Chapter 31

Target sighted.

The inhuman slowly crept behind the couch. Drawing closer to her prey with every careful step she made. Her target was sitting on the other end of the sofa, reading a book he'd found in one of the bags they had brought with them, completely unaware of the girl preparing to pounce on him from behind.

Target Locked

She readied herself to lunge, planning to tackle her prey to the ground. "Gotcha!" The man had other plans though.

Daisy squeaked as she flew over the couch and landed on the prepared stack of pillows, instead of the male human. Who had slipped out of the way right as she attacked.

"Nice try, Rookie." Ward flipped to the next page in his book, amusement flashing in his gaze from the sight of her sprawled out over the bed of couch cushions. Damn Super Spy.

What a fool she was, to think he hadn't noticed her sudden absence in the background. He always noticed when she was doing something. Whether she was just making a bowl of cereal or, like now, when she'd been attempting to catch him off guard. He always noticed, it was his job to notice. He probably had been watching from the corner of his eye the whole time!

"Come on, Ward!"

"I said no."

"But we're all alone, and everyone else is out getting lunch.." She groaned, pouting her lips. Hoping it may soften her old S.O.'s resolve, maybe even break it. A rough shot, but if there was one thing she knew for certain about Ward, it was that he had a major soft spot for her. Always had.

'He knew you had a soft spot for Skye.'

He didn't even look at her, instead continuing to read , as he flipped another page in his book. "It's still no."

Her pout only grew as she crawled up off the floor next to him. "Waaaaaaaaard-!" He rolled his eyes, ignoring the way she was tugging on the sleeve of his jacket. He wasn't going to let her win. At least not until he was convinced the fear was gone from the darkest corners of her eyes.

"You know... Seeing as we are going to be spending the rest of our lives together, I think it would be ok if you started calling me Grant."

That had her freezing in her advancing. He was looking at her now, with emotions he had never dared to show in the presence of others. She felt her heart beat accelerate, a blush rising on her cheeks. It was a look Hive had tried to imitate many times, yet never been able to do successfully. He didn't know Daisy personally enough to generate the emotions put into such a stare.

She stared into his amber eyes, feeling embarrassed. It felt strange to think she had only ever really called him by his first name once before. She'd been using his last name so long she'd almost forgotten which was which.

'Grant! Drop the staff.'

That had been such a long time ago. She almost hadn't been able to remember it. So much had happened. They had changed so much. No longer the perfect specialist and rookie field agent, now two people on the run, a private contractor and an inhuman.

"Grant?" It felt a little strange, after having called him Ward for so long, but it was a good strange. She looked up to find a small smile lighting up his face. "Grant."

She felt her own lips turn up in a smile as he leaned toward her, resting his forehead against hers. She could relax like this, Hive had never been like this. He wasn't fine with just sitting next to her, he always wanted something more.

"Geez, we're barely gone a half hour and you two are snuggling on the sofa!"

The new voice had the couple separating almost instantly, looking up to find their inhuman friends had returned. The two men looked quite pleased with themselves for interrupting what they thought was more heated than it actually was, the teenage behind them looking like he'd been trying to stop them from barging in.

Ward coughed, getting up to inspect what they had brought back with them. "I thought you were just running supermarket down the street?" He asked, steering the subject off of what they had been doing and onto where the inhumans had gone.

Joey wrinkled his nose, and shook his head. "No way! They didn't have anything fresh, everything was prepackaged. We had to find a place with a decent deli."

Daisy rolled her eyes behind the metal manipulating man's back, following where Lincoln was taking what looked to be fresh bread, and different lunch meats and cheeses out of another bag. "I don't think I ever ate this well on the run." She commented, grinning as her old transitioner spread out the ingredients on the counter.

"Did you make sure to avoid the security cameras?" Ward asked, ever the top secret agent man.

"Yes." The three male inhumans answered together, looking as tired of the same question as she felt.

The quake inhuman went over to where Caleb was preparing to make himself a sandwich on the other side of the kitchen island. "S how did it go?"

The telepath raised his eyes at her, before shaking his head. "Better than expected. Just got weird looks for wearing a dark hoodie and gloves in ninety degree weather."

She smiled at that, going as far as to ruffle the feather soft spikes on his head. "Just imagine what would have happened if you'd taken your hood off." He gave her a small grin, though from the look in his eyes she knew he was terrified something like that would one day happen.

"You don't have to worry about that, remember?" She mentally reminded him of where he and Lincoln would be going soon enough. A small house off the edge of town, close enough that Lincoln could continue his Doctor position in the local medical facility while the teen took online classes. The nearest humans wouldn't be any closer than ten miles. His grin changed into an actual smile at her thoughts, making her feel better for not bringing him with her.

"That reminds me, Joey. Have you decided where you're going to go yet?" Ward's voice brought them back to the present, and she let the scaly inhuman finish making his sandwich, turning her attention to the conversation the adults were having.

"Yeah, I'd figure I'd move out to Seattle, got an old friend from high school out there." The Latino chuckled a little, rubbing the back of his neck. "Figure since my face hasn't been all over the TV that I can stay in the states."

"Just remember what you tell S.H.I.E.L.D if and when they show up." Ward said, his face no longer showing any signs of his relaxation earlier. Full black Kevlar mode.

"We parted ways in Cali, after ditching the jet, and no one said where they were going." She wondered how many times Ward had made him repeat the less simplified version of that explanation. The specialist nodded in approval, though his look was slightly the opposite. Probably because the inhuman had deviated from the exact words he must have used.

Though thinking of where everyone was going, Daisy realized she and W-Grant had yet to decide on their own destination. She knew he had reached out to an old contact to set up passage out of the states and make passports for them, but that was as far into planning as they had really gone. She'd been more focused on making sure Lincoln and Caleb had ID's and papers that would fit their new life.

As though sensing her thoughts, how he always read her mind without powers would continue to baffle her, the object of her affections turned to look at her.

"We still haven't decided where we're going, have we?" He sounded unsure, and being that she'd set up a whole plan of escape from S.H.I.E.L.D, she was sure he'd figured she'd also thought of where they would end up.

She gave him a pitiful grin, her stomach clenching. Would he be mad she hadn't thought that far ahead? She honestly hadn't expected their escape to go as well as it had. She was used to the plan changing.

'This is how S.H.I.E.L.D works. You make a plan. Plan turns to rubbish. We make a new plan.'

"Sorry.. I never really got to planning the endgame.." She was sure her ears were burning as she looked down at her feet. She should have thought of it though, it was just as important as the rest of the plan.

Grant must have noticed her starting to mentally scold herself, as he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you've done more than enough, I can do the rest. You just got to give me an idea of where we should settle."

'Usually, one person doesn't have the whole solution.'

"Somewhere warm, but not a private island!" The couple separated once again, being reminded they were not alone at the moment by the youngest inhuman's exclamation.

Daisy grimaced, while it took Ward a moment to remember what she had told him about what Hive had done and where he had brought her. Though, when he did catch on, his face made them think he was the one that had horrible memories about a private island. Instead of Daisy, who was doing her best to remain somewhat indifferent, yet obviously failing.

"Yeah.." Daisy's voice was quiet, as she looked down at her feet. "No private islands."

Grant gave a small nod in response, suddenly finding the lunch meats very interesting. When he did speak, it was low and free of all emotions. "I'll see what I can set up.."

-0-0-0-0-0-

You readers are so freaking amazing! I love you! You make being a writer awesome! I mean, it's because of you that this story even moved past the single part it was supposed to be. I can't imagine what I would be doing if that hadn't happened.

Thank you so much for your input on the last two chapters! It has helped me a lot in deciding what Ward's powers would be if he becomes inhuman. What would they be? I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I will not be releasing that information until it happens, if it happens.

To decide whether or not Ward actually becomes Inhuman, I was thinking of opening a pole with the second book. Of course, before that, I will need to figure out how to make a pole on this site. Haha... I feel old...

So anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Please Follow, Favorite, and/or Review! I'd love to hear from you!

And if you're still reading this long Author's Note, you're wonderful!

Til I update again?

Tootles!