Hello all!

I'm actually posting... Early!

I knew I was going to be out of town on Monday night so I thought I'd try to make up for all my late updates by giving you one early!

"We're going to be sending someone over soon to look over your house and the bedroom. Other than that, the paperwork is pretty much all in order." The slightly tired looking middle aged woman smiled.

"Thank you so much," Phil beamed, grabbing Melinda's hand.

"Do you have any questions?" the social worker, Anna, asked them.

Phil and Melinda exchanged a glance.

"Yes," Melinda spoke up. "Two of our students are foster children and we suspect that there might be abuse in the home..."

Anna looked even more tired all of a sudden, her smile dropping.

"Did you call CPS?" she asked.

"Of course," Melinda felt an edge creep into her voice. "They said they would look into it but as far as we've heard, it hasn't gone anywhere."

"If you reported it, then I assure you, someone is aware of the situation and doing something about it."

"But the father is the Chief of Police! Don't you think that isn't going to go anywhere?" Melinda's voice rose slightly.

"What are the children's names?" Anna sighed resignedly.

"Skye... Mary Sue Poots and Natasha Romanoff."

Anna turned to her computer and clicked through some files.

"They're not actually on my caseload but there are no reports from that household."

"Listen, we see these children every day. Something is not right in their home."

"Have either admitted to there being abuse?"

"No, but..." May's eyes flashed and Phil grabbed her hand.

"Easy, tiger," he murmured.

"I'm sorry, but your students are lucky to have a home. Especially with Natasha's record..."

Coulson squeezed Melinda's hand. Although his wife looked calm and composed, he could practically feel the anger rolling off of her.

"It looks like Natasha has a history of being disruptive in households. She's a troubled child. I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about abuse in her current home."

"Natasha is a very well behaved young lady," Phil had to speak up, starting to become angry as well. "Both of the girls are."

Anna nodded but they could tell she was just humoring them.

"We need to go," Melinda said sharply, standing up, with Phil right behind. "Thanks for talking with us."

"Of course."

They shook hands briefly and then Melinda was stalking out of the building.

"Mel!" Phil practically had to jog after the dark haired woman. "Can I have the keys?"

Melinda gave him a slight glare before sighing and handing them over.

They drove in silence for a couple minutes.

"I cannot believe that woman," Melinda broke the silence, her voice seething. "No child should have to be lucky simply to have a home! And Natasha isn't the least bit harmful... I want to know what that damn file says about her!"

"I know." Phil's eyes remained steady on the road.

"They're kids. They're children."

They lapsed back into silence.

"The guest room is big enough for two beds, right?" Phil said suddenly.

Melinda gave him a careful look.

"What are you thinking?" she asked slowly, raising her eyebrows.

Phil shrugged.

"I was just wondering if you think the room is big enough," Phil shrugged, avoiding her gaze.

"I think it is," Melinda said slowly.

"Maybe we should put another bed in there. Just in case. You know, if there's a sleepover or something..." Phil looked at her with his hopeful puppy look.

"Okay," Melinda agreed. "I guess that could be a good idea."

Only then did she realize that they were already enroute to the local furniture store.

"What are we doing, Phil?" she asked quietly.

"Getting a bed..." Phil looked at her innocently.

"No. You know what I mean."

Phil blinked and looked away, "I don't know what you mean."

"Phil, you're a horrible liar. We both know we're thinking about fostering Natasha and Skye."

There. She finally said it.

They had been tiptoeing around the issue for awhile now. It was time they actually talked about it.

"What's wrong with thinking about it?" Phil glanced at her. "We both love them."

"We're their teachers, not their parents."

"They don't have parents," Phil pulled into a parking lot, turning off the car before turning to look at Melinda.

"Are we ready for this though?" she asked quietly.

Phil just grabbed her hand. They both already knew the answer to that question.

"The real question is how we get them out of that house," Melinda's jaw clenched. "I don't care that we don't know for sure what's going on or if it's abuse, something clearly isn't right."

"I'm worried about them," Phil said quietly. "I worry about them all the time."

"Me too."

"Listen, John Garrett is an asshole, but we need solid evidence in order for me to present a case against him to the Police Board," Tripp sighed. "I want to do everything I can for those kiddos, I really do. But if it isn't done right then Chief isn't going anywhere. And if what you're suspecting is true, we could be endangering the kids unless we solidly nail him."

"But you'd present to the Board if we found something?" Melinda leaned against the counter. They were back in their home and Tripp had come over to help put the new bed together. More like he had insisted on coming over, an action Melinda was pretty sure was influenced by the presence of free food at their house.

"Of course," Tripp nodded firmly.

"You could lose your job," Phil commented quietly.

"I know, man," Tripp flashed him a small smile.

"Thank you." Phil clapped Tripp on the back, making eye contact for a long moment. "That means a lot to us, I hope you know that."

"I know." Tripp nodded then smiled. "But you better hope I don't lose my job though cause you know I'll be moving in with ya'll if that happens."

Melinda rolled her eyes at him.

"As long as you don't eat us out of house."

"No promises there."

"Everybody clap your hands!"

Skye bounced up and down slightly as she clapped her hands to the music, swaying her body to the beat. She was so happy to be back at school after the weekend. She wasn't best friends with her classmates, not like she was friends with Mr. Coulson, but she enjoyed being around them and she loved all the fun things they did in class.

"Alright, put your hands up and spin around!"

Skye giggled with her classmates as they spun around, raising their hands up.

"Great job!"

Mr. Coulson clapped and smiled at them all.

"Alright, it's inside free time," he told them.

Suddenly a helper teacher came into the room and talked to Mr. Coulson quietly.

"Ms. Peters is going to watch you all for a moment because I'm being called to the office," Mr. Coulson announced, heading towards the door.

"You'll be back?" Skye grabbed his hand. "Are you in trouble?"

"I'll be right back. And I don't think I'm in trouble," Mr. Coulson smiled at her. "I'll be right back."

"Okay." Skye let him go, feeling a little better when he gave her a special smile.

"Look what I brought from home!" one little girl ran to her cubby and brought out a little tub of playdough. Skye peered at it, wondering what was special about the yellowish green playdough. "It's glow in the dark."

Soon they were gathering around it and trying to cup their hands around it and see if they could see it glow. Skye considered wandering away to play with something else but she'd never seen glow in the dark playdough. In fact, she'd never seen anything really glow in the dark.

"I wanna see," she voiced her opinion.

"Let's try a dark place, then it'll glow 'cause it can't have any light or you can't see it," the first girl, Ella, said wisely.

Quickly, they decided on one of the toy closets. It was a bit small but Ella managed to get in and they closed the door.

"I can see it glow!" she called out. Soon they were taking turns getting in and then it was Skye's turn. She clutched the glow in the dark playdough excitedly and walked into the closet.

But as soon as they closed the closet door, Skye knew it was a big big mistake. Suddenly all she could think of was the closet at home and being stuck in there forever and forever...

She was frozen in the darkness, her body unable to move or call for help, not hearing anything but the spinning of her own thoughts and a distant hum.

Phil walked back into the classroom feeling slightly annoyed about being unnecessarily pulled out of his classroom. There was some sort of misunderstanding between another teacher and the principal but he didn't know why it couldn't have waited until after class.

Entering the kindergarten room, he immediately noticed that there were several of his kids gathered around the toy closet. Ms. Peters was playing with a student on the other side of the room and hadn't seemed to notice.

Phil quickly strode over to where the kids were gathered around the closed door.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"I got glow in the dark playdough!" Ella informed him. "We're taking turns seeing it in the dark. Skye's in there now."

"But she's taking forever," Griffin complained. "I want my turn."

Phil wasted no time opening the door.

Skye was curled up on the ground, playdough lying forgotten at her side.

"Skye." Phil tried not to panic as he quickly knelt beside the girl. She wasn't responding to him, her eyes closed tightly, thin arms wrapped around herself. For a moment, his heart stopped and then he saw that the girl's chest was rising and falling steadily. "Skye, I'm going to touch your shoulder, okay?" He gently touched her shoulder and then began rubbing her back. "You're okay. Skye, can you look up at me? You're safe, Skye."

Skye slowly raised her head and looked at him with large confused brown eyes.

"Mr. Coulson?" she whispered and Phil could feel his heart breaking.

"Skye, you're okay. You're with me at school. Everything is okay."

The small girl uncurled slightly and Phil finally relaxed enough to glance back and check on the rest of his class. He was grateful to see that Ms. Peters had diverted the rest of the class to the other side of the classroom and had engaged them in an activity. He turned his undivided attention back to the girl in front of him.

"Come on, it's okay now," Phil gently pulled Skye out of the closet. She stared at him for a moment and then suddenly threw herself at him, wrapping her thin arms around his neck. Her small form shook slightly and he realized she was crying.

"Hey, hey, I've got you," he murmured.

"I g..got scared," Skye hiccuped, finally drawing away slightly, wiping her eyes.

"It's okay. Did you get scared because you were in the closet?" Phil rubbed her back. Skye nodded, bottom lip trembling.

"Are you okay now?" Phil let her lean heavily against him.

"Yeah," Skye nodded slowly, still sniffing, one hand still on Phil's shoulder. She seemed unwilling to break the contact quite yet.

"Do you want to talk about why you were scared?" Phil asked carefully.

"No." Skye suddenly was hugging him again, burying herself in his chest.

"Okay. But if you ever do, I'm always here, okay?"

She nodded into his sweater.

"Do you feel ready to go with the rest of the class to the library?" Phil wanted to stay with Skye forever, but he also knew he had to take care of the rest of his class now that the crisis was over.

Skye nodded but when he moved to stand up, she grabbed his hand and clung to it almost desperately.

In that moment, Phil wanted nothing more than to pick her up, take her home with him, and protect her from everything.

But he couldn't and it broke his heart.

Natasha knew that something was wrong as soon as Skye stepped out of the classroom. Her little sister's face was drawn, there was a faraway look in her eyes, and she was clutching at Mr. Coulson's hand.

She worriedly took a step forward and Skye finally focused on her, let out a pitiful sound, and nearly knocked Nat over as she rushed forward and gave her a tight hug. Natasha squeezed her back and gave Mr. Coulson an angry look, "What'd you do to her?"

Turning them to the side so that she was between Skye and Mr. Coulson, she glared at him. It felt like Skye was trying to burrow into her side and Natasha stopped glaring at Mr. Coulson for a second so that she could press a kiss to the top of Skye's head.

"I'm not sure what happened, I found her in the closet and-"

Natasha went from hugging Skye to protectively holding her against her, "Why'd you put her in the closet? She's not bad!"

Mr. Coulson gaped at her and she felt Skye pull on her sleeve and quietly say, "He didn't put me in there."

Natasha tried to push Skye away a little so that she could see her face but Skye clung tighter to her and pressed her face against her chest. Giving up, Nat settled on staring at the top of Skye's head, "What happened?"

"I wanted to see the playdough glow in the dark so I went to see it in the closet but it was dark and I got scared and it was just like at home and…"

Natasha wasn't really sure what Skye was talking about but Skye's breathing started to quicken so she shushed her and rubbed small circles on her back because she knew that helped Skye calm down. Her little sister let go of her sleeve and stuck her thumb in her mouth and Nat didn't stop her.

When Skye calmed down enough, Nat turned back to Mr. Coulson and was a little surprised to see that Mrs. May was standing next to him. They were both watching them and Natasha cleared her throat and pried Skye off of her. Her little sister made a noise of protest and tucked herself into Nat's side.

Mrs. May looked between her and Skye and raised an eyebrow, "What's going on?"

"N-"

Mr. Coulson interrupted her, "Don't say nothing."

Raising her chin a little, she looked Mr. Coulson in the eye and defiantly said, "Nothing."

Mr. Coulson sighed softly, "We just want to help, Natasha. We want to help both of you."

For a second, Natasha let herself imagine what that would be like, to have adults in her life that would be able to help her and Skye and she instantly felt guilty for wanting that. She loved Skye so much but she was so tired of having to take care of the both of them. She wondered how the kids in her class' lives were. They had parents that loved them and looked after them and did all the things that grown-ups were supposed to do and they always looked so happy and carefree in class. She wanted that for Skye and a selfish part of her wanted that for herself too.

Skye's fingers digging into her hip brought her out of her thoughts and she shook her head, "You can't help."

Mr. Coulson reached towards her but she took a step back and pulled Skye with her. He looked sad and upset, "Natasha…"

Nat suddenly felt so angry at him and she didn't know why, but she wanted him to feel bad, "You can't help! You can't even make Skye feel safe in your own classroom!"

A flash of hurt flickered through Mr. Coulson's face and Natasha felt guilty for what she had said but she wasn't going to take it back. It was true.

Skye had been silent up until then but she suddenly spoke up, "Don't be mean to Mr. Coulson, he's my friend."

Ignoring the jealousy she felt at Skye's words, she schooled her features and looked down at her sister, "I'm sorry Skye, but it's true, isn't it?"

She watched as Skye looked up at Mr. Coulson before quickly looking away. She stuck her thumb back in her mouth and mumbled around it, "Mr. Coulson's safe."

Skye was just a little kid. She didn't know who was safe and who wasn't. Natasha knew better than her, she knew that you couldn't trust adults because even if they seemed kind, they never turned out to be. The only person she trusted was Skye and it hurt a little bit that Skye was starting to trust someone else. Natasha had taken care of Skye for months, they had taken care of each other, and they had been fine together. They didn't need anyone else.

Putting a hand under Skye's chin, she made sure her sister was focused on her before saying, "I'm safe. I keep you safe and you keep me safe."

Skye nodded at her, "I know."

She stared intensely at her sister, "We take care of each other."

"You shouldn't have to." Mrs. May's words had both of them jerking their heads to look up at her. Her teacher continued, "You're both children, you shouldn't have to look after yourselves, someone should be doing that for you."

Natasha opened her mouth to protest, to say that she didn't need anyone to look after her, she could do it just fine on her own, but Mrs. May never gave her the chance. Her teacher gave her a sad look and gently said, "I know you can look after yourselves, but you shouldn't have to."

As you may be able to sense, we are nearing a breaking point in the story.

Let me know what you think!

See you in 8 days at the next chapter.

~silverlining