Chapter 23

Coulson dragged a hand over his face, wishing that hadn't just happened. Ward was still talking to the camera, possibly yelling. It was hard to tell when he was on mute. Though if his lip reading skills were any good, the spy had said his name along with Daisy's more than once, and the anger was clear on his face.

"Could have been worse." The director's gaze shot across the room, to where a very quiet May was standing. She was watching the man on screen yell god only knows what at them. Her stance was relaxed, but he was pretty sure there was a good amount of rage dancing under the surface.

"I'm not so sure I believe that." He buried his face back in his hands, wishing this was a dream, or that he had paid more attention to Lincoln's location. He should have known the inhuman would want to talk to the hydra agent, there was no reason he wouldn't want to. "It's a disaster."

"Because Ward thinks we're playing him for a fool?" He felt her hands fall on his shoulders. Applying pressure to help relieve some of the stress and relax him. Try to take some of the world's weight off him, if only for just a little while.

"He thinks Daisy still hates him."

'And she hates me. A lot.'

"His anger reveals his true feelings." The specialist pointed out, her gaze darting to the screen that showed Ward finally giving up on yelling at the camera. "If he did not still carry a flame, the thought of using Daisy against him would not have been so bitter."

Coulson looked up at her then, eye brows raised. As usual, she was right. How he had not noticed without her shedding light on it was a mystery. Since now that he thought about it, it was painfully obvious to the man. Reminded him of Providence, when they had been trying to figure out why Ward had come back.

'What do you have that he wants?'

'-Skye'

It all seemed so much more simple then, at least for a while there. When the world was only just starting to see what had been hiding in the shadows. Beginning to understand that the world they lived in was a lot more messed up than the government had wanted them to think. Before powered people started popping up all over the map, before Sokovia fell out of the sky.

Now, it was like the next arms race, except the weapons were inhumans. All the countries wanted to round up as many as they could, forgetting these people had once been normal humans like them. Having no regards for the life they had had or the life they wanted to have.

"I don't suppose you have an idea on how to convince him we haven't been lying?"

The fast that she smirked, the moment he asked, should have been enough to tell him he didn't want to know. Especially when it had to do with Grant Ward. As though reading his mind, she squeezed his shoulders again, attempting to reassure him.

"You're not going to like it."

-0-0-0-0-0-

And oh boy did he not like it. He hated this almost as much as Daisy risking her life to save the bastard. Coulson hadn't exactly been fond of Simmons' idea of streaming a live video of Ward for Daisy to watch when she woke up. Now he was being informed a similar video feed of the comatose agent was finished being set up in Vault D.

Sure, he understood May's plan, but at the same time he wanted nothing more than to demand she come up with something else. She was standing there beside him, smirk still stuck on her face, as they waited for the anesthetic to wear off. They'd sedated him before the tech lab got to work, ensuring there would be no problems with installation. At least none including him.

Coulson wanted to argue again what a stupid idea this was, but May cut him off with what Daisy liked to refer to as her Legendary-Ice-Queen-Stare.

"He won't listen to us. So maybe he'll listen to her."

"Except she needs to be able to talk for him to listen." He retorted rather harshly, reminding everyone in the room that it was the man in the cell that had done this to Daisy. Not that they would soon forget something like that.

May's gaze hardened impossibly so, yet somehow the tone she used came out incredibly gentle, if that were possible. "Simmons says Daisy should be waking up within the next day or so."

The next day or so, in Coulson's opinion couldn't come soon enough. He missed the crazy quake inhuman that was usually up to no good with her trusty inhuman side-kicks. The base was too quiet without her, even with a fourteen year old with claws and Fitz-Simmons pranking each other.

'I can't be a part of your bad girl shenanigans'

Thinking of Caleb, the director pulled up Daisy's feed beside Ward's. The telepathic inhuman was sitting on the bed, beside the female, reading a book out loud from the look of it.

"Does he know Ward now has visual of the containment room?"

The cavalry furrowed her brow beside him, shaking her head. Made sense, the teen had hardly left the quake inhuman's side, after he'd been given permission to visit. Something about not wanting her to feel lonely, at least that was what he'd told Lincoln.

"He knows. Fitz told him before they turned on the feed."

The two superior agents turned toward the voice, their expressions showing their displeasure. The reason for their trouble was standing in the door way rather awkwardly. No doubt expecting some kind of punishment for entering Vault D and turning Ward against the idea of Daisy having feelings for him.

Seeing he had their full attention, he straightened. "Ready to receive punishment for going against orders, sir. But I didn't mean for him to think we were playing him."

May crossed her arms beside him, her thoughts very clear to those that knew her. Coulson on the other hand, could only sigh in discontent. He really didn't want to deal with any of this right now, he just wanted to go sit with Daisy and maybe find out what Caleb was reading to her.

"Agent Mackenzie, escort Lincoln to inhuman containment room 2. I've had enough of his rule breaking for one life time."

The static inhuman did nothing to fight the order, allowing the engineer to guide him away. Coulson heard May scoff next him. Of course, if it wasn't one thing, it was another. He looked over at the specialist, arching a brow in question.

"You have something to add?"

She waited till the lower ranking agents had left the two of them alone, before she cast the man a small smirk. "No, but having agents break orders isn't exactly new for you."

The teasing tone had the director scowling off into space. "Doesn't mean I should let them off without some kind of punishment."

She almost looked like she might be pitying him, as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "If it had been Daisy, you would have let her go with just a warning." With that said, the specialist slipped out of the room, no doubt going to check on the sleeping inhuman before Ward woke up.

He hated it when she was right. Though if she had stayed longer, he would have pointed out that the spark inhuman had risked the quake's life and now risked the possibility of her ever getting the one she'd fought so hard to get back.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Sorry for the shortness and sorry for the wait. Had a lot running on my mind this past week. Including where I'm taking this fanfiction. I will not disclose any details, as I do not wish to accidentally spoil it, but I have written a basic outline of what happens from here, and even planned out the final chapter. How many chapters are left? I have no idea, it depends on how I put things together or stretch them into their own chapters.

All I know for sure is, this story is drawing nearer to an end. I give it maybe ten? Chapters tops?

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Please follow, favorite, and/or review!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with either this or my other Skyeward fic.

Until then?

Tootles!