Chapter 15
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Everything belongs to their rightful owners and I am not making any profit from this.
AN: Thank you to all who have added to alerts, read, reviewed or any combination of the three. It means a lot to me.
AN2: Thank you so much for your support of this story it means a lot.
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO STARFIRE25 WHO EDITED THIS CHAPTER FOR ME
The next morning Natasha is the first one to wake. When she wakes and finds Clint not in bed Natasha doesn't even have to think to know where her partner is. Sneaking into her niece's room Natasha finds Clint exactly where she expect to find him. Sitting in the chair near Skye's bed wide awake.
"Clint." Natasha says in a whisper.
"Nat? What's going on?" Clint asks.
"I thought I would go down to the diner down the road, what do you want?" Natasha asks her partner.
"Big breakfast." Clint requests and Natasha nods, "I'll get Skye her usual." Natasha comments.
"Sounds good." Clint responds and Natasha sneaks out of the room.
"Did you sit there all night?" Clint hears a voice ask right after Natasha leaves, and when he does he turns to see Skye awake.
"No, just most of it." Clint tells her.
"You didn't have to do that." Skye tells him, though she appreciates that he did.
"I wanted to." Clint responds, "In case you needed me."
"Thanks." Skye says with a half-smile as she sits up.
"How you doing?" Clint asks.
"Okay, I think." Skye answers, "I didn't have a nightmare which is a nice change of pace." Skye comments.
"I bet it would be." Clint responds, "Is your side hurting?"
"Nah, I'm good." Skye answers, "Think I have enough time for a shower before тетя Наташа get's back?"
"I doubt it." Clint answers.
"Yeah, so did I." Skye answers, "That chair can't have been comfortable." Skye tells her Uncle.
"It was actually." Clint answers.
"Wow that's a surprise." Skye says, "I love this room, I mean my room at the tower is awesome and I love being with everyone but it's not the same." Skye says.
"That makes sense, this is home." Clint tells her.
"So is the tower." Skye tells her Uncle.
"It's different." Clint says walking over and sitting next to his niece, "This was your first home, it makes it different."
"Where was your first home?" Skye asks curious.
"Well not counting my parents' house, because I never count that. I would say the apartment near The Hub." Clint tells his niece.
"The one Uncle John was shot in?" Skye asks surprised.
"Yep." Clint answers with a grin, "It's only two bedroom so when all us where there it was three or if Maria wasn't with us, three and two, to a room, and a couple of times Sitwell and Blake passed out in the lounge. It was crowed and waiting for the bathroom in the morning was hell, but it was the first place I felt truly safe, the first place I called home." Clint admits.
"And Hand ruined that by shooting Uncle John there." Skye comments.
"Yeah, she did." Clint answers, "That was my first home, but the tower, with everyone, that's home now." Clint tells her.
"I can't stay here every night can I?" Skye asks, "It's too dangerous isn't it?" Skye asks knowing the answer but she needs to hear it from someone else.
"Yeah it is, sorry Kid." Clint tells her.
"It's okay, like I said the tower is home too." Skye tells her Uncle.
Twenty minutes after she left the house Natasha returns with breakfast, "CLINT, SKYE, FOOD." Natasha yells as she enters the house and she isn't even in the dining room when Clint and Skye are in fount of her, taking the food off of her.
"You're welcome." Natasha says amused as they take the food to the able.
"Thank you." Skye and Clint quickly say both realising how rude they have been.
"Better, coffee?" Natasha asks.
"If you're offering." Skye responds and Clint nods. As Natasha walks into the kitchen she rolls her eyes at her niece and partner, but she is glad that Skye seems to be doing better than she was the night before.
Ten minutes later Clint, Skye and Natasha are more than half way through breakfast when Clint and Natasha realises that it is time to bring up something that needs to be decided.
"So what do you feel like doing for the rest of the day?" Natasha asks her niece.
"We've got to go back to the tower." Skye tells her aunt, "I know, we do, everyone's worried and Ward and Hydra know about this place, so it's not safe, but I don't know what to say to them, I don't know if I should tell them, if I can." Skye admits.
"Kid, whether you tell everyone that's up to you." Clint tells his niece, "If you want Nat and I to keep it a secret then we will, you've got to be ready to tell them and if you don't think you are then, that's okay." Clint assures Skye, "But Skye, there are you family and they love you, and they are the most non-judgmental group of people there is. So you shouldn't be afraid of how they will react, but I get if you are not ready to tell them." Clint tells his niece.
For several minutes, Clint, Skye and Natasha are quiet, Natasha and Clint are waiting for Skye to say something and Skye is thinking about everything her Uncle just said.
"I think... I think I need to tell Jem and Fitzy, I think I should." Skye says sounding hesitant, "But I'm not sure if I am ready for everyone else to know yet." Skye explains.
"That's okay." Natasha tells her niece, "What would you like us to tell everyone else? Because they will ask." She asks feeling like it should be Skye's decision about what is said.
"Tell them, tell them, that I was over whelmed by what I knew, know, that I needed some space and that I wanted to spend a night at home." Skye asks her Aunt and Uncle.
"That we can do." Clint tells Skye and Natasha nods.
At the tower Bucky who didn't get much sleep the night before is on his way to the kitchen to get some coffee before his run when he literally runs into Tony.
"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." Bucky says as he helps Tony back up.
"You might want to start." Tony advices.
"Yeah, I will." Bucky responds, "You're up early." Bucky comments as they both head to the kitchen.
"I had an idea for something I wanted to test, didn't get much sleep." Tony responds.
"Don't hurt him." Bucky says simply as they enter the kitchen, as he has wanted a chance to talk to Tony, Pepper and Bruce since Steve admitted to their relationship and now is the first chance he has had to talk to one of the trio.
"I wondered when you would say something." Tony responds his voice full of its usual charm.
"I'm serious Stark." Bucky tells Tony, "Steve got one blow after another his whole life, but he kept his heart, he has the truest heart of anyone, and the fact that he still has that heart after everything that has happened is incredible. So don't break it." Bucky tells him, "He's my little brother Tony and from what I have seen you, Pepper and Bruce are good for him, you are good together, and the three of you are what I always wanted for him." Bucky admits.
"Look I'm not the greatest person when it comes to relationships, I can only imagine what you have heard about my reputation but I care about Steve, and Pepper and Bruce and I will do everything in my power not to break his heart, not to break any of theirs." Tony responds.
"Good." Bucky responds and he pours his coffee cup and does the same for Tony.
"You know on another topic, I would like to look at that arm of yours, it looks like pretty good tech, but I want to see just how good, maybe experiment with it, improve a few things for you." Tony suggests.
"No." Bucky says walking out of the kitchen.
"Oh come on, I promise I won't do anything else but look at the arm." Tony says following Bucky out.
"I was there when you're father presented his flying car and it collapsed, and I heard about when he almost blew up half a lab, though I have to admit, his armour was great, but still, I'm not letting you anywhere near my arm." Bucky comments.
"Okay first, I'm not my father, I'm better." Tony informs Bucky, "Second I really want to hear both of those stories." Tony admits, "And third I just want to see it so I can decided whether it can be approved, I promise that I will not do anything without your say so." Tony says.
"No." Bucky responds and as he does he sees Steve who is coming towards them.
"Fine, but If you change your mind let me know, like I said I have a couple of ideas." Tony tells him.
"Changes his mind about what?" Steve asks curious.
"Your boyfriend wants to experiment on me." Bucky explains.
"Just his arm." Tony defends when he sees the look Steve is giving him.
"If I change my mind I'll let you know." Bucky informs Tony.
"Just think about it." Tony says and Bucky nods.
"You know, why don't you come on our run with us?" Bucky asks curious.
"Ah, no. Not going to happen. I've seen how far you run." Tony says, "I'll see you when you get back." He says to Steve.
"Yep." Steve responds and Tony heads back to his lab.
"You ready to go?" Steve asks.
"Yep. Where are Tripp and Sam?" Bucky asks curious.
"By now, downstairs." Steve responds as they head to the elevator, "So what else did you and Tony talk about?" Steve asks
"What, you worried?" Bucky asks as the elevator doors close.
In Los Angeles a few Coulson is still asleep and Melinda who woke up earlier since she usually does to do her Tai-Chi then when she finished she continued to work on the laptop to go over the Intel once more to make sure that they are prepared.
"Mel?" Coulson asks waiting up.
"Over here." Melinda says from the desk.
"What time is it?" Coulson asks.
"Five." Melinda answers.
"Why don't you come back to bed, we don't have to be there until one, and you were restless all night, you need more sleep." Coulson tells his wife.
"I couldn't sleep." Melinda admits, closing the computer.
"Nightmares?" Coulson ask worried.
"No. Nothing like that." Melinda tells him.
"What is it Mel? Talk to me." Coulson asks.
"I'm worried about Skye." Melinda admits, "She just got back, is barley healed and we left her." Melinda tells her husband, "And I want to say goodbye to Peggy, and I know she might not have an idea who I am but I want her to meet Skye." Melinda admits a tear coming to her eye.
"We'll go to DC." Coulson says walking over to his wife, "Once we're done here we'll go back to New York and talk with Tripp and Steve and we'll go see her." He tells her, "And I think Skye should meet Agent Carter." He says as he puts his arms around his wife.
After they eat, Skye, Natasha and Clint each have a shower before heading back to the tower.
"Think we got away with Uncle Tony not knowing that we borrowed this car?" Skye asks her Aunt and Uncle as they arrive at the towers garage.
"You did." Pepper's voice says.
"We're sorry, we didn't realise exactly why this car means so much to Tony." Natasha says as they get out.
"You should have asked me Natasha." Pepper tells her, "If it was any other car you could have taken it, just not this one." She tells her.
"Hey, Aunt Pepper, where is Jem and FItzy?" Skye asks curious.
"Labs." Pepper answers.
"Then that's where I'm going." Skye says.
"What happened last night?" Pepper asks Natasha and Clint.
"The knowledge that comes with Skye's knowing power just got a bit too much for her, she needed a night away." Natasha explains.
"There's more to that than what you are saying, isn't there?" Pepper asks and not for the first time Pepper gives both Clint and Natasha the feeling that she could make an amazing spy if she wasn't a CEO.
"Yeah, there is, but it's not our place to tell." Clint says to Pepper as the three of them walk out of the garage.
In her concern with how she is going to tell Fitz and Simmons what is going on with her Skye just walks straight into the lab that Fitz and Tony work out of not bothering to check if there are any warning signs up or to bothering to knock. The second she does she really regrets her carelessness because she finds Tony and Steve making out, both of them shirtless and Bruce working on something which would look like to the un-trained eye that he is ignoring them though if you would look harder you would notice that he is watching his partners as he works.
"Ah crap, sorry, I really should know better than to walk into any room in this place without knocking." Skye comment, "Jem and Fitz?" Skye asks looking away from Steve and Tony as Steve starts to blush.
"Med lab." Bruce answers.
"Thanks, sorry." Skye says before hurrying out of the room as she does she hears Bruce say "Told you we should have locked the doors."
After leaving the engineering lab Skye walks down the hall to the other side of the hall where the medical lab is, this time she does knock,
"Is it safe to come in?" Skye asks, having her eyes closed as she opens the door.
"Yes, it's safe." Jemma's voice responds, "Why do you have your eyes closed?" She asks confused then she realised, "You walked in on Tony, Bruce and Steve, didn't you?"
"Just Uncle Tony and Uncle Steve." Skye corrects.
"You know a couple of years ago you would have loved walking in on Iron Man and Captain America." Fitz points out.
"That was before they were my family." Skye tells her brother, "Now it's not exactly the thing I want to walk in on, though I think Uncle Steve was more embarrassed than I was." Skye reveals.
"It wouldn't surprise me." Jemma comments, "Are you okay?" Jemma asks as Skye sits down on one of the benches.
"Yeah, I am." Skye answers, "I just needed some space." Skye tells them.
"What happened last night?" Fitz asks curious as he and Simmons walk over so that they are standing in front of her.
"It just got too much." Skye admits, "I know a lot, a lot of bad things and I can't turn it off. I know that my Dad is going to get shot and I can't warn him because then innocent people will be hurt, I've got to let it happen. I've got to try and figure out a way to control this because it hurts." Skye admits, "And last night it hurt more than I could cope with."
"You hurt yourself again, didn't you?" Jemma asks.
"How do you know about that?" Skye says looking at her sister in shock as Fitz just looks between them confused.
"I've treated your injuries Skye, I saw the scars, I knew what they were from." Simmons reveals, "I figured you would tell me when you were ready, so I wasn't going to push."
"Thank you." Skye says grateful that even though Simmons knew for a while she didn't say anything, "And yeah I did." She says and Simmons just hugs her.
"What am I missing?" Fitz asks confused as the hug ends.
Knowing that her sister is going to need support Simmons reaches down, grabs hold of Skye's hand and gives it a squeeze, her way of telling Skye that she isn't alone.
"I used to cut myself, after Lard I was in a lot of pain and I just wanted to get it out." Skye explains not looking directly at Fitz, "It went on for years, but then thanks to Anna's help I stopped." Skye reveals, "Last night was the first time since I was twenty that I hurt myself." Skye reveals and as soon as she says it she finds Fitz hugging her.
"If you ever feel like that again, I don't care what time it is or what I am doing, find me." Fitz tells Skye, "Find me and I will do whatever I can do to help."
"That goes for both of us." Simmons adds.
"Thank you guys, so much." Skye says, so grateful for having them in her live.
"There is no need to thank us, you're our sister Skye, and it's what we do." Fitz tells Skye.
A few hours after their conversation at five am Coulson and Melinda are prepping for their op. They are in a car several blocks away from the warehouse where the Hydra agents are going to be in the next hour and they are getting ready to get into position.
"You ready?" Melinda asks and Coulson nods and the pair leave the car and head to the warehouse on foot.
Melinda and Coulson have been hidden in the warehouse behind palettes for half an hour when they finally hear sounds of movement.
Communicating without speaking they decide that they will wait for the Hydra agents to walk past their hiding place before they do anything.
As they see two sets of feet walk past them Coulson and Melinda come out of their hiding places.
"Freeze." Melinda and Coulson say together, pointing their ICERS at two known Hydra agents who are former SHIELD members.
Clearly recognizing both May and Coulson the agents both fire their weapons at May who fires ICERS at them as Coulson pushes Melinda out of the way and gets hit in the arm.
"What do you think you were doing?" Melinda asks Coulson angrily as she gets up.
"They would have hit you Mel." Coulson responds.
"And you did get hit." Melinda says walking over to check his arm, "I don't need you to take a bullet for me." She tells him.
"You're angry at me?" Coulson asks.
"Of course I am." Melinda tells him.
"Look, let's call Homeland then fight." Coulson tells his wife.
"And patch up this injury." Melinda adds as Coulson pulls out his phone from one pocket and the battery he removed from it from another.
A few hours after Skye arrived back at the Tower with her Aunt and Uncle she is walking around and she finds Bucky sitting in the lounge room, reading a book.
"What you reading?" Skye asks curious as she walks over and sits on the couch across from him.
"Just a book Natasha suggested I read." Bucky answers as he places a book mark in the book and puts it on the table.
"Any good?" Skye asks curious.
"Yeah, it is." Bucky answers.
"You know, I'm sorry if this is rude, but you're hair? Have you thought of cutting it?" Skye asks curious, "Coz no offence but it doesn't look that great" She tells him
"I know." Bucky says with a laugh, "I've spent a long time in and out of cryo and it turns out Hydra, not great with the hair styling," He informs Skye.
"So why haven't you got it cut then?" Skye asks curious.
"Because I don't want to look like an idiot." Bucky tells Skye.
"Huh, explain that one for me." Skye requests confused.
"The last time I remember actually being a part of the world was the forties when I was at war, where everyone basically had the same hair style, which is clearly not the case now, I don't want to look like an idiot by getting an outdated hairstyle." Bucky admits.
"I can help with that." Skye says offers.
"How?" Bucky asks
"We look through magazines if you see something you like tell me, and I'll tell you if it will make you look like an idiot or not and we take the picture you choose to the hair dresser and get your hair cut like that." Skye explains, "That's option one."
"What's option two?" Bucky asks curious.
"I choose." Skye tells him, "If you want we can just go to the hairdressers and I tell the hair dresser how to cut your hair." Skye tells him.
"I think I'll go with option two." Bucky tells Skye, "Partly because this is really starting to annoy me and get in the way and the other part because you know way more about this stuff than I do." He tells her.
"Well it's a good thing I know a little hair dressers not far from here that you don't need an appointment for." Skye comments.
"You do?" Bucky asks and Skye nods.
"When do you want to go?" Skye asks curious.
"Whenever you're free is fine with me." Bucky responds.
"Well we can go now if you want." Skye offers and Bucky nods.
"People are going to stare at my arm, they have every other time I've left the Tower, that won't bother you will it?" Bucky asks Skye, not wanting her to be uncomfortable about being with him because of all the looks he gets.
"If it doesn't bother you then it doesn't bother me." Skye responds, "I'll be back in a minute." Skye says running out of the room.
A couple of minutes later Skye returns with her hand bag and a jacket.
"Have you got everything you need?" Skye asks.
"No, I'll be back." Bucky says and he returns a minute later with his jacket and wallet.
"Have you even been set up with documents and money yet?" Skye asks interested
"Yeah, Steve, Tony and Maria did it when you first helped me." Bucky explains.
"Ah good." Skye responds, "We should just let someone know where we are going so they don't worry, then we can go." Skye tells Bucky.
"Where is everyone? I barely seen anyone all day." He reveals as Skye and Bucky make their way to the War room where it is likely that they will find at least a few people.
"Well this place is big and everyone has a habit of spreading out so that's likely why you haven't seen anyone." Skye explains then remembers something, "Has anyone told you what the first rule of this place is?" Skye asks curious.
"There are rules?" Bucky asks panic clear, "No one told me that there was rules."
"Sorry, it's nothing serious, it's just things that we should do to make living here more pleasant." Skye explains.
"Right." Bucky says, "What are they?" He asks curious not wanting to do something wrong.
"Most of them aren't seriously, people will tell you if you need to know." Skye explains, "But the first rule, rule one is never enter a room without knocking, no matter what the room is." Skye explains.
"I'm guessing you got a reminder of that." Bucky comments.
"Oh yeah, this morning" Skye says as they reach on the War Room, where Natasha, Clint, Maria, and Garrett are sitting, all of whom look up when she knocks, "James and I are going out for a couple of hours." Skye tells them.
"Where too?" Clint asks.
"I need a haircut Skye offered to take me." Bucky explains
"Be careful, Hydra and about a dozen other organizations would love to get their hands on the two of you." Garrett informs them.
"We will, I have my phone if you need us." Skye tells everyone.
"Will you be back for dinner?" Natasha asks.
"That's a couple of hours away." Skye tells her Aunt.
"We should be." Bucky answers.
"And where going now, see you later." Skye tells her Uncles and Aunts and her and Bucky leave the room.
"Are me missing something?" John ask.
"You're missing a lot, John." Clint tells his friend and he gets a glare from Maria, "But about Skye and Bucky, not as far as I know." He tells him.
Back in Los Angeles Melinda and Coulson have handed the Hydra agents over to Homeland security, Melinda has patched up Coulson's wound and they are in their hotel packing up their stuff so that they can head back to New York.
"Are you not talking to me?" Coulson asks as Melinda is being, quite even more so than usual and it's making him unable to tell whether she is not talking to him or just being quite.
"What do you think?" Melinda asks.
"I think I'm not going to apologise for pushing you out of the way, I'm never going to apologise for doing whatever I can to protect you, even though you don't need it." Coulson tells his wife.
"And that's the problem." Melinda says Turing around to face him, "You said it yourself I don't need you to protect me Phil. What I need is for you to stop getting hurt, I can't lose you again and if you keep pushing me out of the way of bullets and protecting me, while risking yourself than that is what is going to happen, and I couldn't cope with that." She tells him.
"Well I couldn't cope if something happens to you, because I've lost you before too. So I'm going to keep protecting you." Coulson tells Melinda.
"Let's just go home." Melinda says with a sigh, knowing that the argument won't end any time soon.
"Let's." Coulson responds.
An hour and a half after they left the tower Bucky and Skye exit the hairdressers, Bucky's hair is once more short, much like it was in the forties though more styled than he remembers and Skye is pulling her phone out of her pocket as they do because even though she has a bag Skye likes to keep her phone in her pocket.
"What are you doing?" Bucky asks.
"First this." Skye says taking a picture of Bucky before he realises what she has done, "And second there is an amazing Chinese restaurant around the corner which would be good for dinner I just have to make sure Aunt Pepper hasn't already organised something."
"Right." Bucky says, "Did you take a picture of me?" He asks surprised and Skye nods.
"Hey Aunt Pepper, I was thinking that if you hadn't already organized tea then James and I could pick up Chinese." Skye says and then she waits for her Aunt to respond, "You haven't great, I'll get it, yeah I know, maybe forty five minutes." Skye tells her Aunt, "Yep see you soon."
"So we're getting Chinese?" Bucky asks.
"We're getting Chinese." Skye confirms and the pair make their way to the Chinese restaurant.
Half an hour later Skye and Bucky are on their way back to the tower, Bucky is holding the several bags of Chinese food that they brought.
"You know, I think we got too much food." Bucky tells Skye.
"With how much you and Uncle Steve eat. Not to mention Tripp, Uncle Clint and Sam who I swear eat just as much, I'm worried that we don't have enough." Skye tells him.
"I don't think that will be a problem, we got basically every main course they had plus a lot of additional things, we'll be fine." Bucky assures Skye.
"I hope you are right." Skye responds.
"I think I am." Bucky responds then notices that in a second it seems like all the colour has drained from Skye's face, "Skye, what is it?" Bucky asks worried.
"Before I joined SHIELD I was a part of a group that hated what they believed SHIELD to stand for, which was completely wrong." Skye explains, "after I joined SHIELD a lot of the members, my friends or who I thought were friends, because un-happy with me and really wouldn't do anything good if they saw me again.' Skye explains, "One of those people are walking right towards us."
At hearing that Bucky looks around trying to see if there is some way he can get Skye away and without the person seeing and as he does he notices the people and comes up with an idea, "May I please put my arm around you?" Bucky asks.
"Yes, that's a great idea, thank you." Skye responds knowing Bucky's plan.
Bucky quickly grabs the good bags with one arm and then he puts the other around Skye. Skye reaches up and grabs his hand and turns her face into Bucky side so that as they walk past her old 'friend' he doesn't see her.
"And he didn't see me." Skye says a couple of minutes later and Bucky removes his arm from around Skye, "Thank you." Skye tells him.
"Any time." Bucky responds and the pair continue to walk in silence.
A few minutes later Skye and Bucky arrive back at The Tower, as the security guard recognizes them they go straight in.
"James, thank you." Skye says as Bucky opens the door for her.
"What for? You already thanked me." Bucky says confused.
"For not asking if I was okay." Skye tells him as they enter the tower.
It has been twenty minutes since Skye and Bucky got back to the tower with food and in that time more than half of it has been eaten.
"Skye pass the rice." Sam requests
"Sure." Skye says handing over the container as the door to the elevator open revealing Coulson and Melinda.
As soon as she sees that it is her parents Skye gets up and runs to both of them putting her arms around the both, "It's my fault, it's all my fault, I'm sorry. You were shot and if I warned you then people would have been killed. I'm sorry, I had no choice. Don't hate me." Skye says as she hugs her parents and she starts to cry.
"Skye we could never hate you." Coulson says as both he and Melinda look over Skye and to Clint and Natasha for an explanation.
"Skye's abilities told her what was going to happen on your mission but they also told her that if she warned you Hydra would have gotten away and hurt innocent people." Natasha explains.
"She's spent the last twenty four hours knowing that you were going to get shot and not being able to do anything about it." Clint adds.
Melinda and Coulson are shocked at that and they can't imagine how hard it was for Skye, even though they know they have to talk to her they both decide that it can wait until later and they just hold their daughter tighter.
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