Melinda walked through the remaining party guests that hadn't been interviewed by the police, looking for Coulson. She was so caught up in her quest that her skills to notice everything around her failed because Louise came walking up to her. She gave off the appearance of mingling at a social function the way her family had trained her from birth, only the fury in her brown eyes showed what she was really feeling.

"Did my aunt deliver some harsh truths to you about your precious Coulson?"

May could hear the disdain dripping from the other woman's voice and decided it was time to deal with the issue between them.

"You know, your baby brother wasn't the innocent party in what happened between the two of us."

"Oh, I know that, Grant was being a manipulative little shit but you used him to take your mind off of your own issues. According to Grant, you punched the hell out him for cheating on you when he had been under the mind control of an Asgardian sorceress and acted like you didn't know about his feelings for Skye."

"I know that as much as you can hurt me with your magic, I can do the same to you physically so a fight is out of the question. So I guess we are going to have to just hate each other's guts."

"I don't have a problem with that because in my mind, there is no way that we can make this even between us. You don't have a brother or a son that I can throw myself at like a dog in heat, blame him for what happens when he is taken over by aforementioned sorceress, put a nail through his foot and fracture his larynx after he does something to piss me off. Isn't it just a tad hypocritical for you to come down on someone about betrayal because didn't you do the same thing to Coulson for Fury? I mean, yours wasn't nowhere near as bad as what Grant did but to me 'betrayal is betrayal' no matter how big or small it is or who does it. Hell even Skye betrayed all of you for that Miles idiot; her words, not mine," Louise's voice had turned vicious and quieter with every word she said.

Coulson happened to be walking by to hear what Louise had said and grabbed May's arm before she could punch her. He could see Ward's sister smirking at May and knew that the coming spell would be one that would cause May a great deal of pain.

"Stop it, both of you! I know that you two dislike each other but do you really want to embarrass Skye and Grant by having a brawl in front of all of these people?"

Louise didn't say a word; she just walked over to the bar and downed the shot of vodka the bartender gave her a few seconds later.

"Lily was right, she is drinking again," May quietly commented.

"Why were you ready to punch her one minute and yet feel sorry for her now?"

"She needs someone to take out her anger on and the person in her family that she really wants to hurt is dead so I guess I'm it. She actually does hate me for what happened with me and Ward so it was an easy choice for her," May said, before turning to face Coulson. "Phil, did you know the full extent of the abuse that Millicent Ward put her children through? Did you know about the effects it had on Ward's other siblings?"

He swore under his breath and knew that Lily Ward was responsible for the coming confrontation between him and May.

"Yes, I did," he stated.

"So you knew just how bad the abuse was and let the rest of us treat him like hell? I actually told him that 'everybody has trauma' acting like his abuse claims were just an excuse. I saw the scar on his thigh from when she beat him at three years old. I thought it was from an old injury during a mission and not a child abuse scar."

"His file was classified to 'Directors eyes only' by Fury. The two of us are the only ones who knew what had happened to him and I didn't find out until after he was arrested."

"Are you telling me that Director Fury knew about every bit of abuse that Ward took from his family and Garrett and didn't do a damn thing to stop it?"

"Melinda…"

"Don't Melinda me! You let us add more to the abuse while we held him in that cell. Lily Ward is right; we shouldn't have been in charge of his confinement because we couldn't be objective."

Melinda walked away from Coulson to find Skye standing there, her arms crossed over her chest and disappointed at him before she turned and walked over to where Ward was standing. He watched as the girl he loved like a daughter turn her back on him and moved closer to someone he still felt wasn't good enough for her.

Skye walked over to Grant and took his hand, laying her head on his shoulder. The night that had started out so wonderful had turned into a nightmare and all she wanted to do was go up to their room and sleep.

"Can we go up to the room now?"

Grant kissed her gently before glancing over at where his father was standing. The older man was talking to the lead detective; a Hispanic woman in her mid-thirties, about when they could talk to Kyle about what he might have seen when Sue was killed.

"Dad is talking to Detective Ramirez about when they can talk to Kyle. I don't want them doing it during the party and since he is under eighteen, a parent or guardian has to be with him so it has to either be me or Aunt Lily."

"Why are they obsessed with talking to Kyle?"

"They watched the security footage and saw that he was in the hallway when Sue was killed. He wasn't the one that did it but he saw who it was. He isn't talking."

"I was someone he knows and cares about."

"Yes."

"You were with me, I saw Tommy standing inside the room when we walked back inside. Mack was with Kara, my father was with Lily and Michael was on his cellphone in the hallway," Skye stated, going down the list of all the men that Kyle would protect before her dark eyes went wide. "Grant…"

"We will talk about this up in the room and let Lily handle this," he said softly.

Skye felt her stomach turn at the thought of Travis Ward killing Susan and could see him doing it. He had to have hated Susan's father with a passion for sleeping with his wife and being Thomas' biological father. Then to have Susan causing trouble for the son that he had just gotten back into his life. He was also solidly built like Grant was and in great shape for a man his age.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by Grant taking her hand and started at the contact before noticing that Kyle had walked over to them.

"Come on, we are going up to the room and having a conversation about what you saw tonight," Grant said to his son, his tone showing that he wasn't in the mood for an argument.

Kyle wordlessly followed his father and Skye to the elevator as he glanced around the room and fear filled him as he noticed the person he had saw kill Sue. He wanted to help the police and tell them what he had seen but also didn't want to see the person that had done it go to jail either. It would ruin things for his father and the rest of their family.

AN: I am ending the murder mystery soon but the rivalry between May and Louise will get even nastier as the latter's alcohol problem gets even worse. It looks May might have met her match in Ward's sister, who knows her brother's flaws but is on a mission to make up for not being there for him when he needed her.