Breaking the loop
Summary: It was the sense of deja vu that prompts Daisy to change the pattern.
A/N: A 'how the tail end of S5 should have gone' thing actually utilizing the time loop. I'm pissed with how the show has fucked over Daisy, just to keep Deke and Fitz around as if they were more important, how Simmons treated Daisy, Mack and Elena, and a fuckload of other shit that have gone down.
The Earth shatters.
Daisy is eating a pie with Coulson and the others.
Space. Future. Sold into slavery. Coulson ICEs her and brings her home.
'Did you really think after all that we've been through, you and me, that there was any universe in which I left you behind?'
'There's nothing without you.'
Talbot. Hale. Polly and Robin. The Confederacy.
Earth shatters.
Daisy is picking her fork and taking a bite from her pie, glancing at Coulson, smiling, happy the mess with AIDA is over.
The future.
Destroyer of Worlds.
Ruby. Elena's arms. Coulson dying. The team turning on Daisy.
Talbot. Gravitonium.
The Earth breaks into pieces.
The pie is sweet, something Coulson picked, because he has a sweet tooth and Daisy knows he picked raspberry, because she likes it.
Future and space. Fitz cutting into her. Fighting with Elena.
Coulson. Talbot. Hale.
The Kree.
The earth is destroyed.
She likes the pie.
She is sold into slavery. Deke is Fitzsimmons's grandson.
She dug up her mother trying to save Coulson.
Nothing works and Coulson dies anyway. Because Fitz intervened.
The planet dies.
Coulson said something funny and Daisy chuckled.
Space. Time travel.
She's sold to fight to entertain when she tried to save Simmons.
They fight and fight and get back and Piper is here with Hale.
The Lighthouse. HYDRA.
Everyone treating her like she knows nothing.
Coulson taken.
Talbot losing it and Daisy is the only one who can stop him.
Rinse and repeat, again and again and again.
Until Daisy makes a mutiny joke and freezes.
"Daisy?"
"He cut me open." she finds herself saying. "He knocked me out, tied me and cut me open to give me my powers back, while I was begging him to stop. He could have killed me, or left me paralyzed, but he did it anyway. And then Simmons set him free against my orders, using Elena. And May, May acted like I was overreacting. That I was in the wrong for not using his help to find you, that I didn't want to compromize anymore."
"I am so sorry I left all this on you." Coulson pulled her in his arms. "I am so sorry."
"You are the only one who doesn't act like I am in over my head."
"I know how overwhelming this is. I used to question myself all the time."
"I know."
"But I had you. And when you needed me, I wasn't there for you. I am so sorry, Daisy."
"Stay with me. Stay alive. Please."
"Okay. Okay. Now what do we do?"
"We send Deke back into the future. He shouldn't be here at all."
"ICE him and push him through the portal?" Coulson asked.
"If you ICE him, I'll push him." she grinned.
"Now?"
"Yep."
They execute their plan quickly, not saying a word to anyone. She talks to Elena, afterwards, asks her about her arms, tells her she trusts her to always have her back. Tells her to give Mack some time and work on her arms.
Coulson meanwhile tricks Fitz and Simmons in a cell and locks them up.
"Daisy told me what you did to her, Mack and Elena. She'll deal with you two once we've found a way to stop Earth dying." he said.
"You can't do this without me!" Fitz shouts.
"I'm pretty sure we can. Daisy can do anything." Coulson shrugged.
"Where's Deke?"
"In his timeline."
"Elena said that her future self told her we should let you die." Daisy said, as she sat beside him heavily later that day. "That we tried many times to save you and failed."
"Maybe that's what stops Earth being destroyed?"
"I am not losing you Coulson."
"That was my deal with the Ghost Rider, Daisy. Revesrse the GH-325 serum, let me die again." he said softly.
"Phil."
"No, listen to me. Let me die. Fullfil my deal. Then..."
"Oh. Are you saying...? But the serum..."
"The serum is in your blood, as it is in mine."
"Of course." Daisy said, thoughtful. "I'm going to need a doctor. And my mother."
"Your mother? Daisy..."
"Her power was to suck the life out of others so she could live on. Before Whitehall, she was ordered by the Elders to do so, to pass on her knowledge of our History to the next generations. You know what happened afterwards."
"Are you sure you want to do that?"
"I know it's not..." she rubbed the back of her neck, "it's not...ethical... but, I want to believe she'd've agreed to this, before Whitehall."
"I am not concerned about that, Daisy. She was your mom. It's going to be hard for you, emotionally."
"And you wonder why I want you alive." she smiled.
"Now to focus on the Kree."
"I think I might have a idea about that. First we need to save Talbot's family."
"Any news from Polly and Robin Hinton?"
"Safe. Piper is with them."
"So, who's going after the Talbots'?"
"I'm sending Davis, Mack and May. Elena will be here, she'll be getting used to her arms."
Coulson smiled.
"I'm glad I got to be under your leadership." he said.
"Phil..."
"No matter what happens, you are my family, my most important person." he told her, "and I am so glad I met you."
Daisy cupped his face and pressed her forehead against his.
"You are my most important person, too, but I won't compromise to save you."
"I know. I wouldn't want you to change your morals for anything." he ran his fingers through her hair. "Find Bobbi and Helen Cho. They should be able to help you save me."
Daisy nodded.
"Wait for me?"
"As long as I have to." he promised.
In the time she was gone, Coulson was taken – again – and May had abandoned her mission to get back to the Lighthouse.
Elena had managed to subdue an alien and May had practically given herself up to the aliens and Daisy had just made it back in time, just in time to leave Elena directions to find Bobbi and Helen Cho once Mack, Davis and the Talbots were back.
She isn't sure how things reached the point they did, Coulson bleeding on the floor.
She only remembers telling him to stay with her.
She calmed Talbot down enough to reason with him and Hall and Quinn. They took the spaceship apart, the aliens, the ringleaders at least, dead – Daisy had somewhat mixed feelings about it, because they were living creatures, but at the same time the were about to destroy the Earth and take her people as slaves – the others taken prisoners.
Dr. Cho and Bobbi were there when Daisy and the others came back. They had worked on the formula for Coulson's second resurrection.
"Hey, rockstar. What happened?" nodding towards the direction of the cell.
"Fitz went HYDRA on me and Simmons supported him, traumatising both Mack and Elena in the process." Daisy said, quickly. "Is it ready?"
"Yes." Dr. Cho said.
"He just stopped breathing." Daisy said, breathless.
"We'll take it from here, rockstar." Bobbi said.
It feels like it takes ages for Daisy before Bobbi beckons her inside the med-lab.
The staedy beeping of the machine, indicating that Coulson's heart is beating again calms her nerves and she lets the breath she was holding.
"He should be waking up any moment now." Dr. Cho said.
"We're going to need your help with something else, too."
She explained quickly about Talbot and the Gravitonium, about Hall who was inside it, about Carl Creel and Ruby, who were talking about voices once they had taken some of gravitonium in them.
"We need to find a way to take it out without hurting them." Daisy concluded.
"What ecquipment will be needed?" Bobbi asked.
"I am not letting Leopold Fitz out to built anything. If we must, we can use the machine HYDRA used."
"A little crude, but it will do." the doctor nodded.
Just then Mack and Davis returned with the Talbots.
"What happened?"
"A lot of things." Daisy sighed. "You two can go pick up all the machines and scematics?"
"Not in a car."
"May will fly you over with the Zephyr."
"What if you need back up?"
"I am more than enough to handle a fight. And Bobbi is here, too. Elena will call you if we need you back sooner." Daisy said, "Now, go."
Half an hour later, Coulson stirred.
"Hey. Hey, Phil. You here with me?" Daisy asked softly.
"Skye..."
"Yeah, yes, I am here." Daisy smiled.
"I had the weirdest dream..." he said quietly. "Really, really weird. Concidering." he sighed.
"If your dream had to do with space, time-travel, Kree slavers and FitzSimmons going HYDRA on us, then sorry, it wasn't a dream."
"You got earthquake powers and I lost my hand?"
"That, too."
"And I made a deal with the devil?"
"Well, the Ghost Rider. He supposedly serves the Devil. But, yes, in a sense."
"You saved me."
"I couldn't let the guy who means everything to me just die, could I?" she smiled saddly.
"You're more important than me, Daisy."
Daisy raised her hand and cupped his face.
"You are to me, Phil. I thought you knew that."
"I do. But you are important to me and I want to take care of you, as much I want you to take care of yourself."
Daisy took his hand and raised it to her lips, pressing a kiss to his knuckles and then she leaned over him and kissed his forehead.
A knock on the door pulled them apart.
"The others came back." Bobbi said. "It's good to see you again, Coulson."
"Agent Morse." he greeted her.
"I'm not an agent anymore, sir."
"I'm not a Director anymore, either." he smiled. "Daisy is."
"You're more than welcome to come back, Bobbi." Daisy grinned, as she got to her feet.
"I'm very tempted to do so."
"Hey." Coulson tagged at Daisy's hand.
"Phil?"
He pulled lightly, so Daisy leaned down, closer to him. He raised slightly and kissed her. Or he tried. His lips barely brushed hers before he fell back down on the bed.
Daisy's eyes grew wide, then leaned down and kissed him.
"We'll talk more about this, ok? You rest some more. I'll be right back." she told him quietly.
"You and Coulson, huh?" Bobbi smiled. "Good for you both."
Daisy smiled back.
It's a long process, taking the Gravitonium out of Talbot and Creel. Mack, Bobbi and Dr, Cho are working around the clock, Daisy and May both help as much as they can, Elena is watching them work while Davis is keeping an eye on the monitors, making sure no one will sneak on them.
Coulson at some point managed to walk over to them and Daisy ran up to him, make sure he was okay, ask him if he needed anything.
He wrapped an arm around her, held her close for a moment, practically nuzzled her hair and then sat heavily down next to Elena.
Daisy would send glances his way, making sure.
Elena rolled her eyes at her. Daisy smiled sheepishly at her friend.
"It's over." Dr. Cho sighed in relief. "They should come around soon. They'll definitely feel better without that thing inside them."
"May, get Talbot's family in here, they must be worried about him." Daisy said, as she leaned against the wall.
"Daisy." Coulson called her, getting up, giving his seat to her.
Daisy dropped, smilling thankfully at him and then pulling him down on her lap, holding him tight, her face pressed against his back.
"I need vacations. Long vacations. Someplace warm and quiet."
"You're the boss." Coulson smiled. "Whatever you decide goes."
"How do we know we did it, though?" Elena asked.
"If the Earth doesn't tear itself apart within a week, or Kree don't come knocking, I'll assume we're clear." Daisy said, tiredly. "You met your future self. Did she tell you anything?"
"We failed because everytime we tried to save Coulson."
"This time, we didn't. I let him die." Daisy said quietly.
"And then brought me back after you dealt with the alien threat in the sky."
"Now I need vacations. Long and quiet vacations. Let me sleep for a year or something." Daisy said again, tiredly.
"Do you want me to find you a destination?" he asked with a fond smile.
Daisy hummed at his back.
"We're all going on vacations. Pick a destination and go. Take a week off." she mumbled. "You're welcome to join me, though. If you want." she whispered at Coulson.
"I'd like that." he nodded, looking at her over his shoulder.
Daisy sighed.
Coulson stood up, then helped her up.
"Come on, let's get you to bed. You've been through too much."
"Thanks, Phil. You're the best." she said quietly, as she let him lead the way to the bunks.
"Here we are." he helped her lay down.
"Stay?" Daisy asked.
Coulson hesitated for a moment.
"Okay." he sat down and laid over the blankets.
Daisy quickly snuggled close to him, wrapping her arms around him, big spoon to his small one. She sighed content.
"You're alive."
"Thanks to you." he smiled, his hand coming to rest over hers. "Sleep, Daisy. I'll be here in the morning."
"Promise?" she asked, sleepily.
"Promise." he told her, lifting her left hand and kissing her knuckles. "Sweet dreams." he whispered.
Daisy didn't reply. She was already asleep.