AN: This is part of a much larger work that is being posted on AO3 by Ellaworm11 and I. The story is called Fireworks, and we currently have chapter 1 up. These are snippets from chapter 5. Fireworks is a multi-crossover fic which combines Agents of Shield, Avengers, Once Upon a Time, Warehouse 13, Damages, and includes references to Firefly and How I met your mother. Good luck!
"Hey, Mom?" Henry prompts while sitting at a Granny's booth across from Emma, "What was it like in the foster system?"
Emma takes a sip from her hot cocoa and wipes her attractive foam mustache before responding.
"It sucked. Why're you suddenly interested?"
Henry tilts his head, "I dunno. Mom hired a lawyer from outside of town who is working on a case involving some foster kids, or something. It's complicated. Anyway, I just…you never talk about it and I was just wondering…"
"What it was like?" She finishes.
Henry nods, "Yeah. I mean, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"No, it's alright to ask," Emma amends, "I mean, it's all in the past now. No, I spent a lot of years bouncing from home to home. To always believe that nobody wants you or genuinely cares for you totally screws with your head – it's why I have trust issues and couldn't stay in one place until you brought me to Storybrooke."
Henry beams and she grabs his hand to squeeze gently, " But now I'm okay. I've spent the past thirteen years trying to forget. I've just about succeeded. I met Neal right after I got out, so most of the details are pretty blurred. I do remember some specific instances…which were rather traumatic to me, but other than that, I just remember having a one track mind and always scheming and plotting to get out."
She smiles, "You finished with your breakfast?"
Henry looks down at his second helping of eggs and bacon. He's been growing lately,
"Yeah, guess so."
Sitting there, staring up at the RV's ceiling idly as Stark and Banner had their screaming battle of wits outside, the Agents of SHIELD seemed to be losing their sense of sanity.
It appeared as if the longer they stayed in town, the more the uncertainties and the conspiracies popped up from the woodwork. Sure, SHIELD may have come to Storybrooke to investigate a possible event horizon and possible HYDRA involvement, but the preliminary tests Banner and Stark ran with the help of Fitz-Simmons suggest that whatever caused the giant hole in the dilapidated shack's roof must have appeared from nowhere. Literally, like magic. The talk of string theory and Einstein's' duality of light which perpetually bounced around the walls of the barn were making Skye's head spin with science-y words and Greek letters.
Finally, she gives up trying to understand whatever it is Fitz is trying to explain to her, and she goes over to the corner of the RV to her own area of expertise- the computer.
"Wait, Skye? Where are you going?"
Fitz looks mildly offended that she left during his explanation. Physics is serious business.
"Yeah, hold on a sec," She voices from behind the laptop, already writing an outline for a Trojan horse, "We've been sitting ducks almost all day. While you nerds do your thing, I'm going to do mine. No offense, of course."
"None taken, "Fitz responds, "What are you planning?"
"I'm going to see if I can get into the town records and look for anything suspicious occurring within the past three months."
"You want backup?" Triplett offers, coming back around from outside to the front of the RV beside the driver's seat, "I mean, I could just be a lookout."
He is about as bored out of his mind as she is. Skye and Triplett both know that the likelihood of needing backup in crazytown is null, but she accepts the offer nonetheless.
"Yeah, sure," She says, "Just let me finish up and we can head out."
"Hacking public records shouldn't be too much of an issue," Simmons rolls off her bunk to sit beside Fitz, "Would you like us to help you get into the mayor's office?"
Skye shakes her head, "If the mayor, or anyone for that matter, sees me in her office then our cover will be all but blown. No, I'm going to the next best place: the Sheriff's department."
Fitz scoffs, "You mean the one that's pretty much been closed for the past two weeks?"
"Yes, and I have an in."
Skye describes her cover's interest in joining the FBI and the brief conversation she had with the blonde sheriff their first day in town.
"That way if she sees me in her office she won't suspect anything but a curious mind," Skye pulls a flashdrive from her laptop, "The trick is getting this to download the virus before she knows what I'm up to."
"That sounds a little risky. I know you're restless, but if something goes wrong our covers will be blown anyway," Fitz points out, voicing his concern "Can't you do that remotely? Like, through their servers? The same way we got into Cybertech before the gravitonium incident?"
"I can't take that chance, "Skye elaborates, "The Sheriff, Emma Swan, is one of the better hackers out there, and she could easily reverse the program and obtain SHIELD intel if she really wanted to."
This is a surprise to everyone.
"You know her?" Triplett raises a dark eyebrow.
"I used to, yeah."
A sixteen year old Emma Swan sits in a dusty corner of a library reading a trashy romance novel. She glances up every now and then, fixes her thick rimmed glasses, and returns to gaze to the book in her hands. Soon she grows tired of it- not her genre, really - and replaces the novel on the shelf before rising, stretching with a loud yawn, and moving to peer over the shoulder of a small brunette girl with lively brown eyes.
"Woah, kid, you're on fire!" Emma compliments.
"Yeah? Think so? I wasn't so sure…"
"Are you joking? That's , like, super complex script for an eight year old."
"I have a good teacher."
"Hey, no flattery, Skye!"
"I mean it, Em! ….and I'm done! How's that look?"
Young Skye pushes back from the computer, the wheels on her swivel chair squeaking noisily on the carpeted floor of the library. Emma leans on her elbows and sucks her bottom lip as she reads through pages of the script.
"Nice..." Emma grins at Skye, "You're a freaking prodigy, you know that?"
Skye blushes and beams with contentment. Emma notices her bashfulness and gives her a side hug.
"No! Seriously. You're awesome. I'm just a little more awesome, but that's just 'cuz I'm older and wiser, you know the deal?"
Skye sticks her tongue out jokingly and Emma elbows her side in a sisterly manner.
"But yeah, like I was saying, we're awesome! I bet you and I can take on the world together!"
Skye's eyes light up with imagination, "You mean it?"
"Yeah, just you and me…uncovering dirty government secrets, selling top secret information – we'll be infamous! And with our tight programming we could totally pull it off."
Skye giggles, "Yeah! Go Team Awesome!"
After hitching a ride back to town, Skye and Triplet walk down main street towards the sheriff's office. For the past two days, the townspeople have seemed outwardly happy and welcoming, and inwardly wary of their presence. But today is the Fourth of July, and everyone is excited, carefree, and a little tipsy.
"Is it just me, or do these people seem really patriotic?" Skye observes, grinning nervously as a short, bearded man crashes into his friend.
"I think they'd give Steve a run for his money- watch it!" He pulls her out of the way as a kid on training wheels flies past them, streaming red, white, and blue ribbons behind him.
"Thanks." Skye gasps. "It'll be a miracle if we can get to the sheriff's office alive."
Triplet studies her. "How'd you know her? The sheriff- Swan?"
Skye glances up at him quickly, then avoids his eyes. "We were in a foster home together, when I was little. She taught me how to hack."
"Seems like a healthy relationship." Triplet chuckles, but Skye doesn't, so he shuts up. "Do you think she remembers you?"
"I'm not sure. She seems- I don't know. She's different- more… at home, here." Skye hesitates, then finishes, "If I didn't know better, I'd say she'd found a home."
Triplet raises his eyebrows- having grown up in a tight-knit family, he didn't know what it was like not to know a home. But Skye cuts off his next question.
"That's the office." She glances around, then starts toward the door determinedly.
"Hi!"
Skye jumps a little, and Triplet holds back a laugh. Standing between them, having come up the sidewalk unnoticed, is a tall man, with ashy colored skin and hair buzzed right down to his skull.
"I don't think we've met- I'm Steve." The man says, grinning, having noticed he startled Skye. "My family and I are spending a couple days here."
"What a coincidence! So is ours." Triplet offers the man his hand, trying his best to match the man's enthusiasm. "I'm Antoine, and this is Skye, my...sister."
"Nice to meet you both. You looking for the sheriff?" Steve asks, still smiling innocently.
Triplet's mouth opens. "Uh, no, actually, we were looking for-"
"A friend. Emma. Blonde woman? You seen her?" Skye interrupts him.
"Yeah, actually. I think I saw a woman like that going towards the diner." Steve points the opposite direction of the sheriff's office. "I can show you, if you want." he adds.
"Perfect!" Skye says, before Triplet can get a word out. "Antoine, why don't you check out that woman with Steve, and I'll keep looking this way?" she gives Triplet a pointed look.
"Um...ok?"
"Great!" Steve says enthusiastically. "I think she's up this way." he starts off the way they'd come.
"I'll text you if we find her." Triplet says, before running to catch up with Steve. Skye just grins and shoos them off.
With the suspicious Steve safely distracted, she starts back toward the door of the sheriff's office. Although the police department has been effectively off-duty for the past week or so, apparently in preparation for the celebrations, the door was left unlocked. Skye smiles, celebrating her luck, and steps inside.
The Sheriff's department is, well, cozy to say the least. Then again, as someone who was used to seeing thirty-four story prison buildings in classified locations with holding cells intended for "gifted" humans and alien hybrids, any jail would seem small to Skye. She intentionally refrains from turning lights on, but pulls a few poorly matched shades from the windows to let in the light.
She walks through the holding room to get to the main office fit with desk and computer. Skye takes a seat and boots the computer up. It's a pretty old model, but it will do. As she waits for the systems to load, she takes notice of the things on Emma's desk: paper clips, newspaper clippings, files from the mayor's office; is that a picture of the mayor's son on Emma's desk? Weird. Then again, the whole town is weird and Skye doesn't put any more thought into the object.
After finishing the download and shutting the computer down, Skye pulls the flashdrive and stands. She takes one long look around her, narrowing her eyes as she ponders the life of the older girl she used to know in the foster system.
"What are you doing in here?"
Skye whips her head up. Standing in the doorway is none other than Emma Swan, lips compressed in a thin line betraying her mistrust.
'Shit!' Skye berates herself, 'I shouldn't have let Triplett wander off, it would have been nice to have him as lookout!'
"I was just checking the place out. The door was open," Skye says without missing a beat.
If memory serves correctly, Emma Swan was a human lie detector with seventy five percent accuracy, or something of the sort. Skye never took much stock into Emma's claim during their time in the foster system, but Skye decides to err on the side of caution. The door was, in fact, left open for the public, so Emma couldn't pin her on that at least.
Emma pushes off from the wall, hands slung in the pockets of her jeans, and saunters forward with a "don't-shit-with-me" swagger. Her vivid green eyes bore into Skye's, and Skye just smiles politely in response.
"Uh-huh," Emma says, blandly "Wanna try that again?"
Skye shrugs, "I wanted to see what it was like, you know? In an actual Sheriff's office. I can leave, since I'm obviously not welcome,"
"Wrong answer, kid," Emma watches as Skye cringes, and the Sheriff eyes the flashdrive in the girl's hand, "What the Hell did you just do to my computer?"
"Nothin'. Why would I do anything to your computer?"
"That's what I'm asking you, kid," Again, Skye cringes.
Emma shakes her head with something like disappointment as she reaches for her handcuffs, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to arrest you for breaking and entering."
Skye takes half a second to pan her options out before her. She could let Emma take her in, but that would compromise her mission for both intelligence and to Coulson. If she is arrested, then she will be put on file – something that HYDRA will surely pick up on if they aren't already here, something Skye has become increasingly skeptical about, but nonetheless, their covers would definitely be compromised. No, she couldn't let the cat out of the bag yet. What she needed was time. What she needed was a new cover – one in which truthfulness and vulnerability were added to the mix.
Skye takes a deep breath. This was a bad idea.
In a flash, Skye grips the picture frame on the desk and throws it with vigor at Emma before racing around the desk towards the door. At such close proximity, the frame bounces off the Sheriff's forehead with a low thud.
"Ow! Son of a bitch!" Emma grunts before reaching out with a long arm and catches Skye on the fly and pushes her against the brick wall, pinning her angrily.
"Who the Hell are you?" Emma demands, applying more pressure with her body weight as Skye struggles, "Answer me!"
Skye thrusts her head forward to collide with Emma's already offended forehead, temporarily stunning the older woman. With a frustrated yell, Skye pushes with all her might until Emma collides with, and falls into, her chair at the desk. Without wasting a second, Skye pins Emma and uses the Sheriff's own handcuffs to stick her to the chair.
Breathing heavily, Skye crosses her arms and looms above Emma.
"Alright, Em. You got me," Skye says darkly.
Emma pulls at the handcuffs futilely, as the keys to unlock them were hanging on a hook on the far wall, well above her reach.
"But maybe, just maybe, you'll stick around this time?"
Emma stops struggling and simply sags in the chair as her eyes fill with understanding.
"Shit…"
It is nighttime, probably around 11 oclock or midnight. Emma Swan is dressed in a black outfit holding a duffel bag. She has a stolen map fanned out and is peering at it with interest. A noise behind her alerts her to an intruder in her personal space.
"Em! Where are you going?" Skye bounces up to her idol.
Emma quickly folds the map up and replaces it in her bag.
"…nowhere. You should go back, kid, what if someone catches you?" The blonde responds.
"I'm ten, not stupid!" Skye pouts, "You're leaving, aren't you."
Emma shuffles from foot to foot in front of the smaller girl. She is mostly concerned with the two of them getting caught together and forced back. Being found out and about this late after curfew would be bad.
Finally, Emma admits, "…yeah…I've lived in this group home for the past two years- two years, God damnit! It's the longest I've ever lived anywhere. I just hate the place, you know? It's time for me to move on. I gotta be free."
She gives a small, meaningless smile that Skye interprets as invitation.
"Well, then, I'm coming with you!" Skye says with such hope, it's overwhelming.
Alarm flits across Emma's face, "No! No, you can't. I'm sorry but this is a one woman gig."
"W-what?"
"Kid, you're a minor, and I'm not even eighteen yet. I can't just take you with me!" Emma justifies.
"But you promised that we would always be together! What about Team Awesome?"
Emma frowns, she honestly doesn't remember, "Team what now?"
"Team Awesome…remember? You, me, world class hackers?" Tears are brimming in Skye's eyes now, "Travelling the world, going on adventures, unlocking all of the world governments' secrets and sharing the information worldwide?"
Emma sighs and cleans her glasses, and Skye chokes back a sob.
"Aw…kid…I never meant for that to mean anything, really. I thought we were just having fun together"
Skye reels back,"I don't understand. Don't you care about me?"
"What? Yeah, I care-"
"Then adopt me!" Skye's eyes spill over, " You're almost eighteen! You can do it then. Adopt me, and then we can stick together like we said!"
Emma just gapes at Skye,"It doesn't work like that…it's not that easy."
"Why not? Hack the system! I know you can!"
"I'm sorry...kid, really I am."
"I have a name, you know!"
Emma sighs and looks down at the bag in her hand and the road in front of her, "Goodbye, kid."
"Em! Em, don't leave me!" Skye scrambles after the retreating blonde.
Emma has longer legs and is much, much faster though, leaving Skye behind in the obscure darkness.
"Don't abandon me! You're the only family I have!"
But it's too late. And Emma is long gone.