"Mama, watch me!" Cried out a little voice as tiny shoes tapped across the patio, a basketball bouncing from one end to the other as a precocious little girl struggled to keep up with it. Every time she hit the ball, it bounced further from her and her giggles filled not just the air, but her Mother's heart as well. "Watch me, Mama!"

Skye couldn't help but laugh as the toddler-sized ball went flying in the opposite direction of the hoop, and the little girl let out a frustrated but silly shout of "Roxy!" when their German Shepherd threw herself into the game, stealing the ball from her tiny master and running off to a corner of the deck to chew on it a little bit. She saw the annoyance flare up in her daughter's eyes, a trademark look that her wife and daughter shared, before the child gave up on her game and went running over to her. Barely shifting in her seat before a small body was flinging itself onto her stomache, Skye wrapped her arms around the four year old and hugged her close.

"Was I good, Mama?" She whispered, nestling herself into the crook of her Mother's arms.

All it took was a single glance down at her daughter before Skye was nodding and kissing the top of her baby's head. "You were fantastic, Hatley." She smiled brightly, the next words rolling off her tongue before she could think of what Jemma might say. "Almost good enough to play with me and Auntie Bobbi." Skye knew Jemma would have a complaint to that. It was the age-old battle between them, whether Hatley would be into sports, computers and cars like her, or into books, science and learning like Jemma. So far Skye was winning on the sports part, but Jemma had her hook, line and sinker on the books and learning.

"Really mean that?" Hatley lit up brighter than a star and Skye knew she'd willingly fight Jemma on putting the girl into basketball next year when she went to school if it meant her little girl would smile like that more often. The older woman had spent every night for four years tracing that smile with her fingertips as her daughter slept, and seeing it so big and happy made Skye willing to walk through the fire that was her wife scorned.

Besides, their little "fights" were no more than playful arguments after Hatley was in bed. Arguments that usually lead to some 'bad girl shenanigans.'

"You bet!" Skye grinned as Hatley twisted around on her lap to look at her for a moment before leaning forward and kissing her cheek ever so delicately, her hand coming up to cup her Mother's face and Skye's heart ached. How did she get the sweetest most precious little girl in the world? At one point she had thought that she'd be alone forever, with just her laptop and her van to keep her company. That had been a long time ago but it still felt like just yesterday that Jemma walked into her life. Without the beautiful, stunning British Scientist, Skye might've stuck to a life of petty crime... She knew she certainly wouldn't have trusted herself with a kid if it hadn't been Jemma's idea.

She didn't like to think of those times, but sometimes holding Hatley close or tucking her in at night, kissing Jemma goodbye before work or making her scream her name in the bedroom, Skye knew how close she had been to not having that.

"Love, can I get your help in here? I need you to hold the cake still as I ice the roses on!"

As Skye pulled herself out of the lounger, setting her daughter down and telling her to try stealing the ball from Roxy so she could keep practicing while she went inside for just a moment, the first thought on her mind was how she shouldn't take anything, not even icing her baby girl's fourth birthday cake, for granted.

"Skye... Can I talk to you about something, sweetie?" Jemma murmured as she drew the last dab of icing to finish the 'y' in Hatley's name. Skye had been staring at her for close to fifteen minutes with a goofy look on her face and as embarrassing as it was for the Brit, it only reassured her of what she had wanted to say for some time.

Making only a grunt of approval in recognition, Skye just caught her wife's wrist as she finished icing, pulling her in close and laying a kiss on her lips before letting her go again. "Whatever you want, babe." She grinned before tucking a hair behind Jemma's ear and looking her in the eyes.

"Okay..." Jemma paused, suddenly nervous.

Whether Skye noticed or not was lost on Jemma as she looked down and opened her mouth for the rant she had been preparing for the better part of six months, a rant that had kept her up at night and was whispered between checking specimens at the lab. "So, I know that after we got Roxy for Hatley on Christmas, you said that our family was complete and that one kid and one dog was just perfect for you, but I really think that maybe we should change our mind because we have all this room now that we've moved here, and the area's just perfect for letting Roxy run around, and Hatley too, and I think we should get another."

It was said in a rushed breath so quick that Skye strained to pick out what Jemma was getting at before a hint of realization hit her. "Another one? Babe, I think one is enough." She said very seriously and Jemma's heart sank a little bit in disappointment. "I mean, Roxy already drags Hatley behind her on walks, can you imagine if we got her another puppy? They'd go two seperate directions and tear her in two! Maybe when Hatley is older and Roxy is out of her puppy years?"

Jemma stared wide-eyed for a moment. "Skye... I didn't mean another dog."

"Then another what- oh." Skye paused. "You mean another..." At the pensive nod on Jemma's head, Skye froze to let it sink in.

Sensing her hesitation, the brunette rushed into another ramble of words, these ones even less coherent than the last. "I mean, Hatley is getting so big, and we have so much room here now and I really want another and-"

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course! Yes, I want another baby with you. Why wouldn't I?" Skye let out a yelp as she threw her arms around Jemma and brought her close, her lips smashing against her wife's in a passionate adoring kiss, her hands moving to Jemma's waist to hold her tightly. "I'll take three, four, however many you want Jem!"

Jemma blushed bright red as she kissed Skye back, her ears growing warm. "I think two is a place to start, speaking of two, where is one?" She raised an eyebrow, glancing over to the kitchen sliding doors that opened up onto the deck. It was empty, the thudding of the basketball having not been heard since Skye came inside.

"What are you talking about, she's right out..." Skye trailed off, both women rushing to the doors, before pulling them open and stepping onto the deck.

Almost immediately, Skye felt her heart sink.

Not only was the deck completely abandoned, the back yard was empty, not a sign of her daughter or her puppy anywhere. Terror filled Skye's veins and panic filled Jemma's voice as the two mothers started calling out for Hatley, begging her to come out of hiding and scolding her that it wasn't nice to play tricks like that. Something was very wrong though and Skye could feel it in the pit of her stomache, the backyard wasn't big enough for the girl to hide easily, at least not out of their sight. That wasn't it though, the true heart-stopping fear started when Skye saw that the back gate was open and tiny foot prints heading off into the direction of the forest.

"Hatley!"

Skye ran through the forest as fast as she could, her voice growing hoarse from shouting her daughter's name over and over again, she could hear Jemma just a few dozen feet away in the opposite direction, shouting the same thing over and over again as loud as both girls could possibly yell.

Her eyes stung with tears, both fear and anger coursing through her, Hatley knew better than to go into the forest behind the house. It wasn't safe.

That was the only thing she could think of, was that it wasn't safe, not for her and not for Jemma, certainly not for a little girl barely old enough to sleep in her own room. A little girl that was terrified of monsters in her closet, and of the dark. What was her daughter doing out here, where she wasn't in her Mothers' safe embrace?

And then she heard the barking.

Frantic barking that she had never heard before, yet knew instinctively that it had to have come from Roxy. "Hatley?!" She shouted before turning and following in the direction of the barking. As she got closer to the barking, a new sound took over her ears. It was rushing water, and despite the burning in her lungs, she forced her legs to go faster, a tightness in her chest winding up more and more until she saw Roxy in her sight and the small river that marked the edge of the forest.

The sight that met her eyes next was one that would haunt Skye's nightmares for the rest of her life.

"HATLEY!" She shrieked in a voice far too shrill to be her own as her stomache lurched into her throat. There was no hesitation or second thought before Skye was throwing herself into the river after her child, the little girl who she knew was an extension of her own heart, floated face down in the water.

She could hear the faint sounds of her dog continuing to bark in panic, but nothing had her attention but the child she was desperately fighting against the current to get to. With each push and pull it almost threw her under, but she was a lot stronger than a four year old, and she had the adrenaline rush of a Mother faced with the terrifying thought of her child drowning. She reached Hatley in thirty seconds but it felt like an eternity longer as she was pulling the little girl into her arms and flipping her face up.

Skye began the struggle back through the water, her daughter cradled against her chest and was able to pull them onto the riverbank before collapsing next to Hatley, her screams for her wife starting as she tried to pull herself to her knees, to get to her baby. To do something, anything, to get her little girl to breathe.

"Jemma! Help, Jemma! Oh god..." Her screams turned to sobs as she pulled Hatley into her lap, and any noise she heard from the river, from the dog, from her wife, turned into a loud ringing in her ears.

"Hatley!" Skye screeched as she threw herself out of bed, crashing to the ground with a loud thud and a curse. "Fuck!"

Glancing around the room for a moment in a panic, her eyes settled on Roxy, all grown-up now, who gave her a sympathetic look before resting her head back onto her paws. Her heart slowed down from it's racing as she stared at the side of the bed that was supposed to be Jemma's, just as neat and untouched as it was the night Jemma left her, nearly five years ago. With a grumble, Skye pulled herself back to her feet and grabbed at her cell-phone to check the time, when it flashed and an incoming call was shown.

It was Trip, her partner, and at ten minutes after two, Skye figured that he better have something important to say for waking her up.

(okay, that's not what woke her up, but she would spend the rest of the week bitching about Trip waking her up, instead of nightmares of her old life.)

"What is it?" Skye hissed into the phone, sitting down on the edge of her bed and running a hand through Roxy's fur, scratching the only family member she had left behind the ears as she narrowed her eyes like Trip was able to see her.

The voice on the other end was far too cheerful for the middle of the night, but Skye tolerated it. "Morning Starshine, you might want to get your pants on and your gun holstered then get down to the station as quickly as you can."

About to open her mouth in a snarky comment, Trip shut her up in the best way he could. "We just got the a-okay from Coulson to shut down Hydra's Biotech Laboratory, the one in Regency." There was a pause before Skye was hanging up the phone and dashing for her pants and gun.

Regency Biotech Labs was Jemma's old lab.