It was another long day in school. The only reason Melisande was still in school was because she needed more information from Maya. She knew who Maya was, and she was on the road to discovering the whole truth. And yet, she didn't feel like she was really getting anywhere in her search.

It was well into decathalon practice and it was an extra long one. Mr. Harris had told the kids they would need to stay till at least six since they had a competition in the very near future they needed to be prepared for. The kids had a break from the constant question and answers and just as that break had ended, Andy's phone lit up with a call from Phil Coulson, someone she hadn't heard from in a few months he could never reveal where he was. Andy had the chance to finally get answers about her parents death. And no one else knew because she was going around the Avengers for this one.

Mr. Harris looked at her when she picked up the phone and she stood up. "Ms. Dubois, can that wait? We have to - "

"It can't," she objected abruptly. Everyone looked at her with confused and shocked faces but Andy quickly closed her folder. Mr. Harris tilted his head and sighed, "Andy - "

"It really can't, Mr. Harris. The French Revolution isn't for three rotations, I should be back by then. And if I'm not then Peter can take first chair - "

"Woah! Peter is first chair in Napoleonic Wars, you can't just go reassigning things!" Flash complained. "Is your ego seriously a problem, right now? Some of us have things going on outside of school and I have to take this!" Andy argued. 

Peter glanced up at his 'ex'-girlfriend and found something he had never seen in her - anger. She was angry with something going on in her life and he had no idea what it was. "We had a break, Andy," Liz told her. "I can't control when I get phone calls, Liz," she snapped back.

The phone in Andy's hand suddenly stopped ringing and her face fell. She missed her one chance in a very long time to talk to Coulson and there was no telling when he would call back. He called her, she wasn't able to call him. 

"Now look who can practice," Flash smirked while leaning back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest. Mr. Harris sighed and picked up his folder, beginning to read the directions. Liz looked at Andy, "Let's just get back to work, And."

"If that was really important, they'd call back," Flash winked at her. Andy narrowed her eyes at the boy, "Fuck you, Flash."

"Hey!" Mr. Harris shouted, "That wasn't appropriate, Andy! Apologize to him!"

"For what?!" Andy called back. "For saying what we all want to? Thanks to all of you, I just missed a call from someone who actually mattered! They won't call back again!"

"That's no reason for acting out! Now sit down and apologize so we can move on!"

Andy dryly laughed and grabbed her bag from the back of her chair, "No," she simply said, earning some 'oohs' from the crowd and a very concerned look from Peter. "I quit," she retorted. Andy turned around and walked away toward the gymnasium doors. Mr. Harris called after her but she didn't turn around. She continued walking toward the hallway and didn't pay attention to anyone else.

But when someone grabbed her shoulder to try and turn her around, she jammed out her arm and caught her fist in their side, blocking them from another attack. Her eyes met Peter's.

"Hey," he breathed out, trying to use his voice to calm her down. "What's wrong?"

He saw tears in her eyes. He had never seen Andy cry. She never showed weakness. She only ever smiled or laughed. This was different. "Leave me alone," she demanded while tugging her arm from his grasp and taking a step back to stare at him. "Andy - "

"No, Peter! I said leave me alone! I don't need this right now! I don't need you right now!"

"What is going on, Andy?!"

She stayed silent. She looked down at the tile and didn't say a word. She couldn't tell Peter anything. She had been trained by S.H.I.E.L.D. to stay silent on a mission and if she revealed something to Peter, she would be compromising everything. Even if she mentioned the truth about her background. "You completely shut me out! You didn't even give me a chance to explain everything! And now this? It's like you're a different person!"

"Because I don't need you to explain! I've been here before! I've been there before! I'm tired of of going through this!"

"Going through this?" Peter asked, now lowering his voice to a hushed whisper. "What do you mean, Andy? You've been through someone being a vigilante before? You're from Mi - "

"You don't know me, Peter," the girl warned, her eyes narrowing in growing frustration that she couldn't tell Peter what she needed to. But she was mad at him. He lied to her face. She didn't need that.

Andy had been hurt so much that she truly didn't know what she wanted or needed in life. "Then tell me, Andy."

The girl looked back down at her feet as she felt a tear slip down her cheek. "I can't," she whimpered. Peter looked at her longingly and reached out for her hand but she was already gone, sprinting down the hallway and disappearing from Peter's sight for the second time in a week.

Andy continued running, her backpack secure on her shoulders and her feet guiding her down the street. She ran, faster than she ever had. She had one place she wanted to go, one person she needed to see. It was the only thing she was sure of at this moment. She pushed past people in the street, bumping shoulders with them and making many people yell at curses at the young New Yorker.

But she didn't care. 

The girl rounded a corner across from Delmar's and appeared out on a street that usually housed Pappy Joe but this time it didn't Andy froze. She took deep breaths and couldn't find her footing. She tripped on a small lift in the sidewalk and smacked against the brick. She took more deep breaths. 

The girl quickly shrugged her backpack off and gulped, the tears now streaming freely down her face. The tears clouded her vision and she turned around, leaving her backpack against the wall where Pappy normally sat. She stumbled again, but kept going. She walked step after step, each one getting harder to take as she had no air to breathe in or out.

When she rounded the corner again, she bumped into someone. Her eyes met Peter's for the second time that day and he saw the fear, tears, heavy breaths. She fell, stumbling into his arms where he caught her and helped her into an alley near Pappy's corner. She was hardly breathing. 

"Hey," he called out to her. "Hey!" he shouted when she didn't even notice it. "Andy, look at me," he told her, begging her to calmly look into his eyes. "Hey," he said again, finally gaining Andy's attention as she struggled to breathe through her panic attack. She had never had one. Or, if she had, the Avengers had handled them, but she couldn't remember.

"Andy, this is a panic attack," he explained. "You're having a panic attack."

His grip on her tightened.

"Look at my eyes, Andy," he whispered, trying to get her to focus on something that wouldn't change, something that stayed consistent. His brown eyes. "I'm sorry," she cried out, her sobs overwhelming her limited breathing.

"Andy, I'm not angry with you. I just want to help you."

She shook her head. 

"You're stressed out, Andy. Something happened, something that made you this way. Okay? Just take a deep breath, can you do that?"

Andy softly nodded and gripped his bicep hard and then tried to take a large breath. Peter smiled when he saw that she could do it, "There you go, you got it," he calmly told her. She let out a loud sob again and began to breathe normally. Peter shivered when he saw just how broken she actually was. "Hey!" someone shouted from behind Peter. He whipped around and Andy lifted her head. "What happened? What happened to my Andy?"

Pappy raced over and helped Peter get Andy against the wall where she sobbed and placed her hands over her face. "She's in distress," Peter told her. "I'm sorry," Andy cried out, gripping Pappy's hand as he tried to comfort her.

Pappy knew the truth, but he knew Andy was going to have to tell it very soon.