Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Everything belongs to their rightful owners and I am not making any profit from this.
AN: Thank you to all who have added to alerts, read, reviewed or any combination of the three. It means a lot to me.
AN2 SPOILERS FOR BOTH WINTER SOILDER AND SHIELD 1X17:
Okay both were so incredible and I'm still dealing, but it was so incredible and Coulson better stop being a jerk to Melinda and soon because everything she did she did for him and it's about time he realised that, I'm more angry at Coulson than I am with everything that's going on with Ward and I think that says something. This story is now completely AU. You will notice the biggest changes from what we have discovered from both Winter Solider and Agents of SHIELD starting in future chapters. I really hope you enjoy this chapter and say in your review what your thoughts were on both the ep and movie.
END OF SPOILERS
Skye has been back on the plane for over a week and a half, in that time she has aged to approximately four and a half. Ever since Skye has returned to the plane Coulson hasn't been allowed to do field work so he has been enjoying spending time with his daughter.
As what is typical everyone is spread out throughout the plane. Skye is in the lab with Fitz and Simmons.
"Fitz what are you doing? It doesn't work like that." Simmons tells Fitz referring to the Toy that Fitz is currently trying to get to work.
"Yes it does. I know what I am doing." Fitz responds.
Getting bored with their fighting Skye turns and looks out into the cargo bay where she sees Ward beating up the punching bag. Getting up she walks out of the lab and over to him without Fitz or Simmons realising.
"Hi." Skye says to Ward.
"Hi." Ward says stopping hitting the punching bag and grabbing it so that it doesn't swing and hit Skye.
"Why do you hit that?" Skye asks.
"For practice." Ward tells her, "So that if I ever have to fight I can." He explains.
"But Daddy says that you shouldn't hurt people unless they are trying to hurt you." Skye tells Ward.
"Exactly." Ward tells her, "I'm practicing so that if anyone ever tries to hurt me or, someone I care about, I can defend us." He tells her.
"Oh, can you show me?" Skye asks.
"Um." Ward says hesitantly unsure if it is a good idea.
"Please." Skye says looking up at him with large begging eyes.
"Okay." Ward says, "We'll start by wrapping your hands so that they don't get hurt. Come and sit down." He requests and Skye walks over and sits on one of the chairs on the side of the cargo bay.
"It's really important that you do what I tell you to do, okay?" Ward asks her as he starts to wrap Skye's hands
"I will." Skye assures.
"Good." Ward responds, "Now come on." Ward says and he walks back over to the punching bag and kneels in front of it so that he is around the same height as Skye.
"Okay, so I need you to stand with your right foot here." Ward says pointing to a spot on the floor, "And your left here." He says pointing to another, and Skye does exactly that.
"Now I need you to copy what I do." Ward says to her standing up, "Like this." He says staring to punch the bag.
"Your turn." He tells her and Skye copies what he did.
"Good, that's good." He tells her and for several minutes Skye continues to hit the bag, Ward surprised that her technique at four seems to be the same as what it was like when she was twenty five.
"Agent Ward." Natasha's angry voice says from the stairs.
"тетя Наташа, look what I'm doing." Skye says with a smile.
"Go upstairs." Natasha tells her niece as she walks towards Ward, clearly not looking happy.
"But, тетя Наташа." Skye begins to say.
"Skye, go to your room." Natasha tells her niece and Skye runs upstairs with tears rolling down her face not knowing what she did wrong.
"What were you thinking?" Natasha asks Ward.
"She asked me to show her how to hit the bag, I didn't see a problem with it." Ward says confused by Natasha's reaction.
"The problem, Agent Ward, is that she is four years old. She should be playing games, having fun, being a kid, not training to be an agent." Natasha says angrily.
"That's not what I was doing." Ward defends, "I was just showing her how to hit, I don't see the problem with that." He tells her.
"The problem Agent Ward is that is how it begins." Natasha say angrily.
As she saw what Skye and Ward were doing as soon as she stepped out onto the cargo bay Natasha left the gate open which allows Skye to go right through and run to her bunk, crying as she does.
"Skye." Clint asks concerned seeing his niece from where he is at the table inspecting his arrows. Concerned he gets up and follows her into her bunk where he finds Skye laying on her bed with her face in her pillow.
"Kid what's wrong?" Clint asks sitting down next to her. "Talk to me." Clint requests tickling her in her side.
"She hates me." Skye says through her tears as she tries to move away from the hand Clint is using to tickle her.
"Who hates you?" Clint asks confused.
"тетя Наташа, she hates me." Skye says upset.
"тетя Наташа loves you, why do you think she hates you?" Clint asks confused.
"Because she just yelled at me and told me to go to my room, тетя Наташа, has never yelled at me before. She hates me." Skye explains and Clint becomes even more confused.
"Tell me what happened." He requests wanting to understand.
"She hates me." Skye repeats.
"I heard, tell me what happened Kid." Clint requests, "Look at me and tell me what happened." He asks and Skye sits up tears still streaming down her face.
"I was down in the Cargo Bay with Ward and he was showing me how to hit the bag and then тетя Наташа saw and she was angry and yelled at me to go to my room." Skye explains.
"Skye, she doesn't hate you." Clint says, now that he knows what happened he knows what his partner was thinking as he is very well aware of what Natasha thinks childhoods should be.
"But then why did she yell?" Skye asks confused
"Because Ward shouldn't have been showing you how to do that until you're bigger." Clint explains, "I promise you, тетя Наташа doesn't hate you." He tells his niece.
"But she was so angry." Skye responds.
"Not at you, I promise you that." He tells her.
"You don't know that." Skye tells him.
"Yes, I do." Clint tells her giving her a hug, "And I'm going to go get тетя Наташа to prove it too you." Clint says breaking the hug and getting up and heading out of the room.
As soon as he walks closer to the door that leads downstairs he hears Natasha's and Ward's angry voices.
"She asked me to show her, I didn't force her." Ward tells Natasha.
"You are an adult she is four, you should have told her it wasn't a good idea." Natasha responds.
"ENOUGH." Clint says walking down the stairs, "Stop with the fighting." He tells them, "Nat, Skye's upstairs she thinks you hate her." He tells her partner, "I tried to tell her that you don't but it will do more coming from you." Clint tells his partner and with one last angry look at Ward, Natasha heads up stairs.
"What the hell is her problem?" Ward asks once Natasha is out of hearing range.
"You've been around S.H.I.E.L.D a long time Ward, what rumours have you heard about how Natasha became what she is?" he asks as he has heard the rumours himself so he knows that enough of them are truth which should explain to Ward why Natasha acted the way he did without him needing to explain it.
"What?" Ward asks confused.
"Just think, what have you heard?" he asks.
Ward is confused as to why Clint is asking him to think about that but then he realises, "She trained since she was a child." He realises, "Forced to become what she is. She never got the innocence of childhood." He realises.
"Yes." Clint confirms.
"Now I feel like an ass." Ward comments not because he showed Skye how to hit, because he doesn't think there was anything wrong with that, but because of some of the things he said to Natasha.
"It happens to all of us." Clint tells him.
When Natasha enters Skye's bunk she finds Skye on her bed still crying.
"Skye, Ребенок, I'm sorry." Natasha tells her niece, walking over and sitting down next to her.
"What did I do wrong, I don't understand." Skye says sniffling.
"You didn't do anything wrong." Natasha tells her, "It was my problem and I took It out on you, I'm sorry."
"But why?" Skye asks confused.
"When I was your age people, adults, made me learn how to fight." Natasha down playing the truth a lot but knowing that one day either Skye will remember or she will tell her, "I never got to have fun and play games like you do." She explains, "So when I saw Ward teaching you how to hit the bag I remembered what happened to me and I got angry, but not at you Ребенок, I wasn't angry at you and I don't hate you." Natasha tells her niece.
"I'm sorry that happened to you." Skye says hugging her aunt.
"Thank you." Natasha responds.
"So you never got to play games?" Skye asks not being able to imagine something so horrible.
"No." Natasha answers.
"There must have been something Fun you did." Skye says to her aunt.
"Yeah there was." Natasha answers, "I learnt to dance, and I loved it." She admits, Clint, Melinda and Coulson being the only people who know the truth about how she feels about that part of her training.
"Can you show me?" Skye asks, "Or will it make you angry, coz I don't want to make you angry." Skye tells her Aunt.
"You know I think I will like that." Natasha tells her Niece, "Skye when you are old enough I promise you that everyone on this plane will teach you how to defend yourself, but that time is when your parents decided. So don't go asking anyone until they say you can learn." Natasha tells her niece
"Okay, can we start now?" Skye asks her niece.
"Yeah, I think we can." Natasha tells her niece, "Let's go to the cargo bay, there is more room down there." Natasha tells her niece.
"Okay." Skye says jumping down from the bed.
For forty minutes Natasha shows Skye some of the basics of ballet out in the cargo bay. While Fitz, Simmons, Ward and Clint do their best to make it look like they aren't watching from the lab, but it's clear to Natasha that that is exactly what they are doing.
"Okay, that's enough for now." Natasha tells Skye.
"But I want to keep going." Skye tells her.
"I know, but you've done enough for today." Natasha tells her, "We can practice again tomorrow if you want." Natasha tells niece.
"Yes please." Skye responds.
"Good, tomorrow it is then." Natasha tells her.
"I want to go tell Mommy everything I learnt." Skye says.
"Okay, I'll open the gate." Natasha tells her and they both head up the stairs, "There we go." Natasha says opening the gate.
"Thank you тетя Наташа, thank you so much." Skye says hugging Natasha.
"You're welcome, Ребенок." Natasha responds and once Skye is through the gate Natasha closes it and heads down to the lab.
Skye makes her way to the cockpit where she knows she will find her mother, once she is there she climbs onto the chair next to her.
"May be careful." Melinda tells her daughter.
"I am, I know I can't touch anything why you fly." Skye tells her mother.
"So what have you been doing?" Melinda asks.
"I played with Fitzy and Jem then Ward showed me how to hit the bag and тетя Наташа saw and she got really angry, I thought she hated me, but she doesn't. She was thinking about what happened when she was a kid and she showed me how to dance, It was really fun, I really like it." Skye tells her mother.
Melinda Is very confused by most of what Skye just said but because she knows that she will get a better explanation from Natasha and Ward she doesn't question that anymore, "So you liked dancing?" Melinda asks.
"Yeah, I really loved it." Skye tells her mother, "тетя Наташа is going to teach me again tomorrow." She tells her mother.
"Your Aunt really loves dancing." Melinda reveals, "Not many people know that." She tells her.
"That makes me special right?" Skye asks.
"Yeah, you really are." Melinda tells her daughter, "I can put the plane on autopilot if you want to do something." Melinda tells her daughter.
"No, I like it here it's pretty." Skye tells her mother.
"Okay, if you're sure." Melinda tells her daughter.
"I'm sure." Skye responds.
"For trained agents you four don't do a good job of disguising what you are looking at." Natasha tells Clint, Ward, Fitz and Simmons, "I expect better from you two." Natasha tells Clint and Ward.
"She's right you know." Clint says to Ward and before anyone can say anything else there is a beep from FitzSimmon's computer.
"Finally." Fitz says.
"Finally what?" Ward asks curious.
"Before she changed Skye asked me to make sure I educate younger her on TV shows, except for Firefly which you're going to watch with her." Fitz says looking at Clint, "So I've been downloading every Disney Movie and all of New Doctor Who." He explains
"Hang on, are you using Government Computer systems to illegally download movies?" Clint asks Fitz and Simmons putting on the voice he's used in the past to scare rookie agents into doing what he wants them to do.
"Um, no." Fitz responds looking slightly scared.
"This is serious." Clint says taking several steps towards Fitz and Simmons, "You have used S.H.I.E.L.D resources for your own personal use, and not just any use but to break the law." He tells the scientists.
"Clint, stop terrifying them." Natasha tells her partner, though she has to admit she is amused, "Relax." She tells the two scientists feeling bad for them, "First no one on this plane is in any place to lecture you about using S.H.I.E.L.D resources for personal use and second Maria spends a couple of hours every week removing records of S.H.I.E.L.D agents using the system to download TV shows and movies before Fury can see." She explains.
"She does?" Ward asks surprised.
"Oh yeah." Clint answers, "I'm pretty sure she started it so that she could get away with how much TV she downloads." He explains.
After sitting in the cockpit with her mother for a while Skye heads up to her father's office to see him.
"Hi Daddy." Skye says walking over to him.
"Hey Skye." Coulson says picking her up and sitting her on his lap.
"What are you doing?" Skye asks.
"Paper work." Coulson answers.
"It looks boring." Skye says to her father.
"That's because it is." Coulson tells his daughter.
"Then why do you do it?" Skye asks confused.
"Because I have to." Coulson tells her.
"That's no fun." Skye tells him.
"No it's not." Coulson tells her, "You know there is something that I've been meaning to give you." Coulson tells his daughter.
"There is?" Skye asks confused,
"Yep, hop down and I'll show you." Coulson says and both he and Skye leave the office but instead of heading downstairs they head over to Coulson's wardrobe where on the floor hidden behind cloths is a blue tricycle.
"Is that for me?" Skye asks her father.
"Yep." Coulson answers with a smile.
"Yay, thank you Daddy." Skye says giving him a hug.
"You need to thank Mommy, it's from her as well." Coulson tells his daughter as he and Melinda both picked it out after asking Fitz's advice on what is the safest tricycle that you can buy.
"Can I ride it?" Skye asks.
"Of course." Coulson responds, "We'll go downstairs now." He tells her.
"Okay, we've got plenty of open room." Coulson says as he has picked the area outside the command centre as there is the most room without danger of Skye hitting anything, Skye nods and she sits down on the tricycle.
"Okay, you put one foot on each peddle and you peddle forward." Coulson tells her and Skye does exactly that.
"This is fun." Skye says and she starts to peddle faster.
"Slow down." Coulson tells her.
"But it's fun." Skye responds turning around to look at her father.
"SKYE WATCH OUT." Coulson yells worried and Skye turns around to try and turn away from the wall but she hits it and topples of the tricycle.
"Skye." Coulson says worried rushing to her side.
"Ouch. I'm okay." Skye says sitting up.
"What happened?" Melinda asks worried as she heard Coulson's yell so she rushed out as soon as she put the plane on auto pilot.
"You're bleeding." Coulson realises as Skye's left arm is bleeding, it obviously being cut by the peddle.
"I'm okay, I want to keep ridding." Skye says attempting to climb back onto the tricycle.
"No. Jem is going to check that arm out." Melinda says picking her up.
"But Mommy." Skye says.
"No, Jem is checking your arm." Melinda says carrying Skye downstairs Coulson right behind them.
"Simmons." Melinda says walking into the lab, ending the conversation that is going on between Clint, Natasha, Fitz, Simmons and Ward.
"Oh no, what happened?" Simmons asks worried.
"I was riding my new trike." Skye tells her sister as Melinda puts her down on the table.
"It just looks like a small cut." Simmons tells Melinda and Coulson, Coulson having a guilty look on his face as he knows he should have known better than letting her ride upstairs where there are so many things that she could have hit.
"Then can I go ride again?" Skye asks.
"No." Melina and Coulson say.
"Not upstairs, you shouldn't have ridden up there in the first place." Melinda tells Skye.
"Mel…." Coulson begins to say.
"Simmons are you sure that it's not serious?" Melinda asks cutting Coulson off before he can say anymore.
"Positive." Simmons responds, "Just a little bit of cleaning." Simmons says and she wipes the cut with an alcohol swab.
"That hurts." Skye tells Simmons.
"I know, but look I'm all done." Simmons says putting a band-aide on the cut, "And I believe Doctor Fitzy has something for you." She tells him.
"Fitzy, you do?" Skye asks.
"I do." Fitz says pulling a lollypop out of his draw, "One lollypop for Skye." He says handing it to her.
"You're no hurt anywhere else are you?" Coulson asks worried.
"No Daddy." Skye responds, "If I ride down here can I ride?" Skye asks.
"Not today." Melinda tells her and Skye looks upset at that.
"Kid, Fitzy's got a whole lot of movies for you that he thinks you will really like, how would you feel about going upstairs and watching one?" Clint asks.
"Okay." Skye responds.
"Cool, let's go." Clint says picking her up,
"You guys might want to deal with your issue before joining us." Natasha says quietly to Coulson and Melinda as she walks past them.
"What were you thinking letting her ride that upstairs?" Melinda ask Coulson once everyone has left and the door to the lab has closed.
"I didn't think she would get hurt." Coulson tells her, "I put the tricycle in a place where there was a lot of room. Melinda you know that I would never do anything that could hurt her on purpose." Coulson tells her.
"I know." Melinda tells him, "I heard you yell and I saw the blood, I assumed the worse." Melinda tells him, "I'm sorry, it wasn't your fault." She was.
"I thought my heart stopped bleeding when she toppled over." Coulson tells Melinda, "I blamed myself too." He tells her.
"It was an accident." Melinda tells him, "Let's just keep all ridding down in the cargo bay or outside when we can." Melinda tells him.
"Sounds like a good idea." Coulson responds.
"Are Mommy and Daddy fighting?" Skye asks Clint and Natasha who she is sitting on the couch between.
"They're discussing something." Clint answers diplomatically.
"It's my fault isn't it?" Skye asks.
"No." Natasha answers, "You're parents don't like to see you hurt." Natasha tells her niece, "It's not your fault. They are just worried about you." Natasha tells her, "Play the movie Fitz." Natasha tells him.
"You're going to love this Skye, it's a really good movie." Simmons tells her.
"What movie are we watching?" Coulson asks as he and Melinda come into the room, both sitting down on the couch with Natasha, Clint, and Skye.
"The Lion King." Fitz answers as he presses play.
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