Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter! I'm gonna try to update this story more often than I have been because we're getting close to the end and I can't wait for you all to read the last few chapters. Also because I have a bunch of other little one-shots planned out for this universe that I want to start posting. :)

Enjoy!

They should have stayed away. They should have stayed at the SHIELD base. They never should have come back to Afterlife. That's all he can think about as he watches everything start to fall apart around him. Not literally. Not yet, at least.

Everything had been fine up until now. Relatively speaking, that is. That strong sinking feeling never once left his gut the entire time they were on their way back. He didn't want to go back. But he didn't want Skye to go alone, either. Well, she wasn't really alone, since Lincoln was going to be with her the whole time. But he knew he'd feel ten times better if he was able to be there with Skye to help protect her. Even though she doesn't need much of his help protecting herself anymore, it helps put his mind at ease if he can be there. He'd had a long, much-needed conversation with Lisa after they had gotten back to the Playground. It was such a relief and weight off his shoulders to be able to finally talk to the woman again. She agreed that he needed to do whatever would be best, as long as he was careful and didn't do anything too drastic.

Skye and Lincoln had been chosen to essentially be liaisons from SHIELD, to set up a meeting between the leaders of the two groups. He easily managed to get himself in on it as well, convincing them that an extra set of eyes never hurts. It didn't take much convincing, thank goodness. Skye was on board with it immediately. He couldn't help but smile at that when it happened. Their relationship has definitely improved from what it was just a few months ago.

But now he's afraid that it's all going to be for nothing if he can't make sure that she's able to see their son at the end of all this. As much as he wants to see his son and hold him again, if he ever had to make a choice, he'd make sure that Skye was the one who got to see Adian at the end of everything. There's no doubt in his mind about it. No doubt at all.

He's in the middle of helping get people to safety, always trying to keep Skye in his line of sight, when the missiles start firing from one of the quinjets flying above them.

His brow furrow together tightly as he stares up at the aircraft. "What the...?"

Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Skye go down along with Jiaying and Lincoln. He doesn't hesitate in rushing to them, mainly to Skye, needing to know that she's okay. Needing to know that she's not injured too badly.

"Skye." He kneels down beside her, wrapping his arms around her as he helps her stand again before checking her over to make sure she's really okay.

"Why would you let them do this to us?" Jiaying questions as she stands, her eyes fixed solely on Skye, one hand still clutching her wounded shoulder from where she'd claimed Gonzales had shot her. "I thought you were on our side."

"I am," Skye insists. "I-I had no idea, I swear. Grant and I didn't know this was going to happen."

"I have a really bad feeling about all of this," he speaks quietly to Skye as Jiaying is led away by Lincoln and another Inhuman whose name he can't remember.

"Why is SHIELD shooting at us, Grant?"

He shakes his head. "I don't know. But none of this is sitting right with me."

"Skye! Ward!"

They both turn at their names, seeing May approaching them, that familiar hard look on her face that she's known for having in the heat of battle.

"May, what's going on?" Skye asks, taking a few steps closer to the other agent. He wants to intervene, the sinking in his gut only growing as he watches and listens to everything around him unfold. This isn't right. This shouldn't be happening. But of course, nothing in his life ever seems to go right. Except for his son.

His heart sinks when he comes back to reality, only to find May knocked out on the concrete and Skye standing near her, panting heavily. How did he miss that?

"Skye."

She whirls on him, the starting of a hard look on her face that he doesn't like seeing. "What happened, Grant? Why did SHIELD do this?"

"They couldn't have," he says to her. "Why would Coulson knowingly attack this place when he knows that your mom is here? That this is part of your history? That he'd be risking keeping us from our son?"

She shakes her head. "I don't know."

"We need to get out of here, Skye, we need to leave."

"What? Why would we leave? We need to stay and fight."

"This isn't our fight, Skye," he tries to convince her. "We barely got our powers, we don't know that much about this world that we're now suddenly a part of. I know she's your mom, but how well do you really know Jiaying? She has a vendetta for SHIELD, I know that much, and I don't want you to be caught in the middle of whatever's going on."

"I have to do this, Grant," she tells him. "My mom...she's...she's my mom, Grant."

"I know that. But you're a mom now, too, Skye," he tries a different tactic. Some might consider it a low blow, bringing their son into things, but he needs her to understand. He takes a small step closer to her. "You can't just go around fighting battles that you don't even know if you're going to win, or don't know what you're really fighting for. I don't...I don't think there's much we can do right now."

She shakes her head. "You're wrong. There has to be something, okay? There's got to be a way to stop SHIELD from attacking us. We don't want to hurt anyone. We all just want to live in peace."

She storms off before he can get another word out. The heat dances at his fingertips, itching to break out. Thankfully for him, his body doesn't react the way Skye's does when she holds in her abilities. He doesn't get bruises up and down his arms, but he does sometimes feel an overwhelming heat coursing through his veins. Nothing too bothersome, but it's there, just waiting to be released.

He quickly moves in front of one of the brick walls nearby, something he knows he won't cause too much damage to, and aims his hands directly at them. He closes his eyes and breathes in deeply before letting himself relax and letting the energy be released. There are only a few scorch marks on the bricks, but he definitely feels better. A lot better.

.

.

.

All she can think about as she rushes back through the foliage is how wrong everything turned out to be. It shouldn't have happened this way and she doesn't know what to think about it. All she wanted was to know her mother, to find out more about who she is and where she comes from. But she got way more than she bargained for.

It doesn't take long for her to find Grant and she's instantly in his arms without a single word. She knows he won't care, he'll comfort her for as long as she needs and then ask her about what happened. He's getting predictable. But sometimes the predictability from him is nice, knowing that he's always going to be there for her whenever she needs him. That's more than she can say for some of the people she's tried to rely on in the past. This is definitely way better than any of those times.

"Hey, you okay? What happened?"

Just like clockwork.

She sniffles a few more times, wiping at her eyes with her palms before carefully extracting herself from his arms. She laughs quietly, trying to ignore the truth for a little bit longer. "I swear I didn't cry this much until I got pregnant."

"Skye, what's going on? Why are you crying?"

She looks up to see the pure concern in his eyes, those eyes that first got her hooked on him what feels like a lifetime ago.

"It's my mom."

"What about her?"

"I saw...I saw her kill Raina. In cold blood. She just...she killed her."

"Are you doing okay? That couldn't have been easy to see."

She shakes her head. "It wasn't. I don't know what to do, Grant. She's my mom, but she killed someone. So easily too. Like it was nothing new for her."

She sinks into his arms again when he wraps them around her, pulling her close and resting his head on top of hers. She breathes him in deeply, reveling in having him so close and just to herself. She never thought she'd like being in his arms again. But he makes her feel safe. He always has.

"I don't know what to do," she mutters against the fabric of his shirt.

"I don't think there's anything we can do," he tells her. "As much as it might suck to hear it, I don't think we can stop whatever's happening. At least, not by force. It could just make things worse if we do. We need to think this through, okay? We can't just jump in without having some type of plan first."

She nods. "Okay. I think I can do that."

She closes her eyes as he continues to hold her, forcing herself to forget about all of the bad things for just a moment. Forces herself to forget about all the pain and anger and to just think about the things she has to live for, all the good things in her life. It's more good than she's ever had, and she doesn't want to lose it. Ever.

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!