Chapter Thirty-Nine

A/N: Hey, so I'm not going to write out every episode, especially in the first half of the season, so we're starting a little after the 084 episode. Also, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Food Network, a show called Chopped comes up in this chapter, which is basically a really awesome cooking show where four people start and one gets eliminated each round until there's a winner.

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Things between Grant and I actually did stay more or less the same. It just about killed me to watch him go in on a mission for one of Coulson's former protege's with Skye and not me, but I survived and so did he, despite terrible seduction skills.

Skye and Grant's relationship took a little bit of a dive when we found her covering for and sleeping with her Rising Tide boyfriend, and as upset as I was, I also felt a bit relieved... weird, right?

Simmons got infected with a deadly disease, which was terrible, and Grant jumped out of the plane to save her. I was equal parts mad that their lives were unnecessarily risked and happy that Grant had bonded so well with another team member.

The bonding party continued when Fitz and Grant went on an op together, just the two of them, no support team, just like Grant and I used to do. I'll admit, I just about punched a hole in a wall when I found out I was being left behind on that mission. I wanted to kill Jessica Hand. On the bright side though, Fitz and Grant came back closer than ever, and I know Fitz looks at Grant like a brother now. Grant won't admit it, but I'm confident he feels the same way.

Anyway, after watching Fitz and Skye go on solo missions with Grant, I learned one thing: working back-end sucks.

I told Coulson as much, and hopefully he'd keep me and Grant teamed up as much as possible in the future. But for now, we weren't running any two-man ops. We were stuck on cleanup duty.

Thor and his buddies had stopped some alien evil-doer and created heaps upon heaps of mess for SHIELD to sort through in the process. It had been a long day of sorting though junk to find one or two tiny pieces of alien metal.

Worth it, but boring all the same.

I couldn't wait to get back to the Bus and relax.

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"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?" yelled Grant, leaning forward in his seat in distress.

"What is going on in here?" asked Skye, coming around the corner of the Bus' lounge area.

Grant shook his head, too disgusted to speak as he leaned back against the couch, so I explained to Skye.

"We're watching Chopped and it's the dessert round and the guy we've been cheering for just decided to use the ice cream machine."

"What?"

"It always goes wrong," I added.

"It's like these people don't even watch the show," agreed Grant angrily, "I can't think of a single damn time the ice cream machine worked, and these people decide they still want to stake the entire competition on it."

I put my hand on Grant's shoulder. "I know. I know."

Skye was looking at us like we were crazy. "I thought you said you were going to try and relax?"

"This is relaxing," Grant and I answered at the same time.

I grinned and turned to Grant. "I'm so proud. I have completely corrupted you. Do you remember when you wouldn't even watch this show with me because you thought it was stupid?"

"Whatever," replied Grant simply, waving me off.

Skye was still staring at us, looking bewildered, but before Grant or I could continue to explain, the show came back on after commercial and we had to pay attention to see who won.

Surprise surprise, it was not the guy who used the ice cream machine. The machine hadn't worked and it had screwed up his dish.

"We told him," said Grant, switching the channel before we could get sucked into another episode.

"He should have listened," I agreed, shaking my head ruefully.

"Okay... well, if you're done with that," started Skye, gesturing absently to the TV, "then I was thinking we could have a team movie night to help calm Simmons down since she had to deal with all that alien crap today."

"That's a great idea!" I exclaimed happily. Why hadn't I thought of that?

"I'll make drinks," said Grant, standing up and going towards the bar.

"I'll go get FitzSimmons and see if May and Coulson want to join. Skye, do you want to pick out some good movie options?"

"Sure."

I smiled and stood, heading down to the lab since that was almost always where I could find FitzSimmons. As expected, they were there.

"Hey guys," I said, "We're having a team movie night. Meet upstairs as soon as you can take a break from whatever genius invention or discovery you're working on."

"Excellent," said Fitz.

"Great idea," agreed Simmons. I gave them a smile as I headed back upstairs to find Phil and May.

"Slater," interrupted Grant, calling me over to the bar as I walked past.

"What's wrong bartender? Need help?"

"Maybe. Want to tell me why I'm finding cherry syrup, Sprite, and maraschino cherries among our extremely limited bar supplies?"

"Because a Shirley Temple is literally my favorite drink. Come on Grant, you know this."

"Yes, on missions. Where we're on the job and can't have alcohol. But on the plane?"

I nodded. "It's the best drink."

"How old are you again? Twelve? Eleven?"

"Old enough that I don't let my friends pressure me into drinking alcohol," I responded, giving Grant a smug look. That was one of my best comebacks yet.

"Whatever. I should have known after the hot chocolate on our second mission."

"Yes, you should have. Will you make me a Shirley Temple for movie night?"

Grant sighed dramatically.

"Pleeeeeaaaaseeee?" I asked, leaning forward with my hands clasped and batting my eyelashes.

"Fine," Grant huffed, "Just go get May and Coulson."

I smiled triumphantly and hopped off the bar stool, going up the stairs to Phil's office.

"Hey," I said, already walking into the room as I knocked, "Team movie night. Report downstairs immediately."

"Will do," said Phil, moving to put away some papers. I didn't expect anything else from him, but May was going to be tough to convince.

I knocked on the cockpit door and waited for May to speak before going in. Surprising May could be the last thing you do, so I was being careful.

"Hey May," I said, smiling and leaning on the copilot's chair, "We're having a team movie night. Can you put the plane on autopilot?"

"No."

I sighed. I knew this wasn't going to be easy.

"C'mon May, please? It's not a team movie night without everybody. It's to help Simmons. She was feeling pretty stressed out after today. She's going to be upset if you're not there."

"I doubt it," responded May. All the same, I saw her going through the motions of setting the plane on autopilot.

"Yes! I'll see you in a minute."

I left the cockpit before she could change her mind.

I came back into the lounge to find everyone but May and Phil waiting. I squeezed onto the couch next to Grant, who handed me my Shirley Temple.

"Thank you bartender," I said, "May and Coulson are on their way, they're just finishing some stuff up."

"In the meantime, why don't we decide on a movie?" suggested Simmons, looking thoroughly distracted from anything that had been worrying her today.

"Sounds good," said Skye, "Okay, so I heard about this one that sounded pretty cool and unbelievable, but it's a true story. It's called 'The Way Back'."

"What's it about?" I asked.

"It's about these guys in the gulag in Russia who break out and then have to survive through 4,000 miles of Siberian wilderness to get out of Russia."

"NO!" Grant and I yelled at the same time, practically jumping out of our seats.

"Woah, okay, okay," said Skye, holding up her hands in mock surrender, "Can I ask why something so random is such a touchy subject?"

"Because we lived it," said Grant sharply, slowly relaxing back into the couch.

"What do you mean you lived it?"

"He means we trekked through the Siberian wilderness in minimal survival gear for four months," I added, easing back with Grant.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," Grant and I answered, again at the same time.

"And I don't want to relive it in movie format," added Grant.

"Fair enough," said Skye, still looking a little shocked, "Let's see what Coulson and May think."

Eventually, we all decided on Now You See Me. No spoilers, but WOW the ending is a plot twist. I loved it and insisted that we watch the second one, but May and Phil decided they had more important things to do (read: mom and dad went to bed).

After watching a couple more movies, the rest of us decided to go to bed, too. I drifted off feeling really happy and relaxed for the first time in weeks.

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"SLATER!" yelled Grant, hammering on the door to my cabin. He surprised me so much I fell out of bed.

I glanced at the clock. It was blinking six am.

Grant was still knocking on the door, so I dragged myself off the floor. He better have a crazy good reason for waking me up so damn early.

"What?" I demanded, throwing open the slider.

Grant snorted. "Nice hair."

Considering I slept on my face and I had just fallen out of bed, I'm sure I looked like a werewolf child, but I didn't care. I just stared at Grant, too tired to muster a verbal response.

He sighed. "Something's going on in Norway. We're flying over to check it out, so get dressed. We're landing soon."

I closed my eyes and let out a long, deep sigh, wishing I could just fall back asleep on my feet.

"Okay," I finally mumbled, moving the slider closed again without another word. I could practically hear Grant rolling his eyes outside the door, but I was too tired to care.

We were going to be on the ground in Norway any minute, so I needed to wake myself up and get ready to go.

I was suddenly regretting staying up so late to watch movies.