Life and Times of Avery Ward: Daughter of The Shield

Disclaimer: I own Avery, nothing else

Spoilers: Sequel to "The Shield is Born", read first or this won't make sense.

Grant Ward sat on the couch of the Bus with a tablet in hand, on it was his daughter via a Skype session. They were talking about her upcoming summer camp and also her visit to see him after camp was over. The now nine year old was his break from the reality of SHIELD and while he constantly missed her, Ward knew Skye had been right to keep Avery grounded.

"So where do you want to go for our week?" Ward sat up and Avery shrugged her shoulders.

"Don't know, Mom says that I could only go to Australia or Europe if we go outside the US." Avery bit her lip and gave a small smile, "do you think we could tour SHIELD Youth Academy?"

Ward shook his head, "honey I know you got a personal acceptance letter from them but that's not a good idea. Your mom and I have discussed this a lot and we agreed to keep you grounded and from under SHIELD as much as possible."

"But Dad, I want to go…I want to be a SHIELD agent like you and Mom." Avery sighed and sat back against her headboard, there was little doubt she was in her room. "Please, just a tour and if I don't like it, I'll drop it."

"It's the 'liking it' factor that I'm worried about." Ward rubbed a hand across his face. "Look, why don't you take some time and think about where you want to go and we'll plan a trip. You have a while with camp and everything to decide." He looked up to see Coulson in the doorway of the War Room looking straight at him. "Avery I have to go, tell your mom I'll call her later. I love you."

"I love you too Dad."

Shutting the tablet down, Ward stood and headed over to Coulson. "Tough call knowing how much she wants to go to SYA and you have to say no."

"Personally sir I wouldn't mind, it'd be easier to track her but Skye wants her on the ground and I'm not going to lose either of them again over something as trivial as where Avery goes to school."

"Good call on that."

Avery sat eating cereal when her mother walked into the kitchen, pouring a cup and looking ready to go to work. Skye turned to see Avery fingering the letter that had come in the mail a month before, sighing she picked it up and looked at the SYA acceptance letter.

"Why do you want to go so badly?" Skye watched her daughter just go back to her cereal. "Is it because of your father…"

"No," Avery looked up at her mother, brown eyes meeting brown eyes. "I want to help the world, I remember seeing your badge in Dad's bunk and he pulled me into his lap to tell me about it. He told me the bad and the good, what you went through to get it and told me the oath you took." Avery smiled at her mother, "I know that oath by heart because Dad wrote it down for me and I want to be a SHIELD agent because that's what I feel I'm meant to be." She put her hand to her chest, "in my heart Mom."

Skye looked at the letter and nodded, "then I guess you'd better contact Agent Mayer and set up your class schedule."

"Seriously!" Avery got up and ran around the counter, hugging her mother. "Mom, thank you so much!" She started to leave but turned, "could you tell Dad when he calls you so he can take me on the tour during our week together?"

"Will do." Skye opened the fridge and pulled out a lunch box. "Here, for now you need to focus on the current school year."

Avery grabbed her lunch box and put it in her backpack, "Mom, when are you and Dad going to kiss and make up?"

"It's not that easy Avery," Skye sighed and leaned against the counter. "Your father and I love each other a lot but there are a dozen factors on why we aren't together."

"Do you think you'll ever stop loving him?"

Skye shook her head, "no, he did something terrible before you were born and it was enough to hate him but I love him too much to hate him. What matters is that you get to have time with him and even if we aren't together, we're going to raise you as best we can."

Skye's tablet buzzed and she saw who it was on the Skype call, Avery smiled. "Guess we'll be late today."

"I guess so." Skye answered the call and found Ward on the other end. "Hey, I hope you aren't calling to tell me you've been shot or someone is dying."

Ward chuckled, "no, actually I was just calling to talk to a beautiful hacker but if she's not around…"

"I prefer CS Specialist, hacker is so…illegal." Skye smiled and saw Avery roll her eyes. "What's up?"

"We're going to pull some down time at the HUB, May says that the plane's nav system is screwy due to the Portuguese trying to blow us into the Atlantic Ocean last week. Anyways, since the weekend is coming up I was wondering if you'd mind if…"

"Yes!" Avery bent over the counter and looked upside down at the screen. "You can totally come, we could do something together as a family…the zoo maybe or the aquarium, Mom has yet to take me since we moved to New York."

Ward shook his head, "Avery go back to your breakfast and let me talk to your mom."

"Fine." She sat back down and shoved cereal into her mouth.

"Actually I was going to ask if you'd mind letting Fitzsimmons entertain Avery while I take you out to dinner?"

Skye smiled, "you want to take me to dinner?"

"Since drinks went so well last time I figured we'd go sober this time." He smirked, "so, Skye Zale would you mind having dinner with your old SO?"

Skye smiled, "only if you don't call me rookie."

"You have a deal, I'll show up with the babysitters around seven tomorrow night. Dress casually, I don't do fine dining."

"Good because I suck at formal dinner types." The former hacker watched Ward chuckle, a smile on his face. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Ward nodded, "I love both my girls, have a good day at work and school. Avery pass that science test you have."

"Will do Dad." Avery spoke with cereal in her mouth and put a thumbs up, Skye turned the tablet so he could see Avery. "Tell Aunt Melinda not to crash the plane when trying to land."

Skye shut off the tablet and took Avery's bowl, "door now, we're going to be late."

"Mom and Dad sitting in a tree…"

The former hacker just rolled her eyes at the antics of her daughter, she blamed herself because her daughter was so much like her it was like having miniature copy. Skye just let herself feel happy at the fact that Ward actually wanted to have dinner with her, an official dinner after three years of twice a month lunches. They Skyped a lot to talk about Avery and everything else between them but the pain was still present, she just hoped they didn't kill their second chance.

A/N: Chapters will be listed as one of these three: (Avery and Ward),(Skyeward) or (Family). I originally started it as a fic about Avery and her dad but I figured that since most of you wanted a Skyeward reunion, I'd cover all three areas. Enjoy!

BTW: I made up SHIELD Youth Academy because I felt it would be somewhere kids of agents would go since their parents work in a secret organization.

Please review and let me know how I am doing, so I can take some input from you guys.