Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Ten

A/N: I know Grant said he has a sister in the show, but she never came up again, so I'm writing her out for this fic.

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The flight to Greenland took twice as long as the flight to Costa Rica, and even worse, I could see exactly how much colder our new environment was about to be. Heading to Costa Rica, the sun shone brighter the further south we moved, closer to brilliant green scenery and clear blue water. Heading to Greenland, the water turned a kind of slate gray, reflecting more and more clouds blocking out the sun. Barren, snowy landscape awaited us, and I was less than thrilled.

Still, silver lining, the flight with Ward was a little less awkward than our first one together had been. He still clearly didn't want to make small talk, but he wasn't giving off "I hate you" vibes anymore and, even better, he wasn't making me write a report. He'd practically been chatty by his standards when I'd asked where he stayed at the Hub; he gave me more than a one word answer, and even included a little detail without me having to ask!

"So, SO..." I continued. I didn't want to lose our newfound momentum. "Where are you from?"

I'd been watching him as I asked the question, which meant I noticed the way his jaw clenched. I frowned, but he didn't look at me.

"Massachusetts," he ground out. 

"Awesome. Any siblings?"

He grit his teeth as he answered: "Two."

I paused. I got the impression this reluctance to talk might be about the specific subject, rather than that I was asking questions at all. Someday, maybe, we'd be able to go a little deeper on family stuff, but for today, I decided to officially leave the subject alone.

"So, what were you doing before you became my SO?" I asked. It seemed like a much safer question.

Ward relaxed. "I was running missions with my SO, John Garrett."

"Oh yeah! Coulson mentioned him. Was it fun?"

Ward glanced at me for the first time since we'd started talking. The glance had some judgement attached, but I didn't let it get to me.

"Fun maybe isn't the right word when we're agents going on deadly missions, but I learned a lot. After I trained with him I went on my own undercover mission, then started with you."

I raised my eyebrows. "Wow, so you're still pretty new then. How are they already letting you mentor somebody?"

"My undercover assignment lasted sixteen months and was a success despite numerous unforeseen problems I had to deal with on my own. Top brass felt I more than proved myself."

"Cool. What was your cover?"

"I was a Russian attaché at the embassy in Warsaw, Poland."

"Wow. That sounds intense, to be right in the middle of things like that. Did you have any near-death experiences?"

"No, thankfully. I haven't had any near-death experiences as an agent of SHIELD."

My mouth dropped open. What was he thinking?

"Tell me you did not just say that! You totally just jinxed yourself and, by association, me! Quick, find some wood to knock on or something."

I looked around, but the metal plane was disappointingly lacking in wood.

"Would you cut that out?" asked Ward, turning to fully look at me now, eyebrows up into his hairline. "There's no such thing as a jinx."

I scoffed and threw up my hands. "Oh, well now we're really screwed!" 

Ward shook his head at me, and I did the same right back. I was not looking forward to witnessing his jinx coming back to bite him. I could only hope it happened long after he finished training me, although I doubted I'd be that lucky.

After a few moments, I took a deep breath and forced myself out of all those thoughts. Either the jinx would get me as collateral, or it wouldn't. Nothing I could do about it now but move on.

"So..." I started, turning in my seat to face Ward again, "what exactly are we doing in Narsaq?"

"SHIELD's picked up some communications that mention an orb in there. We don't know if it's related to Costa Rica, but the transmissions describe it as "glowing blue" and "tech destroyer" so we're going to hang around and see if we can learn anything."

"Wait, so we're going undercover?" I asked, sitting up a little straighter in my chair. Ward nodded.

"Yup. We're going to land in Qaqortoq for a few days and take a boat to Narsaq. Our cover is a couple who likes exploring the world, and now we're in Greenland to see and learn everything we can."

I grinned and did a little fist pump. At least half of my Paula Pinske books had plots where she had to go undercover, and now I'd be getting to do the same thing! I caught Ward shaking his head again, but it only made me smile wider.

"This is going to be great," I decided. "Although, could you say the name of the place we're landing again? I should probably know how to pronounce it if my cover planned a trip there."

"Kay-Core-Tock. At least, that's how google said it."

"Kay-Core-Tock. Good to know. And good to know Mr. Super Spy uses google."

Ward shot me a look, then nodded toward the bag on the floor between us.

"I've got a file on our covers in there. You should spend the rest of the flight studying it. Once we're on the ground, we'll need to live and breathe those identities."

I nodded. "I should've done theater in high school, huh?"

"Hm. If only you'd attended a program specifically designed to teach undercover skills, along with everything else Specialists need to know to operate in the field-"

"Alright," I scoffed, whacking Ward with the folder I'd just pulled out of the bag. "Your sarcasm is noted, and you make a good point."

He didn't respond, but when I glanced over at him, I caught a faint smile on his face. It was a self-satisfied smile from winning with sarcasm, sure, but it still made my heart race a little bit that I'd actually managed to crack his usual stone-faced exterior. I tried to hide a smile of my own in the file so he didn't notice and go back to being Billy Goat Gruff.

By the time we started landing in Qaqortoq, I knew my cover backwards and forwards. I also knew Ward's almost as well, since we were supposed to be a couple who traveled the world together. I finally picked up my head from the file as Ward set us down gently in an airfield not too far outside of town. I flipped the folder closed and tucked it away inside the Quinjet as I turned to Ward.

"Isn't it going to be suspicious if we park this here? Or if anybody sees us get off a Quinjet at all?"

Ward shook his head. "No. The Quinjet's usual cloaking has been modified to make it look like a fancy passenger plane, and the autopilot's going to take it back into the sky as soon as we're off board. It'll just look like we chartered a plane to get out here."

I grinned. "That's awesome."

Ward gave me another judgey look, but as usual, I ignored him. If he wanted to completely forget how insanely cool it was to be a spy, that was his problem. I planned to never forget it.

We gathered the gear we needed for our stay, then stood shoulder to shoulder at the top of the ramp as it slowly lowered to reveal Qaqortoq. Ward looked over at me.

"You ready?"

I took a deep breath, nodded, then smiled.

"Let's do this."