Chapter 2
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Twenty minutes after he leaves the airport Steve arrives back at the Stark Tower, the place that has become like a second home to him.
"Hello Captain." Jarvis greats when he enters.
"Hello Jarvis." Steve responds as while he found the electronic assistant annoying in the beginning he has grown to like it, "Is Dr Banner around?" Steve asks.
"He is in his lab." Jarvis answers.
"Can he be disturbed or is he working on something sensitive? Or Volatile?" Steve asks curious.
"He can be disturbed, is there a problem?" Jarvis asks.
"No, I just have to give him some news." Steve says as he gets in the elevator and heads to the floor that Banner's lab is on.
On the plane twenty minutes after Coulson and Melinda left Clint and Tony are sitting on the ground with Skye and the few toys they brought in Russia while Natasha watches on.
"Was Skye's treated as badly by the other students at the Academy as it seemed like she was through the cameras?" Tony asks Clint curious
"Worse, you didn't have audio." Clint tells him.
"What happened to that boy after what he did to her?" Tony asks curious.
"What are you to talking about?" Natasha asks interested assuming it has to do with Clint thinking he failed Skye when she was at the academy from what has been said.
"The other Cadets at the academy gave Skye a hard time." Clint explains, "Two days ago or is it three? One of cadets grabbed her and twisted her arm." Clint tells his girlfriend.
"Was she hurt?"
"A slight sprain was my best guess, she wouldn't go to the med bay." Clint explains, "He was suspended from class for two days." He tells Tony and Skye starts to cry.
"Hey Kid, what's wrong?" Clint asks picking her up, "Shhh, it's okay, Uncle Clint's got you." Clint says as he bounces her up and down on his side.
"Here let me try something." Natasha says walking over to Clint and taking Skye out of Clint's arms, a couple of minutes later when Skye hasn't stopped crying, "Get her a bottle she could be hungry." She tells him as she holds her close to her chest and starts singing something under her breath in Russian.
"What is that?" Tony asks curious.
"It's a Russian lullaby." Natasha answers feeling like it was obvious.
"How do you know a lullaby?" Tony asks surprised.
"I haven't forgotten everything about who I used to be." Natasha tells the billionaire her tone of voice putting an end to the conversation, "Clint how's that bottle doing?" Natasha ask her boyfriend.
"Fine, should be ready in several minutes." Clint answers
"How do you know how to get a bottle ready?" Tony asks confused.
"I spent time in a group home, I saw how it was done more than once a day." Clint answers and the video call ring tone goes off.
"I'll get it." Natasha say handing Skye to Tony before heading into the command centre.
When Melinda and Coulson arrive at the house, Melinda goes to head upstairs while Coulson goes to head downstairs.
"What are you going upstairs?" Coulson asks, "Everything we need is downstairs." He notes.
"The toys that Skye decided to keep in her room are the ones that she liked the most, I think younger her will like them too." Melinda explains.
"Right, I'll start getting the stuff from the basement." Coulson notes, "Everything's labelled right?" He asks
"Yeah, but finding what we need is the hard part." Melinda says as she heads upstairs and Coulson heads downstairs.
As Natasha walks into the Command Centre and entre the call Hill appears on screen.
"What can I do for you Agent Hill?" Natasha asks.
"Where is everyone else?" Hill asks curious.
"Out. Can I help?" Natasha asks.
"Fury's giving you forty eight hours off to give you time to get settled in." Hill informs Natasha.
"I'll let everyone else know." Natasha responds, "Anything else?"
"No."
"Talk to you later." Natasha says and she ends the call and heads back out into the other part of the plane.
At the Tower when Steve enters the lab he finds Banner working on something.
"Hey, you're back." Bruce comments when he sees Steve, "How did the mission go?" he asks curious.
"There's something I've got to tell you, you might want to sit down." Steve tells his friend.
"Did something happen?" Bruce asks.
"Yeah."
"Did something happen to Tony? Is he okay?" Bruce asks worried.
"No, Tony's fine." Steve answers.
"But someone else isn't." Bruce realises.
"No."
"Who? What happened?" Bruce asks worried.
"Melinda, Natasha and I were assigned a top secret mission by Fury, which I'm guessing you know, Tony, Clint and Skye flew from here to where we were because we were kept unconscious with knock out gas, Coulson and the rest of the team met them there." Steve explains, "They breached the compound and once they found Melinda, Natasha and I we split up to look for the goal of our mission. Ward who was with Skye got knocked out and Skye faced the Clairvoyant."
"Is she alive?" Bruce asks.
"In a way." Steve answers.
"What does that mean? What happened?" Bruce asks confused.
"There was a stand of between Skye and The Clairvoyant we arrived during the end. The Clairvoyant put a shield up in front of us which would have killed us had we touched it. He also started to produce a ball of energy that was to kill us all even if he didn't make it. Skye absorbed all that energy into her." Steve explains.
"And that was too much for her to take." Bruce realises.
"Tony and FitzSimmons came up with a way to remove that energy from her but in doing so it caused her to become a baby again." Steve explains.
"So she's alive, but a baby again." Bruce says shocked.
"Yes, three months old." Steve answers, "Before she changed wanted to make sure you knew something." Steve tells Bruce.
"What's that?" Bruce asks interested.
"She wanted you to know that she considers you apart of her family and she wants the child version of her to know you as Uncle Bruce, even if you don't think you deserve that title." Steve reveals and Bruce is so shocked that he doesn't quite know how to respond.
Back on Tony's plane Ward is sitting at the same place where he has been sitting since he left the cockpit, he has the letter on the table in front of him and a large glass of Tony's scotch in his hand.
When he finishes the last sip of his first glass Ward puts the glass back on the table and picks up the letter and opens it,
Dear Grant,
There was so much that I wanted to say to you today but talking about my feelings has never been something I'm good at so I decided to write it instead. I have loved our time together and I am so glad that I've had you in my life. I know it hasn't always seemed like it but I have opened up to you more than I have anyone else I have dated in the past, you're special to me Grant, and I hate that we don't get to see what we could become together.
Like you said I don't want you to go back to being who you were, but I would understand if you did. Find someone Grant, don't be alone. You deserve to be loved and I want more than anything for you to be happy. There is so much more that I want to say, but it wouldn't be fair to you if I did. Have a good life Grant, I hope I remember our time together one day but if I don't know that it means the world to me and until I can no longer remember I will tressure every second we spent together.
Yours Skye.
As Ward finishes the letter he feels a tear roll down his face and he picks up the bottle of scotch and just pours himself one more glass as he re reads the letter.
Over an hour and a half after they left the plane Melinda and Coulson return with a bunch of the stuff that they decided to bring from the house.
"I'll go get those three to help." Coulson says heading upstairs. Once he goes through the gate and into the upper level of the plane he finds Natasha, Tony and Clint sitting around where Skye is laying in the draw.
"And then the Hulk came out of nowhere and grabbed Iron Man before he could hit the ground." Tony says.
"Everyone else stood around waiting for Iron Man to breathe again, and once he did, with a joke about kissing the first thing he said, Thor reminded the Captain, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and the Hulk that they still had work to do so they went to find Black Widow and bring Loki to justice." Clint tells Skye.
"What are you guys doing?" Coulson asks curious.
"She seems to like listening to our voices." Natasha explains.
"So you decided to tell her the story of New York?" Coulson asks curious.
"It seemed to sooth her." Tony explains, "I guess some things never change."
"We've got stuff down in the car, can you come help." Coulson asks.
"I'll stay with Skye." Clint comments as Natasha and Tony stand up.
About a minute after Tony, Natasha and Coulson leave Skye starts to cry.
"Hey. Don't cry Kid." Clint says picking up the baby, "Oh wow." He comments when he picks her up and realises why she is crying, "Kid I'm your favourite Uncle, Uncle Tony is the one you want to poo on, okay, not me." Clint tells Skye as he starts to change her.
Once Coulson, Tony, Natasha and Melinda have brought up not only all the stuff that they got from the house but have also helped Fitz, Simmons and Pepper bring the stuff they brought back they entire group have headed back to the sitting area where Melinda has gotten Skye off Clint after he changed her.
"According to Hill we've got forty eight hours off to get settled." Natasha reveals.
"That will be good." Fitz comments.
"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Coulson asks looking at Pepper and Tony, "it's been a while since I've cooked something big." He tells them.
"Sure." Tony answers, "Do you want me to call Steve and Bruce and invite them?" he asks.
"Yeah, that will be good." Coulson responds.
"Ask Steve where Ward is, he should be back by now." Simmons comments.
"Will do." Tony responds and gets up to go and make his phone call.
"Tasha, Pepper do you want to help me put some things together?" Melinda asks curious.
"Sure." They both respond.
"Jemma do you want to help us too?" Pepper asks as she has spent enough time around the plane and these people to know that now is usually when Simmons and Skye would go off on their own and do what they do, but that's not an option at the moment.
"Yeah, if you don't mind." Simmons responds.
"Not at all, we'll appreciate the help." Melinda responds realising what her friend is doing
"Steve and Bruce are happy to come for dinner, they'll be here, later." Tony comments walking back in the room.
"What about Ward?" Simmons asks.
"Steve hasn't seen him since he left the plane, he said that Ward said he was going to stay there for a bit." Tony explains.
"Oh dear." Simmons comments worried.
"Simmons, what is it?" Melinda asks.
"Skye wrote a letter for him that she asked me to give to him. I gave it to him before he and Steve left." Simmons explains and as soon as he hears what his girlfriend says Fitz stands up.
"Where are you going?" Tony asks.
"I'm going to talk to my friend." Fitz says as he leaves the room.
When Fitz arrives at Tony's jet he finds his friend sitting and drinking. Without a word Fitz walks over and sits down next to him.
"What are you doing here Fitz?" Ward asks more than ten minutes after Fitz sat down and he hasn't said a word.
"I'm here for you." Fitz tells him, "Whatever you need me to be, friend, confidant, punching bag, designated drive. Whatever you need I'm here." He tells him.
"I don't know what I need." Ward admits.
"Well I'm here anyway." Fitz tells him, "Whatever you need Man, I'm here." He tells him and Ward gives a simple nod as a thankyou.
A few hours after he left the plane Fitz gets a message from Jemma saying that dinner will be in about an hour.
"That was Jemma, Coulson's almost finished with Dinner. Do you feel like coming back?" Fitz asks curious.
"I don't know." Ward responds.
"I'm not going to say that Skye wouldn't want you to shut yourself away, because you know that, but I am going to tell you that Simmons and I are here for you." Fitz tells him, "I can't even image how odd it must be for you to have your girlfriend turn into a baby on you but it's not Baby Skye's fault. I understand that it is going to be hard for you to be around her, all of us do, but maybe with time it won't be, you shouldn't avoid the baby because of who she was." Fitz tells him.
"Exactly, who she was. She'll never be the Skye we knew again, that Skye is gone." Ward tells him.
"She could remember one day." Fitz tells him.
"She still won't be my Skye. I've lost her forever." Ward tells him, "I won't punish baby Skye for that, she doesn't deserve it and If Skye ever remembers she would be pissed at me if I did, but I need some time." He reveals.
"Okay, I guess I'll see you back on the plane then." Fitz comments.
"No, I'm coming with you." Ward informs Fitz.
"You are? After everything you just said?' Fitz asks surprised.
"I have to." Ward answers, "My Skye is gone, and I've got to get used to being around Baby Skye." He tells Fitz.
When Fitz and Ward return to the plane everyone else has clearly just started dinner. The two men walk in and take their seats without a word to anyone else.
They are about half way through dinner when the alarm signalling an emergency high priority call from Head Quarters is coming in.
"I thought you said we had forty eight hours off." Coulson says to Natasha.
"That's what Hill told me." Natasha responds as Skye starts to cry clearly being woken by the alarms.
"I'll get Skye, you all go see who that is." Pepper offers.
"Thanks Pepper." Melinda says and everyone heads into the command centre.
"Stay out here with Skye until we know who It is." Coulson says as Pepper picks up Skye
"Shhh, it's okay." Pepper tells Skye.
When the group enter the command centre they find Fury on the screen.
"Sir, what's the problem?" Coulson asks.
"We've run the Clairvoyant's DNA through all the databases that we've got and received a partial match." Fury reveals.
"Who?" Clint asks.
"According to the results Ian Quinn is the Clairvoyant's son." Fury reveals to the others shock.
"That explains why he was so eager to get him Quinn out of custody." Natasha realise.
"There is no way this is over." Melinda comments and everyone looks at her, "There is no way that Quinn is going to let us get away with killing his father. He's likely taken over his father's network and could want to finish what he started." Melinda explains.
"It could take time for Quinn to establish himself as leader, even if he was the Clairvoyants son." Clint comments, "Sir who have you told about Quinn's and the Clairvoyant's identify?" he asks.
"Hill, Hand, Garrett, Blake, Sitwell and a handful of other agents." Fury reveals.
"If Quinn is the Clairvoyant's son and is one of the top people in his organization then it's possible that the mole could be too." Natasha realises, "Have you ran the DNA against the S.H.I.E.L.D agency database?"
"Yes, no matches." Fury reveals.
"We should get eyes on Mike's son." Simmons realises, "If he is free from all control then he would go to him, if he's doesn't then it is safe to assume that someone's still controlling him." She tells the others.
"We've still go to search for the Mole as well, whoever they are still a risk." Clint comments.
"I'm quietly looking into it with Hill's help." Fury informs them.
"I know that none of us want to think about it but we've got to consider the fact that Quinn could be after Skye, either for revenge for his father or to continue what he started." Ward tells everyone.
"We won't let that happen." Coulson says, "I don't care what it takes but he will not lay his hand on my daughter."
"We've got teams searching for Quinn, he can't stay hidden forever and he's dealing with the loss of his father which could cause him to make mistakes." Fury informs the others.
"If the Mole is helping him then he could easily stay hidden forever." Melinda comments.
"We've got to find the Mole, it's as simple as that." Clint tells everyone.
"I've got a meeting to get to." Fury says and he ends the video conference.
"Quinn is the Clairvoyant's kid, didn't see that one coming." Tony comments.
"I don't think any of us could." Simmons says.
"We've got to be careful." Natasha tells the others, "Like Ward and Melinda said it wouldn't be stretch to assume that Quinn is coming for us, we've got to be prepared for that." Natasha tells the others.
"We've got to make sure that at least one of us is with Skye at all times. She's defenceless." Clint tells everyone.
"We will." Melinda assures, "She has been taken twice. I will not let there be a third time." Melinda tells the others.
"How about we talk about all of this as we finish Dinner." Steve suggests.
"Good idea." Fitz responds and the group head back out into the main part of the plane.
In the early hours of the following morning Melinda and Coulson are woken by Skye, who is sleeping in her old cot in Melinda and Coulson's room, crying.
"I'll get her, you go back to sleep." Coulson says getting up and out of bd.
"You sure?" Melinda asks.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Coulson responds as he walks over to Skye's crib, "Hey, Baby Girl." Coulson says as he picks up Skye.
"She's probably hungry." Melinda comments from where she is laying, "I'll go get a bottle ready." She say getting up.
"It's okay, I'll do it." Coulson tells her.
"You take her downstairs and she is going to wake everyone else on this plane up. At least up here it is pretty sound proof." Melinda says heading to the door.
"Guess you're right about that." Coulson comments as Melinda heads downstairs, "You're going to have to be patient with us, we're not as good at this as we once were." Coulson tells his daughter as before Skye was taken he and Melinda had become a pretty good team when it came to dealing with Skye's night time wake ups.
Melinda has just started to get Skye a bottle ready when the door to Ward's bunk opens and he walks out.
"So I guess I didn't imagine hearing a baby cry a couple of minutes ago." Ward comments when he sees Melinda, as when she opened the door to hers and Coulson's room you could hear Skye's cries downstairs but then as soon as it was closed you couldn't anymore.
"No, you didn't." Melinda tells him and Ward goes and sits down without saying a word, "This has got to be harder on you than any of us." Melinda tells Ward.
"What are you talking about?" Ward asks surprised, "It's got to be hardest on you and Coulson."
"No it's not, because we get to watch her grow up again. For the rest of us she is still our Daughter, our Niece, our sister, but for you, you've lost the woman you love, probably forever. The rest of us haven't lost her in the way you have." Melinda tells him.
"She asked Simmons to give me a letter." Ward reveals.
"Simmons mentioned that." Melinda comments.
"She said that she wanted me to find someone, to not be alone, but I don't know if I can." Ward admits, "I love her and I never got to tell her that."
"She knew." Melinda tells him "Skye can read people really well, she got that for her father, she knew how you felt, and even if she couldn't read people as well as she can all of us could tell how you feel about her." Melinda reveals, "It was why Phil gave you such a hard time about your relationship, he knew that what you had was true love that you were the one man who could take his little girl." Melinda admits.
"I miss her, it's only been a few hours and I already miss her so much that it hurts to breath." Ward admits surprising both Melinda and himself with how open he is being
"Mel is that bottle ready yet?" Coulson asks through the plane coms.
"Yeah, I'll be right up." Melinda says checking the bottle temperature, "Take it one minute at a time." Melinda tells Ward, "That's how I got through when we lost her the first time and how I coped with Phil leaving." She tells him, "You've got friends here Grant, let us help you." Melinda says before heading back upstairs leaving a surprised Ward in the kitchen.
When Melinda and Coulson wake a few hours after Skye woke them they walk over to check their daughter and as soon as they see her they discover that she is a little bigger than she was a few hours earlier, not a lot, but enough that it is recognizable.
"We have to get Simmons to check her." Coulson realise as soon as they see their daughter and Melinda nods and the parents get their daughter changed and ready.
Once Skye is ready Coulson and Melinda take her straight down to the lab so that Simmons can check her.
"She is bigger." Simmons realises when she sees Skye.
"Yeah, I'd say a couple of weeks." Coulson guesses.
"Let me check." Simmons says preforming all the tests on Skye which she performed the day before.
"I'd say you are right, she is two to three weeks older than she was." Simmons tells Coulson once she finishes running all the tests.
"It's the energy right?" Melinda asks, "That's what's causing her to age quicker?"
"Yes." Simmons confirms, "But I can't even start to predict a pattern until it's been a few more days." She explains.
Melinda and Coulson nod and they head upstairs Coulson holding Skye both wondering just how quickly Skye will age.
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