There's No Place Like Home
I decided to write a little Agent's of Shield one shot that might become a two shot about Christmas. This takes place before Ward's betrayal and before Miles with all the original team members. I hope you all enjoy. This is all from Skye's perspective. I might write a series of one shot after this that connects to this one.
I DO NOT OWN AGENTS OF SHIELD
I couldn't believe that it was finally Christmas, well, five days before Christmas… and not only was it the greatest holiday, like ever, but it was the first holiday that I was finally going to be able to spend with my 'family'!
I had planned everything out perfectly. There would be lights, and food, and gifts, and the biggest tree that could possibly fit on a plane. Everything was going perfectly until Coulson decided to make a big announcement.
"Since it's been such a tiring year, for all of us, I thought that it would be appropriate for each of you to get a little time off for the holiday. Each of you will be allowed to leave tomorrow to spend time with your family and friends."
I knew it would have been selfish of me to ask everyone to stay, they all seemed so happy about this, but I couldn't help but feel a little heartbroken. Just because I didn't have anyone to celebrate with didn't mean that I had to ruin everyone's holiday to. They were all so happy that I didn't even want to bring up the fact that I had nowhere to go.
I had almost completely lost hope when Coulson decided to finish his announcement.
"Though you do get off for the 25th, you all need to be back by the 29th so that we can get back to work before the New Year." Before everyone could voice their complaints, he quickly added that the job requirements had been stated when they had gotten them, and that they had all signed up for this.
As soon as he called the meeting to an end I walked off with everyone else when the voices of Simmons stopped me.
"Skye, don't you just love this time of the year. The snow, the lights, the food, and all time we get to spend with our fam-." Right before she could finish her sentence, her mouth snapped shut and all the members of the team turned to look at me, waiting to see how I would react.
My mouth pursed shut as I felt everyone's eyes on me and I couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed at all the attention. Before she could apologize, I slid on a well practiced mask and smiled the best that I could.
"Yeah, it's nice to see all of the decorations and the food is amazing, I mean do you know how many types of cookies I had last year, like three billion. And don't even get me started on all the festive music. It's actually one of my favorite holidays." I said still smiling.
In reality, all of my holiday's had either been spent alone or at a bar. A few years ago, it the temperature was below zero degrees so I had found a drunk and let him fuck me in the back of his truck just so that I could have somewhere to stay the night. After that I had gotten my driver's license and my van so that I would never have to experience that again.
I had lied about a lot of things over my time on the bus, my age, my multiple problems, and now I could add one more thing to the list.
As everyone went their separate ways, most likely to pack their stuff in their bunks, I left to mine as well, the beginnings of a plan forming in my head.
As everyone said goodbye, I went over where everyone was going in my head. Coulson was going to visit Fury and then spend the rest of the time with some of his friend in Shield. May was going home to visit her mother and father and was planning on spending her holiday with them. Fitz and Simmons were each going to spend Christmas with their respective families, and were then going to fly back the 26th to spend time with each other. Ward was flying over to spend time with his grandmother and was planning on staying with her for their time off.
I on the other hand was going to put my plan into motion while everyone went away and was going to stay here.
As soon as everyone had left, and I with them, I turned my taxi around and had the driver take me back to the Shield base where the bus was. I told the agents there that I had forgotten something on board and was allowed to get back on. Apparently they changed shifts after that because no one noticed when I didn't get off again.
I hadn't actually brought clothes with me in my suitcase and had in fact used it to carry all of the supplies for my plan back onto the bus. All of the food that I was going to use for an awesome-few-days after -Christmas-dinner, the decorations, the ornaments, etc…
This was going to be so much fun.
My plan consisted of 5 parts (some more important than others).
Get the lights, tinsel, fake snow, Lego cities, paper snowflakes, mistletoe, and MANY other decorations up.
Get the tree inside the bus and get it decorated.
Buy everyone a Christmas gift with the little money that I actually had saved up
Learn how to cook and actually get everything cooked without burning down the bus.
Make a badass Christmas playlist for when everyone gets here.
After detangling hundreds of lights, cutting out beautifully intricate paper snowflakes, the red on some of them was certainly not because she had cut her fingers open using safety scissors, many curses while making a Lego replica of New York City and setting it up in the meeting room, burning my hand profusely with the hot glue gun while making a Merry Few-Days-After-Christmas banner and falling off a ladder, more than a few times, trying to get it, along with the tinsel up, and putting the mistletoe in intricately placed spots, the Bus was finally decorated to my standards so I moved onto the task of getting a tree on the bus.
While I may not have been proud of waiting till a new agent was placed on the night shift by himself and having sex with him (I didn't want to, but he would have told someone if I hadn't) so that he would stay quite about me being on the bus while letting me sneak out to grab the tree, it got the job done. And believe me; getting the tree onto the bus was no picnic. I think I'm going to be picking pine needles out of my hair for days. Once the tree was inside, I hooked on all the ornaments and the lights and in the end, might I say, the tree looked pretty fan-freaking-tastic.
Admiring my handiwork, I got onto the next step, but before I could start, a wave of nausea hit me and my vision blacked out for a few seconds. For the past four days while I had been trying to get everything done, I had on practically coffee alone trying to get everything done and I could bet that I looked pretty awful (who needed showers anyways.) Deciding that I earned a break, I took a three hour power nap before getting back to work.
I remembered that I was going to have to go outside and decided to take a quick shower. Once I got into the water, I realized how bad that I actually felt. I had burned the skin off my fingers trying to use the hot glue gun, cut my hand so badly that I needed to give myself stitches, bruised a rib when I fell off of the ladder, I was sleep deprived, hungry, and was now sporting a rather large bruise on my shoulder from when I had had to carry in the Christmas tree. Groaning to myself, I briefly wondered what the rest of the team was up to and deeply hoped that they appreciated how much I had worked to show them that I loved them.
After I had finished the shower, I repeated what I had done to get the Christmas tree, with the same guard, and made it to the mall after getting a ride from a taxi. I only had about two hours before the mall closed, so I ran inside and picked up what I had needed to get Coulson from a small pawn shop, got to the electronics store and picked up Ward's gift, and stopped to get Simmons' gift on my way out. Fitz's and May's gifts had been a bit more difficult but I had finally figured out what to get them. Realizing I had run out of money, I had a driver take me into the city.
Once I was in a crowded enough place, I let years of practice take over. Finding some rather wealthy looking people, I swiped their wallets and went back to my cab. With a resigned sigh, I pulled out the money, tossed the wallets, and left.
I stopped at a local weapons shop where had I placed a custom order for May's gift and after picking it up, I went home to finish Fitz's. Once done, I started the last part of my little project.
Now, I had never really cooked anything besides ramen and spaghetti before, but I figured how hard it could be. Besides, I still had three days left for everything to get done. I Googled how to make a turkey and found that it was a lot harder than what I had made it out to be, and a lot grosser. After letting it thaw out for the next two days,I couldn't stop myself from laughing as I stuffed the unfortunate bird. Once I had finished that, I moved onto the mashed potatoes and found that at least it was easier than the turkey, thank god, and then did the greens, ham, rice, and finally the Yule log. Once I was finished, I stopped to admire my meal. Though the turkey and ham were still cooking, the rest of the meal was looking spectacular. The asparagus and the green beans were cooked to perfection, the mashed potatoes were thick but not sticky, the rice wasn't too soft and it wasn't raw, and the Yule log was beautifully decorated.
Could I do Christmas or what?
A few hours later, I took out the turkey and the ham and without thinking, I forgot to put on my gloves, too excited on how everything would turn out. When I placed my hands firmly on the pan, so as not to drop it, I burned the palms of my hands, badly.
Fighting back tears as I watched my hands redden, I ran into the bathroom and turned on the water as cold as it would go. Once I placed my hands under the faucet, I kept them there and felt the burn slowly stop hurting. After fifteen minutes, the pain was bearable enough that I no longer had to keep them under the water and I loosely wrapped my palms.
Suddenly, flashbacks spun through my head.
The taunts from the other kids at the orphanage-Stop being such a crybaby Mary,
The threats from past foster parent -If you so much as shed one tear, then we'll add an extra set of ten, is that what you want Mary,
How I would plead with the big men on the streets after I had left the system at 14-We didn't tell you to talk bitch, now stop crying before someone hears you, you slut.
Blocking out the memories, I quickly reminded myself that I had a job to do as I headed back into the kitchen.
When I got there, I placed the last two pieces of food on two beautiful white plates trimmed in gold that I had bought while at the mall. Both looked absolutely amazing. After I had placed everything in the fridge for safe keeping, I crawled into my bed and fell asleep, but my dreams were plagued with nightmares.
The next day, I woke up and put together the Christmas playlist. After that, I spent the rest of the day making sure that everything was perfect.
The entire time, I kept thinking of all the things that could go wrong.
What if they hate it?
What if they think that I'm trying to hard?
What if the food taste's absolutely awful?
What if AC gets mad that I decorated the bus without asking and kicks me off the team?
What if the bus gets taken over by angry Christmas hating ghosts and they kill everyone on the team because I decorated the Bus?
Okay, maybe not that last one, but still, do you know how many things could go wrong?
I just had to hope for the best and hope that the rest of the team appreciated what I did for them.
I guess I'd find out tomorrow.
Fitzsimmons had come into the base together and were waiting for everyone to show up. They were having a casual conversation on the logistics of time travel when Coulson and May walked in, shortly followed by Ward.
"I hope that everyone enjoyed their time off" Coulson said to the team. "Now is everyone here"
After a small glance around the room, Ward exclaimed "Where's Skye."
The sixth member of their team was still not here?
"What was Skye doing for the holidays anyway" Simmons asked.
Suddenly, a wave of shamefulness had passed over the team at the fact that no one had thought to ask her.
Coulson cleared his throat "Why don't we all go on the bus and wait there for her, that way everyone can unpack and get settled."
Making their way onto the bus, music suddenly started playing. Once they were right next to the plane, AC/DC's Back in Black could be clearly heard.
Confused, May placed in the code on the cargo doors, everyone was prepared for whatever would come out at them. What they weren't expecting was to see big plastic light-up candy canes lining the ramp onto the bus and to hear some muttered cursing from their previously missing hacker.
"Stupid old laptop, I said Christmas playlist, not Back in Black, how do you even get those two mixed up you mother-"more profane curses "system. CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST" I yelled. "Playing Somebody to Love by Queen" said the robotic voice of her laptop over the Bus intercom. "ARGHHH" came Skye's strangled scream from what the team presumed to be the bar, followed by more angry mutterings and loud footsteps.
Suddenly, the song Jingle Bell Rock blasted through the bus and the previously frozen team made their way up the ramp.
When they stepped onto the plane, they all gasped at what lay before them. Inside the cargo hold was a large brightly decorated banner with Merry Few-Days-After-Christmas written on it with huge blocky letters. Strings of lights were everywhere and fake snow lined the edge of the floor. Cut out snowflakes were hanging from the ceiling and five packages were lying on the floor.
On top of each of the little wrapped boxes was a little post-it note. Written on it was 'just something to get the party started-Skye' Upon opening them, they realized that inside were Santa hats, red light up noses, and the ugliest sweaters that they had ever seen.
After putting on the items they all went up the stairs into the common area and their eye's nearly popped out of their sockets. It was beautiful.
In the middle of the room was a beautiful Christmas tree with five gifts underneath. Everywhere was chains of paper snowflakes, everything was covered in fake snow, and tinsel was hanging from the ceiling. When they looked through the glass doors of the meeting room, they all gasped at the extremely intricate replica of New York City on top of the holo-table, and entering the room was Skye with her own ugly sweater, hat, sunglasses, and nose on. She was holding a tray of sugar cookies in one bandaged hand and a pitcher of eggnog in the other.
"Merry Christmas" I said shyly.
"Oh Skye," Coulson said, "did you do all of this for us?"
With everyone near tears, I immediately thought that something was wrong.
"I'm sorry, I knew you would hate it, it's just that I didn't really have anywhere to go and I thought that maybe this would be a nice thing to do together but if you hate it that much than I'll take it down, I'm so sorry, it was stupid of me to do this, I-"
"Skye, stop" Said May, "It's amazing and we were all just surprised at the amount of work that you put into this."
"We love it" Ward finished with a soft smile.
"Oh this is absolutely marvelous Skye, but-" said Simmons
"how did you get the Christmas-" switch to Fitz
"tree in here without-" back to Simmons
"anyone noticing" Fitz finished.
"That my dear friends, is a secret" I said with a wink.
I set the food on the table and went in to talk to everyone. Time passed quickly as I got swept up in conversation with the others about what they had done.
"If you had told us that you didn't have anywhere to go than I would have gladly had you stay in my house" Said Simmons.
"I could have put up with you for a few more days, Rookie" Ward said playfully
"You wouldn't have been that much of a bother" May said passively
"You guys, I'm fine, and this was a lot of fun. Besides, I didn't want to bother you and your families."
After arguing with them that I was fine, I set the table for dinner and we all ate together. Throughout the meal I got constant praise on my cooking skills and no one believed me when I said that I hadn't known how to cook until pretty recently. I had always picked things up fast.
When we were all finished, we each helped to clean up and then we went to open gifts.
"This one's for Ward. I know how much you love reading so I got you a Nook. May you be able to bore yourself to sleep, wherever you go."
"Wow Skye, I was almost touched for a few seconds. Thank you" Ward said smiling.
"This one's for May, so that you can continue kicking ass, wherever you go." I said, handing her a wooden box.
"Oh Skye, they're beautiful" said May, holding up one of the handcrafted throwing knives. "But a full set must have cost hundreds,"
"Don't worry about that May, I have my ways" I said with a smile that didn't quite reach my eyes.
"This one's for Coulson" I said handing him a small package.
Immediately, his eyes lit up and he smiled softly while pulling out a full set of vintage captain America trading cards. I had been collecting them for him for weeks.
"Thank you Skye, this means a lot to me."
Finally, I pulled out the last gift and handed it to Simmons. "And this one's for you Jem, I overheard you a few weeks ago talking about how you only had one left to complete your set but that you couldn't find it anywhere. Here it is."
"Oh Skye, this is lovely. Thank you so much" she said holding up the tiny porcelain model of the Fifth Doctor."
"Fitz, you're gift is not here, because I don't like you." I said, my face straight. "Oh…" he let out a soft sigh. I didn't talk for a few seconds and once everyone had realized what I had said, I laughed and added that I was just kidding. "For you, dear Fitz, I have made you a most marvelous gift. If you would just follow me into the heart of New York than you shall be able to receive thy gift" I said with a fake booming voice. "Onward Jeeves" I yelled as everyone followed.
Once there, I picked up the remote and turned on the holo-table.
"Now it I may, could you please direct your attention to the model of the empire state building"
On top of the building was a monkey swatting at holographic planes.
"I know that you can't have a real monkey on the bus, so I created an AI, his name is EDWARD. It stands for Even Doing Whatever Agents Really Do. Edward can help on missions by providing information, is connected to the internet, and is just an awesome little dude all around. I modeled him after a Capuchin Monkey."
"Can he talk," Fitz nearly squealed.
"Edward, can you say something for us," right as it was about to open it's mouth, Skye quickly finished. "in English."
"One of his bugs is that you have to say the language you want him to talk in, but I could probably fix that later." I said to everyone.
"I am EDWARD, here to help you with whatever you need. Do you wish for some assistance." It said. The voice was high and childlike, with an English accent, but it fit the design.
"No… that's quite alright" Fitz said grinning.
"Alrighty then, powering down" It said as it disappeared.
"Skye, that's absolutely brilliant, I cannot begin to thank you enough. Do you know how helpful this little guy's going to be?" Fitz exclaimed.
"I'm glad that you like it Fitz" I said smiling.
"Well, that's enough excitement for me for one night. I think I'm going to head off to bed guys, Merry Few-days-After-Christmas. Night" I said as I went to my bunk, smiling for the first time in days, and fell asleep.
I hope you guy's liked that, and if you did, then review, PLEASE. I might make this into a two shot about the team staying up after Skye falls asleep and discussing how they feel about what Skye did and how they noticed her injuries, maybe. Happy New Year everyone.
XOXOXO The fox has left the building