Of all the team members, Grant knew that May was going to be the toughest sell and it wasn't because their relationship had ended badly. No, it was because they'd had a relationship at all. By accepting Grant into her bed, whether she realized it or not, May had let him into her heart, even if it was just a little. She'd enjoyed being with him, she'd believed in him and, worst of all, she'd trusted him. And for someone who had been hurt as badly as she had been, that was huge. Grant realized all that after the Loralei situation but there was nothing he could do right then except regret it. And regret it he did. Damn, caring hurt!
In short order, she'd been hurt by the two people she was closest to on the Bus: Coulson by his inability to get over his anger at May spying on him and Grant by his betrayal. Coulson had hurt her by refusing to believe in her essential goodness and loyalty. Grant had hurt her by throwing her loyalty and caring back in her face. So the two of them dealt May a double whammy and, with the Hydra re-emergence as icing on the cake, she had to be emotionally spinning. May was a good person. She was tough, loyal, funny, smart, and cared fiercely for others. She didn't deserve this.
As a result, Grant had been dreading encountering May, more so than any other member of the team. He knew that FitzSimmons' and Skye's desperate desire to believe in him would work in his favor, so while his conversations with them would be challenging, they were doable. And they had been. Grant suspected that Coulson would be a little tougher but that he too would want to believe in Grant. But May was different. She'd been so hurt by the way they'd broken up and his betrayal of SHIELD that it was likely she wouldn't listen to anything he had to say. She wouldn't want to believe him because the risk in doing so was way too great. So when May attacked him, Grant knew he was in trouble. And he had no idea how to get out of it.
That was why he immediately cursed himself for his weak, "We need to talk," response to her attack. That wasn't even going to come close to cutting it.
Sure enough, May's response to his plea was to growl, "No talking," as she kicked him through the door of a room that was under construction. Then she started pummeling him. Grant quickly found himself at a deep disadvantage because he wasn't trying to fight her. He was trying to avoid her and that was much more difficult, especially for him. He wasn't used to being passive in a fight; he was used to winning. However, he found himself with a major dilemma. If he wanted May to listen to what he had to say, he had to get her to quit fighting him. But if he started fighting back against her, she wouldn't believe that he was on her side. So, all he could do was try to tire her out without getting too injured himself. Awesome.
May got on top of him and was punching him, so he finally headbutted her and threw her over his shoulder. She immediately leapt to her feet and ran over to the table saw. Table saw? Wow! She really is pissed off! He came up behind her and swept her feet out from underneath her. When she landed on the floor, he got on top of her and tried to pin her down, no easy task since she was squirming like an eel, using her legs and head to try and get him off her body.
"We really need to talk, Melinda!" Grant said. She stopped resisting for a moment when he said her first name but then started again. "Things aren't what they seem."
May finally succeeded in pushing him off of her and backed away, trying to catch her breath. "Oh? Are you talking about that triple nonsense again? I'm not Skye or FitzSimmons. I don't believe in fairy tales," she said with a sneer. Then she ran straight at him.
Grant guessed May's intention: she was going to try and kick him through the makeshift door behind him. He hesitated, letting her get close enough to him that her momentum would keep her going and then he leapt out of the way. She fell through the door and rolled upon impact. Grant positioned himself just slightly out of her reach, close enough so that he would be ready for whatever she chose to do but not so close that he seemed threatening. Surely she would soon be able to tell that he wasn't trying to hurt her.
May once again leapt to her feet and came at him with a spinning kick. He leaned back out of the way and then shoved her to the side after he blocked her sideways punch. Grant could tell that she was waiting for him to initiate a punch or a kick and was getting irritated that he wouldn't. May finally punched him in the ribcage and immediately dropped to the floor to try and sweep his legs out from under him. Grant anticipated the move and jumped back to his right so that he easily avoided her attempt. He thought of the sparring session in which she had tried that maneuver and it ended with him on the mat. He smiled briefly. How mad would she be if she realized that she was the one who taught me not to favor my left?
Grant took the advantage of her being closer to the floor to knock her on her back and pin her with his body again. "Melinda, I need for you to listen to what I have to say. Can you do that now?" he asked a glaring May. He risked using her first name again, something that he had almost never done, even when they were at their most intimate with each other. He hoped that would shake her up enough so that she would consider that possibly something was different and she should listen to him.
May stopped trying to throw him off, so he carefully eased away from her. He hoped that would engender some trust between them. To sweeten the pot, he held up his hands in a surrender gesture but still watched her warily. He would like for her to understand what was going on but he also needed to be uninjured in order to face Garrett. Clearly, caution was needed here.
May got up from the floor and stood her ground. "Fine. Talk. But if I don't like what I hear, I'll go back to kicking your ass."
A part of Grant really wanted to snark at her by saying, You haven't done a good job of that so far and I wasn't even trying! but he didn't. He wasn't used to not being on the winning side and, quite frankly, this rankled a bit. But now was not the time to antagonize her, so he stayed quiet. He put down his hands and moved a bit closer to May. This was a conversation that needed to be conducted in softer voices. Yelling would make it seem more hostile.
"Thank you. I don't blame you for not believing me but I truly am a triple. I was Hydra but when I saw how bad they truly were, I went to Maria Hill. She and Fury decided to let me atone for my sins by being a triple agent, so I've been one since before joining Coulson's team. I realize that I've done some awful things to keep my cover. That's the job. But I have always tried to protect the team."
He decided that talking about their relationship right now wouldn't be the wisest move. He first had to get her to trust him, even if it was just a little. Grant watched carefully as May digested what he said. He couldn't let down his guard with her even for a moment; she was The Cavalry after all. But he thought he saw her relax her stance just a little.
"If you've always protected the team, then where are FitzSimmons?" she asked in a hard voice.
"I got them off the plane and they're safe," Grant replied.
She scoffed a bit. "How can I even possibly believe that you're telling the truth?"
Grant nodded to acknowledge her point. If he was in her position, he wouldn't believe him either. "You can't. You'll be able to talk with them later but all I can tell you right now is that I found a way to get them off the plane and Fury picked them up. They're fine."
"Wait! Fury's alive?" May asked incredulously. Grant had forgotten that this wasn't common knowledge.
"Yes," he replied, smiling slightly at May. "Like us, he's pretty hard to kill. And he's here. The last I saw him, he was on his way to find Garrett. That's where I was headed when you stopped me. Fury promised me that I could be the one to take Garrett down."
"Really," May said in a doubtful tone. "Why?"
"Because he and I have unfinished business," Grant said in an angry tone.
May nodded and looked thoughtful. "So that's why Fury insisted that you be the Specialist chosen for the team?"
"Yes. John wanted information on Coulson's resurrection and Fury needed information about John's plans."
"And that's why you used an ICER on Hand and let me walk away from Providence Base?"
"Yes."
"And that explains why you had such bad aim when Coulson and Skye were escaping the Bus?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't Maria tell us about you?" May asked. It was a good question and, if he was honest, Grant was a bit put out that Maria didn't tell them. It had made his job that much harder.
"I don't know but my guess is that she was under orders to protect my cover. Until Fury got here, I still had to make John think I was working for him," Grant explained.
He saw the beginnings of a smile on her face but then she frowned and shook her head. "None of this makes any difference, Ward. You still could be working for Hydra and are trying to throw me off track. Or you could be playing both sides against the middle."
Good point. Grant felt a sense of hopelessness creep in because what May was saying was certainly plausible. In fact, if he was working for Hydra, making his SHIELD colleagues believe he was still on their side would be a smart play. That way he could align himself with whichever group won. So, even though Grant knew that he was working for SHIELD, he had no idea of how to convince May of that. Even if he showed her the bodies of the Hydra agents he'd just killed, there was no way to prove that he was the one who killed them. Perhaps honesty was the best policy in this situation.
"You're right. Both of those scenarios are possible but they aren't what I'm doing. I don't know what else I can tell you to make you believe me other than ask you to go with me to see Fury. He'll tell you that what I've been saying is the truth," Grant told her with some sense of urgency. He hoped he wasn't running out of time because he desperately needed to have it out with Garrett.
May nodded shortly. "Fine. We go find Fury. But you go first and at the first sign of you trying to double-cross me, I will shoot you."
Grant paused. "How do I know you won't just shoot me anyway?" he asked suspiciously.
Normally, he wouldn't believe her capable of that but, from what he'd seen of her today, she seemed angry enough to do anything. A table saw? He doubted anyone else would elicit that kind of wrath from her. How ironic that one of the things he had taken the most comfort in on the Bus – his relationship with May – may now be his undoing.
If Grant hadn't had therapy, this would have confirmed for him that caring is a weakness. John was correct that caring made you vulnerable and vulnerability can lead to pain of both the emotional and physical varieties. But therapy helped Grant discover that it was this very vulnerability that allowed people to get to know you and love you. After all, it was Grant's vulnerability, not his skills, that let his teammates know and care about the real Grant. It was his vulnerability, not his expertise, that led May to open her bed and her heart to him. And yes, while vulnerability was guiding May's anger right now, if he could convince her to give him a chance, her vulnerability was also what would persuade her to believe his story. Her vulnerability wanted him to be on her side. He just needed to get there.
"You don't," she replied.
Grant paused but didn't see any way around it. He shrugged. "OK. Fair enough."
This was undoubtedly the best he was going to get from her right now and he really didn't have the time to keep fighting on the off chance that he could change her mind. Once all of this was over, there were a lot of things that Grant wanted to do but at the top of the list was cussing out Maria Hill. This situation would have been so much easier had his team just known that he was a triple.
May pulled her gun and gestured for Grant to lead the way. He hesitated, pulling up the map of the Cybertek facility in his mind so that he could orient himself. Then he walked toward his left, opened the door, looked cautiously around and entered the hallway. May followed him, holding her gun at her side. She really didn't trust him. In a way, he supposed it was flattering, that the Cavalry considered him to be such a threat that she wasn't following her usual policy of just taking a gun if she needed one. And he understood the lack of trust – it was the smart call and, if the situation were reversed, it was exactly what he would do – but it still hurt.
Grant walked quickly down the hall, hoping that they wouldn't meet anyone else from either SHIELD or Hydra. He didn't think he had it in him to hold yet another emotionally-laden conversation with his SHIELD colleagues and encountering a Hydra agent would be dangerous. He suspected that his Black Shadow activities had been seen and reported by now, so he was most likely in the unenviable position of being hunted by both SHIELD and Hydra. Consequently, he eased past doorways, glancing inside just long enough to determine that there wasn't a threat, and then quickly moving on. Fortunately, most of the rooms were empty. He guessed that most of the Cybertek employees left the building at the sound of gunfire and what agents remained were congregating in the main areas.
According to his internal map, they should be getting close to the room with all the machinery where he'd left Garrett. Has it really been less than an hour since I was last there? It felt like it had been weeks. Grant felt his anxiety rise. One way or another, it would soon be over. They came to another intersecting hallway and Grant heard the unmistakable sounds of people fighting. He peeked around the corner and saw Trip engaged in combat with Elsie Carson, a high level Hydra leader. Damn!
Carson was an oddity within the Hydra ranks. She was a female leader amid a sea of male ones and she was a genuinely nice person, even a bit motherly. Carson took the time to get to know her subordinates and make certain they were well-rewarded financially when they succeeded. Grant could remember several times when she actually brought home-baked treats to agents prior to a mission. As a result, she inspired great loyalty, especially within the lower ranks.
Gazing at the scene before him, Grant felt torn. He wanted to help Trip but he didn't want to hurt Carson either. Maybe I can do both. Before he could formulate a plan though, he saw a gaggle of Hydra foot soldiers across the hall turn the corner and start advancing on Trip. One raised his gun, aiming at Trip's head.
No! Almost without thinking, Grant pulled his gun right as he turned the corner. As he did, he felt rather than saw May raise her gun towards him. He immediately rolled into a crouch to avoid her shot, came up on one knee and shot the Hydra agent who was threatening Trip in the head. He flinched as May's shot grazed the top of his right shoulder. Damn! That hurts! May wasn't fooling around but at least she wasn't trying to kill him.
Trip and Carson both looked in Grant's direction. Trip took the opportunity to dash into the room closest to him to get away from both Carson and the other Hydra agents. Grant risked a look over his shoulder and saw several SHIELD agents come into the hallway to engage Hydra. He could no longer see May. Believing that it was in his best interests to get away from two sets of agents who were most likely both trying to kill him, Grant followed Trip into the room. As he ran, he glimpsed Carson's look of surprise turn into disappointment. Almost against his will, Grant felt a sense of regret that he couldn't fight at her side. She was one of the few good things about Hydra and he would miss her.
Trip was taking cover behind a copy machine but had his gun trained on the door. Grant felt a moment's unease as he ran in and realized that he had no idea what Trip would do. He was irritated that, after all of his hard work, he might get killed over a misunderstanding. I am going to freaking kill Maria Hill! He darted behind a filing cabinet.
"Thanks for the help out there, man," he heard Trip say over the sound of gunfire. "I guess that triple thing really is true?"
"Believe it or not, it is. I was on my way to finish things with Garrett but I couldn't let you down," Grant replied.
"I appreciate it," Trip said calmly. Grant hadn't worked with Trip much but he was always amazed at how casual Trip appeared to be, even in tense situations. He seemed like a good guy. Maybe when this was all over, they could find a way to be friends. "Well, I'm going to get back out there," Trip said as he stood up and headed toward the door.
"Hey!" Grant said as he poked his head around the cabinet to look at Trip. "That woman you were fighting just now?"
"Yeah?"
"Try to take her alive. I think she could be of use to SHIELD," Grant said.
"No promises," Trip replied as he looked cautiously into the hallway and then ran out.
Despite his noncommittal response, Grant suspected that Trip would at least try not to kill Carson. Unlike most specialists, Trip didn't seem like he took killing people lightly. So, asking Trip to spare Carson was the best Grant could do for her. Besides, like him, she was a survivor. He hoped she would be all right.
Grant started to come out from behind the cabinet when three Hydra agents suddenly dashed into the room, every gun pointed right at Grant's head. "Good to see you, Ward, you piece of shit," one said.
He sighed. He knew this was it. Given his status as Garrett's Golden Boy and keeping mostly to himself, Grant wasn't popular with Hydra agents, especially low-level ones. He knew that they took his aloofness as elitism and were jealous of his skills, so to expect anything less than rough treatment at their hands was foolhardy. Unfortunately, he couldn't fight his way out of this situation – not with three guns at his head – so he came out with his hands up over his head. The best he could hope for was a quick ending and even that was unlikely.
He was just opening his mouth to say something snarky (he'd be damned if he went out with a whimper) when three shots rang out. As the Hydra agents crumpled to the floor, he saw May standing behind them. What do you know? The Cavalry arrived in the nick of time. Grant smiled a bit and slowly put his hands down. "I take it this means that you believe me?" he asked.
May smirked. "Guess so," she replied.
Just then, a bullet richocheted into the room and embedded itself in May's left calf. Without even a cry of pain, she dropped to the floor. Grant was just starting to go to her when another Hydra agent came into the room. They must know we're in here. Without hesitating, Grant shot him in the neck and pulled May away from the door. He quickly removed a sock from one of the dead agents and tied it around May's wound, staunching the flow of blood fairly easily. Thank goodness! It must not have gone that deep. He then helped her get into a sitting position behind a desk so that she had both cover and had a clear line of sight to the doorway.
"I have to go finish things with Garrett," he said. He trusted that May would take care of anyone else coming through the door. "Are you all right? Can you handle things here?"
May nodded. "Go," she said, pointing to the door with her head. Grant turned to leave. "And Ward?" He stopped and turned back around. "I'm glad you're still on our side."
Grant smiled briefly, hesitated and went back over to her. He knelt next to her so that they were on the same level. He ignored May's wary look. "Me too. Listen, I want you to know that I wasn't playing you and I'm grateful for what we had. Once this is all over, I hope we can be friends and colleagues again."
He watched her face carefully and saw a look of surprise and something else – he couldn't be sure but he thought it was pleasure – cross her face. Satisfied that they were, if not on the same page than at least in the same book, Grant turned on his heel and ran to the door. He peeked gingerly around the corner and saw that most of the remaining combatants – including Trip and Carson – were locked in hand-to-hand fights rather than exchanging gunfire. Good. Grant dashed into the hallway and headed in a full out run to the end of it. He had to get to Garrett. Only then would it be over.
A/N: I won't lie: this one was tough. May is such a cipher that getting her voice right was very difficult. I hope I succeeded! I also made their fight a little more one-sided. Despite May's legendary status, I just don't see her winning against Grant who, in addition to being bigger and younger, has to be stronger. As with all the other named Hydra villains, Elsie Carson exists in the MCU. She seems like an interesting character, so I couldn't resist putting her in. And I would have liked to have more Trip but there just wasn't time. I hope you enjoy his brief cameo.