2014 Providence
The team gathered around a shirtless Ward as Joy patched him up, "this might scar", the blade dabbed one of the cuts on his face.
Skye smirked, "at least you'll look like a badass", Joy shot her an amused grin as she worked.
Fitz leaned forwards, "he's gonna be fine, though, right?", Simmons pushed him back, holding a dish of supplies in her hand.
"He will if you back up and give Joy some room"
Coulson then joined, "so, what then?", he wanted Ward to continue with his retelling.
"By the time we got to the Fridge, it was too late. It was overrun. HYDRA everywhere. We could stop them"
May looked at Ward, "what were they after?"
"Everything. They took weapons, alien artefacts, anything they could grab"
Coulson nodded, "I assume that means the prisoners are no longer prisoners?", Ward gave a nod and Coulsons head dropped in despair.
Skye shared a look with Joy before asking her question, "so Ian Quinn?"
Ward looked at the hacker, "I'm sorry", he then looked through his lashes at Joy, "he's out. They all are"
Fitz was the next to ask a question, and the answer was one everyone was waiting to hear, "and Garrett. Did he get away?"
"Couldn't stop them from taking the Fridge, but I wasn't gonna let Garrett walk, not after what he did"
Skye furrowed her brow, "is he the one that did this to you?"
Ward nodded at her, but his eye misted over, "he was a tough son of a bitch"
Joy continued to work but had to ask, "'was'? Past tense?"
"As soon as I had the upper hand, I put two in the back of his head", Fitz nodded at Wards words, "one from me", Ward looked to Trip, "one from you"
Trip shrugged, "I would've emptied the mag", Joy then began to pull of her gloves before brushing off her jeans and straightening her jumper.
"Well, you're all good... as good as you can be with two cracked ribs and a zygomatic fracture", Ward smiled at her.
Simmons looked at the team, "for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a hairline-"
"Fracture to the cheekbone", Trip ended her sentence and the two shared bashful smiles.
Ward stood, and Joy looked up at him, "you need to let your body heal... please give it time", the man nodded at her and took his shirt from her hands.
"Understood. Thanks", he then held up the hard drive from the BUS, "ah. One small victory, HYDRA didn't get their hands on this"
Trip squinted, confused, "a hard drive?"
Skye looked over to the man, "it's all the research out teams ever done, downloaded off the BUS and double encrypted for safe keeping", she winked at Joy, knowing that the blonde was the key to opening the small box.
"We should probably back it up now that we're in a secure facility", Ward placed the hard drive down, for Skye to take.
Coulson however, had other things on his mind, "first, Skye, I need you on threat assessment. Pull up a list of all the inmates at the Fridge. I wanna know just how bad this is"
The team were moved into a room by Koenig as he stood with an impresses and slightly smug grin next to a mechanical chair, "all right. Just gonna need you guys to answer a few questions. A few psychoanalytic, non-sequitur questions", Coulson looked at the man, deadpan.
"A lie detector?"
Koenig pointed at the chair, "THE lie detector, Agent Coulson. This baby measures galvanic skin response, oxygen consumption, micro expression, biofeedback brain waves-", JoyFitzSimmons shared an intrigued glance, "-pupil dilation, voice biometrics. Ninety six variables in all. Fury designed this himself. He wanted a lie detector Romanoff couldn't beat"
Ward looked up, "did she?"
Koenig laughed, "like Fury would tell", Coulson nodded.
"Okay, sooner we get this done, sooner we can get to work", he looked to the team, "so who wants to go first?"
Everyone looked away, so Joy raised her hand, "I'll go", Coulson nodded and led the team from the room. Joy looked to Koenig, "do I just sit?", she spoke with a smile.
The man blushed at her bright smile, "uh, y-yes, take a seat", he tighten the cuff around her wrists and then moved to the table in front of the chair, "we're gonna start with some easy questions and establish a baseline. Can I have your full name?"
"Angela Luisa Joy"
"Eye colour?"
"Blue"
"You ever been married?"
"No"
"Please list your immediate family?"
"Mother and Father"
"What's the difference between an egg and a rock?"
"That's a ridiculous question, the differences are innumerable. I can list them if you'd like, but we'd be here all day"
"Have you ever heard of Project Insight?"
"Never"
"Ever had any contact with Alexander Pierce?"
"He passed by me once in the HUB, when I was stationed there"
"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"
"Oh... that's an excellent question... I'll say, flare gun"
"S.H.I.E.L.D. no longer exists. The Agency has been labeled a terrorist organisation. So, why are you here?"
"All my life I've wanted to help people. This seems like a good place to do that"
Koenig looked at the screens before him before smiling, "congratulation, you passed, let's get you a lanyard", Joy beamed at him.
As she was walking around the base, waiting for the rest of the team to finish their lie detectors, Joy spotted Ward, "have you got yours yet?", she swung her lanyard around her finger.
Ward took the layered and inspected it, "how was it?", Joy took the pass back and slipped it over her neck.
"Easy... if you don't mind being open about yourself, so you'll hate it", she grinned teasingly, "I'll see you when you're finished", she began to walk away but Ward grabbed her waist and pulled her into a kiss.
When they parted he smirked at her, "been waiting all day to do that", he kissed her once more and smacker her butt as she walked away, making the blonde jump and giggle while she shook her head.
"...why are you here?"
"I'm an Agent. It's my duty"
Koenig looked down at the screen which had lit up, "gonna need you to give that to me again"
"It's my duty"
Koenig picked up a pistol, "I'm gonna ask you a follow up. Agent Ward, are you associated with HYDRA?"
Ward took a second, "yes", he then smirked, "we all are. They've infiltrated the highest levels of our organisation"
Koenig cocked the gun, "like you mean it", he pointed it at Wards head, "are you HYDRA?"
"I'm loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D., to Agent Coulson and to my team"
"Do you have another agenda here?", Ward clenched his hand, and thought back, "Agent Ward, why are you really here?"
"Angela... came back for her. She gave me one chance, I'm not gonna waste it"
"Angela?", Ward nodded and Koenig removed the gun, "cool"
Ward, Skye, May and Joy watched Coulson and the other head of on their mission. Joy gave her two closest friends a smile as they passed by her, feeling a little off that they were being separated.
Joy walked into Koenig's office where the man and Skye were combing through information and police reports, as she reached Skye she squeezed her shoulder and took a peek at the tablet sat in Koenig's hands; seeing the map she scoffed and took the lanyard off her neck before dropping it on the floor.
The action made a small beep come from the tablet and Koenig turned his chair to the girls, "aren't you clever?", Joy shot Skye an amused look before turning back to the man.
"Aren't you sneaky?", she crouched down and picked up her lanyard, "these are all trackers", she shook it in his face before leaning beside Skye.
The hacker froze, "we've been killing ourselves trying to guess where these guys went. But what if we could see it?", Koenig and Joy watched her as a plan formed behind her dark eyes, "get visuals on where the prisoners went after leaving the Fridge?"
Koenig chuckled, "that's a good idea, but right now, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s sat surveillance is dark"
Skye shook her head, "ours aren't the only ones up there"
"The only other satellites in the vicinity that could-", he cut himself off, "the NSA. You wanna hack the NSA?"
Joy shrugged, "it's kinda what she does"
Koenig shook his head at the two, "thats a bad idea, Skye. That's a terrible idea. The NSA's already got S.H.I.E.L.D. on its watch list. Why poke the bear? The big, scary, waterboarding bear"
Joy gasped, "sorry, we thought you were a comms agent", she shared a look with Skye, "not agent of playing Xbox while you hide in an underground bunker"
Koenig sighed, "you can't goad me to-", he looked to the door and covered his tablet quickly.
Joy followed his eye line and spotted Ward, "come help me convince Steve Rogers here to suit up? Grab his shield and storm into battle", Ward shrugged.
"Okay. Who's he supposed to battle?"
Skye turned to her S.O., "if we hack NSA satellites, we can get footage from the Fridge breakout. See who was there. Where they went"
Ward nodded and looked to Koenig, breaking the stare-off he was having (and losing) with Joy, "she's right, it's worth trying", the small man sighed, "you know, I can't hack the NSA, but maybe I can upload the hard drive you gave me. Get the specs on the weapons they might be carrying"
Skye nodded, "absolutely, we should, but we can't. The encryption is location-based and then Joy needs to give her password which only she knows", the two girls fist-bumped with smirks.
The blonde looked to Ward, "the three of us will have to take a road trip one day to decrypt it", Ward nodded with a wavering smile.
Koenig then stood, smiling, "okay. All right. Colour me impressed. Now impress me more", he looked at Skye, "get me that cottage", he handed her a card, "these are the keys to the comm-sat room. The mainframe is in there. Start the hack, but then send the feed to these monitors... let's live dangerously"
Skye did a small cheer and went to leave.
"How long before you get visuals?"
She turned back to Ward, "uh... NSA satellites should be tough. Give me an hour", she then smiled at Joy, "coming, Ang?", the blonde grinned and jumped after her.
Joy had been to the toilet before she headed to Koenig's office, but she walked into an empty room, Skye was supposed to be here and Koenig, but there was no one.
"Skye's hack worked"
Joy whipped around at Wards voice and smiled, "yeah, she's unstoppable sometimes", she leaned against a counter, "have you seen her? or Koenig?", Ward shook his head, "what about May?"
"May's gone", Joy furrowed her brow, "she left the base a while ago"
The blonde brushed her fingers through her hair, "she'll be back", her words made Ward tilt his head, "I know Coulson's been a little cold to her... but Mays not the type to abandon her team", she then looked Ward in the eye as he settled close to her, "did you ever feel anything for her?"
The man shook his head instantly, "me and May took comfort in knowing we didn't have to feel anything", he brushed some blonde hair from Joy's blue eyes, "with you it's different... I'm happy I can feel something for you, even happier that you feel something for me... I think"
Joy chuckled and watched Ward pour two glasses of whiskey, "well, I don't just go around kissing anyone", the man chuckled too and held a glass out to Joy.
"That drink we've been meaning to have", Angela took it with a soft smile, "I'm afraid the dancing will have to wait", she giggled at this and leaned into Ward as they sipped from their glasses. The two moved to the couch, "I'm a specialist, so I've not really spent time with a lot of people, and those I did spend time with were just like me"
"Grumpy muscle-heads", Joy smirked over the rim of her glass.
"Agents. Trained to get the job done and keep emotions in check... but you, you're different; you keep your emotions in a neat line, get the job done and care about everyone all in one go", Ward chuckled, "I respect you so much, because every time you shot me down made me realise that you only had one goal in mind, to do your job, you didn't need me there messing it up", he looked into Joy's eyes and smiled, "but despite your rejections, you were still in my head, I was worrying about you all the time... after what happened to you, and the way you pulled through, I knew you were stronger than me"
Joy gave him a soft grin, "maybe it's not showing your strength, but just knowing you are strong that matters", she took another sip from her glass, "remember when you asked me if I was a combat agent", Ward nodded, "I was amused... I could've been a combat agent, in fact Hand wanted me to be one... but it doesn't aline with my views, or at least it didn't", the man before her looked confused, "since Italy, I've felt ready to do what needs to be done to protect people, before I believed everyone was deserving of the same care, but after what happened... I realised that my care shouldn't be given out to everyone, and if needs be I should be ready to fight... not just myself, but for the people around me"
Ward leaned forwards, "but how can you be peaceful if you're willing to fight?"
Joy chuckled, "you can't call yourself 'peaceful' unless you are capable of great violence", Ward watched, almost entranced as she spoke, "if you're not capable of violence, you're not peaceful. You're harmless... important distinction"
Finally finding it in himself to speak, the man whispered, "I'm not peaceful... I'm only violent", Joy shook her head and leaned forward.
"You have peaceful moments... like now"
Ward huffed, "but that's because I'm with you... you're good", he took a breath, "I'm bad"
"Trust me, baby", he looked up at her words, "being good is harder"
The two settled into a comfortable silence before Ward spoke again, "you've told me about your family, let me tell you about mine... it's not quite as heart-warming as yours", he breathed in deeply, "my mother and father were always away, state duties of some form or another... and my older brother was left in charge, he was evil... he wanted to hurt my younger brother, but that wasn't cruel enough for his taste, so he'd make me do it", Joy looked away from at the pain in Wards face, "and I let him. I was afraid of him... my parents knew what was happening but they didn't care", Joy took his hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze, "I'm not a good man, Angel"
The blonde moved from her seat to sit beside Ward and held his face in her soft hands, "you're good for me", Ward then pulled her into a passionate kiss, but something under Joys thumb made her pull back.
They both looked down at the crimson smudge on her finger, "one of my cuts must of reopened", Ward stood and made to leave.
"Ward, let me sort it for you"
He shot her a hurried smile, "no, no, you relax, I'll just go clean it and come back with some music", she watched him leave, confused by why he was even leaving in the first place.
To entertain herself she began looking through the folders on Koenig's desk where she remembered the tablet he was using was hidden. With a gentle brush of her fingers she pushed the file that covered the screen and looked down at the map. Ward was round the corner, heading to the canteen. Skye was in a bathroom and Eric was in a storage room. She used her own blip to walk to Koenig's location.
She got to the room Koenig was in and knocked on the door, "Eric?", she knocked again, "Agent Koenig?", when she didn't get a reply she pushed the door open and looked down at the penny that fell to the floor, she quickly picked it up and slipped it in her pocket, "kinda weird", moving through the store room, she continued to call his name, "Eric?", not seeing him in there she looked down at the tablet, where their markers overlapped, but as she went to look away a drop fell on the screen.
The crimson drop was followed by more, making the girl lift her head to the ceiling. Eric face was pressed against the grill of the ceiling and Joy had to clamp a hand over her mouth to stop her scream.
Another look at the tablet showed Skye, just leaving the bathroom and Ward moving around the base, "Ward", the whispered name came with a terrifying comprehension. Her moves were quiet as she slowly closed the door and replaced the coin, before she used the map to find Skye.
She speed walked to the hackers marker and grabbed the girl by the arm as she dragged them into the bathroom, gasping, "no, no", tears had filled her eyes as she leant on the sink.
Skye had no idea what was happening. One minute she was walking down the hallway, the next she had been shoved into the toilet she had just left by a shaking Joy, "Angela? Ang? what's wrong?", she held the blondes shoulders as they shook under her hands.
"Angel?"
Joy span at Wards voice, her breath catching in her throat. The sight of her wide, petrified eyes made Skye look to the door too.
The blonde doctor had yet to speak as she sunk to the floor, "he's HYDRA", Skye dropped in front of her.
"What?"
"Wards is HYDRA", her and Skye shared a look that said more than any words, "he killed Eric", Skye was now shaking too as se looked around the room for a weapon.
Joy took a couple calming breaths before she joined the hacker in looking through the cupboards, but they found nothing. Her watery blue eyes then caught the picture of a night-lit city. With Skye's help she pried a nail from the wall and pushed the screen to the day time version of a sunny beach.
"Hold it there", Skye did as she was told and watched Joy begin carving, leaving the words 'WARD IS HYDRA', one she finished she pushed Skyes hands away and let the picture rotate back to the city, she then pushed the nail into the edge of the screen, so it wouldn't move back when day time came around and hung the neckless Fitz and Simmons had got for her on the nail.
Ward had checked the entire base for Joy, but couldn't find her anywhere. Scared that she'd found Koenig's body he went to the store room and gently pushed the door open, catching the penny he'd put there before; a sigh of relief passed his lips before the girl he'd been looking for showed up.
"Hey", Joy smiled, teeth glistening in the light as she forced every fibre in her body to act normal. Skye stood beside her, a small, well-practised smile on her lips, "a closet is the last place I'd hide", she kept her voice even, even making it teasing.
Ward closed the door and approached the two girls, "I was wondering where you went. I went back to the room, you weren't there. Why'd you leave?"
Joy looked down, feigning sheepishness, "I really needed a wee", Ward chuckled, "and then I ran into Skye", she then approached Ward, "anyway, we had unfinished business"
Skye watched the blonde lean up and kiss Ward deeply and she had to admit, she was impressed. She would've never have guessed that Angela Joy was such a convincing actress. Seeing that they were still kissing, Skye coughed.
Joy pulled back and smirked, "to be continued", Ward smirked back, his pupils blown wide.
"I wish I could stay here with you forever, and pretend the world outside didn't exist", he held her waist securely as he sighed, "but, unfortunately, it does exists. I just got word from Fitz. They need our help. BUS is fuelled up, ready to go"
He stepped past her and Skye spoke up, "we should tell Koenig", Ward nodded.
"I just did. He's headed outside to open the hanger doors. We're in a hurry"
Joy looked at Skye before turning, "I should grab some thin-", Ward caught her arm.
"Hey... we need to go right now"
Angela looked into his eyes, "of course we do", she smiled up at him, looking through her long lashes as she took his hand in hers, "lead the way", Skye followed after them, hands shaking at the position they were in and more importantly scared for her angelic friend.
Skye sat behind Joy in the cockpit as Ward flew them over the clouds. Joys eyes watched the sun rise with a small smile, "it's gorgeous", she then turned to Ward, "so, are we headed to Portland?"
"Actually, Fitz thinks the 084 plasma ray we found in Peru might help"
Skye leaned forward, "didn't we jettison that to the sun?"
"Yeah, but Fitz has the specs on it"
The pieces clicked in Joys mind as she nodded, "on the hard drive", she looked in the window at the reflection of Skye, "you need us to decrypt the hard drive"
"The team does", Ward looked between the two girls, "and since it's coupled to specific coordinates, Agent Skye, you're in charge, until Joy needs to take over", he gave the Chinese girl a smirk, "where to next?"
Skye gave him a smile and gave him the location. But her hand was clasped in Angelas, next to the wall as they held onto each other for what was to come.