Once Upon A Time
Title: Once Upon A Time
Author: Diane
Pairing: Grant Ward/Skye
Rating: Teen Rated
Disclaimer: I don’t own a thing!
Spoilers/Warnings: No spoilers as it's a completely AU story.
Summary: Biting back the laugh she could feel bubbling up in her chest, she ran a hand over Skye’s long, honey-brown hair which had been loosely curled for the occasion. She looked so pretty today in her cream-colored dress with the purple sash tied around her waist and the purple-and-white floral headpiece. “How about I have a little word with young Master Ward and see if I can get him to dance with you?”
Author’s Notes: This is a rewrite of a story I wrote a long time ago for a different fandom but I thought it fit well in the AU 'verse I came up with for my recent stories 'Stay Close To Me' and 'All That I Want'.
“Honey, what are you doing out here?” Melinda May Coulson asked as she stepped out onto the patio, the cool summer breeze ruffling her hair.
Her mother’s voice broke Skye out of her thoughts and turning her head towards the older woman, she smiled. “Just thinking.”
“What about?”
“Annie's wedding,” she replied.
Melinda smiled knowingly at the mention of her cousin's nuptials. “Ah, I remember that day only too well.”
“How come?”
“Well, that was the day I told your father just who I thought you’d be marrying.”
Skye scrunched her face up in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t make that face… If the wind changes, you’ll stay that way,” she teased.
“Ha ha,” she retorted. “Seriously, what did you mean about telling Dad who I’d be marrying? I mean, I was only six at the time.”
“So? Age doesn’t mean a thing when true love is involved,” Melinda quipped. The expression on her daughter’s face had her quickly continuing. “Okay, remember how you were a flower girl and Grant was the ring bearer? Well, as beautiful as Annie looked and how lovely her wedding was, I spent a great deal of the day watching you and Grant and I just… I got this feeling that I’d one day be seeing the two of you tying the knot…”
Twenty years ago...
“Grant!” Skye stomped her foot, watching as her best friend ran away from her.
“Go ‘way…” the six-year-old told her in a loud voice causing several guests to glance over at him.
“Come back here!” she shouted, her hands firmly planted on her hips.
“No!”
“Mom! Grant won’t dance with me!”
Stopping in his tracks, Grant turned and glared at the little girl who was standing in the middle of the dance floor. “Tell everyone, why don’t ya!”
Walking over to her daughter, Melinda crouched down in front of her. “Sweetheart, you can’t force him to dance with you.”
“But… everyone else has someone to dance with,” she said, pointing out the bridesmaids who were already on the dance floor with the men from the wedding party. “He’s supposed to be with me!”
Biting back the laugh she could feel bubbling up in her chest, she ran a hand over Skye’s long, honey-brown hair which had been loosely curled for the occasion. She looked so pretty today in her cream-colored dress with the purple sash tied around her waist and the purple-and-white floral headpiece. “How about I have a little word with young Master Ward and see if I can get him to dance with you?”
“Okay,” Skye said, nodding. Wrapping her arms around her mother’s neck, she hugged her. “Thanks, Mommy.”
“You’re welcome, baby. Now, in the meantime, why don’t you go and see if Daddy will dance with you? He’ll probably let you dance on his feet if you ask him nicely.”
The little girl giggled before running off to find her father. She was so busy having him making a fuss of her that she didn’t notice where her mother disappeared to.
A little while later when she was dancing in her father’s arms to a slow song, her head resting on her shoulder, she happened to look down and see her best friend standing there, a half-smile on his face. “What?”
“Do you wanna dance?”
“Really?”
“Uh huh.”
“Sure… Daddy, can you put me down now?”
“Ditching me for a younger man, huh?”
“No,” she said, wriggling in his arms when he tickled her ribs.
“Okay, you two go dance. Be good now.”
“We will,” Skye said as she grabbed Grant’s hand and dragged him into the center of the dance floor. Taking his other hand, she placed them both on her waist only for the tall, dark haired little boy to pull them back.
“What are you doin’?”
“What? We’re gonna dance.”
“Why’ve I gotta put my hands on you?”
“Uh, maybe ‘cause it’s a slow song,” she pointed out.
“Can’t we wait for a fast song?”
“No! I wanna dance to a slow one.”
“Hey, your mom didn’t say anything about that.”
“Grant!” she whined.
Releasing an exasperated sigh, Grant gave in. He should’ve held out for more money, he thought to himself as he stepped towards his friend and let her put his hands on her waist. This was way more than five bucks worth! “Woah! What’cha doing?”
It was Skye’s turn to sigh. “I have to put my hands on your shoulders,” she told him. “Look at Mandy and Chris over there.” She gestured over to one of the bridesmaids who was dancing with one of her male cousins.
“Fine,” Grant mumbled, letting her put her hands on his shoulders.
On the other side of the room, Melinda stood next to her husband watching the two six-year-olds, a smile stretching across her face. “Phil, look.”
Looking over to where his wife was pointing, he shook his head and laughed at the sight of his baby girl slow dancing and in Grant’s case, slow shuffling.
“You know, I can’t help feeling this won’t be the last time we’ll see them dancing together at a wedding,” she said quietly, the palm of her hand resting against her heart.
“What are you talking about, honey?” he asked, placing an arm around his wife’s shoulders.
“I think we’ll one day see them dancing at their own wedding.”
He chuckled at her words. Not many people saw it, but he knew she could be such a romantic at times. “They’re only six, plus given how headstrong they both are… I’m not sure they’d be a match made in heaven.”
Melinda had to give him that. Her daughter could be a bossy little madam when she wanted to be and had near perfect timing in busting out the pout whenever she wanted something badly enough. She was forever using it on Grant – as well as themselves, of course – and while he’d at first give as good as he got, he more often than not caved in and let her have her own way. Thinking about it, maybe they were a perfect match after all.
“I’m telling you, Phil… One day we’ll be standing here watching them dancing at their own wedding.”
“Care to put your money where your mouth is?” he teased.
“What did you have in mi—” She was interrupted by the sound of Grant shouting “No!” at the top of his voice and sharing a smile with her husband, she quickly went over to see what the problem was now.
“Grant, honey, what’s wrong?” Melinda asked, crouching down beside them.
“I’m not kissing her! You didn’t say anythin’ about me havin’ to kiss her!” he told the older woman.
“Mommy… tell him he has to!”
“Baby, you can’t force him to do that if he doesn’t want to.”
“See,” Grant said, poking his tongue out at the little girl.
“Shut up!”
“Skye!” Melinda chided.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, looking down at the floor, her brown eyes filling with tears.
“I know, why don’t we go and see when they’re going to be cutting the cake?” Melinda suggested, gently tugging on one of the little girl’s curls.
“No, it’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m just gonna go and sit with Grandma.”
Grant watched as his best friend kept her eyes on the floor and started to walk away from him. He hated to see her cry and so, without thinking, he grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him. Before anyone could say anything, he pressed his lips against hers and held them there for a split-second before drawing back, fighting the urge to wipe his hand across his mouth.
The tears disappeared as quickly as they’d come and Skye beamed at him. “You kissed me!”
“So? I just did it to stop ya bawlin’,” he told her. He could feel his cheeks heating up and he ducked his head to stop her from seeing his face go all pink like hers always did when she was embarrassed.
“You still kissed me!” She giggled.
Glancing over her shoulder at her husband who she knew was watching, Melinda gave him a knowing wink, chuckling under her breath when he shook his head at her. “Okay, kids…” she said, turning back to look at them, “how about we go and—”
“When’s Annie throwing her flowers?” Skye asked.
“You mean her bouquet? Well, it probably won’t be for a while yet. Why do you ask?”
“‘Cause I wanna catch it!” she exclaimed proudly.
Grant regarded her with a confused expression on his face. “Why do you wanna catch a bunch of stupid flowers?”
“No reason,” she replied sweetly.
With her daughter already having attended a couple of weddings, Melinda knew that Skye was well aware of what it meant when someone caught the bride’s bouquet and that feeling she’d gotten earlier grew stronger as she realized the significance of the little girl’s words coupled with the fact she was hiding that piece of information from Grant. Oh, her baby girl was good!
“C’mon, Grant, let’s go and see Grandma,” she said, taking his hand in hers and pulling him along behind her.
“Why? Ugh, I’m not playing with that stupid bear again…” he told her adamantly, referring to her favorite stuffed animal which he knew she'd brought with her and which her grandmother had been tasked with looking after.
Laughing at the children’s antics, Melinda made her way back to her husband, eager to tell him what had just happened and how their daughter had just played her best friend.
The two women laughed as they each remembered the events of that day.
“God, how bossy was I back then?”
“What do you mean ‘back then’?” Melinda said teasingly before her tone turned slightly more serious. “I can’t explain it but… I just knew I’d be watching you and Grant dancing together at your very own wedding.”
“We were so young though…” Skye whispered, still shocked at her mother’s words and especially at the fact that she’d never once said anything. Of course, she and Grant had endured a fair bit of teasing over the years, both before and after they’d realized their feelings for each other and gotten together but still… “How come you never said anything?”
Melinda shrugged. “I’m not sure… Maybe I didn’t want to add any pressure onto you or Grant. Plus there was the fact your father thought I was mad for even thinking it.”
“Well, there is that,” she quipped.
Smiling at her daughter, she took in the sight of her dressed in her ivory silk and chiffon wedding gown and her heart felt like it was going to burst out her chest with happiness. She could feel tears prickling behind her eyelids and she blinked to try and stop them from falling. “You look so beautiful, baby.” Taking a step forward, she tucked a stray curl behind her ear before cupping her daughter’s cheek tenderly.
“Thank you,” Skye said, her own eyes filling up. “If we don’t want Victoria on our case we’d better not start crying and ruining our make-up,” she joked, referring to her aunt who had helped organize the wedding with what had sometimes felt like military precision.
Melinda nodded her agreement. “So, are you ready to become Mrs Ward?”
“I’m so ready. Is it time yet?”
“Almost,” the older woman replied after checking her wristwatch and, holding out her hand to her daughter, she added, “C’mon, let’s go and find your Dad so we can get this show on the road.”
Taking her offered hand, Skye let herself be led back into the annexe room where she and her bridesmaids had gotten ready. She’d wondered why she would be thinking about her cousin’s wedding on her and Grant’s own special day but after hearing further details about it from her mother it made more sense and it also made her realize that maybe she’d been waiting for this day pretty much her entire life.
“So, you actually paid him to dance with me?” she asked, shaking her head in amusement. Yeah, that sounded like Grant all right.
* * * * *
“You look beautiful, sweetheart,” Phil Coulson told his daughter as they stood just out of everyone’s line of sight; waiting for the bridesmaids to reach the altar.
“Thanks, Daddy. You’re looking pretty handsome yourself.”
“Of course I am,” he teased. “So, are you ready for this?”
Remembering what she and her mother had talked about a short while ago, her smile stretched across her face. “I’m more than ready.”
Kissing the top of her head, Phil smiled at her as they turned the corner and made their way down the aisle, nodding and smiling at the family and friends who filled the congregation.
Skye’s eyes were locked on her future husband’s as she slowly walked down the aisle and she blushed slightly when he winked at her. She couldn’t help thinking about how gorgeous he looked in his black tux and as she got closer, a tiny gasp escaped her throat when she saw that in place of the white rose all the men in the wedding party were wearing in their buttonholes, he was instead wearing a purple bloom and, meeting his gaze again, she knew he’d been thinking about that day, too.
When her father handed her over to Grant, he kissed her cheek and gently clapped his almost son-in-law on the back before going to take his seat beside his wife.
“You look amazing,” Grant whispered as he intertwined his fingers with Skye’s.
“So do you… I especially like that purple flower.”
“Just so you know, you won’t have to boss or guilt me into kissing you today… or any other day come to that,” he told her, flashing her a smirk.
Giving his fingers a squeeze, she laughed softly and her cheeks flushed a rosy pink as they stepped up onto the altar, both of them eager to get the ceremony started so they could finally be man and wife.
Fin