Hey I am so so sorry about the long wait! I wanted a break over xmas after all my assignments etc and then work got really busy and I had to pick up a lot of days where people had to shield etc. So it has been intense. Now I've started uni again and my work days have decreased things are starting to get back to normal... ish so I will be writing more. Night Strike thank you so much for your comments! I am so glad you love my story, it means the world to me. That song you mentioned surprised me as it is one of the songs I listen to when writing. I always have youtube on in the background just autoplaying songs similar to that one so I may have well been listening to it at that moment! Songs really inspire me. MalirBly as usual your comments make me smile thank you so much for being a loyal reader and thecavelry75 no I will not leave it there ;). Please leave a review but thank you everyone for your patience and support! I have a clear plan for the next chapters and it will get intense...


Bobbi heard the screaming first. Shortly after their conversation with Skye, the three adults had left to discuss their findings in the hallway. Hunter had sped off to the police station, trying to quickly stem any initial reaction. He thought he could talk to a judge within the next few hours to try to settle things, Andrew had willingly wrote a statement claiming Skye wasn't in a good frame of mind but Hunter was unsure how that would stand with the judge. Andrew decided to go and talk to May and Phil, suggesting new courses of treatment whilst Bobbi waited. It was during this time, the waiting, which Bobbi heard the piercing, horrific scream echo through the empty corridors.

Immediately, she raced into Skye's room searching for an attacker, shortly realising that the only source of pain was coming from the girl's subconscious. Bobbi watched as Skye tossed and turned erratically in her sleep, eyes scrunched up in pain.

"Skye" Bobbi gently called, "Skye!"

Skye's eyes shot open as her right hand simultaneously flung out on course with Bobbi's head. Bobbi swiftly blocked the fist with her own hand and restrained Skye on the bed before she could do anymore damage.

"Skye, it's Bobbi you're safe" she said through gritted teeth, struggling to keep the girl down.

Skye blinked as realisation dawned in her eyes. Slowly she relaxed, burying her head into the pillows underneath. Bobbi sighed and shuffled to sit at the bottom of the bed.

"Wanna talk about it?" she asked.

Skye made no movement to suggest that she heard the question and Bobbi sighed before leaving. If she knew the stages of Skye's 'episodes' by now she was fairly sure the girl was on the withdrawal stage. Skye would pretend she was fine but continue to move like a robot until something snapped her out of her fit again.

To prove Bobbi's theory, the next morning Skye was up and dressed on her own accord and sitting on the bed ready to leave, her eyes void of emotion.

"How are you feeling?" Bobbi asked.

Skye shrugged "fine."

"Your tests this morning came back okay so we are going to discharge you. Coulson is on the mend as well and we have decided to discharge him too so you can both recover at home. I'll be stopping by regularly to check on things though. Hunter's still sorting things out, he's going to stop by your house later to update you and the school have sent some homework, but you don't have to worry about that until you feel better. Andrew will visit you later too as a follow up."

Skye nodded and as if on queue May walked in with Coulson shuffling in behind. Skye immediately stood up ignoring the intrusive eyes which seemed to be glued to her.

"Ready to go?" May asked.

Skye nodded and together they walked to the car.

The drive home was silent. May and Coulson had both discussed with each other and Andrew the best course of action. He had told them what Skye had said the night before and it unnerved the couple. Skye knew more about her family than she had let on, what else was the girl hiding? May knew Phil wanted to comfort Skye and pretend like nothing happened but May had put her foot down. It did happen and now Skye had to deal with the consequences. The only trouble was how much punishment was too much? She knew Skye was in pain, but she didn't know how to help. Was there a way to help? Everything whirled in May and Coulson's minds as they went through nearly every conversation they'd had either about Skye or to her. Nothing ever hinted at any substance abuse but at the moment it felt like they barely knew her child at all.

As soon as May stopped the car, Skye jumped out and ran to her room. May let her go, helping Phil onto the couch. "Should I go get her?" May asked.

Phil shook his head "We can talk over lunch. That way she will have something to do with her hands whilst she listens to what we have to say."

"Yeah, but she will also have a knife" May huffed, heading towards the kitchen to start cooking.

It took May half an hour to get her head together and make a simple lunch for the three of them, nothing special but good enough. Phil had shuffled out to the table during the process and started flicking through his phone. "Mel, you need to see this."

As soon as she could, Skye raced up to her bedroom and threw herself onto her bed. Immediately Arthur was there nudging her side, but Skye was too upset to comfort him. Everything was so confusing. She had tried to make this work, thought she could live here peacefully with her new parents but the drive to find her mother was stronger than she thought. It messed everything up. It felt like life was crushing her and it was hard to find a way out. It made her slip up. Flashes of Ward's face close to hers flooded her mind. His eye's had felt so familiar like an echo of hers and the electricity between them was undeniable. He had apologised and told her about his family. For a second he seemed like a human boy, a boy who needed to be loved, who had people – family hurt him just like she had. He had saved her from Nathanial… For a split second they had been the same. But he was bad and she knew that, then why did she want more? Because she was a bad person, because she wanted to be punished, because she deserved to be hated.

Lincoln hated her now, Jemma probably did too and Fitz. She had put them all through hell between running away and being sad all the time and now she had gone a sought trouble. Skye groaned as she flicked on her phone. Ward had been tagged in a video on insta and she was too afraid to look.

Ward's face filled her screen a wide smile on his face as he bantered to the person behind the camera. Another guy stood next to him, Kreel. The voice behind the camera spoke first, the sweet, calm voice alluring Ward in, "What happened with Skye today Grant?" Raina asked.

Ward laughed and a can of beer flashed into view, he was obviously drunk. "Oh you know, just getting some" Kreel joined in with the laughter as Ward made vulgar images.

"So you don't like her then?" Raina pushed.

Ward seemed to freeze at this question "well she is pretty… but it was a mistake. I was just trying to do the right thing you know? I saved her from that creep. We talked and I wanted to make sure she knew that I never done anything wrong to her. Well I guess I done some uh questionable things but it wasn't my fault. I was trying to show her that she was the one who was messed up and seeing things. You know what I mean Raina"

"Everyone knows your not a bad person Grant. That Skye is the one who is twisted, blaming her crappy childhood for all her mistakes whilst her mommy and daddy fix everything" Raina added.

"Yeah well what happened with that kid she liked, Natasha I tried to explain that she got it wrong. You see Natasha she told me things…" Ward stumbled but managed to straighten himself up by holding onto a nearby wall.

"Like what Ward?" Raina pushed.

Ward sighed "She said Skye kept leaving her and… and she never felt safe because of what Skye did, I can't remember the name of the place, oh yeah I do. The Reynold's?"

Skye froze as she tried to control her breathing. One of the rare foster homes that Natasha and her had been placed in together, she had thought Natasha had forgotten… the girl had been so young.

"What happened?"

"Well Natasha couldn't talk about it, just that Skye was there and it still hurt her. Some person died I think, pretty sure Skye's a murder but I don't know. She said Skye blamed herself. Maybe Skye killed Natasha up to cover up her dark past." Ward shrugged "Anyway I was trying to make Skye feel better and I misread the situation, I kissed her and she kissed me back. I could taste the alcohol on her breath though so maybe I imagined the lust in her eyes" Ward laughed "anyway it was nice for me. But what I'm trying to explain is if I was the bad guy, if I supposedly killed Natasha then why did she feel safe enough to kiss me?"

Raina moved so she was now in front of the camera herself "don't you see? She's mentally unstable and the school's just covering for her. How many times is she gonna hurt people before there's justice? Poor Lincoln, Skye pushed him to suicide and now she cheats on him. Tell everyone what you told me Grant."

Ward suddenly became serious again "Lincoln came to me a while back, he told me he wrote a statement to the police defending me. Did you know that was one of the reasons why I was allowed back to this school? Skye used to tell him things you see ah wait let me show you." Ward pulled out his phone and hit play.

Lincoln's voice filled the room "Hey Ward I'm just calling to let you know that I did it. I spoke to the cops and wrote a statement telling them what Skye told me, that the night when you 'supposedly' set the school on fire she was actually there to steal her own records and burn the school down like she did with her previous school. That Skye blamed you because of the fight in the car park, that it would be easy to pin it on you. I told the cops how Skye went mental at me just before she went to see Natasha at your home. She was yelling about wanting to kill you. Then after Natasha died she came crying to me and told me how she went to push you, but accidently pushed Natasha instead, killing her. But dude, even now she keeps telling lies. She said she got moved to a group home or something but I bet she's in a mental facility. She told me how she used to go on meds just to keep the voices in her head quite. I don't know what to do if she comes back. It's not safe for you I'm pretty sure she will try to kill you again. Anyway I was just making sure that you know that I done it. The cops believe me. Be careful with Skye, she's a maniac. Bye"

Ward smirked as the recording ended "That was a voicemail he left me a couple of weeks ago after Skye was supposedly kidnapped by her lunatic father and sent away to keep her safe. Lincoln knew the truth about his girlfriend and he nearly killed himself because of it. How many more people have to die? Do you know why Skye is so jumpy and cries all the time? Lincoln told me how she blamed her old foster dads, saying they used to beat her. She used to wet the bed in terror and panic all the time. She's a little baby" Ward laughed as Raina and Creel joined in.

The screen faded to black just as tears started trickling down Skye's cheeks. Skye quickly dialled Lincolns number, not being surprised when it went straight to voicemail "Hey Lincoln, we need to talk. Is this what you were talking about, the bad thing? Did Ward have something on you? How could you! Wait I don't want you to think I'm mad. I know he made you do it. And about today, I know you didn't mean anything, I was just trying to help and you did scare me. But I messed up too. I am so so sorry please call me back Lincoln. I really need you to explain."

The next number she dialled was Jemma's which also went to voicemail "Hey Jemma… you are the most amazing friend and I heard how you helped me today so thank you so much. I wanted to say how sorry I am for everything. I have brought nothing but pain into your life and I understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore. Oh and I know Fitz will be with you now so can you tell him the same thing? I love you both."

Skye didn't know what to do. Her mind was spinning. Everyone now knew about her past and not only that all the lies that Ward told. A part of her wanted to continue down this path of recklessness destruction, to hurt herself again and again until she felt like she had been punished enough. But another part of her wanted to move on. Move onto what? What did she want? That was simple, to not hurt. But how? She wanted to find her mother and know all of the facts of her birth, find who she is. Skye sighed before an idea struck her. The past, that was the key. In order to move on she had to she had to fight her demons and she knew how. Jumping from her bed she found the small piece of paper which had been left at the bottom of her draw. Pulling it out she copied the number into her phone and dialled.

"Hello, who is this?" the voice demanded.

"Ruby? It's Skye. I need your help."

After agreeing on a time and place Skye heard her name being called and she braced herself for what was next. Slowly, she shuffled down the stairs and took her place at the table, keeping her eyes down. She couldn't bare to look at either of her parents in the eye.

"We're glad your okay" Phil began.

Skye's head whipped up as she took in his kind smile and the worried crease between his eyebrows.

"physically okay we mean" May added before sighing "look Skye. We know things are hard for you and we are sorry that we haven't been around lately. It's important that you know the mission was not your fault. Your not the only reason we went."

At Skye's confused look Coulson continued, "There are others like you who have been targeted and experimented on by Hydra. Luckily, you were only a baby when that drug was used and it was more developed by that time. But others weren't so lucky, and the experiments are still going on today. We thought we could find some more information about it, about you and your parents. Anything but I'm afraid there wasn't much left. The bits and pieces we found seem to clear some gaps up. Cal, your father was working with Hydra as a doctor long before you were born. We doubt he even realised it at the time. It began with simple tasks to more experimental, your father thought he was developing a new drug for the greater good but unfortunately Hydra wanted to make it into a weapon. The next bit of information we found confirmed that Jiaying was indeed a subject for their experiments. She was dying and they thought it was a way to test the regenerative purposes of the drug. Also there was a bonus prize included."

"Me" Skye guessed, her mind catching up with this sudden onload of information.

Phil smiled sympathetically "They knew that if the drug didn't work on Jiaying then they would at least have a new-born who would have had it in it's system so they could test the results. It was a gamble but they didn't see SHIELD infiltrating them shortly after. Cal thought he took your mother to a private practice, he knew it was… unorthodox but he wanted to save your mother. Obviously, he had been wrong. He thought the others there were also patients not victims. Anyway the files showed that there were limited reactions after you were born but there were traces of the drug in your system for a few days after birth. We think Hydra wanted you to test their theory. They believe that it made a difference, changed your DNA in a way. Obviously, we have found no such thing but they know what they're looking for." Coulson sighed "we wiped out the facility and many like it. But we don't think this is the end of this. They know your being watched by SHIELD so we think they will wait a while again until trying anything. For now you are safe."

Skye stared at the table in silence for a few minutes. Images of a tiny baby girl in an abandoned basement screaming whilst the mother was tied down with needles in her arms, filled her head. Jiaying had been as much of a victim as she had…

"Thank you" Skye whispered.

"That's okay" May replied "but now you know what we were up to it's time you told us what you were up to, starting from the events from today"

Skye sighed, she knew this was coming but her mouth suddenly felt dry. She couldn't stand to see the looks of disappointment on her parent's faces. "Okay, well Lincoln…" she winced at the way her voice hitched when she said his name "he was acting strange. He sorta got mad at me and we got into a fight. I know somethings going on with him but he won't tell me what. He brought alcohol into school and so I tried to take it from him but it got bad. I ran away." Skye trailed off absentmindedly rubbing her wrist.

May caught site of the darkened purple bruise now become more prominent and scowled "Did he do that to you?" She asked through gritted teeth. Phil followed her glare and his face sparked in anger.

"He didn't mean it, he was upset!" Skye replied, worried that she'd said too much.

"Skye no person who loves you would ever hurt you that bad" Phil said softly.

Skye sighed and pulled her hands under the table, out of sight "I've done some bad things too. I know what it's like so he will have a chance to make it up to me. I owe him that."

"And then what happened after you ran away?" May prompted.

"I ran into this creepy kid at school. Turns out he's the one who's been leaving compliments in my locker. Anyway Ward stepped in and chased him away. We talked, he basically apologised and then the bell went" Skye said "I went into the bathroom and next thing I know I wake up in hospital."

Coulson gave her a disbelieving look "We saw the video Skye."