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It was a simple mission, really. Maria Hill had contacted Coulson with the coordinates of a Hydra base that the Avengers were supposed to raid, but Hill had decided to keep that off of Stark’s radar and send the file to Shield instead because there were reports of the obelisk there. It was a simple mission, really.
But it was a trap, which is fine. Only Shield knew of Skye’s newfound quaking ability, and they were able to overpower the “ambush” easily. It was supposed to be simple, really simple.
A small, three-man team consisting of Trip, Hunter, and Skye had investigated the base, and the Hydra agents that were waiting for them didn’t stand a chance. Skye had quaked them all, and was able to render them unconscious. But she hadn’t had much practice with her new ability, not without the endearing-but-slightly-annoying-and-constant monitoring from Jemma, so Skye had learned to channel her power, but she struggled to turn it off. Cue her directing the vibrations inwards, the intense bruising, a “what the hell” from Hunter, Trip informing Jemma through the coms, and both men being there to catch their teammate who eventually passed out from the pain of fracturing all the teeny bones in her arms.
Hunter carried Skye back to the Zephyr while Trip quickly downloaded everything from the Hydra base onto a flashdrive, using a program Skye had made, and they left.
Coming back onto the plane, Trip can hear a furious “what happened” from May, as she was stuck just piloting for them.
“I don’t bloody know!” Hunter yells. “One minute she blasts the nasty nazis, and the next she ends up like this.”
Back at the Playground, Fitzsimmons takes Skye to the lab where they x-ray her bruised arms, and see the fractures. Bobbi is also in the lab, but everyone else gathers in their living space to stay out of the way.
“Fitz, do you have those braces we designed?” Jemma asks, typing on a tablet to record Skye’s injuries.
“Getting it!” Fitz shouts, rummaging through one of the boxes.
“Braces?” Bobbi questions.
“We designed them to help limit the vibrations,” Jemma answers, “just in case the power became too much for her body to handle.”
Fitz puts the braces over Skye’s arms, and soon Skye wakes up, looking confused.
“Skye!” Jemma starts, getting ready to scold her. “How many times do we have to tell you to be careful! You have hairline fractures all over your arms!”
Skye blinks. “What are these?” she asks, looking at the braces on her arms. “And what are… haiwine fwactu?”
“Skye, are you okay?” Bobbi asks, as only the original team has seen her go into little space. Skye makes grabby hands at Jemma, so she leans closer, while Bobbi just goes, “What is this?”
“Um,” Fitz starts, flustered as he realizes none of their new teammates know of what’s happening. “We sh- should get Coulson… and May.”
At the same time, Skye leans up to loudly whisper to Jemma. “Who’s the pretty lady?” while pointing towards Bobbi. The team has learned a lot more of Skye’s childhood from when she’s in little space, like the fact that she wasn’t a quiet kid. Coulson had joked once that kid Skye probably didn’t have volume control. Fitz and Bobbi start to leave from the lab to go get the parents, but Skye sees and gets upset. “No! Fit! Fit!” she starts to shout, getting panicked. They had also learned that Skye had a hard time pronouncing certain words when she was little, so “Fitz” was always “Fit.”
“Erm… Bobbi, maybe you should get them alone,” he says, going back to Skye's bed as she leaves to go get Coulson and May. Fitz had taken Skye’s new powers more to heart, so seeing her get injured from them as well her being in little space, had him slipping, too, and he could feel it. He goes to sit next to Skye on her bed, and the two almost instantly start babbling. Fortunately for them, Jemma surprisingly has always been more level-headed when it comes to regressing, which is probably due to her liking order, so she’s able to be an adult until their caretakers come. Jemma still sits in the bed, though, because she knows as soon as adults are in the room she’s going to slip, too.
Bobbi had raced to where the team is gathered. “Bobbi?” Coulson questions, seeing her unease.
“What happened?” May asks.
“I’m not sure Skye has hairline fractures, so Fitzsimmons gave her a brace, but sir,” Bobbi says, leaving closer to Coulson and growing quiet. “Skye was acting… younger? Like a child. And she didn’t understand what Jemma was saying when she was explaining her injuries, and she referred to Fitz as ‘Fit.’ Also, she asked Jemma who I was.”
“Bob, you sound like you’re off your bonkers,” Hunter says. They can see Coulson exchange a look with May.
“Sir?” Mack questions.
“Go,” is what he says to May, who rushes to the lab. He then turns to address the team. “There is something, about all three of them, that you guys should know. Let’s sit down for this,” Coulson says, “and withhold your questions until the end.”
“Go ahead, mate,” Hunter says, “we just need answers.”
“Alrighty,” Coulson says, clapping his hands. “Have you guys heard of little space?” he asks, and gets nods from everyone.
“We know what that is,” Trip answers for them.
“Great!” Coulson says. “That makes things easier. Skye and Fitzsimmons are littles. They go into the headspace strictly to deal with stress. May and I discovered it after one of our first missions. It had to do with an 084, and we had to escape the Peruvians who hijacked our plane. The plane had a hole blown in it, and Skye was so stressed after the mission she just slipped, right in front of us. After that, Fitzsimmons confessed that they were also littles, and May and I have been their caretakers ever since. Any questions?”
“What ages are they?” Bobbi asks.
Coulson smiles, relieved that the team doesn’t seem to have any problems with this new information on his children. “Skye’s about four, and Fitzsimmons are both around six.”
“Can we see them?” Trip asks, smiling, and Coulson nods, leading them all to a room right off of his office, which he and May had designated for when they’re little.
Meanwhile, May rushes to the lab, and sees her three children cuddled against each other on Skye’s bed. “May!” Jemma shouts in joy. “Skye has hairline fractures, but they’ll heal with the braces.”
“You did so well,” May says, now at the side of the bed. “You can slip if you want.”
“Hi, mum,” Fitz says to May.
“Hi, Leo. Why don’t we all move to the playroom? I’ll carry Skye, and you two have to be big kids and walk on your own, okay?” May says, getting two nods in return.
In the playroom, Fitz has his legos out, and is making… something. May sits next to him at the table, and she knows that once he’s done, he’ll explain it to her, but right now, she’s not sure what it is. Skye and Jemma have their dolls and plushies laid out on a couch and are playing one of their favorite games: school.
May hears a knock on the door, followed by Coulson leading the rest of the team in. Mack sees the legos, and immediately goes over to Fitz.
“What are you making, little man?” he asks, seeing that Fitz has a bunch of pieces sprawled out in front of him.
“I’m working on it,” he answers, and Mack looks to May, confused, and she cracks a smile.
“He’ll explain everything when he’s done. You can try to help him, but only he knows what he’s making,” she says.
Coulson looks to May, telling her that he needs to step out and deal with his job as the Director of Shield with a look, and she nods. Trip settles down at the table, and Hunter and Bobbi go over to the couch where Jemma and Skye are.
“You’re the pretty lady!” Skye says, pointing at Bobbi, and she chuckles.
“Hi, Skye. I’m Bobbi,” she introduces herself. “And this is Hunter. What’re you guys playing?” she asks.
“This is Fao,” Jemma says, handing a teddy bear in a lilac dress to Hunter, who’s the closest to her. “She needs to finish writing her report, so we can take the class to the zoo,” she explains. “Here’s the journal,” Jemma says, handing a folded piece of paper to him, while Bobbi gives him a teasing face.
“Um… alright. I’ll make sure she finishes,” Hunter says, taking the bear and pretending that the paw is writing on the paper. Jemma smiles wide, and pets the ears of the bear.
“And who’s this?” Bobbi asks Skye, pointing to the pink bear that she’s holding. “Her name’s Lily. She’s my favorite,” Skye says, holding Lily close to her chest. “I had her before I met my family.”
“I see,” Bobbi answers. “Are the others sad that you have a favorite?”
“Maybe, but Lily has always been there for me,” Skye says, tenderly kissing the top of the plushie’s head, and Bobbi smiles fondly at the girl.
After a while, Jemma sits down on the couch next to all her dolls that are lined up while Bobbi and Hunter read a book for them, and Skye has left them in favor of going to where the legos are.
“Can you build something, too?” Trip asks.
“Kinda. I need the book,” Skye says, holding up the instructions to a pony lego set. “Fit can really build. He so smart, he doesn’t use the book.”
“You’re smart, too, Skye,” Fitz automatically pipes up.
“But Fit is really smart. Like this much,” Skye says, opening her arms wide, and staring intently at Mack and Trip. “Like one of the older guys I remember,” she says, referencing her time from St. Agnes. “He could make something from extra pieces while I use the book.”
After a while, Fitz is done with what he’s building, and Coulson comes back in time for the big reveal. Jemma and Skye had fallen asleep on top of Bobbi after their snack break, but Fitz told May that he wanted to finish what he started to build, and May agreed, considering that Coulson was still working.
“Dad! Mum! Everyone! Here!” Fitz says, proudly holding up what he made.
“Is it a box?” Coulson asks, confused, but knowing that whatever it he made is actually much more complex than just a box.
“Dad, it’s a puzzle box. I saw a video about it once, and thought that I wanted to make my own. See, you press this so this block slides out, and then the cube lifts up, and the wheel spins out, and the stick pops out, and you can use it as the key, and then you put it in this block, and then this box comes out, and then you get the treasure!” Fitz says, going through the motions of what he explained, and then getting a lego gemstone piece out of the box that was the treasure.
“That’s really good, Fitz,” May says, with a proud smile.
"That's so cool," Mack compliments.
Fitz beams at the attention, and seeing him this happy makes the parents' hearts swell.
"I'm glad I built this right," he says.
"Mate, that was amazing," Hunter says.
"Thanks," he says, and May notices a tiny bit of blush appear on her son.
After Fitz lies down with a plush monkey to also nap, they all file out of the room, going to the kitchen for a drink.
"I'm glad they can finally help out," Coulson tells May as she takes a sip of her tea.
"They finally have babysitters," May says with a smile.