A/N: Hey agents, I'm terribly sorry for the lack of updates. Some IRL stuff was weighing me down making it harder to get any words on the page, but things have been getting better and I was able to get this chapter finished for an update. This chapter is more of a filler chapter, but it does set the stage for something really important. Anyway, hope you guys have an awesome day today and good luck watching Endgame! I'm seeing it today and I'm terrified.

Summary: Agents Melinda May and Phil Coulson are put on a new assignment to look after an object of unknown origin, an 0-8-4. The only catch is this 0-8-4 is a person. A fourteen year old girl who's spent her life in the foster system is now in more danger than ever. A man beast is hunting her and SHIELD has to make sure that it doesn't get close to her. AU

Please ignore spelling or grammar mistakes, I double checked, but probably missed some.

Chapter 15 October 2011

It had not been a good day. Well, not a good few days for Skye actually.

Over the weekend Natasha left her. Then she got into a fight with Simmons over something stupid, Fitz followed Simmons so he wasn't talking to her much either. They worked it out the next day, but her mood didn't improve. She failed a test and usually that wouldn't bother her, but she deserved at least a C. Not to mention Phil and Melinda we're getting on her last nerve. They seemed on edge about something, but she had no idea what about. Lincoln and Ward were finding her sour mood entertaining so they wouldn't leave her alone. Trip was the only human being whose presence wasn't going to be the death of her.

Needless to say the universe had it out for Skye. Things of course got worse with the next week that followed. So she found herself in a place she shouldn't have been in. Even though Hyde had forced her and Robbie into fighting circles, there were plenty of times she did enjoy getting in the ring. She was a winner in the fights usually, her smaller size and pointy elbows seemed to give her an advantage when she fought, not to mention the tips Robbie gave her. When life was getting to her these past few days, she started going back to those fights. She won some, lost some. This was where she found herself on Saturday night.

She told the Mayson's she was going out with friends. It wasn't a complete lie, she did hang out with her friends for an hour before saying she had to go and came here. There were two rings in this underground circuit, adults vs adults and teens vs young adults. The rules weren't always followed, but it made it easier to get away with in the sense of adults weren't beating the shit out of kids.

Skye leaned back against the concrete wall, her right side was killing her and she knew she would have a wicked bruise for the next week or so. Even though she won the fight, got the money, she felt awful. Not just from the physical pain. She just felt like a wreck, a failure, disappointment. Things were just not going her way recently. Skye ran her fingers through her hair, everything she had done wrong or poorly in the past week came flooding through her mind. Her eyes started burning with the tears she couldn't shed now, here in all places.

"Hey," she called to Brock, one of the 'coordinators', "Put me back in."

He turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow, "You sure about that?"

Skye stood up sharply, she ignored the pulsing pain in her side, "Yes. Put me in next round."

Brock released a sigh and muttered something she couldn't hear. However a few minutes after the current fight ended she was back in the center of the ring. Her opponent was a slightly older girl, likely her late teens or early twenties. Didn't bother Skye, she just wanted to fight someone. The girl she was fighting had her blonde hair tied into a ponytail, a busted lip from the last fight she in, but it looked like the blood had dried to her mouth and cheek. She attacked her first, Skye dodged easily enough. Her lessons with May had actually proved more helpful than she originally thought. It almost made her wish Hyde had put her and Robbie into martial arts to give them a better chance at fighting.

In her moment of musing, her opponent landed a solid kick to her already beaten up side. Skye couldn't stay up, she fell to the ground as the crowd screamed and cheered. She managed to roll away from the girl's next attack, even landed a good punch to her jaw. Skye's knuckles ached from the punching she had been doing the past few days, every other night sneaking out and back in, fighting with bruised knuckles that refused to heal. Luckily her fingerless gloves were making it easy to hide from the Mayson's and her friends.

There was that run in with Melinda, but she didn't want to think of that now. None of them cared about what was wrong with her, not really, but it made her feel better to hide it in case someone asked questions. The fight continued, she lost this round, but held her own and escaped with bruises she could hide. The cut on her right eyebrow however was going to be a little more difficult to explain away and hide. Though she could say it happened when she was messing around the bleachers at school, something she had done before as a child.

"Skye?"

Skye froze in her spot, she turned around sharply to see one of her friends from school. It was Ward. He was dressed in black pants and a white t-shirt that had splatters of blood and dirt on it. His right eye looked a little red and a bruise was definitely forming there. Otherwise, he looked unharmed. However seeing him here at all was jarring, but at the same time Skye wasn't too surprised. It was no secret Ward had anger issues and a difficult past, it made sense why he would be here. That wouldn't stop her from asking though.

"Ward, what, what are you doing here," Skye asked him moving to stand in front of him.

"I could ask you the same question," Ward said crossing his arms over his chest, "I've been coming here for awhile. Had been absent the past week for some other reasons. Your turn."

Skye slipped her hands into her pockets, "I needed to blow off some steam."

"You've been to these fights before," Ward said, it wasn't a question.

"Yeah, previous foster home, but different state," Skye said simply, "Finding a fighting ring took a little work, but I had found it weeks ago and only now needed to come. I've been coming the past few days."

"Since the incident that you and Simmons talked about," Ward asked.

Skye shook her head, "No, it was after. I've been coming here for like a week and not every day either. Why are you here?"

"Doesn't matter," Ward said abruptly.

Skye crossed her arms over her chest, "Come on Ward, don't be like that. You can tell me why you're really here."

Ward glanced away, his jaw clenched and unclenched, "It really doesn't matter. You shouldn't be here, this isn't a place for you."

"But it is for you," Skye remarked with a narrowed gaze.

"Yeah, this is a place for me," Ward answered meeting her gaze, "You should go."

"I have another round left in me," Skye replied, "Or we can leave together."

Ward inhaled sharply, "No, I have a few rounds to get through. I'm staying, you're leaving."

"Last I checked, you aren't the boss of me. I can do what I want," Skye said bitterly.

"Okay then," Ward said and stormed off.

Skye watched him go with an annoyed expression wondering what his problem was. Though part of her feared he would tell someone, that would mean incriminating himself to being in places like this and participating. She had a feeling he was here for the same reason she used to be here with Robbie. Because someone in power said she had to. Skye released a shuddering breath, she didn't really have anymore fight left in her, but she didn't feel like leaving Ward here. He would be fine on his own, she knew that, but he was still her friend. He didn't finish until two am, but Skye was glad she stayed with him. Even though Ward wouldn't admit, he was grateful Skye stayed with him this whole time.

The two left the place, since neither one had plans to stop they decided to come here together and leave together. If one was hurt, they would look after each other and take the other's fights. Ward didn't like the idea of Skye taking any of his fights, but he was touched that she suggested it. It was what she and Robbie would do when they had to go to fights. Skye snuck back into the Mayson house, into her room and crawled into bed. Exhaustion was taking over, however before sleep claimed her she heard her door open and saw a ray of light fill the dark room.

Coulson walked back in the master bedroom with a relieved expression on his face. That told May all she needed to know, Skye had come back.

"She just got back," Coulson said taking a seat on his side of the bed, "Barely hit the pillow before she was asleep."

May nodded, but didn't make a verbal reply. As two highly trained agents they knew Skye had been sneaking out these past few nights. For the past week or so she seemed to be out of it, pushing the limits they set and on the verge of a explosion. It couldn't be helped though. May knew every teen goes through this phase, to see just how far they can go and then go further to test those waters. It didn't necessarily bother May or Coulson, they had a feeling they should let Skye have these moments to get it out of her system.

Plus they weren't making it that easy for her. Maria had told them there was a new lead in the case for the Manbeast and a witness account of what happened. This rose a lot of concerns for May and Coulson, they had tightened their reigns a bit on Skye and her response was to pull further away. It didn't sit well with Coulson, if anything it was causing him more pain than he would ever admit. Over the past month, somewhere along the way and likely in the beginning, Skye was not a ward to him. She was one of his girl's now. He, he had to protect her at any and all costs, but here he was. Just letting her put herself in danger. It was killing him.

"Why are we letting her sneak out again when a raging lunatic is out there," Coulson asked with a sigh.

May glanced at him, "Because we have a tracker on her and Clint is in town."

Coulson made a face, "What if the tracker is disabled? What will we do when Clint leaves?"

"The tracker shouldn't have any problems and it alerts us if it loses power. When Clint leaves, one of us can go after her," May answered simply.

"How are you so okay with this, we don't even know what she's doing out there," Coulson questioned.

"Street fighting Phil," May told him flatly, "She's going to underground fighting rings."

Coulson jerked, his eyes widened with horror, "What? How do you know? You said you followed her one night, but said she was fine. She's going to fights? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Skye asked me not to," May said simply.

"May," Coulson said, his shoulders sagged and voice desperate.

May released a sigh, "Look, Skye is dealing with something the only way she knows how. I can't force her not to go, we can drag her back kicking and screaming, but one way or another she will get back there. We either let her go and know where she is, or we try house arrest and she disappears."

"We need to help her," Coulson said, "We can't just let her keep going."

"No, we have to let Skye sort this through on her own."

"So that means leaving her out there in potentially, no actually, harmful situations?"

"She will find a way there regardless of what we do."

"So we put our foot down and don't let her go. It's for her own good."

"If we do that she'll continue to act out and push it further."

"It doesn't matter. It's our job to protect her. Especially from that thing hunting her. We can't let her go again!"

May inhaled as she wondered what she could say, "Phil, you remember the weeks after Bahrain."

"This is hardly-," Coulson tried to say, but was cut off.

"Yes, they are different, but you remember how well the pushes went," May interrupted with a stern gaze, "They sent me further away. If we push Skye, if we try to hold the reins too tight, she will continue this way."

"We can't play reverse psychology with her safety and life on the line," Coulson argued earnestly.

May leaned forward, "The most danger Skye is in is getting a few bruises. The underground ring is not SHIELD jurisdiction by any means, but that doesn't mean agents aren't there. Besides, Skye isn't the only student from Carter Academy who fights there."

"What," Coulson said confused.

May chuckled weakly. She forgot about how Phillip goody two shoes Coulson wouldn't be caught dead trying to sneak out to an underground fighting ring. Though in later years of training, he did go to those fights a handful of times to get experience and for some mission that required it. Even though the underground fights weren't part of the curriculum for the high schoolers, it was for the real agents in training. May had gone to plenty of them, those were some of the most fun times she had.

"What's so funny," Coulson asked with a mild glare.

"You never went to the underground fights," May said, "You were too much of a rule follower then."

Coulson looked like he wanted to argue, but shook his head to say something else, "You said the fights weren't under SHIELD's jurisdiction, so why are there students fighting?"

May leaned back against the headboard, "The more advanced students are there for experience, they go every so often to get better at fighting an opponent who isn't calculating and more wild. It forces them to adjust their styles and not give away that they are trained agents. If something were to happen to Skye, the other agents monitoring it would get her out and pass her to Clint."

Coulson was quiet for a few moments, unsure of what to say. This whole time he had been on the verge of pulling out what hair he had left because he thought Skye was in real danger. She was still in danger, but not nearly as much as he believed before. A pulse of anger went through as he looked at May, wondering why she didn't just say that in the beginning.

Coulson sighed heavily, "Why not tell me all of that? Just because Skye asked you not to?"

"It's hard to tell her no," May answered honestly, "I'm telling you this now so you can take a breath. We will handle this, but a confrontation won't do the trick. For the time being we need to let her be, but soon we'll have an intervention."

"Here I would have thought that would be your take," Coulson commented.

May shrugged, "At another time it was, but this is different. Skye isn't just some agent we can just discipline with push ups or slow missions. She's a frustrated teenager struggling to find her place. We can be there for her, but we can't infringe, not as much as we want to."

Coulson chuckled softly, but he quickly faded, "I just, I don't want to fail her you know? It seems like her whole life, all people have done is let her down."

"We won't be them," May said, her voice leaving no room for argument.

Coulson still countered, "What about when this mission is over? When the manbeast is found and she's safe? She won't be with us anymore and just like that we'll have let her down too. What then?"

May frowned at that. To an extent, Coulson was right. It didn't matter how good they were with Skye now or later, once the mission was over she would be gone from their lives. May tried to ignore the ache she felt in her chest at the thought of never seeing Skye again. Though emotions were not on her radar, she did care about the teen more than she should have allowed herself to. Compartmentalizing had been her strong suit, Agent May was capable of keeping all her priorities in check and not letting anything distract her from the task at hand.

Besides she didn't have the time or energy to care about others, not anymore. There were few exceptions and she knew despite herself that Skye had become one of those exceptions. It was obvious she was for Coulson. He cared about her the girl the moment he met her and he's been wanting to care for her since. To protect her, to be there for her. May recalled how he told her about the nightmares. How he found Skye in the hall struggling not to sob her heart out. How he had been powerless to do anything, but be there. How he wanted to make sure she never had to be so afraid ever again, but it wasn't possible.

He couldn't protect her forever. Neither could she. However May did know one thing she could do. It had been in the back of her mind for years now, but she never had the heart to leave SHIELD completely because for so long it was her life. Everything about her had come from SHIELD and saying goodbye entirely would have been too much, but now, now she could say goodbye.

"I would tell you I don't know," May said softly, "But in reality, it just means there's a high chance I'm leaving SHIELD."