A/N: So, this is it.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as the first instalment, and I can't wait to hear from you! Thank you so much for sticking with me, and here's to a brilliant 2016. xx

"This is exciting." Skye declared, pushing her hat out of her face and allowing Bobbi's grip on her hand to guide her through the constructed forest of pine trees set up in the parking lot of a Target.

Skye had been a little disappointed when her mommy had said she was feeling too tired to take Skye out for the day, even though it was Saturday and they nearly always did something together on Saturdays, especially when daddy was working. But the day seemed to be looking up. The little girl skipped every few steps to keep up with her long-legged older sister, and leaned around her front to speak to Jemma, holding onto Bobbi's other hand.

"Isn't it exciting, Jemma?" Skye asked.

Jemma nodded and smiled when they passed one of the Christmas trees already decorated with lights and baubles for show. Jemma's hat didn't seem to slip into her eyes like Skye's did, but she kept rubbing her hands on her jeans to push her gloves back onto her fingers. "It is." She said to Skye with a smile. "I've never picked out a real Christmas tree before."

"Me neither." Skye said, slowing her walk to catch sight of two men struggling to affix a netted tree onto the top of a minivan. Bobbi tugged at her hand and she jogged to catch up. "We weren't allowed Christmas trees at the orphanage. Something about Jesus, or the devil." She shrugged. "M'not sure."

"It was probably because of the pagan origins." Jemma said.

Skye grimaced at the words she didn't understand. "Huh?"

Jemma didn't explain. She had a habit of either using expressions Skye didn't understand and then explaining them in too much detail, or using them and not explaining them at all. Skye wasn't sure which was more irritating.

"We always had a fake tree in London." Jemma said brightly. "Didn't we, Bobbi?"

Bobbi nodded. "They're less messy. Plus it already had the lights attached to it. Seriously," she sighed, "so much easier." The woman shook her head. "So much easier than the damn tree we've got in the house.

"But they don't smell as nice as the real ones." Jemma said, looking up at Bobbi, then back to Skye. "That's what Dad says."

Skye opened to mouth to disagree, because Daddy was the reason that they had a plastic Christmas tree at home, and not a real one like Bobbi and Hunter. He said that the real ones made his skin itchy and made everything smell like a forest. But then Skye realised that Jemma wasn't talking about Skye and Bobbi's Daddy, but her own. To Skye, Jemma's Daddy was just 'Hunter'. It was still something Skye found herself getting used to, along with everything else that had changed over the last couple of months.

They stopped walking when they reached the little tent that was set up to take orders and payments for the tress, and Bobbi let go of Skye's hand to pull out the piece of notebook paper their Mom had given her.

Despite her Dad's dislike for the real Christmas trees, her mother had won some argument between them, which had ended with Bobbi being instructed to buy ten real fir trees to put in the gym to give it a 'Christmas atmosphere'. Bobbi had complained because it was her weekend off from working in the lab with Izzy, and it was already only ten days until Christmas, anyway, and she didn't want to spend it buying trees, but then Skye and Jemma had begged her to take them because they hadn't got to go with Hunter when he bought the tree for their house and they really wanted to go. Some puppy dog eyes, and a bit of pouting had sealed the deal.

Sometimes Skye found herself being annoyed by Jemma's seemingly constant presence in her life, but then there were moments like that where together they made a pretty good team.

"Ten?" The salesman said in a bit of disbelief, looking down at the paper from her mom. "In very specific sizes."

Bobbi nodded. "Yeah. My Mom is very specific."

"This is a lot of trees. You got a giant house or something?"

"My parents own a gym in town. SHIELD?"

"Oh, yeah. I know the place." The guy said, scratching his chin. "My kid had swimming lessons there."

"Yeah, well, my mom wants the place to feel festive." Bobbi smirked. "It's taken them half the month of December to decide on getting these freaking trees, so please tell me you can get them for me."

Jemma smiled up at the salesman, apparently very interested in the grown up's conversation, but Skye was getting bored and found looking at the display of twinkling lights in the tent to be significantly more intriguing. She liked the look of some purple and blue lights that were wrapped around one of the tent's scaffolding poles.

A man looking at some smaller trees in the tent, turned and smiled at Skye. She took a step closer to Bobbi, and the man waved at her and left the tent. Skye looked back to the clerk.

The salesman rubbed his jaw. "You want these by a certain date?"

"ASAP." Bobbi said, putting a hand on Jemma's shoulder when the little girl tried to wander closer to some wreaths on the other side of the tent. "And if they could be delivered, that would be awesome."

He sniffed and twisted his mouth a little, but then nodded. "Can do. For the right price."

Skye watched as the man wrote a number on the paper and handed it back to Bobbi. She got up onto her tiptoes in an attempt to see, but Bobbi held it too high. Skye looked to Jemma, but the other girl just shrugged back.

Bobbi raised an eyebrow at the paper. "Knock of one-fifty, and you got yourself a deal."

The man hissed a breath in through his teeth. "I'll bring it down seventy-five."

"A hundred." Bobbi said quickly.

"Done."

She and the man shook hands, Bobbi paid him with the company credit card, and then she, Skye, and Jemma were walking back to the car, back through the rows and rows of Christmas trees. Bobbi bought them both a candy cane each, and while Jemma kept the plastic and ribbon wrapped around the sweet, Skye had already chewed off the hook before they even got back to the car.

"Don't we get to take any of the trees today?" Skye asked, looking over at the various families dragging trees through the parking lot. She licked some stickiness off her thumb.

"Not today, hun." Bobbi said. "It took Hunter and Steve over an hour just to get our tree from the lot onto the car." She tugged on Skye's hand not wrapped around the candy cane and gave her a smirk. "I'm not going through that with ten damn trees."

Skye nodded. She understood that.

"Is 'damn' a swear word in America?" Jemma asked.

Skye leaned around Bobbi to look at her. "My Mommy says it's a bad word, but it's not a bad bad word."

"It's a swear word and you shouldn't say it." Bobbi said.

"You say it all the time." Jemma smiled. "And Dad says much worse words."

Bobbi sighed. "Yeah, well, we're trying to get a handle on it."

Jemma patted Bobbi's hand. "We'll get you a swear jar."

"You can borrow ours." Skye said. "It's in the kitchen, but it doesn't get used very much when Clint and Nat are at school."

Bobbi laughed.

"Is Skye coming to play at our house now, or does she have to go home?" Jemma asked Bobbi.

Skye looked up to her big sister, waiting for the same question to be answered.

Bobbi swung her and Skye's hands. "If Skye wants to she can come to our house to play." She said. "Would you like to, Skye?"

She looked up at her big sister, and then over at Jemma who was smiling back at her. The past couple of months had been busy, a mash-up of getting used to having Jemma around, having Clint and Natasha back at college, and having Mommy change as the baby in her belly grew. She was getting fat, but Daddy said they weren't allowed to say that. He just kept telling Mommy that she was 'glowing', whatever that meant.

To Skye, that was the biggest change she was having to get used to, because the bigger the baby got, the more tired Mommy got, and the less she seemed to want to play with Skye. Mommy still played Barbies with her sometimes, but she couldn't push Skye on the swings anymore because she said it hurt her back. Skye had found herself spending a lot of time at Bobbi's house with Jemma because Mommy was tired, or feeling sick because of the baby.

Bobbi squeezed her hand. "How about you come over to our house for a couple of hours, just until Dad gets home?" She said. "We can give Mom a break for a little while."

Skye shrugged. Everyone seemed pretty eager to be giving Mommy 'breaks' from Skye as often as possible recently.

"We can play board games." Jemma said as they reached the car. "I'll let you pick which one, Skye."

"Okay." Skye climbed into the back of the car with Jemma. She only had a little piece of her candy cane left and she had to hold her arm at a weird angle so that Bobbi could fasten her seatbelt without getting the candy stuck to the strap. "But I don't wanna play Scrabble with you. You always use big words that get lots of points."

Jemma frowned. "That's the point of the game."

"Yeah, but it's no fun if you're stupid like me."

"Hey." Bobbi said, glaring at Skye through the rear view mirror from the front seat. "None of that. Nobody in this car is stupid."

Skye grumbled. "Then how comes I'm eight and I'm in second grade, and Jemma's nine and she's in fifth grade?" When Hunter had announced that Jemma would be attending school with Skye she had been over the moon, but then Jemma had been bumped up to the fifth grade with the big kids, and she and Skye didn't even play in the same playground at school during recess.

"It's just," Jemma said, "some people are better than others at certain things." She put a hand on Skye's arm, the one that had only recently been freed from the cast. "You're not stupid. You're good at lots of things."

"Whatever." Skye mumbled, and turned to look out of the window as Bobbi drove them home. She felt a little bad about being snappy with Jemma, because Mommy had explained how she was getting used to a lot of new things, too, but right now Skye was a little tired and a little hungry and just wanted a cuddle from her Mommy.

When they got to Bobbi's house, Jemma kept her promise and let Skye pick the board game. She chose Chutes and Ladders, then kind of wished she hadn't, because Jemma spent ten minutes explaining to Skye about how in England it was called 'Snakes and Ladders'. Most of Jemma's conversations started with 'In England' or 'In London', and honestly, Skye didn't care.

"Do you have any homework to do this weekend?" Jemma asked her during their second game of checkers. She was red and Skye was black, even though Skye had really wanted to be red.

Skye shrugged and moved her piece. "Miss Potts gave us a math worksheet." She rubbed her eyes. "And I have my reading book."

"Only one?" Jemma asked in disbelief.

"It's about a girl called 'Grace' who wants to be Peter Pan."

"Oh, I know that book. It's easy." Jemma said, folding her legs underneath her.

Skye thought it had kind of been a harder book to read because Miss Potts had let her pick it out of the blue section, and that was a whole reading level higher than usual. Skye tried not to feel bad because everything seemed to be easy for Jemma.

Jemma reached for her backpack that rested by her bed. She had a little key ring of a blue box hanging from the zipper. It was from some British show Skye didn't know about and it lit up and made funny noises when you pressed the top of it. Skye couldn't see the appeal, but it was one of Jemma's favourite things.

"Look at all of the homework I've got, Skye." Jemma said, holding her backpack open for Skye to see inside. "My teacher gave me six pages of equations for maths, and a whole reading comprehension chapter, and all my extra science work." She waved some pages close to Skye's face and Skye leaned back out of the way.

"That's a lot." Skye said, if only to acknowledge that she was half listening.

"You're telling me." Jemma said. "But I've already started it, you see. I did most of my reading and all of my science yesterday, so it shouldn't be too bad. Plus, the mathematics are really very simple. I was thinking of maybe requesting some more advanced work. Do you want to see my report on the Earth's magnetic field? My teacher said it was the best she'd seen."

"Oh." Skye said.

"I showed Bobbi and she put it on the fridge." Jemma grinned. "Does your Mum do that?"

She shrugged. The truth was, Skye's Mommy and Daddy always wanted to put her achievements on the fridge, but more and more often recently, she had been reluctant to show off her work from school. A lot of it wasn't great, and even the ones that Miss Potts drew a smiley face on, weren't worthy of the fridge, Skye thought. She got easier homework than the other kids. It made it feel like she was cheating, so Skye had been hiding them all under her bed.

"Skye?"

Skye didn't reply. She was bored, tired, and didn't want to listen to Jemma rambling on about school and England. She stood up.

"I think I wanna go home now." Skye said, reaching over to get her sweater from where it lay on Jemma's bed. The hole in Jemma's bedroom wall from where Clint's foot had gone though caught her eye. It had been two months and Clint still hadn't fixed it, mostly because he hadn't been home in that long. Skye really missed him and Nat.

Jemma's face fell. "But we haven't finished our game."

Skye nudged the checkers board with her toe as she walked past and all the pieces slid from their squares. "Doesn't matter. I don't wanna play with you anymore." She said. "See you later, Jemma."

"Skye?"

"Leave me alone."

Jemma put a hand on her shoulder and Skye pushed it off. She pulled her hand back, and cradled it with the other. "I thought we were friends, Skye." She said quietly.

Skye shook her head. She didn't want to play with Jemma anymore, she just wanted to go home. "No. We're not friends." The words left a bitter taste in her mouth and Jemma's heartbroken expression made Skye's tummy feel all wrong. She ignored it. "You're my big sister's…." Skye frowned, coming up with no real label for what Jemma was to Bobbi, "I dunno, but you're not my friend, Jemma. You're just here all the time."

She turned and took off down the stairs. Skye heard Jemma following her downstairs but didn't bother waiting for her to catch up. When Skye got to the living room, Bobbi was watching television on the couch with her laptop on her knees. Her face was splotched with reflections of multicolours from the fairy lights on the Christmas tree in the corner. There were little pine needles on the rug under it. Bobbi looked up when Skye got to the bottom step.

"You okay?" She asked Skye, moving the computer to the side.

Skye shrugged, an automatic response she'd been finding herself using to answer questions more frequently recently. "I wanna go home, now." She said.

Bobbi's eyes flicked to Skye's side where Jemma stepped up. "Everything alright?"

Jemma cocked her head at Skye. She was blinking a lot. "I'm not sure."

"It's fine." Skye said. "I just wanna go home."

Bobbi twisted her mouth a little and waved Skye over to her. Skye shuffled over to the couch, rubbing her socks over the carpet so that the soles of her feet warmed with every step forward.

"Hey," Bobbi said, "are you sure you're alright? You've been…" She moved her hand in a vague gesture.

"Been what?" Skye prompted.

Bobbi sighed. "I'm not sure, just, off? Not yourself?"

"M'tired." Skye said by way of explanation. She could feel that she wasn't her usual bright and bubbly self, and putting it down to tiredness seemed like the easiest way to end the conversation quickly.

It must have worked because Bobbi kissed her head and smiled. "Okay, then." Her older sister stood up and grabbed her keys from the coffee table. "Let's get you home."

…

They dropped Skye off at home, but didn't stay at her house for long. Skye seemed eager for Jemma and Bobbi to leave and didn't say even one word to Jemma the whole car ride. Bobbi had made an excuse about needing to get Jemma home for her dinner, but Jemma knew that was just a cop out because there was still over an hour to the time they usually ate on a Saturday.

Skye didn't say 'goodbye' to them when they left.

Bobbi let Jemma sit in the front seat on the way home.

"I don't think Skye likes me very much." Jemma said quietly, looking out of the window. It was getting dark and some people on the street they were driving by had an impressive display of Christmas lights. Her breath fogged up the glass of the window and Jemma wiped it away with her sleeve.

"Skye likes you plenty." Bobbi said. "You guys play together all the time. I think she's just having an off day."

Jemma looked away from the lights and tipped her head towards Bobbi. "She said we're not friends. What did I do to make her not like me?"

Bobbi's face fell and she sighed. "Jemma, sweetheart, don't think like that. Skye sometimes gets like this. She just…" the woman gripped the steering wheel and her knuckles went pale, "Skye sometimes needs some chill time."

"Chill time?"

"She's been at school all week. She's been over at our house for dinner three days of this week." Bobbi smiled at Jemma. "I think she just wants to spend some time with her mom."

Jemma nodded her understanding, and then shook her head instead. "But I've been at school all week. And I've had dinner at our house every night this week."

Bobbi chuckled. "Honey, it's not quite the same." They pulled up onto the driveway and Jemma noted the presence of her dad's car. "This is home for you, it's not home for Skye."

"Sometimes when we play, Skye gets angry at me, and I'm not sure why." Jemma said. She rubbed a finger through the condensation on the inside of the car window. It squeaked and she pulled back. "I don't want to upset her."

"I know." Bobbi reached over and ran a hand through Jemma's hair. "When Skye gets mad, she can't always help it."

"Is that why she goes to the child psychologist?" Jemma undid her seatbelt and tried to shuffle as close to Bobbi as she could without leaving her seat.

Bobbi paused. "Yeah, that's why. Amongst other things."

"What other things?"

"Things that we won't be discussing behind Skye's back." Bobbi said poignantly, and Jemma got the gist and stopped prompting. She wasn't even really supposed to know Skye had been attending sessions with a psychologist, but she had overheard Bobbi talking on the phone to Natasha a month or so previously, and Bobbi and Lance had sat Jemma down and explained things to her.

They got out of the car and Bobbi waited for Jemma by the driver's side door so that they could walk up the driveway together. Jemma took Bobbi's offered hand and the woman rubbed it between both of hers to warm it up. She'd left her gloves in the house when they'd dropped off Skye.

"You know," Jemma said, as they stepped up onto the porch, "Skye doesn't call the doctor a 'psychologist', she calls him a 'feelings doctor'."

"Is she wrong?" Bobbi raised a brow.

Jemma blinked at her. "Well I suppose, not technically. Doctor Garner is a doctor of the mind, I just don't understand why Skye doesn't just call him what he is." She shook her head a little. "He's a psychologist. Calling him a 'feelings doctor' makes it sound like he didn't go through years of medical school."

Bobbi opened the front door and ushered Jemma inside. "If Skye wants to refer to Andrew as her feelings doctor, then let her." She pulled the door shut behind them and began helping Jemma get her coat off. "Okay, honey?"

"Okay." Jemma gave Bobbi a hug, wrapping both arms around the woman's waist and squeezing tightly. She liked hugging Bobbi and her dad, and they never ever pushed her away, so Jemma had been taking every opportunity in the past two months to show her love.

"I love you." Bobbi mumbled into her hair. She bent over and kissed Jemma's cheeks. "I don't want you to worry about Skye, okay? I'll talk to her, but I don't want you thinking it's anything you've done."

"I love you." Jemma told Bobbi, pulling her down by the hem of her sweater so that she could give her a kiss.

"Oi!"

Jemma let go of Bobbi to turn towards the call with a grin. Her dad stood in the doorway to the kitchen with a bottle of beer in one hand and the other arm held out wide.

"Where's my love?" He asked with a smirk.

She toed off her shoes quickly and ran over to him, throwing herself into his arms and giggling when he picked her up with one arm. Lance smacked a kiss on Jemma's cheek and she wrapped both arms around his neck.

"Hello, darlin'." Her dad said. He put his beer on the windowsill and held Jemma with both arms. She always felt as though she was a little old to be carried, but it was such a lovely feeling to be cuddled that Jemma never complained. Her dad kissed her hair. "Have a good day?"

"I did." Jemma told him as he carried her to the couch. They sat down and he opened one arm for Bobbi as she sat with them. "We went to where you got our tree." Jemma's eyes lay on the sparkling Christmas tree in the corner of the living room. It was beautiful. Bobbi had let Jemma pick out a selection of ornaments from the store, and they hung proudly at the front of the tree. The lights were red and gold, and Jemma thought that maybe this was exactly how Christmas was supposed to be.

"Got the trees for my mom." Bobbi explained. She kissed Dad's cheek. "Being delivered Monday, so whoever's working the early shift is probably going to have to bring them all in."

He smiled. "Not muggins, then." Dad clapped. "I'm off Monday, aren't I?"

"Yeah." Jemma said. "Because you're taking me to school with Skye." She sighed. "Even though she probably doesn't want to go to school with me, anyway."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Her dad asked. He glanced over at Bobbi and Jemma pretended not to notice.

"I don't think Skye wants to be my friend anymore. Well, I know she doesn't." Jemma mumbled. She climbed off the couch and wandered over to the Christmas tree. "She was angry with me today. I don't know why."

Bobbi sighed. "She's just having one of her days, Hunter." She mumbled to Jemma's Dad. "You know how she gets."

It always felt a little odd to hear someone refer to her dad as 'Hunter'. It shouldn't have, because Jemma had heard Bobbi doing it for almost as long as she could remember, but even years later it still felt a little weird. For most of her life, Jemma had had Lance. That's what her mean parents had called him, that's what she had called him. He was Lance, her big brother. Until he wasn't anymore. Jemma was having to get used to a lot of new things recently. She didn't really have a brother, Lance, anymore. She had a Dad, and a…. Bobbi. It was a nice thing to get used to.

"Mm." He agreed with Bobbi. "Skye does have her days. Don't worry about it, Jems." Her Dad said, wrapping both arms around Bobbi. "Skye was probably just tired or something."

"Yeah" Jemma smiled, reaching out to run her finger delicately over the tiny little bells decorating the tree. They made a little twinkling noise. "Maybe."

…

Skye sat on the couch and watched TV with Mr. Snow until Daddy came in from work. It was some show on one of the kids' channels they got where the cartoon looked straight out of the TV screen and asked the viewer questions, and then pretended to hear their answer. It was probably for much younger kids, Skye thought, but it was colourful and musical, and something that Skye didn't have to concentrate on, much.

Mommy kept asking her about her trip to the tree lot and her play-date with Jemma, but Skye couldn't really be bothered with the conversation and instead replied to her questions with nods, head shakes, and shrugs, eyes remaining on the bright animation. She didn't want Mommy to know the bad things she had said to Jemma. Eventually, Mommy just kissed her on the head and left her alone in the living room.

"Hey." Her dad called when he opened the front door.

Skye looked up from the TV and waved at him with her thumb still in her mouth. The cold from the outside made the hairs on her arms stand up and Skye held Mr. Snow tightly against her chest. Her dad frowned as he closed the door and took off his coat.

"Thumb. Out." He said, walking over to the couch and leaning over to give Skye a kiss on her cheek. He pulled her hand away from her mouth. "The thumb stays out, Skye." He reminded her, and it took all of Skye's willpower not to just begin sucking it again.

"Sorry." She muttered. "I forgot." Skye hadn't forgotten the 'no thumb-sucking' rule that had been in place in the house for the last three weeks, since her trip to the dentist, but it was easier to fib to her daddy than to admit she was openly disobeying her parents.

Her dad moved around the couch and sat down next to her. He switched the sound off the TV and turned to Skye. "I think you've been forgetting the rule quite a bit recently."

She looked down at Mr. Snow to avoid her dad's eyes. His white fur was beginning to look a little grubby and Skye wondered whether it would be a good idea to give him a bath.

"Skye." Her dad prompted, pushing hair out of her eyes.

Skye pouted at him. "S'hard not to do it." She sighed. "It feels nice."

His face softened. "I know, honey. But it's bad for your teeth."

"Half of 'em are just gonna fall out, anyways." Skye muttered, then poked a particularly wobbly tooth on the top of her mouth with her tongue.

"That's not the point, Skye." Her Mommy said, coming back into the room. She sat down on the arm of the couch and leaned over Skye to kiss her dad. Her belly was in Skye's face and the little girl automatically dropped her head to rest an ear against it.

Listening to the baby was something Skye did often, mostly because when she hugged her mommy, her head was at the perfect height to lean against the belly. Mommy and Daddy said the baby could hear her when she talked to it, so Skye was making sure to listen just as much as she talked just in case they were having a genius baby who could maybe already speak. It seemed unlikely, but she listened anyway.

Skye liked to pretend the baby could speak to her.

Her dad reached over Skye's shoulders to rub her mommy's belly. "And how's my little baby doing today?"

"Good." Skye answered on the baby's behalf. "She says she missed you while you were at work."

"Oh really?" Daddy smirked. "So she's a 'she' today, huh?"

Skye paused and listened hard. The only sound she was rewarded with was the swooshing sound she could always hear, but today Skye imagined that the baby was in fact a girl. Yesterday she had thought boy, but she had since changed her mind.

"She's a girl." Skye said with a fair amount of certainty. She crinkled her nose. "Maybe she's a girl."

Daddy laughed and kissed her hair. "How was your day, Skye?"

She closed her eyes and hugged Mommy tighter. Skye felt her mom begin to thread her fingers through her hair. "I went to buy Christmas trees with Bobbi and Jemma."

"Great." Her dad muttered sarcastically, and her mom tapped him warningly across the head.

"I got a candy cane." Skye smiled. "That was cool."

"Sounds like a fun day." Daddy said.

Skye shrugged. "It was okay. I didn't really want to go to Bobbi's and play with Jemma but I did anyways."

"Why didn't you want to go?" Mommy asked.

"I wanted to stay home with you." Skye admitted. She rubbed her thumb over her lips but didn't suck it. "I missed you, Mommy."

"I missed you, too."

"No." Skye sighed. "I think I missed you more. You had the baby to stop you from being lonely."

Her mom tickled the back of Skye's neck. "Having the baby around doesn't replace having you with me, though." She said. "I still miss you, and love you very much."

"Mmhm." Skye said, closing her eyes. She rolled her shoulders when her dad put a hand on her back.

Skye's Mommy and Daddy began talking about their days above her head. Daddy was asking Mommy if she had been feeling nauseous. Nauseous. Skye had learned that meant feeling like you were going to puke. Mommy seemed to always been feeling like that these days. Stupid baby.

Sometimes Skye really didn't like the baby.

Every time Mommy got sick because of the baby, Jemma told Skye how it was all a 'natural part of pregnancy'. Jemma seemed to know a lot about where babies came from, and even though sometimes it was interesting, Skye sometimes didn't want to listen about what was going to happen when the baby eventually came out. Jemma always stopped telling her about it when she asked. She was kind like that.

Jemma was really kind, and Skye hadn't been very nice to her today. A ball of lead settled itself in Skye's tummy, and no matter how hard she tried to ignore it and push it away, it refused to move. The image of Jemma looking upset at Skye's actions kept playing out in her head when Skye closed her eyes.

"Oh no." She said quietly, rubbing her fingers in the corners of her eyes until little white spots appeared.

Mommy pulled her hands away from her face. "What's the matter, Skye?"

Skye pressed her lips together and looked between her parents. They were watching her with the same expressions they wore when she lost her temper and had tantrums. She shook her head.

"I did a bad thing today, I think." Skye said quietly. She swallowed and looked down at Mr. Snow. Even he seemed to look disappointed.

Her dad glanced at her mom. "Okay." He said slowly. "What did you do?"

"I think…" Skye pushed herself off the couch and stood by the coffee table, leaving her bear on the couch. She didn't deserve cuddles after the way she had spoken to her Jemma. "I think I hurt Jemma's feelings. I made her sad."

"How?" Mommy asked. Her hand was rubbing her belly. Skye followed the movement with her eyes.

"I said mean things to her. Told her I didn't want to play with her anymore."

"I see." Mommy said.

Skye bit her lip. "I said we weren't friends."

Mommy's hand stopped moving on her tummy. "And how does saying those things to Jemma make you feel?"

Mommy and Daddy always asked Skye how things made her feel. She took a deep breath like Doctor Garner told her to do to calm down, and took an assessment of her feelings. It wasn't hard to identify the feeling. It didn't take her feelings doctor to tell her.

"I feel guilty." Skye said with certainty. She looked to her Dad. "I need to say 'sorry'."

He nodded. "I think you maybe do."

"Can we go now?" Skye asked suddenly, stepping towards her dad and tugging on his jacket. "Daddy we need to go now so I can apologise."

He sighed. "It's a little late, Skye. How about you just call her?"

"But," Skye frowned and impatiently shifted from foot to foot, "look how sorry my face is." She leaned closer to her father. "See? Jemma needs to see how sorry my face is."

Her mom snorted then coughed when Skye looked over. She took a sip of water from the glass on the cabinet next to her and waved Skye off. "Sorry, honey. Continue."

Skye nodded and looked back to Daddy. "It's important, Daddy. Please." She pouted, sticking out her bottom lip and tilting her head to one side. It was a look that Hunter called her 'kicked puppy' expression. It didn't really work on Mommy, or Bobbi, or Nat, but her Daddy, Clint, and Hunter were suckers for it.

"Oh, Skye." Her daddy groaned and rubbed a hand over his face.

Skye batted her eyes. "Please, Daddy."

He sighed heavily and stood up. "Come on, then. Get your coat on. It's cold."

She squeaked and ran off to grab her jacket from where she had left it on the hook by the door. It was a little high to get to, but Skye grabbed onto the hood of her coat and jumped a few times until the garment fell. She shrugged it on quickly, her sleeves uncomfortably pushing up to her elbows inside the jacket.

"We gotta leave right now, Daddy." Skye said, running back into the living room. "Come on."

Her dad smiled. "I'm coming , I'm coming." He leaned down to kiss her Mommy. "We'll be back soon." He said, and shook his head with a smile. "I love you."

Mommy kissed him again. "Love you, too." She turned to Skye and gestured her over with a tip of her head. Skye crossed the room and stopped at her Mommy's side. "Hey," Mommy said gently, "I'm so proud of you for doing this."

"For doing what?"

"For knowing how important it is to apologise for doing wrong." Mommy brushed hair away form Skye's eyes.

Skye looked at her feet. "But I was mean."

"But," Mommy touched Skye's chin and she looked up at her, "you understand that what you did was wrong. That's something to be proud of. That means that maybe next time you can stop yourself before you act in that way again."

She ran her top teeth over her bottom lip. "Yeah."

Skye's mommy kissed her head. "Go on, sweetie. Do what you have to."

"Okay." Skye said. She hugged Mommy tightly, wrapping her arms around her neck and pressing her nose into her shoulder. She had to stand at her side because the baby was in the way. "I'm sorry I was bad, Mommy." She whispered.

"I know."

Skye kneeled down and cupped her hands on Mommy's tummy. She whispered to the baby. "I'll be back soon. I'm not leaving forever."

Daddy put a hand on Skye's shoulder and she pulled away from her mom and looked up at him.

"Come on, let's go."

"Okay." Skye wiped at her eyes. She wasn't crying, but they were stinging a little like she might begin to. "I need to say 'sorry' to Jemma."

…

Clint stared at the overflowing suitcase in the middle of the bedroom and thought, not for the first time, that maybe they should think about either doing a 'no presents' Christmas, or checking another bag on their flight back to Chicago for the holidays. He blew out a breath and knelt down by the bag.

"Nat, there's no fuckin' way this thing is closing." He said, half-heartedly flipping the lid and grimacing at the way it sat atop the pile of stuff within, showing absolutely no indication that it would ever zip closed. "How many more presents have we got to pack?"

"Six." Nat said immediately from her position on the bed. She brushed some hair out of her eyes and stuck another piece of tape to whatever thing she was wrapping. "But two of them are pairs of socks, so they barely count."

Clint chuckled at her concentration as she stuck out her tongue to apply the bow to the gift. He climbed up onto the bed next to her and kissed her cheek. She hummed.

"Hey." Clint said, kissing her again. "I love you."

"Sap." She smirked, nudging his jaw with her nose. "I love you, too." Natasha pushed the wrapped present to the foot of the bed with a socked toe, and pulled Clint to rest over her with a hand on the back of his neck. "C'mere." She muttered, pulling him down for a long kiss.

"Mm." He moved over her, putting one arm on the other side of her head and keeping his weight on his forearms. Clint nipped at her lip and Natasha kicked him playfully in the shin.

She pulled back from him, keeping a hand on his chest. "We still need to finish packing."

"Hey," Clint kissed her neck and felt her swallow under the tender pressure of his lips, "you were the one who pulled me up here."

"Yeah, well…" her voice was strained and Clint smiled as he kissed up her jaw and back to her mouth, pushing a hand up the leg of her pyjama shorts. She gave him a peck. "My bad. But we really do need to get packed and the rest of this stuff wrapped."

He let his weight pin Nat down and she squealed playfully. "Let's just leave it until the last minute."

"Get off." Nat laughed. "I can't breathe."

He sat up and instead swung a leg over her, sitting on Natasha's hips, trapping her there. She rolled her eyes at him.

"And anyway, we did, leave it until the last minute. This is kind of the last minute."

He scoffed. "Not really."

Natasha raised an eyebrow at him. "It's eight pm and our flight leaves in less than twelve hours."

"Yeah. Twelve whole hours to pack." Clint danced his fingers over her stomach, pushing them under her (his) hoodie and tickling her until she squirmed. "That's so much time we could be doing other stuff….sexy stuff."

"Sexy stuff?" Nat deadpanned.

Clint grinned. "Yeah."

He leaned down to kiss her, rolling his hips and groaning into her mouth. She ran a heel up the back of his thigh and dipped her hand under the waistband of his sweatpants at his back.

"Maybe," she said breathlessly, licking into his mouth, we've got a little time for sexy stuff."

"You're sexy stuff." Clint responded.

"You're an idiot."

"Mm." He kissed her again, and again, and again, until the overflowing suitcase and unwrapped Christmas presents were long forgotten by both of them. Clint hissed when Natasha clawed at his back, and then, right on cue to ruin their wonderful interaction, his phone began ringing.

"Ignore it." Nat muttered into his mouth.

Clint didn't even bother to respond verbally, just took her advice and focused more on Natasha's moans than on the irritating chime of his cell phone. It stopped, as expected, but the respite was short-lived and it took up to ringing again within seconds of stopping.

"Go away." Clint muttered at his phone, pulling it from his pocket and frowning at the screen. The number wasn't blocked, but it was a cell phone number that wasn't in his phonebook, and one he didn't recognise.

Nat pulled away from him a little and sat up. "Maybe it's important." She said, nodding at the phone. "Could be from school or something."

Clint couldn't deny that. His lack of appearance in his classes recently had caused him to receive his fair share of phone calls from various departments of the college, showing their concern for his absence. Nat had, too, shown her concern, but like with the university staff, Clint had guiltily waved her off with an excuse of being busy and promises of try harder next semester.

The phone stopped ringing again. Then began for a third time.

"Answer it." Natasha said, running a thumb over her lip and tucking some loose hair behind her ear.

He did, pressing the phone to his ear and climbing off Natasha. "Hello?"

"Clinton?"

He nearly dropped the phone.

"Clinton? That you?"

He felt an icy cool rush through him, head to toe. Natasha put a hand on his knee but he couldn't feel it.

"You okay?" She asked, rising up on her knees. "Clint? You're pale. What's the matter?"

"Clint? That you? I can hear you breathing. Is it you? Who's that with ya?"

Clint closed his eyes, squeezed them shut. "I don't wanna talk to you." He said through gritted teeth. "I'm done with you."

"Aww, come on. Is that any way to speak to your big brother?"

…

A quiet house was something people seemed to think Melinda needed. Maria had taken to texting her before just calling around for coffee and a chat in case she was sleeping or something. Bobbi had been wonderfully generous in picking up Skye from school and keeping her over at their house for a few hours after school, because she wanted to give her mother a break. Even Phil had decided that she needed to be treated with a little more care, helping her in and out of the car and constantly telling her she was 'glowing'. It made her feel sicker than the baby did.

She was grateful. Of course she was grateful. Having a house full of kids was tiring at the best of times, and Skye could be a handful to say the least, but she really wished they would all just chill out. It was moving on from being endearing to being simply irritating. She was pregnant, not dying, after all.

Melinda sat for all of thirty seconds in the quiet living room after Skye and Phil had left, before deciding she needed to be up and doing something. Skye had been out with Bobbi, and Phil had been at work all day, and really, Mel was just looking forward to a night of not being bored and on her own. She sighed and wandered over to the stairs, deciding it wouldn't be the worst thing if she let Skye stay up past her bedtime just so that she could spend a little time with her.

If only to keep her hands busy, Melinda decided that she would clean up Skye's room a little for her coming back home. The little girl was meant to keep it tidy herself, and generally she did, but there were things that an eight year old didn't really consider when cleaning her room that Mel did. For one, she thought, pushing open Skye's door, there appeared to be more stuff pushed under her bed than in the closet. Mel smiled fondly.

"Kids." She muttered. "All the same." Even now, Natasha was terrible for pushing things under her bed and declaring the room 'clean'. It seemed Skye was taking after her big sister.

Mel got down on her knees, ignoring the protesting ache from her back, and pushed her hand under the bed, pulling out a handful of what first appeared to be complete crap. It seemed to be a random pile of crumpled paper, and Mel was about to throw it all in the trash when she realised it was less of a pile of crap and more of an unorganised pile of school work.

"Oh, Skye." She murmured, sitting back against the bed and inspecting the pile.

Most of it was completed and marked homework sheets, and with a small swell of pride, Mel realised most of them had little smiley faces drawn in green pen. Her little girl had been trying so hard in school, and Mel couldn't really work out why she would hide her marked schoolwork from her. There was another sheet, a reading comprehension sheet that Mel suspected was not homework, but work from school because she didn't recognise it. The paper was crumpled, like it had been crushed into a ball, and had scribbles all over the area where Pepper had marked Skye as having gotten a six out of twenty.

"Sweetheart." Mel sighed, finding several other similar papers at the bottom of the stack. "Looks like we need to have a little talk."

She put the work to one side and reached under the bed once more, this time coming away with a small red workbook. Mel read the front of it, recognising Pepper's handwriting that declared the book to be Skye's 'Journal', and her classroom number. She frowned. The book was one she hadn't seen before, and when Melinda flicked through the filled pages of Skye's writing, she suddenly realised why. It wasn't just another school exercise book; it was essentially, Skye's diary.

The latest entry was from a few days previous, the date carefully printed at the top of the page in pencil. It seemed wrong to read it, Melinda thought. Somehow it seemed to be an intrusion of Skye's privacy to read her journal, but then, Mel rationalised, it was a schoolbook, and she had every right to investigate why her youngest daughter was trying to hide things from her.

Today, Mel read to herself, mentally bypassing some of Skye's interesting spelling choices, I have to go to my big sister's house after school. I go there a lot because my Mommy is having a baby and she's tired and sick a lot. I think I must get in the way when I'm at home with her.

Melinda rubbed a hand over her belly. She'd been suffering from bouts of sickness but nothing too terrible, and she felt guilty that Skye felt like she was being pushed around because of it. Her little girl was anything but in the way, she was what made the house a home.

When I go to Bobbi's house today, I'm probably going to play with Jemma. I'm really glad Jemma's in our family now, even though she is sometimes annoying. Grant asked me if I wanted to go to his house to play after school and Miss Potts said she could ask my Mommy on the phone but I said 'no' because I don't know if I would be allowed to go when Mommy's sick.

Mel shook her head and rubbed her eyes with her fingertips. She wasn't sure if she could bring herself to read any more of Skye's words. They played out in her head in Skye's little voice and she took a deep breath. It destroyed her to think that they had been giving Skye the impression that she wasn't allowed to play with her friends or even spend time at home because of the pregnancy. The guilt bit at Mel's consciousness.

She flicked at the book in frustration and the pages turned to another of Skye's journal entries, dated from just over a week ago. Mel tried not to read it but her will power was vying and the desperation to find something positive in Skye's writing was becoming more and more insistent.

I'm going to be adopted. Skye's words said. And Daddy says that when I'm adopted, I can change my name. I thought maybe I could change it to 'Daisy', because I like that name, but then I thought no, because I like 'Skye' more. I'm going to be 'Skye Coulson'. Grant says I should pick a middle name, but right now I can't think of one. That's okay, though, because Mommy says adoption takes a long time, so I've got time to think of it.

"Baby." Mel breathed.

I want to be adopted really bad. When I'm adopted, I can't be sent away when the baby comes. It's going to be a long time until the baby's here, and I hope I get adopted before then so that I don't go back to St Agnes' when the baby comes. Mommy and Daddy will love it more than me, but that's okay as long as I don't have to go back.

If her heart wasn't already broken in reading Skye's journal, it was that statement that obliterated it completely. Melinda was crying and it had nothing to do with the pregnancy hormones she was suffering. They had failed as parents. They had let Skye believe that she was going to be second best to a baby who wasn't even properly in their lives yet.

She left the journal on the floor and pulled herself up. Crying wasn't going to help, Mel told herself, and so, she decided to go back downstairs, make Skye her favourite dinner and dessert, and pamper that little girl so much that she had no doubt in her mind as to her importance to Melinda and Phil. Skye was going to know how much she was adored.

…

"I just don't get it." Bobbi said, shaking her head at the TV. She looked to Hunter and Jemma, sat by her side and at her feet, respectively, and marvelled at how they could be glued to the television watching such a weird show. "It makes no sense."

Jemma looked up at her, loose curls falling away from her face as she tilted her head. "Which part don't you understand?"

"For starters, how he's a doctor when I'm fairly sure he's never been to medical school." Bobbi muttered, grimacing in confusion when some rhinos in leather kilts began marching across the screen. "Not the mention the fact that no one actually questions why a lonely old man might invite young, attractive women into his…box."

Hunter huffed. "It's his name not his job title." He ignored her latter comment.

"Not exactly." Jemma said. "Technically, the Doctor has an actual name-,"

The doorbell rang, but it didn't deter Jemma from her explanation of the British show. Bobbi excused herself to answer it, although it seemed as though the discussion had both Hunter and Jem occupied enough that they didn't even notice her departure.

She opened the front door. "Oh, hey." Bobbi said, finding her dad and little sister looking back at her. "What are you doing here? Everything alright?"

Skye shook her head as she stared at her feet. Bobbi looked to her dad. He had a hand on Skye's shoulder.

"Skye needs to talk to Jemma." He explained. He rolled his eyes fondly. "Apparently it couldn't be done over the phone."

"Okay." Bobbi said, stepping aside to allow them in. She closed the door behind her dad and followed the two of them into the living room. "Jems? Someone here to see you."

The little girl looked up, and smiled, before her eyes fell on Skye and her face fell. "Hello." She said.

"Hi." Skye replied, scuffing the toe of her shoe on the carpet.

Bobbi watched the two children interact, moving to stand next to her father. "What's going on?" She asked him, and he put a finger to his lips and nodded at the kids. Bobbi turned to them.

Skye was ringing her hands, eyes cast downward to Jemma's knees. "I came to say 'sorry', Jemma." She said.

"Oh." Jemma seemed unable to decide what to do next. She looked to Hunter, who in typical Hunter fashion, shrugged and made a face. Jem looked back to Skye and reached one hand out to gracelessly pat her shoulder. "It's okay."

"Okay." Skye said.

"Okay." Jemma said.

Bobbi smirked. The whole thing was so cringe worthy that she almost regretted not filming it just to embarrass both of them when they were older. Her dad cleared his throat and both girls looked over.

"Maybe," He said, looking at Skye, "you could explain to Jemma why we drove all the way over here for you to say 'sorry.'"

Skye nodded, and with a little more confidence, looked back to Jemma. "I'm sorry I was mean to you, Jemma. I want to be your friend, and I'm sorry I was a horrible person."

Jemma shook her head. "Oh, Skye. You're not horrible." She reached out and took Skye's hand, and Bobbi thought her heart might explode. "You hurt me a little, but I forgive you, and I'd really love to be your friend."

"Really?"

Bobbi thought Skye's grin might split her face in two.

"Yes. If you want to be friends."

Skye nodded, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. "I do. I do. We can be best friends."

"But you already have a best friend." Jemma said.

"I can have two." Skye assured her. "You're my best girlfriend and Grant's my best boyfriend."

Bobbi's heard her dad sniff. "No dating until you're thirty." He muttered, but the kids didn't hear him.

Bobbi turned to him. "Remember when you used to tell me that?" She smirked.

He glanced at Hunter. "Yes. I can now only rely on Skye and Nat to live up to my no dating rule."

Bobbi scoffed, thinking of the conversations she had with Natasha over the phone on a regular basis. "You're deluding yourself if you think Nat and Clint's relationship is platonic."

Her dad glared at her. "Let me believe that my teenage daughter is in DC studying politics and not the inside of Clint Barton's mouth."

"From what I've heard, Nat's been studying more that the inside of his mouth." Bobbi turned away from her father, biting her lip to keep from laughing hysterically at his horror-stricken expression.

"Can we?" Jemma asked Bobbi, pulling on her shirt, Skye grinning by her side. "Please?"

"Huh?" Bobbi said blankly, now aware she had been too busy discussing her sister's sex life with her father, to listen to the children in the room. "What?"

"Can we have a sleepover?" Jemma asked, and Skye nodded her assent. "Tonight?"

"Please, Daddy?" Skye pouted.

"Look away, Phil!" Hunter cried. "She's doing the 'kicked puppy' look."

Phil sighed. "Okay-," both girl's cheered, "but only if it's okay with Bobbi and Hunter."

Bobbi was strangely proud when both little girls ignored Lance, and instead turned to her for approval.

"Well, Bobo," Lance grinned, "looks like they know who wears the trousers in this house.

Skye scrunched up her nose. "You're both wearing pants."

"It's an expression." Jemma informed her, and Skye nodded.

"Can we please have our sleepover, Bobbi?" Jemma asked again, the pout and sad eyes switching on, "We are best friends."

"Urg." Bobbi groaned playfully. "Fine, but you both better be asleep by ten or so help me I will wake you both up at five am to go for a run."

The girls looked at each other and nodded.

"Agreed." Skye said, stepping forward to hug Bobbi. Jemma followed and Bobbi leaned over to kiss the two children. "I love you." Skye said.

"I love you, too." Bobbi smiled.

Skye looked up at her. "I was talking to my Jemma."

"Oh." Bobbi said and heard her dad chuckle

"But I love you, too." Skye added quickly. "I love all my family. Even Hunter."

"Hey!"

Skye smirked at him. "I said you too, Teacup."

Hunter groaned at the nickname he pretended to hate. "Fucking hell, even the kids are saying it."

"Swear jar!" Jemma exclaimed.

"I told you," Skye said seriously, "you can borrow ours."

"I think we need it." Jem said.

Bobbi's dad kissed Skye and gave Bobbi and pat on the back as he left the house. "Good luck, Bob. Skye, I love you, have a good time."

"Bye, Daddy." Skye called. "Tell Mommy I love her and tell the baby that I'm coming home, I'm not gone forever."

"Right." Her dad said, frowning at the odd request, but then smiling and pulling the front door closed behind him.

Bobbi watched as Skye turned to Jemma, and whispered, a little louder than she perhaps intended, "I don't want the baby to think it can replace me if I'm not there."

Jemma said nothing to that, just held Skye's hand and began pulling her towards the stairs. "We're going to get ready for bed." She said. "Come on, Skye, you can borrow some of my pyjamas."

Hunter left the couch to cross the room and wrap his arms around Bobbi. She kissed his neck and he pecked her lips.

"That worries me."

"What Skye just said?"

He shook his head. "No, their little friendship they've got going on. I feel like they're going to be trouble." His grin fell and he cocked his head at Bobbi. "Why? What did Skye say?"

"It's probably nothing." Bobbi said. "Don't worry about it."

He kissed her. "I have a daughter now, I worry about a lot of things."

"Me, too." Bobbi said.

"Yeah. But that's what mums and dads are supposed to do." Lance smiled when there was a squealing laugh from upstairs. "Best life ever."

A/N:Soooooooooooo, what did we all think?

Review please. Let me know what you thought. :) xxx

Follow me on tumblr: PanicMoon15

And twitter: BubbaEmss