AN: Hi guys! Here is Chapter 6! So far I have only been getting positive reviews about this story and it's awesome! This chapter is going to be intense! As most of you have already guessed, it will shed some light on Skye's past. I hope you like it and please REVIEW!

Warning: mentions of abuse and rape.

Skye slowly opened her eyes to see the sun shining through her hotel window. She tried to stretch but found herself trapped in her boyfriend's arms. She looked up and saw his peaceful expression while he slept. Instant guilt washed over her. She had woken up two more times during the night with nightmares, waking up Grant as well. He held her as she sobbed and soothed her back to sleep. She was so absorbed in her nightmares and past coming back that she didn't even ask Grant how he was feeling after the staff. What kind of girlfriend was she? Tears immediately welled up in her eyes.

"Skye, what's wrong?" Grant asked, waking up to see his girlfriend crying.

"I'm sorry Grant. I-I was so absorbed in my own stuff last night and I-I didn't even think about how the staff could have been affecting you. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you last night the way you were for me. I'm so sorry." Skye said, crying into Grant's chest.

"Oh Skye…that staff affected you so much more than me. I can't stand to see you in pain. And as for me, what the staff showed me, it was the past. It was about my younger brother Tommy. One summer, my older brother Christian who was 10, Tommy who was 7, and I who was 8, were at my grandparents' house in Massachusetts. They had an old well in the back and one day Tommy and I were playing back there. We were just tossing a ball around and Tommy threw it too hard and it landed in the well. We went over and saw it floating around. Neither of us knew how to swim at that time so we were afraid to go. I decided to go and get Christian because he knew how to swim so he could get it out for us. I ran inside got Christian and brought him outside. Tommy told him that he accidentally threw the ball too hard and it landed in the well. Christian was pissed. The next thing I knew, Christian grabbed Tommy and threw him into the well.

Flashback…

"Grant…help me!" Tommy begged from inside the well.

"Don't help him Grant. He made the mistake, he has to pay the price." Christian said, a hard, almost evil look in his eyes.

"But he doesn't know how to swim. He'll drown." Grant said, desperate to help his little brother. He made his way towards the rope that was sitting on the side.

"You throw that rope down to him and I'll throw you down there too." Christian said angrily. "Let it stay a bit longer."

"Help please!" Tommy pleaded, trying to stay above the water.

Christian smiled evilly before turning to go back into the house. As soon as Christian was a good distance away, Grant threw the rope down to Tommy.

"Tommy…grab the rope! I'll pull you up!" Grant shouted.

Grant watched as Tommy went under the water again before coming back up and grabbing the rope.

Skye hugging him shook Grant out of his thoughts.

"You saved him Grant. Tommy is alive because of you." Skye said.

"I could have prevented it. After that, he developed a phobia of the water. He wouldn't go to the beach, to the swimming pool, or anything like that. After that, my grandparents closed off the well too. I just wish that I could have been braver and pulled him out earlier. He almost drowned and I couldn't do anything." Grant said, emotion thick in his voice.

"Grant…you were so brave. You didn't let him drown. You didn't know that Christian was going to throw him in the well. The only person to blame here is Christian. Don't blame yourself for this."

"Tommy said the same thing. He said I was brave too. Didn't feel it at that time but he still says I'm the hero."

"You are. Are you and Tommy close?"

"Sort of. He's an engineer working with NASA and has a girlfriend. Last time I saw him was Christmas time. I was in D.C. that time and we decided to meet up. He talked about working with NASA, kinda sounded like Fitz now that I think about it, a bunch of sciency mumble jumble. I talked to him about working with S.H.I.E.L.D. I didn't discuss my missions but I told him the general gist. He looked at me like I was some superhero. He said and I quote 'I knew you would do something like this. This is proof that you are extremely brave.'"

"Awww…he is so sweet. I hope I get to meet him someday." Skye said

"You will. We made plans to meet up around Christmas again this year if I have no missions. You'd like Tommy."

"I think I'd like him too. I mean I like his super handsome and sweet older brother so I think I'd like him too."

Grant smiled as he pulled Skye in for a kiss. They kissed passionately for a minute before breaking apart for air. Just then, Skye heard a faint knock at their door. Frowning, she went over and opened it just in time to see Simmons making her way down the hall.

"Jemma? Is everything okay?" Skye asked.

"Oh Skye, I didn't wake you two up did I? Actually, Fitz and I were awake and were wondering if you and Ward wanted to get some breakfast together. I mean, on the Bus, we usually don't get many opportunities to go out for breakfast or anything and there is this adorable little restaurant down the street that is well-known for their scones and Irish coffee and tea. And since you two had a rough night we wanted to treat you two to a nice breakfast before we have to get back to the Bus. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to wake you…." Skye cut off Simmons' rambling.

"Jemma…breathe. And yeah, we'd love to join you. I've never had scones or Irish coffee before so I'd love to try some. And you didn't wake us up. We were just talking. How about Grant and I meet you guys downstairs in the lobby in…maybe 20 minutes?" Skye asked, smiling at her British friend.

Jemma lit up. "Of course. Sounds great. See you in a bit." Jemma waved before heading down the hall towards Fitz's room.

Skye closed the door and turned back to Grant who was lying against the headboard in bed.

"What did Simmons want? She was talking way too fast for me to understand." Ward said.

"She and Fitz wanted to meet up for breakfast at this little restaurant that serves scones and Irish coffee and tea. I told her we'll meet them down in the lobby in 20 minutes." Skye said, making her way towards the bathroom.

"Irish coffee…heard a lot about it. Guess we'll finally get to try some." Grant said as he watched Skye make her way into the bathroom.

Some time later, the four youngsters enjoyed a delightful breakfast of Irish coffee for Skye and Ward and Irish tea for Fitz and Simmons along with some of the best scones that Skye and Ward had ever had. Well, this was the first time that Skye had eaten scones, but Ward swore that they were the best scones he had ever tasted.

They returned to the Bus a while later and resumed their daily routine. Fitzsimmons made their way into the lab, talking a bunch of science nonsense that went over the top of everyone's head. May and Coulson had gotten back a while before the others and were currently locked up in Coulson's office. Grant and Skye started their usual workout, albeit a bit late.

After Skye and Grant had their training/sparring session, they made their way upstairs towards the living area.

"Wanna play Battleship?" Skye asked.

"You just wanna play so you can win. I know you cheat." Grant said grinning slightly at his girlfriend.

"How can you cheat at stabbing in the dark?" Skye asked defiantly.

"I don't know but there is no way that you can win every single game of Battleship we have played without some sort of cheating mechanism." Grant argued.

"You're just a sore loser. Just admit it, I am the best that there is at Battleship." Skye said smiling widely.

Grant didn't respond. He just dipped his head and captured her lips with his in a fiery and passionate kiss. Skye wrapped her arms around his neck and opened her lips, allowing Grant to slip his tongue inside her mouth and soon both tongues were fighting for dominance over each other.

"Oh bloody hell! Get a room." Fitz cried as he passed them on his way to the kitchen. The two broke apart and glared at Fitz.

"Hungry…?" Fitz asked, holding up pretzels.

Five minutes later, Skye, Grant, Fitz, and Jemma were gathered around eating lunch and playing poker, Skye and Jemma losing miserably. Finally, both decided to stop playing and were watching the two boys play, rather intensely.

"I call and raise a hundred." Grant said, his poker face on.

Fitz chuckled. "You know I know I'm going to beat you."

"By losing." Grant said seriously.

"You have a tail. A psychological tick that lets me know you're bluffing."

"Seriously, you just made that up. I do no such thing."

"See, you're denying it. That means you have one."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Oh please, you two are bickering like children." Jemma said, annoyed and amused at the same time.

"Yeah. It's actually kind of cute." Skye added.

Fitz and Grant broke into an argument about 'not being cute', continuing to amuse the two girls.

The four friends continued playing and teasing each other for a long while close to dinnertime.

After dinner, the team settled down in the living room to watch a movie together, a change for Coulson and May who were constantly locked in his office discussing official crap all the time. They started out pretty fine, starting with Skye, Fitz, Jemma's favorite movie, Frozen. Grant, May, and Coulson were begging for blood and gore so then they decided to watch Jaws. Surprisingly, Fitzsimmons were very absorbed in the movie, contrary to the older agents' beliefs that it would frighten them beyond repair. Skye however spent the better part of the movie hiding her face in Grant's chest, covering her ears, and screaming at the top of her lungs. Grant did not mind, in fact, he enjoyed the feeling of his girlfriend snuggled up in his lap.

Two hours later, their movie night ended and everyone went their own separate ways, Coulson to his office to put away all of his papers, May to the cockpit to check everything before turning on autopilot, Fitzsimmons went to the lab to turn off all of their sci-fi doohickeys, Grant went to take a shower, and Skye went to her bunk, waiting for her boyfriend to show up for bed.

When Grant entered Skye's bunk, he was surprised to see her sitting on the bed, staring out the window, completely quiet. Usually she's singing a song to herself or playing with some form of technology. Grant quietly shut and locked the door.

"Skye, what's wrong?" He asked, slowly approaching the bed.

"I promised that I would tell you about my past. You told me yours so it's only fair that I tell you mine." Skye said softly, not meeting his gaze.

"Skye…I don't want to force you to tell me anything. You can tell me when you're ready." Grant said, not wanting to be the cause of her suffering. He could tell that her past still haunted her and he didn't want to be the one that made her relive it all.

"I am ready. I hid behind a mask for so long, pretending that if I didn't think about it, it would one day go away. But it won't it keeps coming back every day to haunt me, to torment me. I can't take it anymore. Maybe talking about it will put those demons to rest." Skye said.

Neither said anything for a few moments. Grant tightened his grip on Skye's hand, assuring her that he was there for her.

Skye took a deep breath before speaking.

"The past 25 years of my life have been trying, to say the least. You know that I grew up in an orphanage, St. Agnes. Along with that, I lived in a lot of foster homes. Well…some of the foster homes were nice, some of them…not so much.

Flashback…

Four-year-old Skye was on her way to her first foster home. She was bouncing with excitement. Her foster parents seemed so nice. They even got her chocolate ice cream on the way home. When they arrived at the house, Skye was in awe. In front of her stood a two-story home, complete with a white picket fence and a chocolate colored Labrador playing in the front lawn. The Lab stopped and looked at the little newcomer. He slowly made his way over and sniffed Skye. Skye, somewhat frightened by the big dog hid behind her new foster mom, Rebecca, clutching tightly at her leg. Rebecca smiled softly and placed her hand on Skye's head. "That's Lucky. He won't hurt you. You wanna pet him? Come on, I'll show you how." Rebecca squatted down to Skye's height and took her hand in her own and slowly reached towards Lucky, scratching him behind the ear. Skye giggled when Lucky licked her hand in return.

The new family made their way inside the house and Skye saw two more people as they entered the living room. Skye's foster father, David, picked Skye up and introduced her to his brother and his wife, Jacob and Lucy, her new aunt and uncle. Skye shyly waved at them and they smiled in return, happy to meet their newest family member. After Skye was situated in her new home, Lucy and Rebecca decided to start making dinner. They made a delicious dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with cheesy garlic bread and a side salad. Skye felt like a hippopotamus afterwards. To get Skye comfortable in her new home, everyone decided to watch a movie together. Skye fell asleep halfway through The Lion King, head resting on Rebecca's lap. David took her upstairs to her new room and tucked her into bed. Skye fell asleep happily in her new home.

This nice routine continued for about a month. Jacob and Lucy came over frequently and played with Skye. Lucy would braid her hair, paint her nails, and play with her. Jacob was much more quiet around her. He would smile and be nice but would never go out of his way to talk to Skye or interact with her a lot. When he wasn't smiling, he was kinda creepy.

Three days later, things got weird. Skye and Rebecca were in the kitchen. Rebecca had just made come chocolate chip cookies and Skye was eating them enthusiastically with a glass of milk. The front door suddenly burst open and Lucy rushed into the kitchen, tears streaming down her face. She ran into Rebecca's arms and sobbed, Rebecca wrapping her arms tightly around her holding her as she cried. Jacob came in a moment later, eyes wide with anger, a malicious scowl on his face. He made his way over to Lucy and ripped her out of Rebecca's arms. Rebecca pulled Lucy back to her, clutching her protectively to herself. Rebecca and Lucy made their way out of the kitchen, leaving an angry Jacob in the kitchen with Skye. Skye go off the stool and slowly walked over to Jacob.

"Uncle Jacob, why was aunt Lucy crying?" Skye asked, tugging on Jacob's jacket sleeve. Jacob turned on her, eyes blazing with fury. "Never call me that again!" He shouted pushing her away from him. Skye landed a few feet away and heard an audible crack in her arm and everything turned black.

"That was the first time. He pushed me into the wall and I fell on by arm, breaking it. It took me months to recover from it. That was my first major injury. After that, the next few homes I went to weren't abusive, but they weren't the nicest either. I only stayed there for a couple of days, a week at most. The next incident happened when I was five. Remember when you touched the staff and you kinda lost it in the lab with me and Fitzsimmons…" Skye said, looking up at Ward. She watched as guilt and regret immediately clouded his eyes. He nodded, softly apologizing again. "you didn't know this and I don't blame you at all for this, but what you said triggered something. I was at another home and it seemed to be working out nicely. After a few weeks, the dad, Brad came home drunk and it scared the crap out of me. The mom, Sarah yelled at him for a minute before going into her room and locking the door. I looked at Brad and asked him if he wanted to play a game. He said no and told me to go to bed. I could tell he was upset but I thought that maybe I could make him feel better. I asked him if he wanted to hear a story or watch a movie. I told him how they always cheered me up and then he got really angry. He screamed 'Don't you ever get tired of hearing your own voice?' before he slammed the bottle of alcohol down on the coffee table and pieces of glass got stuck in my arm and side. I remember screaming and saw Sarah run down the stairs and pick me up. Next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital and ended up back at the orphanage two days later." Skye finished.

Grant felt anger course through his veins. All he wanted right now was to find the people that caused his Skye all this pain and beat the crap out of them. Killing them would be too easy. He wants them to suffer. He looked back at Skye and saw silent tears streaming down her face. He felt hi heart twist with pain.

"Baby, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you like that."

"Grant, I know you never meant it. It just triggered something I didn't want to remember. It started out with just broken bones and cuts and bruises. But then, things got so much worse. I thought that as I got older, things would get better. When I went to my last foster home at 16, things got so much crueler.

Sixteen-year-old Skye was tired of getting hurt. She didn't know what she did to deserve all the pain that she had been put through the past twelve years but she just wanted it to stop. She had just met her new foster parents; she had lost count of how many foster parents she had met over the years. She really hoped that this family was actually nice to her. James and Madison Hall, seemed like nice people, Skye just hoped that they actually were.

Skye arrived at her new home, a big fake smile plastered on her face as she entered her new home with her new parents. Everything seemed fine for the first two days. It always started out nice. But then, it just got worse. The weekend came and Madison flew out of town to visit her ill mother in Vermont, leaving Skye and James alone. Saturday morning was calm, both waking up and having a breakfast of pancakes together. After breakfast, James asked Skye if she would be okay by herself for the rest of the day as he has to pull in an overtime shift at work. Skye nodded, saying that she would be fine on her own and asked if she should have dinner ready for them when he returns. He responded by saying that he would be going out for his friend's birthday and she should eat and go to sleep, as he will probably be home pretty late.

Skye spent the Saturday to herself, cleaning up the house here and there; wanting to surprise Madison when she returned and binge watched several seasons of her favorite show Supernatural. Nighttime came; Skye made herself a light dinner and by 11:30 was zonked out in bed.

Around 3 am, Skye's bedroom door opened and James silently walked in, completely drunk, a bottle of booze in one hand. He shut the door behind him and locked it. He slowly made his way towards the sleeping figure of Skye and traced a finger down her cheek. Skye stirred at this and slowly opened her eyes, scared as she saw the figure of her foster father looming over her.

"Is everything okay?" Skye asked shakily, clutching her blanket closer to her chest.

James let out a scary laugh.

"Everything is just fine sweetheart." James said as he climbed onto the bed and pinned Skye underneath him.

"What are you doing? Get off of me…please!" Skye begged.

"Shh…shh…stop talking." James said, pulling a knife out of his pocket and slowly traced Skye's cheek with the tip of it.

Skye whimpered but kept quiet, not wanting to anger the man, afraid of what he might do.

"You know, you're real pretty. It's a shame you won't feel it after tonight." James said before he ripped off her shirt, his hands roaming all over her body. Skye screwed her eyes shut, trying to block out what was about to happen next. She felt her pajama pants being ripped off and begged him to stop. He glared at her and cut shallow cuts into her arms and stomach, threatening her with much more if she breathed a word about this. That night, Skye's hell officially began.

"He-he-he threatened to kill me slowly and painfully. He saw how that wasn't going to keep me quiet so he started threatening the friends I had made at school. He threatened to do the same thing to them and kill them in the worst ways possible. I couldn't be the cause of someone else getting hurt. He-he raped me Grant." Skye sobbed into her boyfriend's chest.

Grant clenched his jaw in anger as he held Skye closer to him. He took a few calming deep breaths as he felt the anger of the Berserker staff course through him again. All he wanted right now was to pummel that bastard into the ground and slowly destroy him. He heard Skye whimper and he felt his heart break.

"Skye…baby…I'm so sorry you had to go through that. God, I wish more than anything that I was there to protect you at that time. I wanna kill that guy so slowly and painfully…" Grant started, interrupted by Skye.

"Yeah…well that's really not possible anymore." Skye said softly, averting her gaze from him. She slowly moved out of his arms and wrapped her sweater tighter around herself.

"What do you mean Skye?" Grant asked, reaching towards her again, stopping when she hugged herself tighter.

"I…that…it wasn't the only time he did that. After the first time… he said that if I breathed a word about what happened to anyone, then Madison, my foster mom, would be the first one he crossed off. I knew for a fact that she genuinely cared about me and I liked her, I actually thought of her as my mom and I couldn't even comprehend the idea of her getting hurt. So I kept quiet. She came back two days later and I pretended that everything was normal. A week later, one of Madison's friends was in the hospital and had to spend a few days there. Madison decided to spend a night with her, as she had no family in the area. She left after dinner, promising to come back in the morning. After dinner, I cleaned up and James made his way into the living room to watch TV. I finished cleaning and went to the living room to grab my book and head up to bed, afraid to be alone near James. I entered the living room while James was watching a football game and grabbed my book off of the coffee table and was about to leave when James grabbed me from behind and slammed me down on the couch. I fought for a bit but he was much stronger than me.

Skye grabbed her book off of the coffee table and went to leave but before she could take a single step, a strong hand grabbed her upper arm and pushed her into couch. Before she could even comprehend what was going on, she felt a heavy body on top of hers. James pinned her wrists next to her head and was roughly kissing her. Skye desperately tried to fight her way out from underneath him but he was too strong. One of Skye's flailing hands whacked him in the face and he let go of her wrists for a second, allowing Skye to push him off of her. She tried to run but as soon as she got off the couch, James tripped her, grabbed her by the neck, and shoved her into the glass coffee table, the glass breaking underneath Skye, pieces embedding themselves all over Skye's back. Skye cried out in pain, tears streaming down her face, matching pace with the warm, slick blood seeping out of her back. James backhanded her across the face and pinned her down again. He ripped off Skye's shirt, some of the pieces of glass being removed in the process, causing white-hot pain to pulse through Skye. She was laying on the floor gasping for air as James continued to remove Skye's clothing, in a rather painful way. A few seconds later, Skye was left in only her underwear and bra, blood still leaking from her wounds, surrounding Skye in a puddle of blood. James trailed kisses all over her body, making Skye want to vomit in disgust. She struggled some more, only ending up making things even worse for herself. She turned her head to the side and saw a rather large piece of glass next to her head, almost looking like a knife. Skye felt James begin to cut her in several places all over her stomach, chest, arm, and legs, and in a last desperate attempt to escape the monster in front of her, she grabbed the glass and thrust it in front of her. Skye squeezed her eyes shut as she heard a muffled gasp. She opened her eyes to see James looking down at her in shock. She looked down and saw the glass penetrating his sternum and blood slowly pooling on his chest. He let out another gasp before collapsing on top of Skye. Skye panicked and tried to move the body on top of her. After what seemed like forever, she finally managed to push the unmoving body of James off of her and sobbed. She noticed that his cell phone had fallen out of his pocket and tried to reach it. The glass continued to cut her as she reached to get the phone. After finally grasping the phone, she pressed "2", speed dialing Madison.

"Hey James, everything okay?" came Madison's sweet voice.

"Madison, help…."Skye said as blackness finally overcame her.

Madison's frantic voice was the last thing she heard before she faded into oblivion.

Skye looked ahead, eyes glazed over and empty.

"I killed him. After I called Madison, I passed out and woke up in the hospital three days later. I had lost a lot of blood because one of the pieces had grazed a major artery. When I woke up, Madison was sitting next to me. She told me that the doctors had told her that James had raped me after they did a rape kit on me since they found me practically naked on the living room floor. I wasn't in any trouble for killing James since it was clearly self-defense and she didn't blame me. She apologized to me for what James had done to me. I don't really remember the rest of it but I just couldn't get over the fact that I killed someone. I'm a monster Grant. I just killed him. I-I…" Skye couldn't finish, sobs escaping her throat.

Grant felt tears prick at his eyes but he pushed them back, needing to be strong for Skye.

"Skye, you are not a monster. You are a brave and selfless human being that was put through the worst possible circumstances at a young age. You faced all of that and still came out on top. You are a beautiful and amazing person. You are anything but a monster." Grant said, holding her face in his hands. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead before hugging her tightly to himself. "I promise that I will never let anything happen to you ever again." He whispered in her ear.

Skye clutched at him tighter, so grateful that he was there for her.

Grant eased the two of them down onto the bed, clutching Skye closer to him. He slowly felt her breathing even out and after a few minutes he noticed that she was asleep. Dried tear tracks were seen on her beautiful face and Grant brushed a soft kiss on her forehead. "I love you so much Skye. I promise that I will always protect you." Grant thought as he also drifted off to sleep.

AN: Okay…this is definitely the longest chapter I've ever written! Once again, thank you to those that have reviewed. Reviews are my motivation and would love more reviews. I really hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know you guys liked this! REVIEW! :)