Robins fly free.
A/N: This was done in like five hours. One of my fastest-ly (is that even a word?) written stories.
"Daisy? Daisy, are you there? Daisy?" Coulson called through the comms.
"...Roof..." she said weakly.
"Just hang in there, ok? I'm almost there." he said.
In moments he was bursting through the door and kneeling beside her.
"What can I do?" he asked.
"Can you take me home?" she asked softly. "And Charles. His family needs to bury him. And the robin is for his daughter. I'll need to talk to them, too." she said.
"OK, OK, I can do that." he said, as he picked her up and called for an agent to get up to the roof with him.
"The robin..." Daisy mumbled.
"Yeah." he nodded, reaching for the little carved bird. He gave it to Daisy. "Here, you should hold on to it until you can give it to his daughter." he said.
"Her name is Robin."
Phil smiled down at her.
The agent arrived at last. Phil directed him to take Charles and he led the way, carrying Daisy down.
"Daisy!" Jemma called once they exited.
"She's fine. Just tired." Coulson said relieved. "I'll patch her up on the quinjet. You deal with him." he nodded towards Lincoln.
Once aboard, he set her down on a seat gently, got the first aid kit and set to clean up the cuts.
Daisy groaned, coming around again, before tensing up and trying to get away.
"Hey, hey." he said softly. "It's me. You're ok."
"Phil..." she sighed, relaxing.
"We're almost home." he added.
She smiled.
"Good." she said. "Hey. I came back safe." she said.
"Yes, you did." he smiled.
Once they reached the Playground, Phil asked for Charles's family brought over, while Daisy went to her bunk to change out of her field suit and grab something to eat quickly.
The meeting with the family went as anyone would expect. It was hard to see Robin cry and Daisy ended up picking the little girl in a strong hug.
"I am sorry. I tried to save him." she said. "He ended up saving me."
"Daddy was a hero?"
"Yeah." Diasy choked a little. "Yeah, daddy was a hero." she said. "He asked me to give you this and made me promise I'll protect you if you ever needed help."
"Thank you." Robin said quietly.
"Your dad had...a gift. He could see things from the future. He feared that you might get his gift or something similar. If you ever notice anythng strange, don't be scared." she let go of Robin and looked at both her and her mother. "Give me a call and I'll come. I promise I will always help you however way I can."
"Thank you." mrs. Hinton said.
"An agent will escort you back home." Phil spoke up. "And these are my and Daisy's numbers, should you ever need us." he handed her a card.
Polly nodded, taking the card. Then she took Robin by the hand and went towards the door. Robin looked back once and quickly let go of her mother to hug Daisy one more time. Daisy returned the embrace, as Phil let his hand rest on her back. And then, she was gone.
"Are you ok?" Phil asked quietly.
Daisy shook her head.
"I wanted to save him. I was sure I was supposed to save him." she said.
"And in the end he was the one supposed to save you." he said.
"Everything today..."
"Weirder and weirder?" he supplied.
"Yeah."
Phil did the one thing he could; pulled her in a hug and held her tightly.
Daisy let herself fall, accepted the hiding spot his chest provided and let the tears fall freely.
"He was right there and I...I couldn't do anything. Malick had some kind of armor on, got the jump on me and...and if Charles hadn't intervened..."
He tightened his hold on her.
"Do you want to go to the funeral?" he asked.
"You'll come with me?"
"If you want me to."
"Please."
"Yeah. I will. Come with you." he smiled lightly.
Daisy snorted at his chest, pulling back to look at his face. He reached up and wiped away her tears.
"Wording, Phil." she teased.
"What – oh, damn." he let her go, blushing. Daisy chuckled. "You know what I meant." he said.
"Thank you."
"No need to thank me, Daisy." he shook his head.
She let her hand rest on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze before leaving the office.
Two days later, they were standing behind, as the family said their last goodbye to Charles Hinton.
When everyone was gone, they walked close and set down a carved, feathered robin.
"It's not as good as yours, and we took some liberties with glue and feathers, but I made you a robin." Daisy said. "Thank you for saving me. I promise I will look after Robin for you, even if she doesn't turn Inhuman. So, rest and leave this to us."
"We'll make sure they both are always safe." Phil said, a hand on Daisy's shoulder. "They're part of our family now."
Daisy nodded once and got back to her feet.
"Let's go home." she said.
Phil nodded and turned, waiting for her to start and then walking beside her.
A soft breeze blew through the graveward, pulling a sad smile from Daisy and Phil.
"Do you think he's happy?" she asked.
"I hope so." he replied. "I really hope so."
"You once said..." she started. "That you've been there. That it was beautiful."
"You remember that?" he asked a little surprised.
"I remember a lot of things. Especially if you said them."
He chuckled a little.
"I remember a lot of things, too. Because you said them." he threw back at her. "And yes. I did say that. And it was the truth. It was beautiful. But I'm glad Nick didn't let me stay there. Otherwise, we might hadn't met, had I survived New York." he smiled.
Daisy smiled back.
"I'll take your word for that. And for it being beautiful. At least Charles's soul will be at peace."
Phil nodded once and passed the keys to Daisy as they neared their car.
"I get to drive Lola again?" she asked, touched.
"She missed you." he shrugged.
"And I missed driving her with you." she said, getting behind the wheel. "Feels good, this. You, me and Lola. Makes me remember when things weren't so complicated."
Phil hummed beside her and she started the engine.
"We'll get through this, too." he said at last.
"Yeah." she nodded and they took off.