All of Me - Agent's of S.H.I.E.L.D

Chapter Forty Four

The Bus - Open Lounge area

Maria re-entered the open lounge area with the five year old and noticed that her assassin Aunt and Uncle were gone, her parents were now sitting in their spots on the couch - both with a coffee mug in their hands. Her Uncle Phil and Aunt Melinda were both nursing a mug themselves. She noticed that her grandfather wasn’t in the room, either.

“Where’s Grandpa James, Aunty Nat and Uncle Clint?” the young brunette asked with curiosity as she stopped just before the couch. She could feel Lillian’s hand squeezing her’s really tight.

All eyes turned in their direction.

“James went home,” Nick informed his great niece. “Barton and Romanoff are preparing for interrogation,” he added as he took a few step in her direction.

Lillian noticed the tall, dark scary pirate looking man walking towards them and she instantly hid behind Maria, still holding her hand.

Nick stopped a few metres before his great niece when he noticed how the little girl was reacting to him. He didn’t want to scare the child.

Maria noticed the girl’s reaction to her great Uncle. “Lily,” she spoke softly as she tried to pull the girl around to her front, but the five year old had a death grip on her leg. Maria turned her attention back onto her great Uncle and gave an apologetic smile.

Nick waved it off before he took a few more steps and was standing a few feet before the young brunette agent. He then squatted down in front of her, so he was at the same level as Lillian. He knew that he was intimidating. Hell, if he scared full grown adults, he knew that the child must be pretty frighten.

“Lily,” he spoke in a soft tone. This wasn’t the first time that he had dealt with a child, whenever he visited here - he spent time with the twins. He didn’t deal with them often, but he still knew how to talk to one. Nick watched as the girl peered her head around from behind Maria’s leg. He offered a friendly smile. “Hi,” he simply said. “I’m Nick,” he told the girl.

Lillian remained behind Maria’s leg, but her head peered around it so she looked at the old pirate man. He didn’t look so scary any more. She still didn’t know him. She gave a shy wave with her free hand that wasn’t gripping onto Maria.

Nick knew he was making progress with the girl when he saw her wave at him. He stood back to his feet and focused his good eye on his great niece. “You can take Lily home … she’s not needed here at the moment,” he informed Maria in a gentle tone since the child was present.

Maria tilted her head to the side, looking at her great Uncle with curiosity. They still hadn’t decided what will be happening with the child yet. Did this mean that she would be looking after her? “Uh, okay … it’s dinner time anyway and we should make it back just before seven,” she expressed. “I’ll guess I will see you later?”

Nick offered a smile with the nod of a head.

“We’ll head back with you,” Dwight supplied, looking towards his surrogate father as he stood to his feet with mug in hand. “You don’t need us right now, right?” he asked, his wife standing up beside him.

Nick turned his attention towards his surrogate son and shook his head. “No … we’ll talk later,” he promised, giving him a knowing look. “I wanna see what Romanoff can get out of our ‘guest’ before we discuss everything else,” he had worded the ‘prisoner’ that way because the child didn’t need to know that the man that abducted her was still here.

Dwight nodded his head. A moment later he and Emma headed to the kitchen to return their mugs before heading off.