AN: Happy New Year everyone! Was I planning to post this before the holidays? Yes, yes I did. But... oh well, it's here now at least. As always, many thanks to MegaDiary123 for proofreading this, and thank you all for being patient with me. Here's to 2024!

All rights go to Marvel

Skye's POV

I was typing away, as quietly as I could, from the moment I woke up. Finding more about Centipede, and Ian Quinn had proved to be more difficult than I was expecting. I was in the zone, typing away, my eyes tracking the screen with all the information that I could find. I didn't really have any new leads, not for a while now, but I felt that if only I pushed a bit more, I could find him.

I was getting so close, I could taste it. I just had to—

Fingers wrapped around the top of my screen, bringing it down slowly. I sighed. I let them take the laptop off of my lap and place it on the side, as I rubbed my eyes from the strain of the past 3 hours that I had been looking at the same data over and over again.

"Did you get any sleep tonight?", Jemma asked from beside me. I just hummed. I threw the blankets off me and made a move to leave the bed, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me. "Skye…" she trailed off.

My fingers wrapped around hers, squeezing, before I pushed them off me and went to the bathroom to wash up. I managed to throw enough cold water to try and wake up a bit more, and flinched a bit when I saw my reflection in the mirror.

Taking a deep breath, I went out to change and face the day, plastering a smile on my face. When I let the bathroom, I noticed that Jemma had left, but with a quick scan from my powers, I felt her already having moved downstairs. It was getting easier and easier to use them without causing any pain, and I was very glad for that. Given that it also let me know of a presence waiting for me outside of the door.

I sighed. It was inevitably time to face the music, so might as well get it over with sooner rather than later. "Morning May" I said as soon as I exited the room.

"You know, if you're not gonna sleep, you might as well join me for Tai Chi. The whole reason you're skipping it is because you need to rest", she replied as a greeting, pushing away from the wall she was leaning against. She came closer, looked me up and down, while I was avoiding her eyes, and then closed the distance between us completely. Her arms wrapped around me in a gentle but firm hug. "Merry Christmas, Skye"

I leaned on her, hugging her back and taking in her presence. "Merry Christmas, Mel".

"Come on", she said as she pulled away. "Natasha and Clint have been up since dawn to prepare everything", she started making her way down the stairs. I noticed she was walking louder than she normally would, making sure to announce our presence. I shook my head with her antics. I was sure she wasn't trying to be subtle, but still…

However, as I started reaching out with my powers to sense the others and stopped momentarily, before picking up the pace and making my way downstairs. Everyone stopped the moment I reached the bottom step and turned to look at me. "What are you doing here?" I asked as I went to hug Pepper. "I thought you had that gala that you had to attend", I mumbled on her shoulder as she hugged me back.

"And you thought I'd prefer going to that than spending the day with you?", I could hear the smile in her voice. As she pulled away I moved to the other occupants of the room. Nat, Clint, Jemma, Bruce and Steve were all around the tree that was fully decorated. Presents were gathered below it, but there was a clear space were some were missing.

The moment I noticed it, I heard the front door open. "Pepper, where should I—?", Tony came in, bags and boxes in both hands, but stopped short as soon as he saw me. "Eh…" he trailed off as a silence filled the room. "Hey, Skye…"

"Hi", I croaked back.

I wasn't really sure what to do, not after how things were left at the Tower. Thankfully, Pepper seemed to know as she moved closer to Tony, and took the wrapped things from him, before moving to put them below the tree on the space that was left empty.

Tony in turn, started rubbing his neck, his eyes altering between the floor, myself and the others in the room. "I can go, if you'd prefer that" he ended up saying, pointing at the door.

"No", I found myself saying almost immediately. "No", I repeated more slowly. I looked around the room as everyone's attention was on us. I made my way to the coat rack, and picked up mine. "Let's go for a walk" I looked at the others on the room, my gaze lingering on Nat and Clint, who I could see were about to follow us. "Alone", I told them with my eyes and despite the tensity that I could still see on their shoulders, they didn't make a move to join us. "There better be a plate of pancakes left when I'm back!", I called out.

"You better not stay outside for too long then!" I heard Clint call out as I closed the door behind us.

We started walking, Tony a few paces behind me, with the only sound being the crushed up snow from our boots. We eventually reached a nice alcove in the woods, that lead to a currently frozen lake.

I used my powers to brush off the snow from a couple of rocks and proceeded to sit on one. I saw Tony, despite wanted and probably preferring to stay up, follow my lead and sit on the cleared up boulder. He shivered as soon as he made contact with the cold surface and I extended my powers both to his and my seats. The squeak of surprise that came out of his throat was enough to bring a small smile on my face. "How did you—?"

"I have not really been allowed to use my powers in big scales. Tend to keep them within the walls of the house. But I've been getting bored, and it was a nice experiment. Still need some fine-tuning, but it's been fun manipulating the vibrations in small scales and see what comes of it", I explained, as we were both now sitting on a nicely heated up surface.

We were there for at least a good twenty minutes before the silence was broken. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence per se, at least not on my part. I was just enjoying some time alone away from the house.

"You look tired" Tony's voice rang through the open valley.

"I am" I replied truthfully. "Sleep has been fleeting ever since we got here". I then turned to better look at him, taking in the larger-than-normal black circles under his eyes. "You don't look much better yourself", I pointed out.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Can't say that I feel much different either".

After that, there was another lapse of silence, that this time felt different. So, I decided a more direct approach was in order. "Look", I started and turned my body back towards the lake, as if not looking at him would make this any easier. "I was hurt, still am to be frank with you. I would have thought that after everything we have been through together, you'd at least have the decency to talk to me about what was going on in your head. I am trying to get over the fact that you outright thought that what I was saying was all in my head, that I would come up with something like this, something so big, and I wouldn't have triple checked that it was true"

"Can you understand why it took me by surprise?", his voice rang. "Why in turn I was hurt by everything that you kept from me? I thought we were closer than that"

I contemplated his words. "Which part are you referring to?" I figured it would be easier to answer his question than have him answer mine. "Killing him, or him actually still being alive?" It was still hard getting the first part of that question out, saying it out loud.

"You didn't have to suffer alone, keep that all in. We would have been there for you" his voice quieted down to almost a whisper at the end. So much so, that I almost missed the last part that followed. "I thought we were family"

I took a deep breath at that. "From the moment I woke up, my family has been Natasha, Clint, Melinda and Phil" I started. "Or at least the closest thing I had to a family", I tried not to think of the memories of the Doctor who claimed to be my father. "I thought I lost that, when I disappeared, until you picked me up and I was reunited with Nat. Pepper came to fill the gap that Mel left, and I love them both so very much", I put as much emotion as I could to back these words, I could already feel tears pricking on the edges of my eyes.

"You are like an uncle for me. So yes, Tony. We are family, we still are. At least I would like to think so. But I had killed— no, murdered in cold blood, the only father I ever knew. I had to not only come to terms with what I had done, try to accept it was out of my control, but also deal with the everlasting fear that the moment you'd learn about it you would leave, or simply not look at me the same way ever again. Cause I didn't only take away a father, but I also took away a friend, a colleague and someone very close to a lot of you and that guilt was crushing"

I felt him more than I saw him, as he moved closer and took me in his arms. I wrapped mine around his waist as we stayed like this for a while.

"I don't like fighting with you", I mumbled on his coat.

"I don't like that either. I am just really bad when it comes to complicated situations with the people that I care about" he confessed with his chin resting on the top of my head.

"I couldn't care less. Just please don't shut me out again like this. I know you get in your head sometimes, but I really wanted you to be there, even angry, but you were not"

I felt him nod. "I know. And I'm sorry, for what it's worth. I still hate that you kept secrets from me, and I'm trying to come to terms that you have things you don't want to tell me, and that you shouldn't have to feel like you need to"

Jemma's POV

I had been sitting on the porch for a good while now. I was more than happy to do so, to be honest. I was getting more and more used to being around Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton on a 24/7 basis—while agent May's more talkative side was throwing me a bit off compared to how she was at the Bus—but it was getting a bit packed for me back there.

I left agent May and Ms. Potts to talk down Black Widow from taking off into the forest not even five minutes from when Skye and Mr. Stark had left, but I manage to sneak out at some point during the overprotective arguments that were being made.

Sneak out was a heavy term. Because no matter how much I'd like to think I had improved, I was most likely noticed by every single one of them on my way out.

I lost track of time, staying there with a blanket wrapped around me, as I waited. At some point, I noticed two figures coming closer, and I had to stop myself from meeting them halfway. Mr. Stark gave me a small nod with a smile as he made his way in, while Skye lingered.

"Hey", I said, as I pulled the blanket off my shoulders and wrapped it around hers, the cold was biting but it didn't even bother me. I noticed the frozen tear tracks on her slightly sunken in cheeks. "Are you okay?"

She nodded and placed her forehead on my collarbone. I didn't hesitate to hug her. "Yup, I just need a moment" her words came out muffled, but I heard them nonetheless.

I kissed the crown of her head. "Take all the time you need, I'm not going anywhere"

AN: Promise, it's the last relatively sad chapter for now... just needed to do this before shit hit the fan.