Chapter 11: Don't Assume (Leaving Doesn't Hurt More Than Staying)

It's hot outside when Skye leads Lily out the back door. The agent's got two water bottles in her hands; both are left near the base of a large tree while they practice.

"You're already strong. Fast. We just need to make you smart," Skye says. Circling the blonde, she begins instruction.

Feet here. Arms here. Head swiveling. Trust your instincts. Breathe. Feet. Arms. Hands. Fingers. Toes. Breathe. Eyes. Instincts.

Instincts.

By the time they've finished for the day, Lily's hair is plastered to her forehead and her breath comes hard. Skye leads her over to the tree with their water, sitting down and motioning for her to do the same.

The grass is soft, softer than Lily would have imagined. She's exhausted, but in a good way. The kind of ache that goes down to your bones and takes out the other kind of pain. She drinks while focusing on that and the way this tree's leaves work together to form a shield, catching the sun. In a broad sense, the blonde understands photosynthesis—that is, she knows the leaves want the sun, so they can make food—but it's pretty to think about the tree helping them out like this.

When she's done, Skye cracks the other bottle. "Drink, Jemma says it's important."

Lily takes the bottle. "Why do you call her Jemma, when everyone else says Simmons?"

"I used to call her Simmons, before we were together. I guess it's more professional."

"But everyone calls you Skye," the blonde points out.

"I don't have a last name," Skye replies shortly.

There's a pause.

"I get it," Lily says. "I didn't used to, either. They used to call me Mantis, I think."

"Mantis. Good superhero name."

There's an ant crawling on Lily's leg. She doesn't like where the conversation's gone, so she chooses to think about that, instead.

"Not that you have to be a superhero."

"Coulson wants me to be."

Skye's eyebrows furrow, like she doesn't quite get it. "Why'd you think that?"

"You're training me, right? So, there's got to be a reason. Coulson's got to get something out of it." And he's not going to arm me if he thinks I'll be working against him.

"Maybe he just wants you to be safe."

Lily holds back a snort. "Yeah. Maybe."

The ant is dead in her palm.

They make her see Dr. Garner again later, only this time in a little office at the back of their house.

"New, new environment," Jemma says, smiling. But her mouth is all wobbly and it turns out ore like a grimace.

Lily thinks they just want to make her uncomfortable, as if that will make her talk. Well, good luck with that.

The blonde twists in her seat, trying to get comfortable. The room is far too dark, which she isn't used to. Bright white lights bouncing off dark grey walls—it doesn't make sense. There isn't even a window to open.

"So, Lily," says Dr. Garner. He's sitting across from her, yellow notepad balanced on a knee. "How are you?"

"Fine. You?"

"Good. What do you want to talk about today?"

The blonde shrugs, picking at a loose thread on her leggings. It's all too cold and artificial and silent. She feels an innate desire to fill the void. "Nothing to talk about."

"If that were true, you wouldn't be here. Centipede—"

"Is dead. Hydra shut it down. Nothing's left."

Garner gets thoughtful. "You are. That's something."

"Someone," she corrects him. "It's different."

Garner writes something down. "How?"

She shrugs again. "I don't know."

When she leaves the grey room, Lily somehow finds herself leaving the house.

Garner's question rings around her ears, there but not quite real. It's distorted, warped by the blood pumping around her brain and the sound of her feet hitting the asphalt.

When she's running, Lily feels free for the first time. Before now, she's always been someone's. Centipede's or Hydra's or SHIELD's. Bobbi's or Hunter's or Skye's or Simmons's. Coulson's, though wasn't he SHIELD, in a way?

I don't want to be here anymore. Garner made her realize that, although the blonde doesn't know why, or what changed. And, if she's hers, can't she leave?

When Lily decides to try it, she's already partway into the forest surrounding their street. Her backpack is banging against the back of her hip (why had she brought it to the meeting with Garner? Lily must've known, in some part of her brain, that this was coming) and small drops of rain keep hitting her face.

It occurs to her that she's young and has always been too young for this. At the same time, she's older now than she was when it all started. But then, wasn't that also before she had a family?

Now, the blonde thinks she has a future again. Something to do every day and something to work towards: survival. The one thing Lily knows she's good at.

(She was scared). She was going to be fine.

At least, she always had been.

Garner leaves. The four remaining adults notice Lily's absence almost immediately, but they don't realize what it means until later.

The thing about having four adults in a home like theirs is that they never thought to ask the others if they had Lily. They just kind of assumed she was around.

And Lily's quiet. It isn't unusual for her to spend hours alone in her room, so they all figure that's where she is.

Bobbi is the only one who feels like something's off. But, when she throws up, the mother assumes it's just Hunter's cooking. Whenever she tries to investigate the mixed-up, tormented feeling laying on her chest, another wave of sickness washes over her and she forgets.

Eventually, it's Hunter to puts it together, watching Skye and Simmons pass him in the hall at the same moment Bobbi retches.

"Hey, have you seen Lily lately?"

They stop and shake their heads.

Now concerned, Hunter knocks twice on his daughter's door. "Lily?" he asks. When there's no answer, he cracks the door and peers inside.

The room is oddly clean, but there's one identifying mark it's owner is gone: the top of the dresser where Lily keeps her trinkets is empty. Lance steps inside to take a closer look. Then it's the hoodie she hangs on the bathroom door and the visibly empty space Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows should be in.

With Deathly Hallows comes the realization. Hunter had tried to read ahead, that's probably why the word "runaway" comes to him first.

"She's not here?" Skye asks, eyebrows raised, as she and Simmons enter the room.

Hunter shakes his head, tearing past them and back into the hallway. "Com' on."

They turn the house over, looking for her in every room except the bathroom Bobbi's being sick in. But she isn't there.

When they finally call it quits, Hunter can see the sky outside turning orange. "Call Coulson."

Lily stops running when she reaches the island's edge. Or, at least, close enough the she can see the land-bridge that connects them to the city but still be under the forest's cover. She walks a little way back and climbs a sturdy tree.

She is seven-almost-eight now—old enough to be on her own (at least in her own mind). Either way, Lily has done this before. She's run from a place as it is about to fall; she's taken care of herself for nearly a year.

She has only started having people in the past month or two. Lily can survive without them, no problem.

The tree isn't all that tall, but it's got branches wide enough and strong enough for her to sit on. Lily leans her back against the trunk itself and lets her legs dangle off the branch. The leaves from a higher branch above her provide enough cover yet do not impede her vision.

Lily maneuvers her bag onto her lap. It's the same battered black backpack she's been carrying around for years; it's safe and reliable and home. Her things are all inside, as well as some food and water provisions she stole back at the cabin. Not a lot, but enough to get her to a city, where she can steal anything she needs.

It's also got her book. That isn't a good tactical move, she knows. But it is the last one in the series and she is almost done with it so she must know what is going to happen to Harry. There is just one chapter and the epilogue left, anyway, so she can finish it now, while the sun is still up, and drop it in the morning.

As she reads, the night gets colder and the light dims. Lily doesn't notice either, thanks to Centipede-sight and Centipede-warmth. By the time she is on the last page, however, she can hear people stomping through the forest. They're looking for her.

But it isn't Bobbi and Skye, or even Lance and Simmons.

Piper and Peter, led by flashlights, trample through the forest. They search the ground, completely unaware that their target is above them.

Lily stops breathing.

"Why are we going this way?" Peter asks, looking tired. "Hunter and Skye went the other way, to the actual bridge."

"Exactly. We don't want them to know we're looking, and Lily's smarter than that. This one's a land bridge, you can walk right across it and be in Seattle in a day."

"How would she have known that?" Peter asks after a moment.

This time, their voices are closer. Lily brings her legs up onto the tree branch as carefully as she can, making no noise.

Piper is even closer than Peter. "I heard her asking about it on the bugs. Good job with those, by the way."

Lily imagines Peter grinning at that. The bastard. Her mind decides that they're working for Whitehall. The doctor must want her back, she is his last specimen.

Lily decides there's no way in hell she's going with them.

The blonde stays silently in her tree, hearing their footsteps grow farther and farther away until even her Centipede-hearing can't pick it up. Then she is safe.

(She is never safe; this is just a small second of safer).

Night comes, but Lily doesn't sleep. She sits in the tree and waits for morning, so she can be off this damn island.

The trio decide Hunter and Skye should search the island's main exit, the bridge, while Simmons stays behind to make sure Bobbi doesn't find out Lily's gone.

They go on foot, in case Lily hears the van coming and runs again. Both adults know she can probably hear their footfalls as well, but they don't acknowledge the fact out of fear.

What if they can't find her? (What if she doesn't want to be found?)

They're up against a super-powered little girl who had just ran away from them. Like that. If Lily doesn't want them to find her, they won't.

But they must try. Because it's a kid; Hunter's kid and Bobbi's kid, the kid that Skye and Simmons had just spent a month keeping alive. Because it's Lily, they have to try to find her, before she gets hurt.

(Before she hurts someone else).

But she isn't here. She isn't anywhere. They look and look until it's morning and the sun is rising.

Night's gone and Lily's gone with it.

Lily wakes at dawn.

Fresh sunlight hits her open eyes with the force of a pressurized water, stealing her breath and crushing her ribs down to nothing. They used to hose her down with that kind of water after matches, when she was empty and bloody and their eyes were cruel and afraid.

The blonde shakes her head, dissipating the fog, and inhales. The fire of her being gets fanned again.

She jumps down from her perch, slinging her bag across her back, and starts walking. From her tree, it's just a short trip to the land bridge. She doesn't run just yet. Lily knows she should still be quiet.

The bridge is made of dirt and sand, but mostly sandy dirt. Water laps at both sides, being pushed in and out by a force Lily can't see. But she respects it. Whatever can move and control a great body of water like this deserves at respect.

Lily kneels near the shore, tearing off the book's outer cover and throwing it to the water. The weight isn't that much, but it's still dead. She would throw away the pages, too, but it'd occurred to her that they would make good kindling.

When the hard cover has sunk far enough to be obscured from even her eyes, Lily grabs her bag starts running.

She doesn't stop until her lungs are on the brink of exploding and her legs feel like they're about give out. She doesn't stop until her mind is foggy and her face is cold as a block of ice. She doesn't stop until she can no longer see the island behind her.

By then, it's past midday. Lily can tell because the sky has turned orange and is on the brink of something darker.

She stops. She catches her breath. She starts running again.

A/N: One more chapter left, guys! Hope you enjoyed this one!