Hey babes! Back again with a new addition to the Life's A Roller Coaster series. There's a small scene in here that was inspired by a story from a friend of mine, so credit goes to her on that one.

Enjoy!

"Question," Emily says as she slides onto one of the barstools of the island counter.

"I might have an answer," Skye replies.

"How would you and Grant feel about going to the beach this weekend?"

"The beach?"

Emily nods. "Yeah. You guys have been here almost a year and you still haven't been to the beach. It's beautiful. You have to come with me."

Skye's lips turn down. "I don't know, Em. It sounds like it could be fun, but Grant has this thing about people so I don't know if it'd be a good idea."

"Are you sure?" Emily asks. "Because it's a really nice beach and we can even go when there aren't very many people there."

"Let me talk to Grant and see what he says. If he's okay with going then we'll go."

"Awesome. So what are we having for dinner?"

Skye smiles. "Grant and I are having tacos."

"What about me?"

"You have your own house and your own life," Skye reminds her best friend.

"Yeah, but your house is more fun. And speaking of all the fun, where is Grant?"

"He's at an appointment right now," Skye informs the other woman. "After I finish cooking the tacos I have to go and get him."

Emily nods. "Ah. And how are his appointments going? Are they helping him?"

"I think so," Skye says. "He doesn't have nearly as many nightmares anymore, which is good. But I still worry about his mental state sometimes. I don't think anyone can ever really get over a traumatic past like his. I'm glad he has Max, though, to help keep him grounded when I'm not around."

"Yeah, that's good. And even though I don't know what that past is, I'm sure you're right."

"Believe me when I say that it's better that you don't know. It's not either of our favorite subjects, so we don't talk to anyone about it."

"No, I understand. We've all got skeletons."

Skye sighs. "Yeah, well, Grant's got a bit more than just skeletons."

"I think I'll take your word for it."

"Good plan."

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"It's so nice here," Skye remarks on a sigh, leaning back on her hands in the sand. "I can't believe we waited so long to come here." She reaches out and runs her fingers through Max's fur, the young dog lying next to Grant, his tail wagging eagerly as he stares out at the water.

"Neither can I," Emily says. "This is one of the best places to come. Especially when there isn't a lot of people around. Figured you'd appreciate that, Grant."

He nods, rubbing his hands along his jeans. "Uh, yeah, thanks."

Skye's brows furrow and she looks over at her boyfriend. "Babe, are you okay?"

He nods again. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Because we can go if you're not feeling up to this."

He shakes his head. "No. I'll be okay. It's just...the ocean."

"You're scared of the ocean?" Emily asks. "I mean...I can understand why. It can definitely be terrifying, all the stuff that's out there."

He shakes his head again. "Not that. It's a lot of water."

Skye frowns when she sees the ripples of heat shining on her boyfriend's skin. Most people wouldn't notice, but she's become attuned to every aspect of her boyfriend from spending so much time together. She reaches out and covers one of his hands with hers, gently nudging Max out of the way so his fur doesn't accidentally get scorched, though she knows Grant would never hurt the dog on purpose. "Hey. I think I know why you don't want to be here."

"There's so much of it," he says, staring out at the vast openness of the ocean. "So much water."

She nods. "I know. But we're way up here. The tide isn't going to come up this far."

His eyes close tightly and his fists clench, his breathing getting heavier.

"Grant."

His eyes shoot open and Skye lets out a small gasp at the look in his eyes, one she hasn't seen in a long time.

"Babe," she says, sitting up on her knees and placing one hand on either cheek, looking straight into the fire of his eyes. "Grant, can you hear me? If you hear me I need you to follow my breathing, okay?"

"Whoa. What the hell?"

Skye turns to her friend and follows her line of sight to find Grant's hands engulfed in flames. She sighs. "Em, this is not how we wanted you to find out. If at all, to be honest."

"What do you mean?" Emily asks, holding Max securely in her arms. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'll explain it to you later, I promise. But right now I need to focus on bringing my boyfriend back from this before it gets any worse."

Emily nods. "Right. Um, okay. I'll go wait by the car."

Skye nods, eyes focused on Grant. "Good idea." She turns back to her boyfriend and settles herself on her knees between his legs, cradling his face. "Grant? Grant, babe, can you hear me? I need you to listen and focus on my voice, okay? Just focus on me."

The fire in his eyes lessens, but it continues to flicker.

"S...Skye?"

"Yeah. It's me. I'm right here. I'm right here."

"It doesn't…doesn't wanna be by the ocean. Skye...I don't...I don't wanna..."

She nods. "Hey, hey, I know, you're okay. We can go. Emily's already by the car. Are you okay to walk over there or do you want to wait for a minute?"

He swallows. "I'm okay."

"Alright. Come on, then." She stands up and helps him to his feet, keeping at least one hand on him as they make their way back up to the parking lot. She notices their belongings are gone, most likely up at the car with Emily.

"We're almost there, babe," Skye says to Grant as they trek up through the sand hill. "We're almost at the car. And then we'll be home and you can rest. Maybe even call Lisa. Sound good to you?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Good."

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"So, you're an alien?"

Skye shakes her head at her friend, having explained hers and Grant's entire history to the other woman, summing it up as best she could so it wouldn't take too long. "Not really, no. My ancestors were experimented on and turned into what we call Inhumans. The genes get passed down through each generation and remain dormant until said person comes in contact with the Terrigen Mist. Like I did. But not by my choice."

"And Grant?"

"Grant's still a bit of a mystery," Skye says, glancing over at her boyfriend, watching as he absentmindedly strokes Max's fur. "He died, and then he came back, but we didn't know why or how. We still don't know and probably never will. Someone from our old life provoked him one too many times and it set his abilities off that had been dormant until then."

"So you ran away."

Skye nods. "Basically, yeah. It wasn't a good environment for Grant anymore and I couldn't leave him on his own with everything he was dealing with. So we left. Like I said, we traveled for a bit before settling down here. We're honestly just trying to live as normal lives as possible."

Emily nods. "Right. And whenever you guys eventually have kids, are they going to inherit your abilities?"

"I think they'll inherit the Inhuman gene from me," Skye explains. "But it'll remain dormant. I'm not sure what they'll inherit, if anything, from Grant's abilities. And even if they did go through Terrigenesis when they're older, they wouldn't have the same powers as either of us. Inhumans all have their own unique ability."

"And yours is…"

"I can feel and manipulate the vibrations of pretty much everything around me. Which is how I know that your heartbeat is incredibly fast right now."

"Well can you really blame me?" she replies.

"No, I guess I can't. And I understand if this makes you not want to be friends with us anymore, it's a lot to take in. I just ask that you don't tell anyone about us. There's a reason we left our old lives behind and don't want them finding us. If word got out about two people with powers, our old coworkers would be the first ones out here and it wouldn't be good."

"I won't tell anyone, I promise."

"Thank you, really."

"It's no problem. Though I have to say I am a bit hurt that you'd think I'd stop being your friend because of this."

"Really?"

"Absolutely. This is awesome, Skye. You guys are like superheroes." She grins.

Grant's brows furrow. "I'm not a hero. I can barely keep myself together, there's no way anyone would trust me with their life. Except for Skye, of course," he adds when she quirks her brow at him.

"Right. So are your former bosses really that bad?"

"He'd rather me be dead than walking around," Grant supplies. "I don't like him."

"And it's perfectly understandable why you don't," she tells him. "He's not exactly at the top of our Christmas card list." She turns back to Emily. "And I'm so glad you're being so calm about this."

"Oh, believe me, I'm definitely freaking out on the inside. My best friend has superpowers. This is awesome. And I promise you that your secret is safe with me. I'm actually really good at keeping secrets."

Skye smiles at her friend. "I trust you, Em. You're the first person since we got here to know about our pasts. And we'd really like to keep it that way. The last thing we need is anyone coming after us because of what we can do and have Grant lose it more than he did today."

Emily smiles back. "I get it. And you can one hundred percent count on me."

So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!