Author's note

Some lines taken from episode 18 'Providence'

Chapter 49

Ward hung up the phone from Skye's call and turned towards Garret. She had called to tell him that she was scrubbing their identities and he no longer existed but he had known that would probably happen so figured the call was just to check in and make sure he was still breathing.

"Tom Brady?" the older man asked. "You hate the Patriots."

"The Grant Ward she knows doesn't," Ward dismissed.

Truthfully, he actually liked the Patriots – it was the Ward that Garrett knew that was a lie. He had always tried to be exactly what Garrett wanted him to be and being able to just be himself and like what he liked was refreshing.

"That straight version of you is something else," Garrett chuckled. "I don't think even Romanov could've pulled that one off."

"Well she taught me a lot," Ward said. "And it wasn't without its complications."

"You're upset that I shot your girl."

"It was never part of the plan," Ward said defensively.

"The deal going in was near zero contact. Although some of your little tips came in handy – like the cellist. If you had a thing for the girl you should've let me know. I would've asked for your blessing," Garrett said conciliatorily.

"Don't play games, this isn't a joke," Ward said sharply, more of his frustration leaking through than he intended. He shouldn't have brought up Skye's shooting, thinking about it always put him on edge. And the last thing he needed was Garrett to get suspicious because he defended people he wasn't supposed to care about.

"Hey I know that!" Garrett retorted, some of his own anger at being questioned slipping out. "But your little candy crush was on Centipede's tail long before she joined Coulson's circus. Seemed like a good person to eliminate to me."

"You said yourself you didn't want bloodshed," Ward said, trying to smooth it over and draw the conversation away form Skye.

"Yeah and then I found out Coulson knew squat. I needed answers," Garrett defended. "And you wouldn't have had any problem if I issued the kill order week one."

"Well you didn't," Ward snapped.

"Don't forget what your assignment was, or who gave it to you," Garrett said threateningly. "And don't forget why."

"I haven't forgotten."

Garrett slapped him on the back. "Good. And cheer up. We're almost there!"

He then headed out of the room and towards Raina, Ward following along.

"So the equipment's all here. What do you want with me?" Raina asked glumly as they walked up to her.

"I want you to finish phase three of the Centipede project, Flowers," Garrett replied with a grin.

"I thought that ended when I couldn't get answers from Agent Coulson about Tahiti. When they locked me up."

"Actually, your little chat with him pushed him in just the right direction," Garrett argued. "We aren't quite there but we've made a huge step forward."

"What's that?" Raina asked.

Garrett tilted his head at Ward. "Give it to her."

Ward walked over and handed her the hard drive Skye had made – heavily encrypted so only Skye could access it and containing all altered information that would give them nothing. "This is the hard drive with all Simmons' research, both Coulson and Skye's blood work, all the data we uncovered on the drug used to save them."

"How did you get information on it?" she asked as she took the hard drive from him.

"Coulson walked me hand in hand into the facility where Fury operated on him. I wasn't able to get any samples – the only one we got was used to save the girl," Garrett explained.

"But Simmons did a lot of research into it afterwards, took a lot of blood samples. There's also an analysis on the sample of drug that was used to save Skye that she performed from the remnants in its vial," Ward added. All of this was true – Raina was just never going to get her hands on the real research.

"Can we go back to the facility to get more samples?" she asked.

"If that were possible I would've already," Garrett answered. "Unfortunately, a couple of security chuckleheads decided to hit the kill switch. There was no time to get any other samples if we wanted to get out of there before it blew."

"I'll do what I can with the research, but I don't know how much good it will be," Raina told him.

"Then clearly you've never seen any of Simmons's research," Ward interjected. "She's incredibly thorough. If there's a key to what it is and how it works, you'll find it there."

Raina looked at him with a considering expression before nodding. "I'll need money. And resources."

"You're bank accounts are already fully funded and anything else you need we will try to arrange," Garrett said with a grin. "Just give us a whistle if you need anything."

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"Well SHIELD's most secure facility didn't yield the results we were hoping for, so we're going to figure something else out," Garrett responded before leaving.

Ward went to follow but was stopped by Raina's voice. "Agent Ward?"

He turned back in her direction. "Yeah?"

"Why do you choose to follow him?"

Ward checked to make sure no one else could hear and took a step closer to her and then gave her the explanation that had been true for a long time. "I've known him a long time. Since I was a teenager. He pulled me out of hell, and saved me from myself." He gave her an assessing look before going on. "So now do you know me? Know how to work me?"

"I'm just curious," she defended. "And if I wanted to work you, I'd ask you about Coulson and his team and how you managed to gain their trust."

"Deep cover tactics 101," he said easily. "Performed selfless acts of bravery early on."

"What did you do?"

"Jumped out of a plane to save the scientist," he paused for a moment at her shocked expression and then continued lightly. "I had a parachute, of course."

"No one suspected?" she asked.

"May was the primary threat. I let things get intimate to throw her off," he told the lie easily.

"You don't really seem like her type."

"Oh Flowers, I'm everyone's type," he said, adding a smug smirk.

She looked him up and down appraisingly. "Well there's no denying that. And I suppose you can just fake whatever they need you to be if you don't fit what they want."

He kept the smirk on his face although he wanted nothing more than to glare at her. "I am very, very good at what I do."

"And Skye?" she asked.

He just barely managed to keep his expression constant. The last thing he wanted was to discuss Skye with her but he knew that Garrett had moved back into hearing range so this was a perfect opportunity to make up for how hard he pushed over Skye earlier – he needed Garrett to still believe he had his full loyalty and he wouldn't if he kept allowing his frustration over Skye to show.

"She was the unknown variable. Being her SO put me in a position to be a sounding board, get an idea what she was thinking. Letting her think we were friends, letting her see the attraction I had for her – it made her trust me, open up to me, want more with me," he explained.

"You're attracted to her?"

"She's a beautiful woman and I'm a man with eyes. Of course I'm attracted to her," he said simply.

Raina assessed him again and seemed to reach some conclusion because she nodded slightly. "But that's all it is? Just an attraction?"

If he didn't know better he would almost think that she was helping him out with making Garrett think Skye was less than she was. "Just an attraction," he confirmed.

"Coulson wasn't sceptical when you pressured to join?" she asked, moving the conversation away from the hacker.

He chuckled slightly. "I didn't pressure him, he pressured me. You'd be surprised how often you get an invite to the party if you don't want to go. I gave him someone he thought he could help and he ate it up. His plane was full of them."

"It's that simple? You felt nothing?" she asked. "I spent time with Coulson, he's a good man. Someone who'd lay down his life for you. Don't you owe a man like that something?"

"Sure," Ward agreed and then looked in Garrett's direction and delivered the explanation he lived by for a long time. "But I owe Garrett everything."

With that he walked away, joining Garrett to go over the next stage of their plan.


"There's a complication with the hard drive," Raina said as she approached Garrett and Ward a couple of hours later.

They were going over some plans for their next step, Garrett having counted on getting a lot more out of the Fridge than they did. He had been confused, the Slingshot program was supposed to be fake and yet there was documentation detailing the destruction of all the best things he had wanted to take. There was nothing they could do about it though, so they had let out all the prisoners as planned and now had to come up with a new plan for weapons.

"I don't like complications," Garrett replied looking up at her.

"This one involves Skye," Raina said, both her and Garrett looking at Ward. "We had three teams try to hack it, but she programmed it to erase all data if anyone besides her tries to access it."

"Of course she did," Ward sighed shaking her head.

"In case it fell into the wrong hands I guess," Raina continued to Garrett before looking back at Ward.

"I told you she was good sir," Ward said looking at Garrett.

"You did," Garrett agreed. "Well, you know what this means Romeo?"

Ward sighed as if it was a huge inconvenience even though he had been expecting this. He nodded briefly and reached onto the table for the phone he had put there. Just as he was about to dial it started ringing.

"Skye?" he answered.

"Ward? Oh thank god!" her voice came through the phone, a little crackly.

"What's wrong?" he asked, not needing to work to inject the concern into his voice.

"We're at a secret base of Fury's. Coulson received co-ordinates to his badge and we followed them. The agent here confirmed that Fury didn't make it out of DC and just told us that the Fridge had fallen. We were worried about you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Ward said quickly to reassure her. It was all for show, by this stage Hand should have been in place having reclaimed the Fridge but keeping it quiet, but they all had their roles to play. "When we got there we were overrun. There was a least fifty guys. Apparently the men Hand thought were hers weren't. Garrett was free within seconds, they took out Hand, there was too many. I couldn't take them all so I ran. It seemed to be my only choice. I managed to get out without anyone noticing and onto the quinjet to get away," he said telling her the story he had been coming up with since he took out Hand.

"Good. I meant it when I told you not to be a hero," her relieved voice came through. "So you're not hurt?"

"No more than I was when you last saw me," he said easily. "How about everyone there?"

"We're all fine," she answered. "What about Garrett?" she asked.

"I wanted to take him out Skye but I couldn't get off a shot and if I'd tried-"

"They would have taken you out too," Skye interrupted. "You did the right thing robot. Even you're not invincible. Where are you now?"

"I touched down about fifty miles from the Fridge," he replied. "I didn't want to stay in the air wasting fuel when I didn't know where you guys are. I was just about to call you for a location."

"Good call," Skye agreed.

"So where is this secret base?" he asked.

"I'll send you the co-ordinates right away," she said quickly. "And, ah, don't throw anything metal when you get here."

"Uh, why?" he asked.

"Just trust me," she said. "And it'll all make sense when you get here."

"Alright, see you soon," he said before hanging up.

"Secret base, huh?" Garrett mused. "Sounds just like Fury."

"Skye confirmed it, Fury's out of the picture," Ward informed him.

"Finally, some good news," Garrett said with a grin. "That gives us one less thing to have to worry about." He paused and then looked intently at Ward. "Listen, about the girl-"

"I know how important this is for you," Ward interrupted. "I'll get it done."

"Hey we all have our weaknesses," Garrett said. "The heart wants what it wants. We can't control everything. If you can do it the easy way without blowing your cover then by all means."

"I just need some time alone with her to get the information," Ward said easily.

"You'll have it. Coulson will be busy," Garrett assured him. "And like I said before, the girl has a soft spot for you. I don't see you encountering any problems. I'm giving you twenty-four hours to get the password and get out. After that I need you back. So cross off the team and bring the girl to me."

"Will do," Ward agreed.

"You got your story straight?"

"Yeah."

"Do we need to make it believable?"

"I told her I got out without any more damage. That Hand was dead and there were too many for me so I ran."

"Did she really believe that you ran? That doesn't seem like the Grant Ward she thinks you are."

"She told me not to be a hero before we left the Hub. She thinks I ran for her," Ward explained simply.

"Oh that's excellent," Garrett chuckled. "Should make it even easier to get her to give you what you want if she thinks you're coming back for her."

"My thoughts exactly," Ward agreed. Truthfully, he had thought of that and knew Garrett would to, which was part of the reason he told Skye the story he did. That and he didn't want to have to take a beating to 'sell the cover'.

"Remember son, twenty-four hours and then I need you to head back here," Garrett said, giving him a pat on the back.

Ward nodded. "Twenty-four hours."

"Okay then. And who are you?"

"Grant Ward, Agent of SHIELD," Ward said in complete honesty.

"Wow, you really sell that. Even I almost believe you," Garrett laughed. "Now get out of here."


Ward was confused when he arrived at the co-ordinates Skye had sent him. He was in the middle of the Canadian wilderness and there was nothing at all around.

"Well this is weird," he muttered to himself. "Maybe she got the co-ordinate wrong."

"Identify yourself," came a robot sounding voice from a machine gun with a camera on it near a hill-like rock formation.

"Grant ward, Agent of SHIELD," he said clearly, really hoping he wasn't about to get shot. For a very long minute there was silence before the voice spoke again.

"Welcome Agent Ward, we've been expecting you," it said as there was a whirring sound and the rock formation opened like a sliding door.

Looking inside he saw Skye waiting for him and couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. He hurried through the door, hearing it close behind him and pulled her into his arms.

"I thought you might have given me bad directions," he said with amusement.

"At least the machine gun didn't start shooting at you," she replied with a grin.

"No throwing anything metal?" he queried.

"Yeah, we learnt the hard way when AC threw his badge," she replied a little sheepishly. "You okay?"

"Just the same as I was when you last saw me, as promised," he replied.

"Yeah well considering when I last saw you it was just after you fought twenty armed men that's not actually as comforting as you probably think," she retorted.

"I'm a little banged up, but nothing new. That's why I gave you the story I did – so he wouldn't have 'selling the cover' as an excuse for a beating."

"Smart."

"I have my moments."

"Can Simmons check you over anyway? Please? Because she didn't get a chance to look you over properly before with everything we had to get done and even if you didn't get into any more fights that doesn't mean you haven't aggravated something that was already there."

"Lead the way," he said agreeably. It was a pain to have to get checked out when he knew there was nothing really wrong, but it was just because she cared. And besides, he wanted to see everyone else too.