Chapter 2

"So…" Mack started unsurely.

Exhaling a deep sigh, Daisy closed her eyes. She'd been waiting for him to say something about the scene he'd witnessed in the club. As they made their way to the jet, Mack had filled her in on Simmons and by the time they'd been airborne the group sat in silence. "You held out longer than I thought you would."

"How did that happen?" Not that Daisy was unattractive. He was, on some level, aware that his partner had quite a few striking features. However, to him, she would always be 'just' Daisy. He just didn't think of her in a sexual manner and while he didn't want to say it surprised him that other men did, he'd just never thought of her in that way.

From behind the pilot's seat Bobbi Morse turned from Mack towards Daisy. "How did what happen?" What had she missed?

Pursing her lips, Daisy tried to fight the urge to frown at Mack. She'd been hoping to keep her night with Steve to herself, she liked the idea of having the memory of the night to turn to when the world started sucking. "Like it usually does. Boy approaches girl, boy offers to buy girl a drink and they chat and dance."

"But…Captain America?" Mack asked.

Bobbi easily caught up in the conversation. "You chatted up Captain America?"

"Oh, she did more than that," Mack retorted with a smirk. "They danced and before leaving, she kissed him."

"You kissed Captain America?" Bobbi turned to Daisy with a look of astonishment. Damn, she should have made Mack stay with the jet while she went to retrieve Daisy.

Daisy rolled her eyes and mentally thanked Mack making it sound so dramatic. "It was an innocent peck on the lips, hardly anything to get excited over."

"But still…Captain America…" Mack muttered. Daisy meeting Steve Rogers. It was just…it was too close.

"You know if you keep saying it, it isn't going to make it any less true," the Inhuman said to her partner. "I didn't realize you were such a fan-boy. I'd expect Coulson to be put out, not you."

He wasn't put out, he was shocked. Given her past relationships, Steve Rogers was the complete opposite. "But he's so different from the guys you usually go for."

Go for? She hadn't gone for anyone in a long time. Her experience with Ward had turned her off from any potential romantic interest. "You make it sound like I have horrible taste in men," she frowned.

"Miles," Mack piped up, reminding the Inhuman. He of course hadn't met him, but he'd heard all about the events surrounding Daisy's ex-boyfriend.

Bobbi clicked her tongue. "Ward," she pointed out. There was no need to elaborate.

The Inhuman opened her mouth to reply, but when no argument came, she closed it in resignation. When there was nothing to dispute, she continued on. "Anyway, I doubt it will come to anything. Aside from the fact that I live in a different state than him, I work for a secret organization that he disavowed."

"You didn't mention Coulson, did you?" Bobbi asked, slightly alarmed. Everyone on the team knew that he was dead to those from his former life, the Avengers included.

"Of course not." That was yet another reason why a relationship would mever work with Steve. Even if Steve were to overlook the SHIELD thing, she and Coulson were incredibly close, how would she be able to hide him from Steve? "I didn't even mention SHIELD." She figured if she had, it might have driven him away.

A pregnant pause settled over the teammates. "So, you kissed Captain America, huh?" The blonde asked once again.

Daisy forced herself not to smile. If she couldn't keep her experience with him to herself, she would keep her feelings to herself. "Yeah, and if we could keep it to ourselves, that'd be great,"

"Captain America and Quake…" Mack trailed off. Captain…Quake? "Captain Quake. I could ship it." He looked at his partner and smirked.

She knew he was only teasing her, but she felt her cheeks flushing upon hearing their monikers linked together. So could I she said to herself. Daisy, leaned back, her head falling to the headrest and closed her eyes.

And with that phrase, the good mood in the room instantly faded.

"SHIELD?" Steve asked. She was SHIELD?

Sam looked from one person to another. "I thought they were shut down?" He asked, confused.

Steve shook his head. He should have known it was too good to be true. He should have known that he wasn't that lucky when it came to romance. So, she'd been what? A plant? Didn't SHIELD realize that they wanted nothing to do with them anymore? They were persistent, he'd give her that. As much as he respected Nick Fury as a person and as grateful as he was for the man's help when he first woke up, he didn't agree with the way he ran SHIELD or the organization itself. Maybe if there hadn't been so many secrets and levels, Hydra would have been found out sooner. "Nat?" He and his teammates may have come together because of Fury and SHIELD, but he knew that all of them, save maybe Clint and Nat, had reservations about them. He would be damned if he let another organization try and control him again.

She shook her head as if telling him it was a surprise to her as well as she sat up. "On it." The assassin jumped up from her spot and headed towards the computer lab. She thought that she'd released everything on SHIELD, but maybe she'd missed something… SHIELD was active? There'd never been any reason to suspect that her former organization was still active, she hadn't seen any red flags when various situation occurred around the world. So…was someone removing any further evidence of them?

Standing up, Steve turned away from his companions and made his way towards the floor length window. A deep frown pulled at his features. Daisy was with SHIELD? What was tonight about? What if he hadn't approached her, would she have approached him in effort to cultivate a relationship between SHIELD and the Avengers again? Was that all it was? He'd seen how Natasha worked on some of her missions, do whatever necessary to achieve the goal. Was that all he'd been? A goal? It wouldn't have been the first time SHIELD kept an eye on him. Sharon Carter was proof of that. And if he was honest with himself, it was another reason why he'd been so hesitant to get to know her.

Spinning around, he moved to follow Natasha.

"Steve?" Sam asked.

"I need to give Natasha Daisy's number." If Daisy was even her name. He'd been such a fool. His friends wanted to know why he was so hesitant to put himself out there, this was why. Granted, nothing too personal had been discussed, but there had been definite interest there, and she turns out to be a liar? "Maybe she can get some more information on her," he grumbled.

"Damn," Sam muttered as he watched his friend march out of the room and turned to Clint. "You think tonight was a set-up?"

Clint could only shake his head. "I don't know." He supposed there was always a chance that 'not quite Steve's girl' had been completely sincere. "But if it wasn't, it would be one hell of a coincidence that they met and gravitated towards one another."

Ignoring the hushed conversation, Steve made his way towards the computers. Since awakening, he'd been learning all of the new technology. However, he had no idea how Natasha could hack into a computer, he mostly just watched her stupidly whenever she did it. Maybe if sat with her long enough something would come up.

When the door opened behind her, Natasha turned around. "I have a background search going, looking for key phrases SHIELD would have used," she shook her head. "I've been getting pings, but everything that I've looked into so far goes back to the information that I went public with. It could take a while," she warned him.

He nodded, he'd suspected as much. "I know, I just…her phone number." He held out his phone to her.

She slowly reached for the device, taking in his sagged shoulders and the hard look behind his eyes had her tilting her head in pity. "Steve…"

He shook his head. "Not now, Nat," he sighed. "Just…trace the number."

She nodded at him.

When they landed at the base, Coulson greeted them as soon as they exited the jet. Daisy gave him a small smile and turned to the situation at hand. "How's Fitz?"

He shook his head. "Not good. Is there anything your mother said about the monolith or…Gordon?"

She searched her memory. "No, not to me." She tried to remember if she'd ever walked in on a conversation about anything similar to the Monolith, but she was coming up blank. "I don't know if it was ever discussed. If it was, it was never mentioned around me. Even before everything went down, I don't think Jiaying really trusted me." Which she hadn't, she'd proved that quickly enough by locking Daisy away and then attempting to kill her on the carrier.

Coulson nodded, figuring as much, but he had to ask. "Do you think Lincoln might know something?"

Daisy considered the question. Until witnessing Jiaying murder two innocent agents, Lincoln's interests mirrored the Inhuman leader. "I…maybe," she shrugged. Then again, he hadn't exactly been helpful when it came to Joey… and she didn't think he'd been a huge help to them with Simmons.

"I know that you just dealt with him, but do you think you can reach out to him again?"

She knew that he had been attending medical school in Cincinnati and that when he wasn't at Afterlife, he was there. "I'll try, but after his refusal to help with Joey…" She shook her head in negative. Lincoln had disappeared, and she had no idea where he'd gone. "When he isn't at the hospital or at school, I don't…I don't know where he spends his time." She pursed her lips. "Coulson, there's…you know how he feels about SHIELD," she reminded him.

He nodded in understanding. "I do, and if this hadn't happened, I wouldn't bother him. But an agent's life is at stake and I need as much information as I can get. Do you think you can start a search?"

She began formulating the best way to do so. "Yeah, I'll get started in the morning."

"Fitz is in the common area with Hunter," he said then, knowing it would be the next question out of Daisy's mouth.

Bobbi nodded at their boss. "I'll walk with you," she told Daisy.

Before Daisy walked away, Coulson gave her shoulder a sympathetic squeeze. "I'm sorry you didn't get more time," he apologized.

She offered him a small smile. "That's okay," she denied. "Shall we?" She asked the statuesque blonde. "Before we see him, can I see the video?"

Bobbi brought her to the security room and pulled the tape for Daisy.

She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but watching the events fold out hadn't been it. Though she knew from other Inhumans that the monolith was dangerous, watching Simmons disappear in it left her feeling sick to her stomach. Daisy removed her hand from her mouth. "There's nothing else?"

Bobbi shook her head. "Nothing."

"What were they talking about?" Daisy asked then. She knew that her friend had a voracious appetite when it came to knowledge and learning about new things, alien artefacts included. Had they been discussing that? Maybe there was a clue somewhere in there?

Bobbi shook her head minutely. "He wouldn't say, only that it wasn't about the Monolith."

Daisy expelled a deep breath before pulling away from the monitor. She and Bobbi made their way to the common room. Fitz sat on the couch, hunched over, his elbows rested on his thighs and his head in his hands. Hunter hovered behind him but didn't say anything. As soon as the female agents walked into the room, Bobbi made a beeline for Hunter as Daisy settled her attention on Fitz. Walking over to him, she dropped to the ground in front of him, her hands immediately encasing his.

The feel of someone touching him forced Fitz from his thoughts. His head shot up and he found Daisy's sad face. Whatever control over his emotions that he had fell to pieces. His head drooped down and he gave into his grief. Daisy pulled him into her arms and tried to comfort him.

"She's not dead," he muttered. "She's not dead, I'd know it if she were."

She tightened her hold on him and turned to look at Bobbi and Hunter for an explanation. They thought Simmons was dead?

"Well, aren't you a plucky bunch this morning," Tony remarked as everyone met at the table for breakfast.

Steve's frown settled on Tony. "She's with SHIELD," he said flatly. He'd waited until all three missing Avengers from the previous night joined him in the common room before saying anything, not wanting to have to repeat himself.

"We think she's with SHIELD," Sam clarified, stressing the word 'think' in his phrase. For Steve's peace of mind, he'd hoped that it was all a misunderstanding.

Bruce looked from Captain America to his sidekick. SHIELD was still a thing? "Who is?"

"The girl from last night," Sam provided.

Steve went on to tell Tony, Thor and Banner their discovery the night before with Clint breaking in every so often to add his two cents.

"Are you sure?" Bruce questioned.

Clint shook his head. "I watched her get into a jet with the SHIELD insignia on the side with my own eyes." Having been a part of the organization, he was not only familiar with the insignia but with the sort of planes and jets they used.

"Didn't the government seize everything they could from SHIELD when it fell?" Bruce asked then, frowning. "How could they still be active?"

Clint met Natasha's gaze as they both shook their heads in negative. "They may have taken some, but SHIELD was much larger than they let on. With different safehouses and bases…there were things stashed everywhere," he explained.

Tony pursed his lips. "Don't they realize that we don't want anything to do with them?" He'd always had an issue with the organization. Hydra had just been the icing on the cake. Even if SHIELD hadn't fallen, they would have separated themselves from them eventually. No one had been particularly fond of Fury's machinations and manipulations.

Natasha shook her head upon hearing Tony's words. Unlike Tony and Steve, she and Clint had personal ties to the organization. SHIELD had saved her from her previous life and she would always be thankful for that. She understood Tony's issues with the organization, but she didn't feel the same way. Unfortunately, she couldn't claim surprise if Steve's friend ended up being nothing more than an undercover agent. "I've had a search going since last night."

"What have you found?" Tony asked, turning his attention on the redhead.

She shook her head. "Nothing. I haven't seen anything new related to SHIELD." When she'd come to the realization earlier that morning, she'd been surprised. She had expected to find something. Anything.

Tony glanced at her. "Are you sure you're not doing something wrong?"

She wanted to scoff at his question, but she bit it back when he appeared sincere in his question. "I'm sure." She may not have been as big of a computer whiz as him, but she could hold her own.

"Any chatter with other agencies?"

"Nothing. If they have reformed, it's certainly not to the scope it once was." Either people didn't know about them, or something had been scrubbed, or both.

"Then that means they must have someone on the inside hacking," he muttered.

She nodded at him, and a good one too. "That's what I figured too."

"Anything on the phone?" Steve asked, looking to Natasha for an answer. He hadn't been able to stay when she began looking into it.

She shook her head negatively. "It's a burner phone, paid in cash. If SHIELD is active again, someone's gone to great lengths to keep it a secret." If SHIELD had somehow been resurrected from the ashes, who was running it since Fury bowed out and Maria was working for Stark Industries?

"Okay, so don't call the number she gave you, and she will get the hint that you aren't interested," Bruce suggested after a moment of silence.

Steve considered the words. Maybe on a personal level, it made sense. However, now that they knew the organization was back up and running, they still needed to find out what they could about it. Didn't they?

"Or," Tony perked up. "You could call her, befriend her, get her to open up and we can find out for sure."

Steve startled as all eyes turned to him. Could he do something like that? Better, could he do something like that convincingly? He was a simple guy really, what people saw was exactly what he was. His alter ego aside, he didn't hide who he was, he never had, and he'd prided himself on remaining completely earnest. He didn't play games, he didn't like them.

Sam looked from Bruce to Tony and then settled his attention on Steve. "Is this something you want to do?" He ignored everyone else, knowing that Steve wasn't in a comfortable position at the moment. "Is it really that important that she is with this organization?"

"Yes," Tony answered as Clint and Natasha shrugged their shoulders.

Natasha didn't think it was as important as select team members thought, but at this point, she was more curious than anything. Nibbling on her bottom lip, she looked to Steve. "You up for it?"

Was he? He could only shake his head in negative. "I don't know," he admitted.

Watching the rest of his table mates chat amongst themselves as they attempted to come up with a plan, Thor fell into his thoughts. Other than Steve, he'd never come across a SHIELD agent that radiated such power. In the past, SHIELD contained powerful individuals. Steve Rogers aside, they didn't recruit them. If this maid was powered, would she really be working for them? Was there a chance that she was forced to work for them? He opened his mouth to repeat his questions for the rest of the group, but decided against it for the moment. At this point, it was more personal than anything, and what right did he have to chime in on someone else's life?

Coffee cup in hand, Daisy sat in front of the computer screen as she watched for any activity.

"You get any sleep last night?"

She looked up to find Coulson leaning against the door and gave him a tight smile. "Not really." She'd tried, but sleep didn't come easy and once she had drifted off, she woke up every hour. By the time 4:30 rolled around she gave up on her mission for sleep and began trying to locate Lincoln. "I'm running facial recognition software," she sighed. "But I only have it in the areas close to the college. If he doesn't show up, I'll have to expand the search."

"Okay."

Setting her coffee cup down, she gave him her attention. "How's the arm?"

"It's…I can still feel it," he admitted. "My hand still itches. Fitz called it Phantom Limb disorder and said it was common in amputees. As time passes, the sensations should fall away, but it could always come back periodically."

Her eyes fell away from him. "I'm so sorry, Coulson. If I hadn't gone with Gordon, none of this would have happened." If she hadn't gone with Gordon, her friends would never have found the Afterlife in the first place. Jiaying would still be alive, Gonzalez would still be alive and Coulson would still have his hand.

He stepped into the room and approached her. "You don't know that," he denied easily. "You left because your life was threatened." If she hadn't left, he didn't want to think about what would have happened to her with the agents loyal to Gonzalez. "This is not your fault," he told her firmly. "Jiaying was sick and had been for a long time. She had been planning for something like this for years." Daisy may have sped up the time table, but he was certain that something would have happened eventually. No, the blame didn't fall on her. Perhaps if Gonzalez hadn't been hiding in the shadows, both teams would have been able to unite sooner? If that had been the case, then there would have been no need for Daisy to even call for help in the first place.

She couldn't say she agreed with him, but she appreciated it all the same. The Inhuman pushed the self-doubt down and turned back to the screen. "Do you really think that Jemma's dead?" She asked, thinking about her reunion with Fitz the previous night. She remembered the way that Bobbi and Hunter had barely met her gaze after Fitz started mumbling his words into the crook of her neck.

"I really don't know," he confessed. "I don't know what else it could be." It was why he'd wanted to locate Lincoln, the sooner the better. He didn't want to believe Simmons was dead, but nothing else made sense.

"So, you think that it consumed her?"

"You remember Franklin Hall and the Gravitonium," he reminded her. He thought back to the moment that the Gravitonium had enveloped the doctor and shook his head. Watching Jemma on the video, it was almost reminiscent to that.

She considered his point but didn't make an argument for or against it. "Fitz doesn't believe she's dead."

He nodded. "I know. I don't want to believe that she's dead, but I don't have anything else to go off of." Coulson was also trying to mentally prepare himself for bad news about Jemma so that when it came to his team, he was better able to help them through whatever bad news he was sure they were going to discover... though something told him there was no amount of preparation that would make any of that easier for them.

She nodded at him, understanding his reasoning.

"I'm trying to keep him busy. He's been working on a new hand for me," he looked down at the prosthetic attached to his body. "He's built a few tricks into it, but he hasn't gone into specifics." Honestly, if Fitz wasn't keeping busy he'd drive himself insane trying to get Simmons back, if it was even possible.

When the conversation fell into a lull, Daisy decided to speak up about her time with Steve. "Subject change, I kissed Steve Rogers." She watched Coulson freeze up. His eyes widened, and he looked at her stupidly. If she wasn't so worried about his reaction, she would have laughed. "I gave him my number. If he should decide to call, I wanted to let you know." Given how shy he'd first been around her, she was skeptical that he would even call her. However, in the off chance that he did, she wanted to make sure the director wouldn't be surprised later on down the line.

He blinked twice before mentally pushing away his shock. "You…how did you even meet him?"

"Oh, I met him at a club," she shrugged.

"Steve Rogers was at a club?" He asked slowly. That didn't sound like a place he would have frequented.

"Not by himself, obviously." Though she had to admit, the ideal of Steve Rogers at a club didn't sound right. She was sure that if he hadn't been out with the rest of his team, he never would have stepped inside. "All the Avengers were there in the VIP section. Thor suggested he talk to me, and the next thing I know, he approached me."

"And then you kissed him…"

"Why do people say it like that?" She asked rhetorically. She really hoped he didn't intend to throw her past in her face like Bobbi and Mack had.

"Because he's Captain America," he explained simply. "What possessed you to do that?" He inquired after a beat. He would have never pictured Daisy and Captain America together. Not that he'd ever contemplated either person's love life, but they were complete opposites.

Daisy shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time," she admitted. "I was leaving with the uncertainty that I may never see him again. If that is the case, then at least I'll have a good memory of our time together."

Coulson was amused by her answer. It had been a long time since he'd seen this side of Daisy. "You do realize that this situation could get complicated if things go any further between you," he said, hating to burst her bubble, but needing to say it all the same.

"I know," she replied softly. "I didn't say anything about you or SHIELD last night. And this isn't a 'situation,'" she denied after a moment. "I don't even know if he's going to call me."