Hey babes! Back again with a new one for ya! This one's pretty fun, and you'll see why soon enough. We're getting close to the end of this story, which is a little bittersweet. But have no fear, because I am almost finished writing the sequel. Then I just have to go through and make sure everything is how it should be and then I'll post. Hopefully, it won't be too long after this one is done that I'll start posting the sequel.

But for now, enjoy!

Scrolling through the multiple pages of baby items on Amazon and Target, Skye lets out a heavy sigh, one hand rubbing over her stomach when her son lands a particularly harsh kick to her insides. She winces when he lands another one.

"Geez, kid, why do you keep doing that? And why do you need so much stuff, too? This is ridiculous."

She continues looking through the various items she needs, making a list on her laptop of what she'll need so that she can go through later and find the absolute best items for her baby. She knows she still has a few months left of her pregnancy, but from everything she's read since finding out about her baby, is that the time passes by quicker than you think it will. And that's definitely been happening for her.

One minute she was finding out she's pregnant with the baby of the man who betrayed all of them and shattered her heart in the process, and the next she knows she's sitting by the father of her baby's hospital bedside hoping that he'll pull through so she won't have to raise their baby alone.

Granted, that's probably not what any of the blogs meant, but she's pretty sure none of them have ever been in her exact situation, so she's taking creative license there.

Shifting on the bed when she starts getting slightly uncomfortable, she continues scrolling through the various items available, as well as their prices. She obviously wants to get the best that she can for her baby, but she's starting to see a trend in all the best products costing an arm and a leg.

Money isn't her biggest issue, still having some funds saved away in old bank accounts from odd jobs she'd taken over the years. None of the accounts are linked to her actual person, so they weren't touched by anyone when they were all labeled fugitives. But she does have to be a little more careful when accessing them than she ever was before.

Another heavy sigh escapes as she adds yet another necessary item to her ever-growing list.

"Who is it?" she asks when she hears the light knock at her door.

"It's your baby's favorite Uncle."

She laughs quietly before hitting a few particular commands on her keyboard, unlocking her bunk door. "Come in."

The door slides open and she can hear Trip's feet against the cement.

"Hey, you busy right now?"

She looks up from her laptop, taking notice of the eager smile on her friend's face. "Um, kind of? Why?"

"I need you to come with me."

She tilts her head. "Where? And for what?"

"Do you trust me?" he asks her.

She nods without hesitation. "Absolutely."

"Great. So come with me."

She sighs and sets her laptop aside, allowing Trip to help her up off her bed. Getting up and down is definitely becoming more difficult as the days go by. Most days she would prefer to just remain curled up in her bed, as she was just doing, but then she wouldn't be able to interact with anyone. And supposedly, continued human interaction is good for people.

"Where are we going, Trip?" she asks him as they make their way through the hallways, one hand resting under her bump and the other hanging onto Trip. "I need to get off my feet soon."

"We're almost there," he assures her, guiding her through the halls.

She lets out a soft grunt as Adian kicks at her insides, something that's been happening quite a lot lately.

"You good?" Trip asks her.

She nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. Adian's just rolling around a lot which doesn't make it easy to stay comfortable for any significant length of time."

"Oh, I'm sorry about that."

She shrugs. "It's fine. I've heard it's all part of the magic, but I think I'm gonna have to call b.s. on that. It's easier to handle when I'm sitting down, though."

"Well lucky for you we have now arrived at our destination."

She follows his line of sight to the entrance of the lounge. Her brows furrow. "What are we doing here?"

"You'll see. Come on."

They move through the open doorway and into the lounge, her breath immediately catching in her throat when she sees everything set up before her.

"Is this...is this what I think it is?" she asks as her eyes scan over the barely decorated room, a single banner hanging at one end of the room reading 'IT'S A BOY!' in giant letters. A table is set up underneath it with a small pile of wrapped presents. Another table off to the side has an array of snacks.

"It's your baby shower," Trip tells her excitedly. "Well, our version of a baby shower. None of us have ever actually been to one before so we weren't exactly sure what to do. But we did some research and put this together the best we could."

She quickly wipes at her eyes. "No, it's perfect, you guys. Thank you." She glances around the room and finds Grant hovering in one corner, an awkward smile on his face. "Did you have something to do with this?" she asks him curiously.

He shakes his head. "No, this was all Fitz and Trip's doing. I just found out about it when Fitz dragged me in here."

"I didn't drag you," Fitz counters. "You're too big for that."

"I know," Grant says, his smile growing softer. "It was just an expression."

"Oh, right, yeah."

"So is it just going to be us four, then?" she asks the room, already moving toward the couch to sit down.

Trip nods as he sits down in one of the seats across from her. "Yeah. I asked a few others but everyone else said they were busy."

She fights hard to keep her tears from falling. She's not that surprised that no one else is going to show up. She wasn't even expecting to have any kind of party.

"Well that's their loss, then," she says with as big of a smile as she can muster. She is a little sad that some of the others didn't want to join in celebrating her baby, but she knows they're still upset about things.

"It most certainly is," Trip agrees. "Let's get this thing started then. I should tell you now that we aren't really going to be doing the whole game thing, partly because there's only four of us."

"That's fine," she assures him. "I don't mind, really. I'm just glad that there are some people here who actually want to celebrate this baby." She places a hand on her stomach with a smile. "Even if it's just the four of us, this baby is going to be very well loved, I know that for a fact."

.

.

.

"If he has to leave the room to get it, then I think this is going to be your biggest present yet," Grant tells her as Trip walks out of the room to retrieve the final gift of the party.

"I think you're right." She's already opened every present that was stacked on the table. Then Trip told her that there was one more. She's already gotten a lot of stuff for the baby, stuff that she'd been putting on her list, stuff that she doesn't have to worry about buying now.

There's a part of her that's still amazed that Trip and Fitz managed to get it all for her by themselves, just the two of them. Her baby really is the luckiest boy in the world.

"Alright, girl, here's your last gift."

Focusing her eyes at the entrance of the room, she gasps and tears immediately spring to her eyes when she sees what Trip is pushing into the room on a rolling cart. "Is that...is that a crib?"

Trip nods. "Yeah. Fitz came up with the designs and then I helped him put it together."

"When did you guys find the time to do something like this?" she asks curiously. "This is seriously amazing."

"We worked on it little by little," Trip tells her. "We started on it not too long after you told us about the baby."

"Grant, help me up." She holds a hand out to him and he doesn't hesitate in helping her off the couch. She makes a beeline for the crib, running her hands over the smoothed down wood that they must have ordered from somewhere because she's pretty sure they don't just have a supply of wood sitting around.

She runs her hands over it, admiring how polished it is and how simple, yet intricate the design is. Running her hand over the back headboard, she smiles at her son's name etched into the wood.

"You put his name in it."

Trip nods with a smile. "Yeah. That was my idea. Do you like it?"

"I love it. It's perfect." She turns and gives Trip a hug the best that she can with her stomach getting in the way. She then crosses the room to pull Fitz into a hug as well. "Thank you, Fitz. I love the crib."

"It's sturdy," he tells her. "Better than anything you could buy."

"Since you designed it, I'm sure that it is."

"It'll fit perfectly in your room, too," he says. "I made sure it would."

"That's really great, Fitz, thank you. The baby is going to love it."

"Um, he won't be able to appreciate it as an infant."

Skye smiles and laughs quietly. "I know, Fitz. And really, the crib is beautiful, thank you."

"You're welcome."

She admires the crib a moment longer before turning around to find Grant still sitting on the couch, his Polaroid camera up in front of his face.

"Have you been taking pictures this whole time?" she asks him.

He lowers the camera and nods. "Yeah. But not of everything. I don't want to waste all the paper. Just of what I think is most important for Adian to see when he's older."

She smiles softly. "That's sweet. Now get over here and check out this crib our friends made us."

He sets the camera aside and then joins her at the crib, running his own hands over the smooth wooden frame, his fingers tracing over their son's name.

"It's perfect," he says aloud.

She nods in agreement. "It really is. And because of this party, I don't have to worry about getting as much stuff as I had originally planned."

"That's good. And uh, I can help out a little with buying stuff for the baby. I still have some funds stashed away in old safe houses that SHIELD doesn't know about, so they're still safe."

"How are you going to access them when we're all still fugitives and you can't leave the base?"

She watches his brows furrow. "I didn't think about that."

"It's fine. And I've got enough money for right now to handle things. I hope." She bites her lip between her teeth, hoping that she really does have enough money. She's heard and read that babies are expensive. The last thing she wants to do is blow a fortune on her son before he's even born, but she also wants him to have the best childhood that he can.

Looking up at Grant still admiring the crib, she smiles softly. "Hey, I have something I want to talk to you about."

"What's up?"

"I uh, I talked to Coulson the other day, about you, and I think...I think it might be a good idea if you move to the empty bunk next to mine. So you can be closer once the baby gets here and be able to help out easier."

He smiles. "That would...that would be really great."

"Actually," Trip speaks up as he steps forward, "that may be a bit of a problem."

Skye looks to him and frowns. "What? Why?"

"Because besides the crib, Fitz and I were working on something else for you two."

"What is it?"

Trip smiles. "Come with me." He gestures to the hallway and then makes his way out the door.

Skye shares a quick look with Grant before slowly following after Trip. They move back through the hallway toward her bunk and her brows furrow together.

"Why are we going back to my bunk?" she asks as they get closer.

"We aren't."

"So then where are we going?"

"Right here," Trip says, stopping in front of the door next to hers.

"This is the bunk next to mine."

Trip nods with a smile. "I know."

"And I talked to Coulson about Grant using it."

"I know. But...I actually beat you to that and talked to Coulson about using this for someone else."

"Who else…" she trails off when the gears start turning in her head. She gasps quietly. "You didn't."

"Open the door and find out."

She takes a small step forward and easily opens the door since there's no passcode to put in yet.

Pushing the door open, she lets out another gasp at the sight in front of her. The walls are no longer a dull gray, but a now pale blue, shiny silver robots patterned all across the paint. Multiple empty shelves line the walls.

"You made us a nursery?"

"This is incredible, you guys," Grant chimes in.

"The shelves are empty so you can put whatever you want to on them, and there should be plenty of space to put all the furniture we got you."

She doesn't fight the tears as they start to spill over at the sweet gesture from her friends.

"Um, she's crying," Fitz speaks up. "Why is she crying? Crying's not good. Did we do it wrong?"

Skye shakes her head and smiles through her tears. "No, Fitz, you didn't do it wrong. It's amazing. Really. Thank you. Both of you." She smiles over at Trip. "I grew up without a family, without people who really cared about me. And I thought for a long time that it was always going to be like that. And now...now I know that my baby isn't going to feel like that. Because he has a very dedicated father and two amazing uncles to help look after him. This is...this is good. Really, really good."

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!