Chapter Seventeen

A/N: Quick shoutout to @voidstarkward for going through and voting on everything! Thank you to everyone for all the support!

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I woke up to a soft shake of my shoulder and a quiet voice, so I knew it wasn't Grant. I opened my eyes and found my head still resting on Grant's shoulder, but now his head was resting against mine. He had fallen asleep, too.

I smiled to myself. It was sweet, and it meant that Grant couldn't wake me up the way he normally does.

Turns out, Phil was the one gently shaking me awake. Yet another reason for me to seriously love that dude. He recruited me, he introduced me to May, he's nice and friendly, and he doesn't wake me up with an earthquake.

I nudged Ward awake and he looked a little flustered, but I thought it was cute. Although I'm sure if I told him that, it would've made him more uncomfortable.

We had landed the Quinjet a way out of town and we were going to drive into Málaga with a rental car that had been left for us. We left the Quinjet cloaked in the field.

"Nobody forget where we parked," joked Garrett, getting into the passenger seat. Phil was driving and Ward and I were stuck sitting in the back. Oh well.

"So what exactly are we doing on this mission?" I asked.

"Garrett and I are going to be brothers, Clark and Bill, here for some sibling bonding and fun before Clark's wedding. You and Agent Ward are going to be newly-graduated college students taking a whirlwind gap year in Europe before starting grad school."

"And you're dating," added Garrett.

Of course we are, I thought. Not that I really minded.

"You're going to be 'hitching a ride' with us into town since we happened to be staying in the same hotel, then we'll part ways to our separate rooms," finished Phil.

"What are our names?" I asked. I always focused on the important questions.

"Mark and Isabella," answered Phil.

"Mark?" I asked, squinting at Grant, "I guess I could see that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Grant.

"You just don't look like a Mark."

"Well what does 'a Mark' look like to you?"

"I don't know. Not like you."

Grant laughed and shook his head.

"Do you see what I have to deal with?" he said to Garrett with a smile on his face.

"Trust me, you were worse," said Garrett, giving me a mischievous look. Then it hit me. Garrett knew Ward better than almost anyone else.

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed, leaning forward against the seatbelt to get closer to Garrett, "You have to tell me every embarrassing story you have. Please!"

Grant's face went pale. "No!"

"Yes!" I practically cackled.

"Well, truth be told, Ward here was a natural. But the one slip he had was when we were by this big mud volcano." Grant groaned and leaned back in his seat, covering his face. "He wasn't watching where he was going during a mock pursuit and he was actually gaining on me until he face planted into the mud. I had to stop running I was laughing so damn hard. It took him five minutes to get up."

My grin got wider the longer Garrett talked. The drive wasn't very long, but it was filled with the story of the mud volcano. It shouldn't have been a very long story, but Garrett was an amazing story teller and it lasted until we got to the hotel. I was practically in tears I was laughing so hard.

"Alright, alright, very funny," grumbled Ward as Phil parked, "But we're here. Try not to blow our cover because you're laughing at my pain."

Needless to say, that only made me laugh harder. I took a few deep breaths and managed to look normal as we all climbed out of the car.

"You know, for someone who believes in karma, you're being awfully reckless," said Grant, just loud enough that I could hear him.

"You're probably right," I whispered back, "But I really don't care."

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After checking in and parting ways with 'Clark and Bill', Grant and I were settled in yet another hotel room with only one bed. Phil and Garrett were going to hit the town and scope things out and then Grant and I would follow tomorrow. Right now we were trying to get information, not the orb, so we were trying to fly under the radar. But since Grant and I were supposed to stay in our room until tomorrow, I had to think of something to do to stay sane.

I turned on the TV in the bedroom and started clicking through the movie and show options.

"What are you doing?" asked Grant, coming into the room with me. I had flopped onto the bed and gotten comfortable.

"I'm looking for something good to watch," I answered, not looking at Grant. I was busy.

Grant scowled in thought. "Shouldn't we be doing something more productive?"

"Like what? We're stuck in here until tomorrow and we're supposed to be convincing people we're normal. Normal people watch TV. Join me," I said, patting the side of the bed I hadn't claimed.

To my surprise, Grant actually came over. He sat down next to me, not looking very relaxed but at least sitting down. I was so tempted to make him watch something like High School Musical or Tangled, but I decided I had to lure him in before I could successfully get him watching Disney. Finally, I came across The Office.

"Oh!" I said excitedly, "I've been meaning to start this!"

"What is it?" asked Grant.

"It's a TV show that a lot of people in school were obsessed with. It sounds hilarious. Let's start it!"

Grant shrugged and I pushed play, leaning back against the pillows. Hopefully, we could just hang out like this until we started spying tomorrow.

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"Oh my gosh!" I laughed, burying my head in Grant's shoulder. Dwight had just named the famous duo of 'Butch Cassidy and Mozart' after almost three and a half straight hours of bingeing, and I was losing it.

"Wait wait, was that a knock?" asked Grant, pausing the episode. I was happy to say that he was not immune to humor, and he'd been laughing his head off right along with me.

"It's probably room service," I said. We had ordered some pizza a few episodes in and I'd almost forgotten about it.

"I take it you're going to make me go get it?" asked Grant, trying to give me a really? look but failing because I was laying on his chest and he didn't have the angle.

"Definitely," I said.

"Fine," he sighed, then rolled me off him with so much force that I almost went off the other side of the bed.

"Dammit Ward!"

He just grinned as he left the room to answer the door.

Despite the bed rolling, I was having a lot of fun! Grant seemed more relaxed than usual, and we'd been laughing and smiling together for hours at The Office. It felt like something normal people would get to do, not something spies did to kill time.

I was hoping that later I might actually get to talk to him about important stuff. I'd read somewhere that people were more honest when they were tired, and I wanted to know about who Grant was before Garrett found him. I felt like we'd bonded enough that he might be willing to tell me about it.

"Smells good," announced Ward, coming back in with a pizza in one hand and root beer in the other. He set it on the middle of the bed and I grabbed a slice, leaning back happily as I tasted it.

"It's sooooo good!" I exclaimed, "I love pizza."

"Agreed." Ward flopped back on the bed too, and I shifted over so that I was leaning against him like before.

"Hit play," I urged.

"Will do."

The episode started and I tried to relax, but Grant seemed more tense than he had before. I couldn't see his face, but I hoped he wasn't shutting down.

I felt him take a deep breath and clear his throat as he moved his left arm out from under me and to the side, laying it to rest just above my shoulders. I smiled to my self and snuggled in to his chest, happy that he was getting so comfortable around me. I could stay like this all night.

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Eventually, when we were both falling asleep in the middle of an episode, we turned off the TV. I moved the pizza box to the floor and rolled under the covers, too tired to get out of bed. Grant turned off the lights and then joined me.

He rolled over and started falling asleep, but I wasn't done. I don't know if guys this, but for girls, it's common practice to talk for hours after going to bed and turning out the lights.

"What was it like before Garrett found you?" I asked, staring at the ceiling as I spoke, "I mean, before you joined SHIELD?"

"I don't want to talk about it," mumbled Grant, his back to me.

"I hated school," I said, not paying attention to Grant, "I was bad at everything, and the harder I tried the worse it seemed to get. Plus, my classmates hated me. I never really knew why, but they would always make fun of me and throw a fit when we got paired up for group projects. I tried, but I just couldn't make friends. That's why I was so good at martial arts that SHIELD started paying attention, I guess. I needed something to focus on to stay sane."

"What about your parents?" asked Grant. He mumbled like he would if he was still half asleep, but if you asked me he was more awake than ever.

"They died when I was a kid," I answered, "I stayed in a foster home until graduation. That's probably another reason I stood out to SHIELD. After I turned 18 and moved out, no one would miss me."

Grant was silent for a while and I started to think he'd fallen asleep, but then he spoke up.

"Garrett found me in juvie," he began. I could tell he was struggling to get the words out. "I broke out of military school, stole a car, drove over 1,000 miles to my parents' house in Massachusetts, and tried to burn down the house. My brother happened to be inside, and he was pushing to have me tried as an adult when Garrett pulled me out. I was sixteen."

I took a breath, trying to process everything I'd just heard.

"Why?" I asked cautiously, "Why did you want to burn that house down?"

"My family... they're monsters. My older brother is a psychopath and my parents are worse."

I reached out under he covers and grabbed his hand. I could hear in his voice that he had almost hit his breaking point, so I wasn't going to ask anything else, but I also felt like he might need a little emotional support.

He didn't say anything else, just squeezed my hand. I returned the gesture and waited for him to say something. He never did. Eventually we both fell asleep, too tired to stay up any longer and still holding hands.