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Grant woke with darkness still around him, the pre-dawn gloom shrouding the bed he shared with Skye. The sheets and covers shifted as the woman next to him rolled over in her sleep. Turning his head to the side, Grant smiled at the sight of her. Her back was facing him, but the only material covering her was the sheet. The duvet had slid to her calves, and her curves were just distinguishable from the dark. He moved towards her, hooking his leg around hers and sliding his arm around her waist. Planting a kiss on her shoulder blade, he buried his face in the juncture of her neck, kissing that part of her skin softly as well.

Skye moaned quietly, stretching a little then wriggling backwards, snuggling further into Grant’s embrace. She was only just starting to wake up, but both of them felt enormously content with where they were.

“Mmm, Grant…” Skye murmured, her head turning upwards.

“Morning, Skye.” He replied gently, his voice husky from recent sleep. Lifting his own head, Grant kissed her cheek, drawing a line of them from her ear to the corner of her mouth. She sleepily responded, twisting in his arms until her front was pressed up against his. “You gonna wake up any time soon?”

“Mmmaybe.” She mumbled as her right hand slid up Grant’s chest. It wrapped around his neck and she pulled him closer, her lips searching for his with her eyes closed. Grant happily dipped his head to meet hers, lips softly connecting.

A couple of hours later, the pair were seated in the hotel’s breakfast bar. Grant still had a goofy grin on his face, while Skye was internally rolling her eyes. They were holding hands on top of the table, and using their free hands to eat scrambled eggs on toast and a continental breakfast.

A man appeared in the large entryway to the dining room, wearing a brown suit and a light blue tie. Scanning his eyes over the nearly empty room, he quickly found who he was looking for and strode over.

Grant glanced up and nearly choked on the bacon and tomato he was eating. “Cal.” He said in surprise as soon as his airway cleared, and the man in question stopped before them.

“Hiya.” He grinned, beaming more at Skye. Her mouth was hanging open, and was fortunate to have already swallowed her mouthful.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as soon as got over her shock. “How did you find us? We only got here yesterday!”

“Oh! Raina told me and Jiaying about this a couple of days ago.” He said as he dragged a chair from a neighbouring table over, sitting down with no grace.

“Who’s Jiaying?” Grant asked, confused. “And we only decided that we were coming here a couple of days ago, how could Raina possibly know in advance?”

“Ah, well.” Cal laughed a little. “It’s one of life’s little ironies, I suppose.” He said quietly, in a musing tone. Both Skye and Grant looked at each other, eyebrows raised in synchronisation. Then comprehension hit.

“You don’t think…” Skye trailed off.

“She’s clairvoyant.” They continued together, surprised laughs causing them to smile.

“That is ironic.” Grant said. He shook his head in wonder.

“Your people, Daisy, prefer the term ‘precognitive’.” Cal put in. “They’re a bit icky like that.”

“My people?” she nearly stuttered out.

“Yes, there are more people like you.” He smiled as his daughter and Grant shared a delighted smile of their own. “Jiaying is the leader of these people. They have a name for themselves, but I think they’d prefer to be the ones to tell you what that is.”

“You said ‘me and Jiaying’.” Grant pointed out. “How well do you know her?”

Cal’s jaw worked a little before he regained his composure. “Raina told me because I am your father.” He began, facing Skye. “And Jiaying was informed because she is the leader.” He smiled again, but it appeared more secretive. “The rest…I guess you’ll find out when we get there.”

“Get where, exactly?”

“Oh, I don’t know exactly where!” Cal laughed. “But the person who brought me here does, and he’s the one who’ll be taking us there.”

Skye and Grant glanced at each other again. “We’re still checked in here.” Grant said slowly.

“Then check out, pack your bags and we’ll be on our way!” At the uneasy expressions of the couple in front of him, he tried to put their minds at ease. “There’s already accommodation set up for you at Afterlife.”

“Afterlife?” they chorused again.

“I really should stop talking about it until we get back there.” Cal cringed. He stood, returning the chair to its original position before facing them, his hands twisting around each other. He looked at Skye, but neither of them knew what to say.

“Um…nice tie.” She finally said, breaking the awkward silence with a gesture to his accessory.

“This?” he glanced down. “I bought it especially because it was sky blue.” He looked back at his daughter, finding her wide eyed. Skye’s mouth was hanging open a little, her eyebrows raised and her gaze expressing a soft delight at his statement. Grant’s lips curved up in a small smile as he watched her, then spoke to Cal.

“We’ll finish our breakfast, then check out.”

Cal nodded and took a step backwards. “I’ll let Gordo know.” Waving his hand in the direction of which he’d come, he left Skye and Grant to their own devices.

“Who do you think this ‘Gordo’ guy is?” Grant queried as he and Skye wandered away from their breakfast table.

“No idea, generally speaking.” She answered with a shrug of her shoulders. “But, say this was a case. And, we had to find this guy based on what Cal told us.”

“Pieces solving a puzzle.” He murmured, remembering their conversation on the way back from Peru.

“Exactly.” Skye said, wearing the same reminiscent smile as her boyfriend.

“So, he’s called Gordo.” Grant began, slipping his arm over Skye’s shoulders.

“Did you notice the way he said it, though? Like it was something that…oh what’s the word?”

“Like he enjoyed saying his name like that.”

“Yeah.” Skye linked her fingers together and gestured slightly outwards. “So it’s a nickname.”

“An annoying one, by the sound of it.” He looked at her, smirking. “Must run in the family.”

Skye snorted. “He’s one of ‘my people’.” She continued.

“So he’s powered.” Grant stated. They reached the elevator and he pressed the button to go up.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Cal said that he was how he got here. Maybe he’s a teleporter!” Her face lit up with excitement.

He laughed. “Or super-fast. You know, if I ever got powers, I hope you react exactly the same way that you did just then.”

Skye put her hand on her hip and looked at him thoughtfully. “What kind of powers do you think you’d have?”

“Ah…” Grant’s mind became blank. “Super…sight?”

She looked at him incredulously, then burst out laughing. “Oh, Grant.” She gasped out. The elevator dinged, and they walked inside when the doors opened. Skye continued to chuckle as Grant pressed their floor number.

“What?” he finally asked her.

“You have no imagination.”

“I do too! I’m a brilliant strategist and tactician.” Grant folded his arms defensively, which only made Skye laugh harder.

“You can’t win Battleship.” She pointed out, folding her arms in slight mockery.

“Only against you.” He pouted. “And besides, Battleship’s like a computer!”

Skye raised her eyebrows, and Grant froze. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Ah…well, you’re good with computers, and coding…”

“You think I code the game?”

“No! Um…you, you must have a strategy!”

“Stabbing in the dark. I said that right before you gave me a compliment and a smile and I beat you.” They both glanced at the doors as they opened, and exited the elevator, heading to their hotel room.

“I would’ve beaten you the other two times if we didn’t have that mission at that time.” He countered. Skye shook her head.

“Nuh-uh, honey. We were not playing best two out of three.”

“Were you afraid I was going to beat you?” he looked at her as they came to a halt outside their door.

Skye folded her arms, a firm yet mischievous glint in her eye. “No.”

Grant chuckled, unlocked the door and let her in. “Whatever you say, Rookie.” He closed the door, frowning a little.

“What?”

“You didn’t say what you think my power would be.”

She shrugged like it wasn’t difficult. “Personally? Fire.” Turning, she just glimpsed two men appear out of thin air in the middle of the room.

No one spoke for a while, before Skye broke the silence.

“So, I guess this is Gordo?”

The man wearing sunglasses sighed loudly and turned to Cal. “’Gordo’? You never change, do you?”

Cal ducked his head sheepishly, but his amused grin betrayed his actual thoughts on his actions. With a further disgruntled look, the man turned to face Skye and Grant.

“Hello, Skye. My name is Gordon. I’m an assistant of Jiaying. We help a lot of our race.”

“We’re a different race?” Skye asked, astonished. “How different?”

“Our ancestors were experimented on by the Kree. They altered our DNA so that when triggered, we evolved rapidly through a process called Terrigenisis to develop abilities.”

“The extra macro-molecules?”

“S.H.I.E.L.D.’s already tested you, haven’t they?” Gordon sighed and shook his head in disappointment. “I don’t suppose they were any help.”

“From what FitzSimmons told me, my heartrate during the…Terrigenisis…was over 300.” Cal looked at Grant, snickering. Skye whirled around to find Grant’s jaw hanging loose. “Babe?”

“You caused that massive earthquake, didn’t you?” he asked, purely out of curiosity. Skye nodded, unsure of how he’d react to this. “Wow.”

“Skye, was there anything else that FitzSimmons found out?” Gordon said, bringing her attention to the matter at hand.

“Ah, my blood samples from before and after were drastically different.” She shifted on the spot. “Fitz changed my after samples to before ones to keep Simmons from finding out. He got me out of quarantine and helped me keep the secret until a certain Kree came to visit.”

Cal’s gaze snapped to her. “Well, that couldn’t have been good.”

“I agree.” Gordon stated. “What did the Kree say?”

“That he’d noticed an ancient signal that meant that a Diviner had been activated, and came to kill whoever had been changed. Said that we were monsters that had to be put down, no matter what we’d been before. That we were designed as weapons for some war of theirs.” Skye wrapped her arms around herself, hiding how much those words had hurt her.

“What else did he say?” Grant asked softly, winding his arms around her and pulling her close.

“It’s not urgent. You can tell Jiaying everything that happened regarding your powers once we get to Afterlife. For now, we should go.” Gordon said.

“Does your leader get so involved with everyone of your race?”

“Skye is one of two people to go through Terrigenisis using a Diviner in a Kree temple. No one else has done that for thousands of years. We developed our own way of transforming generations ago and it’s a lot more controlled. You can learn more about it once we get there.” Gordon urged.

“They’ll need to check out, in the normal, human way.” Cal said. “If you teleport them and their luggage out, the hotel staff will notice that something’s up. S.H.I.E.L.D. may be involved.”

Gordon groaned this time. “How do you people get anything done with all this protocol? Fine, I’ll take Cal now, and you can let me know when you’re done.” With that, the men were gone.

“Teleporter.” Skye noted. “Ha. Called it.” She craned her neck up to look at him.

“How are we supposed to let him know we’re done?” he said after kissing her lightly. “He didn’t leave us a phone number to call.”

“Maybe he doesn’t need one.”

“Maybe…”

“Come on.” Skye pulled out of his arms and moved towards her strewn clothes. “Let’s pack.”