xxx SHIELD xxx

Lincoln is sitting at the desk in his temporary quarters at the Cocoon, cramming for his Agent Assessment, when there is a knock at the door. He looks up, confused, because he's supposed to be studying now according to the schedule that was set up for him. He shouldn't be receiving any visitors. It's one of the reasons the agent assessment takes place here.

Another knock on the door, this time accompanied with "Lincoln, are you in there?"

"Daisy?" He doesn't move for a moment, then gets up and opens the door. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just wanted to," Daisy replies sadly as she enters the room, "check in on you ... see how you were doing. Make sure you were hitting the books."

She gives him a half-hearted smile.

"Of course, I'm studying. Almost feels like I'm back at med school," he replied with a chuckle. He noticed her smile faded quickly. Then he noticed her watery eyes and stepped toward her putting his hand on her arm.

"What happened? What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing," she tried to play it off and turned away from him.

"Daisy, it's obviously not nothing."

Unexpectedly, she turned around and grabbed onto him, sobbing into his chest. "Bobbi and Hunter are gone."

"What?"

Lincoln wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back to try to console her.

"They've been disavowed. They can't work for SHIELD or anybody now." She had to stop and take a hitching breath. "We'll never see them again. I'll never see Hunter ... or ... Bobbi ... again."

"What led to them being disavowed?"

"The mission went south and they were captured," she sniffled. "There was something about avoiding an international incident. They sacrificed their careers for SHIELD."

"Oh."

"The worst part is they shouldn't have done that. We had a plan to get them out. I could have ..."

"Daisy, you said they sacrificed themselves, right?"

She just nodded in response.

"Well, then, it was their choice. And if that is the case, then they must have been prepared for the consequences."

"That may be, but ... I'm not," Daisy whispered, then started crying again.

Lincoln held her tighter, and kissed the top of her head. "It'll be okay."

When the tears finally faded away, Daisy held on a few moments longer. Lincoln felt the need to get back to his studying, but couldn't let her go until he was sure she was alright.

Daisy let go, tried to wipe away the streaks that remained then stepped away from him.

"Thank you," she said and attempted to smile at him.

"No problem," he said as he gently rubbed her arm, not wanting to break the connection. "You're sure you're okay now?"

Daisy nodded. "Yes, I'm better. Just needed a good cry. Thank you."

"I didn't really get to know them, but I know they will be missed. I'm sorry for how it all went down."

"I should go. You need to get back to those books."

Lincoln looked over at the desk then back at Daisy. "Yeah, I probably should." He gave her an encouraging smile.

Another moment passed, then Daisy took a deep breath stepped over to Lincoln, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and said, "See you back at the base. Good luck tomorrow."

xxx THE END xxx