Summary:
In this short chapter I tried to imagine some of Ward's life at Shield Academy and two important moments on the Bus, pointing out the tremendous struggle he certainly went through.
Comments are greatly appreciated: please, let me know what you think!
Chapter:
The next image was of him at Shield Operations Division: he was standing, battered, bleeding and panting in the middle of the big gym, beside a guy laying down, more dead than alive and much bigger than himself, at the end of the Operations Combat Tournament finale.
The OCT was a yearly competition, open to all Operation's students, no matter their age, and he had just won, after an incredible fight that had kept everybody with bated breath.
It never happened before that a first year recruit achieved such an exploit!
All was quiet around him, so quiet that he could hear a pin drop, but immediately after he was greeted by an explosion of enthusiasm and shouts and a crowd reached him and lifted him on their shoulders!
In that moment he felt like a god!
He defeated the one that won the last four editions of the OTC: that guy was insufferable, bully, violent, quarrelsome and was feared and hated by many of his schoolmates.
So Grant became their hero; just him: the lone wolf, the sad silent man, the tall, dark and handsome of the first class…
He could write a laundry list with all the nicknames they gave him, some good, some bad…
The ones coming from the girls were always good!
He would not have a stable girl for all those five years… only one night stands, to cool down some steam… by the way, also in that field he happened to become a legend!
The problem was that he never found someone that really intrigued him: all the girls at Operations had strong, toned, wonderful bodies, all were extremely physically attractive, but they were stonehearted, cold, emotionless, especially the ones training to be Specialists, nicknamed "the women-men".
All of them reminded him of his mother, and he kept his heart away from them like from the plague.
And, moreover, he had precise orders from Garrett not to get attached. And he knew what payback he would receive for disobedience…
The next image was of him pinning down Skye: they were training in the cargo hold, sparring.
He was teaching her techniques to free herself from catch positions, so their bodies where entangled.
She was beneath him on the mattresses, struggling to free herself, but couldn't, because she had her wrists strongly blocked in his hands, her legs intertwined with his and his body covering hers… oh, wonderful weight!
He was holding her hands above her head, so their faces were only inches apart, and her movements where evidently eliciting something in him.
Suddenly she stopped wriggling and stared in his eyes: why has her SO to be so damn handsome, she wondered? Oh, his eyes were beautiful, with that indefinable honey-brown colour that changed so much depending on the light and his own mood… and his smell so manly and… exiting!
She didn't realize it, but she was blushing.
She was also turned on, badly.
Apparently her emotions weren't the sole, because she could see from this vicinity his pupils dilate and transform his eyes in deep pools of black.
They were breathing each other's air, openmouthedly, and it would take only a spark to burst the fire…
"Landing in ten!" came May's voice from the speakers.
And the moment was gone, forever.
The next imagewas one of the best of his life: May was on the sticks; he was playing Scrabble with Skye, Simmons and Coulson and Jemma had just won, with the very British word "Aisle".
At that point they where joined by a sleepy and pissed off Fitz, that had some foam on his face, searching for the prank's culprit. Everybody started laughing, himself too (and that was rare!), and in that moment he felt a wonderful and deep sense of family and friendship.
But, immediately after, he remembered this was only a mission and a pang reached his stomach, taking painfully away his happiness in an instant. It was almost impossible to shake off fifteen years of conditioning and abusive reinforcement…
It was always like this: anytime he managed to grab something valuable and really important in his life, it kept slipping away like sand between his fingers.
Sometimes, during those months with the team, he allowed himself to imagine his life just like that, just as the world outside didn't exist, and it was like a dream come true.
But the world outside did exist and he knew how much all that meant to John: his very life was on the plate and he had to try anything to save him!
But he knew also that he was doomed, because, whatever he would choose to do, betray the team or betray John, soon he would become a traitor to the purest and holiest relationships there were in the world: family and friendship.