Skye had been undercover for years before the avengers saved New York and true to her mission she kept everyone in the Rising Tide away from the mission reports, pretending to work exclusively to crack into them. She'd released dozens of videos by then, containing harmless information on SHIELDs movements.
She'd also kept tabs on Bobbi, trying not to get hurt when she found out Bobbi had a new boyfriend, or rather an old one as she had gotten back together with he ex-husband for a few months. And that had really stung. But she was expecting Bobbi to move on, it was inevitable.
What Skye wasn't expecting was to be found by Coulson's team and dragged into a cell, apparently because Mike Peterson was a bad person. But she knew him, he was a good guy.
"Who are you?" Coulson had asked, startling Skye. There was no recognition in his eyes, the familiar tenderness replaced with stoney venom.
So Skye waited and watched, wondering if it was a very good act, answering all of his questions using her cover, hoping he might crack for just a second so that she could know her father figure was still there.
But he wasn't. And May refused to give her answers, apparently doing the same as Coulson, pretending her cover was the only person that existed. But Skye knew that May recognised her, it was in her eyes when she first saw Skye on the bus. Apparently Fury wasn't done with her Rising Tide cover yet.
So Skye waited and watched, observing the mismatched team during their next mission, which resulted in Skye almost blowing her cover and saving their asses, but luckily nobody noticed. Nobody but Agent May.
"I don't like that you broke my plane." Fury reprimanded, stood by one of the broken windows with Agent Coulson. "Three days. It took you three days to break my plane."
"My team made a call to recover an 084 whole our plane was boarded." Coulson shrugged, staring down the man. "And I stand by that judgement."
Fury stared at Coulson for a moment. Wondering if it was with the argument. He'd read the reports and it was their consultant who'd suggested they break a hole in the plane.
Skye stood in a shadowed corner, watching their exchange. Was it the right time to ask director fury about what she was there? Why he'd had Coulson pull her out of her mission without even knowing who she was?
"I want to meet this consultant of yours." Fury announced, leaving no room for argument. He glanced around the room and spotted Skye in her hiding place, masking his shock expertly. But not well enough to hide it from Skye.
"I'll send her up to my office." Coulson nodded, heading down to the lab.
He walked right past Skye, not even noticing she was there. And not noticing that agent may was listening as well.
Skye waited until she heard him enter the lab and made her way over to director fury, anger plain on her face.
"Why did you pull me out?" Skye demanded, trying to keep her voice down as well as she could. "I was so close to finding the information and you sent Coulson to extract me."
"I didn't know you were here." Fury confessed. "You've been off the grid for weeks, I was preparing a team to look for you."
"Why doesn't he recognise me?" Skye asked quieter, making sure none of the agents could hear. "He looks at me like I'm a ghost he recognises but can't remember."
Fury took a deep breath an sighed. "Coulson died before the battle of New York."
"I know, Clint blamed himself for weeks." Skye interrupted. Remembering having to pull a gun from her brothers hands. "The report said he died for a few seconds, so why tell the avengers that he died?"
"Because he did die." Fury whispered harshly. "He was dead for days."
"TAHITI?" Skye fumed. "You know why we shut that down, why risk it?"
"Because Coulson is too good to lose." Fury confessed. "I put May on the plane to watch him. This entire team was put together to make sure that he wouldn't become another failed case."
"What do you want me to do?" Skye asked, not liking Fury's discussion. "I could fix my cover in a few days, they're already contacted me."
"Stay on the plane. You know what to look for better than most." Fury nodded, beginning to regret his decision. "Keep looking for what I asked and keep your cover intact. If I'm right being here will be a lot safer than in your van."
"Okay." Skye smiled, trying her best to hide her unease. "But the second Coulson finds out you are releasing my files and letting me be an agent again. And I'm calling Clint the second you leave, three years away from my family is hell."
"Done." Fury nodded, stopping their conversation when Coulson walked back in.
"I see you met Skye." Coulson smiled, walking back over to them.
"The Pirate's pretty cool." Skye joked, knowing he hated the name.
"Don't call me pirate." Fury warned, leaving the plane.
"You made a good impression." Coulson smiled, impressed.
"Did I?" Skye asked, laughing slightly.
"He didn't demand you leave. So yes, yes you did." Coulson smiled, walking back up to his office.
May walked over to Skye, not surprising the senior agent. "I know the feeling." She frowned, attempting to comfort her. "He doesn't remember our baby girl." Mays voice cracked as she spoke.
"Tell me about her." Skye asked, looking in the direction of the cockpit.
They walked up together, avoiding their team as well as they could. The second the door was closed, May's mask was gone. Skye had only seen her like this once, when she was recovering from Mexico.
"It was before I left field work." May started, remembering her missing baby.
...
May had married Coulson three years before the incident. They'd been happy, even Fury had smiled when he's found out and proceeded to hide it from the rest of the organisation.
They'd gone to the Hunan province for May's grandmother to meet Lily. The woman had been ill for months and they weren't sure how much time they had left. They'd been in the hotel for less than a day when a note had been left in their room.
'You shouldn't have come back. This is my territory. I will destroy everything you love. I will destroy you.'
May and Coulson had panicked when they read the note and had fury put a security detail around the hotel, hoping to keep the new-born safe.
That night May had woken when she heard Lily crying, but this time it was different. Her cry was full of pain. May rushed into the room to see a flash of blue light and an empty crib.
"Phil." May screamed, falling to the floor. She let out a strangled cry as Phil rushed to her side, pulling her into his arms. "No. No. No." She yelled, her heart feeling as if it were tearing apart.
They'd spent the next month searching for her, only to find a village destroyed and the shredded body of a woman, fitting the way their attacker worked.
Months turned into years and they found nothing about their baby, Fury eventually sending them on a mission to Bahrain, which broke May and pulled her from field work.
...
She'd never told Phil what had happened, but somehow found the courage to tell Skye.
"There was a girl in the building." May choked, finding it hard to tell. "She was powered and fed off of other people's pain. I had to make a call, her or the people in the building and I chose the other people."
"Mel." Skye whispered.
"I shot her in the chest before the Strike team got in and I never told a soul what happened." May spoke, tears streaming down her face. "Fury doesn't even know, he just let me walk away."
"I know why he doesn't remember." Skye admitted. "The procedure that saved him has side effects and you combat them by removing the memory. He doesn't remember me because I worked on TAHITI with him, and he doesn't remember Lily because it could trigger the serum."
"I'm not sure if losing that is worth him breathing again." May admitted, wiping her face.
"I'll figure out a different way to combat the serum." Skye promised May, trying not to cry too. "He deserves to remember."
"It was the worst thing that happened to me." May spoke. "But she was the best thing that happened to him."
AN- So a special thanks to Alex McPherson for the inspiration for this chapter. I was going to skip ahead of season one but she gave me a good idea to follow it for a little while.
As always leave me a review telling me what you think and follow if you want to read more.
Amyx