Hey guys! So I'm updating this way earlier than I anticipated! I was going to update on Monday, but I had time today to sit down and write, and I got so into this chapter that I finished it all, so here it is! I hope you guys like it.

There's a section in this chapter where Skye is dreaming, that will be italicized.

Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed, or reviewed this fic. It means so much to me that you guys like it as much as I do :) As always, I own nothing (I wish I did) and all mistakes are my own xx


Phil was smiling at his family. They were all sitting around the dinner table. Tomorrow, they would have to add another seat.

"I know this is pretty sudden and we didn't expect to find a child so quickly, but I know that you guys will really like her and make her feel welcome here," Mel was explaining the situation to their two other kids.

"Mom, you know we'll love her. I've wanted a little sister since before you brought Trip home. No offense Trip, you're an awesome big brother." Natasha looked sheepishly over to Trip. He didn't seem to mind.

"None taken, Tash. I'm excited too." He was smiling broadly.

Phil knew that his kids would welcome Skye and try to make her feel comfortable and make her feel like she was a part of this family, but he also wanted them to know what they were getting themselves into.

"Look guys, I know you're both very excited to meet Skye, but please keep in mind that she's a foster kid. This will be her sixth foster family and she's only six years old. From what we saw, she's been neglected and probably abused. She's skittish and she was pretty scared of me when she saw me, so I'm not sure if she's that way towards all adults, or just men. So, Trip, she might not feel comfortable around you at first, and please know that it's not personal. She needs us you guys," His family was staring at him and he hoped that they understood that having Skye around was going to be challenging, but worth it.

"Dad, we know what it's like. We can help her. Nat and I, we know what she's going through," Phil looked up and smiled at his son.

"I know buddy. You guys are great kids. Skye is lucky to have you guys as siblings."


Skye's happiness slowly faded as the day progressed. All the other children came back from attending church it had gone as badly as it usually went. Normally, they would tease her, maybe push her around, and then leave her alone, but they were merciless today. Skye didn't know why everyone was being more mean than usual, but it was making her feel bad. The girls in her room had taken the new shoes that the Ramsey's had given her when she'd first arrived at their house, so she was stuck wearing her old, holey sneakers. She couldn't even go outside and play because of her hurt ankle, she was stuck sitting under a tree, watching all the other kids run around and have fun.

No one was happy that she was back. Skye wasn't even happy that she was back. What got her through the endless teasing and mean comments was knowing that Phil and May would be back tomorrow to take her away. Hopefully. She kept the paper with May's phone number folded neatly in the front pocket of her shorts. She kept checking to make sure that it was still there, and it always was. She resisted the urge to call them and make sure they remembered to come and get her. She didn't want to annoy them so much that they decided to leave her here.

The day was winding down and Skye was getting ready for bed. She was a little hungry because Jonathan had stolen her chicken off of her plate and she was left with icky green beans. She didn't like green beans. She was slowly brushing her teeth and changing into her pajamas. She didn't like going to bed either. Her nightmares scared her. Sometimes she'd see monsters looming over her and red eyes staring at her from the darkness. Other times she was back in the Harvey's car, knowing that they were going to crash, but unable to warn them. A lot of the time she was back in an old foster home and her foster parents were yelling at her or pushing her around. She could never tell which nightmare was worse, but sometimes they scared her so bad that she wet the bed, and that was worse than all of her nightmares combined. She couldn't even control her own body, why would anyone want a kid like her?

As she lay down in her bed, she hoped that tonight would be a good night. Maybe knowing that May and Phil would be here soon to rescue her would be enough to ward off the nightmares. She closed her eyes and slowly fell asleep.

She was back at the Ramsey's house, playing with a doll on the floor of the living room. Mr. Ramsey was still at work, Mrs. Ramsey was making dinner in the kitchen and Aaron was upstairs in his room, so it was quiet and peaceful. She was actually having fun, so she smiled. Then, she heard a car door slam and she knew that Mr. Ramsey was back. She froze. Would it be safer to stay here and pretend she wasn't scared, or run away and hide and hope he didn't see her? She didn't have time to make a decision before the door slammed open. It banged against the wall before he shoved it closed. It made a loud noise that make Skye's ears ring.

She looked towards the doorway and saw Mr. Ramsey staring at her, so she forced herself to smile at him before looking away. Maybe if he thought she was happy to see him, he would leave her alone. That didn't work.

"What're you smiling about, huh? Are you laughing at me?" He started stomping towards her and ripped the doll out of her hands. The dolls plastic hand snagged on Skye's finger and it stung a little, but she didn't say anything.

Her eyes widened and she vigorously shook her head.

"What? We're not a good enough family for you to talk to? You think you're too good for us? We took you in! I put food on your plate and a roof over your head and this is how you thank me?!" His voice was getting louder and louder and Skye wanted to put her hands over her ears because his voice was hurting her head, but she knew that would only make things worse, so she looked down and stared at her shoes. She felt frozen in place.

"You look at me when I'm talking to you! Why does no one respect me around here? Stand up and look me in the eye when I'm talking to you!" He was screaming at her and Skye whimpered. She forced herself to stand up, but couldn't control how much her body was shaking.

"You ungrateful, stupid little girl! You don't appreciate anything we do for you! I don't know why we even took you in! My wife wanted a little girl to talk to and have fun with, so I went to get her one, and we ended up with you!"He was yelling right in her face and she could feel his spit hit her cheeks, but she couldn't move. All she could do was take his insults and hope it would stop soon.

"What? You got nothing to say?" Skye stayed silent and tried to stop her legs from quivering.

Mr. Ramsey let out an incoherent yell and threw her doll at the wall. It hit a picture hanging there and the glass shattered and the picture frame fell.

"Look what you made me do!" Mr. Ramsey let out a scream of rage and then started destroying the rest of the living room. He slammed his fist into the wall and threw pictures onto the ground. He grabbed a lamp and hurled it on the floor, and Skye watched as it shattered to pieces. A piece of the lamp flew right towards her and cut her on the thigh, but she didn't say anything, just started to silently cry.

After he had destroyed the room, he stomped right up to her. He was looming over her and yelling in her face. "You ruin everything! You ruined our lives and you killed your last foster parents! I don't even know why we took you in! Yeah, the nuns told us how you were the one to kill the last family who took care of you! It's all your fault! Everything is your fault!" Skye was sobbing now and didn't even notice when his hand struck out and pushed her, hard. She felt his hand connect with her ribs and she lost her breath. She fell backwards, and she knew that her head would connect with the edge of the coffee table that was sitting in front of the couch, but before that happened, she jerked awake.

Skye's eyes flew open and she quickly doubled over and tried to catch her breath. She couldn't breathe. She was getting hysterical and she couldn't calm down. She took a deep breath and counted to five. That's what Mrs. Harvey taught her to do when this happened. It helped to calm her down and she gulped down air. She looked around the room and was relieved to find that all the other girls were still sleeping. She shifted to lay back down again when she felt her pajama pants sticking to her legs.

"Please no. No, this can't be happening." She threw back her covers and sure enough, there was a ring of wetness in the middle of her bed. Her nerves were already frazzled due to her nightmare and she couldn't stop the tears from rushing down her face. She needed to clean this up before anyone saw. She was too old to be doing this and the nuns would yell at her.

She stood up and ripped the sheets off of her bed. She had plastic sheets underneath her normal ones, so at least her mattress wasn't wet. She dragged them to the laundry room and hid them under some other dirty sheets. Maybe they wouldn't notice when they did the laundry. She grabbed clean sheets and tiptoed back into her room and remade her bed. She then grabbed a new nightgown and crept towards the bathroom. She was still crying silently, and she couldn't stop. She tried to count to five like Mrs. Harvey taught her, but it wasn't working.

When she got to the bathroom, she took off her ruined pajamas and cleaned herself up. She put on her new pajamas and hid her soiled ones at the bottom of the dirty clothes hamper. She stepped towards a mirror and stared at herself.

Her face was red from crying and the tears weren't stopping. Her dream was right. Everything was her fault. Mr. and Mrs. Harvey would still be alive if it wasn't for her. It was her fault that Mr. Ramsey had always been mad at her and it was her fault that all her other foster families didn't want her. No one wanted a kid like her. Oh no, May and Phil wouldn't want a kid like her.

She started to panic. May and Phil probably didn't know that she had nightmares and wet the bed and accidently got people killed; if they did, they wouldn't want her.

She silently ran back into her room and grabbed the piece of paper with May's phone number on it. Without thinking, she ran into the kitchen where the nuns left the phone, grabbed it, and ran back into the bathroom. She locked the door behind her and dialed the number. When it started to ring, she froze. What was she doing? She knew it was nighttime and May was probably sleeping! She'd be annoyed if Skye woke her up. And what was Skye even going to say to May? She was about to hang up when she heard a groggy voice answer the phone.

"Hello? Hello? Is anyone there?"Skye could tell that she had woken May up and that made her feel terrible. She started crying harder.

"Skye? Is that you?" May sounded worried. Skye didn't want May to be upset, but she couldn't make her voice work.

"Skye? Are you okay? What's wrong sweetie?" May's kind words made Skye cry a little harder. She knew she needed to be quiet or someone would wake up and find her, and she knew that she needed to answer May, but her throat felt tight, and the only things coming from her mouth were sobs.

She didn't notice at first that May had started singing softly. She didn't know the words to the song, and it didn't sound like it was in English, but it was nice. May's voice was soft and it helped Skye calm down when she focused on it. Her tears finally stopped and she sniffled a little bit. When May heard, she stopped singing.

"Skye? Are you okay sweetie? Do you want us to come see you?"They couldn't drive here! It was nighttime and they could get in a car accident and then Skye would lose another family.

She finally got her voice to work and managed to answer, "No! You can't come here at night! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have called," she could feel her eyes welling up again.

"Skye, listen to me okay? Don't ever feel bad about calling when you need me. Phil and I want to take care of you. We want to be here for you when you need us. I want you to know that any time you need me, I'll be there for you, even if it's…"She paused, "2:17 in the morning. We are here for you, okay?" May sounded earnest and Skye imagined her kind face smiling at her.

Skye nodded, but then realized that May couldn't see her, so she whispered, "Okay."

"Okay," Skye could hear the smile in May's voice. "Now that you're feeling a little better, can you tell me what happened?"

Skye knew she should tell May about the nightmare and about how she wet the bed, so that May would know that Skye was a problem. Then if May decided she didn't want her, at least it would be before she grew attached to them, but she couldn't. Instead she blurted out, "I killed my other foster parents," It felt weird saying the words out loud. She had always thought them and Mr. Ramsey had said it a few times, but she never had.

May didn't say anything, so Skye continued on, "I killed them. They had to come and pick me up from a sleepover and when we left, a car hit us and they died. I saw it. It was my fault and I killed them." Skye's eyes were leaking tears and she was clenching the phone in her tiny hands. She paused for only half a second before continuing, "They're dead now, but they said they wanted me to be a part of their family. You said the same thing. So, I just wanted you to know that I probably shouldn't be. A part of your family, I mean. Cause I could kill you too, by accident, and I don't want to." Skye said the last part in a rush. She really wanted to live with May and Phil, but they deserved to know that she was a killer. If that meant that they wouldn't want her anymore, then at least they would still be alive.

May didn't say anything for a couple of seconds, and Skye started to worry that May had hung up on her, but then she heard May's voice, "Oh sweetie, you didn't kill them, the car that hit you did. It was not your fault, okay baby?"

"It was though! If it wasn't for me, they would still be alive."Skye was still crying, and her voice cracked on the last part of the sentence. She was clinging to the phone like a lifeline.

"Skye, it was not your fault. You didn't kill anyone, okay? It was an accident, and accidents happen all the time, unfortunately, but you had nothing to do with them dying." May's voice was soft and it sounded sad. Skye didn't say anything, so May continued. "We still want you. We still want you to be a part of our family, and nothing is going to change that. Do you still want to be a part of our family?"

Skye was quiet for a few seconds. She did. She really wanted a family, and she wanted to live with May and Phil and she wanted to meet their other kids, and maybe they would like her and be nice to her and maybe they could be a family. She wanted them, and it was probably selfish for her to make them take care of a kid as bad as her, but she wanted it anyway.

She was still sitting on the floor of the bathroom, clenching the phone between her little fist, but her tears had stopped and she felt a little better after talking to May, "Yes, I want to be a part of your family." She whispered it.

"Good, because we want you Skye. Now, are you sure you don't want us to come and see you? We can drive over, it won't take long and we don't mind, I promise," Skye could hear May smiling and her kindness made Skye's eyes tear up again, but she refused to cry any more.

"No, I'm okay, I promise," She paused and took a deep breath before mumbling, "Thank you."

"Okay, but only if you're sure."

"I am. I'm okay."

"Alright sweetie. It's pretty late, how about you try to go back to sleep? Phil and I will be there early to pick you up. I know Sister Margaret said noon, but we'll probably come by earlier because we're so excited to see you."

Skye smiled at that, "Okay May, goodnight."

"Goodnight Skye," May's voice was soft and gentle. Skye hung up the phone and took a deep breath.

She quietly put the phone back where she got it and made her way back to her room. She slid under her covers after noting that all the girls were still sleeping. She laid there thinking about what May had said. She still wanted Skye, even though she knew she killed her other foster family and was a problem. She had promised that she wanted Skye to be a part of her family, not matter what. Skye didn't know if she believed her. She barely knew May. But she really, really wanted to. She shut her eyes and fell asleep thinking of the song May had sung to her earlier.


Natasha was sitting on the staircase facing the door. Her parents had gone to pick up their new sister awhile ago and they should be back any minute. Trip was in his room doing schoolwork on his computer, but Nat wasn't able to focus on her homework. She was getting a sister. She had always, desperately, wanted a younger sibling.

She had been 10 when May and Phil had fostered her. She was Russian, but had been forced to come over to America with a bunch of bad men. She grew up around these men, and they treated her as a pet, not like a human. She knew they did drugs and kidnapped other girls and made them do bad stuff, but she tried not to think about it. She had been terrified when men in black uniforms stormed into their house, pointing guns at the bad men and asking her if she was alright. Back then, she barely spoke any English and was terrified, but she didn't want to show any weakness, so she stood up straight and punched the guy in the face. She didn't know why she did it. Probably because he was touching her arm and she hated being touched, or maybe because she was scared out of her mind and didn't know what was happening. Either way, she had done it, and they did not react well. They restrained her and brought her to jail with the other bad men. She couldn't talk to them, so she didn't. She just sat there and stared at them while they asked her question after question until Social Services showed up and took her out of there.

She was placed in one other foster home before she was taken in by May and Phil. She was only there for a week before her "older brother" tried to sneak into her room one night. She put him in the hospital and they put her back into the system.

Then, May and Phil took her in and she will never be able to express to them how grateful she is. They were calm when she hurled insults at them in Russian. They taught her English and helped her find ways to channel her anger and deal with her emotions. May took her to her first dance class and Phil helped her with her schoolwork. She loved them and she knew that they were her real family.

She was 12 when they told her she was going to get a new sibling. She thought it would be a younger sibling, but then they brought home Trip. He was 14 and had a smile on his face from the second he walked through the door. Natasha was convinced that he wasn't a real foster kid. None of the other kids she knew were that happy. His parents had died in a car crash a couple months ago. He had an aunt who took care of him for a little while, but had refused to continue. May and Phil were his first foster parents, and Natasha made sure he knew how lucky he was to be put with them rather than some other family. She didn't trust Trip at first. It had taken her 3 months to even have a civil conversation with May and Phil, but Trip's eternal happiness and jokes cracked her tough exterior. Over the past two years, they had become closer. Not only siblings, but friends.

May and Phil had adopted both of them last year, and they had officially become a family. They stuck together and helped each other out, and it was great having parents who loved her and an older brother who was always there for her, but she still wanted a younger sibling.

So, when her mom and dad told her that they were going to bring a little girl home, she was thrilled. Phil told her about Skye's situation and how jumpy she was, but Natasha was determined to make her feel welcome here. She wanted to be a big sister and she wanted Skye to know that she could trust this family. She remembered how scared she had been her first few days living with a new family, and she didn't want Skye to go through this alone.

She heard a car door shut and her head snapped towards the front door. She heard the key going into the lock and she saw the doorknob twist, and she felt nervousness creep up on her. What if Skye didn't like her? What if she was a bad big sister? What if they ended up hating each other?

Natasha was wrenched from her thoughts as she heard her mom's voice, "and there's a park down the street we can go to if you want?" Natasha saw her dad enter first and he stepped aside to let her mom walk through the door. Behind her was a tiny girl with long brown hair and brown eyes. Her bangs were getting in her eyes and her hair was falling out of its ponytail. She had on shorts and a red shirt that was too big for her. Her right pinky was wrapped around her mom's left one. She was adorable.

She was looking around the house, and when she spotted Natasha she froze. Nat saw her whole body clench up and she took a step back. Natasha gently smiled, making sure to stay still so she wouldn't startle little Skye. Skye studied her and finally lifted a tiny hand and waved softly, refusing to make eye contact. Her dad opened his mouth, probably to introduce them, but then Trip came running down the stairs. He stopped right by Natasha and smiled brightly at Skye.

Nat saw fear flash in the little girl's eyes and she stepped behind May, hiding her whole body behind her mom's legs.

"Hey girl, I'm Trip, you're new brother."

Natasha sighed.


So? What did you guys think? I hope you guys are happy with Trip and Natasha being May and Phil's other children. Some of you guys guessed correctly! Someone (a guest) suggested that they be Wanda and Pietro and it never even crossed my mind before then! I considered doing it, but I don't think I know enough about their characters to do them justice. They might appear later in the fic though, so will some other Marvel characters :)

Let me know what you guys think! Anything I'm doing wrong? Anything I'm doing right? And most importantly, how are you guys coping with the new season of AoS being so far away? I'm not doing to well. The only thing keeping me going is knowing that AoS and Agent Carter have both been renewed. Have a lovely day and thank you for reading! xx -Ariel