Facing Your Destiny [Book 2]: A Grant Ward FanFic

Chapter 2 - Losses.

Heavy is the head.

Coulson and Taylor are standing side by side in his office. Since she's been back, she's become more and more of his right hand. She's starting to think Coulson trusts her more than he trusts May. That scares her. Coulson's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"What the hell was Hunter thinking?" Coulson asked.

"He was trying to save Hartley!" May replied. Coulson's looking at a map with a blue circle on it.

"And you're absolutely sure?" He asked. Taylor just looks at him confused. She probably should've listened to the first part of their conversation.

"They're gone. It was bad, Coulson." May tells them. Coulson shakes his head.

"Two agents down, another captured." He says to Taylor. She just shakes her head in disbelief. She's known Hunter, Hartley and Idaho for years. Coulson puts a hand on her shoulder. She just pushes all of her emotions down and gets back to work. "This shouldn't have happened." While they look at the screen a small red dot appears with an alert.

"We got a hit. 911 just picked up a stolen vehicle call up the road from you. Older model red and white pickup." Taylor tells her.

"That's got to be Creel." May says.

"May, you're approaching a civilian area with no backup. If you see him do not engage. You copy?" He pauses. No response. "Do you copy?" Coulson and Taylor can hear horns beeping in the background. "May, that doesn't sound covert."

"I've got him. Closing in." May finally speaks up.

"No. Drop back. Do not engage." Taylor orders but hears nothing. "I repeat, do not engage."

"He's not looking." May tells them. "I have a shot.""Negative!""We can't just let him go, Coulson!" May told him.

"Creel isn't working alone." Coulson starts. "And I want to know who he answers to. Drop back in surveillance mode now." Silence. "That's an order, Agent May!"

"Yes, sir." Is all she says. Taylor exhales deeply.

-----<>-----

Taylor walks down to the hanger to do anything really. At least on the Bus with the team there was something to do, and there were less agents running around everywhere, putting Taylor on edge. She was bored out of her mind. She heard Fitz, Skye, Tripp and Mack talking, so decided to join them.

"So, that's the, um...that's the..." Fitz stuttered.

"Cloaking, in all its glory." Mack finishes. He gives Fitz a smile that seems sincere, Fitz just stares at the device looking unsure of himself, very un-Fitz like. "You know, you weren't that far off." He points at the device. "Check out the transmitter coil."

"Yeah, to negate the–the resonant–the..." He stumbles over his words. He has a confused look on his face. "The resonant? No, um...the, uh..." They all look at him sadly and with compassion.

"It's okay, just take your time." Taylor assures him with a smile. He glances at her then turns away.

"What he's trying to say is there's an audio component to cloaking that inverts sound waves, too." Mack explains. Fitz has removed himself from the others, his back to them, and has tears in his confused eyes.

"Like noise-cancelling headphones?" Tripp asks.

"Yeah, same concept." Mack agreed. Fitz shakes his head as Mack looks over at his back. "Hey, you think you can give me a hand with this?" Mack gestures at the machine and Fitz turns around to look at them.

"Um, u-under the circumstances, um...well, the trick is you would...the trick– the trick would be in the meta-materials." Fitz explained. He looks up at them to see them staring with compassion, but it must look like pity to him, he turns his back to them again. A thought comes to him, and he looks back at them. "Uh, oh! Yeah, but you'd have to alter the, um..." They all look increasingly uncomfortable as Fitz pinches the bridge of his nose trying to form the words. "Uh..."

"Fitz, it–" Skye moves to comfort him, but he holds up his free hand to stop her.

"Yeah, could everyone just stop talking for one second?" Fitz asked. She backs away looking hurt as Trip runs a hand on her back in comfort and they all share a look behind his back. "No, sorry. Gonna have to go." He walks out of the room as they all look at each other.

"It's like sometimes he's the same old Fitz and other times..." Skye started.

"Not."

"I'll take your word for it. Meantime, I'm still gonna need an extra pair of hands. Is everyone back from the mission?" Mack asks. Skye looks to Trip then back to Mack.

"Not everyone." Taylor said, solemnly. She turns and walks away.