Chapter Fifty-Two

A/N: Hey y'all!!! Happy premier-of-season-five day!!!! I'm sure you guys are as pumped as I am, but I just want to take a second to say: please no spoilers! I don't know if everyone is getting the chance to watch tonight, but either way, I don't want to hear any talk of spoilers anywhere near this story. If you want to fan girl/boy and freak out with me, then feel free to send me a private message! I'm sure there'll be plenty to talk about, this season looks like it's going to be amazing 😝 love you all and thank you in advance for keeping everything spoiler-free ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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We crept through the hallways of the Hub, clearing corners and watching each other's backs to make sure no one got the jump on us. Skye passed the drive with all our back up information to Grant, and then Phil went over the plan one more time.

"Here's where we split," he said. "Skye, Samantha, and Ward?"

"Heading to the nerve center," said Grant, speaking for all of us.

"Disable their systems, and most importantly, their control of our plane," Phil reminded.

I nodded and turned to lead the way down the hallway. Skye followed, with Grant bringing up the rear.

"Remember, these agents are under orders," called Phil. "Use ICERs only."

We walked for a little while in silence, until we got to a hallway filled with guards. I pulled my head back around the corner before they could see me, and stopped Skye and Grant.

"We've got a whole squadron out there," I whispered.

"What do we do?" asked Skye.

"We're just gonna have to take them out, unless one of you can come up with a better plan," answered Grant.

I sighed heavily and leaned back on the wall. Grant and I were good, and Skye could probably do some damage, but I wasn't sure we'd be able to take out all the guys in the hallway before they shot us.

I glanced around, looking for inspiration, and then I saw it: the air vent.

"Grant," I said, getting his attention. I was still staring at the air vent. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"What? What are- oh. That might work."

"Just like Siberia," I said, grinning as I went to remove the cover.

"Slater, I hope to God that this is anything but 'just like Siberia'."

****************

After a few minutes of trying to navigate the ventilation system, we came out in a janitor's closet in the same hallway as the nerve center. It was as close as we could get through the air vents, and it was pretty freaking close.

"Nice thinking," said Skye, once we were all on solid floor again.

"Thanks. Now let's see what we're up against in this hallway."

We sat against the wall next to the door, Grant closest, then me, then Skye. Ever so carefully, Grant slowly edged open the door to look into the hallway. Like the last one, it was crawling with guards.

"Damn," Grant muttered, inching the door closed again.

"The processing center is at the end of that hall," Skye reminded us.

"I mean, at least we don't have to go through the guys in the last hallway and these guys," I said, trying to remain optimistic. Unfortunately, that was a harder job every day.

"Give me your ICER," ordered Grant, talking to Skye. I looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"What's our play?"

"I'll go out and pave the way for you and Skye."

"Oh yeah, right, like I'm going to agree to that plan. No way are you doing this alone, I'm coming with you."

"You need to stay with Skye and make sure she gets to the control center. The mission is top priority."

"Grant, the two of us have beat worse odds than this before. We can beat these twelve guys together, and still have a successful mission without you dying."

"Yeah, come on Ward, that's suicide," added Skye.

"Not if I don't die," countered Grant. "And if I do..."

"Don't you dare start talking like that," I interrupted.

"...maybe I deserve to," he finished, not listening to me. My jaw dropped.

"Skye, I know this is bad timing, but do you think you could give us a second?" I asked. She looked shocked, but she nodded and moved towards the other corner of the closet, mostly out of ear shot.

Now I turned back to Grant.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, moving around to look him in the eye. He was looking at the ground and definitely avoiding at me.

"Never mind Slater."

"No, no, forget never mind. This is important Grant. You are a good person. You're my best friend. You've saved countless lives, risking your own in the process. You are a hero, and I don't know what I would do without you."

He didn't say anything, and he still wouldn't look at me, but we heard loud footsteps in the hallway, and that seemed to snap him out of whatever was wrong.

"Fine. You and I will go out together. Just don't get shot." He waited half a second for me and Skye to get back in place, and then he flung open the door and started shooting. I cursed (I was not ready yet!) and hurried to catch up with him. He was already halfway through the bad guys, being more reckless and ruthless than I'd ever seen.

I shot a few guys with my ICER, but Grant ended up doing most of the heavy lifting. He started back towards the closet to open the door for Skye, but I intercepted him

"What is going on with you?" I asked. I was seriously worried about him.

"Nothing's wrong." He tried to go around me, but I blocked him again.

"That's a load of BS Grant. You've been acting weird for a while, and I'm really worried about you. Please, talk to me."

"We have a time-sensitive mission to accomplish. Now is not the time to talk." He moved towards the door again and pushed past me when I tried to stop him. I wiped the shocked look off my face as Skye joined us in the hallway. I didn't want to worry her, too.

I cleared my throat, not looking at Grant. "So, Skye, how long is the hack going to take?"

"I'm not hacking anything," she said. She set down her backpack and pulled out a stick of plastic explosive. Even with everything going on, I had to laugh, if only a little.

"I like the way you think," I said, moving over to help her wire the computer. Grant followed me to my spot with the detonator cord. After a few seconds of silence ( I sure as hell wasn't going to break the ice), he spoke up.

"Look, Slater, I'm sorry," he finally sighed.

"You know what Grant, for right now, I'm just going to put everything down to the current stress of our situation and let it roll off my back as best I can. But when this is over, you and I are going to need to have a very long, serious conversation."

"Yeah," Grant mumbled. "When this is over."

He still didn't sound quite right.

We finished the rest of our work in silence, then evacuated the room after setting the timer. We braced ourselves around the corner of the hallway, Skye farthest away, Grant closest, and me in the middle. Despite everything, Grant still stood closer to me to try and shield me from the hallway. Maybe he was returning to normal, although I was pretty sure that was too much to hope for.

Within seconds the explosion went off, barely shaking the hallway.

"That was a little anticlimactic," I noted.

"Was that all of them?" asked Skye.

Grant leaned around the corner to look, but nothing happened. He turned back to me and Skye.

"That wasn't as big as I thought-" Grant was cut off by a massive explosion. He tackled me to the ground, both of us catching Skye on our way down, all of us trying to shield each other from the blast.

"Holy crap!" I yelled, poking my head up once things had calmed down. Grant collapsed back on the floor, and Skye leaned up against the nearest un-singed wall.

"That's more like what I was expecting," Grant wheezed, still staring up at the ceiling. Skye and I both let out breathy laughs, mostly stemming from the adrenaline dump.

We all took a few minutes to recover, then pulled ourselves up. It was time to meet back up with the rest of our team.

"Is that officially our 180th near-death experience?" I asked Grant as the three of us staggered down the hallway.

"Are you crazy? You're completely forgetting when we almost died in the hallway just now and when we got shot at on the plane."

"Dang. You're right. So 182? We've kept that remarkably low while we've been on Coulson's team."

Grant nodded in agreement, but I could see Skye shaking her head. Oh well. If she didn't know we were crazy by now, that was definitely on her.

We caught back up with Coulson and the others pretty quickly. Simmons was there and perfectly healthy, to my relief. I ran and gave her a big hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" I said.

"Likewise," she replied, sounding completely exhausted. I was about to ask her a few more questions, until I saw Garrett coming around the corner in handcuffs.

"Traitor!" I heard Tripp yelling from just down the hallway. "You traitor!"

My mouth dropped open in shock. Phil pulled Grant away to explain, but I honestly couldn't move. How was that possible? I had been SO SURE it was Hand. Everything had made sense. I hated her.

Garrett, on the other hand, I liked. He was a cool guy! He told amazing stories, especially ones about Grant, and he was always smiling and clapping me on the back. I trusted him as much as the rest of my team.

How could he be Hydra?

I turned around to find Grant. If Garrett's betrayal was hitting me this hard, it must've been destroying Grant. Garrett was the one who recruited him to SHIELD. He pulled Grant out of juvy. He was like a surrogate father.

Grant looked devastated. I walked over and laid a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged me off.

"Grant?"

"Not now Slater."

"I know how much Garrett meant to you. I'm so, so sorry."

"You're sorry?" Grant looked like he wanted to say more, but he settled for a disgusted snort. "I need to go find Coulson. I have to lock the door on that traitor myself."

He was already walking as he finished talking, and again I was so shocked I couldn't move. What the hell was wrong with my best friend?

****************

Thank God Samantha didn't follow me when Coulson pulled me aside.

I already felt guilty enough lying to Coulson's face, I didn't think I could keep up the act if I had to see Slater, too.

I knew she was going to come talk to me eventually, and she did, but I brushed her off. She actually apologized. Like she had anything to be sorry about. I was the traitor.

My job now was to break Garrett out, and I was going to do it. It might just cost me everything, but I owed that to him. He pulled me out of hell. It's my turn to repay the favor.

I went to ask Coulson permission to fly with Hand. I'd have to cross off her and anyone else on the plane to free Garrett. I just hoped I wouldn't completely lose Samantha after everything I was about to do.

I got the go ahead from Coulson, laying on a guilt trap and playing the betrayed agent. He and Hand bought it hook, line, and sinker.

I marched down the hallway next to Hand, behind Garrett. We passed Coulson, and I couldn't help it. I looked back. I gave myself half a second to get over it in my head, then faced forward again. I would have to put the old team behind me for what I was about to do.

As I got to the foot of the Quinjet ramp, I was totally prepared to do my duty. But, as usual, Slater was going to have something to say about that.

"Grant!" I heard her yell from somewhere in the hanger. I tried to ignore her, which was a mistake. She caught up to me on the ramp and grabbed my arm.

"Get off the ramp, Slater," I said, not making eye contact. I didn't want to face her unless I had to.

"No way in hell. There's something very wrong with you, don't bother denying it, I've known you too long for that to work. I am not about to leave you right now, and that means coming with you on this plane, whether or not you want to talk to me."

I'm a highly trained level 7 agent, but I couldn't help it. I started to panic. I couldn't let Slater on this plane. I had to cross off everyone on the plane. I can't cross off Slater. She CAN'T be there.

"Get off this plane right now," I ordered, trying to sound like as much of a jerk as possible. "You don't have clearance from anybody to be here."

"How long have you known me? I got clearance from Coulson. Now let's have a seat."

"No!" I yelled, pushing her back off the ramp. Stupid and a terrible plan? Yes. But it's the best I had. I couldn't think straight. All I knew was Slater COULD NOT be allowed on this plane.

"Grant!" I heard her yell, but I ignored her.

"Take off. Now," I yelled to the pilot. The ramp started going up, and I thought I was clear, but Slater jumped. She actually jumped onto the ramp and pulled herself onto the plane!

"What. The hell. Was that?" she asked, giving me a death glare. Again, I ignored her, and turned to Agent Hand.

"We have to touch back down. She's not supposed to be here."

Agent Hand gave Samantha an up and down look, and for a second I thought I had a chance.

"I don't see the harm of her being here," she said finally, destroying my last hope. "Besides, the sooner we get to the Fridge, the better."

I sank down into a seat near the ramp, staring down at the ground. What was I going to do?

I felt Slated plop down next to me.

"I don't know what that was all about, but I sure hope you start feeling better soon. This new attitude of yours is getting extremely annoying."

I didn't answer her. I just kept staring at the floor. At some point on this flight, I was expected to shoot everyone on this plane who wasn't John Garrett. But there was no way in hell I was going to shoot her. I could shoot everyone except her and Garrett, but what would Garrett do? I didn't want to think about it. Besides, Slater would never forgive me if she saw me shoot our SHIELD friends in the head, no matter how much she disliked Hand.

What the hell was I going to do?