Skye had only been a SHIELD agent for a few years but she knew more about operations than most, barring Maria and Nick. Admittedly that was only because her adoptive brother (though neither of them had been adopted) was very high up in SHIELD, so back when Director Fury found out he had been training her in self defense for years, he jumped at the chance to recruit her.

Skye had just turned fourteen, the day that she was once again sent back to the orphanage. It didn't surprise her though, she'd been sent back on Christmas Day before. But this time things were different. An older boy (who couldn't have been young enough to be in the orphanage) was sat in her usual chair with another boy on his knee. He looked familiar but Skye didn't recognize him until he spotted her and shouted "Still here Marion?"

Skye immediately grinned, skipping over to her honorary brother. "I enjoyed not being called that." She mock frowned, punching his shoulder. "Robin Hood was always my favourite."

"And yet I'm the one who can fire a bow." Clint smiled, his gaze dropping to his little brother. "Thank you for looking after Theo." He spoke, his voice suddenly serious.

"I made a promise." Skye smiled, ruffling the younger boy's hair. "Besides he loves me."

"Will you stop doing that?" Theo whined. He was only nine but he, like most kids in their orphanage, had matured beyond his age.

Skye had been a baby when she was dropped off at the orphanage, but Clint and Theo had known their parents. Clint was fifteen when his parents' car collided with a drunk driver's, but Theo was only four and didn't understand why he couldn't see his parents anymore. For their initial few days, Skye had been with a foster family but when she came back she helped ease Theo into life at St Agness'. And when Clint turned eighteen, he asked Skye to look after Theo until he could come back for him.

"I didn't expect to be gone for this long but I'm finally allowed to take him with me." Clint smiled before noticing Skye's frown.

She had been envious of every child that got to leave, and she couldn't help feeling jealous of Clint and Theo. They had been addressed in their parents' will. They had a house and a car, things normal families had. But Skye had none of that, and had to watch as her brothers went back to that life.

"I'll get you out of here too." Clint reassured. "I'm not leaving you behind again, even if the nuns are here."

Skye faked a smile. "We know that won't happen. I'm never allowed to stay anywhere."

"Yeah? Well I'm not going to take no for an answer." Clint smiled, placing Theo on the ground so that he could stand up to grab Theo's things. "Let's go Marion."

"What?" Skye asked, unsure as to why he was suddenly inviting her to go with him. She had just been sent back and there was no way the nuns would even let her out for a few hours after the motorbike incident the month before.

"I'm taking you with me." Clint stated, grabbing their hands and leading them to Sister McKenna's office.

True to his word Clint had taken both Skye and Theo from the orphanage. Though he was her guardian, their relationship was like it always had been, brother and sister.

They had a nice system. Clint's friend Maria would look after them when Clint couldn't be at home, and Skye would walk Theo to and from school. After a few weeks of trying, and failing, to explain to her teachers that she had to walk with her little brother, Maria stepped in. She had shown the principal something similar to a black wallet and the issue was never brought up again.

But Skye frequently got detentions and usually she could talk her way out of them. There was only one exception to that rule, and it had occurred a few weeks before Christmas. Maria had told Skye the day before that she would pick Theo up from school but when she burst into Skye's detention and removed her from the school, permanently, Skye began to worry. At the time Skye didn't know what was going on but she later found out that someone had threatened herself and her younger brother. Clint had gone after Theo while Maria had gone to protect Skye, but he had been too late. He got to the school just in time to see four heavily armed men carrying Theo's body into a blacked out SUV. Skye hadn't been told any details but she could guess what had happened, because a week later they held a funeral for Theo.

After that, Clint started teaching Skye what he claimed he had learnt while training for the CIA, paid for as many classes in MMA and gymnastics as he could for her, so she wouldn't be hurt like Theo had been. They had sold the Barton family home and moved into an apartment in DC that Clint was allotted from work, Maria permanently moving in also. Skye suspected this was so that she could continue to train while her brother was gone but she didn't want to give her brother that much credit. All of the lessons and intense training paid off. On three separate occasions, Skye had single handedly fought off a group of men who had come after her, usually with guns and syringes.

But one day, when Skye was twenty, a group had come after her carrying no guns and no syringes. This time she couldn't fight them off as easily, because this time she was fighting two women who seemed to have been trained in a near identical way as she had. But they didn't want to kill her or kidnap her, they wanted to recruit her. And when Maria had pulled up in a car next to them and explained who they were, Skye immediately said yes.

She spent six weeks training with Maria before she was given her own SHIELD badge and handed her first solo mission, as she had done many with various teams and specialists while training. This mission, however, just so happened to specifically detail breaking Clint and his partner out of a Russian containment facility.

"You remember Agent Morse?" Maria asked, walking into the locker room with a tall blonde woman flanking her. "She and Agent Hartley were the ones who tried to bring you in."

"Yeah I do." Skye nodded, zipping up her combat suit. "You fight well." Skye nodded to Bobbi, her thoughts going to the bruise she still had on her back.

"You're not too shabby yourself from what I remember." Bobbi smiled back. "I'm Bobbi, your partner for this mission. While you'll be going in on your own, I'm your backup and your extraction." She informed Skye seriously. "I'll also be your pilot for this evening."

Skye laughed slightly, strapping weapons to her thighs and back, her favourite being the bow that Clint had gotten her a few months into his training sessions.

"Am I the only one who can see the irony?" Bobbi joked, thinking it funny that the bow wielding fighter was going to rescue another bow wielding fighter.

"He did foster me." Skye shrugged, closing her locker. "He's practically my brother, that's how I got the bow."

Bobbi just nodded, following Skye on her way to the hangar. Bobbi took over starting the plane while Skye loaded some crates of supplies. "What's the plan?" She asked, starting the flight sequence.

"I'm going to parachute in, take out anyone in my way and figure out the rest when I find Clint." Skye shrugged, pulling out a tablet and taking the co-pilot's seat.

"Do you know where in the facility they're being held?"

"Nope."

"Do you know anything about the compound?"

"Nope."

"Do you even know what his partner looks like?"

"Yeah, we cook dinner together when Clint is injured." Skye shrugged.

Bobbi just looked at Skye, amazed that she had clearance for this mission without even a ghost of a plan. "How did you land this mission? Most first missions are a lot easier, and usually involve more people." Bobbi asked, trying to be as discrete as she could to get the answer to her real question.

"I got this mission because of my previous history with this group." Skye answered, having caught on to Bobbi's real intentions. "They threatened my younger brother and me when I was fifteen. They kidnapped, experimented on and eventually killed him and if Clint hadn't taught me how to fight they would have done the same to me. Even though it's personal, it means that I know what they're capable of and I know their weaknesses."

Bobbi wasn't happy with Skye's answer, knowing it wasn't the whole truth. "I understand that, going after someone for personal reasons. But are you sure you can keep those reasons to themselves and get the job done?"

"We'll soon find out." Skye smiled, moving from her seat to the back of the quintet.

For the next hour of their trip, Skye arranged the supplies, attaching parachutes to some small boxes.

"So you do have a plan." Bobbi smiled, when she turned to see what Skye was doing.

"I have part of a plan." Skye corrected. "Maybe twelve percent."

"That's barely a plan." Bobbi sighed, having hoped that she was wrong about Skye. 'She can't just run in and hope things will turn out okay, that's how agents get killed.' Bobbi had warned Fury about Skye during an observation near the beginning of her training. Bobbi had heard about many of Fury's missions with Agents May and Coulson, about how they always had to improvise a new plan. But not everyone could be Strike Team Delta, not everyone could become a SHIELD legend, not everyone had it in them. And right at that moment, Bobbi wasn't sure if Skye had it in her.

"Here's my plan for getting in." Skye announced, sitting once again in the co-pilot's seat. Bobbi shook herself from her thoughts, interested in what Skye had thought up. "A three minute detour from our current path is another, larger compound, where they house their less volatile experiments. I've made some little packages that we can drop over their base as a diversion, while we head to get my brother. They're rigged to take longer or quicker to fall and should hopefully buy me some much needed time to get around the other base without detection.

"When we reach the drop zone, a small clearing in the surrounding forest, you're going to fly as close to the ground as you can and I'm going to jump out. You need to keep flying because you're going to head back to the distraction and make even more chaos. There will be some packages tied down that you will need to throw out of the back, but you should try to drag it out as long as you can. That will hopefully be happening while I'm on my way to the holding cells. When I reach them I'll try to radio you to come get us but if I can't, wait half an hour from the initial drop and come back, landing in the same clearing you will have dropped me off in. Wait an hour and if I haven't made contact, head back to the hub and fill them in. I'll try to send up a flare or something if I'm cutting it close. I know this is a little outside of the usual job description for 'backup' but it will be the most effective way to get to our people." Skye finished, handing over the tablet with extra information.

Bobbi had to hide her smile when she noticed Skye researched the building layout while she was setting up the distraction. Her urge to smile failed when she realized something. "Won't this put them on high alert? You'll end up dead the second you approach, they'll be expecting you."

"They won't be expecting me." Skye dismissed. "They'll be expecting you."

That was when it dawned on her. "They'll be evacuating in case the 'attack' is directed at them. You're hoping that they care enough about Barton and Romanoff that they'll move them too."

"It's inelegant and a hell of a lot riskier but it will be the easiest way to get to our people, as long as they're moving." Skye clarified, smiling. "And if I know my brother he'll try to take the opportunity to get out, while Natasha will actually do it."

Bobbi smiled. She had more than twelve percent of a plan, and it was a good one. "We'll be over the first compound in the next few minutes, get ready."

Skye nodded and immediately moved to tie down the last of the packages before moving the loose ones to the far end of the cargo ramp. Once she had finished, the ramp lowered and Skye began pushing the packages out of the back, moving as quickly as she could, while hoping that she had correctly harnessed herself to one of the hooks on the floor. She didn't want to fall out of the plane just yet.

"Can you hear me?" Skye asked, turning on her coms unit.

"Loud and clear." Bobbi responded through hers. "You'd better be ready because this if going to hurt."

Skye released her harness, keeping a tight grip on it while the plane descended. Skye waited for Bobbi's signal before letting go of the cable and rolling out onto the frozen ground.

"Good luck Agent Barton." Bobbi smiled, heading back round to the second facility to continue the distraction.

"You too Morse." Skye pulled up her hood and a scarf up to her nose, exposing only her eyes, though they were hard to see with the low set hood. Skye quickly gained her bearings and smiled, Bobbi had dropped her right in one of their blind spots. But it wouldn't last for long. Skye moved as quickly and silently as she could, following the path she had drawn out during the flight. Within a few seconds she was at the building's exterior, being as careful as she could to not touch the wall, as the heat sensors would give away her location.

True to her plan, people were moving in and out of the building, frantically trying to move equipment and files to vehicles all around the building. Skye pulled out one of her exploding arrows and aimed it at the van furthest from her. With a deep breath, Skye loosed the arrow and the people around her started to panic, so much so that the two guards on the door between Skye and the explosion moved to find out what had happened, yelling at the scientists who were gawking.

"Morse, I'm inside." Skye informed Bobbi once she was relatively alone in the corridors. It wouldn't last for long as more scientists would be moving through within the next ten seconds. Her com unit crackled for a few seconds before going dead as Skye moved into an abandoned, empty lab. "Great." Skye muttered, hoping that none of the people bustling through the corridor would realize that she was there. She eyed a computer that was still on and pulled out the flash drive Fury had given her. 'Just plug it in and leave it until the light turns green. Shouldn't be more than thirty seconds.'

Skye did as she had been instructed and began to count, waiting for the footsteps outside to die down. Ten seconds quickly became thirty, which in turn became forty. She'd been in the room too long; security would know something was wrong. At least two guards would be there in three, two…

Heavy boots stepped unto the room, slow, measured and sloppy. "Four." Skye counted, listening for where they were standing. "There's a compliment in there somewhere." Skye muttered before pulling out the hand guns strapped to her thighs, much easier in close combat like this. It was almost like Maria was talking to her as she prepared to strike. Skye stood and quickly fired rounds, each piercing the chest of its intended target.

The flash drive beeped loudly. "Are you trying to get me caught?" Skye mumbled as she took the now readied memory stick and placed it securely in her belt.

"Now to find my brother."

After forty minutes of walking and hiding, Skye managed to find the two agents she was sent for fighting off some very large men while their hands were bound, and succeeding. Skye rolled her eyes and shot the last of the guards and holstered her weapons. She pulled the bow and quiver off of her back and walked toward the now suspicious pair.

"I'm with SHIELD." Skye spoke, trying to mask her voice. "We need to move quickly if we want to make it to extraction." Skye made light work of their bindings, handing over the spare weapons she had brought for Natasha and the bow and quiver to Clint; also handing the pair a com unit. Skye led the two agents through the facility, his time neglecting any effort to avoid the guards.

"Agent Barton do you read?" Bobbi's voice cracked as the three stepped through the door on the north side of the building.

"Reading you Morse." Clint confirmed, luckily not noticing that Skye almost replied as well.

"We're on the way to extraction, get the jet ready." Skye jumped in, not wanting to hang around for much longer. She motioned for the two agents to follow her into the tree line.

When they made it into the clearing Skye was surprised to see the quinjet was uncloaked, engines silent and the ramp down. Skye raised her weapon and moved as slowly as she could to the jet. "Something's wrong."

"It might be a trap." Clint offered. Skye was glad he was behind her as her eye roll would have given away her identity, which wouldn't be ideal given the situation.

"It's definitely a trap." Natasha corrected, and judging by her tone Skye guessed she had rolled her eyes too. "Take out any hostile in sight, and try not to shoot our pilot this time."

"Once. That happened once." Clint objected before moving toward the jet.

From what Skye could hear; Bobbi was fighting two people. Both sounded very large and very strong. One was closer to the ramp and one was very close to Bobbi. "I'll take the closest one. Barton, take the guy near Morse. Rumor has it you've got decent aim." Skye had to hide a laugh when Clint grunted at her comment. "Three, two…" They moved quickly and the assailants dropped, not even startling Bobbi.

"I could've taken him." Bobbi shrugged, smiling at Natasha. "You look like hell, Romanoff." Bobbi greeted, pulling the smaller woman into a tight hug. "Join me in the cockpit. I'm not sure you want to see this train wreck." Bobbi threw a knowing look at Skye before taking her seat and starting the jet.

"I didn't catch your name Agent…" Clint spoke suspiciously, trying to figure out what Bobbi had meant.

"May as well rip off the band aid." Skye shrugged before pulling down her hood and removing her scarf. "Did you miss me?" Skye asked, hoping to relieve some of her brother's impending anger.

It apparently didn't work. "What the hell are you doing here?" Clint yelled, obviously not appreciating Skye's offhand approach. "Maria was supposed to keep you safe, away from all this danger, not drag you into the middle of it."

"Technically it wasn't her." Skye defended, knowing that it wouldn't make a difference.

"I don't give a damn about technicalities. She obviously trained you and purposefully did so when I was on an extended mission." Clint carried on, angrier than Skye had ever seen him.

"But you're missing the important part here." Skye objected, trying to calm her brother. "I am in the middle of the organization that has been looking out for me for the last five years, maybe even longer. Instead of hoping that someone can get to me in time, I am surrounded by people who know how to fight, and could probably count the different ways to kill someone in less than a second."

"Because that makes me feel better." Clint spoke sarcastically, his volume lowering. "Instead of waiting for me to come back home, instead of living a normal life, you joined a top secret organization and walked right up to the people who killed our brother, who could have killed you."

"Who could have killed you weeks ago." Skye finally exploded. "You did the exact same thing I did, walked right up to the enemy. If SHIELD is so damn dangerous the why are you still here? If you wanted me to be as far away from those people as possible, then why not pack up and move us to Australia, get a job in a grocery store? Why not get as far away from the angry ear as possible instead of poking it with a stick?" Clint blinked, backing away from his sister slightly. "You joined SHIELD to protect people, just like every other Agent. Just like me. Get off of your high horse and realize that I am better off right here, where I know what's coming, instead of serving all day breakfast at some greasy diner and waiting for someone to put a bullet through the back of my skull."

"You're really not a kid anymore." Clint sighed, running his hands over his face.

"I was barely a kid when you met me." Skye berated, gently hugging her brother, knowing he was pretty badly injured.

"You should have been." Clint returned Skye's hug, running a hand through her hair. "I'm really happy to see you."

"Me too." Skye smiled, before forcing her brother to sit down so that she could look over his wounds. He wasn't too badly injured, at least as not as badly as he could have been. "You might get a day or two of down time when we get back."

"Which I will spend yelling at Maria and Director Fury." Clint joked, ruffling Skye's hair. He thought back over the extraction, looking for what he had missed that would have made him realize who their extraction was. "You gave me your bow. That was the only thing that would have given you away."

Skye smiled to herself, glad that she had done better at hiding who she was from her brother. "I rolled my eyes a lot at you. And I purposefully insulted your skill." Skye pointed out, trying to make him feel a little better. "Although I almost replied to Bobbi when she asked if we could hear her."

"I'm kind of glad you didn't." Clint smiled, as the jet lifted off of the ground. "I don't think it would've ended well for us."

"No it wouldn't." Skye shook her head, laughing slightly. "Get some sleep; you look like you could use it." She smiled, putting the med kit back under the seat she was sat on.

"Don't cut my throat while I'm sleeping." He joked, leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes.

Skye chucked to herself, resting her head on her brother's shoulder. "Love you." She whispered, her own fatigue pulling at her eyes.

"You too Marion." Clint smiled, putting an arm around Skye. "You too."

AN- So this is something I've had for a while and I'm now pretty excited to write it and finish the story line I have planned out. Please let me know what you think.