Chapter Text
Skye flew out of the car as soon as it came to a stop. She didn't care that they were taking her back to St. Agnes', she didn't care that this "family" only lasted a couple of weeks, and she didn't care that they were taking her back because her foster brother told them she wouldn't stop hitting him (which was a lie). She just needed to get out of the car.
Foster Family number four, the Harvey's, had died in a car and ever since then, she couldn’t handle being in one. As soon as she thought about the Harvey’s, it was like she was back at that night and she was trapped in an awful memory.
It had happened a week before her 6th birthday and they had just signed the adoption papers a couple days before. It was the happiest she ever remembered being, until a drunk driver swerved into them late one night. It was all her fault and they wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for her. She had been at her first sleepover ever, and she was nervous because sometimes she still wet the bed and she had nightmares a lot, so she refused to fall asleep. She had asked Avery's mom if she could call Mrs. Harvey because she wanted to go back home.
She had been sitting on the floor by the staircase, trying not to cry, when Mr. and Mrs. Harvey had walked in the door. She’d felt even guiltier because they both came and she hadn't been able to stop a tear from escaping. Mrs. Harvey had spotted her and rushed towards her while Mr. Harvey stopped to talk to Avery's mom.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you come back. Please don't be mad at me!" She had been full-on crying and she remembered Mrs. Harvey just pulling her into a tight hug. She had stiffened for a minute, out of reflex, and then relaxed into the hug as he felt Mrs. Harvey gently stroking her hair.
"Skye, never feel bad for calling us when you need us. We're your parents now. We want to be here for you and we aren't mad. How about we head home?" Mrs. Harvey had whispered into her ear.
She remembers feeling her tears dry on her face as she tried to remind herself that Mr. and Mrs. Harvey were her parents now, and how good it had felt to realize that. She was still getting used to the fact that if she called, they would come when she needed them. It was a foreign feeling but she thought that she was starting to really like it.
She had looked up at Mrs. Harvey and smiled tentatively up at her before nodding. Mrs. Harvey lifted her into her arms and Skye wrapped legs around her waist and her arms around her neck. She wasn't used to being hugged or having someone there to help her stop crying and it was all new to her, but she had hoped that she would get used to it. Mrs. Harvey didn't even yell at her, she just thanked Avery's mom, made sure Mr. Harvey grabbed Skye's overnight bag, and carried her to the car. At that point, Skye had started to feel much better.
Mrs. Harvey had buckled her into her car seat and kissed her cheek before getting into the passenger seat. The kissing and displays of affection were also things Skye was trying to get used to. She had had a lot of "forever homes" up until that point but no one had wanted to adopt her. Out of all the families she'd been with, she had been the happiest that the Harvey's wanted to keep her. They never yelled at her or hit her, Mr. Harvey never tried to scare her or touch her, and they seemed to actually want to be her parents. She remembered being a little afraid because she was finally starting to feel happy and whenever that happened, something came along and ruined it.
They had started heading back home and Skye stared out the window and towards the night sky. She had always loved looking at the moon and stars ever since she could remember. They never failed to be right where they were supposed to be.
"How about when we get back home, we read you your favorite story, huh? Don't tell anyone, but Goodnight Moon is also becoming one of my favorites," Mr. Harvey had grinned at her and Skye had giggled and caught his eyes in the mirror. He had been smiling back at her when the car swerved right into them.
Mr. and Mrs. Harvey had died on impact and Skye had been left alone in a mangled car for an hour before someone saw and called the police. Miraculously, she walked away with only minor scrapes and bruises but she couldn't stop seeing how Mrs. Harvey's head had been twisted in a weird way, or how Mr. Harvey's arm bone stuck out through his skin.
She had stopped talking for a little while after that.
It was because she wouldn't talk that Foster Family number five hadn't worked out so well.
The Ramsey's had started off being nice but Skye was wary and still mourning the Harvey’s. They had smiled at her when they took her home from the orphanage and their real son, Aaron, had said that he wanted to be friends with her. She hadn’t trusted him at all because when foster families had real kids, she knew that they would end up hating her. They didn't want to share her parents with a girl like her. They always ended up being mean, taking her toys away or taunting her.
She had tried to smile for them the first few days, families liked happy kids, but she wasn't happy and she didn’t fake it very well. She'd had a mom and a dad for a week and they were already gone and it had been all her fault.
Words had stuck in her throat and they hadn't been able to escape.
Her silence hadn't been an issue for the first few days. Obviously, the Ramsey’s thought it was a temporary thing, but when she didn't respond when they asked her questions, she could see the anger starting to appear in their eyes. Especially in Mr. Ramsey's eyes. He started picking on her and pushing her around and if she did something wrong, he would yell very loudly and throw things across the room. She guessed that it was probably easier to be mean to someone when they wouldn't say anything back. She had finally decided that it would probably be safer to start talking again when Mr. Ramsey started yelling at her for something that Aaron had done. She had thought that maybe if he knew that she hadn't do a bad thing this time, he would stop being so mean to her, but when she finally opened her mouth and said that it hadn't been her who had knocked his computer to the ground, it was Aaron, Mr. Ramsey had stopped and then started yelling louder about how she was blaming their innocent kid for something that she had done.
A couple weeks later when Aaron accused her of hitting him, Skye could tell the Ramsey's wouldn't believe her even if she told them the truth. They were looking for an excuse to get rid of her, and honestly, she was looking for an excuse to get out of there, so she hadn't denied it.
That was how she had ended up here, almost seven years old and without a family.
She was currently kneeling on the grassy lawn in front of St. Agnes', trying to force air into her lungs and hold her tears back. She heard the Ramsey's walk by her and towards the front office of the building. They had already called the nuns in advance and told them they were bringing Skye back, so all they needed to do was sign some things and she would be free of them. When she finally felt like she was getting enough air into her body, she started to stand back up again, only to be pushed back onto the ground.
"Mary Sue what the hell are you doing back here?"
"Yeah, another family didn't want you?"
"At least you didn't kill this one. They managed to get rid of you before that happened."
Three older boys were laughing at her and daring her to try and get back up. Jonathan and his stupid friends had always been especially mean to her and she didn't know why. It could've been because she was smaller than most girls her age or because she didn't have that many friends to back her up, but Skye tried to never back down from a fight, even when she was scared and outnumbered. So, she slowly got up from the ground and tried to look intimidating.
Jonathan laughed at her, "Look guys, she's trying to scare us. What're you gonna do Mary Sue? Beat us up?" His friends started laughing harder and Skye tried her hardest to hold back her tears. These stupid boys couldn't see her cry, it would only make everything worse.
"That's not my name! And I just might!" Skye yelled at them and curled her tiny palms into fists.
They only laughed harder.
Melinda May and Phil Coulson stepped out of their car and into the sun. After a lot of thought and consideration, they had decided they wanted to foster another child. Melinda was pretty excited but also fairly nervous about having another child running around their home. She loved children and ever since they had found out that they'd probably never be able to conceive a child of their own, they had become foster parents.
"Okay Phil remember, we're just here to talk to Sister Margaret about maybe finding another child to foster." May glanced towards her husband and found that he was giving her a lopsided grin.
"I know, I know, I already told you that I don't expect to bring home a child today…but wouldn't it be amazing if we could?"
May just sighed and shoved him good-naturedly.
She was about to say something back when she was distracted by little voices coming from a little ways away. She turned around and saw a group of three boys, maybe around eleven years old, standing around a small girl. The boys were laughing at the little girl, who’s hands were gripped into tight fists. Her hair was dark, long, and tangled, and her bangs were getting in her eyes. Her shorts had dirt on them and her shirt was about two sizes too big. May could see that the little girl was trying not to cry, even as she raised her fists and shouted, "That's not my name! And I just might!" at the three bigger boys. The boys laughed harder at the small girl and looked at each other.
Suddenly, one of the boys stopped laughing, leaned in towards the girl, and pushed her to the ground. May saw the girl's ankle twist as she fell and her face ended up in the dirt. Both May and Phil started rushing towards the commotion and all she could feel was anger towards the boys and immense sympathy for the little girl. As they approached, she heard the boys taunting her, "You're so scary Mary Sue," and "No wonder no one wants you Mary," before the boys saw them approaching and ran away.
Phil reached the little girl first and reached out to help her, "Hey, Mary is it? Are you ok-" As his hand gently landed on her arm to grab her attention, the girl screamed and tried to scramble back and away from him. She whimpered in pain as she put weight on her ankle but continued to crawl backwards. She was crying softly now and May saw the little girl look up in fear towards Phil, so she gently pushed him out of the way.
"Hey sweetie, my name's Melinda but everyone just calls me May. We saw what those boys did and we wanted to make sure you weren't hurt. Are you okay?" She made sure to keep her voice calm and soothing so she didn’t spook the child. The little girl hadn't even glanced at her yet, her brown eyes were locked onto Phil. She looked so scared and when she remained silent, May tried again.
"Mary Sue? Is that your name?" May moved slightly, blocking Phil from the girl's sight. The girl stared at her hands and mumbled something. May tilted her head towards the child on the ground so she could try to catch what she had said but it was no use.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that."
The little girl finally looked up and May's heart clenched when she saw that the girl was still crying. "My name's Skye…" she said again.
May smiled at her, happy that she was talking and looked a little less afraid than before.
Skye was staring up at this lady and couldn't tell if she could trust her or not. Her ankle still hurt and she’s pretty sure her shin might be bleeding but she’s unable to take her eyes off of the two adults in front of her. She didn't know if they were mean or not and it was always a bad idea to look away from mean people because that’s when they were most likely to hurt you, when you didn’t know it was coming.
‘May’ was a pretty name and as Skye warily pulled her eyes away from the man to look at May, she noted how kind her eyes looked. She felt like she could maybe trust her, she had chased Jonathan and his dumb friends away, so Skye told May her name and May smiled at her. That made her feel a little better.
"Is it alright if we look at your ankle? We saw that you twisted it when you fell,” May asked gently.
Skye’s eyebrows raised incredulously when she realized that May was asking her for permission. No one ever did that and it made Skye feel kind of powerful. She could say no to her right now and May wouldn't be able to touch her. She wanted to say no, just to feel the power of saying such a word, but May's voice sounded sincere and her kind eyes beckoned her to trust her, so she nodded at her.
When the man reached down towards her leg, not May, Skye shuffled back even farther in surprise and fear. Her eyes darted towards May and back towards the man. She narrowed her eyes at him and tried to look intimidating as she studied him. He didn't look mean. His face was open and he had those wrinkles around his eyes that old people got because they smiled a lot. But Mr. Ramsey didn't look like he was mean at first either and he definitely was one of the meanest people she had ever met.
"No! Only you!" Skye whimpered and pointed at May. Her ankle was hurting and she was tired and she'd had nightmares all night last night and couldn't sleep, so she didn’t have to energy to try and figure out if she could trust May’s friend.
May glanced at the man and then back at her. "Skye, this is Phil. He's my husband and he's also a doctor, so he's very good at seeing if people are hurt. He won't hurt you, I promise."
Skye wanted to trust her but she couldn't. She didn't know him and he could always end up hurting her worse and all she really wanted to do was go inside, find an empty bed, and lay down. She started crying harder and angrily rubbed at her eyes when she realized that she was acting like a baby right now.
Phil said something to May that Skye couldn't hear and then backed up a step, which made Skye feel a little better and her tears started to marginally slow down.
May sat down in the grass next to her and said, "Skye, I'm going to lift up your leg to look at your ankle. Tell me if anything hurts and where. If it hurts, I'll stop okay?" It felt good to know what May was going to do before she did it and even though she knew May would probably end up touching her tender ankle, she couldn't help the hiss of pain that escaped her mouth when cool fingers skimmed over it.
May gently set her leg back on the ground and said, "Nothing seems to be broken. You twisted your ankle pretty badly but that's nothing some ice and rest can't fix. You have a scrape on your shin that's bleeding, but after it's clean and you have a bandaid on it, it should be as good as new." May smiled down at her and Skye felt better and a little silly for making such a big deal over something as small as a twisted ankle.
After May’s reassurance that she was going to be fine, her tears stopped and felt embarrassed that these strangers had seen her cry so much. She was going to be seven in few months and she told herself that needed to stop acting like such a baby all the time. She mumbled a thanks and expected them to leave but they didn't.
She looked back up at May and saw that she was holding out her arms. Skye’s nose scrunched up in confusion as she glanced from May to Phil, trying to figure out what May wanted. Did she want a hug or something? Skye continued to stare at her before May got the hint and said, "How about we go inside and clean you up? You can walk if you feel up to it but I thought it might be easier if I carried you until we put some ice on that ankle."
Skye thought it over quickly and carefully. Her ankle was sore and she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. She needed a nap and she just wanted the pain in her leg to go away, so she lifted her arms and May scooped her up and put her on her hip. Skye remained stiff in her arms and looked back at Phil, who was walking behind them. She wondered if she had hurt his feelings by refusing to get near him. He caught her eye and gave her a tentative smile and Skye quickly looked away, feeling guilty that she might have hurt his feelings even though he seemed fairly kind.
May placed her on the counter in one of the bathrooms and Skye vaguely wondered how she knew her way around the orphanage so well before she saw May glancing around helplessly in search of something.
"They have bandaids in the cabinet over there." Skye said softly and pointed to the cabinet on the wall. She was looking at her feet, glaring softly at the dirt smudged onto her legs and how mad she was at Jonathan and his friends for doing this to her, so she missed the smile that May gave her, but she heard Phil start to pull things out of the cabinet.
May wet some gauze and started cleaning Skye's leg up. It hurt a little but Skye didn't say anything and made sure she didn’t wince. She'd complained a lot already and they were being so nice to her and she didn't want them to stop. May placed a bandaid over her cut and saw Phil hand her an ice pack. Phil let May put it on her ankle, but said, "Okay sweetheart, keep this ice pack on for 15 minutes. If your ankle is still sore, wait about an hour and ice it again. Do you know how long that is?" His voice was nice and soft but Skye couldn't tell if he was insulting her or if he really wanted to know if she could tell time. She couldn't, she always mixed up the two hands on the clock and forgot what the numbers stood for, but he didn't need to know that.
"I'm six, not a baby." She scoffed and straightened up indignantly. She immediately froze and yelled at herself when she realized that that wasn’t a very nice thing to say to someone who had been so kind to her. What if they got mad? What if they yelled at her? Skye could feel dread start to pool in her tummy and she started to come up with ways to fix this but Phil and May's laughter stopped her before it escalated.
Phil smiled at her and shrugged, "Okay I was just checking, I didn't mean to make you think I thought you were a baby. We could always set a timer just in case you forget?" The dread was still sitting heavily in her tummy but she pushed it aside when she realized that May and Phil didn’t seem angry at her. She was grateful Phil thought of using a timer because she really didn't know how to tell time and she thought Phil might've known that she was lying.
May picked her back up, much to Skye’s surprise, and they brought her into the lounge and placed her onto the couch. Phil brought in a timer that she'd seen the nuns use in the kitchen and placed it on the coffee table in front of her, "Okay Skye, keep the ice on your ankle until this starts ringing."
May gingerly resituated the ice on her ankle and gave her a smile. Skye knew they were about to leave but she really didn't want them too. They had been really nice to her and had made her bad day a little better and she was grateful for them. Sadly, she realized that there was nothing she could do to make them stay, so even though she didn't really know them and they could be crazy people, she leaned up and gave May a really quick hug. It was still a little too scary to hug Phil, so she just glanced his way and said, "Thank you," and hoped they knew she really meant it.
They both smiled at her and stood up to walk away. Rather than watch them walk away from her, Skye let her heavy eyes fall shut and she quickly fell asleep.
May thoughtfully looked at the little girl lying on the couch and couldn’t help but feel a sharp tug in her chest. Her breathing had already deepened and May could tell that she had already fallen asleep. Phil came up beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist, "Poor thing." May nodded and leaned into his touch.
"Come on, we're late for our meeting," May sighed and they both walked towards Sister Margaret's office.
The nun was talking on and on to them about the children who would fit best in their home and the logistics of taking in a new child for what felt like forever. She kept on talking and talking and May had started to tune her out. She didn’t feel too awful since Phil was listening intently and could fill her in on the important stuff later.
Her mind kept flitting back to how the little girl, Skye, was doing, and the sharp tug she had felt in her chest when she had watched the girl sleep.
The poor little girl had been so frightened of them but Phil especially, and her blood ran cold when she realized that something bad must have happened with a previous foster father. No child deserved to feel that way. She could feel herself getting angrier the more she thought about it. Skye had been alarmingly light when she had carried her into the house, she could feel that she was underweight, and May knew that most six year olds were much bigger than Skye was at the moment. She remembered how unsure Skye had been when they had offered their help and how ill-fitting and dirty her clothes had been.
She knew what was happening here and she didn’t even try to fight the immediate connection she felt to Skye. She knew that she could help the little girl and she wanted her and Phil to be the ones to help her find trust and happiness again.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt eyes watching her.
She looked up and saw Sister Margaret and Phil talking intently, Phil glanced her way and she managed to suppress a smirk at the look he gave her. Her eyes searched around the room and stopped when she saw a pair of dark brown eyes staring at her through the crack in the door. She would recognize those eyes anywhere and her lips tugged up into a small smile when she saw Skye’s eyes widen at being caught.