There's flashbacks.. sort of...

Chapter 2: A Change of Perception

After Grant's little bomb, Coulson just gets up from his chair and walks out. He doesn't even take the chair back with him. Which would be a stupid move on his part, where it not that Grant's absolutely exhausted and sore everywhere. And not really in the mood to dislocate his own thumb to get out of his cuffs right at that moment. Besides, Grant doesn't think he's got anywhere to go. There's so much difference between where he was and where he is, and it's not like he voluntarily came here, where ever here might be.

He's done the mental calculations and he's come up with a few explanations for his predicament. They might not all be sane, but it's all he has right now.

He's decided there are 5 possible ways to account for the situation he's currently in. The first one is that he actually got struck by lightning and is, in fact, currently dead. The second one is that he got struck by lightning, but instead of dead, he's in a deep coma and his brain is scrambled. Or he's finally just gone off the deep end.

There's a possibility that Coulson is behind this, although it seems like a pretty elaborate scheme. And doesn't really seem to have an actual purpose, other than to torture Grant mentally with images and mentions of people long gone. Then again, Coulson is hardly the reasonable man he once was, and torture for the sake of it might not be so farfetched after all.

The final thing he's come up with, and the strangest one he could think of, is that he actually got transported from his own world and ended up in some kind of parallel thing. A world that is so different from his own in crucial ways, but similar in many others. And even though Grant knows it's not probable (he won't ever say impossible again, not since the New York thing) he kind of hopes that this explanation is the correct one. Even though it seems like he's at odds with everybody he's been around, there are so many things better about this reality than his own twisted one. The fact that IH doesn't seem to rule the world, Fitz apparently being his obviously brilliant – if slightly paranoid- self… and Skye being alive.

That's the thing that really has him hoping for the most improbable of the explanations. Death, a coma or insanity aren't the worst things if this is what it's like. And if he gets to see Skye in his afterlife or his delusions or whatever, than that's fine by him. But if it's really an alternate world or reality, than that means Skye is actually still alive and it's not just in his head. Not just wishful thinking. It would mean that somewhere, even if it isn't in his own reality, Skye was still around. And while it looks like she hates him in this world, she' still in it.

They leave him alone for quite a while, and Grant finds himself dosing off a few times. Being a Specialist has thought him to sleep in short burst and uncomfortable places, because you never know when you'll get another moment of rest. In those short naps, he finds himself dreaming of his Skye, of a time when the only thing they had to worry about was professionalism in the Office.

He's in a suit, walking beside Coulson and they're animatedly talking about his mom's new trainee (and headache) when they arrive at their destination. It's a blue van, parked in a secluded ally behind a restaurant, and in it, the most beautiful girl he's ever seen in his live. Until she opens her mouth. When he pulls the hood over her head – admittedly, not a good way to earn trust or even politeness – the profanity just flows from her mouth. All the way into the Ship's interrogation room, she's yammering about assholes in black suits and government robots and 'she has rights, you know' and 'there's no way to stop the truth from getting out'. And even though he's thoroughly annoyed by it, he's also strangely fascinated by her. She's a tiny little thing, maybe a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet, and yet she's screaming and cursing like a sailor on leave.

She seems fearless and he's got to fight several smiles from spreading over his face at her antics. She's a person of interest in a classified investigation and it would be very unprofessional if he started supplying more curse-words for her to use, right? He's got quite a few he could teach her though, in about 6 different languages. But he's a Specialist, one of the very best this Agency has to offer, and he's been trained in remaining stoic and detached. Besides, his mother is on the other side of the one-way mirror, and he's pretty sure she wouldn't be amused by him. There's a time and a place for frivolity, she would say, and this is not it.

Then the scene starts to change, and suddenly she's lying on a training mat scowling up at him. There are wisps of hair stuck to the sweat on her face, and her light blue tank top has darkened markedly. Still Grant can't help but think she's looks like a million bucks, and he can't fight the small smirk that crosses his features. He honestly tries to keep professional when he's around her, but she doesn't make it easy for him. She's just so sarcastic and witty, that it's hard for Grant not to break down and shoot the shit with her. Sometimes he slips, and something slips out she considers funny. And then, for just a moment, there would be a content little quirk of her lips, and Grant can't help but wonder if she enjoys breaking his focus. Like today.

"It's not bad enough you drag me out of bed at 5 AM to," she fakes a shudder, "train. To top that off you make me do the absolute worst of things, right before its breakfast time. How am I supposed to eat my breakfast, Robot, if I can't even lift my damn arms! They're like cooked spaghetti! You can't eat with cooked spaghetti, GG. I swear to you, I'm never doing another pull-up. I'm banning the practice of pull-ups. I don't ever want to do one, ever again." She looks up at him, fire in her eyes and her chin defiantly lifted, and he knows he's lost. She's lead him down a winding path, and he won't ever find his way out again. But, as long as she's there as well, he doesn't mind being lost.

But obviously he can't tell her that. That would be… Nope, it's one thing to admit it to himself, but as long as he's her SO, he's not taking this – whatever this is – any further. If he wants to keep her safe in this line of work, the only thing he can do is teach her to be the best she can be. Still he can't help himself, when he comments on her pull-up rant.

"If you ever find yourself hanging off the edge of a building, twenty stories up, you're going to want to do at least one." He doesn't stay to see the little smile appear on her lips, but he's sure it's there. It always is.

He's walking away from the training area, but suddenly he's standing back beside her. She's in black yoga pants and a red shirt with a zip-up hoodie hanging knotted around her waist. She's holding a standard 9MM Glock in her right hand, a magazine clip in her left, and a very sheepish look on her face. "I swear I'm going to get the hang of this, but for future reference, they should really think about putting those two buttons farther apart on this thing." She slides the magazine back into the gun and tries again, dropping the clip,again.

Grant's not fighting the smile that crosses his face, because he knows it's a losing battle. There shouldn't be anything funny about his Rookie not being able to get 2 simple buttons straight, because that knowledge is literally the difference between life and death. But the way she's standing there, her hands on her hips and the gun aimed dangerously low at his… crucial parts (luckily the clip's on the ground), and her face in reluctant resignation, it's just too adorable to not smile about. Grant takes the gun from her hand and holds it out in front of her face. He points his index finger towards the left side of the weapon, at a little button, and says "magazine release". Then he very slowly and deliberately moves his finger towards the little lever on the trigger, "safety release". He takes her right hand and closes it around the gun. "Now, again."

There's a smile on his lips when he murmurs beneath his breath, "At least you're not saying 'bang' anymore when you pull the trigger." He's sure she's heard him though, because when their training ends, she makes a finger gun, points at him and says 'bang' before skipping out of the training area.

When he bolts awake, he's a little disoriented at first. The headache has lessened, but his muscles are all clenching up and it takes him longer than it should before he remembers the situation he's in. It has been a long time since he dreamed about Skye without there being blood and screaming and death, and Grant feels guilty for having repressed the good memories. He still feels so responsible for her death, even though he didn't pull the trigger himself. If he hadn't believed that Coulson could still be saved, she wouldn't have died, and that was solely on him.

Nothing has changed about his situation, he's still cuffed at both hands and feet, and still sitting in an empty and bleak room. But there's a different vibe in the room now, like the heavy cloud of hate and distrust has lifted a little. Or maybe it's just his mood being less oppressed by those feelings. Dreaming of Skye, remembering those early times, it should bum him out. Instead it lifts his spirits, and there's a new sort of hope blooming in his chest.

Then the door opens, and life seems to have chosen this particular moment to throw him another curve ball. He's shocked to see her standing in the doorway and a little ashamed he hasn't thought about her being in this reality as well. Maybe he's secretly been hoping she wouldn't be here, because he doesn't want to see that look of hate in her eyes. But if wishes were horses…

Her face is set in a deceptively blank stare, but he knows this woman, and he can feel the deadliness and the hate radiating off her in waves. And even though he'd gone through a bit of an obnoxious-teenager-phase, he's never in his whole life been the recipient of that look. The one she gives the vilest specimens of the human (or not so human) race. No, Grant was always one of the few people who got to see emotion on her face and right at this moment, he's sure even disappointment would be better, instead of this carefully constructed indifference. Like he's a bug, inconsequential in her world, and she's just taken notice because she's been ordered to.

The hope he felt just seconds ago fades a little, and in its place fear pops up. He's never been afraid of her, never had any reason to be. Then again, she's always just been his mom to him, never an Agent. And that's why it had been hard to believe the stories about her when he was younger. He'd always known her as a strict but loving, generous and fair woman, with a graceful gentleness that he'd never seen repeated in anybody else. So when he started the Academy, and heard the stories about 'the Cavalry', it didn't mash with the picture of her he had. Quite honestly, he couldn't imagine the woman who read him fairytales for bedtime, who comforted him when he was scared or sad, fighting off an entire gang of adrenaline-fueled sociopaths on her own. Of course he'd always known his mother was an Agent, they'd never kept that a secret from him. But knowing it on a vague level, and hearing about her heroics were two quite different things.

But now, after all these years of working with her, he knows how deadly she is. And being the smart man he is, he's rightfully scared.

It feels like an eternity before she walks into the room and sits down in front of him. Now that she's closer, he can see the differences between his mother and this woman. She's harder, somehow, more jaded. There are no laugh-lines around her eyes and the frown she's sporting seems to be her face's default way, rather than a sporadic occurrence. Her eyes appear darker than he remembers and the hate that swims in them is so totally unlike his actual mother that he involuntarily jerks back a little.

Still she keeps quiet, and for the first time ever in an interrogation room, he feels the need to break the awkward silence that's hanging around, being very oppressive and chest-constricting. It's no wonder his mother had the highest confession-rate of all the Agents, back when there still was an Agency. It shouldn't really surprise him though, she's always been good at getting him to spill his beans with only a look and a raised eyebrow.

He's trying very hard not to give into his desire to call out to her, to call her 'mom'. He's pretty sure the woman in front of him wouldn't appreciate being called that. But it takes all of his willpower and focus not to break first. If his real mother would've been here, she would totally be proud of Grant, for not breaking under pressure. This other woman, though an almost carbon copy of his mother, doesn't look impressed in the slightest. She purses her lips slightly, and just when he thinks she's about to break the silence, she gets up and walks out of the room. Leaving Grant alone again, and even more confused than he was before.

He sort of overflows with sadness when he thinks about all the people he's seen already, and the hate each of them directs towards him. Spoken or unspoken, he can tell there's a lot of history between everybody and this Grant Ward. The hate Coulson directs towards him, he can take. It's been that way for the better part of 3 years, and while it broke his heart when it first started happening, he's used to it by now. But the venom in Skye's voice and the cold stare he got from his mother, those are the real punch to the gut.

And if he's right (and he so hopes he's not hallucinating) about the alternate reality, then this world's Grant Ward must have done something unspeakably cruel to deserve such loathing. The only thing he can even imagine would cause such feelings, is a betrayal on a very personal level. He knows it has to be that, because the disgust and hate he sees and feels around him, are exactly the way he feels about Philip Coulson in his own reality. And given the fact that they all hate him, or alternate him so much, he's concerned they won't believe anything he has to say. Alternate worlds are a step up from aliens after all, and despite the physical differences they already found, he can't really prove an alternate reality. Or at least, he can't really prove he's not the asshole Ward they know in this one. When all is said and done, it comes down to trust. And Grant's not really convinced that anybody here will ever trust him. Honestly, if he was in their shoes, he probably wouldn't believe himself either.

He thinks about his own team, or what's left of it anyways. One upon a time they were a tight little group, closer than any other Field Team the Agency had. They had his mother, an amazing Agent with the speed and accuracy of a cobra, and the heart of a lioness. Not to mention one of the best pilots around. They'd had Tony, his mom's Rookie-turned-specialist, who was funny and open and could always be counted on for a laugh and a game of poker. In the lab they had Leo and Jem, who were inseparable and sometimes insufferable, but who he always trusted when it came to tech or medical stuff. And after they took Skye into custody, she joined their little ragtag group and became their most trusted computer specialist, and the most reluctant Rookie known to man. This all under the warm and honest supervision of Philip Coulson.

After things went down with Coulson, there wasn't much left of their little family, not to mention the Agency in its whole. The rise of HYDRA from within the ranks of SHIELD had been a blow, causing a rift between the people who were genuinely working towards the good of humanity, and those who sought world (or universe) domination through fear and violence. Many people Grant had thought of as friends, turned out to be traitors. Including Coulson. After that, Coulson became the big bad in Grant's story, always lurking behind dark corners, coming up with nefarious plans. Well, maybe not literally, but still.

Grant's team had fluxed, growing when he added Bonnie and Mack, then shrinking again when Skye died and Jem was captured. They lost his mother during the mission to rescue Jem, and the scientist was never the same again after that. Jem's state in turn caused Leo to shut down, and before Grant knew it, it was just him, Bonnie, Mack, Tony and a handful of other Agents against the rising forces of HYDRA, and Coulson. Grant still hates himself for not seeing Coulson's end game sooner, and for not being able to stop it when it happened.

When Grant's stomach begins to growl he focusses again on the here and now, instead of taking the path down memory lane. A path that ultimately leads to anger, guilt and heartache.

Coulson walks in again, an energy bar in his hand and a weary, tired look on his face. He sits down in front of Grant, unwraps the bar and takes a bite. Grant sees him chewing thoroughly and even though he tries to stop it, his stomach growls again. Coulson lifts his eyes to lock onto Grants and swallows. The rest of the bar, he places on Grant's leg, a place that would be very reachable, if it weren't for the cuffs that chain his hands behind his back.

After another minute of silence, where Grant's eyes can't leave the energy bar on his leg, Coulson clears his throat. "Let's talk."