Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Eight

Thankfully, the journey out of the rainforest didn't take as long as the trek in. Ward and I had already forged our path, so now it was just a matter of following it back out. The woman we were now carrying slowed us down a little, but not by too much.

Ward and I debated making camp when the sun started to set, but both of our internal compasses were telling us we were close to where we'd left the Quinjet, and neither of us wanted to spend the night worrying about the unwilling third member of our group. We decided to push forward, and we managed to make it back to the Quinjet just before the last of the daylight faded.

Everything about it left me smiling. As much fun as it had been camping in the rainforest, I wasn't super excited to do it again. And more than that, when it had come time to decide whether to make camp or push forward, Ward had actually asked for my input. Sure, we agreed, so it wasn't like we had to have a big debate or something. But still, it was more interest in my opinion on a tactical decision than he'd shown at all before now.

It left me more determined than ever to try to talk to him about what had caused the change, but we still had a few things left to deal with before an opening like that might come along. Agent Vargas came to meet us not long after we returned, and we called SHIELD for a debrief during the wait. They gave us instructions to turn the woman over to Vargas, then finish up in Costa Rica and bring the orb back to headquarters where SciTech grads could look at it.

After finishing our debrief with Agent Vargas and handing off the woman responsible for the pit trap, Ward and I were left alone to trudge up the ramp of the Quinjet, finally and officially done with the mission just past midnight.

I flopped into one of the chairs in the cargo hold as Ward brought up the ramp.

"...Are we flying back to SHIELD now?" I asked. Ward shot me a raised eyebrow over his shoulder, so apparently, my bone-deep exhaustion and dread at starting a three hour flight after the day we'd had came through in my tone.

He sighed and put his hands on his hips, straightening up to face me.

"We could. We're wrapped up here, and we need to get that orb back to HQ as quickly as possible. But you don't exactly seem to be in flying shape. And... I wouldn't mind a few hours of shut eye first, either."

I groaned and slumped back even further in my seat.

"Thank god. Although, I guess that presents a new problem of where the hell we're going to sleep..."

I heard a loud crash, but I was so exhausted it didn't get me to do more than roll my head to the side to try to get a look.

Ward had pulled out a twin bed along one side of the plane. It dropped down over the far row of seats like a murphy bed. I just stared at him, impressed.

"Why didn't anybody tell me Quinjets had fold-out beds?"

Ward shrugged. "They figure that's the kind of stuff an SO can easily cover, especially since sleeping on the floor of the cargo bay is a fine second option. Better to spend the time teaching you how to fly the things in an emergency, or take down a hostile agent when you don't have a weapon on you."

I grunted agreement, then mustered all of my remaining energy to stand up and pull out my own bed.

Ward and I didn't talk as we each got ready to sleep, or as we climbed under the covers and Ward shut off the lights. But, like any sleepover I'd ever been to, the urge to talk once we were in bed and staring into the dark was overwhelming. And really, what better time to bring up something I wanted to talk about with Ward? Sleepovers had always been the best place for any level of deeper conversation in my experience.