It felt like as soon as Skye was out of quarantine and things were calming down, Lady Sif arrived with no memory and things were crazy again. May had no choice, she was a familiar face and she had to go. She managed to pry Ellis off her and left him with Jemma, who he liked enough to calm down.
Sif kept repeating a Kree word for keys, saying she had no memeory but needed to find whatever it was. They tried to jog her memory by talking about who she was and what kind of life he led, but nothing worked.
It wasn't long until they found the man. Skye and Bobbi followed up a possible lead which led them right to him. They walked in on him using nitrogen at a hospital to keep his skin pink. Without consideration, he picked a fight with Bobbi and got away.
Back on the bus, they checked into any key reference they could find. For a while they came up short, until May found a city called Chavez, which translated to keys in English. It was also a dig site where Whitehall found the original obelisk back in the 1940s.
But Skye had an odd request.
"Director, I'd like to sit this one out." She said to Coulson.
He and May both wondered why, and she swore twice that she was just rattled from her last run in with the Kree.
"I can entertain Ellis. Jemma needs to focus on her work and she needs to be ready in case one of you gets hurt."
May could tell she was lying, but she let it go for now. The girl was still shaken up by what happened in Puerto Rico, a break might not be bad for her.
"Okay, we'll drop you back at the base and handle this." Coulson said.
May gave Skye a knowing look, which the girl tried to turn away from. But she could still feel the older woman's eyes on her when she walked away.
They apprehended the Kree while he was trying to drag out a trunk from a cave. He tried to explain himself but they didn't hesitate this time, he was captured and they had the trunk in their possession.
May walked the Kree back into the base, he kept swearing he was there to help them but she refused to believe it. They led him into the lounge so everyone could talk with him.
"Mommy!" A familiar voice sounded. Ellis bounded into the room and attached himself to May.
She looked up at Skye, not wanting him in the same room as an Asgardian and a potentially dangerous alien.
"Sorry, he saw you and I couldn't catch him." Skye cringed a little.
Regardless, May let him stay. She didn't want to have him screaming right now and frankly Skye probably needed to be here.
The Kree tried to convince them to give him his weapon back to restore Sif's memory, but they refused. He took it anyway and touched it to her before dropping it with his hands up. She remembered who she was and why she was here, and the Kree began to explain why he had come to Earth.
"Someone in your world has transformed, I'm here to take them." He said.
The obelisk had triggered some sort of old signal. Thousands of years ago, the Kree rained down and tried to transform humans into weapons that were activated by the mist from the crystals. Coulson explained that Raina was down there and had been transformed, and they all discussed how to find her. The Kree wanted to either take her with him or put her down, she was dangerous, an abomination as he said. He also said changes may not be on the outside, but inside was a whole different story.
The base began to shake, violently. Ellis was scared and May clutched him to her leg.
"What's happening?" Sif said.
Coulson looked at Skye. "Skye was down there too, when the mist happened."
"Skye, you want to talk to us." May was concerned.
Coulson slowly approached the young girl. "Skye, what's doing this?"
"I am." She gasped out.
Sif made a grab for her but Skye jerked away.
"No!" She said before the windows behind her shattered.
May turned so Ellis was out of the line of fire and Coulson covered them both. Within a second afterward, they had both drawn a gun and were standing in front of Skye. Ellis began to cry and clutched May's leg, not daring to peek out.
"Give her to me, I will take her to Asgard and keep this world safe." Sif demanded.
"She's not going anywhere." May said through gritted teeth.
"She's an abomination and she needs to be put down!" The Kree yelled.
"Well that sounds a lot like killing to me!" Fitz had appeared.
May looked at Coulson and nodded before grabbing Skye and rubbing. Coulson passed Ellis to Fitz and said to take him to Jemma and get bambino.
May had to trust that her boy would be safe and she would have to protect Skye. She rushed the girl to the basement cell they kept Ward in and turned on the noise canceling barrier.
"Hey, focus on me, just me." She kneeled next to Skye on the bed. "We can do this, you can do this!"
"I can't make it stop!" Skye sobbed.
"You will control your emotions!" May encouraged the girl.
"Everyone is at risk." Skye cried out.
May got up and stood in front of Skye.
"Control, just like we practiced!"
That was when Sif drove her sword through tbe barrier. May turned around and readied herself to go toe to toe with her.
"May, she'll get through." Skye said.
"Ignore it." May told her.
Within seconds, the barrier was broken and Sif marched in. Before anyone could even think, Skye took May's icer and turned it on herself.
For a moment, May couldn't breathe. She didn't realize it wasn't a real bullet. Then she realized the girl in front of her was just unconscious.
"Skye." She breathed before stepped forward. She placed a hand on the girl's arm and could feel her breathing.
"She harmed herself." Sif said in astonishment.
"Even though she knew it meant giving up her freedom." Coulson said as he walked in. "Leave her with us, she can get it under control."
May breathed deeply and pushed some hair out of Skye's face. It had been a long time since she had been that terrified.
While Coulson and Bobbi took the Kree and Sif to go home, May stayed behind. They moved Skye to her room and she sat in a chair next to her to wait for her to wake up. Ellis was supposed to nap in her bed but he insisted on staying up with her. He ended up falling asleep in her lap anyway.
She began to stir and opened her eyes, waking up to find May on her phone next to her with Ellis passed out.
"Is everyone okay?" She immediately asked.
"No one was hurt, nothing seriously damaged." May answered, putting her phone away. "You could have told us, we would have helped you."
"I'm sorry, Fitz was trying to help me. I just didn't know what was wrong with me." Skye sat up, clutching her aching head
"There's nothing wrong with you, you're just a little different." May assured her.
"Fitz said the same thing."
"Great minds think alike."
Skye rolled her eyes.
"You know we have to put you on the index." May said.
"I know. I'm okay with it." Skye shrugged.
"We love you, Skye." May reached a hand out and put it on the girl's shoulder.
The next day, her index file was complete. But she still needed a psych evaluation. Coulson said they needed someone they could trust, and May knew exactly who he was getting at.
"I know who I'd call, if it weren't a thing." Coulson said.
"Andrew? It's not a thing." May insisted.
And just like that, she was on an errand to retrieve her ex-husband. She didn't find this very enjoyable, and she didn't want to hear what he would have to say when he saw Ellis, but she needed to do this for Skye.
He made his comments, asked why she didn't contact him after SHIELD fell, but also revealed that he called her mother anyway. Still, he agreed to help. May was grateful, she wasn't sure how well she would handle something else going wrong.
She went back to the base to await his arrival, finding out that Skye had isolated herself to the cage on the bus. It upset her, but she didn't push the issue.
As soon as Andrew arrived, she became uneasy. She escaped back to the bus to tell Skye that she would need a psychologist, which the girl fought her on. She argued that she had been through enough of these.
"You'll like this one." May simply stated.
"Yeah, how do you know that?" Skye rolled her eyes.
"Because I was married to him." May answered.
Just like that, Skye was intrigued.
May left to find Ellis whole Andrew did his first session. When they were done, he found her in the kitchen. She offered him a drink and they chatted about Skye.
"She thinks the world of you." Andrew told her.
"I taught her how to fire an automatic, of course she likes me." May smirked.
That was when Ellis ran in.
"Mommy, where my dinosaur?" He asked her. He was looking for his stuffed dinosaur that she had to wash because he got peanut butter on it the day before.
"He's taking a bath, he'll be done soon." May promised him. Her heart had dropped, without any warning, Andrew knew now.
Ellis pouted.
"What did I tell you about that?" May warned.
"It doesn't help." Ellis slumped away.
May sighed, stood up, and faced her ex.
Andrew was dumbstruck. A little boy who didn't look at all like May, had just called her mommy.
"Melinda..." he tried to begin, but couldn't find the words.
"Hydra killed his father and left him behind, his mother died when he was born. We couldn't find any living family." May explained quickly.
"So you just decided to keep him?" He asked her.
"He's not safe with Hydra after him, and I'm not throwing him into the foster system." May growled. She had already had to explain this to a few people.
"And you think he's safe here?"
"Look," she turned on him, "you and everyone else have asked me this. He's safe with me, I would never let anything happen, and he's been through enough. I may not be his mother but I will look after him as long as he needs it."
Andrew stepped back with his hands up. "I'm sorry, Melinda. It was just a surprise. I didn't think you wanted to have children."
"I didn't, until he decided he wanted me." May finished her drink and walked away.