Chapter Fourteen:

A/N: Another chapter, because I didn't leave Selena in a good place :)

Selena woke up to a sore back. Her eyes fluttered open and she became a little confused when she was met with the view of the ceiling.

"It's about time you got up." Ward looked at her. "You know, I was beginning to get worried. You've been out for hours."

"Hours?" Selena groaned and sat up, stretching her back out. "What happened?"

"You passed out." Ward supplied. "You know, you and I are a lot alike. Rough upbringings, siblings that hate our guts, never feeling wanted anywhere."

Selena couldn't even argue that that wasn't true. She didn't have the belief that it wasn't. Ward had gotten her to a vulnerable state, where she would probably believe everything he filled her mind with. Lies or not.

"It's hard. I know. But once you learn to accept it and move on, you'll be able to do such big and better things. I'll even help you along the way."

"No." Selena shook her head, exhausted from the attack she had just had. She stood up and made her way to the door, stumbling in the process. Her head was heavy, and she wanted nothing more than to get out of there.

"It's okay, you don't have to decide on it now. Think about, and then come back. I know you will." He winked before she opened the door and left.

As she walked through the hallways, his words swam through her mind, planting little seeds of doubt where there shouldn't be any.

But hey, what better target for mind games, than an impressionable child?

"So this is cloaking hardware." Trip asked Mack as he and Skye looked at his work.

"Uh huh." Mack confirmed. "Let's take a peek under the hood." He opened it up and showed them just exactly what he'd been doing.

"Fitz would be crushed if he saw this." Skye said lightly. "He's been working on cloaking since before Simmons took off."

"Still can't believe she abandoned him like that." Trip shook his head.

"She abandoned all of us. But Fitz has been clinging to his work like a lifeline, and—"

"—Maybe we shouldn't tell him." Trip interrupted Skye.

"Coulson wants a retro version of this for The Bus." Mack changed the subject. "He said that no one knows the avionics on this thing like Fitz."

"Think he can handle it?"

"I don't know." Mack looked past the two. "Why don't you ask him?"

Skye and Trip both turned around to find Fitz just standing there. Staring.

"Hey, Fitz." Skye tried to smile.

"Hey, what's up, man?"

"How are you?"

"So, that's the, um…..that's the….." Fitz stammered.

"Cloaking." Mack supplied. "In all its glory. You know, you weren't that far off." He pointed at his masterpiece. "Check out the transmitter coil."

"Yeah, to negate the — the resonant — the….the resonant? No, um…the, uh…."

"It's okay, just take your time." Skye said patiently.

But he couldn't find the word he was looking for, so Mack jumped in to help. "What he's trying to say is, there's an audio component to cloaking that inverts sound waves too."

"Like noise-cancelling headphones?" Trip asked.

"Yeah, same concept." Mack turned back to Fitz, noticing that he had pretty much distanced himself from them again. "Hey, you think you can give me a hand with this?"

"Um, u—under the circumstances, um…well, the trick — the trick would be in the mat — materials." Fitz could see the pity on all of their faces and he hated it. He was different now, so what? Why were they treating him like he was made of glass? He just wanted his friends back! "Uh, oh! Yeah, but you'd have to alter the, um…..uh…."

"Fitz, it—" Skye made a move to comfort him, but he didn't want any part of it.

"—Yeah, could everyone just stop talking for one second?" Fitz paid no attention to the hurt look that crossed Skye's face. "No, sorry. Gonna have to go." And with that, he just…..left.

"It's like sometimes he's the same old Fitz, and other times….."

"Not." Trip agreed with Skye.

"I'll take you word for it." Mack assured them. "Meantime, I'm still gonna need an extra pair of hands. Is everyone back from the mission?"

"Not everyone." Skye informed him. "I need to find my sister, I've been looking everywhere for her and it's like she just disappeared. Which isn't possible, because she wouldn't leave the base."

"She's around here somewhere." Trip put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll keep my eyes open and if I see her, I'll send her your way."

"Thanks….I'm just worried about her." Skye admitted. "One minute I think she's fine, but then the next she's not. It's almost as if she's getting worse and I don't know what to do for her."

"From what you've told me, she went through something pretty traumatic. That takes time to heal." Mack offered some words of wisdom. "Sometimes it feels like you're taking two small steps forward, then three giant steps back. Just let her know that you're there for her."

"Thanks." Skye smiled at both men before going on her way.

Selena had spent most of the afternoon all the way into the early morning, crying her eyes out and throwing up. She wasn't hungry, but she needed to eat. She wasn't tired, but she needed to sleep.

She had never felt so awful in her life. It wasn't so much a physical awful, as it was an emotional one. She was so hurt, that her body had begun to pick up on it, making her feel less than stellar.

As of now, she was lying down on the couch in the common room, staring blankly at the tv. It was playing some rerun of an old show called, The Waltons. It seemed interesting enough, but Selena really wouldn't know, because she wasn't paying attention.

She had been in that same position for hours on end, looking pretty pale from having been worked up to a frenzy.

She was desperately trying to prove Ward to be wrong, but everything in her body was screaming that he was right. If anyone could point out a bad person, it was him, right?

So if he said that she was the one responsible for Fitz's condition and Fitz blamed her too, then who was anyone else to disagree?

And now, instead of that annoying gut feeling she used to get at the very sight of Ward, Selena began to feel a nice warmth. She could tolerate him now, more than ever.

They understood one another.

No one else on the team understood Selena. They just brushed her aside, because she was 'just a kid' and left her alone for hours on end to go on missions. As selfish as the thought was, it was true. They didn't care.

But Ward seemed to.

She thought that he had been pretty arrogant to even announce that she would come back to him, but as Selena stood up and robotically made her way to the familiar hallway, she began to understand that he was right.

He seemed to be right about a lot of things.

"Hey, Girlie. Where are you headed?"

Selena whirled around and found Hunter pushing a cart. "I….I…"

"You know, your sister has been worried sick about you." He informed her, moving closer. "I'm on my way to her. Fancy coming along?"

It wasn't like Selena could say no now. Then he'd become suspicious of why she didn't want to see her own sister. "Sure."

"Hop on." He motioned to the empty space on the cart and waited for her to do just that, before moving along.

He didn't know very much about Selena, but he did like her. She wasn't very much like other ten year olds. She had a certain maturity about her. She wasn't bratty at all. But she was a lot quieter at times, than he thought she should be. She looked as if she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

He pushed the cart down, with Selena in tow, to the shooting range. May looked like she was teaching Skye how to use different firearms, and the girl seemed to be doing very well.

"Pardon me." He smiled charmingly, looking at Skye. "Were you looking for something?" He motioned to Selena, who was busy getting off the cart.

"Selena!" Skye breathed a sigh of relief, pulling her into her arms. "I've been looking all over the place for you, where have you been?"

"Sleeping." Selena responded stoically as Mack made his way down the hallway.

They all knew that was a lie. Selena had bags and dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep.

"Are you alright?" Mack asked her, referring to how pale she was.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not." May spoke up, cutting to the chase. "You haven't eaten in hours and you haven't slept in days. You're pale and you look like you're going to pass out any minute."

"Selena, what's going on?" Skye asked her sister.

"Nothing is going on, I'm fine." Selena forced a smile onto her face. "I'm okay. I'm probably just hungry, that's why I look pale."

"Then we'll get something to eat, let's go." Skye grabbed the child's hand and began to walk away before Hunter stopped her.

"Wait a minute." The man exchanged a look with Mack. "You went to S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, right?"

"You didn't." May answered for Skye. "If you did, you would have known not to shoot us."

That's when Skye grew even more concerned than she already was. Selena would've jumped at the opportunity to tease Hunter about shooting May.

But she was just standing there, staring off into Nowhereland.

"Apology number 470, I'm very sorry, Agent May."

"Don't be sorry. Just wait."

"Uh. We made a little wager. So did you….?" Mack trailed.

"Go to the Academy?" Skye finished, giving Selena a sip of her water. "Yeah, no."

Hunter let out a sigh of annoyance and buried his head into his arms, before Mack handed him the clipboard he had been carrying.

"Yeah, alright. Well, have fun with the inventory." The large man smirked. "And remember, Koenig likes them neat. Oh, and, uh, none of those Euro sevens, with the lines through them. Drives him crazy." He nearly laughed before walking away.

"Coulson said you were a field agent with a badge and everything."

"More like a work-study thing." Skye explained to Hunter. "The badge, I had for like a day before S.H.I.E.L.D." She made her point by mimicking an explosion with her hands, before taking her water back from her sister, taking a sip.

"You know, Hartley, she loved her blade, hated guns. Idaho, if on the job someone ended up dead, he'd go to church and light a candle. Said it'd balance the karma. See, I know them, what they do, don't do. So, us being workmates and all….."

"You're wondering if I've ever taken anyone out."

"Have you?"

"Not that I know of."

"Hey." May made her appearance known again. "Don't you have inventory?"

"I suppose now I do." Hunter grumbled before making himself scarce. "Afternoon ladies."

"Go get her something to eat." May motioned to a wobbly Selena, before giving her an unyielding look of disapproval. "Don't ever skip a meal like this again. When you're done eating, I expect to find you asleep in your bunk."

"Alright. Let's go, Munchie." Skye took ahold of the child's hand and led her straight into the kitchen. "You and I need to have a talk."

"About what?" Selena sat on a stool at the island and watched her sister nuke some leftover food.

"About where you've been all this time, why you're suddenly so distant and quiet."

"I told you, I'm okay, Skye. I promise." Lies have grown easier to slide off her tongue. "Maybe I'm just tired."

"Okay, but you can talk to me..…about anything."

"I know."

Of course, instead of making her way to her bunk, Selenas was once again sneaking off to Ward's cell.

She figured that May would be too busy to check up on her, so she had time to kill. If she could just get in and out of the cell, nobody would know.

"I told you, you'd be back." Ward smiled as she descended the stairs, sitting on the floor in front of him. "What changed your mind?"

"Fitz…..he blames me…..he knows it's my fault." Selena looked up at him, her eyes begging for help. "You were right….what can I do now?"

"I'm sorry you had to find out the hard way." Ward knelt down. "But, it may be better this way. If you want to get back in their good graces, you'll have to prove yourself. They still may not forgive you, but it's worth a shot."

"What do I have to do?"

"Find out what they're up to, report back to—" Ward was cut off by Selena's gasp as someone came up from behind her and grabbed her in a protective hold. She hadn't heard anyone come in, and Ward never gave any indication that they were no longer alone. "I imagine you've got a lot to say to me….Look, despite all this, it's really good to see you."

Selena looked at who was holding her, and relaxed slightly when she saw it was Fitz. What was he doing down here? And how did he find her?

And wasn't he upset with her?

Fitz's grip on Selena was uncomfortably tight as he tried to keep himself calm. His breaths were choppy and his heart beat so hard, it hurt his chest.

Selena could actually feel it hammering against her back.

"Fitz?" Ward actually looked concerned. "Fitz, are you al—"

"—Stop." The Scotsman cut him off. "Stop talking. Stop."

"I didn't want to hurt you." Ward put his hands up to prove he wasn't threatening him. "I tried to avoid it."

"You tried to kill us."

"No. I wanted to save you. Garrett ordered me to grab Selena, and kill you and Simmons. He expected me to put a bullet in your heads. But I couldn't. I gave you a fighting chance to find a way out, like you always do. Like you did."

"Save me?" Fitz scoffed, not at all falling for the garbage Ward was trying to shove down his throat. "Do — do you…do you know what the, um….what you…." He pointed to his head before looking at the tablet, resting on a stand near the cell. "Okay, I….You know, I have trouble with words, so um…..it's probably best if I show you." He stammered before pressing a button on the tablet.

"Show me what?"

"Hypoxia. Found that one. That's what you did to me."

Selena stole a glance at the tablet and saw that Fitz was depriving Ward of oxygen. "Fitz, don't…."

"Fitz? What are you doing?"

"I'm showing you…..what it's like. When you're deprived…..of, uh….the oxygen, b—brain cells, they — they're — they react first. They die. Three minutes, damage is permanent."

Selena's jaw dropped in horror as Ward collapsed onto his bed, his features begging for even a tiny bit of oxygen. "Fitz…Fitz, no! Don't!" She begged, turning around, though the grip he had on her was still as strong as iron. "This is my fault! I did this to you! It's my fault that you're hurt!"

"Selena, what — what are you…..That's not true." Fitz furrowed his eyebrows, no longer paying attention to Ward. "Who told you that?"

Selena didn't want to say, but one involuntary glance at Ward had Fitz seething in anger.

"So you fill children's heads with — with lies too? What else did you — did you tell her?"

"Let him go!"

"I didn't tell her anything that she didn't already believe was true."

"Everything that leaves that — that gob of yours is a lie. What did you tell her?!"

"Fitz, I'll tell you! Just stop!" Selena pleaded, growing nervous. She had never seen him like this. It was like he was an entirely different person altogether. He had some sort of vengeful look in his eyes, that she knew was foreign.

"Where's Skye?" Ward changed the subject.

"Gone." Fitz answered. "They've all gone after Donnie. And I should be there with them. But I can't be because of you — because of what you did to me! I'm damaged!"

"Donnie — Donnie…." Ward was starting really struggle. "Donnie Gill. That's — that's why Skye was…"

"No. No, I'm not — I….I don't — I don't — uh…I don't answer, uh…."

"Fitz, listen to me. Listen. You…..they don't know what they're walking into. They are not alone. Hydra brainwashed him! He's like the Winter Soldier, they're going to trigger him."

Fitz and Selena shared a look, before the former hit a button on his tablet, releasing the oxygen back into the cell, before he grabbed Selena's arm and pulled her along to find Mack.

They found him in the common room, sitting on a chair, playing some weird video game that Selena wouldn't even dream of playing. She didn't peg Mack for a video game person, but it didn't really surprise her.

"Mack!" The two grabbed his attention. Fitz unplugged the console, completely disrupting the man's session.

"Hey, man! What was that?" Mack gave him a look. "I just took out the boomers!"

"Uh, The Bus! We need to talk to The Bus!"

"There's a lot that they don't know." Selena added.

Mack didn't even hesitate, he bounced out of his seat and led the two right to communications and immediately got in contact with Coulson to give him the intel, his game long forgotten.

"Donnie didn't escape The Sandbox." Fitz began to explain. "He took The Sandbox for Hydra."

"Hydra recruited Gill?" Coulson asked on the other side of the line.

"Uh….the….the brain. The brain….."

"They brainwashed him." Selena helped the engineer find the word he was looking for. "Like the Winter Soldier."

"And they're gonna re-trigger his programming if they can." Mack offered.

"How do you know this?"

Selena threw Fitz a worried look before he answered. "Selena and I…..We spoke with Ward."

"We'll talk about that when I get home." Coulson told the two after a couple beats. "Nice work." He complimented before hanging up.

"Was that a good 'we'll talk about this when I get home?', or was it a you're in deep trouble, 'we'll talk about this when I get home?"

That question actually managed to get a genuine smile out of Fitz and he even threw an arm around her shoulder. "I don't know….but — but you're not…..you're not alone."

"You guys were friends?" Selena peered over Fitz's shoulder to see an article he was reading on his tablet. It was about him, Simmons, and Donnie Gill.

"Yeah. You could say that." Fitz nodded, never taking his eyes off of the screen until Coulson stalked into the room.

"We should talk."

"I'll go see if Skye is looking for me—"

"—You too, Selena." Coulson stopped her in her tracks, before turning to Fitz. "First of all, I want you to know that I see your progress. You're an important part of this team and I don't want you to forget that…...but I saw the recording."

Those words made Selena's heart drop as sweat began to trickle out of her pores.

If Coulson saw the recording of Fitz and Ward's conversation, then chances were, he saw the conversation she had with Ward, too.

This wasn't good. It wasn't good at all.

He heard everything! He saw everything!

"Your conversation with Ward." Coulson continued, noticing the way Selena had tensed up, but deciding not to bring it up just yet. "You almost killed him."

"But I didn't." Fitz looked back at him. "I'm not a killer."

"I can't look at him. I hate that he's here. But we barely know anything about Hydra. I need to do whatever it takes to understand the people we're fighting. Ward is one way I'm trying to do that."

"Well." Fitz sighed. "You should have told me."

"Maybe. But I didn't want to add to what you were already dealing with."

"And is, um….is there anything — anything more?"

"That I'm keeping from you?" Coulson questioned. "Yeah, I'm the director. There's a whole lot more. But there is one other thing you should know."

"Simmons is on assignment." That got Fitz's attention. "That's why she hasn't been in contact. That's why she left."

"And, um…..did she ask to go on the assignment? Did she want to leave?"

"What she's doing is very important."

Fitz took the answer, or lack thereof, for what it was and nodded as Coulson turned his attention to Selena.

"Did you think I wouldn't find out?" Is what the man opened with, making her bite her lip nervously. "You're in a high security base. Did you think that you could sneak around and not get caught?"

Selena didn't answer. She figured it was one of those rhetorical questions that you weren't supposed to answer.

"Did you?"

She figured wrong.

"I don't…" Selena tried to come up with an excuse to save herself from having to tell the truth, but found nothing. "I don't know."

"What were you thinking?" He asked, though his voice had never once gone up in volume. "No, don't answer that, because you weren't. We don't take you on missions because you're too young and it's too dangerous. Look at what happened to you. We leave you here, on your own, because we trust you. I trust you."

Selena was beginning to feel awful about what she had done and let herself believe, but she refused to let herself cry. That's all she had been doing for the past few weeks. It was time to toughen up.

"My trust is very hard to come by." Coulson continued his lecture. "You know that. Why did you do it? Why did you risk losing my trust so easily? What was so important that you put yourself at risk, again?"

"My life wasn't at risk." Selena furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"No, not this time. But your mental health was." Coulson agreed with her. "And that's just as important to me."

Selena didn't register those words at that time, but later, she'd come to know how much weight was put into that sentence.

No, not this time. But your mental health was...and that's just as important to me.

She wouldn't understand today, or tomorrow, or even the next day. But one day she would.

"When I found you with Ward." Fitz began to catch on. "That wasn't — that wasn't the first time. Was it?"

"No." Selena whispered, hoping that she could somehow fix this mess she had gotten herself into with little to no damage. "It wasn't."

But it was looking like she was going to be collateral.

"Selena?"

"I don't know." Selena answered Coulson. "I don't know."

"You're lying. You do know." He wasn't going to take that for an answer. "What were you in there for? What made you go? Was it intel? An incentive?"

"No!" Selena shook her head rapidly. "That's not what I wanted! I would never!"

"Then what was it, Selena? I'm running out of patience."

"It was an accident the first time." She admitted. "I promise, it was only an accident. I wanted to be alone and I opened a door and walked in….I didn't know." Her throat began to hurt from the tears she refused to shed. "But he started talking to me…he told me things….."

"Things that weren't true." Coulson nodded, knowing full well what happened. He just wanted her to explain to see if she'd lie to him or not. "And you believed him. Why?"

"Because." A sob escaped Selena's throat. "I already thought it was true. It felt like he understood me…..we were the same."

"The same?" Fitz turned to her in disbelief. "There's…..there's nothing that you two have in common."

"He's right." Coulson nodded, relieved that she hadn't lied. "You are nothing like Ward. He lied to you and you believed him, not because you're stupid. Far from it, actually. But because you were in a vulnerable state. We saw it, but we were so busy that we didn't really take the time to talk to you. I shouldn't have pushed you away. You were screaming for my help. I'm sorry."

Selena looked up at him with wide, glossy eyes.

He was sorry? But she was the one who visited a criminal without permission and almost did his bidding!

"What you were saying, um…..when — when we were with Ward?" Fitz stammered. "You…..You really believed that?'

"Yes." Selena nodded. "Sometimes I still do…..I told you to take the oxygen for yourself and you wouldn't. It's my fault that you're — I almost murdered you..." The ten year old cut herself off when tears spilled over and slid down her cheeks.

But she jumped when Fitz slammed his fist down on the table they were sitting at. "Why would you — where…..where did you get an idea like that from? It — It isn't true!"

"But if I hadn't taken the oxygen—"

"—You would be just like me! Or — Or even worse!" Fitz ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I did it…I did it so you wouldn't have to. It was my choice. You — You had nothing to do with it!"

"Tell me that that isn't what drove you right into Ward's arms." Coulson shook his head and ran a hand over his face in frustration. They had to start paying more attention to this kid.

Selena didn't have to answer the question. Her silence was enough. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Coulson watched her breakdown with a look of grief in his eyes. Selena was only ten years old and she had already been through too much. She carried herself with such a way that didn't belong on a body of a child her age. It was trauma. It made her seem older.

They all saw it. They just never ever said anything. Maybe that was the problem.

She was still a kid. She made childish mistakes. She did foolish things. She got one everyone's nerves from time to time.

She was still a child.

A child that had been tossed around from home to home, never having a place to call her own, to go on to living on the streets because it was safer, to being kidnapped by a man who was supposed to be a friend, only to have him fill her head up with lies.

He was surprised she had never broke down before this.

"I'm so sorry." She sputtered.

"Fitz? Could you leave us for a minute?"

"Yeah, uh…..come and see me in the lab any — anytime. Maybe….maybe you can help." Fitz put a hand on her head before he left the two alone. If he had known, he never would have snapped at her when she came to visit him. He should've known. It was written all over her face. The guilt.

There was no changing it now. Now, all he could do, was lend an ear, be understanding, be there.

It wouldn't fix everything, it wasn't some magic solution, but it was a start.

They'd help each other.

"Do you still….." A soft hiccup jerked Selena's body, making her look so small. "Do you still trust me?"

How was Coulson supposed to say no? He absolutely still trusted her. She hadn't done anything to jeopardize anyone's safety and well-being, and she wasn't a traitor. Of course he trusted her. Telling her anything else would crush her.

Maybe this was the wrong approach...

Man, he had to learn how to compartmentalized better, before he further traumatized little children.

"Yes." Coulson was met with surprised, puffy, hazel-green eyes. "I still trust you, but we still need to talk about what Ward told you. I need to hear it from you, maybe I'm missing something, but I want to know what he wants with you. So, wipe your face." He sent her an encouraging smile and tweaked her nose. "And debrief."

"He told me that I messed up…..I needed to get you all to forgive me, so you wouldn't throw me out...…" Selena's voice was tired and hoarse from all the crying she had done. "He wanted me to find out what you were doing and….I guess he thought that I would tell him all about it….. and if Fitz didn't come in when he did—"

"—You wouldn't have." Coulson assured her, feeling a mixture of nausea and anger at how broken she looked sitting across from him. All because of Ward. "Trust me. You wouldn't have done anything to hurt any of us. Thank you for the intel. I want you to stop by my office tomorrow morning. I have an assignment for you."

"Really?" Selena wiped her cheeks with her sleeve.

"Really." He winked. "You're dismissed."

Before Coulson could even blink, he got an armful full of Selena, squeezing him tightly, like her life depended on it.

He didn't say anything, but he did rest a hand on her back, making no move to pull away.

A wise person once told him, 'if a child ever hugs you, never be the first to pull away. You never know how long they need it.'

You never know.

A/N: Little Papa!Coulson crumbs, mixed in with Big Brother!Fitz :) Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking with this one, but I went with it! Fluff must really be my weakness, because that's all I can ever seem to write. Ward is a jerk, but you already knew that. I think the adults on this team had better get Selena some help, because this poor child is falling fast. Until next time! XOXOXOXO!