Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya. This one brings us another step forward to meeting a new face that was really fun for me to write.

Enjoy!

His sister is all that's been occupying his mind recently. More than she ever has. He's definitely thought about her before, thought about what she could be doing with her life now that she doesn't have their family trying to force her to be someone she isn't. But he's never thought about her as much as he has lately. He's never thought about all the possibilities of what her life could be like, how much better off she is without their family's influence hanging over her head.

Ever since Skye told him that she found a general location of where his sister might be, he hasn't been able to stop thinking about all the possibilities of what could happen if he decides to go and see her. She could be happy to see him after all these years, to see him all grown up with a kid of his own. She could cry with happiness. Or she could cry because she's upset with him. She could be upset that he found her. She could think he's a bad person. She could call the police immediately to have him locked up. She could inadvertently keep him away from his son by sending him to prison. He does not want that to happen.

"Do you think you can do that?" Lisa asks him on the other end of his phone, pulling him out of his head. It wasn't the day for one of his usual sessions, but she told him to call her whenever he needs to if he's ever having problems.

He nods even though she can't see him. "Yeah, I think so."

"That's good."

"Could I...could I call you after I see her? If I need to?"

"Of course, Grant. You know I'm always a phone call away if you need to talk outside of our scheduled appointments about something specific."

"I know. Uh, thanks."

"It's not a problem. I'll talk to you soon."

"Yeah, bye."

Pulling the phone down from his ear, he ends the call and rests his head in his hands, staring down at the carpet of his room. He has a big decision ahead of him. Lisa helped him a little, helping him work through all of his thoughts about possibly seeing his older sister again. He hasn't seen her in a long time. They're both very different people now. He knows that for a fact.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he stands from his bed and makes his way out of the room in search of Skye. At this point, there are only a few places she could really be, not wanting to take Adian anywhere too dangerous.

He checks her room first, and the nursery, not finding her in either place. So he checks the lounge next, seeing as that's where he can usually find her. She says that it's so Adian doesn't learn being holed up in his room from an early age. She said that she wants him to have as much human interaction as possible.

As soon as he steps into the lounge he sees her sitting on one of the couches with her laptop in front of her.

His brows furrow when he doesn't see their son anywhere near her.

"Where's Adian?" he asks immediately, moving further into the room, Max trailing right behind him. He doesn't see the need in putting a leash on the puppy, he's doing well with just following him whenever he goes anywhere on base. Max is surprisingly well-behaved for still being a puppy. He's not complaining, though.

Skye jumps a little and turns to look at him. "You scared me."

"Sorry. Where's Adian?"

"Fitz and Trip have him. Claimed they wanted some quality time with their nephew. Which is perfectly fine with me because it means I can work on this." She gestures to the screen of her laptop and he doesn't bother asking what it is. He knows he wouldn't understand it even if she tried explaining it in the most simple terms that she could.

"Oh. Okay."

"Did you need something?" she asks him, shifting on the couch to look at him better. "Did you want to spend time with Adian? Because I think he's—"

He shakes his head. "No, I don't. I mean, I always want to spend with him, but I actually came to find you. I wanted to talk to you."

"What's up?"

"Uh, I just got off the phone with Lisa," he tells her, sitting down on the couch and lifting Max into his lap, needing to run his fingers through the dog's fur to keep himself steady.

She nods. "Okay."

"We were talking about Rose, my sister. I told her how you think you found her, and think that I should try to reconnect."

"What did she say?"

"She said it's up to me, obviously. But that I won't know how things are going to turn out unless I try and reconnect with her. That I can spend all this time worrying about her hating me, but I won't know if she actually does unless I try to get into contact with her."

"So then what do you want to do?" she asks him.

His brows furrow together as he shifts. "I think...I think I want to try and reconnect with her. She's my sister, and I love her. She was one of the only good parts I remember about my childhood."

"I'm sorry."

He shakes his head. "Don't be. You couldn't have done anything about it."

"Still, it sucks."

"It did. But I'm moving past it all. At least, I'm really trying to. Lisa's been helping me a lot."

She smiles. "That's good."

"Yeah. And uh, I was wondering, if maybe you wanted to come with me. And Adian too. I want you guys to meet her, especially if she's still like I remember her. I think it'll be nice for Adian to meet his aunt, even if he won't really understand yet who she is."

"I think it'll be nice too," she tells him with a small smile. "And I'll talk to Coulson about getting a few days off to go see your sister."

He nods. "Yeah, that'd be great. I'm uh, I'm going to go and check on Adian, see if Fitz and Trip are doing okay with him."

"Okay. Give our boy a kiss for me?"

He smiles. "Yeah, of course."

.

.

.

"So you're going to visit your sister?"

Grant nods at the young engineer on the other side of the large table, gently bouncing Adian on his knee to keep the boy entertained while making sure to keep him as far away from the equipment as possible. "Yeah. We're leaving in a couple of days."

"How long are you going to be gone for?"

He shrugs. "Not sure. Guess it depends on how Rose feels about seeing me again after all these years."

"You've changed," Fitz tells him. "She'll want to see you."

"I really hope you're right, Fitz."

"I am. You'll see."

Grant laughs quietly and looks down at his son. "Uncle Fitz is really full of himself, isn't he?"

"No no," Fitz speaks up, his eyes wide. "Don't tell him that. Don't tell him that."

"Relax, Fitz," Trip pipes in with a smile. "Adian most likely doesn't know what Grant even said."

"I think he knows I'm talking to him," Grant tells the other two men, continuing to smile at the little boy staring up at him. "I just don't think he understands all of my words yet."

"But he will in time," Trip says. "He seems like a smart kid."

"He is very smart," Grant agrees, despite there being no real evidence yet of Adian's intelligence. He's definitely feeling the effects of being a new dad, being so sure of how amazing your kid is going to be despite how young they still are.

He sighs when Adian turns his focus back to the toy in his hands, babbling incoherently. "I'm just really worried about seeing Rose again after so long," he tells his friends. "She was always the best of the four of us, never bought into what our parents said or did. She was always looking for a way out of the family, and when she found it she took it. I've missed her a lot, but I don't know if she's missed me too. After everything that's happened recently, I'm worried that Christian got to her somehow to warn her about me."

"You said that it took Skye a while to find her, right?" Trip asks.

He nods. "Yeah."

"And Skye's one of the best hackers out there. If it took her so long to find Rose, then maybe Christian wasn't able to and he hasn't gotten to her."

Grant tilts his head, thinking over the idea of his sister being untouched by Christian's corruption. "I guess that might be true. She never really was his biggest fan, so it's possible that even if he did find her, she didn't let him change her mind on anything."

Trip smiles and claps him on the back. "That's the spirit, man. The power of positive thinking is a wonderful thing."

"Unfortunately, I haven't had too much experience with that, so I think I'll take your word for it for now." He takes a deep breath and shifts Adian on his lap. "I should get going, though," he tells the other two men. "Skye wanted me to get Adian down for a nap. Thanks for listening to me, though. I appreciate it."

"Anytime, man," Trip tells him. "We're here for you whenever."

He smiles. "Thanks. Say bye to your uncles, Adian." He grabs Adian's hand and carefully moves it in a waving motion. He laughs quietly when Adian squeals, dropping a kiss to the boy's head as he carries him to his room.

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!