I don't own Agents of SHIELD nor will I ever. No copyright infringement intended.
Grant had just taken down an Inhuman trying to kill him when he noticed Jiaying standing in front of FitzSimmons, holding a vial in her hands. He took off in their direction to try to protect them any way he could.
"You're young - children - and my daughter's friends. I don't want to have to do this so back off or you're going to die," Jiaying threatened.
A defiant look crossed Jemma's face. "Fuck you," she spat.
Fitz tugged on her sleeve. "Jemma, be careful," he warned.
Whatever they were about to say or do next was interrupted by Grant skidding to a halt in front of them. "Run. I'm not letting you hurt them, Jiaying. I don't care that you're Skye's mother." She'd hate him even more if he killed her mother but he was already unforgivable anyway so why did it even matter in the first place?
Fitz and Jemma exchanged a confused look. "But -"
"Run!" Grant screamed and even though both wanted to stay, they listened to him and bolted away.
Jiaying scoffed. "Now why would you do that? Now I'm going to enjoy watching the life drain out of your eyes."
He wasn't afraid to die, not after everything he had done. "Go for it," Grant smirked. He stood tall in front of Jiaying and tried to prepare himself for his impending death.
Jiaying shrugged. "So brave, protecting the two scientists. Shame they'll die anyway." And then she threw the vial down and waited for Grant to die like the others.
Skye had just finished saving Melinda from Lincoln when she turned around and saw the vial shatter in front of Grant. "No!" she screamed.
When a cocoon began to form around him, Jiaying's smile turned into a look of confusion. "What."
Grant didn't know what the fuck what was happening but he knew he hurt all over. He felt like he was on fire as his whole body began to tingle. Skye skidded to a halt at his side just as the cocoon broke and he emerged from it, his whole body on his fire. "What the fuck," she murmured.
"He's one of us?" Jiaying couldn't comprehend this. How was this lowly man one of them? It didn't make any sense.
Skye glared at her and held up her hands which sent Jiaying flying. Then she turned her attention back to Grant as Fitz and Jemma ran to their sides. "Ward? Grant?"
The fire extinguished itself and Grant whimpered. "Hurts," he murmured.
"I'm sure it does. You okay?"
"You were willing to die for us." Jemma couldn't wrap her head around this. He had tried to kill them once but saved them? It didn't make any sense.
Grant passing out halted the conversation. "We need to get him back to the quinjet so we can take him to the base," Fitz murmured.
A ball of fire formed in Grant's hand before he twitched and it disappeared. "I don't know how we can get him back safely," Skye said in despair as she held out her hand and a few more curious Inhumans went flying.
"The three of us can do this - we just have to be careful." The three of them struggled to lift Grant, complaining about his height the entire time, and hurried back to the quinjet where Melinda was waiting to take off.
"What happened to him?" Melinda questioned as soon as the four of them showed up.
"He's Inhuman like me. Surprise!" Skye knew she had to lot to make up for and she felt guilty but now was not the time to apologize to her S.O.
Melinda's eyes widened in shock but she helped them lie him down on the floor. "What's the plan?"
Skye sighed. "I'm going back out there and helping whoever I can."
"Don't get hurt," Jemma pleaded. She didn't want to lose one of her best friends today, not after everything else that went down.
"I won't." Skye's gaze lowered to Grant and she patted his exposed arm, which felt hot to the touch. Then she left the quinjet and went to try and stop this war.
By the time the battle was over, many lives had been lost - except for Jiaying's and they planned to lock her up in Vault D for as long as possible so she didn't purposely start another unnecessary war. "You will pay for this!" she threatened.
"Good luck getting out of there." Phil smirked at her and then headed back upstairs to the med bay to check on Grant. Skye hadn't left his side once and despite his protests, had even slept in one of the chairs all night. "He wake up yet?"
Skye shook her head. "Was this how it felt when I was out?"
"A bit differently but yes." He wished now they had told the team that Grant had been working for him to take down Hydra but they hadn't been able to risk it.
Skye grinned but it didn't reach her eyes. "So now you have two Inhumans on your team. You okay with that?"
"More than okay, Skye. Just take care of yourself, okay? I'll make some grilled chilled sandwiches for you to eat."
"Thanks." And then she turned her attention back to Grant.
When his eyes opened a little over three hours later, he spotted her immediately. "Skye?"
She burst into tears and waved off his worry when he looked at her in concern. "Hey you. How you feeling?"
"Like my entire life has changed. I'm Inhuman?"
Skye bobbed her head up and down. "Appears so. And you can create fires. Fitting for a pyro," she teased.
Grant rolled his eyes but couldn't help but beam at her. "Have you been here this entire time? How long have I been in here?"
"You were out for about twenty-six hours," she responded. Skye grabbed his hand and didn't even flinch away. "Grant, you told me that someday I'd understand. And as much as I don't want to admit it, someday is now. I kinda chose the Inhumans over SHIELD and it backfired spectacularly on me."
"Skye, you found your family. Nobody blames you for wanting to get to know them even if they did turn out like that. I'm sorry, by the way. If I had known it was going to end to like this, I wouldn't have taken you to your father all those months ago." He'd feel guilty about that (but it was just one more thing added to the list) for the rest of his life. And with his free hand, he curled it up and was shocked when a ball of fire formed. "Holy fuck."
"You don't have to apologize, Grant. I'm sorry too so we're even now. And I'll be there with you every step of the way to help you learn how to control your powers."
Grant panicked just a little at the thought of not being able to control this and accidentally hurting somebody in the process so he uncurled his hand and the ball of fire disappeared again. "You need to take care of yourself, Skye. Don't worry about me." He didn't want her to feel obligated to stay and watch over him.
She rolled her eyes. "Don't be an idiot." Then Skye crawled into bed and put her head down on his shoulder. "You're warm as fuck now. It's actually pretty nice."
He couldn't believe this was happening. "Am I dreaming?"
"Nope, sorry. You're stuck with me, Ward, because I love you and I'm not letting anything get in our way of being together again." She enjoyed the expressions of shock, awe, and love in his gaze.
Grant teared up. "I love you too." He grinned when Skye kissed him and they were making out when Jemma and Fitz walked through the door.
"Get your own room," Fitz whined.
"We are in our own room. You didn't knock," Skye playfully shot back.
Jemma let her curiosity get the best of her. "So is anyone else in your family Inhuman? Did you know?"
He looked down at the bed and played with his blanket. Time to admit a truth he had kept hidden for so long. "My sister - she's Gifted. But my parents considered her a freak and nobody was allowed to talk about her," he muttered bitterly.
"Oh, Grant." Skye squeezed his hand and wasn't surprised when a flame flickered up before dying down.
"I tried to protect her but Mother put a stop to that quickly." The dark look on his face would haunt them.
"How did she develop her powers?" Fitz questioned.
Grant honestly didn't know. "She never told us. She was playing down by the river with the nanny of the week and the next thing we knew, Rose was screaming bloody murder. Christian got there first and found the nanny dead and Rose levitating in the air." He needed to find her and bring him back to the team so they could protect her.
That's when Jemma decided to delve into what she really wanted to ask. "Why did you save us? You were willing to die."
He looked at them to let Fitz and Jemma know he was serious. "Because you're both important to me. You're like my little brother and sister, and I couldn't let that happen to you. I just couldn't."
"We forgive you, Grant. We understand now why you did it and we understand," Fitz gently told him.
Tears poured down Grant's face. "I don't deserve forgiveness."
"Maybe you don't but we're giving it to you anyway. And I'm going to get the help I need too," Jemma informed him.
Skye beamed at her boyfriend. "See? You have people who care about you. They'll be there with us every single step of the way."
"You know it. And try to work on forgiving yourself. That's a pretty important step to this whole thing," Fitz urged.
"I'll try for you," Grant conceded. He couldn't say no to these three - they were most important.
"And we can kick ass and take names with our powers. Nobody will know what hit them." Skye looked forward to it.
"Sounds good to me." The look of adoration on his face led to Jemma and Fitz rolling their eyes at Grant's sappiness.
Grant learning to use his powers wouldn't exactly be smooth but after what happened with Skye, the team was prepared for it. They encouraged him on the days he'd never thought he'd learn how to control it and kept a fire extinguisher around in every room so nothing would burn up. He grew more and more confident by the day. And eventually, Skye and Grant became a kickass superhero team and the bad guys learned to never get on Quake and Hellfire's bad side.