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Skye was becoming more and more energetic, fuelled by the nervous excitement of finding out more about herself and her powers. She whizzed around the hotel room, gathering everything of theirs and packing them haphazardly into the suitcases. Grant sighed, shook his head, and set about folding the clothes properly before placing them back into the cases with more organisation. Multiple times he had grabbed Skye by the shoulders and told her to calm down, that she didn’t need to worry about this opportunity being lost because she wasn’t fast enough. Every time, Skye nodded and took deep breaths, stilling her muscles before jumping back into what she was doing. Grant’s mini lectures had a recorded best of three seconds.

Thankfully, Skye’s restlessness didn’t hamper the packing process, and they were heading downstairs to check out within fifteen minutes. The tension in Skye’s limbs increased with each step, until the point where she was bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Skye!” Grant called for the fourth time in two minutes. “Stop and listen to me, please.” He halted just outside the elevator lobby, waiting for her to skip back to him.

“What? Why are you stopping, we need to go!” she insisted, grabbing his hand and tugging on it. “Grant!”

“You need to relax.” He said firmly. He used the hand Skye had taken hold of to draw to her close, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Because once we check out, and leave the hotel, we’re meeting Gordon and on our way to Afterlife.”

“I know!” Skye nearly shouted at him. She quieted for a second, pursing her lips. “I know. I’m just–”

“Worried and excited and trying not to bring the building down, so you’re focusing on everything except finding other people just like you.” Grant spouted without taking a breath.

“…yeah.” She breathed.

“Don’t worry about it.” He whispered. Leaning in, he pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, lingering to enforce the virtue of patience. “You’ll be fine. Your dad will be there, so you’ll get to know him better. And I’ll be beside you, every step of the way. Okay?”

Skye nodded, her eyes closed as she breathed slowly. “Okay.” She said quietly. Opening her eyes, she reached up on her toes to kiss Grant, the embrace soft and sweet. “Let’s go.”

Grant didn’t answer, preferring to smile his assent. Skye pulled out of his arms and led him to the reception area, the room key swinging from her other hand. He frowned.

“How’d you get that?”

Skye glanced back, a cheeky grin in place. “Your back pockets are rather loose.”

He sighed loudly. “And here I was thinking you were feeling me up.”

Ahead of him, his girlfriend laughed. “That too.”

“Daisy!” a voice called. It sounded excited, and Skye’s head immediately snapped around to look for the owner.

“The alleyway.” Grant pointed out, directing her eyes to see the gap between the buildings. Taking hold of Grant’s hand, Skye pulled him along behind her, her other hand carrying her bags. As they neared the alley, both Cal and Gordon came into view. They were smiling at the pair, Cal beaming proudly.

“Hi Dad.” Skye nervously said, but the way that Cal’s face lit up helped ease the feeling of uncertainty. Beside her, Grant rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb before raising it to his lips and lightly planting a kiss. Gordon’s mouth twitched in slight amusement.

“Are you ready?” he asked. He was still wearing his sunglasses, which made Skye curious as to what else his gift entailed. She pushed that to the side for the moment, and nodded her assent to his question at the same time that Grant did so verbally. “Good. Hold on.”

His vague phrasing, coupled with the confident strides of Cal and Gordon into her personal space, had Skye leaning back into Grant with a slight worry. She had no chance to say anything before blue light electrified around them, moving with a mixture of ripple reflections and fork lightning. The surroundings of the alleyway vanished and were replaced by a village setting, full of milling people and red wooded buildings.

Gordon and Cal stepped away the second they arrived, giving the newcomers some space. Gordon turned to a couple of approaching men and gave them instructions to place Skye and Grant’s bags in their room.

Skye was still in a daze. Here was a place full of people like her. With the same altered lineage and special potential running through their veins. She had never felt at home so quickly, and it both delighted and frightened her.

“So this is Afterlife?” she heard Grant say. His arm was still wrapped around her waist from when she’d leaned back, and he sounded in just as much overwhelmed wonder as she felt.

“Welcome home, Skye.” Gordon said, pulling her from her mulling thoughts.

Home? She thought. Is this where I was born?

The tall man in front of her continued. “This is where you belong.”

Oh my god. I belong here? I belong somewhere? Skye breathed slowly, trying to settle with the concept that these people would accept her right from the beginning, but unlike S.H.I.E.L.D., would completely understand her gift.

Grant used his free hand to rub Skye’s shoulder soothingly as dozens of people started crowding around them.

“Is this who Raina transformed with?” he heard some guy say.

“Yes, but give her some space.” Gordon answered him, gesturing towards the crowd in a pushing motion. Slowly, the gap between the descendants and the couple increased and felt less claustrophobic. “Skye, these people are descendants, just like you. We are called Inhumans.”

“Huh.” Skye muttered.

“Jiaying will tell you more. Cal, can you take Grant to their room?”

“I can’t go with Skye?” Grant asked, pinching his eyebrows together as he frowned. Skye straightened her back, ready to say that anything she gets told will get told to Grant, when Gordon explained.

“He’s not a descendant, as far as we can tell for now. So, no. He has to be left uninformed. Cal?” He left no room for argument as the crowd dispersed and he strode off.

“It’s best you follow him.” Cal said in a low voice, giving her a comforting smile. Skye nodded, gave Grant a kiss and hurried after the Inhuman with sunglasses.

Skye caught up with Gordon as he neared a larger building, stopping in the courtyard out front as anxiety hit her. Was her gift too powerful? Would they feel threatened? Does Raina know what I can do? These thoughts plagued her mind, racing through and causing her chest to tighten.

“Skye.” Gordon said, pulling her out of her train of thought with his calm, reassuring voice. “It’s alright. Jiaying has spent decades helping those of us who have gone through Terrigenisis. You are no exception.”

Skye nodded and breathed slowly, calming her speeding pulse. “Okay, I just…”

“Panicked. I understand.” Slowly, deliberately, Gordon reached up and removed his sunglasses. Skye gaped. “I was just as terrified when I first changed.”

“…whoa.” Was all Skye could say.

“Shall we go in?”

She nodded again, more absent-mindedly this time, and followed him into the building.

“So who is Jiaying, exactly?” Grant asked as he followed Cal through the dirt paths of Afterlife. “You seem like you’re hiding something about her.”

Cal tensed up. “Ah, I-I’m not sure that I should be the one to tell you…it really is more of Daisy’s choice.”

“Fine.” Grant nodded, accepting that Cal wasn’t going to budge on this. “You said you didn’t know where this place is? Why is that?”

“Well, first of all, I’m technically not one of them.” Cal answered. He was more relaxed now that there wasn’t anything that he had to hide from Grant in regards to this. “Like you, in a way.”

“And second of all?”

“It’s kept a secret from most of the people here. Jiaying knows, as does Gordo.” He stopped as Grant chuckled. “What?”

“Ah, it’s just…I can see where Skye gets her nicknaming from.” Grant smiled fondly. “The first thing she called me was ‘the T-1000’.”

“The closed up kinda guy, huh?” Cal observed, speaking softly.

“I was.” The younger man sighed. “It was how I survived my mother and brother, and later it was how I survived John.”

“That’d be Garrett, right?” Cal got a wary stare from Grant at these words. “I talked to Raina.” He explained. Grant grunted in grudging acknowledgement. “She told me he was a fraud, a murderer, had serious mental problems, and so afraid to die, he had my Daisy shot.” Cal explained this calmly, but Grant could almost feel the storm brewing under his skin.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg.” He mumbled, his head hung low.

“I get that you regret what you’ve done.” Skye’s father said compassionately, causing Grant to whip his head up and look at him. “I regret what I’ve done. What matters is that you’re different to who you used to be. You recognise your mistakes, and you learn from them.”

Grant looked back at the ground, mulling over Cal’s words.

“So what changed?” the older man asked after a few minutes of silence as they approached a smaller building. “After Garrett died, what did you do?”

“I was kept in isolation underground for six months, only agreeing to talk to Skye, then Coulson shipped me off to my brother for a public trial and execution.”

“…harsh.”

Grant barked out a laugh. “Yeah. Coulson’s a good man, and he stands for the right things, but he does the wrong things to get there. I don’t think he even realises how much of a hypocrite he can be.”

“Everyone’s a hypocrite at some point. I’m not saying I like Coulson, I’m just saying it’s just a way to understand other people’s perspectives. It’s a hard art to master, not many do.” Cal said, shoving his hands into his pant pockets.

“Oh yeah.” Grant muttered. Well, he’s not the only one.

“Well, here’s your room.” Cal said brightly, opening double doors to a spacious bedroom, complete with Chinese decorations and a double bed.

“Cosy.” Grant wandered into the room, and impressed pout on his face. “Skye’ll like this.”