Skye and Maria idly chatted as the elevator took them towards the communal living floor. Maria had just made a joke about the annoying junior agents when the doors slid open.
Walking out, Skye looked around for the others, who were nowhere in sight. Skye frowned, before asking curiously, 'Jarvis, where are the others? You said they were on this floor.'
Before Jarvis could answer, there was a loud shout as the Avengers jumped up from behind various pieces of furniture.
'SURPRISE!'
Skye let out a small shriek in surprise, whilst Maria laughed from behind her.
'Wha- what the hell is this?' Skye shouted, amusement colouring her voice.
'It's a surprise party!' Tony exclaimed giddily. From next to Tony, Pepper quickly explained, 'Tony thought we should properly welcome you to the tower. Admittedly, it is one of his better ideas.'
Skye laughed, as Tony let out a 'hey!' in indignation, before looking at Maria with a raised eyebrow. 'You were totally in on this, weren't you.'
Maria gave her a rueful smile, 'Someone had to make sure you didn't get here early.'
Skye shook her head in disbelief, before laughing. 'Okay, let's get this party started!'
The avengers gave a cheer, whilst Pepper and Maria smiled.
'Jarvis, hit the music,' Tony yelled before pulling out an 8 pack of beer from God knows where.
Skye grinned to herself, still in slight shock that this was her life now as she accepted the beer from Tony. 'This is going to be fun.'
Skye laughed as she watched Clint and Tasha throwing bottle caps at each other with deadly accuracy, despite the copious amounts of alcohol they had consumed. Pepper and Maria lounged on one of the couches drinking wine, laughing and discussing work and the ridiculous men who worked under them. Tony and Bruce sat on the other side of the room, loudly discussing what sounded like the science behind teleportation, Tony exclaiming loudly whilst Bruce huffed in amusement. Steve, like Skye was watching everyone, a smile splayed across his face as he watched his team. Skye sidled up to him and grinned.
'Who'd have guessed this is what New York's neighbourhood heroes get up to on their weekends,' Skye joked. Steve chuckled, watching as Cling and Tasha started wrestling and Tony gesturing wildly.
'Yeah, I guess it's a good thing one of us can't get drunk.' Skye snorted, raising her bottle of coke in agreement.
'Not drinking?' Steve asked, curious.
Skye shrugged. 'Nah, been around enough alcoholics in my life to know that two is plenty for me.'
Steve smiled sadly. 'Sorry.'
Skye brushed it of with a smile. 'Ah, don't worry. Things are starting to look up,' she said before her eyes widened.
'Oh god, I can't believe those two are actually adults, let alone parents,' she joked, as she watched Tasha and Clint. They had somehow obtained nerf guns from who knows where and were currently pelting Bruce and Tony with foam bullets. Steve laughed, before nudging Skye gently. She looked at him and grinned as she saw him pulling out another two of his own nerf guns from behind a set of draws. She raised a brow as she accepted the larger gun.
Steve just shrugged, 'This actually happens more than you think. Wanna team up and get them?' He held out a hand, and Skye quickly shook it.
'Okay, you go round and take cover behind the couch, I'll draw their fire.'
'Aye, aye, Captain,' Skye joked with a mock solute before taking cover.
Before they knew it, things had turned into a full blown Nerf War. Tony managed to rope Pepper into it under the guise of 'equal teams', with Clint and Tasha; Skye and Steve; Tony and Bruce; Pepper and Maria as the teams. Jarvis kept score as nerf bullets flew everywhere. Shouts of victory and moans of loss filled the air, along with the chorus of laughter as everyone fought.
At one point, Pepper hit Tony square in the chest, resulting in Tony's dramatic 'death'. It was soon interrupted by a further 3 bullets hitting him from different directions.
After 10 minutes, it was clear Tasha and Clint were sure to win and so they switched it up, with Girls Vs. Boys. Much to Tony's dismay, the girls thrashed them.
It wasn't until Tasha managed to get Clint up the nose (how, no one knew) that Pepper called it all to an end.
'And the final results are, the girls with 107 kills, against the boys 94,' Jarvis announced. Clint and Tony groaned as Bruce and Steve applauded, not surprised by the powerful women in their lives. They all collapsed in a heap on various couches, and Maria sighed, 'God, that sure worked me up an appetite.'
There was a chorus of agreement, and Pepper suggested ordering Pizza.
'And ice cream!' Tasha and Clint simultaneously shouted, much to everyone's amusement.
'There's 8 of us, so... 10 pizzas should be enough. The usual?' Pepper asked, bringing up the order on her phone.
After everyone agreed, Pepper said, 'Well, someone has to go pick them up, they can stop of at the shop to get ice cream too.'
'Not it!' came shouts from everyone in the room, except Skye.
'Huh, guess it's me,' Skye grinned, getting up.
Clint tossed her his wallet as she headed for the elevator.
'Here, Stark hasn't set you up a card,' he shrugged, before lying down on the couch, his head in Tasha's lap.
Skye nodded in thanks, before heading down to the garage.
Skye smiled as she saw the wide selection of cars available. Heading towards a hooks of keys, she picked one at random before clicking the unlock button. 3 cars down, a flashy red convertible's lights blinked twice, whilst the car let out a beep.
'Sweet,' Skye muttered to herself as she saw the Lamborghini logo on the back, before climbing into the front seat. She shifted slightly in the leather, before turning the ignition. The engine roared to life, sending a thrill down Skye's spine.
'If only my van could see me now,' Skye muttered wryly to herself, before hitting the gas.
Skye fist pumped the air as she managed to find a parking spot only a block away from the pizza place. Skye briefly paused at the thought of leaving Stark's car in the middle of New York, but shrugged it off. Knowing Tony, there was bound to be all sorts of defences on the thing; she would hate to see the person who tried to steal from Iron Man. Grabbing the wallet Clint had given her, she left the car, locking the car behind her.
It was a quick walk to the pizza place, and she only had to wait another 5 minutes for their order to be served. The cashier called out into the half empty room, 'Um, order for Mr Stark?' Skye shot up from her seat in one of the booths, and jogged to the counter.
'Right, that's me.'
The cashier, who was really just a teen working part time, looked at her unsurely. 'Can I see your credit card, to validate the order.
Skye nodded and flicked through Clint's wallet, noting his Shield badge and a cute picture of Clint, Tasha, and a woman and two kids she didn't know before she found Clint's Stark card.
She handed it to the cashier, who looked at it quickly before his eyes widened in shock.
'Wait, this is the Tony Stark's order?!' He murmured in shock.
Skye grinned, and answered, 'Yep,' popping the p as she did. 'They said you did the best pizza in the state.'
Inconceivably, the kid's eyes widened even further, before he shook himself. 'Right, well here's your order.' He hefted a stack of ten pizza boxes so tall he disappeared behind them, onto the counter. Skye laughed, before picking them up.
'Thanks,' she called before heading out the shop, also thanking the kind stranger who held open the door for her.
She quickly made her way back to the car, peering over the precarious stack of boxes as she went. She noticed a few people admiring the car as she approached, but they quickly left as she walked up to the car. Wedging the boxes between herself and the car, she fished out the keys from her pocket, and unlocked the door. She quickly deposited the boxes on the passenger seat, before shutting the door and locking it. She looked around and immediately saw the shop Pepper had recommended to get the ice cream.
It was a pretty nondescript place, just the average grocers that had cropped up on every street corner of America. The bell above the door tingled as she entered and after a cursory glance around the shop, Skye headed towards the back of the shop where the refrigerators were. She nodded politely at a small family who passed her and surveyed the options of ice cream.
She knew that they would need a wide selection, everyone favouring different types. For Steve, it was vanilla, along with Pepper. Maria had requested mint, and there were other requests for cookie dough, rocky road and pop rocks. After finally picking out 7 different flavours, all large tub-fulls, she juggled them in her arms and went to the cashier. There was thankfully no queue, and soon enough, their ice cream was bagged and ready to go. Looking towards the door, she saw her way blocked by a group of women, so she went back to go around the aisle.
As she reached the back, she heard the tingle of the doors opening, and suddenly a shout. 'Everyone, get down! This is a robbery!' Skye froze, there was a muffled scream, and a child started to cry.
'Everyone, get to the checkout and on the floor!'
Skye jolted out of her hesitation and crouched, hidden behind a large display of candy. She heard the sound of people shuffling, and soon saw people sit down in the aisle she had just come from.
She saw the terror in their eyes, as the robber demanded the cashier to open the till. She tried to give a reassuring smile to the woman closest to her, who was shaking slightly, but otherwise seemed okay. It came out more like a grimace but she didn't seem to mind.
Putting her finger silently to her lips, Skye quickly looked around the shop. Behind the check out counter, she saw a door, leading to a back room and probably a back exit. Soon, a plan formulated in her mind and she caught the woman's attention.
Her voice a barely audible whisper, she said, 'hey, everything's going to be okay. I'm going to go distract him. When he turns away, I want you to get everyone out, one at a time through that door behind the counter. Can you do that?'
The woman's eyes widened, but she slowly nodded. 'What about you? He has a gun!' she quietly queried.
Skye gave her a smile, with false bravado. 'Don't worry about me, I have... Military training. You need to make sure everyone is absolutely silent.'
The woman nodded again Skye skulked around the aisle to the side that would end up behind the robber. She could hear him ordering people to empty their purses into a bag, and remove their jewellery. She reached the end of the aisle, and peaked around. The man's back was to her and he was waving his gun. Tucking back behind the aisle, she shouted, 'Hey, Asshole!'
Skye heard him spin round, and was glad he didn't shoot a round off in the direction her voice came from. Getting shot sure would put a dampener on her evening.
'Who's there?! I told you to go to the counter!'
Skye slowly walked out with her hands in the air, a wry smirk on her face. He waved the gun in her direction, and it took everything in her to not flinch. Seeing him properly for the first time, Skye realised he was barely a man, most likely 17 or 18. He had a kind face, but it was marred by the anger and desperation that was clearly displayed. Movement behind him briefly caught her attention as the shop customers slowly crept away from them.
'Hey! Get down on the ground, now!' He shouted.
Skye looked at him for a moment, before she stated, her voice unwavering, 'No.'
The simple word seemed to spark fear in his eyes. Her confidence unsettled him. There she was, a seemingly harmless woman, standing unwaveringly as a gun was pointed at her face.
It didn't come as a surprise when his next words, with wild eyes, were, 'Get down. Or I'll sh- shoot you.'
'Hmmm,' Skye pretended to consider the order. 'Nope. I don't think you will.'
He let out a huff of frustration. He was about to reply when there was a noise as a child accidentally knocked something down.
He was starting to turn, when Skye blurted, 'Man, I gotta ask, why are you doing this?' The man stopped turning, and looked at her. 'Wait, let me guess. Ain't no rest for the wicked?'
He looked at her scathingly. 'You think this is a joke?! You don't know anything about me. You wouldn't understand.' There was a flicker of sadness behind his scornful look.
Her voice softened. 'Try me.'
'My- My mothers dying. We either pay the medical bills or we put food on the table. I can't do that to my little sister! I need this money.'
'Be that as it may, this isn't the right way to do it.'
Behind him, Skye saw the woman poke her head around the door to the back room. She shot Skye a thumbs up, and Skye sagged in relief.
'Just... Just give me your money,' the man pleaded, his voice coloured with desperation.
He brought the gun closer to her and Skye struck, no longer having to worry about anyone else getting hurt in collateral. Grabbing his wrist, she ducked under his arm, so her back was against him and twisted his hand so he lost his grip. She plucked the gun from his hand and twisted round again so that she held the gun pointed at him.
His eyes were wide with shock and fear. With a flick of her thumb, she pressed the magazine release, letting the clip drop. It hit the floor with a bang, and they both stood there, breathing heavily.
Neither one moved, Skye waiting for what he would do and him, cautiously watching her every move. Suddenly, off in the distance, a siren wailed, and they both jumped. He made a move to grab her, and Skye pushed him away. Grabbing his arm, she twisted it behind his back, and shoved him face first on the checkout counter.
He struggled in a futile attempt to break loose, and Skye growled, 'Stop struggling. There's no where to go. You're looking at some jail time, but you didn't discharge your gun, so it will round down to a year or two. Now, I can help your family, but you need to co-operate.'
He whimpered slightly, before crying out, 'Why? Why would you help me?'
'Your little sister just lost her brother. I'm not going to let her loose her mother too.'
He sagged against the counter, finally relenting. 'Fine. I'll stop.'
Skye sighed in relief, just as two policemen burst into the shop.
'Freeze!'
Skye quickly stepped away, bringing her hands in the air.
'Officers.' Skye nodded at the men.
'Ma'am, please step away from the suspect.' Skye quickly did as she was told, and they promptly cuffed him, and took him out of the shop to their police cars.
Skye went back to where she dropped the bag of ice cream and grabbed it, before following them outside.
She was just about to sneak away when one of the officers called, 'Ma'am, we need to ask you a few questions.'
Skye quickly brought out Clint's wallet and flashed his Shield badge at them. They didn't know what Shield did, but they knew the badge meant Don't interfere.
'Sorry, boys, but I have to run. I think you'll find all you need on the security footage.'
They grudgingly nodded, and Skye went to leave.
'Look! There she is!'
Skye saw the woman from the shop pointing at her, standing next to a reporter. Skye sighed, and smiled thinly at them.
'She saved us! Put herself in danger to get everyone out.'
Skye shrugged, 'It was nothing, really.'
The reporter looked at her and his eyes widened.
'Wait, I know you! You're that Skye girl! The one who's staying with the Avengers!'
Skye sighed, and muttered 'And that's my queue to leave,' before quickly walking away.
The reporter shouted after her, but she ignored him as she made her way back to the car. She hastily deposited the ice cream in the back seat and started the ignition, before shooting of back to the tower.
'I come bearing Italian delicacies and dairy products!'
'Skye!' Tony shouted with a grin as she entered the room.
Skye laughed, noticing a lot more empty bottles lying around than before she had left, and dumped the food on the table.
'What took you so long?' Tasha asked happily.
Skye shrugged. 'Long queue, I guess.'
Tasha's enquiry was put behind them as there was a mad dash for the pizza, everyone grabbing slices from different pizzas.
A nigh-on collective groan erupted from the room as the first bites were had, and Skye grinned, before taking her own slice.
Before long, everyone was strewn about lazily, munching on pizza as they watched a show on the massive TV that, of course, Tony had. The episode had just ended, and Maria yawned.
'Well. I should probably get back to base. Who knows what latest catastrophe Shield has stuck it's nose in,' she muttered ruefully
There were a few moans and laughs from everyone, and Tony exclaimed, 'Come on, Hill, the party's only getting started!'
Maria raised a brow, and looked pointedly at Bruce, why was huddled in the corner on an armchair, fast asleep.
'Okay, okay. Point taken.'
Maria chucked, and got up, stretching.
'Well, it's been a pleasure,' she grinned, and headed for the elevator.
'Wait, Maria!' Skye called. 'I'm coming with. I think I left my jacket in the helicopter.' Skye quickly jumped up after her and joined Maria in the elevator.
The doors closed, with a round of goodbyes from the others, and they settled into comfortable silence as they rode up to the top floor.
After a moment, Maria joked, 'Well, that wasn't entirely the disaster I thought it would be.'
Skye laughed, as the elevator doors opened and they both stepped out. 'Yeah? What were you expecting?'
Maria chuckled before replying, 'oh, I don't know. Stark getting pissed and stripping? Bruce hulking out? I definitely expected something.'
Skye nodded. 'Yeah, it wasn't so bad. It was sweet of everyone to go to all the effort.'
Maria nudged Skye's shoulder playfully. 'Come on, they really care about you. I know it's only been a week but I really think this could work out.'
'Really?'
Before Maria could reply, a blaring alarm rang through Jarvis' speakers.
Skye looked at Maria with wide eyes.
'What's going on?' Skye asked, scared.
'I have no clue,' Maria answered, before grabbing Skye's hand, and running back to the elevators.
'Jarvis, as fast as you can,' Maria asked impatiently, as they zoomed back to the common room.
The doors sprung open, and they both ran out.
'What's going on?!' Skye shouted above the din of the blaring alarms.
'I don't know!' Tony shouted back as everyone scrambled for weapons, and Tony ran to the closest computer.
'Jarvis, cut the alarms.' Pepper demanded before striding over to look over Tony's shoulder.
'Some ones hacking us,' Tony exclaimed, and Skye ran over.
'Move,' she gently pushed him out the way and started to furiously type, scowling at the screen. After a few moments, Skye exhaled an angry breath.
'Oh, I am going to kill that asshole!'
Skye quickly performed a hack that would temporarily kick everyone and everything out of their server, before tracing the IP address of the person hacking their systems. After a moment, a map came up on the screen, and she quickly memorised the location before storming towards the elevator.
'Skye, what's happening?' Tasha shouted after her.
The question went ignored, as Skye growled, 'Jarvis, take me to the garage.'
'Skye! Who's hacking us?!' Tony exclaimed as she strode into the elevator.
'Miles!' Skye shouted before the doors slid closed.
Everyone looked at each other with trepidation and worry.
'Oh, this is so not good,' Maria finally said, before everyone ran to follow Skye.
Skye pressed down harder on the gas pedal, her anger translating into speed. At the back of her mind, she knew the others were following her, but she was too angry to slow down. She figured Steve was the one driving, considering his alcohol tolerance and the straight laced, by-the-law driving, but it didn't matter. She was too angry.
She saw the run down motel the GPS had lead her to, coming closer and she clenched her fists on the leather wheel. She raced into the car park, squealing to a stop across two parking one of the rooms still has a light on at this time of night and so she heads straight over to that room, not even bothering to lock Stark's car.
She strided over, and she was just about to kick the door down, when it swung open. Miles looked at her in surprise, bag strapped over his shoulder.
'Going somewhere?' Skye snarls, before she pushes him back into the room.
He stumbled back and tripped, falling onto the bed. After a moment, he gained his composure, and smirked.
'Skye.' His voice was so smug that Skye had to repress the urge to punch him. Although, anything he had done right then would have made her want to punch him.
'You couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?' Skye's voice was cold, barely restraining her anger.
'What, you didn't miss me?' he snarked, and Skye had to clench her fists.
She didnt even bother to respond. 'Why did you hack Stark.'
'Because of you. You're the reason I have this damn bracelet on me! I trusted you and you stabbed me in the back!' Miles exclaimed.
'Pot, Kettle, much? How did you even get the bracelet off?'
Before he could reply, there was a crash, as Tasha, Clint, Steve and Tony all tried to burst through the door at once.
It was quite a sight to see the worlds mightiest Heroes in sweats and hoodies. The look, however, was diminished by the several guns they were wielding, a Shield, and the glow of two repulser rays that seemed to be made from a pair of wristwatches, each wrapped around one of his hands. (Huh, Skye thought. That's why Stark wears two watches. She just thought it was him being an eccentric billionaire.)
Miles seemed to agree, as he paled at the sight of them.
Skye smiled sweetly, brimming with insincerity as she turned back to Miles.
'Now, weren't you just telling me how you hacked Stark, and what information you got? I thought so.'
Miles swallowed, before muttering, 'Shield's system is shit. I got some rookie hacker to block the signal.'
'And...' Skye prompted. Miles didn't say anything and Skye sighed.
'Miles, this could go one way or the other. One, you tell us, get taken into Shield custody and we negotiate your release; and two, we see how hard it is to hack with little stumps for fingers. Did you know Natasha's specialty is knives? I've seen her hit a bullseye from 50 feet with her eyes closed.' Tasha grinned behind Skye, pulling out a knife from nowhere and began to twirl it around her fingers.
Mile's eyes widened in horror, 'One! Definitely One.'
'Good choice,' Tony snarked from behind Skye.
Skye gestured for Miles to start talking, impatiently.
'I didn't have much time till you kicked me of the system. All I was able to download was about 5 minutes of security footage.'
Skye grabbed his laptop, and shoved it at him.
'Delete it.'
Instead of opening the laptop, he gave her a scared look. 'It's too late. I already sent it to all the news stations I could find.'
Skye scowled at him, 'Miles. What was in that footage?'
He tapped nervously on the top of the laptop for a moment, before he opened it and after a moment, turned it towards Skye and the others. He hit play, and the familiar view of the Avengers common room appeared on the screen.
Maria raised a brow, before her eyes flicked to where Bruce lay, asleep on an armchair.
'Okay, okay. Point taken.'
Maria chuckled and got up, stretching.
'Well, it's been a pleasure,' she grinned, and headed for the elevator.
'Wait, Maria!' Skye called. 'I'm coming with. I think I left my jacket in the helicopter.'
Skye quickly jumped up after her and joined Maria in the elevator.
The doors closed, with a round of good byes from the others.
'Well, i think this party has been a huge success,' Tony exclaimed, pretending to pat himself on the back.
Everyone laughed, before Clint said, seriously, 'hey, thanks for this. It means a lot to me that you are all making Skye welcome.'
'Are you kidding me? Skye's your kid! Of course she's welcome, you know that.'
'Yeah, we do,' Tasha agreed, 'but Skye needed to know it too.'
'How's she handling everything?' Pepper asked, before continuing. 'She's just found out that her parents, who haven't been in her life for over 20 years, are Hawkeye and The Black Widow, world renowned assassins and superheroes. That's got to be a lot to process.'
Clint snorted, 'yeah, it's sure is a lot. I think she's still trying to figure out how to act around us, but mostly she's adjusting well. It helps that she has training and work.'
'So you thinks She'll-'
The video cut out then, and the room was filled with silence until...
'Fuck.'
'The press are going to have a field day.'
There was a grim murmur of agreement, before Miles exclaimed, 'Wait, so it's true!?'
Before anyone could say anything, Skye spun around, punching him square in the eye. He sunk down on the mattress, a dead weight after being knocked unconscious.
'God, I really wanted to do that.' Skye admitted. 'Come on, let's get him in the car and we can give him to Shield tomorrow.'
'What's the worst that could happen?' Skye grumbled to herself as she drove back to the Avengers tower at a much slower speed that which she left it.
'God, what a stupid thing to say.'
Did anyone spot the song reference? ;) I'm not sure how I feel about the last part with Miles, if I wrote Skye too angry but whats done is done.
I am super sorry about the massive wait for this chapter. I know I promised one like 2 months ago and I completely fucked that up. My depression-y-shit decided to rear its ugly head and fuck me over, and guess who's shitty therapist decided not to shedule any sessions during the time of year everything gets soo much worse. I have been struggling and I just couldnt get into writing. I cant count how many times I went to write and just lost all focus after 10-20 mins.
I know its a crappy excuse and I'm not saying it for pity, I just wanna be honest with you and thats all I got. I dont know when I will post next, as experience shows I'm not exactly regular, but I am definitely not giving up on this or any of my other fics. Thanks for everyone who has stuck with me.
This fic is unbeta'd, so I apologize for any mistakes.
I hope you liked this chapter, let me know what you think.