I'm starting to get the hang of this every-Monday-update thing! Are you proud of me?
This is a long chapter for ya'll! Enjoy!
Phil waited a little impatiently as Tripp tried to unlock the front door to the Garrett's house. John was still in custody and Rebecca was under investigation for child abuse and neglect so the house was locked up and empty. Tripp had said that it was alright if he went back to the Garrett's house to grab Skye's and Natasha's things as long as he was there to supervise.
Finally, Tripp pushed open the door and turned to him, "No one's cleaned up in here…"
Phil waved him off. A messy house wasn't anything he hadn't seen before.
He realized why Tripp had made a point to warn him of the state of the house as soon as he stepped through the door. The place was a mess. Items were scattered all over the floor, the pillows from the couch were strewn about, one of the legs to the coffee table in the living room was broken, and that was just the living room. From where he was standing, he could see empty bottles of beer littering the ground of the hallway and the kitchen and one of the dining room chairs was lying haphazardly on the ground.
Sucking in a breath, he slowly walked around the house, as if in a daze. He couldn't believe that this was where Natasha and Skye had lived. You wouldn't be able to tell that children lived here just by looking around. There were no pictures of them on the walls, no children's drawings hanging proudly on the fridge, no toys laying around, no little shoes or jackets by the front door. It was like they were never here.
Tripp cleared his throat, "The girls' rooms are upstairs."
Phil shook his head to clear it and nodded, "Right."
The daze he had seemed to be in started to disappear and turn to anger as he walked up the staircase and spotted a closet with the door thrown open. He peered into it and saw mainly storage boxes and some cleaning supplies that he doubted had ever been used, but the giant look on the door told him that this was probably the closet that Skye had been talking about last night.
It was dark and small and Phil felt a hot flash of anger spread through him. What kind of a person would intentionally harm a child? For the life of him, Phil couldn't understand why the Garrett's treated Natasha and Skye the way they did and he didn't think he ever would.
Grinding his teeth, he made sure that none of the girls' things were in there before firmly shutting the closet door.
Tripp gave him a questioning look but he shook his head and moved down the hallway towards the girls' rooms.
He wasn't expecting to see the sight before him. The door to the first room had been kicked in and broken down. Slivers of wood were still attached to the door hinges but the rest of the door was lying on the floor. There were books and papers trapped under the door and lying around the room. The bed was sitting diagonally on the other side of the room rather than straight and looked like it had been grabbed and dragged a few feet to the side. On the side of the bed, he saw homework papers and books sitting in a messy pile.
It looked like a warzone, not a child's bedroom.
Blinking rapidly, Phil tried not to imagine Natasha and Skye in here, trying to do their homework and hiding from the monsters that lived just down the hall from them. He tried not to think about how scared they must have been when the door to the room had crashed in and he really tried not to think about what had happened after.
Even though he tried his best, he still saw Natasha's bruised torso and Skye's broken arm and the scrapes and bruises that were decorating both of their little bodies.
He hadn't been able to help them. He should have done something sooner, said something sooner. He shouldn't have worried about doing things by the books because while he was filling out paperwork, Skye and Natasha were living in a place like this, terrified.
A hand on his shoulder pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked over to Tripp.
"They're safe now, you did everything you could."
Taking a step away so that Tripp's hand fell away from his shoulder, Phil shook his head, "It wasn't enough. I should've-"
Tripp cut him off, "Should've done what? There was nothing more that you could do. You got them out of here and the Garrett's are going to be punished for what they did."
His friend stepped towards him, put his hand back onto his shoulder, and squeezed it comfortingly.
Letting out a breath, Phil nodded. He wasn't sure if he believed Tripp when he said that there was nothing else he could have done. He still thinks that there must have been something that he could've done to help sooner, but he wasn't going to say that.
Tripp gave him a small grin and squeezed his shoulder again, "Now, let's grab the girl's stuff and get the hell out of here. This place creeps me out and Natasha and Skye are waiting for you back at home."
The thought of Skye and Natasha waiting for him is what ultimately got him moving. He wanted to go back to his house and make sure that they really were alright and so, with Tripp's help, they packed up all the girl's stuff and got the hell out of there.
Natasha woke up with Skye's hard cast in her face and with her blankets twisted around her legs. It was still kind of dark outside and she had no idea why she was up this early but after a few minutes of trying to go back to sleep, she gave up.
Sighing, she slowly and quietly tried to untangle herself from her sheets and from Skye without waking her little sister and without jostling her ribs too much. It took a few moments, but she finally slid out of bed with only minor pain from her ribs.
After pulling the sheets up and around Skye so that she was warm, she quietly snuck out of the room. She didn't hear any movement from downstairs and guessed that Mr. Coulson and Mrs. May were still asleep.
Since she didn't think anyone else was awake, she couldn't help but jump in surprise when a soft voice spoke from behind her, "Good morning."
Spinning around quickly, she instinctively took a step back towards hers and Skye's new room before realizing that it was just Mr. Coulson. He was carrying an overstuffed duffel bag on one shoulder and was carrying two medium sized plastic storage bins in his arms.
Natasha caught her breath, tried to slow her heart rate back down, and plastered an unaffected look on her face. If Mr. Coulson had noticed that he had scared her, he didn't show it, and she was grateful for that.
Giving her a wide smile, Mr. Coulson set the bins and bag down by the wall outside of her room and turned to her, "I went and got your guys' stuff. Is Skye awake yet?"
Sparing a glance back to her half-opened door, she shook her head.
Mr. Coulson nodded, "Okay, well when she is, we can help you put everything away. I think I got all of your things but if not, just let me know and I can go back."
Natasha shrugged. She didn't really have a lot of things that she cared enough about to go back for. As long as she had clothes to wear and Skye, she was fine.
Mr. Coulson made a noise in his throat and she focused on him and saw that he was unzipping one of the smaller sections on the duffel bag. He fished around for a moment before making a triumphant sound and pulling out a little plastic baggie and showing it to her proudly, "I made sure to grab hair ties."
Natasha was surprised that he had actually remembered. They had only mentioned it yesterday morning and very quickly. She knew that Skye would be happy to have something to help get her hair out of her face and so she nodded at Mr. Coulson and said, "Thank you."
Mr. Coulson's smile was so big that you would have thought that she had given him the biggest compliment in the world.
"Are you hungry? I can make breakfast."
Nat wasn't really sure if she wanted to leave Skye up here all alone. Mr. Coulson seemed to sense that because he said, "Skye will be fine. I think her medicine makes her a little sleepier than yours makes you. We'll make sure to save her some breakfast, okay?"
Gazing back at her partially open door, Natasha debated with herself. So far, living with Mrs. May and Mr. Coulson had been pretty nice. They had good food and let them watch movies and they had even taken off the closet door in their room to make Skye less scared. But she and Skye had been with each other the whole time and Nat wasn't sure what would happen when they were separated.
"We can make Skye waffles for breakfast. Does she like waffles?"
She could tell that Mr. Coulson was trying to make her decision easier for her by making this about Skye. Thinking back, she never remembered Skye talking about waffles and they definitely never had them at the Garrett's house.
She shrugged, "I dunno."
"Do you like waffles?"
Natasha tried to remember if she'd ever eaten waffles before and a fuzzy memory flicks through her brain. She might have had waffles once with her first foster family but she isn't sure.
She shrugged again and Mr. Coulson gasped dramatically, "Everyone loves waffles. I'm sure you and Skye will love them too."
The way Mr. Coulson made it seem like everyone eats waffles made her want to make some for Skye. If this was a normal experience for people, she wanted Skye to experience it too.
Tilting her head slightly in agreement, Mr. Coulson's big smile got impossibly bigger and he motioned for her to follow him down to the kitchen.
Natasha was a mystery to Phil.
At least he knew that Skye liked him. She had asked him to be her friend and held his hand and even smiled at him sometimes. He had no idea how Natasha felt about him.
When the redhead had agreed to making breakfast with him, he had been surprised. He knew that Natasha was probably only making waffles for Skye because she had never had them before, and even though that made him a little sad, he was happy to be spending some alone time with her.
It was quiet as they mixed all the ingredients. Natasha kept looking at him and studying him in such an intense way that he could feel his skin burning under her gaze. In this way, Natasha was like Melinda. They were both comfortable with silence. He was not comfortable with silence. He liked to fill empty spaces with words, it made him feel better and less lost when he was talking.
While Natasha was slowly mixing all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl, he pulled out the waffle maker, which has only been used once, and tried to make it look like he knew how to work it.
By the time it was successfully heating up, he couldn't take the silence anymore. When he turned to Natasha, he could see that she had noticed that she now had his full attention because, even though she didn't look up at him, she straightened up and shifted slightly away from him. That little defensive action had him thinking about the Garrett's house. The kicked in door and the locked up cupboards and before he could stop himself, he blurted out, "I'm sorry Natasha."
The little girl finally looked up at him but didn't say anything. Natasha just raised an eyebrow and gave him a flat, unreadable look. The way the action reminded him so much of Melinda caught him a little off guard.
Rubbing the back of his neck, he tried to come up with the right words this time before speaking again. "When I was at the Garrett's house today," he watched Natasha stiffen and hated himself for it, "I realized that I should have done something sooner. To help you and Skye, I mean."
His heart was beating rapidly and his palms were clammy and he realized he was so nervous because he wanted Natasha to know how sorry he was, how much he wanted to help them and make them feel safe, how much he wanted to do right by them now that he had the opportunity to help them.
Natasha didn't say anything, just continued to study him, and he felt his heart rate speed up a little more as he waited for a response. He had to literally bite his tongue so that he didn't continue to babble.
He watched as Natasha focused back on the mixing bowl and pretended to give it her full attention, "Skye… likes it here."
Phil wasn't really sure where that had come from but he would definitely take it. He couldn't tell if Natasha not acknowledging his apology was because she agreed with what he had said or not but honestly, he was happy to have gotten this much out of the redhead. She didn't seem to talk too much.
The one thing he was certain about Natasha was that she loved Skye and would do anything for her. It seemed like she had an easier time expressing herself when she wasn't actually talking about herself, but was talking about Skye. He hoped that when she said that Skye liked it here, that meant that she also liked it here, but he just couldn't be sure.
Giving her a tentative smile, he earnestly said, "Good! I'm happy about that."
Natasha nodded a little but her face was still empty of any emotion. He watched as the little girl took a deep breath, set the spoon she was mixing with down, and turned back to him. Natasha seemed to come to a decision and he watched as she made herself harder, stiffening her muscles and squinting her eyes a little, before saying, "Skye likes it here… and she likes you."
Natasha's voice was steely but he could hear a slight tremble in it. He knew she had more to say and he knew how difficult this might be for her so he stayed silent and gave her a chance to collect her thoughts.
"A lot of bad things have happened to Skye… and she deserves to be happy and safe. That's all she wants." The hard look Natasha was giving him was unnerving and he could clearly hear the challenge and the threat in what she was saying.
"She thinks you guys are different." She whispered this part and Phil couldn't tell if she was saying it to herself or to him, but then her voice got stronger and she stared him down, "I don't know if you're any different." He could hear the unspoken 'you'd better be different,' that Natasha didn't bother to say.
It made him sad how uncertain and frightened Natasha and Skye were of everything and everyone besides themselves and even though his heart was still beating incredibly fast and his palms were sweaty and the fact that this little girl was able to pull such a reaction out of him confused him a little bit, he made a promise to himself that he would prove to Natasha that he and Melinda were different from the past adults in her life.
He knew that just saying that Natasha could trust him definitely wouldn't be enough to actually win her trust and he also could tell that she wasn't expecting him to say anything, she was just telling him this because she needed him to hear it. So, he grabbed a carton of blueberries and set them by Natasha, "I bet Skye would love blueberry waffles. They're delicious."
Natasha studied him for a moment longer before nodding and reaching for the fruit and he could tell that the conversation was over.
He made sure not to crowd Natasha as he showed her how to pour the waffle mix into the maker and by the time he heard little feet running their way, they had made a small stack of regular waffles and a small stack of blueberry waffles.
He heard Skye run down the staircase and he heard a slower pair of footsteps trailing along behind her and figured that his wife was finally out of her shower and ready for the day. For some reason, he thought that Skye was running towards the kitchen because she was excited to see them and to eat breakfast, but when he finally spotted her, he knew that it was the opposite.
Skye looked upset and on the verge of tears and when she spotted Natasha, she let out a loud breath and ran even faster towards her. Skye made sure to slow down a little so that she didn't hurt Natasha's ribs but the tiny girl still managed to launch herself into her sister's arms. He heard her mumble something but couldn't make it out.
Melinda appeared by his side and whispered, "She didn't know where Natasha was."
He watched Natasha run a hand over Skye's head and press a kiss to her forehead and Skye visibly relaxed. The young girl stepped out of Natasha's arms, glanced quickly over to him, and then carefully studied her sister. Phil realized that she was making sure that Natasha wasn't hurt and it felt like a punch to the gut because the blatant display of distrust hurt. He knew that Skye liked him and thought of him as a friend but he also knew that the trust barriers that had been constructed throughout her short life would take a long, long time to break back down.
Skye gave Natasha one more hug and he heard Natasha comfortingly say, "I wanted to surprise you. I'm making waffles."
"What's that?" Skye sniffled one last time and ran her uncasted hand over her face before looking up at him and giving him a tiny, tiny smile.
He felt Melinda squeeze his hand and he sucked in a breath before smiling brightly, "Oh Skye, you're going to love them. They're delicious!"
Skye's morning had started off kinda bad but now it was pretty good.
When she had woken up and hadn't been able to find Natasha, she had panicked. After thoroughly checking their room for her sister, she had rushed out of the door and had ran right into Mrs. May.
Skye looked up at her and saw that her hair was still wet and her cheeks were pink from her shower. Mrs. May had taken one look at her and pointed towards the staircase, "They're making breakfast downstairs."
She didn't wait for Mrs. May and she didn't even think about how running in the house might get her in trouble, she just quickly made her way into the kitchen. When she spotted Nattie standing by the counter, she felt a giant wave of relief rush through her. She thought that she had trusted Mr. Coulson but seeing him alone with her sister made her nervous and wary and she couldn't help but look Nattie over and see if she was hurt.
Of course Natasha wasn't hurt. When she was done with her inspection, she had realized that her worries were kind of dumb. Mr. Coulson wouldn't hurt them, he was nice.
Once she had calmed down, Mrs. May had taken over helping with breakfast and she had given her and Nattie some plates to bring to the table. She stayed close to her sister's side and even scooted their chairs as close together as they could possibly go because she didn't want to be further apart than they absolutely needed to be.
All of Skye's worries melted away when she tried her first bite of the waffles though. They were amazing and she had quickly eaten two of them before Mrs. May had taken her plate away again to that she could realize that she was full.
Nattie had looked happy that she had liked the waffles and that made Skye happy too.
Now they were heading to the store to get food and stuff for their room. Skye was excited because she was going to be able to help pick out things to decorate their room, she had never been able to do that before, but she was also kind of afraid. She didn't really like going to places she had never been before.
While Mrs. May was looking for a parking space, Mr. Coulson turned around in the front seat and gave them a smile, "Okay girls, we're here."
Skye sat up a little straighter to see out the window and saw the big, store looming over them. The Target sign was huge and Skye liked the red bullseye on the front of the store.
"When we're in there, please stay close to us. And no running around, especially with your ribs Natasha."
Skye glanced over to her sister and wasn't surprised to see the annoyed look on her face. Nattie didn't like being told what to do but Skye agreed with Mr. Coulson. She didn't want Nattie to hurt her ribs either and there was no way she was going to let Natasha, Mr. Coulson, or Mrs. May out of her sight because she didn't want to get lost.
Mrs. May parked the car and Skye waited patiently for Nattie to help unbuckle her, it was really hard to do it herself with her cast, and then carefully hopped out of the car. Natasha followed after her and slipped out of the car a little more gracefully and Skye immediately grabbed onto her hand. Her thumb slipped into her mouth but a gentle tap from Natasha reminded her to take it out.
"Alright, let's do this," Mr. Coulson smiled at them. He looked funny with sunglasses and a t-shirt on. They followed closely behind him and Mrs. May as they headed into the giant store.
The inside seemed even bigger than the outside. Skye couldn't help but gape at the huge expanse of shelves and white floor. There was so much stuff.
"Alright, here's what I'm thinking- we should start with clothes and then move to bedding and stuff for the room, then finish up with some toys."
Skye smiled slightly, tugging on Natasha's hand.
"Toys," she mouthed. Natasha gave her a small smile but Skye could tell she was just humoring her. Natasha was obviously not enthusiastic about something.
"Alright, are you girls okay going over to the clothes section?" Mrs. May seemed to sense Natasha's hesitation.
Natasha nodded.
When they got to all the clothes, Skye waited obediently by Mrs. May as she started looking through clothes.
"What kind of clothes do you like, Skye?"
Skye was silent.
"Do you have a favorite color?" Mrs. May tried again.
Skye avoided her gaze. Suddenly she spotted a bright blue shirt that had clouds on it and looked at it longingly.
Mrs. May followed her gaze and picked up the shirt.
"Do you want this one, Skye?" she asked.
Skye quickly shook her head, clinging to Natasha's hand and looking down at the floor.
She remembered when Becky had taken her shopping.
"What do you think, Mary-Sue? How about this one?" Becky laughed and held up a pink shirt with a heart on it. "This will look so cute on you. Oh, and this one!" Becky picked out a little sparkly dress.
"I like this..." Skye hesitantly touched a blue hoodie.
"Ugh, Mary-Sue, are you stupid? Blue is a boys color, darling, and that sweatshirt is gross looking. Now put down that ugly thing and try this skirt on. I'm the one picking out clothes here."
"Skye, love?" Mrs. May was looking at her expectantly. "I saw you looking at this shirt, do you want it?"
Skye stubbornly shook her head, staring intently at her shoes.
"You can pick out which clothes you want, Skye," Mrs. May said, crouching down beside her. "I want you to have clothes you love. It doesn't matter what you want, whether it's blue or bright pink or polkadotted orange, or from the boys section- you can have whatever clothes you want."
"Anything?" Skye looked up. Mrs. May's eyes were serious as she nodded.
"Anything."
Skye took a cautious step forward and picked up the shirt she had been looking at.
"I want this one then," she said, trying to sound confident. Really she was scared that Mrs. May would yell at her or say something mean, but Mrs. May just gave her a big smile and helped find the right size.
"Can I get this?"
Melinda looked up from the coloring book she had been looking at to find Phil holding up a Captain America action figure, making puppy eyes at her.
"Don't we have enough Captain America stuff?" Melinda raised an eyebrow at him.
"No. Please please please?"
Skye giggled and even Natasha smiled slightly.
"I don't know. What do you think girls?" Melinda turned to them. They were looking a little tired, probably from all the shopping, and Melinda could tell that Natasha's ribs were bothering her by the way she held herself. Luckily they were just about finished.
"I think Mr. Coulson should get it," Skye smiled shyly. "Here, Mr. Coulson, we can count it as one of my toys."
Initially both girls had refused to take any toys, obviously uncomfortable with the amount of things that had been bought for them that day. However after discussing with Natasha and Skye, they had compromised on each girl being able to pick out three toys. Melinda had every intention of getting they some more things later, but for today, three would do.
Skye offering Phil one of her three allotted toy choices made her heart want to burst. The tiny girl had an incredible amount of goodness in her, despite all the crap the world had thrown at her. Honestly, it was beyond Melinda's comprehension.
"That's so kind of you Skye," Melinda was quick to affirm her. "Thank you for being willing to give Phil one of your toys. But I think we will let him get it on his own so you can still have your three toys, does that sound ok?"
Skye smiled shyly at the praise and nodded. She glanced at the shelf.
"You could get this one, Mr. Coulson, so you could get more," she suggested, picking up a set which included all the figures of the Avengers.
"Brilliant," Phil smiled, picking it up. He looked at May triumphantly but she just rolled her eyes at him.
Quickly eyeing her full shopping cart, she made sure they had gotten everything they needed. The plastic cart was full of room decorations, miscellaneous clothes items, some food and snacks that Melinda had had to basically coerce the girls into telling her that they liked, and their toys. Phil dropped his boxed action figures onto the top of the cart and she gave him a look before turning to the girls to see if they were ready to leave.
Skye and Natasha were holding hands, standing side by side and staring at the shopping cart. Taking a step back, Skye rubbed her thumb over her lips and pointed to the cart with her casted hand, "That's a lot of stuff."
From the corner of her eye, she saw Phil reach for another superhero thing and she quickly grabbed his hand, gave him a stern look, and turned back to the girls, "Yes it is. Are you ready to go?"
Skye nodded timidly and Natasha sighed, so she assumed that they were ready to go. She tugged Phil towards the cash registers before he found some other toy that he wanted.
My co-writer on AO3 asked her readers who their favorite character was so now I'm curious!
Who's your favorite character?
Until next week!
~silverlining