Next Coulson asked Fitz to come into his office. The moment he saw Ward he wanted to turn around and leave, but Coulson stopped him.

"I don't want to…to…" Fitz stuttered.

"Talk" finished Coulson.

"Yes, thank you."

"Then let Ward talk and you listen. How about that?" Coulson asked. Fitz only snorted.

"Fitz, what I did to you, I'm sorry. And I know no matter what I will do from now on will not make it up for all the bad things that happened to you because of me. But what I did, I did to safe you. You and Simmons. Garrett wanted you dead, with a bullet in your head each. At least like this you had a fighting chance. If you would have stayed there he would have killed you, even if I had refused and got myself into a hell of trouble he still would have killed you. I had to act the way I did. He watched me. He followed the feed from the cameras on the Bus and he would have known if I would have helped you. At least like this he thought I ejected you into certain death. He had no clue I programmed the Bus to fly low."

Fitz listened to him but shook his head the entire time. Ward understood. The engineer lost so much because of him. The truth was irrelevant, Fitz wasn't Fitz anymore. He lost more than Ward could ever give him back.

"You did this to me!" Fitz shouted.

"I'm sorry" Ward said in a low voice.

"Sorry isn't …. Isn't …." Fitz stuttered again. His emotions got the best of him and silent tears started rolling down his face. He was furious. And he had every right to be.

"I know. It will never be enough" Ward told him. "But I will do everything I can to help you and protect you. I will never let anyone hurt you again. You don't have to forgive me. You don't even have to talk to me. I understand I lost any kind of right to expect anything other than hatred."

"That's right!" he shouted again. "I hate you!" he stepped towards Ward and started hitting him with his fists. Coulson wanted to pull him away, but Ward shook his head. He didn't mind. If Fitz would feel better he would take any beating any day. "You were our friend" Fitz said between sobs. "And you betrayed us" his voice sounded broken. "You were my friend and I trusted you" he said almost in a whisper. Fitz stopped hitting Ward and the older man tentatively put his arms around the engineer. To all of their surprise Fitz didn't back away, but let Ward hold him.

"I know I hurt you. But maybe one day you will believe when I say that I did consider you my friend, even a little brother. I couldn't protect my younger siblings and I wanted to protect you and Simmons so bad. I made many bad choices, but I wanna make up for them. If you would give me a chance I would prove to you that I can be the man you knew. I won't bother you. If you want to talk to me I will be very happy to do so. And if not, it's ok. I have no right to be upset or offended. I know that. I swear, from this day on I will be 100% the man you knew, because this is the man I want to be. Scratch that. I want to be better, because the Grant Ward that you met was arrogant and an asshole. I want to be who I truly am. Not SHIELD Ward or Hydra Ward, just Ward."

Fitz pulled away and whipped his face clean. He didn't look up to see Ward but he knew that he was looking at him.

"I can't …" he said, before turning around and leaving the office.

"Don't worry. It is progress" Coulson encouraged.

"Yeah" Ward said thoughtful.

"Ok, let's go on. Koenig, please send in Hunter and Mack" Coulson said over the phone.

A few minutes later two man entered the office. One very tall and robust and the other with a rather stupid grin on his face.

"Ward this is Mack, he is currently in charge of repairs – he is sort of our engineer, helping Fitz. Mack this is Grant Ward. Well I don't have to tell you who he is." Mack shook his head and stretched out his hand for Ward to grab it. The latter shook it and nodded. "And this is Lance Hunter, he joined us more recently." The two men shook their hands and nodded towards each other. "Now, you two are rather on neutral ground when it comes to Ward. But the same goes for you as for anyone on this base in general. If you attack, beat or provoke Ward in any way you will be punished. If he starts a fight however you are allowed to hit back. But I would prefer if everyone would just stay calm. So, no fighting. Unless you are in the gym and training."

The three men nodded in agreement and Coulson allowed them to get acquainted. He left the three men alone, since he had a meeting with May and wanted to be there when Trip and Skye would meet Ward again.

"So, tell me, mate, what was it like on the dark side?" Lance asked nonchalantly.

"Well, it was dark" Ward replied.

"Uhum. I heard you were like a ladies man in your better days" Lance continued.

"Lance" Mack scolded.

"What? I wanna know. Wanna see who had more girlfriends" Lance explained smirking.

"I don't know where you heard that" Ward said.

"That little sunshine that could kill you if you dared looking at her the wrong way" Lance explained.

"You mean May?" Ward asked confused.

"Why would I mean May?"

"Because we…" Ward started but realized maybe it wasn't such a good idea telling this strange man that he and his now SO had a sexual relationship at some point.

"Bloody hell. You and the Cavalry did it" Lance practically shouted.

"Don't call her that" Ward and Mack said at the same time.

"Bloody hell. Sunshine owes me big time for withholding such valuable information."

"Who do you mean? Who's sunshine?" Ward asked curious.

"That babe that wants your nuts as a trophy for being such a… what did she say… oh right, a lying, cheating bastard freaking Nazi."

"Skye" Ward said in a sad whisper.

"I'm sure she doesn't mean it that way" Mack tried to calm the situation.

"No, she meant it. And I don't blame her" Ward said.

"Listen, mate. I don't know what your deal was, but if the director wants to give you a second shot who am I to question him. Especially, since I don't know him that well. But this team is my team now, my friends and if you hurt them I will hurt you. I don't care if Coulson punishes me. I will destroy you if you hurt any of them."

"Don't worry. I don't intend on doing that. I wanna make things right. I wanna help them the best I can and protect them from every harm."

"That's nice" Mack said smiling.

After another ten minutes Coulson returned to the office pleased that the three men hadn't killed each other. Well, he wouldn't have expected Mack to even move, knowing how peaceful the man was. Hunter and Ward on the other hand. Ward promised to behave and not cause trouble, but trouble was Hunter's middle name.

The director dismissed the two men and called Trip to his office.

"Good morning ,Sir, Ward" Trip greeted smiling.

"Good morning, Agent Tripplett" Coulson greeted him.

"Hello, Trip."

"So, I hear you wanna be good again. Good for you. Listen man, we both worked under Garrett and Coulson explained us that the man was nuts, he also told us a few things about how he treated you – no worry, boss was very mysterious. But I knew the mad man, I know what he was capable of. You made mistakes and even though I don't feel the betrayal like the rest of them I just wanna tell you that if you screw up or hurt any of them I will beat the crap out of you. We clear?"

"Yes. I will show you that I've changed. That I wanna be the agent they knew. A good guy. I don't ask for any of their forgiveness, just a chance to help and protect them."

"That's good man. We could use some extra hands around here."

Coulson allowed them to talk for half an hour before he wanted to call Skye. Trip and Ward talked about their time with Garrett, then with the team, what had happened since Ward was imprisoned and even Fitz's progress. Ward told Trip that he started seeing a therapist, who helped him see and understand a few things about himself. Before Trip had to go he hugged Ward in a manly kind of way, which made Ward smile to himself.