Jemma wiped tears from her eyes as she stood watching the traffic go down Business 40 from the top of the hospital's parking deck. The wind blew through her shoulder length dirty blond hair and a light drizzle fell but her thoughts were on her argument with Fitz and not how wet she was starting to get.

"You might need this," a baritone voice carried over to her as an umbrella appeared over her head.

Jemma turned to see Thomas Ward standing there, looking enough like his brother to make her wish he would go away. She really didn't want to deal with that family for right now; they seemed to be taking Skye and now Fitz away from her.

"I can't get away from the Ward family no matter where I bloody go."

"I saw your argument with Fitz and while I will protect my brother, what he did to you and Fitz was wrong. He could have found a way to keep the two of you safe without dropping you out of that plane but given what I have learned about John Garrett that sack of crap would have had all three of you killed if Grant didn't do something quick. It sounds like Grant was stuck between a rock and a hard place; damned if he did, damned if he didn't," he said compassionately. "I have been where you and Fitz were too and Grant was stuck in the same position then as he was with the two of you."

"Are you talking about the well?"

"Yes. The only thing that saved my life and kept Grant from the same fate was the fact that Aunt Lily and Louise showed up. Lily took care of Christian and made him pay for it while Grant and Lou pulled me out of the well. Of course, my mother blamed Grant for everything so it wouldn't get out that her oldest son tried to murder her youngest son. He was her punching bag and the cycle continued with John Garrett and the six months he was imprisoned by Shield. I get that you are pissed off at what happened last year and that Fitz was hurt but it is time to get over it. Louise might not be as powerful as Aunt Lily but she is a very powerful witch and she is watching you like a hawk, Jemma. I don't want to see anybody else hurt over this so please let this go."

Thomas turned around and walked away, leaving the umbrella with Jemma. She watched him go and wished that she could just let it go but her anger over what had happened to the family they had become on the bus wouldn't ease. Deep down she knew the blame for this lay at the feet of John Garrett but he wasn't there and Ward was.

Fitz stood there watching Skye and Ward sleep in the bed and pull out recliner and his mind reeled from every horrible memory that Lily had witnessed as a teenager. His former friend really hadn't stood a chance with that mother of his. The day Grant was taken from the juvenile facility played over and over in his head especially Lily's desperation to find her nephew and sorrow over the years at him never being found.

He then walked out of the room and ran into Coulson, who looked concerned for his agent.

"Fitz, are you okay?"

"No. When Lily touched my shoulder, it was like we each saw every secret the other person had. I know the truth about what happened with Ward and his family and that deal you made with the Senator was so bloody wrong, sir," Fitz stated. "I need to leave Shield, Director. My place is at the Ward family farm to help Lily."

"I know that there is something Lily and Louise are hiding and I have a feeling you know what it is."

"Sir, if I could tell you I would. I know you don't want to hear this but it is time to let go of the anger we have towards Ward. I saw the abuse Ward suffered from Lily's point of view and what that mother of his did to her older three children was disgusting. Skye did the world a favor. He didn't stand a chance once John Garrett kidnapped him and started to work on his mind," Fitz quietly stated. "We need to keep an eye on Jemma, she is still planning on going after Ward and you and I both know exactly what his aunt and sister's powers are capable of. She won't win."

"I will have Agent Morse watch her, they are pretty close."

Coulson peeked into the room and saw that Skye was asleep before turning and walking down the corridor.

Fitz followed him and nodded at Thomas as he walked down the hall. The latter stopped outside of Skye's room and sat down in the chair that the security guard had left behind. He pulled out his tablet and started to work his charts while making sure that nobody came to Skye's room that wasn't supposed to be there.

Jemma walked into the door of the hotel suite that she was sharing with Bobbi and Lance and stopped short at the sight of Kyle and Elena making out on the couch. The teenagers quickly pulled apart at the sight of the biochemist standing there, a look on her face that scared them a bit.

"I may not like your father but he is too young to be a grandfather and after meeting your mother, Elena, I know she would have grounded you if she had seen this," Jemma stated with her hands on her hips. "Elena, you need to go back to your room while Kyle and I are going to have a talk."

Elena practically ran from the room while Kyle groaned in irritation and sat down on the couch with his head in his hands.

"Dr. Simmons, can you spare me the lecture? We weren't going to do anything, we were just kissing."

"Kyle, sometimes a person might not intend on having sex with the person they are with and it still happens."

"Why don't you like my dad?"

Jemma was stunned at the quick change of subject and didn't know how to respond to the teenager, who had his hand on his hips and looked too much like a younger version of Ward that she was comfortable with.

"Did he tell you about what happened last year?"

"Yes. He told me all about Hydra, his former mentor who took money from my grandmother to basically kidnap him and everything he did to all of you for that asshole."

"So you can understand why I hate him."

"I understand why but I think most of your anger is about what happened to Fitz," Kyle commented before turning to walk out of the room. "For someone who doesn't have romantic feelings for someone, you are sure doing a pretty good job of acting like you do."

Kyle walked out of the hotel suite and down the hall to the penthouse apartment the Wards were staying in. Jemma stared after him, knowing that the boy was right but too much had happened between her and Fitz. She closed the door to her suite, tears falling from her eyes and lay down on the couch, falling asleep.

Coulson walked into the cafeteria and saw Natasha and Steve sitting at one of the tables having coffee and having a quiet conversation. He suspected that it was about how to get the money out of John Garrett's accounts for the Ward family.

"Is this seat taken?"

Coulson waited for a response to his question and saw his childhood hero motion for him to sit down. He saw the plans and realized that they had come to conclusion that a nanomask would have to be used. That Steve was going to be the one to pretend to be Ward because he was around the same height.

"You lost more because of Hydra than anybody, Captain. Why are you helping a traitor?"

"Lily Ward was one of the first people to actually ask me how I was doing in regards to getting used to living in the twenty first century. In return, we talked to each other about different things in our lives. One of her stories was of her nephew that disappeared when he was fifteen years old and how badly the boy and his siblings had been abused by their mother. That because of who they were nobody would ever believe that the home of then Senator Travis Ward would be a toxic place for their children. Or that his wife was crazy and took pleasure locking her third child in a closet for hours at a time, leaving him out in freezing weather for thirty minutes for not putting up his toys or beating him with a hairbrush the day his sister left for boarding school for doing something most three year old children do every day and don't get punished for it. By the time that boy's mother got done with him, he was just vulnerable enough for John Garrett to brainwash him. Now we have found out that the mother knew what was going on and that every year afterwards she stole five million dollars out of the family's trust accounts to pay Garrett to do it. I am doing it for Lily and that abused little boy who didn't stand a chance from the moment he was born."

Coulson felt nausea rise inside of him at Steve's words and realized that he had contributed to it by agreeing to give Ward to Christian.

"I have never been so disappointed in you after I found out about the deal you made with Senator Ward," Natasha quietly said. "I get that he betrayed you, Phil but I have a feeling most of your anger is directed at Garrett and since he isn't here, Grant is a convenient scapegoat."

"I took down Shield along with Hydra for a reason, Phil. The old way of doing things wasn't working and that was what allowed Hydra to infiltrate them in the first place."

Steve stood up as he finished speaking and walked out of the cafeteria, holding what was left of his coffee in his hand.

"I've disappointed him, haven't I?"

"Damn right you did," Natasha replied. "I can see why he was chosen to take the serum. He is an example of how we all should be. He could hate Grant Ward for the things he did in the service of Hydra and be justified because he lost everything he knew because of them. He instead decides to help him. Maybe the rest of us could take page out of his book."

Natasha got up and left the room, leaving Phil Coulson to think long and hard about some of the decisions he had been making lately.

Grant was sitting by his aunt's bedside while the doctors were examining Skye and hoped she would wake up soon. His family needed her calm presence to keep them from going crazy. He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice that Lily was awake.

"Grant," her voice quietly said. "What happened?"

"Do you remember touching Fitz on the shoulder and the both of you collapsing?"

Lily's eyes opened wide as it all came back to her in fast waves that just about overwhelmed her.

"Is he okay?"

"Yes. Your touch healed him."

"The healing touch," Lily stated, closing her dark eyes.

"That was what Louise called it. Fitz said that he saw every memory that you have ever had and that you did the same thing with him."

"I did. I saw the day you dropped the pod off of the plane. I understand that you were trying to save their lives, Grant but did you think about how terrified they would be when you did it?"

"It was the only way to save their lives. Garrett wanted them dead and he wanted me to do it. I couldn't do it because I started to care for both of them. I had to give them their best chance and that was it."

Before Lily could respond, the other members of their family came rushing into the room, hugging Lily and asking how she was feeling.

Grant got up and went down to Skye's room to find the doctors had left and that Jemma Simmons had come back, waiting to speak to him. Her eyes were red like she had been crying. He wanted to ask if she was okay but his right to do that had ended the moment the pod dropped off of the Bus.

"What's going on?"

"Jemma walked in on something that you need to know about."

Grant had a feeling this was about Kyle and that he wasn't going to like it, given that Simmons had come back to the hospital.

"I walked into the suite I am sharing with Bobbi and Lance to find Kyle and Elena making out on the couch. I sent Elena back to her mother and tried to talk to Kyle."

"Let me guess, he turned it around on you," Grant stated. "I didn't want him to get anything from his grandmother but apparently I wasn't that lucky. She was notorious for doing that. I will deal with him tomorrow."

"Grant, this needs to be dealt with tonight," Skye said quietly. "He will think that he got away with it."

"You're right. I will see if May or Romanoff will stay with you while I go back to the hotel and deal with my son," he sat down in a chair. "I am so not ready for this."

Thirty minutes later, Kyle looked up from his laptop to see his dad standing in the doorway of the room he was sleeping in and knew that Dr. Simmons had gone straight to him. He had a feeling that this wasn't going to end well.

"First, you will apologize to Jemma for whatever it was that you said to her," Grant said sternly. "She didn't tell me but I can tell when someone has been crying."

"I called her out on having feelings for Fitz and that her anger at you was more about him being hurt than anything else."

"Kyle, that was uncalled for and you know it."

"I shouldn't have said but she pissed me off trying to lecture me like she was my mom. Skye can get away with it because I have a feeling she will be my stepmom one day," the boy said with a bit of an attitude.

Grant had to take a deep breath to control the temper that was bubbling under the surface. He would never physically or verbally abuse his son the way he had been. He wasn't going to be a pushover either.

"Lose the attitude, Kyle. Now back to what you said to Jemma, I understand why you got angry at her but she was also the one who caught you and knew that it was something that Adele and I wouldn't want you and Elena doing," Grant commented. "That's another thing. You are to have a condom on you at all times because if you make me a grandfather before I am forty, I will not be happy with you."

"Elena sent me a text before her mom took her phone away. She's grounded for a month and we are not to be alone together for a long time."

"I agree with Adele. You are grounded for a month, no phone or internet. Oh and you get to tell your Aunt Lily why."

Kyle turned pale as a sheet at his father's words because his Aunt, while being one of the nicest people in the world, also had told him to be careful with Elena and she wasn't going to be happy with him.

Grant got back to the hospital to find all three of his siblings smirking at him as they stood in Lily's room. Jemma had told Tommy what she had found at the hotel and it had quickly spread to everybody else.

"How did it go grounding him for the first time?"

"Shut up, Christian."

"Anna and I are thinking about adopting a child so any advice my brother can give me would be very useful," the Senator said, grinning.

"Christian James, I think your brother told you to shut up," Lily said, glaring at her oldest nephew.

Christian wisely shut up as Grant turned to face his aunt, who still looked pale but wasn't as weak as she had been earlier.

"I told him that he had to tell you but to wait until you were out of the hospital so don't give him too much trouble."

"I won't. Besides Adele already called me and has asked that for them not to be left alone together."

"I agree."

A week had passed and both Skye and Lily were back on the farm but under orders to rest as much as possible. Both stubborn women were not very obedient patients.

Fitz had shocked his Shield teammates by leaving, along with Mack, to stay at the farm. He was staying in another one of the buildings on the property that was going to be converted to a lab for him on the first level. The second level would have living quarters for him and Mack. They were sleeping on roll out beds on the first level after a central air system had been put in the building, now that it was starting to become one of the humid summers the Southeastern United States was famous for.

Ward, Michael and Kyle, as a part of his punishment, were helping Mack and Fitz with fixing the building and at a certain point, all of them had taken their shirts off. Of course, the latter covered in SPF 50 sunblock to protect his fair skin from sunburn.

Adele, who had brought lunch to them, warily watched her daughter admiring the new muscles forming on Kyle's upper body but was distracted herself. Despite her best efforts not to, Adele couldn't resist staring at Mack.

Skye, who was sitting beside Grant on a bench, as they both ate a sandwich, giggled.

"You are aware that Adele seems to be attracted to Mack."

"Yes, I am but I don't know what is going on with him and Fitz so I hope that looking is all she does."

Skye burst out laughing getting to the point Grant worried about the still healing wounds on her back.

"Grant, Fitz is still in love with Jemma. Mack has been a friend and protector for him. A lot of what you were before everything went down with Hydra."

"He seems to be letting me be that for him again and I don't know why."

"He saw Lily's memories of the abuse you went through and I think deep down a lot of his anger was missing the big brother he had found in you. I have witnessed him watching you and Thomas since he has been here. I think he is jealous that you have your real little brother back."

Before Grant could respond, he felt his cellphone go off and looked down at it to find a message from Kara. She had gone to get her girlfriend Ally from the airport.

"Don't be mad at me. Ally got it into her head that she needed to bring Susan with her even though I told her about you and Skye getting together. She won't let go of the thought of her best friend being with my best friend."

"Kara! What the hell!"

"Susan told me that Ally wouldn't leave her alone until she agreed to come with her but said that she will leave you and Skye alone. Ally and I will be having a conversation about this."

Grant looked up from his phone and felt dread at telling Skye that Susan was here in Virginia and that she would be at dinner that night.

"Skye, there is something that you need to know…"

AN: The drama will kick in as Grant's ex shows up with Kara and her girlfriend, Ally. Especially when the judge in Grant's case decides to visit and a formal party is given by Lily that will show Skye what being in a relationship with a Ward, even the black sheep, really means.

This chapter is longer than usual because everytime I thought I was finished, more ideas would come into my head that I hadn't planned on writing. I will start work on the next chapter here in a couple of days.