Running late again on the update! Here it is! Author's note is tiny because I am rushing but let me just say really quick that you all are WONDERFUL and unfortunately, things for Skye and Nat are going to get significantly worse before they get better. But hang in there and we will get there!

Disclaimer: don't own Agents of Shield

"But your homework! You're not going to get credit for it!" Skye let out an indignant breath and stubbornly stomped her foot. Skye had been upset about Natasha not being able to turn in her homework since she realized it this morning. Now they were on their way to school and her little sister still wouldn't stop talking about it.

Natasha sighed, "It's not a big deal Skye."

Her sister just stomped her foot again and kept walking beside her. Natasha was impressed that the little girl hadn't tripped yet.

After The Dish Incident, which was what they were calling Friday night, they had crept downstairs to pick up their homework only to find it torn to shreds and dumped into the garbage. Luckily, Skye had just been practicing her letters so it didn't really matter that her papers were gone. On the other hand, John had ruined her sheet of vocabulary words and that was the only copy she had. She had no way of retrieving the words, John had done a good job of tearing the paper into itty bitty pieces, and so she had no way of finishing her homework, something that Skye was very worried about.

Natasha was more worried about the bruise on her sister's forehead.

Luckily, when Natasha had banged her head, she had only hurt the side of it so if there was a bruise, no one would see it. The whole right of poor Skye's forehead was an ugly, yellowish blue color. Even though the bruise looked terrible now, it had been even worse Saturday and Sunday. It had been a dark black and purple bruise and it had taken a lot of ice for the tenderness to start to fade. This morning, all Becky had said to them was to keep their mouths shut about the bruise and Natasha really needed Skye to remember the story they had come up with.

She tugged on Skye's hand so that her sister would give her her full attention and said, "Tell me what you're going to say if anyone asks about your forehead." Natasha knew that someone would ask, probably Mr. Coulson, and Nat needed Skye to be ready for that.

Skye kicked a rock in front of her and sighed, "I fell when I was playing soccer with you."

Natasha nodded, "And?"

"And the doctor said that everything was okay and I don't have a con..concufin."

"A concussion." Natasha had had to sneak onto Becky's computer to look that up. People were less likely to be suspicious if you told them you went to see a doctor and used medical language.

Skye nodded, "A concussion." Her sister repeated the word a few more times until she remembered it.

They approached their school and Natasha didn't even acknowledge the lady that held the front door open for them, "Tell your teacher that John said that he doesn't want you to run around during recess today but make sure you call John your dad."

Skye's nose scrunched up and she raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Because that's what a good dad would probably say."

Her sister thought about that for a second before nodding. Natasha stared at the ugly bruise on Skye's forehead and winced, "Be careful not to hit your head on anything okay? I don't want you to get hurt."

Skye pulled her down their hallway and she saw both of their teachers greeting their students by their doors, "I'll be super careful."

Content that Skye was telling the truth and was taking her warning seriously, Natasha let her sister pull her down the hallway. Rather than walk past Mrs. May and towards Skye's classroom like they usually did, Skye stopped in front of Mrs. May.

Natasha tugged on the little girl's hand in an attempt to get her to keep moving but her sister didn't budge.

Mrs. May focused on them and Natasha watched as Skye put a hand on her hip and lifted her chin. Oh boy, she knew that stance.

Natasha saw Mrs. May's eyes pause on the bruise on Skye's forehead but her teacher gave them both a small smile and said, "Good morning girls."

Skye nodded absentmindedly and forcefully said, "Nattie did her homework but she can't show you. You should give her credit for it though because she did do it, I promise."

Of course Skye wouldn't let this go. Natasha should have known better.

Mrs. May glanced at her before focusing back on Skye, "Why can't she show it to me?"

Her sister looked momentarily perplexed for a moment before spluttering, "B-because it accidently got… thrown away. Right?"

Skye turned to her with an unsure look on her face and Natasha nodded with as much confidence as she could muster, "Our dad thought it was trash by mistake." Calling John Garrett her dad made Nat feel a little nauseous but she ignored that feeling and focused on not letting Skye get caught in a lie.

Mrs. May was silent as she studied them. Her teacher seemed to make up her mind before leaning down a little and nodding at Skye, "You promise that she did it?"

Skye nodded seriously, "I promise."

Mrs. May tilted her head, "Okay, I'll give Natasha credit."

Skye looked surprised and Natasha understood why. She didn't actually think that this would have worked but apparently she should have given her sister more credit.

Skye shook the shock off her face and looked proud instead, "Okay, thanks."

Her little sister tugged on her hand and started to pull her away from Mrs. May before her teacher's voice stopped them, "Is your forehead alright Skye?"

Not even pausing, Skye looked over her shoulder and gave Mrs. May a tiny smile, "It's alright."

Natasha let her little sister tug her towards her kindergarten classroom but before they got to Mr. Coulson, Nat stopped walking. Skye looked back at her and raised an eyebrow and Natasha pointed back towards where she was sure Mrs. May was still watching them, "Why'd you do that?"

Skye crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Because you did do your homework and you should get credit for it. It's John's fault that you can't and it's not right."

Shaking her head, Natasha pulled Skye in for a hug. Her little sister still believed that if someone did something good, they deserved to get credit for it, and if someone did something bad, they shouldn't get away with it. Natasha wished that she could still see things that way, in black and white, but she knew better. She knew that sometimes bad guys got away with doing bad things and no one noticed. Sometimes people did good things and other people got credit for it. The world didn't work the way Skye thought it did and no matter how many times Nat tried to tell her sister that, Skye adamantly refused to believe it.

Skye still tried to look for the good in the world and Natasha had stopped trying to do that a long, long time ago.

Skye stepped out of the hug and gave her a grin, "It worked didn't it?"

Making sure to avoid touching the bruise on her forehead, Natasha brushed Skye's hair back. She hadn't wanted to risk hurting Skye by pulling her hair back into a braid today so her little sister's long hair kept falling into her face. Ignoring the anger that flared through her every time she looked at Skye's bruise, she gave Skye a small smile, "Yeah, it worked."

Skye's grin turned into a proud smirk, "I'm just that good."

Natasha tugged her sister towards her classroom, "Yeah, yeah."

She heard Skye laugh and her smile grew a little bigger.

When they approached Mr. Coulson, he was excitedly talking to a little boy in Skye's class so he didn't notice them. Natasha knew that he was going to ask about the bruise at some point today and she would rather be there with Skye when he did, so rather than say goodbye and leave like she normally did, she stood by her sister and waited for Mr. Coulson to acknowledge them.

She noticed when Skye started fidgeting from side to side and could tell that she was nervous. Her little sister's thumb started to work its way towards her mouth and Natasha gently but firmly reached over and guided Skye's hand back down to her side. Her sister leaned into her side in response.

Finally, Mr. Coulson turned to them and his smile slipped away from his face when he saw Skye, "Are you okay Skye? What happened to your forehead?"

As Mr. Coulson reached a hand towards Skye and took a step towards her sister, Natasha moved to protectively stand in front of her. She gave Mr. Coulson a look that clearly said that if he didn't back off she was going to do something he wouldn't like. Skye squeezed her hand reassuringly and moved so that she was standing next to Natasha rather than behind her.

Mr. Coulson looked shocked and Nat didn't miss how he glanced behind them to where Mrs. May was standing by her classroom. Natasha eyed him for another second before Skye squeezed her hand again and Nat forced her posture to relax slightly.

Skye gave Mr. Coulson a small grin, "I'm okay, I just fell when I was playing soccer with Nattie."

Mr. Coulson looked like he wanted to take another step towards them but his eyes flickered to Natasha and he stayed where he was, "It looks like it hurts a lot Skye. Maybe you should have the nurse take a look at it."

Skye's thumb was starting to sneak back towards her mouth again and Natasha could tell that her little sister didn't like lying to Mr. Coulson and was nervous. She decided to jump in, "The doctor said that she was okay."

Mr. Coulson raised an eyebrow, "You went to see a doctor?"

Natasha put a hand on her hip, "Of course we did. Skye hit her head pretty hard and J...our parents were worried."

She caught herself before she called John by his name and she hoped that her lie was convincing enough. There was no way that John or Becky would worry enough about them to take them to a hospital but Natasha guessed that most parents would and she didn't want Mr. Coulson to suspect them of anything.

Mr. Coulson was quiet for a few moments so Skye spoke up, "The doctor said I don't have a c...con...concus…"

Skye gave her a helpless look and Nat helped her out, "A concussion."

Skye nodded, "But my dad said to tell you that I'm not allowed to run around at recess today just in case."

They both held their breath as Mr. Coulson considered their lie. Skye's teacher looked between the two of them before finally nodding, "Okay, you're very lucky Skye. Head injuries can be very serious."

Natasha thought back to all the time she's hit her head because of John or Becky and hoped that her brain was going to be okay.

Skye nodded seriously, "I know."

Mr. Coulson just straightened up, "I'll bring out some coloring books so that you can color during recess. That way you won't be bored."

Her sister smiled and let go of Natasha's hand before turning around and standing on her tip toes so that she could press a kiss to Nat's cheek as a goodbye. Skye walked towards her classroom and Nat called after her, "Be careful with your head okay?"

Skye slightly turned back and nodded before continuing on into her classroom. Nat watched after her until she noticed that Mr. Coulson was studying her. His serious look looked out of place on his normally carefree face and she nodded at him before quickly heading back towards her own classroom.

Phil couldn't help but stare at the tender-looking bruise on Skye's forehead as his student focused all of her attention on the superhero coloring book he had brought out for her to color in during recess.

The bruise on Skye's forehead looked like it hurt a lot and Phil had a hard time believing that Skye had gotten it while playing soccer. If she had fallen and hit her head on a rock or on the pavement, there would most likely be little cuts on her forehead but there weren't any. It was a good thing Skye had gotten her head looked at by a doctor because he knew how tricky head injuries could be. At least, he hoped Skye had gotten her head looked at by a real doctor. He wasn't sure if he fully believed Skye's story yet.

Suddenly, Skye looked up at him and tilted her head, "Do you want to color too?"

Glancing at the haphazardly colored Supergirl picture in Skye's coloring book and at the blue crayon Skye was offering him, he gave her a smile and nodded graciously, "I would love to."

He took the blue crayon from Skye and scooted closer to her so that they could both color on the same page. Trying to seem nonchalant, he continued to color when he asked, "Your bruise must hurt a lot, huh?"

Skye continued to focus on the coloring book but he could feel her sidelong stare boring into the side of his face. She shrugged and looked back to the book, "It's not so bad."

Phil snagged a red crayon from the box and started to color in Supergirl's cape, "Which hospital did your parents take you to?"

He knew Skye probably didn't know the name of the two hospitals in their town but he was trying to figure out if Skye was telling the truth about her bruise.

Skye froze and her crayon stayed pressed on the paper for a moment before she started coloring again, "The one closest to my house."

Phil nodded seriously and tried to make it seem like he was wholeheartedly focusing on their picture so that Skye didn't think that he was interrogating her. Which he kind of was.

"What'd your doctor-"

Skye cut his question off by standing up, "I'm going to go see my sister. You can have the drawing."

Before he could say anything, Skye was walking towards the fence that separated the kindergartener's playground from the older kids' playground.

Sighing, he set his crayon down and straightened up. Skye didn't trust him and he had pushed her too far.

"Skye!" he quickly called out. The small girl stopped and looked at him slightly suspiciously. "Can you autograph the drawing? That way I can always remember who gave it to me."

Skye studied him for a few more nerve wracking seconds before a small smile broke out on her face and she came back to him to carefully write her name on the paper.

"Are you going to hang it up?" she asked excitedly.

"I think it will look perfect on my fridge at home," Phil smiled and Skye beamed back at him. "Alright, let's go find your sister."

This time Skye let him come with her. Phil could have fainted from relief. He didn't know what was going on with Skye, but he did know that he was going to have to be more careful about how far he pushed her in the future. He couldn't afford to be shut out.

Usually, Skye would linger behind and talk to Mr. Coulson once the final bell rang and they were dismissed but today, she quickly walked out of her classroom. Mr. Coulson had asked her a lot of questions during recess today and she didn't think that he fully believed her story about falling while playing soccer. That made her nervous.

But it also made her sad that she had to lie to Mr. Coulson. He was her favorite teacher ever. He was so nice and he always made her feel special. Like today, how he said he would put her drawing up on his fridge at home! Nobody had ever put Skye's drawings up on a fridge before. But Becky had told her to lie and Skye didn't want to get in trouble, but she still felt miserable. What if Mr. Coulson found out someday that she had lied to him and then decided he didn't like her anymore? That made Skye scared. She wanted to be best friends with Mr. Coulson forever.

However, as soon as she saw Natasha walking towards her, she felt herself start to relax. Everything was okay when she was with Nattie. The nervous knot that had been in her stomach ever since recess started to loosen. She would worry about lying to Mr. Coulson later.

A fourth grader accidently bumped into her sister's side and Skye watched as Natasha glared at the kid until he spluttered out an apology and quickly walked down the hallway. She couldn't help but grin a little. Natasha seemed super tough and mean but Skye knew that she wasn't. At least, Nattie wasn't tough or mean to her and that was all that really mattered.

Her sister met her halfway between their classrooms and Skye reached forward and gave her a quick hug. Natasha squeezed her before saying, "How was your day?"

Skye shrugged, "It was okay."

She knew that they were going to have to head home now and she didn't want to. Being home wasn't fun and Becky was just going to ignore them. She and Natasha were going to have to make their own dinner and Skye was afraid of what mood John was going to be in when he got home.

Skye didn't want to go back to her house.

Natasha was studying her and usually Skye felt uneasy when someone stared at her but this was her sister so she didn't mind.

Nattie tilted her head, "What's wrong?"

Moving to the side so that some kids could get past her, she wrung her hands in front of her, "Nothing."

Her sister raised an eyebrow and Skye sighed. She didn't even know why she tried to keep secrets, "I don't want to go home yet."

It felt dumb to say that. You were supposed to love your home. Normal kids liked their homes but Skye knew that she wasn't normal, no matter how hard she tried to be. She didn't like her home and she didn't like her foster parents, the only good thing that came from living with this foster family was meeting Natasha.

Her sister must have understood how she was feeling, Natasha always seemed to understand how she was feeling, because she just nodded and led Skye in the opposite direction from their house.

Skye followed after her, "Where are we going?"

"To have some fun."

"Do you think Becky will be mad at us for getting home late?"

Natasha glanced over at her, "Becky won't even notice."

That was probably true. She kept up with Natasha as her sister led out of the building and towards the playground. Rather than the little kids playground that Skye was used to, Natasha brought her over to the big kid playground. They trekked through the sand and stopped in front of the big play structure. Skye stared up at it in awe. This playground was way bigger than hers and it looked like it was a lot of fun.

Natasha motioned towards the climbing wall, "Let's have fun."

Skye looked up at the climbing wall but stopped herself from rushing towards it, "Really?"

Her sister nodded, "Really. We can't stay too long and you have to be careful with your head but let's have some fun."

That was all Skye needed to hear before she launched herself at the climbing wall and started scrambling up it, "Try to catch me!"

She heard Natasha laugh and follow after her so she tried to climb faster. Before she knew it, she was jumping onto the platform and running towards a tunnel and climbing through it. She looked back long enough to see her sister get to the top of the climbing wall and laughed as she made it through the tunnel and slid down a pole.

They played tag for a little while. Natasha only had to remind her to be careful with her head twice and Skye was having more fun than she had in a long, long time. She didn't even think about her home and about how sometimes she really thought that Becky forgot that she and Natasha lived with her. She didn't think about how her forehead ached dully every time she jumped from the monkey bars and she definitely didn't think about how she was afraid of what John was going to be like when he got home tonight. All she thought about was how much fun she was having with her sister right now.

She was so busy laughing and having a good time with Natasha that she didn't even notice that Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May were standing side by side, watching them.

"I'm worried." Phil let the words spill out of his mouth the moment he was alone with his wife. He quickly grabbed Mel's hand for support, glancing at her gratefully as she squeezed it.

"How so?" she asked evenly, but he could tell she was troubled as well.

They were standing next to their car in the parking lot, watching Natasha and Skye laugh and play on the playground.

"Skye's bruise, Mel, it looked horrible. I don't even know how she got a bruise on that part of her face, let alone without any sort of cut. And I asked her about it and I pushed too far and she shut me out. Luckily, I was able to distract her and sort of bandage the situation a bit, but..." Phil sighed. "I'm just worried."

They stood silently for a moment, watching as Skye swung across the monkey bars and Natasha tried to grab her feet, both laughing and smiling.

"I wonder how hard it is to become foster parents." Phil let the thought come out before he had even processed it.

Melinda looked at him sharply.

"Phil."

"I'm not saying for Nat and Skye, they have a family, it might be working, but somebody else out there might need us..." Phil knew he was rambling but couldn't stop. "Like there might be other kids like them, that need a safe home and we have that, we're trained to help kids and we have a house and jobs and..."

"Phil." Melinda grabbed both his hands, staring him intently, dark eyes piercing him.

"I'm sorry..."

"Do you think we're ready for that?" Melinda cut him off.

"What?" Now he was staring at her.

"Do you think we'd be ready to take a child in with us?" Melinda repeated. "To not just be teachers but be parents?"

"I don't know," Phil said quietly. "I just know there are children out there that need a place and we have one. But if you don't think we're ready or don't want to, then I'm okay with that." He was silent, staring at Melinda. One hand rose almost without his bidding to touch her cheek. She was his everything. He would never even consider a scenario without her full approval. They were a team in every way and always would be.

Melinda caught his hand and lowered it away from her face, expression unreadable.

"Let's go see what the approval process is like."

Leave me a review and let me know what you think!

Until next time!

~silverlining