Chapter 1

"Somethings wrong."

They had been sitting in the dingy apartment for over 3 hours and Natasha had yet to touch the pizza.

"What's wrong?"

Natasha automatically snapped out of her daze to stare worriedly at the eight-year-old beside her.

"I know that you haven't eaten since lunch so you should be hungry and yet you haven't eaten your half of the pizza. You also keep fiddling with the hair and your wrist."

The grin on Ali's face almost brought a smile to Natasha's. The last time they had been together Natasha had been starting to teach Ali how to read people since she had already learnt all about self-defence.

"There is a mission..."

"How long?"

Ali's smile instantly dropped she knew that she would have to go back to the orphanage tonight but since Natasha had only just got back from her last mission in China, Ali had presumed she would get a little more time with her before she got her next mission.

"It starts in 2 days..."

"But?"

"It is near here. Very near your school in fact."

The of frustration on the face of the little girl beside her was hilarious and something that Natasha loved to see. After spending so many years in an orphanage and before that being stabbed half to death by her own mother, the childlike look on Ali's face was not one that Natasha got to see often.

She pushed some of Ali's hair behind her ear before saying,

"I have to go undercover at Stark Industries and complete an evaluation on Tony Stark."

"The billionaire that is on all the posters?"

"That's the one."

"That would be easy for you so why are you so worried?"

Natasha sighed. She wasn't worried she was just having an internal debate inside herself between the side that wanted to protect the girl beside her and the side that knew that the best way to protect her was to bring her along.

"To evaluate him successfully I would need to see how he would deal with a child..."

"Yes!"

It was practically a screech and Natasha smiled as she knew that this was the right decision.

"You will still be going to school, and it is only for 2 weeks or before that if I have finished my evaluation before that time is up."

Ali was still smiling. 2 whole weeks away from the orphanage. Away from the bullies and the whining babies. Away from the nuns who kept trying to force God on her and single her out or treat her like a baby because of her height.

She was going to be able to spend a lot more time with her Natty and maybe be able to hack something which she hadn't been able to do in ages because of the nuns banning all electrical devices.

The dimples on Ali's face were, for the first time in months, visible as she flung herself at Natasha in a hug.

Natasha tried to return it but was stiff from not having hugged anyone in a while, but Ali didn't mind. She was too happy to even notice.

With the forged slip in her hand Ali set off back to the orphanage. Her blue tattered old draw string school bag was on her back and she knew that Natasha was nearby following her to make sure she arrived okay.

Instead of knocking Ali just walked right through the door which was never locked and into the hallway. There were two of the nun's offices down here and Ali quickly turned right and knocked on Sister Margaret's door.

Usually, she would have barged right in, but she needed her to sign the slip. Not that that would stop here from going on the mission with her Natty, but it would save them both a lot of time and effort later.

"Enter."

Ali opened the door which squeaked as she did so.

"Ahh Ali. What have you done this time? God can only forgive you so many times."

"I haven't done anything wrong."

Ali was gritting her teeth to prevent her from shouting at the nun.

"My psychologist believes that I would highly benefit from this Christian camp that she is organising for people like me."

The only reason they had put it down as a Christian camp had been because anything that was religious the nuns were more likely to except and look less into. That was why to them Natasha was her Christian Psychologist.

Sister Margret immediately took the sheet out of her hands and pretended to read it thoroughly before signing her signature at the bottom.

"Any miss behaviour from you though Ali and you will not be going on this trip. Do you understand?"

Ali gritted her teeth again and nodded her head again before hurriedly leaving the room. There had been two copies of the slip: one for sister Margaret and one which needed 'signing'.

The one that needed signing was in her hand until she saw Billy sitting on the stairs. It was like he was waiting for her and had heard all the Sister Margaret had said.

He snatched the slip out of her hand before tearing it to bits and then dropping the pieces to the ground. Luckily the other older boys were at dinner with everyone else otherwise she wouldn't have been able to contain her rage.

Instead of hitting him she fled up the stairs and into the girl's dormitory. Her bunk bed was the one nearest the door and she had to share it with a girl who resented her and took every opportunity to show it. She was the reason that Ali had the shabbiest school bag out of everyone in the room and why she had the worst clothes and the holiest and biggest shoes.

Ali placed her school bag under the bed. Natasha had offered many times to get her new things, but both knew that if Ali came back with nice new clothes and shoes that actually fit her, people would start asking questions and everyone would bully her worse.

She did however have a cheap but good phone which had been adapted to recharge using heat instead of having to plug it in. The phone was kept between her pillow and her mattress under her bed sheet. It only had Natasha's number in it but so far it had been left unused because Natasha was notified every time it was switched on and she didn't want to worry her.

After dinner everybody in the orphanage had an hour to spend how they liked before they were all told to go to bed. At 7:55pm sharp the nuns would get everybody to go to the bathrooms and brush their teeth.

Since Ali didn't want to have, you're a psycho chanted at her she quickly slid open the window on the far side of the room and pushed herself out until she was sitting on the windowsill.

She kept pushing herself out until she was standing on the little ledge. From there she could reach the edge where the flat roof began so she pulled herself up onto it while at the same time using her foot to slide down the window.

The only thing that Natasha had managed to convince Ali into letting her buy was a purple watch. It was nothing fancy and was hard to steal since Ali never took it off and usually wore long sleeved t-shirts to hide it.

When Natasha had first given it to her Ali would use it to calculate the numbers of hours before she would get to see her Natty again. Since she wasn't the best at Maths it would usually take hours to work out but when Ali was on the roof, although she was sitting on the top of a building in a bustling city, Ali had never known such a calm and peaceful place.

The time flew by, and Ali had to quickly lower herself back into the dormitory at 7:55 to prevent anyone from seeing her renter through the window.

That night Ali slept somewhat peacefully with only being awoken once in the night from nightmares and for the first time since Skye left, Ali woke up the next morning with a smile on her face.