Ward pushed his cart through the vegetable area of the grocery store, looking for lettuce for a salad. He smiled as he involuntarily recalled the time Skye first saw him eating a salad on the bus and questioned if he was doing it voluntarily. Normally, taking down HYDRA provided enough of a workout for him but it seemed like they had gone quiet meaning that he could start taking it slow. He got a cheap apartment in the city. It wasn't a bad place but it was lowkey and if HYDRA ever did start looking for him it wouldn't be too hard for him to disappear.

He grabbed a few frozen burger patties on the way towards the register. Stacy smiled as he approached. He'd been here long enough and frequented the store that he got to know a few people at least a little bit. He could tell Stacy was interested in him. She was a pretty girl and she was nice and maybe in another life where he wasn't damaged beyond repair he would consider seeing how things would go with her. But this wasn't another life. This was this life and in this life he'd just be wasting her time. He still smiled at her when he approached the register in an attempt to be friendly.

"Hi Grant," she smiled.

"Hey."

"Looks like it's gonna be pretty warm this weekend," she commented in an attempt to fill the silence.

"Yeah, seems like it." He smiled at her which caused her to blush slightly and just focus on scanning his food. She was a pretty nervous girl and he found it kinda sweet how nervous she would get around him.

"Do you have any plans this weekend?" She asked.

"Nothing really."

"Oh… well I mean… if you want maybe you could make plans with me?"

Ward smiled at her attempt and went to turn her down but then he thought that he was sticking around for a while and maybe one date couldn't hurt.

He was gonna accept her invitation until he noticed the newspaper behind her. He was transfixed by it that he didn't notice her staring at him and getting more and more nervous by the second.

"Grant?" She asked before turning to see what he was looking at. "Oh, have you not seen this yet? It's everywhere."

She grabbed a paper and handed it over to him so he could take a closer look. The headline read: Quake. Hero or rogue? He would've laughed at the absurdity of the name if he wasn't more focused on the picture. The photo was blurry and to the average person they wouldn't be able to recognize her face. But he knew it clear as day, it was Skye.

He didn't know what she was doing or why she was away from SHIELD but he knew that it must've had something to do with everything Kara told him. He had to call SHIELD, he rarely did that and only texted them locations when there were far too many people for him to handle but he needed to know if he could help track down Skye because judging by what she was doing in the paper she was doing some very dangerous and illegal things.

He realized that judging her current life choices was hypocritical of him considering the ones he's made but it was only because he knew she was better than this. She didn't destroy banks, she wasn't a vigilante, she was a SHIELD agent. Why would she ever step away from the family she found with them?

He realized he was still standing in the checkout aisle and Stacy was looking more and more worried.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I, uh… I gotta go," he said before abruptly leaving the amount of cash he needed to pay and walking briskly back towards his car. The second he was in he got his phone out and was ready to call SHIELD when he noticed something about the bank that Skye had destroyed. He recognized it from when he was chasing down HYDRA because the bank was dirty, they helped fund HYDRA's current operations. Next there was a destroyed bridge that witnesses say was destroyed during some sort of altercation. The bridge was commonly used by vehicles transporting weapons to current HYDRA cells. She was targeting HYDRA much like he was and he knew where she was going next.

He turned his key and slammed on the gas. He didn't know if she would be there now but if she was he needed to get there. She was using the tips he'd sent SHIELD that they hadn't dealt with yet and she was dealing with them in a destructive matter, without caring what damages she caused. He reached into the glove compartment as he continued driving and praying that he wouldn't run into any police trouble. He pulled out the pistol he kept in there and got it ready.

He hadn't been in a firefight for a few weeks now which he was very happy about so he definitely wasn't looking forward to this.

As he got closer to his destination the more traffic began to pile up and the more he began to worry as his speed began to slow. He couldn't exactly plow through all these people or drive on the sidewalk.

He leaned his head on the steering wheel and sighed. He just hoped that Skye wasn't there at this very moment.

Over the honking and people yelling he heard a bang. His head shot up, nobody else seemed to hear it but their hearing wasn't attuned like him. He was trained to listen for whispers within soundproof rooms. He heard them more and more and knew that they were gunshots.

And they were coming from where he was headed.

Immediately he decided that he couldn't wait for traffic to move along and he'd just have to try extra hard not to hit anyone. He turned onto the sidewalk, honking his horn to get people out of the way and he managed to not hit anyone surprisingly. He turned into an alley to avoid as many people as possible. The turn he took was sharp and he damaged the side of his Charger on the wall. Shame, I really like this car.

He cut onto the road which was much clearer than one he was previously on and drove at full speed to where he knew Skye was. He pulled on the handbrake, coming to a complete stop by an alley just in time for a metal door to come off its hinges and for him to see Skye, limping with blood running down her leg and a cut across her cheek. She used her concussive blasts against oncoming attackers but this caused her to retract her arm in pain and cry out. Ward took no time in firing his pistol and taking out all of her assailants.

"Skye!" He yelled as he opened the passenger door.

"Ward?" She questioned before raising her hand, probably to attack him.

"No don't!" He yelled. "Get in the car! I'll get you out of here!"

"I'm not going anywhere with you!"

He raised his pistol again, causing her to duck as he fired at someone coming from behind her with an assault rifle.

"Argue later! You're not safe here!"

She clenched her jaw but hesitantly hopped into the passenger side door and slammed it closed. He slammed down on the gas once more as they drove away with people in pursuit.

He had no clue what he was getting himself into, no clue what else Skye had been up to besides what had been shown in the papers. He'd considered trying to live normally for a little bit and see how that worked. Those plans were now compromised but he didn't care.

All he wanted to do was keep her safe.

NOTE: This story will continue in the untitled sequel.