Apologies for the extremely long wait, and even greater apologies for those still waiting for me to upload another chapter for my Clone Wars fanfiction. I never meant to make anyone wait almost a month for either of my updates, and am ashamed it has been over two since I last posted for A Togruta's Tale.
I will still be working on it, but whether I post it before or after I update I Still Love Him is unknown, I just want to let those reading it know I have not given up on it.
As for this fanfiction, again I'm sorry for the wait. This chapter has been mostly written since Jan 11, I just caught a severe case of strep throat and couldn't find the time to edit or post it. I apologize now for the short length, but promise to come back with another chapter soon and hope you will enjoy this small piece for now.
Without further ado I give you chapter 7
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God bless Caleb's parents. If it wasn't the fact they would probably call the police on her, she would have gone up and thanked them for having such a boy. She was almost tempted to go hug them anyway.
The young inhuman was currently sitting beside her on the couch, a controller held somewhat tightly in his hands as he tapped furiously at the different buttons. They had learned quickly that he couldn't hold it too tight, evidence being the crushed controller from a trial run.
Daisy reminded herself to ask Fitz to reassemble it later, but right now she had enemy fire. Caleb playing video games wasn't why she was grateful to his parents though. No, it was because of what he had said when she found him playing by himself.
'I don't know who he is, but if you like him, he can't be all that bad.'
She had wanted to tell him he most definitely could be 'all that bad,' but found his words too kind to argue. He and Joey were amazing, she wondered how different their responses would have been had they met Ward before. She wasn't sure they would have been as kind to her, even if her other friends had been.
Daisy frowned as she tapped at the buttons trying to kill the person in front of her while avoiding their fire. Though it was good bonding time with Caleb, she should be more focused on finding a way to separate that creature from Ward. After all, who knew if he would just magically show up in her bedroom again.
'I hope you'll come back'
She didn't want him back until she was sure she could save him, so what was she doing here? She glanced at Caleb from the corner of her eye, because she wanted to help Caleb feel normal. Even when he resembled a lizard. She sometimes wondered what he was hiding under his hood, it couldn't be spikes like Raina.
She remembered how the manipulative woman had been in so much pain, pricking herself whenever she moved, not being able to look in a mirror, and the visions mixed with her nightmares. Was Caleb in pain? Was he afraid to look in a mirror?
"Daisy?"
Did he feel like his life was over? That it would be easier to end it? He had had a family, a mom and dad, a little sister, and an older one. He had the type of family she had always dreamed of, before S.H.I.E.L.D. What must it be like, to know he'll never be able to see them again.
Joey could at least go out in public, start a new life, if he wanted. Caleb couldn't even step foot outside, he'd be thought of as a monster, never accepted. She could at least relate to that a little. S.H.I.E.L.D. Would soon become his home, just as it had become hers. She wouldn't let him feel outcast for the rest of his life. Maybe he'd even take his hood off one day.
"Daisy?" She flinched involuntarily at the hand that touched her shoulder, realizing she'd gotten lost in her thoughts. Caleb was looking at her with worry in his amber yellow orbs.
"Sorry What is it Caleb?"
"I should be asking you that. You're the one that froze." Sometimes she wondered which one of them was the child and which the adult. Though at the same time, she still couldn't believe he was older than nine.
Daisy smiled a little,taking hold of the scaled hand that sought to comfort her, when it should be her comforting him. "I'm sorry, Caleb. I was just thinking."
"About Ward?"
She winced, remembering again that she should be hunting for a way to save the man from his fiery death. But then, she also had a duty to the inhuman next to her. She'd promised to help everyone that came out of terrigenesis, and she'd told this one that she would personally be with him every step of the way.
If she succeeded in saving Grant Ward, he may turn to kill her. Caleb was like family now, they both shared the same gene, she was to help him adapt. He would not betray her, just as she would not betray him.
"No, about you." Because though she loved Ward, she had learned family always came first. Whether they be of the same blood, or brought together by fate. That was how her family was formed. Love was no where near as trustworthy, especially if that love was Ward. The man who had murdered his own family, and torn apart the one that had taken him in.
"Me?" Caleb looked genuinely surprised by this answer. She wondered for a moment what he thought she was thinking.
"I'm supposed to be helping you through your change, yet you seem to be the one helping me." She nudged her shoulder against his, a small smile coming to her lips.
"True, but your life seems a little more important right now." A grin split his lips, revealing those sharp fangs. When she laughed, he continued. "An inhuman, that seeks to end us all, has taken control of your old love's body, and it has a plan that involve only you. Now you have to find a way to save him, or watch it burn in Ward's body, before he hatches his plan of world domination and stealing you. Your life is definitely more complicated than mine."
"Point well taken. Except, your life is as upside down as mine. You can never see your family again, you've changed in a way I can not understand. You no longer recognize yourself, you can never have a normal life." It was cruel of her to point it out, but she didn't want to worry about how insane her life had become. She half expected him to let go of her hand and leave. That's what she would have done if put in the same situation.
One could not imagine her surprise when he held her hand more tightly and met her gaze with his own. He was quiet for a long moment, and she expected him to turn away. His eyes showed so much pain, yet there was something in them that she remembered from somewhere. "I have a new family now, with people who are helping me understand and recognize the new me. Who have given me a life that normal boys only dream of."
There it was, a trait she recognized from her younger years, the ability to let things roll off their back. Was it destiny that she was the one to find him first? That she help bring him into this new life?
'I'm no clairvoyant, but I do believe some things are meant to be.'
Without even realizing it, she hugged him. Though she knew he was weary of physical contact, she couldn't help it. Part of it was to comfort him, the other part was to convince herself she wasn't becoming May. Her past self would have laughed at the thought. Of course there was that one time she impersonated the Calvary.
"That's right. Normal lives are overrated."
She felt better when he laughed and actually hugged her back, yet she could tell her was being careful not to place his hands on her. She'd have to convince him that just because his nails could cut through a steel sink it didn't mean he'd cut something just by touching it.
"Seriously though." She said, loosening her grip enough to look back at him. "We need to figure out how much the mist changed you."
She could just see his eyes rolling under the shadow of his hood. "Scales and claws, that's how much. Let's go find a way to save your boyfriend." He said getting up, and surprisingly pulling her up with him.
"Wh-" She couldn't even get the words out as she stared at him. Why- no how was the subject back on Ward? They were supposed to be focusing on his life crisis, not hers. She wanted to pretend her life wasn't going to hell.
'Who am I pretending to be?'
'My impatient boyfriend.'
'I like that cover.'
No, this wasn't supposed to be happening. She was supposed to be helping Caleb transition! Not figuring out how to save the monster she was in love with. Not that she didn't want to save him, it's just... His chances of turning on her a pretty high. She didn't exactly have time to argue though, as the teen dragged her in the direction of her room.
This seemed very familiar to when they had run through the halls a few days previous, except this time it was the boy leading the girl and there was no breaking of protocol. Still another would be childhood memory all the same. They still ran as though thirty hydra agents were on their tails.
"Caleb wait!" He ignored her words, slamming her door open before she'd fully realized they had reached her room.
"There's got to be something in these books, right?" He asked, going over to where she had all the inhuman books spread out on the floor. She'd taped sticky notes, of anything she had found on the dark inhuman, on the wall above it. So far there were only three yellow square sheets of paper.
"I've already looked. There's nothing." She said, surprised by the break in her voice. How dejected it sounded. It hurt more to admit it, than it had to think it for the last week, when she'd torn through every book her mother had owned.
"Then we'll look again." The scaled inhuman decided, picking up the closest book. "In school we were told to check things overs three times. Not just to memorize, but also to catch something we may have missed."
Daisy forced herself to smile, as she joined him on the floor. "I guess we'll have to do something about that, sure D.C. Can find some online schooling or something." She'd almost forgotten how young he was, or what it was like to go to school.
"Forget about that, I have all the time in the world for that, you're the one with a deadline." Darn, couldn't even change the subject to school.
"Alright alright, I'll warn you now though. This is more boring than reading encyclopedias." She teased, picking up another of the books.
'I read the safety pamphlet.'
'I think you might be the first.'
She wanted to scream with frustration, she wanted to pound her fist against a punching bag, but forced herself just to read quietly beside her fellow inhuman. It was okay, Ward was supposed to be on her mind right now, even if she didn't necessarily want his voice echoing in the far corners of it. She needed to be focused on here and now, not old memories that had led up to this strong emotion called love.