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Chapter Ten
Setting the Fox to Guard the Henhouse

"Everyone got a pair of goggles?" asked Skye. Simmons and Ward nodded.

As per the usual of the day - today, the day that Simmons found Ward and Skye in their apparently untidy position, while Jemma decided to take the high road, until Hydra itself walked in- Simmons looked angry and upset.

Not that the day didn't call for it.

Skye didn't want to leave them. She knew Simmons was not comfortable with going with Ward. She knew Ward wouldn't like the thought of having to take care of Simmons. In some sense, at least. Whether it was because he cared for no one but Skye and himself or because he didn't want to look the girl he threw off a plane in the face, she didn't know.

Skye thought he did care about Simmons, though.

And he jumped off a plane to rescue her as much as her threw her off one. So.

Did that count for something?

"How do we know they aren't watching us now?" asked Simmons, because they were out of the looped feed that was Vault E.

"We don't." Skye shrugged. "We can hope that the boys we have locked up in there were the ones watching any monitors, but we can't be sure." She clutched the item each of them had gotten from the cabinet dearly. She wished it had held ICERs, too, but those were farther into the base. At least they'd gotten the weapons off the soldiers now in the vault, but those were lethal. "So we have to move. Be careful, ok?"

They nodded again. Didn't they have anything to say?

She guessed it was probably better that they didn't.

They parted. Kinda awkwardly, as it seemed like the pair both wanted to give Skye some kind of good luck hug. Or pat on the back. Maybe a "don't die" kiss, in Ward's case. But neither yearned to do it in front of the other it seemed, or maybe Simmons didn't want to do it at all because was too upset with Skye. Or upset in general.

Either way, they'd all just sort of took off.

Skye headed towards the mainframe. She'd made a point to back up most of the base's information anyhow, but she knew where a hard drive was to snag the rest of it. Then she could destroy the remainder by just starting a delete-all command or maybe give Hydra a run for their money by planting a virus - letting the bastards have some false hope could be fun- but mainly, just whatever would take the least amount of time.

Rescuing the agents and getting off the base was the main priority. Get out before they could call in reinforcements. Hopefully the BUS wasn't taken yet.

Then… well, she didn't know what would happen then. She didn't know what they'd do without their new(ish) S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters home. She didn't know what they'd do with Grant. What Simmons would think of her.

Mission mode, Skye, she reminded herself. Because, yeah.

Getting out alive was definitely a good start.

"You said based on the feed that you think they're being held in the northwest area of the base, right?"

He was met with silence.

"Simmons," he urged. Gently.

"Yes," she said grudgingly. "I did say that, didn't I?"

Ward sighed. He knew this wasn't going to be a cakewalk, but… "Simmons, we need to work together on this if you don't want the team hurt. I don't know the base and you do."

"Correct. But I also don't trust you."

"That's fine," he said. "Be wary; that makes a good field agent. But we don't have time for even hesitations, and I know you're smart enough to realize that spite isn't going to help you find out my truthful personality at the moment."

She wanted to glare, he could tell. But she must have found usefulness in the comment, taking no more pause. "This base was built in the 1940s, back when the ventilation shafts were made to be larger. There should be one just over that northwest corridor that most likely will lead to that room. Does that help, tactically?"

"Perfect," Ward said, and he'd said it flatly. That was what he had to do around this girl, have minimal emotion. She obviously wouldn't mind seeing him dead, and any excuse for his usefulness to expire would probably give her reason to do so, in her mind. She had a gun. They all did, but he wouldn't use one on her.

So in exquisite spy cliché etiquette, they made their way above the room using the air vents. Simmons went second, as insisted upon.

He hadn't argued.

They shimmied about to where the agents were being held, using the night vision goggles along the way. Those were convenient to have. Simmons had a phone that could have lit up the way too. But, still.

They heard screams minutes before they got to the correct room.

Then Ward heard that voice.

"Are we having fun yet, Director Coulson?" said an all-too excited tone. "I'm just getting started, but if you so desire it doesn't have to take too long. This can end when I get the information!"

Maybe they'd planted Payne in the base. Maybe this was Hydra's plan all along. Because it certainly was Hydra. If Blackwell were here, he may have, of his own accord, wanted the information to satiate his curiosity. Promote himself.

Payne would perhaps hurt people for the fun of it, but to actually interrogate? No, that man had orders.

That only made the situation more dangerous.

"Oh god," Simmons all but yelped. She had tried to keep herself quiet, he could tell. Still, she needed to not speak so not to give them away. And Ward should have told her that. Or reminded her.

He didn't.

He was trying to do the right thing. It was so hard to tell what the right thing was at the moment, when his only companion was someone who despised him.

If something came down to a tough call, would she believe him that he was doing it for the greater good? What he really thought was best, in the eyes of a man trying to help, and not through the mind of a Hydra soldier?

Probably not.

"I'm having fun," he heard Coulson's voice. It was strained and gurgled already, but he held a light tone. "Haven't had this much fun since Hydra put me in a memory machine. Glad to see you guys haven't lost your sense of amusement."

There was a quick gasp and a slicing sound. Ward couldn't see through the vent, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to know what was going on.

"If we can't see his condition, how long will we know to wait?" asked Simmons, and there was no contempt in her voice. Hearing Coulson's anguish must have hidden any unsavory feelings she had for Ward.

Unfortunately, for a trained field agent like Coulson, the answer to her question would be: quite a long time. Well, actually that would be fortunate, for the information and well being of the agency. To calm the girl next to him? Unfortunate.

Ward heard the laugh of that human embodiment of a rodent again.

"A memory machine? Oooh, that sounds intriguing! Pain in the brain," he sang. Oddly. "But if we keep going in this manner, you're going to have a great deal of scarring on the face, one would think. Mmhm."

"Nice," said Coulson. "I could use more roadmap to the soul."

The man laughed. "You must have found the soul of little Skye quite quickly then. I left some rather large scars on her."

There was a pause while he allowed Coulson to digest the dig. To react to it. Ward felt himself tense.

"She told me you weren't even the one to put the biggest scar on her," said Coulson, and Ward was actually impressed with his lack of reaction. Because the man was surely having one, on the inside. "That's not too impressive for a man of your profession, is it?"

Payne didn't falter either. "Maybe not. But I got to chat with her a few days ago, you know. And she really is just a mess!" he exclaimed, and then seemed to get caught in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. "And the best part? Hehe - the best part! She- oh wait wait, first you must understand why it affected her so. Let me explain... Blackwell put our organization's insignia on her skin, yes?"

Ward didn't hear Coulson answer. The man continued.

"And she fell apart only because of her…" -he was trying to withhold giggles- "intense loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D.! So the best part?" He was laughing again there. "The absolute best part is she surrendered to me! To Hydra! Right now, a few moments ago! Hahahaha. Bye bye loyalty. Bye bye!"

The man laughed and laughed. And while Ward couldn't be sure, he thought he heard Coulson growl. He spared a glance at Jemma. She surprisingly just looked fierce. Maybe because she knew the proclamation was false and that Skye'd been acting.

Simmons took it in stride. Or was at least trying to. Her brave face was on. She knew this had to happen.

So, for a while, they merely listened to the Director's gallant banter and pained noises in silence.

-FILE TRANSFER IN PROGRESS...

"Gooood little computer."

Skye began typing again. She figured she could set a virus while the files were still making their way to her hard drive. She couldn't delete them while they were still in transfer.

It was kind of depressing though, sabotaging her base's computers.

Hah, you mean it's kind of funny. Remember how you had that thought of working for Hydra whenever you'd hack? Back when you were hurt and laid up after being literally tortured by them?

Why was her mind bringing this up. Why.

Well now you are literally doing something Hydra would want!

No she wasn't. She was deleting files to deter Hydra.

But you're deleting them from a S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Face it. If Hydra ends up with their hands on that hard drive, you may as well just be working for them!

Damn that stupid thing on her neck. It hadn't itched like this since… well, since before she touched Ward. Since Ward touched her. Now it was like it was talking to her.

Hold up, Crazypants. It was not talking to her. The sudden irritation of it was reminding her, and her own head filled in the blanks.

Stupid head and its blanks.

Knock knock knock. "Open up! We hear you typing."

Blanks that should really be filled at the moment with other things.

Like, staying alive things.

As she'd told Simmons, getting rid of this information was more important than protecting herself. But that hadn't stopped her from bolting the four-foot thick vaulted door that was the only way into the room.

"Get the C-4!" she heard.

Oh.

Brrraling!

She heard a ding, like those lame noises on old computers when something finished. S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't too hip with the times on their storage computer. She checked the screen.

-FILE TRANSFER COMPLETE

"Fantastic…" she muttered half-heartedly. Only with half her heart, because, yay! Files transferred! But. Boo, people were coming to blow you up and what the hell do something!

She unplugged the hard drive and set it off to side in a haphazard hiding place. Quickly she walked back to the computer.

"Virus be damned…"

She tore the tower out from its wires - a few sparks did actually prick her skin-, setting it near the door in a sort of blockade.

That was what it looked like, but not the actual point of putting it against the door. What she was really doing actually reminded her of something she'd done when she was with Ward back in the day. When he was a good guy, undisputed. But just before he'd been found out to not have S.H.I.E.L.D. loyalties. Today, he'd been pretending to be Hydra.

They'd kind of come full circle.

Still, it reminded her of when she opened the bag to show him the explosives:

Who said anything about hacking?

BOOM.

Just after the explosion that ripped open the door and destroyed the computer tower, along with any files Hydra might have hoped to get their hands on, soldiers started piling into the room. Hmm. Not piling. Only three soldiers.

She could, in fact, deal with that.

Skye felt slightly, well, awesome as she dangled from the ceiling. Upside down, shooting her three marks with minimal difficulty. She was a natural in marksmanship, if not having a rough time following orders undisputed. And she was still working on hand-to-hand combat. But give her time.

She'd climbed up to the rafters quickly after placing the tower, at least hoping to get the jump on a few of them when they came inside. Just to give them a run for their money. But three? Please.

Her only problem was that it hadn't been an ICER.

Two, three, four, ticked her personal death toll. Murder toll.

Field agent, she reminded herself.

Then she reminded herself she was also a hacker, because her job wasn't done yet. Simmons and Ward were still out there. There was still work to be done.

She took the time to pocket the soldiers' guns. One wasn't dead, and she tied him up with some wires.

Three, then.

After that, she went to a different computer and got back to work.

Because this wasn't what she'd be doing for Hydra. It was what she could do for S.H.I.E.L.D. Computer science or field agent. Be the leader, be the soldier. It didn't matter.

Skye could, and more importantly would, always help the right side.

"It's starting to sound bad," Simmons commented.

Ward stayed silent.

He'd already known that. Voicing it wouldn't help. But he also knew her inevitable follow-up question.

"Don't you think we should try to stop him?"

Ah. There it was. Time for Simmons to hear the rough truth of the matter.

He turned around to look at her. "Skye told us we had to make a call."

"Yes, and by the sound of him, I think it should be made now!" she said in a hasty whisper.

Ward shook his head. "She also said this information was more valuable than our lives. Skye didn't mean before it got so bad that Coulson's life was in danger. She meant… doing something only if it seemed as though he were about to give up information."

Simmons mouth flung open, her eyebrows drawing together in absolute anger. "She meant no such thing! Skye wouldn't…" She gulped. "Skye wouldn't sacrifice Coulson like that!"

"Skye was speaking to you when she said the information was more important than us. Do you really think she'd let you go but not Coulson?" Ward pointed out. Simmons just stared, mouth open with intent to protest, but it seemed as though the voice had left her body. "This is what she meant. And I think we both know that Coulson is nowhere near breaking."

Even if his body is.

Simmons heavily nodded. Her face was full of tears, but save for that, no one would know she'd been crying. Her facial features showed no signs of sadness, only determination.

That was, until about two seconds later.

"I think it's time we try a new game," they heard Payne sneer, and had the words not already inferred something was changing, the shift in his tone would have tipped Ward off. "I'm not usually one for playing with toys someone else has broken… but why not! They tell me he's one of your original teammates, so it should be extra fun, hmhm."

Simmons gasped.

It might have been the loudest noise she'd made thus far.

Ward didn't hear anything from Fitz, but he could only imagine his face. In Grant's mind, it wasn't unlike the terror present when he'd dropped FitzSimmons in the ocean.

Things had just gotten more complicated.

They shouldn't be, they really shouldn't, because Fitz wasn't more important than Coulson. If anything, arguably, Coulson was more important than Fitz. And both their deaths meant less to the thousands of people, agents or civilians, that would die if Ward revealed himself now. Got Skye caught before she'd have a chance to delete the base's hard drives.

Maybe Coulson would break for his agent, but it seemed unlikely. The man didn't know Ward, Simmons, and Skye were free. Therefore, in his mind, he knew they were all going to end up dead anyway.

So breaking to give Fitz a few more hours? Maybe a few less with the pain? It probably wouldn't happen, even for the kind director. Ward knew that man's loyalties. And as much as he loved his team, his first priority was to the greater good.

But then there was Fitz's other half sitting right next to Ward. More than half of the engineer really, because, Grant supposed, he had made Fitz less than himself when he caused him to have brain damage.

Ward had often repented, and wished that one meeting with Fitz could have gone differently.

How dare Ward say some of the things he had? He really had meant that he'd thought it was the best way to save them, but…

Why hadn't he just said sorry?

Payne's laughter tugged Grant out of his thoughts.

"So, Director Coulson," started Payne. "I have a whole mess of agents in the other room. Willing to give their lives for your cause," he said mockingly. "So as you can see, there's no reason to even bother with pain. It's not like with our ex-agent Grant Ward, when the only person he cared about was your girl."

Ward was slightly shocked to hear his name, though he wasn't sure why. It would make sense. The last time this man had worked on someone was with him and Skye.

Not that it mattered. None of that mattered. What did matter was that he wasn't going to hurt Fitz at all. It was so much worse. And to Ward, that made it so much simpler.

Skye, I hope you've had enough time.

"You need to get to the end of the vent and find a place to hide," Ward said. "If you can get out, even better. But keep yourself safe."

"What?" asked Simmons breathlessly. She was practically swimming with the amount of tears on her face.

"I'm making that call," Ward told her, and something like hope nearly graced her face. "But if we do this, right now, they're going to shoot up here. You need to separate yourself from the situation."

"No," she stated, nearly before he stopped talking. "I've got a gun too. I can help."

"You aren't even cleared for field work!"

"Wasn't," she corrected. If it weren't for the direness of the situation, Ward would suspect a smug smile to be on her face. "It wouldn't matter anyhow. I'm not leaving my team in the hands of Hydra."

"I wouldn't let that happ-"

Oh.

She'd meant him.

"I'm obviously trying my best here," Ward admitted, near desperate for understanding. He was also listening to Payne vaguely in the background, just to be sure they still had time for Fitz. "Don't let your pride get in the way."

"It would be completely selfish to leave and I'm going to stay with you."

He shouldn't argue with her. If she wanted to die to help her team, that was her right, he supposed.

But he didn't want Simmons to die. There was a reason he didn't put a bullet in FitzSimmons' heads when Garrett asked him to: he didn't want them to die.

But then there was that free will shit…

"Fine," he said. "Let's move to the vent opening now. It won't matter if they see us for much longer."

She nodded resolutely.

Frankly, Ward was surprised she'd been following his instructions so well thus far. Disdain was still there. And as made clear before, she truly thought he was a crazy person.

But she was a genius, and therefore could most likely make threat assessments with each individual order or decision quickly enough. Maybe he'd been doing something right after all.

They moved towards the vent opening, and while no one appeared to be looking their way, they took in the scene before themselves.

Coulson was on a chair, hands tied behind his back and calves tied to front. He looked… horrible, to say the least. Red covered more of his body then not. Payne had definitely been favoring a knife in this instance.

This was evidenced even more, as the torturer twirled it just before Fitz's eyes.

"Don't, um, tell t-them, anything. S-sir," said Fitz, hands held behind his back by two soldiers. "It's ah… it- it- it is-"

"It, it, it," mocked Payne. "Perhaps I shouldn't kill him. Maybe that would be too considerate; putting the broken toy out of its misery."

Ward could barely see Coulson through the immense amount of blood, but it seemed like the man wasn't taking any bait. He was staying completely still.

Beside Grant though, Simmons was shaking. In fear or rage? Ward couldn't tell.

Payne put the knife to Fitz's throat. "Last chance," he hummed.

Fitz's eyes were closed.

All Ward did was nod to Simmons.

She was the one to open the vent with the butt of her gun, to which he piled his way through. You see, there was no vantage from there. Ward needed to be on the ground.

And he was, but it took him a moment. He couldn't go down shooting to risk injuring Coulson or Fitz. Now everyone could see him.

Or they would have been able to, if the lights hadn't gone off halfway through his dive to the ground.

Skye's distraction; perfect timing.

Well, it would have been if she'd been a moment earlier so he could have gotten the night goggles on while out of the line of fire. At least they were still around his neck.

He started shooting. The enemy was shooting too, but blindly. And he was constantly moving from cover to cover. Simmons must have been firing from above him as well, because some of the Hydra agents' guns were poised in the direction.

There was a third source of bullets too, and Grant saw Skye in her true glory: completely focused in a stance that showed off May's training antics.

She felt pretty good about it, too.

There were like, what, ten guys there? But they were in the dark. She had night-vision goggles. This would have been taking-candy-from-a-baby easy if it weren't for Coulson and Fitz. She didn't have time to think about their emotions or obvious pain at the moment, given she was focusing too hard on trying not to kill them.

But if she could, she'd see Fitz, merely shrugging his shoulders in a defense and squinting his eyes, unable to see a better retreat as he knelt on the ground. His hands were tied behind him. He couldn't even shield himself.

And she'd see the buckets of bloodshed with Coulson. God, if a bullet hit him in those conditions…

BAM.

She felt a sharp pain at the top of her leg, white hot and insistent.

Oh. Oh, a bullet had hit her.

She crumpled before her hand even rushed towards the wound, feeling the slick blood now pouring out.

Skye! Ward wanted to shout. But he didn't. It would be like sending a blinking beacon out to his location, even more than his current shooting was doing. But he had to get to her. He had to help her, because at the moment she was a sitting duck. At least they couldn't see, but she was lying on the ground in the open and-

Still shooting.

God, he loved this woman.

Bullets flew through the air from the few soldiers that were left. Payne had gone to some corner to hide, but Ward thought he grazed the man's shoulder with a shot. His soldiers weren't so cowardly though, and they kept going. They must have been true Hydra believers.

His mind made a click to what his new agenda should be: save Skye. Protect Skye. She was doing a damn good job herself, but she was injured and in the line of fire.

Then he saw it.

A soldier had found Fitz in the darkness. He must have realized it was the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

He was going to end it. End him.

Ward went against what his mind's new agenda was, because his gut seemed to tell him the right thing to do.

He dove, and snapped the soldier's neck before he got the gun up to Fitz head. It was fast and messy, but the man fell to the ground. He tried to grab for Fitz. Take him to cover.

But another man must have felt his presence. Must have felt the wind of the soldier that fell or heard the snap of a neck, because the next shots were surely directed at him. Surely, because they went straight through him.

"Ward!" Skye shouted. Her voice hadn't held back.

That was fine, because even though Ward now had a hole in his chest, he heard and saw that Skye's next two shots were direct hits. Whether fueled by rage or adrenaline, they were precise as she bolted up from the ground.

Injured leg be damned, apparently.

It was quiet then. Other than some sniveling. Oh, that was Payne in the corner.

Skye wanted to run to Ward, but she'd be on the highest table of idiots if she didn't secure the single prisoner they had.

Her thigh hurt, but she pushed passed the pain as she stomped to the small man. The lights were still off, and he cowered when he heard her presence.

"Don't shoot, please!" he said, holding up his hands. "I… I'm just a prisoner they were trying to get out! I didn't do anything."

She ground her teeth into her lip at that pathetic excuse for a lie. She couldn't even think of something to say. She wanted to, at least to make sure he knew it was his "project" in this pitch black. But she didn't know what. So she just grabbed his arm and hauled him up.

He hissed in pain, and she noticed the small graze to his shoulder. She was glad for its presence.

She wished it were deeper.

That's when she realized she didn't have any handcuffs. Or anything to restrain him with at all.

"Guess I'll have to improvise," she stated. She got to see the realization of it being her voice setting in to grace his face, just before she punched him. Hard. Against the side of the head. He slumped uselessly to the ground.

She couldn't savor the victory though.

She began jogging, albeit awkwardly and slow with her injured leg, to Ward. She passed Simmons. The girl was already working on Coulson.

"How is he?" Skye asked, only as she passed. She cared, she was truly worried about Coulson, but judging from Simmons expression his injuries didn't seem life threatening yet. And Ward didn't have the fortune of a doctor working on him.

Fitz just sat, slightly quivering, on the floor. His hands were tied, but he didn't require anyone's immediate attention.

"He needs stitches," said Simmons. "Possibly quite a few, and definitely some blood, but should be fi– Skye! Your leg! You've been sho-"

"I'm fine, just focus," Skye mumbled, sitting down next to Ward. It was taking a few moments, with her leg and all.

"Skye?" she heard Coulson's cracked voice. "You… ok?"

Somehow, it didn't register. Reassuring a freshly tortured AC was on the bottom of her list right now, because Ward was in such a worse condition then she'd even begun to think he'd been, and the sight of him overtook everything else.

"Holy shit," Skye gaped, looking at the hole in Ward's chest. "No, shit!"

Skye's voice was coming in muffled. It reminded Ward of when he'd be near bombs when they'd detonate; all sounds seemed as though they were originating underwater.

"Skye…" he tried.

He felt himself fading. He was fading too fast. He'd never felt himself lose control this quickly. Then again, his chest had never been so unprotected before.

But Skye... Skye was shot too. He was lying on the ground and her bleeding leg was right next to him.

He stared at it, his thoughts moving too slow.

She needs pressure on that wound, eventually came into his head. He inched his hand towards her.

"Don't move you idiot!" she exclaimed shrilly, but Ward swore he could hear more concern than anger in her voice. "I'm trying to stop the bleeding. Simmons, can you-"

"Coulson needs immediate attention as well. He'll be alright, but only if we treat him now." Her next words sounded reluctant, like she was fighting a battle of whether to let them out or not. "Plus, Ward doesn't entirely deserve-"

"Don't. You. Dare," Skye growled, loud and low and dangerous.

The voices became blurry and muffled then. He thought he heard Fitz, something about helping if his hands were untied. Everyone seemed to be speaking so quickly.

Ward could see Skye through fuzzy vision. She was pressing onto his chest. Hard. With… was that her shirt? Oh. Skye didn't have a shirt on. Her shirt was soaked with blood, his blood.

That was oddly reminiscent.

"Don't you leave," she growled. "Don't you dare go away on me!"

He couldn't help it. Everything he wanted to do was for Skye, but he knew he couldn't help her with that one wish.

He should say something, he realized. Or at least he wanted to.

"I'm sorry," –he coughed, laboriously, - "for being Hydra."

He'd meant it. If he could go back, he'd tell them everything about Hydra back before the organization had been revealed, back on the BUS. They would have been angry. But redemption would have been possible at that point. Skye might have never hated him.

And though it was the entire truth, he really hadn't wanted to say those particular words in this moment.

He would have said something else. He would have said those three words that he realized he felt for her, more than anything he'd felt before. More than any allegiance. What he felt for that woman was real, and three words would let her in on the secret.

But he couldn't leave her with that. He couldn't leave her with regret, or what might have been. Maybe even guilt. Whatever it was would leave her with a bad taste in her mouth. Unfinished business.

He opted to leave her with that plea for absolution. So that maybe she'd know, without a doubt, that he was trying to be good. That all he wanted was to be better than what he was. That he could be a person of worth to others. The right others.

And he thought, but more likely imagined, as he drifted away, that he heard more than forgiveness come from Skye's soft, inviting voice.

"I love you, too."

A/n: Aw. Ish. Cause, like, romance. But was the I love you real? Maybe.

One chapter left! I ask that you really try to keep an open mind while reading the next one...

Anyhow, thank you for reading and everything! Hope everyone's new year is going swell :)