I tip-toe to his room,making sure to avoid the cameras,and stay silent. I keep my back presses against the wall to avoid the cameras on it,sliding beneath them and hurrying to his cell.
He sits on his bed,staring forward."I've been waiting for you to step right there for days now. Started to doubt you'd come."
"I'm not supposed to be here."
"I've heard,"He says.
"When you were with her,"I sit down in the chair."What did it feel like?"
"I don't remember much since they screwed this missing nails of my brain back in,but I can never forget what it felt like."
"Tell me."
"It felt good. It did. For a long time,I felt like I had power. She-she was afraid of me,"He laughs."I was her asset. She needed me and if I left she wouldn't have gotten as far as she did."
"Why didn't you just leave?"
"How could I? Every time I threatened to she'd get inside my head,turn me back around."
I stare at the ground,thrumming my fingers against my thigh."That day in the hangar,"That's all I say.
When I saw him down there,all I saw was the past. Those few moments we'd shared together. Those in the cell back at S.H.I.E.L.D. Every time I saw him I felt that way. But I'd learned to conceal. I learned to shove it all down and forget about those moments. I had to surface those that included him turning his back on me. On S.H.I.E.L.D. He went to Hydra. He made his decision. Who knows how many women he's tricked into giving him refuge since. Refuge and then he'd seduce them as his thank you. And they'd believe him.
"You know how I feel about you,Skye. That will never change-"
"How can I trust you anymore? How,Grant? I trusted you and you turned your back on me. We all trusted you."
"That doesn't mean anything. I had to do what had to be done. I had to join the side that was bound to win-"
"Did she take you,or did you willingly you go?"
He lays his head against the wall,laughing."You think,that I would just throw myself at her feet and do whatever she told me."
"Hydra called and you went."
"Are you jealous-"
"I can never love you again,do you understand me? We can never love eachother again."
"What we had was real,you can't deny that. What I did may be wrong in your eyes but in mine it was the only way I was going to stay alive."
"I'm never going to love you again-"
"Then why did you come down here,hmm? Just for the hell of it?"He leans forward,his teeth bared and his eyes shining with rage."Don't tell me what we had wasn't real. Don't tell me we can never have that again. You know you want to. That's why you came here,Skye. I know things about you no one else does-"
"And I regret letting you in long enough to see. Long enough to know me that well."
"Don't let S.H.I.E.L.D hold you back. Don't let them take me from you."
"Stop."
"Why did you come down here?"
"To see if I could feel it again,Ward. See if there was maybe even a chance I could love you again. But there isn't. You're too far gone."
He looks taken aback."Skye we can make this work. We can run away. Forget about all this. We don't have to be agents of fugitives anymore-"
"How many other women have you told that?"
"None of them meant anything to me."
"And so I'm just another one of them. You tell me I mean the world to you,and use this line you've used on countless women before. What can assure me that I'm not like any of them? That I mean nothing to you."
"You mean so much to me,"
"Then you wouldn't have let me down."
"Skye-"
"You helped kill so many people-"
"That wasn't my fault-"
"Not this time. But what about before. That's all on you. You killed your own brother."
"He deserved it."
"Listen to yourself Ward-"
"Tell me it didn't hurt you when Natasha shot me. Go ahead. Tell me."
I look away."Truth is,I didn't know how to feel. For the first few seconds,I wanted you to just die right there. But then the pain registered."
"And you didn't."
I shake my head.
"You can love me. There's still a part in you that does."
"Yes and it's shriveled up and black."
"But there."
"And I wish it wasn't,Ward! I wish I wasn't so stupid! I wish I wasn't so dumb! I can't love you anymore. I can't. You betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D."
"I didn't betray you. I promised I would never tell you a lie and I've never done it. "
"You lied to everyone when you left. I work with S.H.I.E.L.D now and when you left,you left me. You betrayed me."
"They're in your head,Skye. They don't want this-"
"They shouldn't want this."
"Skye-"
"I can't be here anymore. Someone might find me,"I stand.
"You aren't going anywhere."
