Chapter 26
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THANK YOU SO MUCH TO STARFIRE25 WHO EDITED THIS CHAPTER FOR ME
It has been a few days since Skye and Sharon returned from DC and Skye has just been informed by Bruce and Simmons that because she caused more damage to her legs by removing the cast's early she has at least five more days in casts and in the wheelchair, being annoyed at Bruce, Simmons and herself Skye has gone down to the Gym and is just getting her bow out when she hears footsteps behind her and she turns to see Clint walking up to her.
"Don't say it." Skye requests.
"Say what?" Clint ask curious.
"That I did this to myself, that everyone warned me not to use my powers to do it, that I've only got myself to blame." Skye tells her Uncle.
"I wasn't going to say any of that." Clint tells her, "What I was going to say is, do you want me to set up the targets?" He asks curious.
"Yeah I would." Skye requests as she puts her bow and some arrows on her lap and rolls out to the centre of the room.
"Kid we all know that you did what you had to do. We may not have liked it but we knew, we know you had no choice." Clint tells his niece.
"Just ignore me please." Skye requests.
"Never." Clint says walking over and squatting down in front of her, "What's really going on with you?" He asks his niece concerned.
"After congress I felt great, I felt like I did the impossible, and then I found it harder and harder to walk, and I realised I started believe the façade, the one where I'm unstoppable, can't be harmed, and I hate myself for that." Skye reveals, "I've never believed an image I've put out, until now."
"Oh Kid, its okay." Clint tells her, "It happens to the best of us." He tells her
"I still feel like an idiot." Skye admits.
"Which is why you are down here." Clint realises, "Archery makes you feel like you."
"Exactly, you've taught me well." Skye tells Clint.
"I taught you the skill, you're the one who's made it apart of you." Clint tells his niece.
"Yeah, I guess I have." Skye says and Clint moves out of Skye's way so that she can start to practice.
Up in the War Room New SHIELD's leadership team are having a meeting. They are discussing things that need to get done soon.
"Trying to secure the shield facilities that Hydra doesn't currently have factions in as well as working out how we get the factions out of the ones they have control off." Maria tells the group.
"We should start with the Academies." Coulson comments.
"Isn't that where we know the biggest Hydra fractions to be?" Steve asks as while he has no problem with starting there they should maybe consider starting smaller.
"Exactly." Coulson says, "There are still cadets there who are being tortured and joining Hydra as we speak, we've got to stop it. Save them." Coulson says.
"It's a good plan in theory and it would certainly send a message to Hydra, but is it the best move strategically?" Tony asks.
"Yes, it is." Natasha answers, "I'm not saying that it won't be risky because it will be, everything we do is, but this is something we have to do." Natasha tells the other.
"It is." Melinda says, "But we've got to be smart about this, which means a lot of planning." She tells the group, "And we need intelligence on exactly what is going on." She says.
"Let's get started." Maria says and that's what the seven do.
After spending a little while practicing Archery while in a wheelchair Skye left the lab and Clint and intended to head to her room to do something on her computer but instead ended up on the main balcony, where she just sits and watches the city.
Skye has been sitting out by herself for almost an hour when she hears the door open and someone walk out, she doesn't even have to look around to know who it is.
"You're shivering." Bucky as he removes his jacket once he is next to Skye, "Here."
"Thanks, I didn't really feel like moving." Skye admits as she lets Bucky put the jacket around her.
"Are you worried about something or just enjoying the view?" Bucky asks curious.
"Both, neither, I don't know anymore." Skye admit then signs, "Both, it's both." Skye answers, "I love this view but I'm worried about being useless." Skye admits.
"Not possible." Bucky tells her, "You might not be able to walk at the moment but you are the furthest thing from useless." He tells her.
"How do you have so much faith in me?" Skye asks Bucky curious.
"Because you have just as much in me, even when you have every reason not to." Bucky responds, "I'm always going to have faith in you, even, no, especially, when you don't have it in yourself." He tells her.
"Thanks James." Skye tells him.
"Anytime." Bucky responds and the pair drift into silence.
For several minutes Skye and Bucky sit in silence, neither minding as they like to be in each other's company. This silence persists until Bucky says, "Skye." At the same time that Skye says, "James."
"You go first." Bucky tells her.
"You should." Skye tells him, "I know what you are going to say so I should let you say it." Skye tells him.
"Still getting used to that." Bucky admits, glad that she is letting him say what he wants to say, "I was wondering if you would like to go out to dinner with me one night, on a date." He asks and he prepares himself for her answer.
"I like you James, I like you a lot but I hurt people." Skye tells James, "Being in a relationship with me is just going to end with you being hurt and I care about you too much to let that happen." Skye tells Bucky.
"I'm not going to pretend that I know your history or what you've gone through, but I know you well enough to ask are you worried about hurting me or hurting us both?" Bucky asks interested.
"I don't want either of us to be hurt James." Skye says turning to look right at Bucky, "I really like you, but I'm a mess and I don't even know why you like me." Skye admits.
"I'm a mess too Skye, everyone is." Bucky admits, "I like you because you're incredible and smart, beautiful and stronger than I thought it was possible to be. You've been dealt a bad hand your whole life and you keep going, but more than that no matter what you do you give everything you've got to protecting people to keeping them safe." Bucky says, "You saved me and you're the one person who doesn't treat me like the mess I am, even if they don't mean to, and when I'm with you, you make me feel a bit less of that mess." Bucky reveals, "I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, I don't even know what's going to happen in the next minute, but I know I want to be with you even if it means getting hurt." Bucky admits.
"Told you that you would pick up on the speech thing." Skye says using a joke to deflect from how much what Bucky said actually means to her, "I'm scared and I don't want to lose you as a friend." Skye tells James.
"I will do everything possible to make sure that doesn't happen." Bucky tells her and they both become quite, the only sounds being that of the city below them.
"Can we take things slow?" Skye asks a couple of minutes later.
"Of course." Bucky answers knowing that considering everything he isn't sure either of them are ready for whatever happens between them to get serious fast, "Is that a yes?" Bucky asks hopefully.
"Yeah, it is." Skye answers with a smile.
"I hate to interrupt, but you're both needed in the War Room." Natasha's voice says from the direction of the door.
"тетя Наташа? How long have you been standing there?" Skye asks surprised that neither of them heard the door open, although as its Natasha that's not as much of a surprise as it could be.
"Since you said you were a mess." Natasha answers as due to the fact that she didn't want to interrupt them she just stood and listened, "I didn't want to interrupt you two." She reveals, "War Room, ASAP." Natasha tells the pair before turning and leaving.
"Not the worse person who could have walked in on that conversation." Skye comments.
"No she's not." Bucky admits, "I'm guessing this is part of the reason the knock before you enter rule exists." Bucky says.
"Part of it yeah." Skye answers, "Guess we should go."
"Yeah, guess we should." Bucky responds, "And I guess it wouldn't be a good idea to plan our date until after we find out why we are needed in the War Room." Bucky comments.
"Probably a smart choice." Skye admits, "We should go." Skye says removing Bucky's jacket and handing it to him.
"Right we should." Bucky says as he collects the jacket, and the pair head to the door. Bucky holds open the door for Skye so that she can go through first.
"Any idea what this is about?" Tripp who is walking through the lounge room the same time that they are walking in asks.
"Nope." Skye and Bucky answers.
"Should be interesting then." Tripp says and they head to the elevator.
When Skye, Bucky and Tripp enter the War Room a couple of minutes later they realises that they are the last ones to arrive so they quickly take their seats. Once they are sitting Maria, Coulson and Steve walk to the head of the table and stand side by side.
"Now that everyone is here, we've got a mission." Maria informs the group.
"What is it?" John asks.
"We're securing the academies." Coulson answers, "Getting Hydra out of there, saving and helping whoever we can" he says.
"Last check there was a ton of Hydra agents there, this isn't going to be easy." Clint comments.
"It never is." Steve answers, "Skye if you're willing, if you can, we need you to give us any possible Intel that you can get." Steve tells her.
"Give me twenty minutes and I'll find out everything you could possibility need to know." Skye answers.
"Good, our goal is to save as many of the cadets as possible and secure all the facilities but we need to have our gauds up because there could be Hydra plants." Maria tells the other.
"There will be." Skye answers, "A few of them." Skye tells everyone, "There are more than fifty Hydra agents currently at the academy of Science and technology where they are based out of, the other two academies are empty, but guarded." Skye tells everyone, "There are about twenty five cadets who are hurt and not Hydra. Ten who have joined out of fear but who can be saved and twelve who were Hydra from the before they joined." Skye tells everyone, "Wow, does that makes sense." Skye says to the confusion of everyone else.
"What?" Clint asks curious.
"James Williams is Hydra, has been since before he joined S.H.I.E.L.D, was the reason that he did." Skye tells her Uncle.
"That does make sense." Clint responds, realising that it explains a lot.
"What are the rest of us missing?" Tripp asks curious.
"James Williams is a man who made my time at the academy of Communications difficult." Skye answers.
"Understatement." Clint answers, "What about his Friend, Paige?" Clint asks.
"Not Hydra from the start but one of the ones who has since joined, makes sense considering." Skye comments.
"Skye, any other intel?" Steve asks.
"Yeah a lot." Skye answers, "I'll go write it down and give it back to you." Skye tells him.
"Good." Coulson answers, "Get us that Intel Baby Girl and then everyone return here in forty minutes to discuss a plan." Coulson says and everyone nods, gets up and leaves the room.
"I don't like Skye using her powers like this, who knows what kind of affect they are having on her." Melinda says to her Husband once everyone but the leadership team have left.
"I don't like it either." Coulson admits, "We'll talk to her later, make sure that she is okay." He says and Melinda nods.
After leaving The War Room Skye headed to her bedroom where she transferred herself from her chair to her bed where she sits herself in the centre of and has her laptop out in front of her which she is typing on with one had.
"Okay, divide focus now." Skye says to herself and use her right hand to type on the commuter as she makes some of her electrical energy come out of her left and focuses on making that, 'dance' through the air while she also focuses on what she wants to know about the academy. The reason that Skye is dividing her focus is because it's the only way that she has figured out to enable her to slow the rate at which she receives information so that she can comprehend it and this case, type it as she knows it.
For five minutes Skye sits on her bed and types with one hand as she uses the other to play with electrical energy while her focus is dividing between two tasks. She is so emerged in what she is doing that she doesn't even hear a knock on the door, or it open a minute later.
When Natasha walks into her niece's room she is surprised by the sight that greats her
"Skye." Natasha says loudly, not wanting to scare Skye and make her lose control which is clearly something that would be bad at the moment.
"тетя Наташа." Skye says surprised, "Give me a minute." Skye request and she draws the energy inside of her and starts to repeat the code for her most basic inscription over and over in her head so that she stops focusing on getting intel, "What's up?" Skye asks
"Well I did want to talk to you about the conversation I overheard but that can wait. Why were you doing that?" Natasha asks curious as she walks over and sits on the edge of her nieces' bed.
"Do you remember when I first learnt about my abilities and I had a hard time knowing something without a lot of focus?" Skye asks her Aunt curious.
"Of course." Natasha answers.
"Well that was because I hadn't learnt control, I wasn't in control, I didn't know the triggers." Skye explains, "Now I do and it's like those connections that were closed off before are open, but not just when I want them to be but all the time, which is a problem." Skye explains, "Uncle Clint helped me realize that since the beginning focus seemed to be the key to my power which makes it the key to developing a different kind of control." Skye explains, "If I were to just think about how much I want to know all possible information in regards to the Hydra agents at the academy then I would get everything I could possibly need to know in seconds, but it would be too much, it would over whelm me." Skye explains, "So instead I divide my focus between that and manipulating my electrical energy which will enable me to get the information slower, in amounts that I can comprehend." Skye explains.
"Does it hurt you?" Natasha asks concerned.
"Getting it all at once, yes." Skye answers, "Slower in slower amounts no." Skye reveals, "Until I can figure out a better way it's what I've got to do." Skye explains.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Natasha asks curious.
"I don't think so." Skye answers, "I've just got to figure out a way to close and open those connections more at will or have them only party open." Skye explains, "I'm powerful, I have a lot of energy inside of me, more than I think Jem, Fitzy's and Uncle Bruce's equipment can detect, and this is the price I have to pay for that." Skye explains.
"If there is ever anything I can do to help, let me know." Natasha requests.
"Of course." Skye says and the pair drift into silence, "Are you going to tell Mom and Dad what you heard?" Skye asks several minutes later.
"Of course not, I won't tell anyone" Natasha answers, "But I wanted to talk to you about how you see yourself." Natasha explains.
"I was telling the truth тетя Наташа, I am a mess, and I do end up hurting people I am in a relationship I am with." Skye tells her Aunt, "The only three serious relationship's I've ever been in are Miles, Lard and Ward, and you know how all of them turned out. Can you blame me for worrying about hurting James?" Skye asks.
"No I don't." Natasha admits, "Have I ever told you why it took me so long to admit to your Uncle how I felt?" Natasha asks curious, though she knows the answer.
"No." Skye answers.
"I was afraid that I would hurt him, because that's what I do, I hurt people." Natasha reveals, "I didn't want to give it a shot because I was worried about losing him but then I watched as your Mom dealt with losing your Dad, and I sat with your Dad when he thought he was losing your Mom and I realised that I didn't want to lose Clint without being with him, I was more afraid of that than anything." Natasha admits, "I know you think you don't deserve to be happy with Bucky and that you think that all you are going to do is hurt him."
"How do you know that?" Skye asks her Aunt as while she said the second but she didn't say the first.
"Because not that long ago I was just like you, still am." Natasha admits, "I worry every day that I am going to hurt Clint." She reveals, admitting something that she hasn't told anyone, "Skye, you deserve to be happy and you deserve to have something good, which I think you and Bucky could be." Natasha tells her Niece, "I know it's a terrifying thought, and I know you are worried about being hurt and hurting Bucky but you should give it chance, because I know that you will do whatever you can not to hurt him." Natasha explains, "If you decided that you and Bucky isn't something you do want then that's okay, but you should give it a chance." Natasha reveals
"I said yes to the date." Skye remains her aunt.
"Saying yes and going through with it are two very different things." Natasha points out.
"I know." Skye admits, "But I'm going to go through with this." Skye tells her aunt.
"I'm here if you need to talk." Natasha tells her niece.
"I know, thank you тетя Наташа." Skye tells her Aunt sincerely.
"You're welcome." Natasha responds and she gives her niece a hug, "I should let you get back to colleting Intel." Natasha realises once they break apart.
"Yeah, you should." Skye tells her Aunt, "Tell everyone I'll be about fifteen minutes." Skye say and Natasha nods and leaves the room.
Once Natasha leaves the room Skye once more pushes electrical energy out of her body and focuses on what she wants to do with that along with what she wants to know at the same time.
Twenty minutes later Skye wheels into The War Room where Coulson, Melinda, Maria, Natasha, Tony, Steve and Pepper are sitting.
"Here's all the intel you need." Skye says putting a pile of seven folders on the table.
"Thank you." They all respond.
"Are you okay?" Coulson asks his daughter concerned.
"Yeah, I am." Skye responds, "There is no chance of me being a part of this mission is there?" Skye asks.
"No." Melinda answers, "Not on the ground anyway." She says.
"We need to make sure that the plans work out but I think you will be with Pepper, Fitz and Simmons back here running back end and dealing with any potential agency or government problems that appear." Maria explains.
"Figured." Skye responds, she isn't happy about the decision but due to the fact that she can't walk it makes sense. "But Jem should go with you, you're going to need her medical knowledge." Skye reveals.
"Noted." Maria comments.
"Do you know when the best time for the op to take place is?" Steve asks his niece.
"Tomorrow, just before sundown." Skye answers, "I'll leave you to your planning, any questions you have can be answered with those files." Skye explains.
"Thank you." Melinda tells her daughter.
"Of course, see you later." Skye says as she wheels out of the room.
Once Skye closes the door to the War Room the seven members of New SHIELD's leadership read through the information they have and start to make plans for the operation.
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