[1] Take the Shot | Leo Fitz

23

Nina had changed out of her casual clothes and was back in her tactical suit. Her left arm felt a little naked without the knife she had lent Simmons but she ignored it as she walked towards the lab.

She had a night-night gun holstered by her thigh. She couldn't help but notice the irony in it, especially after the conversation she'd just had with Coulson but the mission had changed from just getting to Quinn to also trying to find their remaining team.

Nina wasn't out to send a message anymore.

When she reached the lab she was met with a loitering Ward looking into the room through the glass rectangle in the door.

"Trouble in paradise?" Nina called out and Ward jumped at the sound. He'd forgotten Nina was on the Bus and looked at her sheepishly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he responded when she slid up to his side.

"You can't lie to me Ward, don't insult me by trying," she followed Ward's previous actions and looked into the lab. May and Coulson were in there having a conversation while he cleaned up a cut on her shoulder.

"She told him," he said and Nina just hummed, knowing what he was talking about, "but she made it sound like it was just sex."

"I thought it was just sex," Nina told him. When Ward had told her he was sleeping that May he had made it seem that that was all he wanted.

"It was... it is,"

"Are you sure?" when Ward didn't answer, Nina rested her head in his shoulder and he immediately reacted by placing his head onto her own, "you know I always thought you and Skye were going to end up together."

"For a minute there so did I but she's too... pure. I would taint her," he said with a sigh and Nina chuckled.

"So May's the easy option?"

"There's nothing easy about Melinda May,"

Nina pulled herself off Ward and placed a hand on the handle of the lab door, "correct answer."

"Why are you helping me? Shouldn't you be too worried about Fitz right now to think about anything else,"

"I can multitask," Nina answered with a small smile, "Fitz is a smart man, resourceful too. He's one of the most brilliant minds I've ever met. He doesn't need me worrying about him, he needs me to figure out how to get to him."

"I knew you had a thing for him but I honestly didn't expect you to act on it,"

"I hadn't planned to,"

"What changed?"

Ward's question prompted Nina to think. What had changed? She knew the way she looked at Fitz changed and she knew the exact moment she started to notice he'd cross her mind more than the rest of her teammates daily. Everything had changed from the moment she first kissed his cheek, suddenly when she picked up a book she wondered what Fitz would think about it instead of Tobias. She didn't know if that made her a bad person but she knew her late fiance well enough to know that he'd tell her to go for it with Fitz, so that's what she did.

"I did... I am. Changing that is," Nina answered as a smile took over her face as she focused on the door, "Fitz makes me happy, so I decided to stop torturing myself with the past and just... be happy."

"I like seeing you happy," Ward grinned, "no one deserves it more than you."

Nina sent Ward a bashful smile before pushing down on the door handle and entering the lab with Ward following behind her. It seemed like he had snapped out of his little funk but Nina knew Ward well enough to know he was just burying his feelings.