Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Forty-Three

Grant and I didn't get anywhere in the next several weeks, which sucked, but he and Skye didn't get anywhere either, which was a relief. Although, truthfully, I think all the relationship stuff came to a full-stop because of all the trauma we had to deal with.

First, we were tasked with helping a girl who thought she was being haunted by demons. It was like living in a scary movie. Grant literally had bruises on his arms from where I grabbed him when I got scared.

Next, on arguably one of our worst missions, Mike Peterson got killed and Coulson got taken hostage. We managed to get Coulson back, but not before he was tortured, and Mike Peterson's son was still without a father. That was a horrible mission. It was our first loss resulting in a team member dying, and it wasn't easy to deal with.

We took a trip down memory lane to go to SciTech, one of the other SHIELD academies. That visit had started out well enough (FitzSimmons were basically rockstars), but that one ended badly, too. Two students had made a device and tried to sell it to Ian Quinn, literally one of the most despicable people SHIELD has ever dealt with, and one of the students ended up dead.

By the time we'd gotten through that mess, everyone was ready for a win. And everyone was gunning for Ian Quinn.

I was feeling a little nervous though. Bad things usually came in threes.

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"Is it me, or do we have increasingly less downtime?" I asked, plopping myself down on the couch next to Grant. He was reading another one of the books Garrett had given him, and I'd decided to join him with one of the books on my TBR.

"No, we definitely have less free time," he agreed, looking up from his book.

"Do we get vacation time? Like now that we're on the team instead of working as our own team, is that still a thing?"

"I don't know... You can ask Coulson," he suggested.

"Eh, that's okay. I don't know what I'd do with more free time anyway."

"Guys," said Skye, coming over to Grant and I, "Meet in the Control Center ASAP, we've got a lead on Quinn."

Grant and I looked at each other.

"There goes that free time," he said, standing and offering me a hand.

"Oh well," I sighed, taking his hand and letting him pull me up, "It was nice while it lasted."

****************

The lead turned out to be a Cybertek train, and we had good reason to believe it would lead us right to Ian Quinn. We would have to go deep undercover for this one.

May and Grant were coming in as a couple, then May would go outside on the train and Grant would become a conductor. Fitz and Skye were pretending to be a couple (which was HILARIOUS, by the way. I wish you could've heard Fitz's American accent, it was bizarre). Coulson and Simmons were going to be a father and daughter, and I'll tell you right now, Simmons' performance was freaking AMAZING.

Now, I wasn't partnered up with anyone, so my character had a complex backstory that I probably wouldn't get to use. I was a wayward child who was being shipped home to her parents, and I was not happy about it. I was going to be angry and unfriendly towards everyone, which left me free to leave the car without anyone missing me.

I plopped down next to the window, pulling my hood up as far as it would go and scowling at anybody who looked at me. I pretended to listen to music and stared out the window with exaggerated anger.

Fitz and Skye were in the baggage car managing comms, and I was to join them once we got underway. Until then, I wasn't supposed to even look at the other passengers, except maybe to glare at them.