Author's Note:

Thank you to everybody for reading, favs, following and reviewing! Means so much to me!

Set during, Season 1, episode 15.

May made sure there was nobody around when she slipped into Skye's room. She looked around- it was a mess. She guessed that Skye didn't care about 'losing it' when the engines started. It only took a few seconds to locate the box; firstly, the room was small. Secondly, she was trained to locate things. And thirdly, it was under the bed- one of the most typical hiding places in the history of object concealment.

May only spent a few seconds rummaging through it before pulling out a small teddy bear. She tucked it into her jacket and slid the box back under Skye's bed.

With a careful glance she made her way to where Skye was- still in the hospital bed, under observation- and walked in. "How are you feeling?"

"Good," Skye replied and pushed herself into a seated position, a pained expression on her face.

May stepped closer and gently pushed her back down. "You should lie back and rest."

"So you're not here to bust me out?" Skye joked as she leant against the pillows.

May shook her head. "Not today." Her phone beeped as she glanced at her. "I'll come and check on you later." She walked off, placing the teddy bear back into the box on her way to the mission room.

After a few minutes, she contacted the team. They turned up and she began to talk. "New orders." She announced before elaborating, "S.H.I.E.L.D. is detecting massive energy readings in the skies above the California-Nevada border."

"Where's Agent Coulson?" Ward asked after a second of silence.

"Taking personal time," May answered shortly. His reaction to what he saw down in the bunker and then the news about Skye being her daughter had only made him ask questions, and a lot of them. It was mostly about the drug that saved him and Skye, but he was being very suspicious. They have barely spoken about her relation to Skye- mainly because she had ceased to answer his questions.

"It's been a couple days," Ward pointed out and May couldn't help but give him a bored glare. Thankfully, Simmons stayed on track and began talking about the new orders.

"These are the same readings Dr. Savok and Dr. Foster picked up in New Mexico and in London," she informed them. May nodded in understanding of what she meant, but she told them all anyway. "They mark the arrival of an Asgardian."

Fitz' mouth opened in surprise and wonder before looking at Simmons. "Thor," He guessed.

"Not sure," May spoke, gaining their attention. "Either way, S.H.I.E.L.D wants us to be the welcome wagon."

"Oh, okay, fine, no cause for concern. Right?" Fitz muttered. "Asgardians are allies." He continued. May almost rolled her eyes at his jittering.

"Loki wasn't," Ward helpfully pointed out before walking off- if his intention was to ease Fitz' worrying, he needed a new tactic.

May walked off in a different direction, dropping in on Skye again and checking on her, but only stayed a minute before going to the cockpit. What did you say to your 26-year-old daughter who had nearly died, when you don't even know if she had ever been in hospital before?

May drove the car with Fitz and Ward to the location of the energy surges. She was getting more and more annoyed with Ward's constant questions about Coulson- he was supposed to be a specialist. She presumed that he would know to not ask a thousand questions. Thankfully, she didn't have to just ignore him as Lady Sif appeared and warned them that their world was in danger.

She drove them back to the BUS.

"She's a warrior," Coulson told her when they got back. "I saw her fight in New Mexico with Thor- climbed a giant metal killing machine, speared it with her double edged sword. It was pretty badass." He concluded.

"She said she needs S.H.I.E.L.D to help her find someone," May informed him. "You up for this?" She questioned.

"I'm fine," Coulson answered shortly before making his way down the steps, but she spoke anyway.

"'Fine' doesn't look like this," She told him firmly. He halted instantly and she continued, "not on you. You've been gone more often than not." She sighed and moved closer, "Whatever is bothering you… I'm here."

He offered her a small smile.

"I know." He said before turning away and walking down the steps. She followed him, knowing they had to get down to business and work out how to help Sif.

"It only took a few minutes of conversation with Sif to work out her intention and a rough game plan. It took another hour or so to plan everything, fly to the location and collect ICER guns from Fitz. She preferred the name ICERs to 'Night-Night guns'.

May opted to stay on the BUS whilst Coulson, Ward and Sif went to find Lorelei. She didn't want to leave Skye unattended right now; she decided to check on Skye once more and bumped into Simmons en route.

"Can I help you with something?" Simmons asked curiously.

"I was just checking on Skye… She mentioned you were taking a lot of her blood; what are you searching for?" May asked her.

Simmons sighed, "The GH325. I am seeing if I can isolate it or find its component; we don't know exactly what it's changed. But I have limited resources, here..."

"It healed her; she's fine," May spoke and before Simmons could go on a rant about science, she excused herself.

Staying on the BUS seemed like a good idea to begin with, but then Lorelei took Ward under her control. After a conversation with Sif, she knew she wouldn't be able to hold back anything if Ward came after her- he would try to kill her and she would have to try not to kill him.

To make up for the missing numbers, she left the BUS at the casino where Ward and Lorelei had been located. However, by the time they had got there, they were gone. Having no choice but to return back to the BUS, they knew it would be harder to catch them. Ward was a great S.H.I.E.L.D agent; he wouldn't let them get caught so quickly.

It didn't take long on the BUS before she realised something was wrong- the banging coming from their cage. Coulson and May split up, May headed straight for the cockpit; she hated somebody else flying her plane. Getting punched by Lorelei wasn't that bad, it was all the talking that got them nowhere and revealed a few disturbing things.

There was a long stalemate with Ward as he held a gun to her, but she waited patiently. Keeping him occupied kept him safe and Coulson had things under control. She was only going to give it a few more minutes when she heard Fitz shout for Ward, distracting him just enough for her to grab the gun from his hands and attack. Whatever Coulson's plan was, she hoped he acted fast.

The fight between her and Ward was heated, as both of them were pretty evenly matched; her disadvantage was that she didn't want to kill him. All the same, her advantage was that she had her own reason for winning, whereas he did not. Each of them aimed the gun at one another a couple of times.

May got pissed when he tried firing the gun at her; she had already taken the bullets out, but it still annoyed her. She was ready to literally rip his fingers off one at a time when the spell ended. But she was too annoyed to walk away and punched him across the face- it was for more than one reason.

May only half listened to the conversation Coulson and Sif were having, her mind elsewhere, but she retained everything that was said. When Sif left, she turned. "I'll run diagnostics, see how much damage we're dealing with."

"How much are you dealing with?" Coulson asked, stopping her.

She turned around to face him after a second, a small smug smile on her lips, "He didn't break anything."

"Not what I meant; you should talk to him, hash it out," Coulson advised.

May didn't want to talk to him, because she knew roughly the direction the conversation would go, but she knew that they would have to talk- unfortunately. She turned to him.

"You should take your own advice- you've been sitting on something since the guesthouse. If not with me, then with Skye; she deserves to know what went on down there." Her hands rubbed his outer arms for a moment before she redacted them and walked off.

She didn't particularly want Skye to know anything about GH325 or of the effects it could have. But at the same time, she deserved to know and it was also one of the only ways to complete her mission- she needed to know what Coulson knew.

May sighed as she continued to walk off and entered the cockpit, hoping for some alone time to reflect on everything that was happening. Another sigh left her when she saw Ward sitting there.

"I figure I'll let you punch me again," he started. "Repeatedly, just-"

"It's fine."

"It's not. I never intended…" Ward took a breath and rephrased, "I didn't want to hurt…"

"You didn't," May interrupted. "There was never a risk with me, I told you that."

"Y-you did," Ward commented.

"Seems like we're done here," May added after a few seconds of silence. This way of ending things was a lot quicker and easier than she had imagined it would be. It was mostly unanimous, but she knew there would be future consequences from their relationship. She gave him a stare when he didn't leave immediately.

He sighed and slowly stood up, "Okay."

"But if what Lorelei said was true," She started; she had to get this out, "then you are more honest with her than you are yourself." She heard him leave and looked down slightly, then let herself have a second of self-pity before starting the plane up.

May was watching Skye through the camera like she had been since she was shot. Listening to the interactions with other members… it was sweet. Keeping a distance like this made May feel nice, but also sad, as she didn't have that connection with her daughter. Her attention piqued when Coulson walked into the room, and she wanted to know if he was going to follow her advice.

She stood up after a while, her lips tightly held together as she picked up her direct line to Fury and spoke the two words she wish she didn't have to. "He knows. I repeat, Coulson knows." She didn't mention that Skye also knew- she needed to shelter her.

Three hours later found May back into Skye's hospital room. Skye was now allowed to sit up and stand, but was still not allowed to leave the room yet. May felt silly with the constant surveillance, but she wasn't completely sure how else to act; she felt like she was treating Skye more like a mark than a daughter.

"Hey," Skye said happily when she was in view. "Check out this cat and dog video."

May walked in fully and looked at the screen. Skye was on YouTube, and she stifled a laugh at the cat scaring a dog. "You seem happier."

"I'm still stuck in here, but it's not so bad. Also, I have my laptop," Skye answered.

May glanced at the laptop and then back to Skye. "And you are researching cat and dog videos?"

"It didn't start that way," Skye laughed. "I guess I got a bit side-tracked."

May thought for a moment. "There's actually a cat video I watched the other day- let's see if I can find it." Skye turned to laptop towards her and she began typing. "Here we go."

As soon as the video started, Skye began laughing. "Are they trying to give the cat a bath?"

May nodded, smiling softly. She couldn't help but laugh herself when the cat ran into the camera to get away. "I shouldn't laugh." She commented, but Skye's laughter ignited her again.

"Cat video compilation," Skye announced suddenly after a minute and clicked on the link.

May ended up sitting on the edge of the bed; she hadn't laughed this much since before Bahrain. When the videos shifted to little children falling over, it turned bittersweet. And with May fully on the bed with Skye.

"When I was that age, I wanted to be a gymnast because the neighbour. I was allowed to go over there, and they had a beam that was a few feet from the ground. I climbed on it and was determined that I could do a cartwheel." Skye laughed at the memory. "I obviously couldn't, 'cuz I was a clumsy child. I sorta flipped off and just laid there, really confused that it didn't work. The parents were so scared that I was hurt that they nearly took me to the hospital. But I just climbed back on it and tried again… That time I did get hurt and they gave me ice cream."

"You were determined… Did you ever accomplish it?" May asked, a soft and slightly sad smile on her face.

"Nope," Skye laughed. "I stayed on the ground after that."

"I did gymnastics when I was a child," May informed her.

Skye's looked at her instantly. "No way! That's so cool!" She announced. "You have to tell me everything!"

May laughed slightly, but it quickly slid off her face when Ward entered the room a few feet away. "Am I interrupting?" He asked, looking thoroughly confused.

"Did you know May used to be a gymnast?" Skye asked him, awe on her face.

"No, I didn't," Ward replied, looking at May.

"Skye…"

"Oh! Sorry," Skye quickly said, putting a hand over her mouth. "I won't say anything else." She whispered rather loudly.

"What's going on here?" Ward asked skeptically.

May glanced at Skye and saw Fitzsimmons enter the room; why they decided to enter now, she had no idea. Looking at the three other members of the team, she decided that they could be trusted- at least with this. She knew that Skye would want to tell them, and she didn't want to keep it a secret any more. Taking a breath, she glanced at Skye once more; this could be a huge mistake, but she was about to make it. "What do you mean?" She asked Ward.

"Why are you and Skye… laughing? It's strange." Ward commented.

"Yeah…" Fitz muttered.

May clicked pause on the video that was still playing in the background, bringing them to a deadly silence before she spoke. "She's my daughter."

Shocked expressions were evident on all of their faces, their mouths gaping open; it was rather comedic.

May felt relief fill her. Skye was her daughter, she was no longer lost, she was right here. May was now whole again.

This was originally going to be a oneshot, but I just kept on writing, which is why I posted daily for four chapters. And now, it has come to an end! Thank you :D I hope you liked the ending :D