Chapter Text
They were having dinner together when Skye’s phone rang suddenly and she stood up to distance herself before answering the call, making sure she was out of earshot of the others.
Everyone's eyes were on her wanting to know who would call her. She hadn't gotten any calls or texts before and the team had gotten the impression that Skye was more of a loner and didn't have many friends.
They saw Skye’s hand flying over her mouth as she started to cry, sliding down the wall she had been leaning against quickly ending the call.
When Natasha saw that none of the others stood up to comfort Skye she decided that she didn’t care that the young hacker was supposed to be on this team undercover for Fury. She couldn’t just leave her alone like this.
Coulson, May, and Ward looked at the Assassin surprised when she was the one who went to comfort the young woman. The Black Widow wasn't exactly known for being particular carrying. At least not to people she didn't know.
Skye welcomed Natasha’s hug and cried into her shoulder, grieving. She told her that Austin died. Natasha had met him once, he was one of the three people that taught Skye how to hack. He had had cancer and they had visited him in the hospital a couple of months ago. The doctors had told them back then that the treatment wasn't working and that he only had a couple of months left, Skye had been devastated.
Natasha brought Skye into her bunk so she could have some time to herself away from the prying eyes of the BUS team.
„What happened?“ Coulson asks Natasha the second she steps out of Skye’s bunk and closed the door.
„A friend of hers died. Someone she views as a brother“
„Do you know who it was?“ May asks.
„Was he a member of the rising tied?“ Ward questions before Nat could answer.
„Does it matter?“ she asks harshly. She couldn’t believe they were making this about the rising tide. Ever since the incident with Miles a couple of weeks back, they were all waiting for the other shoe to drop, to find out that Skye wasn't loyal to them. Of course, they didn't know that the thing with Miles was planned weeks ahead as a way for Sky to exit the team without raising suspicion. Sadly, Fury still needed more intel from the BUS team and Skye had to spin some story they would believe so she could stay on the BUS. That's around the time Nat came to the team, `to keep an extra eye on the hacker´ that´s what Coulson was told. A complete lie and Nat is still astonished he actually believed Fury. But then again he didn't know what she did.
„Of course it does. If she is still in contact with the rising tide the..“
„Please tell me you’re kidding“ Natasha hissed interrupting him.
„We’re not“
„A close friend of hers just died. Show some respect. You are trained Shield agents. Start acting like it and start to use you’re training otherwise wise I will tell Fury to send you back to the academy“ Natasha said angrily and then leave the three alone.
May quickly followed her, after getting over the shock of Natasha’s sudden outburst. Natasha was always collected, she had to be. And May knew that the red room frowned upon emotions, not wanting their girls to get attached to anything or anyone. Over the years Clint, Coulson, and May had taught her that emotions were okay and that she was allowed to like or dislike things, but Nat kept those things private away from her job in fear of it being used against her one day. So why show emotions now?
„You like her“ May states after watching Natasha hit the punching bag for a couple of minutes.
„You don’t“ the assassin replied.
„I don’t trust her“ The older agent corrected.
„You are better than this May. I’ve never seen you pass judgment on someone so quickly without giving them a chance“
„She’s a security risk!“
„You don’t even know her!“ May sighed. Natasha was right she never got to know Skye or gave her a chance. Which was unlike her. Sure she wasn't the warmest person in the world, but she always gave people a chance. When Skye came to the team May immediately saw her as the enemy and then she betrayed the team with Miles.
"If I may remind you, you are here to keep an eye on her"
"If you think that that's the reason I'm here you've lost your touch" Nat countered. May narrowed her eyes, she had her suspicions, of course, the Black Widow babysitting a hacker didn't exactly sound right but she couldn't figure out what else Nat was doing here.
„So what happened? To the man who died?“ May asks, changing tactics. The thing about Shield is that nobody knows everything, everyone just had the pieces of the puzzle that were relevant to them. And they weren't allowed to talk about their pieces to anyone not approved. To counteract this they had started to nudge each other in the right direction every now and then, dropping hints or leaving files lying around. If another agent happened to figure something out, oh well, they didn't brake any rules, at least that's the way they sold to Fury (She just figured it out sir, and now that she knows she'd be a great help. Don't you think so sir?). It was a little complicated and annoying sometimes but it usually worked.
„He had cancer. The treatment didn’t work.“ May nodded in understanding.
„What do you know about her?“
„What?“
„You know something otherwise you wouldn’t have told us to rely on our training more“ May pointed out.
„I know a lot of things“
„Nat“
„Just get to know her and don’t get hung up on things you think you know“ in other words `you have false information but I can't tell you what it is´
Honestly, Natasha didn’t know why she was telling May to keep a closer eye on Skye. Fury asked Skye to go undercover on this team to make sure they wouldn’t get involved in things they shouldn’t know about and figure out if all of them were clean. So it wouldn’t exactly help if the senior agent knew who she really was. But it hurt to see May being so rude to Skye. The two had almost met so many times before. She wanted May to see the real Skye, the one she had fallen in love with.
It honestly confused her, she wasn’t usually the type to look for anyone's approval. But May had been like a mother to her for a very long time and she just wanted her little dysfunctional family to stay alive and not kill each other.
The Avengers were definitely making her soft.