Anddddd here's another chapter for you all!
Also happy holidays! :)
Huge thanks to those who reviewed! You all are the best!
Smileychameleon: I will definitely put in your suggestion! I wanted to lay some groundwork in this chapter, but it will come!
Just a warning, I like Frozen. It will play a role. If you hate it, it's not a big deal, you can still enjoy this :)
Let me know what you think!
or just review cause it's my favorite thing ever to get reviews.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Skye woke up, pink covers twisted around herself, soft light filtering through the white curtains over the window.
Slowly she sat up. She was in the new house still.
She remembered waking up two or three times in the night, making the man and silent lady come running.
She remembered the nice man, Phil, staying by her bed each time, and the silent lady, May, peering in through the doorway, looking concerned.
She remembered the dreams, about that horrible place.
Skye shuddered and got out of bed.
She was scared. She didn't really know what was going on. All she knew was she was now with the nice man and silent lady and they fed her mac and cheese and didn't yell or poke her with needles or do other scary things.
At least, not yet.
Skye paused and examined the stuffed animals on the toy chest by her bed. Hesitantly she reached out to touch one. It was soft. She smiled slightly.
And then she saw the bear. It had a goofy grin but she didn't even see that. All she saw was it was wearing a white long coat.
Images flashed through her mind. A woman with straight brown hair and glasses in a white coat raised a needle. A bright light was shining in her eyes, something was around her wrists, keeping her from moving. She fought and fought, crying, screaming, but nobody came to help her…
"It's okay. You're okay," someone was gently rubbing her back.
Skye suddenly realized she was still in the pink room. The silent Asian lady was crouched beside her, murmuring soft words.
Skye's breath hitched in her chest and she wiped the tears from her face.
When she looked back up, the lady was gone. Soon Phil came running into the room, saying something about how May had told him she was crying and suddenly Skye started crying again because she was scared and confused and she let Phil hug her and when he eventually tried to move, she clung to him as if he was the only thing holding her down on earth.
"Do five year olds take naps?" Coulson watched Skye's head droop. The girl was currently curled up on the couch, watching a TV show about butterflies and her head kept drooping and eyes fluttering.
Breakfast had been a silent affair. When Skye had finally let go of him, she went back to her usual distant self.
"She's probably tired from all those nightmares."
Coulson grunted in agreement, unable to tear his eyes from the tiny girl on the couch.
What had those bastards done to her?
She had woken up screaming three times during the night, and then there was the morning meltdown May had discovered…
He couldn't shake the memory of her skinny yet strong arms clinging to him as though he was a lifeline.
"I found this on the floor of the bedroom." May glanced at Skye and seeing that she was distracted by the TV, held up a little stuffed animal bear. The bear was wearing a lab coat, obviously supposed to be some cute scientist bear.
Cute unless you were a little girl just rescued from a lab.
"That must have triggered the meltdown this morning," Coulson hissed. "Who the hell thought this would be a good idea?!"
"Some idiot who doesn't have a brain," May said and calmly ripped the bear's head off, stuffed him in the trash, and stalked off.
Coulson watched her go, then turned back to watching Skye.
If only he could get her to talk…
Suddenly he had a great idea.
"This is a horrible idea," May deadpanned.
They were standing in front of the largest toy store either of the agents had ever seen.
Kids and parents were everywhere. Vibrant colors blasted from all sides and over the top sing songy music filled the air.
There were aisles full of just pink toys. There were balls and wheels and scooters and bikes and stuffed animals and arts and crafts and basically everything imaginable.
May took a cautious step forward and stepped on a toy bird which began screeching and flapping its mechanical wings.
May kicked the toy bird's head off before anyone had a chance to react.
"Skye, give me your hand," Phil ordered.
Skye took his hand, brown eyes wide as she stared at the aisles and aisles of toys.
"Alright. We can do this." Coulson took a deep breath. He was fairly sure May was going to kill him later for dragging her into this hell shop.
"What do you want to look at first, Skye?"
Skye clung to his hand, looking around. Suddenly she smiled and pointed.
"Elsa!"
And all of a sudden, her hand slipped out from his and she ran around the corner, and a pack of children was between him and May and Skye.
"Skye!" May yelled, pushing through the group of seven year olds clutching matching dolls. "Who the hell is Elsa?!"
"No idea! Where'd she go?!" Coulson was sprinting down the aisle he thought Skye had gone down.
He suddenly saw her brown hair by the tea sets and ran to her.
"Skye, you can't…"
The girl turned around and it wasn't Skye.
Phil jerked back and backed away from the child and her mom who was sending him suspicious looks.
"Okay, we lost her." He regrouped with May who was searching the stuffed animal area.
"Shit." May dropped a smiling starfish and reached for her hidden gun.
"May!" Coulson stared at her. "You can't pull out your gun in a Toys R Us!"
A mom next to the play ponies was looking at them concernedly, reaching for her cell phone.
"I mean… I don't think it's appropriate to get Tommy a toy gun," Coulson said loudly.
The lady put her cell phone back in her purse.
"We should split up," May hissed. "If someone finds her and Centipede…"
She didn't have to say more, they were both running different ways.
Oh god. This couldn't be happening. Two days into a mission and they had already lost their charge.
Coulson promptly tripped over a jump rope, skidded into a giant rubber ball, and fell on his back.
Many cheerful snowmen stared down at him, while somewhere something was singing about letting go and ice and snow or something. Coulson sat up and turned to find Skye standing beside him, hugging a blonde doll with a shiny blue dress.
"Look, I found Elsa!" she smiled, holding it up for him to see.
Coulson groaned and grabbed a smiling snowman and buried his face in it.
"Are you sure you just wanted Elsa?"
It was after dinner, which after their eventful evening was pizza ordered from a local shop.
Skye nodded, cradling her doll.
"Are you sure? We could go back and get one of those other ones, the uh.. uh.. snowman with the funny nose…"
"Olaf," Skye inserted.
"Or the redhead…"
"Anna." Skye smoothed her doll's hair.
"Or even that reindeer and that weird guy…"
"Sven and Kristoff."
"Yeah, all those guys. We could totally go back and get them for you."
He could see that Skye had no interest, and he had said it really to get to May, but judging by the way she was glaring at him as though she would murder him with the piece of pizza she was holding, he was thinking it was maybe too soon.
Phil gave her an apologetic half smile but she only glared and stalked away.
He turned back to Skye.
"Alright, why Elsa? Why not Annie…
"Anna."
"Or Kristopher…"
"Kristoff."
"Whatever. Why not one of them?" Coulson was secretly enjoying how much Skye was talking. As in she had said a couple more than five words in the last hour. All had been about this mysterious movie, Frozen.
Judging from the way she responded to physical objects, such as the apples or bear, he had wondered if he could get her to open up that way as well.
So far, it was working. It was even worth the trip to the toy store.
Skye was silent for a moment, holding her Elsa doll in front of herself making her sway back and forth slightly.
"Elsa's different from everyone else. And she… she gets locked up because of that. They put these things on her hands. Those stop you from getting away." Skye set down the doll and clasped her own wrist with her other hand in demonstration. "They tell her she's a monster. But she's just scared."
Skye, done with her explanation, picked up Elsa again and hugged her tight.
"They put cuffs on her at some point."
"What?"
It was almost 1 am and when May walked into the living room after disappearing for a perimeter check, Coulson was sitting on the couch, the animated scene of a slender blonde girl pulling against chains in a dungeon paused on the screen of the TV.
"What is this?" May raised her eyebrows.
"Frozen. And that's Elsa." Coulson gestured to the still image on the screen with the remote.
"Coulson, what the hell are you doing?"
"Finding out what happened to Skye in that lab. I got her to talk to me today. She told me this story about Elsa and how they put chains on her and said she was different and a monster, but she was just scared…"
"You're making assumptions from a conversation about a child's toy."
"I know she was talking about herself." Coulson stared at the screen, eyes glued to the look of anguish on Elsa's face.
"Phil," May's gaze became concerned. "Maybe you should get some rest."
"I think," Coulson ignored May. "I think they used restraints at some point. I know they found Skye in a small empty room. My guess is they took her from the room to run tests and then brought her back there when they were done. And either they told her or she heard them talking to each other about how she's different or maybe even a monster…"
"We need to find out what kind of tests, Phil. We need to know what they were up to. This doesn't matter…"
"It does if it's affecting Skye," Phil's voice was suddenly intense.
May's eyes narrowed.
"Her mental health is not our mission."
"It might not be our mission, but it is our concern as human beings." Coulson stood up, holding May's gaze seriously.
"We can't get attached," May said roughly.
"I will not become apathetic to a child's suffering," Coulson said quietly and left the room.
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