Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya! It's been about two weeks, I know, but I've been really busy with work lately and also with some other fics that I've been writing for a different fandom. But I'm back. This chapter here introduces us to the next little piece of the plot. :)

Enjoy!

"Good boy, Max," Grant says with a small smile, rewarding the puppy with another treat as he rubs his head affectionately, squatting down and bending his head so he's at eye level with the dog. "You are getting so good at this."

"You've picked out a name, then."

He looks over his shoulder to see Skye standing in the doorway to the lounge, Adian sitting contently on her hip, gumming on one of his many toys, his stuff monkey from Fitz squished between their two bodies.

He smiles at her, standing up straight. "Hey. Yeah, I didn't want something too complicated. Something simple but nice that's easy for him to respond to and recognize as his name."

"Yet you came up with 'Adian' for our son."

It takes him a second to realize she's just teasing him about their son's name and he huffs out a laugh. "Yeah."

She moves into the room and lies Adian down on his back under the jungle playmat after pulling it to the center of the room. She sets the monkey down next to him and then moves to sit on the couch. "So how long have you been working on training him?" she asks him.

"Just the last few days," he tells her, shifting a little on his feet. "He's been doing surprisingly well, actually. I wasn't sure how cooperative he would be, you never really know with puppies, but he's been doing really well with listening to commands and following them."

"That's good."

He nods. "Yeah. And I—"

He's cut off by a loud shriek that quickly turns into a full-blown belly laugh. His eyes immediately find his son.

Adian's still lying on his back under his jungle play mat, but Max is right up against his head, licking at his face and rubbing his head against the baby.

"Is he laughing?" Skye asks.

He nods. "Yeah. I think so. And that's his first laugh, right?"

"I'm pretty sure."

"Wow. That's an amazing sound."

"It definitely is," he agrees with a wide smile. He reaches down to scoop Max up. "But I don't think that we should let Max lick Adian's face right now."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Skye tells him, reaching down to rub Adian's belly.

He watches with a smile as she makes silly faces at Adian, making the boy smile and laugh. He loves both of them so much, way more than he ever thought he could love anyone. Of course, he's not going to tell Skye how much he loves her, not with everything they've gone through. He doesn't want to push her away or scare her off by telling her how much he loves her. They're not even together, he doesn't want to risk anything going wrong.

"Grant?"

He lifts his head to look at Skye. "Hmm? What?"

"I was asking you how therapy is going."

"Oh. It's uh, it's going good. I guess," he says with a small shrug. "It's hard to talk about some of the stuff that we do. But afterward, I don't feel as weighed down by it anymore"

She gives him a small smile. "That's good."

"Yeah. We've mostly been talking about more recent stuff, but the last couple of sessions we've been starting to talk about the part that my family played in everything." He avoids making eye contact with her. He's never wanted her to know the full extent of what his family was like. Aside from the little he told her at the Providence base, he hasn't told her anything else. Just from talking to Lisa, he's discovered how deep it all really goes.

"That must be pretty intense, then," she says to him.

He nods. "Yeah. It can be."

"Do you...do you still talk to any of them?"

He shakes his head. "No. Even if I knew how to contact them, I don't know if I'd want to."

"What about your sister?" she asks carefully. "I know you've talked a lot about your parents and your brothers...and how you basically don't want to see any of them anymore. But what about your sister?"

He remains silent, not sure exactly what to say in response to her question. There are so many things that he could say about the subject, but he doesn't really know where to start. Not with Skye.

"Grant, are you okay? I'm sorry if I hit a nerve or something. I just...I've never heard you talk about her. I think you've only mentioned her once very briefly. I'm a little curious."

He shakes his head. "No, you're fine. You've never heard me talk about her because she was the most innocent one out of all of us. She got away from the family the first moment she saw an opportunity to do so. I don't think my parents ever forgave her for leaving when they basically had her entire future planned out. But I'm glad that she got away."

"Have you ever thought about trying to find her again? To try and reconnect?"

"I'm pretty sure she wouldn't want to talk to me if I did find her," he says honestly. After everything that happened, everything that he did, he wouldn't be surprised if she slammed the door in his face if he ever found her.

"Would you...would you be upset with me if I tried to find her? So you could try and talk to her?"

"No, I wouldn't be upset. But you probably won't be able to find her. When she left she fell completely off the map. I'm pretty sure she may have even changed her name too. She's been doing everything she can to get as far away from the family name as possible. Not that I really blame her."

"Well I'm going to try anyway," she tells him. "That way you'll at least have the option of being able to talk to her. If you want to."

He shrugs. "Okay. Whatever." He shifts on his feet. "I'm going to go and do a few things. I'll see you later?"

She nods. "Yeah. You'll come and say goodnight to Adian before he goes to bed?"

"Absolutely."

"Great. I'll see you then."

He nods once before turning around, Max securely in his arms, and heads out of the lounge and down the hall toward his room. He knows it's not one of his scheduled sessions with Lisa, but she did tell him to call her whenever he needs to talk and she's not at the base. And this is definitely one of those times.

.

.

.

Skye lets out a heavy sigh as she runs a hand through her hair. She glances down at her son lying next to her on the large bed, babbling quietly to himself as he gums on a toy.

"I wish this was easier, baby," she says.

Adian turns to look at her immediately when she speaks, his babbling increasing for just a moment before quieting back down.

"I wish your aunt was easier to find. And yes, you have an aunt, an actual aunt related by blood. I'm sure she's a nice lady who would love you as soon as she saw you."

She turns back to her computer and continues typing on the keyboard, her brows furrowed in confusion and frustration when she still doesn't find anything.

It's been a few days since she told Grant that she was going to try and find his sister. It definitely hasn't been an easy task. Grant wasn't kidding when he said that his sister basically fell off the face of the planet. She hasn't had very much luck, unfortunately, in trying to find Grant's sister.

She ran facial recognition on an old photo of Rose that she put through a predictive aged-up software, hoping to find at least a few possible hits.

But nothing yet. Unfortunately.

Just when she's about to give up and call it a day, again, she gets an alert on her laptop. The program she'd been using lights up, a few words blinking across the screen. Her eyes go wide as she stares at it.

"I think this is it, Adian," she says, glancing over at her son. "Let's go find your dad."

She quickly transfers the information to her tablet before climbing off the bed and gathering Adian in her arms. She struggles for a brief minute to get him settled into the carrying wrap that she got at her baby shower so she can have both of her hands free to use, and then picks up her tablet on her way out of the room.

She checks Grant's room first, hoping he'll be there so she doesn't have to search the rest of the base.

Unfortunately, he isn't there.

She looks down at Adian with a small frown. "Do you know where your daddy is?"

Adian just babbles quietly in response, his head resting against Skye's chest as he looks up at her. She smiles at him and presses a kiss to the top of his head.

"Maybe we'll just sneak a peek at the location on his tracking anklet."

She opens up a new program on her tablet, quickly pulling up the information of Grant's tracking anklet, finding him located in the gym.

She looks back at Adian. "Of course he's working out. Let's go see him."

They pass by a few agents on their way to the gym. She exchanges tight smiles with them as she goes. Things aren't as tense with all the agents anymore, thankfully, but there is still an awkwardness there because no one else is quite as comfortable with Grant being around as she is. She knows it'll take some time for everyone else to get to that point. They all seem to have warmed up to Adian, though, so she's at least grateful for that.

When she reaches the gym, she smiles a little at the sight of Grant going at it on the punching bag in front of him.

"What did that bag ever do to you?" she speaks up, getting his attention.

He steadies the bag and turns to look at her with a small smile. "Skye, hey. What are you doing here?"

"I have something to talk to you about."

"Okay. Give me a second."

She moves to one of the benches off to the side, sitting down and removing Adian from his wrap to hold him in her lap, her tablet lying next to her. She bounces her son on her knees as she makes a few funny faces at him, pressing kisses to his cheeks.

"So what did you want to talk about?"

She looks up to see Grant sitting down next to her, draping a towel around his neck, a plain gray t-shirt covering his body now. She passes Adian over to him as she picks up her tablet, opening the program again.

"Well, I've spent the last few days trying to find your sister," she tells him, figuring it best to just rip the band-aid off and tell him instead of beating around the bush. "And I think I found a general location of where she's living now. I haven't narrowed it down yet to a more specific location, but I can if you want me to."

"Uh...okay. Um, thanks, I guess."

She looks up to see him with a faraway look in his eyes, holding Adian as close as he can. "Grant, are you okay?"

He nods. "Yeah, I think so. I just...what if she hates me? What if she doesn't want to see me? What if I ruined everything completely because of what I've done?"

Before she can try to answer him, he's shaking his head, burying his face in Adian's tiny body and breathing in deeply.

"Obviously I don't know what's going to happen," she tells him quietly. "But I think that you should at least try. Then you'll know for sure. And I can be there with you if you want some support. I have to go do a few things for Coulson, but can you put Adian down for a nap in a little bit?"

He nods his head silently.

"Okay." She stands up from the bench and drops a kiss to the top of Adian's head. "I'll see you later, then," she says to Grant.

Turning around, she makes her way out of the gym and back down the hallway to her own room. She really hopes that she did the right thing here, that she didn't make a big mistake in trying to find Grant's sister. She wants this to work out. She needs it to work out. For Grant's sake.

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!