Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya! We're getting closer to the end now. Thanks for sticking around as long as you have. :)

Enjoy!

Meeting Skye's parents, knowing they were her actual parents, was a little daunting, to say the least. He's been in the middle of more gun and fistfights than he can count and never once batted an eye. But meeting the parents of the woman he loves, when no one there actually knows that he loves her, set just about every nerve ending in his body on edge.

What exactly do you say to the two people who brought the woman you love into the world, but never got the chance to raise her and still don't know about their grandson? There's no guidebook for their situation. No manual or step-by-step instructions. There's no one he can really turn to for advice about all of this. He's flying blind and he doesn't know how to handle it all. But he's been doing his best not to make too much of a mess of things.

It's only been a couple of days since Skye had dinner with her parents, since she came to him and asked him to just hold her while she slept. It was one of the best nights of sleep he's had in a long time. Despite being in a place that sets off nearly all of his nerve endings, he still slept a lot better than he has in the past. Hands down. No doubt about it.

Of course, none of that does his nerves any good while he's going to be stuck waiting around at Afterlife while Skye's off with her dad on his trip home. She said she was just going with him to keep him company while he got more of his things, figuring it might be nice to see where she could have grown up had things worked out differently. But the whole thing doesn't sit well with him. Nothing has sat well with him since they arrived. All he wants is to go home and see his son. He hasn't seen Adian in what feels like a very long time, and he just wants to be able to hold his boy again.

"You look so on edge."

Glancing up from where he'd been staring at the cement below him, finding Lincoln standing not too far away. "I'm not on edge."

Lincoln cracks a smile and huffs out a laugh. "Sure, whatever you say, man. You worried about Skye?"

"No."

"Come on, man, I can see it all over your face whenever you're around her. You care about her."

"I don't have to tell you anything."

"You don't need to."

Grant sighs and sits back against the bench. "What are you doing over here?"

"I just came by to tell you that I'm going with them. I can keep an eye on Skye for you."

"Skye's perfectly capable of handling herself. Even before she got her powers."

Lincoln nods. "I'm aware of that. But Jiaying asked me to go along and keep an eye on things, make sure nothing happens."

He quirks a brow in the other Inhuman's direction at the statement. "Is she worried that something's going to happen while they're gone? Maybe I should go too for extra protection."

Lincoln shakes his head. "No, she's not too worried. It's just a precaution. People like us aren't usually taken too kindly to when out in the regular public if people are aware that we're there. It's just nice to have an extra set of eyes and ears in case something does go wrong."

He narrows his eyes at the man. He still doesn't trust him. Not completely, anyway. He knows that Skye's grown fond of him, in a certain sense, that she's put some amount of trust in him and that the two have some type of a friendship going on. But it doesn't mean he has to be friends with the man. If he trusts anything about the man, though, he trusts that he'll do what's necessary to keep Skye safe.

They share a few more words before Lincoln is walking away, off to do his duty and make sure that nothing goes horribly wrong on the trip. And now that's all his mind is conjuring up for him, all the ways that Skye's trip can go wrong. All the ways that she could be taken away from him and Adian. All the ways that would leave him a single father. That can't happen. He can't let it happen.

He clenches his fists tightly when he feels a familiar tingling in his fingertips. Now is definitely not the time to lose control. He's made a little headway in learning to control his abilities, knowing that they're tied, in a way, to his emotions. If he lets his emotions get out of control, then his powers will get out of control too. And that's the last thing that he wants.

.

.

.

It's all a bit of blur when Skye comes back to Afterlife after her trip. He's not quite sure how long she was gone, a few hours at least, he knows that. He'd been occupying his time by taking Max out to the fields and trying to control his abilities more, to really learn what they're capable of doing. He still hasn't been given a formal teacher, so if they're not going to give him someone to actually help him, then he's just going to have to learn on his own. It's not like he hasn't been on his own before. It's nothing new for him. He just wishes that someone with more experience could help guide him a little.

He's in one of the fields not too far from the central area of the village when he hears the distant shouting. He immediately goes over, finding Skye, Cal, and Gordon in the middle of the fray, the former two looking a little worse for wear and breathing heavily.

"Skye!"

She turns to him and then seconds later she's in his arms, hugging him tightly and burying her face in the fabric of his shirt. He hugs her back just as tightly, not wanting to let her go. He shouldn't have let her go alone. He should have gone with them. He should have been there for whatever happened.

Pulling away enough to look at her, he cups her cheeks in his hands, brushing some of her hair back out of her face. "Hey, hey, talk to me, Skye. What happened?"

She shakes her head and swallows. "I don't know. I called May, told her to take Cal because I knew he'd be upset when I left again, but we were ambushed at his old office. I don't—I don't know how the others found us, but they did. Lincoln was there, and Cal got really, really angry because he knew we were just going to leave him there. But then Hydra was there, and Coulson was too. Everything got so out of hand so fast. And I don't know what happened to Lincoln. Gordon got me and Cal out of there before I could find him. Everything fell apart. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do, Grant. Everything is such a mess right now."

His heart breaks at hearing how upset she is by the whole chain of events. He pulls her in again, cupping the back of her head and whispering what he hopes to be calming words in her ear. He hates seeing her so upset by what happened. He wishes he could fix everything for her, to make it right so she doesn't have to hurt anymore.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asks her quietly in her ear.

She nods against him. "I think so," she says back, her voice muffled by the fabric of his t-shirt. "I'm just so tired. And I just want to see Adian."

"I know, so do I. And we'll see him soon, okay? We won't be here for too much longer. We'll find Gordon and convince him to take us home, to take us to Adian. I don't care what your mom has to say. We're getting out of here."

She looks up at him. "Promise?"

He gives her the tiniest hint of a smile. "I promise."

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Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!