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Finding herself in the lab, Simmons is brought back to reality by Fitz calling her name. Startled, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“No, I still think Ward’s a murderer! Oh, sorry Fitz.”

Fitz glanced in the direction of the door and back to Simmons, confused and a little annoyed. “Did you listen in on-on my talk with Coulson and Palamas?”

“What? No, Fitz. I just…” she sighed. “I was talking with Mack after May left, and…it seems he has a different perspective on Ward tossing us out of the plane.”

“Yeah, I knew that.”

Simmons narrowed her eyes in confusion. “You, you did? But he’s a close friend of yours, why would he tell you that he didn’t think that Ward was as evil as we do? Wouldn’t that have put you a step back?”

“Because Simmons, he wasn’t involved in this whole…mess until Ward was behind bars. He saw it from a different angle.” Fitz said, walking past her to the table he uses.

“Mack mentioned something…” Simmons waited until Fitz looked at her. “About Mike Peterson?”

“Oh, yeah. Well, you’d have to talk to Mack about that, he can explain it better than I can.” He turned back and picked up some equipment.

“I’m still confused about it.”

“Explains the outburst.” Fitz mumbled, just loud enough for Simmons to hear. “Try writing it down.”

“Sorry?” Simmons moved closer.

“You’re confused. Write everything relevant down, Mack suggested it to me. I-It’s easier to process when I can see what I’m thinking about.” he replied without turning around.

“Right.” Simmons said brightly, a clear goal in her mind. “Thank you, Fitz.” He looked up to catch her smile before she turned and hurried to her desk, pulling out a pad and pen when she sat down.

Maybe there’s still a chance after all. He thought and went back to his work.

May was right. He isn’t stuttering, at least not much. Simmons thought with glowing hope as she sat down at her desk. So, from the beginning. What do I know about Ward? She tapped the pen on the paper for a moment before starting.

-          Born Grant Douglas Ward.

-          32 years old

-          Older brother – abused by

-          Younger brother – abused – forced to?

-          Sister - ???

-          Well incident – lie or not?

-          Joined S.H.I.E.L.D. when 20 years old

-          Joined Coulson’s team when 31 years old

-          Killed Victoria Hand and agents with her – freed Garrett

-          Slept with May – diversion?

-          Lied to us

-          Threw med pod into the ocean with Fitz and I in it – ‘save us’?

-          Brought us onto the Bus when Garrett ran it

-          Shot Thomas Nash

-          Specialist agent

-          Sent to brother for execution

Simmons grimaced at the last one. Well, that was a bit harsh, sir. She sighed. Who am I to be judgemental? He was on death row and I told him I’d kill him if I saw him again.

-          Family dead – killed older brother and parents

-          Burned mansion to the ground

-          Father former senator

-          Brother former senator

-          …

I don’t have anything else on him…hardly anything at all. Simmons put her head in her hands. Time to visit Mack again.

“Agent Palamas.”

Kara looked over from the punching bag she was ripping into to see May standing there, her usual unreadable expression on her face.

“What do you want, May?” she said, turning back to the sack of sand.

“I want to know why you left San Juan with Ward and didn’t come straight to us. We could have helped you.”

Kara scoffed before delivering the punching bag a vicious hit and turning back to face May. “You wanna know why? Because Grant was the only one who understood what I was going through!”

“Ward?” May nearly choked. “He’s incapable of anything except obsession and insanity. He doesn’t know how to help, if he ever did!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, May!” Kara’s voice rose as she stood front on to the Deputy Director. “You’re confusing Grant for Garrett!”

“No, I’m not.” May tried to keep her cool, but gritted her teeth in doing so.

“Explain to me, then. How much do you know about him? Have you ever seen him at his worst, when he’s broken, and thought anything else aside from ‘He deserves it’?”

“’Broken’? He wasn’t broken! He’s a lying, manipulative–”

“Stop right there.” Kara’s voice was dangerously low and she stepped into May’s personal space. “Think, May. Is there any time, any time at all, where Grant could have made himself look more like a victim in this?”

May blinked and glanced away, as a memory came to her, unbidden.

“There was, wasn’t there?” Kara said softly, but her voice held the hint of superiority that said she already knew. “What was it, May?”

“He said he wasn’t brainwashed.”

“Exactly. Now, I’m not sure that’s entirely the case…but don’t you think that if he was the born manipulator you think he is, that he would have seen that as a way out? Or at least, to get better treatment than a cell with no bathroom.”

May didn’t answer.

“It wasn’t a rhetorical question, May. Answer me.”

“…perhaps.” May eventually said through gritted teeth. She longed to hit Palamas on her scarred copy-cat face, but knew that Coulson wouldn’t appreciate the lack of self-control from his second-in-command. “What do you mean, not entirely the case?”

“Well, while he was working on helping me organise the jumble my brainwashing had done to my mind, I noticed some patterns.” Kara turned away and walked to the bench, unwrapping her hands. “Some…similarities between what Whitehall did to me, and what Garrett did to him.”

May looked incredulous, and Kara’s anger spiked again at how stupidly stubborn the woman was being, but she was listening. So Kara focused on keeping her temper under control and hopefully talking some sense into May’s head.

“He told me about the stuff that happened to him that involved Garrett, in one way or another.”

“Was this before or after you helped him out?”

“After.” She replied, sitting down.

May had a distastefully confused expression on her face.

“Before you S.H.I.E.L.D. people showed up, he was asking me what it was like working for Hydra and how I got…this.” She gestured to her face with a bitter expression. “I replied that it was due to serving Whitehall, and he seemed…sympathetic. Like he knew what it was like to suffer for someone who wasn’t worth it.”

May looked down, considering the possibility that perhaps Ward had learned that the choices he made for Garrett and Hydra were mistakes.

Kara continued. “I told him that my compliance to Whitehall brought me meaning. Not those words exactly, but Grant made the correlation between that and Hydra.”

“Yes, I’m overwhelmed with how alike you are.”

Kara gave her an unimpressed look. “Garrett was never truly Hydra, and Whitehall was. Wherever our authority figures go, we follow. So yes, in a way I was loyal to Hydra.” She shook her head. “But the thing is, May. Neither of us thought we were brainwashed at the time, and you still hold Grant more accountable for his actions than you do for mine.”

May’s mouth dropped open, having never had her logic towards situations as delicate as this challenged so brazenly. “I…what did he say next?”

Kara raised an eyebrow. “He said that there was a guy he used to be loyal to. And that he went completely insane.”

“So he actually believes that?”

Pursing her lips, she nodded. “Which is why he was so concerned when he thought that Skye or Coulson was carving the same symbols that Garrett did.” She took a breath and stood. “It what was gave me hope when I didn’t know what to do.” Leaving May to consider what she’d said, she left the room.

If what she said is true, there could be hope for people still brainwashed. May thought. Who would’ve thought that it would be Ward who figured it out?

Tapping her red heel-clad foot, Skye levelled Grant with a heavily disappointed expression, her arms crossed tightly. Grant tried and mostly succeeded in giving the impression that he didn’t see anything wrong with what they were doing.

“Grant.” Skye said lowly and dangerously. A flicker of fear was seen in Grant’s eyes as he realised just how much trouble he was in. “Would you mind explaining what you’ve done?”

“Ensured luxury?”

Skye pursed her lips. “Yes…I’m sure that getting caught and landing our sorry asses in jail is luxury.”

Grant glanced at the hot red Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4 that he was standing next to, and back at the love of his life. “It’s fast. We won’t get caught. If we leave now.”

“Grant, that’s a custom car! No one spends that much money on a car and is slack with making sure that it remains where they left it! We’ll get pinged on theft when the owner gets the cops on our tail!”

Grant held up a laptop. “That’s where you come in.”

Rolling her eyes, Skye strode forward and grabbed the laptop out of her boyfriend’s hands. “You’re in so much trouble.”

“Why? Look, your shoes match!”

A loud, dramatic sigh was the reply. “Well, if we’re gonna go, let’s go.”

“Finally.” Grant mumbled and slid into the driver’s seat. He waited until Skye was seated in the passenger side before he started the car and pulled out of the parking space. “Once you’ve made sure we’re not going to get caught, we’re going shopping.”

“What?” Skye couldn’t believe her ears. Grant Ward suggesting shopping?

“The car is noticeable, but we’d be more remembered if we got out of a brand new, flashy car looking like we stole it because our clothes contrast.”

“We did steal it.”

“Yes, but they don’t need to know that.”

“Uh huh.”

“Plus, I’ll look hot.”

Skye burst out laughing, her head falling into her hand, the arm resting on the top of the door.

“What?”

“Like you need clothes to look hot, honey.”

Grant grinned, taking his eyes off the road for a moment to look over at Skye. Her eyes darkened in response.

“You have no idea how sexy that looks.” she said.

“Well, maybe we can follow up on it once you put that laptop I got for you to use.”

“Right.” Skye opened the computer, delighted at the quality of it.

“You like it?”

Skye glanced over. “It’s a nice one you picked out.”

“And the car?”

“Yeah, I like it.”

Grant’s proud smirk was unstoppable and Skye rolled her eyes at it. “So I can steal a bunch of stuff as long as you like what I’m getting?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“Whether what you’re stealing hurts someone significantly or not.”

Grant smiled. “A compassionate law-breaker. Who would’ve thought?”

Skye scoffed. “Shut up and drive.”

“Mack?” came a tentative voice.

Mack looked up from the jack he was removing from under a newly repaired SUV to see both Fitz and Simmons walking over to him, keeping their distance from each other as usual.

“Hey, guys. Back for more?”

Simmons swung her arms awkwardly as she stopped seven feet from the mechanic, Fitz moving a little closer.

“Simmons was wanting to know more about…Mike.” Fitz said. “I told her that you could explain it better than I can.”

Mack nodded and pulled the jack out from under the vehicle, placing it upright against the work bench. “Alright. Do you wanna hear what his thoughts were on the whole Hydra-Cybertek mess, or start with how we met?”

“If you could start with you meeting him, that would be lovely.” Simmons replied.

“I knew of S.H.I.E.L.D. before Coulson approached me. Trip and I were friends from childhood, and we kept in touch.” He paused as he saw the expressions on the scientists’ faces. “It’s okay to be sad that he gone, but just because he’s dead, doesn’t mean that we have to avoid his name like the plague. I miss him, too.”

They look up, at each other and back to Mack.

“I’d gotten quite good at repairing machines, not just cars. Mike got wind of what I can do and he came to me, asking if I could help.”

“Did he want his armour off?” Simmons asked.

“Something to that effect. What Garrett was doing to him was monstrous. Taking his humanity away, bit by bit. Not that it crushed the good in him, but Garrett had had a bit of practice in that ‘shaping’ department.”

“What, with Ward?”

Mack nodded. “Yeah. Same scenario. Only Ward was fifteen when Garrett kidnapped him from juvie.”

“Fifteen?!” Simmons shrieked. “That bastard was in Ward’s life since Ward was fifteen?!”

“Hence the hold he had over Ward. He felt like he owed the guy everything.”

“How do you know all this? I doubt Ward went round telling this to everyone in Hydra.”

“Garrett kept boasting. He’d made the world’s most loyal soldier. Didn’t need an eye transplant or the Incentives Programme.” Mack spread his hands wide, indicating the helplessness of the situation.

“He made Ward? Surely at fifteen, he would have had ideals of his own.”

“Yeah, probably. But you know of his home situation, right? Abusive. His mother let Christian beat him up and only ever paid attention to his younger brother. His father…didn’t care. Ward likely saw Garrett as a father-figure ‘cause Garrett actually paid attention.”

“That’s awful.” Simmons said, her body tense in disgust at how cruelly Ward’s family had behaved towards him. My family tore me down. Garrett built me back up. The way he wanted. Ward’s words echoed in her mind, haunting.

“Sounds like brainwashing to me.” Fitz put in.

“Yeah. Look, there’s a lot of backstory to this that you’d really have to ask Ward about, ‘cause Mike wouldn’t have picked up on an awful lot of it. If not, you could ask Agent Palamas. Seems Ward told her everything.”

“Well, could you continue with Mike?” Simmons asked, wanting to file away the new information for later.

“Sure. I got some of the stuff on his arms off, and the thing on his back proved a challenge. That Centipede thing in his left forearm wouldn’t come off though.”

“Oh yes, he told us that months ago. He said the scientists where he was tested couldn’t take it off without killing him. Something to do with the serum that had infused itself into his system.” Simmons babbled, pleased to be contributing to the conversation other than entirely being the student.

Mack smiled and pulled over a stool, sitting down. “I left the leg on ‘cause that seemed more of a help than a hindrance.” Simmons nodded. “He was real grateful too, and told me about what he had found himself in.”

“After the explosion?”

“Mhm. He woke up, perhaps a week later, his leg gone and the eye in his head, relaying instructions. He was moved to Quinn’s villa in Italy with the cryo-chamber, and when he woke up, Skye was there.”

“She told us what happened next, yes.”

“Only where she was. The first thing Garrett had Mike do was kill the people who brought the leg to Quinn ‘cause they led S.H.I.E.L.D. there.”

“Well, that explains the mess we found.” Fitz muttered.

Mack inclined his head at the engineer. “Mike didn’t even know that the Clairvoyant was Garrett until S.H.I.E.L.D. found Thomas Nash, and he had Ward kill the poor guy before they could go any further. Pushed all the right buttons, and the investigation was closed.”

“I saw Coulson demand to Ward whether or not he was under orders to kill Nash, and I thought that that was a…prime example of his lying capabilities. But now I think that he told the truth that time.”

“Fitz…” Simmons said, worried.

“No, think about it, Jemma. All Garrett had to do was set the machine to respond to Coulson, but talking about Skye dying would have pissed Ward off, him having feelings for Skye and all. What?”

Both Mack and Simmons were gaping at Fitz, astonished.

“Could you stop staring at me like that?”

Mack shook his head as he snapped out of it. “Sorry, buddy. But you just said three complete sentences without stuttering.”

“And you called me Jemma.” Simmons added, tears starting to form. “You haven’t called me Jemma in months.”

Fitz was now at a loss for words, switching his gaze from one friend to the other.