Hey babes! I know it's been a while since I've updated this, but I've been focusing on my other story and then I was getting ready for college. Which is where I'm at right now as I'm updating this. In my dorm room. I figured since I have a little bit of downtime tonight, I'll update.
So here's chapter three. You may recognize a few characters in here. You may not. It depends what you watch on TV.
Enjoy!
"Daddy, what are you doing?"
Looking down, Grant smiles when he sees his daughter standing just inside the doorway to the bathroom, looking up at him.
"Hey Jess."
"Hi daddy. What are you doing? What's all over your face?"
"It's called shaving cream," he explains to the four year old. "It helps me get rid of all of the hair on my face."
"Mommy uses shaving cream," Jessica states.
Grant nods his head, "Yes she does. But she uses it on her legs, not her face like I do."
"Oh."
Grant turns back to the mirror in front of him and lifts the razor towards his face.
"Wait!"
Looking back down he sees his daughter has moved closer to him and is holding both of her hands up in front of her. Grant lets out a sigh, "Yes?"
She drops her hands, "Don't shave."
"What?"
"Don't shave, daddy," Jessica tells him with the same look he's seen Skye give him countless times.
Grant smiles, leaning his forearm on the edge of the sink, "And what makes you think you can tell me what to do, little one?"
"I don't like it when you shave."
"Is that so?"
Jessica nods her head, "I like the beard, daddy."
"Well I'm sorry, sweetie. But I want to shave my beard."
"No daddy!" She exclaims. "Don't shave! Don't shave!"
Jessica continues to scream and yell as Grant lets out a groan of frustration and moves backwards to sit down on the lid of the toilet, using the hand towel to wipe the shaving cream off of his face.
"Hey, is everything alright in here?" Kara asks as a few minutes later as she stops in front of the open bathroom door.
Grant looks up from where he's sitting on the lid of the toilet, "Kara, hey."
"Hey, I let myself in to drop off those files you wanted and I heard screaming. What's going on?"
"Auntie Kara!" Jessica exclaims from her spot on the floor, a few tears streaming down her face.
"Hey, ladybug," Kara smiles down at the girl. "What happened?"
"Daddy wants to shave!" Jessica informs her aunt.
"What?" Kara furrows her brow and looks up at Grant.
Grant sighs, "She's upset because I was going to shave."
"Ah," Kara nods her head in understanding. She steps into the bathroom and pulls the step stool out from underneath of the sink to sit on it. She looks over at Jessica, "Come here, sweetie."
Jessica stands up from the floor and walks over to Kara, climbing up onto her lap. "Why don't you want your dad to shave?"
"I don't like when daddy shaves. I like when he has scruff."
"Is that so?" Jessica nods her head. "Why do you like when he has scruff?"
Jessica shrugs.
"Oh there has to be a reason, Jess," she says softly.
"I wanna be like mommy."
"You want to be like your mom?" Kara asks.
Jessica nods her head, "Mommy likes daddy scruff. I heard her say it."
Grant chuckles quietly. "Come here, angel," he holds his arms out to her.
Jessica slides off of Kara's lap and moves over to where Grant is, standing in front of him.
Grant hoists her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist. "I'm going to have to shave at some point, Jess."
"Not now," she tells him.
He sighs, "Fine. I won't shave right now."
"Good," she nods her head. "I like scruffy daddy," she reaches her tiny hands up and places them on his face, smiling at him.
He smiles back, "Why thank you, Jess."
"You're welcome," she says, sitting up just enough to give him a kiss.
"Ward."
Grant, Kara, and Jessica all look up to see Coulson standing in the doorway to the bathroom.
"Sir," Grant nods his head at the older man. Then he gives him a look.
"The front door was open," Coulson says, hearing the unsaid question.
"My bad," Kara says.
"Hi Uncle Phil!" Jessica waves at Coulson.
"Hi sweetheart," Coulson smiles at her. He turns back to Grant, "You need to put a suit on."
"What for?" Grant asks him.
"It's Skye."
"Mommy!" Jessica exclaims happily, recognizing her mom's name.
"What happened?" Grant asks, concern on his face. "Is she okay?"
Coulson nods his head, "She's fine. Her mission was just cut a little short."
"How do you mean?"
"The NYPD picked her up from her apartment today and took her in for questioning."
"What? Why?"
"They think she had something to do with a murder they're investigating."
"What's murder?" Jessica asks.
"Something really, really bad," Grant tells his daughter. He looks back to Coulson, "How long has she been in their custody?"
"Not for very long. I'm sending you down to the 12th precinct to pick her up. So go put on a suit."
"Yes sir," he nods his head curtly and then stands up, setting Jessica down on the floor. "Kara, can you watch her while I go change?"
"Of course," she stands up and shoves the stool back under the sink. She looks down at Jessica, "Come on, ladybug."
"Okay. Say bye before you leave, daddy," Jessica instructs her father as she follows Kara out of the bathroom and then out of the apartment.
"Someone told me I needed to say bye," Grant says as he enters the common room where Jessica, Kara, Joanna, and May are hanging out.
"Daddy!" Jessica exclaims, shooting up from where she's been sitting on the floor. She makes her way over to Grant and hugs him tightly around the legs.
"Hey angel," he lifts her up and settles her on his hip.
"Wrong one!" Jessica gasps when she sees the standard black tie Grant is wearing.
"What?"
"Wrong tie, daddy! Mommy likes the dark blue one. You hafta wear the blue one when you get mommy."
"Well then why don't you run back to my room and grab it for me," he smiles as he sets her down on the floor. "Quickly."
"Okay daddy. Be right back!" She quickly turns and makes her way out of the common room and towards their apartment.
"Hi Uncle Grant," Joanna waves to him from her spot on the floor.
"Hi Jo," he smiles back at the girl. "How are you?"
"Good. You gonna get Auntie Skye?"
"Yeah, sweetheart. I'm going to go and get Auntie Skye and bring her home."
"Yay!" Joanna smiles. "I love Auntie Skye."
He smiles back, "Me too, Jo, me too."
"Does the 12th precinct know you're picking her up?" May asks from her place on one of the couches.
Grant shrugs, "Not sure. Coulson didn't say."
"I'm going to call them as soon as you arrive," Coulson enters the room and the conversation. "You're going to wait outside while I speak to whoever is in charge and then you'll go up."
"And you're sure they're going to let her go?"
Coulson nods his head, "Absolutely. She's not involved in their case in any way. They have to let her go."
"Alright."
"Here daddy!" Jessica calls as she runs back into the common room. She's clutching the correct tie tightly in her tiny hand. She stops in front of Grant and looks up at him, "Here."
Grant smiles at her, "Thanks, Jess." He removes his black tie, setting it on the back of the couch, and takes the dark blue tie from Jessica, quickly tying it around his neck.
Once done, he holds his arms out and looks down at Jessica, "How do I look?"
"Very handsome, daddy," Jessica smiles at him.
"Thanks, baby girl." He takes a deep breath, "Alright. I should probably get going now. Don't want Skye to be in police custody longer than she has to be."
"I wanna come," Jessica states.
"What?" Grant looks down at his daughter again.
"I wanna come with you, daddy. I wanna see mommy, I miss her."
"I miss her, too, Jess. That's why I'm going to pick her up."
"But I wanna come too."
"You can't, Jess. You have to stay here and wait for me and mom to get back."
Jessica frowns, "No. I wanna go."
"Well you can't," Grant tells his daughter firmly. "You need to stay here."
"I wanna go!" Jessica shouts. "I wanna see mommy!"
Grant closes his eyes and groans in frustration. Not another tantrum.
"Jessica Katherine Ward."
He opens his eyes to see May looking sternly at his daughter.
"You better stop that this instant or there will be no Tai Chi for a week."
"But I—"
"Do you want to make it two weeks?" May raises an eyebrow. Her eyes going wide, Jessica stands up straight and shakes her head. "That's what I thought. Now apologize to your father."
Jessica turns towards Grant, "Sorry, daddy."
"Thank you," he says back. "Now, since you can't come with me to see mommy, I'll let you call her when I get to her, okay?"
"Promise?"
"Have your Uncle Fitz hack into the precinct feed so you know I'm there and can call her."
Jessica beams, "Okay! Bye daddy. Hurry up!" She turns around to make her way from the room when she turns back and runs over to her dad. "Will you get me some gummy candy on your way back?" she asks him.
"I don't know, sweetie."
"Please?" she pleads, giving him a pouty look.
Grant stands strong for a single moment before relenting, "Fine. I'll see what I can find."
"Yay! Thanks daddy. My favorite is the gummy octopus." She turns and makes her way out of the common room and towards the lab to seek out Fitz.
"You are such a sucker for that girl," Kara pipes up from her spot playing on the floor with Joanna.
Grant sighs, "And I'm pretty sure she knows it too."
"Just wait where you are for a moment while I call up to the precinct," Coulson instructs Grant over comms.
"Yes sir," Grant replies, leaning back against the side of the SUV. He pulls his phone out and begins messing around with it, to draw attention away from himself.
A few minutes later, he hears Coulson's voice come back over the comms, "Alright. They're releasing her. Go to up to the sixth floor, homicide division. You'll want to speak to a Detective Kate Beckett."
"Copy that," Grant says, slipping his phone back into his inside jacket pocket. He pushes off of the car, straightens out his jacket and then makes his way towards the entrance of the police precinct.
Stepping out of the elevator, Grant looks around the precinct for the person he needs to talk to. Looking to his right he sees four adults, three men and a woman, all sitting together near a pair of desks. Making eye contact with the brunette woman of the group, Coulson said her name was Detective Beckett; he makes his way through the bullpen towards her.
"I'm here for Skye," he announces to the four people in front of him, not taking the time to introduce himself.
"One moment," Detective Beckett tells him and then turns away.
"Hey." Grant turns his head towards the man that spoke, the one sitting down in a chair next to the desks. "You work for SHIELD, right?" Grant nods his head once. "Cool, so you must know some pretty secret stuff."
"That is true," Grant says without any emotion.
"Care to elaborate on that?" The man asks again.
Grant shakes his head, "Not particularly."
"What? Why not?"
"It's classified."
The man's eyes go wide, "Seriously?"
Grant nods his head, "Yes."
"Oh come on. Can't you tell me about what really went down during the Battle of New York?"
"That's classified."
"What about Project Caterpillars? I've heard rumors about that."
"That's classified."
"Ooh. How about—"
"Hey Robot."
Turning his head to the side, Grant grows a smile on his face, "Hey Rookie." He holds his arms out to her as she walks quickly towards him. When she launches herself into his arms and hugs him around the neck, he hugs her tightly around the waist, burying his face in her hair.
When they pull apart, they remain connected with their arms wrapped around each other, "I missed you so much, Skye," he says to her. "You know I don't like it when you go on lengthy undercover ops without me there."
"I missed you too, Grant," she tells him with a smile. "And I appreciate your concern for my safety, but you know I'm more than capable of handling myself in the field now."
Grant sighs, "I know you are. But I still worry. I always have and I always will."
Skye smiles up at him, "And you are very cute when you worry." She grabs his face in her hands, placing a gentle kiss on his lips. When she pulls away, he has a dopey smile on his face.
"I've missed your kisses," he says to her.
She smiles back at him, "I've missed your kisses too. But do you know what else I missed?"
"What?"
"You in a suit and tie," she tells him, grabbing a hold of his tie with both of her hands. "For six months I had to look at gross, sweaty, very creepy guys. Most of who would wear skin tight t-shirts when they really shouldn't have. So trust me when I say I really love this look right now. Especially this tie."
"Why thank you," he smiles. "I know it's your favorite. And so does Jess. She told me I had to wear mommy's favorite tie when picking her up."
"And I see you didn't shave either," she comments, running one of her hands along the stubble on his cheek.
He chuckles, "Yeah. I was actually getting ready to shave when Jess told me not to. She said she likes it when I don't shave it all off."
"Hmm. She must take after me, because I love it when you've got just a bit of stubble on you. Makes you look very ruggedly handsome."
"I know you love it. You get sad when I shave it and Jess threw a tantrum when she saw me getting ready to shave it."
Skye smiles at the thought of her daughter freaking out about Grant shaving, "And how is my crazy little angel doing?"
"She really misses you," he tells her. "She wanted to come with me, but I told her she had to stay."
Skye raises an eyebrow at him, "And she actually listened to you?"
"May threatened her if she kept whining about wanting to come with me."
"What was it with this time?"
"No Tai Chi for two weeks."
"Ooh. And I'm guessing she immediately stopped whining."
"Straightened up, said sorry, and then told me to hurry up so she could see you again."
Skye smiles, "Good. She always gets mopey when May doesn't do Tai Chi with her."
"Like mother like daughter."
Skye rolls her eyes, "I do not get mopey."
"I think the last few months of your pregnancy when you were on bed rest beg to differ."
"Ugh! Don't remind me. Those months were awful."
"But it was well worth it," he smiles down at her.
"Yes it was," she smiles back, leaning up to kiss him again.
They're pulled away from their kiss when Grant's phone goes off in his jacket pocket. He reaches into the inside pocket of his jacket, pulling his cell phone out and looking at the caller id.
"Speaking of the crazy angel," he turns the phone around so Skye can see the screen. "She probably wants to talk to you."
Skye smiles wide. "Gimme," she grabs the phone from him and hits the answer call button, holding it up to her ear. "Hey angel," she says into the receiver as she steps away from the group of people.
Grant turns his attention back to the four people in front of him. They are all just looking at him. "Um, thanks, I guess," he says a bit awkwardly.
Beckett furrows her brows, "What are you thanking us for exactly, Mr…?"
"Ward," he replies. "But please, call me Grant."
"Alright, Grant," Beckett gives him a polite smile.
"You never answered any of my questions, Grant," the man from earlier speaks up.
"Yes I did," Grant replies.
"No, all you said was, 'That's classified'."
"Because it is. Do you really expect me to reveal classified information to a civilian?"
"Yes?"
"If I told you everything I know you would be very disturbed. And then I'd have to kill you."
"Kill me?" the man shrieks.
Grant nods his head, "Yes. I can think of 20 different ways right now to kill you with that stapler alone," he nods his head in the direction of the stapler sitting on Beckett's desk.
"You know, I think I changed my mind."
"Good choice," Grant replies.
"Okay, so apparently we're picking up some gummy octopus candy on the way back," Skye says to Grant as she approaches the group. She gives Grant a look as she hands him his phone, "You know she's just going to try and eat it all within five minutes and make herself sick."
"But she did the thing with her eyes," he tells her. "What else was I supposed to do?"
"You should have said no," she tells him. "I swear, if we had a boy, you would not be so quick to give in."
"If he looked like you I might," he smiles.
"How long have you two been together?" Beckett interrupts them, a genuine smile on her face.
"Almost six years," Skye replies.
"And you have children?"
"Just one," Grant answers. "A girl."
"She may not exactly have been planned, but I don't think either of us would trade her for anything," Skye smiles happily.
"How old is she?" The man asks. "My oldest daughter is in her 20's. I still remember when she was learning how to walk, determined to do it all without any help. Just like with everything else in her life." He lets out a sigh, "Man, the time just flew by so fast."
"Ours is only four," Skye says. "It seems like only yesterday I was yelling at this guy during labor for getting me pregnant without marrying me first."
"Hey, I keep offering. You keep turning me down."
"I know, and we'll be to that point soon, I promise," she smiles up at him.
"You two aren't married?" Beckett speaks up.
"No we are not," Skye says. "I think we could have been married by this point if certain things hadn't happened. But it's okay. Everything is done and over with."
"Are you guys talking about World War III?" The man asks eagerly, sitting forward in his chair. "Because you both work for SHIELD, so you must know something about it, or were involved in some way. Unless you joined after the War, then you might not know much. But you still know something, right?"
Grant stiffens at the mention of one of his darkest and lowest points, as does Skye.
"We'd rather not talk about it," Skye tells the man. "Like I said, everything is in the past. No sense in bringing things back up that don't need to be."
"But I just…"
"Castle," Beckett warns.
He holds his hands up and sits back in his chair, "Fine. I just wanted to know a few things."
"You have to understand, Mr. Castle," Skye speaks up, "the reason we aren't telling you isn't just because it's classified. We're also not telling you because we've moved past all of that. It was a very dark time for a lot of us in SHIELD and we try not to relive what happened. I'm sure you've had things happen to you that you wish would stay buried in the deep recesses of your brain." Castle nods his head. "Then you know why we aren't too keen on speaking to you about it."
"Right. I'm sorry."
Skye just nods her head, "Thank you." She takes a deep breath, "Well, we should probably be heading out now."
"Of course," Beckett nods her head. "And I'm uh, sorry, for detaining you."
Skye smiles at her, "It's fine. You didn't know I'm a super awesome secret agent. And even though I didn't get everything I needed from that organization, I got some pretty damning stuff. Plus, I'm reunited with this handsome fella," she looks up at Grant and smiles at him. He smiles back. Skye turns back to face the people in front of them, "I guess this is it."
"Yes," Beckett nods her head. "It was a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise," Skye smiles. She steps forward and grabs a pen and pad of paper on Beckett's desk. She scribbles something down before tearing it off and handing it to Beckett, "This is my cell phone number. It's a secure line and I'm usually always near it. In case you guys ever need help on a case you're working and you need things done that you wouldn't normally be able to do, or if something pops up that seems really unusual, we're the people to call."
"Right. Uh, thanks, I guess."
"No problem." She turns to look at Grant, "We should get going now."
"Yeah," he reaches forward and grabs her hand in his, linking their fingers together. He smiles down at her before looking back up, "Again. Thank you for not harming her and I apologize for not being able to help any with your investigation."
"It's alright," Beckett smiles. "We understand. Now, you two better get going unless you want your daughter to start worrying."
"She is a worrier," Grant smiles.
"And she totally gets it from you," Skye tells him as they turn towards the elevator.
"I was going to try and deny that, but I figure it's most likely true." He reaches forward and presses the button to bring the elevator to them.
Skye smiles and laughs a bit. "I am so happy to be going home," she says as they step into the elevator.
"I'm glad you're coming home too," he smiles down at her, pressing the button to take them to the lobby.
So? What did you think? Let me know your thoughts in a review down below. I'd love to hear them.
There is only one more chapter after this one. Not sure when it'll be posted. Hopefully not too long. :)
Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!
