Hey babes! Back again with a new one-shot for ya. Been sitting on this one for a while because I wasn't quite satisfied with it. But I think I am now. Not too sure about the title, but it'll have to do. The prompt I found for this one was: Person B knowing they're undoubtedly about to die within next few seconds, likely from gaping wound they're bleeding out from. Instead of calling for help they phone Person A and carry on a casual conversation as if nothing is wrong, making sure to mention how much they love them before their time runs out.

So, yeah. Don't hate me. Enjoy!

Clawing at the muddy ground beneath him, Grant pulls himself up into a seated position against the aging wall next to him, his hand pressed tightly against his side and his teeth gritting together in pain.

Letting out a pained breath, he reaches into his pocket to pull out his cell phone, taking a moment to stare at the photo on his lock screen, remembering that moment as if just happened a few days ago as opposed to a couple of years.

After a minute, he unlocks the device and goes into his contacts, finding the first of only two numbers in his favorites section.

Hitting the speaker button, he waits with bated breath for the other person to pick up.

"Hello?"

He can't help the smile that forms on his lips at hearing her cheery voice ring through the speaker. "Hey, beautiful."

"Grant? Why are you calling? Is everything okay with your mission?"

He nods his head slightly. "Yeah, everything's fine. I've got a little bit of down time right now and I just wanted to hear your voice, that's all."

"You've turned into such a big sap the last few years. You know that, right?"

"Only for you, Skye. You know that as well as everyone else."

Skye lets out a small laugh. "Alright, super spy. So how's the mission going?"

"You know I can't tell you that."

She sighs. "I know, I know. It's on a strict need-to-know basis. But we both know that I could totally just hack the system right now and figure everything out on my own anyways."

"Yes, you could. But you won't. Because you actually like not having to wear a tracking bracelet that doesn't let you use any electronics."

"Ugh! Don't remind me about that. It was pure torture. The absolute worst."

Grant chuckles, immediately regretting it when a sharp pain shoots up his side. He closes his eyes for a minute and screws his face up.

"Grant? Babe, you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here." He lets out a breath. "Remind me to tell you about the time when I was captured on a mission in Russia, then you'll know what torture is like."

"Hey, we all have our own things that make us tick," she tells him.

"Yeah, I suppose so." Feeling the blood continuing to seep through his fingers, Grant presses down just a little harder. "Hey, Skye. You know I love you, right? And that I'm really glad you believed in me all those years ago and convinced Coulson to give me a second chance."

"Of course I do, babe. Why are you telling me all of this? Is there something you aren't telling me? Because I swear, if you—"

"No," he cuts her off with a small shake of his head. "Everything's fine. I promise you, everything's fine. I just wanted to tell you how much I love you. I don't think I say it enough."

"You say it plenty, believe me."

He smiles. "Yeah, I suppose I do."

"Oh, hey. Don't forget. We have that appointment with the realtor next weekend. So when you get back I need you to check all that important stuff that you said you were going to do before you left but never actually did."

"I know, I'm sorry. I promise I will do that as soon as I get back."

"Good. Hey, I have to hang up now because I was right in the middle of the something important when you called."
"Okay. I love you, Skye, so much."

"I love you too, babe. I'll see you when you get home."
He smiles sadly. "Yeah, bye."

"Bye."

Pressing the end call button, Grant lets his body slump down against the wall. His hand starts to shake as he goes back to the main phone screen, tapping the icon linked back to base for an emergency extraction.

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Grant closes his eyes and allows his body to relax, his cell phone clattering to the ground as his hand goes lax.

A knock on the wooden frame of the bunk door has Skye looking up from her laptop from her place sitting cross legged on hers and Grant's bed.

She smiles when she sees the older man standing in the doorway. "Coulson, hey. What's up?"

"I uh, I have something important that I need to tell you about War—about Grant."

Skye's eyes go wide. "Is Grant back early? Because he's not supposed to be back until next week and he just—"

"No," Coulson cuts her off, shaking his head. "He's not back. Well, not really."

Skye furrows her brows. "What do you mean? Coulson, what's going on?"

Coulson sighs and steps further into the room, stopping next to the edge of the bed. He takes a deep breath before speaking, "Earlier today we received a transmission from one of the apps you created for emergency extraction that we installed in all field agents' phones."

Skye nods slowly. "Okay. And...?"

"It was from Grant's phone."

Skye's entire body tenses. "Coulson, what the hell is going on?" she asks quietly, yet sternly, hot tears brimming at her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Skye," Coulson says with tears brimming his own eyes. "By the time the extraction team got there it was too late. There was nothing that they could do for him. I'm so sorry."

Skye lets out a choked sob, one hand going up to cover her mouth as the tears start to fall from her eyes. "No." She shakes her head vehemently. "No, you're wrong.

He's not—he can't be. He can't be. Do you understand me? He can't be dead. Not now. Not now. Please. No."

"I'm so sorry," Coulson says softly, kneeling down and pulling Skye into his arms.

Skye fights back at first, hitting her fists against his chest in protest as she shouts in anger before ultimately collapsing against him and letting the tears flow freely.

"I've got you," Coulson says as he cradles the back of her head. "Shh, I've got you."

"We're so sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," Skye says with a blank face to the agents before her. She looks down at the ground, digging the toe of her shoe into the wet grass.

"Skye."

She looks back up to see Jemma and Fitz standing in front of her, their hands locked together, their one and a half year old son sitting comfortably on Jemma's hip.

"Do you want us to stay with you?" Jemma asks her.

Skye shakes her head. "No, thanks. I'll be fine."

"Alright, well, we'll be over at the car when you're ready to go."

Skye nods. "Yeah, okay."

The two scientists turn to walk away when Skye calls out again, her eyes staring ahead of her out at the overcast sky.

"You didn't have to come here. I know you guys hated him, and me for being with him. And the fact that your son practically worshipped the ground he walked on."

"We don't hate you, Skye," Fitz tells her. "We could never hate you. Even though it's been years since everything happened, it's been hard for us to come to terms with everything, that's all. Especially once he started working for SHIELD again. It wasn't an easy thing for us."

"Yeah, well, he's gone now. So there's nothing for you to come to terms with anymore. You should be happy."

"We aren't happy," Jemma tells her. "Just because we didn't particularly like Ward doesn't mean that we wanted something like this to happen to you. We care about you, Skye."

"'Kye!"

Skye turns her head and gives the little boy on Jemma's hip half a smile. "Hey, Noah."

Noah gives her a wide grin before shoving his fist into his mouth.

Jemma presses a kiss to the side of her son's head before looking back at Skye. "We'll see you at the car."

Skye turns away as Fitz and Jemma walk towards the other end of the cemetery towards the line of cars.

She takes a few steps forward until she's directly in front of the freshly filled grave, the clean cut headstone standing tall in the grass.

"I miss you," she speaks up after a moment. "A lot." She looks down and plays with the diamond ring on her finger. "I want to be mad at you. I want to be so damn furious at you right now. You weren't supposed to die on that mission, Grant. We were supposed to get married in a month and move into the house of our dreams and now you're gone and I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't think I can move into that house without you, it wouldn't feel right. Nothing feels right anymore. Everything feels off, like somehow the universe knows that you should be here with me instead of being six feet underground." She fights back the tears.

"I know you'd want me to move on, to find someone else and be happy. You've always wanted me to be happy, even if you didn't think I'd be with you, you wanted me to be happy. But I honestly don't think that I can. I don't think that I can move on and be happy. You were going to be it for me, Grant, no one else. I love you so damn much, Grant Ward. And uh, I was going to tell you about this when you got back after your mission, I had a whole big dinner planned to tell you because I knew you'd be thrilled. But now I can't tell you. Not really."

She reaches inside her coat pocket and pulls out a small piece of photo paper, slowly turning it around so the image is facing the headstone. "I'm pregnant," she says through the many tears that have started falling down her face. "I know that you would have been such an amazing dad, Grant. You would have loved this kid with your whole heart and probably would have spoiled them rotten to the point where I'd end up being the bad guy." She lets out a small laugh through her tears. "I promise I'll tell our baby all about you, and how completely incredible and amazing their daddy was." She bends down and places the photo at the base of the headstone.

She traces her fingers across the engraved letters of his name. "You were the love of my life, the only one for me. I'm going to miss you so much, every single day, for the rest of my life."

Leaning forward, she presses a kiss to the top of the headstone before standing up.

Casting one final glance at the headstone, she turns around and walks away, making her way towards where the team is waiting for her.

Climbing into the backseat of one of the town cars, she smiles when Noah crawls across the seat into her lap and calmly rests his head on her shoulder, grabbing a lock of her hair in his tiny hand to play with as the car begins pulling out of the cemetery.

Skye just holds the little boy close to her, burying her face in his shoulder as she lets the tears fall down her cheeks, staining the dark fabric of her jeans.

Don't hate me! Let me know your thoughts in a review down below. I'd love to know what you think.

Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!