A/N: Once again, thank you so much for the reviews, favorites, and follows! It really means a lot, and it helps to know what's working for people.
Thank you for reading and, as always, please be gentle if you review!
It's not something anyone would guess by looking at him, but Grant loves board games. Of course, his family wasn't exactly the type for family game nights, so he didn't discover this love until he was sixteen.
It was actually at his military school that he first learned to play board games. Every weekday, they had a "no homework" study hall—a specific time set aside for cadets to goof off, since the rest of their schedule was so demanding—but usually, everyone was so exhausted from their various drills and classes that they didn't feel like doing anything that required movement. So every study hall room was equipped with at least three different board games, and it only took a week for Grant to become completely addicted.
He finds himself telling Jemma about this one morning, sparked by a story she's just told him of always being forced to play Scrabble with a handicap (apparently, she's only allowed to play every other turn, because otherwise she'll just completely dominate the game).
"Of course, there hasn't been much opportunity for board games since I left military school," he's telling her as he finishes his sit-ups. "Not a lot of call for Monopoly in the field."
"No, I imagine not," she agrees. "Which is your favorite?"
"Battleship," he tells her as he stands, finished with his work out. Skye will be down any minute. "It's almost entirely luck, and games that need strategy always felt too much like work after hours of drills."
"Oh, that makes sense. I wouldn't have thought of that," Jemma comments. She looks a little distracted, and he's about to ask her if anything is wrong when Skye comes down the stairs at a run.
"Not late!" she cheers. She squeezes past Jemma and hits the cargo bay floor at the same time that his watch beeps the hour. "Ha!"
Jemma laughs and shakes her head. "Good luck," she tells him.
"Yeah," he says, watching Skye do a little dance around the punching bag. "Pretty sure I'm gonna need it."
She nods in agreement, then leaves. Strangely enough, she goes through the door leading to the storage area, rather than up the stairs, but he doesn't give it much thought, distracted by Skye's continuing dance.
"Okay, stop," he tells her. "Is being on time really such a victory? That's a little sad."
"No, the victory is that I don't have to do extra push-ups. I hate push-ups, Ward. I hate them."
"I know," he says. Obviously, or else he wouldn't use them as a deterrent against tardiness. "But you still have to do some. On the floor, let's go."
Skye still whines her way through training, but at least she's trying now. It makes the process a lot less aggravating when he doesn't have to tell her to do everything five times, so he's in a pretty good mood once her training is over and he follows her upstairs.
Shower facilities on the Bus are surprisingly generous. There are actually two showers, one for the men and one for the women, and Grant says a silent thank you to Director Fury for that every morning, as it means he doesn't have to take turns with Skye.
He goes to his bunk to pick up his shower kit and his clothes, but pauses when he sees a box on his bed. It definitely wasn't there when he went downstairs, so he approaches it cautiously. Since they're in flight, only a member of the team could have gotten into his bunk, but that's no reason to be unwary.
He relaxes when he's close enough to read the box, because there's a note in Jemma's handwriting on top of it.
There's a whole chest of these in storage closet 2A. We found them last week. Perhaps, since your bonding with Fitz went so well, you could take a turn with Skye?
He frowns at the note in confusion, then opens the plain blue box. He's stunned to find a couple of Battleship cases, along with several plastic bags, full of ships and pegs, inside. He laughs a little to himself, touched and kind of impressed. Jemma gave absolutely nothing away—he thought her question about his favorite board game was simple curiosity, nothing more.
He shakes his head and goes to take a shower. He'll give Jemma's suggestion a try and challenge Skye to a game after breakfast. Actually, maybe he'll tell her it's a part of her instruction. He has a feeling her face will be pretty priceless when he pulls out a board game in the name of training.
x
An hour later, he and Skye are in the middle of a game which he is miserably losing. Still, he's not too bothered by it. For one thing, he was right and Skye's face was hilarious. For another, he really is doing his best to get along with her, and it seems to be working. He can admit, if only to himself, that Skye is actually kind of amusing, when she's not doing her best to be annoying.
At the moment, she's commenting on how nice it is to take a break.
"Well, you deserve a break," he admits. "I gotta give Coulson credit. I never would have pegged an ex-Rising Tide hacker as a good fit, but…you're picking things up pretty fast."
It's an effective bit of flattery, but it's also true. He still might not be sure of her motives, but he can't deny that she's been a big help to the team.
"Did you just…give me a compliment?" Skye asks, wide-eyed and gleeful.
"I—no—made a comment," he instantly denies. It wouldn't do to be too friendly.
"A kind one," she says. "Did it physically hurt to do that? Do you need an ice pack?"
He laughs a bit, and Skye stares.
"Wow, a compliment and a smile."
"Comment," he corrects.
"I don't wanna ruin the moment, but I'm gonna have to respond with…G4."
Damn it.
"Say it, Ward," Skye says, grinning. She leans forward. "Say it."
"You sank my battleship," he grounds out.
She laughs gleefully. "Yes!"
"All right, best two out of three," he suggests, leaning forward to clear his board.
"I beat you," she sings.
"Best two out of three," he repeats.
"Best I just won out of nothing!"
He has a feeling he's going to regret this game. A lot. He's still trying to convince her to have a rematch when an alarm starts blaring, and they look towards the briefing room, where the SHIELD logo on the screen has turned red.
"Ooh, another case," Skye says, scrambling out of her seat. "Maybe I should take the lead on this one, since I just beat you."
He groans and follows her into the briefing room. Yeah. He's definitely going to regret losing that game.
x
Their new assignment is to investigate the disappearance of Chan Ho Yin, a pyrokinetic from Hong Kong. As they wait to Skype with Chan's case agent, they explain the Index to Skye. She's fascinated and a little creeped out—and, of course, she makes a joke. She actually almost makes him laugh, with some unexpected help from Coulson, whose silence on the issue of body probes manages to completely freak out Fitz.
The video feed from Hong Kong pops up on the screen, and May introduces Agent Kwan, Chan's case agent. He explains that Chan has a habit of violating his Index agreement, but this time it looks like he's been taken—presumably by professionals, since all they've found in the way of evidence is fireproof clothing.
"So whoever took him knew about his power," Grant concludes.
"Yes, and we think we know why," Kwan says. "Over the last few days, Tech division discovered a crack into our data stream. It's the same cyber punks who hacked us before. Somehow they got in again."
Grant has a feeling he knows where this is going, and he doesn't like it one bit.
"It's the Rising Tide," Kwan concludes.
Yeah, that's pretty much what he thought. They all turn to look at Skye, and there's a long moment of silence.
"Agent Kwan," Coulson finally says, turning back to the screen. "Please send us the results of your investigation of the scene. We'll be in touch."
"Of course," Kwan says.
After brief goodbyes, May disconnects the feed. There's obvious tension in the room, all of them suspicious but no one willing to say anything. Grant, for his part, isn't totally convinced of Skye's guilt. For one thing, her fascination and shock at the information about the Index was definitely genuine. If she'd hacked SHIELD Hong Kong, she'd already know about it. For another, he's been keeping a pretty close eye on her, for this exact reason. He doesn't know that she's had the opportunity to hack SHIELD right under their noses.
"Skye. My office," Coulson orders, then leaves the briefing room.
Skye takes a deep breath and follows. Grant, after a moment of hesitation, tags along. She doesn't say anything. Neither does Coulson, when they enter his office. Instead, he just stares Skye down.
Grant finds himself in the strange position of defending Skye. Not that Coulson ever actually makes any accusation, but it's obvious he's suspicious—and for good reason. They really are all thinking it. Still, Grant actually does believe that Skye's innocent, and she's their best chance for tracking down the real hacker quickly.
Coulson seems to agree.
"Dig up something, and fast," he orders Skye. "The longer Mr. Chan's missing, the more danger he's in."
Skye nods, and Coulson dismisses her to begin searching for the hacker. Then he turns to Grant.
"That was unexpected," he says blandly.
"The Rising Tide hacking SHIELD?" Grant asks, though he knows that's not what Coulson's talking about.
"No. You sticking up for Skye. Last I checked, you didn't trust her."
"Still don't, sir," Grant assures him. "I don't trust her motives for joining up, and I certainly don't trust her to choose us over a fellow member of the Rising Tide. I just don't think she was the one to perpetrate this specific hack."
"Fair enough," Coulson says. "In any case, we'll be keeping a close eye on her for this one."
"Yes, sir," Grant agrees.
Effectively dismissed, he leaves Coulson's office and heads back downstairs. Skye's in the briefing room, bent over the table computer, and Jemma and Fitz are standing on either side of her, presumably keeping an eye on her activity. May is standing in the other corner, obviously on alert. He considers joining them, but he knows he'd be no help there, so instead he busies himself with cleaning up the game of Battleship, which he and Skye left out on the table in their rush to get to the briefing.
He takes the box back to his room, putting it in the bottom of his closet for lack of a better place. The bunks don't have much in the way of storage space—one of the perils of living on an airplane.
With that done, he goes back to the briefing room and takes a spot leaning against the table next to Jemma. She gives him a little smile, and he nudges her, making her smile widen a bit. He can tell she's rattled by the suspicion against Skye. They've become good friends, and if it turns out Skye's involved in Chan's kidnapping, Jemma will be heartbroken.
It's awkward, the five of them just standing around the table, mostly in silence. Jemma and Fitz keep close watch on Skye's progress, and occasionally they make comments on what she's doing, but all of it goes over his head. He takes comfort in the fact that Jemma and Fitz will be able to catch Skye if she tries anything, but honestly, he's not expecting her to. Not yet.
"How close are we?" Coulson asks when he enters the briefing room, a good thirty minutes later.
Fitz says something, which Jemma picks up and continues, and Fitz concludes with, "Bob's your uncle."
"You get any of that?" Coulson asks Grant.
"Only the uncle part," he answers, entirely honest. In his defense, computer science is basically the complete opposite of his thing.
"We got our origin," Skye says as her tablet beeps. "Austin, Texas."
"You got a name?" Coulson asks.
She doesn't, but she manages to use credit card information from the café to trace the hack to a known hacker, Miles Lydon.
"Not Skye," Fitz comments. "That's to all of our relief."
Not exactly, Grant notes. Skye doesn't look very happy, which is strange, considering her name's just been cleared.
"You know him?" Coulson asks.
"Every hacker in the world knows him," Skye says with a tight smile.
"Not just the hacker world," Jemma corrects. "He infiltrated the Kremlin."
"Yeah, the picture of Putin shirtless on horseback, that was his hack," Fitz agrees.
"It was also his hack that got Chan kidnapped," Grant points out.
Coulson orders May to set a course for Austin so that they can bring in Lydon, and Skye's reaction to those orders makes it even more obvious that something's up here. She's definitely got some sort of connection to Lydon. But is he just a fellow member of the Rising Tide? Or something more?
They're a few hours from Austin, so after ordering Skye to put together a list of other places Lydon frequents from his credit card statement, Coulson ends the briefing and dismisses them. May follows Coulson out of the room, and Grant has a feeling they've picked up on Skye's hesitation, as well. They'll plan around it, he's sure.
In the meantime, he snags Jemma in the lounge before she can go back down to the lab.
"Thank you," he says to her. "For, uh, Battleship."
"You're welcome," she says brightly. Then she wilts a little. "I suppose the timing could have been better, though."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I pushed you to play with Skye, to—to bond with her like you did Fitz, and then this happens."
"I don't think a friendly suggestion you didn't even make in person counts as pushing," he muses. "And, hey, Skye didn't hack SHIELD."
"But she didn't look very happy to be proven innocent, did she?" Jemma points out.
"No," he agrees. He's surprised, and honestly a little proud, that she noticed. It's not easy for someone like Jemma to be suspicious of her friends, so it would be understandable if she just brushed the whole topic away, once Skye's innocence was proven. He hates the sadness he can see in her face, so he changes the subject. "But back to my original point, I'm impressed. I had no idea you were up to anything when you asked me which game was my favorite."
She brightens. "Really? Oh, good. Deception isn't my strong suit, but I thought I'd managed well this morning."
"You did," he assures her. He tucks some of her hair behind her ear, lets his fingers linger on her cheek for a moment before he drops his hand. "I had no idea."
"Excellent," she says with a little clap. "And perhaps once we've found Mr. Chan, you and I could play? I've never actually played Battleship, so you'll have to show me how, but…"
"I'd like that," he says honestly. He glances at the briefing room, where Skye is still standing at the table. "But in the meantime, we've got some work to do."
"Yes, we do," Jemma says. "So I suppose I'll see you in Austin, then."
"In Austin," he agrees. He watches her go, then heads for Coulson's office. There's no way it's an accident that Skye's been left alone in the briefing room, which means Coulson has a plan. Grant needs to know what that plan is so that he can determine whether he needs one of his own.
He doesn't think that Skye has malicious intentions. Even if she's playing them—likely, given her attitude to the discovery of Lydon's identity—he doesn't think she intends to cause them any harm. But he's not willing to risk Jemma's safety on what he thinks Skye intends.
After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Grant knows that better than anyone.
x
Once they land in Austin, Coulson outlines the plan in the briefing room. Skye will go to the café Lydon used to hack SHIELD Hong Kong. If he's there, she'll alert the rest of them and keep an eye on him until they arrive to arrest him. If he's not there, she'll pose as a friend who's looking for him and find out if he's been there recently.
Grant, meanwhile, will be going to the next likely place to find Lydon—a coffeehouse a few blocks away. His credit card is charged there nearly every day, so it seems like a safe bet. Coulson will be waiting in the SUV on a nearby street, in case Lydon tries to run. Jemma and Fitz will remain on the Bus, as they're not trained to apprehend suspects, and might do more harm than good.
The rest of the team is told that May will be checking out another one of the locations on the list of places Lydon frequents, but she'll actually be hanging back and trailing Skye, just in case. The three of them all agreed that until they leave Austin with Lydon in custody, Skye should be considered just as much of a suspect as he is. Her reaction to discovering that he was behind the hack is enough cause for concern.
The coffeehouse is crowded enough that Grant decides not to go in. There's no room to maneuver in there at all, and if he lets himself get trapped by the crowd in there, he could very easily lose Lydon—if he is inside, that is. So instead, he decides to linger in the street outside and keep watch on the door.
"Just left the café where Miles logged in," Skye reports. "Cashier says she hasn't seen him in over a week."
Grant files away the first-name reference to Lydon as a man exits the coffeehouse. It may be Lydon—coloring is right, as is height and build, but he can't get a good look at the man's face, so he can't be sure.
"I may have eyes on him," he says into his comm. He pretends to be interested in a sign advertising an upcoming music festival, and watches from his peripheral vision as the man looks around. It's definitely Lydon, and he seems to freeze when he sees Grant. Grant makes eye contact, and Lydon takes off at once.
Not a good sign, he notes as he gives chase. There's nothing that should set Grant apart from any other man on the street, and as far as they know, Lydon isn't aware that anyone's after him. Things aren't looking good for Skye.
"I've been made," he reports as he dodges pedestrians. "Heading east on Fifth Street."
The crowd slows him down too much, and he reaches the corner to see Lydon getting into a vehicle.
"Target is now in a silver Jetta," he announces as Lydon drives away.
"I got him," Coulson says, and the SUV takes off after the Jetta.
There's nothing else for Grant to do here. Luckily, the SHIELD base just outside of the city was happy enough to loan the team one of their fleet vehicles, which Coulson is driving, so he's not stranded here until Coulson comes back. He heads for the Bus' SUV and is just buckling his seatbelt when Coulson reports in.
"I lost him," Coulson says. "He somehow managed to switch all of the lights to green."
"What are your orders, sir?" Grant asks.
"We all have copies of the list of Lydon's frequent stops," Coulson says. "Pick a location and check it out. Maintain radio silence—only activate the comms if you find him. He was obviously expecting us, and it's possible he's somehow monitoring our communication."
Grant figures that Coulson doesn't believe that any more than he does. It's incredibly likely that Lydon knew they were coming because Skye tipped him off. They'd been expecting it—had actually deliberately given Skye the chance, by leaving her alone after the initial briefing en route to Texas. Letting Skye go to Lydon takes care of two birds with one stone. They find Lydon, and they have proof of Skye's intentions.
Of course, there's a chance that she's not involved in this at all—that Lydon really was monitoring their comms, that maybe he found out about them hacking his credit card statement and was keeping an eye out for unusual activity—but Grant wouldn't bet on it. He's been suspicious of Skye since day one, and he's pretty sure he's about to be proven right.
Sure enough, it's not even half an hour later that he gets a text from May.
Skye's at Lydon's apartment with him, the text says. She tipped him off.
A second later, he gets another text, this one from Coulson.
Go get FitzSimmons and meet us at Lydon's place.
He texts back a simple Wilco and starts the car, heading for the private airstrip they landed at. As he drives, he finds himself musing over what this development means. He's honestly disappointed. From a tactical standpoint, Skye has been a lot of help to the team, and it won't be easy to find a suitable replacement in SHIELD communications. On a personal level, she and Jemma have become very good friends, and Jemma will be upset by this. Even Grant had found himself starting to warm up to Skye.
So while he's not surprised by this development, he's also not pleased.
When he reaches the hangar, he finds Jemma and Fitz waiting outside with a black duffle bag. He's barely pulled to a stop when they're climbing into the car, Jemma into the passenger seat and Fitz in the back with the duffle.
"Agent Coulson texted us," Jemma offers by way of explanation.
"But there must be some mistake," Fitz says as Grant pulls away from the hanger. "Skye's working with Lydon?"
"I don't know that she was working with him," Grant corrects. "She tipped him off that we were after him, but that doesn't mean she was involved in his hack."
Fitz doesn't look placated, but he doesn't speak again. None of them do. The ride to Lydon's apartment passes in complete silence. Grant occasionally glances at Jemma, but he can't tell what she's thinking. She's wearing a little frown, picking at the knee of her jeans, but she doesn't look sad or angry. Just thoughtful.
They're just pulling into the parking lot when his comm activates.
"You can come up now," May says. "Now that Skye and her friend are dressed."
Grant shakes his head. That clears up some of Skye's motivation, but it certainly doesn't make things better.
"What?" Jemma asks, seeing the look on his face. She and Fitz aren't on comms, so they won't have heard what he just did.
"Sounds like Skye and Lydon were busy when Coulson got here," he tells her. "May had to wait for them to get dressed."
Jemma sighs and gets out of the car. Grant and Fitz silently do the same, and Grant leads the way upstairs to Lydon's apartment. Inside, they find Skye sitting on the couch while Coulson rifles through a bookcase. May is in the next room with a handcuffed Lydon.
"FitzSimmons, get what you can off of the computer," Coulson orders, motioning to the desk. "Ward, take a look around, see if you can find anything about the information Lydon took."
"Yes, sir," Grant agrees, and moves to do just that.
He's not particularly careful as he rifles through drawers and pulls things off of shelves. Maybe it's petty of him, but he finds it makes him feel a little better to make a mess of Lydon's things. As he does so, he sees May close the doors to the bedroom, and Coulson begins to question Skye.
Grant listens with half an ear, and it's about what he expected. Skye and Lydon are old friends, she tipped him off because she owes him, and according to her own questioning of him, Lydon's a dead end. He's a little amazed that she honestly seems to think they'll take her word for that.
There's nothing in the kitchen, so Grant crosses the room to look through the shelves near the desk. Jemma and Fitz are attempting to rationalize Skye's actions as they go download Lydon's files onto a portable hard drive.
"We've been through so much together, and she didn't even tell us that she…has a guy," Fitz says to Jemma. It's obvious he's jealous, but it's also obvious that he's genuinely hurt, and Grant can't help but pity him a little.
He knows, from both Fitz's file and from what Jemma's told him, that Fitz's timer has always been blank. It's likely that his soulmate, whoever he or she may be, lives in a part of the world that doesn't use timers. Which means his chances of ever finding her are pretty small—although, granted, working on this team increases them a little, since they're making a habit of globe-trotting. So it's natural that Fitz would be interested in Skye, someone who doesn't have a timer and never will, and is therefore just as unlikely to find her soulmate. The two of them have, over the last few weeks, bonded over that, and evidence of Skye's shared bond with someone else is obviously painful for Fitz.
"Well, who knows what they've been through together?" Jemma asks reasonably.
It's not a surprise that she's slower to condemn Skye than the rest of them. One of Jemma's (many, many) good qualities is her ability to see the best in people. He just hopes, for her sake, that she'll be proven right in this case.
Coulson knocks a few books off of the bookcase and then goes to the bedroom and opens the doors.
"Anything?" he asks May. The response is obviously negative, because he orders, "Gather all the evidence and secure the prisoners. We got what we were looking for here. We're going to Hong Kong."
Grant tosses down the file he's been looking through—nothing worthwhile—and walks over to the couch, pulling out his handcuffs as he does.
"I'm so sorry, Ward," Skye tells him. "This is not what it looks—"
"Hands," he interrupts. When she holds them up, he locks the cuffs around her wrists. "Now get up."
He doesn't bother to keep an eye on her as he turns away. He knows she won't be trying anything. And honestly, even if she does, there's no way she can take him out. Skye's not a threat to him. Not physically, anyway. But Jemma's continued reluctance to view Skye as a threat at all (as evidenced by her kindness in pointing out that Skye missed a button) could be a problem.
He doesn't want her to become suspicious and jaded like him. But he worries that she's going to get hurt, giving Skye a second chance. If this incident has taught them anything, it's that Skye's first loyalty is not to SHIELD. And that means she can't be trusted, no matter what her reasons.
x
Back on the Bus, Skye and Lydon are deposited in the Cage. Grant keeps an eye on the security feed from the briefing room while Jemma and Fitz go through everything they took from Lydon's apartment. After a while, he has to mute the feed, because Lydon is really getting on his nerves.
"Guy's hiding behind platitudes," he says, turning away from the feed to stand next to Jemma. "He's dirty. I can feel it."
"Scrubbed clean, actually," Jemma corrects with an unhappy frown. She goes on to explain that he has no documented background, his apartment's under an alias, and his only online activity is some sort of game.
"Keep looking," he tells her. "There's gotta be something."
Fifteen minutes later, Fitz makes a triumphant noise. "Got something here. Look."
Jemma leans over his shoulder. "Deposit slips?"
"A million dollars all together," Fitz tells her. "That's suspicious, isn't it?"
"Oh, yeah," Grant agrees. He takes the envelope from Fitz and slides the deposit slips back in. "It also might be just what we need to get some answers. Nice work, Fitz."
Fitz gives him a half-pleased, half-wary look. It's a familiar sight these days—Grant's efforts to be nicer to him are getting mixed results, as Fitz can't seem to decide whether he should be appreciative or paranoid about it. It's honestly pretty hilarious, so Grant doesn't mind the suspicion.
"I'll go see what Lydon has to say about this," Grant says.
"I'll alert Agent Coulson," Jemma volunteers.
"And I'll…keep looking through this mess," Fitz concludes glumly.
Grant claps him on the shoulder (earning another one of those looks) and heads for the Cage. He's definitely going to enjoy this.
In the Cage, Skye and Lydon are sitting in silence, and Skye straightens when Grant walks in. He ignores her and looks at Lydon.
"She's been defending you," he says. "Saying you're a stand-up guy. So I'm gonna give you a chance." He drops the envelope with the deposit slips on the table. "You wanna tell her? Or should I?"
Lydon gives him a dirty look. "I don't have to listen to you—"
"There goes your chance," Grant interrupts. He picks up the envelope and turns to Skye, begins to lay out the deposit slips as he speaks. "Your boyfriend here made a few deposits in the days following the leak. All said, it's about a million dollars."
"What?" Skye asks.
"Real stand-up guy," Grant says.
"I can explain—" Lydon begins.
"Did you sell information?" Skye demands. "Miles. Yes or no? Did you?"
"Yes, but—"
"Oh, you're so dead!" she shouts, trying to get across the table but stopped by her handcuffs. "What the hell were you thinking?"
"It was a million dollars," Lydon says. "A million dollars. It would change my life. Our lives. And that woman was harmless, I looked into it."
Grant almost rolls his eyes. He did it for love? Really? That's what he's going with?
"No one with good intentions pays that kind of money for information," Skye points out, clearly furious. "Did you ever think about that?"
"Of course I did, I never would've done it if I thought—"
"Who's the woman you referred to?" Grant interrupts. He's gotten what he wanted out of the revelation—Skye's honest reaction, which is enough to convince him she really had no idea—and now he needs to find out what this asshole knows so they can dump him in a hole somewhere.
"A fan of the Rising Tide, some rich girl in a flower dress. She knew all about me, said I had a gift. She thought people like us…deserved more."
"Oh, you deserve more," Skye agrees. He has to admit it's satisfying to see her so thoroughly disillusioned, after the way she defended the guy earlier.
"She pointed me to a Chinese SHIELD feed, wanted me to crack it," Lydon continues.
"You thought that was harmless?" Grant asks. Seriously, what is with these activist types? Do they think SHIELD keeps secrets because, what, they get a kick out of it? Grant hasn't forgotten that the Rising Tide is the reason his mission in Paris went FUBAR, and he would've thought he couldn't hate them more, but…wow.
"I checked the data stream, it didn't seem like anything you and I hadn't already put out there, Skye," Lydon says, looking beseechingly at her. "And I traced the account where the money came from to make sure it wasn't some evil corporation. It was just an eco-research lab, otherwise I would never have—"
"Ecological research?" Grant asks, leaning against the table. That's an interesting front.
"Yeah, insects," Lydon says. "Some study with centipedes."
…Shit.
"What's more harmless than that?" Lydon continues, as Grant and Skye exchange a dark look.
This explains a lot. Grant would really prefer not to be going up against Garrett's organization—his organization—again, but. Well. There's no helping it.
Still, it's a good thing he's so well-trained, or there's no way he'd be able to suppress the urge to beat his head against the wall. Why do they keep coming across Garrett's assets? Of all the SHIELD teams in the world, why this one?
"What?" Lydon asks, looking between them. "What did I say?"
Grant doesn't bother to answer. He pushes off the table and leaves the Cage.
Back in the lounge, he can see through the windows into the briefing room, where Jemma and Fitz are deep in discussion. Having spent so much of the last month hanging around the lab, he recognizes the pattern of conversation—Jemma's constant stream of words and Fitz's occasional interruption—enough to guess that Jemma's theorizing about something. Most likely what Centipede could want with Chan.
He meets Coulson at the bottom of the stairs.
"Centipede again," Coulson mutters.
"Not good news for Mr. Chan," Grant feels compelled to point out.
"No," Coulson agrees. "Get the account information from Mr. Lydon, then send it in to HQ. We'll get communications on it, see what they can find."
"Yes, sir."
x
The flight to Hong Kong is nearly eighteen hours long. By hour six, they have a probable location for Chan and a tentative plan of what to do when they get there. That leaves them twelve hours, which will put them at about 9 am, Bus time.
One of the problems with flying all over the world is the constantly changing time zones. It can be difficult to keep track of the day and time, which makes planning for things like meals and sleep complicated. Therefore, the team has adopted what they call Bus-time, or BST. All of the clocks on the Bus are set to the Academy's time zone, and they never change that, no matter where in the world they are. They keep clocks in various places around the Bus set to local time, for reference, but they keep their schedules based around BST, just to keep things simple.
And according to BST, they'll be flying through the night to get to Hong Kong. So, once the briefing is complete, Grant heads down to the cargo bay for his evening training. Jemma follows him down, and he's not really surprised when she takes a seat on the steps instead of going into the lab.
"The best present I ever received was a children's chemistry set, on my eighth birthday," she says, apropos of nothing, as Grant begins his routine. "It was far below my level, of course, and it provided me very little in the way of entertainment. That wasn't what made it special."
"So what did?" he asks.
"It was from my Gran—my mum's mum—and it was special because she'd never given me anything educational before. She always gave me dolls and clothes and the like, because she thought it would make me normal. She used to say that a lot—normal. 'Jemmy'd be more normal if you'd just make her watch more telly' and 'Jemmy isn't normal, maybe you should take her to a doctor' and 'don't let the neighbors talk to Jemmy, they'll realize she isn't normal'—it's all I ever heard from her. Well, she was speaking to my parents, of course, but always loudly enough for me to hear it."
She taps her nails against the railing while Grant frowns at the ground.
"Of course, it made me horribly self-conscious. By the time I was seven, I dreaded seeing her. I used to go and hide in my room whenever she came to visit—which only made her more certain I wasn't normal. So it was a complete shock when she gave me that chemistry set. She told me that it was a little advanced for my age, but she was sure I'd figure it out, since I was such a little genius. And she said it so—so nicely. And, you know, from that day to the day she died, I never once heard her say normal again."
He sits back on his heels, trying to think of something to say.
"I don't know why, but I've been thinking of that all day," Jemma continues, saving him. "I suppose it's just…Skye never had that. She's an orphan, so she's never had well-meaning family members to hurt her feelings, or parents to set those well-meaning family members straight, as I've always expected my dad did. She never had birthdays where all of her relatives fussed over her, or—or anything like that. And I know you didn't either, and it doesn't excuse what Skye did, it's just. I can see how she might have…latched on to Miles, and…I understand why she might be torn between us and him. Especially if she trusted his good intentions."
Grant still doesn't know what to say. He's uncomfortably aware of the parallels here—Skye's past with Lydon beating her loyalty to them—with his own loyalty to Garrett. What he owes Garrett far outweighs any allegiance he holds to SHIELD, and Jemma's words—that it doesn't excuse Skye's actions—make him strangely uneasy.
But it's different, he assures himself. No one will be hurt by Garrett's plan. The only life that hangs in the balance is Garrett's, and even if she might not approve of the methods, Jemma would definitely approve of saving it. After all, it's the whole reason she signed up with SHIELD—to save lives.
"I get it," he finally says. "Why she was torn, but…she turned her back on us. Chan's life is in the balance. If Lydon had taken off instead of going back to his apartment, we might not have found him in time to save Chan. We still might not. And that's on Skye."
"I know, I'm sorry," she says quietly. "It's just…"
"It's just you like to see the best in people," he interrupts. "And that's nothing to be sorry about."
(And if anyone tries to take advantage of her kind nature…well, Grant will be happy to show them the error of their ways.)
He decides impulsively to cut his training short. It's been a long, strangely emotional day, and tomorrow is likely to be more of the same. He'll have no trouble sleeping tonight.
"Come on," he says, standing. "I'm done for tonight, and you look about ready to fall over."
"I am," she says, leaning against him for a brief moment before she starts up the stairs. "I could sleep for a week."
"Unfortunately, all you can get is ten hours," he tells her as they cross through the lounge. "So I won't keep you any longer. Goodnight, Jemma."
"Goodnight, Grant. Sleep well."
"You, too," he says as she slides her door closed.
There are things he could be doing to prepare for tomorrow's op, but he's pretty exhausted, too. He'll deal with it in the morning.
x
In the morning—which is the middle of the night in Hong Kong—he's just strapping on his vest when Coulson stops him.
"Agent May and I will be handling the field work," he says. "You stay and oversee the prisoners."
He starts to walk away and Grant blinks after him. He's supposed to be responsible for field work. That's literally the entire reason he's here. (As far as Coulson knows, at least.) Furthermore, as Skye's SO, this whole mess is technically his responsibility. He had ample opportunity to cross Skye off, and he considered it more than once, but ultimately, he let emotion sway him. This is on him.
"Sir?" he asks. "I was Skye's SO, it was my responsibility—"
"It was my call to bring Skye onto the plane," Coulson interrupts. "And you warned me against it."
Well that's certainly true.
"My problem," Coulson finishes. "I fix it."
He walks away, and Grant shakes his head a little. The whole situation is a little surreal, but at least he won't have to go up against Centipede operatives. He has absolutely no loyalty to them, and he doesn't mind crossing them off, but it's still a little strange. And there's always a little part of him that expects one of them to announce to the whole team that he's behind Centipede. Which is ridiculous, obviously, because none of the Centipede employees even know that Garrett is involved, let alone Grant. But he can't help worrying about it.
Since he isn't going into the field for this one, he strips off his vest as he heads upstairs. Jemma and Fitz are going to monitor the op from the briefing room, and apparently he'll be joining them.
Jemma blinks at him when he enters the room. "Grant? What are you still doing here?"
"Coulson's taking this one," he tells her, leaning against the table. "Apparently he feels responsible for Skye's screw up."
"Oh, well," she says, wrinkling her nose a bit. "That's…good?"
"You don't sound too sure, there," he notes.
"Well, it's not that I'm unhappy you won't be throwing yourself into danger today," she says. "But Agent Coulson isn't a specialist. This is your area of expertise, not his."
He has to hold back a smile, both at her concern for him and the way her thoughts mirror his.
"Coulson may not be a specialist, but he can handle himself," he assures her. "And he's got May with him. They'll be fine."
"Of course," she agrees. The table beeps, and she looks down. "Oh! Fitz, could you—"
"On it," Fitz says. He pokes at his tablet for a moment. "Try that."
"Yes, that's done it," Jemma says. "So, comms are up and secure—"
"The team's just arrived at the location," Fitz continues.
"All that's left to do is wait," Jemma finishes, biting her lip.
Of course, the team's luck being what it is, things aren't that simple. Coulson and May have barely entered the building when it goes into lockdown, and Coulson calls on them for help.
"Fitz?" Grant says.
Fitz taps frantically at the table for a few moments, then shakes his head. "I can't get into their system! I'm an engineer, not a bloody hacker!"
Grant doesn't bother to respond. He just takes off for the Cage. Transgressions aside, he knows Skye cares about Coulson. She'll do her best to save him.
She and Lydon both look up when he bursts through the door.
"Coulson's in trouble," he says, hurrying to unlock Skye's handcuffs. "We need you to override the building's security."
She's up and out of the Cage as soon as the handcuffs click off, and Grant hesitates before following her. Lydon might come in handy, and they don't have time to be running back and forth from the Cage all morning.
"If you try anything," he says, bending to unlock the cuffs from the table. He's not about to trust this guy to walk around free. "I'll break your neck. Got it?"
"Got it," Lydon says, standing.
He leads Lydon to the briefing room to find Skye already hard at work, frantically trying to hack Centipede's system.
"What—what is he doing? What are you doing?" Fitz demands when he sees Lydon.
Grant ignores him, shoving Lydon to stand on one side of Skye, then taking his place on the other. It's not an accident that this puts Jemma as far away from Lydon as possible. Just because Grant's confident in his ability to cross this guy off in seconds doesn't mean he's going to take chances.
"The entire facility's been locked down," Jemma frets. He has absolutely no comfort to offer her. Things really aren't looking good, and it's not encouraging that they haven't heard anything from Coulson since he reported that Chan lost it.
"Are you sure about this?" Fitz presses.
"No," Grant admits.
"The alarm's disconnected the system from all exterior servers," Skye says.
"Can you fix it, or not?" he demands, although he actually understood that and is pretty sure of the answer.
"Yes, but you gotta get me on site."
"Not a chance," he denies.
"No way," Lydon says at the same time.
Grant gives Lydon a dirty look. It pains him to be in agreement with this idiot, and the fact that he thinks he actually has any say in this really pisses Grant off.
"You're a hacker, Skye, not SEAL Team Six," Lydon continues.
"No," Skye agrees. "But he is."
Grant always appreciates his skill being acknowledged, but it'll take more than flattery to convince him to take Skye into the building. She's untrained and untrustworthy, and furthermore, taking her in means leaving Lydon alone with Jemma and Fitz.
But they still haven't heard anything from Coulson and May. And Lydon has no history of violence. Even if he did, what the hell would he do? They're in Hong Kong, there's no way he can fly the Bus, and he doesn't have his passport or any money.
Grant hates it, but he'll have to risk it.
"Fine. We're going in," he tells Skye.
She takes a deep breath, and he pulls out his backup pistol and hands it to Jemma. He's worked with her and Fitz in the makeshift shooting range in storage 3A, so he knows she's the better shot.
"If he makes one wrong move, shoot him," he instructs.
"Absolutely," she says at once. He honestly doubts it, but at least she seems to realize how difficult it is for him to leave her here with a known criminal. And hopefully, just the threat will be enough to keep Lydon in line. Jemma squeezes his hand. "Good luck."
"Good luck," Fitz echoes. He's keeping a wary eye on Lydon, Grant notes in approval.
"Let's go," he says to Skye, and they exit the briefing room. He pauses briefly to pick up his vest from where he left it on the couch in the lounge, then leads the way down to the cargo bay and the SUV.
The Bus is in a parking lot mercifully close to where Chan's being held, and it's barely five minutes before Grant's leading the way into the building.
The place is crawling with security, which slows their progress a little, but none of them are especially well-trained. It's no trouble to take them down, and they're on the fourth floor within minutes.
"Where are we on the doors?" May suddenly asks. It's a relief that she's well enough to speak, but her urgent tone suggests that they still haven't taken Chan down, so Grant speeds up a bit.
"Almost there," he answers, throwing one of the guards into the wall. He punches the next one out and elbows a third who's reaching for Skye. Then he grabs Skye's arm and pulls her along behind him as he heads for the security office.
It's just down the hall, and he lets go of Skye so she can take a seat. He resolves not to bug her about her progress, but that only lasts for about five seconds.
"How long is this gonna take?" he asks, unable to help himself.
"Done," she says, standing.
Well, that was easy. He follows Skye out of the office and looks around, considering his next move.
"Simmons," Coulson suddenly says. "Are the building's computers back online?"
"Yes," Jemma answers after a brief pause.
"Uncuff Miles," Coulson orders. "We're gonna need his help."
Grant barely keeps from swearing. "Sir?"
"I know you don't like it, Ward," Coulson says. "I don't either. But our only option is to let Chan blow, and we need to minimize the damage. The best way to do that is to redirect the blast through the vents on the roof. You got that, Simmons?"
"Miles is on it, sir," Jemma replies.
"May and I will handle Chan. Ward, you and Skye collect the other agents in the building and get out."
"Yes, sir," Grant answers, and motions Skye down the hall.
They come across one of the Hong Kong agents less than a minute later, and he uses his radio to alert the rest of his team to get out. That simplifies the job tremendously, and the three of them head for the bottom floor.
"I managed to extract some files and send them to the Bus," Skye tells him breathlessly as they run down the stairs, the Hong Kong agent in the lead. "Not a lot, but…"
"Every bit helps," he agrees. "The more we can find out about Centipede, the better."
They meet up with Coulson and May in the lobby, and the five of them burst through the doors and out into the street. They make it just in time, and they all stare up in awe as flames shoot from the vents in the roof and spiral into the air. As the explosion dies out, Grant fills Coulson in on what Skye did. There's an odd tone to Coulson's voice when he replies, and Grant realizes he's upset about what happened with Chan.
"You can't save someone from themselves, sir," he says.
"You can if you get to 'em early enough," Coulson counters, and Grant has to concede that point. After all, that's exactly what Garrett did for him. Coulson looks pointedly at Skye, and she looks away.
Grant wonders if that means that Coulson's going to try and save Skye, give her another chance and let her stay on the Bus. He's not sure how he feels about the idea. On the one hand, this op has proven how valuable a member of the team Skye is—they'd have been utterly screwed without her. On the other…
She's still holding back. She betrayed them yesterday to help out Lydon, but it's really just a coincidence they ended up with this case. So she didn't join the team for him. She joined for another reason, and Grant won't accept her on the team until he knows for sure what that reason was. He won't risk Jemma.
"There's nothing more we can do here," Coulson says finally. "We'll leave the clean up to the Hong Kong office. Let's go."
The car May and Coulson took to the scene belongs to SHIELD Hong Kong, so all four of them will be riding back to the Bus in their SUV. Coulson waves Grant to the driver's seat, and he takes it without comment. He's concerned, though—both about Coulson's mental state, and the possibility of Skye being invited to stay with the team.
No one speaks on the drive back to the Bus, and he's thankful to park in the cargo bay so he can get away from the oppressive silence. They troop upstairs and find Jemma and Fitz waiting in the lounge, with Lydon off sulking near the kitchen.
After the requisite greetings, assurances that no one's significantly injured, and expressions of relief that the whole team made it out alive, Grant jerks his chin in Lydon's direction.
"He behave?" he asks.
"He wanted to stay in the briefing room and play with our system," Jemma says, following his gaze. "I'm afraid he's pouting a bit, since we wouldn't let him."
"He listened when you said no?" he asks, a little impressed.
"He did when Simmons threatened to shoot him," Fitz interjects.
Well, now he's a lot impressed. And, honestly, a bit turned on. That's just…really hot.
Jemma clears her throat, blushing a little. "Speaking of which," she says, and hands him his gun. He's not wearing his second holster, not needing it when Jemma had this gun, so he tucks it into the waistband of his pants.
"You really threatened to shoot him?" Coulson asks, obviously amused.
"She even took the safety off," Fitz tells him. "Ward is clearly a terrible influence."
"I wouldn't have really done it," Jemma defends. "And in any case, the threat was enough."
Grant smiles to himself as he unclips his vest. He wouldn't consider himself a terrible influence, but it's true that there's no way Jemma would have ever threatened to shoot someone when they first met. It's probably not a good thing, and he would hate for her to lose her kind nature, but…It's nice to know he's not the only one being influenced, here.
"Set a course for the states," Coulson orders May. "We'll be leaving as soon as we get rid of our guest."
May nods and heads for the cockpit. Coulson turns to Skye.
"If you'd like to say goodbye, you can wait for him in the cargo bay," he says flatly.
"Thank you," she says, and leaves the lounge.
"We're not leaving Skye, as well?" Jemma asks cautiously.
"Not here, at least," Coulson answers. "Ward, do we have any tracking bracelets on board?"
"Yes, sir," Grant says. "They're in storage 2B. Would you like me to go get one?"
"That's not necessary," Coulson says. "I'm sure I can find them."
He motions sharply to Lydon, who joins them in the lounge. Grant's amused to note that the hacker keeps his distance from both him and Jemma.
"Downstairs," Coulson orders. "Now."
He follows Lydon out of the lounge, and Grant blows out a slow breath.
"Not here," Fitz says quietly. "So, is Skye going to be…?"
"I don't know," Jemma responds, equally as quiet. "She was a lot of help today, but…"
"That's up to Coulson, and I don't think he's decided yet," Grant tells them. "In the meantime, Skye managed to send some of Centipede's files to our system, if you'd like to take a look."
He's betting that the chance to get some information on the Centipede serum and the associated tech will be enough to distract the two scientists, and he's right. Jemma hesitates before going to the briefing room.
"I know you want to look at those files," he tells her. "Go. We'll talk later."
"Do you need—?"
"No need for medical attention," he promises. "Not even a scratch."
"Good," she says. She squeezes his hand briefly, then follows Fitz to the briefing room.
Grant heads for the bar, after a brief detour to drop his vest in his room. He's not surprised to find May already there.
"Drink?" she offers as he takes the stool next to her.
"Please," he says. As she pours, he adds, "Make it a double."
"Is there any other kind?" she asks.
He flicks a thoughtful glance at her. He's not sure where he stands with May. He knows he doesn't have her trust, not completely, and that's natural, but it's also inconvenient. If Jemma weren't his soulmate, if this were just a normal mission, he might find a way to become intimate with May. Let her be in control, show that he trusts her and it doesn't bother him to take a backseat to what she wants, and she'd probably dismiss him as a threat.
He doesn't regret finding Jemma, of course, but she does add some extra dimensions to this mission. He'll have to find another way to gain May's trust. He's not sure how, but he'll think of something eventually.
He hears footsteps behind him and recognizes them as Skye's, but he doesn't turn around. Instead, he picks up his drink.
"So, I'm going to Coulson's office now," Skye says. "Figured you might wanna be there…being my SO and all."
Grant shakes his head, keeping his eyes on his drink. "I'm off the clock."
"Right," Skye says. "Okay, then."
She hesitates for a long moment, then walks away, and Grant knocks back half his drink. He doesn't know what Coulson's going to do. He doesn't know what he wants Coulson to do. At the moment, he mostly just wants to hit something.
May finishes her drink and sets the glass down.
"Wheels up in three," she warns him, then walks away. He does like that about her—no unnecessary conversation.
He lingers at the bar long after he's finished his drink, watching through the windows of the briefing room as Jemma and Fitz argue over whatever's in the Centipede files. He's not concerned about that—there's no way anything in those files leads back to Garrett, or to him. Garrett's too cautious. Everything Centipede-related is going to be a dead end, no matter how hard the team searches.
He hears footsteps, and Coulson takes a seat next to him.
"Skye's staying on," he says as he pours himself a drink. "She'll wear a tracking bracelet, and we'll keep a close eye on her, but I don't think she'll do anything like this again."
Grant nods silently.
"You disagree?" Coulson asks.
"No, sir."
Coulson raises an eyebrow at him.
"I'm…concerned about Skye's motives," he says carefully. "All this time, she's been holding back. That wasn't because of Lydon. She had no idea he was going to hack us, so she didn't join SHIELD because of him. Which begs the question, why did she?"
Coulson sets his glass down. "She's looking for information on her parents."
"Sir?"
"The only thing she's been able to find about her placement at the orphanage she grew up in is a redacted file," Coulson says.
"Redacted by SHIELD?" Grant guesses.
"Yep."
Well. That explains a lot, doesn't it? Everything Skye said after the op in Malta, about wanting to belong, takes on a whole new meaning.
"Huh," he says.
"That clear things up for you?"
"Yes, sir."
"So, you'll be okay keeping Skye on the team," Coulson presses.
"You don't need my blessing for that, sir," Grant points out. Or anything, really. Coulson's his CO. Grant's opinions on his decisions count for exactly nothing.
"No," Coulson agrees. "But I'd like it. I'd like you to keep training her. And I need to know if you're going to be willing to work with her."
He takes a deep breath. "She saved our asses today. It's obvious we need her. And if this is all she's hiding, I'll give her another shot."
He stands, then pauses.
"But if she turns on us again, I'm crossing her off," he warns Coulson. "With or without your permission."
"Fair enough," Coulson agrees, and Grant walks away.
He still really wants to hit something. So he's gonna go do that.
x
A few hours later, his frustration effectively taken out on the punching bag, he settles on the couch in the lounge with his newest book, Ridgway's The Korean War. Usually he does his reading in the lab, but Jemma's been back and forth to the briefing room all morning, so the lounge seems like a better choice.
He's only been reading for about twenty minutes when Jemma comes out of the briefing room and, instead of heading down to the lab again, flops down beside him. He closes his book and sets it aside as she slumps against him.
"Everything okay?" he asks.
"I don't know Chinese," she says, a little petulantly. "Why did I never think to learn Chinese? It's the most widely spoken language on the planet, how did it not occur to me that knowing it may come in handy?"
He holds back a laugh and slips his arm around her shoulders. "Can't read the files?"
"Only five of them are in English," she confirms. "We've sent the rest off to HQ for translation, but there's no telling when we'll get them back."
"I'm sorry," he says sincerely. "I know how curious you are about the Centipede serum."
"Yes, well, enough of that," she says. "There's nothing more I can do with what's in the English files, at least not today. And I believe you owe me a game of Battleship."
"I do," he agrees. He stands, then offers her a hand so she can do the same. "You wanna get some snacks while I go get the game?"
"Sounds good," she agrees, and they split off.
A few minutes later, he's setting up the game as she puts water bottles and a bowl of chips on the table. He takes a seat and offers brief instructions on the basics of the game, including how to set up her case.
"I just have one question, before we begin," she says, her hand hesitating over the bag of battleships.
"What's that?"
"Will the progress of our relationship be affected by how badly I beat you?" she asks.
And that—well, he can't let that go without retaliation.
It earns them a ten-minute long lecture on the evils of public displays of affection from a horrified Fitz, but the chase around the lounge—and the subsequent marathon make-out session—despite making him feel like he's in high school, is entirely worth it.