AN: Hello! Again, many thanks to my Beta MegaDiary123. Nothing else to say apart from...

All rights go to Marvel


May's POV

I had just gotten home from my coffee with Andrew. He was a really good guy and despite being a Phycologist for S.H.I.E.L.D. he had never, not once, tried to read me. This respect for boundaries made me respect him more as well, plus we had a great time together.

When I got home, I walked into Skye's room just for a minute, to make sure that she didn't come to surprise me, just like I did every day since she left. Thought I pretty much doubted something like that would happen.

When she started at the Academy I could tell that she didn't really like it there. Not making lots of friends so she would often text me or Natasha to chat. For as far as I knew nothing had changed, apart from when she suddenly stopped talking to me. Not only to me, but to Phil as well. She would keep in touch with Natasha mostly, and Clint sometimes, but there was a long period when I had no idea what was going on in her life. So as every reasonable mother I called Maria who I knew was her training instructor. She kept me informed of her progress so far, but she started making more often updates just for my sake and I was very glad for that small move of kindness.

I was considering myself a mother to a lot of people, even though I didn't have children of my own. Clint was mostly like Phil's kid and then came Natasha, who I mostly took in but she was more attached to Clint. But later on Skye came into the picture.

I still remember the fear in her 11-year-old eyes when she woke up in the S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital. Everyone came together so that she would have as much of a normal life as possible. I would never have thought that I would see the hard and stone-cold Natasha care for someone so much, but I was pleasantly mistaken. Skye came into our lives and like a glue put us all together. With that being said, her not speaking to me brought a pain in my chest, since I didn't even know what had happened to cause her to go completely radio-silent on me.

Even her birthday came up and she had made no move to contact me. I had thought more than a few times to call her, but I knew first hand what the Academy experience was like. So, apart from the reports that I got form Maria I wasn't really a big part of her life at this time period. I was proud to say that I managed to convince Maria, maybe threatened a little as well, to take up Skye as a personal training student.

I had made my way to the kitchen and had started preparing myself a cup of tea when my work phone rang.

"Melinda May" I answered and mixed some herbs to the boiling water in my cup.

"Hi Mel". No-one dared called me that but one person.

"Skye?" My voice was barely coming out and I almost dropped the phone in surprise. I didn't hear any reply and that only made my conviction for who I was speaking to firmer. I could hear her trying to control her breath making me wonder what was going on.

Why did she call now? Did something happen? These and several more thoughts flashed through my mind in a matter of second. The lack of knowledge was killing me and so I had to break the silence that had enfolded us. "Skye, are you okay? Is everything all right?" She was still not answering, and it was driving me crazy. I could hear my heart beating hard against my chest and my pulse was on my ears.

I was about to say something more but thankfully Skye spoke. "We need to talk".

My eyes grew a little at how broken her voice sounded. I made my way to the living room and sat on the couch, something told me that I needed to be sitting down for this talk. The tea was long forgotten of the table in another room completely.

"Okay. What do we need to talk about?" I felt completely out of my depth and the conversation hadn't even started yet. I could hear her take deep breaths yet again, as if to prepare herself. Or maybe try to. Or persuade herself to talk to me, given how long she had to reach out. "I'm here" I simply told her. "I'm here". It was a reassurance, three simply words that she knew that were true and that would still be this way no matter what she told me. "I'm not going anywhere". For some reason this made her slightly choke and I imagined her holding back tears.

"You know, you're making it really hard to be mad at you guys" she finally said with a laugh.

"It's my job to make it hard on you" a smile was now playing on my face and when I heard her laugh a bit I knew I was in the right road. "But why would you be mad at us?" I didn't even need to as who 'us' was.

"Because you knew about my past and didn't tell me?"

It might have been said as a question, but it was anything but that. It was a statement that she believed full-heartedly. It caught me by surprise. I hadn't heard her voice be so true about something for a long time. Since she told us that she was gonna be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to be precise.

"And why would you think that?" My voice never rising, but instead kept in a low tone all the time just as I used to talk to her when she was home.

That's when every information she had gather started pouring out of her mouth. I just listened as she told me about the redacted files, about Mary Sue Poots, about how she had concluded that she was her and how now she was having some blood samples examined. And then the whole reason why she'd been avoiding us for more than a month now.

"I'm not mad that I found what I found. What I'm angry about is that you must have known, you must have known and kept this a secret from me. Because if I, one person, managed to make the connections, then Fury who is the director of this whole organisation must have known as well. And we both know that he never keeps anything from Phil, after all he is his second in command and his 'one good eye' as Fury, himself, had said. And if Phil knew, then there is no way that you didn't know because we both know that he can never keep a secret from you".

She paused long enough to know that she was finished and so I took my time to digest the information that I had just been bombarded with.

All she had said made sense. And no matter how much I wanted to tell her that she must have been mistaken I couldn't. I had to admit that she had made one hell of a research and it all made sense. I was annoyed with her hacking into the organisation, but I could see it from her point of view. And with me having broken some rules myself along with Phil, I couldn't reprimand her too much.

But I honestly didn't know anything about it and neither did Phil, because as Skye said, he wouldn't be able to keep it a secret even if he wanted to. So, what I had to do now was try and convince her that I truly had no idea of this in the past.

"You know that I would never keep anything like this from you, right? And Phil, well, he is the kindest guy that I have ever met and he has a soft spot for you. He would never lie to you about anything, and much more about something so important" I could hear her mumble and be ready to say something back but I prevented her. "No, you said your part so now you have to sit and listen to me".

My voice didn't leave any space for disagreement. I could almost hear her gulp as my 'mother voice', as Skye called it, made its way to the surface. "I promise to you that we haven't hidden anything from you. Every little bit of intel we had, you were told as well, no matter how small or big. So, don't you go around and find stuff and then blame us because we didn't find them before you. You can–no. You will send Phil those files and we will continue your research. I will have Phil ask Fury about that redacted file and we will get to the bottom of this, I promise. But, you have to promise me that you will stop prying this whole situation. Once we have an update, any update you will be the first to know. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yeah, crystal clear" he answer barely a sound but enough to reach my ears.

I eased back into the couch allowing myself to relax for the first time since I received the call. I knew that she wasn't really okay with this, but she knew that it was now out of her control. And I truly thought that she believed me and that she didn't blame us anymore.

I would have a long and very serious conversation with Phil the moment Skye hang up.

"Good" I didn't even hide the satisfaction from my voice. "Now tell me your news, we haven't properly talked for a while now"


Skye's POV

I closed the top of my computer, completely and utterly exhausted by my conversation with May.

"You can come in now" I said and, not even five-seconds later, FitzSimmons came in. "Thanks guys" I said as the door closed behind them and Simmons silently moved to see the results from the blood exams. I had heard them a few minutes ago as they came closer but didn't come in when they realised I was taking to someone, giving me some space and privacy. And in case I had any doubts, the feeds from the cameras outside the room verified my suspicions.

Fitz came and sat next to me, not too close but not too far either. "It's okay. I get it. Plus, I know that you would do the same for me, or for Simmons at least" he added his gaze always on the girl across from us.

I clapped my hands hard, making Fitz jump on his seat by the sudden sound. "Let's get over with the typical part so that I can use the samples to try and find any matches" I said but I could see Simmons still glued to her place, holding the results. "Come on, Jemma, just tell me that everything's all right so that we can move on" I said placing a hand on her shoulder.

She was upset, troubled even and more jumpy than usual.

"Earth to Jemma" I said waving my hand in front of her eyes. She blinked a couple of times before focusing on my face. Her mouth a firm line, slightly downwards to a frown which was something I saw for the first time on her.

And I had to say that it made me uneasy seeing her like that.

"Hey, what's wrong? Is everything okay?"

"No" I saw that answer coming to be honest. But still, it was troubling.

"Hey, Jemma, focus" I brought myself in front of her and gripped her shoulders, trying to get her full attention. When her hazel eyes met mine, all I saw was confusion, questions and a hint of fear. "Are you okay?" I asked fully alert now.

"I'm okay, you're not". Well, now I was the one who got confused.