This is an idea I had based on what I thought Bobbi might have been hiding from Hunter, before it was revealed that it was her involvement with the other S.H.I.E.L.D. and their plans. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the twist, but I still think my idea was a good one too. I hope you agree. This begins right after the thing in the alien city, before Bobbi called things off with Hunter and before it was revealed what her secret was.

Disclaimer: I don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or any part of Marvel.

He was aware that he shouldn't have done it.

He had been looking for Bobbi. He had thought that he would find her in her bunk, but she wasn't there when he got there. He had been just about to leave and see if Mack knew where she was when he noticed her backpack sitting on the bed. She clearly had been going through it and then had been pulled away by something else, because she had left it open. And sitting next to it was the flash drive that she had hidden from him in Puerto Rico.

Hunter stared at it for a few seconds, his mind caught up in a tangle of thoughts and questions. She had told him that the secret she and Mack were hiding was a support group, and while he desperately wanted to believe that, he wasn't sure he did. She had been very keen to hide that flash drive from him before. Whatever was on it, it had to be related to what she was hiding from him. If it was evidence of a support group, then his wondering could be put to rest and they could move on. If it wasn't…

"Hunter?" Bobbi's voice called from around the corner. "Skye said you were looking for me."

He made a split-second decision, and grabbed the flash drive, slipping it into his pocket before she arrived. "Yes." He was quickly, turning to her. "I was. But I just remembered, I promised Coulson that I would do inventory tonight. I have to get on that. We'll rendezvous later, ok?" He said, starting to slowly edge around her.

She grinned at him. "Lance Hunter, taking responsibility." She said. "Must be the end of the world." He gave her a small grin in return. "Ok. Find me when you're done."

"Will do." He said, and hurried away.

Part of him felt extremely guilty, but he had gotten pretty good at ignoring that part of his brain over the years. He was headed to his own bunk when he ran into Skye, who was most likely on her way to bed, he computer tucked under her arm. "Skye," He said, and she paused and looked at him. "Can I borrow your laptop?"

Skye sighed and held it out to him. "Go nuts. I'm done with it for tonight."

"Thanks." He said, taking it. "I'll give it back to you in the morning, I promise."

"See you then." Skye said, and she walked away.

Hunter shut himself in his bunk, and then sat down on the bed and turned the laptop on. He pulled the drive out of his pocket and looked at it, turning it over in his hand. "Please don't have anything bad on here, Bobbi." He muttered. "I want to trust you. I really do." He plugged the drive into the computer.

After a moment, the contents appeared on the screen. There were several files on them, and just by eyeballing the titles, it didn't look like any of them were related to a support group. There was a file titled "Progress Reports", another one labeled "Financial Records", and several medical records for someone named Ava. He frowned.

"Who's Ava?" He wondered aloud. Why would Bobbi or Mack have a drive containing somebody else's medical records? He continued scrolling down, and paused when he saw a file labeled "Pictures." He hesitated, and then clicked on it. Maybe whatever they were pictures of would give him some idea of what all this was about before he started going through any of the other documents. The photo that appeared on the screen, however, was quite honestly the last thing he expected.

It was a little girl. She couldn't have been more than three or four years old. Hunter caught his breath. She had Bobbi's eyes, but the way she was smiling at the camera…it reminded him of himself. His heart started pounding as he looked more closely at the picture, trying to absorb every detail. Yes, it was definitely his smile. Her hair was the color of his, but it framed her face like Bobbi's.

He went to the next picture. This one was of Bobbi, with the girl sitting in lap. The girl was giggling about something, and Bobbi was smiling. There were several more pictures, but Hunter closed the photos window and sat back, his head buzzing. That little girl…she had looked like…but surely she couldn't be…could she?

He looked at the list of files again, and spotted one that caught his eye. It was labeled "Birth Certificate." He quickly clicked on it, and a digital copy of a birth certificate appeared. His eyes landed on the name listed. Ava Susan Hunter-Morse. He swore his heart skipped a beat. "Oh my god." He whispered aloud. As if he needed more confirmation than that, he quickly found the father's name printed on the certificate. Lance Hunter.

This girl was his daughter. How could Bobbi have never told him?

He closed his eyes, trying absorb all of this new information. He actually had a daughter. The little girl in the photo, with Bobbi's eyes and his smile…that was their daughter. Ava. Her name was Ava. His daughter, Ava. He opened his eyes again and checked the certificate for a date of birth. October 15, 2011. That would make her a little over three years old. He tried to remember the year of 2011, which would have been easier had his head not been so clouded by shock. Yes, he and Bobbi had been together earlier that year…roughly the right amount of time earlier…but she had never said anything…

From somewhere underneath the layers of shock, disbelief, and questions, he felt a spark of anger. How could Bobbi have left him in the dark about this? Over three years…nearly four if you counted the time she must have been pregnant…and not a single word. They may not have always had the most honest relationship, but to lie to him about something this important, this personal? Why did she do it? Did she think that letting him know would somehow endanger Ava? Did she think he wasn't responsible enough to be allowed to have anything to do with raising her?

Did she think he wouldn't want the kid?

She wasn't the only one who had lied to him, he realized. Mack had to know too. He had known from the beginning that he was in on her secret. Mack knew about Ava, and he had helped Bobbi keep her existence a secret from him. He had never felt so betrayed. And that was saying something.

He looked at the birth certificate again, and his whirlwind of emotions shifted focus from Bobbi and Mack to Ava. The initial shock, though definitely still swirling through his head, had faded enough for the fact to really sink in. He had a daughter. He had no idea how to be a father. He had never planned on having children. Even when he and Bobbi had been married, they agreed that they really weren't the type, and that their jobs were too dangerous to balance with raising a family anyway. After they had gotten divorced, any small embers of the idea of children had vanished. Bobbi was the only person who even in his wildest dreams he could picture having a baby with. He had never really thought about it beyond that. He had never really been able to predict what his future held, but when he tried, a child had never been part of that picture.

Where was Ava now? Hunter frowned as this dawned on him. Obviously she wasn't there at the base with them, but that was where Bobbi was, and had been for weeks. And before that, she had been undercover at Hydra for god only knows how long. Where did she leave Ava while she was doing all this? Who was taking care of her? Who did Bobbi trust enough to place her daughter in their care?

He closed the birth certificate and looked through the files again. He clicked on "Financial Records", and found a detailed record of payments that Bobbi had made to a private account. Payment for caring for Ava? It was a possibility, Hunter thought to himself. The record went back to before the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., meaning that if this was Ava's caretaker, they had been doing it back then too.

He closed the records, and then, after a moment, opened the pictures again. He took a long look at his daughter smiling back at him on the screen. What the hell was he supposed to do now? He was starting to feel slightly sick. This girl was his, but she didn't know him. Did she even know about him? Could he still be her father? Should he be? And how would he do that, exactly? Would Bobbi let him see her? What would he do if she did? Was he in any way capable of being there for her the way that her father should be? Bobbi was right about one thing. He rarely stayed anywhere, he rarely cared, and he rarely took any sort of responsibility. Could he change for this little girl he had never met? Was she better off wherever Bobbi had put her? It was true that he had never met her, but he knew somewhere in his gut that he had to do whatever would be best for her. He cared about her enough to basic instinct for that. The problem was, he had no idea what that was.

He didn't have an answer to any of these question as they filled his head. He did know one thing, though. He had to confront Bobbi. He grabbed the laptop and left his bunk.

He went straight for Bobbi's bunk, where he found her on her hands and knees on the floor, looking under the bed. He cleared his throat, and she looked up. "Oh, hi Hunter." She said, getting to her feet. "Hey, have you seen a flash drive around here? I've lost one."

Hunter pushed the laptop into her hands. The picture of Ava was still on the screen. Bobbi's eyes widened, and the color drained from her face. "Is this girl my daughter, Bobbi?" He asked seriously.

Bobbi looked at him, and he could clearly see the terror in her eyes. "Hunter," She began.

"I've already seen enough to know the answer, Bob." He told her. "I just want to hear you say it. Is she my daughter?"

It was a moment before she spoke. "Yes." She said softly.

Hunter slammed the computer closed and tossed it onto the bed behind Bobbi. "How could you?" He demanded. "How could you lie to me about this?"

"Hunter, I'm sorry." Bobbi said desperately.

"No, that's not going to cut it, not this time." He shot back. "This isn't like all those times before, Bob. This isn't lying to me about why you're in town or keeping details about your cover a secret. We have a daughter, and you didn't tell me about her. You didn't think I had a right to know? You didn't think I'd want to know?" Bobbi didn't say anything. Hunter sighed. "Why didn't you tell me when it happened, first of all? That particular time we were together may have ended differently from all the others if I had known there was a baby in the equation."

"I didn't find out I was pregnant until after we'd already gone out separate ways." Bobbi said.

"So why didn't you contact me?" Hunter asked. "You've always been able to, I know you could have."

"I thought about it." Bobbi admitted. "But at that point, I didn't even know what I wanted to do. I couldn't begin to predict how you would react. I just wanted to figure things out myself. And then when Ava was born, and I decided that I was keeping her…I almost did tell you. The phone was in my hand." She said, laughing slightly but clearly holding back tears. "The baby cradled in one arm and my phone in my other hand, sitting in a hospital bed. But I was scared to death, both of the fact that I had just become a mother and of the thought of having to tell you that you were a father, and admit that I had kept if from you my whole pregnancy. It was overwhelming, and…I lost my nerve, ok?"

"For three years." Hunter said, raising an eyebrow. "You lost your nerve for three years?"

"The longer I kept her a secret, the harder the idea of telling you seemed." Bobbi said. "Look, I know it was wrong, and I'm sorry. And I swear, if I had found out I was pregnant before we had split up, I would have told you."

"I want to believe that, Bobbi, but in case you haven't noticed, I have been here with you for weeks!" Hunter cried. "We've been together, and things have been good this time! All of those times I was in bed with you, all of the conversations we've had, and there was never a good moment for you to tell me?"

"I know." Bobbi said. "I'm sorry."

"If it had been the other way around, I wouldn't have kept this from you." Hunter said. Then he frowned. "I mean, I know that it's biologically impossible for it to have been the other way around, but…if somehow I knew about us having a child and you didn't, I would have told you. You know I would have."

"You have every right to be angry." Bobbi said earnestly. "But Hunter, try to look at this from my perspective. Deciding whether to keep Ava or give her up to adoption was the hardest decision I ever had to make. When I finally decided to keep her, I second-guessed myself hundreds of times, because it was hard. I was not instant mother material. Making arrangements to keep her safe and keep my job only made it even harder. It took everything I had to make it work, and adding you into the equation…" She trailed off, but Hunter got the point.

"You didn't want me around." Hunter said. "You didn't want me to get involved. You thought I would only make things worse."

"No, it wasn't like that!" Bobbi insisted. "It's not that I don't trust you. But I genuinely wasn't sure how you would react. And on top of that, you're…you. And commitment isn't really your thing."

"You didn't think I'd want anything to do with the baby." Hunter said. "Do you really think so lowly of me?"

Bobbi looked at the floor. "It was more fear than rationale." She said. "I think it was more my excuse not to tell you than anything else."

Hunter massaged his temples with his fingers. "I need some time to think, Bobbi." He said, and turned to leave.

"No!" Bobbi reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "We need to talk about this. I'll tell you anything that you want to know."

"And that's a conversation we're going to have, trust me." Hunter said. "But in the last half an hour I've found out that I'm a father, my daughter is already three years old, and the love of my life hid her from me. It's a lot to take in. I need some time to absorb. I'll be back later." He pulled away and started to walk out. He paused in the doorway, however, and looked back. "And just so you know, I would have dropped everything and come as fast as I could. That's how I would have reacted." He walked away, leaving Bobbi standing alone.

So what do you think? There will be more, but it won't be too long. I'm thinking two or three chapters total. We'll see. I'll post again as soon as I can. Please review!