Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Twenty-Three

The next time I woke up, I found a different familiar face waiting on the right side of my bed. In a chair between me and Grant sat Phil Coulson, somehow apparently in a deep sleep despite sitting upright in a chair. I glanced past him to see Grant stirring in his bed, and I smiled.

My whole body still hurt, and I got the feeling Grant and I were in for an extended hospital stay. But we were on the other side of what would hopefully be the worst mission in our careers, and now, Phil had come to visit in the hospital.

"Hey," I whispered, trying my best to get Phil's attention gently. "Agent Coulson."

His eyelids fluttered, and then he shot up straight in his chair, eyes wide open and surprise on his face. He stared at me for a minute, then his expression melted into a relieved smile.

"Agent Slater. Glad to see you."

"Me too. Hopefully I didn't keep you waiting for too long."

He waved me off. "I probably needed the extra sleep. I'll admit, I didn't get the most rest while the two of you were missing."

"...About that..." I glanced over Phil's shoulder, and saw our conversation had pulled Grant back to the waking world, too. I took a deep breath. "...How long were we gone?"

Phil grimaced, so I tried to brace myself. Grant had counted almost two months, after all, before losing track. But I still wasn't prepared for Phil's answer.

"...The two of you were gone for just over four months."

The words clanged around in my head, but I couldn't process them. Four months. Four months. That put us into early February. We'd left in October.

My eyes slid back to Grant, over Phil's shoulder. He looked slightly less shocked than me, although I could see him clenching his jaw. I took a deep breath.

Losing four months of our lives to that hellscape absolutely sucked. But also, I couldn't help feeling a little proud that all that time out there hadn't managed to take us down. I waited until Grant's eyes finally flicked back up to mine, then gave him a little smile.

"That's probably some kind of Guinness World Record, right?"

Grant scoffed, then winced as our slowly healing injuries made him regret it. I just smiled a little wider and turned back to Phil, who looked immensely relieved.

"I want you to know, we tried to find you," he said, shifting his chair backwards so he could look between Grant and I. His eyes landed on me again though, and I thought I caught a slight sheen in them. "The same thing that knocked out your SAT phone made it impossible for us to locate you with technology, or even fly any SHIELD plane from the past fifty years over the area where we thought you'd be. We tried some older technology, but... it didn't pan out. We kept an eye on the SAT phone and hoped you'd find your way back-"

He broke off, and although he hid it well, I got the distinct impression it was to keep his voice from shaking. He took a breath, shook his head, and turned back to me with a more composed smile.

"And you did. Great work, both of you. I know I speak for more than just Garrett and myself when I say we are so, so happy to have you back safe."

I smiled and held out my hand, which Phil took. I gave his hand a little squeeze, and after a moment, a smaller, more subdued smile pulled its way onto his face. I let the moment hang, then once Phil seemed a little more composed, I pulled my hand back and readjusted in bed.

"So... did you get agents to the lab at all then?" I asked. "What... what happened with that?"

Phil nodded, back to business mode.