Chapter 2
In between the short few hours of Coulson giving them the assignment and later, team saying their goodbyes to them - Skye and Fitz, especially, fussing around Simmons to please be careful and giving him the eye as if to add, take care of her or else - Ward realizes just what is about to happen.
Meaning apart from going on an undercover mission for the first time in a long time (since it'd been Garrett giving him his orders) and that this mission may very well be connected to HYDRA. The very organization they had been trying to bring down for months and that had had his former SO's true allegiance.
No, aside from the professional implications of this whole assignment.
He's going to be undercover with Jemma Simmons. As a couple. A married couple.
Jesus. He hadn't exactly known what he'd been thinking - well, that's a lie, he knows a few specific thoughts that had taken hold of his mind - when he had said yes to this whole thing.
And it has a lot more to do with the pretty biochemist he's about to spend an unforeseen amount of time alone with, than he would ever say out loud.
It had been several months since he had joined Director Coulson's team and with that, had come a lot of changes. He had disproved his death to those who know him - which, ugh, come on, him, dead? really? - and had also gained a team. Something he hadn't never really wanted or needed.
He'd worked alone. Or on occasion, with Trip or Bobbi (at times, both of them) because, in spite of himself, their near constant partnering in the field had accidently led to friendship.
It also helped that they took none of his shit and aren't terrified of him.
And half of that had been Garrett's influence and the other, Ward's own ruthless reputation at SHIELD.
Regardless, now he had an actual team. A man he took orders from whom he's slightly sure he could trust. New friends. And...
... Jemma Simmons.
How to categorize her in his world has been proving more than a little difficult.
He vaguely recalls being brought into the Playground that first time to meet with Director Coulson. Roaming the halls of what was to become his home base thereafter. Seeing the looks of confusion and surprise on many baby agents' faces. The admiration on the more seasoned few.
But, his most vivid memory has been and will always be her.
Walking towards the Director's office, flanked by Bobbi and Trip, by the glass-encased area holding the labs.
Having her stop him dead in his tacks the way she will continue do for the next several months.
He remembers doing a double-take at the sight of her, hovering over a holotable wearing those silly large lab goggles, working away and completely unaware of the new attention she had drawn her way.
He had drawn some eyes as well. Young lab techs staring at him nervously through the glass. His two old friends possibly giving him the all-knowing eye at his side.
But, he had paid them absolutely no mind.
He had watched for a few minutes as her brows furrowed in concentration before her face lit up and the frown lifted completely as she'd smiled wide and slightly crooked, calling over another man in the room to have a look at her findings.
Radiant. He had thought. Incandescent. He'd reinforced. Luminous. He had stuck with.
Yet, gorgeous is the one he stayed with after seeing her up close and shaking her hand and having his whole heart palpitate at that smile directed his way. Those beautiful whiskey-colored eyes sparkling as she did.
And then after that, it hadn't gotten any better.
Since he and Fitz had become friends, he'd found himself spending more time down in the labs and as a very unintended (shut up, Trip) benefit of said time, he got to be in great proximity to her.
That and it also helps that after missions he, more often than his fellow agents, wound up in the infirmary next to the lab and since Simmons is their resident chief medic in spite of others on site, well...
She'd stitch him up and he'd take the opportunity to talk her up.
He's pretty sure he's been flirting with her. If he sees an opening, he goes for it and many a times when she'd been attending to him, he would mean to say one thing but, his mouth would slip with another.
Like thank you becoming instead you've got good hands.
Which is just... he's lucky she had taken it like the compliment he'd intended and not some weird innuendo about putting her hands on him.
And now, he's thinking about having her hands on him.
Fuck.
"You know if you stare hard enough, you can burn a hole in her blouse."
He sighs. Never let it be said that Bobbi Morse doesn't know how to make an entrance.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." He retorts to the leggy blonde now standing next to him and staring at him with a knowing brow.
She scoffs. "You used to be such a better liar than that."
"Can I help you with something?" He asks, already on the edge. Something, knowing her, she probably had meant to do. "Or are you just here to irritate me?"
"A girl can't say goodbye to her best pal-"
"Nice try."
"It was worth a shot." She says immediately and pins him with a look. "Come on, Ward."
"Come on what?"
She wiggles her eyebrows in the most outrageously suggestive fashion known to man then and he doesn't know whether to laugh or stab himself in the actual eyeball. "You. Simmons. Come on." She head checks towards the very woman in question, not standing ten feet away while Fitz continues to fuss over her and god, he hopes she can keep it down with whatever embarrassment she's got in mind. "Come on."
When he still says nothing, she huffs in frustration and he'd never thought he would live to see the day when Barbara 'Badass Bobbi' Morse turned into a teenaged version of herself. "Oh, come on, Ward. Don't tell me you don't know what I'm saying." Before he can vocalize what exactly he thinks of that, she spears on. "You're going undercover with Simmons. Alone. In Italy, jackass. Italy. With the woman of your dreams and where-"
"Where you went on a honeymoon with an ex-husband you now hate?" He asks politely even though he had already sniffed out where this particular tale had been headed and yes, as he had mentioned, he's well-aware that he's going to be spending time alone with Simm- Jemma and he's trying not to think about it.
She glares at him. "I do not hate Hunter, we just- Anyway, how dare you bring that up?"
"Because I know you too well." He says because he really does.
"Because you're a jerk."
He chuckles low, feeling a smirk coming on. "I never said I was a prince."
She socks him in the shoulder and he knows she's laying it low now because that's his bad shoulder and she's a truly horrible friend.
But, all that is easily the last thing in his mind when his eyes cut to Jemma still conversing with Skye and Fitz. Trying to get as much words with her two best friends as possible before they have to leave. Those amazing eyes lit up with mirth. That distracting mouth turned up in a fond smile at the two while she shakes her head with some laughter. Short hair swinging in movement.
He adores her.
And he has no idea what to do with that.
She's everything he hadn't known he wants, really - a certified genius and fucking gorgeous, at least he has excellent taste in that - and it sometimes takes all that he is to tamp down the growing feeling that's akin to devotion whenever he's with her in that lab and she's stitching him up while admonishing him for being reckless or he's getting her a pick-me-up in the form of her favorite tea or-
Just... anything she does and he's a second away from handing himself over to her.
She owns him and doesn't even knowit.
And as luck would have it, he's about to spend the most time alone with as he's ever had the chance to have in the name of a mission and like he said, he is nothing if not an opportunist.
Maybe this'll turn out well.
"Grant!" He hears her call and it pulls him away from the thoughts containing her at this very moment and he sees that she's smiling widely in his direction. "I'm ready to leave. Come along!"
And if he happens to sigh like a besotted idiot when she smiles at him like that, no one but him knows.
Well, him and Bobbi. Who turns and raises a perfectly arched brow at him. "Grant?" She asks at the casual usage of his first name that she knows the other woman has never called him by.
He heaves a different kind of sigh this time. "I'm about to be her husband. It's strategic." He half-lies without really wanting to.
"It's adorable." She quips, one of those razor-sharp, shark smiles enveloping her face.
He huffs. He can't help himself. "A lot of people call me Grant."
"Yeah, but I bet you like it a lot when she does, huh?"
Again with the suggestive tone. He has to leave now or risk wanting to stab himself in the ear canal and he starts to go, ignoring the urge to spill out how much he does enjoy Jemma uttering his first name. "You're impossible. I have to go. Bye."
He's several steps ahead towards the Quinjet, a million thoughts rolling a mile a minute through his brain, when he hears. "Hey, wait!"
God, what now?
He turns to see Bobbi rushing towards him with a long, triangular black box in her hands and he stands back when she reaches him and extends towards him. "Your rings."
He swears his brain burns it's circuits right the hell out. "My... what?"
"Wedding rings." She elaborates as though speaking to a slow child and gives him a funny look. "Rings worn by married couples- Am I really gonna have to explain to you??" She asks with exasperation.
"Wha- No." He utters with annoyance. "No. I just meant, you're giving us the rings?"
The tall blonde shrugs as though it's obvious. "Well, yeah. I mean I'd like to think if you did get married that I would be your best woman." She adds with a 'duh' inflection in her voice.
"You're hilarious." He says without much heat as she grins at him sarcastically. "Give me those." He snatches the box out of her hands and opens it slightly to peak in. Black velvet opens into deep red satin lining with two styles and sizes of wedding rings inside.
"The black silver is for you, obviously." She utters, pointing at said two rings. "And the white gold is for your new bride."
She says this all without so much as a joke and when he cocks his eyebrow at her, she just shrugs again. "I'm just repeating what they told me." And then she adds with zero irony. "And also, they're the real deal so, bring them back unscathed, please. Jewelry designers are very sensitive."
"Alright." He shuts the box and starts to turns to go. "Thanks-"
"Hey. Look." She says and this must be something because she sounds serious now. "I know this kind of stuff makes you uncomfortable so, I'm just gonna say this." She takes a breath and then looks him dead in the eye. "I apologize for teasing you earlier..."
"But?"
"But, I think..." She leans in closer and drops into more of a whisper. "I think this would be a great opportunity for you. I mean, you like her. Everybody knows that." He rolls his eyes because he'd thought he had been more subtle but, well... "And she likes you, too, so-"
"She does?" He asks, heart lurching in his chest pathetically.
"-Anyway, just, y'know..." She pats him on said chest where his heart is now hammering thanks to her damn words. "...Do what you do. Take a chance. It could be worth it." She adds, winking before starting to walk off. "Good luck."
Dammit. He thinks, turning to see his object of affection already sitting in her seat. Lovely as ever. Thanks a lot, Bobbi.
Yeah, this is gonna turn out real well.