Sorry about the wait! Summer has started now, so I'm hoping to get updates out faster now. Hearing from you all really makes my day, so thank you for sticking with me :)

Reality

"What do you mean, Ward escaped?" Bobbi demanded as she strode through the door into Coulson's office, where Triplett, Mack, Fitz, and Simmons were already gathered. May and Skye followed her in, with Hunter bringing up the rear.

"I knew we shouldn't have let him out of his cell," Simmons said softly.

"It's too late for that kind of thinking now," the director reined them in. He waited until the newcomers had joined the circle before gesturing at the screen. It contained grainy video footage from some kind of parking garage. One blob in black was beating up the other blobs. Then he took off, walking quickly out of the frame. Bobbi assumed Blob #1 was Grant Ward.

"How long ago was this filmed?" Triplett asked.

"An hour and a half ago," May replied darkly.

"With that kind of time, Ward's long gone," Simmons said. "What about his brother?"

"Christian wants our help," Coulson told them. Of course he did. "Regardless of the fact that Ward's his brother, he's in over his head."

"Great of him to realize that now," Fitz muttered.

"So now what?" Skye asked. "We're going to find him, right?"

"We're going to try," Coulson nodded. "Mack, I need the Bus and the Quinjet in full working order, ready to go on a moment's notice. Skye, I'll need you searching security cameras, using facial recognition, whatever you've got."

"Ward will be expecting that," Bobbi pointed out. "He's a specialist; he'll know he needs to change his appearance and he knows how."

"I've been working on a new facial recognition software that might be good enough," Skye replied uncertainly.

"Just do the best you can," May told her. "But Ward's also going to know how to avoid the cameras in the first place. He'll have money, ID, and passports stashed in various cities, if not whole safehouses."

"Fitz and Simmons, this is now priority one," Coulson announced. "You'll be temporarily shelving your current projects until Ward is back with us. I need you going over his personnel files, seeing where he's visited multiple times, looking for patterns. Where he might be headed now."

"But sir, didn't you delete all records of you six when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell?" Bobbi asked. "As part of your going-off-the-grid plan?"

"Our files are still backed up on our hard drive," Skye answered. "It's doable, but it will take a few extra hours to de-encrypt and unzip all of them."

"All of this is great," Mack spoke up, "but what are we going to do once we find him?"

"Capture him," Coulson replied immediately. Bobbi and Mack exchanged glances.

"Do we really want to take that risk, sir? He's already escaped once."

"He's still our best source of intel on HYDRA," the director said. "We shoot ICERs only. Now, when we do locate him, Agent Triplett, you'll take point. You were trained by Garrett as well; hopefully you'll be able to anticipate some of his reactions. Hunter, you'll be part of the recovery team as well. He doesn't know your face yet; you can still maintain a cover." He looked at Bobbi. "I know you're still in your two weeks off and you have Isabelle to think about, Agent Morse, but you know as well as I do that this kind of op would ideally have at least six agents stationed undercover in the vicinity. We have one." Bobbi understood what he was asking, but a single—involuntary—look at Hunter was all the reason she needed to make up her mind.

"I'm sorry, Coulson. I can't," Bobbi answered. "It's too soon." She wished she could smack the surprised look off her ex-husband's face at her response.

"I thought you might say that," Coulson agreed. "I did give you the two weeks off. But after that, you're going to need to start making the difficult choices."

Bobbi nodded. "Understood."

The director dismissed them all to their various duties or to get some sleep and the team filed out the door. Fitz and Simmons left for the lab and Triplett, Skye, and Mack for the kitchens and common area, and Bobbi headed back to her room to check on Isabelle. She was well aware of her shadow.

"Bob," Hunter called out to her as she approached her door, ready to go inside and lock it without so much as acknowledging him.

She turned around anyway. "What?"

"I just wanted to say I'm glad you're doing the right thing," Hunter said, "regarding Isabelle. And this mission."

Bobbi opened her mouth to retort—his presumption that his opinion was the right one was just waiting to be smashed into oblivion—but found she didn't have it in her. Not with Ward running around free out there, not with the man her daughter called "Daddy" lying in a grave somewhere, not with the reminder that HYDRA was still a threat looming over all of their heads. Reality had set in, merely days after she had brought Isabelle here. "You should trust me to do what's best for her, Hunter. I am her mother."

"Then you should trust me to do right by her as well," Hunter replied, matching her tone. "I am her father." He paused, both of them staring at one another. "Can we both just agree to that, please? Because I'm tired of arguing with you. If I wanted to do that all day long, I would never have signed those divorce papers."

"Yeah," Bobbi said suddenly. "Fine." She put her hand in the door handle again before adding carefully, "Goodnight, Hunter."

"Night, Bob." He left as she closed the door behind her. Somehow, Grant Ward had forced a truce. Bobbi crossed over to Isabelle's bedside, running a light finger over her daughter's forehead and golden hair. Then she got in bed and turned off the light.

Bobbi's eyes opened to the sight of an angelic face leaning down uncomfortably close to hers. Isabelle's breath was warm against her skin as the girl whispered, "Are you awake?"

"I am now," Bobbi smiled. "What's got you up so early?"

Isabelle stood straight again, giving a little bounce on her feet. "Did you call my Mommy?"

"I said I'd call her today, not last night," Bobbi replied.

"But you were out of the room a loooong time," Isabelle told her, illustrating with her hands exactly how long it was. "Did you call her? Is she going to come here? Can I see her?"

"You noticed that?" Bobbi asked, realizing she had to be more careful from now on about leaving the girl alone in the room at night.

"Yeah, I woke up and you were gone," the girl confided. "But it was okay because I knew you were calling her. Weren't you? You said."

"Yes, I called your mommy," she admitted finally, sitting up and beginning to get dressed.

"Yay!" Isabelle shouted, a grin lighting up her features. Bobbi glanced at the clock, 7:45 A.M. The majority of the team had had a late night...

"Shhh," Bobbi held a finger to her lips. "The others might still be sleeping. She's gonna call you tonight and read you a bedtime story, okay?"

"She's not coming here?" the girl asked, gazing at Bobbi with some disappointment.

"She can't, Isabelle," she told her. "But she was really excited to talk to you tonight. She can't wait."

Her daughter smiled again. "I can't wait either!" She tucked her hands behind her back as Bobbi finished getting dressed, shifting from foot to foot.

"What is it?" Bobbi asked, noticing her odd behavior.

"Thank you for calling her," Isabelle said shyly.

Bobbi smiled. "You're welcome. Now, let's see who's up early for breakfast, shall we?" She opened the door and let Isabelle out into the hall, where the girl happily trotted on a few paces ahead with Hoppity swinging at her side.

"It's not early!" the girl was saying. "We got up earlier yesterday! I like getting up early."

"So do I," she replied, moving quickly to catch up. They rounded the corner into the common area and then into the kitchen. "Hey, Triplett."

"Trip!" Isabelle shouted in greeting with a grin.

"Hey, kiddo," he replied. "Come have a seat." She scampered over to him, plopping herself down happily.

Bobbi laughed. "Isabelle, what do you want to eat? We've got cereal."

"Okay," Isabelle agreed.

"What kind do you want?" Bobbi asked, opening up the cupboard. "There's Raisin Bran, Special K, Wheaties..."

Isabelle made a face. "Do you have Cap'n Crunch?"

"Umm..." Bobbi turned uncertainly to Trip, who shrugged.

"Coulson keeps a stash of Cocoa Puffs behind the flour sack and Skye hides a box of Froot Loops with the pasta," Hunter said, walking into the kitchen.

"Hi Lance!" Isabelle chirped.

"Okay, so I guess you have the choice between those two as well," Bobbi told her.

The girl seriously considered it for a second. "Cocoa Puffs."

"Good choice," Trip complimented her.

Bobbi pulled a bowl from the cupboard and went digging behind the flour for the desired cereal. "How do you know all this stuff?" she hissed to Hunter as he came beside her to grab a bowl for himself. "First May's alcohol stash, now the sugary guilty-pleasure cereals..." He only smirked back, taking his bowl and heating up some water for tea. Shaking her head slightly, Bobbi set the bowl and a spoon down in front of her daughter and then fixed herself a bowl after putting the Cocoa Puffs back in their hiding place. Hunter took a seat across from Isabelle.

"So," Trip said as Bobbi came over and joined them with her breakfast, "what's got you in such a good mood this morning, kiddo? Did you sleep well?"

"Mommy's going to call me and read me a bedtime story!" Isabelle said brightly, digging into her cereal. The chocolate had already started to turn the milk brown.

Hunter nearly choked on his tea. "Your mommy?"

"Yep," the girl replied proudly. "I really want to see her, but she can't come. So she's gonna call instead!"

Bobbi caught his eye and gave a discreet shrug of her shoulders followed by a slight dipping of her head. For once she was glad Hunter could still read her body language as well as he had when they were married.

He cleared his throat. "That's great, Isabelle. Would you mind if I sat in? I love a good bedtime story."

"Sure," Isabelle grinned up at him. Bobbi nodded—though she noticed Hunter hadn't asked her—and looked up to see Mack entering. She greeted him with a smile.

"Hey, Isabelle," she said suddenly. "Wanna play some video games when you're done with breakfast?"

Her daughter shoveled the last few spheres of chocolaty goodness into her mouth and smiled at Bobbi with bursting cheeks. "I'm done!"

Bobbi laughed. "Okay then. But you should probably have some fruit first."

"Apple," Isabelle requested. Bobbi agreed readily, going to stand at the counter with Mack to cut one.

"We do have age-appropriate video games that she can play, right?" she whispered.

"What, you don't want her trying out Call of Duty?" Mack teased. She shot him a look. "Let's see... We've got Mario Kart."

"Good enough," Bobbi agreed. "I just want her out of the way in case something comes up with Ward."

"Personally, I doubt we'll have to deal with that just yet," Mack told her. "Ward's as good as they come, from what I've heard. He'll stay in the wind a little while longer."

Bobbi silently agreed. "Still, it can't hurt to be prepared. I have a feeling today is going to be pretty hectic anyway. Everyone's going to be on edge, and they all have real work to do." She delivered the apple to Isabelle, taking a slice for herself.

"Did I hear someone say Mario Kart?" Triplett asked.

"What's that?" Isabelle asked, cocking her head.

Trip grinned. "Oh, just you wait. We're going to have so much fun today."

"I'm in," Hunter said.

"Me too," Bobbi agreed.

Playing Mario Kart with her ex-husband, daughter, and friend after breakfast. Not something she'd ever expected to be doing.

But hey, there were worse ways to spend a Monday morning.

Thanks for reading! I would love to hear your thoughts in a review if you have a moment!

Responses to Guests:

Andy: Nope, not good. Although I think you'll agree Ward had a pretty good effect on this chapter regarding the status of Huntingbird ;)

Holly: Getting closer!

Shawn: Thank you so much for your support. Hope you liked this one!

Alex: Your idea turned out really well in my opinion, seeing the effect it had on this chapter. Thank you!