Author's Note: A really short chapter, I'm sorry. But I thought about doing a time jump and going straight into a Skye chapter but I decided that I could do a short one and let it be another Ward chapter, considering it's a Ward story. It should be a longer chapter tomorrow.

This is a weird chapter and I apologize in advance for it, there were just some things that needed to be said.

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Chapter 30 - Those Left Behind

When the team left Paris Ward followed but they didn't make it easy. After spending nearly a whole month in Paris they moved on quickly from next destination, spending only two nights in the Spanish capital of Madrid. They moved quickly and Ward found it difficult to keep it with them, after Madrid they spent two days in Berlin and then Amsterdam, Ward only arrived in these cities in time to see the team leave. He didn't even bother to follow team when they stopped in Brussels and then returned to Madrid, only catching up to them when they stopped in Berlin for the second time.

Arriving in Berlin two days after the team Ward noticed that only May and Coulson left the Bus, whether by choice or not Skye, FitzSimmons and Trip remained on the Bus. Following Coulson, Ward quickly discovered that both May and Coulson were going to talk to various higher ups in the German government, no doubt discussing the value of reorganizing SHIELD. Whatever they were discussing it must have been going better than it in the other cities they had visited because they stayed at least a day longer. Coulson did his job very well from Ward's perspective, the German's apparently had this thing about glass in their government buildings which made Ward's job a lot easier. While May stood guard Coulson would meet with an official, he would be polite, shake hands, maybe tell a really bad joke and the real topic of conversation would come up and the mood in the room would shift. The official would suddenly want to leave or change the subject, it seemed that even a receptive government didn't want discuss SHIELD. Ward wondered if it was partly his fault, if HYDRA hadn't been hidden deep within SHIELD then maybe governments would be more trusting, then again if HYDRA hadn't infiltrated SHIELD the organization wouldn't have fallen in the first place.

After Berlin the team began to move quickly again and no matter where they went, be it Bern, Prague, Vienna or Budapest only May and Coulson were allowed of the Bus. He thought maybe Trip would join them at least once but he never did. He hoped that maybe one day Skye would join them, he desperately wanted to see her, even if he couldn't talk to her, he needed to know that see that she was okay. Ward managed a brief glimpse of her in Bern, she had run down the ramp as Coulson and May exited the plane but Coulson had quickly sent the hacker back onto the plane, Skye hadn't taken that well. Bern was one of the cities in which Ward chose not follow May and Coulson to their meeting, choosing instead to keep an eye on the Bus, more importantly keeping an eye on one of the Bus' occupants.

Every day Ward feared that the phone from Sir would ring and every day that it didn't he would sigh in relief. He continued to send reports to Fury but the truth was Ward didn't care anymore, not about Fury and not about Sir, they could order him around all they wanted to, he wasn't doing this for them, he was doing it for Skye.

Ward tracked the team through Athens, Prague, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo but didn't follow them there, there was no point, because they would be long gone before he even got there. Ward only managed to catch up with them when they returned to Copenhagen for the second time but only just, they were gone within hours of his arrival. From there the team returned to Paris, but Ward didn't follow. He caught up with them at their next stop, where he caught his first glimpse of Skye since Bern, in the Eternal City of Rome.

Author's Note: People keep asking for SkyeWard scenes and I promise that they are coming, if you review I will update quicker. I am sitting on 240 reviews at the moment if I can pass 250 then I might do a double update tomorrow, no promises though.