"Are you sure you have to stay here tonight?" Jemma asked. She and Skye were standing in the driveway of the large house. Skye squeezed Jemma's hands in hers gently, enough to comfort them both, but not enough to hurt herself.

"If I'm late it's not going to help my situation." Skye sighed. Jemma would have hated growing up here and she didn't know how Skye had done it.

"Mary Sue? Is that you?" A very feminine voice called from the inside. Jemma dropped Skye's hands and didn't get to kiss her goodbye.

"Yes, I'm coming." Skye called back.

"Will you be at school tomorrow?" Jemma asked quietly. Skye looked like she was mauling it over for a minute before she replied.

"Just get out of here before she recognizes you." She said the words that made Jemma's heart break before she turned and walked up to the doorstep. Home is supposed to be a place full of love, a place that makes you feel happy when you think about it. Skye didn't have a home. She had a place to stay, but never a home. Jemma reached up with two fingers and brushed her own bottom lip. The ghost of Skye's touch still lingered there and she wished she could have kissed Skye goodnight.

Jemma texted Fitz to let him know she was coming over, whether he liked it or not. She drove to his house in the silence of evening, when everything was quiet just before sunset.

"Fitz isn't home right now." His mother said sadly when she opened the door.

"I know he's here and I really need to talk to him." Jemma argued. Mrs. Fitz liked her well enough and missed having her over, so she sighed and opened the door further to let Jemma in. She hung up her coat like she always had and ran up the steps two at a time to get to his room.

Taking a deep breath, Jemma twisted the doorknob and entered without knocking, because he would have locked the door if he had known she'd come.

Fitz was sitting at his desk putting together some kind of small contraption and he looked up in surprise.

"Fitz."

"Simmons."

"I'm sorry." She began, sitting down on the bed she'd slept in on many occasions since they became friends at age five.

"About what I said, I didn't mean that anything was your fault, I just... I thought that you might like girls anyway, I just-" Fitz started, but he just couldn't find the words. "I didn't think you'd do it with Skye." He finished. The tips of Jemma's ears turned pink.

"Not that kind of do it! Gosh, Simmons. I meant kiss her." Fitz chuckled a little bit. He almost seemed like himself for a minute.

"You're like my sister, Simmons. I missed you." he said. Jemma wrung out her hands in her lap.

"I know, Fitz. But Skye- I can't help it. I really, really, really like her." Jemma told him. "When I kissed Skye, I didn't even think about you. It's not that I didn't care about you, it's that I kissed Skye because I like her and whatever I'm feeling completely takes over-"

"And you don't know what to do. The desire to kiss her makes you forget everything else." Fitz finishes for her when she clearly doesn't know how to finish herself. Jemma laughs bitterly.

"I never thought a girl would be the thing to tear us apart." She said.

"Skye didn't tear us apart. I did." Fitz says. Jemma tries to counter him and say that it wasn't his fault, but he stops her.

"I can see that you really care for her. I asked her out on a whim and I might have only been dating her because she was the first girl willing to date me. You, on the other hand..." Fitz explained. Jemma only nodded.

"Will you tell me something?" Fitz asked.

"Of course. Anything." Fitz sat on the bed next to her and Jemma put her hand on his thigh to assure him she was still his friend.

"What's wrong? I've been trying to ignore you too but it's been driving me crazy. I know something is happening." Fitz says. He pulls her into a gentle hug when Jemma begins crying again. She's been crying too damn much, and it has to stop. She has to be strong for Skye.

"Skye's a foster kid. Those people she was staying with... those horrible, terrible people... they've been hurting her. They caught us kissing and they beat her up." Jemma began choking on each word as she spoke it. "They hit her face, and her hands... they burned her." Jemma wiped away a few tears with one finger and Fitz squeezed her shoulder.

"What can we do?" He asked the exact same question Jemma had been asking herself.

"Nothing. We have no power over what happens to her." Jemma explained.

"We can be here for her. All we can do is try to make her feel better." Fitz told her.

"Thank you, thank you so much." Jemma leaned against her best friend. He really was the greatest friend a person could ever ask for.

Jemma got to her first period ten minutes early, sitting in computer programming with only Fitz and Mr. Coulson in the room. Mr. Coulson stared at her with suspicion, but he didn't say anything.

Jemma was like a watch dog the second the bell rang warning students to begin heading to class, she was sitting straight up on her stool and looking over heads, scanning the room for Skye. Fitz was doing the same.

Even after the tardy bell rang and class began, Jemma watched over her shoulder. Each second that passed made Jemma's heart sink more and more. Finally, seven minutes into class, the door cracked open and Skye slipped inside silently. Everyone stared at her and she kept her head down, clutching her laptop to her chest and sitting quietly in her seat next to Jemma. Mr. Coulson was silent for a moment, but he quickly continued teaching. He gave them their assignment and Skye wordlessly opened her laptop. Jemma only watched the pain on Skye's face as she attempted to type for a few seconds before she intervened.

"Let me." Jemma pushed the school keyboard away and pulled Skye's laptop closer. She typed the code she knew was supposed to be there and Skye looked impressed.

"You're learning." She said softly.

"Yes." Jemma wished she could be anywhere but this classroom so she could talk freely about what was really important.

She caught Mr. Coulson continuously staring at them, and she wondered. Should she tell him? He seemed to know and care about Skye's situation from the way he acted that day he had called her in after class. But how would Skye react? If Skye was trusting her with something so incredibly personal, how could she betray her? Of course, she'd already told Fitz. Would that upset her? Should she have told Fitz or should she have kept it to herself? Maybe she shouldn't have, but she should definitely tell Mr. Coulson. He could help.

"Jemma." Skye's voice tugged her from her troubled thoughts.

"Yes?"

"You spaced out." Skye informed her. Skye reached for her laptop and Jemma couldn't help but stare at her tightly bound hands.

"You're doing it again." Skye informed her.

"How are you?" Jemma suddenly asked. It seemed that she'd taken Skye by surprise, the other girl frowned and retracted her hands.

"Don't patronize me." Skye said as she began to pack up her things. She'd been checking the clock every two minutes and it finally showed that the class was almost over. Jemma found herself feeling angry. She was angry at everything. She was angry at Skye's foster parents for hurting her, angry with Skye for being so bull-headed, and angry with herself for not being able to do anything about any of the things she was angry about.

"I'm not, I'm-"

"I'll see you in fourth period." Skye interrupted her. As if on cue, the bell rang and everyone began trying to leave the room. Skye was practically leading the charge.

Jemma waved to Fitz and he gave her a small smile that told her not to wait up before walking over to Mr. Coulson's desk.

Thank you, Fitz. Jemma thought.

When Fitz had seen what Jemma had been talking about, seen the blackened bruise on Skye's face, he understood why Jemma had been so upset about not being able to help.

He knew Jemma better than anyone. He knew Jemma wanted to tell someone that could do something, but she was afraid of losing Skye's trust, so he was going to do it for her. Skye was his friend and he cared about her, but he'd rather have Skye mad at him for telling an adult rather than Jemma, because he knew it would break Jemma's heart no matter what she did. He was making the decision for her.