Middle School Heroes

Skye woke up to find that she was no longer on the plane, but she was also not in her bed at school. She sat up and looked around the room curiously. Her bed was one of two, and while the other was empty, it had obviously been slept in. It was an older looking room, but certainly fancier than anything that she had been in before. She had a vague memory of leaving the plane and getting into some sort of car before coming here, but she had absolutely no memory of getting to where she was now. She wondered if it was possible to sleep walk through the entire thing.

The door opened quietly and Aunt May stuck her head in, obviously checking up on her. Seeing that she was awake, she entered the room and walked quickly over to her, throwing her arms around Skye as she took a seat on the bed beside her. Neither one of them said anything for a while, Skye was just enjoying the hug while Aunt May was sniffling quietly.

She finally let Skye go, and began to look her over. "How are you feeling? We were so worried about you."

"I'm a lot better now, I think. I'm sorry to have caused you any worry. I should have been more considerate."

Aunt May hugged her again. "No, sweetie, you didn't do anything wrong."

Tears were welling up in her eyes. "I did. I didn't think and ran outside even though I knew I shouldn't have. If I had obeyed the rules, I wouldn't have ended up getting taken." She couldn't stop the tears anymore, and they were falling down her cheeks. She wiped them away before Aunt May got up to get a tissue box when more just replaced them.

Skye hadn't had much time to dwell on the choices that she made that led to her kidnaping over the last few days, because the situation that they were in took precedence. However, now that they were safe and she was faced with Aunt May and the worry that was etched all over her face, guilt hit her hard.

Since they met her, Aunt May and Uncle Ben had been nothing but kind to her, and Skye felt like she had paid them back for their kindness by causing them pain and worry. Even now, when Aunt May should have been very angry at her for her actions, she pulled Skye close again and just held her while she cried. Skye didn't understand. Usually when she screwed up, people just pushed her away so that they didn't have to deal with her. This was new and it felt nice.

"Skye, listen to me. No one cares about that anymore. Ms. Romanoff told us that you were upset and that you might have left the building because you were losing control. Everyone understands." She smoothed Skye's hair comfortingly as she spoke. "Everybody makes mistakes, and in this case, your mistake might have saved the other kids from something much worse. If you hadn't gotten that phone message out, we might not have ever known where to look for you. I'm not sure the other kids would have thought to do that, or even known how."

Skye sniffled, but sat back on the bed. "Any of them could have done that."

"Mr. Rumlow explained what happened. Your idea and ability to use the phone and cover your tracks combined with his ability to pick pockets and give you time to do it, worked. Any other combination, and anything could have happened."

Skye shrugged. "I guess."

Aunt May smiled at her. "Ms. Maximoff was kind enough to pack you some things and I bet you'll feel better after a shower and change of clothes. You will also find letters from half of the school in the bag she gave me. Peter sent one of them. He tried to convince the other teachers that he should be allowed to come see you with me, but they wouldn't let him. Ms. Prince was up much earlier than you and so the bathroom is all yours."

Skye smiled at the fact that Peter was trying to come see her. "Am I the last person up?"

"Yes. You and Mr. Lang. All of you were rightfully exhausted."