Later that night, after a very tense dinner where Grant had sat across from Skye and talked to Tommy to avoid staring at her, he had quickly left the dining room as soon as everybody had finished eating to go and talk to his grandmother before he went to the guest house. He had moved his things down there to make it easier to avoid Skye and to not disturb the rest of his family when he came outside early in the morning to work out.

He was now sitting on the dark green couch that was in the middle of the small living room/kitchen area in the guest house, trying to read a book. All he could see in his head was the cream colored dress that Skye had been wearing. She had been even more beautiful wearing that than the black dress she had been wearing that morning and that one had him almost on his knees begging. He wouldn't put it past the women in his family to have helped her pick that dress with the purpose of making him suffer. It had definitely been very difficult to keep his focus on his brother and not the breathtaking woman sitting across from him. It had also tested his resolve and determination in letting her go.

A knock on the door made him put the book down on the couch, get up and walk over to open it to find Skye, still wearing the dress she had worn to dinner, standing there. He had heard all of the talk about Garrett kidnapping him and had a feeling that was why she was there. He really didn't want to have this conversation with her or anybody although he knew his aunt would get it out of him eventually.

"We need to talk," she said before walking past him and into the guest house.

"Come on in, Skye," he commented sarcastically before closing the door and quickly turning to face her. She rolled her eyes at his reaction.

"I don't even have a damn gun on me, Grant. Do you want to search me for one?"

"Not a chance. You might try to kick me in the balls," he said, rolling his eyes because there was no way in hell that he was letting himself touch her.

"Keep up with the attitude and I will attempt to do it anyway," she shot back at him hotly.

"Oh, we are going to talk about my attitude! How about your self-righteous, hypocritical, judgmental 'Shield can do no wrong' attitude? Which is total bullshit and you know it. A lot of my ops where people died were for Shield, not Hydra so you can sell that shit to somebody who doesn't know what complete crap it is. Your ledger isn't clean either or are you forgetting about Donnie Gill and the Hydra agents you killed with the obelisk?"

The sound of Skye slapping him carried across the room and as she went to hit him again, Grant grabbed her wrists and pulled her to him to stop her. All it did was bringing them in closer contact then they had been in a year and a blistering kiss exchanged that had him releasing her wrists and the two of them clinging to each other.

A few moments passed of light moans from both of them at being that close together in a year. That is until the feel of her hands reaching under his black t-shirt in an attempt to pull it off brought him back to reality. He pulled away from her and ran out the door, rushing past his Aunt Lily.

Christian, Tommy, Louise and Lily stood on the deck listening to the argument taking place in the guest house and each of them cringed at every hateful word being said.

"I might have to go down there and stop them if they get too loud," Lily said, shaking her head in dismay.

"Aunt Lily, things have suddenly become too quiet," Christian said, smirking devilishly. "They have either killed each other or are locked at the lips or worse."

"Oh shit!"

Lily rushed down the stairs and over to the guest house door, getting ready to knock when Grant came running out the door of the guest house as if the devil himself was chasing him and went towards the beach. Skye came out, with tears in her eyes. Her lips were swollen from the heated kiss she and Grant had just shared before he turned away from her and ran out.

"I'm sorry. I know you told me to stay away but I wanted to see if I could get him to tell me what happened to him in the five years he was missing," Skye quickly explained.

"Skye, I am the only one who can get through to him when he is being stubborn and closed off like that. I always have been. If I had got to him before John Garrett, he might have gotten the help he needed when he was a teenager and would be more open than he is now. I also think he knew what you were up to and started the argument to keep from talking about it."

Before Skye could respond, Travis stepped out onto the upper deck, fear and sorrow in his eyes.

"Everybody needs to get up here now."

"Have you called Dr. Franklin?"

"I am getting ready to now."

"Tommy, go and get Grant."

Tommy rushed off of the deck and down to the beach while everybody else, except Skye went into the house. She sat down on the lounge chair that was by the back door, feeling like an outsider during this family's time of grief.

A couple of minutes later, Grant rushed by her with Tommy right behind him, the latter stopped and spoke to Skye.

"Come and wait out in the hallway. He won't admit it but when Gram passes Grant will need you. Put aside your differences just long enough to get him through this."

Skye followed behind the two brothers and stood in the hall with Anna, waiting quietly as the sound of crying filtered out into the hallway. An older African American man in his fifties came up the stairs and into Gramzy's bedroom as Grant and his siblings came out of the bedroom, all of them in tears.

Christian was in his wife's arms while Louise comforted Thomas. Skye watched as Grant walked past her, the grief in his eyes causing her to follow him out of the house and back into the guest house.

What greeted her as she stepped in the doorway was the last thing Skye had expected; her former SO kneeling on the floor crying as if his heart was broken. She quickly rushed to his side and knelt beside him, wrapping her arms around him.

That was the sight that greeted Coulson and May as they walked past the guest house and looked into the open doorway. They had left the Playground as soon as May had shown him the pictures Skye had sent to Jemma with the intentions of bringing her back, whether she wanted to go with them or not. They also planned to arrest Grant and bring him back into Shield's custody, only to find Skye hugging him.

"Get away from him, Skye!"

Melinda was coming over to them with a pair of handcuffs in her hand when she went flying across the room and into the wall. Coulson turned his gun on Lily as she came across the yard and into the guest house, Louise right behind her.

"I suggest you put that gun down and get off of my property, the both of you are trespassing."

"He is a wanted fugitive and we are taking him into custody."

"Actually, he's not and you aren't taking him anywhere," Christian said as he stepped into the room. "He was transferred into his family's custody so you no longer have any say in what happens to him. After the fact he was kidnapped by John Garrett at fifteen years old was taken into account by the federal judge assigned to his case, Grant will be given house arrest for a year on our family's farm in Virginia. After that, it is up to the judge what happens next."

"That is complete bullshit." May said as she stood up from the floor. "He only gets house arrest for killing all of those people."

"How many people have you killed in the name of Shield or better yet for Director Coulson, Agent May?"

Louise's question stunned everybody in the room because except for a few comments to Skye over shooting Grant, she wasn't as confrontational as other members of her family.

"That was different."

"Why? He wasn't being the good guy when he was going to trade my nephew to Christian for a public trial and execution. All of it to make Shield legitimate in the eyes of the US government again," Lily stated, her arms crossing over her chest. "Oh and the added bonus of getting Grant away from Skye, does 'you'll never see her again', sound about right, Coulson?"

Skye felt guilt over her part in that and started to walk out of the guest house, taking Grant's hand and pulling him behind her. The earth trembled a bit as her emotions started to get the best of her.

"What the hell are you doing, Skye?"

She turned to face Agent May and Coulson, who had asked the question. The hurt in her eyes cut them both to the quick but they were doing what they thought was best for her.

"I didn't ask for the two of you to come here and 'rescue' me. I am a grown woman who made a decision to get help from someone that I knew could help me control my powers," she stated, feeling a wave of calm come over her that caused the trembling to stop that could have only come from the two witches in the room. "The two of you need to leave because this family is in mourning. What you saw just now was me comforting someone whose grandmother had just passed away; a woman that I only met briefly but had really liked. She was a sweet lady whose death should be mourned and not thrown to the wayside over stupid and petty bullshit."

Skye left the guest house, pulling a stunned Grant Ward behind her. He wanted to see what she would do next so he didn't try to pull away from her. He was even more shocked when they ended up in the room she was staying in and that she had locked the door.

"So I guess we are going to have to figure how to get along while I am staying with your Aunt," she said.

"I will stay out of your way, Skye. I am staying in the family cabin that is on the property and not the main house so we shouldn't have to see each other except when I am helping Tommy's boyfriend, Michael with what needs to be done around the farm."

"You don't have to do that," she said. "You promised to always tell me the truth. Tell me what Garrett did to you, make me understand why you followed him so blindly," Skye begged him as she sat down on her bed, motioning for him to sit beside her.

"Skye, what he did to me make me stronger."

"No, he didn't. You became his loyal soldier who turned his back on the people that cared for you. Fitz defended you until the moment you dropped that pod in the water."

"The fucking thing was supposed to float, Skye!"

"What the hell does that mean?"

"Garrett wanted Fitz and Simmons dead and I couldn't put a bullet in their head the way he ordered me to. I dropped the pod because I wanted to give them a chance and because it was supposed to float but then again when does anything turn out right for me. I almost killed them and Fitz will never be the same because of me. I have to live with that on my conscience for the rest of my life."

He took a deep breath before starting to speak again. The normally calm and collected Specialist hands were trembling and so she placed a hand on his.

"Fine, you want to know what happened after Garrett broke me out of juvie, I will tell you but be prepared because it isn't a happy story."

Skye sat there and listened to him describe in detail everything that happened in the missing five years of his life, tears falling from her eyes as he told her about Buddy and how Garrett killed him.

Lily, who had been standing out in the hallway listening to every word, turned to a stunned Phil Coulson.

"Please tell me that son of a bitch's death was painful"

"Not painful enough," Coulson said. "He could have told me all of this and things would have been different."

"You should have treated him a hell of a lot better than that regardless of the fact that he wouldn't talk. He is a human being who had rights. Did you know that Peggy Carter treated Daniel Whitehall a hell of a lot better than you did my nephew?"

"How did you know that?"

"You forget that I knew Nick Fury and consulted for Shield until a year before everything with Hydra happened. He allowed me to see those records. Here's something else that I know that you don't and you won't like it. Fury has been in contact with me and has been informed of some of the decisions you have been making. He made you Director because he hoped you would give Shield something that he didn't. He didn't want you to continue with the same bullshit that allowed Hydra to infiltrate in the first place."

"If he has a problem with it, why hasn't he said anything?"

"Maybe because he is trying to stay off the grid and calling you would make the wrong person figure out that he is still alive."

"I still think that Skye needs to come back with me and May. She doesn't need to be around your nephew."

"She is a grown woman and the two of you need to stop treating her like a child," Lily firmly stated. "I don't like how close she and Grant have gotten since I brought her here because neither one of them are ready for any type of relationship except friendship. That being said, none of us have the right to tell them what they can and can't do because they are both over the age of eighteen and what they do, mistake or not, is their business, not ours. Besides do you really want to try forcing her to leave and have her set off an earthquake that destroys this house and the others in the area? We are right on the shore of Sag Harbor Bay so an earthquake this close to the water is really not a good idea."

"Fine, we will go but I still don't like what is going on here," Coulson said, clearly disliking what she had just said but resigned to it.

"Phil, are you insane?"

Melinda May was furious at what was happening and not afraid to say so. She wanted the girl she loved like her own child away from these people, especially Grant Ward.

"Do you want to lose Skye entirely, Melinda?"

"No."

"Her powers have changed her and we have to accept them, even if it means that she has seemingly forgiven Ward."

"Neither one of them has completely forgiven the other for what they did to each other. The only thing that is happening is that she is being there for him during a very difficult time and he is accepting it, for now," Lily commented. "Now I need to get back to starting the process of burying my mother so the two of you need to leave and let my family grieve in private."

Lily walked away and back upstairs to her mother's room, while Coulson and May walked out of the house, reluctant to leave Skye there but unable to force her to leave.

"Phil, I don't like this. How can we trust that Lily Ward isn't a traitor like her nephew?"

"Melinda, I think you are jealous over how quickly Skye took to her and the seemingly maternal bond they have developed. We have to accept that while Skye thinks of us as paternal figures, the two of us aren't what she needs right now. Lily can help her and we have to let her."

"I'm not jealous," May muttered before she stormed towards the SUV they had taken from where they had landed the Bus at a small airfield two hours away.

Coulson didn't say a word because he knew saying the wrong thing would get him punched. He just followed her, looking back to see the Senator and his wife standing on the lower deck, comforting each other. It brought back memories of his own grandmother and how much her passing had devastated him. A wave of sympathy came over him for the entire family, even Grant as he got into the SUV.

AN: There was a kiss but all it did was make things even more complicated between Skye and Ward. It isn't going to be an easy road for them in getting together especially when issues from the past will make Ward's life more interesting.

Thank you to everybody that has read and reviewed this story, it has been heartwarming to read the responses to this story. I wasn't expecting them at all and wasn't sure how this story would come across when I first started writing it.