Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Twenty-Four

A/N: Quick shout out to @alwaysawestruck for going through and voting on everything! Thank you and all my other wonderful readers for all your support!

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Grant and I managed to hop on a Quinjet back to the Hub, and our only detour was a stop in the cafeteria for dinner before we went our separate ways to our apartments. For the first night in now five months, I got to sleep in my own bed, rather than in a hospital or on the freezing ground. It should have been a massive relief, the best sleep of my life. Instead, I couldn't stop tossing and turning.

After spending five months with Grant right next to me 24/7, I didn't really like being without him.

I gave it a few hours, trying to relax and fall asleep, but around two in the morning I decided to give up and find out if Grant was having a similar problem.

I tiptoed out of my apartment and down the hallways of the agent quarters until I got to Grant's room. I knocked lightly, loud enough that he'd hear it if he was awake but not so loud that it would wake him up if he wasn't.

I waited, and was just about to turn and head back to my room when the door swung open.

"Slater?" asked Grant, standing in the doorway and looking just as awake as I felt.

"...I can't sleep."

Grant sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Yeah. Neither can I."

"Can I come in?"

He nodded, swinging the door open wider and making space for me to step past him. I wandered in, then realized I'd never actually been in Grant's SHIELD apartment before. It looked about the same as mine, if a little neater. I turned back to Grant with a sigh as he closed the door.

"It just feels so weird being alone now."

"I know. Good thing you harassed the director into making us partners then, huh?"

"I did not harass him. And yes, it is a good thing, you should be very grateful your partner is so awesome."

Grant chuckled. "Okay, Slater. Whatever you say."

I shot Grant a look, and then the two of us fell into silence. Unlike in Siberia or even in the hospital, though, I didn't feel as comfortable in this silence. Suddenly, I felt a little nervous about asking to stay in here with Grant, and the nerves went hand in hand with irritation. I shouldn't be feeling awkward about this, not after how comfortable we'd gotten with each other over the past five months.

What was wrong with me?

Fortunately for me, Grant and I seemed to be on the same page. He spoke up before I had to force myself to push through this sudden attack of nerves.

"I'm glad you came," he said. I smiled, the rare sincerity from him helping snap me out of whatever had made me start second-guessing myself. "I didn't want to spend our first night back in real beds tossing and turning until morning."

"Same here. I take it that means you don't mind if I stay?"

"Not at all."

I gave him a smile, then the two of us headed back to his bed and climbed under the covers together, our silence firmly back to comfortable. I snuggled under the covers on one side as Grant did the same on the other, and immediately, the part of my brain that had been keeping me up relaxed.