9I received a request from Serenity Shadowstar to write an AU to my other story 'Goodbye', where Skye/Daisy was able to get to Ward in time to save him. So without further ado I present to you...the other side of the story.
You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello
"I'm going in Mack, there's something going on in there and they need my help." Daisy said seconds before jumping through the portal.
When she landed she looked up from the ground and saw Fitz panting gun in hand, clearly having just finished a fight with the person flaming on the ground. Her eyes were then cast over to Coulson who from the looks of it had just beaten Ward. He was laying on the ground looking debilitated when she watched as Coulson knelt down beside Ward. Thinking nothing of it she got to her feet and began walking to them only to see Coulson put his hand on Ward's chest and begin to push.
"No!" She shouted sending out a pulse of energy towards Coulson. It hit him square in the chest and he flew backwards a few feet landing on his back. Daisy broke into a sprint making a beeline towards Ward. She slid onto the dirt coming to a stop beside Ward. She put a hand on his arm as she began to survey the damage done to his body. She'd seen Ward go through hell and still act like he was okay, so to be laying down not moving, she knew he had to be in bad shape.
"Skye." He choked out, gasping as breath returned to his lungs. His eyes began to flutter close and Daisy helped the process along of rendering him unconscious.
"Stay still, okay. Don't move, I'm going to get you out of here. He won't hurt you again, I promise." She said, resolve set in her eyes.
"Daisy, what are you doing here?" Coulson asked in surprise.
"Watching my boss become a monster apparently." She growled.
"Me?! A monster?! He's the monster Daisy! He's the one who murdered Rosalind in cold blood, he shot Victoria Hand and he strangled Billy Koenig. I'm sure they would all argue that he's the monster and he deserves to die." Coulson argued pointing to the unconscious man in Daisy's arms.
"So what?! You suddenly became Judge, Jury, and Executioner?!" She yelled at him, disgust and rage clouding her vision.
"The portal's closing! We need to go now!" Fitz yelled running up to them.
"Fitz is right. Unless we want to be stuck here we need to go, now move because I don't trust you to make the right call right now. Fitz, I need your help getting Ward to the portal."
"We should just leave him here. He deserves this place." Fitz said coolly.
"That's not our call to make Fitz. Are you going to help me or do I have to do this alone?" Daisy asked pleading Fitz with her eyes.
"No. I'll help." Fitz said picking up Ward's feet.
"Thank you." She said offering a small smile as she got up and picked Ward up from under his arms. The two of them shuffled over to the portal before re-adjusting Ward so he was leaning against Daisy's back as she walked into the closing portal, Fitz right behind her.
She landed on her flat on her stomach on the stone floor with Ward's unconscious body pining her down. In a second Ward was being lifted off of her and when she pushed herself off the ground she found Mack carrying him into their little pod.
"Thanks Mack." She groaned, holding onto her ribs as she walked into the pod.
"Anytime. May, send those missiles." Mack spoke into his comm as he ushered Fitz into the now cramped evac pod. Daisy kept watch over Ward who was propped against the corner, holding him up with an arm. His blood was beginning to stain his clothes and Daisy was anxious to patch him up. She tried to avert her eyes from Coulson, unable to see him without thinking of the way he nearly killed Ward. She'd seen that cold look in his eyes, the disregard for the life he was taking, and she found herself sick to her stomach. Luckily for her in the next minute they were docking onto the ship.
"Mack, can you please take him to the med bay…I need to go throw up." She said quickly walking out of the pod before Mack could say no. She made her way to the closest bathroom, passing all her friends and her team without so much as a word.
She made it just a second before retching and emptying her stomach into the toilet. It was now that she hated her active imagination as her minds eye created an alternative ending should she not have gotten there in time. She watched in her mind as Coulson crushed Ward's chest until the pressure was too much and his chest collapsed, ribs broken, heart crushed and punctured, lungs not much better off. She threw up again but this time it consisted mainly of water and bile. Daisy leaned back against the wall and took in a few deep breaths, trying to calm her stomach. She had to be strong, Ward needed her help, and she was the only one willing to give him help. She'd probably slap him first when he was awake and had some pain meds in his system. He really did deserve that. After a few more minutes she had gained composure once again and made her way through the mass of people on the plane, ignoring all inquiries, and heading to the med bay where she found Ward lying on a bed. It seemed as though everyone had cleared out of the place as soon as he entered, which left her to play doctor and nurse.
Daisy took a deep breath; she could do this. She could totally stitch up his wounds, give him pain meds, and possibly have to remove a bullet. She stripped Ward of all his gear and pulled off his all his clothes, leaving him in just his boxer briefs. She allowed herself a moment to appreciate his body and how fit he was and then began to get a table prepped of the things she would need. She inspected each wound and found that the shot to his leg had been clean but of course the bullet that'd torn the tissue in his shoulder was lodged there. She looked around the lab for a bottle of morphine and read up on how much she should give him before grabbing a syringe and putting the allotted amount inside of it.
"Sorry Ward." She murmured when she found the vein in his arm. Daisy took a deep breath and prayed that she was doing this right and not killing him. She pushed the needle into his arm wincing, and slowly she pushed the morphine into his vein. He remained un-moving and she took a moment to check his pulse before releasing a breath of relief. He was still alive.
She went to work sterilizing the wound on his leg and clotting the blood so he wouldn't continue to bleed out. Once it clotted sufficiently enough she moved up to work on his shoulder. Taking out a flashlight she looked to see if the bullet was in a visible spot. Sure enough it was there, an inch deep in his shoulder. Not wanting to reach in with forceps she focused her energy and used her powers to pull it out. It flew out and landed in Daisy's hand. She dropped it onto the floor and went to work sterilizing and clotting that wound as well. She wondered how Ward was still knocked out. Maybe the morphine was keeping him unconscious. She hoped he wasn't screaming internally in pain as she worked on him, but the worse had yet to come. She had yet to stitch his skin back together. She cleaned up her work area, washed her hands again, and got the needle and thread ready before sitting back down. She started with his leg and did the back side first. She took extra care to make sure her hand was steady and that she did it the way Jemma had taught her. Minutes later she released a breath. One side down. Now to repeat the performance on the other side of his leg and then his shoulder. Twenty minutes later and Skye had finished. She went over her work with an alcohol pad just to make extra sure that it was sterile and put away the tools, taking a deep breath. She'd done it. She'd successfully stitched up Ward. Now all she had left to do was clean the blood off the rest of his body and find some clothes for him to wear. She used a sponge to wipe the blood from him and found herself staring at his face and how peaceful he looked sleeping. Looking at this face she couldn't see the killer he was. All she saw was the broken man she'd fallen in love with before, the man she could now understand. She dried him off and smiled softly at him before leaving to try and find clothes for him. She knew she had a shirt that she'd stolen from him all those months ago. She still remembered the confrontation.
'Skye have you seen my shirt?'
'Yeah, it's on your chest.' She smirked turning her attention back to her computer.
'No, my grey Henley.'
'You realize you own like five of those.' She snickered unable to not find his distress amusing.
'Have you seen it or not? I was doing laundry and I swear I put it in the washer and dryer but when I went to get my clothes out it was gone.'
'Nope, sorry.' She lied paying attention to her computer. If she looked at him she'd break.
'Thanks. You're a big help. I'll go ask FitzSimmons then.' He grumbled walking out.
When he was gone Skye pulled it out from behind her back and smelled it. Even after being washed it still smelled like him. She smiled and snuck off to her room to hide it in her clothes.
It had been a simpler time back then and she longed for those days again. Everyone had changed and not everyone for the better. She'd still kept that shirt, a reminder of those good memories, a reminder that despite the lies those memories and laughs were real. Digging through the bottom of her drawer she pulled out his Henley and went looking for some sweatpants that would fit him. Mack was roughly the same height so theoretically his clothes might fit. She snuck into his room and quickly rifled through his drawers until she found what she was looking for. They were black sweatpants too; Ward would appreciate that. Daisy grabbed a bottle of water as well and brought that with her back to the med bay.
Getting clothes onto an unconscious body was much harder than the movies made it seem but she was able to do it nevertheless. "Been a while since I've seen you like this. Not since…the staff."
Ward didn't answer, didn't move a muscle, just continued to sleep, chest rising and falling softly.
"I wonder how many times you've been shot. I know nine times you've been shot and that's just since I met you. Granted…four of them were me but still…. Sorry by the way. I see now it was a poor way to express my anger. Sorry too about Coulson. I never…I never thought he'd do that. Couldn't have ever imagined he'd try to kill you that way. You don't deserve to die like that, no matter the crimes you've committed." She spoke softly watching his face.
"I'll stay here tonight, just to make sure Coulson doesn't try to finish what he started. I don't know what he'd do anymore. Maybe he'd kill me too if it meant getting his revenge on you. Speaking of which, we need to talk about that because why the hell would you hurt Fitz and Simmons? That's not you Grant. I know you lied about who you are but I know you enough to know you wouldn't hurt FitzSimmons. You couldn't do it even when you were being controlled by Garrett. You need help. You're so lost and I can see that now. You just need someone to help you find out who you really are, and it's not this. The guy I knew…that's who you really are and you can't convince me otherwise." She said to him with a yawn.
"Alright, I'm tired and I'm not sleeping in this chair so…sorry for this in advance." Daisy apologized as she began to shove Ward to the side of the bed so she could climb up and sleep on her side. She slept with her back against the railings, facing Ward. "Night." She said softly before closing her eyes and drifting off.
It had to be close to three am when he woke her up with cries of pain. He wasn't one to let people know he was in pain which struck her as odd and worried her at the same time. She scrambled off the bed bleary eyed and searched for that bottle of morphine and a new needle.
"Hold on Ward." She said, her voice heavy with sleep. She made sure to get the same amount of morphine and walked back over to Ward. "Stay still, I need to find your vein again so I can give you the pain meds."
Ward stilled his body and allowed her access to his arm again. She found the vein quickly and did her best to repeat what she'd done earlier. She watched his face soften as she depressed the syringe and emptied the morphine into his vein. She took his hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"It's gonna be okay Ward." She said through a yawn. He nodded as his eyes began to close again, his body once more at rest.
"Thank you." He whispered before falling asleep again.
Daisy put the morphine and needle away before climbing back into the bed with Ward. She slept the same way but this time she laced their hands together, not entirely sure why.
It was mid morning when he awoke her again with a squeeze of her hand. She opened her eyes and looked at him wondering what the matter was. "Are you in pain again?" She asked.
"No. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I just wasn't sure if you were real."
She chuckled and closed her eyes again. "I'm very real Ward."
"Coulson came by an hour ago."
"Are you okay? Did he hurt you again?" She asked in a panic, eyes now fully open.
"I'm okay. He didn't say anything. He just stood by the door with that disapproving look of his. But I'm pretty sure he was just looking at you that way because he also had a very angry look in his eye which I'm sure was directed at me."
"He didn't try to shoot you again or crush your chest?"
"No." Daisy released a breath of relief. "Skye…why do they call you Daisy?" He asked.
"Oh um well…that's…that's my birth name and after what happened with my parents I decided I wanted to change my name."
"I think I like Skye better."
"Of course you do." She said with a roll of her eyes.
"I don't have to start calling you that, right? I can still call you Skye?"
"You'd be the only one."
"I'll stick with Skye."
"Whatever floats your boat Robot."
"Why are you being so nice to me? Last time we saw each other you kind of made it pretty clear that we weren't on friendly terms. And the time before that you're the one who gave me three scars." He inquired.
"I…things change." She said with a lump in her throat.
"How did I get into these clothes and also…isn't this my Henley?"
Daisy laughed a little at that. "That would be me. I'm the one who stripped you in the first place and patched you up. Those are Mack's sweatpants and your Henley that I stole from you two years ago."
"It was you!" He exclaimed.
Daisy grinned and shrugged her shoulders. "I won't apologize for that."
"You kept it around after all this time?"
"It was a reminder of back when things were simple."
"Thank you…for saving me."
"Well you didn't deserve to die the way Coulson was trying to kill you. Oh, I have something for you."
"You do?" He asked surprised.
Daisy smiled and then brought her hand up slapping him across the face. "That's for FitzSimmons."
Ward moved his jaw a little but made no move to retaliate. "I deserve that."
"Yes, you do. You deserve a punch too but I won't do that."
"I'm sorry Skye, for everything. I know I've screwed up your life."
"It was pretty screwed up before I ever met you Ward."
"I meant your love life. I'm sorry for hurting you. The truth is…the only time I ever felt real was that time on the BUS I spent with you."
"Do you want to be a good man Ward?" Daisy asked searching his eyes.
"I don't even know what that looks like Skye." He confessed, downtrodden.
"That's not what I asked. I asked you if you want to be a good man."
"I don't think I can be."
"Damn it Ward, I asked you if you WANT to be, not if you are, not if you can be. Do you want to be?"
"Yes." He said meeting her eyes. "If that's who you want me to be."
"No, is that who you want to be or do you want to be the killer you are now?"
"I want to be different." He confirmed just a bit confused.
"I can teach you. I didn't understand you before Ward but I do now. I understand everything and I'm sorry I didn't before when you were silently asking for help."
"Why do you want to help me?"
"Because I can see how lost you are, seeing you almost die that way…it woke something up inside of me that I thought had died a long time ago."
"I'm sorry for ever making you hate me. You were right…I had a choice and I chose Garrett over us."
"You didn't know any better." She said leaning her forehead against his. "You can't choose the right side when you don't know how."
"I should have." He said softly, unable to meet her eyes.
"No use drudging up the past when you can't change it. But you can change your future."
"How?" Ward asked meeting her eyes, searching for answers he never knew he was asking the questions to.
"Leave with me and I'll teach you."
"Run from SHIELD?" Ward asked shocked that she would suggest such a thing.
"Not running, just…taking an extended vacation." Daisy corrected.
"Well that's good because I don't think I can do much walking, let alone running." Ward said grimacing as he shifted in bed.
"Take it easy Ward, no need to be pulling your stitches. It wasn't exactly fun for me the first time around."
"Sorry. Just a little sore from not moving." He apologized getting situated again.
"I need to go talk to Coulson and let him know about my upcoming leave of absence. If anyone tries to hurt you just yell and I'll come running."
"Thanks." He said with a small smile allowing her to get up.
Daisy nodded and left going off in search of Coulson. She wasn't particularly looking forward to speaking with him. In fact, she'd rather not look at him for the next day…or month. She knocked on his bedroom door and heard an echo from within. That must have been him giving her permission to enter.
"Daisy I-" He began but stopped when she held up her hand in a stopping motion.
"I don't want to hear your excuse, I just came in to tell you that when we land back at base I will be taking an extended vacation, like May did. This isn't a resignation, this is me taking a break from everything we're doing here and in my opinion you should take a vacation from being Director because you're compromised. With all due respect, Mack should take over. Ward is under my protection and care now, so any threat or attack against him is a direct attack against me. That is all." Daisy said making her exit before Coulson could respond. With that taken care of she made her way back to her own bunk to grab a change of clothes and bring them into the shared bathroom to shower. It was a quick, refreshing shower that had her back in the med bay with Ward within the hour.
"How'd the confrontation go?"
Daisy shrugged. "I didn't give him a chance to speak so…it went good."
Ward laughed and shook his head. Mack dropped by to see if you were still here, I told him you went to see Coulson.
"Mack was here?"
"I think he was just checking to see if you were still alive."
"Of all the people on this plane you are least likely to kill me."
"How do you figure that?" Ward asked not sure if he should be insulted considering Fitz was on the plane.
Daisy smiled and leaned close to him, whispering in his ear, "Because you like me."
"Oh, and Fitz doesn't like you? Because I'm pretty sure he's the one who should be least likely to kill you."
"Nope. Because you'd do anything I'd say if it meant me staying here with you." Ward opened his mouth to deny it but nothing came out and he closed it. "That's what I thought." She smiled.
XxxxXXxxxSkyeWardxxxXXxxxX
Five Days Later
"You still sure about this?" Ward asked as he got into the passenger seat of the SUV.
"I'm sure. Just get buckled without hurting yourself. I'll be back in a minute." Daisy assured starting the car up for him before walking up to the line of people standing there to send her off. Fitz, Simmons, Mack, May, and Coulson. Bobbi and Hunter had refused to be in the same room as Ward and a part of Daisy wished Coulson had stayed with them.
She hugged her friends goodbye, promising to see them in a few months, and telling Mack to keep her team in line. When she got up to Coulson there was no hug, no handshake, just a meeting of eyes.
"I won't forgive you for what you tried to do to Ward. When I come back, I'm not going to be working under you. I don't like where you're taking this organization. Back when we were at war with Hydra trying to survive you said to me, 'whether its one man or all mankind that they're worth saving.' You've been breaking that oath since day one. You never saw anything worth saving in him but I do and I'm going to save him. We never gave him a second chance. He tried, he asked, and we pushed him away and we turned him into our enemy and he retaliated. So the only person to blame for all those deaths since he escaped is us. Rosalind's death is our fault. So don't take it out on the gun. We made him into a weapon and pointed it right back at us and pulled the trigger. He's lost and I'm going to help him become who he always wanted. Goodbye Coulson, this is the last day I will ever be considered a part of your team."
"I don't know what to say Daisy." Coulson shrugged.
"Please, don't say anything."
"Goodbye." He said softly.
"I'll miss you guys, don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone."
"How can we? You're taking all the trouble with you." Mack teased.
Daisy grinned. "See you when I see you." She mock saluted before jogging off to the SUV and getting in. She buckled up and turned to her passenger. "Hello Grant."
"Grant?" He asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"New life. We start calling you by your first name."
"Oh."
"They're all saying goodbye to me and I'm saying hello to you. This time, we'll do things the right way."
"What comes first?" He asked wondering their course of action.
"This." Daisy replied with a small smile leaning over the middle and placing a gentle kiss on his lips.
A boyish smile appeared on Grant's face and Daisy could have sworn she was looking at the face of a puppy.
"What was that for?"
"A promise, that I'll give us a chance too." She answered putting the vehicle in drive. "Hello Miami, here we come." Daisy smiled putting her sunglasses on as they pulled out onto the road leaving SHIELD behind.
"Hello new life." Grant whispered looking up at the sun from out his window.
XxxxXXxxxEndxxxXXxxxX
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