Retrograde

Chapter twenty: Doubt of dissimulation

They found the rest of the team at the front of the prison,  counting one more person among them.

"That's the guy that was with Standish." Skye told them as she glared at the apprehended man.

"You found Standish?" May asked.

After Skye and Ward recounted their adventure, leaving out some important details, Coulson told them that Bobbi and Hunter had found the other man trying to escape from the rear exit of the building.

"Evasive bastard weren't you?" Hunter said to the man. He only received a vicious glare in return, somewhat muted by his slowly darkening black eye.

"Don't worry though mate. We can have a nice chat later on." He dragged him to one of the vehicles they arrived in.

"Let's get back to the bus. You both need medical attention." Coulson said, looking at Skye and Ward.

Ward hung back to talk to Coulson "Standish said his name was Abrams," he said, nodding his head in the direction of the man.

"Abrams?" Coulson thought for a moment "I don't think I've heard of him before. I'll check the database when we get back."

————

"Please, stop it, I'm fine!" Skye protested, dodging Simmons' worried probing hands.

"You're most certainly not fine, Skye. An explosion for anyone is a big deal, let alone to someone who has recently sustained a rather bad head injury." Simmons argued, persisting with her attempt to treat her.

"I get that, I do, but really I'm fine. Ward is the one you should be looking at. He jumped on top of me to protect me from the explosion and he hit his head really badly," Skye went and stood next to Ward and turned him around to show Simmons the back of his head "See? Blood!"

Simmons stood still, gloved hands paused in the air. If this had been a normal shield mission, the way things had been before, she would have jumped on the situation, treating his head wound before it could get worse.

But this wasn't a normal mission and it wasn't like it was before. She had just tried to kill the man for God's sake.

She had just tried to kill him.

Oh God. She was appalled at herself.

When she received her medical field training with Shield, despite not being an actual medical doctor, she had learned from one of the organisation's, and in her opinion the worlds, finest doctors.

Dr Daniella Tomaz.

She had spoken of her oath to Jemma, how regardless of affiliations or background, any person in need of help was a patient and she had sworn to treat them free from judgment.

Dr Tomaz had laughed, joking that Simmons, however, was under no such oath.

She frowned to herself. She really had taken that sentiment and ran with it apparently.

Her refusal to treat Ward made her no better than him.

And that was something she couldn't bear. So she readjusted her gloves and told Ward to take a seat so she could reach his head.