Flight
Skye looked around the room with amazement bordering on fear. She’d only been gone ten minutes. They’d quickly agreed a plan of action, with her packing clothes for both of them and the kids, while he packed the hand luggage. It seemed like the best idea as he was used to packing a large amount of stuff in a small bag. They didn’t want to give the kids much to carry so they had to carry the majority of it.
In front of her were two plain backpacks that were bursting at the seams. She had expected him to cut down what they needed to just the bare essentials but that clearly hadn’t happened. He had already labelled them, giving her the light of the bags.
“Ward, what the hell have you packed?”
“Well I wanted to make sure we had enough to keep them entertained. So I packed books for them all. They also have a game each plus a couple of games they can all play together. Then I thought well what if they don’t want to play or read so I packed some colouring books and pencils. Then I realised I didn’t have enough for one each so added some more. Then I saw the computer games and included them so they will definitely have enough to play with. Some times cases go missing so I included a pair of clothing for everyone. Oh then I added a snack and drink for everyone in case they get hungry of thirsty.”
She stared at him in disbelieve. Was this still the same Grant Ward she knew? He rubbed the back of his neck absently.
“I may have gone a bit overboard.”
“You think?”
“I just don’t want them to be bored. Especially in case we are delayed.”
“Delayed?”
“You’ve not flown very often outside the bus have you? It can happen. I remember one time where I was delayed seven hours. I was bored and I was an adult. We kept getting food vouchers but everyone was hot and they didn’t cover the costs. Kids were screaming and running riot. I didn’t want that to happen with ours just in case.”
“Grant Douglas Ward! Now you’ve gone and jinxed us.”
He looked at her with puppy dog eyes that she couldn’t resist. God he was adorable when he looked like that. It made her feel like she had kicked a puppy. All she wanted to do was pull him into a hug and cover his face in kisses.
Whoa! Where had that come from? No she can’t think about kissing him. He is her SO! Plus they are currently the only agents on this team. She has to remain professional!
“Don’t give me those puppy dog eyes! It doesn’t work for the kids, it won’t work for you either.”
“Puppy dog eyes?” He asked in confusion while still giving her them.
Great! He doesn’t even realise he is doing it. Though that was probably a good thing. She’d give him whatever he wanted if he gave her that look and asked her. She would even do extra training and she hated training! The man was a menace! Far to good looking for his own good. He could either melt you or making you crawl for forgiveness with a single look. How could he not know about it?!
“Never mind. How about we cut down on some of the games? It will make everything a bit lighter.” She replied pulling out at least five games he had stuffed into the bag. “You can give me more stuff you know, I’m not that much of a lightweight.”
“You’re going to have Phil as well. I thought you’d be better with less.”
“He’s going to be in his pushchair. I think I’ll manage. You don’t have to carry everything you know. We’re doing this together.”
It took them another half hour to sort through everything Ward had packed, with Skye removing half of the things he had put in the bags. For a guy that lived a minimalist life he didn’t pack that way for the kids!
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To say the kids were excited about going away was an understatement. Leo and Mel danced around the table while Jemma let out a high-pitched squeal and babbled something so quickly they weren’t sure it was even English. Phil seemed completely bemused by the activity but quickly got caught up in the excitement. Once Ward explained they were going on a plane it was all he kept saying.
“So we’re going away?” asked Mel, dancing around the table excitedly.
“Yes sweetie.” Skye replied absently trying to understand what Jemma was talking about.
“Plane!”
“Where’re we going?” Mel asked. “Is it Disneyland? Somewhere sunny?”
“Plane!!”
“Yes baby I know.” Skye bent and placed a kiss on Phil’s forehead before replying to Mel. “It’s a surprise. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Same as we do.” She muttered under her breath while lifting Jemma onto a chair to encourage her to eat breakfast. Ward had Leo and Mel under each arm and was sitting them down too. Fury still hadn’t told them where they were going so it was as much a surprise to the adults as the kids.
“We get to fly. Flying is so cool. But it can have an impact on the body. It’s to do with pressure. I can’t wait!” Jemma gushed.
“PLANE!!!!!”
“We know Phil. Soon but first you need to eat your breakfast.” Ward tried to calm him down so he could feed him banana. It failed with more banana ending up on the floor and on Ward than in Phil.
“Remind me why this is a good idea.” Ward muttered to Skye as she passed him a cloth to clean up.
“It isn’t but we don’t have a choice. Fury ordered it.”
“Oh yeah. Remind me to kill him later.”
“He’s your boss!”
“So?”
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Thankfully the ride to the airport was fine. Phil was still yelling plane every now and then but appeared to have calmed down slightly. They were driven by an agent sent by Fury, who kept staring at the kids especially Phil. Eventually she grew fed up of the staring, leaning forward so she could speak with you him and Ward hearing her.
“Above your pay grade. Way above. I only know cause I hacked the file.”
She grinned wickedly before winking at Ward, who appeared to having trouble keeping his strict agent face in place, his shoulders shaking with supressed mirth. The driver gave him a sideways look before pressing down on the accelerator. Apparently he wanted rid of his passengers as fast as possible. That was fine with her. She didn’t like unknown agents and Mr Grumpy Pants wasn’t exactly growing on her.
After a thankfully short journey they arrived at the airport. Having quickly unloaded the cases they were pointed to a check-in desk by agent Grumpy Pants before he sped off.
“I don’t think he liked us.”
“Well someone had to be immune to your charm at some point.”
“Hey. Hang on Robot does that mean you’re not?”
“That’s… not… I didn’t say that!”
“Haha. You like me. You really, really like me!”
“Come on. Let’s go and check-in and find out where we’re going.”
“Don’t think that is the end of this conversation Mister. You’ve said it, you can’t take it back now.”
“I said no such thing.”
Skye laughed as he became more and more flustered. He was adorable when he was like this. He was adorable most of the time actually. Gathering the kids they she headed toward the check-in with Ward bringing up the rear with the cases.
“Lanzarote. Where’s that?” She questioned, reading the sign above the desk.
“Spanish Island. Near the coast of Africa.”
“So hot. Great.”
“I thought you’d be happy with sun? Could have been Iceland and cold.”
“Kids and hot temperatures?”
“Fair point. Oh Hi. We were told to pick up are tickets here?” Ward explained smiling at the lady on the desk.
It shouldn’t have annoyed her the way she simpered at Ward but it did. But it at least meant that they got done quickly, the kids were quickly become bored standing in the queue. Naturally they were all now hungry and needing the toilet. Once that had been dealt with they still had another hour to pass before boarding their flight. The girls were interested in some of the shops so Skye took them to look around them while Ward took the boys to look at the planes through the windows. Phil was quiet happy to just watch the planes taking off and landing where as Leo wanted to know exactly how they worked. Ward could answer some of his questions as being trained as a pilot had given him some knowledge.
“Maybe I could ask the pilot when we get on?” Leo commented after Ward couldn’t give him an answer to one question.
“I think he might be a bit busy mate but maybe you will be able to.”
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Leo was disappointed. He had expected to be able to see the pilot but he was locked away. Daddy said he was busy flying the plane but for some reason he expected to be able to see him. But it was so good. You could feel the plane reacting to the pilot; take off was his favourite part so far. You could feel the engines working. Now it was just boring. You couldn’t hear or see anything.
Daddy had suggested he play a game and had passed him a jigsaw. Jemma hadn’t wanted to play with him. She was sitting on Daddy’s knee looking out of the window and talking to him about clouds. Mel was sat on the other side of the plane with Mummy and Phil. It wasn’t possible to play with them as people kept walking up and down the plane.
His jigsaw was good though. It was 3D and was going to be a plane. It didn’t have working parts but it looked cool. Mum had been worried it would be too difficult but Dad had said he was clever enough for it. It would have been easy if it weren’t for the plane bouncing up and down.
One time it even bounced it off his table and down onto the floor. Putting up the table he unclicked his seatbelt to get it.
“Leo?”
“Just picking it up Daddy. It fell on the floor.”
“Ok but be careful.”
He had built the body of the plane but it was now in pieces over the floor. He had managed to find most of it with some of it being beside Dad’s feet but one piece was still missing. Where had it gone?
There it was! He spotted it down beside Mel’s feet. Crawling across the floor he quickly retrieved it. There was suddenly a lot of shouting and a crash from around him. Looking up he found a lady staring down at him and Daddy was looking annoyed.
“Oops.”
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Ward relaxed slightly when they got sat on the plane. They both had two kids and were sat across from each other, which made things easier. He would be glad when the flight was over. At least once they were at the resort the kids would be able to move, instead of cooped up. He hated flying like this; he barely had room for his legs. However, the kids seemed happy enough, Leo was building his plane and Jemma was sat on his lap telling him all about clouds. She was fascinated by them; happy even though they could see nothing else. He leant and pressed a gentle kiss against her hair as she talked to him. It just felt natural.
Naturally just as he was feeling peaceful everything went wrong. He wasn’t sure exactly what happened in the beginning. Leo had lost parts of his plane so had gone looking for it. After telling him to be careful, he had turned back to Jemma. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the airhostess approaching with her trolley. He was about to ask Skye and the children if they wanted a drink when it happened.
The airhostess walking backwards suddenly went flying, tripping of Leo he later guessed. This started a chain reaction. As she fell she knocked another passenger and sent her drink flying off her tray and onto another passenger. The airhostess had stood up and was now glaring at Leo.
He looked at Skye for help for a second before jumping into action. Scoping up Jemma he deposited her back in his seat before grabbing Leo and putting him down beside her. Apologising to the airhostess, he went to check on the passenger who had been covered in the drink. Thankfully they saw the funny side of it and weren’t too angry.
Heading back to his seat he overheard the man sitting behind him.
“See this is what happens when you have too many kids. People need to learn to use protection.”
“Have you maybe thought we wanted a large family?” He retorted angrily.
“You maybe wanted to do a paternity test. Most of them look nothing like you.”
“We adopted!” He snapped before sitting back in his seat.
How dare he say things like that? He couldn’t wait for this flight to be over. It was already living up to his expectations.
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