trouble
When Maria finally has a break, she goes to check in on the girls. She pops by Phil’s office to see what he sent the girls to do.
“I send them to their room for the rest of the day,” Phil tells her and Maria feels her heart drop into her stomach.
“Both of them were punished by being locked into small spaces whenever they did something wrong,” Maria tells him and Phil glances up at her. She knew how badly Yelena reacted when confined to her room.
“They’re not locked in,” He says like he didn’t understand why they wouldn’t be terrified to step out of someplace they were sent to be punished.
“So? They probably wouldn’t even show up to dinner,” Maria levels a glare at him. “It was promised to them that we don’t withhold food as punishment.”
“Why did you send them to me if you’re going to get upset about how I handled it?” Phil demands, running a hand through his hair.
“Just--” Maria lets out a sigh. “What are the other rules and punishments you set up with Skye? We’ll do any of them also involved being grounded?”
“I haven’t really set up any rules yet,” Phil admits and Maria raised an eyebrow.
“You have no rules and boundaries but you punish her for something she may not have understood was wrong?” Maria questioned, already feeling a headache coming on. “Jesus, Phil. I thought we talked about setting up rules, boundaries, and punishments!”
“I haven’t gotten around to it yet!” Phil replies before letting out a sigh.
“Skye is a teenager. She needs rules and guidance. You can’t let her run wild and then get mad at her for doing something she didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to do.” Maria folds her arms. “Forget whatever you have going on for the rest of the day. I want you to draw up rules and punishments for Skye. No hitting, no yelling, no withholding food, no being sent to her room for more than an hour or two, not taking away her possessions…”
“How the hell am I supposed to punish her then?” Phil questioned, bewildered as Maria lists things.
“Figure it out. Pick up a damned parenting book. We’ll talk more later,” Maria’s frustrated and she has kids she needs to go talk with. She turns on her food and walks toward Yelena’s room first.
As soon as the door slides open, Maria’s heart sinks at the sight before her. The room looked like a tornado went through it, things spilled everywhere, sheets ripped off the bed, and clothes dumped from the drawers. If it was any other of Maria’s agents, she would have reprimanded them for their lack of control.
Then she spots Yelena tucked up against the wall, curled into a ball with drying tears on her cheeks. Yelena peers up at her before she averts her eyes in shame, wiping at her face.
Maria quickly crosses the room and crouches down next to Yelena. “What happened?” She questioned, keeping her tone soft.
“I’m sorry.” Yelena croaks out, ignoring her question completely. “I didn’t mean to make you mad.”
“Yelena, sweetheart, I’m not mad,” Maria tells her, reaching out to smooth back some of Yelena’s hair that had stuck up from Yelena tugging at it. She wonders what exactly Phil said before he sent them to their rooms. “What did Coulson tell you?”
Yelena swallows hard, deep in thought. She doesn’t reply to Maria’s question so Maria lets it drop for now. “Can I hug you?” Maria then inquired, unsure of Yelena’s exact mental state and not wanting to trigger her.
Yelena takes a moment before she slowly nods and starts to unfold from where she had curled up into a ball. Yelena reaches toward her and Maria doesn’t hesitate to pull her close. Yelena pressed her cheek against her shoulder, her fingers grasping bits of Maria’s uniform as she tries to pull herself closer.
Maria rocks them side to side, her first priority was to settle Yelena down before she could move to check in on Skye. Yelena doesn’t speak, whatever she was thinking about was dragging her down. Maria braced her hand against the back of Yelena’s neck, giving it a gentle squeeze.
When Yelena eventually pulls away, she gives her face one last wipe with the back of her sleeve. “I’m sorry.” She repeats.
“I know. Let’s go get Skye and then come to my office. We’ll talk there,” Maria says and notices how Yelena tenses up. “Not a bad talk. I promise.”
Yelena looks unsure but nods her head and lets Maria pull her to her feet. “What about the room?” She questioned quietly, peering around the destroyed room.
“We’ll get it clean later. Talk first,” Maria tells her and heads down to Skye’s room, Yelena trailing behind her.
While Skye’s room wasn’t trashed, she was in a similar state as Yelena. She had tucked herself into the corner, her face buried into her knees. Yelena brushed past Maria to approach her, crouching down beside her.
“Hey Skynet,” Yelena greets her softly and Skye peers up at Yelena, Maria catching sight of her teary face before Skye lurches at Yelena to cling to her much like Yelena did with Maria.
Maria waits by the door, unsure if they would appreciate her butting in. Maria speaks up when Skye finally pulls away to rub at her face furiously. “Can we go to my office and talk?”
Skye clings to Yelena, even as she stands. They don’t let go of each other, even when they’re sitting on the couch in Maria’s office.
Maria pulls her desk chair around to take a seat in front of them. They’re staring up at her with wary and cautious gazes, grasping each other's shirts in an attempt to comfort each other.
Before Maria can even speak, Skye blurts out. “I’m sorry for what happened. I didn’t mean for anybody to get hurt.”
“I know.” Maria soothes. “I want to talk to you about what is and isn’t okay concerning behavior with other agents. I know that you like to pull little jokes and pranks but you’re starting to toe the line of going to far.”
If Phil wasn’t going to draw the line, Maria was.
Maria goes on to explain when a prank goes too far. She asks the girls to put themselves in the agent's shoes, imaging themselves getting covered in maple syrup.
Then she asks about what exactly Phil told them. As soon as Skye mentions the words “you need to be good”, she resists the urge to sigh.
“You two are good people. This little incident doesn’t suddenly make you bad,” Maria needs to make that clear. “Good people make mistakes sometimes. You two didn’t mean to hurt anybody. You didn’t mean to go too far. It was an accident.”
“I wanna be able to go to the farm for Christmas,” Yelena tells Maria in a tiny voice.
“Canceling that trip is not an option. I won’t let anyone take that away from you as a punishment,” Maria found the fact that Phil even suggested that to Yelena to be cruel and unnecessary. “Even if you make mistakes. Nobody is perfect and we all mess up sometimes.”
“Did you mess up a lot?” Skye questioned and Maria lets out a laugh as she nods her head.
“Yeah. I used to get in trouble all the time in basic training for the army. I was young and I was angry. I didn’t make a lot of good choices and as a result I was punished almost constantly. I’d have to do push-ups and run laps. I’d run even while it was raining or cold at night,” Maria recalls, leaning forward. “And afterward, my sergeant always told me he knew I could do better. He pushed me to be better and he let me get out all my anger.”
“You didn’t get kicked out?” Skye questioned, sounding slightly awed. “You messed up a lot but they still kept you?”
“They didn’t give up on me. And I’m not giving up on you. I’m changing the punishment that Coulson gave you,” Maria says and the girls peer at each other. “You’re writing lines, just like when you were staying with me.”
“Do we still have to stay in our room?” Yelena asked Maria.
“No.” Maria shakes her head.
“Do we get to eat dinner?” Skye pipes up.
“I promised you that we don’t withhold food as punishment,” Maria reminds them. “Three meals every day.”
Skye finally folds her arms. “Why do you get to change our punishment? Phil’s my guardian.”
“Because I don’t agree with how he handled things,” Maria tells them, leaning back in her chair. “You made a mistake but you’re not bad. You’re still loved and you’re still good kids.”
Once Maria has reassured them, she grabs clipboards and loaded them with empty sheets of paper and pens. She holds one out to each of them and tells them to write “I will not pull harmful pranks on other agents”.
Skye and Yelena were quiet as they set upon writing lines on the paper. Maria takes her seat at her desk and opens her laptop. She sends an email out to Fury, asking him if the girls could be sent to her to dole out punishment when they got in trouble.
When they finished, Maria collects the clipboards and then sets a hand on each of their shoulders. “It’s okay to make mistakes. It’s part of how you learn and grow as a person. Two agents were injured and I want you to apologize to them, clean up the mess you left in the gym, and then all will be forgiven.”
Yelena frowns. “What if they try to hurt us back?” She asked quietly, fidgeting slightly.
“They’re not going to hurt you back. I’ll be there too so that they won’t even try anything,” Maria knew the agents were good agents that just caught up in the girl's shenanigans. But she couldn’t convince the girls of that until they saw for themselves.
“Then after that is dinner. I expect you both to show up and eat,” Maria tells them firmly, not willing to risk Phil’s words stopping them from showing up in the cafeteria out of fear. “Do you understand?”
The girls murmur out a “yes ma’am” and Maria resists the urge to sigh.
“Right. Let’s go then,” Maria starts as she stands and Skye stood as well.
“Wait!” She yelps and Maria paused in her tracks. “What do we say?”
Maria considered the fact that their apologies consisted of nothing more than ‘I’m sorry’. “What do you think you should say?” She counters.
“Uh… I’m sorry… for pouring syrup on you?” Skye tries, glancing to Yelena for help.
“I’m sorry we hurt you,” Yelena said much more quietly. “It was… a mistake. We won’t do it again.”
“I think that sounds fine,” Maria tells them. “Come on.”
The girls apologize to the agents that were hurt. One sprained their ankle slipping in the syrup while the other had tumbled into a dumbbell tower and a weight had fallen and broken her forearm.
The agents reassured them that it was okay. The one that sprained their ankle lectured the girls about safety in the gym and how it wasn’t a place to play while the girl who broke her arm asked the girls to sign her cast.
The girls are utterly baffled at how calm the agents were and how they weren’t angry or lashing out at them.
Maria then takes them to the gym to clean up the mess they made. Skye cleans up the syrup on the floor while Yelena pulls the dumbbell tower back up and replaces the weights. When they finished, Maria gets their attention. “Thank you. All is forgiven. You’re free until dinner but I expect you there and eating. Okay?”
The girls nod before Maria sends them off. She sees them heading in the direction of Goose’s office where she liked to spend most of her time.
Maria then hunts down Natasha, who was with Clint, and she interrupts a serious conversation between them. She accidentally overheard Natasha asking about Christmas and traditions along with who Clint wanted to raise his children to be. Maria informs her about her sister, apologizes for interrupting, and leaves.
Maria stops by her office and collects a few books before heading to Phil’s office. The man is sitting with a piece of paper full of hastily scribbled ideas in front of him.
Maria sets the books down on his desk and he looks up in confusion, reaching up to pull the first off the top of the stack. “What is this?”
“Books I bought. Parenting books, psychological development in children and teenagers, cognitive and behavioral therapy for abused children, a book about a woman who was trafficked into a sex ring, and a guide to appropriate emotions children should be expressing.” Maria folds her arms as Phil sorts through the books. “You’re my friend Phil, so I’m going to be honest with you.”
Phil looks up at her with a frown.
“If you cannot give Skye the structure and stability that she needs then I cannot let you keep her under your care,” Maria says flat out, laying it all on the table.
“Maria--” Phil starts to protest but Maria continues on.
“It’s not good for her!” Maria interrupts him. “I asked her to apologize to the agents that she hurt and she didn’t even know what she was apologizing for! How do you expect her to learn and grow if you throw out punishments whenever you aren’t happy with her behavior and she doesn’t even know why?”
“I’m trying my best, Maria!” Phil retorts, peering down at the stacks of books.
“Then try harder!” Maria didn’t mean to snap at him or use her hard-ass Hill voice but Phil immediately goes quiet. “She needs you to do this. And you have to be consistent. You cannot let things slide or she will walk over you or get mixed signals. I’m serious, Phil. I will help you if you ask but I cannot keep parenting her for you.”
Phil lets out a sigh, dropping his head into his hands. “I didn’t realize how much work went into raising a teenager. I don’t think that Yelena is a good influence on her.”
“Did you tell her that?” Maria demands because if he did then she was not going to apologize for what she said next.
“No!” Phil lets out a heavy sigh. “I just… she only seems to get into trouble around Yelena.”
“Yelena is her only friend, Phil. And if you had actual rules and boundaries in place then she wouldn’t get into trouble so often,” Maria lets out her own sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Neither of them are bad kids, Phil. They just need help and guidance. Lemme see what you have so far.”
Phil offers out the piece of paper full of hastily scribbled ideas. Maria looks it over. “Read those books, adjust this, and then lemme see. Until you have guidelines set into place, I’m taking over doling out punishment for Skye.”
“I thought you said you didn’t want to parent her,” Phil points out.
“I don’t. She’s not my kid. But she needs it and I can give it to her. However, Yelena is my kid. And I’m gonna talk with her about rules and boundaries along with the consequences that come with them.” Maria says before running a hand through her hair. “I just… I’ll talk with you tomorrow more about this.”
Maria leaves Phil in his office, heading down the hall back to her office. She forces herself to stop working when dinner rolled around to ensure that Yelena and Skye actually showed up.
There at their usual table, she sees Yelena tucked under her big sister’s arm, Clint and Skye in the seats across from them.
A lot of work needed to be done but Maria doesn’t regret bringing those girls aboard.