Ward | Jessica.
I was fifteen. I'd gotten shipped off to a military academy because my parents thought I was a problem child. Without me there to act as a buffer, my older brother had basically tried to murder my younger one. So I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Garrett found me in a juvenile facility waiting for my arraignment. He gave me the option. Either I could stay there and wait for my brother and parents to petition the courts to try me as an adult, or I could go with him and train to join SHIELD. So I went. I spent five years in the middle of nowhere, by myself with nothing other than a hunting dog, as a matter of 'survival' training. For SHIELD. It was always for SHIELD right up until those last few months.
And by then, I didn't know what the difference would even be. SHIELD, HYDRA. It was all the same to me.
I didn't realize how much damage I had done over the years until after it was all over. Until HYDRA was out in the open, Garrett was dead, and I was in captivity with nothing to do but think.