Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews, I'm sorry everyone thinks my chapters are too short I try to reach 1000 words with each chapter but it sometimes doesn't happen, there are some longer chapters coming up but there are also some shorter ones. I promised myself I would update at 200 reviews but I didn't think I reach it this fast so it took me longer to update than I would have liked.

Chapter 25 - Alive

Skye just stared blankly at Ward, not comprehending the words he was saying, "My father?" she asked.

"Yes." Ward answered.

"Beat you?"

"Yes."

Skye was starting to get confused, "Then healed you?"

"I think so," Ward replied, keeping his voice neutral.

"How?"

"No Idea."

"My father?" Skye asked again.

"Yes." Was Ward's only response.

"How do you know?" Skye asked, still confused.

Ward raised an eyebrow, "How do I know what?"

"How do you know he's my father?" When Ward didn't answer, instead choosing to find something interesting about his hands, Skye felt anger rising in her, "Or maybe the better question is, how long have you known?"

Suddenly Skye slapped Ward in the back of the head, this time it wasn't the light tap she had given him earlier, this one was hard. Skye briefly wondered if this is how his family, how Garrett had treated him, but an instant later she didn't care, it got his attention and Ward looked up at her.

Even though Ward was now looking at her he still didn't answer, so Skye asked her questions again, "How do you know? And how long have you known?"

"About him? Since you left the Playground but I swear the first time I met him was four days ago." Ward finally answered.

"How. Do. You. Know?" Skye repeated, letting her anger seep into her words.

"It's a long story."

Resisting the urge to hit Ward again Skye replied, "Start talking then."

Ward sighed, finally taking a bite out of the food Skye had given him, "Look, I was in prison for months before Fury sprang me. When he did the first mission he have me was to help Romanoff secure a cure for Fitz."

Skye sighed, "I already know this, Ward. I read the damn notebook. Get to the point."

Ward bit his lip, clearly annoyed at Skye's interruption, but continued anyway, "My second mission was to track Raina down, that took a while," He paused and smiled, "Managed to get Quinn while I was looking for her."

"Is he dead? Did you kill him?" Skye asked quickly, afraid of what the answer might be, especially if Ward smiled at the thought of what he'd done to Quinn.

"I got in a few good punches but no I didn't kill him," Ward said shaking his head.

Skye let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. It was a relief to know that Ward hadn't killed again, even if it was Ian Quinn, "Sorry. Off topic. Continue."

"Eventually I managed to track Raina to this backwater little town. Only when I found her she wasn't exactly living."

Skye sat up straighter, "She was dead, how?"

Ward paused for a second, wondering how to phrase his answer, "Painfully."

Skye rubbed her eyes, clearly annoyed, "Not that this isn't interesting and no doubt something I needed to know but what does it have to do with my father?"

"Look," Ward said, "Point of the matter is I found DNA at Raina's, that of her killer, it was male and a partial match to yours."

Skye finally nodded in understanding, "My father?"

Ward just nodded.

"Killed Raina?" Skye added.

"I believe so." Was all Ward could say.

"Why here? Why now?" Skye asked.

"To be honest I only have theories." Ward stated.

Skye looked Ward in the eyes, "I've been waiting for answers my entire life, Ward. Please, it can't be worse than I've imagined."

"Skye…" Ward warned.

"Please," Skye begged, "Whatever the truth is I can handle it."

Ward nodded, deciding to tell the hacker everything, "When I was with Garrett part of my job was to work with Raina." He gave a brief look at Skye to see if she was listening, "She had a lot of interest in you, she said your DNA reminded her of a story she heard out of China over twenty years ago," Skye looked shocked but let Ward continue, "When I was with Fury I managed to get the whole story, at least SHIELD's version of it." Ward paused, giving Skye a chance to interrupt, she didn't so he continued, "I believe, and I'll point out this is only speculation, that your parents, or at least your father, lost track of you after SHIELD got you out of China. I think Raina contacted him after she left Garrett, told him she'd found you. He's been tracking you ever since. The men who attacked you worked for him."

Skye finally responded to Ward's story, "Those men were willing to do anything to get me to go with them. Are you telling me my father was willing to have me beaten to get his hands on me?"

"I'm sorry," Was all Ward could say, "but I think in his own way he was protecting you."

Skye stood up and spun to face Ward, "Protect me? Protect me, Ward? He was willing to hurt me and willing to kill you. What makes you think he was trying to protect me?"

Ward held up his hands, a sign of surrender, "When he saw I was willing to die to protect you he stopped trying to kill me. He warned me that others would be coming for you, people willing to kill. I made a deal, he'd keep his distance if I kept you safe."

Skye had been pacing, trying to keep calm, but at Ward's last sentence she spun back to face him, "Made a deal. Made a deal. Ward, I'm not a child. You can't make deals for my life and especially when you don't tell me about it."

Ward stood up, "I am telling you about it, Skye. You can hate me all you want but I don't care as long as you're safe."

"I do hate you," Skye yelled, not even thinking about the team hearing.

"Good," Ward yelled back, "I need you to hate me, I'll do my job better if you do."

The instant Skye kissed him he wasn't Grant Ward: traitor. He was Grant Ward: the man who had climbed a building half dead to reach her. As the kiss deepened he wasn't HYDRA and she wasn't SHIELD. And when their clothes started to come off and they made their way back to her bed, he wasn't the man she wanted dead, he was the man she'd fought to keep alive and the man she wanted to feel alive with.

Author's Note: So that happened. Let me know what you think.