Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Thirty-Two

I felt bad. FitzSimmons started tutoring me with so much excitement the next morning, but I was way behind where they'd planned to start. Still, they reassured me that everything could still work and quickly altered their lesson plan, and we were off to the races in no time.

After only a week with Fitzsimmons, I was starting to understand the basics of physics, chemistry, and biology. Sometimes, if they spoke slowly enough, I even understood what they were talking about! The best part though, was that I was actually having fun.

I continued training with May, although less frequently, and FitzSimmons and I continued to eat together. I still missed Grant and Phil, but all around, I was starting to feel like I had before the Helicarrier!

"So what are we going to do today?" I asked excitedly as I headed for the lab with FitzSimmons.

"Well, we were thinking-" Simmons got cut off by an agent with a datapad coming up to us.

"Agent Slater?" she asked.

"That's me."

"You're being assigned to a solo mission in Naples."

My eyebrows shot up. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. You're going by commercial air travel-" I groaned. "-and your flight leaves in three hours."

"What! I gotta go pack! You couldn't have given me any earlier warning?" I asked the girl. She just shrugged.

"Sorry. Here's the mission file. Don't miss your flight." She handed me a SHIELD folder, then turned on her heel and walked off.

"This place has terrible communication skills," I grumbled. Then I turned back to FitzSimmons. "I'm sorry guys, I have to go. Literally, I don't know if I'm going to make my flight even if I leave right now. Let's continue our lessons when I get back, ok?"

"Oh, alright," said Simmons, looking a little disappointed.

"Yeah, I guess we'll see you then," said Fitz, looking the same.

"Oh, you guys," I said, pulling them both into a hug, "I'm going to miss you so much! Thank you so much for everything you taught me, and I promise we'll get lunch as soon as I'm back. Hopefully it won't be long, so don't get too upset. I'll see you soon."

I smiled and waved and they did the same, then I sprinted back to my room. Grant and I had packed emergency go-bags a long time ago, and I honestly wasn't sure what was in it anymore, but I didn't have time to pack anything else. I grabbed it and a motorcycle from the vehicle pool, then I gunned it to the airport. New York was one of the busiest cities and JFK was one of the busiest airports, so I didn't have a second to spare.

Thanks to some Ward-level tactical driving, I made it onto my plane with about ten minutes to spare. Not great, I know, but not bad either.

I pulled out the mission file since no one had sat next to me or behind me yet, and even though I just glanced over it, I could tell this was more of a retrieval mission than a deep-cover assignment, which meant I would be able speak to people without fear of blowing my cover.

I pulled out the emergency phone I'd bought to keep in touch with Grant, and decided to send him a quick text to tell him where I was going. Since I didn't have to worry about my cover, he could call or text me back pretty much whenever, and I would be fine.

However, I didn't know if he had a cover, so I had to be careful. I decided to say:

Katherine, please give me a call or text when you get home.

That way, if anyone read the text on Grant's phone, they'd assume it was a wrong number.

With that out of the way, I put my headphones on and turned on Hamilton, since I couldn't go over the case file once people were sitting around me.