TW for violence/fighting, ableist language, implications of/discussion of physical abuse, swearing
Her good feeling carried her all the way to the end of the school day where, instead of their normal routine of being picked up by Phil to either go back to the high school or go home, they waited out front with Fitz, so they could all be picked up by his cousin and Bobbi.
"This is going to be the absolute best," Fitz buzzed, bouncing up and down slightly on the balls of his feet as they waited for Hunter's car to appear. It had snowed again recently, and the snow underfoot squeaked against the soles of Fitz's shoes as he wiggled around. "Lance and his friends always go to Gracey Park after exams to celebrate, and now I'll have friends to celebrate with too, instead of just tagging along. It's nice of your foster parents to let you come."
"I think Phil was just glad to have a place for us to while he stayed after school to grade exams," Skye pointed out. "He probably didn't want us stuck in the school with him while he tried to work."
"What exactly do you do to celebrate?" Jemma asked, slight apprehension threading through her words. She paused her tapping only long enough to puff on them a few times to warm them up. "It's not anything reckless, is it?"
"One time they'd fixed up a picnic, but that was in the summer, so I doubt we'll be laying a blanket this time," joked Fitz. "They always like a good game of Snow Siege, so if I had to guess—"
"Snow what?"
Fitz was kept from answering by the arrival of Hunter's car, which rattled to a stop at the curb right in front of them. Bobbi was sitting in the front seat, and she waved at them, beckoning for them to hop in.
"You're late," Fitz said as he wedged himself in the backseat along with Skye and Jemma.
"I'm not late, you're just impatient," came Hunter's retort. "Sorry if it's a bit nippy in here, the heat hasn't worked since the last owner changed out the spark plugs. It's tight enough in here that we should be able to keep each other warm, though," he quipped. The radio, which had been playing a nondescript Christmas song, crackled slightly and sputtered in and out.
"Is this car safe?" Jemma asked nervously. Hunter smacked the dashboard with an open palm, returning the radio to normal, before twisting around in his seat to answer her.
"Safe as houses," he assured her with a grin.
"That doesn't make any sense," grumbled Jemma under her breath, once Hunter had turned back around and eased the car back onto the road. "Cars are nothing like houses." She was tapping quickly on her knee, and Skye sent a sympathetic smile her way. She knew cars made Jemma uneasy at the best of times, and claptrap ones like Hunter's rolling scrap-mobile probably weren't much of a comfort.
"The park's only ten minutes away," Bobbi told them from the front seat. "It's right around the corner from the high school, Hunter said."
"It's a damn good park, too," Hunter added. "Better than that dinky one on Halifax, and perfect for Snow Siege."
"Are we playing, then?" Fitz asked eagerly.
"Snow's just right for it," said Hunter, grinning into the rearview mirror at them. "I've got a couple loose footballs in the boot that we can use as flags."
Skye furrowed her brow. "Huh? Translation, please?"
"He's got some soccer balls in the trunk," Bobbi supplied. "I don't know what the flag part is supposed to mean. He won't tell me the rules of the game yet."
"Don't want to spoil the surprise," Hunter sang.
Soon they passed the high school, and he steered them into the parking lot of a sprawling park a few minutes later. Hunter had been right, it was a very different park from the one on Halifax, much to Skye's relief. She had already had to practice some of her calming steps to help ease the stress of having to wait even longer to get home to May and Phil, and she had been worried that Gracey Park would remind her of the place where she and Jemma had met Cal a few weeks ago. Fortunately, this park bore little resemblance to the other one – it was bigger and more open, with fewer trees blocking it from view of the street. There was a playground off to one side, and some basketball hoops, but mostly it was just open space, with wide, snowy fields. The back part of the park, where Hunter was now parking the car, was hilly, with rolling slopes and valleys that, if Skye had to guess, were popular with sledders on snow days. For now, though, the hills were home to several teenagers, which upon closer inspection, Skye recognized as Bobbi's friends – Natasha and the blonde boy from the soccer team – Clint, she remembered – plus Mack and Elena.
"Hey!" Mack called over, waving as they all piled out of Hunter's car. "You made it!"
"Had to get reinforcements for the siege," Hunter shouted back. "Here, Fitz, run this to Mack, would you? And Bob, let's pop the back." He pushed his backpack into Fitz's hands and shooed him away, then made his way around to the back of the car, where he and Bobbi had to work together to pry open the trunk. When it was open, he passed two soccer balls out, handing one each to Skye and Jemma. "We'll need one more backpack as well…"
"We can use mine," Skye offered. "It's not really mine, just an old one of Phil's, so it's okay if something happens to it." That seemed like a definite possibility, given the odd array of supplies and mysterious rules that seemed to be piling up for the game.
"Brilliant," Hunter said. "Let's grab it, then, and meet the others."
Soon they were all congregated on top of one of the hills, all the high schoolers and Fitz looking excited.
"So, for the uninitiated," Mack said grandly, spreading his arms wide, "this is Snow Siege."
"The most epic of wintery conquests," Clint adlibbed. He made his voice sound funny, like a movie trailer guy or a wrestling announcer or something. Skye bit back a giggle. "A frozen battle of brute strength and cunning strategy that has tested even the strongest bonds of friendship."
Natasha rolled her eyes, smiling. "He's exaggerating. It's definitely fun, but it's not exactly a contest of champions."
"What is it?" Elena pressed. Apparently, she was new to the game as well. "Also how am I supposed to play in an 'epic conquest frozen battle' thingy if I'm still on crutches?"
"And I've still got my cast," Skye reminded then, waving her arm vaguely. Only the part that went over her wrist and hand poked out of her coat sleeve, and she didn't want to be left out just because the bigger kids forgot her arm was still broken.
"We'll make some modifications," Mack promised. "It'll make more sense once we explain the game."
"The basic run of it: it's capture the flag meets full-scale snowball fight," Hunter explained. "With a few twists here and there."
"Two teams," Natasha continued. "One on either hill. We each get some time to build up our defenses and stock up on ammunition. Main goal is to protect the flag, which in this case is a soccer ball."
"We use snowballs to hold off the enemy." Clint, this time. "Anything between the shoulders and knees is a valid hit, and a hit means you're in ice jail, which is at the top of each team's hill."
"What about the backpacks?" Skye asked.
"Excellent question," Mack smiled. "The person who wears the backpack can execute a jail break. If they make it past enemy lines and reach the jail, they free the prisoners. If they don't, they have to go to jail and pass the backpack to another prisoner, who gets to go back to their side and try to be the jailbreaker."
"You have to slide down the hill for immunity," Natasha added, "otherwise you can get hit again and wind up back in jail."
"Penguin slides are preferred," grinned Hunter, "but any type of slide is accepted."
"Normally there's no guarding of the flag, besides the fortress you build," finished Mack, "but since we have some players who can't run right now, we've decided to allow each team to have a designated, stationary flag guard, should they want one."
"There's a few more nitpicky bits here and there," Hunter finished, "but that's the long and short of it. What do you say?" he asked, turning to Elena, Bobbi, Skye, and Jemma. "You lot in?"
"Definitely," Bobbi nodded.
They quickly divided into teams – Skye, Bobbi, Elena, and Clint on one side and Jemma, Fitz, Mack, Natasha, and Hunter on the other – and began assembling piles of snowballs and small snow forts to protect their soccer balls. The older kids chatted lightly as they worked, asking about different exams they had all taken, swapping inside jokes, and catching each other up on the latest news that was circulating the high school. Skye was content to listen as she rolled snowball after snowball. The fresh snow that had fallen last night was stiff and sticky – good packing snow – and it made for well-crafted snowballs, even if hers were a little lumpy from being rolled one-handed.
"I heard Kara Palamas say she's gotten into Stanford," Elena remarked as she did her best to help Clint pile up a wall of snow around their soccer ball without toppling off her crutches. "She and Coach were really excited to tell all of us on the team that she's signed on to play soccer out there."
"Yeah, I'd heard that," Clint nodded. "I'm not surprised. She's definitely good enough to play D-I, and smart enough for Stanford, so it seemed like she'd end up someplace like that."
"Good for her," Bobbi said. "They've got one of the best women's soccer programs on the West Coast there, from what I've seen."
"She'll be a little insufferable about it, I'm sure," Clint said wryly, "but I figure if you're good enough to get into a place like that, you've earned the right to be a little insufferable, at least for a few days." He laughed then, suddenly, like he'd just remembered something. "On the subject of colleges, I've also heard that Christian Ward got waitlisted at every single Ivy League school he applied to."
Bobbi bit her lip, probably to keep from smiling. Skye figured she didn't want to be too happy about someone's misfortune, but then again, this was Christian Ward they were talking about. She thought Bobbi could probably get away with being a little happy about him not getting into the schools he wanted. Cosmic balance, as Fitz would call it.
"Poor guy," Clint lamented, although by the over-dramatic way he spoke, Skye could tell he was being sarcastic. "First Kara dumps his ass, then he finds out he'll have to settle for in-state school like the rest of us paupers and plebians."
"Kara and Christian broke up?" Bobbi asked, surprised.
"Oh yeah," nodded Clint. "It was the hot topic of conversation right before you came back to school. She caught him making out with that girl on the basketball team – Lindsey something-or-other? – and she dumped an entire protein shake on his head in front of all his friends. It was hilarious."
"Probably not for Kara," Elena pointed out.
"That's true," shrugged Clint. "But at least she got the last laugh, and a ticket to play soccer in sunny California while we're all stuck here freezing our keisters off next year."
Before long, both teams had finished their preparations, and the game began in earnest. They started slow, at Natasha's recommendation, so that they all had a chance to pick up on the rules and get settled in to how the game was supposed to be played, but it wasn't long before almost everyone was sprinting back and forth between the hills, dodging wild snowball throws and doing their best to get close to the other team's ball.
Elena was a sturdy defender for their team, stationed by the fortress with a stock of snowballs to keep the likes of Hunter away. Clint's wicked aim helped keep Natasha from sneaking in too far, and Bobbi was exceptional at ducking and weaving around Mack's attempts to send her to ice jail with a well-placed snowball. As far as Skye could tell, Jemma had been selected to stand guard over the other team's ball, which made sense, given how much Jemma disliked running, and Fitz was shadowing Mack, supplying him with an almost constant stream of ready-made snowballs.
Skye had her backpack strapped tightly to her shoulders, having been made her team's jailbreaker so she wouldn't have to get her cast wet throwing snowballs, and she managed a few times to free Clint and Bobbi from ice jail. Sliding down the packed snow on hill on their way back to their own side following the jail break was definitely her favorite part of the whole game. The cold and slippery sensation of zipping down to the bottom like a penguin was delightful, even if it meant the front of her coat and sweatshirt were wet and covered in soggy snow remnants from where she'd flung herself down the hill without abandon.
Everyone was taking the game seriously, running hard and doing their best to capture the other team's flag, but that didn't stop them from all cheering wildly when Fitz managed to lead a successful jailbreak for his team or laughing themselves silly when Hunter got a face full of snow after one of Bobbi's throws veered slightly off-target and smacked him square in the nose, the snowball exploding on impact. The sides were pretty evenly matched, and there was a lot of back and forth between them as the afternoon wore on, neither one quite managing a successful capture of the soccer ball for either side. Mack came close at one point, almost making it to Skye's team's fortress before Elena managed to hit him with a last-minute snowball to the back.
The snowball must have caught him off-guard, or maybe Elena threw harder than Skye assumed, because Mack stumbled slightly, then slipped on a patch of snow that had been packed down hard enough to make it slick underfoot. His arms flailed momentarily as he tried to right himself, but before he had a chance to catch his balance, he toppled over and crashed into the side of the snow fortress, bringing the walls down around him as he fell. Skye jogged over to where he was sitting, Elena already leaning over him, to check on them both.
"Oh my god, Mack, are you okay?" Elena asked, concerned but also trying not to laugh at the sight of him sitting in a heap of half-crumbled snow walls.
"I'm good," he assured her. He was laughing as he clambered to his feet, and Elena stopped trying to fight her own laughter. "That was a good shot."
"You took it like a champ," Elena teased. "We lost our ball, though." She gestured down the hill, and Skye saw what she meant. Their soccer ball had rolled down the other side of the hill, back towards the rest of the park, and had landed somewhere under the slide on the playground.
"I'll go get it," Skye said quickly. She knew she could go faster than Elena on her crutches, and she didn't want to risk Mack taking advantage of the situation and trying to make a break with the ball once he'd retrieved it. She didn't think he'd do that – he seemed like the kind of guy to play by the rules – but Skye wasn't taking any chances. Carefully, she inched her way down the far side of the hill. The snow was thicker on this side, undisturbed by their game or passing sledders, and she didn't want to end up faceplanting into a snow drift.
As she drew closer to the playground in search of the ball, she heard a few boy's voices coming from nearby. One was little, like it belonged to a kid who couldn't be more than 6 or 7, and he sounded like he was upset about something. Another one was deeper, like it came from a much older boy, and it sounded angry. Skye also thought it sounded oddly familiar. Curious, she poked her head around the slide to take a look once she had collected the soccer ball from its resting place, and was met with unhappy sight of Grant and Christian Ward, along with a third kid, a little boy who looked like he was probably related to them.
All of the muscles in Skye's body tensed, and she drew backwards a little, skulking out of sight behind the slide. She could hear the little boy sniffling as he trudged behind the two older Ward boys.
"I don't wanna go home," the little boy cried. He reached out to tug on the back of Grant's coat, but Grant didn't turn around. "Grant, tell him I don't want to leave yet. We were gonna build a snowman, Grant, you promised."
"Stop whining, Thomas," Christian snapped. He turned around and jabbed an angry finger in the little boy's chest. "It's cold and I'm tired of being your stupid babysitter, so we're going home. Quit crying or Grant will give you something to really cry about, right, Grant?" When Grant didn't respond, just hunched his shoulders against the wind, Christian gave him a sharp smack on the back of the head, causing Grant to flinch. "I said, right, Grant?"
"Right," muttered Grant. He didn't make any move towards Thomas, but he had stopped walking towards the entrance of the park, too.
Thomas hiccupped a few times, trying to quiet his crying, if Skye had to guess, but he was having trouble calming down. "I wanted to build a snowman. Y-you promised…"
"Make him shut up, Grant," Christian growled, turning his back on the both of them and continuing to head to the entrance. "Now!"
Before Skye had a second to process what was happening, Grant reached out and shoved Thomas hard, sending him backwards until he stumbled and fell, sitting hard in a pile of snow. Thomas froze for a second, before bursting into fresh tears.
"Just come on, Thomas," Grant muttered. "We have to go." He grabbed Thomas roughly by the back of his jacket and hoisted him to his feet like a cat hauling a kitten around, but with far less kindness. Even though she knew it was a bad idea, even though she knew confronting Ward had never turned out well, Skye felt herself go hot with anger, and before she knew what she was doing, she had stepped out from behind the slide and was barreling up to the Wards.
"Hey, leave him alone!" she shouted. She marched up to Grant and planted herself between him and the younger boy. "He's just a little kid."
"Stay out of this, Skye," Grant hissed. His voice was threatening and low, but his eyes had the unmistakable flash of fear in them. "Beat it, before—"
"I know you," came Christian's voice, and Skye and Grant turned to see Christian coming back their way, the ice on his face ten times colder than the ice on the ground around them. "You're part of that pack of strays Hunter has following him around. His crazy girlfriend is your sister, right?"
"She's not crazy," Skye spat. "And she has a name."
"Not one worth remembering," Christian smirked. A roaring was building up in Skye's ears, and she could tell Christian was getting some kind of twisted amusement out of winding her up. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to stop herself from giving him the satisfaction. "Why don't you beat it, kid? Before somebody does something they'll regret?"
"I'm not going anywhere until I know you're going to stop shoving around your little brother."
"Skye," Grant said under his breath, "seriously, stay out of it."
"Wait, did you say 'Skye?'" Christian asked suddenly, realization dawning on his face. "Oh my god, this is the kid that kicked your ass? This scrawny little girl?"
"She didn't kick my ass. I was winning when the teachers broke it up."
"No wonder Dad was so pissed at you," Christian cackled cruelly. "You deserve the black eye you got from him if you lost to a freaking ten-year-old girl."
"I'm thirteen," Skye glowered, "and tougher than I look. Now back off."
"Oh, she's tougher than she looks," mocked Christian. "Too bad you can't say the same thing, Grant. You're so pathetic. You can't make Thomas shut up; you can't beat a girl—"
"I can beat her!" Grant snapped. His face was flushed with anger. "I would have won if—"
"Prove it," Christian said, his voice dangerous and low, barbed with venom. He spread his arms wide. "Prove it. Right now."
Grant hesitated. "That's stupid. Let's just go."
"No," Christian shook his head. "No, this I really want to see. Go on. Beat her ass, Grant, or I'll beat yours. Now."
Grant swallowed hard, like he was weighing his options, but Skye could tell that he wasn't going to stand up to his brother much longer. Quickly, she risked a brief glance back over to the hills to see if anyone had noticed she was gone, was maybe coming over to help step in, but there was no one. She considered calling out for help, but before she could so much as open her mouth, Grant Ward's right fist came flying at her face in a deadly right hook. She reeled backwards just in time, and his knuckles only grazed the side of her jaw. Somewhere, off to the side, Christian laughed harshly.
"Good opening move, Granty."
Skye squared her shoulders, ready to stand her ground against Grant. She took quick stock of his posture, his face. His eyes had glazed over, something hard and cruel obscuring them like cold granite. He was going to try as hard as he could to beat her. Skye knew she had to do the same.
He wound up for another punch, and this time, Skye was ready. Her body ran like it was on auto-pilot, her left hand catching his fist, her step closing the distance between them while she twisted so her elbow and shoulder were ready to strike right in Ward's stomach and chin. He let out a grunt of pain at her counter strike, and Skye realized suddenly that she had just followed the motions for the White Crane to Spread its Wings. Suddenly what May had said the other week about tai chi being rooted in self-defense clicked into place, and Skye could feel her muscles almost vibrating with all the energy she had been waiting to use. She hadn't even known that she remembered the form, much less well-enough to use in a fight, but here she was, moving without thinking and having struck the first blow.
Ward wrenched himself free of her grasp and lowered his head, careening forward in a football tackle, ready to take her to the ground. Skey tried to turn at the last second and slip out of his reach, but he plowed into her, and they both tumbled to the ground, icy snow spraying around them. Her backpack went flying, the zipper ripped open as Ward scrabbled at her as they fell. Somehow Ward ended up on the top of their tangle, and he pinned her to the ground. He pulled back a fist, aiming right for her face, but Skye used her free hand to scoop up a wad of snow and chuck it at Ward's eyes. He staggered backwards, off-balance and blinded enough that Skye could wriggle free.
She clambered to her feet in time to see Christian aim a wicked kick at Grant's ribs, then turn on her. "Guess I have to do everything myself, as usual," he snarled. In the blink of an eye, he had Skye's arms held fast, and he twisted them painfully behind her back as he forced her into a kneeling position in the snow. The knees of her jeans were damp as they pressed against the frosty ground, and her arms hurt in Christian's vice grip, her cast pressed sharply into her back. She struggled against him, but he just tightened his grip painfully.
"My brother may be a pathetic excuse of a man," he sneered, right in her ear. His voice and the feeling of his hot breath so close to her face made her skin crawl. "But if you ever embarrass our family again, I'll personally see to it that your gimpy sister never walks again, you got it?"
He pressed down on her hard, and she buckled under the pressure, folding like a paper bag until her face was pressed into the snow. The cold against her cheek was sharp and shocking, and she let out a small gasp. She writhed against his hold, but even she had to admit that she didn't stand much of a chance against an 18-year-old football player. Still, she wasn't about to let him think for a second that she'd ever let him lay a hand Bobbi.
"Don't you dare touch her," she warned. She jerked her arms back as hard as she could, jamming her cast and her elbows into whatever part of Christian's body was closest to her, and she heard him hiss in pain as his grip slackened slightly. She twisted around to free up her legs and aimed a kick at Christian. She missed, but her flying foot was enough to force him to back up far enough that she could untangle herself from his grasp and scramble to her feet.
"Hey!" An angry voice rang out, and Skye looked around wildly to see a group of people charging down the hill towards them, Bobbi leading the way with pure, white-hot fire in her eyes. "Leave my sister alone!"
"Speak of the freak herself," Christian panted, swiping at his nose, which Skye was more than a little proud to see she must have bloodied with her elbow a moment ago. "We were just talking about you."
Before anybody had a moment to react, before Natasha or Mack or Hunter or anybody had caught up to Bobbi, Bobbi charged forward and brought her knee up to Christian's beltline, planting it hard with the precision that Skye was sure only a soccer player could muster. Somewhere behind them, Skye could hear Hunter whooping with delight as Christian doubled over with a howl and sank weakly to his knees. He glared up at Bobbi, his eyes streaming.
"Don't come near my family ever again, you got that?" Bobbi growled. "You don't want to know what else I can do."
"You're such a psycho, you and your whole damn family," Christian spat, wheezing slightly. He pulled himself to his feet unsteadily as the rest of Bobbi's friends drew level with them, Fitz and Jemma trailing behind at the back of the pack and looking, in Fitz's case, thoroughly impressed, and thoroughly stressed in Jemma's.
"A psycho who just laid you out flat," Hunter crowed. "Too bad your mates weren't here to see you go down like a ragdoll, Ward. I bet they'd think very highly of you, the way you took that fall."
"Shut up, Hunter, before I shut your mouth for you."
"Big talk for a guy who's outnumbered more than 6 to 1," Clint said coolly.
"I'm not scared of you people," Christian sneered. "You're lucky there's only one of me. I can beat the crap out of any one of you in a fair fight. Just ask Hunter. I kicked his ass before; I'll do it again."
"Do you realize how pathetic you sound?" Natasha asked with a bark of laughter. "You don't know when to slink off and lick your wounds. You lost, Ward. Get over it."
"You're all dead," said Christian, his voice cold. "So completely dead. You better learn to walk the halls looking over your shoulders, because this isn't over. Not by a long shot."
"What's going on over here?" A new voice, one that startled Skye, but immediately flooded her senses with relief, reached her ears. Everyone turned to see May, picking her way towards them through the snow. Her eyes flashed dangerously. "Is everyone all right?"
"We're fine, lady," Christian said, before anyone else could speak. "Nothing's going on."
"It sounds to me like you're threatening my daughters and their friends," May said darkly. "I'd advise you not to do that in the future."
"Your…" Christian looked around at the angry faces surrounding him, like he was trying to figure out which of them exactly belonged to May. "What are you going to do about it?" he scoffed, although Skye thought she saw his confidence slip slightly under May's impenetrable glare. "What are you, a member of the PTA? Going to report me to the principal, give me detention? I'm 18, about to graduate. That shit doesn't matter to me anymore."
"No," May said evenly, "I'm not in the PTA. But I do know at least 14 nonlethal ways to incapacitate a person, and, perhaps more significantly to you, I'm a cop. And I can tell you right now that if you ever lay so much as a finger on my children or anyone else's children ever again, I'll have you arrested so fast you won't know which way is up. Something tells me that might matter to you, even if detention doesn't."
Christian blanched for the briefest moment, before quickly slapping a look of cool disdain back on his face. "Whatever. You people aren't even worth it anymore. Grant, Thomas, we're leaving. And you better hope I don't tell Dad what kind of trouble you caused today." He turned on his heel then and grabbed both boys roughly by the arms and dragged them off towards the parking lot. Skye noticed Grant grimace and clutch at his ribs where Christian had kicked him earlier, and Thomas looked like he was about to cry again. Something uncomfortable flipflopped in her stomach as she watched them leave.
"Are you all okay?" May asked softly, once Christian had gone. She looked from face to face, checking on each of them, and everyone took turns nodding. When she got to Skye's, her eyes got sad. "Skye, are you okay?" She stepped closer and brushed her fingers lightly across the tender spot on Skye's jaw where Ward had half-punched her and the place on her cheek where the frozen ground had scraped across her skin when Christian had pushed her head into the snow and dirt. "What happened?"
It suddenly felt to Skye like all of the fear and anger and frustration and anxiety that she'd been keeping at bay all afternoon bubbled up into the back of her throat, clawing at her ribs with crooked talons and making her knees wobble. She had thought she was done with fighting, with being at the mercy of people bigger and stronger than her, but that had obviously not been true. There would always be people bigger and stronger, people who wanted to hurt others, hurt her, hurt her family.
"They… he…" she shook her head and was embarrassed to feel something hot burning at the corners of her eyes. "It doesn't matter. Bobbi stopped him. I tried to stop him first, but I couldn't make… Bobbi stopped him, though."
"He had Skye pinned on the ground," Bobbi said quietly. "She got free, and then I came up and… stopped him, I guess."
"Obliterated his chance at producing offspring, more like," Mack corrected, snickering.
"I don't know what started the whole thing, though," Bobbi continued. "We were playing over there and we realized we didn't know where you were, Skye. Then when we found you, you and Christian were fighting."
"I fought Grant first," Skye said flatly. "They were picking on their little brother, and I tried to stop them. Christian told Grant to fight me, made him do it, I guess. When Grant couldn't beat me, Christian took over."
"You held your own against two Wards?" Elena let out a low whistle and shook her head. "Remind me not to get into a ring with you."
"I did White Crane," Skye remembered, turning her face up to May's, hopeful that she wouldn't be too mad about the fact that Skye had used fighting to solve her problems again, even though she had promised to do better. "I blocked Grant's punch and got him with my elbow. I didn't even know I was doing it until it was over, but the forms… I remembered them."
"I'm glad they helped keep you safe," May said gently, after a moment. "That's what matters to me most right now. That you're all safe."
"Can… can we go home now?" Skye asked, her voice not quite as strong as she wished it would be. Suddenly she was feeling very small and very tired, and all she really wanted was to be home, with their family all safely tucked away inside with her, the rest of the world shuttered away behind closed doors and drawn blinds.
"I think that's probably a good idea," May said with a nod. "Let's go home."
"We should probably all go home," Natasha agreed. She beckoned for the others to follow her. "Bobbi, we'll catch up with you later, okay? We're still on for a movie marathon this weekend, yeah?" Bobbi nodded and waved goodbye to her friends. Hunter was the last to leave.
"I'll call you," he said quietly, smiling at her. "You were bloody brilliant today, Bob. Hope you know that."
Bobbi smiled back at him, and it didn't escape Skye's notice that Bobbi's cheeks turned a little pinker than normal. Something told her it wasn't just the cold that was responsible for it, either.
"Skye, is this all your stuff on the ground over here?" May asked, once it was just the four of them left. She took a few steps over to where Skye's backpack was sitting, tossed carelessly off to the side and zipper hanging open. Several papers had blown out and were now sitting, stuck and soggy, in the snow. May picked them up and glanced at them before putting them away.
"What's this? Is this your test from earlier this week?"
Skye blinked, giving her brain to catch up to May's question, and she realized that May must have picked up her science test. It felt like so long ago that Skye had been ecstatic over the grade. Now it barely felt like it mattered. "Oh, uh… yeah. We got them back today."
"You got a B?" May asked, eyes sparkling with pride. Skye shrugged and looked down at the ground, a little bashful. "Skye, I'm… I'm so proud of you. That's such an achievement. You worked so hard for this. I can't wait for you to show Phil, he'll be so excited."
And he was. When Skye showed him her test later that night, a little crumpled and still slightly damp from the afternoon's excitement, Phil's entire face split into one of the biggest smiles Skye had ever seen.
"Skye, this is incredible. I knew you could do it," he beamed. He wrapped her up in a bear hug and squeezed her in that way that was almost too tight, but felt so good that Skye didn't mind one bit. "I'm so proud of you, kiddo. So incredibly proud."
He carried the test over to the fridge and stuck it on the front with a magnet, between a math test of Jemma's that she'd scored 104% on and Bobbi's progress report from her physical therapist, for everyone to see.
"Look at my girls," he glowed. "You all are so remarkable. Don't ever forget that. We're so proud of all three of you."
"Don't ever forget that either," May said, coming up behind them and smiling. "You've all worked so hard this year, have made so much progress. Phil and I could not be prouder or more grateful to have you all in our lives."
"Not to spoil the mood," Phil said after a minute, "but do I want to know what happened here?" He pointed to Skye's face, which still bore the signs of the afternoon's scuffle.
"May and Bobbi handled it," Skye shrugged. "No biggie."
"Okay, if you say so," nodded Phil. He looked like he wanted to press further, but he abstained. Skye couldn't help but appreciate him trusting her enough to not go fishing for more information. He smiled at her. "Can you at least promise to put some ice on that 'no-biggie,' there?"
"I will."
The rest of the night passed quietly, which Skye didn't mind. They ate spaghetti for dinner, one of her favorites, and after they'd eaten, they went into the living room, where Phil played them some old-timey sounding Christmas music on his dusty old record player while they sat basking in the multi-colored, twinkling lights of their recently decorated tree. The singers of the songs all had funny names like Bing and Burl, but the music was warm and cozy feeling. Or maybe that was just because Skye herself was feeling so warm and cozy, sandwiched on the couch between May and Jemma, with Bobbi and Phil both just a few more feet away. Either way, it was nice.
Eventually it was time to get ready for bed, and everyone began drifting off to turn in for the night, except for May, who lingered on the couch.
"Skye?" she called, before Skye had started up the stairs. "Could I talk to you for a minute?"
Curious, Skye obliged her and returned to the living room. She tried not to let apprehension flare up in her stomach. She didn't think she had done anything wrong recently, besides the fight, that May would want to scold her about, and besides, she was learning that a talk with May or Phil was usually not such a bad thing, regardless of the topic of conversation.
May patted the spot on the couch next to her, indicating that Skye should join her. Skye sat and, without really thinking about what she was doing, she tucked her feet up under her and curled into May's side. It surprised her a little, but something about it felt natural, felt good, and May didn't object, so Skye stayed where she was.
"You've been kind of quiet tonight," May said softly. She started running her fingers through Skye's hair, and Skye melted at the touch. "I just wanted to make sure you were really okay, after everything that happened this afternoon. I know it was a lot."
Skye was silent for a while, soaking in the closeness and the comfort of May while she tried to decide what exactly to say. It had been a lot, and May didn't even really know the full story. She didn't know the part that had been weighing the most heavily on Skye's mind all evening.
"I'm okay," she finally said, not much louder than murmur. "I'm not really hurt and… everything happened so fast I didn't really have time to be scared."
"I understand," May hummed. "Sometimes, when something intense happens to me at work, I don't realize how frightened I was until hours later, once I'm safe and can actually think about what happened. Are you feeling scared now?"
"Not so much," Skye said. "Everybody was there to protect me. Bobbi totally took him down, and you…" Skye paused and bit back a grin. "You scared him so bad. I don't think he's going to mess with us anymore. Him or Grant."
"That's good. I don't want anyone to ever mess with you or hurt you, ever again. I'll always do my best to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen to you, or Jemma or Bobbi."
A gentle silence fell over them again, but Skye didn't make any move to get up or end the conversation, even if she wasn't sure what she was supposed to say next. Her thoughts were all jumbled and confused, her inputs all scrambled, and all she really wanted to do was stay there and feel May stroking her hair, feel the rise and fall of May's chest against her tender cheek.
"Is there something else that's bothering you?" May asked, after a few more minutes. "Something that we haven't talked about yet?"
Skye hesitated. "I… I don't know how to explain it."
"I'm sure we could figure it out together, if you wanted to try."
"It's… it's about why I got in the fight in the first place. I know I'm not supposed to, but… I didn't know what else to do."
"What happened?"
"Grant and Christian, I didn't know this, but they have another brother. A little one, named Thomas. And he was there today."
"I remember," May nodded. "He didn't look very old, maybe first or second grade."
"He was crying, and Christian wanted him to be quiet, so he told Grant to make him. Grant was pushing him around to get him to stop, but that only made him cry more."
"So you stepped in?"
"Kind of," Skye admitted. "I just thought they shouldn't be picking on their brother like that. It was weird, though, because even though Grant's a huge jerk to us at school, he didn't really seem like he wanted to do what Christian was saying. Christian hit him, I saw. And the way he was talking, it sounded like maybe… like maybe their dad hits him, too."
May was quiet for a while, and Skye risked a glance up at her face to try and gauge what May might be thinking. Her expression was serious, her mouth a tight line.
"I guess what's really bothering me is… If you think a person might be in trouble, and you think you might know a way to help them, should you do it, no matter what? Even if that person's not a good person? If they've been horrible to you before and hurt you and your friends?"
"What do you think?" May asked gently. "Do you think you should try and help people, no matter what?"
Skye paused before answering, but as her reply came, she could feel in her chest that she believed it wholeheartedly. "I think… yes. I think you always have to try. If someone needs help, it's our job to try and give it. Because if you don't help someone, who knows if anyone else will? You've got to be the person who helps, any time you can."
"I think that's a very honorable and mature thing to say," May told her. She tightened the muscles in the arm that was draped over Skye's shoulders, giving her a little squeeze. "And I think now that you've answered your own question, you know what you have to do."
"Can we call Miss Hand tomorrow?" Skye asked. "I think I need to tell her about Grant and Thomas. I think they need help, and I think she can do it."
"We absolutely can," promised May. She shifted slightly, so that she could look more directly at Skye's face. Her eyes were shining, and Skye worried for a second that she'd done something to upset May.
"I'm so proud of you," May murmured thickly, squeezing Skye again. "I know I've already said that today, but I think I mean it even more now than I did a few hours ago. So proud, Skye, of the amazing human being you've become. I love you so much, I think my heart might burst."
"Well don't let that happen," Skye chided playfully as she nestled deeper into May's side. "You already said we're trying not to go back to the hospital anytime soon. Really we're not trying to anywhere, right?"
"No," May agreed. "No, we're not going anywhere. I'm staying right here, my love. Right here."