Their little star

Melinda

It was early, a lot earlier than she would be up normally. But she couldn’t sleep, which wasn’t anything normal, she could go days without getting any sleep. This time around, it felt, different in some way. Seeing that it’s 4 am, Melinda finally gives up and rises from her bed. Starting Tai Chi an hour earlier than her normal routine doesn’t really mater in this moment. Changing into her work out clothes, she heads for the hangar.

Reaching the catwalk, she comes to a stop, realising she isn’t the only one that is up this early. Her eyes landing on Skye. Feeling how her eyes grows large at the sight in front of her. She has heard the hacker complain with early morning calls, she along side the science twins. So seeing her up at 4 am doing Tai Chi is a big surprise, that’s when she realise the second thing.

Skye is down in the hangar, 4 am, doing near perfect Tai Chi movements, her eyes closed and from where Melinda is standing, it looks like Skye has a perfect breathing. Blinking a few times, Melinda is sure for a few seconds that she dreaming all of this, there is no way the hacker Phil picked up is doing Tai Chi this early in the morning. Opening her eyes and seeing that Skye is still down there, she recognise the third thing.

Ever since Phil picked Skye up, the young girl have made sure to wear shirts with long arms, or at least arms that ends at her elbow. Even the dress she picked up for her undercover mission where she ends up working with Stark had long sleeves, which Simmons had pointed out would be hot. But Skye wouldn’t back down, there was nothing Simmons or herself could say that would make Skye change her mind about the sleeve less dress.

And here Skye is, up at 4 am, doing Tai Chi in the hangar, wearing a tank top and Melinda can understand why the young woman doesn’t want to show her arms or back. From what she can see, a large scar is covering her back and upper arms, scars that looks to be quite old. But for a few seconds, the scars looks red and newly done to Melinda, she has seen the same type of scars before. She has helped treat and take care of the same type of scars.

The only difference is, the scars she helped with belonged to a young and scared girl who was broken beyond anything. A girl that Melinda had been forced to take care of, a mission she never asked for. A girl that somehow managed to warm her way into Melinda’s heart and a girl she would do anything to protect. A girl that somehow become her own.

A girl that later on was moved and she never saw or heard anything about again. For years Melinda has tried to push that behind her, which to her surprise was a lot harder than she though was even possible. Even after what went down in Bahrain she couldn’t stop thinking about little Mary. And now, years later, she is watching a back with similar scars on the back of a hacker.

That’s when things starts to add up, Skye’s conversation about growing up in the system, how she didn’t give them her real name. And the fact that she scared around men, how it took a while for her to allow Fitz close to her and how she still keeps Ward on a safe distance. How the hacker somehow managed to warm her way past Melinda’s walls, she have done it once already.

Looking down at the hacker, there is only one way to find out if she is right or not. Slowly starting walking down the stairs, Melinda keeps her eyes on Skye who hasn’t realised she is there. Coming to a stop halfway down the stairs, seeing Skye’s movement up close, she can see that she is doing a very good work.

“Mary.”

Saying the name she hasn’t used in years, Melinda sees how Skye freezes up in her movement. Slowly opening her eyes, Melinda can see that Skye starts to tremble as she turns her head. Looking into Skye’s eyes, Melinda can see a mix of emotions, fear, sadness, hope among some. Moving down the last few steps, Melinda is sure that the young woman standing in front of her is the girl she used to care for.