I'm sorry I haven't posted anything of this lately, but I've been having family problems - my parents broke up they weren't legally married, but lived together for 20 years, and my father didn't take it very well, and so my problems began, I won't bother you guys with the details, but I'm telling you this so you can understand why I didn't post anything ever since the last chapter, I didn't post because I haven't been able to write, and that's because of my parents' break up, like I said my dad didn't took it very well so I was always worried something bad would happen so I didn't have much room for writing, but now things are better Thank God and I'm slowly writing again.

It may take a little while, but a chapter will be here as soon as possible, and if you see one shots around here before the chapter, please, don't kill me, I haven't written in what feels like forever so I'll be giving into my muse a bit, so as not to get too rusty.

I can't promise regular updates, but unless something really big happens I can promise it won't take me as long as it took to post this chapter.

Hope you don't give up on reading this. Thank you so much all of you who read it, commented and followed.

Xoxo

Dark Wings...

Chapter 4 - It's Not Just Where You Lay Head

You wake up feeling groggy and sore – and with a few flashes of memories of your first years at S.H.I.E.L.D. up to when Phil died dancing through your brain; whatever it was they injected in you, instead of causing hallucinations, like some sedatives can, it triggered these memories - and to the voice of someone calling you, and once you're alert enough you look for the source of the sound and you see Skye – Daisy – sitting at the other side of the room.

You want to run to her and check her out, reassure yourself that she's alright, but when you try to move your hands is only to find they're tied up behind the chair you are sat. You notice then, the girl is too tied up.

"May! Thank God" Skye – Daisy – exclaims once she sees you're awake and her relief at seeing you alive is obvious. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. You?" you ask her and she nods affirmatively and honestly you wish you could see it for yourself but for now her word is going to be enough.

You scan the room, but besides you and Skye – Daisy – there's nothing, no one else.

"What do you think they want with us?" the young agent asks you and only after she questions is that you begin to wonder the same – you were too worried about your protégé at first to think about anything else, surely a sign of weakness that you should learn to control while out in the field, but when it comes to her and Phil you can't be objective, tactical, impartial or impersonal, not when they mean the world to you.

"I have no idea. Got any theories?" you ask her, if only because you miss talking to her – meaning she talks and you listen, adding something here and there every once in a while.

"Who knows? Maybe they want the keys to Lola and thought the best way to get it would be by kidnapping us." She says in attempt to lighten the mood and you smile that tight lipped smile of yours that lets her know you appreciated her joke, before she says more seriously "I don't know, but whatever it is, it can't be good, otherwise we wouldn't have been drugged and tied up"

"Agree" you say and your eyes fall to your own tied up feet, you look up abruptly locking eyes with Skye – Daisy – when a thought crosses your mind and you ask, "Can you untie these?"

Her face falls as nods her head negatively and says "I've tried, but whatever it is they drugged us with it must have shut down my powers, either that or this room is doing that"

She looks so disappointed in herself like it's her fault both you can't get out, and knowing her she probably is thinking exactly that. 'This just won't do, I won't have my kid beating herself up because of the motherfuckers who locked us here' you think as you see her eyes burn with unshed tears – you ignore the fact you referred to her as your kid, while usually you don't allow this kind of thoughts to even cross your minds, sometimes they just slip, and sometimes you let it.

"Daisy" you call her and it's a good thing she doesn't notice how hard it is for you to call her that, when she looks at you, you continue "Listen to me, none of this is your fault, okay? We all knew this mission was a trap, we just need to know why, and we will and when we find out we'll get the hell out of here, powers or no powers, got it?"

She nods her head yes and by the looks of it your words seem to have gone through her. You're glad. Otherwise you would have to beat up the guys who took you not only for putting her in physical danger but also for making her think less of herself.

"I'm sorry" Skye – Daisy – says after a few moments of silence.

"It's –" you begin but she cuts you off.

"Not about this." She says firmly and you are a little confused by it before she elaborates" About what happened in Afterlife." You know now what she's talking about, she takes a breath, and you see how troubled she is by the memory, you are too, and you're about to cut her off when she speaks again 'I'm sorry I threw you across the patio, you were trying to help me, even after I abandoned all of you, and I was blinded by the illusion of having my parents, of having a family that I didn't see I already had those and instead turned my back on you."

Your heart aches when the moment she's talking about is replayed in your mind, to think the girl you loved as a daughter could turn against you hurt more than you can say, but even with the memory fresh on your brain you pay attention to her every word and you don't try to interrupt anymore, not when she looks like she might fall apart if she doesn't get it out of her chest, not when her eyes are pleading you to forgive her, little did she know, you already forgave her, you did that the moment you realized she didn't really know her biological parents were psychopaths.

Your hearts soars when you hear her saying she already had a family, she already had parents, because you know she's talking about the team, because you know she's talking about you and Phil, because even when you told yourself you weren't her mother she did see you as such, and that almost makes you smile, but you see how sad she is and it takes a moment to fully understand why, when you do though, it really makes you wish you were able to untie yourself and just envelope her in your arms, the way you know she likes, the way you know she wishes you'd do more often.

"I know I shouldn't be talking about this here, while we're on a mission – or at least trapped in one – but our lives are weird and we're always in danger and I don't know when I'll ever get the chance or guts to bring it up again, so yeah, sorry about that too, I know you don't like this, you don't have to say anything I just wanted you to know it" she says and bows her head trying to hide her face in her hair in embarrassment at being this vulnerable and you know what she's thinking of herself – that she's an adult, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, not a scared little orphan anymore, that she shouldn't refer to you as family because you're all strangers that only ended up together because your best friend died, and that she's broken beyond repair and that by saying she's sorry she's trying to fix one of her too many fuck ups.

"You didn't lose any of us, Sk-Daisy, we're still your family, no matter what" you say, kicking yourself for your slip, which of course she notices, she doesn't mention it, but the small amused smile she gives you is enough. "What happened that day it's over, you didn't know, you couldn't know what she was planning. It's not your fault, okay? It. Is. Not. Your. Fault. Got it?"

You reassure her and even though you know she's doing this just humor you for now she nods her head yes, and you're glad, she may not believe it now, but she will one day, you'll make sure of that.

'I love you' is on the tip of your tongue, even if you don't do well with words; never know how to really express yourself through them, and these three words they scare you more than facing death itself – after all you do face it on a daily basis. You can count on one hand the amount of people who you said them to - your mother, you were tree years old and stumbled a bit on the words but she didn't seem to care about that, she just smiled a watery smile at you before saying she loved you back (that was the first time you hear your mother saying she loved you, after that, there were other times you expressed the sentiment towards your mother, but none was as emotionally rewarding as that one); your father, who never tucked you in without saying he loved you, and you always said it back; Andrew, it took you him proposing for you to finally say it to him, but he was understanding of the fact you had a hard time saying it, it was perfectly normal, or so he told you; Phil, who was probably the only person after your father that made so easy to say it, but also like your mother he made it so difficult, and you knew it was because it would be easy if you only meant it as friend, and you did mean it as a friend, but that was only half truth, that's why the first time you tell him he is passed out from exhaustion, his head on your lap as he fell asleep watching 'The Empire Strikes Back' with you.

It's truth you don't usually say them, not so easily and not without being sure about saying it, but Skye – because for the moment that's who she is, Skye, your Skye – deserves to hear them from you, she deserves to know she means the world to you, she deserves to know that you do love her, love her enough to kill and die for her, love her more than you ever loved anyone else in your life – and you've loved Phil Coulson long before she was even born.

You're about to say it when the door opens and Gideon Mallick appears.

"What a lovely talk. I'm touched" he says clapping his hands in mocking.

You see Skye – Daisy – visibly tense at his presence and you too are unsettled by him, especially since both you and the young girl have no means to defend yourselves.

"As much as I loved this episode of 'Days of Our Lives'" he continues once more mocking both you and your protégé – if only I could punch his face. "I would really like to get some answers"

Both you and Skye – Daisy – remain silent as he looks at both of you expectantly, as if waiting for one of you to ask what he wants. Idiot.

"Okay, I'm going to ask anyway" he eventually says after he gets no reaction out of the two of you, "I want the Index files. My agents haven't been able to hack into your files, congratulations by the way" he says turning to Skye – Daisy – as he falsely praises her working skills, "Which leaves me no option but to outright ask you for them" he finishes, a damn smirk playing on his mouth and it just made you wish to punch him even more.

"You really think I'm going to hand you them?" Skye – and she's every bit the sassy hacker that stepped in the Bus three years ago – asks him, a humorless laugh making its way past her lips.

"Oh, I'm sure you will" he says, that damned irritating smirk in place as his eyesight falls on you and you begin to imagine just what he's prepared.

Soon his agents – scumbags, really – come inside the room and position themselves near the youngest agent, and with nod of head from Mallick they untie her from the chair only to sedate her once she's standing, the powerful sedative knocks her out immediately and one of the agents throws her over his shoulder – fireman style – and they exit the room.

Panic seeps through you, and you try to calm yourself before you begin to hyperventilate, you'll be of no help for Skye – you're too scared to remember her other name – if you're having a panic attack, I'm no help tied up in this chair, either, but if you at least can think clearly you may be able to do something.

So you practice the breathing exercises you go through every morning with the very reason of why you need them now and try to calm yourself. It's working until one of the walls lift and glass appears.

The moment you see Skye – Daisy – on the other side of the glass you instantly know what's in store for you, whatever it is they want you'll give them if it means they won't lay a finger on the girl – you don't care that that it's outright showing your biggest weakness you only care about keeping her safe.

She's slowly waking up from the sedative, and you guess they must have given her something to wake her, but once she takes in surroundings and her eyes meet yours through the glass, you see she's just as scared as you are.

No one speaks, Mallick doesn't try to ask for the files again nor tries to negotiate it, but they don't also hurt Skye – Daisy – which you're grateful for, no instead they decide to hurt you.

You maintain eye contact with Skye the entire time, and you try to convey just how much she means to you. And then suddenly you have to avert your gaze because white hot pain is searing through your veins and you're wondering where the hell it came from?

At first it's only a tingling on your skin and it doesn't hurt at all, but then all of sudden you feel like there are multiple knives going through and tearing you up, it's only then you realize they're doing this because they think that by hurting you the younger inhuman will talk, and it's almost proven right – you see in her eyes that she's about to give in, that seeing you in pain is killing her - but before she can say anything you speak "Skye, don't say anything or do anything they ask you, no matter what they do to me. I can handle it, just don't say anything" you say through gritted teeth.

You see the horror in your protégé's face, you see the fear she feels for you, the pain of having to see you go through this, and if you're honest you're also afraid for both of your lives and you ache inside for knowing the kind of pain she's feeling. But she listens to you and obeys you even though you can see she's breaking and the tears spill from her eyes at their own accord. You hate yourself for doing this to her, but it's needed. So, you swallow your feelings down, and put on the best façade you can come up with, for Skye.

You take as much as you can without a single grunt, but the pain is too much and eventually you go out of consciousness.

Skye's tear stained face is the last thing you see.