Chapter Text
Garrett had brought another teenager to the forest again, even though Skye had hoped he’d have given up by now, considering his last three attempts didn’t work. However, apparently, whatever he needed from the teenagers, he needed it badly. Badly enough to try it again time and time again. Though Skye still had no idea what he could gain from leaving them in the woods alone for months.
Or supposedly months since none of the three previous one stayed longer than one.
Still, Skye watched Garrett and the young boy silently from her hiding spot, trying not to make a sound. She was perched up high on a tree, cloaked by the thick blanket of leaves, so much so that she could barely see the duo, yet she still wasn’t about to take any risks.
Not when Garrett was an agent of HYDRA. Skye couldn’t let him find out about her. Nevertheless, she slid down carefully to be able to overhear their conversation.
“…Out here, son, if you want something, you have to earn it. For here on out, you earn everything. You want a warm place to sleep, you make it. You want something to eat, you kill it.” The boy stared at Garrett like he’d grown another head. Skye winced. The boy looked young, definitely a lot younger than the last one Garrett brought. Levin had been nineteen, and even he couldn’t handle being alone. Skye didn’t know if this one could.
“Wait, wait. Y-you can't be serious. All ... all I have in here are some clothes. Right? This isn't fair. If you'd have told me, I-I'd have brought tools or food...” the boy stuttered. Garrett smiled, almost viciously, and it took everything in Skye not to jump on him and punch-erase his smile off his face. She would’ve liked that, too. Probably a lot more than she was supposed to.
“Stop blaming me for your own failure! Makes me not like you. You want it easy? Go back to juvie. They'll give you three squares and a cot.” He looked down at the boy. “Confirm what your family believes, what everybody believes ... that Grant Ward is weak and worthless.” The boy—apparently Grant Ward—gulped, looking around with fearful eyes. He wasn’t bad looking at all, Skye thought, in fact he was slightly muscular and the lines of his face could even be counted as handsome. He had black messy hair and as far as she could see, dark colored eyes, but she couldn’t be sure because of the leaves of the tree. She shifted her position to get a clearer point of view, looking at the boy back again.
The handsomeness of his face wasn’t what she noticed the second time around, though. The lost and determined look in his eyes struck her as he turned back to Garrett.
“I'll tell you what ... I'll leave Buddy here. You take care of him, maybe he'll take care of you. I'll be back in a couple of months. Either you'll be here or you won't. It's up to you.” Garrett continued. That made Grant shiver slightly, but he didn’t show it to the HYDRA agent.
“Yes, sir,” he only whispered, so quietly that Skye barely heard. With that, Garrett smiled again, a smile that screamed evil, and patted the kid on the shoulder.
“But for what it's worth... ...I believe you can do it.” Grimacing, Skye shook her head. No matter what, right then and there, she promised herself to get Grant away from Garrett. Far, far away from him and his influence, even if she needed to spend every penny S.H.I.E.L.D. was paying her to get plane tickets to the other side of the world. He at least deserved that, even if he didn’t give Skye what she wanted regarding HYDRA.
She couldn’t let the boy be influenced by such an evil man, knowing what it felt like oh-so-well.
Holding the young boy’s shoulder in an almost too tight and controlling grip, Garrett smirked again before letting him go. His laugh made Skye cringe, although he was out of her sight. In a couple of second, she heard the car roar anyway, and with that Garrett left.
Grant looked lost when Skye turned her gaze back to him. He was looking after the car, even when she was pretty sure it was far gone. The dog, Buddy, was sitting right next to him, and his hand went to the dog’s head to pat him absentmindedly. Skye still waited a couple of minutes after the car was out of earshot to make her move, just to make sure Garrett was really gone, and not like stopped the car and hid behind a tree to watch Grant. One could never be too cautious, she thought. Looking around, she made sure there was no sign of Garrett or his car before she let herself slide down from the tree. Jumping down right behind Grant, she used her powers to cushion the fall. It used to be hard before, accessing them naturally just like that, but she’d gotten used to it in the last few years she spent in these woods.
She landed softly on the grass, but couldn’t balance herself for a moment, stepping back. A branch got crushed under her feet with a crunch, making her cringe. And, of course, made Grant aware of the young girl’s presence. He jumped in his place before he spun around to face Skye, eyes wide with fear.
I wasn’t wrong, Skye couldn’t help thinking. The boy was handsome. His eyes were dark brown as she’d seen, just not as dark as it seemed from the top of the tree, and his hair was actually a really dark shade of brown instead of black. His clothes were too thin and loose for the woods, not so much for the day but for the night time, and would not protect him from cold. Skye was beginning to think that was Garrett’s purpose in giving him those.
Grant immediately stepped back the moment he saw Skye. Her gaze, though, dropped to Grant’s hands, realizing they were shaking as his fingers curled up in fists, ready to defend himself if anything happened. Pushing her hair away from her eyes, Skye forced a smile. “Hey.” She’d tried to make her voice as soft and inviting as she could manage, not wanting to scare the kid off. That was what had happened with the second boy Garrett had brought. He was so scared after Garrett left that when Skye came down next to him, he literally had screamed and started whatever he could find on the ground at Skye. That wasn’t what Grant did though. In fact, he turned his face into an emotionless mask—or at the very least tried—and stared at Skye.
“Who are you?” he asked. His voice betrayed him, though, as it wavered, but he still managed to keep his composure. Skye’s heart skipped a beat. None of the other three boys had managed to do that. They pretty much collapsed into sobs after Garrett left, and maybe even before that. Yet this boy seemed to be holding on, as far as Skye could tell, even though his hands were shaking, even though his lips were quivering, and even though it was obvious from his eyes that he wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Tentatively, Skye stepped forward, lifting her hands to show she didn’t mean any harm.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” she said quietly, making sure her face was as honest as possible. “I’m trying to help you…” She waited for him to say his name, not letting him know she’d already heard it. It was the first step in trusting someone, as Skye believed. Unfortunately, though, he stayed silent. Which, Skye had to admit, was smart, even though she’d rather the opposite.
“How do I know you’re not lying to me?” the boy in question said with a whisper, to hide the wavering. “I don’t trust you.” Skye couldn’t argue as she tried to find an answer to that. At the end she straightened up, extending her hand toward him, even though he was still a couple of feet away from her.
“I’m Skye,” she said, hoping that telling him her name would at least earn her a couple of points. Grant lifted his brows.
“Is… Is that your real name?” A smile almost pulled Skye’s lips. The boy was perceptive, she thought. Dropping her hands to her sides, she shrugged, choosing her words carefully.
“Well, the name the orphanage staff gave me was Mary Sue Potts, but I decided to change it since it sounded ridiculous.” Grant’s face whitened even more with those words, rather than the smile Skye was hoping the joke would bring. Okay, she thought. Maybe I was going about this in the wrong way.
“You were in an orphanage?” he asked, his voice low but weirdly, not devoid of emotions. Clearing her throat, Skye decided to be honest with it as she stepped forward, slowly closing the gap between them.
“That’s what happens when the parents you’ve never met drops you at the door of it.” She took another step. Now the distance between the duo was no more than five feet. “I’m not going to hurt you.” Again, Skye waited for his name. He didn’t say anything for a couple of moments, long enough for the girl to almost give up, when he opened his mouth.
“Grant,” he whispered. Her heart stuttered as a smile pulled her lips. “My name is…Grant Ward.”
“That’s a beautiful name,” she said honestly, extending her hand. “Nice to meet you, Grant.” Eyeing the extended hand cautiously, Grant didn’t do anything for a couple of seconds before lifting his hand slowly to shake Skye’s. He cringed when she squeezed it slightly, but didn’t let go. He didn’t say anything else, though, when he yanked his hand back. Skye furrowed her brows. It was obvious to her that the boy was damaged—all the kids Garrett brought were—though she didn’t know how much. The boy looked around anxiously before turning back to her. He was shivering slightly, his hands twitching at his sides. He obviously wanted to wrap them around himself for protection, to put a barrier between him and Skye, a stranger to him for now, but he didn’t, either because of his pride or because he wanted to look strong. Instead, he curled his fingers into fists.
“What are you doing here?” he asked suspiciously, his eyes widening only a second later. “Did Garrett…” He didn’t finish his question, but he didn’t need to as Skye pursed her lips and shook her head.
“No, Garrett didn’t bring me. But yes, he’s the reason I’m here and we’re talking right now.” Skye tried to think about a way to explain…everything without revealing too much about S.H.I.E.L.D., about the mission Fury gave her and…and about herself. She came up empty, though, before Grant continued.
“Wh-what do you mean he’s the reason?” His face was even whiter than before, and his shoulders were stiff. Skye ran her fingers through her hair.
“Why did he bring you here?” she asked slowly, even though she had a vague idea about. Grant stayed silent, not saying anything. Skye was beginning to realize that was his way of defense. She sighed. “Grant, I already know about S.H.I.E.L.D. In fact, I’m here in the name of one of their agents.” Grant blinked bewilderedly, not being able to hide his surprise. “And I know why Garrett brought you here. He told you that he was going to enroll you to the Academy, right?”
“How did you know that?” Grant asked hoarsely, obviously afraid. Skye took a deep breath, looking deeply in Grant’s eyes.
“Because you aren’t the first boy Garrett brought here, nor the first he fed with lies.” Pressing her lips together, she sighed. “You, and all the others he brought here, are just puppets to him, to do his bidding, though I don’t know what that is. What I do know is that he’s up to no good.” Grant stared at Skye hesitantly at first, but then he lifted his chin with a stubborn expression on his face. An expression that was too familiar to Skye.
“You’re lying. He promised to recruit me to…to S.H.I.E.L.D. He promised that no one would ever mess with me again.” Skye’s heart squeezed in her chest with the boy’s desperate words. In his eyes, she could see he wanted, needed, to believe that. Skye didn’t know what happened in his past, but she had a feeling no one really cared about him, or believed he could be anything. One might ask how she understood that, someone who never knew what it was like to be alone, but Skye knew exactly what it felt like. You tended to be desperate to be loved, to be believed in, when you never got that in your childhood. And that… That could make you do horrible things, just for the possibility of someone telling you that they believed in you, that they loved you.
“That’s because he knew your weaknesses, and exactly how to exploit them to get you to do what he wants.” The young girl couldn’t keep the pain away from her voice, and silently cursed herself for it. The last thing Grant needed was someone to pity him. Not that Skye did, but she was afraid he’d mistake her pain and understanding with pity.
“And what’s that?” he asked. He was trying not to show his fear, but his wavering voice and a bit too wide pupils gave him away. It was almost impossible to see the brown of his eyes.
“That’s what I want to find out,” Skye said with a small smile. “If you want, we can discuss it here, or we can go to my cabin and do it while sitting on soft cushions, under a blanket, drinking some coffee and eating snacks.” She stopped for a second. “Or hot chocolate, if you want. With those little marshmallows.” She opened her hand. “You look like you could use that.”
For a moment, Skye thought he’d refuse. She thought he’d want to stay, just like Garrett ordered him to, and push her away. He was certainly hesitating as he looked at Skye’s hand, and then at her face, and then back at her hand. He didn’t do anything till it came to the point where she was sure he’d refuse, but then he suddenly lifted his hand and put it in hers, making Skye’s heart stutter hopefully. Maybe this is the one, she thought.
His hand was warm in hers as Grant stared directly in her eyes with a determined look. Taking a shaky breath, he nodded, and the corners of Skye’s lips tipped up. “Yeah, let’s go.” She nodded before turning around, and the duo started walking, Skye in the front, Grant and the dog Buddy behind her, with a hope bubble in Skye’s chest for the first time in a long time.
Maybe finally I can finish my mission and get what I want.