Chapter 20
When a phone call comes in at eight in the morning you know its not going to be good news. Especially when only a few people in the world have that phone number. Groaning Skye considered burying her head in the pillows and ignoring the world for a few more minutes. But deciding it was better to know what was going on she stumbled out of bed and downstairs to where Ward was talking on the phone. He seemed deep in conversation so she headed into the kitchen, pouring coffee for both of them. Ward had already set the coffeemaker, bless that man! She needed it to be able to understand what was happening and his frown suggested he would need it once the conversation was done. As it was too early for anything stronger coffee would have to do. There were a lot of sirs from Ward suggesting it was Fury on the phone. Watching from the kitchen she could see Ward arguing and decided she didn’t want to know right now. It must be something fairly bad to cause him to argue with his boss. It was normally prudent to agree with Fury. Knowing her little monsters would soon be up having heard the phone she began digging out cereal and bowls and began setting the table. By the time she’d set out glasses and poured everyone’s favourite juice (apple for Phil and Leo, orange for Mel and Tripp, pineapple for Jemma) Ward had finished his phone call.
“Coffee.” Skye handed him the cup taking in his haggard expression.
“You’re an angel!” He eagerly took the cup from her and downed it in one. Things were clearly worse than she imagined.
“Grant?”
Sighing he reached for the coffee pot, topping up both their cups before replying.
“It was Fury. They’ve got a new lead. But they’ve no teams to go and investigate it. He’s going to send Clint, Steve and Thor to check it out.”
“OK. But why were you arguing?”
“Sending some of the avengers is fine. But they don’t know exactly what they were looking for. Ideally Fury would normally send our team but…”
“They’re currently children so can’t help. So?”
He looked at her, eyes begging her not to ask.
“No! No you can’t go. No!”
“Skye! I haven’t got a choice. I’m the only one who can do this. Besides Fury ordered me.”
“No. You might end up like Tripp or worse! No!” She cried.
Moving quickly as he saw her tears flow down her cheeks he pulled her into his arms, her head resting on his chest.
“Hey. I’ll be careful. There’s no way I’ll let that happen to me. I won’t leave you alone.” He promised, kissing the top of her head.
“You’d better not.” She pulled back, angrily dashing away her tears. “I’m coming with you.”
“Skye you can’t.”
“Why? Am I not good enough?”
“That’s not it and you know it. Fury needs someone to stay behind to look after the children in case anything happens to me. There’s no one else who can do that. Besides this way I know you’re definitely safe. I don’t want anything to happen to you.” He gently wiped away her tears, looking directly into her eyes. She could doubt his sincerity. Flinging her arms around him again she absorbed his warmth and strength, hoping she could safe it up while he was gone. Eventually calming something came to her.
“Hang on. I’m going to be on my own.”
“Fury’s talking to Nat. She’ll come and help you out for a while. You know I wouldn’t let you deal with the kids all on your own.”
“It’s all planned out.” She realised sadly.
“Yes. Not matter how much arguing I did I couldn’t change that.”
“When do you leave?”
“Tomorrow.” Seeing her face he added. “The sooner I’m gone the sooner I’m back. Fury wanted me to leave today but I said no. I’d promised I’d stay with the girls.”
“I bet that went down well.”
“He wasn’t impressed but I threated to let the children call him and ask Grandpa why he was being so mean.”
“You blackmailed your boss?”
“Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
The sounds of footsteps indicated that they weren’t going to be alone for long. She began to pull herself together not wanting the children to see her upset.
“Are you going to be OK?” Ward whispered stroking her cheek.
Nodding she leant up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“Mummy who was on the phone?” Mel demanded as she climbed onto her chair.
“Grandpa. He has a task for your dad tomorrow.”
“Is Grandpa coming?” Tripp asked as he grabbed a box of cereal.
“I don’t think so but Auntie Nat is going to stay with us for a bit.”
“Yay!” Jemma and Leo celebrated.
“She can finally teach me how to throw knifes.” Mel announced.
Skye glared at Ward wondering how he could leave her to deal with it.
“I’ll make it up to you I promise.” He mouthed as he began feeding Phil is breakfast.
“You’d better. You’d better.” She warned.
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Having tidied up and left Ward to deal with the girls, Skye and the boys had headed for the mall. With the addition of Tripp more clothes were needed plus all of the boys clothes were beginning to fall apart. Even though Mel was more active than Leo she managed to take better care of her clothes than him. Phil was simply growing and needed clothes in a bigger size. Normally they would refuse to go shopping with her but she’d promised them food and games. It was strange driving the car, she was so used to Ward driving. But it was no bigger than her van so it wasn’t a big deal. She was actually glad for the trip, it kept her mind off Ward’s mission. If not she’d just have been sat at home worrying.
Strapping a happy Phil into the pushchair before warning Leo and Tripp not to wander off. She’d already decided that she wanted to get all of the shopping done first before they went and had some fun. Heading into the large department store she headed for the children’s department. Handing Tripp a basket she quickly chose some tops for all the boys, knowing they wouldn’t want to try anything on. It was a miracle she’d got them to agree to shopping in the first place. Seeing a pair of adorable jeans she measured them up against Phil before throwing them in the basket. A short while later it was nearly off flowing with clothes as she picked up enough for all of the boys for a while. Picking up a package of underwear she examined them carefully.
“Mum you can’t pick my underwear!” Tripp announced scandalised.
“I’m your mother I can do what I want and you need new ones.”
“Do you pick Dad’s?” He accused.
Skye’s mind was suddenly filled with images of Ward in tight, white underwear. Trying not blush she turned back to Tripp.
“Thank you for reminding me dear. Now pick between these two packs. They’re both cotton so they’re fine.”
Ward was going to kill her if she bought him underwear but she had to say something to Tripp. Sullenly he picked a pair before putting them in the basket.
“Right. Now you can help me pick some clothes for your Dad.” She was determined he would wear something other than white or black.
A short while later the boys had picked several shirts and t-shirts of Ward, including a spectacular pink shirt that she was certain he might refuse to wear. Phil had chosen some novelty socks and ties for him with Leo selecting a number of weird fish shirts with various phrases on the back including Butch Bassidy and the Sundance Squid and Pac-Clam. It wasn’t what he’d normally wear but she could resist them. Plus they made her laugh. The salesman could quite believe the amount of clothing she had got, maybe she’d gone a bit over board. Having paid the enormous bill, they took the clothes back to the car after which she finally caved into Tripp’s moans and agreed they could do something fun now. Her only stipulation was that it was something they all could do, including Phil. They eventually settled on crazy golf. Although Phil was still a bit small for it with Skye’s help he should be able to at least attempt to hit the ball. Tripp and Leo were already arguing about who would get the best score. Leo was insisting that calculating the angles was the best approach while Tripp was adamant it was all about hand eye coordination. Skye really didn’t care; she just hit it and hoped for the best.
Leaving the pushchair at the entrance Phil toddled around the course holding onto Skye, hitting balls along ramps and through slaloms with his own smaller golf club. She hovered behind him every time he hit the ball but he seemed to be doing fine, better than she was actually. Even a baby had better hand eye coordination than her. Somewhat surprisingly Leo and Tripp were level with one hole to play. There had already been accusations of cheating with balls being accidently kicked and distractions as the ball was about to be putted. Skye had become a referee, stopping the more outrageous attempts. Unbelievably it ended up a draw between the two with Phil coming next. It didn’t stop both boys arguing the merits of their methods.
“Come on boys let’s go get food.” She knew that would distract them!
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Ward had left the girls to play for a bit while he packed. He didn’t want to leave them or Skye but Fury had been insistent. At least Skye would have Nat for support. He didn’t care that Fury was his boss; if it left Skye on her own he would never have agreed to go on the mission.
“Daddy? Will you come and play tea parties with us?” Jemma stuck her head around the door.
“Sure. I’ll be there in two minutes.” He quickly zipped up his bag before heading into the girls’ room. They’d chosen to play tea parties and he’d agreed, he would do anything to make them happy. Entering the room he saw Mel and Jemma sat on the floor with flower bands around their heads.
“Here Dad.” Mel passed him a band of pink flowers.
“You put it on your head Daddy.” Jemma giggled taking it from him. Sitting down beside them he bent at the waist so she could put it on his head.
“It’s a flower crown. It makes us princesses.”
“I’m a princess?”
“No silly. You’re a prince.” Jemma giggled as Mel poked him.
“Well your highnesses what would you like to do?”
“Can we watch a movie later?” Asked Mel as she began to pour a small teapot. Ward could see it had been filled with water so that they actually had something to drink out of the cups.
“Sure. We can even watch it in my room so we can all lie on the bed.” He picked up one of the small cups and gently knocked it against the girls’ cups. “Cheers.” He replied downing the water.
He sat and chatted with the girls listening as they told him storied about their toys and what games they’d been playing. They then decided they wanted to play dress up so he helped them on with their princess dresses and helped apply some makeup. Even though he was a prince he also had to have makeup so he lay on the floor to give them the opportunity to draw all over his face. When he got up later to make popcorn for the movie he found he had one purple eyelid and one pink, circles of red blusher along his cheeks and bright pink lipstick. He couldn’t help but laugh at his reflection. No one would recognise him as the specialist who had problems socialising with people.
Snuggling up on the bed with a girl either side of him he looked at the movie they’d picked.
“High School Musical?”
“It’s got good songs.” Mel answered helping herself to popcorn. “We can sing along. Jemma can put the word up at the bottom.”
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Skye arrived back finding the house relatively quiet. Having made the boys carry in the bags she let them go play games while she took the bags upstairs and found Ward and the girls. Putting away all the clothes apart from Ward’s she headed to her bedroom where she could hear noise. Opening the door a crack she could see both girls dressed up with makeup, lying on their fathers chest singing along to the songs of the movie. She instantly recognised it as High School Musical. Ward was also covered in makeup with a flower crown that just completed the picture. As he was too busy singing along to notice her she slipped away, leaving them to their bonding session. Heading back downstairs she grabbed her laptop and used her spare time to surf the Internet, something she’d done little off since the children arrived.
A little while later noises in the kitchen signalled that the girls’ time had finished and Ward was preparing tea. After quickly checking the children were occupied she moved into the kitchen to see if he needed any help.
“’We’re soaring, flying. There’s not a star in heaven that we can’t reach.” Ward sang as he stirred a pot on the stove.
“If we’re trying so we’re breaking free.” She finished making him jump.
“It really gets in your head doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. Girls enjoyed it though.”
“It looks like they weren’t the only ones!”
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Tea had been simple and quiet, the kids picking up on the tension of the adults. Having eventually got them all to bed Ward grabbed his bag and headed out. Skye watched with trepidation. She really didn’t want him to leave. Nat was to arrive in the morning but it wasn’t the extra help she was worried about, it was loosing him. She stood at the door hesitating before running out onto the drive.
“Grant!” She called before he reached the car waiting at the curb. Turning he dropped the bag he was holding. Before she lost her nerve she ran up to him throwing her arms around his neck. Pulling his face to hers she pressed her lips against his, her heart racing until she felt him respond. Pulling back so she could look into his eyes she ordered:
“You’d better come back in one piece.”
Turning and running back into the house so she didn’t have to see him leave she missed the delighted smile that passed over his face before he turned and entered the car.
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