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Ward doesn't even look surprised when Jemma slides into the booth opposite of him. She supposes he must have known he was being followed — she'd been immediately suspicious when he sat with his back to the door of the diner. It was practically an invitation.
"How'd you find me, Simmons?"
"Daisy," she says. It's the short answer. Daisy had set up a program to track Ward's whereabouts as soon as they'd caught whiff of his inconceivable survival. It was one of the last things she did before she left the Playground. Then two days ago, right when Jemma had been bereft of any semblance of what to do, the program Daisy'd left in her and Fitz's care had gotten a ping.
"How come she's not here with you then? How come no one's here?"
Jemma feels her breath sharpen in her chest as she lies. "They're here." She tries to sell it off casually, to make him believe that she has some kind of backup and she has no reason to worry.
"No," he says with a smile. "They're not."
She sighs, supposing if all goes well he'd have to find out eventually. "Alright, fine. I'm by myself. But I'm not without some security."
"You mean that ICER on your knee?" Ward sips his coffee, unperturbed. "So... SHIELD knows where I am... and they send you in on your lonesome to bring me in?"
"I'm not here to bring you in."
There's a wry tick to the corner of his mouth. "You mean SHIELD's finally conceded to me? How nice of them."
"They're a little preoccupied right now." After Hive's defeat and the loss of so many Heads, there's an all-out power-grab going on inside and outside of the Hydra remnants. With fires popping up left and right it's been all hands on deck at SHIELD for weeks — even Bobbi and Hunter had returned to help. But with those two back taking orders under SHIELD and Daisy AWOL, Jemma was left without any friends outside of the agency. Until she decided she didn't need a friend. She just needs someone who is good at what they do. "We made a priority list, and so long as you're Hive-free, not connected to Hydra—"
"Fuck Hydra."
(Coulson had been right. Ward resents having ever 'drunk the true believer kool-aid' once he'd experienced what Hive really had in store for him.)
"—and not causing too much trouble of your own, you're pretty low on the list."
"That explains why SHIELD isn't raiding this diner right now. But you still haven't answered my question."
"Technically I've answered your questions," she counters smoothly. "You just haven't asked the right one."
"Why are you here?"
Jemma takes a deep breath, but does her best to maintain her composure. She had let herself focus on the task at hand, of tracking down and recruiting Ward. It had been a welcome distraction from the gnawing feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. She can't let it take control of her now. "Fitz was taken."
Ward laughs to himself, like he should've seen that answer coming. Then he lounges one arm out along the back of the booth and smirks at her. "Not high on the priority list, huh?"
"Gjokaj, the man responsible, is amassing resources, but is otherwise of no real threat for the time being. He wants Fitz to build weapons, so they'll keep him alive," she answers tightly. "SHIELD can't take anyone off their designated assignments to find and retrieve Fitz when civilians' lives are at risk elsewhere."
"How much did it piss you off when Coulson told you that?"
('We can't yet,' he kept saying. 'After this, I promise.' — 'As soon as...' Until Jemma just couldn't wait any longer.)
She doesn't answer, but Ward sees the way she primly presses her lips together.
"Clearly quite a bit, for you to disobey orders, go behind his back, and ask for my help."
"I'll do what needs to be done," she snips. "If that means making a deal with the devil, so be it."
"What's the deal then?"
"I have some tech you might find useful." Jemma produces a square of paper from her pocket and sets it in front of him. There's nothing too dangerous — the only weapons are non-lethal, such as a thunderstick, a taser projectile launcher, and a pair of ICER rifles. But in Ward's hands it's enough to have made her wrestle with her conscious. "And I siphoned off a portion of one of Malick's seized accounts. I thought you'd like that."
"You stole from SHIELD, too? To give to me? Dad's gonna be so mad..." He glances down the list and whistles once he sees the dollar amount at the bottom. "But this isn't enough."
"Not enough?" Jemma had thought it would be too much. But she hadn't wanted to waste time with negotiations and thought if she could just make him too good of an offer to pass up...
"Well for one thing, I could just kidnap you right now and get anything I want as ransom, plus the money and free tech."
Jemma swallows, her finger tensing on the trigger of her ICER. She'd been afraid something like this might happen.
"But... your little mission does seem like more fun." He smiles again, in that way that would be devilishly charming on anyone else. "If you can convince me."
"You get to kill lots of Hydra agents after they served you up to Hive on a platter?" she asks him sweetly.
"These guys are small potatoes. Gjokaj's barely in the fold," Ward dismisses.
"Your general penchant for violence then."
He chuckles but shakes his head. "That's not gonna do it for me."
"Then what will?"
Ward leans forward to rest his elbows on the table, looking her up and down with just a glimmer of something lecherous in his eyes. For a second Jemma feels sick imagining what he might ask for.
"I want you to beg me," he says lowly.
She glares back at him. But she needs him too much to refuse and at least his request will only injure her pride. She aims for sincerity, but it comes out stilted. "Please."
"Come on, Simmons. You can do better than that."
She tightens her jaw, biting back what she would really like to tell him.
Ward folds his hands in front of him. He waits patiently for a moment, as she tries to steel herself for another attempt, but she's not giving him what he wants.
"Now I'm sure Fitz won't agree to what these people want him to do without some... persuasion," Ward says. "And they've had him for, what, a week? Without you there and in danger, he might hold out for a long time. He's rather stupidly noble like that. But his resolve is probably starting to wane, along with his hope that SHIELD is coming to save him..."
Jemma's throat grows tight at the mention of all the things she's been trying so desperately not to think about. She knows he's trying to wind her up. But knowing that doesn't keep it from working on her. All her defenses have been grated raw since Fitz's kidnapping and she's been having a harder and harder time holding it together.
"He's probably wondering if he'll ever see you again, after all the times he did everything to save your life, to save you from suffering, because he loves you so much. You should have seen how he begged me to not hurt you when he realized what we were going to do to you. Meanwhile you can't so much as ask nicely, to make me believe that you would make the same sacrifices to get him home safe."
She can feel the tears welling up in her eyes, but she won't, she won't cry in front of Ward. Though there's a roughness in her voice she can't hide. "Me asking for your help is evidence enough of what I'm willing to do."
"You'd do anything for him, then?" he prompts.
"Yes."
"Switch places with him, if you could?"
She almost sighs from the desperation of having wished that very thing. "Yes."
"Die for him."
"Yes."
"Kill for him?"
"Yes," she answers without even thinking — yet knowing it's true.
Ward's mouth twitches at her easy admission. Then he leans even further across the table, his face right in front of hers, eyes pinning her in place. "But do you love him, Simmons?"
His question catches her breath — not because she had never asked herself it, but because she'd never said it aloud to anyone, let alone Fitz. What if she never gets her chance to tell him that? Her mouth works, struggling to form the words and hating that the first time she says it, it will be to Ward. "Yes," she says, low and quavering. "I love him."
Ward's not letting go of her gaze and she's fairly certain she shouldn't, either, no matter how much she wants to. She just needs to give him what he wants.
"Please, Ward," she whispers, trying not to shake. "I beg you."
He reaches over to wipe his thumb across her cheek. Jemma flinches, but refuses to shrink away from him. Only then does she realize she'd let a tear escape.
Ward smiles in a way she could describe as warm, if she didn't know him better. "That's all I needed."