Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya! Hope you're all excited to meet their kid soon-ish. It's gonna be a bit of a roller coaster to get there, though.
Enjoy!
"It's a boy?"
Grant smiles and nods. "Yeah. I'm going to have a son. I'm going to be a dad, Fitz." His smile falls as his mind starts racing. "I just...what if I'm not good at it? What if I screw up my kid because I don't know how to actually be a dad?"
"You'll be fine," Fitz assures him, fiddling with a few pieces of machinery in front of him. "No one—no one knows how to be a parent the first time."
Grant sighs. "Yeah, I guess so. Hey, do you mind if I use your laptop for a little while? Coulson hasn't given me one of my own, and I want to start looking up baby names."
"Uh, yeah, sure. Just uh, just...hang on." Fitz steps over to the open laptop, mumbling to himself for a moment as his fingers hover over the keys. He taps on a few of the buttons before stepping back to his machines. "There."
"Thanks." Grant slides off his seat and moves to the stool in front of the laptop, quickly opening up the Internet browser. "I want to find the perfect name," he tells Fitz as he begins to google search names for baby boys. "Something that will fit our son perfectly, that Skye will also like. But I also want it to have meaning." He sighs. "That might put too many restrictions on my choices, then."
"Don't stress."
"What?"
"Don't stress," Fitz repeats as he starts working again. "It'll come to you. Don't stress. Take your time. Relax."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
He spends the next half hour scrolling through different baby name sites, looking at the different lists of possible names for his son. He finds one that lets you input the last name, and then it'll give you name suggestions that sound good with the last name. He almost does that. But he doesn't want to assume that his son will have his last name. He doesn't know if Skye even wants that, and he doesn't want to just assume wrong and have her be upset with him.
As he's browsing through the L names of one website, he comes across the name 'Leo'. He glances over at the engineer at the table next to him, a small smile coming to his face. Leo is a good name, and it has meaning to him. He knows Skye would like it. But maybe not as a first name. Maybe that could be his son's middle name if he finds a first name that would go great with it.
Giving his son the middle name of 'Leo' would be a great way to honor one of the few people on the base who's actually shown him any sort of decency since he arrived, despite what he did to him. He wasn't expecting for the man to be around him so willingly, but he's certainly not complaining. His doctor, Lisa, told him to reach out and extend an olive branch, to put it out there that he wants to reconnect, but not to push it. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait for too long for Fitz to return the gesture of wanting to reconnect. They've slowly been trying to rekindle the friendship that they had back on the Bus when he thought of the engineer as a little brother. And he has a pretty strong feeling that the engineer would like it if he named his son after him, but he doesn't want to say anything just yet, in case Skye doesn't like the choice he came up with.
While he's browsing, he comes across different photos of people's children in all sorts of settings and situations. Most of them are very candid shots of the kids playing outside, or playing with their pets, or other family members. He knows for a fact there aren't any photos of him like that in existence.
If his family even still has any pictures of him, those pictures would be very staged photos from his parents' various political functions, or forced portraits from the holidays. His childhood never really felt like a childhood. And that's the last thing he wants for his son. He wants more than anything to break the cycle.
"Hey, Fitz," he says, spinning in his seat to face the Scotsman.
"Um, yes?"
"Do you have a camera, by chance? One that I could keep, maybe?"
"Oh, um, no, I don't. Sorry."
He sighs, his shoulders falling. "That's fine."
"Check storage, though."
His brows furrow. "What?"
"Check old SHIELD storage rooms. Maybe there's something there."
He smiles. "Fitz, you're a genius."
"I know."
He laughs quietly and jumps up from his seat, moving as quickly as he can through the halls without raising any suspicion.
Finding one of the old storage rooms from back when their current base was first used, he's thankful that Coulson never thought to ban him from the storage closets. Probably never thought he'd have any use for them, so it didn't cross his mind to make them off-limits.
Stepping inside, he begins rooting around in the different bags and boxes lying around and stuck on the metal shelves. A lot of paperwork, and old files and documents, old school weapons and tech that are way out-of-date. But no cameras so far. Nothing even so much as resembling a camera. Then again, he's never been very technologically savvy, so even if he came across a camera type of machine, he probably wouldn't know it.
Pulling another worn box off the shelf, he sets it on the table next to him and removes the lid, peering inside at the contents.
"That's more like it," he says to himself when he sees the old Polaroid camera sitting inside of it. He carefully lifts the camera out of the box, turning it over in his hands to inspect it for any possible damage. "This has to be from the '80s, at least. And it's still in really good condition. Wow."
Setting the camera aside, he digs inside the box again, finding a packet of unused film slides, ready to be loaded into the camera. They'll be perfect to use to take pictures of his son as he grows up. And maybe a few of Skye in the later stages of her pregnancy. Dropping them next to the camera, he pulls out a stack of already developed Polaroids, most likely from its previous owner.
Turning around and leaning against the table, he holds the stack in his hands and begins shuffling through them, a small smile coming to his face at the different images. The photos range from shots of SHIELD agents in their respective fields to shots of them lounging around and relaxing. It reminds him of his days on the Bus, back before everything went to hell, and he and the team would relax together and act like a family. But that's gone now. Thanks in large part to him.
His breath catches on one of the photos toward the end of the stack, a photo of two young boys standing in the yard of an old house, their arms hanging around each other with wide, mischievous smiles on their faces. They're either brothers or best friends.
Looking at the photo, his mind flashes back to a familiar point in his life, a short period of time when he had a friend like this, someone he was close with. He doesn't think much about him anymore. Hasn't thought about him in years since the boy's family moved away when they were still kids. But he helped. He helped by just being there to talk to or hang out with whenever his parents or Christian were being too much to handle. He doesn't remember much of his old friend, except for his name.
"Adian," he says quietly to himself. His brows furrow and he drops the photo, staring at the wall ahead of him. "Adian...Adian Leo…"
He beams. "That's it. That's the name. It's perfect."
Gathering up everything that he had pulled off the shelves, he puts it all back where it belongs, making sure nothing is out of place. He's not sure if anyone ever comes in here, but the last thing he wants is for said person to not be able to find anything because of him.
Once he's finished clearing away his mess, he takes the Polaroid camera and the unused film sheets with him back to his room.
Settling himself on his bed, he pulls the camera into his lap and fiddles with it a bit, trying to remember how it works. He knows his Gramsy used to have one of these cameras, and he used to play with it sometimes when he was younger.
He smiles when he finds the switch to open the camera, allowing him to slide an unused cartridge inside and then close the door again.
Once the camera's all set up, he glances through the viewfinder and looks back and forth across his room. Nothing in there is worth taking a picture of, though.
A soft knock at his door pulls his attention away from the camera. He sets the device to the side and stands from his bed, crossing to the door.
"Coulson," he says when he pulls the door open. "What's going on? Is it Skye? Is she okay?"
The older man holds a hand up to silence him. "Skye's fine. I came here for another reason. You said you're willing to do whatever you can to prove to me that you've changed, right?"
He nods. "Yes."
"Well, I have a way you can do that."
His entire body perks up and he stands a little straighter. "You do? What is it?" He's more than eager to know what he can do, he wants to get back in the team's good graces. Especially Skye's.
"Recently we discovered a nearby Hydra base that's still active. We're hoping to get someone on the inside, to build trust quickly so they can take it down. Be honest with me, do you still have connections inside Hydra?"
He rubs at the back of his neck. "Well, they were never really my connections. They came more through Garrett than anything else." He watches the older man's jaw tick at the name drop. "But I could still probably work with that."
"Good. You'll be going in, then."
He stills, his heart sinking down into his throat. Hydra. He thought he left that all behind. He never thought he'd be going back. But he needs to do this. He needs to prove that he's changed. Or, at least, that he's changing. He wants to be better, if not for anything else, then for his son. To make the world better for his son.
"We'll be watching you carefully," Coulson tells him, pulling him from his head. "We're going to do what we can to ensure that nothing goes wrong, but you know as well as I do that there's only so much we can do before it risks your cover being blown."
"Right, of course. And what exactly is my cover going to be?"
"Hydra agent on the run from SHIELD after you escaped imprisonment. You can explain it how you like to whoever asks, but I'm sure I don't need to tell you to not get too extravagant."
He nods. "Of course."
"Good." He takes a deep breath. "Your main objective will be to find their servers and get whatever information you can off of them. I had some of the techs whip up a device that once you plug it into the server, it will do all the work for you. Then you get out of there and blow the place."
"I'll get it done." He shifts on his feet. "How long are you anticipating for this op?" he asks nervously, worried that he'll be kept away longer than he'd like.
"Hopefully not too long," Coulson says. "You'll need some time to gain their trust, or gain it back, I suppose, in order to be able to be left alone long enough to find the servers and get their files. I know...I know that Skye's getting pretty late into her pregnancy now, so the last thing I want to do is keep you away from that for too long, but this is mission is important."
Grant nods. "I know, don't worry. I'll get it done."
"That's what I like to hear. Now get yourself ready and meet me in the hangar as soon as possible. You're leaving immediately seeing as we'll only have a small window of opportunity to get you into the group."
"Of course. But uh, could I...could I talk to Skye first before we leave? I have something important to talk to her about."
Coulson's quiet for a moment before sighing. "Yes, that's fine. But be quick about it, we don't have a lot of time. And don't tell her anything about the mission, no one can know. This one's off the books."
He nods. "Not a problem. I'll meet you in the hanger."
He closes the door after Coulson leaves and quickly changes into one of his dark henley's and a pair of blue jeans, stopping in the bathroom to make sure his hair is messed up just a little.
Grabbing the Polaroid off his bed, he makes his way out of his room and strides down the halls in search of the mother of his unborn child.
Finding her in the lounge, like she usually is, he stops abruptly and really takes in the scene. Like every other time he's found her there, she's relaxing on the couch with her feet up in front of her. Her laptop is open and resting on her stomach, her phone resting on the arm of the couch, playing her favorite music.
Taking another moment to himself, he raises the camera up and looks through the viewfinder, focusing on Skye as best he can and snapping the photo. When the image ejects, he quickly and carefully slides it into his back pocket before taking a deep breath and stepping into the room.
"Skye," he speaks up softly, not wanting to startle her too badly.
She gives him a tiny hint of a smile over her shoulder. "Ward. Hi." She pauses her music and pulls herself up a bit, closing her laptop and setting it aside.
"Hi." He moves closer to the couch, setting the camera down on one of the nearby shelves. "How are you feeling?"
She lets out a breath, one hand running over her stomach. "Fine. Just tired."
"Sorry to hear that."
She shrugs, not saying anything in response. He notices her brows furrow together when he shifts on his feet. "Hey, you okay?"
He nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. I uh, I just wanted to find you so I could talk to you about something."
"Help me up first," she tells him. "I've been sitting like this for too long." She holds her hands out and he quickly helps her to her feet, releasing her hands as soon as she's standing. She breathes out, resting one hand on her lower back and the other underneath her belly. "So, what's up? What did you want to talk about?"
"Well, I found this old Polaroid camera earlier in storage, and there was this old stack of photos with it. One of the photos was of these two young boys, I think they were probably best friends or something, and it reminded me of this kid that I knew when I was younger. Probably the only real friend I ever had growing up before he moved away and my life went straight to hell."
"Is there a point to all of this?" Skye asks him carefully.
He shakes his head. "Right, sorry. I uh, I thought of a name for the baby, one that I really like and I hope you'll like it too. I don't want to overstep or anything, though."
"No, it's your baby too, you should have some say in the name."
He smiles. "That's great. Personally, I think it's the perfect name for him."
"What did you come up with?"
"A—"
"Ward."
Looking over his shoulder, he finds Coulson in the doorway to the lounge. "Yeah?"
"It's time to go."
"Could I just have another minute?"
"Sorry, no, we need to leave."
He sighs, his shoulders slumping. "Fine. I'm coming."
"Wait," Skye speaks up, pulling both men's attention to hear. "You were going to tell me the name you came up with for the baby."
"I know. And I'll tell you as soon as I get back."
"Where are you going?" she asks, glancing past him at Coulson.
"Ward's helping me with something, that's all I can tell you right now. Ward, let's move."
He nods. "Right." He faces Skye again, opening and closing his mouth a few times, unsure of exactly what to say to her.
"You...you were going to tell me the name you came up with," she says to him before he can say anything.
"And I will," he assures her. "I promise. But it looks like it'll have to wait until I get back. It won't be too long. Do you think you can wait?"
She nods. "Uh, yeah, I can."
"Good. I'll be back soon." He hesitates before stepping forward to drop a quick kiss to the top of Skye's head, his hand brushing against her arm.
Without another word or look, knowing he won't be able to handle looking at her face while he leaves, he turns and follows Coulson through the hallway and toward the hangar. The sooner he leaves, the sooner he can get back to Skye and his son. And that's all he wants.
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!