[2] An Executioner's Requiem | Leo Fitz

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The moment Skye's face come into Nina's view, she was up in an instant and immediately pulled the hacker into a tight embrace.

"You're okay," Nina muttered as Skye mirrored the emotion in the hug.

The two agents were different in many ways but anytime Nina looked into Skye's eyes she saw someone who needed protection and when Skye looked into hers she saw someone who'd already lost too much. They had forged a bond over the duration of the year that neither person knew the beginning of but were both comfortable with.

Knowing that she felt the same way about Skye now as she did last year made Nina feel happy. There was a consistent sisterly love between Nina and Skye, though where the hacker could never replace Monica, it was nice to know that she still had a sister by her side and Nina was going to do anything in her power to keep her safe.

Coulson's arms wrapped around the agent the second silent sobs took over her body. She accepted the embrace, wrapping her arms around him as she buried her face into his shirt and cried.

Coulson heard the exact moment Nina's heart broke.

He didn't have any kids, the job and being dead made that impossible, but as he held Nina to his chest, listening as she cried out years of lies and betrayal, he suddenly understood how a child's heartbreak could break a parent's heart.

Knowing that Coulson looked out for her like a father, way before she died made Nina feel a little emotional. She'd been angry at him for keeping her life a secret, but the remembrance of his arms holding her fragile body as she cried her eyes out, made her understand his choice a little better. To him, she was his daughter, and he was simply doing the parental thing and trying to protect his child; so Nina made a mental note to apologise for her previous hostility.

Ward looked down for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut before looking back up. He had orders, that'd been his justification for years, but guilt consumed him now. Nina standing in front of him, knowing the secret he'd been harbouring made him realise he had a choice and that he'd chosen wrong.

He chose to break her heart and he couldn't fix it. He'd never be able to fix it, so the least he could do now was what she wanted from him. The least Ward could do for Nina was lie to her.

"I didn't kill Tobias," and so he did.

This was a memory Nina would have been perfectly fine with not remembering, but she did, she remembered the anger and the pain associated with his words. She remembered the feeling of all that she'd believed shattering into pieces, she remembered truly understanding what it meant to hate somebody and she remembered the first moment when being the Executioner was the one thing she needed to do.

And yet, the most impactful thing that she remembered as the year flashed through her mind was not the words Ward uttered, nor was it the feeling of her knife embedding itself in her neck. It was three simple words, three simple words she'd never thought she'd say to anyone else and truly mean. But three words that meant everything to the man she'd said them to.

I love you.

*

Packing up his bunk set off a plethora of emotions Fitz wasn't expecting to have towards SHIELD. The organization was his work and up until now he'd always thought he'd be able to step away from it fairly easily, but as he pulled pictures off the walls and tucked them into cardboard boxes he realized the organization was more his life and home than just merely his job.