Oh my gosh I totally forgot to update last night! I am so sorry! Ahhhhh

No author's note, just posting this ASAP to try to make up for my scattered brain.

"What are you staring at, girl?"

Skye quickly looked back at her homework and pretended to concentrate really hard on it.

Natasha was standing at the sink, doing dishes, John leaning heavily against the counter, watching them both do their chores. It had become somewhat of an evening ritual. When John got home from work, he made them clean the house. Well, Natasha did most of the work. When John tried to make Skye work before she finished her homework, Natasha fought like a wild animal. Her sister would do what John wanted if he left Skye alone, so Skye was left sitting alone at the table, watching as her older sister was forced to clean up a kitchen they hadn't eaten any food from that entire day.

Skye glanced longingly at Natasha and tried to ignore the rumbling of her tummy. They had barely been able to get any food that day. John had started locking up some of the cabinets and Becky forgot that they needed to eat so she had been pretty hungry lately.

Suddenly, she noticed that there was a partially full bag of pretzels on the couch where Becky usually watched TV. The older woman must have wandered to her room or the bathroom but either way, the pretzels were just sitting there, unguarded.

Her stomach growled even louder.

Skye bit her lip and glanced at John. The large man was still watching Natasha do dishes and the pretzel bag was just sitting there, practically begging her to take them.

If she could just grab the pretzels and hide them in her backpack, she could share them with Natasha later. Skye knew her sister was hungry too.

Skye made her decision and darted forward, grabbing the bag before she could think twice about it.

It made a crinkly noise.

Skye froze, heart pounding. She looked up to find John turning to look at her.

It happened so fast.

John was dragging her into the kitchen before she could blink. His fingers were like iron bars wrapped around her arm and it hurt too badly to try to pull away so she let him drag her across the room with the hope that it would hurt less.

She was wrong.

He was screaming and she heard bad bad words and everything was so loud and she just wanted it all to stop. Then she was suddenly on the ground and he was towering over her. John looks so tall and scary that she couldn't help but shrink back. He took a step forward and all Skye could think about was if he took half a step closer, he would probably squish her, and suddenly her sister was there in front of her.

Natasha was standing protectively over her and was screaming too. It was too loud and her arms hurt really bad. She wished that she had never seen that stupid bag of pretzels in the first place.

Skye's focus sharpened when she saw John grab Natasha and throw her down, he raised a fist threateningly and Skye scrambled up.

"I'm telling!" she shouted. "I'm telling and you're going to get in trouble!"

Skye knew Becky told her not to tell. John told her not to tell. Natasha told her not to tell because they would get in trouble and be separated forever but Skye was just so scared and the words just kind of came out without her permission. She just wanted everyone to stop.

John turned away from Natasha and stared at her with hollow eyes. Skye clenched her hands into fists and tried to stand her ground even though her knees were shaking so bad that she was afraid she was going to fall down.

And then John started laughing.

"Who do you think would believe you, mutt?" he gasped, face getting red.

Skye didn't know what that word meant but the way he said it made her think that it wasn't very nice. And then John was up really close, his face in hers, his breath on her cheek and she had to force herself to not flinch away.

"Listen to me." He had her arm again, squeezing so tight she wanted to cry. "If you ever try to get me in trouble, I will kill Natasha," he whispered, voice low and dangerous. "Do you want your precious brat of a friend to be gone forever?"

Skye shook her head vigorously, dark eyes wide with fear. John looked really scary with his clenched jaw and a vein in his forehead throbbing and Skye truly believed that he would kill Natasha. She tried not to cry.

"Good." John smiled. "Now about trying to steal my food, bad girls steal and bad girls have to be punished..."

He reached for her and this time Skye couldn't stop herself from flinching away. Pure anger flashed through John's eyes and he tried to reach for her again but Natasha stopped him, "I'm going to call 911 if you don't get away from her now."

John spun around to face Natasha, who was holding a phone in her hand.

"We have something we want to tell you," Phil said as he grinned and clapped Tripp on the back.

The young man cautiously glanced at Coulson and May before stepping into the house.

"Just so ya'll know, I'm on call tonight so I gotta keep the radio on," he warned them. He was in his uniform and Melinda thought proudly that he looked very handsome and official in it.

"Oh that's fine," Melinda waved her hand.

"Are you pregnant?" Tripp raised his eyebrows.

"What?! No!" Melinda's eyes widened and then narrowed, "Are you saying I look pregnant?"

"Noooo!" Tripp held up his hands. "Not at all! I just thought... with Phil saying you both had something to tell me and both of you waiting for me at the door..."

"We've started the process of being foster parents," Phil cut him off much to Tripp's relief.

It was silent for a moment.

"Congratulations!" Tripp's face split into a wide grin. "So there is going to be a little one!"

He hugged them both.

Mel smiled, appreciative that he didn't question their decision. They sat down at the table and Phil brought out the food and some plates before sitting down with them.

"So when are you going to be getting a kid?" Tripp picked up his fork and started shoveling food onto his plate.

"We're still going through the process so it's going to take some time," Melinda explained, exchanging a look with Phil who gave her a smile. It was all so new that they were still getting used to the idea themselves. In a little while, there might be a kid running around their home and while that thought was weird to think about, it also made her giddy with excitement.

Tripp was just taking a bite of his pasta when his radio crackled and started spewing information.

"Aw man." Tripp groaned and set his fork back down. "Every time. Let me check what's going on." Quickly, he got up from the table and pulled out his phone, walking into the other room. Fairly soon he came back with a troubled look on his face.

"We got a 911 call from Chief Garrett's house."

There was a knock on the door. They had been waiting for it so it didn't surprise Skye at all.

"Do exactly as I say or you will regret it," Garrett whispered into Skye's ear. She nodded and let him pick her up and set her on his hip. She fought with all her strength to keep her tears away and her revulsion from showing on her face. All she could think about was John smashing the phone, grabbing Natasha and throwing her down into the basement, screaming threats and locking the door.

Now Garrett said that if she was good, he would leave Natasha alone. Luckily, learning not to cry was a skill that Skye had learned in a previous home. Lately, she had been letting herself relax in this home but now she knew it was time to go back to those survival skills.

Garrett's arm held her tightly against him as they walked to the door.

"Hello?" Garrett's voice was different, kinder, as he opened the door and she tried not to make a face at his sweet tone.

Two police officers stood in front of them and for a second, Skye just stared at their shiny badges and neat blue suits.

"Chief, we're so sorry to disturb you but there was a 911 call placed here," the first officer, a stocky man with bright blue eyes, said.

"I'm so sorry about that fellas. Skye here, my foster daughter, was playing with the phone and dialed it by mistake. We had a long talk about it. What do you say, Skye?"

Skye looked up at them emotionlessly, "I'm sorry."

The first officer nodded and looked satisfied. The second officer was looking at her intently. He had dark skin and dark eyes and a nice face.

"This is your kid?" he asked, glancing at Garrett.

"Foster daughter. Skye's four."

Skye was five but she didn't say anything, just kept her gaze locked on the ground, wishing she could wiggle out of Garrett's arms and run away with Natasha and never ever come back.

"Hi kiddo," the officer smiled and Skye met his eyes for a moment. He seemed nice. "Should we take a look around? You know, follow protocol?" The kind officer suggested. Skye thought about the broken phone on the ground and the kicked over chairs and pretzels scattered all over and tried not to panic. If John got in trouble, he would blame her and he would hurt Natasha.

"No, no of course not," the first officer looked flustered. "I'm so sorry Chief, we've bothered you long enough."

"But..." the second officer looked like he was about to protest but the other officer cut him off.

"Tripp, it's the Chief's house. Come on."

The man did not look pleased but followed his partner's lead. They quickly exchanged farewells and walked back towards their car. The nice officer looked back at her for a long moment before getting into the police car.

"Thanks for doing your job, boys!" Garrett called after them before closing the door and dropping Skye to the ground. She scrambled away from him but he grabbed her arm.

"No more trouble from you tonight, mutt."

She tried to fight him but her arms were really sore and she was tired so it didn't take much for him to push her into a closet. When she regained her footing, she reached for the doorknob only to hear the jingling of keys and the lock click into place.

Skye pushed frantically against the door but it held firm no matter how hard she pulled on the handle so she curled up in the darkness and let the tears she had been holding back fall.

Natasha groaned and peeled her eyes open. Her head was pounding and her right side ached. She must have hit her head pretty hard after being pushed down the stairs. The last thing she remembered was calling 911, Garrett yanking the phone from her hands and crushing it, him pushing her down the stairs, Skye screaming...

Skye.

Natasha sat up quickly, ignoring the dizziness that suddenly washed over her. With an energy she didn't know she had, she climbed up the basement stairs and tugged at the door.

Locked.

Natasha took a deep breath, trying not to panic. She had to get to Skye.

"Hey! Let me out!" Natasha banged on the door. It was a risky approach because she would rather not get into another fight with John but all that mattered right now was Skye. "Hey!"

The door suddenly swung open and Natasha peered up at the apathetic face of Becky.

"Shut up," Becky told her before walking away but she left the door open and that was all that really mattered. Natasha darted past her, frantically scanning the kitchen and actively ignoring the pounding in her head. Fortunately, it was empty of John. Unfortunately there was no sign of Skye. Quickly, Natasha ran up the stairs, checking Skye's bedroom, desperate fear starting to set in as she stared at the empty bed.

Where was John and where was Skye?

She prayed that wherever they were, they weren't together.

Suddenly, running back through the hall, she heard a muted sound.

"Skye?" Natasha whispered, tracing her steps, yanking on the closet door. It was locked. This door was never usually locked.

"Nattie?"

Natasha thought her heart would break as she heard Skye's trembling voice.

"It's okay, you're going to be okay, I'll get you out in a second," Natasha promised her. She raced back down the stairs to the hook where Becky and John kept the keys. Quietly, she climbed up onto the counter and snagged all the keys she could find.

Her hands were shaking so badly she could barely get the keys into the lock but finally she found the right one and yanked the door open. Her little sister rushed into her arms before she even got the door fully open, "Skye, Skye, shhh."

Skye clung to her as she quietly returned the keys and locked them both into her room. She led her little sister to her bed, sat down, and pulled Skye onto her lap.

"Hey, hey," Natasha kissed Skye's forehead, looking her over carefully. There were heavy bruises on the tiny girl's arms when she pulled her little sister's shirt off.

"I'm sorry," Skye sobbed. "I didn't mean to..."

"Listen, this is not your fault." Natasha cupped her sister's cheek, staring into her large beautiful chocolate eyes. "Don't even think that. John is a horrible mean person and nothing he does is your fault. Do you understand?" It was important that Skye listened to her. Nat used to think that when things like this happened, it was her fault, but she learned that it wasn't. She didn't make people do bad things, they did them because they were bad people and when they did do bad things, it wasn't her fault. She didn't want Skye blaming herself.

Skye nodded slowly but Natasha was worried about the blank look in her eyes.

"Tell me what you're thinking?" Natasha rubbed Skye's back but stopped when her sister flinched when she rubbed over a tender spot on her waist. Natasha wanted to lock John away forever for what he did to Skye.

"You're hurt." One of Skye's small hands reached to touch Natasha, who was suddenly reminded of the various aches and pains all over. The worst was her head. It felt like a giant was stomping on her brain and she thought back to what Mr. Coulson said about head injuries being very serious. She hoped her brain was alright.

"I'll be okay, I promise. Thank you for looking out for me but the only thing that can hurt me is if you're hurt." Natasha pulled Skye closer, the small girl leaning into her. She dropped her voice to a serious tone. "When John is being mean, you have to run and hide, Skye. I'm being serious."

"He was hurting you," Skye protested, squirming out of Natasha's arms to turn and look at her, brown eyes indignant.

"I know you want to protect me kiddo, but I'm your big sister and it's the big sister's job to keep her little sister safe."

"I don't want you to get hurt," Skye's lip quivered.

"As long as you're okay, he can't hurt me, not really," Natasha repeated firmly, pulling Skye back close to herself.

Skye was worried about Natasha. Usually when Nattie hit her head it would be better by morning but this time it wasn't. Her sister tried to hide it but Skye could tell that her head was bothering her so she made sure to talk quietly on the way to school so that she didn't make it worse.

She had made sure to wear long sleeves so that the ugly purple bruises on her arms were covered but her body was sore and she wished that she didn't have to walk to school today.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Skye whispered.

Natasha put a hand to her forehead and didn't say anything. Skye knew what her answer would have been anyways. Natasha would have said she was fine even though Skye knew that she wasn't.

Holding back tears of frustration, Skye led her sister into their school.

She hated this.

She hated how mean John was and how he got away with yelling and hurting them. She hated how icy Becky was towards them. She hated that there was nothing they could do about it and she especially hated the power John held over them. She just wanted to be away from all the bad things. She wanted to be happy with Natasha. Right now, she didn't even care if she got a mom and dad or not, all she really wanted was to run away with her sister. She didn't know where they would go or what they would do but anything would be better than where they were right now, right?

Tugging Natasha down the hallway towards their classrooms, Skye felt her sister pull on her hand and turned around in alarm. Natasha was holding a hand to her head and didn't look too good.

One glance down the hallway told her that both Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May were staring at them and Skye felt her heart pound. They couldn't know that anything was wrong. If they found out, John would hurt Natasha.

She frantically glanced around and quickly led Natasha towards the bathroom. At least in there they would have some privacy.

Making sure the bathroom door was firmly shut, Skye turned around to see Natasha slide down the wall and collapse onto the floor.

She rushed over to her sister, "Nattie!" Then she remembered that she was supposed to be whispering so she lowered her voice, "Are you okay?"

Skye really knew that something was wrong when Natasha shook her head instead of insisting that she was alright. Natasha was always alright and even when Skye knew that she wasn't, Natasha always said she was alright.

Even though her eyes were filling up with tears, she forced herself not to cry and crouched down by her sister, "What do I do?"

Natasha was silent for a moment before muttering, "Splash some water onto the ground."

Skye's forehead crinkled in confusion, "What?"

Natasha pointed to the sink and even though Skye had no idea what was going on, she obediently turned the sink on and splashed some water onto the ground. When she was done with that, she helplessly turned back to her sister, "Now what?"

Natasha scooted over and sprawled out on the floor before saying, "My head really hurts and I think something's wrong. Remember when Mr. Coulson said that head injuries were serious?"

Skye had forgotten about that but now that she was thinking about it, she started to feel really worried. Mr. Coulson said that head injuries were serious and what if something was seriously wrong with Natasha?

"I remember Nattie."

"I think the nurse should look at my head because I don't feel right. Just go tell someone that I slipped and hit my head. That way they'll think I got hurt here and not at home. Don't tell them anything else, okay Skye?"

She nodded and couldn't keep her tears back any longer. Natasha didn't look very good and it scared Skye to see her like this. Natasha was always the one who took care of her and even though she was more than willing to take care of her sister, Skye was really frightened.

Natasha gave her a tiny smile, "I'll be okay, I promise. Now go."

With one last worried glance at Natasha, she yanked open the bathroom door before rushing out and running towards Mr. Coulson. He was talking to a boy in her class and even though she knew it was rude, she interrupted them and tugged on his hand.

He gave her a worried look, "Are you alright Skye?"

She was crying pretty hard now and she tried to calm down but she kept seeing her big sister lying on the bathroom floor and she couldn't stop, "No. I mean yes, I mean… I'm a-alright b-but Nattie isn't."

Let me know what you think, as always!

Apologies again for the late update!

~silverlining