Chapter Nineteen:
A/N: Soft Melinda May ahead ;)
"Thank goodness nothing bad happened to you." Jemma spoke as someone collected a sample of blood from Skye.
They were taking the necessary precautions as she wore a hazmat suit. There may have been no risk at all, but they wanted to be safe, rather than sorry.
"We wouldn't want you to have to stay in there forever."
Once the sample was taken, it was placed it into a drawer and the mysterious person stepped away, leaving Skye and Jemma to themselves.
"Raina, she was unrecognizable." The lighthearted tone in Jemma's voice was gone. "It was insane, and not just from the outside. Look." She made her way over to a microscope and looked at the evidence. "We separated her DNA and mapped it using gel electrophoresis. Her DNA didn't just rearrange, it contains extra macromolecules."
In an attempt to make Skye understand exactly what she was trying to explain, Jemma projected her findings onto a monitor so that she could actually see what she was talking about.
"I wouldn't think that it was even possible."
"That's amazing." Skye looked on in misplaced wonder.
"That's horrific." Jemma couldn't understand why Skye couldn't see how awful all this really was. "We need to make sure that you're not contaminated or infected in any way."
Realizing that there was, in fact, something wrong with her, due to previous events, Skye's face dropped. "What's the worse that can happen?"
"An epidemic."
"That's a pretty harsh conclusion." She tried to convince herself that everything would be okay and this was all just an extreme overreaction on Jemma's part.
But the shaking? Where did that come from? Should she tell her?
No.
"Well, and I feel responsible." Jemma shrugged.
"We all do." Skye tried to comfort her. "There's nothing you could have done."
"Yes there was."
Skye furrowed her eyebrows as Jemma turned to look at her. "I was so curious about powers, about unearthly biology, wondering where it might lead, hoping to better understand it, control it. I should have been trying to terminate it, erase it from existence."
"What?" Skye was astonished to say the least. This was completely out of anyone's hands. It wasn't Jemma's fault that this was happening! "You — you've helped plenty of people with powers. It's part of the world we live in."
"It's a plague Skye." The English woman was growing tired of this whole situation and she just wanted things to get back to the way they were, "All of it. It only ever brings us death. Donnie Gill, Chan Ho Yin, Creel — the list keeps growing."
"Not the Avengers." Skye tried to give some positive input. "They're not—"
"—The Avengers wouldn't have been necessary if we hadn't unleashed alien horrors!"
"There must be another—"
"—Trip was in fragments!" Jemma snapped angrily as tears glistened her eyes.
Why wouldn't Skye see that this was all her fault? She was the one responsible for all this catastrophe!
First Fitz and now this!
Why wasn't she blaming her?!
"I know."
"Well...…it ends with him. Flooding the alien city may be the first responsible thing I've done, to protect the people I care about."
Skye could only nod her head. "Okay."
There was nothing left to say really, so Jemma turned on her heel and made her way to the door. "Just be safe."
"Agent May! Agent May!" Selena bounded over to her and Mack once she saw them coming down the hallway. "Guess what I did?!"
May fought to keep the smile off of her face at the sight of the child's excitement. It would a good change from the sadness and malaise going around. "Did you climb all the way up to Mt. Everest and back in time for dinner?"
Despite not thinking that the team really had no time to take on such a young member, May really appreciated her presence.
She grounded them all, helped them forget their troubles, even if it was for only a few minutes.
"Not yet, but I'm working on it." Selena responded without missing a beat. "Guess again!"
"I give up." May put up her hands to surrender. "What did you do?"
"Remember the roundhouse kick you showed me how to do? Well, I got it!" Selena bounced, she couldn't contain herself.
"Really?" May raised an eyebrow. She knew that Selena could do it, if she practiced hard enough, but she wasn't going to immediately tell her that. That would take away all her fun.
"Then I expect to see you in the training room after lunch. We'll see how well you can execute it."
"You'll be surprised." Selena grinned with a sing-song tone in her voice. "I think I can beat you now."
"Oh really? Then I definitely expect to see you for training later."
"Okay!" The grin didn't leave Selena's face, but the sparkle did leave her eyes as she turned her attention to Mack. "Hi."
"Hey, Simba. Can I talk to you for a second?"
Selena wrinkled her nose at the nickname at first, but then accepted it. "Okay."
Sensing that the two needed to be alone, May made her way towards the door of Coulson's office. "Are Coulson and Jemma in here?"
"Yes." Selena nodded and watched her leave, before looking up at Mack.
Geez he was tall.
And large. Selena almost had to do a backbend to look up at his face!
"I wanted to apologize to you."
Well, that was shock. No one ever apologized to Selena before.
Not even if they were the ones who were wrong. They kind of just pretended as if nothing ever happened, or tried to put the blame on her.
But what was he apologizing for exactly?
"For what?"
"My outburst." The large man knelt down to her height. "I know it must've been scary for you to listen to all of that and I apologize. I never want you to feel like you have to be afraid of me. I'm sorry."
Selena met his eyes and decided that they looked sincere. Sure, she had been horrified the minute he raised his voice, but there wasn't really any danger and no one hurt anyone else. She just overreacted because of some things that had happened to her before.
It wasn't Mack's fault and she knew he wasn't a bad guy.
Everyone is sure to lose their temper at one point or another. Everyone.
"I forgive you." She smiled and rested a hand on his shoulder.
She had read somewhere in a book that saying, 'I forgive you' was so much better than saying, 'It's okay', because when you tell someone that something is okay, it kind of disregards whatever it is that you felt at the time and gives the person leeway to do it again. After all, you did say it was okay. If you tell someone you forgive them, you're acknowledging that the person messed up and now you're willing to let it go and move forward.
"Thank you." Mack's smiled mirrored hers. "And I promise. The next time I get upset, I'll try my best not to lose my temper. I will sometimes, but I'll try my hardest not to let it happen. We cool, Simba?"
"We're cool." Selena nodded before questioning. "Why Simba?"
"All this hair you've got growing out of your head makes you look like a little lion." He playfully tugged on a strand before standing up straight and lifting her onto his hip. "Let's go see what Coulson wants." He finished as he walked into the office with her.
Upon their entrance, Coulson smiled at him and winked at Selena, before putting on his 'business face'.
"Thanks for the schematics sir." Mack reached into his back pocket and handed him some blueprints. "The ventilation system's all good."
"Selena?" May knew that the next few minutes of this conversation were going to get a little heavy for eleven year old ears and lifted Selena out of Mack's arms, setting her on the ground. "Why don't you go and grab some lunch? I think Fitz is in the kitchen and I think he could use the company."
"Can I have a cookie?" Selena knew full well that May was just trying to get her out of the room, and she was going to use it to her advantage.
"One." May narrowed her eyes to make her point.
A Selena on a sugar high wasn't a fun Selena. She knew this from experience.
One afternoon on a slow day, Trip and Selena found a whole load of cookies and managed to polish them all off in one sitting.
Of course, Trip let Selena have most of them and laughed as she bounced off the walls of HQ.
Never again.
"Yay!" Selena smiled, knowing she got exactly what she wanted before skipping out of the room.
"One Selena!" Jemma called after her, fearing another incident.
"Okay!" The distant little voice sang from down the hall.
"Now, we can get back to business." Coulson fought to keep the grin off his face and remain serious.
"Sir." Mack caught his attention. "I want to apologize for my outburst in there. It was uncalled for." He only continued when he saw the forgiving look on the director's face. "I have a little trouble dealing with my anger issues."
"Join the club." May joked even though she was completely serious.
If anyone knew how hard it was to control their anger, it was her.
"Yeah, it's something I'm working on." Mack continued. "But, this alien stuff messed with my head, and uh…...and loosing Trip brought back a lot of hard memories."
"For all of us." Coulson extended the olive branch.
And just like that, the atmosphere changed.
"I hope I didn't blow my chance to work on Lola one day."
"After that little RC version you built for me, I'm genuinely considering it." Coulson thought back to the little replica of his beloved car. "Although I couldn't figure out how to make it fly."
The proud look that Mack had been sporting left his features. "It doesn't."
Well there goes that.
"Sir." Jemma interjected, seeing an opening. "I do think Mack brought up a matter we should consider."
"I'm all ears."
"I'm aware the team hunting Raina has orders to capture, not kill."
"As always." May nodded.
"But this might be some sort of contagion or even a plague inadvertently set loose. Plagues must be understood, yes, but eventually eradicated."
"Are you saying you want to put Raina down, Agent Simmons?" May questioned, not quite believing what was coming out of the younger woman's mouth.
"No!" Jemma shook her head. "Of course not…...I'm just saying, that if they have it do it, it may not be the worse thing."
Sharing a look with May, before nodding at Jemma, Coulson left his office, but not before saying, "Thank you."
"Skye! Skye!" Selena came bounding into the lab towards her sister's cell with two cookies in her hand. "I have a something for you!"
The older girl removed her headphones from her ears when she saw her coming and smiled.
"Whatcha got there?"
Selena just smirked as if she had gotten away with doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing, and slid the cookie in the drawer for Skye.
"Chocolate chip." Skye grabbed it once she saw it and bit into it. "Mmmmm. Thanks."
"You're welcome." Selena nodded before biting into her own. "Yum. Delicioso."
"Definitely." Skye agreed. "What have you been up to, besides stealing cookies?"
"I practiced that roundhouse kick that May was trying to teach me." Selena perked up, remembering how excited she was to tell May about it. "I finally did it!"
"Congrats." Skye smiled. "Did you tell her?"
"Sure did." Selena nodded. "She wants to see me do it."
"Let me know how that turns out." Skye laughed before finishing her cookie. "Is everything okay?" She sobered up before asking, referring to the recent situation.
"I think so…" Selena shrugged. "Mack apologized to me and they weren't fighting when I was there, but I don't know about now. They sent me out to go have lunch with Fitz…...but he was doing something and he kicked me out too. Are you busy too?" Her head cocked to the side.
"I'm never too busy for you." Skye shook her head. "Especially not when you bring me cookies."
"Good." Selena giggled before finishing off her own cookie. "Let's play twenty questions!"
Skye rolled her eyes, but agreed. "Fine, but I'm asking the questions first...…what's your favorite thing to do?"
"Spend time with you." Selena answered without any trace of hesitation.
"You're so cute. I like spending time with you too and as soon as I'm out of here, I'm giving you a big hug and a sloppy kiss."
"Eww!" Selena cringed.
"Deal with it kid." Skye shrugged and thought of another question. "What's your favorite color?"
"Huh." Selena sat down and rested her chin on her hand in thought. "I guess it's blue?"
"Good answer. What do you want to be when you grow up?"
"I wanna be a lawyer, cause then I can keep myself out of trouble."
Skye guffawed at that answer. "There are no amount of years you could spend in law school that would prevent you from getting into trouble. It will always find you."
"We'll see."
"Okay, Uhhhhh let's see...….favorite ice cream flavor?"
"Vanilla."
"Besides vanilla."
"Oreo."
"Good choice…...what's the craziest thing you've done?"
"The craziest thing I've ever done was jump off a roof onto a trampoline." Selena admitted.
"What?"
"Well, it was a dare!" She tried to explain. "I was at this foster home and they had a big trampoline, and one of their kids dared me to jump from the balcony to the—" She cut herself off when she saw that Skye wasn't listening to her anymore.
She was staring at the entrance of the room, so Selena followed her line of vision and discovered Fitz, just standing in the doorway.
"Hey Fitz." Skye greeted cautiously.
He didn't look like he was feeling very well. He looked tensed and tears glazed his orbs as he took his time coming into the room.
"What's wrong?"
"I fixed your bio-meter watch." He finally spoke, looking down at the item in his trembling hands. "Checked your vitals at the time of the temple collapse."
The sisters shared a confused look before turning back to Fitz.
"Your heart rate was recorded at almost…...300 BPM."
Selena gasped and looked back at her sister, remembering that when everyone was arguing, Skye's heart rate monitor was beeping a lot faster than what was normal.
Skye didn't pay her any attention, she kept her eyes trained on Fitz. "That's very fast."
"No." Fitx shook his head. "That's inhuman."
She knew there was something wrong with her! She knew it!
Why was this happening?
What was wrong with her?
The shaking? The soda can?
This was all too much!
"I thought the readings were a mistake — that I put the thing together wrong." Fitz explained, trying to make sense of something that made absolutely no sense at all.
Skye's legs gave out on her and she collapsed onto her bed, her breath quickening in pace.
"Been struggling…...to uhm.…..uh." Fitz lost the word he was trying to apply to this situation and snapped his fingers in hopes that it would come back to him. "Something's wrong with the data in my head."
"What are you talking about?" Selena asked the two of them.
"So, I was thinking how the heart monitor seemed to shatter from the inside out, but it was still on your wrist when we found you. That doesn't make sense." Fitz grew a little hysterical. "And how we found you — basically unharmed in the collapse with destruction all around you!"
Skye began to grow more and more panicky as Fitx went on in his explanation.
And once again, everything in her cell began to shake and rattle.
This time, she knew it was her own doing.
"Skye?" Selena hopped off of her stool, looking genuinely concerned. "What's happening?"
"I thought I was losing my mind all over again...…" Fitz muttered.
Skye did her best to stop the shaking, but she couldn't.
Whatever was happening, was being fueled by her negative emotions and she just couldn't control it!
"There was something wrong, so it took a while to dawn on me, or maybe I was just afraid to think it, that—"
The shaking got so much worse, that Skye gave up on trying to stop it. She just stood in her cell and listened to everything that Fitz had to say.
"You survived the destruction...…" The scientist took in a large gulp of air. "Because you caused it."
Selena's jaw dropped. Her sister was the one doing all this?
What was happening?
"No, no, no, Fitz?" Skye began to plead, begging him to take it all back.
She didn't want this!
"Raina wasn't the only one who changed in there."
"No." Skye shook her head. She didn't want to hear anymore of it.
"And I'm pretty sure the DNA results we're running right now are gonna confirm it."
Selena watched helplessly as her sister tried to comfort herself and turned back to Fitz.
"There's nothing wrong with the data in my head Skye." Fitz shook his head. "There's something wrong with you."
That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Everything went haywire!
The shaking was no longer limited to Skye's cell as she became an emotional wreck, covering her ears and closing her eyes in an attempt to block out the rest of the world.
"No!" She burst into tears, wanting to disregard everything her friend had just told her, but knowing that he was absolutely right.
The lamp in her cell flickered in time with the lights outside and shattered, dropping to the ground in little glass shards.
Selena lost her balance and screamed as she hit the ground, hard, rolling her ankle as she landed. "Skye!"
This wasn't her fault!
"Skye, it's okay!" She tried to stand up again, but the sharp pain in her ankle forced her to stay down. "You're okay Skye!"
Neither of the two noticed Fitz rushing out of the room, leaving destruction in his wake.
"You shouldn't be in here." Skye told her sister, who had snuck into her cell to help her pick up the glass, once the girl had calmed down completely. "I'm in quarantine for a reason."
"I'm here now, so it doesn't really matter anymore." Selena shrugged as if she hadn't probably just been exposed to some deadly alien disease. "And you need help picking all this stuff up."
Skye watched as the eleven year old bent down to pick up some glass, limping over to the trash bin to dump the shards out. "I'm so sorry."
"Why?" Selena asked. "It's not like you meant for this to happen. It's not your fault."
"But your foot—"
"Oh this?" Selena scoffed. "I've had much worse. I was being clumsy and I fell, that was my own fault, not yours. If you don't want anyone to find out about this, we need to clean this place up."
Skye looked at her little sister in amazement. It was times like these that she often wondered who the older sister was.
"What are you staring at?" The younger girl furrowed her eyebrows.
"Nothing." Skye began to pick up some glass and put it on her bed sheet, wanting to completely get rid of the evidence. "I just, really love you."
Selena let out a giggle before sobering up when the reality hit her. "You know…you were the first person to ever tell me that? I like that, it felt good…...like warm and fuzzy."
That hit Skye harder than she thought it would.
How awful of a life had Selena been living, that the first time she had ever heard those little three words directed at her was after she met her?
She shook her head to get rid of the thought.
Things were different now, Selena would hear those words so often, that she would get sick of it.
Skye would make sure of it.
"Skye?"
"Yeah?" Skye was in the middle of picking up a particularly sharp shard when it sliced into her hand.
Selena nervously fiddled with her hair before responding. "I love you, too."
"Good." Skye fought to keep the grimace off her face, but her perceptive little sister noticed and pulled a napkin out of her pocket, pressing it onto her hand. "Thanks, it's just a little cut, it'll stop bleeding in a minute."
"Okay." Selena nodded and carefully swept up the remainder of the glass with her hands,
managing to get it done before May strode through the door.
She and Skye shared a panicked look before she dove under the older girl's bed and pulled the sheet down to cover herself.
"Hey." May greeted.
"Hey."
"Feeling like you've been in that glass box all your life?" The agent joked.
When Skye didn't even crack a smile, May knew something was wrong.
"You doing okay?"
"Yeah." Skye forced a smile onto her face. "Yeah, I just…...I feel isolated and exposed at the same time. Being a caged animal is no fun."
"It's for your own good, temporary."
"I know, I know...…maybe I just need a hug. I hate seeing everyone fighting."
"They're just having a hard time." May knew this had to be taking its toll on Skye.
"Yeah, I've never seen Coulson like that before. He seemed so…cutthroat."
"Yeah, I've never really seen him like this myself." May agreed. "For Coulson, Trip was the embodiment of the principles he wants S.H.I.E.L.D. to be built upon…...compassion, loyalty, heart...…and that's S.H.I.E.L.D.'s strength. And Trip's death reminded Coulson that HYDRA doesn't have that, and that is their weakness." When May finished her little speech, she noticed a spot of blood on Skye's bed frame. "Are you bleeding?"
Skye was saved from responding when Jemma rushed into the room. "We should have your DNA results back any minute now. Once we know there's nothing wrong we'll have you out of there." She smiled.
But once she noticed the tension in the room, she stopped. "Something's wrong?"
Skye stayed quiet as she moved her hands from behind her back and showed them her injuries.
"What the heck happened?" May practically growled. "Skye?" She prodded when the girl didn't respond.
"F—Fitz….."
"—Fitz was a clutch again." The Scotsman rushed into the room. "Uh, she's cleaning up the mess. Sorry, it was my fault. I knocked over the lamp when I was taking a sample of Skye's blood with one of those ridiculous Hazmat suits on. Uh, I guess my coordination still needs work."
Both Selena and Skye sported twin looks of confusion on their faces, wondering what on earth he was doing.
"But I was anxious to double check the results." He swiped away on his tablet before showing Jemma. "Her DNA is an exact match to what it was before. She's clear."
The entire room sighed in relief at those words.
"Thank goodness." Jemma smiled.
"I'm gonna call Coulson. He can use the good news." May smiled. "You alright?"
"Yeah." Skye nodded, more confused now, than ever, smiling before May left.
She and Fitz locked eyes but didn't say anything as not to alert Jemma.
"Uh, Skye? Is your bunk made?" He asked.
"Uh, no…..it's a mess."
"Uh, well...…maybe you could go get her some clean sheets." He suggested to his best friend.
"She should probably sleep."
"Yes." Jemma smiled gently. "She deserves a good night's rest."
"Yeah, uhm…..I mean, I would do it, but last time I was in there, there were lots of ladies' things and she's a slob…..I'll help bandage her hands. It was my fault anyway."
"Okay." Jemma nodded, knowing that there was something she didn't know, but left anyway.
"You can come out now Selena."
"How did you even know I was here?" Selena asked, crawling out from under the bed.
"I could hear your loud breathing."
Selena rolled her eyes and hopped up on the bed.
"Uh…...do you mind if Skye and I talk for a minute?" Fitz hesitated to ask. "Just the…..uh two of us?"
"Are you gonna make her cry again?"
"No. Of course not."
"Skye?" Selena really didn't want to leave her sister if she didn't have to.
"I'll be okay. Go ahead."
"Okay…..Bye." Selena limped out of the cell, allowing Fitz in, and made her way out of the room.
"What did you just do?" Skye asked once they were alone.
"I switched your blood results with your old samples. Give me your hand." He took her hand and immediately began disinfecting it.
"The new samples are different?'
"Drastically." Fitz made sure his voice was just above a whisper just in case. "But until everyone around here calms down, I don't think we should tell anybody. I'm willing to bet Selena will keep this a secret too." He began dressing her hand. "What with the way Simmons is acting…...For now, we should just keep it between the three of us. Keep you safe until we figure it out, okay?"
Skye nodded and looked at him with tears in her eyes, leaning forward and crashing into his arms to finally let herself cry for the millionth time that day.
It seemed like all she ever did lately, was cry.
"It's okay."
"This is all my fault."
"How?'
"I could've stopped her...…I let — I let this happen and I am so sorry." Skye's cries increased to the sobs she didn't dare let go in front of her sister.
"No, it's okay." Fitz rubbed her back.
"Everything's my fault. You're right. There's something very wrong with me."
"No." Fitz shook his head, regretting that those words had ever left his mouth. "You're just different now. You're just different now…..and that's okay."
"I didn't see you in here at all today." May snuck up on Selena, who was sitting crosslegged on the floor of the training room, staring off into space.
Selena was so far into her own little world, that she didn't even jump at the agent's presence. "Hi."
"Hi." May sat down in front of her in the same position. "How are you doing?"
"Huh?" Selena was shocked by the question. "I'm fine...…Skye's the one who—"
"—You don't think I saw your reaction to our little argument earlier? Or how you flinch whenever someone raises their voice in the slightest way?" May cut her off. "You may think you're good at hiding your feelings, but I see right through you. So I'll ask you again, how are you doing?"
"I'm okay...…I miss Trip…...and sometimes I feel like I serve no purpose, but other than that I'm okay." Selena shrugged, fiddling with her shoe laces.
In doing so, her palms flashed upwards, showing several cuts on her hands.
May narrowed her eyes and took the child's hands in her own. "How did this happen?"
"Oh that?" Selena let out a nervous laugh. "That's nothing…...I fell on my way to get myself something to eat."
May quietly examined her hands and found a little piece of glass in her right hand.
"Ow!" Selena cried out when it was pulled out.
"You were in Skye's cell earlier, helping her clean up the mess." It wasn't a question.
"Yes." Selena nodding. "It doesn't even hurt much and she needed help cleaning everything up, so I went in…"
May knew that there was more to the story, but she didn't push Selena to tell it. She didn't want to talk about Skye, she wanted to talk about her.
In their rush to help Skye with her current situation, everyone kind of forgot that Selena was around.
Of course, they didn't mean to, it just happened. But Selena was suffering too, whether she chose to acknowledge that fact or not.
"You're not okay." May told her. "And that's okay. We all lost Trip, but you lost him in a way that we didn't."
"I didn't mean to—"
"—He wasn't a coworker to you, you never worked with him. He was your first friend...…a brother. Don't think I didn't notice you two sneaking into the kitchen at night to steal cookies or guzzle down as much frosting as you could without making yourselves sick."
"Yeah." Selena giggled sadly as she watched May pull a bandage out of her back pocket. "He said that he's never seen someone eat as many cookies in one sitting as I have. I think he was just saying that to make me smile."
"I don't think so, he used to brag all about how you used to beat him at those little contests of yours on missions. He loved you just as much as you loved him."
That got a genuine smile out of Selena.
"But you see all of those good memories?" May continued, wrapping the child's hands. "Hold onto them, because one day you may have a bad day, and you'll think of Trip and your ridiculous antics and instead of feeling that pain in your chest that you feel right now? You'll smile."
Selena had never told anyone just how sad Trip's death made her feel. She didn't really feel like she had a right to grieve him. She hadn't known him for as long as everyone else had, (granted it had been a year), so what gave her the right to be sad?
And she didn't really want to draw any attention to herself with what was happening to Skye. She knew that her sister needed help and it would've been awful to take that away just because she was sad.
She knew that the world didn't revolve around her.
The process of ignoring and suppressing her own feelings was doing more harm than good.
And May saw that.
That's why she felt like she needed to have this heart to heart.
She came off as cold and unfeeling, but that didn't mean that that was what she really was.
"And you may not feel like you serve a purpose right now, but you do. It won't be as big as going on missions or solving problems in the lab, but you're only eleven."
"I know, but sometimes I feel like I'm getting in the way."
"Trust me, if you were getting in the way, you'd know." May shook her head before standing up. "Come on, everyone is in the common area."
Selena smiled and stood up, the pain in her ankle had dulled significantly, so she didn't have to limp as harshly as she had been hours before.
And if May noticed, she certainly didn't say anything.
"Thank you."
"I expect to see you in this training room tomorrow at 0700 hours." May spoke sternly before stalking off to the common room, leaving Selena shocked.
She guessed that May had reached her limit for mushiness for the day...…or the entire week.
The thought alone made her giggle as she trailed behind the woman, taking her time so she wouldn't aggravate her ankle any further.
"…..Or that time when Trip tossed me the mag on the Burnside raid and it fell down the sewer grate." She caught the tail end of Hunter's story and waved, limping over to Skye, who wrapped her in a a big hug.
"Yeah, what did he say again?" May asked.
And in his best 'Trip voice' Hunter responded, "Good catch, Soccer Hands."
Everyone laughed, including Selena. She hadn't heard this story before, so it was nice to hear something new.
"Did he ever tell you about the time his grandpa took him to Grandfather Mountain when he was a child in North Caroline?" Jemma asked, ready to tell her own story.
May shook her head along with the rest of the team, eager to hear it.
"Well, he gets there, and they pull up to the gate and his grandfather….."
While Jemma told the story, Selena's mind drifted off as she looked around at everyone in the room.
They all looked so happy and that's the way she liked it.
The last few days were rough, but they came through.
Her grin grew wider as her sister picked up a cookie from a plate on the coffee table and handed it to her.
It always amazed Selena when Skye remembered the little things about her, even though they had known each other long enough to know just a few things about each other.
They hadn't grown up together, after all.
She liked it.
"And he says, 'I'm sorry Grandpa—"
"—I thought you owned the whole mountain." Selena hadn't even realized she said anything until everyone looked at her with wide grins on their faces.
"He'd be mad, I told you that story." Jemma's smile got a little smaller.
But Skye took a swig of her beer and said, "No he'd say…"
"Come on, girl!" The entire room resounded in their best 'Trip Voice'.
"We're gonna laugh a lot less, that's for sure." Skye's smile faded and the room got quiet.
She stole a bite of her sister's cookie and grinned when the girl's jaw dropped.
"Ummmm…." Selena cleared her throat after receiving an encouraging look from May. "Did you hear about the time we waited until everyone was asleep to make a frosting cake and only managed to destroy the kitchen?"
"No." Bobbi smirked, knowing that she and Trip were always up to something.
"You're leading quite the interesting life, Sweetheart." Hunter chugged his beer.
"Tell us?" Jemma spoke for all of them.
"Oh…..okay." Selena had never actually told any stories, but it was worth a shot. "Well, I couldn't sleep and Trip was awake so I asked him if we could bake a cake, but only made of frosting…..."
A/N: So May caught on, just a teensy teensy bit. But that little bit that she knows is nothing compared to what's really going on with Selena. She confused about why her father is the way he is, she doesn't understand most of what's going on, she's scared a lot of the time, and she took Trip's death hard. He was her very best friend. That's not going away just because she 'seems' happy most of the time. Hope you enjoyed! :)