Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya! Nothing super exciting in this one. But things are starting to wind down within the story, so have this fun little chapter.

Enjoy!

Having someone like Jemma Simmons around, someone who is not afraid to voice her downright hatred toward him, is not easy. Thankfully, Lisa is always a phone call away if he needs to get something off his chest outside their scheduled meetings. He also has the gym where he can work out his frustrations or an open field not too far from the base where he can let loose with his powers every so often.

Of course, that's not to say that he's not trying to patch things over with Simmons. And by patching things over, he stays out of her way as much as he can. He'd rather not accidentally cause problems because she thinks he looks at her the wrong way or something equally as ridiculous.

Instead, he chooses to focus on spending his time watching his son grow up right before his eyes. It's crazy to him how quickly time moves where his son is concerned. It feels like just days ago he was feeling him kick for the first time or holding him on the day he was born. But it's also amazing to watch his son grow and explore the world around him. Even if they are confined to an underground secret base.

"What'd you find, bud?" he asks as he lowers himself to the carpeted flooring of the lounge, sitting directly across from his son. After Adian's nap, he decided to bring him and Max to the lounge to let him play for a bit since Skye was busy working on something for Coulson. "Did you find one of your toys?" He laughs quietly when Adian shakes the toy and squeals happily at the sound that it makes. "You're a pretty naturally happy kid, aren't you?"

"Ward."

Glancing over his shoulder, Grant gives a tight smile and curt nod to the man entering the room, holding Max back from going to him. "Coulson. How are you, sir?"

"Can't really complain too much. And you?"

Grant smiles. "Spending time with my son never qualifies as a bad time in my eyes, so I'd say I'm doing pretty well right now."

"Yes, I can see that. How is he doing?"

"Really good," Grant says, focusing back on his son. "Abby thinks he might be developing faster than normal. Not too quickly, obviously, but slightly above average."

"That's good to hear. And how are you and Skye doing?"

He lets out a breath. "We're managing. We're obviously new to this whole parenting thing, so we're doing the best that we can."

"As long as you do your best, I'm sure Adian will turn out to be a great man one day."

He smiles. "I like to think so. I just hope he turns out better than I did."

"You turned out alright, as far as I'm concerned."

He looks up at Coulson with furrowed brows, his mind racing a mile a minute. "What?"

Coulson sighs heavily, sinking down onto the couch cushion nearby. "I want to apologize, Ward, for my hand in what happened to you. I was wrong to treat you the way that I did."

"You were justified."

"In my anger, but not in my actions. I shouldn't have treated you the way that I did, denying you the help that you're getting now, despite how short your time down in Vault D may have been. I'm glad to see that you're doing well for yourself now; that you've become such a good man, despite the circumstances."

"I'm not that good of a man," he tells the older man with a small shake of his head.

"Yes, you are. And you're a good dad too, from what I've seen. Don't sell yourself short on that. There's a reason you're still walking around up here and being a part of your son's life. You wouldn't be here if you weren't a good man all along. Just hidden by past trauma."

Grant cracks a small smile. "That sounds like something Lisa said to me once. And thank you, Coulson, for the apology. I wasn't expecting to get one, not after everything I did, but it's appreciated."

He turns back to Adian when the boy shrieks again, finding him staring up at Coulson with wide eyes and a curious tilt to his head.

"Who do you see, bud? Do you see Papa?"

"Papa?"

Grant winces internally, looking back at the man. "Yeah, uh, sorry. Skye and I meant to talk to you. We were wondering if you'd want to be Adian's honorary Grandpa."

"You really mean that?" Coulson asks, a glimmer of something shining in his eyes.

Grant nods. "Yeah, we do. I know Skye always saw you as a father figure, and I don't have any doubts that she wanted you to be a close part of Adian's life from the minute she found out about him."

Coulson sighs. "I probably didn't make it easy for her when I reacted so poorly when she told me."

Grant shrugs. "It's in the past now. I think we're all over it at this point. All that matters is moving forward and focusing on the present."

Coulson cracks a smile. "Lisa really seems to be helping you."

"She definitely is. I've come to terms with a lot of things, thanks to her, and I'm learning to not blame myself so much when something goes wrong."

"That's good. And I'd be honored, you know, to be Adian's grandpa. How does Skye's dad feel about it?"

"Not too sure. He wants to be called Pop Pop, so there's that distinction. But I think he knows how much Skye has looked up to you the last couple of years, so hopefully, he'll be okay with it."

Coulson grows a pleased smile. "Then I'd be more than happy to be Adian's Papa." He smiles over at the boy, reaching out a hand when Adian crawls over to him. He helps the boy stand and laughs when he bounces excitedly before falling to his butt again.

Grant watches the two of them interacting, happy that his son has yet another person in his life to care about him and watch over him and love him. It's more than either he or Skye had growing up, so he's pretty pleased with how things are going. For all of them.

"What's going on in here?"

"Mama!" Adian shouts when he sees Skye, moving his arms quickly as he grins up at her, bouncing as he sits on the floor. "Mama!"

"Hi, baby," she says, walking around the couch to lift him into her arms and plant kisses all over his face. Adian giggles and squirms in her arms. "Mama missed you. Were you having fun with daddy?"

"We were having some well-earned guy time," Grant tells her with a small smile. "He's getting pretty quick at crawling. We might have to start looking into actually baby proofing this place pretty soon." He casts a quick glance at Coulson.

The other man's brows furrow for a brief moment before he nods. "I think that can be done. We'll see about putting baby locks on certain things, and baby gates on some of the open-plan rooms so he doesn't get anywhere he's not supposed to. I'll talk to the other agents, make sure they know to keep an eye out for little hands and feet when they're in the hallway, just in case."

"You seem pretty invested in this new project," Skye remarks as she bounces Adian on her hip, a smile on her face.

Coulson sits up a little straighter. "Well, as his Papa I've got to make sure he stays safe around here."

Skye shoots Grant a look and he simply shrugs and smiles sheepishly. "Sorry. I know you wanted to talk to him about it yourself but the name kind of slipped out when we were playing with Adian, so I went ahead and talked to him myself."

She sighs. "No, it's fine." She looks back at Coulson. "You're really okay with being his grandpa?"

"I'm more than okay with it. I never got the chance to have kids or grandkids of my own, I put my entire life into my work at SHIELD, so you and Adian are probably as close to the real thing as I'm ever going to get."

Skye smiles, dropping Adian into Coulson's lap and they both laugh when Adian immediately grabs hold of the end of Coulson's tie and shoves it into his mouth.

"I think he's pretty happy with it too," Skye remarks, moving around the couch to sit down.

Grant simply sits back and smiles, holding Max in his lap and watching as the other three people in the room interact with each other. Yeah, things are definitely looking up for them.

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!