Mostly centered on Skye

Take My Hand

Chapter 1: Does Someone Like Me Deserve Love?

Underlined and italics are soul marks

Bold underlined and italics are years that passed

Natasha (20)

Natasha was perplexed when she saw a soul mark appear above her left breast whilst she was showering. Please don't hurt me, I didn't mean to, I promise I'll pay for it somehow!

"Oh shit" Natasha whispered, staring at the new development on her skin. This was not okay. This meant her soul mate was 20 years younger than she was. Her soul mate was currently a baby. "shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" For the first time she felt lucky that she hardly aged and that it barely showed. "If I ever meet this person, then at least I won't look seriously old when I let them down".

She was slightly confused at herself for wondering why her looks would even matter if she ever met this person. She knows she can't let herself get attached to anyone in that way. She would just have to hide it and hope that she would never meet this person and hope that they would find their own happiness with someone else. She feels as though she wouldn't be able to give the person what they wanted so she feels it best to not let anything progress should they meet.

She decided that no one could know about this. Not SHIELD, not the Avengers, not even Clint.

4 Years Later

Mary (4)

"It sure is a nice day!" Mary yelled. She felt so lucky the nuns said yes for her coming to the park with them and the others. She felt that she didn't really deserve to come since she broke the bathroom mirror yesterday morning, but it was an accident. Sometimes she just gets so angry she does things without realizing what happened until after it's happened. Sometimes she gets so scared she just freezes in place with her thoughts running

Sister Evangeline often favored Mary over the others because she knows she's often picked and ridiculed on by the others. She knows Mary having a lot of anger problems weren't her fault. Sister Evangeline often tries to include Mary when it comes to events even if she's done something to not let her earn the right to come. She knows the only way to calm Mary down from her anger and fear is for someone to hold her in their lap and place her head on their chest so that she can hear the heartbeat and rock her slowly.

She managed to convince the other nuns to let Mary come along so that she wouldn't be in the building alone and so that they wouldn't have to cancel the trip for the other kids.

Mary looked around herself, they were at a big park and she was a little far away from the other kids and nuns. There was a small playground for the kids to play at, but she enjoyed running through the giant field of flowers that surrounded it. To get to the park they had to cross a small forest that had a tiny bridge with a river running under it. Then you had to continue to walk for another 5 minutes to get to the large flower field with a gazebo in the center of it all. The playground was just a bit further down the field. Mary always went to the gazebo when she was done running through the flowers. She always imagined it as a castle for herself since she was the only one who went there whenever they were fortunate enough to visit. She imagined herself and her soulmate running in the field then stopping for a picnic near the big tree next to the gazebo with neither of them talking, just enjoying each other's love.

Mary always had deep thoughts that only Sister Evangeline knew about. She understands Mary feels thinks and feels deeply.

"HEY POOTS!" an angry voice shouted at Mary. She turned around to see 9-year-old Penny looking ready to hit her

"What's wrong now?" Mary asked.

Penny was a little brown-haired girl was sharp conniving eyes. She always picked on Mary since she was the youngest so far at the orphanage and because she was always sent back a month later from each foster home she goes too. It always made her feel better to hurt Mary since Penny hardly left the orphanage to be fostered.

"I see you came back from the Peter's, what happened this time? Did they just hate the look of your face? You're so ugly, maybe that's why no one wants you. I mean look at you, not only that but you're also still in diapers. Seriously why don't you learn how to use the bathroom already?" Penny sneered at Mary, pinching her forearm making sure that it would leave a bruise.

Mary had tears in her eyes hearing those words from Penny. It wasn't exactly her fault, she was scared to go to the bathroom is all. The diaper also helps at night so that way it's harder for the mean men that come into her room at night whenever she's at an awful foster home to take off and touch her. She wears it for protection, but no one understands that but her. It doesn't help either that she won't tell anyone what happens at those homes. They always threaten to find her and hurt and everyone around her if she tells.

"I'm not ugly! Sister Evangeline says I just have different efanikities (ethnicities) is all!" Mary didn't completely understand what that meant but she from what sister Evangeline says it's nothing bad, it just means she's different.

"you don't even know what that means you stupid little baby!" with that said Penny pushes Mary to the ground with a hard shove and walks away to the swings.

Mary laid on the ground trying to keep the tears at bay but failing. Soon she was full out sobbing hard on the ground.

Sitting up slowly she looked at her hands and knees. Both palms were bloody from trying to stop the fall and her left knee had blood running down all the way to her ankle from hitting the cement.

"You're okay, you're okay, you're okay, you're okay. There's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing wrong with the way you look. You're just different is all, and there's nothing wrong with that. So, it's okay." Mary tried to tell herself.

Even though she's only 4 she thinks about what life would be like if she was never born but looking at her soul mark helps her dispel any bad thoughts that she knows she shouldn't be thinking about. Don't worry about that, take my hand, a beautiful little girl like you shouldn't be crying on the ground.

It was on her right thigh with clear beautiful penmanship that Mary wishes she would one day have as well instead of her awful hand writing she currently has. Only, looking at the words made her upset this time instead of calm.

This time she was asking herself if this person would love her, even want her. She was always so confident that her soul mate would love her no matter what, it was fate after all. Now though, she wasn't confident. With doubt in her little head she started breathing even more heavily and was starting to feel dizzy.

With her mind not in the right state, she stands up and runs away from the other kids, the nuns, the park. She has no idea where she's going except away.

Millions of trees, faces, buildings, animals are all blurry images in Mary's eyes. Soon images of monsters filled her head as well. Feeling nothing but fear and pain she continues to run for about an hour until exhaustion hits in and she falls unconscious in an alley.

Natasha (24)

Walking on her way home with Clint, Tony, and Steve, an irritated and annoyed Natasha was silently fuming at Clint for thinking it would be a great idea for them to go out and play paint ball.

"Come on Nat, you got to admit it was fun" Clint said sporting a black eye from being punched by her for betraying her and switching to Tony's team for the promise of the last piece of brownie. Originally, the teams were supposed to be Steve and Tony vs Natasha and Clint.

"Don't be such a sore loser Romanoff" Tony said while smirking at the fact that he managed to beat the Black Widow at something for once.

"Maybe we should just walk quietly and not bother her guys" Steve pitched in, trying to be polite as he could tell she was about to kill them all.

"It's not our fault we have such great skills, am I right Bird Boy?" Tony said putting up a high five gesture towards Clint.

Receiving a glare from Natasha that dared him to return the gesture to Tony, Clint decided to ignore the hand in front of his face.

"Fine, be that way. I'm putting this bad boy in the Commons Room" Tony stated, lifting up a small trophy that declared "BEST PAINT BALL SHOOTER"

What made the situation more irritating to Natasha was the fact that Tony had the thing made. Having enough of him, she grabs the trophy out of his hands and says, "I'm keeping this".

Before Tony could start complaining the four of them heard what sounded like a small child screaming "Please no, please, please, stop, I don't want too, please stop!" from an upcoming alley.

Hearing those words, the four of the sped off towards the alley.

Mary (4)

Waking up Mary was confused to where she was. It was dark, extremely dark. She couldn't understand how she got to some random alley. The only thing she was able to register so far was that she was very sore.

While standing up Mary was becoming aware of the heavy breathing towards the darkest part of the alley.

Feeling the hairs on her neck and arms stand up she became even more frightened and confused.

Turning around, looking at the dark corner she asked "Hello?"

After saying those words, the breathing stopped. She soon saw a man stand up and walk towards her. To Mary he smelled awful, like pee and sweat and something else she couldn't quite describe.

Looking at the man, she saw that he was tan, had black greasy hair, was old in her eyes, yellow teeth with one or two missing, and had scary smile on his face. She knew that smile though, it was the smile the foster dads always wore when they came in her room in the middle of the night.

Looking even closer at him she saw his pants were undone and that there was something in them. She's seen the outline of it before from the other men but all they ever did was touch her with their hands. "Do you know where I am?" She asked quietly in fear.

The man spoke in a low voice, nearly a whisper. "I've been waiting hours for you to wake up. Come closer, I'll help you with what you need, and you can help me with what I need".

Mary knew that she wasn't in a good situation right now but no matter how much she tried to move her feet she wasn't able to. The man used the opportunity of her being frozen to grab a fist full of her hair and to put a hand over her mouth. He dragged her over to the corner where he was recently at, threw her to the ground, and started kicking her repeatedly.

When he felt that she wouldn't move or put up a fight at all, he turned her over on her stomach and started taking her clothes off.

"We're going to have so much fun, I promise" was all Mary kept hearing from him. He was running his hands all over her body. Making disgusting noises. He thought no one was around since it was well into the night but neither of them realized how close the avengers were.

Mary didn't realize her clothes had been stripped off until she felt a small gust of wind and shivered. The man was starting to lay on top of her and she felt something hard press against her bottom. Finally finding her voice she screams "Please no, please, please, stop, I don't want too, please stop!" Tears were falling down her face, snot running out of her nose, not to mention she was having even more trouble with breathing because of how hard and how much he kicked her. He was just laughing off her crying and screaming, until he heard a bunch of running footsteps coming towards them. Looking up he came face to face with four avengers.