I don't own Agents of SHIELD and never will. No copyright infringement intended.

Warning: Character death.


Skye had been grounded for the duration of her pregnancy and found it boring. It also didn't help that she would get lost in her thoughts and her mind would go to that traitorous bastard that had knocked her up in the first place. At seven months pregnant, she couldn't wait to meet her child. She was absolutely terrified of motherhood, but knew that her family would help her. Coulson, May, FitzSimmons, and Trip were going to be there to help every step of the way.

When she first found out she was pregnant, Skye had considered aborting but decided against it. Even though she was young and on the run with the others, she wanted this baby. Ward could go to hell for all she cared. She had been in love with him at one point and the betrayal had ended that. She couldn't believe she had even fallen for his act and slept with him anyway. She had been naïve and just someone he wanted for a quick fuck. That was it. Ward had never cared about her or the team.

Skye was shaken out of her thoughts by Coulson. "We're stopping because we got a tip about HYDRA in the area. Will you be okay by yourself?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. And I told you before that I'm pregnant. I'm not some delicate little flower you have to worry about all the time." Sure, she had been a mess right after they discovered the truth but she had recovered.

He laughed. "I know you aren't, but let us worry about you anyway. Everyone loves you and that baby."

Skye softened and then swiped tears from her eyes. "Stupid fucking hormones. Thank you. And go – I'll be fine." She didn't realize yet how wrong she would be. If she had known, she would have gone with the others to prevent it from happening. Maybe things would have been different then.

Once she was alone again, Skye went to grab a quick snack. After she was done eating the Goldfish (the baby seemed to like them), she lay down to take a nap. She was awoken by gunshots only half an hour later and snapped to attention. She groaned quietly when she realized she left her gun in the other room (damn pregnancy brain) and slowly got herself if into a standing position. "You're not making this easy for me, kid," she whispered as she slowly made her way out of the room. Trying to be stealthy was impossible these days, but Skye tried her best. She kept quiet upon seeing the body of a dead HYDRA agent – how the hell had that even happened? – and made her way to the other side of the plane.

And then she ran smack dab into Grant Ward. "Skye?" he asked.

Skye desperately wished she had her gun with her so she could shoot him. "Ward. Where are the rest of your little cronies? Garrett?"

"You have to get out of here now! It's not safe for you." And then Ward looked down at her swollen abdomen. "You're pregnant," he said in disbelief.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Now get out of here before I shoot you!" He didn't have to know she had no clue where her gun was.

"I know you don't have a gun, Skye. The baby's mine?" He knew pretty much absolutely nothing about pregnancy, but the timing looked like it matched.

"Yes. Are you going to kill me or what? I'm bored standing here. And it's your fault my ankles are swollen and I can't see my feet."

He laughed at that, surprising her. "I'm not here to kill you. We need to get out of here now."

Skye had no clue what the fuck was going on. "What is happening right now? Are you undercover? I know Coulson wouldn't let you kill people, like Hand, though." She didn't understand how she could be so calm either. Maybe it was because all the action was at the other end of the plane. Which was extremely weird, by the way. There should be agents trying to kill her right now.

Ward cringed. "I wish I could say that I'm undercover but I can't. I'm sorry, Skye. I believe in HYDRA's goals." But he didn't look so convinced of that.

She was about to answer him when the door opened and Garrett stepped through. Skye instinctively pressed a hand to her stomach to calm down and protect the baby. He smiled at Ward appreciatively. "So you found the bitch. Go ahead and kill her."

"Sir, maybe we should take her in custody and see what she knows." Grant had to figure out a way to get Skye and their child (holy fuck, their child) to safety. He was glad the team was out on a wild goose chase so he didn't have to worry about them. Grant didn't really give a fuck about anybody else, but this team was his family. Not Garrett and the rest of the HYDRA agents.

"So you knocked her up. Her and her little brat mean nothing to me. And they shouldn't mean anything to you either, son." Garrett's cold eyes drilled into them.

"Please don't kill my baby. I'll tell you everything I know," Skye tried. The baby's safety was more important than her own life. She had to keep it safe.

Garrett waved his gun around and started rambling about HYDRA's goals. Skye tried to grab ahold of Ward's gun to shoot both of them, but he wasn't cooperating. And then she froze when Garrett pointed the gun at her. "Neither of you are making it out of here alive. We'll see how pissed Coulson and the others are when they discover we killed a poor innocent baby."

Ward stepped in front of her. "I can't let you do that, Garrett."

Garrett laughed. "Get out of my way, boy."

He shook his head as Garrett pointed his gun at Skye. Their weapons fired at exactly the same time. Skye jumped out of the way (not an easy feat this late in her pregnancy) as bullets entered both Ward and Garrett's bodies. Garrett was killed instantly as blood poured of his forehead, but Ward collapsed to the ground. The bullet had pierced his stomach. Skye rushed to his side and placed pressure on the wound. "You're an idiot."

"Not sorry. Couldn't let you or baby die." He gasped in pain.

"Why would you do this? You're a traitor, Grant!" She tried frantically to stop the blood flowing from the wound and hold the tears in.

"Love you," he murmured. Blood bubbled up to his lips and he gasped again.

She couldn't even process that right now. How could he love her? "You're lying. Just stay awake. We need to get you some help." Skye didn't know why she was helping him. Maybe because he had saved her life and the baby's. Not even caring about the blood, Skye leaned down and kissed him.

"Nice," he smiled. But he was still clearly in pain and had no clue why she had done that.

Gunshots rang out and she flinched. She grabbed Ward's gun when the door started to open but sighed in relief when Coulson stepped in. "We doubled back and got mostly everyone," he explained. He looked down at Ward and swore.

"You have to help him. He saved us," Skye explained.

"Too late. He knows." Ward tried to smile at her, but no one was buying it.

"You have to stay alive so you can meet our son! He needs you. I need you!" Skye wasn't surprised to discover that was actually true.

"Boy?"

She nodded. "Yes. And I may be so pissed at you I can't even see straight right now, but I love you too. Don't you fucking die on me now, Grant Ward! Don't you dare!"

His eyes started to close. "Love you and baby." And with that, Grant Ward died with a smile on his face. He had lost his life protecting the woman he loved and their unborn child.

Coulson leaned down. "I'm sorry."

Skye glared at him. "You could have saved him! Why didn't anyone call an ambulance?" She wanted to scream.

"The ambulance wouldn't have made it on time. I'm sorry." Ward had secretly approached him weeks earlier with doubts about what he was doing with HYDRA, and Coulson had figured something like this was coming. As much harm as the man had done, Coulson was going to miss Grant Ward.

Skye dissolved into sobs and reluctantly let go of Ward's body. She immediately buried herself in Coulson's arms and continued to cry. He whispered soothing comments to her for a while before she wore herself out.

Skye mourned the loss of the man she loved – the man who had redeemed herself at the very end – and welcomed their son, Grant Phillip, two months later. He grew up on the Bus with a family who loved him so much he didn't have to want for anything (in fact, his first gift was a stuffed monkey from Uncle Leo). Grant would also know how his father had saved him and his mother before his birth. She had lost so much, but she had a family that loved her and an amazing job that took them all over the world. HYDRA hadn't ruined everything after all.