So Long

Chapter 12: Here To Help

...

"And you're that person. You're the one who has been spying on her for months now. Maybe you're even the reason why she left."

...

A tense silence fell over the room following these words. Ward kept staring at Agent Haze, his anger only barely concealed.

The thought of someone monitoring his rookie hadn't bothered him before, given the fact that this punishment had actually been extremely mild, considering her actions. Yet coming face to face with the agent in question now was a different matter entirely. He knew that Haze was doing an important job, but how was he supposed to work with, let alone trust someone who had been investigating a member of his team?

It seemed as if Coulson was guessing his thoughts, as he intervened before Haze could reply.

"I specifically asked for Agent Haze to assist us, because I knew that she had been in charge of monitoring Skye's activities after what happened with Miles Lydon. Not only can she give us the help we need to track down Dr. O'Leary, as she has the skill set you yourself requested, I also couldn't think of anyone else more suited to help us look for Skye.

I understand why you might be angry, Ward. That's why I decided to keep this information from you and the team, so you would remain focused on finding O'Leary. But even if Skye did in fact choose to leave because of the surveillance put on her, that is hardly Agent Haze's fault. She wasn't the one who put the tracker on Skye. That was me."

Before Coulson could say anything else in her defence, Haze finally spoke up as well, facing Ward directly.

"I know me looking into one of your team like this isn't exactly the best foundation for us to work together, but believe me, I'm here to help. As Agent Coulson said, he asked specifically for me to assist you with your mission, and I wouldn't have come here if I hadn't thought that I could be useful.

Obviously I don't know Skye the way all of you do," she admitted, her gaze darting over the assembled team before she focused back on Ward, "but I know her work. If she has left any digital trace behind that can lead us to her whereabouts, if she has so much as touched a keyboard, tracker or not, I will find her, I promise."

For a brief moment Agent Haze fell silent, even though she wasn't finished yet. She let out a small breath and straightened herself before she went on, her eyes directly meeting Ward's this time.

"Skye might have severely violated SHIELD protocol before and I think putting her under surveillance was the right choice, but I also believe that she is a good person. I want to help find her. Please let me."

Ward remained quiet for a long moment as he kept looking at Agent Haze, trying to decide whether she was being honest with her assertions. In the end, however, he figured that if Coulson had asked her to come on board and help find Skye, he would simply have to have faith that his C.O. knew what he was doing. So he nodded briefly, accepting her offer.

"Alright, I guess we can use all the help we can get on this mission. The sooner we find O'Leary – and Skye – the better, so I'm not going to stand in the way of anyone making themself useful."

Instead of focusing on his anger over Agent Haze's possible influence on Skye's disappearance, Ward decided to divert his attention back to Fitz, whose report the specialist had interrupted earlier.

"So, Fitz, what else did you find?"

Startled by the sudden shift of the conversation, the scientist looked somewhat dumbfounded for a moment until Ward rephrased his question.

"You said that the data on Skye's laptop having been erased wasn't the interesting part. So what was?"

"Right," Fitz nodded and hurried over to the computer table where he typed on the keyboard until another image appeared on the screen. Ward knew just enough about science to know that it was showing some kind of signal wavelength, but other than that it wasn't telling him anything. Luckily, Fitz was already beginning to explain his findings.