Matter of Importance
Spoilers: Season 2 promo
Disclaimer: I own nothing, Marvel owns it all!
Grant Ward ignored the looks he received for the hundredth time as he sat down to eat his lunch. He ate at a small corner table away from everyone, knowing that only a few select people could stand being around him. Coulson's 'rogue' team seemed to watch him like a hawk while the team he'd been a part of had seemed a bit more accepting. May spoke civilly to him as did Trip and Coulson while Fitzsimmons did their best to stay distantly polite, an emphasis on the distant part. Skye always sought him out at the end of the day and asked about how his day went. It was probably the only real contact he had with people at the end of the day.
Someone sat down across from him and he looked up to see Lance Hunter, the man just leaned back and folded his arms. "Surprised to see you eating alone here mate. Considering one young agent is sitting across the room alone. Damn computers in her hand all the time, can't seem to put it down."
"Don't attempt to take it from her." Ward merely spoke before taking a gulp of water from his bottle.
"Oh I already did, someone could have warned me that the tiny thing can put up a fight." Hunter chuckled, "I mean, I know May is training her but she's like C4. Tiny but powerful and explosive."
Ward gave a slight smile and allowed his eyes to glide over to where Skye sat with a computer and tablet both. She had what was most likely a bowl of cereal beside her while what looked like a brownie in her hand. He shook his head slightly at her eating habits before going back to his own meal. "What do you want Hunter?"
"I've been orders to get you up to speed on minimal training when you're not working. So meet me in the training room around 1600." The ex-mercenary stood up, "don't be late because I have a surprise and I promise you'll like it."
"Doubtful."
Hunter chuckled, "guess who does her solo training at 1600?" He watched Ward's hand still and smirked, "yeah, told you you'd like it."
The training room was practically empty although music could be heard from a radio in the corner. Hunter was waiting for him outside the door when Ward arrived, pulling him inside but the former specialist paused at seeing Skye at a punching bag. She wasn't using her hands but a combo of arms and legs, clearly not the weak hacker she'd been when he'd trained her.
"Hey Fireworks," Hunter yelled as he dropped his bag and Skye stopped. "Guess who I brought with me." He nodded to Ward and Skye started walking over, unwrapping her hands as she did so. "Coulson has me getting him up to speed with minimal training. Hope you don't mind the extra bodies while you're training."
Skye snorted, "at least he won't be staring at my ass half the time."
"I don't know, it's one of your best assets." Hunter smirked but before he could turn, Ward had him to the wall and staring at him. "Whoa, what the hell are you doing?"
"Grant no." Skye spoke softly, "he's not a danger, he's playing around like I used to do with you."
Ward backed off and Hunter just looked at him as if confused before putting a finger up. "Do that again and I'll report it to Coulson, you'll be back to that tiny cell of yours."
Skye shoved wraps at Ward's chest, "hit the bag." After he was gone, Skye sighed. "Sorry, I forgot that he gets defensive of me. Threat or danger to Skye equals to Ward going into his Terminator mode."
"Terminator mode?"
"Running joke from the early months before SHIELD fell." Skye shrugged and bit her lip, "let me handle Ward's minimal training, he'll listen to me a lot better than he'll listen to you. Just work out after you bring him and I'll take care of the rest."
Hunter looked over at Ward, "you sure about this?"
"Well I technically am the only one who can make him stop doing something stupid." She shrugged and started wrapping her hands. "Besides, he'll be starting therapy soon, that'll make him a bit more violent than usual and I'm the only one safe from his physical assaults."
She walked over to where Ward was working on the punching bag, she steadied it with her hands as he continued. However, it didn't miss her notice that he paused when she neared him. He didn't say anything as he continued, Skye allowed the silence to continue as she knew if there was to be a conversation he'd have to start it. As she held the bag, she let her eyes roam over her ex-SO. He'd yet to shave the beard and the short-sleeve shirt didn't hide the scars from his suicide attempts during his imprisonment. They'd had to move him to a cell with actual guards after he'd attempted to beat himself against the wall in the automated cell. With the need for guards elsewhere, they'd been transporting him to prison where Talbot would be holding him. However after HYDRA's attack, they knew having him around would be useful. He was supposed to see about getting close to Holmes and attempt to get back in with HYDRA to allow them to catch Holmes in the act.
After a while he stopped and looked at her, "thanks."
"Yep."
"I won't keep you from training."
Skye shrugged, "I need a sparring partner and Hunter gets a bit too grab-ass. So you up for a sparring session?"
"If you're sure, I'm not exactly an easy opponent."
"I don't need easy, besides I need a chance to show you that I've now got what it takes to kick someone's ass." She smirked and moved over to the mats, "you coming Robot?"
Coulson sat talking to May in the lounge area when they heard laughter, both turned to see Ward with Hunter and Skye. All three looked as if they had been working out and it was even more noticeable as they had training bags on their arms. Hunter seemed to be recovering from laughing as Ward had a small smile on his face and Skye was grinning.
"Oh and then we get there and Ward is like 'help' because he has to go all Mata Hari on the guy." Skye pointed to Ward and Hunter busted out laughing, "then he has to escape and I nearly run him over in the process."
Hunter shook his head, "you two have stories I wish I'd been a part of."
"What about that time you pretended to be May and destroyed a guy's house." Ward looked at Skye, "remember when SHIELD got the bill for that."
The young agent snorted, "I didn't do much, he just billed you guys for everything."
"Hold on." Hunter paused and looked at them, "you pretended to be Agent May?"
"There were reasons I had to." Skye shrugged, "besides, can you find anyone else I could even partially impersonate that could make someone run from the room?"
The specialist and former specialist shared a look before both speaking. "Romanoff."
Hunter shook his head and nodded to them both, "well I'm going to hit the showers and see if Fulton wants to go find an abandoned hallway. Anyways, see you tomorrow mate and Fireworks, don't go light on me next time."
"You wish." Skye smirked and waved as Hunter left the room. "Such an ass."
A cough made them both turn to see May and Coulson on the couch with beers in their hands, Skye dropped her bag by the door and headed over to slump on the couch. Ward just stood by the door before turning to leave.
"You can stay Ward." Coulson nodded to one of the chairs, "you don't have to always leave the room when we're here."
He dropped his bag by Skye's and moved over to one of the oversized chairs that Coulson had motioned to. "Thank you sir."
"How was training?" May asked of Skye and the agent shrugged, "did you even do anything besides destroy yet another punching bag?"
Skye bit her lip slightly, "I kicked Ward's ass on the mats." She smirked and met May's eyes, "which is totally awesome by the way because he looked like a fish afterwards."
Coulson looked over at Ward, who seemed to find the floor interesting. "I wanted to talk to you about next week." The former agent finally looked up, "you'll start meeting with a psychologist, twice a week."
"I don't need a shrink."
"It's my opinion that you do need one and if you want to remain a part of the social community outside of your cell than you'll go." Coulson stood up, "you'll report to Agent Nixon's office on the third floor at 1000 every Tuesday and Thursday."
Ward looked at the floor and set his jaw, his hands were in fists. "Then send me back to my cell because I'm not talking to a damn shrink." He stood up and looked at Coulson, "I'd rather sit in that cell for the rest of my life than talk to some shrink."
Coulson took a step and immediately Skye was up, moving between them. She looked at Ward and his eyes immediately went to her, softening as he met her muddy brown eyes. "Go once, for me?"
"Once." He left the room after that, ignoring the three as he collected his bag.
A/N: Well that's not a good thing...but Skye being Ward, awesome! I think Hunter is playing matchmaker...
Next...Ward and Skye finally can't find common ground on something and it gets explosive.
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