Another post and run! (I just made up that phrase and I am way too proud of myself for it).

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Skye didn't wait for Mr. Coulson to respond, she just pulled on his hand until he followed her back to the bathroom.

"What happened?"

They were almost to the bathroom and Skye hoped that Natasha hadn't gotten any worse, "Sh-she slipped and hi-it her head and she d-doesn't look very good." Skye was having trouble catching her breath and she hoped that Mr. Coulson was able to understand her.

Kids were starting to stare and gather around but she hardly noticed. Mr. Coulson pulled open the bathroom door and Skye followed him in. Thankfully, Natasha didn't look like she felt any worse than when Skye had left her but she still looked pretty bad.

Mr. Coulson rushed over to where Natasha was sprawled out on the floor and his hands fluttered over her. He didn't look like he knew what he was supposed to do for a moment but then he took a deep breath and focused on Natasha, "Skye said that you hit your head."

Natasha grumbled, "Mhmm."

Hearing the bathroom door open, Skye looked over her shoulder only to focus back on Natasha when she saw that it was only Mrs. May.

"Can you stand up?"

Skye felt a hand on her shoulder and knew that Mrs. May was just trying to comfort her, she was good like that, but she couldn't help but flinch away. She tried to cover it up by moving over to Natasha and helping her onto her feet.

Nattie leaned heavily onto her and Skye didn't really mind, she just forced herself to stand tall and be strong so that she could take care of Natasha for a change.

Mrs. May stepped towards them, "How're you feeling Natasha?"

Skye felt her irritation spike, "She's feeling like she just hit her head! Shouldn't she go to the nurse?" Realizing that she had just shouted in her sister's ear, she gave Nattie an apologetic look and glared at her teacher. She didn't care that she liked Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May and that they were nice, she just wanted them to help her and all they were doing was asking dumb questions.

Mrs. May raised an eyebrow in astonishment but Mr. Coulson didn't look phased by her outburst, "Of course, let's get you to the nurse."

He took a step towards them and looked like he was going to take Skye's place but she shook her head, "I can do it."

Mr. Coulson stared at her for a second before nodding and moving out of her way so that he could hold open the door. Skye led her sister out and heard Mr. Coulson say, "Will you watch my class until I get back?"

Mrs May tried to be quiet but Skye could still hear her, "She's my student Phil, I-"

Mr. Coulson cut her off, "Please Mel? Someone needs to watch the rest of our kids."

Skye didn't stick around to hear the rest of their conversation, she just led Natasha down the hallway and tried to ignore how quiet her sister was being. Natasha never really talked that much, not like she did, but this silence was different than the good kind of silence. This silence was making Skye nervous.

Deciding that she couldn't handle the quiet anymore, she started to mutter, "It's okay, you'll be alright Nattie," over and over again until they reached the nurse's office. Mr. Coulson held the door open for them and ushered them inside. Skye led Nattie onto a cot and the nurse made her way over to them.

"What've we got here?"

Skye was busy making sure that Natasha was comfortable so Mr. Coulson answered for her, "Natasha slipped and hit her head in the bathroom."

The nurse ambled over to the cot and leaned over Natasha. Skye tightened her grip on Nattie's waist in response.

"Where'd you hit your head, sugar?"

Natasha lifted a hand up and pointed to the left side of her head. The nurse put on some gloves and slowly ran a hand over Nattie's head. Even though Skye could tell that the nurse was being gentle, she still felt anger rush through her when she brushed a hand over Natasha's head and her sister flinched.

Skye glared at the nurse, "Be careful!"

The nurse spared her a glance before focusing back on Natasha's head, "You've got a pretty big egg on your head, sugar. You must've hit it pretty hard. I'll get you some ice."

The nurse walked away and Skye stared after her until she felt her sister gently pat her knee, "I'm okay."

Skye shook her head and leaned into Natasha's side, "No you aren't."

Nattie stared at her for a moment before letting out a breath, "I will be okay."

She just leaned further into her sister's side in response.

The nurse came back and placed a bag of ice on Natasha's head before instructing her sister to lie down on the cot for a little while. The nurse ushered Skye off the cot and Skye was about to argue until Mr. Coulson put a hand on her shoulder. This time, Skye didn't flinch away. Instead, she bit her tongue and let Mr. Coulson speak, "Is she alright?"

The nurse glanced at Natasha before shutting the lights off and pushing them out of the room. Skye kept her eyes on her resting sister while the nurse answered, "Hopefully the ice will help with the swelling. I'll let her rest for a little while before determining if she should go to the hospital for further testing."

Skye's eyes widened. Natasha couldn't go to the hospital! They would see the giant bruise on her side and would figure out that John was being really mean to them and then he would hurt Natasha. Skye couldn't let that happen.

"She can't go to the hospital!"

The nurse and Mr. Coulson both turned to her and her teacher crouched down in front of her, "Your sister will be alright Skye."

He didn't understand. Stomping her foot, she shook her head, "No! No, no, no!"

The nurse gave her a sharp look, "Hey, do I need to call your parents young lady? You show Mr. Coulson some respect."

Something in the nurse's tone made her instinctively shrink back. Mr. Coulson glared at the nurse, "Hey, I'll handle this. You go take care of Natasha."

The nurse huffed and walked back into the room and Skye stared at her shoes.

Her right shoelace was untied.

For some reason, seeing her untied shoelace was what made her start to sob.

Natasha was the one who tied her shoes for her. Nattie let her try to tie her shoes even though she knew that Skye had no idea how to do it and then Nattie would tie her shoes for her anyways. Right now, Natasha couldn't tie her shoe for her because she was lying down in a dark room with ice on her head because John had pushed her down the basement stairs.

Everything was wrong.

Everything was so wrong and nothing felt like it was ever going to be right again and she just wanted her sister to be okay.

She wasn't aware that Mr. Coulson was trying to get her attention until there was a gentle touch on her shoulder. Trying to stop her tears, she looked up and into his kind face.

He kneeled in front of her, "It'll be alright Skye."

She hiccuped and shook her head, "She can't go to the hospital."

Mr. Coulson studied her, "If there's something wrong then she needs to. You don't want her to get worse, do you?"

Skye didn't want Natasha to get worse but Mr. Coulson didn't understand why Nattie couldn't go to the hospital. And Skye couldn't tell him why, even though she really wanted to, because if she did, John would hurt Natasha and they would be separated forever.

Mr. Coulson looked at her sympathetically, "Why don't we wait here until the nurse decides what to do, okay?"

Skye stared at him for a second before nodding.

She was so surprised when Mr. Coulson reached forward and gently wiped the tears from her face that she didn't protest. She just stood there, stunned, while he ran his thumb over her cheeks and collected her tears.

Sniffling, she felt herself finally start to calm down a little and he gave her a small smile before moving over and sitting with his back against the wall. He patted the space beside him and she sat down next to him.

Skye stared at the people walking by them and after a little while, she couldn't help but blush as her stomach growled loudly.

Mr. Coulson chuckled, "Hungry?"

She nodded sheepishly.

"When we get back to class, we can have snack time a little early today. Did you bring a snack?"

For some reason, Skye felt embarrassed as she shook her head.

Mr. Coulson tilted his head and looked at her, "Did you bring lunch?"

Suddenly, the uneven grooves in the wall opposite her seemed really interesting. She ignored Mr. Coulson until he gently prodded her, "Skye?"

She let out a breath and shook her head again.

"Did you bring lunch money?"

Tearing her gaze away from the wall, she looked up at her teacher, "I forgot."

Mr. Coulson studied her for a moment before standing up, "Wait here."

She watched him walk away and tried not to feel alone as she pressed herself closer to the wall. While Mr. Coulson was gone, she tried to find patterns in the wall and was surprised when her teacher sat back down beside her a couple minutes later with some food in his hand.

He set a granola bar and a Hershey's kiss on the ground before handing her an apple, "Here."

She stared at the apple for a moment and her tummy growled at the sight of food. She was so hungry and she couldn't hold back any longer, she grabbed the apple from his hand and bit into it.

She ate the apple so fast, she barely tasted it and as she reached for the Hershey's kiss that was sitting in front of her, she remembered that Natasha was hungry too.

Carefully, she peeled the wrapper from the chocolate and made sure to only bite into half of it so that her sister could have the other half. The chocolate tasted really good and she forced herself to actually savor it before she swallowed.

Mr. Coulson raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as she wrapped the chocolate back up and stuffed it and the granola bar into her pocket for Natasha.

Natasha woke up to a cool hand on her arm.

At first she was disoriented by the dark room until she remembered that she was in the nurse's office. She didn't even remember falling asleep, all she remembered was the insistent pounding in her head that made it hard to focus on anything else.

The nurse reached forward and took the ice pack off of her head and Natasha let out a relieved breath. Her head still ached but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was this morning. She felt much, much better.

"How're you feeling, sugar?"

The nurse was staring at her intently but Nat glanced around the dark room, "Where's my sister?"

The nurse huffed and moved over to the wall so that she could turn the lights back on, "She's waiting outside. Lemme take a look at you."

Sitting up, she tried to sit still as the nurse shone a bright light in her eyes, tested her hearing, and made her do a ridiculous balance test. The tests were annoying but Natasha didn't argue against them. She had never been this worried about her head before and she needed to make sure she was alright so that Skye wouldn't worry about her.

The nurse sat back at her desk and Natasha gave her an expectant look, "You don't have a concussion which is good. Let me call your parents and let them know what's going on and they'll determine if they want to take you to the hospital or not."

Ice splashed through her veins. She had never considered that the nurse would call John and Becky. Nat didn't know how they would react and she really didn't want to find out.

Bouncing on her toes, Natasha ignored the dull pain in her head and watched as the nurse pressed a few buttons and brought the phone to her ear.

Natasha held her breath and it felt like an eternity had passed before the nurse hung up the phone and gave her a dismayed look, "No answer." The nurse pushed a piece of paper towards her and pointed to a string of numbers on it, "This is the correct phone number, right?"

She peered over and let out a sigh of relief when she saw her home phone number written on the paper rather than Becky or John's cell phone number. Natasha knew for a fact that their phone's battery had died a couple of months ago and neither John nor Becky had bothered replacing the battery. There was no way that the nurse was going to be able to reach her foster parents.

"Yeah, that's the right number."

The nurse dialed it again but nothing happened, "I'll write you a note to give to your parents alright?"

She nodded and waited until the nurse offered her a small piece of paper, which she immediately stuffed into her pocket. She didn't care that it was getting wrinkled, she wasn't going to show it to anyone anyways, "Can I go?"

She was already making her way towards the door, she really wanted to see Skye, and barely paused when the nurse said, "Take it easy today and if you start to feel nauseous, tell your teacher immediately."

Nodding halfheartedly, she quickened her pace. Her head throbbed with each step she took but this was a familiar sort of pain. It was dull enough that she knew she was going to be alright and that made the pain easier to handle.

As soon as she stepped out the door, a little body crashed against her and she had to take a step back so that she didn't fall over.

Mr. Coulson said, "Be careful Skye," but Natasha didn't pay him any attention, she just hugged her sister close to her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

Skye was pressed close to her and didn't seem to be letting go, which Natasha didn't mind. Her little sister looked up at her with her big brown eyes and Nat could tell that she had been crying. Before Skye could ask, she gave her a comforting grin, "I told you I was okay."

Her sister just whimpered and pushed her face against Nat's chest, "I was scared."

Her heart clenched. Nat knew that they both looked after each other and had each others backs but as the big sister, she felt a responsibility for Skye. She wanted to keep her happy and safe and so far, she hadn't really been able to do either of those things.

Pulling Skye closer to her, she made sure to avoid her bruises, "I'm sorry."

Skye shook her head, "It's not your fault."

Her little sister took a step back and studied her, "The nurse said you were alright?"

"Yep."

Skye let out a breath and Natasha could visibly see her relax, "Good."

Natasha had completely forgotten that Mr. Coulson was there until he cleared his throat, "How're you feeling Natasha? Do you need to go home? I can call your parents."

Skye's thumb made its way into her mouth and Nat couldn't find it in herself to stop her. She felt Skye's other hand grab her own and shook her head at Mr. Coulson, "No, I'm alright."

Mr. Coulson looked her over before slowly nodding, "Okay. Ready to go back to class?"

She nodded and they both followed him back to their hallway. Mr. Coulson walked slightly in front of them, he kept looking back at them and Natasha tried to ignore him.

Skye let go of her hand and reached into her pocket, "Look what I got!"

Her little sister handed her a granola bar and half a Hershey's kiss. Natasha glanced at Mr. Coulson before leaning in and whispering, "Where'd you get that?"

Skye shrugged and spoke around her thumb, "Mr. Coulson gave it to me. He gave me an apple too but I ate that already."

Skye sounded a little guilty and Nat felt mad that her little sister felt bad for eating something when she was hungry. It wasn't like it was her fault, it was John and Becky's.

Natasha gratefully took the granola bar, unwrapped it, and broke it in half. She gave Skye the bigger half and wouldn't take it back when Skye protested, "But I already ate!"

Shoving the granola bar into Skye's hand, Natasha shook her head, "I'm not even that hungry."

Skye gave her a skeptical look but Natasha raised an eyebrow and didn't budge until Skye started nibbling on the bar. Natasha wolfed down her half of the granola bar and this time, Skye stubbornly refused to eat the other half of the Hershey's kiss so Natasha did. It tasted amazing.

She could still taste the chocolate in her mouth when they stopped in front of her classroom door. Natasha could hear Mrs. May voice and it sounded like she was teaching math. Natasha hated math. She didn't even feel bad that she had missed part of her class.

Mr. Coulson gave her a smile and said, "Alright, let Mrs. May know that you're alright. Take it easy today, especially during recess and if you start to feel worse, tell Mrs. May." He paused and leaned down a little bit so that he didn't seem so tall, "I'm glad you're alright. I was worried about you."

Natasha didn't really know what to say to that. Mr. Coulson seemed nice and Skye really liked him but she barely talked to him and when she did, she was never very polite. She didn't know why he would be worried about her.

Nat gave Mr. Coulson an uncertain look and focused on Skye so that she didn't have to figure out what to say to him. Her little sister's thumb was still firmly in her mouth and Natasha knew that sucking her thumb made Skye feel better but it was time for her to go to class so she reached forward and gently pulled Skye's thumb out of her mouth. Skye gave her a sheepish look and stepped forward for a hug.

Natasha squeezed her, not as tight as she normally would have due to the bruises all over Skye's body, and Skye hugged her back before standing on her tiptoes and kissing her on the cheek, "Be careful okay? I love you."

Natasha cracked a grin, "That's what I always tell you."

Skye stepped back and smiled, "Yeah well you're the one who needs to be careful today, not me."

Unfortunately, that seemed to be true.

Tapping Skye's nose gently, she said, "I'll be careful if you will."

Skye nodded and took a step towards Mr. Coulson, "Okay, I'll see you at recess."

Natasha nodded and watched as Skye waved at her and started to follow Mr. Coulson towards their classroom. She was about to open the door the her class when Skye made a distressed noise and she turned around to see Skye running back to her, "Wait! My shoe's untied!"

Crouching down, she reached forward to tie Skye's shoe and didn't even bat an eye when Skye crouched down beside her and said, "I wanna try."

Breathing out a light laugh, she watched Skye tangle her shoelaces together for a moment before giving up and letting her tie her shoes for her. Once she was done, they both stood up and Skye gave her a real smile. Natasha could tell that even though Skye was still worried about her, she felt better than before.

Her sister waved at her again before running back to Mr. Coulson, who had been staring at them. Once Skye caught up to him, he gave her one last look before turning around and leading Skye to his classroom.

Natasha breathed in deeply, put her hand on the doorknob, and listened to Mrs. May's voice float through the door.

Nat knew that her teacher was going to ask her about her head and what happened. Mrs. May seemed to know when she was lying and she didn't know if she would believe her story. And she really needed Mrs. May to believe her because if she didn't and she told someone, John would hurt Skye and there was no way that she was going to let that happen.

After straightening her spine and making sure her face was blank, she nodded her head slightly, ignoring the ache that that caused, and turned the doorknob.