Thank you to NN010 for favoriting AND following since the last chapter

(Lauren's POV)

My fish swam back and forth in their tank as I swirled the water around them; they didn't seem to care. Smiling as the moving water calmed me down, I made a mini water tornado and water splashed at the edge of the tank.

"Lauren dear?!"

"Yes nanna?" I replied without taking my eyes off the water tank.

"Your friend is at the door. She says that you wanted to go horseback riding with her, and that you were going to spend the night with her and then go to school."

"Yes, that's true nanna. I've already told mum about it."

I got up from my spot at the fish tank, put on my thick, woolly, coat and then swung my heavy backpack over my shoulder. Doing up the laces on my boots, I walked towards the door with confidence in every step. Will seemed to be struggling to keep a smile on her face and when I arched an eyebrow at her, she just shook her head.

Nanna spoke up from beside me "Well, be good girls and don't go near any boys. We don't need any extra family thank you very much!"

I felt my cheeks redden and gave my nanna a huge hug "Don't worry nanna; we're still a bit smarter than some of the girls in our year."

She laughed and her voice came out croaky "I have complete and utter faith in you Lauren." She fixed Will with a serious stare "Now I understand that you're a master of kung-fu-" Will's face turned tomato-red "so you better take care of my dear granddaughter, I only have one. I don't care if you're younger, you're her friend and that's what friends should do."

Grandma took a shaky breath and finished off "Now be gone with the two of you, you want as much time as possible to ride those horses."

I gave my nanna a massive grin and walked out the door to link arms with my younger counterpart; Will. As soon as I had heard the door shut I skidded to a stop and faced Will

"What's up?"

"Nothing."

I sighed "I know that it's not 'nothing', you have that depressed look on your face and you were struggling to keep a smile on. You know me and my family, if someone's sad; we have to make them smile." I paused for a breath "So what's up?"

She shook her head sombrely "I think I'd rather tell you when we're on the horses."

We walked in silence to her 5 acres (25 of her acres were forest land) of flat-ish, snow covered land where the horses were. I could hear them whining in anticipation as our heavy footsteps grew closer to their stables. The smell of horse manure was comforting as I was growing more familiar to it each day.

Inside the stables reminded me of the castles that I had seen during my trip to England. The stables were old fashioned and had hay thatched into each separate gate. The arches in between each box stall were made from old wood and had a rustic look to them. Light poured in from the ten centimetre gap in the roof that let in fresh air and calmed the horses at night.

Reaching the box stall where Bolt was, I immediately admired her mostly black coat with a white streak running down her left flank.

"Hey girl! What have you been up to in this cold weather, huh?"

She whined at me as if to try and reply while I rubbed her nose gently. Will was being the muscle and had gotten the tack from where we kept them. She had also gotten out our riding hats and I grinned when I saw her bringing our special riding boots. When she saw my smile, she gave me a small smile and said

"Winter special."

I nodded and took Bolt's tack from Will, her then heading over to her own horse; Penelope. When we had geared up Penelope and Bolt, we quickly gave the other horses some fresh feed and water for the night before we walked out of the stables with Bolt and Penelope in tow.

I mounted Bolt and looked across at Will

"So, are you going to tell me yet, what it is that is bothering you?"

She shook her head and gave a blunt reply

"We have to get the horses warmed up first."

I sighed and took my pack from Will, slightly annoyed that she was still putting it off, but patient enough to not push her, knowing she would tell me when the time was right.

We galloped across the flat, snowed over ground, and headed towards our area of forest where we loved to escape to. Following a familiar route towards the hut that we had built last year, I smiled at the sun coming through the canopy of leaves. The trees were whispering to me, leave rustling as they each fought to be the ones to speak first. Control over water and earth was not the easiest, but I think it was probably easier than Will's control over fire and wind.

Will started to slow in front of me and I kicked Bolt's flank softly to let her know to slow down. Will hopped off Penelope carefully and sighed as I followed suit, it was now or never, if she didn't tell me now, I would start to dismiss it as non-important. She cleared her throat and said to me

"You should probably sit down."

I shook my head and replied softly "I don't think I want to sit in the snow."

I thought she would smile but she just looked at me blankly, as if all emotion had been taken away from her.

"Do you know your great grandfather; Daniel Whitehall?" I shook my head and she asked another question "Do you know what Hydra is?"

I nodded; boy did I know who they were. They were the people who brought down SHIELD, the people who I thought to be good, SHIELD were the people who I thought would protect us no matter what. But SHIELD had been brought down by Hydra, and now Hydra was terrorizing the world. Will took a shaky breath and continued

"Well, your great-grandfather, Daniel Whitehall, used to be the leader of Hydra. He died at the hands of the SHIELD Director and now my own father has taken control of Hydra. I know they do bad things – or, in your case, did – but I still love my father the same."

I didn't catch her next words, I was shaking on the inside; I was associated to that man? Tears poured down my cheeks, how could someone so bad be so close to me? And why would Will even know that her father works for Hydra?

I stared at her, unsure of what to say. I wanted to scream and run away from everything that she had just said but I knew that she was my best friend no matter what. Nodding slowly, I said words that spoke from my heart

"I won't tell anyone, unless you want me to."

She nodded and hugged me, the wind picking up around us. She whispered in my ear "My father's turning into a very bad man; thank you for staying with me."

I nodded and whispered back to her as I hugged her tighter "It's what friends are for. Oh, and get a grip on the wind will you."

She smiled as I faced her and we laughed while the wind died down again. You could just imagine what the news reporters would say about the strange wind that was unexpected! We re-mounted our horses and trotted along the path, nearby I could feel the rumble of earth as a plane of some sort landed.

I made Bolt stop mid-step and quietly called to Will "Stop! Come this way."

She looked at me, are-you-crazy her eyes asked. I just shook my head as Bolt and Penelope ploughed forwards in the snow. After a few minutes of careful riding, I stopped Bolt completely and turned to Will. "We should tie them to one of the trees here; they'll be ok for a little bit, I can get the snow to melt away."

She nodded her face grim as the snow melted away; the fresh water greeted the soil and gave a smell that calmed the horses. We hitched the horses to the trees and grabbed our rifles out of our packs (who would go into any forest without a rifle, seriously?), carefully taking step after step.

Just ahead of us I could hear loud voices, voices that thought they wouldn't be heard. Looking at Will with wide eyes, she pushed herself in front of me and we trudged forwards another step. However…..that's when we heard a sentence that made us reconsider our decision to find out who it was. The voice that spoke was female, a voice very familiar from today's speech.

"Coulson! Apparently Ian Quinn is also the brother-in-law of Sunil Bakshi and has given the land to Sunil. Do you think William Bakshi's last name is a coincidence or do you think we can get an advantage from our "internship" at Winter Academy?"

Another voice replied, this one male

"I don't think we should ignore that fact that Sunil and William have the same last name, I mean how many Bakshi's are there? And we already know that Whitehall's great-granddaughter goes to the school, what's to say that Bakshi's child doesn't go there too?"