The agents stood waiting for an explanation, and Ward let them wait. Coulson stared down at him, his face firm and impassive.
"Ward," Hand said coldly. "Who is this girl and why is she here?"
When both children were silent, Coulson spoke. "Agent Hand, let's take this upstairs. You and I can talk to them without the rest of the agents present. Understood?"
The level sevens and eights dispersed as ordered, and Coulson turned to Ward, who moved slightly so that he was standing in front of Skye. "You two," he said briefly. "Upstairs."
Ward climbed the stairs slowly, Skye at his heels and Coulson and Hand bringing up the rear. Hand turned toward an interrogation cell on the second floor, but Coulson shook his head and took the lead, bringing them to the living quarters on the third floor. "We'll talk in here," he said, his expression softening slightly at Skye's frightened look.
Hand just looked annoyed. "Agent Coulson, this is unacceptable," she snapped as they entered the empty common room. "Having the boy here is one thing, but this girl has infiltrated our security systems twice and he seems to know who she is."
"So do I," Coulson said quietly. "She's a new girl from Ward's school."
"We fought Burke together yesterday," Skye piped up, and Hand's gaze shot to her, and, miraculously, softened.
"You're the one Burke went after most recently?" Hand asked sharply.
Skye scowled. "Yea."
"And you're the one who broke his fingers?"
"Yea."
Hand reached her hand out. "Thank you," she said crisply. "He stopped harassing my daughter because of that. My name's Victoria, by the way."
Coulson raised his eyebrows, and Hand continued, her voice still cool but not as angry now: "I wish my daughter had your ability," Hand said. "She hasn't taken any self-defense classes yet."
"It's not about ability," Skye said, shaking her hand. "It's about desperation."
Hand looked at her shrewdly, and then a slow smile spread across her face. "Yes," she said. "I think you're right."
Coulson stared back and forth between them, amazement on his face that mirrored Ward's.
"Phil," Hand turned to him, her voice businesslike. "We still need to understand how she got in—Skye is your name?—and how we can patch the weaknesses in our system. Skye, can you help us with that? You can walk in the front door next time."
"That's not nearly as much fun," Skye grumbled.
A smile slipped across Hand's face—Ward had never seen her even close to a smile before—and it was a small, wolfish grin that changed her face entirely. "Or you can climb up," she said. "If you really want to."
"Do we need to call St. Agnes?" Coulson asked Skye. "Or do they know you're here."
"One of my level sevens called them," Hand said. "They should be here in a few minutes."
Fear flickered across Skye's face, and Ward stepped closer to her.
"Skye," Coulson said gently, noticing her fear. "We need you to explain how you got past the perimeter. And we'd like to have your help patching our system, like Agent Hand said. Can you do that?"
"I hacked the satellite footage in the area to find you," Skye said. "The hack was easy—the code is almost too easy to decrypt—and then I locked my phone's location to your coordinates. Basically, I just hijacked your IP address. Well, one of them. And then there's this malware I designed—kind of a Trojan horse, but it's invasive without causing damage—and it basically gave me the decryption code on my phone to hack your outer security system. The rest was easy."
Coulson and Hand stared at her, visibly impressed, and Ward smiled proudly. This girl was not only good in a fight, she was smart. Like Darcy had said, she was "Jane-Foster-smart."
"Why did you come last night?" Hand asked curiously.
"I was bored," she said. "And I came to see Ward."
"So you knew who the security breach was, when half the compound was on high alert this morning?" Coulson asked, looking at Ward, who nodded guiltily.
"I'm sorry," Ward said, cringing slightly, but Coulson was laughing and Ward breathed a sigh of relief.
"Of course you didn't tell anyone. I wouldn't have expected any less of you, Grant," he said, still laughing. "We had the entire compound frantically searching for the break-in, and it was just two kids who got bored and wanted to hang out."
Hand smirked. "I'll alert my level sevens of the vulnerability Skye mentioned," she said. "And I'll dispatch a team to make our systems able to withstand that kind of malware. Will you wait with them until one of the St. Agnes women comes?"
Coulson nodded, and Hand turned back to Skye.
"It was nice to meet you, Skye," she said crisply. "I hope we'll be seeing more of each other."
When Hand left, Skye sank onto one of the couches, looking up at Ward. "I'm so fucked," she said, and Coulson raised his eyebrows at the strong word, but didn't comment.
"You swear a lot for a kid," Ward mimicked her words to him on the previous night, and she smacked his arm. "But yea. You really are."
Skye groaned, rubbing her eyes wearily. "Do I have to go back?" she asked Coulson, and his face softened.
"Yes," he said quietly. "You do. I'm sorry."
She looked around her, and then up at Ward. "And what you said before," she said. "That I swear a lot? You're right. But neither of us are kids."
Coulson looked at her thoughtfully. "How long have you been at St. Agnes?"
She shrugged. "Since I was born. I had a few foster parents, but I always ended up back there with all the nuns," she said, annoyance filling her voice at the word "nuns."
Coulson nodded.
"Tomorrow," Ward said suddenly, breaking the silence. "Can you come with me tomorrow? I'm going back to the animal shelter in town, and I asked the women who run it—Amie and Aziz—and they said you could come if you… if you want."
"If they let me out of the house," Skye said ruefully. "What time are you going to be there?"
"All day," Ward said, his eagerness showing in his voice. "Do you know where it is?"
She shrugged. "I'll find my way. I always do."
There was a knock at the door.
"Agent Coulson, sir, a Sister Monica is here to see you," a level one announced when Coulson opened the door. Ward looked at Skye, who relaxed visibly.
The nun was one of the younger women he had seen come from the orphanage, and she looked at Skye with a quiet regret that reminded Ward of Coulson.
"Skye," she said softly, and Skye's foot scuffed against the carpet nervously. "What are you doing here?"
"She was helping us patch a security breach," Ward said before Skye could speak, and all three looked at him.
"And did you also create this security breach?" Sister Monica asked astutely, and Skye's lips twitched.
"Yea," she admitted. "I came to see Ward."
"The boy from school yesterday?" Monica asked, her blue eyes surveying Ward critically.
"Yup," Skye said. "You know the one who saved my ass—saved me," she corrected quickly. "When that Burke kid attacked me."
Monica turned to Ward again, and nodded just slightly. "Thank you," she said simply, and then turned to Coulson. "And are you Agent Coulson?"
He nodded, holding out his hand to shake her. "Pleasure to meet you," he said.
Monica nodded to Skye. "We need to be going. Director Zirbe will want to speak with you."
Skye's face fell, and Ward saw fear in her face. He leaned over and whispered, "Tomorrow. Okay?"
"Okay."
When they had left, Coulson turned to him. "If she sneaks out to meet you at the shelter, she could get in more trouble," he said. "And the sisters are good women, but Zirbe… well, he's not a man who I would want Skye in trouble with."
"If she meets me," Ward said firmly. "I'll make sure she doesn't get caught."
Coulson sighed. "I won't stop you," he said. "Because I think it could be good for Skye to spend time with Amie and Aziz. But if she's caught once and gets in trouble, I will put a stop to it, okay? She doesn't deserve more trouble."
Ward nodded in understanding.
"And Grant?"
He looked up at Coulson.
"I don't want to hear you call Victoria 'Agent Hand-Job' again," the man said firmly. "She's a good woman, Grant. And I think it's time you started treating her with some respect."
Ward nodded grudgingly. "I don't like her," he said.
"You don't have to," Coulson said. "But there's something I think you should know about her."
Ward looked up at him, his eyes narrowing. "What?"
"She was the one who found out how your brother and your parents were treating you," Coulson said. "And she was the one who took it to Director Fury's office and argued for three hours straight that something had to be done about it. Fury didn't think it was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s place to take you in, and he wanted to advise that you and Maynard and Dana and Chelle all be placed in foster care together. Hand was the one who told him you and the other two weren't going to be anywhere near Maynard."
Ward stared at him in disbelief. "What?"
"You've never seen Victoria Hand argue," Coulson said. "But she never loses. She's the one responsible for your rescue, Grant, and even though she didn't think at first that you should live here, she's been your staunchest defender from the beginning."
"I thought she hated me," Ward said numbly, and Coulson shook his head.
"Victoria is like Melinda May—have you met her yet?" he asked, and when Ward shook his head, Coulson continued. "May's a specialist like Hand was before Fury made her a level ten agent. May and Hand, they aren't emotional people. I don't think they have the chance to be, not if they want to survive in this world. But when they care, they care deeply, so don't ever underestimate that. And even if you don't like her, Grant, you need to treat her better than you have been. Okay?"
Grant nodded, still numb with shock. "Shit," he said slowly. "I wouldn't have thought—I didn't know—I should have"—
"Treated her with respect regardless of what you knew," Coulson said quietly, putting a hand on Ward's shoulder. "But I'm glad you know now."
Ward nodded, and Coulson moved farther into the common room and dropped onto one of the chairs in exhaustion. "You should grab something to eat. We're not done for the day yet," he said, and Ward looked at him quizzically.
"Where are we going next?"
"The lab," Coulson said. "Stark's, not S.H.I.E.L.D.'s. Fitz and Simmons are there already, and so is Banner, actually—he's in town for a week or so—and they all wanted you to join them."
"I don't know much about science," Ward said.
"You don't need to know much," Coulson laughed. "With Stark and Banner and those two around. And I know from experience that you can certainly be part of experiments that cause small explosion, which you can't deny that you enjoyed"—
Ward threw one of the couch pillows at him, and then ducked out of the room into the kitchen before he could throw it back.
He opened the cabinet to grab a cookie from the batch he had made with Fitz and Thor the night before, and found a piece of paper stuck inside the bag. He unfolded it curiously, and then felt a grin spreading uncontrollably across his face.
Not only had they found Skye on her way out, but she had known which snack he would grab first.
It was a simple note scrawled across the notebook paper, and he recognized her handwriting, all mess and sharply angled letters and smudges.
It read:
You. Me. Eleven pm. Rooftop.
Ward shoved the note into his pocket, grinning. No, his day was most certainly not over.
