A/N: Hey guys! This story will fill in any scenes we don't get to see in the episodes. It could be a little moment for one character, or a conversation, or maybe something bigger. It's not meant to be speculation for future episodes. Each chapter will contain moments that could have happened within the episode it pertains to. So here we go!
Episode 1: Missing Pieces
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Growth
Daisy tightens her grip on the rope that suspends the alien, watching as Jemma terrifies him to his core. Jemma's calm analysis of how he could die in this position, paired with the physical threat Daisy poses, has him shaking, and Daisy is proud. All the effort she's put into training in the past year, honing her abilities and letting the world know that she can use them effortlessly, has paid off.
It takes a few minutes to prepare, once they find out that the other half of Enoch's ship isn't far. Daisy watches Jemma, Piper, and Davis go to grab supplies, and deals with the alien herself. She releases the rope and lets him fall to the floor, moving toward him with slow steps. He scrambles upright, angry but mostly afraid.
"Get us that fuel," Daisy says.
He nods and runs out.
She waits until the door has closed behind him to let herself start to smile. Her reputation as Quake has definitely spread, if this alien is so easily intimidated. She hadn't even seriously fought him.
She flexes her fingers, looking down at her arms. A display like before – dismantling their guns without really raising her hands – doesn't cause any harm. It takes a lot to make her feel pain like she used to, before she had her gauntlets. So much that she's only truly felt the impact of her powers once, since the serum gave them a boost. That time had been a desperate escape attempt, and she'd been unable to move her arms for hours afterward. The ship that had been following them was probably still in pieces too small to put back together. She could never have done a feat like that before her powerup.
Now, though, she can do so much intuitively. It leaves her almost constantly on guard, as she knows she can destroy something with minimal thought.
It's worth it, she thinks. She can protect her family now more than she ever could in the past. Contrary to popular belief, she doesn't just want to be seen as a badass. She wants the universe to know she will fight anyone and everyone to keep her family safe, so that maybe, she won't actually have to.
That's always been her goal. Only now, if it does come to a fight, she's grown with her powers enough to overcome any threat – consequences to her body be damned.
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Different
Mack watches May walk out of his office and leans against his desk. He's a different kind of director, she'd said, and that wasn't a bad thing. But…
"Am I too different?" he asks aloud.
Things seem to be going well. S.H.I.E.L.D. is slowly rebuilding. It could be faster, but Mack is double-checking everything. He's going to make sure there's no chance of the new S.H.I.E.L.D. being infiltrated, by HYDRA or any other threat. He's pretty sure that Coulson would have approved of how methodical he's being, vetting all the new recruits. The fact that May was so quick to help him makes him sure it's the right call. But other things he's started since becoming Director… he's not sure if they're better for the organization or not. He likes to think so, but he can't be sure.
He wishes Coulson could have taught him more. Yes, Mack has the Toolbox. Yes, he got to see Coulson be a fantastic Director for a few years. But maybe if he had gotten to ask him some questions, Mack wouldn't feel like every decision he made was make or break.
He puts a finger on the Toolbox and sees the Coulson holo standing in front of him, paused from earlier.
"I'll never be the leader you were," Mack says, as if the holo can understand him. "We're too different. But May's right. I can't keep leading the way I want, then questioning it and turning to you."
He sighs. He can't stop looking to the holo for advice. He wants it, and thinks he can use it. But he does have to stop trying to be two directors at once. His style of leadership is different than Coulson's was.
Different doesn't mean worse.
He turns off the holo, setting the Toolbox back in its place. He's got work to do.
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Risk
They've all done it before – taking a risk that the majority deemed too great, to fight for something that they can't face the possibility of losing. Forcing the others to go along with them, because their actions affect everyone.
They've all taken risks like that before. Yo-Yo had gone into the Framework to get Mack. Fitz had dived through a portal to Maveth to save her. Daisy had refused to take the serum before fighting Graviton – Coulson had ensured that she had access to it and ultimately did take it, but her intent was there all the same. More recently, and repeatedly, Daisy had been leaving destruction behind wherever they stopped, to send a message to the universe that Quake was a force to be reckoned with. Piper and Davis agreed with Jemma that it was too strong of a message, but Daisy felt it was important. Eventually, they accepted it, though they still didn't like it.
Jemma knows this is a different kind of risk, as she enters the coordinates to the planet she believes – no, she knows – Fitz is on. The others were painfully clear on the fact that they wouldn't let her chase down this lead. They want to go home.
She wants the same thing.
She's not letting this trail go cold. She knows Fitz is on that planet. She also knows he'll be trying to find a way to get back to her. She has to find him now.
They'll forgive her, she thinks as she finishes inputting the coordinates. They think it's too dangerous to go that deep, but she knows it's not. The Zephyr can handle the trip there, and the trip back to Earth after.
Still, she knows they won't understand at first. She looks over her shoulder to make sure they haven't seen her at the controls, fearing being caught. She isn't caught, though. She walks away, and the team is none the wiser as to what she's done.
The opportunity to make the jump comes around faster than she anticipates, and she makes sure she's the first one to reach the controls.
She can see it in Daisy's eyes, when she tells Daisy that the coordinates are already set, that Daisy doesn't view this as just another risk. She views it as a betrayal.
"I'm sorry," Jemma says quietly.
She'll probably be saying it a lot, in the next few days, but she doesn't regret setting those coordinates as she starts the jump.
It's not a risk. It's the only way to get them all home.