Hey babes! Back with a new chapter for ya! Something happens in this chapter that I know a few of you have been waiting for. Though, I don't think it's going to happen quite you were hoping. Read on and see what I mean.

Enjoy!

Stretching his arms above his head as he turns around in the pilot seat, Grant smiles at the sight in one of the seats at the back of the quinjet. Skye's reclined back as well as she can be in one of the wall seats, Adian tucked carefully and securely under her chin, both of them sleeping soundly.

Sometimes he still can't believe how lucky he is to have them both in his life. It's pretty damn amazing.

Turning back around, he makes sure the plane is completely shut down before standing from his seat and moving into the back. He hits the button to open the bay door as he goes.

Approaching Skye, he carefully pulls Adian from her arms and holds him close, bouncing him a little when he starts to stir.

"You're okay, bud," he whispers in the baby's ear, continuing to bounce him and rub at his back to keep him calm. "Go back to sleep. Daddy's got you."

Glancing around the space, he finds the diaper bag sitting on the ground and lifts it onto his shoulder, securing his hold on his son.

Checking that Skye is still sleeping, he decides to leave her be for the time being while he gets Adian situated back on base. He bounces the boy gently, keeping him asleep as he turns and makes his way down out of the quinjet.

"Welcome back."

He gives the man in front of him a small smile. "Thanks, Trip. It feels good to be back."

"Where's Skye?"

"She's still on the quinjet. She and Adian fell asleep on the way back. Figured I'd let her keep sleeping for a little bit longer while I get Adian settled back in."

"Good idea. Do you need any help with anything?"

"Uh, no, thanks. I think I'm good for right now." He shares a quick smile with Trip before stepping past him, reaching into the diaper bag but then pausing. He spins on his heel. "Actually, could you do me a favor?"

"Of course."

"I need to go change Adian, but I think I accidentally left his stuffed monkey back on the quinjet. Could you grab it for me and then bring it to his room?"

"Absolutely."

"Great, thanks."

Turning back toward the hangar doors, he passes through them and makes his way down the hallway in the direction of their bunks. He hikes Adian up a little higher, being careful not to jostle him awake. If his boy is sleeping on his own then he's not going to wake him up if he can help it.

As he goes, he smiles and nods at some of the agents he passes. Not everyone is okay with him being around, but every day, little by little, people are starting to come around.

"Grant, you're back."

"Hey, Fitz," he greets the engineer with a smile. "I'd hug you but I'm kind of occupied at the moment."

"Yeah, no problem. Where's Skye?"

"Still sleeping on the quinjet. She's been through a lot recently, figured I'd let her sleep while she can."

"Good plan. You had a good time with Skye's parents, though?"

"I know Skye did. And Adian loved having more people doting on him."

"You didn't enjoy your time?"

"I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it, I just...I'm still wary, I guess. The larger part of me is saying that everything is fine, that Skye's parents aren't going to cause any more trouble."

"But?"

He sighs. "But the smaller part of me keeps thinking that something else is going to go wrong. I think I just need to talk to Lisa for a while again."

"Yeah, of course. You want me to take Adian for you?"

He shakes his head. "No, thanks. I need to change him and put him in his room before I call Lisa."

"Right, yeah. Smart call. I don't do...that," Fitz says with a quick gesture toward Adian's rear end. "I'll see you around, then."

Giving one last smile to his friend, Grant continues on his path to Adian's room, eager to change the baby's diaper before it gets too bad.

Thankfully, the mess in the diaper isn't terrible and he's able to change Adian quickly, his son staying asleep the entire time. He thanks whoever's listening for that one.

"Need help with anything?"

Glancing over his shoulder, he smiles at Skye standing in the doorway to the room, Adian's stuffed monkey held in one of her hands and Max jumping up at her by her feet. She smiles down at the puppy before looking back up at him.

"Hey. Sorry I didn't wake you when we got here," he says to her, carefully lifting Adian off the changing table and cradling him in his arms.

She shrugs. "It's fine. I needed a nap. I woke up when Trip was rummaging around the quinjet looking for this." She holds up the monkey before closing the space between them, dropping a kiss to their son's head. "He's still sleeping?"

"Yeah. I'm surprised too. Grateful, but surprised." He lets out a heavy yawn, his eyes closing in the process. He blinks a few times and shakes his head. "Wow. That came out of nowhere."

"You sure about that? You sure it's not because you're almost as worn out as I am from everything we've been dealing with recently?"

"I'm fine, Skye."

"Liar. You need sleep too, Grant."

He sighs. "I know. I just...I know we're safe here, but after everything…" he trails off, glancing down at Adian.

"I get it. I don't want to be away from him either."

"I was going to lie down with him for a few hours. You uh, you can join us, if you want to."

"Not sure I'll be able to go back to sleep."

He shrugs. "That's fine. You don't have to sleep. I just...I think I'll feel better knowing you two are close by and safe."

She flashes him a small smile and nods. "Okay."

He returns the smile before moving out of Adian's room and right next door to his own, Skye following close behind him with Max on their heels. He closes and locks the door once they're all inside, kicking off his shoes and passing Adian over to Skye while he finds his sweatpants. Relaxing in jeans is definitely not the most comfortable thing in the world.

After slipping into the comfy pants, he turns and smiles at the sight of Skye relaxing on his bed with Adian sleeping soundly in her lap, his stuffed monkey tucked against his side and his little lips parted as he breathes. It's a sight that he could definitely get used to.

Moving to the bed, he lies down on top of the covers, too warm to be under them despite the constant flow of cool air into the room. He figures it's a side effect of his new abilities, always being too warm. Reaching down, he grabs Max off the floor and settles the puppy right next to him on top of the covers.

"You okay?" he asks Skye, carefully watching her for any sign of post-traumatic stress from everything that they've been through. He's not one hundred percent sure he'd recognize the signs if she did have them, but he just wants things to be okay. For both of them. And for Adian.

She smiles down at him. "Yeah, I'm good. Now sleep. You need rest too."

He smiles back up at her, shifting on the bed a little to get more comfortable. Breathing in deeply, he lets it out slowly, allowing his body to relax, his eyelids slowly becoming heavier as he falls into a deep sleep.

.

.

.

Lowering Adian from her shoulder, Skye smiles down at him as she wipes some of the spit up off his chin with the burp cloth she'd found on Grant's nightstand. No surprise that he'd be prepared for something like that.

"Good thing your dad had a burp cloth in here," she whispers to Adian, glancing over at the man still sleeping next to her. "I don't think he'd like it if you got spit-up on his pillows. He probably wouldn't be mad, though. He'd just grumble about it and then clean it up. You're too cute to be mad at."

Setting the cloth aside, she runs a hand over the top of Adian's head, smiling when he starts babbling incoherently. She grabs his monkey and holds it up in front of him, laughing quietly when he immediately grabs onto it and shoves the head into his mouth.

"Now that you're fed, it's time for momma to get some food in her before she goes crazy."

Hiking Adian onto her hip as she stands from the bed, she makes sure to grab the burp cloth to throw into the laundry in the corner of the room so it can be cleaned, and then makes her way out of the room toward the kitchen.

She does her best to be as quiet as possible so she doesn't wake Grant earlier than he wants to be awake. He needs his sleep. She doesn't have concrete proof, but she's fairly certain that he hasn't slept much over the last few weeks. She knows he's been on edge a lot lately, they both have.

Max wakes up, though, the puppy's head lifting curiously when the bed shifts. She gestures with her head to the door as she moves toward it. Max reacts instantly, jumping down from the bed and following after her as she goes. She's so glad that Grant was able to train Max so quickly and so well. He's probably the most well-behaved puppy that she's ever seen.

Entering the kitchen, she instantly regrets not stopping by her own room first to get her wrap so she can carry Adian hands-free.

She lets out a sigh, glancing down at her son who's happily gumming on his toy. "Guess it's kind of a required skill as a mom to be able to do things one-handed, right?" She presses a quick kiss to his forehead before focusing on the task at hand; finding something for herself to eat.

And it's not that there aren't any options, because there definitely are, but nothing that they have sounds particularly good to her at the moment. She just wants to eat something.

"Skye? Is that you?"

Pulling out of the fridge, a surprised gasp escapes when she peers over the door to find none other than Jemma Simmons standing in the doorway to the lounge. Honestly, she kind of forgot the other woman existed, in a certain sense. She'd been so focused on other things, like her family and her new abilities, that she'd subconsciously pushed her problems with Jemma way into the back of her mind. But now she's standing in front of her, her brows furrowed together.

"Simmons. What are you doing here?" she asks, holding a hand out to Max when she hears him bark and growl lowly.

"I'm back."

"For good?"

Simmons nods. "That was the plan, yes. Are you doing well?"

Skye shrugs. "As well as I can be, all things considered."

"Right. I've heard whispers about what's been going on. Something about...Inhumans?"

Skye nods, her own brows furrowing as she tilts her head. "Yeah, it's kind of...new. We're all figuring out how to deal with it."

"What is it that you're learning to deal with, exactly?"

"Powers. Apparently, I'm part alien, kind of, so I have these new powers that I have to learn to live with."

"Oh. Is there any way to get rid of them?"

"Not that I'm aware of." She hikes Adian up a little higher when he starts reaching for items in the refrigerator door. "And even if there was, I'm not entirely sure that I'd want to get rid of them. I've kind of grown attached. That, and it connects me to my mom, in a way."

"Your mother?"

"Yeah. I found her. And my dad."

Simmons lets out a breath. "Well, I certainly seem to have missed a lot while I was away."

"More than you know," Grant's voice joins the room as he carefully brushes past Simmons seeing as she's blocking most of the doorway.

Skye can see the other woman visibly stiffen when she notices Grant, her eyes going wide and her fists clenching. "Ward. What are you doing here?"

"I came to find my son," he says nonchalantly, walking straight towards them.

"Dada!" Adian shrieks upon seeing Grant, instantly dropping his monkey and holding his arms out, leaning out of Skye's arms.

"Hey, bud," Grant says with a smile, lifting Adian into the air and blowing a raspberry on his stomach, making the boy laugh.

"Your son?" Simmons questions, her face paling. Her eyes drift between them before focusing on Skye. "Then that means you…"

"Kept my baby, yeah. Why are you so surprised?"

"Well, considering who its father is, surely I thought you might have—"

"Don't you even think about finishing that sentence." Her eyes are narrowed as she stares down the woman across the room. She steps a little closer to Grant and Adian, standing just in front of them so she's between them and Simmons. "I'd think very carefully about your words the next time you want to talk about my son. You may be back here working for SHIELD, and we may have been friends in the past, but my son is my number one priority." She's breathing heavy now, her hands clenched tightly into fists as smaller things around the room start to shake.

One of Grant's hands on her arm draws her attention to him, her eyes never leaving the floor as he whispers in her ear, "Relax, Skye. Breathe."

She closes her eyes and breathes in slowly and deeply, uncurling her fists and flexing her fingers. He's right. She can't lose control now. Not in a building with so many people. She'll have to find a place nearby where she can let go when the pressure inside becomes too much.

"You good?"

She nods, reaching up to run one hand up and down Adian's back to help ground her. "I'm good."

"Skye...are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she snaps, glaring up at the other woman. She sighs, running a hand over her forehead. "I think I just need to lie back down." She looks up at Grant. "Are you fine with Adian for a few hours?"

He nods. "Yeah, we'll be good. Might go see if Trip or Fitz want to hang out, have some guy time."

She smiles. "Sounds like fun. I'll see you later." She rises on her toes a little to press a kiss to Adian's cheek and then Grant's.

It's only when she's walking back to her room that the realization of what she did dawns on her. It's not like it really meant anything significant, right? It was just a...friendly kiss on the cheek, between two adults who are not in any kind of a relationship but raising a child together...wow. She really needs that nap.

So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Don't hate me! I did what I did. I figured that Jemma really hasn't had the time to process everything and see Grant in action as a dad so her opinion hasn't really changed. But maybe it will in time...

Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!