Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Thirty-Seven

After May had us in the air, I went into the lab with Simmons and Skye to see if I could help with anything. Simmons was babbling, clearly upset by her brush with death (I mean, who wouldn't be?), but Grant and Fitz came back before I could try to comfort her.

"Are you mental?" asked Fitz, clearly mid-argument with Grant, "I did explain in great detail exactly what I meant using the queen's bloody English!"

"I use normal English, words like "duck" and "run" and "might blow us to pieces"," Grant fired back. I sighed. This was not how I wanted my first mission with this team to go.

"Oh wow. Wow, congratulations, Agent Ward," started Fitz, sounding angrier than I'd ever heard him, "You managed to string three words together in a sentence."

"Guys," I said, interrupting before Grant could return fire, "Stop. What's done is done. Quit arguing about it."

"Slater, stay out of this," said Grant, turning back to Fitz, "This is not over and done, you almost got everyone on the team killed!"

"You were the one who wouldn't listen to me!"

"I was trying to get us out of a firefight alive, all you had to say was three words!"

"Well I'm sorry that my brain is a bit more complicated than that!"

I rubbed my eyes, getting increasingly tired of the two screaming over the worktable.

"I'm trying to tell you-" started Fitz.

"I don't understand anything you are saying!" Grant interrupted, just in time for Coulson to enter the lab.

"Do we have a problem in here?" he asked. I sent silent thanks to God that the shouting match had ended.

"No sir," answered Grant, "Just working on our communication."

I scoffed. "Are you kidding?"

Grant ignored me and kept talking. "Not everyone in there was prepared for a firefight."

"We got out, didn't lose anyone, saved a few of theirs. I'd say we did alright," said Phil. I was even happier to have him back now, which I didn't think was possible. "Anything else?"

Skye raised her hand. "Uh, yeah. I have a small question, because I've been feeling like the tagalong hayseed rookie, but now I get the sense that Ward doesn't know which one's Simmons and which one's Fitz, and they've seen even less gunfire than me, and I'm no rocket scientist, but is this your first mission together?"

I looked down and smiled. It was harsh, but Skye had a good point.

"No. Of course not," said Simmons, "It's our second."

"I was your first? That's sweet," said Skye.

I couldn't help it. I let out a small laugh.

"You're amused?" asked Grant, directing his comment at both me and Skye. Skye didn't let Grant get to her and came right back, but I just stayed silent and shook my head. I was so happy when I saw so many of my friends on this team, but now I would give just about anything to go back to the way it was with just Grant and me, getting stuff done and rarely arguing.

I tuned back in when Grant started speaking again.

"I am a Specialist. Today, I could have eliminated the enemy threat myself if I was working alone, but-"

"Grant, you haven't worked alone for the majority of the past three years!" I exclaimed in exasperation, finally snapping, "I'm a Specialist too, and I know we can both do better than that."