten minutes.
Grant's comm cracked to life:
"Big Bad Wolf in three, two, one!"
The doors burst open as Hydra operatives entered the house.
"Long time no see, Bobbi."
ooo
Grant leaned on the wall in the hallway outside the living room while Bobbi was pacing before him:
"Are you really threatening to blow up everyone in this house? Even Jemma?"
Grant opened his jacket and thoughtfully looked over C-4 blocks strapped to his chest and sides:
"I don't want to, Bobbi, but you're so stubborn. I'm starting to feel cornered." He jiggled the switch in his left hand.
Bobbi crossed her arms and hissed:
"Fine, have it your way. I'm not the one who will be convincing Dr. Whitehall. But Jemma Simmons is a traitor."
With that she sharply turned around and went back in the room.
Grant internally sighed. What's got into her?
"You will be under house arrest, Dr. Simmons."
Then Bobbi addressed Fitz who once again placed himself between Jemma and dangerous people:
"You will be accompanying us, Dr. Fitz. Hydra wanted to recruit you for quite some time."
Grant tuned out Fitz's defiant answer and looked at Jemma. She was worrying her bottom lip and not looking at the watch.
He cleared his throat interrupting trading of insults:
"Jemma, you don't look so well. How are you?"
Her eyes widened and she blurted out:
"I need to go to the bathroom!"
Bobbi tried to intercept Jemma as she bolted up the stairs but Grant stopped her with a pointed glance to his left hand.
Bobbi clenched her jaw and angrily stalked away.
"Piglet three is with Sleeping Beauty. Prince Charming is in fifteen minutes."
Grant took out Fitz's phone:
"Bobbi, we're about to have guests - fifteen minutes. You, Leo, better call your friends and inform them how much explosives I have on me."
Bobbi tensed and started giving orders to her team.
Fitz patted his pockets:
"W-when d-did..." And abruptly stopped with a glare directed towards Grant.
Grant smiled.
Part two - ready.
ooo
Phil Coulson didn't seem dangerous - at all. Pleasant features, affable smile, genial attitude - Grant could have pegged him as a clerk not a spy. Having never met the guy Grant heard enough to be on edge. People weighed by excessive morals were his least favorite type to manipulate - although, arguably, the easiest - you can never predict then they decide it's justifiable to cross the line.
"Mr. and Mrs. Simmons, agent Fitz," he didn't even stress the word agent and poor Fitz still flinched. God, he perfected a father-to-his-subordinates image, didn't he?
"Mr. Ward, Ms. Morse," the familiar annoying British guy flinched at the last name and Grant became curious. Especially because Bobbi seemed to be glaring at him with as much fire as he was with at her.
How did they know each other? Lance Hunter was mercenary, ex-SAS...
"Oh, no." Director Coulson slightly tensed but Grant paid him no mind. This - this was pure gold. "Don't tell me you were married to this, Bobbi, please, I'm begging you."
Coulson pursued his lips, British guy was almost bursting with desire to speak up and Bobbi scowled:
"Don't you dare, pretty boy..."
British idiot's patience ended. Explosively.
"I knew it, I always knew that one day your nature will reveal itself, Bob! You're such a..."
"Shut up, Hunter!"
"Stop, agent Hunter, keep yourself..."
"But she's a demonic hell beast, sir!"
"You're dead, Hunter!"
"Demonic hell beast?" Grant was wrong - it was better than gold.
"Everyone shut the hell up!"
Fitz jumped up and was shaking and heavily breathing.
"Jemma is alive! You lied to me, sir! You lied to Jemma's parents and put them through so much grief! How could you?"
Coulson's face became blank and his eyes - hard. Now here was the man Grant could imagine being a killer:
"Jemma Simmons betrayed SHIELD, her team, her friends. Do you know how many agents – good people – we lost then she brought Hydra right on our heads? I wanted to spare you more..."
"Jemma was brainwashed. And if you didn't lie to me that she's dead I would have already told you this and we could have spent last month trying to save her!"
Coulson's face conveyed his confusion - but only for a moment:
"That's what she told you, isn't it? I know it's hard to imagine, Fitz, but Jemma Simmons we all knew is gone – she was gone then she caused her fellow agents' deaths..."
"Are you even listening to me?!" Fitz punched the table and leaned on it with his fists." Then we were captured the first time by Hydra..."
He better not be...
"...they mocked us and said that we will work for Hydra whether we want it or not. That Dr. Whitehall will put us through the Faustus method and re-write us into Hydra's puppets."
Huh, so he could lie after all.
Coulson sighed:
"I shouldn't have pushed you. After your trauma it's..."
"Stop talking to me like that - like I'm...I'm...damaged."
"I'm not..."
"Yes, you are. You've looked at me and written me off - only Mack didn't! He's better friend than you're all put together! And now you're not listening! Because you all think I went crazy from...from...ah...it's...it's...there is..."
Grant helpfully supplied:
"Isolation? Grief? Abandonment?"
Fitz snapped his fingers:
"Yes, that...grief!"
Before Fitz could have continued another voice from the stairs exclaimed:
"Oh, agent Coulson! Hunter, Idaho, agent Koenig. How are you, Eric? Oops, I'm sorry, Billy..."
Gunshot cracked through already flammable atmosphere and woman's figure dropped from the stairs.
Fitz rushed to her with heart-breaking "Jemma!" and hugged close.
Dead woman's head lolled from side to side and with electrical sparks nano mask turned off revealing mouth glued with duct tape.
In the horrified silence Grant said:
"You should keep your agents on a tighter leash, Director Coulson."
He straightened away from the wall and nodded to shocked Bobbi:
"We can leave. I saw everything I wanted."