DISCLAIMER: No copyright infringement intended. All publicly owned characters and/or plot do not belong to me. I'm just playing with them. Willow Jamison/Cavanaugh is mine.

CHAPTER 25:

Coulson had given Ward the rundown of the last few hours. Apparently Willow and Skye had gone to Willow's childhood home and made the discovery that she was in fact GH-325. They'd been ambushed by Garrett, who obviously had no intention of meeting them at the lab, but managed to narrowly escape with their lives. Willow had sent Skye to contact the team, risking her own life to take Garrett on a wild goose chase through the woods and buy Skye some time.

Fortunately, Skye in all her recent paranoia, had put a tracker in Willow's jacket pocket but had lost her cell phone during the altercation at the house—and with it, her ability to find Willow's location. They were now headed to recover Skye from some convenience store she'd made it to so that she could hack the tracker signal and locate Willow.

The entire flight to get Skye had been mostly silence, but Ward paid the team no attention. He knew they had every reason to hate him—and maybe they'd hate him forever, but that wasn't important right now.

He'd never been so relieved to see Skye as she climbed aboard the jet, completely disregarding everyone—making a bee line for the nearest laptop, and sat right next to him, despite May's warning not to.

"Noooooo! Dammit! He must be using a signal scrambler. God I hate that guy!" Skye grumbled, squinting at the screen.

"Doesn't surprise me. Garrett loves using them almost everywhere he goes. He must be close." Ward scowled.

"Unlucky for the bastard—I have a program for that." Skye grinned wickedly.

Ward noted the bruises on her throat and wrists and he cursed under his breath.

"I'm sorry Skye. For everything. If I'd just opened my eyes sooner—"

"It's not your fault Ward. Garrett told us how he used you and tried to brainwash you." Skye reached down and squeezed his hand reassuringly, before speaking directly to the rest of the team. "And as soon as I can locate my phone, I'll prove Ward is telling the truth. I recorded everything."

Ward had to refrain from reaching out to hug the hacktivist. He definitely owed her one. Hunter suddenly found his shoes extremely interesting, but that was okay. With at least Coulson and Skye on his side, he could still have hope.

There was a flashing circle on Skye's laptop.

"Coulson….I've got a ping on her location—but she's at least 3 miles away from where she said she'd be. They must have caught up to her."

"Give the coordinates to Agent May. We'll have to land and split up for a ground search."

"There are at least ten armed men out there after her." Skye looked to Ward apologetically.

"If she's hiding, they'll have split up into small groups to track her. I guarantee he'll have James Ryan and Steven Cohen with him. They are his two best trackers besides me." Ward explained. "But Steven is a wild card. There's no telling what he'd do if he—"

"He's not gonna find her Ward. She's smart and strong." Skye stopped him before he could go down the road to panic.

Ward nodded, taking a deep breath.

"Ward, once we land, I'm counting on you to do your best to stay out of Garrett's way. You could still play a part of taking him down—and the longer he believes you're still Team Hydra, the better." Coulson stated. "Your priority is finding Willow and getting to the rendezvous point."

He nodded once in understanding. His fists clenched and unclenched as he tried to calm his tense body. He felt as though he was a ticking time bomb ready to either explode in rage, or to completely breakdown.

He had to find her.

Willow awoke to loud voices. She could hardly see, everything was fuzzy and white like she had cotton over her eyeballs, and her whole body felt like pins and needles like it was trying to bring itself back to life. She had no idea how much time had passed, but the sun had risen again. A wave of nausea hit her and she dry heaved into the leaves, trying to keep as quiet as she could. Her body trembled, most likely from the frosty night she'd slept through.

"Over this way—I heard something." A male voice shouted.

She froze in fear. Her vision was slowly returning, but not fast enough. She scooted backward as much as she could, willing herself to shrink out of existence. She was wheezing in pain as her torso felt like it was torn to shreds. She was fighting the urge to completely give up.

The footsteps grew closer until she could make out two of Garrett's hired muscle standing over her with guns in her face. When she squinted, she could tell the blonde haired one had been Garrett's right hand man back at the house, and the other one with reddish hair had been the relentless one who'd enjoyed kicking the shit out of her at the barn. She fought the urge to cry. Agents didn't cry, she reminded herself.

The red head didn't say a word as he grabbed her by the arm, yanking her roughly to her feet, not caring that her head smacked into the rock above. She struggled to use her legs, the feeling in them was slow to return.

"I say we kill her. Garrett said she didn't have to be alive." Red head guy snarled in aggravation.

"No. She's worth more to him alive. The longer she lives, the more blood she produces."

"Please….just let me go! You don't want to do this." Willow pleaded with one final effort to gain the upper hand. She could die, she'd come to terms with that—but not in the hands of John Garrett. If she couldn't get away this time, she vowed to use the terrigen crystal around her neck.

"Oh shut up you stupid bitty. I've already lost a whole night of sleep 'cause of ya—I don't give a rats arse what happens to—"

Willow reached for the knife in red headed guy's cargo pant pocket and with a swift motion, she stabbed him in the torso—anywhere she could reach and took off limp-running as shots were fired at her back. Suddenly the shots stopped and there was a thud sound, but she was too scared to stop.

A strong pair of arms wrapped around her from behind and she tried to fight, but the last bit of energy she had gave way and she nearly collapsed.

"Sshhh….it's me. You're safe. You're safe Willow." The soothing voice whispered calmly into her ear.

"W-Ward?" She sputtered out, the world spinning on its axis. Ward was here. He gently rubbed his thumb over her knuckles and she relaxed, but only for a moment. "He….he said you were Hydra…" She didn't have the strength to pull away, and admittedly, she didn't want to.

He turned her around slowly and she'd never been so thankful to see his beautiful face, Hydra or not.

"Please don't take me back to them." Tears finally erupted, trickling down her cheeks. She couldn't hide her pain any longer.

"Willow, listen to me….I will explain everything to you I promise, but first I need to get you some place safe—far away from John Garrett."

"We can't….they…I think he put a tracker in me." She pointed to her collarbone where there was a dime sized wound hole that had dark lines coming from the sides like spider legs and blood oozed from the source. "He said if I ever got away, they'd find me."

"Shit! The nanotracker. The only way to deactivate it is to cut it out." Ward's jaw clenched, knowing firsthand how painful it was. John had put one in him during his fake S.H.I.E.L.D. training out in the wilderness. The tracker clawed its way inside, taking hold of the strongest tissues. "We have to get you to Simmons."

"NO!" She practically shouted. "Until it's removed, nobody near me is safe! You have to cut it out!"

"Willow, I can't—"

"Just do it!" She snapped. "Please Ward. He can't find me until I neutralize my blood."

"Willow what are you—"

"Ward please!" More tears streamed down her face as her anxiety grew. She was breaking down—because even now, John Garrett was violating her. He had been her whole life. "Please, PLEASE get it out of me!"

The desperation in her eyes was more than Ward could take. Whatever John had done to her, he was going to make him suffer for it. He closed his eyes and shook his head in better judgement as he reached for his utility knife.

"I don't want to hurt you." Ward whispered in anguish.

"You have to. I need you to. I can take it. The pain it's causing me is worse than what you have to do. It feels like it's ripping my shoulder apart." She insisted through gritted teeth. He nodded more to convince himself. He drew a lighter from his other pocket, heating up the blade enough to hopefully sterilize it. She moved to lean her back against a nearby tree for support, tugging her shirt collar to the side so he could get to the parasitic device below her skin.

"I'll be as quick as I can."

She nodded, bracing herself for the pain to come.

"I trust you."

His eyes flew to hers in absolute disbelief. He thought he'd heard her wrong.

"I. Trust. You." She repeated slower, driving the point home. "With my whole heart. I don't care what Garrett said. I know who you are Grant Ward."

He was just about to speak when she forcefully shoved him out of the way before ducking to miss a blade that stuck into the tree above her head. Before she could move, the attacker had a death grip on her wind pipe. It was only a split second before he was ripped away from her by Ward, who was now breaking several of the man's bones. Off in the distance she laid eyes on two more of Garrett's men heading their direction. A gleam in the leaves on the ground caught her attention—Ward's knife. She quickly staggered to it, picked it up and with a not so muffled cry, she sliced into her own skin of her chest, opening the initial wound further trying to get to the tracker. Sadly though, that wasn't the worst of it. She screamed out as she dug her fingers into the opening feeling around for it. It had taken root in the muscle and she literally had to tear out a piece of her flesh to remove it. Once she had the creepy, insect looking device in her blood covered hand, she smashed it under her boot.

"Willow run! I'll catch up!" Ward called out, doubling back to make sure the blonde guy and red headed guy were actually dead.

Gripping her bleeding chest, she reached down and grabbed the gun from the last attacker's holster and shot him in the head without even flinching, before taking aim at the two new men that were now closing in on them. One of them shot at her first and narrowly missed. She vaguely registered Ward running for her, yelling for her to get down, as she pulled the trigger again. And again. And again. And again.

Ward reached her and gently touched the top of her tensed fist, careful not to startle her and the gun dropped from her hand and she collapsed to her knees. She was in complete shock. She'd just killed people. She was trained to detain, not kill.

"Willow…hey….Willow it's okay." He moved to her, helping to keep her upright. "Sssshhh. It's okay."

"They had to die. For what they did to me. To my family. For what Garrett would do to you if he knew you were here. I had….I had to protect you."

He pulled her into his chest and she sobbed, her tiny frame heaving with the weight of her pain—both physical and emotional.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so fucking sorry." Ward whispered into her hair. "None of this ever should have happened to you. I'm going to fix this. I promise."

Not far in the distance they heard another gunshot, startling them both.

"We have to move." He gripped her hands, helping her up. "At least a little farther. Can you make it?"

She nodded, and he knelt down, allowing her to loop her good arm over his shoulder for support.

Ward had tried to carry her multiple times along the way, but Willow was too stubborn for that. He was relieved to reach the rendezvous point, because her breaths were becoming more and more labored. She wouldn't have made it another step.

Glancing around he realized they'd been the first to arrive. He clicked his earpiece over.

"It's Ward. Do you copy? I have Willow at the rendezvous point."

"Oh thank god!" Skye's voice rang out. "The team is headed your way now. They lost Garrett."

Ward's jaw clenched in frustration. He had hoped they'd catch him so Willow wouldn't have to continue living in torment that he was still out there.

"Willow is in bad shape. Tell Simmons to be ready." Ward replied, reaching down under her knees to carry her to the nearest tree to let her rest. She felt so light and lifeless in his arms and his chest ached with worry at the fact she didn't protest him picking her up. "Tell them to hurry Skye. I'm not sure how long she can hang on."

"Roger that. Hang on guys. Help is coming—I'm headed to you now."

As soon as he set her down she gripped his hand unexpectedly like a vice.

"Please don't leave me." Her face was pale and she felt warm to the touch.

For the millionth time that day, Ward bit back his rage and gently knelt before her, cupping her swollen face gently in his hands.

"You said you trust me, right?"

She nodded, squeezing her eyes shut.

He pressed his lips softly against her forehead.

"I'm never leaving you. I promise." He whispered against her skin. She barely had the strength to reach for him before she lost all consciousness. "Willow? Willow no. No… no… no…stay with me. Please stay with me…."

He cradled her-protecting her until he finally heard the low hum of the quinjet. The rest of the team finally arrived as he carried her barely breathing form to the back so Simmons could take over.

When they finally made it back to the BUS, she was transported to the med bay where all Ward could do was watch helplessly while they worked on her. He hadn't realized he was crying until Skye slipped her arm around his waist, hugging him and Fitz joined them on his other side for support. Even Agent May gave him a sympathetic look-which meant the outlook must have been grim.

"She's strong, that one." Hunter coughed out, speaking from behind him. "That's why she picked you. She's gonna pull through, mate."

"She's the strongest." Ward croaked as he watched Simmons insert the breathing tube down her throat while Coulson and Mack held her steady. "I don't deserve her."

"That's not for you to decide, Robot. She made her choice—that choice was to get the truth-and you. Like Hunter said, she chose you. Now pull yourself together. She's going to need you now more than ever." Skye squeezed his hand. "We're gonna get him. Right now, be there for her."

It was in that very moment that he knew he'd give up anything for that girl on the table. Anything to just be with her-to laugh with her and hold her close. He had known for months that he cared for her-but now he knew without a doubt.

He was finally admitting to himself that he was in love with Willow.

Grant Ward was capable of love after all.