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You shouldn't have agreed to come back, Daisy told herself as she sat on the floor in the quinjet, blankly staring at a laptop screen. Okay, yeah, you needed the medical treatment, but getting away from them is going to be a nightmare. She'd been evading Coulson and SHIELD for six months, fighting Watchdogs at every turn and nearly getting herself killed more than once. She hurt and she was tired: tired of hurting, tired of running, and tired of feeling like every choice she made was a disaster. She glanced up at a small sound and saw Coulson approaching. Don't do this. Don't make things any harder than they already are.
"Hey," he said softly as he came up to her.
"Hey," she replied, avoiding his gaze.
"Mind if I interrupt your 'you time'?"
Daisy felt a pang while remembering a younger version of herself saying, There's always room for AC. She found herself shrugging even as part of her brain urged her to make an excuse to escape.
Coulson studied her for a moment, then took a seat on the floor next to her. She was acutely aware of his presence even though he wasn't close enough to brush against her. He said, "So what did the medic tell you?"
"I'll live." She could feel him waiting for more, so she added, "Some wounds, some hairline fractures. Lot of bruises. Not enough sleep or food. Nothing permanent."
"This time."
She made a face. "May's already been here to play bad cop. At least I think that was her bad cop. Can't always tell the difference." She risked a sideways glance and caught his smile. Hesitantly, she said, "Were you mad? When I left?"
He took a moment to consider the question. "I was terrified, so yeah. 'Scared' and 'angry' aren't very far apart when you're worried sick. You're not the only one who's been doing a lousy job of eating and sleeping."
Dammit. "I didn't mean for you to worry."
He said, "That was never not going to happen," with a fond assurance that took Daisy's breath away.
Change the subject. Change the subject. She said, "So, Mace is the Director of SHIELD now. He take your office?"
"Of course."
"Gotta be a pretty big step down from hanging out in Director-land," she teased. "I mean, that room was huge, had some sweet tech."
Coulson shrugged. "That's why he wanted it. I don't blame him."
"Well, you know what they say, really big office, sma—yeah, that's not gonna go anywhere good."
"I have a small office for doing paperwork, but I keep the important stuff in a box in my bunk," Coulson said, smiling. "Fitz designed the lock."
"Important stuff? Bottles of booze?" she guessed.
"Personal files." Daisy sniggered and Coulson rolled his eyes. "Not that kind of personal. Gonna be updating one of them soon." He waited until she gave him a questioning look, then explained, "I have notes about every time you've been in trouble with me, and how I responded. All those sentences you've written over the years? Still got 'em."
"You kept those? "
"Surprise. You really do have a permanent record, and it's unhackable."
"That's just wrong." And embarrassing. "What if somebody like Mace…"
Coulson said, "He doesn't know anything about it, and most of the entries are deliberately cryptic. May might be able to guess what they mean, but I doubt anyone else could. You know, reviewing it in my head, the phrase, 'My life has value,' seems to be a recurring theme. We've fixed some other things, but that one keeps coming back to bite us in the ass. Clearly, more work is needed."
What? "You cannot be serious," she said. Coulson stared at her with a raised eyebrow. "I thought there wasn't going to be a lecture."
"I lied. Did you really think I'd reprimand you in front of Robbie?"
"You can't do this," she protested. "There's no time. Too much is happening and I'm only staying until we've taken care of this Darkhold thing."
"You can take your time."
"Sure, I'll just mail you the pages six months from now. I'm not doing it." Coulson looked at her expectantly. "I'm not," she insisted.
Coulson kept staring at her, looking mildly amused until she gave a huff of disgust. "How many?"
"Five hundred—"
"Five hundred?!"
"—plus five hundred of a new one: 'I have a family that loves me. It hurts them when I neglect myself.'"
Daisy felt her eyes watering. "That's not fair."
"I've got no problem playing dirty when your well-being's on the line."
"The Watchdogs—"
"Are a serious threat to all Inhumans; I get that. But we need to find a smarter way to fight them, one that doesn't put you so much at risk. Let us help you."
"Don't you understand that being around me is dangerous? You and May could have been killed today, following me into that prison. I want you to be safe. You guys need to stay away and let me handle this."
"Nope," he said. "You know why?"
"Because you have a friggin' death wish?!"
"No," he said patiently. "You don't get to run off and do stupidly dangerous things by yourself because…? Come on, you know this one..."
"My life has value," Daisy said through gritted teeth. "But—"
"No buts," he said. "You can try to ditch us, but we'll be doing our best to catch up to you and help. All of us would be a lot safer if we planned together and worked together."
May was right. He's never going to quit. And I don't think Yoyo and Jemma will stop trying to help, either. All I'm doing is drawing them into danger. Why won't they stop?
You know this one… your life has value. But so does theirs. She began crying. "I can't."
"You can," he replied, and scooted closer to cautiously place an arm around her shoulders.
Don't, don't, stay strong, she thought, even as she felt herself instinctively turning into his embrace. She sighed in contentment and resignation as his arms closed snugly around her. Goddammit, this is why you shouldn't have come back. One good hug and you're mush.
"Stay. Please stay," Coulson said as she pressed her face against his shoulder.
What's the point in running if they won't let you leave them behind? She was on the verge of promising to think about it when Coulson spoke.
"I'm sorry. I promised myself I wouldn't pressure you into staying right now."
Right now. Well, I figured it was coming sooner or later. "Planning on bribing me with some home-cooked meals first? That is such a dorky Dad move," Daisy said with a shaky laugh. She eased away from him and dabbed at her eyes.
"Watch who you're calling dorky." He offered her his handkerchief. "At least I don't mind when you get makeup on my hankies."
"So you don't actually want me to stay for good," she teased while wiping her face.
"What? No. I'll always want you around. I just thought I should give you a chance to catch your breath."
"And deal with Mace. He's going to put me in a cell, isn't he?"
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Coulson replied. "Yeah, he's not happy about the vigilante stuff, but mostly because it's a PR problem. I think he's smart enough to realize Quake is more popular than he is, so he'll try to co-opt you."
"Not without some leverage."
Coulson nodded. "I think he may want a security bracelet on you, so you need to be ready for that." He shifted position to turn his back to the security camera and his voice dropped to a whisper. "I know you've got a workaround, but you should postpone using it for as long as possible. If Mace feels like he's in control, he'll ease up more quickly."
Startled, Daisy said, "You know about that? Since when?"
"Don't look at the camera. Since now. I guessed." Daisy made a frustrated noise and he said, "You snuck the bracelet out of my office after I unlocked it so you and Fitz-Simmons could do something with it."
"How did you find out?"
"Do you think I became Fury's good eye through the power of dorkiness?" he whispered. "I watch people. Jemma had no poker face back then and she was practically radiating anxiety. My first thought was that she and Fitz had started having sex and she was worried I'd disapprove, but it didn't take me long to realize they were as oblivious as ever. I checked my office and the box was empty. Three days later, it wasn't. So, whatever you were experimenting with, will it work on any bracelet or just that particular one? And what exactly did you do?"
She leaned forward to hug Coulson again, which surprised him until he realized her face was now hidden from the camera. She whispered, "There's a way to take bracelets off, but that can be detected after ninety seconds, so it's a last resort. Would've helped me tremendously when you were kidnapped, which is why Fitz-Simmons agreed to help. There's also a way to give false feedback, kind of like looping security footage, but more sophisticated. That one doesn't have a time limit."
Coulson rubbed Daisy's back as if consoling her, and smiled to himself when she snuggled closer. "So you could basically control a bracelet while wearing it? And Mace wouldn't be able to override that?"
"Mostly," she said. "Fitz-Simmons insisted on an override for the GPS, in case they really needed to locate me, but that's pretty well hidden; I don't think anyone but Fitz could find it. Why didn't you say anything when you discovered the bracelet was missing?" He didn't answer right away, so she pulled back to give him a searching look.
"It didn't matter," he said with a shrug. "I never really thought of the bracelet as a way of controlling your behavior."
"Agent Hand sure did," Daisy said with a sour expression. "And Mace will, too."
Coulson gave her a warm smile, but she could see the mischief dancing in his eyes. "His mistake. You didn't stay on the Bus because you had a bracelet. You stuck around because I was offering you a family. And you got one. Try hacking your way out of that."