Facing Your Past [Book 1]: A Grant Ward FanFic.

Chapter 12 - The Reveal.

The Only Light in the Darkness

After his return to base. Ward is sitting with his shirt off while Simmons works on his wounds. She holds a bandage to a deep cut on his face while the rest of the team surrounds him to find out what he knows.

"I'm afraid this might scar." Simmons told him.

"Upside, you'll look badass, dangerous." Skye commented.

"As if he doesn't already." Taylor replied with a smirk. Skye pipes down after this. Fitz leans in and looks at Ward's face closely and worried.

"He's gonna be fine, though, right?" Fitz asks. Simmons moves around Ward pushing Fitz back.

"He will if you back up and give me some room." Simmons says, a little aggravated.

"So, what then?" Coulson asked.

"By the time we got to The Fridge it was too late. It was overrun, HYDRA everywhere. We couldn't stop them." Coulson nods.

"What were they after?" Taylor asked.

"Everything." He replied, zoning out for a moment. "They took weapons, alien artefacts, anything they could grab."

"I assume that means the prisoners are no longer prisoners." Ward nods and Coulson grimaces and lowers his head, upset.

"So...Ian Quinn..." Taylor trailed off.

"I'm sorry. He's out. They all are."

"And Garrett? Did he get away?" Fitz asked.

"Couldn't stop them from taking The Fridge but I wasn't gonna let Garrett walk. Not after what he did." Ward informed.

"Is he the one that did this to you?" Taylor asks, genuinely concerned. Ward nods.

"He was one tough son of a bitch." Grant commented.

"'Was'? Past tense?" May checked.

"As soon as I had the upper hand, I put two in the back of his head." Coulson's face drops showing surprise.

"Good." Fitz added.

"One from me..." Ward looks over to Tripp. "One from you."

"I would've emptied the mag." Tripp commented. Ward nods to him.

"You're all set. Well, I mean, as set as you can be with two cracked ribs and a zygomatic fracture." Taylor concluded, while Simmons did the last of the patching up.

"Uh, for those of you that don't know what that is, it's a–" Fitz starts but Tripp speaks at the same time as he does, their words overlapping.

"A hairline fracture to the cheekbone." They both say. Fitz gives him a surprised look and Tripp smiles.

"Your body needs time to heal. Please take some time." Simmons requests. Ward nods.

"Understood. Thanks." Simmons walks away as Skye and Coulson move in closer. "Ah. One small victory." He holds up Skye's hard drive. "HYDRA didn't get their hands on this."

"A hard drive?" Tripp asks.

"The hard drive, Tripp." Taylor comments, nudging his side and smirking a little.

"It's all the research our team's ever done, downloaded off the plane and encrypted for safekeeping." Skye added.

"We should probably back it up now that we're in a secure facility." Ward pushed.

"First, Skye, I need you on threat assessment. Pull up a list of all the inmates at The Fridge. I want to know just how bad this is." Coulson orders. Skye nods and Ward does a grimacing smile at not getting his way, not going unnoticed by Taylor. Once they'd left the room Taylor pulled up a chair next to Ward. She hands him his shirt and helps him dress.