A/N: Heeeey! So sorry that this has taken ages to update, but my laptop's hard drive died, and I have limited access to a computer with compatible software to the documents (which I luckily got back). Up will be updated as well shortly, so no worries there :)
Also, 60 FOLLOWERS! Argh, you guys are amazing! 3 And more than 30 favs, so thank you all so much!
This is something I started doing on my latest story, so thank you to the guests, bellapaige88, icewitch73, Wolf's Edge, ShieldRune548 and SparkyGirl123 for your incredible reviews! Your support means a lot!
DISCLAIMER: I only own the storyline.
"Coulson!" May called as she neared his office. Rounding the doorway, she stopped upon facing the top of a head just recognisable above the three stacks of detailed reports. "Coulson."
"Hmm?" came the reply. "I'm a bit busy, May."
"Phillip."
The director's gaze flicked up and froze at his deputy's tone.
"Skye wants to find Trip's mother."
Coulson's gaze flicked down again and he pushed away from the piles of paperwork. "She what now? May, I told you to keep her calm once she came out of sedation, not put thoughts in her head!"
"I didn't. She asked me if it was something we could do once she's rested."
Coulson looked thoroughly confused. "But the last time she was awake, she was a wreck! How did you manage to keep her calm about the whole thing?"
"Touched on it. Didn't push. The quake you felt earlier?" she raised her eyebrows and he nodded. "She'd remembered she was ICED. I just got her to breathe slowly and deeply until she was calm."
"That's it?"
May shook her head. "She asked me how many people she'd killed. I assured her that no one on the base died, and perhaps elaborated a little on how prepared the city is for earthquakes. Also had to get her to relax her whole body after telling her that most of the rubble she saw was the building she was sitting on. Until I know how much she can handle, I'm not going to give her the full truth."
Coulson nodded. "Fair enough. Did you talk about anything else? Like Ward or San Juan?"
May shook her head slightly. "No. That's for you to discuss with her, as she was already opening up to you."
"Okay. When do you plan on taking her?"
"When she's rested. I sent Simmons to clear her from the infirmary so she can gather her strength in her bunk."
The man nodded again. "Thank you, Melinda." His exhaustion broke through his authoritarian demeanour and May was instantly on alert. Closing the door, she moved closer.
"Phil. When was the last time you slept?"
"A couple of nights back? But I can't worry about that now, I have too much stuff to do. I'm director–"
"And as director, you need to be in the best condition you can be to do your job." May butted in. "A lack of sleep is not going to help with your efficiency! And don't you dare say it's just last night, because I know you've had trouble sleeping for weeks."
"Sometimes your observation skills are rather annoying, Mel."
"Only when you're being stubborn."
Coulson looked at her with a mixture of exasperation and admiration. "Don't you have work to do?"
She just looked at the paper piles. "Don't you need some help?"
"I'll be fine, May, just…go do whatever you're needed to do."
"I'm needed here." She said firmly as she pulled a small segment off the top and sat down further into the office.
Coulson scrambled for another excuse. "What about your sleep?"
"Got a couple of hours before I checked on Skye." She looked back at him. "Nice try, but this needs done, and you need sleep."
Coulson huffed, but couldn't find the energy to keep arguing when he actually appreciated the help.
The rain around them was already pouring, but increasing in its persistence. Grumbling a little, Ward climbed over the last few feet of rocks to reach the bank of the river trailing down from Harlan County Lake in Nebraska.
Ahead of him, but with her hearing only increased by the broken mask she wore, Agent 33 straightened up and sighed loudly. "Stop complaining! You were the one who insisted we dump that car and cross the border on foot. You really have no room to stand with cold feet."
"Literally?" Ward replied as he caught up with her and stopped. "Or metaphorically?"
Agent 33 swivelled her head to glare at him. "If we weren't standing on rocks right now, I would tackle you to the ground for that comment."
Ward just grinned, glad for the honesty Agent 33 gave him. It served to show that there was more than one way in which she differed from Melinda May. The woman with him once again faced the gradient on which lay the border between Kansas and Nebraska.
"Do you want to cross the border today, or wait for the rain to stop?" she asked after a moment.
Ward considered it, running his hands through his hair. "Cross today. We aren't far enough away from the dump site, and it doesn't look like the rain's gonna stop any time soon."
She nodded. "Fair enough. But we stop two miles in. As much as I love a shower, I really don't want hyperthermia." She started moving onwards, walking against the river's flow and after checking their surroundings, Ward followed suit.
A tiny snap echoed from the forest beside them and both specialists froze. Then bolted.
Gunshots rang out from their rear and right side, their stalkers losing all desire for secrecy. One grazed Agent 33's left side, narrowly missing Ward. She hissed and slightly tucked herself in, marginally slowing her pace. Ahead of them, five men wearing dark combat gear darted out of the tree line and aimed their guns. Ward and Agent 33 skidded to a halt, glancing around to find themselves surrounded, the only clear area being the river at their backs. Slowly and deliberately, the TAC team closed in, giving their targets the feeling of being caged animals.
"Agent Grant Ward." One of the men, more relaxed than the others and giving off a slight air of authority, greeted him. "Agent 33."
"Hydra." Ward and Agent 33 spat out disgustedly.
The man merely smiled menacingly and advanced. "We have orders to bring you in."
"Do you now. What a surprise." Ward countered flatly, uninterested in much banter.
"You're a lot easier to find than we were told." The Hydra TAC team leader cocked his head to the side, as though he was trying to get a rise out of either one of them. Or both. Moving closer, he proved to be only slightly shorter than Ward.
"Well, Douchebag–" Agent 33 began.
"That's not my name." he snapped, brief anger flaring in his blue eyes.
"Your parents certainly missed out on a prophetic opportunity." She replied instantly. Ward coughed to hide his laugh.
Douchebag glared furiously at them, breathing out of his nose like a bull about to charge. Without looking back at his men, he jerked his chin upwards and a few members of the team fired.
"Are you one hundred percent sure you want to do this?" Coulson asked as he escorted Skye to the waiting SUV. His expression showed concern, working its way deep onto the lines on his weary face, and Skye knew that his worry was for more than just herself. "I can go instead. Trip worked for me–"
"Trip worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., not you. And I was the one who was there with Trip when he died. I owe it to him." Skye replied, stopping in her tracks to face Coulson fully. "I need closure, AC." Her voice broke a little. "You have to let me do this."
Coulson's heart nearly shattered at the desperation in Skye's demeanour. He nodded. "And then something to take your mind off it for a while?" Skye nodded. Smiling a little, he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let May talk to you about it. Okay?"
"Okay." She replied quietly, then stepped forward to give him a hug. "Thanks, AC."
"You're welcome." He said softly. "And Skye?" he asked before he lost the courage to do so. "I'm not going to stop respecting or trusting you because you love Ward. The good you see in others is one of your greatest traits."
Skye's bottom lip trembled as she gazed admiringly at the man she considered to be her father, a tear sliding down her cheek.
"Off you go. Don't make May wait too long." He gently urged, rubbing her upper arm affectionately. She hesitated for a moment before walking directly to the passenger side of the SUV. Good luck, Angel Eyes.
I hope I can contain it, without shutting down too much. Skye thought as she opened the car door and slid into the seat beside May. I don't think I could handle Mrs. Triplett's fear if she found out.
"You okay?" May asked, looking over. Skye glanced her way and back at her hands, twisting around each other in her lap.
"Yeah. I'm okay."
May nodded once and pulled the SUV out of the base and into the light traffic on the road nearby.
Skye turned her head towards May, eliciting a brief flicker of May's attention from the road ahead, but she kept her eyes downcast. "Coulson said…" she began after a while, but trailed off.
May waited for her to continue, but when all Skye did was sigh, she tried giving her rookie a prompt. "Coulson said…?"
Skye took a deep breath, and plunged into her point. "Coulson said that I should talk to you." She didn't say anything for a couple of beats, but eventually elaborated. "About San Juan."
"About what happened or how whatever happened will continue to affect you?" May tried to clarify. "Or both?"
"Both, I guess…but more about after." She looked directly at May's profile. "What's going to happen to me?" Her voice sounded vulnerable and terrified.
Gripping her left hand on the wheel fractionally tighter, May moved her right hand to the side, grasping Skye's comfortingly. "You'll feel empty. Devastated. You won't feel like yourself. You won't be yourself. Things like this change you, permanently. The best thing to do is to find within yourself aspects of who you are that you like. Focus on those. Then, when you feel better, look at the parts of yourself that aren't so good. Use those to make you stronger, so it doesn't happen again. Hiding how you're feeling and shutting your family out? Won't help."
Skye was enormously grateful for the honesty that May dealt out, no cutting corners of smothering of facts. She kept her gaze on May as her S.O. spoke. "You think of everyone as my family?" she asked in awe.
"Of course. We live together, and we're there for each other." She smiled over at the younger woman as they reached a red light. "Being in love, even with Ward, won't change that." May faced the front again, moving forward as the light turned green. "With what you've been through, Ward may just be one of the few people who can truly understand your struggle."
Skye gaped. "Did you just…" She couldn't believe her ears. May giving a positive opinion for Ward?
May smiled briefly. "You said that Ward let the Bus go to give us time to get away until Whitehall countered his order. And he deliberately let you out of your restraints to give you a decent chance against Hydra. Sounds like someone trying to reinvent himself. Or at least find out who he is without Garrett."
Skye looked away, leaning her head back against the seat.
"I know you wish you hadn't shot him." May said quietly after several minutes of silence.
"You and Hydra would have shot him on sight." Skye mumbled.
"Perhaps."
Silence once again fell upon the car. May left Skye to think about her next step in peace, so remained quiet until they were nearly at their destination.
"What are you thinking about?"
Skye glanced over, her train of thought interrupted. "Ah, just…" she vaguely gestured upwards. "How long did it take you to start opening up?" she asked timidly.
"A long time." Usually, May doesn't speak of the horrors she both witnessed and performed, but for Skye, she was willing to make an exception. No one should have to go through what she did. "I quit field work and reassigned myself to administration. Fury knew that wasn't going to help." she said with a fond smile. "So he insisted that I focus my efforts to forget what happened in Bahrain on helping Phil."
Skye looked shocked. "How? Didn't AC ask you to be on the team?"
May pulled over to the side of the road, put the SUV into park and turned the engine off. Looking over at Skye, she raised an eyebrow with an amused smirk pulling up the right side of her face. "Did he?"
Skye opened her mouth to ask what May's role in creating the team was, but her S.O. looked out of the windscreen at the apartment complex rising several storeys above the Californian ground.
"We're here. You ready?" May looked back at Skye, who now looked severely worried.
"As ready as I'll ever be. She needs to know." Skye breathed deeply and opened the door, stepping out onto the cement. The sound of her shutting her door was echoed by May exiting the vehicle as well, who joined Skye on the footpath. "Did we bring his case?"
"It's in the trunk." May answered, moving to retrieve it. As she pulled it out, she noticed Skye had wrapped her arms around herself, her gaze locked on the building she was obviously not eager to enter. Shutting the back of the SUV, May walked over to her, placed the case gently on the ground, and pulled Skye into a hug. "You'll be alright. Mrs. Triplett will be alright. It'll just take time."
"I know." Skye pulled back, and picked up the old suitcase. "Let's go."
"Okay." May stepped backwards a little to give her rookie some room and followed her into the building.
Once they reached the front door on the third floor, Skye hesitated slightly, then knocked and stood back.
A few moments passed until the door opened, a late middle-aged African American woman in its place.
"Hello." She smiled at them, before noticing the yellow worn suitcase in Skye's right hand. Her face dropped and she looked back up at them in horror.
"Mrs. Triplett, may we come in?" May asked gently, hoping to keep the woman's devastation more private than public.
Shaking, tears already streaming down her face, Mrs. Triplett stepped back and allowed her son's colleagues to cross the threshold of her home.
Skye walked into the small lounge and set the case down on the floor, turning to look at Trip's mother after a quick examination of the room. The woman was settling down in one of the chairs at May's encouragement. Skye moved to sit on the sofa next to her.
"Mrs. Triplett, my name is Skye. I was with Trip when he died." She congratulated herself on how steady her voice remained. "I thought you would want to hear the news from the person he was trying to save."
Mrs. Triplett was looking at Skye with a mixture of distraught intensity and confusion. "Trying to save? But you're not dead."
Skye gave her a weak, watery smile, both hiding and revealing how much grief she was carrying. "I got out after he…" she faltered. "After he died. I was trapped, so Trip freed me." she twisted the truth to give the grieving mother some understanding of her son's actions without giving away what she had become.
Nodding to show that she accepted Skye's explanation, Mrs. Triplett held her arms out and beckoned. Skye didn't hesitate to fold herself into the mother's embrace and let her tears fall. Smiling sadly, May squatted down and rubbed both women's backs in comfort. All three remained in their respective positions for several minutes, their sobs gradually dissipating.
"How did he die?" Mrs. Triplett whispered brokenly against Skye's neck.
"We were underground." Skye began, and stopped for a moment, as the memories washed over her.
"There was an earthquake." May put in, knowing that Skye shouldn't have to relay everything that happened that day.
"Rocks fell. I was trapped, and Trip caused another tumble giving me a hole to crawl through. I didn't see anything beyond that, but I had to tell the others that he was still down there. I knew he wasn't with us, but we needed to get his body."
"You did your best, and you did the right thing." Mrs. Triplett whispered into Skye's ear, squeezing her a little more. Her maternal instinct told her that this girl needed a mother more than anyone. "When did this happen?"
May's face paled, expecting an angry outburst from Mrs. Triplett when Skye began her answer, but relaxed when she saw that her rookie had it under control.
"About two months ago. I wasn't in any state to be giving any news to anyone until yesterday. We couldn't have much of a funeral, because his body was…" Skye took several juddery breaths before continuing. "Crushed. There wasn't much left."
Fresh sobs broke forth from Mrs. Triplett. Skye held on tighter, hoping to give back some of what she had received. May just didn't know what do to.
A/N: So what did you all think? Good progress, or too fast/slow? Love to hear (or read) your thoughts, so send me some reviews! It doesn't take long, a sentence will do, and I respond to all! Guest readers, I reply to your questions on the next update :)