Summary:

Hive/Ward meets Skye/Daisy.

I had great expectations in this reunion, but when I heard Daisy's words "I'm glad he's dead"… my jaw literally dropped!

So it was true she didn't feel anything for him! Oh, I despised her so much!

Then I reasoned that she wasn't in herself, with the sway and all, and the hope she gave me during her interrogation with Coulson, when she said she almost understood Ward, came rushing back.

For nothing.

Comments are greatly appreciated: please, let me know what you think!

Chapter:

Hive reached Daisy on the lonely hill overlooking the city skyline.

It was a place full of peace, of silence: even the pain Ward usually suffered was strangely low and he could concentrate better…

Hive was looking far away: "You came here often. I see why."

Daisy approached: "I was a different person the last time I was here."

Grant felt his heart melting at seeing her… his woman… after so much time, so close, in such a quiet situation…

He knew she was very different, now, from the girl he fell in love with, but he also knew that that girl was still there, buried deep inside. And he wanted her back. Badly!

Her forehead and cheeks were still injured from her face to face with Malick and, in seeing that, he wished so much to be able to take her visage in his hands, caress her, kiss her… but he couldn't!

He couldn't stand this longing, and ate her with his eyes anytime Hive looked at her!

Hive, instead, was detached, cold. It saw her as a powerful cute tool, nothing more. It didn't care for her, nor was attracted to her. While Ward wouldn't have detached his eyes from her, ever, Hive had no problem in roaming his stare around, contemplating the surroundings as they already belonged to It.

Her hair was a lot shorter than the last time he saw her, during their last mission together in Alaska, when they talked about Puerto Rico.

That was their last encounter, and it didn't go so bad. After all, the last words they exchanged left some hope:

"So that's what happened in Puerto Rico!

The least you can do is thank me" Grant said in that occasion, impressed, after she had manifested her powers.

"How about I just don't try to kill you again?" she answered.

Oh, he desired so much right now to be able to enter in her mind to read it, to see if she still hated him, if she wanted him dead like the others or not, if she really despised him so much… or instead… if she understood him, a little bit…

Oh, he needed so much to be understood by someone! Especially by her!

Actually, he himself was the reason she received her powers: without him she never would have become the powerful inhuman she was now! So, in a certain sense, he had been for her the man of destiny.

"That's how you know about this place, right? 'Cause I told my S.O.?" Daisy continued.

He remembered perfectly the moment she was referring to. It was after a small reconnaissance mission they took together before the Hydra reveal. It was only the two of them: they had to closely monitor the movements of a target, ready to warn the team of any suspicious movement. They had been forced to stay in the car for several hours, not far from here, and Skye, tired and also embarrassed for that prolonged time together, that had done nothing but highlight the tremendous emotional and sexual tension that was building between them, started to recount him of her past years in the van, the dangers she had run into, the risks she had taken, like all the times that she had been surprised in the middle of the night by some ill-intentioned trying to enter inside, perhaps to rob or rape her…

She had been always able to escape in time, thank goodness!

Ward listened carefully:

"Why didn't you find a more secure accommodation? If I had been with you, surely I would have yelled at you and convinced you to live in an apartment, rather than alone in the night with just a piece of sheet metal to protect you!"

"Of course you would have! But I'm sure: if you had been with me, no attacker would have dared to approach! You would have protected me!"

"Yes…" – With my life – he added silently.

And the two stared at each other, their feeling overflowing from their stares. But neither could say a word: he was undercover and had to keep everything compartmentalized, while she was convinced not to be reciprocated. He was such a difficult man to decode! He was so bottled up!

So she continued, to dissolve the tension:

"But just up here, up that hill, I found a place where I was never bothered by anyone. I often went there to sleep."

"Still I think you should have been more careful." Grant was feeling sick, thinking of all the risks and perils she went through.

He was aware he was already compromised, with her. He cared too much…

"Yes, sir!" she made fun of him.

And he smiled.

Hive said: "You used to drive your van up here to sleep."

And Daisy: "You don't just have his face. You have his memories."

Ward was thinking: "Oh, Skye! If you only could feel that I'm here, just in front of you!"

Hive, almost sensing something: "He was fond of you, Grant Ward."

And Grant: "Fond? I was madly in love with her! I still am!"

And Skye: "And I'm glad he's dead."

At those words Grant remained shocked, his jaw dropping on the ground, feeling his heart break into a million tiny little pieces.

So was it really true?

Did she hate him to the point she enjoyed his death?!

He imagined the situation could be really bad, but imagining and facing the reality were two different things.

Those words really risked to fade away all his faith!

Until he recalled in his mind God's words:

"I created her for you, and you for her.

So be sure that finally the two of you will end together."

"Oh, well... there must be another explanation" he thought, and decided to have faith and kick away all his doubts.

Hive continued: "He is, too, in a way."

In that moment Ward sweated cold. Hive used the present tense!

Maybe, with his outbursts and his strong emotions, he had made it clear to Hive that he was still alive?

But then Hive continued, with the past tense: "Grant was a thirsty soul. And he suffered for it."

Ward breathed a sigh of relief. He had to be more careful not to be discovered; otherwise the whole mission could be compromised.

Besides: "Thirsty soul", what an understatement!

Daisy continued: "You're so different from him. Just being around you, I can feel it. It's like this emptiness I've always had is gone."

And then Ward felt the strength of the bond Hive had interlaced with her, and started to doubt about himself, again. When all this would be over, will he be able to give her that sense of fullness, of belonging, of completeness that Hive was giving her at the moment?

He didn't know…

But the fact that Hive was physically detached from her, that It didn't desire her, consoled him. He could not have resisted attending an intimate relationship between the two of them from so close a distance, knowing what kind of monster Hive really was! Only thinking of Its filthy tentacles on her smooth skin was an unbearable thought!

On the other hand, Ward didn't realize that Daisy's harsh words were the words of a drug-addicted person, that she wouldn't have said that, if only she had been in her right mind.

In fact, she still cared about him, even after all he did.

She was sincere when she said that she wouldn't have tried to kill him again.

She understood a lot of things, after she met her parents: she too betrayed Shield; she too hurt some of her friends; she saw first hand that life could transform decent persons in monsters; she felt the fascination her mother had on her and could only imagine what Garrett could have been for a teenager Ward.

She felt really sorry for him, when she discovered, talking with a very pleased and smug May, that he killed Kara by mistake, framed by May herself.

She felt sick to be near her S.O., in that moment.

She could only imagine the devastation this fact could have provoked in him and she wasn't surprised that he decided to take over Hydra. She never saw the pair together, but she understood that Ward needed someone that could care for him and that could understand him.

She was almost glad that Ward wasn't alone anymore, for his own good.

Almost.

She felt her insides writhe when she heard Coulson order Hunter to go, hunt and kill Ward, and prayed whatever God was up above to protect him!

When the terrible murder of Rosalind took place, she was sorry for Coulson, but at the same time she wasn't surprised: of course Ward would retaliate against them, after they attempted to kill him so many times! And of course he would attempt to hit the head of Shield, because said head was sending his better agents to kill him! About the modality, it was understandable that Ward would try to make Coulson suffer in the same way he suffered for Kara. All of that made perfectly sense: Ward didn't kill because he did feel nothing. On the contrary, he killed because he felt too much. She knew that, and she confessed that to Coulson.

Then all the mess with the portal and Maveth happened and she found herself hugged and kissed by Lincoln on the Zephyr One, unaware of what happened to Ward.

She didn't dare to ask, but in the briefing that followed the mission she discovered that Ward actually died on that distant planet.

At the news, she felt suddenly a pang and then, slowly, excruciatingly, a part of herself dying with him...

But she had to keep all that pain hidden from everybody else, because she was an Agent of Shield and she couldn't dare to pine over the death of one of the most dangerous Hydra heads!

So in the daylight she carried on her duties like nothing out of the ordinary happened, wearing the mask of the stonehearted agent May so well wrapped on her, convincingly enough that everybody thought everything was fine.

She never talked about him, to anybody.

She was ashamed of her feelings.

She was ashamed to still being pining on a killer, on a torturer, on an enemy…

But she couldn't help herself… she couldn't make her heart stop bleeding… and during the night… oh, so many nights… when nobody could hear her... she cried, and cried, and cried for what could have been and didn't, for all her own mistakes towards him, for her terrible words, that she regretted so much, now: "Backstabbing traitor … Rot in hell … Son of a bitch … A Nazi, that's exactly what you are! … I wanna throw up … You should have run faster … I'm so glad I shot you …".

What if she had tried to help him?

What if she had tried to talk to him?

What if she had asked him to talk about his life?

What if she hadn't condemned him without reflecting?

But now it was too late…

It was all over… and she would bring with her this remorse till the end of her life.

She wasn't given any detail about Ward's death: she didn't know how it happened, nor when, nor if that was an accident or the result of an intentional action… but then she decided that this was the right moment to move on and forget him.

So she tried to make things work with Lincoln.

He was a decent guy, moderately handsome, but nothing comparable to Ward.

To be completely honest… well… electric boy was too vanilla for her.

Ward, on the other hand, had always had in himself something, a sort of combination, of hybrid between energy, heat, and fire, but also vulnerability, pleasantness, and softness (especially for her), all mixed with roughness and cockiness, that fascinated and attracted her irresistibly, from the first moment.

She was constantly at daggers drawn with him; she always tried to put him on edge, to provoke him, to try to find out the real self of this extremely complex and mysterious man.

And she felt a common terrain with him, too: a messed up childhood, parental issues, a darkness inside… that thing that made her survive alone all those years.

Oh, the glances they exchanged sometimes! She so many times found herself out of breath, all warmed up by his stare that pierced in her soul, her head foggy, and her knees flabby like jelly… When she was given the Shield badge and everybody congratulated with her, she kept an eye on him. He remained tactfully aside, trying not to disturb her, but he couldn't take his eyes away from her, peeping continuously but trying not to be noticed… And then she gave her whole attention to him: nobody, nobody ever looked at her with that adoration, that sweetness, that … love.

Yes, she knew that. He was in love with her.

But nevertheless he decided to betray her.

For Garrett!

And she was furious about that! Mainly with Garrett, but also with Ward.

She felt hurt and humiliated. How was it possible that he loved him more than her?

But time and experience fully explained that to her, afterwards… And moreover... it was not only love that had driven Ward: it was loyalty. Nothing would have convinced him to betray the only person that believed in him: he wasn't a traitor!

When they had to decide about the mission with Talbot and Carl Cree, and Coulson, for the hundredth time gave his lecture about second chances… she almost felt sick. It was only some hours before that she discovered from Fitz how Ward died. Fitz didn't want to say anything, but she was an expert in talking her way inside other's minds and she managed to make Fitz all fuzzy and the truth simply slept out.

And she felt horror-struck.

How could a man like Coulson be such a hypocrite?

And again: she for the hundredth time wondered why Coulson was so willingly giving second chances to everyone except Ward!

If only she had known that the main reason Ward was never given a second chance was herself, she would have become furious!

Coulson didn't have any right to behave in such a way!

He wasn't her real father!

And he didn't have the right to discard a man only because he was fatherly jealous of her!