Summary:When a 'simple' recovery mission at a French Military Base goes horribly wrong, Skye couldn't be more grateful for backup. Even if she doesn't know that 'back-up' is Black-Freaking-Widow.
Takes place early in Season 1 with Rookie Skye.
Notes:Takes place sometime between "FZZT" (1x06) and "The Hub" (1x07)
Chapter 1: "Fun"Chapter Text"Join S.H.I.E.L.D. they said," Skye muttered, peeking out from behind the upturned office desk, as bullets shattered the glass window behind her, "It'll be fun they said."
It was supposed to be a simple recovery mission. Abandoned French Military base in the Alps. Level 1 on the threat scale. Ward had even called it the 'perfect' easy mission for a Level 0 field agent, because, apparently, nothing would happen.
Bullshit.
A bullet punctured the desk a mere inch from her face and she screamed, crawling to the next desk for cover.
"NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME, FITZ!" She yelled over the commotion, glancing back to FitzSimmons in the office behind her.
"I'm a bit busy!" Fitz replied, fumbling to properly extract the 084 currently embedded in 'highly volatile substances' or something like that. In other words, they would die if he didn't do it right. Although it looked like they might die either way. Jemma was reciting the periodic table as she barricaded the door – trying to prevent the guards from reaching them and the 084. Unfortunately, it also meant Skye was locked out.
The bullets were raining down fast, just as fast as Skye was running out of options. She had already moved as far towards the back of the room as she could.
Faced with little choice, and no backup since Coulson was God knows where and Ward was being a hero somewhere else, Skye reached for the gun at her hip.
"Okay Skye, concentrate," she whispered, biting her lip as desperately tried to remember how to operate the gun, "Safety-off…huh! It worked!"
She turned around and raised the gun, just in time too as a guard had already reached her, weapon aimed right at her head.
"Hey, guys…" Skye began, but before Skye could have regrets or a bullet in her head, a flash of red had jumped the man, using crazy ninja moves to slam him into the ground. Skye's eyes widened as she watched the insanely flexible women take down the rest of the guards, and she didn't even wait before she turned to Skye, face serious.
"You, follow me." She ordered.
Since FitzSimmons were obviously busy, Skye had no problem following the Cavalry #2, especially not after another near-death experience.
They left the office and snuck around the corner of the corridor. The red head took the lead, gun in hand. Skye followed, trying to act like the cool agent she totally wasn't – yet. The women nodded her head to her, "What's your name, Agent?"
"Skye." She replied, not bothering to say that technically she was still a 'consultant'.
"Agent Skye, cover me." The women ordered, before launching into a room full of guards. Skye's eyes widened. Totally unprepared.
Skye scrambled in behind her. Gun raised. Heart pumping. Facing a room full of trained fighters and one kickass woman in spandex. She acted on pure instinct.
"Bang!" she cried, pointing the gun at a guard running towards her. She missed. She tried again, "Bang!" This time the ICER met its target – a head shot!
"Score!" Skye sang, turning towards the other guards to find them all already down and the other agent staring at her in disbelief. Her pride quickly diminished.
Natasha was flabbergasted. She had never, in all her time working with SHIELD, had back-up that yelled 'bang' when they pulled the trigger. Who the hell recruited this kid?
"How-?" Natasha began, but noticed the grenade just in time to pick it up and chuck it out the window. Skye yelled as it exploded outside the window, Natasha grabbing the helpless recruit and shielding her from the shattering glass. "Let's move it!" Agent Romanov ordered, "I need to get to the control room."
"But-" Skye was about to protest that their mission was to recover the 084, but as soon as she got the first word out the women glared at her. So, she didn't say it, instead she asked, "Who are you?"
Now Natasha was both shocked that someone, an agent no less, didn't know who she was and very concerned for the vetting process of SHIELD recruits. "Agent Romanov." She replied, scoping out the corridor ahead so she could create her action plan, but when Agent Skye moved with her, she put a hand on her stomach to stop her, "Stay here."
Skye waited, hearing the sounds of grunts and yells as Romanov presumably fought them off.
"Skye?" Coulson's voice flooded the comms, "Come in, Skye? What's your status?"
"I'm fine," she replied, "I'm in the East Wing with back-up. Where are you?"
"Back up? We don't have backup." Ward replied.
"Sir?" Simmons interrupted, before Skye could respond, "We've got the 084."
"Bring it in," Coulson ordered, "Everyone get back to the bus. May start the engines."
"Copy that sir," May replied.
"Skye-" Coulson began, but Skye's ear piece suddenly crackled, the distinctive sound of white noise flooding her ears and she winced as Romanov reappeared.
"Communications have been scrambled," Romanov explained, ripping out her own earpiece, "We need to get to the control room."
Natasha had already secured their path and had to admit that she'd briefly toyed with the idea of leaving the agent behind, but reasoned that it would be like leaving a puppy in a wolf cave. Totally defenceless. So, she'd come back and dragged the girl out from where, thankfully, she had stood still.
Once inside the control room, Natasha immediately moved to the computer, eager to complete Fury's mission. She just needed to download their base's information onto the USB. Which should be easy, except, she couldn't get passed this tough firewall.
"What are you trying to do?" The puppy asked, eyes eager and racing across the screen.
"My job," Natasha scoffed. She knew Stark would be in the system without a problem, but he was off-grid in Barbados and whenever you called his phone the answer machine would be a blown raspberry. Stark was out of the question.
"No, I mean, you're trying to hack in, to do what? Get access? But, these codes...it's not an ordinary firewall."
"How so?" Natasha asked, looking back to the kid who had a new air of determination. Skye crossed her arms to stop herself reaching for the keyboard - and to hide the restriction bracelet she guessed didn't work on these machines.
"The firewall - it's rewriting itself around your attempts to hack, like some sort of living firewall. Someone out there really doesn't want you to get to their data." She said, "So I'm guessing this is important – let me try."
Despite her misgivings, she knew that letting this kid try hacking in might be the right call. She vacated the seat and Skye sprang into action.
It was the right call.
Skye was passed the password encryption in seconds, but was hitting more resistance further on. Watching her hack was far more intense than watching Stark, who always had a nonchalant air about him. In comparison her hands were flying across the keys, eyes rapidly scanning the page as she muttered under her breath.
"Come on! Come on!" Skye was saying, biting her lip hard as she concentrated. A strand of Skye's long hair fell into her eyes as she typed, and the thought entered into Natasha's head that she wanted to brush it away. She was quick to compose herself.
"So if this firewall fights back," Skye muttered, "What if…"
Code was flying across the screen faster than even Black Widow could process. It looked like Skye was making her own firewall at the same time as decrypting the firewall already in place. Whatever it was, it was working.
"I'm in," said Skye, as documents flew onto the screen, "We have like ten seconds, pass me the USB!"
Natasha handed it to her quickly and Skye immediately shoved it in and began downloading, whilst also trying to keep out the anti-hacker trying to corrupt the download. It was a game of tug of war and Skye was desperately trying to avoid letting the other team win.
What followed was an intense five minutes – Agent Romanov had even began pacing behind her, which didn't do much for Skye's nerves. It was worth it though, to see her impressed face when Skye handed the serious agent the reinforced data. She had even managed to sneak in a GPS encryption coupled to a café in L.A. Just to be safe.
"I'm impressed, Rookie." She said, eyeing the Agent who looked so smug in the chair, "I'd like to see you go against Stark."
Without Skye, Natasha had only hoped to destroy the data at best, now she had actual hard evidence to give to Fury.
"Stark?" Skye repeated, surprised and eyes wide, "As in, like, Iron Man!?"
Agent Romanov simply smiled, amused by this kid's antics. There was a short pause between them, within which Natasha noticed that the (admittedly attractive) young woman was wearing a dark blue plaid shirt underneath the leather jacket. It hadn't seemed out of the ordinary at first, but now she frowned - that really wasn't a field ready outfit.
"So..." Skye began, feeling awkward under the woman's calculating gaze, but she was saved by her comms device suddenly crackling back to life as Coulson's frantic voice came through, "Skye? Skye, do you copy? Skye? You need to get out of there."
"What's wrong?" Skye replied, heart leaping to her throat.
"There's a bomb rigged to blow in 2 minutes. Ward couldn't disable it, you need to get out of there rightnow!" Coulson's measured voice was on the edge of panic.
"Is the team safe?" Skye asked, dread filling her at the thought of FitzSimmons trapped alone.
"We're all here. Worry about yourself." He ordered, "Just get back safe, Skye."
"There's a bomb!" Skye exclaimed to Romanov, who had been quietly listening in, "We have two minutes."
Natasha's eyebrows rose and she grabbed Skye by the elbow as she ran out the door. She had a quick exit strategy plan already set up. She glanced at her watch as she reached lower to grabbed Skye's hand instead - making sure she kept up and sprinted right, then left and along the longest stretch of corridor.
1 minute.
She legged in up the emergency stairs, their feet clambering against the metal as they ran higher – Skye struggling to keep up until they reached halfway.
30 seconds.
There was a door, held fast by a large and rusted wheel which took both their strength to turn. It finally unlocked and Natasha pushed it open. They must've been 40 ft above the water – the door opening from the mountain into the lake.
"Can you swim?" Natasha asked, peering down at the lake. Skye joined her at her side, stepping out to view the water.
"I gu-" Skye was ripped off her feet as she went flying out the doorway. Before her mind could process anything she was falling – fast. Her ears were ringing and she hit the water with a crash. She struggled to get her bearings about her as she sank, disorientated and unsure which way was up. She kicked her arms and legs, hoping that she was going the right way. Her lungs burned – all her breath had already been knocked out of her by the explosion. She tried not to panic. There was a harsh, stinging pain on her leg that kept tugging when she kicked.
Natasha broke the surface, and looked around her – heart pumping fast as she tried to keep calm, "Skye!?" she yelled, looking around her at the choppy surface. The mountain was crashing into the lake all around them – creating substantial waves for her to fight against.
She dived down – eyes open and desperately searching for another body. She couldn't find anything and her heart sank – Skye could have been launched anywhere by the blast. She went back up for breath – spying a hand splashing the surface a hundred feet away.
She raced towards Skye, pushing herself to swim as fast as possible, eyes focused on the point of disturbance. Skye crashed through the surface again and Natasha launched herself forward, reaching Skye as she sank. Natasha quickly dived under to grab her by the lapels of her leather jacket – bringing the girl back up to the surface. She was relieved when her companion spluttered, coughing out water to clear her airways.
Skye leant heavily against Romanov as she fought to clear her lungs of the lake water. Her throat burned. Natasha fought to keep both of them above the surface as they were hit by another wave, and ducked under to hold Skye up and ensure the poor kid wouldn't drown whilst she was still gasping for breath.
When Natasha came up, she noticed with concern that Skye's head was bleeding, no doubt a piece of shrapnel had cut into her.
Skye did her best to keep herself afloat as Agent Romanov began swimming towards the edge of the lake, but it was challenging as her leg still hurt and her head felt drowsy. At least Romanov was a good swimmer.
Natasha was grateful the edge of the lake wasn't too far away. It wasn't as if Skye was particularly heavy, but swimming against the waves was hard work.
It was relief when they finally made it to the embankment and Natasha could collapse to the ground – laughing in relief, shock and the joy of being alive. Skye joined in, with a slightly weaker chuckle.
If someone had told her 5 months ago that she would be blown out of the doorway of a French Military base and into the lake to be rescued by a hot secret agent – she would have laughed and told them they were crazy.
At least she would have been right about something:this shit was crazy.
Chapter 2: RybkaSummary:A night in the woods with Natasha and Hypothermia.
Notes:Rybka = little fish
Chapter TextIt felt like Skye was coming down from a high. Or rather, crashing, after a high. Her heart was still pumping like crazy but every limb just felt so tired and achey and all she wanted to do was close her eyes and…
"Skye? Hey, rybka, your leg," Natasha pointed out, spying Skye's bloodied leg. Skye groaned and sat back on her elbows to look at her leg.
It was indeed bleeding. And it stung. "I think somethings stuck," Skye grumbled, "Like something's lodged inside."
"Let me check," Agent Romanov all but ordered, not waiting for an answer as she rolled up Skye's black jeans – which were darkening fast with her blood. Skye was just glad she'd shaved.
"Well, it could be worse," Romanov observed, "It looks like there's about two inches of metal stuck in there, it's not very deep but it's going to hurt to take out."
"It already hurts," Skye shrugged, and hissed when the other agent touched it, "Just tell me you have, like, a first aid qualification or something."
"I've extracted many bullets before," Natasha answered, amused.
"Oh good, well this should be a piece of cake then."
The agent's eyes scanned over Skye, making her shift awkwardly on the ground, suddenly very conscious of the wet clothes clinging to her skin like wet paper. The wind picked up and she shivered.
"Take off your jacket," Romanov said, "I'll need your shirt."
Skye raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"
Natasha smiled, rolling her eyes at Skye, "I need something to stop the bleeding."
"Oh, right..." Skye muttered, a little embarrassed as she shrugged off her jacket. Before Romanov could, she tore off a strip from the bottom of the shirt, silently mourning the loss of a favourite shirt as did so. "It's like in the movies, right?" Skye asked, handing her the strips.
"Sure." Romanov replied, and placed her hand on Skye's ankle to hold her leg in place, smiling as reassuringly as she could, "Just try not to move, okay?"
"Yes Ma'am," Skye said, and braced herself for the pain, biting down on her lip. As brave as she tried to feel, probably the worst injury she'd ever had was a broken leg in 5th grade when Michael pushed her down the stairs. An operation to remove metal in her leg, in the middle of a forest in France, was a whole other league. At least Romanov was a nice distraction.
Were her eyes always this intense green colour? It was nice, especially against her red hair – "OW!" Skye yelped, glancing back down in horror as Romanov placed something to the side and began wrapping the fabric tight around the wound. She fastened it tight, Skye's eyes were still wide in shock, but at least the pain had subsided somewhat.
"You okay?" Natasha asked, concerned.
"Yeah," Skye breathed, "That was just, wow!... You know...?"
"Wow indeed," Natasha replied, handing Skye the bloodied two-inch-thick piece of shrapnel. She gestured to it: "A momento."
"From France, with love," Skye scoffed, but pocketed the metal anyway.
"How's your head feeling?" Natasha asked, spying a small cut above Skye's eyebrow, but it didn't look too serious.
"A little fuzzy," Skye answered, honestly.
Natasha nodded looked around at their surroundings, standing up to run a perimeter check and find the best place to stay the night – since the sun was already setting and Clint wasn't extracting until the morning. It was unfortunate that all her emergency gear was on the other side of the lake.
Skye tried to stand up, wincing as she did so, but Natasha put a hand on her shoulder to keep her down, "Stay here," she ordered, "You could have concussion."
Skye obeyed, happy to keep off her leg for now anyway. Coulson must be worried sick – and the rest of the team. What if May had gone on a kill spree or something? No, she reasoned. May wouldn't do that.
Her hair felt stringy and she tried to comb through and wring out some of the water. She tried to stop shivering but it was hard – as the sun dropped, so did the temperature. The wind was picking up too. Everything felt damp and horrible. Skye just wanted to take a nice, warm shower and then hide in her bunk on the Bus. Maybe sleep a whole day – if Ward allowed it.
He should give her some slack though, after narrowly escaping an explosion and having minor surgery in the middle of the woods. Ward and Romanov might get on quite well, she thought, they both had serious vibes yet Romanov seemed a little too warm to be a T-1000. Maybe a T-100 – the slightly more humanoid model. Somehow, though, the thought of Ward and Romanov together made her feel uneasy, as if she almost wanted to keep her to herself. Which was absurd, of course.
When T-100 came back, she seemed satisfied enough that they weren't going to be attacked by French bears or something. Does France even have bears?
"We should find shelter – there's a place not too far."
Skye nodded, and Romanov came to her side to help her up. Try as she might to stand independently, she was leaning heavily on her for support. She couldn't help the hiss of pain as she hobbled next to Romanov. The agent took her jacket in the other hand.
"So…" Skye began, trying to distract herself from her discomfort, "Do you have a first name? I'm tired of calling you Agent Romanov."
"It's Natasha," Natasha replied.
"Natasha Romanov…" Skye thought out loud, "I've heard that before, did you write a book or something?"
Natasha laughed, "God, no." She paused, looking up to the falling sun, "You might know me as Black Widow though."
Skye almost lost her footing and Natasha had to brace to catch her in case she fell, "You - you mean Black Widow? THE Black Widow?"
Natasha chuckled, "Yes."
"Black – Freaking – Widow." Skye continued in wonder.
"Listen, I'm really just a regular S.H.I.E.L.D Agent – like you."
"Uhh," Skye began, bringing the hand that wasn't wrapped around Black Widow's shoulder for support to her hair, "I'm technically only a consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D."
Instead of being shocked, Black Widow didn't miss a beat - "That would explain a lot."
"What do you mean!?" Skye protested.
Natasha raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "You yelled 'bang' when you pulled the trigger."
"Yeah, well I'm good at other things…"
"I know." Natasha replied, thinking of the USB still tucked safe in her pocket. They reached the spot she'd scoped out and she helped Skye to the ground.
It was a little mossy area under an overhanging rock which jutted out of a small cliff face, located higher up than their surroundings so they could anticipate any ambushes and keep watch. She doubted they'd run into much trouble though. There was hardly anything except wildlife for miles and their chief threat had just been blown to pieces.
She leant down and searched for some flint, lucky that they were in a very mountainous region, "You know how to build a fire?" She asked Skye, who looked up from examining her leg.
"Uh, the Brody's took me to girl scouts once? That was a long time ago, though, so I guess not."
"Well survival skills 101 – know how to build a fire."
She promptly began explaining the process to Skye, who listened with rapt attention, unlike when she was a girl scout and didn't care in the slightest. As least this time around she had Black Widow as her teacher. You'd have to be crazy not to listen an Avenger. They were like Superhero Royalty.
"Won't a fire catch attention?" Skye wondered, after Natasha had managed to create a small blaze. The heat was already very welcome to her icy skin.
"It might, yes," Natasha agreed, "But I can handle it, right now our priority is making sure you don't get hypothermia."
"What about you?" Skye asked with a frown.
"I'm Russian." She replied. As if that was an answer in itself, "Plus," she added, "This suit dries quickly, see? I'm almost dry already."
She was, notably, holding up much better than Skye, whose clothes were still drenched and her teeth had begun chattering. At least the last time she'd gotten soaked, it'd been in Quinn's heated swimming pool. She hugged her middle to try and keep warm, since her shirt was now practically a mid-drift.
Natasha sat down close by, gently feeding bigger pieces of wood into the fire for the flames to slowly scorch to dust.
"Whose team are you with?" Natasha asked.
"Agent Coulson's." Skye answered, and found a big stick to poke the fire with.
Black Widow's eyes shot up to Skye's, the firelight dancing dangerously across her iris, shadowing her expression which seemed to darken. Skye almost flinched at the intensity there.
"Coulson's dead," she accused, "I saw it, he was stabbed in the heart by Loki. There's no way."
"Yeah, I heard that." Skye said, hugging herself tighter, "Apparently its Level 8 knowledge to know he's alive. May said he was only dead for 10 seconds and then they sent him Tahiti"
Skye shrugged as she kept her focus on the fire, poking a scorched piece of wood with her stick and avoiding Natasha's scrutinising gaze, "I guess it's just a magical place."
"A magical place…" Natasha repeated, the phrase was familiar and gave her an uneasy feeling.
Although it seemed unbelievable, Natasha believed Skye. The girl showed no hint of lying and it was just like Coulson to hire such a misfit and take her under SHIELD's wings. Whatever Skye told her was what she honestly believed was the truth. Even if it may not be.
One thing was for sure: Fury was about to get the interrogation of his life.
Skye felt a shudder ripple through her body at the cold and reached for her discarded leather jacket, which dripped lake water over the forest floor. She groaned and tried to wring it out before attempting to snuggle under it. At this rate it'd only make her colder.
Natasha noticed with much concern that the girls' lips were almost turning blue. She got up and walked over, crouching behind her.
"If you lean on me, I can keep you shielded from the wind and you'll heat up much quicker," she said in her ear, which Skye almost jumped at the proximity. Skye was so cold, and miserable at this point, that she simply nodded in agreement.
Natasha sat down behind Skye, and pulled her towards her chest, so Skye was leaning on her and facing the fire. Skye felt the difference immediately as her back began warming up while her face was blasted by the heat of the fire.
It was all strictly business though, surely agents did things like this to stay alive all the time, right? Surely Fitz would do this for Simmons. Although maybe they weren't the best example.
Natasha caught a glint on Skye's wrist in the firelight and reached around to trail her hand to her wrist, holding it up to the firelight. Skye blushed, and was glad Natasha couldn't see. Shame filled her, too.
"This is a technology jammer, isn't it?" Natasha asked, "Did one hack too many?"
"Something like that," Skye mumbled.
Natasha tried a different angle, "How did you become a consultant for SHIELD?"
Skye sighed, "I joined the Rising Tide, you know, that hacktivist group that believes in freedom of information? Well I was looking into the Centipede Project and got on Coulson's radar. They were sent to interrogate me, but I ended up helping them, and Mike Peterson. Coulson must've seen something in me. He let me join the team. May wasn't very happy."
"Melinda May?" Natasha wondered.
"You know each other?"
"We've met," Natasha answered vaguely, "I have a lot of respect for her."
"Huh," Skye replied.
"So now you're working with them?"
"Kinda," Skye said, "I just sort of do the internet stuff. I don't know if I'm technically even cleared to do anything with SHIELD. I think the big bosses let Coulson do what he wants in his fancy jet. It's a small team, there's Fitz and Simmons to do science stuff, Ward's there to be all overbearing and May to be the pilot although she's kick ass too."
Usually Natasha talked on missions to pass the time, but Skye was really very interesting to listen too. She grabbed another log from beside them and chucked in on the fire, her arm coming to rest by Skye's waist. It felt natural to just leave it there.
"You live on the jet?"
"Yeah," Skye replied, waving some ash out of her face, "We bunk. It's kinda like living in my van. But bigger and with a shower."
"You lived in a van?"
This time Skye didn't answer immediately, instead picked at the makeshift bandage on her leg. Natasha wondered if she had overstepped before Skye said, quietly, "It was home."
Natasha understood that. SHIELD was home for her. Clint was home for her. You make your own home when you don't have one.
"I owe Coulson," Skye began again, twisting the bracelet on her wrist, "He gave me a second chance, even after I screwed everything up."
Skye still felt a deep shame at having betrayed the team like that. She had done it to protect Miles, but still, Ward's distance and Coulson's anger hurt.
"I was given a second chance too," Natasha replied, beginning to braid Skye's hair back as a distraction for her mind, "Back in Russia, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for – or on. I got on SHIELDs radar in a worse way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, but he made a different call."
Skye kept still, letting the secret agent braid her hair, which was wet and irritating her neck anyway.
"SHIELD's a chance to do better," Natasha advised, "To go straight."
It was fully dark by now, the sun long gone and the fire dying out. Skye pushed another log into the fire. Peeking through the trees she could see the moon, and thousands of scattered stars. They were clearer here than in L.A. It was breath taking.
Skye yawned. Natasha noticed, and was finished with the French braid.
"Go to sleep, I'm taking first watch."
"Wake me up when it's my turn?" Skye asked, trying to be fair, even when she felt exhausted.
"Sure," Natasha replied, feeling Skye's head settle heavily on her shoulder. It must've been ten seconds before the girl's breath was already evened out and she was gone.
Natasha knew she wouldn't wake her up. She was content to stay alert and look at the moon for the time. It was what she was trained to do, after all.
When the wind picked up, and an icy blast of air was sent their way, it seemed reasonable to wrap both hands around Skye.
She had to stop the bears eating the kid, after all. Poor rybka wouldn't last a day on her own.
Chapter 3: BearsNotes:Thank you for all the lovely comments and kudos!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextNatasha registered the beeping some time in the morning – just at the break of dawn. She frowned, on alert and grabbed for her gun. She had to juggle Skye in her arms, who didn't stir. Taking an indulgent moment to admire how soft she looked in the golden light, she paused, but shifted her off her lap and unto the ground. "I'll be back," she promised.
A few minutes later Skye was startled awake by a cold breeze blowing over the mountain. For a moment, she was confused, very confused. Did she…get drunk? Did she fall out of the plane?
Leg hurt, ow.
She felt a little sluggish as she sat up, puzzling with her surroundings before spying the dwindling fire before her and remembering Natasha. Alarmed, she glanced around, but couldn't see Black Widow in any direction. It was just trees, and a rock, and then more trees.
As she hobbled up to a stand, she noted with a grimace that her clothes were still damp – dryer, but damp. Her heart lurched and anxiety started to creep into her when she still couldn't see Natasha.
She jumped - there was a disturbance in the bushes around her. Thinking on her feet, she slowly bent down to grab the pointiest looking stick from the ground. Perfect, she thought, as she brandished it like a club in front of her. She could lug it at their head and then stab them.
Creeping forward was a tense moment, and she wondered whether moving towards the sound was the right idea.
A bush rustled.
Skye' grip tightened on pointy stick tight in front of her, peering around the bush as she spied movement. She took a deep breath and sprung out, swinging the stick up with a 'HIYAH!'.
Before she could register anything, she was flat on her back, Natasha leaning on her stomach.
They made eye contact, and Natasha gave a sigh of relief as Skye let out a small, pained, "Ow."
Natasha manoeuvred off of Skye and offered the girl a hand, pulling her up to her feet. She glanced down at the stick, stifling a laugh, "That was your choice of weapon?"
"Didn't have any better ideas," Skye retorted, "Especially seeing as you went walkabout."
"I heard something," Natasha explained, a little apologetically, "And found this," Natasha said, gesturing towards the tiny drone in her hands, or what resembled it, after it had been smashed out the sky, "Could be bad news."
Skye came up to her shoulder, examining the object before saying, "Oh, that's just bashful – or sleepy? I don't really know."
Natasha raised an eyebrow, looking for clarification, "It's a drone," Skye explained.
"I know that."
"FitzSimmon's must have sent it to look for me," Skye said, and crossed her arms, adding in an accusative tone, "Before you mashed it to death."
"Have to eliminate any threats." Natasha explained, tucking the 'dwarf' remains in her tool belt, before noticing Skye's paling face, despite how well the girl was trying to hold herself together. It must be the adrenalin. "We need to get to Clint before you drop dead on us."
"Hey I feel fine!" Skye protested, Natasha raised an disproving eyebrow, "Scratch that, maybe a little sore, you know, from the massive piece of shrapnelin my leg, but apart from that I'm right as rain, seriously."
"Do you like your limbs?" Natasha asked, amused.
"Yeah, I'd say I'm pretty fond of them," Skye replied, backing away from Black Widow at her pretty threatening question.
"Then we need to get you warm," Natasha pointed out, turning off in the direction of Clint's agreed co-ordinates.
"What? Are you saying they'll just fall off!?" Skye asked, hobbling over to the agent as she strode off into the wilderness.
Skye tripped over a tree root and the more seasoned agent held out a hand out to steady her, "Just try to stay quiet and follow my lead."
Skye tried to be stealthy, but Natasha could hear her stumbling over every rock and twig in her way as they made their way through the mountain.
"So…" Skye began, trying to fill the awkward silence that had drifted between them, "What are the Avengers like? Does Stark really have an AI?" Her voice lowered to a conspiratorial tone, "Is Thor god-like everywhere?"
Natasha stopped suddenly and Skye crashed into her back, letting out a muffled cry.
"Mud slide," Natasha said, pointing to the other side of the mountain, which had destroyed any chance of passing through, "Must've prevented your team from reaching you."
Skye noted how Natasha had avoided the question, but when they'd set off at a steady pace again, Black Widow called over her shoulder, "Steve sleeps with a teddy bear."
Skye's eyes nearly bugged out of her sockets, and she rushed to reach Natasha's side.
"Did he name it? Is it, like, centuries old?"
Natasha scoffed, "Steve's not centuries old." Then added, "He's about 90."
"He's a grandpa!" Skye gawked, "If he ever got in a relationship that's like grandpa action. Is that even legal? No, of course it's legal, you can probably marry anything…like a pig or a van. I could've married my van, but that would just be weird." She pulled a disgusted face, "So, the bear?" Her expression turned fond, "Does it have a little Captain America suit?"
Natasha just smiled at the vivacious questioning of Skye. She was very expressive, it made it easy to read her, and refreshing, since SHIELD didn't really deal in openness and honesty.
"You're not saying anything," Skye pointed out, "Does that mean the bear has a suit? If I'm right blink twice."
Natasha met Skye's excited eyes with a levelled stare, no blinking, and decided to steer the conversation away from the Avengers, "Is this your first mission?"
"3rd actually," Skye corrected, "Although it's been pretty crazy already. Simmons got zapped by an alien virus and jumped out a plane, and I crashed Quinn's party," she smiled, looking proud of herself, "I went undercover."
"And they let you go in without any weapons training?" Natasha asked, incredulous.
"Ward's trying but I'm not very good with guns and all."
"He's your SO?"
"Yeah," Skye groaned, "He's the worst. It's like 24/7 boot camp." She crossed her arms and schooled her expression into one like Wards, "Get off your ass Skye, and punch this bag of sand." She smiled to herself, but then her expression fell, "It's not the same as it used to be. They don't trust me."
Natasha nodded, "Then show them you can be trusted."
Skye gave her a soft smile back, and for the first time, Natasha saw something more than an excitable rookie in the girl. She had a lot of hidden sadness too.
Black Widow checked the compass on her belt, frowning, "We should be close, but-"
She looked up and paused, her breath hitching. Skye stopped too, "What-" she began to ask, but Natasha placed a hand over her mouth to keep her quiet and pointed to the bear right in front of them. Skye's heart felt a sudden flash of panic and she froze completely. The bear looked up from the ground to stare straight at them. Natasha grabbed Skye's elbow, slowly backing away, and drawing her gun.
"Go slow," she whispered, but it was pointless as the bear roared and charged, Natasha yelled, "RUN!"
Skye didn't even think. She just took off into the trees, praying that she didn't trip and get eaten like in a corny horror movie. Death by bear was not how a superspy should go down.
Her leg hurt, and made it harder to run, but she gritted her teeth and pushed herself forward. The terrain was bumpy and uphill, but she could see a clearing close by. A gun shot rang out and her heart jumped. She burst through the bush, only to stop short as a crossbow was aimed directly at her face, "I come in peace!" she cried, moving to get behind the man with the crossbow. He spun around, keeping the weapon level with her.
"I'm with SHIELD!" she said, "And unless you want to be a bear snack I suggest you aim at that!"
Agent Clint Barton spun around, but there was no bear, only Natasha sauntering up to them.
"Kid, that's not a bear." Clint scoffed, "What's your name?" he asked.
"Skye." She replied, still breathless, and gestured towards Natasha, "I'm with her."
Only when Natasha nodded did he finally relax his arm and let the crossbow fall to his side.
The Zephr stood behind Clint, looming through the trees in a clearing. Skye gaped at it, and couldn't help exclaiming 'cool!' at the sight.
Natasha didn't pause to sight see, however, and ushered Skye onto the plane to get warm.
There was a shower on the Zephr, but one which only ran hot water for five minutes so it was a quick warm-up, before pulling on the warm military style clothes that Natasha had dug up.
It was amazing to feel dry again, and warm, in clean clothes.
"Who knew France had bears, huh?" Skye commented when she was reunited with Natasha again, who chucked a few blankets at her, ordering her to put them on, despite feeling much better already.
Clint just stood there, arms crossed and his eyebrows raised, "It's the wilderness."
"Right." Skye answered, then couldn't help but add, "I'm a city girl. The only bears in New York are Rednecks on the subway."
Natasha humoured her with a smile, but he didn't say anything, just silently assessed her. Skye could almost taste the awkward tension, and hugged the top blanket tighter around her middle.
Natasha glanced between the two of them, "Skye this is Agent Clint Barton."
He moved forward to shake her hand, Skye noted it was a firm handshake and tried to return as much pressure. The corner of his mouth turned up slightly and he let go, turning instead to shoulder a backpack and his crossbow.
"Hawkeye, right?" Skye asked.
Clint simply grunted and walked away, down the ramp of the Zephr. Natasha shot her a smile, "C'mon we gotta find your crew."
**
Skye shuffled after the pair, trying to keep the blankets still wrapped around her and navigate the mountainous terrain. The two Avengers, of course, had no problem. They were wrapped up in their own conversation and Skye only caught glimpses of 'Coulson' being mentioned.
Natasha had to keep stopping every so often for Skye to catch-up and Skye felt bad for slowing them down.
"If I wasn't wrapped up like a walking burrito, I could walk much faster," Skye proposed, for what felt like the 5th time, yet Black Widow shook her head.
"Don't want you getting cold."
Skye huffed and shuffled forward again, but Natasha stopped her, "Let's take a break, we've covered a lot of ground already."
Skye was relieved and immediately plonked herself down on a nearby log. Clint immediately walked off to survey their perimeters, leaving just Natasha.
"It's not fair y'know," Skye began, "You're both superhumans. I'm just a hacker, I sit in my van all day." She groaned, "I never thought I'd say it, but I wish I'd paid more attention in gym class."
"You're not in your van anymore though," Natasha said, "You're an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Consultant," Skye corrected.
"But you want to be an agent." Natasha pointed out, and said with a little concern, "You're going to have to deal with some dangerous situations, are you sure you can handle it?"
"I've got the team," Skye said with a shrug.
Natasha admired her confidence in her team, and hoped they wouldn't ever let Skye down. She felt that if they did it would destroy the rookie. This kid was in the wrong business.
"But not the skills," Natasha pointed out, "Even if Coulson does, I'm not letting you out into the field without knowing how to actually fire a gun."
Natasha gestured for her to get up, and Skye was happy to shed some of her blanket cocoon in favour of some training.
"The first thing you should always remember," Black Widow began, taking out her gun and holding it up, flat on her palm, "Is that it hurts to take lives. It should never be your first option, but if it's you or them, choose yourself."
Definitely a T-100, Skye thought, but nodded.
"Alright," Natasha continued and placed the gun in Skye's hands, explaining which part of the gun was which. Skye fought hard to remember correctly the safety and the magazine release this time, since it would more embarrassing to mess up in front of an Avenger than Ward.
Natasha demonstrated shooting at the trees for target practice. Skye noted her rigid form and perfect aim. It was almost terrifying how precise Black Widow was and with no visible effort.
"I guess we should be grateful you're on our side," Skye chuckled nervously.
"I guess so," Natasha replied, "Alright, your turn."
Skye was in no way as adept with a gun as Natasha. The bullets ricocheted everywhere and Clint had wandered back in fear of being the next target. Natasha had to step in at many points, her front sandwiched behind Skye's back, hands directing Skye's aim and correcting her posture.
Skye was reminded of last night, and how close Black Widow had been to her then. Her breath on her neck, just as it was now. Gentle, but distracting, and it really wasn't helping Skye's concentration.
She was relieved when Natasha had decided they were done, not because she was anywhere near tired but so she could calm her heart down.
After holstering the gun, Natasha bent down and grabbed a pointy stick from the ground and jabbed it in the air towards Skye, "Maybe you should teach me how to use these weapons."
Skye laughed, "So Black Widow has some humour?"
"I can be fun!" Natasha protested, a twinkle in her eye.
"I'm sure," Skye said, voice low as she moved forward, shuffling smoothly into Natasha's personal space, until she was right under her chin. Natasha was startled by Skye's sudden change of demeanour. Her eyes looked expectant, and looked Natasha up and down before biting her lip. Skye put a hand on Natasha's waist, and smiled, a big sly grin that said she was up to something. Sensing a distraction tactic, Natasha tried to keep a level head and pretend her heart hadn't just skipped a beat.
She moved a step backwards to say, "Nice try, Ribka. But I've still got the stick."
Skye shrugged, "I know, but I did just take your gun," Skye pointed out, triumphant as she held Black Widow's gun in her hand.
And Black Widow's face was priceless.
**
In the end, it took another hour of trekking through the forest, once more in burrito form, before the great wings of the jet were in their line of sight. Both the Avengers had grown tense, and Skye guessed it must've been to do with Coulson's resurrection.
Did he rise again three days after death?
Maybe Skye should go back to St Agnes' and say she'd finally found the path of God.
May must've seen them arrive, as the garage door was open. When they entered, Fitz Simmons were the first to spot them. It was almost comical how they both gasped in sync and rushed to greet her, or rather, Simmons rushed forward and Fitz wandered awkwardly behind.
"You're alive!" Jemma exclaimed, wrapping Skye in a tight hug, "I'm so glad you're okay! We thought we'd lost you! We tried the dwarves but it looked like Bashful had been kicked out the sky, and - oh we were so worried!"
When Jemma let go, Fitz rounded on her, "Don't you ever run off like that again!"
"Sorry," Skye apologised, "I was in good hands though," she said, gesturing to the two agents standing awkwardly behind her.
"Oh my god!" Simmons exclaimed, before she could think, looking past Skye to Black Widow and Hawkeye, standing there, on the Bus, in front of her, "You met two Avengers!" she mouthed to Skye who gave her a wide-eyed nod back.
Before Fitz or Simmons could geek out more over seeing two top operatives on the plane, Coulson appeared on the balcony and the room lapsed into silence.
Black Widow and Hawkeye simply stared at Phil, who had seen them on the CCTV, but yet was still shocked to see them in the flesh. Not as shocked as they must feel.
After another painful minute, Natasha broke the silence, "How was Tahiti?"
"It's a magical place," Coulson replied, before he could stop himself. Natasha shared a look with Clint. "I'm so sorry, it was protocol not to let the Avengers know. I know this must seem like I betrayed you, and I did, and I know if you can't forgive me-" Coulson began, but Clint stopped him.
"It's good to see you looking well, sir."
To Coulson it seemed they had taken the news better than he would've expected. Then again, Skye must've told them he was alive and given them time to prepare and discuss this meeting. Although of all the Avengers, he'd always thought these two would take the news the best. They understood protocol.
Whilst the Avengers exchanged hugs and pleasantries with A.C., Skye had been grafted into a conversation about the past 24 hours with Fitz Simmons and Ward (who stood and listened with his arms crossed). May had come down to say 'hi', except she didn't "say hi", more like acknowledge Natasha with a nod shrouded in secrecy. Skye supposed that was how BAMF Agents greeted each other. Made sense.
Soon May announced a take-off time and FitzSimmons scurried away to secure their equipment, as did Ward.
Natasha turned towards Skye, and stuck out her hand for a handshake, which Skye took but then launched Natasha into a hug.
"Stay safe, ribka," Natasha said, once they'd parted, "No more swimming."
"Yes ma'am," Skye retorted, with a mock salute.
Then both agents turned away and walked off the ramp. Skye's heart sank a little as she watched Natasha go. Then, just as they left the ramp, a thought struck her.
"Oh, by the way!" Skye called after her, "The data is coupled to a GPS – in a nice café in LA. They have good coffee!"
"Why don't you show me sometime!?" Natasha called back, with a wink.
Skye blushed, and had to compose herself before yelling over the engines of the jet,
"Maybe!"
Notes:This story is hopefully going to be a part of a series of mini stories about what would have happened if Skye had met Black Widow, and being mostly compliant with the canon of the MCU.
Series this work belongs to:Part 1 of If Skye Had Met Black Widow Next Work →