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The next day, Coulson found Ward perched on the edge of his bunk, hands clasped, body tense. "Afternoon," he said in his breeziest tone. "Did you have a pleasant night?"

"You don't give a damn how my night was. Just get on with it. Three questions for one, same as yesterday," Ward snapped.

That's the right attitude. Good boy. "Fine. First, I want you to look at this list of names, and tell me which ones you know are Hydra loyalists." He held the list up to the force field, and Ward drew closer to read it.

He wasn't angry or defiant right now. He looked . . . eager to please? We could probably get a psychiatrist in here to tell us that he went straight from an abusive home to Hydra, and is more comfortable with manipulative authority figures than conciliatory ones. But maybe we don't need one.

"I don't recognize most of the names," Ward finally said. Coulson thought he could almost hear a note of disappointment in his voice, but maybe not. "Anyway, I can tell you that these three at the bottom were most likely loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. Garrett told me that their S.O. was against us—I mean, against Hydra."

Better than nothing. "All right," Coulson said as he took the paper away. "You're doing fine so far. Now, prior to joining my team, what was the last mission you completed on Hydra's behalf?"

Ward listed an operation code, adding, "I reported that the artifact in question was destroyed in the explosion, but actually I smuggled it back to base and passed it to the science division."

Coulson took down the number. Something seems off about that. "If Hydra had loyalists in the science division to begin with, why couldn't you just bring the artifact back and let them study it in the open?"

Ward shrugged. "I had my orders. I would guess that it was probably headed for the Slingshot, and someone didn't want it to be secretly sealed up in the Fridge before it could be used."

Hydra works in mysterious ways. But then again, so did S.H.I.E.L.D. We still do. "All right," Coulson said, "you've earned one quest-"

"Is Skye pregnant?" Ward asked, coming so close to the barrier that the boundary lines lit up.

Coulson said, "Not anymore. The abortion was yesterday."

He only briefly noticed the look of shock on Ward's face before switching the barrier opaque.

When he was alone again, Grant Ward stared at the blank gray wall before him. He saw Skye's face, all full of sympathy and love and trust, like she had looked when they first kissed. A flood of grief and regret and anger almost knocked him down.

He whirled away and punched one of the solid walls. His knuckles split and the whole hand stung, but he ignored it. It wasn't like he'd never been in pain before. Skye's face danced before his eyes, twisting into the anger and fear he saw when she wouldn't stop hitting him, the disgust when he tried to comfort her. Her voice echoed in his mind. Lying bastard. Son of a bitch. Serial killer. Nazi. She wasn't wrong, except about that last one. Not that it matters, now. He punched the wall a few more times.

He realized he was crying and wiped his nose on his sleeve. Man up. You knew the two of you weren't going to live happily ever after. But it was one thing to know that the woman he loved was furious with him, and another to hear that she'd murdered his child as punishment.

It didn't have to be this way. If I wasn't trapped in this cell I could've made her see reason. Why didn't she at least come and tell me she was pregnant?

Because the last time you saw her you threatened to rape her, you brute. That was Garrett's voice in his head again, which he didn't bother to try to push out. You can't abuse a woman and then expect her to come back, because she won't come. Which you'd know if you had the slightest idea about anything, idiot.

Ward sank to the floor, not bothering to wipe away the tears blinding him. I'd rather not stare at blankness right now, anyway. Garrett's disembodied voice was right. After everything that had happened, Skye wasn't going to come back to him on her own. You'd have to do something truly spectacular to get back on the same side. He didn't have any ideas just now, though. He couldn't stop sobbing, couldn't get the image of Skye's horrified face out of his head, couldn't resist the urge to smack the concrete floor with his bruised and bleeding hands.

He couldn't say how long it was before the thought came to him, but once it was there it cycled and swirled through his mind like a mantra. You did this. You did this. It's your fault your child is dead. When everyone else had left Providence and he'd murdered Eric, he'd known he had less than eighteen hours left to get the decryption from Skye and then leave her forever. All I wanted was a few more hours of her trusting me, loving me. Was that too much to ask?

Garrett answered. Apparently, yes, yes it was. You should have known better than to take it that far. Don't you even know where babies come from?

I did this. I did this. It's my fault my child's dead.

Ward didn't know how long he sat hunched on the unforgiving floor, tears dripping everywhere. It felt like hours. His brain tormented him with memories of how Skye felt in his arms. I wouldn't have been a good father anyway. There's no point in imagining I could've been. I did this. It's my fault.

Eventually he got off the floor, washed his face, ate the rations that had been dropped off during his meltdown, and laid down on the bunk.

All night long he dreamt of a baby with big brown eyes, its skin soft and dark like its mother's. He heard it crying and could feel its warm weight in his arms, cradled against his chest. All night Skye burst into a hundred different rooms, gun in her hand, loathing in her eyes, and shot at him and his child.

By the morning, he had made his decision.

I almost didn't include this chapter, but in the end it was just too juicy to exclude. Ward's gotten much more interesting since he turned out to be a crazy traitor who's obsessed with Skye. Please let me know what you think in the reviews.

Fun fact: the second half of this chapter was influenced by verse 3 of John Denver's song "Prisoners." It's a great song so you should all check it out.