A/N: Before anyone gets angry, this part of the fanfiction is very very VERY short. It was an idea that came to me in the middle of Geography class and I just scribbled it down afterwards. The second part would be much longer, that's a promise.

A/N #2: This story is set prior to/a prequel of "Remember", a fanfiction that I wrote a while back. Everyone was asking me for a sequel, but I couldn't come up with any ideas so far, so here's how Ward and Skye restarted. Have fun reading!

P.S. If you haven't read "Remember", you should.

He knew she wouldn't trust him for a long time. She hadn't spoken to him for weeks, avoiding eye contact, sat the furthest away at dinner on the Bus. He knew it was going to take long.

And then he saw her the other day, cradling her laptop, sitting on the steps. A picture of him was on the screen. He was bloody and bruised in the picture, but he was smiling. Smiling because the girl he loved most was right in front of him.

She didn't know that he was there. She kept on staring, staring at the picture. He could hear gentle sobs and sniffles; she was crying. Yet, he couldn't comfort her or offer her a shoulder because she didn't trust him. She hated him. She hated him to the bone.

He sighed and returned to his room. What he did not expect were the three knocks on his room's door. He opened it slowly, expecting it to be Coulson calling him to another mission briefing but it wasn't.

It was her.

Her eyes were puffy and red, but still, she mustered the courage to open her mouth and speak.

"Hey, um," she started with a wavering voice, "I feel like you and me, wrong foot. Do you want to… I don't know, start anew?"

Ward's breath caught. Did she just… forgive him? Did she really say that? He pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He didn't know what to say because he'd never thought that there would be light at the end of the long tunnel that he had been trapped in for such a long time. Even after leaving HYDRA behind, Ward felt like a monster. She was right. He was a monster and a murderer.

And then he realized it. Skye had always been his light in the darkness. He needed her in his dark, twisted path and there she was, standing right in front of him. The only key to redemption was standing right in front of him. He took a really deep breath and looked her in the eyes.

"Hello," he said. It was such a simple, straightforward word.

The corners of her mouth turned up and she spoke. "Hi," she placed out a hand, "I'm Skye."

He hesitated for a very short while before taking it.

"Grant Ward."