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Chapter Text

The five agents followed Billy Koenig into the corridor away from the hanger. They passed by a few agents on the way to the Med Unit. A makeshift room had been made resembling a hospital room where Leopold Fitz was staying. Jemma made her way into the room and stood next to him. the others stayed back. Skye took in all the machines hooked up to her friend and let out a strangled sob. Trip's face held a grim expression and Coulson's eyes flashed with anger. Ward had done this. May's eyes darkened as she looked at the young scientist. He seemed even smaller laying in the white sheets of the hospital bed. May's face drew hard. The thought that Ward, a man they had all trusted, had all believed in, had done this to one of them mad her blood boil. Jemma looked at them.

"The doctors say he will most likely have some sort of brain damage from the oxygen deprivation. The longer he stays in the coma the worse it will most likely be." Jemma's voice broke at the last few words.

Coulson walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "We will make sure he has the best doctors Jemma. We will help him recover."

"I know sir. It's just so .........." Her voice trailed off as small sobs started wracking through her body.

Coulson reached up and embraced the biochemist. Trip came further into the room and placed his hand on her back. Skye, who had tears streaming down her face, turned and ran out of the room.

Melinda found her back on the Bus in her bunk. Skye was curled up on the bed facing the wall. Melinda heard the sobs and saw Skye's body shaking. She walked over and sat on the bed waiting. After a few moments, Skye's sobs diminished as she curled more into herself further away from Melinda.

"Go away." Her voice was thick and shook with emotion.

Melinda sighed. She did not do comforting well. At least not anymore. There was a time she would not have hesitated to pull the younger women into her arms and let her cry it out on her shoulder. But that was pre- Bahrain Melinda and that Melinda no longer existed. She thought perhaps she should just go get Phil. Phil was good with emotions and comforting. but Phil had Simmons to deal with. So, that left her to deal with Skye. Melinda reached over to touch Skye's shoulder. Skye stiffened at the contact.

Melinda sighed but kept the contact. She took a deep breath and spoke. "I would like to say that Fitz will be okay. But I can't because I don't know that he will be. I'd like to say a lot of things Skye. I'd like it if I could tell you that everything here will be okay, but I don't know that it ever will be. I’d like to tell you that you will be okay, but I don’t know that either. All I know is that you can't look back. You need to move on and you...all of us really, need to push forward. The alternative is giving up. And if there is one thing that I know you are not, it's that you are not a quitter Skye. You have proven that to me over the last few months."

Melinda waited. She could feel Skye relax a little bit. Skye shifted her body and turned around to face Melinda. Her face was streaked with tears. She sniffled a few times, wiping at her eyes with her sleeves swallowed a few times and then looked at Melinda finally speaking.

"How do we do this then May? How do I move forward? How do we? What can we do? " Skye paused and her voice wavered. "How May? Ward's betrayal. What was done to Mike. All those innocent people caught in the middle." Skye sat up and hugged her legs. "Shield no longer really exists. That badge I got for like one day. Useless."

"Not true Skye. There is a Shield. We are Shield. All of us, Trip, me, you, all the agents here. Plus there are more out there. It is more than just us. Fury made Coulson the Director and we will rebuild. We will get stronger. You will get stronger."

"Yeah how? Nothing is the same May. You don't understand. This place. Here. The bus was my home. I wanted it so bad. To be a part of this. It's gone."

"No Skye. It's just changed. It’s not gone. It's still here. You are still here. You are a part of this. A big part. You've proven yourself over and over."

"Sure." Skye did not sound convinced. "Ward wasn't even trying to make me into a real agent. He was just playing a game. Following orders. Working all of us. " Skye spat out. " I hate him so much."

"And I told you to use that. Control it and your other emotions and use them when the time is right. I'll teach you."

Skye looked up surprised. "You will?" Her eyes brightened with hope. A look that Melinda did not know she had missed until now.

Skye looked down at her hands on her knees. She spoke up softly. "I could use a new S.O." She refused to look up not wanting to see May's face in case it was filled with anger or disappointment.

"I told you before that I'm usually up at five. We'll start tomorrow. Tai Chi first, then some cardio work."

Skye looked up at May. May still had her hand on Skye's shoulder. May squeezed it and smirked at her. "Ward was easy on you. Don't expect me to be."

Skye smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it."

"Then we should probably get moving and find some bunks on this base. You need to get some sleep." Melinda offered Skye her hand. Skye took it and Melinda pulled her up. Skye grabbed her backpack. They headed off the plane in companionable silence.

They ended up in the bunk area. They moved to the back hallway, where there were four rooms and a bathroom. Trip was standing in the doorway of the first one on the right. Melinda guided Skye to the room next to his.

Trip nodded at them. “Those two across can be for Fitz and Simmons when they are ready for them.”

Melinda nodded back. “Good idea.”

Trip continued. “Koenig said these rooms are four of the biggest and away from the rest of the base and have that long hall between the other rooms. He said these rooms might be good for us while we settle in. He said that Coulson’s office has a bedroom and bathroom attached and that there is another smaller office with a bathroom up there as well. He said that Coulson wants you to have it.” He looked at Melinda.

She nodded. “Yes, he texted me actually. Are the beds made down here?”

Trip nodded. “I made them all up. Koenig pointed me in the direction of the supply closet. Standard issue Shield grey but everything is clean. Blankets and pillows too.”

“Thanks Trip.”

“No problem. There are also Shield sweats and T’s and some sneakers and boots, along with personal items you all might need. It’s not far, just down the hallway, hang a left to another hallway, go to the end and the supply closet is on your left.”

“Okay thanks. I think we all need a good night’s sleep for once.”

“Could be the understatement of the year May.” Skye gave her a small smirk.

“Anyway, Jemma is staying with Fitz, Coulson said he was too tired to fight with her on it tonight, but she will need some real sleep soon.” Trip’s eyes spoke of his sadness when he mentioned Fitz.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow." Melinda offered.

"You two good then?” Skye gave him a half smile. Melinda nodded. “Goodnight then." Trip nodded to them both as he turned into his room and shut the door.

"Goodnight May." Skye started to walk into her room.

Melinda paused and looked at the young agent. " It's getting late Skye. How about we do 6am tomorrow. Set your alarm. Every minute you're late ten extra pushups."

Skye glanced over to see if she was serious or not. May stared back. "You serious?" Cause May had on one of her poker faces again and Skye could not read her.

"I don't ever say things I don't mean Skye. You should know that by now. And you should remember it." Melinda turned and headed down the hallway.

Skye watched for a minute and then slid the rest of the way into her new room. She flipped on the light switch and looked around her room. She shrugged her backpack off and let it slide onto the floor. The bed was made and covered with a Shield issue black and grey blanket and had two pillows on it. It was a twin bed and next to the bed was a nightstand with a bedside lamp on it. On the other side was a small 4 drawer dresser with a mirror, and a small desk with a chair. Above the desk were two shelves and across from the foot of the bed was a small closet. The space between the closet and bed was only about a foot. The room was small but adequate.

Skye was ready to just drop onto the bed fully dressed but realized she had to use the bathroom. She opened her door and ventured out moving the few steps to the bathroom. She stepped inside. The bath held three stalls and four showers. When she was done, she splashed her face with water and wiped both her face and hands dry with one of the towels hanging up that she assumed Trip had put there and hurried back to her room. She slipped off her boots and shirt and jeans, leaving her in her panties and sports bra and fell into the bed. She grabbed her phone and set the alarm. She shut off the light on the nightstand and snuggled into her pillow. Her last thought before sleep overtook her was how much this place reminded her of St. Agnes.

Skye woke up to her phone alarm blasting Elvis and as she tried to shut it off, she knocked her phone to the floor. She reached down to grab the still shrilling offensive thing and wrapped up in her blankets she leaned a bit too far, managing to fall to the floor herself with a loud thud.

She laid there trapped in her blankets, grabbing around to find her phone that she had managed to push further away when she fell. The door to her room opened and looking up, she saw the silhouette of Melinda May in the doorway. She tried to grab for her phone which was now under her nightstand, only managing to slam her elbow into the side of the nightstand. She yelped. She swung her leg around to sit up to grab her arm which was in pain, instead her left arm caught in the blanket and as she shook it to pull out, she pulled against the cord of the lamp and that crashed down too.

Melinda May stood in the doorway eyeing her new student while the loud rendition of "Heartbreak Hotel" continued to blast from under the nightstand. Melinda could not help the smile that formed on her lips. The she started laughing. A full-on belly laugh burst from her as stared at the disheveled girl laying on the floor. Skye laid there tangled in sheets and blankets with her hair all over the place holding her left elbow while a lamp lay next to her broken in pieces. The music from the phone continued to play.

Skye looked up practically in shock as Melinda May continued to laugh at her. Skye stared daggers at Melinda, but her scowl soon turned into a grin and then she started laughing as well. May walked over and reached down to grab the phone and turned off the blaring music. Her shoulders continued to shake from laughter even as she tossed the phone onto Skye's bed and proceeded out the door.

She turned back, raised her eyebrows at her new student, and smirked. "We'll work on your coordination first."

Skye managed to clean up the mess, get dressed and still make it to the training room at the Playground one minute before 6am. May was already there. May looked Skye up and down. Skye had thrown on a pair of yoga pants and an old sweatshirt with the sleeves cut out. She also had on her boots.

"Take off your boots. We will start with basic warm-ups and stretches." As May took her through the warm-up, Skye wondered exactly what she had gotten herself into. After fifteen minutes or so of stretching muscles that had not been stretched in like, well, forever, they finally were ready.

"Now you follow along with me. This is Tai Chi. We will start with very simple forms and breathing. Do what I do." The Tai Chi lesson was over an hour long. Melinda stopped periodically to correct Skye’s stance or movements. After Tai Chi, May grabbed them both some water bottles from the cooler. May sat on the mat and Skye sat next to her.

"Small sips slowly.” She pointed to the water. Then she looked at Skye and locked eyes with her. “This will be daily Skye. Every single morning at 5am. I expect you to be here every day, unless you have a reasonable reason to not be."

"What's reasonable May?"

"A late mission. Or an early morning mission. If you are sick. Or hurt. You miss for any other reason I will assume you are quitting. We will always start by warming up with stretching and then Tai Chi. Then we will do other things. Today we will run. Other days strength training, or I will teach you how to fight, with some sparring. I will teach proper technique and proper form."

"Okay."

"You will also take other classes. First Aid. History of Shield. Shield Weapons. Covert Operations. A foreign language. Other Shield classes. Tests will be given. You want to be an agent, Skye, you will learn everything. Do you think you can handle it?"

"Yes."
"Also, you will learn how to shoot a variety of guns. And if you say bang one time, you will most certainly regret it. Clear?"

Skye grimaced. "Crystal. Hey May. Are you trying to talk me out of this?"

Melinda gazed thoughtfully at Skye. "No. But what I want to be sure of is your commitment to this. I will always do my best as your SO. I will expect the same from you."

"You'll get it. I promise this is what I want."

"Copy that." May answered back. "Time to run. You have anything except those." She pointed to Skye's boots. Skye shook her head no.

"Come with me."

They walked to the supply room. Melinda found the Shield issue sneakers. Skye tried on a few pairs till she found ones that fit. May led her thru a few stretches and then took off running with Skye following. They ran through the corridors and hallways, and the garage and hanger making a loop around the entire base. They ran the loop five times. Skye thought she was going to die. They ended the last loop back at the training room and Skye collapsed onto the mats. Melinda pulled her back up.

"Worst thing to do Skye. Here," she reached over and raised Skye's arms over her head. "Now focus on breathing. Get control and breathe in and out. " Skye looked at May who was barely out of breath. She vowed to be the same soon. She was going to do this. All of it. She wanted this. She wanted to belong. This was her chance. She nodded.

"Copy that."

Half hour later Skye found herself sitting with May eating breakfast. May had made tea for them both and Skye had bowl of cornflakes with a banana. May opted for a slice of toast and an apple.

"Chinese."

May looked at her student. "What?"

"Could you teach me how to speak Chinese? For my foreign language?

May looked surprised. But she nodded. "I can."

"Cool."

May spoke up. "You should also learn conversational Spanish. It will be good to know. There's a computer program. We'll start with Spanish, Shield History, and Weapons. In between training and classes, I'll teach you Chinese."

Skye took a bite of cornflakes and nodded. Just then Coulson walked in.

"Morning AC." Skye smiled at the Director.

"Hey Skye. Up early?" He nodded to Melinda.

"You have no idea."

May smirked. "Skye you should shower and change. Meet me at the shooting range in forty-five minutes. I'll give you your class books after weapons training. " May got up and put her dishes in the sink and walked out of the room. Phil sat down at the table with his coffee.

Skye rolled her eyes. "Copy that."

Phil squinted at her. "So, Melinda's your S.O. now?"

"Yeah."

Phil reached over to squeeze her arm. " She's really a softie."

Skye nearly choked on her tea. She looked at him grinning at her.

"Sure she is. And I'm the Black Widow." Phil laughed.

"You know Melinda trained her, right?"

Skye sputtered. "Mmmmaaaay.......May trained Natasha Rominov?” Skye was practically squeaking. “Nooo....you're kidding, right? Come on AC tell me you're kidding."

Phil got up and winked at her. "Am I?" He walked out with his cup of coffee. Skye stared after him wide eyed.

Skye wandered through the halls searching for the shooting range. She had asked an agent who had sent her in the wrong direction and now she was close to being late. She rounded a corner and sighed in relief. May was down further in the corridor. She hustled and came up behind her new SO. Which obviously was a stupid thing to do, since she was currently standing with May's arm around her throat and a gun pointed at her head. She surmised this was going to be her first lesson.

May stepped back, letting go of Skye and lowered her weapon. "That was stupid Skye. Never, ever come up behind someone like when they have a weapon in their hand unless you intend to take them out. Got it?"

Skye grinned and saluted. "Aye, aye captain." The grin disappeared quickly as Skye watched the disapproval flicker across her superior's face. "Sorry. I meant copy that."

May shook her head a bit, and then handed the gun to Skye. "You will learn this gun inside and out. You will learn how to load the gun, and how to shoot with it. How to shoot with both hands. First step. Over there on that table are more rounds. First, unload the weapon and then reload it."

Skye moved to the table holding the gun. She looked at it and back to May. May shook her head. "Ward taught you the basics, didn't he?"
Skye nodded. "Shooting. He always handed me the gun."

Melinda May sighed. Ward wasn't training the girl to be an agent. Why would he when that might have backfired on him. Actually, it did anyway, seeing how resourceful Skye was, but now she needed to be trained correctly. She would have to start from the beginning. She held her hand out. Skye obliged, giving her back the weapon.

"Watch and learn. I'm going to do it two times. Then you will do it." She unloaded the weapon slowly the first time and sped up the second. She handed the gun to Skye. "You're turn."

Skye did as she had seen May do.

“Again. Do it over and over till it becomes muscle memory that you do not have to see to do, that you can do in the pitch dark in a few seconds if necessary.”

Skye unloaded and reloaded the gun several more times till May nodded her approval. “You will do this little exercise each day before we do target practice.” Then she handed Skye ear protectors and Skye set herself up in front of the practice targets. She shot at the target. She missed three completely, got two on the paper but not the target and one in the shoulder. She frowned. She sucked. She looked at May who was standing a few feet away with her arms crossed.

"How many times did Ward teach you to shoot or let you practice?"

"Um maybe four."

"Okay." Melinda took out her own gun and motioned for Skye to move. "First. Watch my body Skye. Pay no attention to the targets." She shot off her rounds slowly. Skye watched.

"Now reload and shoot. I want to watch your stance.”

Skye did as she said. As she was shooting May moved to stand directly behind her watching closely. She didn’t do much better the second round. She lowered the weapon and sighed.

“Can I touch you to move you and set you Skye? Skye nodded. May reached out and repositioned her until Skye actually did feel more comfortable in her stance. “You need to relax your body and you need to balance yourself better. When you aim, steady your arm first and then focus on the gun and how it feels in your hand. Take a few deep breaths to relax, clear your thoughts, and focus on aiming; fully exhale; then pause your breathing when your lungs are empty of most oxygen; and take the shot. Now relax. Feel the weight of the gun. Squeeze the trigger Skye, don't pull it. By Squeezing I mean a smooth, continuous pressure and not a jerking motion. Practice again."

So, she did. She took her time, tried to focus on her breathing and pulling the trigger in more smooth way. She hit the target nearly each time. Much better than before. She reloaded and practiced till May notice her arms shaking. She didn’t hit perfect centers or anything close to what May could do, but she was clearly getting better when she followed May’s instructions.

"Okay. That's enough for today. Good. You did good. Every day you will practice loading and unloading first, and then practice shooting. I will correct you as needed. Good muscle memory Skye. That's all this is."

Skye nodded putting the gun and ammo away.

"Follow me."

Skye did as she was told. May wandered into a room that resembled a classroom up by Coulson’s office. Shelves lined the walls with hundreds of books, there were three desks with computers and a few chairs around the room. There was also a sofa. May walked to one of the desks and pointed to the four books setting there. Skye picked up the first one which was titled ‘History of Shield’.

"I already studied this May, with Ward. I took a..........." May stopped her with a wave of her hand.

"This will be more detailed. I trust nothing you did with Ward. You are starting over." She handed Skye four notebooks as well. "This computer has the Shield Academy classes downloaded. You will take 'History of Shield', ‘Tactics and Operations’, ‘Criminal Justice’, and ‘Spanish’ to start. After The notebooks contain outlines and lesson plans with expectations in each for all the classes. I will administer the tests when due, which most are keyed in on the computer with my passcode. The classes are planned out to take 10 weeks and when you finish these you will take four more. Any questions?" Skye shook her head.
"Good." May picked up a DVD. She handed that to Skye as well. "This program will teach you Chinese basics. It has daily lessons. You will do that as well. I will fill in gaps and more detail when we have time. This DVD goes over some Chinese history and culture as well. " She looked at Skye expectantly.

"Roger that."

May nodded. She had just a hint of a smile on her lips. "Okay then. Start now. Set a schedule up for yourself so you are studying and learning for 5 hours per day. Don’t forget to break for lunch. Come see me in my office at four today to check in.”

"Copy that."

With that May turned and left the room. Skye sighed. She walked to the desk dropping the notebooks onto it. She sat in the chair and turned on the computer pulling up the correct course. She opened the ‘History of Shield’ notebook and started reading the outline. She sighed, reached for the huge book and opened it.

May passed Coulson on the way back to her office. He stopped her. "How's training with Skye going?"

She looked at him. He had a smile on his face. "Well enough for the first day. She's doing everything I tell her to."

"Of course she is Melinda. She thinks the world of you. She wants to be just like you."

Melinda shook her head. "That is not a good idea. I'm too damaged. But I will make sure she can protect herself." Melinda moved to go past him.

"You are far too hard on yourself Mel."

She stared at him with a blank expression. "She's strong Phil. I'll make sure she's stronger." She turned and continued down the hallway to her office. He watched her go in then turned down the corridor she had come from. He looked in the window of the door he knew Skye was in. She was bent over the desk with her head in a large book and diligently taking notes. He smiled at her serious expression and hoped that she would be as good for Melinda as he knew Melinda would be for her. He left and he continued on his way to visit with Fitz and Simmons.

A little while later, after Coulson had left, Jemma was sitting by the bedside watching Fitz. Melinda made her way in carrying a tray of food. She set it on the bedside table and smiled at Jemma. "You need to eat."

Jemma shook her head. "I'm not hungry just now. But thank you."

Melinda touched Jemma's shoulder. "I know. But you need to eat and sleep Jemma. Getting sick, you yourself will be of no help to him. You know that. Eat now. Later, you will need to sleep. "One of us will always stay in the room when you sleep Jemma."

Jemma looked at May. She was tired. She knew May was right. If she didn't take care of herself, she would be of no use to Fitz. She nodded. 'I'll try to eat some of it. I'll sleep later. I promise."

Melinda nodded. She patted her shoulder. "Let me know if there is any change in him, or if I can do anything else for you."

Jemma nodded. "Thank you." She watched May leave with a bit of a smile on her face. She was so glad they were all here together.

Skye stretched as she got up. It was almost one and she was starving. She made her way to the kitchen. No one else was there. She poked her head into the fridge. She found nothing. She opened the freezer and saw no quick microwavable stuff. She closed that and wandered over to the cabinets. She was contemplating making a can of soup when she heard someone enter the room. She turned to find her S.O. staring at her. Skye sighed and went back to her search for something edible. She was not good in the kitchen but there was a great possibility that Melinda May was even worse than her. She was hoping it would have been Coulson standing there so she could talk him into making her something.

"Nothing huh?"

Skye looked over. She shook her head. 'I was hoping you were AC."

"Well he made Jemma and himself lunch." She looked annoyed.

"Not you? Why not?"

"Got here too late. He was already done."

Skye held up a can of tomato soup. "Can you make grilled cheese?"

"Can you?"

Skye smirked. "Only if you like them burnt."

"Okay. Open the soup. I'll give grilled cheese a go." Melinda looked like she was charging into battle. Skye smiled sadly. They were pathetic.

"I'm going to try to be around when AC makes dinner tonight." Skye said. Melinda shook her head in agreement.

Ten minutes later they both sat at the table eating their lunch. Melinda was proud she only had to scrape a little black off her sandwich and Skye was glad Melinda gave her the best one. Hey, the soup was hot too. Melinda had grabbed some grapes as well and shared them with Skye. They sat mostly in silence with Skye only answering a few questions Melinda asked about her studies. Melinda finished first, putting her dishes in the sink, saying something about inventory of supplies, and she left the kitchen.

After Skye finished, she did both her and Melinda's dishes then went back to the room to study and read more. She had finished her Shield history work as well as Criminal Justice. Now she was onto the tactical and operations reading and work. She wanted to do well. She wanted to prove to Melinda she was serious. She wanted to be a proper agent. She wanted to be like Melinda May.

A little before four in the afternoon, Skye made her way to her S.O.'s office. She knocked on the door and waited to be invited in.

"Come in Skye."

Skye entered the room. She waited while Melinda finished with a paper she was reading.

"How is your studying going?"

"Good. I just need to finish one assignment for the day from Criminal Justice and do the first Chinese lesson."

"Good. You can do some of it while you sit with Fitz. Jemma needs to get some sleep and I promised her one of us would stay with him. I will bring you dinner and then later on relieve you. You okay with that?"

"Copy that." Skye paused for a beat before continuing. "Do you think he will be okay? That he will wake up? Cause he really needs to wake up. It's so sad to see him just lying there."

Melinda nodded. "He'll wake up. I have to believe that. Just now though we all need to take care of Simmons."

Skye nodded. She felt so helpless. And so mad. "I hate him."

Melinda looked at her curiously.

"Ward. For what he did to Fitz. What he tried to do to them both. What he did to us. I hate him May."

Melinda took in her student's demeanor. Skye's emotions flickered across her face. Melinda needed to remember that she too had been thru hell and back. Maybe she needed to back off training her so hard.

"Skye. Maybe we can take some time off tomorrow. Just do Tai chi and then you could rest and you could..."

"Could what May? Sit around and think about what happened. Sulk? Cause that would probably drive me nuts. No, I want this. I want you to push me, be hard on me. Give me so much to do and make me so tired that I have no time to think about ways to kill Ward. Or to make hydra pay. Or think about what we lost. Please."

Melinda nodded. "Copy that." Her lips turned upward into one of her almost smiles. Skye smiled back.

"I'll grab my work and head to the med wing."

"Good. I will bring whatever Coulson makes for dinner around six." Skye nodded to her and slipped out of the room. She stopped for her book and DVD. Along her way, she stopped off at her room and also grabbed her laptop. She made her way to the med wing. Stopping outside Fitz's room she looked in. Jemma was sitting in the chair talking to Fitz. Skye cleared her throat and entered the room.

"Here for official duty." She smirked at Jemma.

Jemma looked up and smiled. "Really Skye, you don't have to. I can just nap here for a bit."

"Jemma Simmons. You need to sleep. You need to let us help you."

"Oh Skye. I don' t know if I can sleep."

"Well try. Hey, take something if you need to. Come on Jem. You need to sleep. Being dead on your feet will not help him. Especially when he wakes up." Skye could see Jemma was still hesitant. "Jemma. I promise I'll stay here. One of us will stay here. If he wakes up - we'll get you right away. Trust me."

"Oh, I do Skye. I truly do."

"Then go. Please."

Jemma looked at Fitz and back to Skye. She walked over to the door. "Please get me if anything changes. Anything at all." Skye nodded. Jemma left. Skye walked over to the chair by the bed and sat down. She placed her computer bag on the floor and opened her book and started reading. She read out loud.

Melinda found her slouching in the chair holding Fitz's hand and talking to him. She pushed the door open with her foot, carrying a tray of heaping food. The smell made its way to Skye and she sat up with wide eyes staring at Melinda. Melinda set the tray on the table.

"Ooooo. What is it? It smells so good." Skye’s excitement level was high.

Melinda smiled. "I kind of talked Phil into making us a nice meal. I used a lot of guilt about missing lunch and how hard you’ve been working. It worked. He made chicken marsala, scalloped red potatoes, vegetable bake, salad., oh, and cheese biscuits." As she talked, Skye found her mouth was watering. And as if to confirm her need for food, her stomach growled loudly. She giggled.

Melinda sat on the edge of Fitz's bed and set the tray on the rolling table between her and Skye. She and Skye dug in. Skye took a bite of the chicken and sighed in contentment.

"Oh this is amazing." She stabbed a potato and shoved that in her mouth next. They both stayed quiet, just relishing in the pleasure of eating edible tasty food for once.

After they finished, Melinda rolled the table to the side. "Did you get all your work done?"

Skye nodded. "Mostly. Everything except finishing the Chinese lesson and watching the video."

Melinda looked at her student seeing the sleepiness and fatigue. "You should go relax for a while and then get to bed. Save your lesson for tomorrow since you should have a little more time. You can catch up on two lessons another day when you have less work in another class. I'll stay here for a while. Coulson said he'd come by later. "

Skye was going to argue that she could stay longer and could finish all her work, but a huge yawn betrayed her. "Um, yeah, I guess. I think I'll head to my bunk, maybe play around on my computer for a little before bed." Melinda nodded at her. "So yeah, um. goodnight. Five a.m. tomorrow, right? "

"Yes Skye. So, make sure you get enough sleep. Good night. Take the tray with dishes along on your way and drop them in the kitchen please." Melinda sat in the chair Skye vacated and her attention was now on Fitz.

Skye gathered the tray and backed out the room pushing open the door. She glanced back one last time to see her S.O. holding Fitz's hand and talking softly to him. She smiled. Maybe AC was right. Maybe her S.O. was a softie underneath all that no nonsense gruff.

Five o'clock in the morning came much too soon. Skye shut off her alarm at 4:40 careful not to knock it on the floor this time. She threw on a pair of yoga pants and a loose-fitting T-shirt, her socks and new Shield sneakers. She pulled her hair into a ponytail and headed to the gym. She walked in and made her way to the mats where Melinda May was waiting for her. They greeted each other and Skye took her place and started warming up next to Melinda. They started Tai Chi after warm-ups. Skye followed Melinda's moves as best she could, with Melinda correcting her stance or moves when necessary. After Tai Chi, they did some stretching and then once again ran through the base doing five laps.

Afterward, Skye once again was out of breath and Melinda was not. After they cooled down and stretched out, they made their way to the kitchen and ate breakfast. Then Skye grabbed a shower and went to work on her studies, while Melinda said she had plenty of work to do. Later they ate lunch together as well, and then they did target practice. Once again in the late afternoon, Skye went to relieve Jemma to stay with Fitz until May brought her dinner. They ate together and then May dismissed her for the night. Skye did a little work on her computer checking a few things, and then she watched a show. She fell asleep by 10 pm.

Melinda and Skye followed this routine for the next few days. For Skye it was therapeutic. having a routine, having her mind and body occupied nearly every waking moment. For May, training Skye made her open up a little more to her student. Which her student seemed to love. Sometimes during training May would allow Skye to see a glimpse of her past, to see the woman she was before Bahrain. Usually it was to teach a lesson or reinforce a concept. Once in a while, it was just May sharing with her and those times were special to Skye. For Skye, it meant that May saw her as more than a duty – more than a job. More than a screwup who needed to be fixed.

By the ninth day, Skye had learned how May and Coulson had met and that yes May had indeed been one of Black Widow’s instructors. Learning how May and Coulson met at the academy was a highlight for Skye. Melinda had grinned at Skye's reaction when she had told her that she had met him by literally running him over trying to get away from the upper-class cadets at the academy who were chasing her, because she had set off a stink bomb in their showers. Skye had laughed and laughed as she had explained that one. Learning about how May had been tricked into sparing with Natasha Romanov and subsequently then becoming one of her teachers at Shield even while on desk duty. That was all Phil’s fault May said although she had not elaborated on just what Coulson had done. Skye stuck all those questions in the back of her mind to try to dig out of May later. For now, there was no going back for any of them. They needed to forge ahead. To leave the past behind. To move forward and rebuild, not just shield, but themselves. To help rebuild relationships and trust. They needed to become stronger together.

The routines they all established helped everyone move forward. It gave Melinda and Skye purpose. It gave them all stability and a sense of hope. It did the same for Jemma. She fell into a routine as well. Melinda and Skye making sure she ate and slept. They not only kept Fitz company but Jemma as well. Skye would drag the board games along and Melinda and Jemma would play them with her. Melinda taught both girls how to play poker. Coulson would check on everyone when he could, but he was busy trying to find agents to recruit along with setting up the base. For nine days everyone benefited from the routines they set up.

It was also on that ninth day their world once again changed. Fitz woke up from his coma. A new chapter in all their lives was about to begin.

Chapter Text

It was painful. Watching Fitz struggle with everything was painful. Skye was watching through the window in the door of his room as the doctor and therapist were with Fitz. It had been a week since he had woken up. At first, he could not do anything. Now he was sitting up and able to eat. They were told he would recover some, but it would take a while, and the doctors were not sure if he would ever be the same. The prognosis was guarded at best. Skye had gone in to visit yesterday and she was able to hold it together while in the room but had escaped to her own room and sobbed on her bed. Later, at weapons training, if May noticed her red eyes and her swollen face, she didn't say anything.

Skye's days were still pretty much the same. She followed her schedule nearly to perfection. She woke up every morning at four-forty and made her way to the gym where May would already be waiting. They would warm up, do Tai Chi and then run. Then May would teach her self-defense and sometimes they would spar when May didn’t have as much work to do. They would then eat breakfast together and then May would go off to do her work while Skye studied. They would meet together again for lunch and after lunch would have weapons training. The later afternoons, Skye would study, visit Fitz, or spend time with Simmons. She hardly saw Coulson anymore. May had introduced her to weight training as well and they would do that before dinner. Sometimes May would eat dinner with her and Simmons but most of the time she would grab a plate and head to her office to work while she ate.

Sometimes May would give her work to do on her computer, to hack this or that, or look up info. She would do that in between studying or at night after dinner. Slowly more and more support staff and comms and science tech agents came to the base. Since they were there, Skye had less menial work to do, as May would give it to the newly joined agents. Jemma worked in the lab with the new staff for a few hours each day but spent the majority of her time with Fitz. It seemed like May was always doing something, working. leading the other agents or training Skye. Skye wasn't even sure if she slept more than a few hours each night. May had picked up all the extra duties that Coulson was no longer there to do daily.

Skye had gotten really good at hearing everything training under Melinda, but Melinda May was still able to sneak up on her. She jumped as May touched her shoulder.

May smirked at her. "How is he doing?"

Skye shrugged. "He's sitting up. Still can't say many words. He threw the cup across the room a few minutes ago."

"He'll get there. We have to be patient."

Skye turned to look at her mentor. "Do you really think so or are you just trying to be comforting?”

Melinda raised an eyebrow at her.

“Right. What was I thinking?”

"Skye. Give him time. He may never be completely the same again, but he will get better. Don't give up. More importantly, don’t let him give up. He’s still Fitz in there."

Skye sighed. "Okay. It's just- so- it’s hard to see him like that – to see how he struggles with basic words -it’s hard to - hard to believe he may – his brain is - he may never be able to...Oh god I hate Ward. Fitz kept hoping he would have a reason, be brainwashed or something. Look what he did to him May. Ward did this. " She had started shaking and her eyes filled with tears. "Look what he did to us."

Melinda moved her hand to Skye's arm rubbing it up and down a few times. "I know. I hate him too."

"At least you got to kick his ass. To feel that. To- to hurt him – to hit him – just- I wish I could – I would – oh..." Skye went to slam her hand into the wall but May grabbed it first. She spun Skye around to look at her.

"Hurting yourself is not going to help you feel better, " she motioned to the door of Fitz’s room, "or help him. You need to control your emotions Skye so you can use them when needed. Right now, slamming things is not the answer."

“What is the answer May? How do I stop this – this pain. He said he still felt – he still wanted me- he still wanted us to – god he used me, and he never ever cared about any of us, did he? It’s like everywhere I go it’s the same thing. Every single time I trust someone I get kicked in the teeth. All those foster homes, people I met when I ran away, Miles. Ward. The universe sucks.”

“Are you done?”

Skye looked up at May who had on one of her non readable neutral faces. Skye felt tears threatening again and pushed them back, not wanting to appear so weak in front of May. She nodded.

“Good. Now take a look again in that room. Fitz is fighting. Fighting to get himself back. All we can do is the same.”

Skye started to speak but May held her hand up. “I get it Skye. I do. Life has handed you a crap deal. But look at you. You never gave up. You fought back at everything that was thrown at you. You pushed through because you had to, it’s who you are. It’s who we all are. If we weren’t, none of us would still be here. Don’t sell Fitz or yourself short. You are survivors. This team is a team of survivors. This is now you home. This is your team. This will always be your home Skye. But you need to take a breath. That anger that has been building in you. You need to control it not let it control you.”

Skye bit her bottom lip, rocking back and forth on her feet. “I don’t know how.”

May nodded. “You put one foot in front of the other and you keep moving. That’s all I know how to do. Even when I – I didn’t want to – the people around me – they – the people that care won’t let you stay lost. But you, you have to do your part. Sometimes it will be the hardest thing you have ever done. You get up and just do the day all over again. Sometimes, for a few hours, you can even forget. Come on, let’s go to the gym. Use that anger to get stronger.” She turned and headed down the hallway. Skye followed.

They got to the gym and May started warming up. “Warm up and stretch. Let’s see if you can channel that anger and take me down.”

Skye laughed. Yeah that would be the day. She would celebrate should she ever take down Melinda May. She’d throw a damn party. She slowly started stretching, her muscle memory taking her through her warm-ups without Skye thinking about it. This woman standing next to her was all Skye aspired to be. She probably respected no one the way she did Agent Melinda May. The words she had just heard her speak could possibly the most she’d ever heard from her at one time. That she cared enough to do so spoke volumes to Skye. May just didn’t talk a lot. Coulson had told her that was true even when she was in the field before she took a desk job and while at the academy. She preferred action and left the small talk to others. These small glimpses into who Melinda May really was that she allowed Skye to see was why Skye's brain was in full motion. Oh, in the back of her mind she knew May cared for them, for her to a degree. She had seen the tape of May pummeling Quinn on her behalf. After all they were teammates, colleagues, co-workers that shared a small space. May would have never agreed to be her S.O. if she didn't see potential there. She was not one to do things out of pity. All Skye wanted to do was impress May. To be worthy of the time she was spending teaching her. But she never thought she’d ever be good enough to take down May.

“You ready?”

“Am I ready to be slammed to the ground over and over? Sure, why not?” Skye gave May a wry grin.

Melinda smirked.

Skye rubbed her sore shoulder while she worked on her Spanish lesson. She had been thrown to ground four times while sparing with May. She had to admit though she felt better. Getting some of that anger and frustration out physically had calmed down her mind. She considered it a win by only being taken down four times by May. Usually it was more like seven or eight. Hey maybe she was getting better. Her shoulder hurt, not from sparing though, but rather from bashing it into the door of the shower. Guess she still needed to work on that coordination thing. May was in her office working as she was finishing up her daily assignments. One more to go and she could go grab dinner. She planned to visit with Fitz after dinner to give Jemma a break. She and Fitz has gotten into a routine of watching Dr. Who episodes before going to bed. Fitz seemed to enjoy them and tolerated Skye’s company because she didn’t push him to talk. She herself rambled on about anything and everything, filling him in on what she did all day and what was happening at the base. Skye finished her work and walked down the hallway. She stopped at May’s door but saw she was busy with agents talking to them. She kept going and went to the kitchen looking for something for dinner. One of the new recruits was there cooking something.

He turned as she came in. “Oh hi. You’re Skye right?”

She nodded.

“I’m Agent Alfonso Mackenzie. Everyone calls me Mack. Work in the garage. I’m a mechanic.” He wiped his hand on the towel and stuck it out to shake. “Don’t think we’ve been formally introduced.”

“Yeah there is not much formal going on here.” She shook his hand.

“Anyway, I was just making dinner. Care to join me?”

Skye’s face brightened. A new recruit who could cook. Maybe they weren’t all bad after all. “Whatcha making?”

“Just some meatball stroganoff and a salad with avocado, tomato, mango and onions” He bent to pull a pan out of the oven “Oh and some cheese bread.”

Skye’s mouth was watering. He was staring at her.

“Is that a yes?”

She nodded and grinned. Was it that obvious? “Was I drooling?”

He laughed. “Well maybe just that one trickle on the left lip.”

She turned a bit pink but nodded anyway. “No one, and I mean no one knows how to cook around here. Well except Coulson but he’s gone a lot. If you are serious about joining you, hell yeah. I’ll even do the dishes for a meal like this.”

“Well there is enough for five or six people. I was actually hoping for some company. People have been great, but you know, the new guy, so....”

“Yeah. I do know. I barely recognize people here and we are getting new agents seems by the day.” She grinned at him. But if I’d known some of you could cook, hell I’d have been nicer – maybe.” She laughed.

“I see. The way to make friends and influence people around here is through their stomachs.”

“You’ve no idea. Anything beats a burnt grilled cheese.”

Mack smiled and turned the stove off. “Looks like everything’s ready.

Skye grabbed a couple plates and utensils from the cabinet, and they filled up their plates and sat down at the counter. “Oh hey you want a beer or water or something?” Skye jumped from her stool and went to the beverage fridge.

“A beer is fine. You look like you are barely legal to drink one though.”

Skye laughed as she grabbed two beers. “I’m old enough.”

She dug into her meal and groaned in satisfaction at the first taste.

“Good to see you approve Agent Skye.”

They made small talk while they ate, mostly talking about the base and Koenig and Coulson’s attempts to start up Shield. Skye found Mack to be friendly but not pushy, and he seemed really excited to be back working as a mechanic. They finished and Skye went to do the dishes as she promised, but he stopped her.

“Hey there’s a lot leftover, know anyone else who needs dinner?”

“Yeah May probably didn’t eat yet, and I can check with Fitz.”

“Okay take them plates I’ve got the dishes, most of them I did anyway while I cooked. May is Coulson’s assistant, right? Fitz is the guy in medical, the one who almost drowned?”

“Yeah. May’s in charge when Coulson’s not around. She’s my S.O. too. And yeah my best friend Fitz is recovering.”

He nodded. “Good. Take them the rest of this.”

Skye got two plates and piled both high, while Mack put the salad in two bowls and sliced the rest of the bread adding it to the plates. He then put the plates on a tray after covering them. Skye got out her phone and texted May to meet her in Fitz’s room. She took the tray and headed to med bay, turning around she nodded at Mack. “Thanks for the dinner and company. It was nice. And for this too.”

“No problem. I like to cook.”

“Good to know. You know how to make pancakes?”

“Sure. And waffles. Plus I make fantastic omlets.”

“Oh you are so my new best friend.”

He laughed. “I thought Fitz was your best friend?”

“Meh. He’s my TV watching bestie and you Agent Mackenzie, are my foodie bestie. See ya.”

“Goodnight Skye.”

Skye moved as quickly as she could to the med bay. Mack had covered the food, but it wouldn’t stay hot forever. She arrived just as May did.

May had a worried expression. “What’s wrong Skye?”

 “Nothing. I brought food. That new mechanic guy, Mack, is a culinary genius. Figured you didn’t eat yet and this is so good. Plus when you are in with us, he is less likely to get mad at me for making him eat.”

“Skye. You made it sound like there was something wrong and it was urgent.”

“It is. This food isn’t gonna stay hot forever you know.”

“Oh for Pete’s sake.”

Skye motioned to the door to Fitz’s room holding the tray of food. “A little help?”

May signed and opened the door. She walked in and smiled at Fitz. Skye put the tray down on his overbed cart and announced, “dinner is served.”

Fitz shook his head.

Skye continued. “I know they probably brought you something but this...this is better. Trust me.”

May spoke then. “Fitz just try a little please.”

Skye took the cover off the plates and pointed. “Cheese bread. Homemade. Mack made all this. You’d like him Fitz. He’s nice and he likes to work on cars and engines and stuff.” Skye kept talking telling Fitz all about Mack, while she set the food there or Fitz and cut it so he could grab the pieces easier. She cut the bread in quarters and sat on the bed encouraging him to try everything.

May took her food and sat in the chair eating. Yeah Skye was right it was very good. She watched as her student patiently and calmly helped Fitz eat most of the meal. She even got a couple nods out of him while talking up a storm. Skye managed to talk her into staying and watching two episodes of ‘Dr. Who’ with them before she left to go back to work.

The next few weeks passed by with everyone settling more and more into their routines. Twenty days after Fitz woke up, he was finally allowed to leave the med bay and go to his own room. That made it easier for Skye to spend more time with him, even has Jemma was spending less and less. Jemma was working longer hours and barely stopped in anymore. Skye knew something had happened between them but wasn’t sure what. After a few tries to get it out of Jemma, Skye gave up, at least for the moment. May and a few other agents were spending time training Jemma, in what exactly Skye didn’t know, she assumed it was basic self-defense. Jemma seemed to have little time for Skye as well, claiming to be too busy, every time Skye would ask her to play boardgames or watch a movie. So, Skye gravitated to Fitz’s room more and more as well as spending time talking with and playing video games with Mack. Turns out he was a big ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Halo’ fan. Skye liked both and also got him hooked on her favorite, ‘Minecraft’.

About two weeks after Fitz had moved to his own room, Skye was finishing up her lessons for the day. She was working on the last one, a Shield History assignment that was boring her to tears. She glanced at the clock which read five-ten. She stretched and tried to wake up, thinking maybe a snack would help when the door opened, and May stuck her head inside.

“Hey. I’m taking a drive to get something to eat. Feel like tagging along?”

Skye slammed her book shut and jumped up. “Really? Hell yeah.”

Melinda pulled into a bustling parking lot and parked the unmarked SUV in a spot that was just vacated. They were in Washington, DC and from what Skye could tell, very near the National Mall and Capitol Hill.

“Um aren’t we still technically wanted spies. Is this really where we should be?”

Melinda rolled her eyes and pointed to the restaurant. “Don’t think Talbot will be looking for us at Da Hong Pao restaurant. We will fit right in. Also don’t flatter yourself – you and I are not far enough on the food chain to be considered important.”

Skye frowned at May while sounding out the pronunciation of the restaurant in her mind. “I do like Chinese food.”

“Yeah. Well this is not like a neighborhood Chinese take-out joint. This is real traditional Chinese food. “

“Well I lived in New York for a while May. I’ve had good Chinese food.”

“Okay. If you say so.” May shut the SUV door and started walking across the parking lot. Skye paused for a minute realizing that May had color on. Yes, her skinny jeans were black and so were her boots, but she was wearing a bright purple three quarter sleeve woven blouse. Skye hadn’t thought to shrug on more than her jeans and boots with solid grey colored T-shirt she’d found in the supply closet. Skye ran to catch up. At the entrance there was a line but May moved by them and went to talk to a small Chinese man at the register. They spoke in Chinese. He motioned for her to follow him and May waved for Skye to follow them. The weaved in and out of the tables packed with people and ended up in a small room at the right corner of the restaurant. It held eight tables and two were empty. The man seated them at one of them. Soon a server brought them tea which apparently May had ordered along with glasses of water.

“So you must have some pull here. That line was really long, and the wait time was over an hour for a table.”

“Dim sum. I called ahead to reserve a spot.”

Skye added sugar to her tea and took a sip. “This is good. What’s dim sum?

“You’ve never heard of Dim Sum?”

Skye raised her eyebrows and shook her head. “Nope.”

Melinda sighed. “So, I guess you don’t know much about the Chinese side of your history.”

“May I didn’t even know I was half-Chinese till I turned six and some of the kids at school started calling me names. It’s not as though the people who abandoned me did so with a biography attached to my onesie. I literally was dropped off with nothing except a yellow onesie wrapped in a pink blanket. No name. No age. No birthday. Nothing.”

“Of course you know that cause you hacked your file.”

“Yep. When I was fourteen.”

The server came around and spoke to Melinda in Chinese. Melinda spoke to him animatedly for a for minutes. He kept nodding and smiling while she talked.

“So yeah what is dim sum? Skye said again as the server left.

Melinda smiled. “It will be here in a couple minutes.”

“So it’s a type of Chinese food? Is it good? Chicken or Pork? Something else?”

“Dim sum is a meal of small dishes. It will include savory and sweet tastes from a variety of steamed and fried buns, dumplings and rolls. Usually served with tea.”

“Oh. The good stuff huh?”

“It’s Cantonese. It literally means ‘touch the heart’. You’ll understand in a little while.”

The server wheeled a cart filled with small dishes of food to their table. Melinda reached over and took a number of the dishes and placed them on the table in front of her. She motioned for Skye to do the same. Skye took a dish that looked to be a dumpling. Then she took a few more and placed them on the table. Melinda nodded at the server who wheeled the cart away to the next table.

Skye picked up her chopsticks and picked up a dumpling and took a bite. “Oh my gosh, this is amazing.”

Melinda smiled at her as she herself plopped her own dumpling in her mouth. “king prawn”. When Skye gave her a puzzled look she added, “like shrimp.”

Skye nodded. “With garlic and butter, right?”

Melinda nodded and reached for another dumpling. Skye swallowed and reached for another plate to try something else. This looked more like a bun. She bit into it and smiled.

“Those are roast pork buns, “Melinda said helpfully.

Skye nodded and ate another. Then she picked up a spring roll. This one was filled with shrimp, chicken, cabbage and sprouts. She dipped it in the spicy sauce and ate two more of them.

The two gorged themselves on buns, rolls, and dumplings. Soon the cart came around again and Melinda picked more items for both of them including mashed fish balls, steamed shrimp rice crepes, congee with egg and pork, yu choy with oyster sauce, and more of the variety of dumplings and buns. Four times the cart came around and Melinda choose things for them both.

Finally, Skye was stuffed. She wiped her mouth with her napkin and leaned back in her chair. She watched as May stuffed more pork buns and king prawn dumplings in her mouth. Good grief, she thought, the woman was still eating. Where was she putting it all?”

As though May could read her mind, Melinda said, “Didn’t eat all day knowing I was coming here. Don’t get this very often so I need to make it worthwhile.” She grabbed another bun, this one filled with beef and rice. The man who she had first talked to returned to their table and spoke with Melinda. He left, and finally she was done, pushing the plates away and sipping on her tea. Skye was too full for any more tea.

“So this was Dim Sum?”

May nodded. “This was Dim Sum.”

Skye smiled. “I like Dim Sum. I like it a lot.”

“I knew you would. You like food. You are willing to try new things. This is part of your heritage. This food is part of where you come from.” She nodded at Skye. “Small things matter.”

“Thanks.”

Just then the server returned with the check. Skye grabbed it before Melinda could and reading the total, Skye’s eyes grew wide. “Holy crap May, It’s like a lot of money.”

Melinda grabbed it out of Skye’s hands and laughed. “It would be if it was just for what we had. But it’s not. As she spoke, she got out a credit card and placed it on the table with the check and signed the check adding a very generous tip.

“What do you mean just for what we had.” As she spoke the server returned smiling at May and carrying three large bags.

“Take out.” Melinda said matter-of-factly. She smiled at the server as he placed the bags on the table and spoke to him in Chinese. He smiled back and gave her a small bow as he took the check. “Extra for us for tomorrow and some for the others,” Melinda motioned toward the bags.

Skye’s eyes grew large again as she looked back and forth between the bags and May. “You mean I get to eat this again tomorrow? Is it Christmas?”

The server came back quickly handing Melinda the credit card and once again gave her a small bow. She nodded and smiled. Speaking to Skye she said, “let’s go. Grab that one, it’s heavier, and I’ll take these two.”

Skye did as she was told, and they made their way through the restaurant and out the door. Skye looked at the clear sky seeing it was just turning dusk. She was surprised it wasn’t fully dark already. It seemed like they’d been eating for hours. They placed the bags in the back of the SUV and got in. Melinda pulled out of the parking lot and made her way to the main road out of DC. Skye relaxed and just watched out the window as the scenery passed by. In less than a half hour they were on the highway headed back to the base, the smell of food and a very full stomach lulling Skye to sleep.

A few minutes later, Melinda looked over as a small snore escaped from Skye and she laughed. But her good mood soon turned to trepidation and contemplation as she glanced at Skye again. She looked so young while she slept and so innocent, and Melinda realized everything had changed in the last few months. Some way, somehow, her student had wormed her way into her heart. And that revelation was terrifying to her. Because it was much easier to keep everyone at a distance. Safer and easier. It would not be personal and no one, including herself, would be vulnerable. But now that barrier between Skye and herself no longer existed. And there was no going back.

They got back to the Playground at a little after nine. Skye slept nearly the whole way back only waking once for about fifteen minutes when Melinda turned the radio on and played an oldies station. She teased Melinda about being so old but then found herself tapping to the music before she fell back to sleep. Melinda loved music from the 70’’s and early 80’s and had a strange obsession for Elton John songs and Billy Joel songs. She figured it was the piano in the songs that was sometimes driving and dangerous and sometimes haunting in its simplicity of tone and theme. Her mother had insisted she learn to play a musical instrument much to Melinda’s dismay. She didn’t want her time to be taken by such a trivial thing, which is what she thought of music and art at the time. She wanted to ice skate and be like Dorothy Hamill until she realized how hard ice was and then she discovered Martial Arts and wanted to be better than everyone. Along with school and doing well cause that’s what her mother expected, she only wanted to get in better shape, and practice herself defense disciplines. Spending time with piano lessons and practice would take away from her valuable time. But then two things happened. One she discovered she liked playing the piano and two, it helped calm her down and was a good relaxer for her high-strung personality and excess energy. He had to learn to focus better. She started listening to music and was drawn to the ballads of Elton and Joel as well as the 70’s orchestra type bands like the Moody Blues and Yes.

Melinda woke Skye as they entered the Playground’s garage. Skye sat up and looked disoriented for a few seconds before realizing they were back.

“Hey help me carry these to the kitchen.”

Skye grabbed the heaviest bag and followed Melinda to the kitchen where they set the bags on the counter. Melinda started pulling the containers from the bag lining them up with Skye helping her.

“Okay now this pile goes in one bag, this one in another and these go in the last one.”

“Why not put it all in the fridge?”

“Because it is not for everyone. This bag here is for Coulson.” She finished placing eight containers in one of the bags. “This one is for us and I will keep it in my fridge in my office.” She piled in a bunch of the containers of food in another bag. “And these three containers are for Fitz. While these three are for Jemma. For our team.”

“Come one. Follow me.” They carried the bags upstairs and Melinda knocked on Coulson’s office. He answered the door and smiled at them. Melinda handed one of the bags to him. “It’s probably not very hot anymore.”

“That’s okay. You got buns and dumplings, right? And shrimp rolls?”

“Yes, plus some rice and a few surprises I am sure you’ll like.”

“Thanks. I have to get to that place with you one of these days.”

Melinda smiled. “You back for a few days?”

“Yeah, got some new recruits heading here soon. Want to great them plus I have a ton of paperwork. Skye how’d you like Dim Sum?”

“A lot. Everything about it was great. And more here in the bag.”

“Skye can you put this bag in my fridge. You mind running Fitz’s down to him?”

“Nope. I was going go visit with Fitz for a little while anyway.”

“He has a mini fridge in his room now. Put Jemma’s in my room too for now. If you happen to see her, let her know. They both have most likely eaten dinner already, they can have it tomorrow.”

“Okay. I know I look forward to mine tomorrow. See ya May. AC.” She smiled and walked down the hallway bags in her hands.

“I see it went well. Is that a smile?”

“Shut up Phil.”

“Oh sorry for pointing out you seem happy. You had fun. Come on, admit it.”

“It was part of helping Skye. Teaching her heritage. Learning to speak Chinese comes with learning the culture and history.”

“Yeah. You also got to enjoy some of the best Dim Sum dishes on the east coast. How was DC?”

“Crowded as usual.”

“No problem getting the intel either?”

Melinda slipped the flashdrive out of her pocket. “Not at all. Maria slipped it to me when I used the restroom. Skye was oblivious.”

“Good. We don’t want to give her false hope.” He turned around to go back to his office with Melinda following. “Glad you are helping with this. It feels like we owe Skye to find out what happened since Shield was why she ended up in an orphanage. Or Hydra working in Shield. I hope this intel sheds some more light on what happened.” He turned on the computer and plugged the flashdrive in. “By the way, that shirt looks fantastic on you.”

Melinda smiled.

Skye was nearly skipping by the time she reached Fitz’s room. He still got PT and OT daily for a few hours and he also had a speech therapist working with him several times a day but they came to his private room now. She knocked lightly, not wanting to wake him if he had gone to sleep already.

“Yeah.”

“It’s me. I brought goodies.” Skye waited for him to get the words out to invite her in giving him control since no one else seemed to.

“C-c-come in Sk-Sk-Skye.”

She opened the door and grinned at him holding up the bag. “Dim Sum.”

She placed the bag on the overbed table and reached in pulling out the containers. “Me and May went to this Chinese restaurant in DC and we ate all these foods I never had before, and it’s called Dim Sum and here is some of it. She got some stuff she thought you’d like. Oooooo...this one is so good. Did you eat yet?”

He nodded. “Coulson.”

“Oh what he make you? Mac and Cheese? Grilled Cheese? His famous Italian Meatloaf?”

“P-pan-----”

“Pancakes? Chocolate Chip?”

Fitz nodded. “B-b-bacon t-too.”

“Maybe I can get some tomorrow. It’s been forever. Coulson said he’s here for a few days. New recruits coming I guess.”

Fitz frowned. Skye noticed and nodded. “Yeah I know. Newbies that get in the way and are a pain in the ass.”

Fitz grinned at her.

“So May said you got a fridge in here.”

He pointed to the corner where it sat.

“Oh cool.” She took the containers of food and put them in the small fridge. She then plopped down on his bed and smiled. “You think we can get three episodes of Dr Who in before I have to get to sleep?”

Fitz nodded as he turned on the TV and put in the DVD, grabbing the remote and then sitting down next to Skye on the bed.

Chapter Text

Skye was running top speed down the corridor. She’d fallen asleep in Fitz’s room and had not set her alarm. Fortunately, her internal alarm, which was being reset by May and her training, had her wake up at 4:54. She had glanced at her phone and her heart had jumped into her throat. She’d been laying against Fitz’s back wrapped in a comforter which Jemma probably threw over her. She’d thrown that off her and jumped up, hitting her arm into Fitz’s shoulder and waking him. He grumbled and stuttered a few obscenities her way before going back to sleep. She flew into the bathroom to quickly pee, and then she grabbed her sneakers and putting them on as she hopped out his door. That was why she found herself racing through the Playground at top speed at almost five in the morning. She cursed herself for being so careless. Melinda would not be happy with her if she were late. That veiled threat of pushups per minute she was late made her run faster. She glanced at her phone which was in her left hand hoping it did not yet say five, when she slammed into something.

“Oof.” Skye’s phone flew out of her hand as she found herself tangled with someone else’s arms and legs laying on the floor. She’d ran into someone not something. She pushed at whoever was half laying on top of her and cursed. “The fuck. Get the hell off me.” She kept pushing him off her. She looked up and saw a guy with short light brown hair staring at her. His eyes were flashing with anger as he tried to disentangle himself from her. Finally, he stood up and she was able to get up herself. She did so gingerly as she rubbed her sore knee she must have bashed in the collision. She felt something on her face and wiped at it. She gasped as she saw her hand was bloody. Great her lip was bleeding, her knee hurt and now she was for sure late for training. Her phone has also gone flying and she looked around for it. She saw it on the floor in front of a door. She moved the few steps to pick up her phone checking that it still worked. It did. She put it in her pocket and turned to watch as the scruffy short man walk over to a suitcase that had flown open in the collision, with clothing lying around it. He bent down and started throwing the clothing back in the case, cursing up a storm.

Skye did not recognize the man and was positive she had never seen him on base before. She was also very mad mostly cause now she would be late to training. He had seemingly come out of nowhere. She had been looking straight ahead and had not seen anything and only looked at her phone for a second. “Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing here?” She wiped at her face again noting the bleeding was not letting up. She should probably take care of that soon.

He turned to look back at her. “Bloody hell girl, what’s wrong with you! I was walking to my room when you came flying around that corner and slammed into me. By the way love, you might want to take care of that.” He pointed to her face. “Looks nasty.” He looked her up and down. “Although you appear to look nice normally – you know, without the blood and all. Too bad we didn’t meet under better circumstances as I am sure my charm may have made our first interaction much more physically pleasant it you know what I mean.” He winked at her.

Great he had a British accent and was he flirting with her? Seriously “Walking to your room at five in the morning. You shouldn’t have been standing there in the way.”

“Seriously? You ran into me.”

“If your ass had not been where it shouldn’t have been, I would not have run into you. Why are you even here? Who are you? I’ve never seen you before.”

“Yeah well I don’t answer to you. You don’t seem old enough to be in charge of anything.”

Just then the door Skye was standing in front of opened.

“What the hell is all the noise out here. Hunter why are you raising a racket. It’s five am. You should be in your room in bed sleeping. Like I am trying to do.”

“Yeah well – I didn’t expect to be run down by an out of control barely legal teen wanker texting on her phone.”

Izzy looked at the girl standing in front of her who had blood trickling from her lip and was looking at Hunter like she was about to kill him. Skye took a step toward Hunter.

“You asshole. Fuck you and your damn body getting in my way, making me late.”

Izzy stepped over to Hunter getting between the two. She then turned to Hunter smelling beer on his breath. “Have you been drinking.”

“Yay, so? Mack and me were celebrating me being here. You know unlike some people,” he nodded at Skye, “Mack appreciates my talents.”

“Till five am? Hunter that’s when most of these agents get up. And Mack is usually smarter than that.”

“Well he missed my wonderful company, I guess. We got to talking about old times. I mean he went to bed a few hours ago but I was wound up, so I stayed up a bit later. Celebrating.”

“You were drinking at five am. Great. Coulson must be drawing from the bottom of the barrel if he approved the likes of you as an agent.”

“Well honey I am not an agent. And let’s be sure you understand, keep badmouthing me and I won’t be holding back. I don’t take crap from anyone, least of all baby agents who don’t watch where they are going.”

“Was that a threat asshole?”

He nodded. “Bloody right it was. You need to back off honey before you get more than a split lip.”

“Hunter, that’s enough. Get your stuff and go to your room. And you, agent, get moving to wherever you were headed.

“I don’t follow your orders. You’re not in charge of me.” Skye shrugged her off and stepped a few feet back. She sneered at Hunter. “You newbies think you can come in here and do whatever you want and you are all just in the way most of the time. Just like your dumb ass was in my way and made me late for training.”

“That’s it. I don’t have to take that shit from a baby agent.” Hunter moved toward Skye.

Skye uncrossed her arms and took a defensive stance. Hunter swung wildly at her and nearly fell to the ground as Skye easily ducked out of the way. She circled him and looked for an easy opening. He looked at Izzy who shook her head.

“You’re drunk Hunter. More than usual. She’ll wipe the deck with you. Back off.”

“She’s some snot nosed kid trying act all better’n me. She ran into me and yelled at me. She’s disrespecting me.” He lashed out at her again and Skye simply took two steps back then dropped her hands and shrugged at him.

“You’re drunk, and slow. I’m not gonna fight your lame ass while you’re drunk. Go sleep it off loser.” Skye moved to go around him and that’s when he swung again hitting her on the right side of her nose and her cheek. She went down not expecting the contact. Hunter went to kick her and found himself pinned flat up against the wall with a hand on his throat and a very angry Melinda May in his face.

She was seething. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He struggled against her, but Melinda just tightened her grip. “You sucker punched an agent and were then going to kick her while she lay defenseless?” Melinda glanced at Izzy. “Give me a good reason why I shouldn’t kill him.”

“He’s good at what he does. Plus he’s drunk. He’s an asshole May and dumb as fuck, but he’s not worth getting your hands dirty. I’ll take care of him. But you should teach this one some manners too. She’s no angel here.”

“Maybe not. But he was way out of line. I saw her drop her defensive stance and move to walk away.”

“Yep. He definitely fucked up. He’s drunk as hell and completely out of line but he’s on our side and very good at what he does. So there is that. Besides you guys are short on help around here. He’s willing to get his hands dirty and not talk about it.”

Melinda eased up on his throat, looking back at Hunter, “You ever fucking touch her again, even look at her wrong again, hurt her in any way, I’ll kill you. You understand that?”

Hunter nodded as he tried to catch his breathe.

“Hartley vouched for you saying you are one of the best, but all I see is a drunk who can’t hold his booze that went after one of my agents. You are on the thinnest piece of ice right now. Got it?” He nodded as Melinda let him go and turned around. Speaking to Izzy she said, “get him the hell out of here.”

Izzy grabbed Hunter and pulled him into her room. Melinda knelt next to Skye who had her hand pressed against her nose.

“Let me see.”

Skye looked up at her mentor with a slight grin. “I don’t think it’s broken.”

Melinda glared at her student and grabbed her by the arms. “Let’s go get that cleaned up.”

Skye was sitting on the toilet with the seat down while Melinda was cleaning up her face. May had not spoken yet and Skye thought that was much scarier than getting yelled at. She tried to lighten the mood.

“I figure I owe you about two-hundred pushups.” She was met with silence. “Me and Fitz fell asleep in his room. Fitz was upset about Simmons and we talked into the night and he needed a distraction, so we watched Paranormal Activities, and I didn’t want to leave him alone, and well the show was scary so I didn’t want to be alone either, and I fell asleep. I forgot to set my alarm. Won’t happen again.”

May put some kind of cream on the cut on her cheek and then she bandaged it. Her nose had stopped bleeding, and May had cleaned the blood off her face.

“Nothing’s broken.” May finally spoke to her. She turned and threw the paper towels and bandage wrap into the garbage and then set the antibiotic cream back in the bathroom cabinet. She washed her hands and then she then moved to the bathroom door, leaned against it, and folded her arms as she stared at her student.

Skye looked her and then visibly worried looked away. She was waiting for her S.O. to chew her out. When she didn’t, Skye looked up at her and shrugged. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Just yell already. Get it over with.”

“I’m not going to yell Skye.”

“Why not. It’s better than the silent treatment and disappointment I see all over your face.”

“The disappointment is that you would bother to start something with the newbies when I taught you better. You are supposed to be beyond that immaturity and anger.”

The incredulity that crossed Skye’s face almost made Melinda smile. She was so, so young and so emotional. Not that being emotional was a problem, it was the impulsivity that came with uncontrolled emotion that was the problem.

“So you are taking his side now?”

The question came from Skye’s innate insecurity and troubled abandonment issues. Melinda had picked up some things from being married to a psychologist. The girl’s inability to distinguish between personal and impersonal issues was obvious. She took everything to heart. Then she wore it on her sleeve. It was who Skye was. It was why she joined the Rising Tide and it was why she joined Shield. It was why she took Ward’s betrayal so personally and felt it cut like a knife.

Melinda shook her head. “No I am not taking his side. I am now and will always be on your side Skye. But you need to learn what battles to let go. I get it, it used to be just us. You get used to the laxer rules, the subjective nature of knowing everyone, the familiarity, and the intimacy of close relationships. It’s safe and it’s old and it’s comfortable. But these people will be who we work next to, who will expect us to do our best to have their backs just as we expect them to have ours. We don’t have to befriend any of them, we don’t even have to like them. But we most certainly have to trust them. That means we have to respect them and stop tormenting them.”

Skye was playing with the strings on her sneakers. Melinda knew she was listening.

“Okay?”

Skye nodded.

“So this Hunter is one of the newer ones. He’s a merc and Hartley brought him in. I’ve talked to him before, and he is a smartass, and drinks too much. But he’s also damn good at having people’s backs. I’ve known Hartley for a long time. She is a good agent Skye. The science agents, the tech agents, the field agents, the support agents- they are what Shield needs to continue. So we can be the protectors, so we can keep people who can’t protect themselves safe. That’s what we do. If we have to swallow our words and look the other way sometimes and we need to welcome in the new people. Or at least not beat them up.

“I backed off. The loser was drunk as hell.”

“I saw. It’s why I slammed him into the wall.”

“There are new agents coming here all the time. They are always in my space or just annoying. He’s not even a real agent.” Skye finally looked Melinda in the eye. "He's a jerk May and I can't stand all these - all the - it's all different. They all just are there in the way, asking dumb questions, and always -just - it's just,” she sighed and looked down at her shoes trying to hold it together. "I just miss what we used to have. Us, the team. It's all - just,” she felt herself tearing up and squeezed her eyes shut. She blinked rapidly as she felt her throat tighten. "It's all different." She stopped talking and looked expectantly at May willing her to understand.

"Skye." Melinda did know what she meant. “These last couple of months have brought many changes. Some of these people need to live here on the base. They are wanted as much as we are wanted. They want to help rebuild Shield. I know it’s hard to get used to. Believe me, I’ve had my share of run ins with them. Skye we can't go back. The days of it just being us are gone. We have to move forward. And these people are part of what we have now. Part of the team."

Skye swabbed at her eyes with her sleeve. " Doesn't mean I have to like it. Or them. Especially that asshole." She tried to shut down her emotions like May would do.

"Yeah Hunter is an idiot. But he's really good at what he does. And right now we need someone like him, and agents like Hartley. Good ones not afraid to get their hands dirty."

"Still totally his fault."

Melinda smiled. Skye was holding back and not telling her everything about why she wanted to go postal on the mercenary but that was okay. Skye would when she was ready, if not to her than to Fitz. The two had grown quite close in the last few weeks. Skye spent a lot of her free time with Fitz, which wasn't a lot with her training and duties now running the tech department, but when she had free time it was spent with Fitz. Or sometimes Skye would make her way to Melinda’s office, and plop herself on the sofa and just start random conversations about anything, usually when Melinda was trying to finish her paperwork. Although she didn’t mind the distraction, since she hated paperwork, after a while she would have to glare at Skye poignantly for her to leave and let her finish her work. Trouble was Skye didn’t take her glares as serious as she used to, and the interruptions were growing longer and longer, and Melinda really didn’t mind. The constant chatter reminded her of when they were on the bus.

Melinda decided to back off for the time being. “Don’t worry about Hunter. Hartley will ream his ass out and probably threaten him as well. He now knows where I stand and as stupid as he can be about some things, he’s quite aware I can kick his ass. Come on, you’ve goofed off enough for one day.” She offered her hand and Skye took it and Melinda pulled Skye to her feet. “After warm-ups and Tai Chi, you can do those 200 pushups.” She turned and briskly walked out of the bathroom and down the hallway to the gym. It took Skye a second to react and a few more for her outrage to kick in as she ran after her S.O.
“Are you serious? Two hundred? Come on May. Wait are you serious?”

The next morning Skye set her alarm for four-thirty. There was no way she was doing two hundred freaking push-ups ever again.

She got to the gym at four -fifty and May was already there. She walked over to the mats and started warming up with stretching. She didn’t great May cause she was still mad at her about the push-ups and was going to give her the silent treatment. She still didn’t think it was her fault that she was late. I mean it was the first time she was late. Well that late anyway. Yeah she’d been two or three minutes late a couple times. That freaking Hunter dude better stay out of her way.

“Ouch.” She’d been stretching her legs first and when she started to stretch her upper body, pain rifled through her shoulder and arms. She stopped and swore.

Melinda stifled a grin and looked away gathering back her composure before turning to Skye. “Problem?”

Skye’s indignant look nearly broke Melinda’s resolve. “Problem?” Skye’ voice was unnaturally high and squeaked a little. “My arms are on fire. Thanks to your torture yesterday.”

“I don’t recall any torture. I do recall you breaking the rules and being disciplined. That I definitely recall.”

Melinda stared back as Skye glared at her.

“How am I supposed to do anything today? My muscles hurt.”

“It’s Tai Chi Skye. It will help those muscles.”

“I could injure myself and it would be all your fault.”

“I would never let that happen. Stretch out the muscles first and wake them back up. Then we will do Tai Chi.”

“Wake them up?” So you admit you killed them yesterday?”

There was no stopping the small snicker that escaped form Melinda. “Hmm...you are being a bit melodramatic.

“They really hurt May. Shouldn’t I rest them. I don’t want to get behind on training by injuring something.”

“They hurt because your upper body is your weakest link. Honestly Skye you didn’t do more than twenty at a time. It shouldn’t be that bad.”

“Well I did twenty for ten times. Plus we did all the regular stuff.”

Melinda walked over to Skye. “Can I touch your arms?” Skye nodded. Melinda touched the top of her arms. “This here, your deltoid muscles are what is hurting. It makes it feel like the whole arm hurts.” She rubbed both areas. Skye winced. “Yeah that’s the tightness. You need to work the tightness out before you do anything else. So stretch them out.”

Melinda watched as Skye stretched out the arm and shoulder muscles. Skye did what May told her to do. It did help. A little.

“Feel better?” Skye nodded. “Okay Tai Chi should help stretch you more and we will see how you feel after that.

After Tai Chi Melinda had Skye work on her lower body using the leg press, leg curl machine and had her bike two miles and walk three on the treadmill. They didn’t do any sparring either, but she did make Skye do twenty pushups, ten at a time to build up the deltoids. She was instructed to do twenty more pushups after dinner. After the work out, May took her to the shooting range and she had her practice with a pistol and rifle. Afterwards, Melinda had instructed Skye to take a hot shower and she gave her some kind of muscle relaxer cream for her sore muscles. Melinda also sent her down to Jemma for some pain pills but instructed her to only take them with lunch if she needed them.

Skye was sitting in her room doing her class work. She’d not taken the pain pills and even though her muscles were still a bit annoyingly achy, they were not screaming pain either. It was pretty late, and she had been holed up in her room trying to catch up on all her studies. She’d been busier the last week with training people on the tech protocols of the base and had sort of ignored her schoolwork. She looked at the clock and it read ten- forty. She threw her books and notebooks on the floor, got up and put her laptop on her desk. Grabbing a water from her small fridge and a couple pieces of red licorice from her bag on the desk, she opened the laptop and checked to see that all her programs were running okay. A few minutes later she went to the bathroom and then changed and jumped into bed.

Skye sat up with a start, panic just a heartbeat away. She slowed her speeding heart as she looked around the room and realized it had only been a nightmare. She practiced her breathing techniques that May had taught her. A few minutes later she felt calm and realized she and her bedsheets were drenched in sweat. Great. She got out of bed and grabbed clean clothes and headed to the bathroom. She slipped quickly into the shower, lathered quickly and rinsed off. Throwing a pair of yoga pants on and an oversized T-shirt she padded barefoot down the hallway turning into the next hallway and headed for the supply room. She quickly grabbed two pairs of sheet sets and headed back to her room. After making up her bed, she found she was wound up and decided to grab a late-night snack.

She got up and wondered out into the corridors making her way to the kitchen. She was in front of the fridge about to open the door, when a voice called to her. "Skye you should be sleeping." She startled and jumped back crashing into the counter and knocking down a couple of dishes with a resounding clatter.

"Shit. Skye are you hurt?' Melinda rounded the corner of the counter quickly standing in front of her student. Skye was clutching her hand to her chest and breathing rapidly but otherwise seemed unhurt. Melinda reached behind her to snap the light on. Skye's shocked look was gradually turning into one of relief as she looked at May.

"What the hell May." Skye was regaining color back in her face. Melinda smirked not quite looking sorry.

"Um sorry? I didn't mean to scare you."

"You didn't mean to......... Geez May. It's freaking two in the morning and your sitting in the dark not making a sound and you saw me and didn't mean to scare me. So was it a training exercise? Like you did when you shot over my head when I couldn't load my gun fast enough? Or when you nearly decapitated me when I snuck up on you in the armory?"

Melinda looked indignant. "I did not nearly decapitate you Skye."

"That's it? That's all you're gonna say?"

"Hey I said I was sorry."

"But you're laughing. At me."

"Well Skye it was funny."

"No May it was definitely not funny. I almost had a heart attack. And look. Broken dishes."

Melinda looked down at Skye' feet. There were two plates broken in half. She reached down and took them and tossed them in the garbage. Skye was looking at her.

"Okay look. If I make you hot chocolate will you stop giving me the evil eye."

Skye's eyebrows shot up. "Depends."

"On?'

"Whether it's good or not."

"My mother's recipe. Come on. You can help. She opened the fridge and got out milk and started heating it on the stove. She handed Skye the spoon. "Stir." Melinda then got out the rest of the ingredients. It took fifteen minutes but after Skye took her first sip she was convinced it was worth it.

"Mhmmmmm........" She closed her eyes and let the sweet liquid go down her throat. "This is amazing."

Melinda lips turned upward. "My mother always made it from scratch when I needed a little pick me up. She would talk words of wisdom while we shared the drink."

Skye tried to imagine what May's mother looked like. In her mind she pictured a woman who looked like May only older, and with wrinkles. Skye let her mind drift as she wondered what it would have been like to have a mother who made her hot chocolate from scratch when she had a bad day. A mother who would talk to her and tell her everything would be okay. A mother like May. Whoa! Where did that come from. Skye glanced at May who was sipping her drink. She thought back to when she first arrived on the bus. When Coulson told her an agent from Shield had dropped her at the orphanage. She had hacked into a bunch of women agents to see if there was a clue that one of them could have been her mother. May was one of them she had looked up. Hey, she was Chinese, and Skye was half Chinese. She discounted her almost immediately though, but that feeling of disappointment that May was definitely not her mother was hitting her again. She was so lost in her thoughts she did not hear May talking to her.

"Hey. Earth to Skye." She looked over at May.

"Huh?"

"Did you see what I did there?" Skye shook her head and finally got it.

"Ugh. May that was terrible."

Melinda winked at her and laughed. "Ha. You're just mad I made a punny at your expense."

Skye rolled her eyes.

"Be careful, they might stay that way. Hard to spar with eyes always looking upward. Although you would be good for anyone 8 feet tall."

"Oh my god. Stop. You don't make jokes May. Especially bad dad jokes."

"Who do you think taught Coulson all he knows? And I’m not just talking about jokes here."

Skye stared at her dumbfounded. "May!'

Melinda laughed a full laugh. The kind Skye had never heard from her before. In fact, she doubled over in the chair laughing as her body shook."

Skye's face exploded into a grin. Soon she was laughing just as loud with Melinda. She struck it all up to fatigue. For both of them.

"I wish Coulson were here to see this."

Melinda stopped laughing and sighed. "Me too."

The change to seriousness from May was not lost on Skye. "He's okay, isn't he?"

Melinda nodded. "Yes, he's fine. He's just very busy trying to recruit agents and set up Shield again. It's not an easy job. He is supposed to check in tomorrow."

Skye slumped in her chair. "Doesn't matter. I never get to see him anyway."

"I'll try to get him to visit with you Skye. If he has time."

Skye gave her a weak smile. "I'm gonna go try to get a few hours of sleep. My S.O. gets mad when I fall asleep during Tai Chi." She got up and dropped her mug in the sink, turning to make her way back to her room.

“You never did say why you are up at two in the morning Skye.”

“Neither did you. Goodnight May.”

"Hey Skye. If you need to- oh I don’t know – like um - talk or something – you can always come and find me. Make it seven tomorrow Skye. And get right to bed. Goodnight."

"Thanks May." They both knew she was not just referring to the extra two hours of sleep."

"Anytime Skye." She nodded to her.

A few minutes later Skye pulled her blankets around her and closed her eyes. She fell asleep and this time there were no nightmares, Instead she dreamt of a house with a white picket fence and a woman pushing a laughing small child on a swing set while a car pulled up and a man got out waving to them both. The man looked suspiciously like Coulson and the woman looked an awful lot like Melinda May.

Chapter Text

Three weeks had passed since Skye’s unfortunate run in with Hunter. She was training hard and May was impressed with her devotion and hard work. She had not been late since that morning but May had installed push-ups into Skye’s routine anyway to build her upper body strength. She always was going to address building up Skye’s upper body muscles, but the incident had her doing it quicker than originally intended. She also included other upper body strengthening and that added to Skye’s time working out and her time supervising. So, they were spending even more time together. Three hours in the morning, another hour at least on weapons training and another two hours on covert operations, tactical training, and undercover strategies.

Add in the fact that they ate most meals together and Skye had decided to plop herself in May’s office when she worked on security or other computer tech. Which would be fine except Skye liked to talk while she worked. Which meant that every fifteen minutes or so Melinda would have to tell Skye to be quiet or send her a piercing glare. Which only worked for another few minutes before Skye would start up again. It was almost endearing that Skye felt comfortable enough with her to make random observations and conversation. Almost. What it did was put Melinda behind on her own work; cause unlike Skye, who loved her computer work and could multi-task rather well, Melinda absolutely despised the paperwork she had to do for hours every single day that required detailed attention.

It was Tuesday, and Coulson had been gone for four days so far this time which meant Melinda had to cover all the schedules, check inventory, write up all the requests, work on all the new recruits paperwork, do billing and payroll paperwork and it was killing her. So she said it out loud. “This damn paperwork is gonna kill me. If I don’t get to go on a mission and beat someone up soon, I’m going to explode.”

Skye looked up and her eyes twinkled with amusement. “Didn’t Coulson pull you from administration where you were surrounded in paperwork?”

“Not the same thing. That was my choice. This, this is not why I agreed to come back into the field.” She slapped a pack of papers down and slid her chair back, getting up. She looked over at Skye. “Come on – let’s go spar.”

Skye shook her head as her eyes grew wide taking in her S.O.’s demeanor. “Uh no. You look like you want to really beat someone up. I don’t feel like being your test dummy.”

“Oh, please Skye. Do you think I would purposefully hurt you?”

“Not purposefully. Accidently. But it would still hurt the same.”

Melinda smirked. “So, you’re chicken.”

“No. I’m pragmatic. I know without a doubt you could kick my ass seven ways from Sunday.”

“I’ll give you two free shots at me before I defend myself.”

“Three and you’re on.”

Melinda’s eyes flashed back at Skye. “Deal.”

Both had stopped by their rooms to change into workout clothes. Melinda showed up first and kicked two other agents off the mats and out of the gym. Skye entered the gym hoping it was empty since she would rather that no one see May kick her ass. In the early mornings, most other agents were not even up yet when they sparred. But unfortunately, she spied Hunter and Hartley and another mercenary named Idaho working out on the gym equipment. She wanted to turn around and leave. But May came over and wrapped her hands. May led her through their usual stretching and warm-ups, and then they faced off. Skye snuck a glance and sure enough the other three had stopped what they were doing and were watching them. Great.

Melinda stood in a defensive stance and looked at Skye. “So, all three at once in a row or separate? “

Skye looked at her. She shrugged her shoulders. “Which might give me a chance to actually land a hit?

“All at once is your only shot. Remember I said I wouldn’t fight back, but I will duck and feign to get out of the way. I won’t be a standing still target.”

“Yeah I get it. Promise not to make me look too bad huh?”

Melinda looked at her face and saw Skye glancing at the others across the room. “You won’t. Your training has been coming along well. Just try to remember everything I taught you.”

“Yeah everything you see coming cause you taught me,”

Melinda grinned. “Well you’re not wrong. So be creative. Mix it up more. Keep me guessing.”

Melinda nodded to Skye and Skye did the same to her. She moved into an offensive stance and watched as May moved back to her defensive stance and watched her closely. Be creative huh, Skye thought. So she struck out. First a kick to May’s stomach, followed by a spin punch to her shoulder and then a fake head kick followed by a bend to try to take out May’s legs from under her.

Skye watched as May actually fell to the ground from her last move, but only had one second to revel in glory as the next moment she was on her back with May pining her down. May had used her quickness to pitch Skye’s leg out as she went down and had pulled Skye’s knee out from under her and then quickly adjusted to roll over and to pin Skye.

“Fuck. How the fuck in hell.” Skye looked up at her mentor, half in disgust and half in awe.

Melinda grinned, sliding off her and getting up, offered her hand to pull Skye up. “That was pretty damn good Skye.”

“Dang near had you Mel.” Hartley chuckled.

Skye stared at May as she allowed May to pull her up. “Next time follow that with a roll as I try to kick your knees out and come back around to me trying to stay on your feet. You will have the edge with me already down.”

Skye looked over at the three watching and none were laughing. Hartley gave her a thumbs up. She moved back to her position with a small grin. After May got into position again as well, Skye waited a few heart beats and then went for her move. She faked a punch to her right and threw her left leg out to sweep May's legs out from under her. Instead of May landing on the ground, however, Skye found herself staring back up into her S.O.'s face once again.

"Good idea Skye but you were too slow on your duck and sweep. Do it again." She reached her hand down to pull Skye up.

They sparred for another thirty minutes. Skye never took down May but following May's instructions, Skye made it harder for May to take her down. She only landed on the mats three more times. When May noticed her struggle to get up at the last take down, she offered Skye a water bottle and sat down on the mats. Skye sat down next to her, greedily swallowing the water.

Hartley walked by them and turned to Skye. “You’re pretty damn good.” Turning to May she added. “You’ve taught her well Melinda. Color me impressed. Let me know when I can spar with her.”

“Tomorrow. She needs to spar with more than me. Those two too.”

“You got it. Around three good?”

“Perfect.”

“Should be fun.”

Melinda nodded and smirked. “I look forward to it.” She watched as the three walked out and then turned to Skye, whose face look less than happy.

“Are you trying to get me killed? Cause if you’re tired of being my S.O. you just have to let me know.”

Melinda laughed. “You can take Idaho and Hunter You’re much quicker and you’re smarter. Hartley will be your biggest worry. But she is probably going to be slower than you too, and she likes to fight with knives, not just her hands. In fact, I want her to train you with fighting with knives. She’s very good at it. But later on, maybe in a couple weeks, after you are more comfortable with hand to hand. It’ll be good to go up against different people. Different sized people in hand to hand. Give you better perspective. Plus watching I can better ascertain your strengths and weaknesses.”

“You think I can beat Hunter and Idaho?”

Melinda nodded. “Without a doubt. They don’t ascertain their enemy. They strike first and ask questions later. They are slow. You’ve grown to be quite fast with some of your combinations Skye. Plus you have been listening and you look for weaknesses and a way in. You plan your next move ahead. Eventually all those combinations and skills will become cemented in your memory. You won’t even have to think about them – your muscle memory will take over.”

“Like you do.”

“Yeah like I do. Every person you fight will be at a certain level. But the easiest ones to beat are those with huge egos. Eventually they make a mistake. Also, those who rely on brute strength can be outsmarted and brought down. You’ll see. You’ll be sparring with a lot of people in the next few weeks.”

“Okay. But we’ll still spar too?” She looked at her mentor with hope.

“Of course. I will be teaching new skills to you all the time. Working on your timing. Your fakes and your adjustments.”

“Cool. I would like to see at some point if I could earn a martial arts belt. You know like you see in the movies. Bruce Lee and stuff.”

“Well you are doing a variety of fighting styles. Ju Jitsu, Taekwondo, Karate, Judo, and boxing. So it would hard to pick a belt level for you.”

“Oh.” Skye’s face showed disappointment.

“But as far as training and levels go – in the academy I’d place you at a self-defense level seven.”

Skye nodded. “Yeah I only started really training and I have long way to go.” She was thinking there were probably like twenty-five levels.

Melinda smiled. “Out of twelve levels. Seven out of twelve. You’d have flown right by the first five levels in your first year had you gone to the academy. But since we are doing an intensive, longer workout training – you are far ahead of that. Many never get past level nine.”

Skye looked over to make sure May wasn’t kidding with her. She wasn’t. Her face was serious. “Seven? “

“Seven. Yes Skye. Heck if you lay out Hunter and Idaho tomorrow, I may move that up to an eight.”

“So you want to make me even more nervous than I already am?”

“We talked about that too Skye. Control that nervousness, and channel it. Let it help you with your skills. You’ve been really improving with that the last few weeks, with controlling how you react to situations. You’ve been working hard and listening to everything I say and doing it. I’m very proud of you.”

Skye’s heart warmed and she felt a wave of happiness engulf her. May was proud of her? That meant everything. So few people in her life had ever told her she did anything well, and even fewer had said they were proud of her. She ducked her head, with a smile, and looked at the floor in front of her.

Melinda watched as the girl in front of her became quiet. She saw Skye’s skin turn a bit pink and saw how Skye was avoiding eye contact. Melinda smiled. Obviously, Skye didn’t know how to take a compliment. Which meant she’d most likely had too few of them in her life. Her smile became a frown then as she watched the girl fidget. Melinda wasn’t stupid. She knew Skye wanted to get closer to her. She knew the girl was a bundle of emotions and wore them on her sleeve. She knew the shitty childhood Skye had to have gone through growing up in the system. But right now, in this moment, she understood just how much those simple words had meant to Skye and how little she herself had been willing to say them or say anything of consequence to her.

Oh sure once in a while over the last couple months, since she’d been Skye’s S.O., May had let her guard down a few times. Most of the time it was just a small emotional flicker here and there. Laughing at Skye's clumsiness. Smiling at both their horrible kitchen skills. An occasional nod, and flash of a smile when Skye did something well in training. Putting up with Skye’s incessant chatter in her office. But May had not let her mask slip too far, wanting to preserve her own vulnerability and wanting to keep things on a purely professional level. But who was she kidding? They’d passed that long ago.

They’d passed that when she had watched the girl nearly bleed out and she’d nearly pummeled Quinn to death for daring to hurt someone on her team. They’d passed it when Skye had hugged her at the motel when she had gone outside after showing Phil that he was the one in charge of the Tahiti project. Skye had nearly tackled her with relief, and it wasn’t until the girl sobbed out that she thought he’d killed her, did she understand. She thought Ward had killed her. She had hugged the girl back then, guilt overwhelming her for leaving and allowing Ward an easier way to kidnap Skye. Melinda looked at Skye now as Skye took a drink and moved to get up.

“Hey wait a second.”

Skye sat back down and turned to Melinda expectantly. “Yeah?”

“It took my mom a long time to tell me she was proud of me for joining Shield and becoming a specialist.”

“Yeah?”

“Some people are just easier at handing out compliments than others. You know?”

Skye smiled. She nodded her head and her eyes flashed with warmth. “Yeah I know. For some it’s like pulling teeth yeah?”

Melinda gave her a smile grin. Skye was quick and understood exactly what she meant.

“So when people like that do that, it really means something. It means it’s real.”

Melinda sat down. “I know I’m not one to speak about stuff a lot.”

Melinda watched as Skye rolled her eyes. “You think?” Her voice dripped in sarcasm.

Melinda smacked her lightly on the shoulder. “As I was saying, it’s not my way to speak it, I do better at showing it.”

“I know that. It’s just good to hear it sometimes.”

“Yes. It is.” She gave Skye a soft smile. “Maybe I can get better at it. It might get ugly at times and be awkward.”

That brought a full-on laugh from Skye. “I’ll try to remember that you’re emotionally and verbally challenged.”

That deserved another light smack, even if completely true. Melinda shrugged and then leaned back against the wall. “So anyway, I was a few months from graduating high school and had earned a scholarship to Carnegie Mellon University. I got a visit from someone.”

Skye’s eyes were huge as she realized Melinda was going to open up to her about her past. She tried to play it cool though and just settled back and listened while her insides were doing flips and turns.

“That visit would change my life forever.”

“Who was it? Nick Fury? Coulson?”

Melinda smiled. “Nope. She was an old friend of my mother’s. They’d known each other for over twenty years. They’d worked together in the past.”

“So this is gonna be one of those mysterious conversations? Am I supposed to guess? How many do I get?”

Melinda shot her a dirty look. “You know I can stop talking, get up, and go do work in my office.”

Skye held her hands up. “Okay Okay. Sheesh. I’ll be a quiet little mouse.”

Melinda raised her eyebrows and stared at her poignantly

“Alright. Geez. Me being that quiet is probably not gonna happen. But I will endeavor to refrain from being such a smartass.”

Melinda shook her head at her student. “You so cannot refrain from that, it’s like built into your psyche. And those words – you’ve been hanging around Simmons again I see.”

“Yeah. She’s bit lonesome. Her and Fitz, well you know.”

Melinda nodded. ‘Well it’s good you are not taking sides and are being a friend to them both.”

“Yeah but I’d like to knock their heads together.”

“You and me both. Anyway, my mother’s friend stopped by to talk to me, to recruit me to Shield.”

Skye looked at her and shrugged her arms. “Who?”

“Peggy Carter.”

At that Skye’s eyes lit up and her entire body shook from excitement. “No way. The Peggy Carter? Cap’s Peggy Carter? The Peggy Carter who was one of the founders of Shield?”

“She was my Godmother.”

“No flipping way.” Skye searched May’s face for tells that she was pulling her leg. There were none.”

“I’m not kidding Skye. Lian May, my mother was one of the top operatives for Spear, an offshoot of Shield, in China when she was younger. She worked with Peggy and other Shield agents in the 1950’s and into the early 1960’s. When she found out she was pregnant with me. She moved permanently to the United States and retired from Spear. But she stayed in touch with Peggy, and after I was born, she named her my Godmother. A few years later, my mom started working for the CIA.”

“You’re like so cool May. Peggy Carter is your Godmother. She’s still alive. Do you still see her?”

“Not in a while. Last time I went with my mom to visit her, was about two years ago. My mother still visits. She drives down to Washington at least once a month. Peggy’s ninety-three now. She hasn’t remembered me for a while. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s ten years ago.”

Skye was quiet for a few minutes taking in the information. Then she spoke softly. “That must be hard to see. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay Skye. But thank you. Anyway, Peggy took me out to celebrate my seventeenth birthday and made me an offer. She promised me a spot, a full paid spot, at the Shield Academy after I graduated from college if I did four things.”

“What were the four things? I mean obviously you did them cause here you are. But what were they?”

“The first was to graduate with at least a 3.50 from Carnegie with a major in International Studies and a minor in Criminal Justice.”

“Which you did, right?”

“3.90 and I actually did a double major of International Studies and Criminal Justice.”

Skye whistled appreciatively.

Melinda continued. “Second was to learn a minimum of two more languages in school or outside of it before I graduated. I already could speak Mandarin Chinese and of course English.”

“So Spanish and what else?”

“German. I also learned Sign Language.”

“Damn May. Can you say overachiever? What was third?”

“Learn to fly a plane. Get a commercial pilot license for small aircraft.”

“Which you did.”

Melinda nodded. “The summer between my 1st and 2nd year of college. Had to wait till I was eighteen. Peggy paid for it.”

“And fourth?”

“Obtain a black belt in at least three martial arts disciplines before joining Shield.”

“But didn’t you do that as a kid?”

“I started training with Martial arts when I was twelve. I did have my Karate black belt yes. I had received it the year before when I was sixteen. Judo I was at a purple, and Taekwondo I was only green, six levels down from a black belt. I got to black belt in judo by my Junior year at Carnegie. It was Taekwondo that was giving me a problem. I couldn’t train as much as I needed to with all the schoolwork I was doing. But eventually I passed to black belt by participating in a last-minute competition I signed up for right after I graduated from Carnegie.”

“But why three. I mean two black belts is pretty damn impressive. Hell, one is impressive.”

“It was her challenge and she deemed it necessary for me to better than most of the other candidates. She knew me. She wanted to see if I was serious. She knew I could join the CIA with no problem, no conditions. My mother would have been thrilled and she could have paved my way.”

“Oh so your mom didn’t want you to join Shield?”

“Nope. She wanted me to join the CIA. But I didn’t want to be in her shadow. Peggy knew that and offered me a choice, but she wanted me to really want it. She knew it would be difficult at best.”

“More difficult than the CIA?”

“More competitive. Yes, and more difficult to get in and stay in. Easier to wash out. Easier to get pushed out. She knew me well and knew I would not put up with any shit. She wanted me prepared. She wanted the Shield agency to be more diverse, and saw me as a example to pave the way. She wanted to make sure I could hack it. Face it, Skye, it was difficult for women to be accepted back then as soldiers and spies let alone a tiny Chinese woman with an authority complex. It was the early 80’s and many people were stuck with 1950’s attitudes about a woman’s place. The instructors were mostly men at the time, mostly white men and well, let’s just say my attitude and mouth were strong-willed, questioning, and pushing boundaries. Let’s just say they didn't like me any more than I liked most of them."

Skye looked at May in wonder. This was a side of her she had never imagined. A rebellious, mouthy teen with an attitude.

Melinda laughed at her look. "That was long ago Skye. Diversity back at the academy was pretty much non-existent. I used to laugh about being the token Chinese woman. That’s why Peggy wanted me to come in strong and more prepared than anyone else. Only a few years later did it get better. But for me it seemed I was always fighting someone about something that first year.”

“Wow. I mean I never thought how you would have to go through something like that. You paved the way for others. You are an icon.”

Melinda laughed. “I think that might be a bit too strong of a word. But yeah, I took a lot of the bullshit and pushed back and pushed through it. My fighting skills and pilot skills assured I was more then capable along with my education. There were a few other women there but each of us was trying too hard to make our mark to get too close to each other. It was a bit lonely that first semester. Until we started training more with and taking classes with the communications academy cadets. There was more diversity in communications and the science division.”

“That’s when you met Coulson?”

“Yep. That’s why my mother is not that fond of Phil.”

“Huh?

“Well the first few months I complained to my mother about how hard it was, about the unfairness, and the sexism and the way the upper class treated freshman. I nearly quit several times and it was only the not wanting to hear my mother’s ‘I told you so’ that I didn’t. But by the second semester I was really doubting if it was all worth it. Then I ran into Phil.”

Skye looked at May confused. “I’m not connecting this May. Why is your mom not fond of Phil?”

“Because he made staying at the academy that year bearable. Well, he and his friends. After I literally ran over Phil while running away from the seniors whose bottles of shampoo I may or may not have put pink dye in, he kept seeking me out. For sparing as partners even though I kicked his ass every time. For partners in classes I hated. He started bringing me tea, once he found out I hated coffee, to the library for study group, his study group which somehow I found myself in. He insisted I learn how to play chess and made me join his little chess club.”

“Made you?” Skye rolled her eyes. “I am fairly certain that AC nor anyone else can ‘make you’ do anything you truly don’t want to do.”

“Well I owed him. He did most of the work for our project for history class. Anyway, to make a long story short....

“Too late.”

Melinda glared at Skye, “...Phil made me realize I could stay at the academy, have fun and make it through the tough times. His friendship and him pushing me into his circle of friends is a big reason why I stayed. And a big reason why my mom blames him for me staying in Shield.”

“I guess she was less than happy when he asked you to join his team on the bus, huh?”

“She has mixed feelings about that. She wanted me to get in back in the field and out of administration but wasn’t real happy to hear it was Phil I was working for. Plus her five hundred mile drive to Canada to pick me up did not endear Phil any further to her either.”

“Oops.”

“Yeah plus the whole Hydra thing. “I had to endure that “I told you so’ moment anyway.”

“Your mom sounds like a pip May.”

Melinda smiled. “Indeed. Sometimes I think I joined Shield just to piss her off. Must be that rebellious streak.”

Skye gave her puzzled look. “You always follow the rules May. You are like the biggest rule follower I know. You follow orders. You followed Fury’s orders to keep an eye on Coulson.”

“For Coulson. Not for Fury. I don’t always follow the rules either. Ask Coulson. He’ll set that silly idea straight.”

Skye was eating this up. She grinned at Melinda. "You dated. Like back in the day."

Melinda shook her head. "Not really. We both knew the rules about fraternizing and neither of us was looking for a relationship or even had time to date. What did happen is we became best friends. We hung out. He helped me to get through history and math and I taught him how to kick people's asses. We also made a great team when it came to practical jokes." Melinda smiled. "We made the most unlikely duo they ever saw. The clean cut, warm, smart, geeky, compliant good little soldier and the badass, fighting, stern, chip on her shoulder little Chinese woman.
"So that's why I stayed at Shield and why my mother hates Phil."

Skye smiled. “You still make a good team. And obviously something happened between you two. I’ve seen the eye sex and stuff.”

“The what now?”

“Oh please. The way he looks at you. The way you look at him. Those silent conversations you guys have. The flirting.”

“I don’t flirt Skye.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.”

Melinda frowned and then looked at Skye and abruptly tried to change the subject. “You think I like following the rules?”

“Well yeah. I mean you do, don’t you?”

“Do I?”

“Well yeah. You read me like fifty rules to follow before you started training me. You’re like – a rule freak.”

“Am I? You’re sure?”

“Wait. I mean you are always telling me to follow the rules. You like rules. You like everything neat and tidy.”

“Do I?”

“Stop answering like that.”

“Like what Skye?”

“Like that.”

“Unless you are more specific, how can I stop?”

“With a question. You’re answering everything with a question.”

“Why is that bothering you?”

“See like that. It’s irritating. You’re not really saying anything.”

“What do you want me to say Skye?”

“Be honest about you and AC for one thing.”

“Well we are good friends. Have been for over twenty-five years. Does that suffice?”

“I don’t think friends is the correct term. I mean it’s seriously like you’re married. You know what each other are thinking, what the other is going to say, and you are like ...linked together.”

“We’ve been partners in one way or another for a very long time. We are familiar with each other. Know each other inside and out.”

Skye’s eyes widened and she stood up. “You did that on purpose. All that innuendo. The sign that you are hiding something.”

“What am I hiding Skye?” Melinda’s face flashed with amusement. She was merely humoring Skye now.

“I’m not sure but I’m gonna find out.”

“Yeah you do that. You’ll find that what I said it the truth and Coulson and I are good friends.”

“With benefits?”

Melinda grinned. She got up. “I think that’s the longest I’ve talked to anyone at one time in years.”

“Yeah I noticed. Not that I have a problem with it. I mean it was nice and all. Way to avoid my question by the way.”

“In fact, I’m talked out. All those words. Exhausting. I need to shower and then grab some dinner.” She headed toward the exit. Skye watched her go, shaking her head.

Skye met Melinda in the kitchen after both had taken showers and changed. Dinner wasn't much. Melinda had thrown together a salad and Skye had boiled some spaghetti and had heated the sauce from a jar in the microwave, so they had spaghetti and salad. Skye chewed wistfully wishing AC would come back and cook dinner again. Melinda ate quickly and silently. She really must be talked out, thought Skye. Melinda put her dishes in the sink and went off to do some work in her office. Skye did the dishes and then wondered into the common room. She flipped on the TV and slumped to the sofa. Flipping through the remote she gave up, turned off the TV after a few minutes, not finding anything that held her interest.

Skye finally had free time and had nothing to do. She thought about studying more but then she decided to visit with Fitz instead. He had gotten much better the last few weeks progressing well, but he spent a lot of time in his room. He still did therapy but a lot of it was on his own. He really only talked to Skye and May anymore. He had started pushing Jemma away although she still tried to spend time with him. He was very self-conscious of his stutter and inability to make his hand do what he wanted it to do. Skye would sometimes just watch movies or old shows with him or just talk about what she did that day. When he did venture to the labs or common room or kitchen, he usually did it in the company of May or Skye.

She knocked on his door. "Hey Fitz, it's me. Can I come in?"

She heard a shuffle and then the door was swinging open. He gave her one of his rare small smiles, and motioned her to come in.

"Hey I'm free from May and idiot agents for awhile. How you doing today?"

He nodded. "I'mmmm...o...o...okay."

"Good." Skye never pressed him. She let him give her as much information as he wanted. He loved her for that.

She plopped down on the chair in the room as he sat on his bed. "So guess whose S.O. talked about her past today. With me. Like a lot of talking. It was almost creepy.”

He looked at her and raised his eyebrows. “Wh-what-wa-was the o-o-occasion?”

“She said she was proud of me. Then just started talking about her mom and Coulson and the Shield Academy and other stuff in her past.” She proceeded to give him a summary of everything May had told her.

During her story, Fitz got up and got two Cactus Coolers out of his mini fridge and handed her one. She smiled. Apparently, May was a softie with him too. Cause she knew it was May who supplied her special snacks that ended up in her bunk every week. She figured if May wanted to mention it, she would but for now she just enjoyed the red licorice, chocolate bars, Doritos and other snacks without saying anything. Last week two six packs of the cactus coolers had appeared along with the regular stuff.

She concluded, "So anyway May and Coulson totally dated back in the day, and I think they have something going on now. You know a ‘friends with benefits’ thing.

“Or... they...they really are ju-just fr-friends Skye.”

“Eh I hope not. I hope mom and dad are getting it on. They deserve some happiness, you know?”

Fitz made a face at her. “I...I...I do-don’t like th-th-thinking about them th-th-that way.”

“You think I do? It’s like thinking about your parents making out. Ewe. But it would be nice you know. If they were together.”

Fitz moved to the TV in his room and put in a disc. “So... Monty Py-python?”

Skye grinned and plopped back on the bed as Fitz threw her a bag of ranch Doritos.