Ludy! Thanks for the review! Tamara! May is so good with Selena, and believe it or not, that was super unintentional! It just...happened! But now that it's set in stone, they'll have more moments! As requested, here's the update!

Chapter Thirteen:

A/N: It gets a little intense towards the end with a little surprise...

"Are you sure, I'm doing this right?" Selena asked Mack, leaning over the hood of a car, screwing something closed.

She was a funny sight. Her feet didn't touch the ground, and she was supporting her weight with her waist that was hunched over the car. There was oil and grease smudged all over her arms and her face.

"You're doing fine." Mack smirked behind her, looking just as filthy.

Since the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Mack had been recruited as a mechanic, helping the team fix their cars.

Selena had been wary of him at first. He was so tall and large compared to her petite size, that she had practically made it her mission to stay away.

That was, until Mack made an effort to reach out to her and show her that he wasn't so scary at all.

"Operation didn't go so well?" The tall man asked as Trip made his way over, looking less than happy.

"What gave you that idea?" Trip joked.

"That's a shame, man." Mack wiped his hands off with a towel. "I was hoping that agent you were scoping out would have some tech we could use."

"Sorry, Mack. No new toys." Trip smirked before turning to Selena with a questioning glance. "Curly Sue, you decided to become a mechanic instead of a spy?"

Selena hopped down from the hood and glared at him. Though with a dirty face, the look didn't get its desired effect. "No, Mack was just showing me a few things."

"Yeah." Mack tossed the towel as her face. "She's catching on as quick as a whip. I might have to hire her."

"No thanks." Selena shook her head and wiped her face, getting only some of the grease and oil off. "I'd rather be bored."

The two men shared a laugh and walked to the ramp of The Bus, with Selena following behind.

Since the incident, Selena hadn't been as bad off as Fitz, but she was still healing from the trauma. She had moments where she would go completely silent, staring off into space, even if she was in the middle of a conversation. And she still did have nightmares.

But she was getting better.

That was why Mack offered to teach her how to fix cars. It would get her mind off of everything, because she wouldn't have time to sit around and think.

As mentioned before, she had her moments, but she was getting a lot better than before. Little by little.

And speaking of Fitz, he had finally woken up a few weeks prior. He had suffered from some brain damage, but he was alive.

Selena was afraid to go and visit him. She knew he was going to be a little different, and that's not what scared her. What scared her was seeing him like that, and knowing that at least some part of it was her fault. It didn't matter how many times anyone told her the opposite, she would go on believing that she was responsible until she heard different from Fitz.

He was the only one who could change her mind.

But since she hadn't gone to see him yet, she continued to walk around with that guilt.

"You get anything?" Mack asked Trip.

"A new enemy."

Selena had been so distracted by her own thoughts, that her ears hadn't even perked up when she heard Trip say that.

"So…." Selena drawled awkwardly as she sat on Coulson's desk. "Whatcha doin'?"

She didn't see Coulson very often these days and she hadn't a clue why. She just knew that he had hired new recruits to make up the difference.

It wasn't the same, but it made the place a little less quiet. See, there was Hartley and Idaho, who she didn't know much about, but they seemed nice enough, and there was Hunter.

As far as Selena heard, or rather, overhead, Hunter had been vouched for by someone Coulson deeply trusted and admired. She didn't know who that was, but the person must've been pretty important to him to even think of hiring a stranger after what happened between him and Garrett.

But Hunter was a character. He spoke and rattled on about things that he shouldn't, when he shouldn't and he always had some sly remark that made everyone around him roll their eyes. Well, everyone except Selena. He made her laugh.

Especially went he made quips about his ex-wife, who Selena was sure wasn't even as bad as Hunter was making her out to be.

But she enjoyed the way he told a story.

"Work." Coulson gave her a one word answer like he always did.

"Can I help?' She asked, motioning towards the papers in front of him. "I'm getting good at spy work."

"No. This isn't a job for a child."

"Okay, well…..can I sort some files for you? Or get you something to eat?" She grasped at straws, wanting so much to have an actual conversation with him.

They seemed to be so close before. But now it was like he was a total stranger.

"No, but you can get out of my office and find something else to do." He didn't say unkindly.

"You can't get rid of me that easily." Selena forced a smile onto her face.

She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. Forcing smiles, making sure everyone else was alright, keeping the peace.

It was tiring. She just wanted things to go back to the way they were.

"Besides, who will keep you company? It must get lonely in here all day with no one around."

"I like the silence. It's serene."

"It's boring. Are you really okay?"

"Selena, I am fine." Coulson snatched a file she had picked up away from her, and gently pushed her off of his desk. "I'm very busy right now and—" He was interrupted when the phone rang.

Selena pulled it off the hook and handed it to him with a smile, hoping that she could prove that she could help him.

All he did was take the receiver and put it to his ear, without even giving her so much as a second look.

Harsh.

Selena was so troubled by his new behavior that she didn't even try to listen in on the phone call. She just sighed and looked around the room to find something useful for her to do.

There had to be something. She had to earn her keep now. She couldn't just laze around all day and do nothing.

"Ah ha!" She grinned, finding a broom in the corner of the room, grabbing it to begin sweeping the floor.

The floor wasn't as dusty as she would've liked, but it could still use a quick clean. Maybe later she would come back down and mop and then clean Coulson's desktop. It was getting a little cluttered.

"Sorry." Coulson spoke on the phone. "That's all I can give you. Try to move up with your head down."

May had been on her way to his office and stood against the doorway, watching the two.

"And hey, only use the dead drop from now on. There aren't enough pay phones left in this country." Coulson hung up and picked up the file he had recently taken from Selena, before turning his attention to May. "Hi."

"You're the man in charge, but I'm in charge of you, remember? I had two rules." May entered the room.

"Avoid field operations—"

"—And check in with me every few days. It's been two weeks."

"And I'm flying back out tonight." Coulson admitted. "I have to focus on recruitment. It's starting to wear me down."

"The hours?"

"The numbers." Coulson began, but stopped when he realized that Selena was still in there, sweeping.

He had to admit, she was doing a good job and she looked so engrossed in her work, that he knew she wasn't listening to a word they were saying, but she shouldn't have been in there.

"Selena?" May called the ten year old.

"Hmm? Oh. Hi, May." Coulson was right, she was totally distracted. Probably another episode.

"Coulson and I need to have a talk."

"Oh, sorry…..I didn't see you come in." Selena admitted sheepishly, hoping the woman believed her. "I'll come back later and finish..…do you know where the mops are, because I don't remember and I wanted to—"

"—Selena." Coulson cut her rambling off. "Put the broom down. That's not your job. Your job is to be a kid and stay out of trouble, not deep clean the place."

"I know, but I just—"

"—Put the broom down and go find something else to do." Coulson took the broom from her hands, cutting off her protests. "Something that doesn't involve heavy work. Now, run along."

Selena huffed and left the room with her head down and her hands in her pockets. Why wasn't he letting her earn her keep? Were they going to send her back? Did they just not want her anymore because they finally found out that she was useless?

She sure hoped not. She liked being with Skye and the rest of the team. She had grown to like it here. She didn't think she'd be able to handle another round of rejection.

"She's cute." Coulson smiled after Selena was long gone. "I just wish she'd stop running around to do odd jobs for everyone. I wonder where that came from."

"Did you ask her?" May asked. She had an inkling to what it could be, but she didn't want to confront the girl, for fear of her clamming up.

"No, we don't talk much these days. That's my fault, I take full responsibility. But I have too much to do to engage in small talk. I'll make it up to her when all this blows over."

May just nodded and reminded him of their previous conversation. "The numbers?"

"Right. Between the traitors, military detainees, and the sell outs in the private sectors, the people who could possibly be considered loyal to S.H.I.E.l.D. is not impressive. And they're scattered all over the place."

"Well, now we have no choice but to meet them face to face, get a read on them."

"I know, and I prefer it. But flying economy blows." He tapped his pocket in search for his glasses, taking them from May once she noticed and found what he wanted. "Any progress on the cloaking equipment?"

"Like I can tell."

"Well, we need it now, badly. Our plane's been gathering dust for months, but I still can't risk a takeoff with his guy trying to throw us on a bonfire." He pointed to the tv monitor that was playing General Talbot's interview. "So, flying coach it is…..though I did score an exit row on the way back from London."

"And what was in London?" May took notice of the grin on his face.

"Allies."

"Don't. Don't." Fitz stammered. "Please don't touch anything."

"That's the cloaking technology for the plane." Simmons smiled gently. "How's it coming?"

"Good." The engineer continued to look at his pad of paper. "Slower than I'd like. I've had a few bumps, but it's — I'm close. And I don't need you mucking it up."

"Fitz, I'm trying to help." Jemma gave him look of hurt.

"I know, I know. But I also know how important cloaking is, okay? So I jus need everybody to be…" He began to struggle to find words. "I just need everybody to be, um….."

"Patient." Jemma supplied.

"Yes." He slammed his hands down on his desk in complete frustration, before putting his head in his hands.

"You need to be patient with yourself, Fitz. You're almost there." Jemma put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah." Fitz reached for her hand. "Yeah, I'm almost there."

"Fitz?" Selena stepped into the lab very hesitantly. She saw him with his hand on his shoulder, but she didn't comment on it. He may have been massaging a sore muscle.

She had no clue what was really going on inside his head.

"Selena." He greeted, never looking at her.

"I uh….I heard you woke up a while ago..…and I was just checking to see if you're feeling okay and if you — if you needed any help." Selena's nervous stammering was outrageous.

"Why would you think I need help?" He whirled around at her, glaring. "Because I'm….Because I'm some kind of….some kind of — invalid?"

"No!" Selena amended quickly, she never intended on offending him. She just wanted to see if he was okay. "I just…..I've been asking everybody if they needed help! And I wanted to see if you were okay?"

"I am completely fine, Selena." Fitz went back to looking at his papers. "And I don't need your help. If you were so.…so….concerned about me then — then why didn't you come to see me? Afraid to see me like this?"

"Of course not!" She had never seen Fitz so upset with her. But she knew she deserved it. He was like this because of her. This was her fault.

She knew it and Fitz knew it. There was no denying it now.

"Yeah. Right." He mumbled, ending the conversation.

Selena fought back tears as she sat down on a stool to compose herself. This was not the way she wanted this conversation to go. But she was the one who need to ask for forgiveness, so she guessed that beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Any update on the metal we found?" May stalked into the room.

Selena really hoped that she hadn't heard anything that just happened, because that would be the second time the woman had managed to sneak up on her today.

"Yeah." Fitz straightened up. "Yep. Yep..…Actually, no. I'm just having a bit of trouble identifying the…a bit of trouble…I'm having a bit of trouble identifying the material."

"Okay." May remained patient, knowing that this was hard for him. She noticed Selena sitting out of the corner of her eye, and suspected something had gone horribly wrong, but kept her focus on Fitz for now.

"Yeah, so this is the same lead that we use in our bullets, but there's…." Fitz began to explain, looking at the sample he had been given, but something began to ooze out from underneath it. "There is something….bleeding, uh…uh, okay." He moved away a bit. "That's — are you — can you see that?"

The metal was now a piece of skin.

"Looks like flesh." Fake-Jemma breathed out.

"Yeah, I see it. It's blood."

Fitz let out a relieved sigh. "Okay, good. I mean, that's — what? That's weird."

"Can you figure out whose blood?"

"That shouldn't be too hard."

"That shouldn't be too hard." Fitz spoke after Fake-Simmons.

"I'll stay and help anyway." May was seriously worried about Fitz. And Selena for that matter.

The girl hadn't moved a muscle since she walked in. She just hoped that whatever this was, it would resolve itself so that they could all move on.

Wishful thinking.

"Selena, come over and help."

"I don't…..I don't want her help." Fitz made that very clear.

So Selena slid out of her seat, making sure her back was facing the two, so they wouldn't get to see the tears of hurt flying down her face.

She wasn't weak.

She wasn't.

"Has anyone seen Selena?" Skye asked. "We leave in a few minutes and I just wanted to say goodbye."

She was starting grow really concerned for her sister. The bubbly child she had met several months ago, was now a completely different person.

She didn't talk as much, her smiles didn't reach her eyes anymore, and her love of cookies seemed to have vanished into thin air.

When she got back, she would have to talk to her about it. This couldn't go on for much longer.

Selena had been walking around the secluded areas of the base, crying as quietly as possible. She didn't want anyone to see her. It was her own fault she was like this.

She gasped as she heard some footsteps coming towards her and ducked into a nearby room, closing the door behind her.

The room wasn't well lit, but there was a staircase that led down to a small lit area. Out of curiosity, Selena climbed down the steps and slapped a hand over her mouth at what she saw.

Ward.

"Nice to see you again, Selena."

Selena struggled to keep her breathing regulated as a new set of tears flew down her face at a rapid pace. "What is — What is this?!" She sobbed, unable to move from her spot.

This man had tried to kill her and Fitz-Simmons. Why was he on the base?

Why didn't anybody tell her?

"I'm sorry for that little..…accident. I was following orders. Fitz is alright now, right?"

Selena didn't answer. She just stared at him in horror as her heart began to beat out of her chest.

"You don't need to be so afraid." Ward walked closer, revealing that there was a strong barrier between the two. "See? Completely harmless...but you? You on the other hand. You've done a lot of damage, haven't you?"

Even Ward knew how awful she was.

"It's my understanding that Fitz gave up the last bit of oxygen, for you. So that means, if it wasn't for you, he wouldn't be struggling to put together simple sentences, would he?" Ward smiled.

Selena gagged as the guilt and her misdeeds were piled on top of her shoulder, crushing her under their tremendous weight. "N—No…No." She shook her head.

"You know it's true." Ward's voice remained neutral. "Everyone blames you. They know it's your fault. Fitz, Jemma, May, and even Skye."

"N—Not….not Skye…no."

"Well did you think that she would want a murderer for a sister? Look at what you did to him! Selena, I only dropped you in the ocean, you delivered the killer blow. How long do you think they're gonna put up with you? Oh, I know." He smirked. "They're waiting for the right time to dump you off. Then, you'll no longer be in the way."

The air was growing thin around Selena and she struggled now more than ever, to catch her breath. Ward was right. He was absolutely right. She did this to Fitz. She was in the way. She didn't belong.

This was a wake up call.

"It doesn't matter where you run though." Ward continued. "You'll always be known as the girl who—"

Selena didn't know if it was luck, or lack thereof. Because she never got to hear the last of Ward's little speech.

Her breathing had become so ragged, that she felt like she was choking. Black dots began to cloud her vision, while her ears clogged painfully, eventually being met with no sound at all.

She tried to squint to see Ward, but once the black dots connected, she was out before she even hit the ground.

A/N: I didn't say it was a good surprise... I know, I had Fitz act a little bit like a jerk, but he's going through something major and can't see passed that. He'll come around eventually. Yay, Ward is messing with Selena's fragile state of mind (note the sarcasm).