Written for Skyeward Month, Week Four, Day Three.

(Headcannon: 'Someday, you will understand')

'Someday'

Skye thinks that she understands now.

She stares at the mess in front of her, and the in in her hands, and she thinks she understands why Ward chose HYDRA over her.

He didn't have a choice.

He had been moulded to agree with Garrett's will, turned into a piece of clay to be shaped. He didn't have any free will of his own, not really, and that's why it never occurred to him to fight back. Him loving her was the most rebellion he could handle.

She was naive, she realises, to say that he could have just told Coulson. One can't just shake off years of conditioning, just like that. But she didn't listen to him when he told her that. She continued to live in her rose tinted world in which Ward still had a choice in his actions.

Skye gets to her feet, her legs trembling. They threaten to buckle from underneath her, but she forces them to move. Her steps are shaky as she steps through the remains in front of her. Skye tightens her fingers on the gun in her hand: it's her lifeline.

Ward told her that someday she would understand. That she would get why he chose to follow Garrett through thick and thin. Considering that's what she did with Coulson, she gets it now. He considered Garrett's word to be law, and you don't disagree with the law, do you?

Skye somehow makes herself walk away from the scene, and she ends up in a seedy motel somewhere. She sits on the end of the bed, blood coating her clothes and skin, and she dials a number. She's not even too sure if it'll connect: the number is old, after all.

"Hello?" Grant says.

"You still have this phone?" Skye says as a greeting. Grant is silent for a moment.

"Skye. Why are you calling me?" He asks stiffly. Skye looks down at her hand, which is still holding onto the gun.

"Today, I was given a choice. Let a group of innocents die, or let thousands more die instead." She begins. "I had to make a choice."

"Skye, why are you telling me this?" She wonders if he'll hang up. She keeps talking regardless.

"I let that group die." She closes her eyes. "For the greater good. And some words occurred to me. 'Someday you'll understand'."

"Skye, where's Coulson?" He asks.

"You told me I'd understand why you did what you did." She continues. "Why you killed people. And even though what just happened had nothing in common with you really, I still feel like I understand. Garrett was the one telling you to save the innocents,when you should have saved the thousands."

"Skye, you need to go to SHIELD." He tells her gently. "You're rambling."

"I think I understand." She mutters.

Skye doesn't speak to Ward again for two more years. And when she does, it's in the most unlikely of places.

"Sorry!" She apologises as she hits into someone after bending down to pick up her shopping, which has split to the floor.

"No, no it was my fault." The guy tells her, bending down to help her. And that's when she realises who the man is.

"Grant." She says softly. His eyes flick up, and he looks surprised to see her.

"Skye." He returns.

"I understand." She says simply.

Another short upload today - tomorrow's is likely to be short as well. This week's prompts haven't been inspiring me as much.