To Thrill A Mockingbird

When Lance woke up the sun was up, which was a plus, but he was cold, his whole body ached and his head was throbbing. Two voices across the room made it better. Sure, he may be an idiot for following a girl he didn't know across the country and into another country, but he couldn't just leave her alone when she was supposedly on a rescue mission. A mission that turned out to be real, judging by the little girl that was in cell the with them. Maybe his instincts weren't as bad as he thought.

"Hold up!" Lance had been watching the girls whispering in their own corner for a few minutes when he realised something.

"What?" Bobbi looked over to him; how was it possible that she still looked stunning after not bathing for at least two days, fighting a group of men in black villian-standard outfits, and being in a dirt room over night? It didn't seem human.

"I thought you said it was your sister?" He rubbed his eyes just to make sure; yep, that little girl was definitely part asian. Looking from the girl to Bobbi and back they certainly didn't look related. "You two don't look related."

"I'm a foster kid." Skye shrugged, not questioning that the man thought Bobbi was her sister. She wouldn't mind being Bobbi's sister.

"Way to be insensitive, Hunter." Bobbi narrowed her eyes which inexplicably made him feel guilty.

"So have you come up with a plan yet?" Hunter asked instead of putting his foot in his mouth again.

"I was just getting information about this place." The blonde turned back to the little brunette as the big brunette made his way over to them instead of calling across the room so anyone outside could hear their plans.

"I don't know much." Skye looked down, upset at herself.

"That's okay, Miniature, just tell us what you know." Bobbi assured as Lance sat himself on Skye's other side.

"Shh..." Skye shook her head, pressing a finger to her lips and using her other hand to point to the door. The three watched with baited breath as the shadows stomped past the door. "During the day it's different to night." The girl spoke after a few moments. "During the day the shadows come, then six hundred Mississippi's later there's crunching outside the window-" she pointed up to the window opposite door, "-then it's six hundred Mississippi's until the shadows again."

"Mississippi's? What-"

"Ten minutes." Bobbi cut Hunter off, "the guard goes by the door, then ten minutes later they go outside, then another ten minutes till they're at the door." The blonde translated after a quick maths session. "A twenty minute loop."

"At night it's longer; I can't see the shadows at the door, but it's three thousand, six hundred Mississippi's between the gravel crunching... An hour, right?" Big brown eyes looked up her hopefully; even in captivity she was trying to impress Bobbi.

"Right." Bobbi nodded, so logically it would be best to escape at night. It would be more difficult to navigate at night, but it was longer between the guards.

"But, that's all I know." Skye looked down sadly. "I've never seen outside the door except when Ward came and even then I only saw walls the same as these ones."

"That's okay-..." Bobbi stopped, hoping she'd heard wrong. "Who did you see?" Skye frowned, picking at the hem of one the sleeves on the leather jacket.

"Ward was here." She spoke in a small voice. "He said he couldn't help me escape, I don't understand why not. He just gave me chalk and he left. I wanted to go with him, but he wouldn't let me and then he locked the door again."

"Ward was here?" Bobbi repeated hoarsely. One of her best friends. "Are you sure, Skye?"

"He said it wasn't personal." Skye nodded, still concentrating on the sleeve. "I think he's the one that gave me the blanket on the first night." A ratty little thing that had more holes than Swiss cheese.

"I don't get it, do you know this Ward guy?" Hunter spoke up, looking between the girls in confusion.

"Yeah." Bobbi swallowed roughly. "I thought he was a friend."

"Some friend." The Englishman snorted.

The trio sat in silence; one figured it was just a bad time to talk, one felt guilty for outing Bobbi's friend, and the blonde herself was currently plotting the non-accidental death of her former friend. Ward; the guy who had zero people skills and was half afraid of 13-year-old Fitz's engineering creations. Ward who had helped her look for Skye when she got lost at school. Ward who apparently had a hand in kidnapping and imprisoning Skye for the last two days. Ward who would be dead the next time she saw him.

"What about-" Bobbi tried to refocus on the tasked at hand; getting Skye out of there and to safety. "-what about when they bring meals? Or the bathroom? Do they ever-?" She felt Skye freeze next to her and hated the next question she was going to ask. "Did they give you food? Take you to the bathroom?" The silence was loud. Too loud. Bobbi added the unknown names of every single person in the building to her hit list.

"Simmons said you can survive three days without water." Both girls looked over to Hunter in shock when a loud smack sounded and saw him gripping his hand after clearly just having punched the concrete wall.

"Save some of those bastards for me kill, yeah, Bob?" Hunter ground out with barely concealed anger. "Check the jacket." He added after a minute, "I think there's some candy in the inside pocket." It was Bobbi's hands, not Skye's, that reached into the jacket and found half an English candy bar.

"You need to eat, Kid." Bobbi urged, sure it wasn't the best option, but it was the only one they had right now. "It's been two days, you need to eat."

While Skye was nibbling on the candy Bobbi got up and pulled Hunter to a different corner. "I don't care what happens to me, I'm getting her out of here." Bobbi murmured, keeping her blue eyes on the girl. "You really should have stayed in that first town, Hunter."

"I never do what I should do, Love." Hunter sighed, this was going to be an eventful day. "What's the plan?"

"I need to see through those windows-" the one in the door and the one on the wall. "-and I need to get that bracelet off her."

"Bracelet?" Hunter frowned, "what does a bracelet have to do with anything?"

"We're not sisters, Lance." Bobbi went back to Skye, letting out a slow breath. Classified intel number one; "we're students of the Special Children's Housing, Operations and Learning Active Response... A division of SHIELD... Yes, that SHIELD."

"To the left." Bobbi instructed from her position on Hunters shoulders. "The other left, Hunter." The man stumbled in the opposite direction as Bobbi tried to get a look out the window. Brown, barren lands, blue skies, plain concrete buildings in the distance. Absolutely nothing descript about any of it.

"Anything?" Hunters voice was strained and his grip on her thighs was only slightly distracting.

"A dozen more buildings that look exactly like this one?" She tapped his head in a signal to let her down. So much for an exit strategy.

"You know, I usually get to know a lady before I have her legs around my head." He grinned despite the slap upside the head it earned him.

"You found the seam yet, Kid?" Skye's task while Bobbi and Hunter tried to look through the windows had been to use the chalk to try and find the seam in her nanny bracelet. It had taken longer than the 11-year-old liked to find the crease in the metal.

"Yeah, but I still can't open it." Trust her, she'd tried every way to open it ever since Hand put it on her. The closest she'd ever seen was when Agent Hill did some override code so Bobbi could use her computer when Skye was near.

"Hunter, how long until the next guard is at the door?"

"Two minutes, why?"

"Lift me up again." Bobbi demanded, already standing next to the door. "The guards are gonna have weapons, hopefully a knife." Was all the explanation she gave, she could already hear the footsteps of the guard in the hallway - a completely non-descript hallway. Bobbi was on Hunters shoulders, right near the window, waiting until guard was close enough. A nudge of her foot and Hunter obediently stepped to the side right as he hand shot out and grabbed the hair of the guard. The man let out a yelp, automatically reaching for his head.

Bobbi gripped his hair as tight as she could, it was an awkward angle from her position on Hunters shoulders inside the cell with the guard out in the hall and so much short shorter than her reach. The guard reach for his waist and Bobbi hissed when the knife in his hand came in contact with her wrist. She gritted her teeth through the pain and released her grip on his hair in favour of the knife. The guard was so shocked his hair was free that he let go of the knife. Idiot.

"Hunter." Bobbi nudged him again, bringing her hand - and the knife - back into the cell quickly, before the guard realised his amature mistake. "We're in business." And they didn't have long if the guard was smart. He'd be calling someone about her attack.

"You're cut." Skye frowned when the two teenagers approached her. Hunter kept his back to the girls, keeping watch on the door for when the guards came back.

"I'm fine, Kiddo, let's see that bracelet." Bobbi tried to smile reassuringly. Skye's fingers showed her the seam of the bracelet and Bobbi bit her lip.

"What will getting that off do anyway?" Hunter questioned with his back still to them.

"It's a nanny bracelet, keeps track of high-risk targets-"

"Like eleven-year-olds." He snorted and rolled his eyes behind their backs.

"If it comes off it sends an emergency transmission to every Level Eight and higher for immediate attention." Bobbi explained causing Hunter to turn and stare at her in bewilderment. "We learned about it in class." The blonde shrugged.

"Bloody spy class." Hunter grumbled, turning back to the door.

"Keep your eyes on me, Skye, okay?" Bobbi instructed, examining the seam. They didn't have long now. "Just keep your eyes on me, not your hand."

"'Kay." Skye nodded, she was nibbling her bottom lip, but obediently kept her wide brown eyes on Bobbi's face instead of the knife at her arm.

"Hey, Kid, Bobbi's says that English chocolate tastes weird, I recon it's American chocolate that isn't right." Hunter spoke and Bobbi said a silent thank-you to him as she eased the knife between Skye's arm and the bracelet. "What do you think?"

"I dunno." Skye shrugged, frowning at his back.

"See, American chocolate is way too sweet, it's like eating a bucket of sugar."

"Which is what candy is for." Skye rolled her eyes. Honestly. "Why would you want candy without sugar?"

"Hey, I love sugar as much as the next sweet tooth, but you really need to savour the smoothness of English candy." He defended right as Bobbi took a deep breath and used all her strength to jab the blade of the knife at the seam of the bracelet.

The bracelet flashed - not just three dots, but the whole silver band - bright red for a second as it fell onto the floor. Bobbi let out a breath of relief - Skye still had all her limbs! - but it didn't last long; the lock on the door scraped open.

"Hunter!" Bobbi tossed him the knife as they both stood in front of Skye. The first man that came at them received a slice across the face for his troubles. Followed immediately by a punch to the jaw and a kick to the stomach. "Just like capture the flag." She mused, already blocking an attack from the second man.

"Protect the flag." Hunter nodded, "I can do that." He took a swipe at another man with the knife before noticing that Bobbi was rapidly losing her fight. "Bobbi!" Her fingers grasped the handle of the blade just in time to push it up into the chest of the man on top of her who had his own knife at her neck.

They were outnumbered and severely outclassed. Two of them - injured and weak - against six (now five) trained men. This wasn't looking good. Bobbi held onto the hope that the emergency transmission would work and someone would be here soon to get Skye. Bobbi slid the second knife over to Hunter, which he quickly shoved into the calf of the man on top of him.

"These guys don't pull punches for teenagers." Hunter groaned, scrabbling to try and get back on his feet. He should really stop following pretty blondes on the highway!

"That's okay," Bobbi's body was screaming at her to just give up already, but there were still five men between Skye and relative safety - relative because she wouldn't be safe until she was out of this Hell hole. "I don't either." Because she'd just noticed that one of the men - the one by the doorway not doing anything - was Grant Ward.

"HELP!" Both teenagers' attention snapped to Skye; she was lifted off the ground by one of them, despite her struggling he was easily keeping her contained.

"SKYE!" Bobbi tried to run to her, but was pulled back by another of the men.

BANG!

The unmistakable sound of a gunshot made Bobbi and Lance freeze; Skye's screams had stopped!

BANG!

Another shot and Bobbi was still in shock, even more so when it was the man she was fighting that collapsed.

"Run!" Bobbi looked over to see Ward standing by the door, still holding the gun, his hand shaking, looking pale. "Get Skye and run!" Bobbi didn't need to be told twice - although technically she had been - and she got up, trying to push her full-body pain to the back of her mind. It wasn't as easy as the Agents explained it in class.

"Skye!" The girl was standing in the hallway, staring at the unmoving body of the man that had been trying to take her. "Come on, Baby, let's go." Her grip on Skye's hand was painful, but the girl didn't seem to care as she squeezed back just as hard and the two ran. They heard another gunshot and it made Skye stumble, but Bobbi kept pulling her along.

The whole building was overrun with men with weapons wearing stereotypical black outfits. There was no way Bobbi could fight her way out, not with Ward and Hunter, and definitely not alone. She could hear shouting footsteps around the corner up ahead, there was undoubtedly people coming up behind them, there was a handy door right next to them in the hallway. Anything could be behind that door. Anything was better than dozens of armed men.

Skye was panting and tripping over her own feet as Bobbi nudged her into the room; a storeroom stacked to the roof with boxes. Before she could close the door she saw Hunter and Ward running down the hall. Did she risk Skye for the boys?

"Go hide." She hissed, pushing the girl further into the room. The boys were 20 feet away. Skye slipped her tiny body behind a stack of boxes. The boys were ten feet away. She could hear the men at the corner. "Hurry." The boys were in the room and Bobbi closed the door as quickly and quietly as possible. Bobbi ducked behind the same stack of boxes as Skye, pulling the girl close and holding on for dear life, Ward hid behind a desk at the back of the room, and Hunter wedged himself beside a bookcase.

The four of them waited with baited breath as the hallway outside the storeroom was flooded with shouting and footsteps. Running past, walking, shouting, arguing... Not coming into their hideout.

Hour 3

Bobbi was nearly falling asleep, her muscles aching, her head pounding, her kid sitting safe next to her. Then the gunshots started. Ward had been lounging on the desk and ducked back behind it. Hunter had made his way over to the girls and barely managed to fit in the small space behind the boxes to hide. They couldn't fight anymore. They were teenagers, not soldiers.

The yelling, the gunshots, the running it all started again. Bobbi waited, they were going to come for them, they were going to take Skye again. Over her dead body.

"Hey." Hunter whispered, she looked at him. He wasn't even meant to be here. He was just some stranger she'd pick-pocketed and now she was going to get him killed. "Been a Hell of a day, Love."

"Yeah." That was the understatement of the year. Before Bobbi could say anything else she was surprised to feel a soft, warm pair of lips against her own.

"Can't arrest me for jailbait if I'm dead." Lance's grin was crooked when he pulled back. The door to their storeroom burst open. She couldn't see how many people it was, but at this point any was too many.

"Agent May?" Her hand slapped over Skye's mouth too late. A gun trained in their direction and they had no choice to come out of hiding.

There was only one person in the room - Agent May, just like Skye said - aiming a gun in their direction. May was covered in dirt and blood and had a split lip, a cut on her cheek and in a few hours there would probably be bruises. But, it was Agent May.

"Package acquired." May spoke into the air - a comms unit, Bobbi's mind supplied - lowering her gun and staring at the three teenagers and one preteen. "Morse." The five of them stood around awkwardly for a moment. "I think we'll give you a pass for your mission."

"Thanks." Bobbi let out a short laugh. A pass; she'd take it.

"This doesn't look like a bus!" Skye blurted out when Agent May and the others she didn't recognise led her, Bobbi, Ward and Hunter to a big black plane.

"The kids are medical priority." May called out, hitting a button on the wall and making the ramp they'd just walked up rise and close. "Wheels up in ten."

"It's still not a bus." Skye said as she clutched Bobbi's hand and followed her to what she guessed was 'medical'.

"I'll let Hill and Hand know." A man with receding blonde hair and a crease in his brow told May as she passed. "You gave some very important people quite a scare." He called to the four of them. Bobbi sat next to Skye as the medical personnel started fussing around them, Ward groaned as he laid himself on another examining table and Hunter slid down to the floor instead of climbing onto a third table.

"Are you always this exciting or can I look forward to some down time at some point?" Hunter questioned as one of the medicals knelt next to him.

"Bet you can survive SAS training after this." Bobbi laughed, and then stopped because it hurt to laugh.

The blonde man with the crinkle in his brow came back to them and just stared at them for a while. "Barbara Morse," Bobbi looked up as someone was cleaning the cut on her wrist. "Grant Ward," he sat himself up and stared at the man. "Skye," she was so happy not to be in the cell that she wouldn't have argued if he called her Mary. "And..."

"Lance Hunter." The brunette provided, still sitting on the floor.

"My name is Agent Coulson, and you've all missed some important things in the last few days." The man - Coulson - pulled a chair over. "HYDRA-" Ward twitch on his table, but didn't say anything. "-has infiltrated SHIELD to it's highest ranks. Director Fury is officially dead. What's left of the organisation has been destroyed and decimated. This bus-this plane holds no official standing, no authority on any continent, but it is the last remnants of SHIELD..." He tossed a small black cube onto a nearby desk and a large holographic S.H.I.E.L.D emblem rose above it. "If you'd like to stay we can get you healed up and help you finish your schooling."

Skye tugged on Bobbi's sleeve and whispered in her ear when she leaned down. "Yeah, Miniature," Bobbi laid down across the table, she was exhausted. "These ones are the good guys."

FINAL CHAPTER!

There will be a sequel! I've started writing and it will probably be up around late September and is tentatively titled 'Students Of S.H.I.E.L.D'.

A note or two; yes, I'm aware that Garrett's barbershop base was in Cuba, but Bobbi couldn't very well drive to Cuba... At least, I'm pretty sure she couldn't because I suck at geography.
Sorry for those of you who wanted Ward to be evil (he wasn't under Garrett's hold for 15 years, so the hold wasn't as strong (or some shit like that)).
Yes, Ward will have to pay for what he did (in this case what he didn't) do. Painfully. In the sequel.
If you have any further questions, just ask and I'll try to answer them :D

Sequel now available: Students Of S.H.I.E.L.D. If you liked this, go check it out :D