Welcome to 2017 everybody, hopefully you stay safe and make the most of this year; I will try and write more so I can post chapters more frequently. Anyway this is a flashback too Skye and Tommy and how they meet and I would like to say that I don't own AOS only this story's plot and the OC's, any mistakes made are my own.


Flashback

September 8, 2003

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

7:45 am

He finally made it, Senior Year, after everything the feeling of almost being free of this stupid place made him want to push even harder to get out and make his already high GPA of 3.8 even higher. He walked down the hallways and was glad to find them only slightly filled, he always liked coming early to school so he could get some breakfast and maybe fine tune his homework up a little bit. Since this was the first day of school though it would be used for gaining his strength and his mentality up to go to class and not bang his head against the wall.

He thought about talking to some people he knew but decided against it, this was his last year here and then he would never see anybody ever again. He had friends or more really people he hung out with because he didn't want it to look like he was totally alone in the world, when in fact he was. He didn't have best friend or a person he considered family who wasn't by blood, he never lucked out or found that one person. Even when he was sitting in the cafeteria with people he always felt so alone, so when that feeling came he just smiled and laughed and told jokes like the little smartass he knew he was.

Speaking of the cafeteria he thought making his way over to the snack bar to pay for an apple Thomas Ward looked around trying to find his special spot in the back corner and found that the place he usually sat at was occupied. He had to do a double take because he's never seen anybody else sit in that seat but him, and it's not like he has friends that sit in that seat, everybody he knows, knows not to sit in his very special seat.

He rushed his way over to his spot and noticed that the back of the head had long dark brown hair and looked slightly wavy and he realized that it was a girl who was occupying his spot. He was taken aback for a moment before rushing over to the table and sitting down in the spot across from the girl, "You're in my spot." He said to her as he plopped his backpack down on the table.

"Does it look like I care?" She asked not even looking up from the textbook she was reading out of.

"I don't know how can I tell if your face is stuck in a book?"

She let out a huge over dramatic sigh and lifted her head up so he can see her face, "See this face," She said motioning to her deadpan face, "This is my I don't care face, and learning that you can understand that I don't care if I took your spot."

Tommy cross his arms over his chest, "I'm not leaving."

"Neither am I."

"Well okay then I guess both of us will just have to stay here."

"Fine by me." She said and went back to reading her textbook and Tommy took this time to study her features. She was pretty he'll give her that; bronze skin, big brown does eyes, soft features that made her look younger than she probably was, and long dark brown hair that went to her mid back. Her clothes were hand me downs and she didn't look like she was trying all that hard in the makeup department, but he could commend her on that he didn't like girls who caked their faces in makeup. Don't get him wrong he didn't care if girls wore makeup he thought that they all looked good with or without it but some girls seemed to have forgotten that there is a fine line between beauty and clown try-outs, his sister learned that over the summer.

Random girl let up another sigh and closed her textbook, which was a German textbook, and looked at him, "Alright I can't concentrate when I can practically hear your thoughts so speak."

He then noticed that she talked with a slight New York accent and clicked in his head why she seemed to not know that it was his spot, "You're new here aren't you." He asked her pointing a finger at her.

"Yeah I've been here for all of ten minutes and I already want to kick myself out."

"Already tried that, doesn't work, especially if you're a rich kid who parents are very influential people."

"Thank god I don't have any then." She replied coldly her arms crossed on the table.

He stopped for a moment and leaned back into his seat sighing and putting his hands over his face, "Shit," He mumbled into his hands, "I'm an asshole."

"Wow it's taken you this long to figure that out?"

Tommy peeked through his fingers and stared at the girl, "No," he responded though his voice was muffled, "I already knew that but you didn't and I now I feel bad."

He peeked once again to see her facial expression and he was surprised to see that she was smiling and something inside of him lit up at the fact that he had done that. He removed his hands from his face and picked up the apple that he had planned on eating and took a big dramatic bight out of it, "So," he said while chewing, "What's the German text book for?"

She let out another sigh but this time he could tell that she wasn't being serious with it and that she enjoyed the fact he was still there. She closed the book with a loud thud and placed her elbows on the table, "I'm supposed to be in German one but somehow they messed up schedule and now I'm in German two and it's too late to change it, so I am studying as much as I can so I don't make a total fool out of myself."

He nodded his head while having a while frowning, "That does sound like a legitimate reason to be studying on the first day of school, still though I would never be doing it."

"Easy for you to say you're a senior and on top of that a rich pretty white boy."

He leaned forward and winked, "So you think I'm pretty."

"That was not the point." She let out a huff of frustration and Tommy smiled even more; he liked this girl, he really liked this girl. He decided that he was going to help her by joining her class in German two plus he would get to know her better she seemed just as alone as Tommy was and for some reason that didn't sit well with him. Plus he known this girl for all ten minutes and he was already an asshole to her so he had to make up for that and he felt somewhere deep down that he could be this girl's friend. He leaned forward on his elbows and forcefully shut her book which leads her to let out a sound of protest but he just took the book from her and shoved it to the side.

"Alright," he said grabbing her hands like they were praying together, "You need to chill the fuck out it's the first day of school I highly doubt there will be a pop quiz."

"I don't care you asshole I at least want to be prepared." She argued ripping her hands out of his and lunging for the book.

He caught her though and she gave him a death glare that could rival his mother, "Okay… I feel like we got off to a horrible start so let's start over," he let go of her hands, "Hi I'm Thomas Ward but please call me Tommy a senior in high school and you would be." He finished gesturing to her.

The girl let out a sigh rolling her eyes and leaned gave a look of defeat, "It's… it's Mary Sue Poots."

Tommy's eyes widened and he leaned back in his chair letting a long whistle, "That name," he chuckled, "that has to be about the worst name that I have ever heard in my entire life."

She glared at him again and leaned over the table to slap him on his arm, "It's not like I choose the name the nuns in orphanage back in New York picked it for me."

Tommy laughed and put his hands up in surrender, "Hey I'm just stating the facts here."

She rolled her eyes at him but he could see the hint of a smile on her face, "Don't worry though," he said leaning forward, "I'm sure by the time your my age we'll have a better name for you."

"How old are you anyway?" She asked

"Eighteen, how about you Mary Sue Poots how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

Tommy shook his head she was fifteen and yet more mature than any of the other people that were in this school so he did the only thing that he could think of, "You wanna have lunch with me?"

Mary's head shot up in shock and gave him a baffled look as if he was supposedly joking with her so he gave her the most charming smile that he could, "I'm not joking Poots I wanna have lunch with you."

She then let out a series of different noises that weren't entirely human sounding and sounded more like a strangled cat. After that went on for what seemed like forever but was actually forty-five seconds she stopped herself then calmed herself down and slammed her hands against the table, "Sure I'll have lunch with you."

"Great see you then." He winked at her and left running to the counselor to switch to German.


The bell had just rung and Tommy was making his way out of the school when he spotted her leaning against the brick wall of the school looking do utterly defeated. He sighed and made his way over to Mary Sue Poots putting a charming smile on his face planning on making this girl smile at least once today. She must have caught sight of him because when she looked in his direction she let out a huge sigh whether it was one of relief of annoyance he couldn't tell, he wasn't that good at reading people. He put his elbow above his head and leaned against the wall with her looking at her with the most charming smile that he could, "Hey Poots what's with the long face."

She looked done at her phone with frustration, "The person that was supposed to pick me up bailed and I have no idea what bus to take so I'm assuming that I'm going to miss it."

"Solid reason but how about this, for giving me one smile I will give you a ride home."

She looked at him incredulously, "I've known you for like a day and you're already offering me a ride home."

"That is what friends are for." He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and to him it actually was. This was knew to him liking a person and wanting to help them and wanting to hang out with them because he enjoys their company so helping Mary Sue Poots seemed like a natural thing to do.

He looked at her with his puppy dog eyes and shined his baby blue eyes and him pouting his lip a little bit and put his hands up like he was praying, "Just let me give you a ride home or if not that we can go hang out or whatever."

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Didn't I just say 'that's what friends are for' where the hell did you get the impression that I wanted to go out with you?"

"Because you asked to go get coffee isn't that something that boys do when they try and ask you out?"

Tommy burrowed his eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest, "Look I don't know what they did up in New York but down here in Boston when someone wants to get coffee with you it usually means they want to get coffee with you."

Mary shook her head side to side like she was considering it then put on the biggest, cheesiest, fakest grin that she could, "Alright I'll go with you but you have to promise me that you won't murder me by the end of the night."

Tommy let out a huge sigh as if someone just took the best thing away from him and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "Damnit Poots you had to go and suck the fun out of everything; now come on let's go before we hit major traffic."

He took her hand and together they ran to his old beat up 1980 Station Wagon where it laid looking like it was going to break down at any moment. When he turned to Mary he saw that she had a look of surprise on her face. He smirked as she made her way over to the passenger side of the car, "What," He asked, "Not what you were expecting?"

She let out a light laugh as she got into the car and looked at him, "No not what I was expecting at all."

Yeah Tommy thought this was gonna be a good year.


Present Day

Location: Somewhere in Mexico

Walking through the streets of a very small village in Mexico was not something that was high up on Tommy's to do list but it was for a good cause; finding Henley was his top priority now. It frustrated him to know end that he was here Henley and him were supposed to be together and happy and some other random rom com shit. No though that's not going to happen because apparently the world fucking hates him so here he is looking for Julian Cortez in the middle of some random ass town in the middle of Mexico.

Julian Cortez was not his biggest fan nor was Tommy Julian's biggest fan but right now Julian was the closets lead he had to finding Henley and he'll take it. Although both men had lived together in Afterlife neither of them had grown to like each other, though that how it usually went for the royal army if you become one in Afterlife odds are you would end up hating everybody you worked with.

He would use his F.B.I and criminal resources but he supposed to be dead so that wasn't an option.

He walked past the array of shops and final came upon the one he was looking for; he passed all the souvenir shops and the tattoo parlors when he finally came upon the one shop he was looking for that he knew would house Julian. It was the goddamn strip club tastefully named The Landing Strip and it took him all he had inside of him not face palm himself because, if he was being honest with himself, this was going to be one the of the dumbest decisions he will ever make and he's made a lot.

Walking into the club he was greeted with the smells of sex, blood, and booze not that he was really expecting anything better. He looked around the main area trying to find the Latino's familiar face but it was becoming difficult with all the strobe lights and the hordes of horny men throwing money at the topless dancers on stage. Tommy directed his attention over to the bar where he finally spotted the man he was looking for and Tommy couldn't but smile a little bit; tall, strong, handsome Julian who could manipulate the laws of gravity was now a bartender in a shit strip club in the middle of Nowhere, Mexico.

He felt a little good about it.

Swaggering his way over to the man Tommy sat down on one of the open bar stools and titled his head to the side when Julian turned around and asked him for a drink. He stopped short though of asking what he wanted to drink when he saw his face Julian gave him his best bitch face and said, "Aren't you supposed to be dead or something?"

"Supposed is the key word in that sentence but I'm not and I need your help with something."

"No." Was his answer and he turned to walk away but Tommy stopped by practically throwing himself over the bar and chanting, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait… don't go I'm desperate for your help." He said so quickly that he's pretty sure that Julian barley registered it. Julian stopped where he was and let out a huge sigh his shoulders sagging along with it and turned around in annoyance and made his way back to Tommy.

"What do you want?"

"I need your help to find me some leads on my missing girlfriend."

Julian glared at him and started cleaning off a glass shrugging his shoulders, "And why should I care?"

"Because she's innocent?" he trailed off not sounding convincing.

That common made Julian scoff, "Please anybody who hangs out with you is certainly not innocent."

Tommy had opened his mouth to reply but nothing was coming out because he had made a good point basically everybody he knew at this point was a terrible person and was not innocent in any way, shape, or form. "That," Tommy said pointing a finger at him, "is a really good point, but not the one we are talking about. Look I don't need you to go off a find her for me just get me a lead that I can follow and I'll do the rest of the work and leave you to… make cocktails in a shady strip club."

That comment was not the best thing to say because the next thing he knew Julian had grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and pulled him closer, "You think I want to be here with these perros, no I want to be back in Afterlife with my sister as we protect the Inhuman people but after what happened that is never going to happen ever again."

He had a point he and his twin sister Luciana had been some of the best soldiers Afterlife had ever seen; he can manipulate the laws of gravity while sister can manipulate the laws of physics. It ended though when Tommy had "killed" Princess Daisy and when people found out that it was him they called for his head, literally. Julian believed in his innocents though, even if the two never got along Julian saw how much he cared for the princess and knew that Tommy could never be reasonable for something like that with his own doing.

So Tommy fled and with him and bunch of other people who believed that Queen had had her daughter killed.

"And that will always be my biggest regret." It wasn't a lie.

Julian let him go and Tommy quickly sat back in his seat waiting to seat what Julian was going to say. It felt like hours to him but it was only a couple of seconds before Julian finally said something else, "Fine," he spat out making a face that looked like he was in the worse pain imaginable, "I'll help you but you need to give me time the people I'm going to ask are hard to find."

"Fine, but just call me whenever you have what you need." Tommy didn't know if he had time on his side but this was his best and only shot and he wasn't going to waste it.


Julian is played by Matthew Daddario and next chapter we will see what Skye and the team is up to in "Eye Spy".