Author's Note: Thanks to all that reviewed! Finals are upon us and I have had zero time! My apologies. Little angst this go around but we do get lots of Skye/Ward so there's a silver lining.
This title is based on a fan vid done by Fridaydayy by the same name. Check it out its awesome!
Happy Reading!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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"Bastard."
The word tore itself from Skye's throat and Ward had a moment to shoot a look of regret her way before the ground started trembling under his feet. He could feel the gears in his head begin to realign.
Survival
Getting through this new threat, this new complication. He could do that. That is if she didn't snap and bust every bone in his body…No. He refused to let this be the thing that got him excommunicated for good.
I didn't let Fitz pick me apart for nothing…
Maybe he was never going to get to that place where she was thinking about kissing him again. After feeling her light touch over his thrumming muscles he'd thought that maybe they were turning back in that direction. He should have known it was never going to happen. He'd gotten one more kiss. Wanting it to happen again? Of course Kara would show up to remind him that monsters didn't get the girl.
This is exactly what he got for getting greedy.
Setting his jaw he turned his attention to the matter at hand. One thing at a time, he just had to deal with things as they came at him. Being off center made it illogical to try and plan too far in the future.
"Ward?" Kara's hopeful tone matched with the look on her borrowed face made him briefly, painfully, nostalgic for the way the real Skye used to look at him.
"Kara, what did we talk about?" He asked calmly as a fine rain of dust came from the shaking ceiling. He refused to look back at Skye, knowing that would do nothing to diffuse the situation.
"Not to…" Kara began haltingly, looking around at the angry expressions around her. Lastly she looked at Skye who had picked a place on a nearby wall to stare at. Ward could feel things settle only to jump again erratically.
"Skye." May said calmly. "You don't have to be here for this."
"Agreed." Coulson added never taking his eyes from their intruder.
"Kara?" Ward said again, keeping his expression as reassuring as possible.
"Not to wear this face again. Not after I wanted to-" Kara tried again to answer him.
The world bucked.
Without a word Skye spun on her heel and headed past him. He reigned in the urge to grab her by the arm but couldn't stop himself from following her. It was like he was tethered to her from their closeness only a few minutes ago. His head was starting to hurt again and he wanted badly to find that peace he'd had while they'd moved together.
Damage control. It was all about damage control. The team would stay with Kara, she was too much of an unknown. She wouldn't do anything now that she'd seen him. He had to get things worked out with the lynch pin that decided his fate about coming in from the cold.
He didn't want to be set loose.
Maybe he liked his cage after all.
"Ward-" Kara, Coulson, and May chorused.
He ignored them as he worked to catch up with Skye. He was sick. He had to be. This woman had shot him, had liked him only when he was pretending to be someone he wasn't. Had told him he was a good man only when she saw the lie.
Kara had always known the worst parts of him and accepted him regardless.
But still…still he followed behind this woman who could barely stomach him.
He was sick.
"Skye."
"Back off Ward." She snapped between clenched teeth.
"Whatever you're thinking, it's wrong alright?"
More than likely anyway…
"I think you went all Spike and found yourself a BuffyBot version of me."
She'd led them back to the gym. Jerking her hair into a ponytail she stalked to a side table and began wrapping her hands. Apparently deciding the heavy bag would help her work off whatever anger she had.
That or his face.
"You're wrong." He bit out trying to remain calm and failing. Technically he had no idea what she was talking about, but based on her tone it wasn't anything complimentary. Her freaking pop culture references always flew right over his head.
By the time she and the team were through with him he'd probably be completely useless.
Unable to remain calm.
Unable to keep a cover.
Only good for one thing.
"Oh yeah?" She answered sarcastically refusing to look at him. "Which part?"
"All of it." He growled, voice rising. The only silver lining was he still felt in control of his actions. As in control as he ever was around Skye.
"No more lies?" She challenged, finally turning and meeting his gaze. That little round chin of hers struck at an obstinate angle.
"No more lies." He agreed.
"Then tell me," coming nearer she stopped in front of him, "that you've never touched her, never kissed her, never ran your hands over her body or slept with her while she looked like that. Like me."
His jaw clenched, lips pressing into a thin line.
Her face twisted into disgust and anger.
"You sick son of a bitch." She lashed out with a fist and he let her connect with the side of his face. The next one he slipped back from, swerving away from the third he caught the arm before she could pull it back.
"Just listen!" He growled as she whipped the other hand up, catching the other side of his face nearly splitting it open.
She kneed him and he wrapped his arms around her as the motion sent them both to the ground. Able to use his size he pinned her. A base part of him exulted at the feeling of her beneath him. The part of him that still loved her hated how disgusted she was.
"Get off of me!"
"I didn't sleep with her! Ok? We never have!"
"You're lying!" She screamed into his face, thrashing underneath him.
"I'm not!"
"There was something." She hissed glaring at him, body shaking in anger.
He realized belatedly that while the heavy bag next to them swayed from her power she wasn't hitting him with it. He didn't have time to wonder if that meant she was gaining control or if she just didn't want to hurt him.
He kind of doubted it was the latter.
"A kiss. One time. That's it. I swear." Her dark eyes blazed into him but he didn't blink or flinch. After a few moments the room settled around them. Her body stilled and he felt everything but her breathing begin to even out. This came in erratic little pulls of air through her flared nostrils, whose movement caught his attention.
Slowly his eyes were drawn down farther to her lips which parted under his gaze. And just like that his nervous system started sending him detailed reports on every inch where they touched. Bodies basically flush, he found himself nestled between her thighs for the second time in a handful of days.
He registered the fact that she smelled like almonds and vanilla today instead of that citrus blend he'd noted previously when they had been this close. He had the insane urge to run his face along her exposed skin and bound hair, searching for exactly what fragrance coincided where along her body.
He watched as those full lips tilted up slightly towards him and his own mouth bobbed down a little in response. Air dying in his lungs as she shifted below him, from wrists that were pinned beneath his clutching fingers, and then all her soft curves against his sharper edges. Ending in a roll of her hips that had him clenching his teeth.
"Get off me Ward." Her voice pulled him back from the nerve endings that swamped his ability to think.
"Skye please." At least he didn't sound like he was begging, his voice at least was steady and reasonable. Because at this point he had no idea what he'd be begging her for, or if he'd care that he was.
"Get. Off." His eyes flicked down to her lips once again before he nodded and released the hold on her arms. Moving to his feet quickly he stepped back as she rose. "I can't believe I fell for it again." Her voice was only a little calmer than it had been a moment ago when the room had been shaking.
"Skye." Her name was the only word he seemed able to make it through. He had to get his shit together. She was never going to let him close if he came off as that same fanatic man in the cell below her feet.
"I just believe you every time. I'm such an idiot! I thought maybe because of the brainwashing it meant…but every time I turn around there you are trying to shove another knife in my back."
"Wait." He said, brows furrowing in confusion as he raised his hands to stall her. "I admit what happened and I'm still betraying you?"
"You kissed her Ward!"
"You're mad that she was wearing your face when we kissed?" He asked taking half a step forward. "Or that we kissed at all?"
"Don't make me out to be jealous about your freak show relationship with a person who shouldn't even be with anyone while she doesn't know who she is, especially not you."
"Right because I'm still the bad guy." He replied, the corded muscles of his neck standing out in anger. The echo of his earlier thoughts was so much worse when coming from those soft lips. He'd always believed Skye. When she said everything was fine, that she was working on the hard drive, that they were letting him out, that he was a good man. But he believed her even more when she said he was a monster, a murderer, serial killer, weak.
"I didn't say that." She countered, but she said it too fast and he felt his eyes narrow to slits.
"Why not? After all, I ruin all the lives I've touched right?" And then because he couldn't help but sabotage himself further. "But let's not act like I'm the only one here that's done some shitty things." With every volleyed accusation they'd sidled closer to one another, seemingly unable to keep the safe distance in place.
"Because I'm a monster now, I should understand what you did?" Her answer stopped his retort in his throat. He shook his head and looked at her in confusion before he could grate out his answer.
"You are not a monster." The finality in his voice seemed to take her back a little and he watched the muscles in her throat work before he continued. "I'm referring to the fact that I've never been able to tell when you were lying either. And you've never had an issue with exploiting that."
Skye's jaw dropped open indignantly at his argument. Ward fought the need to make her happy with the urge to get everything out. He took the fact that she was in his face yelling back as agreement with at least a little bit of that sentiment.
"I wouldn't have had to lie to you if you weren't being such a creep all the time!"
"Really? That first time I'll give you that. But when I was locked up and you gave me to my brother-"
"For all the good that did." She scoffed.
"And then when I took you to see your father-" He continued over her.
"Abducted me!" She argued, as in his face as their height difference allowed.
"YOU SHOT ME!" He roared, hands clenched into fists, looming over her. "I never hurt you. I'm a brainwashed, amoral killer, but I never laid a hand on you."
She shoved him hard, eyes bright, and he wondered how many times they'd replay that damn scene from the Bus as she closed in on him. He could have evaded her. Or fought back. But as always he held his ground waiting for her judgment.
While this tactic did get him punched in the face a lot it also had gotten him a kiss not too long ago. He'd always be willing to take a beating if it meant Skye's lips were on the other side. Instead of hitting him she bunched her fists in his shirt like she wanted to headbutt him again. He reflexively grabbed onto her hands and calculated the risk of this escalating further.
"You almost killed Fitz and Simmons!" There it was, that act was going to be the thing to damn him. He'd known it. How could any of them know if it was mind alteration or just him being Garrett's trained killer? "And you wouldn't stop! I couldn't stop you! You were going to make me leave, and Coulson and the team needed me!" The fight drained from her suddenly and her grip went from threatening to clinging. He was alarmed to see her eyes go glassy with tears. "How could you do that Grant? My family needed me. Out of everyone on the team you were supposed to get that. We knew how hard that is to find, to keep, but you didn't care."
His head snapped back a little at her statement. He loved her. How could she think he wouldn't do anything she asked him to? Were his motives really that mysterious?
How could she? I don't even know when I was in control or not.
"I cared." He ground out, chest heaving, as she glared defiantly back at him through watery brown eyes.
"I'd already lost you." She whispered, eyes going over bright and finally unable to keep the grief behind her eyelids. "I was not going to lose them too."
They stayed locked as his breathing finally calmed. He didn't realize what he meant to do until he released a hitching breath. She went ramrod straight when he closed the rest of the small distance between them. Not caring if she broke every bone in his body, he pulled her into him. Trapping her clenched hands between them.
Wrapping long arms around her back he pressed his face into her neck and waited. Her breath shuddered in and out several times as he felt the muscles in her back slowly loosen. Gradually he felt her move her arms up to link behind his neck.
Ward didn't know if this could be called a truce or not, didn't know if she would change her mind as soon they broke the embrace.
"Please." He mumbled into her skin feeling a tremor run through her. "Please don't give up on me. Not yet."
He kept telling himself he was going to move on from this woman that had completely hijacked his life, more than Hydra ever could. He didn't know if it was a piece of his conditioning or maybe a byproduct of his shit upbringing but he couldn't shake her. Clinging like a child to her now he needed desperately to know she hadn't forsaken him. Not after almost having her back in his life.
She'd wheedled her way inside his circuitry and he couldn't shake her loose. Those bright eyes and that damn sweet smile worked on him better than water boarding or beatings. He knew there might not be a chance in hell of them being together, but he was never going to get over Skye.
"Ward." Coulson's voice came quietly from the doorway. Instead of letting go he tightened his hold, lifting his face an inch or two he saw the older man watching them sadly. His gun still in hand at his side.
Skye nodded a little into his shoulder and he finally let her go by degrees. Her fingers slid one at a time off his neck. Her eyes met his and she nodded once more as her flattened hands made a short trip down his chest before drawing away.
"Coming Sir." He answered at last, making his way around her to the doorway.
"I'll be right behind you." Skye said, he looked back to see her beginning to unwrap her hands slowly.
"Skye-" Coulson started to disagree, Ward said nothing, waiting quietly once he got by the open door, keeping his eyes straight ahead.
"I'm ok Coulson. We're ok." She answered in that voice that said maybe she didn't mean it but she was stubborn enough not to admit it.
"Alright then, we'll be down in Ward's old place." The Director answered, giving Ward a look, daring him to argue with the decision. He was able to keep his face blank, slowly pulling himself back into order.
Skye answered with another nod and the men left her in the gym making their way down the silent hallways. Ward waited expectantly, he knew there was no way Coulson could remain silent on the recent developments. It didn't take them longer than getting out of earshot for the other man to begin.
"We don't need to have 'the talk' right?" Coulson asked without looking at him.
"No need sir, I was fully apprised of those particulars by my middle school Health Ed. teacher."
"I wonder if Fitz will mind experimenting on you in a cell instead of the infirmary."
"Thought you only had the one."
"I recently felt the need to expand."
"Practical."
"I'm glad you approve." The Director replied dryly as they came to a stop in front of the door that would lead them down to Ward's old cell. "Listen, I'm not gonna give you the speech about getting involved with Skye and what a colossal screw up that'd be. Skye's an adult and she'll figure out what she wants with that. I do find it necessary however to give you the patented father figure diatribe regarding what will happen if you intentionally hurt her in any way."
Ward might have been leading when it came to the body count between the both of them, but there was something chilling about what a good man like Coulson would do for those he cared for. Because of that Ward had no problem in answering the Director as honestly as if he were hooked up to a polygraph.
"We agreed Sir. That above all else Skye must be protected. That hasn't changed. For either of us."
"You know what? I believe you." Coulson responded as his gaze became even steelier. "And that'd make me feel better except you were right there next to me when we picked her bleeding body off the floor." Ward couldn't quite stop the flinch that came with the memory. "You knew who was behind it and said nothing. If that wasn't bad enough, you waited with the rest of us in that damn waiting room. You remember what I told the doctor Ward?"
We're her family.
He nodded, not trusting the strength of his voice. That'd been one of the worst days of his life, and coming from him that was really saying something. More so because of the knowledge he carried. The rage of not only being unable to protect her, but of knowing who it was that had ordered her shot and still saying nothing. And then to have Garrett show up on the plane, he'd barely had a chance to get his features in order. The urge to dismember his mentor had been a sudden powerful thing that had risen into his throat, choking him.
The glint of knowing in the bastard's eyes hadn't helped. It was instances like that where he truly hoped he had been brainwashed. Where that reason alone helped him atone for what had happened.
"It is only my continued belief in what Fitz is reporting, coupled with what lengths you've been willing to go through so far since getting us to Skye that is keeping you here and breathing, understood?"
Multiple snarky comebacks occurred to him, along with a few logical discrepancies, but he kept his mouth shut and nodded instead.
"Guys? We having a pep rally up here?" Skye's voice came to them from a little ways down the hall making them turn. "Or you just coordinating who's doing good cop bad cop?"
"Something like that." Coulson answered with one of his genial smiles.
"He had to remind me that it would be switched from when we brought you in." Ward continued his eyes meeting Coulson's for a moment before turning to Skye.
"Coulson does make an excellent good cop." Skye agreed, her expression knowing.
"Takes practice." Coulson explained with a look at the two of them before opening the door and making his way down the lowly lit stair case.
May was waiting for them before the seemingly bar-less cell. Kara waited patiently in its center with, thankfully, her own face firmly in place. Ward felt his mouth condense to a hard line when their eyes met. She gave him a small smile before turning her attention to Coulson.
"Agent 33, good to see you without the guise of one of my associates looking back at me." He greeted with only a hint of sass. "We should start with what it is you're doing here."
"When Ward came to help with the tracking and retrieval of Skye I followed him." She answered without hesitation.
"Kara." Ward said, voice laced with disappointment. He'd told her it wasn't safe, that the team would most likely imprison him again after they'd freed Skye. She'd thought he was only trying to leave her.
"You didn't think it was right, for us to be together." She answered as she held his gaze. "I had to accept that, you being the one that's better adjusted." He was grateful the other participants in the room were able to keep straight faces, considering the way this day had started.
He could also feel the scars along his wrists itch.
"Then why did you follow me?"
"I wasn't going to leave you with them." She said stubbornly, dark eyes flashing. "The people that shot you and left you for dead?" She shook her head as her gaze took in those around him. "No. Not after all you did to help me."
"So you followed him here and what?" Coulson questioned, his posture mirroring May's with arms folded and stances firmly set. "Waited until now to try and get him out?" Kara's eyes flickered to Ward's, looking for his approval before answering.
"I trailed him to the location and waited through the course of a day until I was confident of the team's departure. I then went and did my own search for intel, gathering what I could on possible places and parties that could be holding the target."
Ward was shaking his head in irritation. He had carefully kept the information he found from her so that she wouldn't risk herself. What good did trying to keep those you cared for from harm when they went barreling in regardless?
Can I just not attract stubborn pain-in-the-ass people? For once?
"I'm guessing you were unsuccessful and decided to try your luck at a jail break?" Coulson prodded, bringing Ward back into the conversation.
"I retrieved information from multiple sources detailing the capture and imprisonment of an Inhuman by Hydra forces, upon further inquiries though, I was able to learn that another organization claiming to be the real S.H.I.E.L.D. had recently obtained another such being and that the retrieval had occurred from an unknown site. Being unable to clarify which organization held what Ward sought I had no other choice but to come back and wait. When I detected movement I decided there was nothing else to do but assume another's features and enter."
Silence met her quick delivery of events and Ward glanced to the side when Skye's voice broke the quiet.
"Hydra has another Inhuman?"
"Correct." Kara answered, her eyes intent on her questioner. Ward felt his teeth on edge and his spy's mask dropping into place. He'd thought at first that maybe he and Kara could have something. That after being cast out, the partnership they made could go beyond more than teammates. But either because she was right and feelings for Skye interfered or because Kara's unbalanced mental state made him uneasy, he couldn't bring himself to let the relationship progress farther.
Having her and Skye in such close proximity was making his adrenaline run rampant.
"Is it Raina?" May finally spoke up, albeit quietly, to Coulson who shook his head slowly.
"She was taken by the same powered person that also took Skye's father. I didn't think the two were linked."
"The eyeless man?" Ward asked drawing everyone's attention. "He isn't Hydra."
"You're sure?" Coulson demanded.
"As sure as anyone can be with Hydra." Ward answered with Kara nodding to back him up.
"I'm really getting sick of that answer." Coulson deadpanned, fingers beating out a rhythm on his arm.
"Was there anything else on the target?" May asked, turning her sights back on Kara.
"Only that it was a new discovery, or newly appropriated."
"Coulson." The Director turned to meet Skye's gaze. "We can't let them weaponize another Donnie Gill. People like me…" She trailed off as her eyes danced around the others in the room. Her look stopped at Ward. "We're dangerous."
"Everyone has the potential to be dangerous." He responded, holding her eyes unwaveringly. "Whoever this person is, they don't deserve to be put through whatever Hydra has lined up."
"We need more information." Coulson decided, breaking their concentration from one another. "Skye, have Ward show you whatever he can about getting into Hydra's communication. May debrief Agent 33 and start working any angles you can. I'd like a report once you have something."
"Wait." Ward said as Coulson turned to leave. "You can't just leave her down here."
"Wrong. I can. I will. This is me leaving." Ward threw a reassuring look Kara's way before chasing the Director up the stairs.
"She can help us. This is her intel. You want to get this done with any kind of speed it doesn't make sense to keep her locked down here. Not to mention she hasn't done anything to you."
"Yet." Coulson answered, stopping on the outside of the door, Skye following in their wake.
"Damn it Coulson!"
"Ward." His breath jerked to a standstill at the feeling of Skye's hand set in placation on his tensed arm. "I'm sure Coulson would be willing to compromise on Kara's bunking situation, if," she added quickly when Coulson opened his mouth to argue, "as a sign of good faith we work on finding something the team can use."
With narrowed eyes their leader nodded minutely.
Ward tried not to dwell too much on the way she'd said 'we'. With a curt nod of his own he let her lead him away from Coulson and the still open door.
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Oh look that all ended up being from Ward's POV. Huh. Anyway, little chapter to hold you over until I am able to come back with a vengeance after finals. Please feel free to review, or just keep following and favoriting, I'm not one to push aha aha. Hopefully the relationship is naturally turning into one where something more can happen as I never meant for it to be this slow of a slow burn but there were views expressed on them not getting together while things were so turbulent which I agreed with. Oh well let me know.