I do not own anything that already belongs to Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I still can't stand the horrifying truth of the last chapter, so I'm continuing with my AU about May and Ward and the little new addition to the S.H.I.E.L.D's family. This happens sometime in the future. I didn't incorporate the entire team yet. Maybe in a following chapter, we'll see. I hope you'll like it, please tell me what you think.

"What the hell is that?!"

"What do you mean?" Ward looks up at Fitz's horrified face with bewilderment.

"What the hell is a 4 months old baby doing with a gun?!"

"What's wrong?" he looks back at his son who sits very comfortably on the holotable holding the night-night gun in his chubby little hands "it's unloaded."

"It's unloaded…" Fitz exasperates "you are a crazy person! You actually think it's okay, don't you?"

"Well" Ward crosses his arms on his chest, obviously feeling very sure about his actions "he has to start somewhere. I want him to feel comfortable around guns. It's for his own good."

"This is a mad house" Fitz exasperates, stepping towards Ward with a raised finger "first, Coulson lets you all come along on an active duty S.H.I.E.L.D. airplane…"

"It's hardly active" Wards scoffs "we don't even have a mission."

"You!" Fitz corrects him "You, have a mission. Not WE. 'We' are not on the bus anymore; 'We' are on leave of absence until your kid is old enough."

"Same thing…" he grumbles.

"Not really" Fitz shakes his head "and still doesn't explain why your 4 months old baby is holding a gun. Look, now he has it in his mouth."

"He's a baby" Ward smiles towards his son, who looks at him brightly from the holotable, smiling and drooling all over Fitz's equipment that is tossed haphazardly all around "babies always put things in their mouths, isn't that right buddy?" he reaches to the small kid and tussles his black hair lovingly.

"You're hopeless" Fitz sighs "I always knew you'll be a rotten parent. I mean, does May know?"

"May?" he frowns "I don't need permission from my wife to…" he looks at Fitz who only raises his brow skeptically "fine, maybe I do need her permission" he coughs slightly "but I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"Wouldn't mind what?" May's voice is coming from behind them. When her son hears his mother's voice he starts to giggle and coo happily, throwing his hands in the air and almost breaks the holotable with the night-night gun "why does my son have a gun in his hand?" she asks threateningly when she sees the baby on the table.

"You see?" Fitz nudges Ward triumphantly "told you."

"I told you I don't want him to handle guns" she says to her husband as she's moving to pick up the child "at least not until he learns how to fight with his hands. I want him to feel comfortable with hand to hand combat before he digresses to rely on technology."

"What the hell…?!" Fitz cries indignantly.

"It's not digressing" Ward sighs "how many time do I need to repeat myself? There's no shame in using weapon to gain tactical advantage."

"Give him to me" Fitz moves towards May and pulls the smiling baby out of her arms "let's go kid; these people are bad for you. Let's go to the lab, I'll build you a super-sonic revolving swing and a baby size speed boat for your bathtub."

"Hey."

"Hey…" she smiles when she hears him entering the cockpit, without even needing to turn around. He moves to sit on the co-pilot's chair and they spend a few silent moments looking at the big sky around them.

"Just like old times, isn't it?" she says quietly, making him look at her.

"Well" he smiles sheepishly "not exactly…" he looks at the small child who sits on her lap, sleeping soundly.

She looks at the sleeping baby as well "I let him hold the stick earlier" she smiles "he pushed it forward really hard, he was practically ecstatic. I really think he liked it."

"So that what happened" he laughs "it felt like we had an engine breakdown or something. Simmons's entire science project was ruined when she spilled the wrong blue stuff into the yellow one…"

"What?"

"I don't know" he shrugs "she explained it, but it was really complicated, and I wasn't really listening."

She smiles at him in the dark cockpit, and he stops talking and just smiles back, looking at the two people he loves the most in the world. "It's nice to be back, ha?" he asks after a while "even if we're only hitchhiking." She nods, slowly "Mel… Look" he says after a short pause "I know we said we'll give it some time…"

"You want back, don't you?"

"I want back."

"Well" she shrugs "it took you longer than I thought it would."

"You're not mad?" he looks at her, surprised.

"How can I be mad? I know exactly how you feel."

They stay quiet for a long few minutes, each wrapped in his own thoughts, the starry night sky around them. It's the discussion they both feared since they left. Suddenly a small cry is heard from the direction of May's lap "oh no, my love" she picks the crying baby up and holds him against her bosom "don't cry, my beautiful boy, mommy's here. Shush baby…" she rocks him gently, trying to console him, kissing his head.

"He's probably hungry" Ward says, moving his hand and lays it softly on his son's head "I'll make him a bottle, shall I?"

He picks the crying child in his arms, and it helps him to calm down a little. He kisses his forehead and walks out of the cockpit "Grant" she says quietly before they leave "I'll speak to Coulson. I'm sure he'll take you back. He'll be thrilled."

"Mel don't, we'll talk about it later. We said from the beginning, if we have to choose who…"

"It's alright, Grant" she says, moving her hands on the controls slowly "I'm choosing this for all three of us."

When Coulson steps into the kitchen he finds Ward holding his infant baby feeding him with the bottle.

"Well well" he smiles "that's something you don't see every day."

He looks at back at his old commanding officer "I guess we all look a bit out of place here, don't we?" he smiles.

"On the contrary" Coulson says, coming closer to watch the baby suckling his milk with great enthusiasm "you look like a specialist."

They sit at the table, looking, hypnotized at the baby. It's been a while since they were all together like this, on the plane. After spending a few months on her own, in the Hub, during the end of her pregnancy, leaving the team and Ward to continue on their mission without her, finally the day of the birth arrived. They nearly missed it, they were hanging around in South Korea at the time, finishing another mission, and they only got there in the nick of time after Ward threatened to shoot their substitute pilot in the head if he his son will be born without his presence. Then, after spending a few emotional days all three of them together, in the Hub, and with the taste of the painful separation still fresh in their minds they both called Coulson to their temporary residence and informed him of their decision to take some time off away from their jobs and focus on their new small family. He heard from them a month later, when they sent him a wedding photo. It looked like a small ceremony, no family of course, just the two of them in an office of a state official, the baby in Ward's arms. It took him a few days to console Simmons and Skye for missing the event, and they only let it go after he promised to take the entire team to visit them after they finish their mission. Unfortunately it took almost 3 months to finish it, but when they did he kept his promise and they all showed up in the little farm house the new family now called home in rural Massachusetts. They were well due for their periodic clearance with Hub security, so he offered them all a ride on the bus. May sent him a suspicious look when he offered it, and he thought for a minute she saw straight into the deep meaning behind his plan, but she let her family on the plane, and gradually looked like she's starting to feel at home there, again. When she took her place in the pilot seat for the first time, he knew he had won.

"It's good to have you here again. All of you."

"Thank you, sir" he smiles "it's good to be here. Perhaps even too good."

"Really, how so?"

He pauses for a second, thinking about his wife flying the plane "It will make it harder to leave again."

"It will" Coulson agrees "maybe you shouldn't leave then."

"I can't" he laughs, but when he sees Coulson's serious expression he stops "I won't" he says quickly "we've made our decision, it's too early for us to…" Coulson only watches him attentively "I won't part with them" he says quietly "I wouldn't be able to. Mel is eager to come back just as much as I am, but we have… different priorities now." He looks down at his son, lying peacefully in his arms, falling asleep with the bottle in his mouth.

"He's amazing" Coulson smiles, watching the baby in Ward's arms.

"He is."

"He looks just like her, isn't he?"

"He's beautiful" the proud father agrees.

"You can both come back" Coulson says, moving away from him, walking towards the kitchen's door "lord knows we need you. The team is not as good without you two; the temporary guys are okay, but they're just not the same."

"Both of us? You can't be serious" Ward looks at him in alarm "Kai… he's still young… How in the world would we ever leave…"

"If he is anything like his parents, he'd be a natural fit." Coulson says smiling, and it takes a few seconds until it sinks in.

"Wait sir, are you saying…?"

"If that what it'll take to have my specialists back, then why not? We can make the appropriate adjustments in the Hub. Build a nursery, get a few toys..."

"You want to bring a baby to an active S.H.I.E.L.D aircraft? You can't be serious…" Coulson only smiles to himself as he's stepping out of the kitchen leaving Ward to dwell on the matter by himself.

"No!"

"Just think about it…"

"I said no!" she repeats, pulling the sheet away from him and covering her naked body. Trust her dear husband to mention his discussion with Coulson in the middle of their love making. The coward! Did he really think she would fall for this trick? He always does this. Whenever he tries to approach a potentially touchy subject or ask something he knows she'll refuse he does it during sex. He thinks he can use his naked body to disarm her from her logic and common sense? How dare he? Well, it's not a completely unreasonable tactic; she'll give him that. After all he is extremely handsome and sexy as hell and her mouth waters just from imagining him lying naked in her bed… For god's sakes, he did the same thing when he asked her to marry him after Kai was born. She still thinks that if his hand wasn't rubbing her the way that it did at the time, and he didn't look so sexy and beautiful, she would definitely have said no. It's too late now, unfortunately, but she's much more careful since then. Carful or not, he still manages to catch her off guard when he brings up Coulson's preposterous idea. Is he out of his mind completely?

"Are you completely out of your mind?" she asks him angrily.

"Don't be mad" he sits up in the bed and smiles at her enticingly "it's just an idea."

"You two want to bring onboard a 4 months old baby? It's not an idea, it's a psychotic episode."

"Mel…" he reaches with his hand towards her, but she shakes him off.

"I know you want back" she says quietly "I can't blame you. You left at the peak of your career; it's your first team. I'll let you go back, I already told you. I won't hold you to a promise you made during an emotional time and out of guilt."

"Out of guilt?!" he all but cries.

"Look, Grant" she moves to sit in front of him, her hand on his knee "I made a choice to get off the field long ago. I was quite content to work in administration for five years before Coulson recruited me. I made the same choice again, when I wasn't able to perform my duties during the pregnancy. I'll make this choice again so I could be with our son, in safety."

"You miss it, too." He says "I know you do; you were already climbing the walls at home before we left." She opens her mouth to deny it but he doesn't let her "I saw your face when you entered the cockpit. You were so happy…"

"I'm happy with my son." She smiles gently.

"I'm happy with him too" he reaches for her, and grabs her hand to pull her over and make her sit in his lap. His arms come to wrap around her and hold her close to him "I'm happy with the both of you. I don't think I can survive another time apart from either of you."

They sit silently, held together, breathing in synch. In the temporary makeshift crib at the bedside, their infant son is sleeping peacefully.

"Coulson is crazy" she says after a long long while when neither of them speaks "it will never work. S.H.I.E.L.D. will never allow it. Besides, what does he expect, for us to go on a mission away from the bus with a baby monitor as part of our combat gear?"

"Maybe" he chuckles "I'm sure Fitz can build one hell of a baby monitor…"

"You're both crazy" she mumbles, laying her head on her husband's chest.

"So… you want to go for it?" he asks after a while.

"Sure" she sighs "why not?"