Wow apparently I am horrible at the whole "update regularly" thing. I was on a work trip and the place we stayed didn't have wifi (!) So it isn't exactly my fault... right? Right?

Sigh. It's definitely still my fault.

Alright, onward with the story! We are getting close to my favorite part! Hang in there!

Even though John had made it seem like he wasn't worried about the report that had been filed against him, Natasha could tell that he was. John was still mean and yelled at them and Becky still ignored them, but he had stopped pushing them around and grabbing them. All of their bumps and bruises had healed so that they could wear t-shirts and shorts without worrying about anyone seeing their marks. Every morning, Becky shoved some food into their hands so that they would have something to eat at school. Skye had first thought that they were just being nice but Natasha knew that they were just pretending so that no one would file another report.

For the next week or so, from anyone who didn't know them, Skye and Natasha looked like they were happy, well-cared for children.

Natasha was still upset with Mrs. May but Skye seemed to have forgiven Mr. Coulson. Nat didn't have to remind her sister not to say anything to him, she knew what would happen if she did.

Even though she could tell that Mrs. May was sad and confused about why she was ignoring her, Natasha continued to keep her distance from her teacher. She had convinced herself that she could get through the rest of the year without speaking to Mrs. May until her teacher approached her at the end of the day with a little pink slip in her hand, "Natasha?"

Shrugging her backpack onto her shoulders, she looked up at her teacher and waited for her to continue talking. When Mrs. May realized she wasn't going to answer, she let out a little sigh and handed her the pink slip, "Could you give this to your parents? I've been trying to call them for the past few days but I can't get ahold of them."

The pink slip was stapled together and she couldn't just rip it open in front of Mrs. May. Squinting her eyes, she tried to see what the paper said and failed, "What's it for?"

Mrs. May's eyes widened fractionally and cleared her throat, "I'm having parent-teacher conferences this week and was hoping your parents could come in tomorrow after school."

The only reason that Mrs. May would want to talk to her parents was because she had done something wrong. That would make John angry.

Her teacher must have sensed how uncomfortable she was feeling because she held up a hand and said, "You haven't done anything wrong, I just want to make sure your parents are aware of how you're progressing. I do this with all of my students. Mr. Coulson's also doing his conferences this week and we thought that we could do yours and Skye's together tomorrow so that your parents wouldn't have to come in twice."

Unzipping her backpack, she shoved the slip into it and shifted it so that it was resting comfortably on her shoulders again. She nodded slightly and went to move around her teacher but Mrs. May stepped to the side and blocked her, "If tomorrow's not a good time for them, they can call and reschedule."

Nodding again, she maneuvered around her teacher and this time, she was successful. She didn't bother looking back or waving goodbye, she just made her way down the hallway, towards Skye.

Her little sister was waiting outside Mr. Coulson's door, staring at a pink slip. As Natasha got closer, Skye worriedly looked up at her and waved her slip of paper around, "Mr. Coulson wants to talk to John and Becky."

Gently, she reached forward and grabbed her sister's hand and reassured her, "I know, Mrs. May wants to talk to them too."

Skye kept her pink piece of paper in her hand and Natasha led her out of their hallway and towards home. Her little sister was unusually quiet on the way home and Natasha knew why. They hadn't directly spoken to John or Becky in a long time and she wasn't looking forward to having to talk to them about their parent-teacher conferences.

Really, they would only have to talk to Becky. John would be working and wouldn't be able to make it to the meeting so they would just have to give Becky the pink slips. Becky never usually yelled at them but she refused to acknowledge that they existed most of the time and that could sometimes be worse than yelling.

Skye was reluctant to walk into their house but Natasha carefully tugged on her hand and her sister sighed before following after her.

Becky was sitting on the couch watching tv, just like she had been when they left for school. Natasha wondered if she had moved at all today.

She pulled her pink slip out of her bag and grabbed Skye's from her hand and slowly walked towards Becky. Stretching her arm out, she carefully set the pink slips onto the couch cushion next to where her foster mother was sitting. Becky didn't even glance at her.

"Our teachers want to have a parent-teacher conference with you tomorrow."

Becky didn't move at all. Natasha knew that she had spoken loud enough for her to hear her so she knew that Becky was just ignoring her.

Deciding to give it one more try, "Mrs. May said that-"

Becky waved an impatient hand towards her but her eyes remained glued to the screen, "Hey, I can't hear my show."

Shrugging, she turned back to Skye, who was silently watching, and ushered her up the stairs and towards her room. Skye glanced back to where Becky was sitting, "Did she hear you?"

Pulling open her bedroom door, she nudged her sister inside, "She heard me, she just doesn't care."

Tiptoeing down the staircase, Skye spotted two juice boxes and two apples sitting by the door. Becky was sitting at the dining room table, staring at the laptop sitting in front of her, and didn't glance their way.

Skye whispered, "Do you think she remembered about the meetings today?"

Natasha shrugged and Skye let out a forceful breath, "Should we remind her?"

Her sister raised an eyebrow, "Do you wanna go talk to her?"

Defensively, Skye crossed her arms in front of her chest and shook her head, "No."

Natasha just picked up their food and handed her her juice box and apple, "I don't want to either."

Taking a bite out of her apple, she followed her sister out of the house and into the sunshine. Mr. Coulson had told her that he was looking forward to talking to her foster parents but Skye didn't think that Becky was going to show up. She didn't want to let Mr. Coulson down.

Kicking a rock in front of her so that it skidded down the street, she glanced over to her sister, "Are you still mad at Mrs. May?"

Her sister made a grumbling sound and Skye knew that that was her way of answering the question without actually answering the question.

Skye caught up to her rock and kicked it again, "I know that you are."

Natasha looked at her, "How do you know that?"

"Because I know you."

Natasha sighed and drank the last of her juice box before responding, "It's her fault that John waved a gun at you and locked you into a closet."

Sighing, Skye kicked her rock again but this time it bounced off the sidewalk and into the road, "They didn't mean to make that happen."

Skye looked up into her sister's face and saw that Natasha had that tough glint in her eyes, "I don't care. Even if they didn't mean to, they still did it."

Shaking her head, Skye didn't respond. Mr. Coulson would never purposefully hurt her. He had told her that she deserved to be safe and she knew that when he and Mrs. May filed that report, they were only trying to help. She thought that Natasha knew that too but her sister was super stubborn and wouldn't budge.

They both walked up the steps to their school and made their way to their hallway. Skye thought back to the parent-teacher conference they were supposed to have this afternoon and felt butterflies start to flutter around in her tummy. She squeezed her sister's hand, "What if Becky doesn't show up?"

"We'll worry about that later."

Skye could tell that her sister didn't think Becky was going to show up either.

"What're we going to tell Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May?"

Natasha led her down their hallway and stopped a few feet away from Mr. Coulson so that they could talk and he wouldn't hear them, "We'll tell them that we think Becky's gonna show up and then leave really quickly after school so that they can't ask us any questions."

Skye could do that. She could do that. Now that she and Natasha had a somewhat concrete plan, she could tell herself to stop worrying about Becky and focus on that.

Letting out a deep breath, she nodded at her sister and pasted a smile onto her face, "Okay, let's go to class."

Natasha gave her a look that said she could tell that Skye was faking but she didn't say anything about it.

Skye glanced over to her teacher. Mr. Coulson was talking excitedly to a boy in her class. She didn't want to lie to him.

"If Mr. Coulson asks, will you tell him about Becky for me?"

Her sister squeezed her hand, "Yeah, I'll tell him."

They walked up to Mr. Coulson and he smiled at them, "Good morning girls! Skye, did you give your parents the note?"

Skye didn't notice that her thumb was making its way towards her mouth until Natasha let go of her other hand to grab it and guide it back to her side.

Mr. Coulson was looking intently at her and she felt relief wash over her when Natasha spoke up, "She did."

Her teacher's smile remained on his face as he glanced between them, "Well I didn't get a call to reschedule so I'm assuming that they'll be here for our conference today after school, is that right?"

She couldn't stop herself from fidgeting from side to side as Natasha spoke up for her again, "Yep."

Mr. Coulson looked like he was going to ask another question but Natasha stopped him by pulling her into a hug, "Be careful okay? I love you."

Standing on her tiptoes, she pressed a kiss to her sister's cheek, "I love you too."

Natasha squeezed her hand one more time before letting go and giving her a tiny smile. She turned around, gave Mr. Coulson as genuine of a smile as she could muster, and hurried into her classroom.

Natasha stared at the clock on the wall, willing it to move faster.

She knew that Becky wouldn't remember to show up to the conference today. Becky just didn't care about stuff like that. Natasha didn't want to deal with all the questions her absent foster mother would raise and she didn't want Skye to have to deal with that either.

She already had her backpack ready to go and was sitting on the edge of her seat so that when the bell did ring, like it did a few minutes later, she was ready to bolt to the door.

Nat made it two steps from the door when she heard Mrs. May call after her. She pretended that she didn't hear and tried to continue down the hallway when she heard Mrs. May yelling after her, "Wait! Natasha, wait!"

Ducking her head, she made it three more steps before she felt a hand on her arm.

Whipping around, she wrenched her arm out of Mrs. May grip, took two steps back, and glared at her teacher. She didn't like being touched.

Mrs. May seemed to realize her mistake and held her hands in front of her in a placating manner, "Sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to grab you. Did you forget about the meeting with your parents this afternoon? I'm very excited to tell them about your progress so far."

Glancing behind her, she saw that Skye was in a similar position. She was standing in the hallway and Mr. Coulson was talking to her.

Their plan had epically failed.

Relaxing a little, she unclenched her fists and plastered a confused look on her face, "Oh, I forgot."

Mrs. May stared at her for a few seconds and Natasha forced herself not to fidget, "That's alright, I just didn't want you running off."

That was literally exactly what she wanted to do.

Looking back towards Skye again, she saw that her sister was being ushered back into her classroom by Mr. Coulson. Their eyes met and she could tell that Skye didn't want to be alone with her teacher. For some reason, her little sister had grown attached to him and didn't like lying to him.

Sighing, she nodded, "Can we go wait with Skye?"

"Sure, just let me go grab my notes."

Natasha didn't wait for her teacher, she just made her way down the hallway and walked into Mr. Coulson's classroom.

Skye was awkwardly sitting across from Mr. Coulson and her little sister gave her a relieved smile, "Nattie!"

Dropping her backpack onto a desk, she walked up to her sister and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Skye leaned into her side and Natasha looked up as Mr. Coulson cleared his throat, "Hi Natasha, what brings you here?"

Just then, they heard the door open and all three of them turned and watched Mrs. May walk into the room. Her teacher gave her a dry look and pulled a chair up so that she was sitting by Mr. Coulson.

They sat in silence and waited for Becky to show up for five minutes before Mr. Coulson cleared his throat and said, "Why don't you girls start working on your homework? If your parents don't show up soon, we'll try to get ahold of them."

Natasha led Skye over to where she had dropped her backpack and sat down on the floor. She watched as Skye pulled her spelling workbook out of her bag and didn't bother to open her backpack up. She knew Skye would be needing help.

Sure enough, after staring at her homework for a few moments, Skye helplessly looked up at her. She didn't have to ask, Nat just scooted closer to her sister and looked at her paper, "What're you learning?"

Skye pointed to the words on her paper, "We have five new spelling words. I have to write a sentence for each of them."

Nodding, she read the first word, 'where', and looked at her sister, "What do you need help with?"

Twirling her pencil between her fingers, Skye shrugged, "Coming up with sentences."

Pointing to the first word, she said, "Okay, think of a sentence that you'd use the word 'where' in."

Skye put a hand to her forehead and scrunched up her nose. Nat knew that that was the face she made when she was thinking really hard so she stayed quiet so she didn't distract her.

Suddenly, her little sister's eyes flew open and she grinned, "I know!"

Motioning towards her worksheet, she said, "Write it down."

Skye nodded and obediently wrote her sentence down and leaned back so Nat could read it, "School is where I have fun."

Her little sister smiled, "Yeah, I like it here."

Nat nodded, "Good job, but check your S's. They're backwards."

Skye's eyes widened and she went in and fixed her letters.

They made it through two more words before Mr. Coulson tried to call Becky. Unsurprisingly, she didn't answer.

She and Skye watched Mr. Coulson call, hang up, and try again.

Skye leaned in and whispered, "She's not gonna show up."

"I know."

Motioning towards where their teachers were sitting, Skye said, "They don't know that! They think she's coming. Shouldn't we tell them?"

Nat shook her head, "No, we'll just wait it out, tell them Becky must have had an emergency or something, and pretend everything's fine. Now finish your homework."

Skye huffed but stared at her spelling words. Nat could tell she wasn't focusing on it.

Getting Skye to finish her homework was like pulling teeth but finally, they finished. Skye was putting her workbook away when Mr. Coulson spoke up, "Do you always help Skye with her homework Natasha?"

When Nat looked towards Mr. Coulson, she saw that he and Mrs. May were watching them. Skye stood up and smiled, "Yeah, Nattie's the best teacher ever. She helps me with my letters."

Mr. Coulson raised an eyebrow and Skye realized what she said, "You're a really good teacher too Mr. Coulson."

Mr. Coulson didn't look upset, he just grinned and leaned conspiratorially towards Skye, "Is that why you always get A's on your homework?"

Skye nodded proudly, "Yep."

Mr. Coulson pointed towards the bookshelf, "Why don't you two go read while we wait? We'll give your parent's a little more time to show up."

They would be waiting for a long time.

She let Skye lead her to the bookshelf and they both sad down on the floor. Getting comfortable on the ground, she watched as Skye perused the bookshelf and grabbed a book. Her little sister crawled over to her, leaned against her side, handed her the book, and stared at her with her big, brown eyes, "Will you read to me?"

Natasha stared at the book, The Cat in the Hat, and was about to start reading from it when Mrs. May's voice stopped her, "I can read to you, if you want."

Skye studied Mrs. May and tilted her head, "Can you make different voices for the characters? Because Natasha does that."

Mrs. May looked unsure but Mr. Coulson appeared and smiled at them, "I'm great at doing voices."

Skye appeared to think that over before nodding slightly, grabbing the book from Nat's hands, and handing it to Mrs. May, "Okay."

Mrs. May looked at her, as if asking for permission, so Nat shrugged and let Skye snuggle closer.

Their teachers sat down across from them and Mrs. May opened the book and started reading from it. Mrs. May narrated while Mr. Coulson came up with silly voices for each character that had Skye giggling. By the time they were finished with the story, it had been half an hour and everyone knew that Becky wasn't going to show up.

Mr. Coulson put the storybook back onto the shelf and Mrs. May sat back and stared at them, "We're going to try your parents one more time, okay?"

She shrugged and Mr. Coulson stood up and started tapping on his phone. Skye pulled another book off the shelf and laid down with her head on Nat's lap. Skye opened the book but Nat could tell she wasn't actually reading it, she was flipping through the pages too quickly.

Mrs. May said, "There must have been an emergency or something."

Natasha shrugged again and ran her fingers through her little sister's hair, "Yeah."

Mr. Coulson sighed loudly and Skye set her book down and turned her head so she could look at him, "What's wrong?"

"Your parents aren't answering."

What a surprise.

Nat stood up and pulled Skye up with her, "Can we go home now?"

Mrs. May and Mr. Coulson gave each other a look and Mrs. May spoke up, "How do you usually get home from school?"

She and Skye walked towards their backpacks and Nat picked hers up while Skye said, "We walk."

Natasha gently pushed Skye towards the door, she wanted to get out of there, but Mr. Coulson stopped them from leaving, "Would it be alright if we walked with you?"

Turning around, she raised an eyebrow at Skye's teacher. Why couldn't they just leave them alone?

"We would just feel better knowing that you girls got home safely."

Skye looked up at her and Natasha tried to figure out what to say. It would probably be worse if she said no, that would lead to more questions and she was just so tired of having to lie all the time.

She shrugged and Skye grinned a little before saying, "Yeah, you can walk us home."

Mr. Coulson smiled at them, "Great, lead the way."

They walked out of the classroom and Skye grabbed onto her hand. It was quiet as they made their way out of the school and down the street. Natasha didn't mind silence and she didn't think that Mrs. May did either, but Skye and Mr. Coulson kept fidgeting around until Mr. Coulson started talking, "So, do you guys live far away?"

Skye shook her head and pointed in the general direction of their house, "No, we live over there."

It got quiet again.

Skye swung their hands between them and they walked a little ways before Mr. Coulson cleared his throat, "Skye, why don't you show Natasha the song we learned today."

Nat watched as her little sister stared blankly at Mr. Coulson for a moment before her eyes widened and she smiled brightly, "Okay!"

Skye pulled her hand away from Natasha's and started singing, "The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout." Skye pinched her fingers together and mimicked a spider climbing before continuing, "Down came the rain and washed the spider out." Now she wriggled her fingers to make them look like rain, "Out came the sun and dried up all the rain, and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again." Skye's little fingers kept pretending to be a spider climbing up a spout even after she stopped singing.

Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May clapped lightly and Skye smiled at her, "Did you like it? A lot of the other kids already knew it but I memorized it today all by myself."

Skye looked so proud of herself that Natasha couldn't help but smile, "I loved it."

Her little sister grabbed onto her hand again and her smile widened, "Really?"

"Really."

They all turned onto their street and Mr. Coulson said, "I'm sure when you show your parent's, they will like it too."

Skye's smile dropped from her face and all of her happiness seemingly vanished. Natasha threw a dirty look at Mr. Coulson before turning to Skye, "Will you sing it again for me?"

Skye peeked up at her and Natasha squeezed her hand encouragingly until her little sister gave her a tiny smile. Skye wasn't as into the song as she had been before but at least she was smiling again.

As Skye sang, Nat studied their teachers. They were holding hands and she remembered Skye telling her that they were married. She wondered if they were happy together. Did they have kids? They had never mentioned having a kid so Natasha didn't think so. Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May seemed like the kind of parents who would hang up pictures of their children and would talk about them a lot. Natasha wondered what it would be like to have parents like that.

Skye finished her song and Nat gave her another smile. They were getting close to their house and Skye quieted down. Her grip on Nat's hand got tighter the closer they got.

She pretended not to see Becky's car in their driveway, signaling that their foster mother was home, but she knew that Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May saw it. They didn't say anything about it though.

When they were close enough to step onto their lawn, she and Skye both stopped. Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May both looked surprised for a moment so Skye pointed towards their house, "This is our home."

Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May both studied their house. It was pretty on the outside, with dark blue paint and a lighter blue trim. From here, you could see the windows to Skye's room and if you squinted, you could see the light from the television through the curtains where Becky was probably watching tv.

Mr. Coulson was still studying the house when Mrs. May turned to them, "Your house looks very nice."

Natasha nodded at her teacher and went to take a step towards their house when Mr. Coulson stopped them, "Wait, here."

He handed them both a little card with some numbers on it. Natasha studied it and then held it up, "What's this?"

Mr. Coulson glanced behind them, "That's my phone number and Mrs. May's phone number. If you need us, please don't be afraid to call, alright?"

Skye put her card in her pocket but Natasha glared at Mr. Coulson, "We won't need you."

Mr. Coulson gave her a disbelieving look and looked like he was about to say something but Mrs. May put a hand on his arm and stopped him, "Just in case."

Skye plucked the card out of her hand and Nat felt her slip it into her backpack.

Natasha gave Mr. Coulson one last glare before tugging Skye towards their house. She heard Mrs. May call after them, "Bye girls! We'll see you tomorrow."

Skye looked back and waved but she didn't, even if it did make her feel good to know that someone was looking forward to seeing her tomorrow.

Let me know what you think!

Until next week! Gonna try to be on time for once...

~silverlining