The thing about Skye
She was a foster kid
It was an easy mission as far as missions go. It went far smoother than some, at least, with minimal hiccups. Bobbi is quietly grateful, because even though her knee is healed and she's been cleared for duty, it's been aching something fierce since Ward came back. Well, since his body came back.
Hydra had released a collection of alien weapons into the world, likely as a distraction, but what else is SHIELD to do when one shows up, blasting lightning in a bank robbery, but pursue and try to take it off the streets.
It was a two man team, and they now have the leader in custody, so this is where the hiccup lies. He didn't have the weapon on him when they picked him up.
They are at his house now, searching for ideas on who the accomplice could be. Daisy, strangely, couldn't find any likelihoods in her internet search.
As far as missions go, it's a fairly easy one, and Bobbi is still feeling good about it. At least, until she looks over and catches sight of Daisy's face not too long after they've entered the house. With one glance, Bobbi's feelings of this being easy dissipate in a gut instinct. An instinct that usually means things are about to go to shit, or at least become very complicated.
Daisy's face is disturbingly blank. She has gone completely still, which is cause enough for concern, and the hairs to raise along Bobbi's spine in alarm.
"Daisy?" she calls cautiously, but the inhuman doesn't respond. Doesn't blink. Doesn't react.
Daisy slowly moves forward and gently touches a thick padlock binding the handles of the fridge together. She flinches violently when her finger comes into contact with the metal, and then whips around with wide eyes, searching the kitchen as a whole. Her eyes completely skip over Bobbi, and Bobbi tenses in anticipation of some attack.
Nothing happens, though. The house remains as quiet as ever, and Bobbi looks back toward her friend whose eyes are a bit too wide. Daisy shakes her head, as if clearing it of water. She presses her lips into a thin line, and Bobbi doesn't know what that expression is supposed to mean, but Daisy turns back to the lock and shatters it with one, angry, pulse of her powers.
Daisy is still stiff when she reaches into the fridge and plucks out two apples and a water bottle.
"Daisy?" Bobbi asks again, baffled, but the tense inhuman continues to ignore her entirely. "Daisy," she calls, trailing after her friend as she stalks down the hallway. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Daisy almost walks past a closet door, and Bobbi almost runs into her when she stops so abruptly. Bobbi looks at the door, noticing two extra locks that seem, to Bobbi, rather excessive for a hall closet. Unless this is where he keeps the alien weapon.
Daisy raises her hand and quakes apart the locks so hard they don't just break- they rattle off the door. Then she pushes into the small closet. She sits down, cross legged, and Bobbi stares.
"Hey," Daisy says, and Bobbi jolts as she begins to finally speak, but it's not to her. Bobbi watches numbly as Daisy holds out the apples and water and a trembling hand slowly reaches back, hesitates in open air - waiting for something- and then snatches the items away. It happens so quickly, Bobbi doesn't know where the items disappear to.
Daisy scoots backward until her back is against the opposite wall of the closet and then leans back in a picture of relaxed unconcern.
"Who are you?" a voice comes out of the depths of the closet, wearily. Bobbi's heart beats uncomfortably in her neck.
"My name is Daisy Johnson. We arrested the man that lives here. Was he your father?"
It's quiet for a long moment, and then a boy of about 13 years crawls to the doorway of the closet. There is a bruise swelling the corner of his mouth and tear tracks on his cheeks even though he's not crying now.
Bobbi suddenly has a flash of memory, watching the lead robber deck his smaller, more nervous, partner for refusing to electrocute the bank manager, before pulling the trigger himself.
"Is he going to be coming back?" The boy asks, resting on the tips of his toes like he's one moment away from springing back into the closet and pulling the door shut, or making a break for it down the hall. He eyes Bobbi wearily and shrinks the slightest bit back from the doorway.
Bobbi can't see where he stashed the apples, but they must be on him somewhere.
"Nope," Daisy says, fingers dancing in a little fidget on her thigh. "I know you don't have a reason to trust me, but I hope you'll believe me when I say you're safe from him."
Bobbi wonders why specify him rather than just say 'you're safe.'
"So what now?" the boy asks, pulling his knees up to his chest protectively, and Bobbi is struck with a strong wave of familiarity. As if hearing her thoughts, Daisy takes the same pose, resting her chin on her knees.
"I'd like to ask you to come back with us. We are looking for something dangerous that your father got a hold of. Then we'd try to make sure you find someone nice to stay with. Do you have any other family?"
"No. What if I didn't want to go with you?" the boy challenges, but Skye only blinks before withdrawing her emergency money stash (everyone is required to keep $200 on them in case something goes wrong and they can't get back to base right away) and placing it on the ground between them.
"I won't make you. Honestly, I don't know what would be best. But I'd do everything in my power to make sure you ended up somewhere safe. And living on the street isn't very fun."
The boy stares at Daisy a moment, and then quicker than Bobbi can process, he moves. He snatches up the money and bolts down the opposite hallway from them.
Bobbi startles and makes to give chase- he's the second robber- they need him- but then Daisy is popping up directly in Bobbi's path with a snarl on her face.
"Leave him alone," she growls, and Bobbi staggers back a step in sheer surprise at the vehemence in her tone. At the defensive, distrustful, look she aims at Bobbi, and Bobbi's heart thuds and stutters, and her chest aches a bit.
"We can't just let him go, Daisy. He's the accomplice. Willing or not, he might know where the-"
"I know," she cuts her off. And, thankfully, the expression that flashed across her face before, quickly dissipates until there is only a bone-deep weariness and uncertainty. "But after that, all SHIELD would do is throw him into the foster system."
"He can find a good home, Daisy. He'll be safe-"
"You don't know that," she snaps, the anger back, but it's mostly defensive. All of Bobbi's spy instincts are going off- pinging around her head and twisting in her chest. Daisy is giving off all these tells, telling Bobbi more than she's ever been able to gather about her friend before, and she doesn't like the confirmation of some of the suspicions she's had. "Some people get lucky, but some people don't. He might be better off out there on his own. I was."
She turns on her heel, away from Bobbi, and stalks down the hall to continue their search. Bobbi, feeling further dread, follows.
They don't find the weapon. Feeling the beginnings of a tension headache in her temples, Bobbi leads the way back to the SUV, only, when she opens the door to the house, she freezes.
The boy is sitting on the steps. A devoured apple core beside him as his fingers pull and fidget with the bills in his hands. He doesn't look up as they step out onto the porch, but his body stiffens even further.
Daisy stares blankly at him a moment before pushing past Bobbi and taking a seat beside the boy, leaving a good foot of space.
"What's your name?" she asks, and doesn't even glance at him again.
"Noah."
"Are you going to come with us, Noah?"
"No... Maybe... You promise I'll be safe?" He finally looks up and stares hard at the side of Daisy's head. He doesn't even glance at Bobbi. She's not the one he's trusting.
Daisy stiffens under his gaze. Glances sideways at him from the corner of her eye. Then fully turns her head to stare him right in the eyes. She rarely does that, Bobbi realizes.
"I promise."
"Even if I… Even if I did bad things, too?"
Daisy reaches out slowly, and when Noah doesn't do anything more than tense, she places her hand over the boy's trembling one. She squeezes.
"I promise."
Noah gives a bobbing nod. "...Dad has a storage unit."
Daisy rides in the back of the SUV with him all the way back to base. Bobbi isn't surprised when she abandons the rest of the mission to stay with the boy. She's in the middle of giving Noah a tour of the base (pointing out the best hiding spots) when Bobbi leaves to the storage facility they managed to narrow down based on the information the kid provides.
When Bobbi gets back, she finds the two in the lounge playing Mario Kart together, and they seem to have collected a bit of an audience.
May hovers in the doorway like an anxious shadow, and she looks toward Bobbi as she stops beside her. Without taking her eyes off the pair, Bobbi folds her arms and leans sideways against the frame.
"Daisy found him locked in a closet?" May asks tonelessly.
"There were padlocks on the fridge and pantry. Made a b-line straight toward it after she found those," Bobbi says just as dully.
May purses her lips. Then strides fully into the room and perches on the armrest closest to Daisy. By the non-reactions of both Daisy and Noah, they already knew they were being watched. May reaches out to touch the inhuman's hair, and Daisy responds by leaning into the touch.
Noah, in comparison, darts them a newly weary look.
A/N: Please review!
~Silver~