Chapter 22
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Everything belongs to their rightful owners and I am not making any profit from this.
AN: Thank you to all who have added to alerts, read, reviewed or any combination of the three. It means a lot to me.
AN2 IMPORTANT PLEASE READ I'M NOT KIDDING PLEASE READ THIS: Okay so once I'm finished with this story (I'm still at least a few chapters away from that so don't worry) I want to start a story of one shots of missing moments from this stories. That means if you want a one shot of one of the stories that have been hinted by the characters, at or want to know about something that happened during the stories that wasn't elaborated on, or just specific missing moments, that can also include small snippets of things that could happen once this story ends as I have a few ideas for that but they wouldn't fit together as another whole story. Let me know if you have any requests and I will do my best to accommodate them. Enjoy this chapter.
"I thought they were back from their mission." Clint comments being the first one to come out of his shock.
"They are." Coulson reveals, "Maria found him bleeding out at the apartment." Coulson reveals.
"Does she have any ideas about who could have done it?" Melinda asks.
"She said she did but didn't want to discuss it over the phone." Coulson reveals.
"Sir, how badly is Garrett hurt?" Ward asks and it's in that moment that the others truly realise that why Garrett is a friend to them he is more than that to Ward. He is a mentor, and a father figure as well as a friend to the young specialist.
"He was shot twice." Coulson says looking directly at Ward, "Once in the abdomen, once in the upper torso. Maria said that he was conscious when she found him, but couldn't speak due what she suspected was a collapsed lung, which she reinflated. He had just been rushed to surgery when Maria called me. That's all we know at the moment." Coulson tells Ward.
"Excuse me." Ward says leaving the office the others watching him go as he does.
"How did Maria sound?" Clint asks worried.
"She was the one who found him, but she's Maria." Coulson explains, "She was trying to sound like she was okay but I could tell that she's not." He explains.
"I'll set a course for the Hub." Melinda tells Coulson.
"I'll join you." Natasha says and the two friends leave the office.
"We're thinking Quinn right?" Clint asks after Melinda and Natasha leave.
"We won't know for sure until we talk to Maria, but I think so." Coulson tells his friend knowing that if it is Quinn behind Garrett's shooting then it's their fault because they brought him into this mess.
After double and triple checking to make sure that she wasn't followed Hand makes her way to her where her brother is. When she enters she finds Quinn sitting at his desk on his computer.
"You shot a member of The Dream Team, great job at staying under the radar Tori." Quinn tells his sister as soon as he sees her.
"He found out about me, I had no choice." Victoria says pulling a desk chair over and sitting next to him.
"Then why didn't you kill him?" Quinn asks, "Make sure he couldn't talk, your shots deliberately left him alive, why?" he asks curious.
"Garrett's just not any member of The Dream Team." Victoria tells her brother, "He's Commander Hills's best friend. If I were to have killed him then the only thing she would have to focus on is finding his killer, by leaving him alive her focuses is divided between finding the shooter and being with him." Victoria explains.
"Smart, makes sense." Quinn admits, "But now you've got to worry about him telling everyone that you're the one who shot him when he wakes." Ian tells his sister.
"Only if you can't come up with a way for him to forget." Victoria tells her brother.
"Give me a couple of hours." Quinn says with a grin.
"I knew you wouldn't let me down." Victoria tells him, "Are the team there yet?"
"Yep, they beat the S.H.I.E.L.D team and are currently finding any and all listening devices and cameras, searching for any evidence and cleaning the place." Quinn tells her.
"Good." Victoria responds.
"Yeah." Ian responds, "I'll be down in the lab if you want me, I should have a way for him to forget what happens in a couple of hours." He tells his sister standing up.
"Good." Victoria responds and Ian heads downstairs.
The plane is about half an hour away from the Hub. After telling Melinda, Natasha, Clint and Ward what happened Coulson and Clint explained to Skye, Fitz and Simmons so they know as well.
Every since he has left Coulson's office Ward has shut himself in his bunk, having not said a single word to everyone.
"Hi." Skye says opening the door to his bunk.
"Hi." Ward responds surprised to see her.
"Garrett is important to you, right?" Skye asks her friend.
"Yeah, he is." Ward responds.
"Do you want some company?" Skye asks.
"Yeah, I'd like that." Ward responds and Skye walks over and sits next to him.
"You're worried aren't you?" Skye asks.
"Yeah, I am." Ward admits, "Garrett is like a father to me." He admits.
"I'm sorry." Skye says and both of them drift into silence, Skye not sure what else she can say to help.
Ever since they entered the cockpit Melinda and Natasha have been quite, both of them thinking about their friend possibly dying at the Hub.
"We can't let him get away with this." Natasha comments.
"I know." Melinda tells her friend, "We've got to get answers from Maria then figure this out." Melinda tells her, "We can't just play defence anymore." She says.
"I agree." Natasha tells her, "I meant it when I said I'm sick of us being in hospital beds." She comments and Melinda nods and the two drift back into silence.
Melinda and Natasha are landing the plane in the Hub when Coulson calls Skye to him.
"Yeah Dad?" Skye asks.
"It's going to be even more important than usual that you don't wonder off." Coulson tells his daughter, "Always be where me or your Mom, or you Aunt and Uncle can see you. If you need to go to the bathroom tell us first, do not go anywhere on your own." He tells her.
"Dad I'm twelve, I know how to be careful." Skye tells her father.
"I know you know how to be careful but you need to be even more careful." Coulson tells his daughter, "There are going to be a lot of people and you can't go off with anyone. No matter what they say." Coulson tells his daughter, "You need to stay with me, your Mom, Aunt or Uncle at all times, can you do that?" he asks.
"Yeah, I can." Skye responds.
"Good." Coulson tells her as the plane touches down.
For several minutes Coulson and Skye stay in the main part of the plane and the others all come out and join them.
"Let's go." Coulson says when everyone is standing together.
After leaving the plane the group make their way to the medical bay of the hub. Coulson, Melinda, Natasha and Clint watching both Skye closely as well as every single person around to make sure that none of them will get a chance to hurt her if that's what they intend.
When they get to the medical bay they find Maria waiting, blood on her clothes and on her hands.
"Any news?" Ward asks as soon as he sees her.
"No, not yet." Maria responds.
"What do you know?" Coulson asks.
"He said he had a lead on the mole." Maria says quietly to Coulson, Melinda, Natasha and Clint, "He said that he had to look into something else and he was going to tell me everything he found out when we had a drink tonight." Maria explains, "I finished early and when I got to the apartment I found him. He tried to tell me who shot him but he couldn't." Maria explains to her friends in a quite whisper.
"Are a team at the apartment?" Clint asks, "This is Garrett, he would have had safeguards in place if he was confronting someone." He tells her friends.
"They should have just got there." Maria says and right on cue her phone rings, "That's probably them." She says, "Commander Hill." She answers, "What?" Maria asks shocked, "No I didn't, get in their do a search see if you can find anything." Maria says before angrily hanging up her phone.
"What happened?" Melinda asks.
"A team got to the apartment and they found out that another S.H.I.E.L.D team had apparently already been there and cleaned the place out." Maria informs the other.
"How the hell did Quinn get there first?" Coulson asks.
"Who knows." Natasha says angrily, "He seems to know everything fist." She tells them.
"When Phil was hurt you said you had connections that could make things harder for Quinn to be hidden." Maria says to her friend.
"Yeah, but you said you didn't want me to exploit them yet." Natasha says to her friend.
"That was before." Maria says angrily, "He or someone on his orders, shot John, I'm done playing it safe." She tells her, "We've got to go on the offensive and I know you said that there are risks but right now we've got to risk it." Maria tells them, "Everything they've tried to do to Skye, and Phil, and now John, he's gone too far. It's time to put an end to it." She says to her friends clearly going into deputy director mode all of the other four knowing she stopped herself from adding 'whatever it takes' to the end of that sentence.
"I'll leave as soon as we got news on John." Natasha comments.
"We'll leave." Clint says and his partner looks at him, "How many of these contacts want you dead?" He asks his partner.
"A couple." Natasha admits.
"Then I'm coming." Clint tells him, "That means you'll be two down, you good with that?" he asks his friend.
"Yeah." Coulson responds, "This is what we've got to do."
"Are you leaving?" Skye asks in a quiet voice having head part of what's going on.
"For a little while Kid." Clint tells her, "тетя Наташа and I have to do some important work." He tells her.
"Can I call you why you're gone?" Skye asks curious because as far as she is concerned her Aunt and Uncle have always been around and she can't imagine things without them.
"I'm not sure." Clint answers honestly, "But I'll talk to Uncle Tony and see if he has a way for us to keep in contact with you that's secure." Clint tells his niece who nods.
"You're not allowed to get hurt, either of you." Skye tells her Uncle and Aunt before hugging them both.
"You need to clean up." Melinda tells Maria.
"I'm fine." Maria responds.
"Come on, he'll still be in surgery for a while." Melinda says putting her arm around the shoulders of the woman she trained that is now her boss and leading her out of the room, both realising that Natasha followed once she broke the hug that was going on between her, Skye and Clint.
Melinda leads Maria to the bathroom near the medical area and after cheeking to make sure that they are the only ones in the bathroom Natasha locks the door so that no one else can get in.
"We're alone now." Melinda says simply knowing that out of this room and with everyone but Melinda and Natasha Maria is expected to be Deputy Director Hill, but in this room she can be Maria a person who could be losing her best friend.
"I'm fine. I didn't need you to bring me in here." Maria tells her friends
"You're not fine." Natasha says walking over to her, "We know you Maria, and we know how important John is to you, it's okay to show that pain. If you don't then it's going to control you and you can't let that happen." She tells her friend.
"Really, you too are going to give me advice on showing your emotions?" Maria asks her two friends surprised that the two people that she knows who show emotions the lest are giving her advice.
"We're not telling you to show it to everyone, just us." Melinda tells her, "He's your best friend and he's dying, both of us know what that feels like, just this once drop your mask Maria." Melinda tells her.
As Maria looks at the two women who have been her friends, mentors, and in a way sisters she realises that Melinda is right, both of them having been where she is and that they did her a favour by bringing her in here, alone, because they are giving her a chance to lower her mask to say and do what she has to without judgement before going back to her employees where she can't allow them to see any weakness.
"I walked into that apartment and I saw him bleeding out and it was like time held still for a second." Maria admits, "He was bleeding out, struggling to breath, I had to re inflate his lung and I was trying to remember when you taught me." She says looking at Melinda.
"Well at least it wasn't the person who was struggling to breathe who was telling you this time." Natasha tells Maria remembering the incident that lead Maria to learn how to re inflate a lung.
"All I could think was that I couldn't loose him." Maria admits tears starting to come to her eye, "I can't lose him Melinda, Natasha, he's my best friend." She says her voice breaking.
Without a word Melinda and Natasha walk over to their friend and they both put their arms around her.
After Maria, Melinda and Natasha left, Coulson, Ward, Fitz, Simmons, Clint and Ward have sat down, Skye sitting between her father and Uncle and have started the wait for news.
"Garrett's tough, it takes more than a couple of bullets to put him down, trust me I know." Clint say to Ward quietly.
"I don't really want to hear it." Ward tells him.
"Okay." Clint responds simply, having spent enough time with Ward now to know not to push it.
"Do you think Director Fury knows?" Ward asks Coulson.
"He was my first call." Maria says walking back into the room with Natasha and Melinda. Maria no longer having blood on her hands but she still has it on her top, "He wants me to keep him updated, or he's on his way I don't remember which." She comments.
"You should go." Maria tells her friends
"No, we're staying." Clint tells her and Maria gives Coulson, Melinda, Natasha and Clint a look which says 'I need to talk to you.'
"Can you watch Skye?" Coulson asks Ward, Fitz, and Simmons.
"Yes Sir." The three respond.
"Skye don't leave Ward, Fitzy and Jem's side." Coulson tells his daughter who nods and, Natasha, Melinda, Coulson, Maria and Clint go over to one of the corners in the room.
"We're not leaving until we know John is alright." Coulson tells his friend.
"It's too dangerous for you to be here, Skye especially, and you know it." Maria tells him, "We don't know if Quinn shot John or if he ordered someone else to, but we do know that whoever pulled the trigger is in the area, could be in S.H.I.E.L.D." Maria reminds him, "And right now the person he wants most is sitting in full view." Maria tells him, "John would prefer that all of us are safe rather than waiting on him. Go, I'll keep you updated." She tells them.
"Is that an order?" Melinda asks.
"Would it matter if it is?" Maria asks, "You know I'm right. You need to keep Skye safe and with every second that she stays here her she's at risk more. You need to go, to protect her." Maria tells them, "It means a lot to me that you came and I promise to keep you updated, but you need to go." She tells them.
Coulson, Melinda, Natasha and Clint are silent all of them knowing that Maria is right but at the same time they don't want to leave until they know about John because good news or bad they want to be there for their friend and Ward deserves to see him as soon as he is out of surgery.
"We'll go to New York." Melinda tells her, "That's way we're close enough if something happens but far enough to be a bit safer. We'll go to the tower, we can keep in secure contact and then you two can talk to Tony and plan your trip." Melinda suggest, "But you will call if you need anything." She tells her friend.
"Of course." Melinda responds and the group walk back over to the others.
"Due to safety concerns we're going to New York and wait out news there." Coulson says quietly to Ward, Fitz, Simmons and Skye.
"Sir Permission to stay here." Ward requests.
"Granted." Maria and Coulson both respond without hesitation both of them knowing that because of how important Garrett is to Ward he deserves to stay.
"I just realised, has someone let Agent Triplet know?" Ward asks.
"He's on mission. I left a message with the team that's running his back end, they'll tell him." Maria tells him.
"Time to go." Coulson comments not likely that they are leaving without knowing whether their friend is okay but also knowing that Maria is right about it being too dangerous to stay.
Skye, Fitz and Simmons stand and Skye surprises the others by walking over and hugging Maria, "Dad said that Garrett is your best friend, I'm sorry that he's hurt Aunt Maria." Skye tells her, referring to Maria as her aunt for the first time ever.
"Thank you Skye." Maria says shocked at what Skye called her as she has never done that before, as neither her adult or Child self.
"Make sure you call Rookie." Clint tells her once Skye brakes the hug.
"You do remember that I am your boss now." Maria tells her friend a combination of amused and annoyed.
"You'll always be our Rookie." Clint tells her.
"He's right about that." Melinda tells her.
Maria rolls her eyes at the two, but she isn't really annoyed because she knows that they are trying to help her because the relationship she has with Garrett is a lot like theirs, "Get out of here." She tells them.
"We'll see what we can run down on our end." Coulson tells her, "The apartment might have been cleaned but that doesn't mean that Tony can't find something." He tells her.
"Let me know whatever you find." Maria request and Coulson nods shaking her hands.
"We'll meet you at the plane." Melinda says to Coulson and Clint as her and Natasha want to have one more word with Maria.
"Sure." Coulson says and he, Clint, Skye, Fitz and Simmons head back to the plane and Maria, Melinda and Natasha have another talk why Ward just sits, zoned out to what is going on around him, just hoping that when the doctor walks out of that operating room that the news is going to be good.
Ever since her brother has left to go to the downstairs lab Victoria has stayed upstairs half expecting her phone to ring to inform her about Garrett, but at the same time she isn't surprised that it doesn't because it's likely that Hill is informing as few people as possible about what happened and considering the fact that most of the time her and Hill don't get along she won't be top of that list.
"Finally." Victoria comments as Quinn comes upstairs from his lab.
"I think the word you're looking for is thankyou." Ian responds.
"You've created a way for him to forget?" Victoria asks.
"Of course." Quinn says holding up a small vile with a pale pink liquid in it.
"How does it work?" Victoria asks.
"Inject it into Garrett anywhere or into his IV and the last twenty for hours of his short term memory will be erased." Quinn tells her.
"I mean how does it work?" Victoria asks taking the vial of her brother.
"A combination of complicated science experiments, formulas and chemicals, do you really want to know or are you just seeing how long you can get me to talk for?" Ian asks realising the look his sister has on her face.
"Just wanted to see." Victoria responds, "You caught on before Father would have." She explains.
"I've been watching you get father to do that for years." Ian tells her, "I know your tricks."
"Not all of them." Victoria tells him, "How long do I have to get this into him?"
"The sooner the better." He tells her.
"I'll see what I can do." Victoria tells him, "Have you have any luck with our other project yet?"
"I'm close." Quinn responds.
"You've been saying that for months." Victoria points out.
"I'm trying to continue research that Father was working on for twenty years, progress takes time." She tells him.
"Are you getting any closer to a way?" Victoria asks curious.
"Possibility." Quinn responds, "I'll know for sure if I'm on the right track in a couple of weeks and if I am then I can start working on the next stage." Quinn explains.
"Good." Victoria responds, "I should get going, be careful okay, I don't know if S.H.I.E.L.D is onto this place yet." She tells her brother.
"I'll be fine." Quinn tells her, "You're the one who just shot a member of The Dream Team." He tells her.
"Hill may hate me, but not even she will think that I was the one who shot him, and thanks to you Garrett won't remember." Victoria says before leaving.
"Be careful." Ian says quietly as his little sister leaves.
Ten minutes after the others arrived back at the plane Natasha and Melinda have.
"Clint's in the cockpit." Coulson says when he sees his wife and Friend.
"Wheels up in five." Melinda says heading straight to the cockpit.
"Are we making the right choice?" Coulson asks Natasha who has walked over and sat next to him, "It doesn't feel right, leaving when we don't know if Garrett is okay." He admits.
"Maria's right about it being too dangerous for us to stay, but you're right about it not feeling right." Natasha admits, "Where's Skye and FitzSimmons?"
"Skye and Simmons are in Skye's bunk, Simmons is showing her Gilmore Girls, Fitz's in down in the lab." Coulson explains.
"Makes sense." Natasha responds and they feel the plane take off.
"Are we giving Tony advance warning?" Natasha asks curious.
"Nah, it's more fun if we don't." Coulson responds and the friends drift into silence both worrying that any minute they are going to get a call that tells them that their friend has died.
PLEASE REVIEW
PLEASE REVIEW
PLEASE REVIEW