Fitz crept through the dark halls of the building with Simmons. They were on a mission in Germany, hunting down an abandoned facility where a few HYDRA scientists were working. Fitz shone his flashlight over a few dusty old fire extinguishers and boxes, quickly moving on, seeing nothing of use. Suddenly Simmons grabbed his arms, and he stopped. There were footsteps approaching. They both tensed and backed up against the wall, just as a HYDRA agent turned the corner. Seeing the two intruders, the agent began to run towards them, pulling a rifle out from behind his back. Fitz and Simmons scrambled for their tiny pistols, backing away and stumbling over boxes. Just as the agent lifted his huge gun to shoot, another gunshot echoed throughout the hall, and the agent fell dead, a bullet hole in his head. Fitz and Simmons jumped, looking behind them where the shot came from. They just made out a dark figure slipping away.

"Who was that?" asked Fitz, breathing heavily, searching through the vest of the HYDRA agent.

"I don't know," replied Simmons, "It's probably Skye or May."

Fitz pulled out an ID. "Hansen Van Beveren." He put the ID in his pocket and they kept moving forward, this time keeping their pistols aimed before them

Hunter walked quietly through a dark room, pointing his gun in every direction. He looked behind a few shelves, and found nothing. As he backed away from one shelf, his foot hit a box. Bending down, he lifted up the lid. Inside were a few dusty files. Suddenly, he heard a shot fire, and he jumped and turned around, just in time to see a HYDRA agent fall down dead. He looked towards the direction of the shot and saw a tall dark figure slip away.

"Mack?" he hissed, picking up the box and running after the figure. "Mack is that you?"

Brynn slowly made her way down a rather well lit hallway with Skye. They came to a point where the halls split into two short hallways, both of which turned a corner after a short distance.

"Go down the left" whispered Skye, "and if there's something around the corner, call me. I'll go to the right."

Brynn nodded and crept down the left hallway, ICER pointed ahead. Just about ten feet down the hallway, someone turned the corner, holding a huge rifle. He was tall and had dark brown hair and brown eyes. Brynn recognized that face right away. Grant Ward. She opened her mouth to scream, but Ward talked first.

"Don't say a word," he whispered quietly, grabbing her wrist, "Are you lost? Why are you here?"

"I'm not lost," she hissed back, "Let go of me, or I'll shoot you with this ICER!" She tried to twist her wrist to point the ICER at him, but she couldn't loosen Ward's grip.

"You're only a child, you shouldn't be in a place like this!"

"I'm not a child!" she growled indignantly, "I'm an agent!"

Ward stepped back, shocked, but still kept a firm hold on Brynn's tiny wrist.

"Let me go!" she yelled, furiously shaking her arm. Skye came dashing over, but halted abruptly at the sight of Brynn's captor.

"Let. Go. Of. Brynn," she said dangerously.

"Skye," said Ward urgently, "You need to get out of here immediately. You don't know what's down here." He let go of Brynn's wrist and began to walk towards Skye.

"I know what I'm doing!" said Skye quietly, but angrily, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I came here to tell you all that you need to leave. Right. Now! There are over a hundred HYDRA agents here, all armed with machine guns. There are only nine of you. You need to leave, and get out of this place immediately."

"How can I believe you?" whispered Skye, "How do I know this isn't a trick?"

"Just believe me, Skye!" said Ward, exasperated, "I came here to protect you all!"

"Why? Why would you do that?"

Ward paused and fumbled over his words for a minute.

"Because I still care about all of you! Okay? I don't want any of you to die! Now let's go." He grabbed Brynn and Skye by the shoulders and hurried them down the hall. "You want to tell me why you have a nine year old agent?"

"I'm eleven!"

"An eleven year old?"

"It's a long story," said Skye, "where are we going?"

"To find the rest of your team." Said Ward, just as Coulson came running through the halls.

"Skye!" he yelled, and then noticed Ward.

"What did you do?" he yelled at Ward, "You told them we were here? You son of a—" He lunged towards Ward.

Ward let go of the girls and backed away. "Sir, listen, I'm not with HYDRA! I found out you were coming here, and so I came to stop you all! You need to get out of here as soon as—"

The rest of the team ran around the corner. Upon seeing Ward standing there, May pulled out her gun and FitzSimmons cowered behind Mack. Hunter stood there in shock and Bobbi whipped out her batons.

"Please, guys," begged Ward, "You need to listen to me! There are a hundred agents down there, and they all know you're here now, and you need to get out of here as soon as possible." He grabbed Brynn and Skye again and began to walk towards the rest of them. Shouts and yells were heard coming from the hallways, and four HYDRA agents turned the corner. One of them yelled something in German, and they all raised their guns. Ward turned around and fired at them with his rifle. They all collapsed to the ground.

"GO!" yelled Ward, picking up Brynn and hurrying the team down the hall, "There's more!"

More agents emerged from the hallways, and ran after them.

Coulson and Ward reached back and fired at them. A few fell down, but more and more kept coming up. Ward hustled them through different hallways. They finally reached a window, which opened out onto the roof of the first story of the building. May jumped through the window, shattering glass everywhere, and Hunter and Mack followed. Skye pushed Fitz and Simmons through and turned back, hesitating, reaching for Brynn.

"Jump!" yelled Ward, throwing Brynn through the window. Mack caught her and Hunter dragged Skye onto the roof.

"Bobbi! Coulson!" shrieked Brynn, trying to claw her way out of Mack's arms. Mack wrapped her arms around his neck and slid down a gutter pipe, after May. Fitz and Simmons both slid down at the same time and Skye followed right after them, almost squishing them on the way down. Hunter came last of all, practically dragging Bobbi down after him by her boot. By this time, May was already only a few yards from the quinjet.

"Start the jet!" Yelled Coulson, coming down the pipe after Ward. May ran up the ramp and into the pilot's seat.

The rest of the team barreled into the quinjet right in time, as the ramp was closing.

"You forgot Ward!" shrieked Brynn, "Let down the ramp! You forgot Ward!"

"Does that really matter right now?" yelled May, frantically pushing buttons, "we need to go!"

"Let down the ramp, he's going to get killed!" screamed Brynn, pounding on the closing ramp door.

Coulson pulled the lever, and the ramp opened. He reached out and pulled Ward in just as the quinjet took off. HYDRA agents fired at the closing ramp.

The team fell to the back of the plane as it jerked forward into the air.

Soon, the flight evened out and the team began to find seats.

"You're bleeding," said Brynn, tugging at Ward's shirt, "You need a band-aid."

"Nah, I'm fine," said Ward wincing, "it's just a small wound." He patted Brynn on the head and sat down, a seat away from Skye.

Brynn still marched over to the first aid kit and pulled out a bandage and some tape. The rest of the team sat awkwardly, still panting, as Brynn began to apply the bandage to the bleeding wound on Ward's arm.

"Hold on," she said, "alcohol and hydrogen peroxide first." She dumped a rather large amount of both on Ward's arm. He winced. Brynn patted away the excess liquid and taped a huge wad of bandage to his arm.

"There we go," she said, "it's not very good, but Simmons can fix you up when we get back to the base."

"I will?" asked Simmons indignantly.

"I thought it was your job to fix hurt people," said Brynn innocently, "Ward's hurt."

"It's okay, kid," said Ward, "It's really not that big of a wound."

"How did you find us, Ward?" asked Coulson.

"I've been following from afar for a while," said Ward, "I managed to snag a S.H.I.E.L.D. tablet, so I was updated on a few of the missions. When I found out that you were coming here, I knew I had to come. That facility is not really abandoned. It's a base to all the HYDRA agents in the western part of Germany."

"How did you know that?"

"I was there before."

After a long (and awkward) silence, Fitz spoke up.

"Why did you save us?" he asked quietly.

"Because it's what I do," said Ward, "I don't want any of you killed, and I do my best to keep my promise."

"You never promised that to any of us," said Fitz.

"No, but I promised myself that. I do care about you."

Brynn seated herself between Skye and Ward.

"Do I really look like I'm nine?"

Back on the base Simmons finished stitching up Ward's bullet wound in a frosty silence.

"Thanks Simmons," he said, "I'm, ummm, going to the bathroom. Where is it?"

"Down the hall on the left." She said briefly, turning to her computer and sitting down.

Ward awkwardly nodded and walked out of the lab. He bumped into Skye and Brynn in the hall.

"Hey guys!" he said cheerfully. Skye smiled a little, more like grimaced, and nodded.

"Did Jemma stitch you up?" asked Brynn.

"Yup. Good as new now," said Ward, ruffling Brynn's hair, "I gotta go to the bathroom." He smiled and left.

Skye sighed. "I don't know why he would help us. Coulson's not going to let him back on the team."

"Maybe not. But I think Ward is sorry for what he did."

"Think so? Well, May and Coulson are in the office deciding what to do about him. They want us up there with them."

Skye took Brynn's hand and they walked quietly down the hall.

"You did good back there, Brubbles."

"Really? Thanks. Can I upgrade to a real gun now?" Brynn asked, batting her eyelashes.

"Nope." Replied Skye, bopping her on the nose.

They pushed open the door to Coulson's office. Coulson was leaning against his table pinching the bridge of his nose, and May was standing there, with her hands on her hips, as usual.

"Skye, Brynn." Coulson greeted, "Where's Ward?"

"Peeing," replied Brynn.

"…Okay… Well? What do you think Ward's motivations for helping us were?"

"I think he wants back on the team," Said Skye sitting down.

"I think he actually cares about you all," said Brynn, sitting on Skye's lap, "And he can't still be HYDRA. He shot a lot of people back there."

"We can't be sure, though," said May, "maybe this is all an act."

"Maybe, maybe not. But there's only one way to tell." Said Coulson, "the lie detector."

"We have a lie detector?" asked Brynn, "What's it used for?"

"To test everyone who comes into the base. We don't want any double agents here."

"How come I didn't go through it?"

"Because you're a child."

"But what if I'm really a double agent?"

"I'm pretty sure you're not."

"But what if I am?" Brynn pestered.

"Nope."

"But—"

"No more "buts" Brynn. We need to go find Ward."

"If he does pass the test, can we keep him?"

"He's not a pet, Brynn. He can stay on the base, if he wants to. He has some information of value. He is an asset."

"I thought he was a pretty nice guy." Said Brynn, scratching her head.

"What?"

"You said he was ass—"

"Asset, Brynn, not the other one. There's an "et" at the end."

"Oh. Okay."

Coulson looked over the results of the lie detector test for the fifth time. May sighed and tapped her fingers on the desk.

"Are you going to tell me the results? Or are you just going to keep staring?"

"He's clean," said Coulson, "No lies at all."

May sighed. "So he'll stay on the base?"

"Only if we wants to." Replied Coulson, putting the file in a drawer, "Call the rest of the team and Ward up."

May left the room and Coulson slumped in his chair. He couldn't believe he was doing this. He tried to hate Ward, but after he found out that it was really Ward who was secretly helping them on missions and saving FitzSimmons when the scientist pair was cornered by hostile forces, he found himself unable to really hate the guy. Ward did save their backs back there in Germany, anyways.

May returned with the rest of the team and Ward.

"Well," began Coulson, "Ward, you're cleared. If you want to go, then you can. If you want to stay, you can stay, but not as an agent. If you want to become an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. again, you'll have to go through training from Level 0."

Brynn clapped her hands and jumped up and down excitedly.

"Does that mean we're keeping him?"

So Ward ended up deciding to stay on the base. Brynn was ecstatic, and proceeded to give a lengthy and detailed tour of the base. Ward went along with it, smiling the whole time, but Skye could tell that all he wanted at the moment was a nap. Feeling the urge to punish Ward one last time, she let Brynn finish the tour.

Hunter and Bobbi warmed up to him after a few days when he saved them on a mission in France. Skye took a bit longer, but finally after two weeks she finally cracked a joke around him. Granted, it was at his expense, but he took it well. FitzSimmons took a lot of apologizing and saving and shiny new tools, but soon they managed to forgive him, and so did Mack, once he realized his science bros weren't upset anymore. May finally agreed to spar with him, punched him really hard, and then told him he was terrible, which translated into normal people language, means that she forgave him. Coulson was the last one to warm up, but after Ward pointed out a HYDRA double agent in their midst, Coulson let him begin training again. With May as his SO. Ward groaned.

So now they were big happy family made of unicorns and rainbows and sparkles and smiles.