Chapter Text
New York, 2006
Inside a room that looks like an interrogation room, someone takes off the hood from the woman's head. Some white middle-aged man has her by her elbow and leads her by her arm to sit in the chair. The woman looks at both of them and then speaks.
"You guys are making a big mistake." The woman spoke for the first time after she was caught.
The white, middle-aged man who has a dad vibe looks at her while smiling and says, "You don't look that big."
"Sorry for the lack of finesse from Agent Coulson. We usually don't act friendly towards people who try to hack us." The bald man said.
After looking at the bald man properly, she realizes that the man is dressed funny. He wears a long black trench coat.
Why did he dress like that? And he even wears an eyepatch like a pirate. She tried to hold her laugh.
"I don't know what you—"
"Okay, there are two ways we can do this." The man with dad vibes said politely.
She doesn't look intimidated at all; she gives him a teasing smile when she asks, "Is one of them an easy way?"
"No."
The woman's smile faded slightly, and her expression turned slightly sour. "Oh."
"What's your name?" the eyepatch man asked her.
She looks at the middle-aged man and then back at the eyepatch man.
"Skye."
"What's your real name?"
She shoots him a look, but the eyepatch man speaks first. "That can wait. It's another name we need—the leader of your organization."
Skye looks away. "What makes you think I know that?"
"Well, there's no way someone as young as you can hack our network alone. Hacking into our network requires a lot of skills. There must be someone helping you. If you can't give us the name of your leader, the name of the person helping you is also fine."
Skye scoffs, "Seriously? Just because I look young, you think I can't hack myself through your system?"
Then she realized she'd been provoked by him, and she added, "Which, by the way, I didn't do."
The eyepatch man smirks and sits in the chair opposite Skye at the table. "So you are hacking our system."
"No, I didn't say that. How did you find me again?" Skye asks with a slight amusement.
"One of our people managed to track your traces when you hacked our system. It seems that your skills are rusty now, making mistakes like that."
"Wow, yeah. Was that a mistake? Or am I now sitting in the center of your secret headquarters? What is this? A building in the Theater District?" The dad-vibes man shoots a look over to the eyepatch man.
"I got inside. And by now, you've discovered you can't beat the encryption on my equipment, so you got nothing."
The eyepatch man looks really irritated by her and ready to say something to her, but the middle-aged man steps in and says, "Why did you hack us in the first place?"
"Like I said, I didn't—"
The eyepatch man stopped her mid-sentence and said to her firmly, banging the table. "Just quit with the innocent act! You clearly know more than you said. Who paid you?"
Skye flinched violently and stumbled back into her chair, almost making herself fall backward. Luckily the dad guy caught her chair before it fell to the ground. The moment the man’s hands touch her she instinctively moves and tries to stand up, avoiding both men. But she fell down butt first into the floor and she made herself smaller, hands clinging into her legs. She just kept silent while trying to regulate her breathing.
Both men took notice of that and they both stepped away, giving the woman her space. When Skye was calmer and sitting on the chair again, the middle-aged man made his voice sound more neutral and asked her. "You do realize that if you don't cooperate, we can and will put you in the darkest hole, and you will never see sunlight again, right?"
At that, she looks up to face the middle-aged man and gulps a little. Imagining her life that hasn't even started getting thrown in a hole, God knows where.
"No, you can't do that." She said it while looking clearly scared.
"Yes, we can. Unless you cooperate with us and tell who paid you to hack us and give us the names of people who help you." The middle-aged man said while smiling.
'I'm starting to hate this man's smile.' The girl said to herself.
After a few moments of thinking, she sighed. "I wasn't paid by someone. And there wasn't anyone helping me do the hacking. It was all me, alone."
The middle-aged man looks so surprised, while the bald man, not really showing his surprise, only lifts his eyebrow a little.
"No way. You're just a child." The short white man said
Skye shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. " Yes way. I truly did it alone. Believe it or not."
Then Agent Coulson takes a seat in front of her and starts to ask a question. "Let’s say you truly did it alone, why did you hack us?"
"You guys covered up a lot of things. People deserve to know the truth. Especially about themselves ." She said the last part in a whisper.
The bald man looked at her, not asking her to collaborate on what she was saying.
Then Agent Coulson continued. "Not all secrets need to be known by the public. People keep secrets for a reason. And you put a lot of lives in danger by spilling those secrets."
"I'm—I didn't mean to do harm. I just want people to know what really happens and protect themselves from whatever crazy thing that you guys covered."
"Your way to protect people isn't the best; instead of helping, it puts more lives in danger."
Skye didn’t look at either man; she just gazed at the table in front of her.
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After they finish the interrogation and hear all of Skye's answers, they leave the room they were in. Apparently they didn't lock the door, and she quickly took advantage of that.
She decides to go out and take a look at big brother's headquarters. She looks around the hallway and sees no one around. Then she sees a room that looks like a common area of the building. So she went there, searching for a drink.
There, she saw the eyepatch man who had been interrogating her before. She decided to go back, but apparently the man knew she was there and called her.
"Skye, I thought you would just bolt from this building after the interview is done."
Skye scoffs, "You call that an interview? It was more like talking to your principal, who is hated by every kid. By the way, you're kind of a jerk, you know. And I was planning to do that, but I was really thirsty, so I decided to look around and search for water or something."
The bald man laughed at her boldness, then stood up and went somewhere. Then he comes back with a bottle of water and gives it to her.
She took it and said, "Thank you. Umm, what was your name again?"
"Nick Fury, Director of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."
Skye's eyes widened at that. She just told the director of a super secret agency that he is a jerk. 'Oh shit, now I'm really going to that dark hole all my life.'
The director smirks looking at Skye's reaction. As if he could read her mind, he said, "Relax; I won't put you in that hole just because you call me a jerk." Skye visibly relaxes after that.
"Or maybe I will. I still haven't decided that yet."
"Cool-hearted bastard," Skye murmurs. Despite feeling scared of being put into the black hole, she tries to play it off by saying, "Seriously, your organization name is really mouthful. Why don't you just shorten it to SHIELD?"
"SHIELD?" He asked with a high tone.
Skye thought he was upset with her idea and quickly said, "Sorry. I mean, I just gave you a suggestion. You don't need to—"
"I like it. And I can say it without tripping over my own tongue. How come I've never heard anyone use that before?"
Skye smiles widely, somehow happy that she's helped him with something. "Well, you're welcome."
The director observed the girl in front of him. She looks so young and innocent. He's pretty sure she isn't even 17. Then he asks to confront her about her age. "You don't look more than 17. How old are you?"
Skye feels tense when he asks her this, because she is 16 right now, and if he knew she was still a minor then he would send her back to the orphanage that she left two years ago. And fuck, she didn't want to go back to that orphanage or to any foster homes ever.
So she decided to try her luck and said that she was 18. The director looks at her eyes, like he is trying to determine whether she lied or not. When the director nods, she is extremely glad that he bought her lie.
"I heard what you said in that room before. The truth isn't supposed to be covered up. ‘ Especially about themselves .’ Care to elaborate on what you meant?" The director suddenly spoke to her.
Skye looks at him, trying to find out if she can work her way through this by lying again. And the director gives her a look that says, ‘ Don't even think about lying.‘
The girl looks around, seeing that there are a few people passing by near them. "Can we talk somewhere else? I'm not exactly keen on sharing my life experience when people that I don't know can hear it."
"Follow me." The director stands up and goes into a meeting room near them. And Skye followed him closely behind.
__________________________________________________________________
The director motioned for Skye to sit anywhere she wanted to.
She sat down, then closed her eyes and sighed loudly. "I've been an orphan from the moment I was still a baby. I was placed at this orphanage in New York. I got curious about who my parents are, then I searched what the orphanage had on me in the orphanage's computer. At that time, I didn't find anything. Even when I learned more about hacking, I didn't find anything. No record. There's no trace of them. My search has led to a single document. Redacted. By SHIELD."
The director only looked at her, thinking what she should do about the girl. Skye's eyes begin to water, and she says, "No matter what you do, I'll never stop looking."
"You might not like what you find."
"It can't be worse than what I've imagined." Skye says while her voice is cracking.
"Maybe I can help."
Skye looked at him with an expression of disbelief. She thought she was going to go to jail, get threats, or whatever. but not a help, especially from the director of the same organization who redacted her file.
"What's the catch?" Skye asks skeptically.
Fury understood why she had a disbelief look on her face and why she asked that question. From what he observed, she always did everything alone; no one wanted to help her. But now, a man who is the director of a secret agency offers her his help.
Even Fury himself didn't understand why he said he would help. He usually didn't act like this. He used to think more logically than he does now. But there is something about this girl that makes him want to help her. He didn't know whether it was because of the sorrow in her eyes or because, even though there was sorrow, there was still a lot of hope in her eyes.
But then again, he already said he could help, and he is a man of his words. So he will do everything in his power to help her. And then there is also the feeling of guilt because his organization probably made a little kid live in an orphanage.
"There is no catch.” Skye raises her brows when Fury says this.
Then Fury resumes. “You just have to work for us—first as a consultant, then as an agent—and don't hack us anymore. Everything you want to know about the file has to go through me, and if you find anything about the file or your parents, talk to me."
“And there comes the catch.” Skye sighs before continuing. "Why are you doing this?" She asks, still doesn't believe him.
"Honestly, I don't know. It just feels like it's my responsibility as SHIELD director."
Skye only looks at him, observing him, determining whether or not she should trust him.
Fury, getting tired of waiting, then said, "What do you say, Skye?"
"Fine."
Fury smirks at her answer. "Great."
"What's the first thing on the guidebook for working for SHIELD ?"
"I'll tell you tomorrow."
Skye only nodded and stayed silent. Then she ends her silence by saying, "What about my parents?"
"Do you have anything I can look into?"
"Yeah." Then Skye took something from inside her shirt. It's a memory card. She then gives it to Fury.
"It's everything I have on me, my files from foster care, and anything before someone puts me in foster care. It's not much, but—"
Fury nods at her and says, "I'll look into it. In the meantime, you can sleep here in one of the rooms."
"What about my van and belongings?"
"Agent Coulson will accompany you to get your van here. And you can move your belongings to your bunk." Then he stood up and held out his hand to her, saying, "Welcome to SHIELD, Skye."
She takes his hand and shakes it a little. After Fury left the room Skye sighs deeply and closes her eyes
'What did I just get myself into.'
Coulson stopped in front of a door and said, "Alright, this is your room. I believe you can handle it from here." And he put all of Skye's stuff down in front of the door. "Here is your key card for the room. Only you can open the door." She took the keycard and said thanks.
She opens the door and sees a pretty big room-well, not that big, but bigger than her van, which is not a lot.
'Holy shit, this room looks like a five star hotel.'
She brought all her stuff to her new room. She looks around the room, seeing what's there. Apparently, the room has its own bathroom and hot water.
"Nice!" She exclaimed while admiring the bathroom. She then chose to take a quick bath first before unpacking her stuff. She just takes what she needs to take a shower and heads to the bathroom.
After she finished her shower, she headed to the common room again to look for some food.
"Hello, Skye." Coulson greets him while eating grilled cheese. She nodded back at him.
Coulson continues to eat his grilled cheese and asks Skye, "Do you want some grilled cheese?"
"That would actually be really nice." Skye answers him sincerely.
"I'll make you some then." He gets up and heads to the kitchen, with Skye following him from behind.
And now Skye is eating Coulson's grilled sandwich happily in the common room, saying, "I gotta say, this is the best grilled cheese I've ever had."
"Secret ingredient. Don't ask. I will not disclose." He said it while smiling.
Skye snorts, "Of course it is."
Then Coulson rose from his chair and said, "You can wash the dishes there." while pointing at a sink in the kitchen.
"Thanks for the grilled cheese, Phil."
"I prefer you not call me Phil."
"Okay.. AC." She gives him a sly smile.
Coulson scrunched his face and looked at her. " AC ?"
Skye giddily answered. "It suits you. You know, you're cool, and it’s also short for Agent Coulson. Don’t you like it?"
Coulson's face is looking a bit disturbed, "It’s a bit better.” He then went outside while saying goodbye to Skye. “Have a good night, Skye."
"You too!"
After she finished eating the grilled cheese, she washed the dishes in the sink and returned to her room to rest because she had a feeling that tomorrow would be much worse than today.
Fury’s Office
"Sir." Coulson greets his director.
"Coulson." The director greets him back. Then he sits on his chair, while Coulson is just looking at him, like he wants to say something. The director notices his stare and says, "What? Spit it out."
"Nothing sir. It's just—you don't usually offer someone a place here after they did something bad to us. You usually just put them in prison or give them that bracelet that makes them can't access the internet."
"She's an asset. When else will we get someone like her? Young, talented, and smart. With a little polish, she can be a very great agent. I can't let her talents just go to waste."
"I know, sir. And I feel the same. But it's something that I usually do, sir. Not you. Usually, I have to argue with you because I wanted to bring someone with a questionable background. Remember Barton, sir? I need to fight you so he can be here."
Fury smirked at that and said, "Yeah, I remember. You're absolutely right, it usually is your thing. I guess you kind of rubbed it off on me."
Coulson still looks confused as to why his director just offers Skye a job but doesn't ask further.