Meet and Greet

Her eyes closed and her tiny, little nose wrinkling, Haylie let out a huge yawn, making Skye giggle.

Barely ten hours old and infinitely cute, Skye was already madly in love with her daughter – she was well worth all the discomfort of the past months and the sixteen hour labor. She was absolutely perfect and adorable and… a million other adjectives her exhausted brain couldn't come up with at the moment.

And, thankfully, she was not the only one who thought that.

"Oh, look at that!" Bobbi cooed, her voice rising at least half an octave (making her sound nothing like her regular, baby-less self) as she settled down on a chair next to Skye's bed. "Oh my God, she is so tiny!" she continued, reaching towards Haylie with a single finger, caressing the back of the baby's hand with her fingertip. "Can I…?"

"Um, what?" Skye asked, confused for a moment, then slowly nodded, shifting Haylie in her arms. "Yeah, sure – just be careful, support her head…" she instructed, like an oh-so-experienced parent (which she was not) as she, just a little bit reluctantly, handed her dozing newborn to Bobbi (she already missed her warm weight).

Ever since being born in the morning, only Fitz, Coulson, and, of course, Jemma had seen Haylie, and now, in the late afternoon, Skye thought it was high time to introduce the newest member of the team to her family – and so far, Haylie had achieved roaring success. Not that she was aware of it.

"You know, she is kind of cute – as far as newborns go," Hunter quipped in, leaning on the back of Bobbi's chair, and looking down at the baby over her shoulder. "Ward, are you sure she's yours?" he then added, turning Grant. "I mean, I can clearly see Skye in her, but there's none of your…" he wave one hand in the air, pretending to be looking for the right words.

Skye half-expected some razor-sharp remark from her better half (there were times when Grant had a hard time tolerating Hunter's humor, after all), but he only smiled, and said, "You're lucky, Hunter – I'm too happy to get pissed off at you. But don't worry, I won't forget this," he continued, tapping his temple with two fingers, "and remember it when I need somebody for diaper duty."

Skye chuckled at that – already imagining Lance wrestling with Haylie and a diaper –, and leaned back against Grant, who was sitting half behind her, half next to her on the bed. She had mostly slept through the day, but she was still bone-deep tired and awfully sore – but she guessed that was somehow expected if one spent the whole night coming down from contraction after contraction, then pushing out something the size of a bowling ball out of her body.

In the meantime, Haylie was carefully transported from Bobbi's arms to Mack's – her tiny baby almost completely covered by his huge palms.

"I hate to agree with Hunter," he said in a calm, low voice (making Hunter snicker), "but you two really make beautiful babies. Because you are absolutely beautiful, baby girl, yes you are," he continued, switching to all-on cooing, and addressing his words solely to Haylie (there was something hilarious about this mountain of a man acting like a teddy bear with her baby, and it brought a silly, happy grin to Skye's face).

Only, the next moment Haylie opened her eyes, blinked at Mack, then, following a moment of silence full of suspense, she started crying – loud and miserable enough that one would have thought she was being murdered. Mack froze right away, his eyes going wide, a terrified look on his face.

"I swear I didn't do anything."

"Of course you did – you broke her," Hunter supplied helpfully.

"I didn't! Here, take her," Mack went on trying to thrust Haylie into the arms of the person closest to him – Trip.

"Don't look at me!" the specialist– who had been merrily chuckling at his teammates' antics until that very moment – protested, holding his hands up, looking almost as scared as Mack. "I know nothing of babies!"

"Give her to me!" Fitz joined the conversation, reaching for Haylie with a kind of confidence he really hadn't shown that morning when he had been first offered to hold the baby.

"Are you sure that's…"

"Maybe we should…"

"Guys," Skye tried to get their attention in the brewing chaos that was only making Haylie cry harder. "Hey, guys–"

"That's enough!" said May quietly, but with such a power that everybody – not counting Haylie – fell silent right away. "I think that's enough for today," she declared, taking the wailing newborn from Mack with ease, soothingly rocking her as she walked over to Skye, and gently handed the baby to her, then turned to the small army of visitors. "Out with you, now," she said, not unkindly. "They need peace and quiet – something that's impossible with all of you here."

She didn't even have to raise her voice to get her point across; the members of the team slowly stood up and left the room waving goodbye and promising to check in on them – one by one – the next day (Hunter even blew a kiss to the baby), until only the new family and May remained.

The older woman smiled fondly at Haylie – who, once again in her mother's arms, and with the strangers and the loud noises gone, was calm again –, then leaned in, and kissed the baby's tiny forehead.

"They are right, you know," May told them in a soft voice when she stood up, "she really is beautiful. You did great. Now, try to get some rest – I'll make sure they don't bother you." And with that, she, too, started walking towards the door.

"Hey," Skye called after her, making her stop. "Thank you, grandma," she said, smiling.

May didn't say a word – but it was all written on her face, in the gentle curve of her lips and the light in her eyes, as she left the room.