In the middle of the night, Julia heard a scream. She shot up and looked around, pulling her headphones out of her ears. She saw nothing. As she got up, she grabbed her ring and started walking towards the screaming.

"no! No, dont!" she heard. She then realized that it sounded like someone moaning in pain. She walked and the sound got louder in front of Ward's door. She opened it to find him sleeping but tossing and turning, him yelling. She slipped her ring on and his screams turned into soft moans.

She walked towards him and shook him. "Ward. Ward wake up" she hushed loudly. Before she could even realize, ward shot up and punch her in the face. She fell to the floor, putting her hand to her head. He turned on the light and found her on the floor.

"what the hell" she hissed. "Its a reflex." she stood up, still holding her aching head and walked out "remind me not to get in the way of your reflexes again." he got up and followed her footsteps. Ward found her in the kitchen, grabbing an ice pack and putting it on her head.

"why where you there?" he questioned. "well, I heard someone screaming and I wanted to know who it was and if they were ok" she then grunted. "I was screaming?"

"well it was screaming for me. Remember, you didn't want me to wear my ring so I could hear. Well, I heard" Julia pointed out aggressively.

Julia walked over to the couch with the ice pack still on her head. "ow" she complained. "here, let me see" ward said and Sat next to her. He moved her hand and looked at the forming blue mark. "it's going to bruise but you'll be ok in a few days." He answered, putting the bit of hair that he moved back in its place. Julia put the ice pack back on her head and said "so what were you dreaming about?" Ward hesitated. "it was... Something that happened a long time ago."

Julia got up to put the ice pack back "c'mon. You know about my past. You can tell me about yours. I promise I'm a good listener." she said while sitting back down. He still didn't answer "is it about hydra?"

"maybe"

"is about what happened with the team?"

"I just... I'm just worried that I'll do something or they're gonna hate me forever." Julia looked at him. "go get out a bowl of water." she demanded and stood up. "what?" he asked confused. "go get a big bowl that's sorta shallow. Like a cake pan or something. Fill it with water and bring it back." and she walked down the hallway.

Ward did as she asked and got a long clear glass bowl, filled it with water and set it on the table in front of him. Julia came back with a box in her hand. She sat down and opened the box, putting the contents in her hands. It was small plastic crystals with a round clear light.

She twisted it the light, turning it on and put it in the bowl, letting streams of the changing colors flowing around. "what's that?" ward asked. "water crystals. You know the thing they put in flower vases, well I found another use for them." she got up and shut off the light.

The multicolored light was shinning in the water. She sat back down, put crystals in his hands and said "try to make them float."

"what?"

"do you trust me?"

"yes"

"then try and make then float."

He put his hands in the bowl, opened his fist and all the crystals sank to the bottom. He looked at Julia. "they don't float." she smiled, reached into the bowl and picked up the crystals. "if you just let them drop, they'll sink. But if you let them in gently" she put them in the palm of her hand and gently put them in, letting them slide off her fingers, "they'll float."

Ward watched the few crystals float in the bowl. She placed 4 crystals in his palm and said "now, try again." He gently lowered his hand into the bowl and let them glide off his fingers. They floated. He looked at her, but she looked at the crystals move.

"The crystals are like people. If you drop them, they'll sink, but if you give them a little push and let them do what they want, they'll float." she put some more in and they floated. They then started grouping around. "they'll get into little groups and stay together. Some will separate, but most will stay together." she put her finger over the group. "if you touch one, it will fall and bring others with them." she touched it and a few crystals sank to the bottom.

"they fall because they get dragged down." she picked up the crystals and put them back in her palm, letting them float. "but if you bring them back up, they will float again." she picked up the last crystal on the table, put it over the bowl and dropped it in, creating a small splash and most of the crystals sank to the bottom. "if there's even just 1 making giant waves, most will sink. The water gets disturbed and they can't stay on top, so they sink. It takes time to bring them all back up, but it will happen."

Ward put his hand in, picked some up and let them float. Julia said "every crystal is different. Some float better then others, some sink right away, some stay up ask the time and others make others fall. But every one of them will float, you just need to give them some help."

As ward was putting the crystals back to the top, starring at the bowl, Julia looked up and saw coulson standing at the edge if the shadow, just enough for her to see him but not to be noticed by ward. "you just need to give them a chance." as ward looked up, coulson disappeared and Julia looks back at the bowl.

"what is it?"

"I just thought I saw something, it was just the shadows moving."

Ward looked at the lights changing and all the crystals moving around, creating dancing shadows on the bottom. Julia leaned her head on his shoulder as they both watched.

"how did you learn this?"

"when I was younger, my sister would tell me that everyone has a different soothing method. I thought she was crazy, but when I was hiding, I found it in the garbage. It was a complete set and it looked nice. I took it and brought it with me. I found an abandoned warehouse with the sink still half working. I tried it out ti see if the crystals still worked, and I ended up spending the entire night there"

"how did you survive without getting caught." she lifted her head and leaned back into the couch. "I hid next to a restaurant for a while. I'd go thru everything and see what was left. At some point, the man that was the owner, he almost saw me. One night, someone came in late at night and broke in. I heard the window shatter then someone yelling. I snuck into the back door and saw that it was a robber. I helped the man and stopped the robber. I still remember what he said when I ran away. 'wait, where are you going?'. He followed me outside and I guess he recognized me as the girl who was always outside. Everytime I came back, there was a small box at the steps full of food. He had kept me fed and one day there was a note. He said that he would leave the door unlocked so i could sleep inside. He kept me alive."

Ward looked at her, then he said "we should probably get some sleep"

"alright." Julia sat up straight, got the crystals out of the water and turned off the light. Ward brought the bowl to the kitchen and dumped the water as Julia was putting the crystals in the box.

Ward came back and Julia had put the crystals in the box, all but 1. "here." she said and placed 1 crystal in Ward's palm. "remember what I said. You can't just give up, you need to give it a little bit of help and faith." she turned around and walked back to her room.

Ward slipped into his bed and as he rested his head on the pillow, he looked at the harmless object resting in his palm. He closed his hand and fell asleep.