January, 2010

Los Angeles, California

Agent Grant Ward had just finished planting a tracker on his target and was in the process of inconspicuously leaving the venue when he heard a sniffling sound coming from behind a dumpster. He stilled, hidden behind a door and listened for anything else to discern if it was a threat or not. A second later he heard another sniffle followed by a whimper of distress. He slowly peered out from behind his cover to try and get a visual and saw a small foot peeking out from behind a dumpster. The rest of the alley was deserted so he moved closer to assess the threat. He eventually got to an angle where he could see that no, this wasn't a threat. It was instead a small bedraggled girl curled up into a ball and shivering. Ward felt torn, the girl wasn't part of the mission and if he stayed much longer he could jeopardise his extraction. He looked toward the mouth of the alley to see if anyone was nearby and likely to help the girl, but it was just his luck that this alley was deserted, which is why he'd picked it in the first place.

Ward had just decided to approach the girl and at least give her his jacket when a door closer to the dumpster she was hiding behind opened with a loud clang and a large burly man stumbled out. The girl tensed and curled into a seemingly impossibly smaller ball, shrinking away from the man who was lumbering toward her.

"What are ya doin' out here ya ungrateful whelp? I don't know how you did it but I know it was you and your freakishness!" The man continued to hurl accusations at the girl whose only response was to cover her ears tightly with her fists in an attempt to block out his shouts.

She whimpered in fear. "It wasn't me, I swear. It was an accident, I promise!" She continued to whimper apologies as she rocked back and forth in fear and distress with her hands still clamped over her ears and her eyes squeezed shut.

Ward prevaricated. On one hand, if he exposed himself in defence of the girl he could compromise his mission. However, he couldn't just let this disgusting excuse for a human being continue to fire abuse at the helpless little girl. His hesitation came to a swift end when the sorry excuse of a man gripped the little girl's arm tightly with one hand hauling her to her feet, the other hand raised back ready to deliver a blow to her face.

Ward was quickly straightening from his crouched position to intervene when the girl let out a sharp cry of fear and a blue light flew out of her body and into her attacker, knocking him unconscious. The blue light continued outwards in a nimbus of power and proceeded to knock the power out for a six block radius. After all the lights exploded and fizzled out there was a moment of silence before a cacophony of frenzy and bewilderment rose up.

Apparently it was just his luck that whilst on a routine mission he'd stumbled upon something that was right up S.H.I.E.L.D.'s alley, if you'll excuse the pun. Lucky for her it was him that had witnessed this and not someone else.

The girl was crouched back into a ball hiding even further behind the dumpster, rocking back and forth vigorously whilst muttering to herself that it, "…wasn't my fault, didn't mean it, wasn't my fault." Ward crept closer and crouched down in front of her trying to appear as nonthreatening as possible. He wasn't sure how best to handle the situation to a) avoid distressing her further, and b) avoid being fried himself.

"Hi, my name's Grant. What's your name?"

The little girl stopped muttering and cautiously looked up at him. She stared at him with big brown eyes filled with panic and confusion and Ward felt his heart clench in the face of such distress. It felt as if her eyes were piercing his very soul, assessing his thoughts and deeds and judging his worthiness. He held his breath waiting for her to come to a decision and let out a sigh of relief when she whispered, "Skye," in a trembling voice.

"That's a pretty name." He sat next to her behind the dumpster and looked down into her probing eyes, "You know, my dad used to hit me when I was little. He used to say that I'd done bad things and punish me even though I didn't do them."

Skye leaned forward a little, intrigued yet unwilling to trust so easily.

"I saw what you did with that blue light. What was that?"

She tensed up again and dropped her gaze shrugging noncommittally.

"Where I work there are people and things that do cool stuff like that too. Would you maybe want to check some of it out? Maybe there's something that can make that blue light too."

She peered up at him from under her lashes, she seemed to be assessing the veracity of his statement. "Can they make it stop?" she finally whispered.

Ward thought about his response. "I don't know," he replied honestly. "They can try, if that's what you want."

Skye took another moment to consider before nodding her head minutely.

He stood up slowly to not frighten her and then held his hand down to coax her out from behind the dumpster. She took his hand and gripped it in her small one tightly before offering him a tiny quavering smile. Ward looked down and told her in a conspiratorial tone, "If you ask them really nicely they might get you some cookies. Do you like cookies?"

Skye's smile turned more genuine as she nodded decisively.

"Well okay then, let's go see if we can round up some cookies. I'll take you to where I work and I'll introduce you to my boss Mr. Fury and we'll see what we can do. How does that sound?"

He was rewarded with another smile and nod.