All those days watching from the windows...all those years outside looking in.
They walked lightly through the rubble, being careful to not disturb anything underneath. The city was barely holding on, and there was nobody left. There were a handful of citizens that had been able to escape before the worse came, but those who got left behind at least died trying. Coulson, Skye, Fitz and May were the first of SHIELD to see the wreckage, and they very well were not going to be the last group. They were sent in to try to find any alien debris before any other agents arrived.
Fitz started the scan with the D.W.A.R.F drones, with May by his side in case something set off the Drones radar. Coulson and Skye stood behind taking in the scene of broken buildings, glass and silence around them.
“This….this is” Skye tried to form words, she felt her stomach turning and tears burning her eyes just thinking about how many people couldn’t leave in time.
“I know, unfortunately this isn’t the first time I have seen this” Coulson interrupted. In his many years of being an agent this wasn’t his first rodeo. He was used to this feel in his gut, and learned how to move on to get the job done.
“Hey guys, Sleepy is picking something up over there, underneath that pile.” Fitz said holding up the tablet and pointing to a large pile of bricks closest to where Coulson and Skye had been standing.
The pile looked too heavy to move themselves, and Coulson knew they had a team of people on their way with the right equipment to remove the debris. “No, Coulson, I have a weird feeling we need to find what’s under this pile first before anyone else. Maybe I can use my powers and try to shift it over a bit.” Skye said with a look of worry in her eye. Coulson knew this look too well, and knew this would be an argument that he would lose. He gave Skye a quick nod of the head and watched her focus. She’s truly amazing he thought, never watching her powers work so closely before. He felt the ground vibrate a little, and started to feel concerned about the other unstable structures around them, but all he could do is put a little faith in Skye knowing what she was capable of doing.
Within a few minutes, the debris had been moved, or better had vibrated out of the way and Coulson and Skye were left looking into a hole in the ground, with something inside. The dust had gotten stirred up by Skye’s vibrations. “Fitz, what should we be looking for?” Coulson yelled over to Fitz, who was still analyzing the other drones data.
“Well, it looks like Sleepy found a hit on an object that looks like a body, with a smaller body? That can’t be right.” Before Fitz could say anything more, Skye jumped in to hole, no longer waiting for the dust to settle.
“Skye!” Coulson tried to stop her, but couldn’t move as fast before she was already in the hole. The dust was still in the air, still trying to settle making it hard for Coulson to see. “Skye! Do you see anything?” He waited, for her to respond, what felt like hours. Just a few minutes passed when he heard her voice.
“Coulson, can I have a hand out of here? It’s umm, there’s a baby down here. From what I can tell down here, it’s still breathing.” Coulson took a deep sigh of relief and reached down for her hand. The dust had begun to clear and he was able to see more clearly. When he got her out of hole, he saw the bundle she had recovered. The blanket was covered in dirt, but Coulson could make out pink and white little hearts.
Skye had a tight grip on the baby, and now that she was out of dust and could see clearly, she took a long look at the little face in her arms.
Inside the hole, the baby had been in the arms of man, who was not as lucky. Skye felt a sense of déjà vu with how her own rescue as an infant had been. When Skye lifted the little body from the man, she was afraid that the baby had died but she couldn’t just take the chance, like the agents had with her. She moved the arm that had secured the child, and lifted the little bundle. The baby had started to stir, making small noises, but stopped once Skye started cradling it.
Once out of the hole, Skye was able to see more details about the baby most of all it was wrapped in a pink blanket. The girl's face was covered in dirt but from what Skye could tell, no harm had come to the child. She felt Coulson move closer to her to look at the child.
“Wow, this is one lucky kid, I have a feeling she was a born fighter, like you Skye” Coulson was reaching in to the bag on his back to grab a t-shirt and a water bottle. He wet the shirt enough to make it damp and handed it over to Skye. “Here, this way we can get a proper look to make sure she isn’t hurt.”
Skye took the shirt and gently wiped the dirt off of the baby’s face, the little ones eyes opened. No sound came, but her bright blue eyes looked deep in to Skye’s brown ones. Skye found herself unable to look away. There was something about these eyes that had started to warm something deep inside of her.
Coulson grew concerned when Skye stopped cleaning the baby, and was just staring at the girl in front of her. “Hey, Skye, are you okay? Do you need me to take over? I can carry her back to the bus.” He put his hand on Skye’s shoulder
“No, no I got it. I’m going to walk back. I’ll get her to Jemma, to have her take a look.” She took a step back from Coulson.
“Fitz, May. Skye and I are going to walk back to the bus, we need to get this baby looked at. So far she looks okay but Simmons will be able to confirm. See if you can find anything else. Fitz, Can I get you to get a DNA sample from the body in the hole. There is a chance that could be one of her parents.”
“On it Sir” Fitz said and May nodded her head in Coulson’s direction.
__
They made it back to the bus, and Coulson went back out to the field to help finish the search. “You didn’t have to walk us back, I would have been fine on my own.” Skye said to Coulson as she walked up the ramp, he shook his head and smiled as he turned and walked away.
“I know you would have been.” He said, and Skye let out a laugh.
Skye made it to the lab, and Simmons looked over the child.
“She’s perfectly healthy, just a little hungry” Simmons said looking over a chart. The little girl had been stripped from the blanket and was sitting up on her own on the table. Skye stood next to her, making sure she didn’t fall over and off. The little girl reached for Skye’s hair and face and laughed when she got a hold of Skye’s lip. “I’d say this little bundle of laughs is 7 or 8 months old. She has a few teeth, so she can chew. There is a banana on Fitz’s desk, she can nibble on for now, until we can get some other soft solid foods for her.” Simmons walked out of the lab and came back with the banana. “Here Skye did you want to feed her?”
“Sure” Skye started to peel the banana and both women laughed when the little girl kept trying to grab it out of her hand. Skye broke a small piece off and handed it to the little one, who immediately put it in her mouth.
“There you are little one that should tide you over for now” Jemma said to her giving her slight rub on the back. “We are going to need to find some clean clothes and some diapers for her. I guarantee there aren’t any on the bus. I’m sure there’s some cloth in the lab we can use to make a make-shift for now. We should probably bathe her.”
“That’s probably a great idea, this banana is going all over.” Skye chuckled, and rubbed the little girl’s cheek. “What are we going to do with you little one?”
Jemma looked at Skye and shook her head, “For now, all we can do is keep her safe”
_
After the baby finished the banana, Skye and Jemma, made a make-shift bath out of a deep container, and the found an extra small sized SHIELD shirt as well as something to make a cloth diaper from. Jemma had found a small throw blanket she kept in her room, and had laid it on the lab table for Skye to change the baby on. After the little girl was dressed in the shirt and diaper, she let out a little yawn and reached for Skye.
“You have had quite a day, don’t you say little one. No wonder you are tired!” Jemma cooed and nodded at Skye. “I really need to stay in the lab for when Fitz gets back with any other findings. I think we should let this little one rest.”
“Come here little one” Skye said as she scooped up the baby and the blanket, “I’ll be in Coulson’s office, I need to start on the paper work for this mess. Just let him know when they get back?”
Jemma nodded and headed back to her desk, and Skye and the baby headed towards Coulson’s office. The baby had laid her head on Skye’s shoulder and had a handful of her hair. Once they entered the office, Skye sat in Coulson’s office chair. “This is the closest thing to a rocking chair, so bear with me little one.” And Skye wrapped the blanket around the baby cuddled her on her chest and started to rock. She recalled a lullaby her dad had sung to her when she first met him, and it was something she still found comfort in, so she started to hum to the little girl.
Skye had lots of little babies around St. Agnes and when she had gotten old enough the nuns would let her help put the babies to sleep. But there was something about holding this baby in her arms and humming her dads lullaby to her that just made Skye feel special. The baby in her arms started to close her eyes and let out a final yawn, Skye smiled and laid her head against the back of the chair and closed her own eyes and they both drifted asleep.
_
Coulson helped May and Fitz carry in the findings of debris the DWARFs had hit on in to the lab.
"Jemma, where is Skye and the baby?" May asked as they set down the large container.
"After the examination of the baby girl, she was sleepy, and Skye took her to Coulson’s office so she can nap. The little one had quite a rough day, but she extremely healthy, and will be fine. “Jemma said as she placed her lab glasses on to inspect the debris. Fitz had started to put his gloves on as well.
May nodded "We will need wheels up in at least 20 before the other teams start to ask us questions about what we have found."
"I'll head to my office to tell Skye." Coulson turned and walked out of the lab and to his office. The door had been shut and he did not want to knock and risk waking the baby up, so he quietly opened the door. The office was dark, with just a lamp on in the corner. It was bright enough to see Skye had fallen asleep in his chair. She looks so peaceful he thought. He noticed she had fallen asleep still holding the baby. Skye looks great with a baby, so beautiful, not an image he would have thought he’d ever see. He rounded his desk and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Skye, shhh its just me.” Coulson whispered, and Skye opened her eyes and smiled looking up at him.
“Mm I must have fallen asleep.” She checked the baby who was still dozing on her shoulder, “She’s still sleeping. They always look so peaceful when they are sleeping.”
“I woke you up because May is trying to get wheels up in 20. And I wanted to check on you and her. Everything alright?” Coulson said hand still on Skye’s shoulder.
“Everything is fine Phil, you worry too much. Jemma gave her a look over and the baby is fully healthy, we gave her a bath and she even had a little banana. Did you find anything interesting? Did you find her parents?”
“We brought back some debris that the DWARFS picked up on, as far as the baby’s parents goes, there isn’t good news. The body of the man holding her in the ground was biologically related, Simmons ran a quick test in the lab. We also found a body of a woman not too far away, who was also related.”
“She’s basically orphaned, what are we going to do? After that type of destruction, I don’t want to hand her over to the government. I’ve been in the system Phil, and it’s not pretty.” Skyes voice started to break, and Coulson could see tears start to well up in her eyes.
“We are going to take care of her for now, I agree that we can’t hand her over just yet, Skye we will figure this out.”
Skye nodded and the baby started to move. “I guess we woke her up.” She said frowning up at Coulson. “My arm has fallen asleep anyway, can you take her?”
Coulson reached for the baby and cradled her in his arms. She had opened her eyes and was looking deep in to his, the baby gave him an almost toothless smile and yawned. Skye caught Coulson smiling down at the baby and felt the same warmth the baby had given her earlier. “Looks like she likes you Boss.”
“What can I say, I’m quite the ladies man.” Coulson said giving Skye the same smile he had given the baby, and Skye giggled.
“Okay charm school. I need to change before we take off, do you think you can handle the baby until I get back?”
“I think I can handle this.” Skye walked out the door of the office and turned around to catch Phil rocking on his heel and starting to hum the same lullaby Skye had earlier.