"What the hell are you doing here?" Ward asked Skye, and she jerked awake, sitting up abruptly. Her hair was a knotted mess, and her dark eyes shone with a wild light.

She stared at him angrily. "You scared me."

He squinted at her in disbelief. "You scared me. You're in my goddamn room. What the hell are you doing in here?"

"Oh," she said. "Um. I didn't want to be at the orphanage tonight."

"You ran away?" he asked incredulously. "You're in trouble already, and so am I, so I would appreciate if you didn't get me in anymore."

"Well, technically it's not running away unless you get caught," she said, unconcerned. She sat up all the way, staring at him across Buddy, her hands still wound in his fur. The dog slept on, oblivious to both of them. "And I've never gotten caught before."

"Before? Do you do this a lot?" he demanded, exhaustion and annoyance causing him to raise his voice further. "Why did you come here?"

Skye yawned. "I wanted to see you," she said, as if it should have been obvious. "I had three nuns yell at me all night, and then I was moved to the basement room alone, so I was bored…and lonely…and I decided to come here."

"How?" Ward asked, shaking his head in disbelief. "How did you know where this was? How did you get here? How did you get in? This compound is secure."

She rolled her eyes. "Everyone at school knows somebody who works here, so it wasn't that hard to figure out how close it was. I just checked satellite footage and found the most likely location. And then I hitchhiked."

"You checked satellite footage? Where the hell did you get your hands on that?"

"Shhh keep your voice down," she admonished him. "Someone could hear us. And satellite footage isn't that hard to get if you know where to look. I just know where to look."

He raised his eyebrows. "You're a hacker?"

"Yup," she said proudly.

"You're, like, twelve."

"Thirteen," Skye corrected him carelessly. "And your compound isn't that secure. I disengaged your outer security systems from my phone and then I… uh… climbed."

"You what?"

She stared at him as if he were slow. "I. Climbed."

"We're on the third floor," Ward said, staring at her as if she were crazy. "That's pretty fucking dangerous."

"You swear a lot for a kid," she observed unconcernedly. "Are you always this pissed?"

"I don't know, are you always this much trouble?"

She grinned. "Yup."

"How did you get through the window?" he asked. "It's November. None of the windows are open."

"Your friend Darcy let me in," Skye said brightly. "She saw me out there and opened the window. I told her I was your friend, and she looked at me and said"—Skye broke off, giggling into her hand. "She said she understood why you fought those morons."

Ward turned a bright shade of red. "Darcy," he growled. "She's an idiot."

"I'm telling her you said that," Skye said mischievously.

"Don't!" Ward said quickly, and Skye sat cross-legged, grinning up at him.

"So what are we going to do?" she asked. "I think we should have some fun. Maybe we could go up to the roof. I saw the opening in the hallway. Do people actually go up there?"

"No," he said shortly. "And that's really why you're here? To 'have fun?' We're both going to be in so much trouble."

Her face sobered. "I guess… I guess that's really why I'm here," she said in a small voice, looking down at the bed. "I'm sorry I got you in trouble."

He softened. "It wasn't the first time I messed up Burke," he said. "That was my fault, not yours."

"You could have let me handle it, of course," she added, but he saw gratitude in her eyes. "I did break his fingers, after all. I can fight my own battles."

"I know," he said honestly. "But I was tired of Burke acting like he owns everyone around him. He acted the same way with Jemma, and when Fitz tried to stand up for her, he and some others threatened both of them."

"That's why you broke his arm?"

Ward nodded.

"This time you were just pissed, though," she added, and when he looked away, she asked, "The man who came to get you? Was he really pissed at you?"

Ward shook his head, and then looked at her sharply. "You said 'the man.' How did you know he wasn't my dad?"

She looked at him for a long moment before she answered. "Because you're nobody's kid. And when you know what that's like, you can spot it from a mile away."

"Yea," Ward said. "I knew which of you were from St. Agnes the second you walked in. So what's your story?"

"I was dropped off outside of St. Agnes when I was a baby," Skye said, stroking Buddy's head absentmindedly. "Been there on and off ever since. I was put into a few foster homes, but I guess I was never… I was never…"

Her voice trailed off, and when Ward looked at her, he was surprised to find that this fierce dark-haired warrior-child had tears in her eyes. He climbed onto the bed, sat down beside her at the end of it, and reached for her hand before he could think better of it.

She closed her hand around his, holding tight to him. "I'm never sure," she said shakily. "I'm never sure if I'm really visible at all until someone takes my hand. And every time someone lets go, I think I might disappear."

Ward looked at her for an impossibly long moment, and when he looked down at their hands, he wondered briefly how it was possible for so much to change in a single day. "Well," he said finally. "Then I won't let go."