Cold as Ice

Chapter Ten

Season One, Episode Fourteen: T.A.H.I.T.I

Part Two

Grant Ward

"Sir, I can help. I would be useless sitting on the bus." Melanie spoke, her hands resting on Coulson's desk as she watched him carefully.

"Ward, you're her S.O., what do you think?"

I shook my head, my eyes narrowing at Coulson as he looked at me. From the second that Melanie had brought up going into the Guest House facility, I had thought it was a bad idea. A suicide mission for her if things went the wrong way. There was no way that I was going to agree with her wanting to join us. "No. It's too dangerous." I watched as Melanie's body tensed as she turned to face me.

"Too dangerous?" She let out a dry laugh, crossing her arms over her chest. "So it wasn't dangerous to send Skye and I into Quinn's house? Or to let me be in a building that was about to explode? Or better yet, it wasn't dangerous for Skye and I to hunt down Coulson when you failed to do so?" With each point, she took a step closer to me until we were mere inches apart. I could see the fury within her eyes as she gazed up at me.

"You can't come," I spoke once again, looking over to Coulson in the hopes that he would back me up, but instead he looked at us with furrowed brows.

Melanie glared at me before turning back to Coulson, trying to plead her case to him. "I know Fitz is going with, but he can't hack like I can. Sure, I'm not nearly up to Skye's level, but I can still help you get information off of their servers if we can't persuade the people there to help." She let out a small sigh, the tension in her body dissipating. "Please, Coulson. I know Skye means almost as much to you as she does to me. I need to do something to help her."

Much to my dismay, Coulson gave her a small nod before speaking. "You can come, but you'll stay behind us the entire time."

"Thank you," Melanie spoke before turning to leave. As she was walking out the door, I didn't miss the venomous glare she shot in my direction.

A frown formed on my face as we stood before the door of the Guest House. A disembodied voice coming from the security camera to our left. "How was the drive from Istanbul?"

"Countersign?" Coulson spoke, looking over his shoulder to Melanie who had her phone in hand, looking for the answer we needed.

"I can't find one." She spoke, annoyance coating her words.

Coulson turned back to the camera before speaking again. "This is agent Coulson with SHIELD. We don't know the countersign but we have a team member in dire need of medical assistance. We know she can be treated here. Open the doors, maybe we can work something out. You copy?"

Silence consumed us for a moment before the disembodied voice spoke again, repeating itself. "How was the drive from Istanbul?"

"We're looking for medical assistance. A person's life is at stake. Will you help us?"

"How was the drive from Istanbul?"

Coulson looked over his shoulder at us, our cue to break into the facility. "Pretty please it is," Garrett commented before nodding at me, causing me to shoot the camera, making it so they couldn't see what we were doing.

Melanie and Fitz worked quickly, unscrewing the panel to our side before hooking up some device that I didn't even know how to work. Within moments the doors opened and we briskly entered. Coulson, Garrett, and I ran in front while Melanie and Fitz stayed behind us.