engineeringsciencemonkey
Grant Ward had never been a lucky man -- never lucky as a child, not as a teenager, and certainly not as an adult. But all of that, everything he saw in his nightmares...that was past, and he was reminded of it every single time he woke up out of fear. John Garrett was gone. HYDRA, to their knowledge, was gone, and his brother, Christian Ward, was finally behind bars like he deserved. In his own opinion, he didn't even deserve to breathe. But despite what he felt, it wasn't his call to make.
They didn't trust him yet, not completely. He'd seen Triplett's face, he'd seen Simmons' expression -- clearly, she wanted to follow through on her threat. Skye and Coulson, they were giving him a chance, no matter how much May wanted to drive a spike through his throat, and that was what mattered. He was wearing a tracking bracelet, someone would be watching him around the clock. He was able to wander freely, as long as he didn't touch any weapons.
Ward got the sense that that particular rule had to do as much with his own safety as it did the well-being of others.
Those rules...they had been in place for a year. They called it a redemption, a second chance. Except it was almost like he was still a prisoner, in all ways except one. His relationship with Skye progressed further every day, and despite his restrictions, he was happier than he could ever remember being.
It was one night when he was wandering back from the kitchen, a cup of water in hand, that he noticed a light on in the lab, a familiar face the only one around.
"Either you passed out working, or...you...can't sleep, either."