Who - Grant Ward and Daisy Johnson What - Awkward :) When - Wayyy back when Daisy was in the med wing. Because between then and now I travelled from the North to London twice and saw a looot of musicals. Rating - Low Status - Complete
Grant didn’t know why he did this to himself. He’d heard Skye was awake and really, he should have left it at that. Been happy she was safe and checked in on the girl he was with. And he would, he’d do it. But he was passing the medbay anyway. And she was awake. More than that Lincon wasn’t there. Ward probably should have hated the guy. But even he had to admit, the other man cared about her. He’d been so worried when she’d gotten hurt and he seemed like someone that could be good for her. It was what she deserved.
But just because she’d moved on, it didn’t mean he couldn’t check in on her. Be there for her if she needed anything. Maybe it was pathetic he still wanted to be a part of her life but he’d never been anything like normal. He looked around the door to the cubicle and smiled.
“Daisy” he started. “Still don’t like seeing you in a hospital bed, but way I remember it this is where I tell you that you look good all the same?”
With her bandaged hand poised over a tablet, Daisy turned her bloodshot gaze toward Ward. His tone brooked familiarity - it wanted to be friendly. And she felt the same way toward him that she remembered feeling to some of her foster siblings. Wary, quizzical. Prepared for a bite at any second. Her lips pursed.
“Nice try,” she said, her voice broken and tired, graveled and unused in several days. “I might not want to look in a mirror but I know I don’t look good. Thanks for the thought, though.”
“Yeah well, you look better than you did then.” he said. He didn’t want to think about then, or his part in it all. He had such plans to kill Quinn someday, working with him had made him question his loyalty to John more than anything else he’d done in his long career of twisted acts. And he’d wanted to see the bastard die for what he’d done. But it had fallen by the wayside. Seemed like a lot of things he’d wanted once had got pushed aside for crazy.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay, y’know?” he said. It was awkward. And he didn’t want it to be, but what the hell else did he expect. She was still hurting, still recovering, and she’d want her boyfriend, or Coulson or Simmons. Not him.
“I can go if you want. If this isn’t okay?” he said.
Daisy was too tired for smartass remarks. Instead, she hunched one shoulder. "It's up to you." She might have been injured but she still trusted herself enough to pack a wallop if he frightened her.
But this Ward? Not scary. Sad, angry, manipulative and mean. De-fanged.
"I am totally not dead."
“I’d noticed. Don’t care how many times I see that power of yours, it fits you. Suits you.” he told her, moving to take up a seat in a chair next to the bed, even pushing it back a little. He was here and she was awake and suddenly he wasn’t sure what he wanted to say to her. Kara didn’t even know he was here. She’d freak out. He knew it. He knew it would push every insecurity she had to the fore all over again and he’d have to deal with it. Talk her through it.
Staying away from Daisy was definitely the simple way to deal with it. But not a concession he was willing to give his girlfriend.
“Y’know it’s funny. I thought about what I’d say if you were awake. And you know me, not often lost for words but, here we are. I don’t want it to be weird but maybe there’s no other way it can be.” he mused.
“Ward, it’s always going to be weird. Get used to it. That’s the new normal.” She couldn’t imagine a world in which now talking to a Ward from her past would be anything other. Her lip curved into a crooked smile.
“Say whatever you want. Your audience can’t exactly get up and run, you know?”
He mused on this for a second wondering where the cockiness he usually held around people had gone when it came to her. It might have where she was, the situation. Or it could be that he wasn’t sure he knew her. Not anymore. But the sad truth was still that he’d probably take a bullet for her without thought.
“What’s normal? I don’t think there is one especially here. But point taken. I can’t expect things to be the same. But can they be different than this?”
He knew Betsy would chide him for this. For wanting more than she was probably ready to offer.
“I mean, we were friends before. And it wasn’t lies. The things I told you, things I wouldn’t tell anyone. That wasn’t to gain your sympathy, that wasn’t a way distract you. It just was. You understood me, those parts of me anyway and I can't shake that.”
God this was pathetic. But he was honest with her. He always would be.
“You and me, that’s...it was dead before it ever got a chance. I get that, that’s on me and we probably would have been destructive as hell for each other, even if Hydra hadn’t come out of the shadows. It would have been built on lies. But do you think you could ever call me a friend? Trust me?”
He didn’t love her anymore. And he was still sure she hated him. But could they not meet in the middle somewhere.
“It was easy with you. Easy to be as close to the real me as I could let myself be on that Bus. And I miss it.”
“Oh, Ward.” A sigh. He was so earnest when we wanted to be. “I think it could,” she said slowly. From her injured hands to Ward’s face, she knew that here was the truth. They were both broken in places. They both simply wanted to belong.
“I think we could be friends. But we have to try.”
He blinked, actually legitimately not expecting anything close to that from her.
“Sk..” he started catching himself. She’d caught him off guard. “Daisy, sorry.” he corrected himself. “Are you sure? I mean, seriously? That alone. Just that, just a chance, it's more than I ever expected.
Trying he could do. Would do.
“So, I guess, is there anything I can do to make this easier on you, this friends thing?”
“I’m serious, Ward. Just, like. I know you come from a different place than me. I know that there were a lot of opportunities along our timeline.” She paused. “ … we just have to try. To understand each other. Me, you, Lincoln. Kara. Coulson. Jemma.”
A crooked smile. “That’s all I want.”
She was right. It was just, he really didn’t want to deal with the boyfriend. He didn’t hate him and he didn’t want Skye back but he didn’t...it was still a mess more than anything else.
“...I can try. And I’ll fuck up. At least a few times. But just know I want to get there. With all of you. And maybe eventually we will. It would be worth it.”
She nodded slowly. “Sure, I agree. And I mean, we’ll all slip up. But I guess the idea here is that we’re all brought from different times and places to stop looking back. We’ve got a lot going on around us, and we have to pack it all up ...”
Could she do that with Ward? She didn’t know. But she knew, intrinsically, that she had to try. There was no other option. “ … and stay together.”
Ward let himself smile at that. It was worth it. To try. For all of them. And if she was willing, well that was worth more than he could have imagined.