So Long

Chapter 14: All The Difference

It had been a while since the team had split up to work on the different angles of their objective to find Skye. Ward still found himself in the cargo hold, trying to clear his head by venting his pent up energy on the punching bag. He had been here a lot longer than he had originally intended, yet he still felt agitated. He just could not seem to wrap his head around the latest turn their mission had taken.

It was not as if he did not worry about Skye, because he did. A small part of him even still believed in her and was convinced that she would not betray him. Not again.

The wary and overly cautious part of him always gained the upper hand, though, reminding him of the note she had left ­– did she really write it? – and of how he had once defended her against any allegations of treason, only to later find her in Miles Lydon's apartment. He had believed in her then, too, the idea that she would betray the team seeming almost preposterous.

So long.

The words ripped through his mind relentlessly, causing Ward to throw a particularly forceful punch. The large sand bag in front of him swung heavily back and forth, the rope holding it creaking in protest at the sudden tension.

Was the situation different this time? Was Skye really in danger? Or had she played them again?

In a way, Ward's personal opinion did not really seem to matter at this point. After all, they were now searching for their missing hacker with all the resources they had regardless, as she was both, a possibly kidnapped team mate and the strongest lead they had on their original target, Dr. O'Leary.

So what difference did it make, if he could not bring himself to search for her as a friend and team mate, but only as an agent pursuing a mission? The result would be the same, he kept telling himself. But then why was he feeling so torn up about this?

Ward let out a cry of frustration as he hit the punching bag hard one last time. Then he stepped away from it and started to unwrap the tape from around his hands. As he turned around, he came face to face with a significantly startled looking Fitz, who had just come out of the lab.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," the engineer muttered awkwardly as he glanced from Ward to the still swinging punching bag.

"It's okay, I'm done anyway. You're finished with Skye's laptop already?" Ward asked, looking up from the white tape, not really caring that Fitz had witnessed his outburst.

"I've got a few more diagnostics running, but honestly, I don't really think that I'll find anything else useful. Jemma went back up to the command centre to see how Agent Haze is coming along with cross-referencing the surveillance material. Speaking of her," Leo lowered his voice conspiratorially and glanced around as if afraid that they might be overheard, "what do you think of Coulson putting Haze on the team with us? I mean, I guess it wasn't the worst idea to get one of those communication types on the case as long as Skye isn't here, and it's not like she isn't helping. But now that we know that she's practically been spying on Skye... Who knows what kind of intel she has on all of us, really?"

"Why, got something to hide?" Ward replied somewhat teasingly, before becoming serious again. "Well, I guess it was pretty obvious that I didn't like the idea at first, either, but if Coulson wants her on the team for this, she's on the team. Not much you or I could do about that. And as you said, she does seem to be helping, so maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt."

He had finished unwrapping his hands by now and headed towards the spiral staircase, planning to grab a quick shower before rejoining the rest of the team.

"Yeah, you're probably right," Fitz agreed hesitantly. "Plus, Coulson does seem to have a good instinct when picking his team, so I guess it will be fine."