Daddy's List
Author's Note: Established SkyeWard in romance/humor. I hope you enjoy reading it as much I did have fun writing it! =D Oh, and HYDRA Ward doesn't exist.
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"What are you doing?"
Grant looks up at his wife and back down to his note pad. He was taking his time jotting his notes down, remaining silent only to pause in his writing, until now.
"Writing."
"I can see that," Skye answered, rubbing a hand on his shoulders. "What about?"
"A mission."
"Mission? I didn't get any call about a mission."
"It's a personal mission."
"Personal mission?"
"Yes, personal mission."
Skye thought in silence for a moment. They just had their 2 year anniversary, neither of their birthdays were coming up, and their little daughter had just turned 6 months old. None of their team members' birthdays were coming up either—well, May's is in about 2 months, but she didn't like much commotion of celebrating another year of getting older at all.
She leaned to rest her head on his shoulders while she wrapped her arms around them, breathing in his scent. "Does this mission involve me? Or a special date that I'm obviously forgetting?"
Grant stopped his scrawling to lean his head on hers before withdrawing and kissing her on the cheek, smiling. "No special date, no special occasion. Well, it is—for our daughter."
Skye perked up. "She just turned 6 months old! [thinks] Oh no, did I miss her crawling?"
He laughed. "No, no, nothing like that. This is for her future."
She kissed him back. "Ok Mr. Vague, can you please explain to me what's keep your answers so mysterious? If has something to do with our daughter, I should be included on this mission. Is she in danger?" she asked, concern creeping into her voice.
Grant turned down to his note pad and nudged it over to her. She stood up and picked up the pad. The first 1.5 pages were already filled with bullet points, and the title of his list read… "GRANT!? Why the hell are you writing—"
"Hey! It's for her own protection!" he quickly defended, reaching for the notepad.
"Grant. 'Shoot him in the family jewels' is NOT appropriate—"
"Maybe you like 'use him for target practice' instead?"
"Grant."
"But I can't not protect her!" he replied. "I am not going to let any guy think they will be able take advantage of our daughter in any fashion. I'm sending a message to all guys that Grant Ward's daughter is off limits unless I approve. Those who do not comply will be punished. No—they'll be destroyed."
Skye studied her husband a moment longer and then burst out laughing. She had to stop herself as she realized their baby girl was only sleeping in the nursery a couple rooms away from them.
Grant had an incredulous look on his face. "What? What's so funny?"
She had to restrain her laughter again. "Honey, she's 6 months old, not 16! You'll have plenty of time to think of ways to scare away any potential boyfriend she might bring home in the years to come."
He pouted as she took his pen away from him, but it quickly disappeared when she gave him a quick kiss on his lips. "I think it's quite adorable that you're thinking so far ahead and already thinking of how to eliminate her dating life," she assured. "But really dear, she has many, many years before worrying about that. Let's just focus on her day by day, hm?"
He sighed. "She's growing so fast! Before you know it, she'll start crawling, then walking, then talking, and then it's just going to get harder to keep her safe."
"I know, I know," she replied, setting the pad down and wrapped her arms around him again. "I can't believe she's growing so fast either. But if we don't take the time to enjoy the present, we won't be able to treasure these days when she grows older. We'll keep her safe. And she will be fine, especially with her overprotective daddy by her side." She playfully tapped his nose, earning her a chuckle from him.
"You're right," he said, pushing the notepad aside and pulling her down into his lap. "Let's enjoy the time that we have together now. You, me, our little girl—our little family. I wouldn't want to trade these things for anything else in the world. I'm so lucky to have you in my life. [kisses her] I love you."
She beamed and returned a kiss. "I love you too."
They leaned their heads on each other for a few moments, taking in their content state in staying where they are. It was Skye who broke the silence.
"So, what is your favorite idea on this list so far?"
He laughs. "I thought you didn't want to discuss this anymore until she's older."
"True, but it makes for good reading material—and a good laugh," she says, picking up the pad. Glancing through the text, she quirked her brow. "Run him through a sausage making machine, really?"
He innocently shrugged. "I was thinking how I could also use my cooking skills, not my agent skills. That was the first thing that came to mind."
She giggled. "Okay then. Turn him into a piñata?"
"It'll be a party!"
"Use his face as a gun polisher?"
"I need to keep my weapons up to par, in case of a mission."
Skye laughed again. "Give him as a gift of a lab rat to FitzSimmons?"
"They always need subjects for their experiments."
She put aside the pad and clung onto Grant's neck. "Okay. Maybe it's just me, but I think the piñata one is the 'safest' one to use—"
"Hey! This is my little girl we're talking about! We need to take the safest option for her, not him."
She scanned the list some more and giggled. "You're now these are turning into commands for him. 'You must accept my Facebook request.' 'You will pay for everything.' 'Let me show you my gun collection.' 'Be home 30 minutes early.'"
"Those boys will be taught their place."
"Okay, Agent Ward, what do you suggest as your favorite?"
Grant slyly looked up at her and said, "'If you make her cry, I will make you cry'."
Skye laughed again. "Pretty tame as your favorite one…I was sure you were going to choose the 'use him for target practice' as your favorite. Or something to do with guns."
"Oh, but my favorite encompasses ALL of those," he reasoned, smirking. "He will be crying if I strap him in as a piñata, or use his head to clean our bathroom, or use him for target practice. Though how long he'll be crying for, that's a different story."
She rolled her eyes. "Always the whole solution. Even your favorite option is the whole solution!"
"Exactly."
She sighed and hugged him close. "I wonder how she'll respond when you meet her first boyfriend."
"She'll probably hate me, no doubt. I just gotta remind her that hey, this is the nature of my job—as a dad, AND as an agent. To protect her," he replied. "I don't know if I'll ever be enough."
"You will. You already are," she reassured him, cupping his face to stare straight into his eyes. "You're a great father and a great husband. Neither of us will forget that. You just gotta remember that this parenting thing is a team thing, hm? Any of these concerns, you and I both have to work through it together. The responsibility is not only on you. [smiles] Besides, with an idea of how early you might start training her, I doubt she'll ever let boys hurt her. She'll probably kick their asses to Antarctica before they attempt to lay a finger on her."
Now it was his turn to laugh. "You're right. We're a team. And you bet I am going to start training her as soon as possible. She already has an early alarm clock inside her to do so."
Skye snorts. "She's an infant, Grant. I don't think her waking every 4 hours qualifies her as an early riser. She wakes because she has to."
"She'll train when I start getting her into the routine," he said. Leaning in to kiss her, he suddenly smirked. "But enough about her future. How about enjoying our present? She's still asleep, and you and I can definitely get some training in…upstairs…in our room…"
She grinned slyly back, pulling him closer. "I can't wait to show you some new moves I learned. [whispers in his ear] What are you waiting for?"
With that, Grant instantly carries her bridal style, with Skye squealing as they made their way upstairs.
Their daughter will have a bright future ahead of her, but for now, Grant and Skye need to enjoy themselves in the present too.
THE END
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Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this! Some of these lines were taken from various sites about "Dating My Teenage Daughter".