Ward went into the workout room and began punching. He quickly split the cut on his hand that May had stitched earlier. He had planned on spending the entire flight in the workout room. That plan was foiled when he hit himself around the back of the head with a spanner. He held a towel to the cut on his head and simultaneously used it to put pressure on his knuckle.
He entered the Lounge to see Director Fury talking to Coulson.
"What did you do?" He asked Ward, noticing the towel and blood.
"Oh it's nothing. I split my knuckle earlier and I managed to hit myself around the head with a, I think it was a spanner."
Amber and Kain looked confused over this comment, but he had experienced a trauma so they let it go. Coulson and Fury saw the blue in Ward's eyes fading and they understood.
"Simmons. Deal with this. I want him less bloody when I deal with him."
Simmons took the towel and guided Ward into a chair and looked at his wounds. Skye came over to help. She cleaned his knuckle up while Simmons stitched the back of his head up. Simmons then taught Skye to stitch a wound closed, using Ward's knuckle for practise, figuring that it would be a handy skill for her to learn.
"All good?" Fury asked when he saw Simmons leave Ward.
"Yes, Sir."
He looked at Skye.
"Leave"
Skye left and Fury took her place.
"You took the bracelet off."
"Yes Sir."
"How?"
"Fitz. He managed to hack it."
"Looks like I'm going to have to have words with the people who make them."
"Yes Sir."
"Did you do it for the Girl?"
"Not just for the Girl. If any of my team had been taken and I was the last agent available I would have still done it. I know we have the interns but they aren't nearly capable of doing something like that."
"If I told you I want you to put the bracelet back on in order to stay here would you?"
"I would, but after we know Tilly is safely as Phys Acc, just in case."
"Did you teach her those skills?"
"Yeah. Me and Nat. We figured they would come in handy at some point."
"I would like to talk to her about recruitment to the Academy"
"Are you trying to kill of the principal, Sir?"
"What do you mean?"
"Tilly is a combination of me and Nat, in every way. She grew up with us. Knows us, knows our pranks. If you tell the principal at Phys Acc who she is and where she came from he will have a heart attack."
"How's the back feeling?" Fury asked, standing up.
"Fine, Sir."
Fury turned to climb the stairs to Coulson's office.
"Coulson, I am declaring Ward fit for active duty. Just take it easy on him." Fury told him, entering the office.
"At last, Sir. You do know he's been fit for the last six months?" Fury gave him a look that said 'one more word and I will change my mind'.
"Keep Romanov when we land. If this is Covenant she's gonna want a piece of that Pie."
Skye and Ward had settled into playing chess, as had Amber and Kain.
"Will you stop moving my pieces" Amber was complaining at Kain.
"I'm not touching them" Kain was snapping back.
Ward and Skye were not getting very far with their game through laughing too much. Ward's eyes were bright blue. He was moving the pieces on the AIT's board. They had no idea.
"Half an hour till we land" May told them, entering the Lounge. She had been working out and was now headed towards the cockpit.
"So May?" Kain asked, coming over to Skye and Ward.
"What about her?"
"She didn't transfer from Admin did she?" Amber asked, joining them
"She did actually" Ward told them.
"They way she fights?" Kain continued disbelieving.
Knowing their game with May was finally over, Skye confessed.
"She transferred from the field into Admin."
"Why? She's awesome."
"She went through a few personal difficulties and had to step away." Ward told them, not going into details.
"Personal difficulties? I thought specialists were that good at compartmentalising that they didn't have personal difficulties?"
"Hey. Look at me. I'm here trying to remain calm while my baby sister is on the run from an agency that has now tried to kill me twice. It's not as easy as it looks." Ward admitted.
He looked at Skye and took her hand.
"To be honest. I would probably still be pounding away at the punchbag if Skye wasn't here."
The stop was another crater. It was on the flight path back to Phys Acc so Coulson decided he couldn't really ignore it. It had been raining, so the ground was a little muddy.
It was just like the others. A large, deep hole in the ground. Ward, taking advantage of the fact that he was now bracelet less, scrambled up the side with May. They reached the top and took a look around. The view was spectacular. Other than the there really wasn't much to see. There was no information on what had caused it, nothing to indicate why it had happened, just a huge amount of electromagnetic energy. They started the climb down to the others.
Suddenly May slipped and, taking Ward with her, fell to the bottom of the crater. They landed in the largest, muddiest puddle imaginable.