"SHIELD," Daisy whispers. "This can't be possible. SHIELD!"

"There's got to be some sort of mistake," Mack says, shaking his head. "SHIELD couldn't have taken Robbie; we're the ones trying to get him back. That's impossible. And if there were any tests that we needed to perform –"

"Simmons and I were going to run some anyway." Fitz's eyes are fixed on the screen, zeroed in on the blinking purple dot filled with energy that shows where Robbie has been taken. "There was no need to kidnap him for it."

"You're telling me SHIELD is behind this?" Gabe butts in, glancing from person to person with a wild fury. All of his initial hesitance and mistrust comes surging back with a vengeance. "Aren't you guys supposed to be protecting him?"

"We're trying." Daisy looks just alarmed as he does. "This isn't us. We need to call Coulson," she says, resting her head in her hands. "If anyone knows what this means, he will. SHIELD wouldn't do something like this, and Coulson has direct control over all of our projects. He can make sense of this. He's the director again." Her words are tenous, as though she is trying to convince herself.

"Wait a second, tremors," Mack says haltingly. "If there's any change SHIELD has taken Robbie, it means that the project would be under Coulson's control. I don't want you confronting him on that and getting hurt."

Daisy's lips tremble and her gaze flips to his, distraught. "You don't think…?"

"I don't," says Mack, his voice a comforting rumble. "But just in case. Let me come with you."

Exhaling shakily, Daisy nods, squaring her shoulders and sniffling. "God," she says, "I hope you're wrong, Mack. I've never wanted that before, but now more than ever I hope that you're wrong."

"Me too," Mack says, reaching out to lay a reassuring hand on Daisy's arm. "Believe me, I do too."

The three of them decide that Fitz and Gabe will stay in the lab to monitor the activity, while Daisy and Mack will confront Coulson. Everyone seems alright with that agreement so Daisy and Mack head upstairs, an electric tension crackling between them.

What if. What if. What if. All Daisy can think is, Not Coulson. Please, not Coulson. But she remembers the terrible certainty of betrayal she felt with Ward, and she doesn't feel it now.

"Hey," says Mack as they near the office. "I didn't mean to put you in a mood like that, Dais. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Daisy swallows hard, nods. "I know," she says. "But that place is SHIELD, and we have no idea what's going on there. That in itself is pretty intimidating."

Mack doesn't look convinced of her answer but lets the subject drop as they approach, letting Daisy knock. No response. Daisy knocks again. "Coulson?"

From inside there is a clatter and seconds later May appears in the doorway, deadpan as ever. Daisy and Mack just stare at her, putting two and two together with the horror of a ten-year-old getting a talk about puberty. "Yes?"

"Uhhh…" says Daisy, her mind momentarily wiped blank. "Hey, May."

May fixes her with a look that makes Daisy sheepish. "Really?" she asks. "Honestly, between the two of you, I don't know whether I'm working with trained spies or teenagers. What do you need? Coulson and I are busy."

"Busy," says Mack, unable to help the jab.

May glares. "Yes, busy. Doing paperwork."

Soon enough, Coulson joins her at the doorway, looking thoroughly frazzled. Daisy doesn't miss the smirk that comes to May's lips at the sight of him. "Hey Mack," says Coulson, nodding in their direction, "Daisy. What are you two up to? Do you need anything? May isn't scaring you off, is she?"

The other two agents, both completely weirded out, give noises of compliance. "We were… actually here to ask you a question," Daisy says, her brow furrowed. "Uh… can we come in?" She shoots Mack a look that asks are they having sex or what? and receives one that says they are definitely having sex. Nobody looks like that doing paperwork.

Coulson's desk is a mess. The paperwork itself is strewn across the table top, various half-filled forms carpeting the surface like a collage. With a straight face, Coulson says, "Yeah, I messed up the alphabetical order when I was trying to get a cup of coffee, and May judo flipped me."

There is not a single cup of coffee anywhere. Daisy and Mack exchange glances but wisely keep to themselves. Coulson and May aren't fooling anyone.

"Mhm," says Daisy, surveying the place. "Anyway, um, Mack and I got a lead on Robbie you might want to check out."

May's face lights up. "You found something? Daisy, that's incredible."

"Yeah," Mack butts in, his face stony. "Not exactly. Fitz helped us track this energy signature to a facility where we're pretty sure he's being held. But the thing is that it's a base in Nevada. A SHIELD base."

Coulson and May wear identical expressions of surprise. "What?"

"It's definitely our area," says Daisy with a confidence she didn't know she had. "I traced it three different ways and it all leads back to there. We want to contact our guys there, see how long its been since we checked up on them."

"I just sent a team in a quinjet three days ago," Coulson says. "They should be reporting back…"

"Two hours ago," May interjects, horror dawning on her. "The team dispatched for the Nevada base was supposed to check back two hours ago. Dammit, if there's a way that Radcliffe's gang could have been involved –"

"Hey," says Coulson, touching her arm. "It's alright. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We can make a call right now, get in touch with the team, and confirm what's going on. Maybe they can bring him home."

Daisy looks back at Mack with a smile that says, looks like you were wrong after all. The partners know each other so well they don't need words to communicate. Mack returns the look with a warmth that makes Daisy's heart burst.

Maybe this is going to be okay.

Reaching for the phone, Coulson clears off his desk and consults a chart. "Alright," he says, speaking mostly to himself. "Nevada. Nevada, Nevada… here we go." He dials and the four agents wait in silence. All that can be heard is the faint ringing that leaks through the phone's speakers.

Nothing. "Odd," says Coulson, frowning. "I'll try again."

The next time yields the same result. So does the next. Coulson tries the comm units of every agent dispatched to Nevada and gets no reply. Tension builds in the little office as call after call ends with dull static and a click. Daisy is trying her best not to panic.

"Check the video feeds," May suggests. "We get it all delivered here, don't we?"

Coulson nods and his fingers fly across the keyboard at his desk, scrolling through hours of security footage from SHIELD bases around the world. "Here," he says. "This should show."

All the cameras are on, but something feels off. The team of agents sent from the Playground is nowhere to be found. Coulson speeds through the coverage, going back until Daisy says, "Wait."

"What?"

"Mark that point," she instructs, pushing him aside to sit at the computer. "Then skip ahead twenty-four hours… here." Both frames are identical. "They're looping the footage," she says, "so nothing registers as wrong. It's not too difficult to hack the cameras, but SHIELD has an extra layer of protection that takes a while to get through. Which means there's a two-minute interval that should show us what's really going on…. here."

All the camera feeds burst to life at once, displaying chaos from every angle. The Nevada base was brutally attacked, and yet no help had been sought. The electronics don't appear to be working as SHIELD agents yell for backup, completely overwhelmed by enemy forces. Every few seconds an agent goes down. Mack reaches out to pause the video, and the room falls silent.

"Look," he says, pointing. "LMDs. I don't know how they're getting around an EMP device, but that's what they are. They all look the same."

Daisy remembers something Simmons had told her long ago. "Radcliffe's fuel cell," she breathes. "It has a magnetically shielded core. It's what was able to save May, but it also makes them resistant to EMPs. They must have been able to get information on Robbie and the Darkhold through SHIELD files after they took over."

"And the agents?" Mack asks the question as if he doesn't want to know the answer. "Is there any sign of what happened to them?"

For a moment the room goes quiet as the two-minute fight scene loops over and over. Then Coulson pinches his temples and looks away from the carnage, wincing as an agent's scream plays through the speakers in tinny shock. "Dead," he says, shutting his eyes. "Probably."

May puts a hand on his arm. Daisy sees how harshly the role of Director is affecting Coulson, and she is afraid. He isn't exactly a young man anymore. The silence is the loudest thing in the room.

Daisy reaches out and shuts off the video. "We have information now," she says, all business. "That's a win for us, right? We'll have to shut off the Nevada base's access to files and then go in to get –"

"No," May says, cutting her off. "We can't. The minute we shut off that base, they'll know we're onto them. We have to let them be until we're ready to send in a STRIKE team, and even then, we can't remotely dismantle the base until minutes before the team arrives."

"If they're hurting Robbie –"

"They'll do worse if they figure out they've been exposed," May warns. "Listen to me, Daisy. I know what I'm doing."

"I want in on that STRIKE team," Daisy says instead, because she knows May is right. "I want to lead it. This is personal, May."

Mack nods. "I'd like to go as well." Daisy has never felt more grateful that she has such an incredible partner.

"Well, Director?" asks Daisy with a humour she doesn't feel. She has to lead that team. She has to save Robbie. She has to.

"Mack should lead the team," Coulson says, nodding to the other man. "Daisy, I know this is personal, but it might be a bit too personal. I don't want anything to be too emotional to the point of compromising the mission. If it were May, I know I would need to be taken off the case." A rush of affection she didn't expect wells tears in Daisy's eyes, and she nods. Coulson regards her with pride as he continues. "I think it's very brave of you to go in."

"I can handle it," Daisy replies, flipping on her usual charm with a smirk. "After all, Mack and I make a pretty good team."

"Yeah, about that," Coulson says, returning the smile. "Take May, YoYo and Piper with you. Fitzsimmons too. I want Fitz to mess with the electronics on the LMDs and Jemma to get samples of that energy from the lab. I'll even let you have a plane."

"That damn Bus," says May with nostalgic fondness. "I'm driving; you hear?"

"Yes ma'am," Mack says, as Daisy looks around at the people who have become her team and her closest family. "Wouldn't dream of anything otherwise."

"Thank you," Daisy says, clearing her throat. "Thank you, Coulson."

The Director looks up at her with a smile. "Believe me, if I could go with you, I could. The next plane is going to touch down tomorrow before dawn, which should leave more than enough time to debrief the group today. The plane can refuel and you can leave by nightfall. I'll be in here, doing paperwork."

"Paperwork," Mack and Daisy say together.

"Without May."

"Oh."

"Don't read too far into it," May says with mock-annoyance. "We have a long plane ride ahead of us. Coulson and I will write up the mission report and meet you in the common room in fifteen. Let everyone else know, alright."

"Consider it done," says Daisy, her heart full. They're going to get him back. Tomorrow night, she'll finally be on her way to get Robbie back. After all this time, she'll be able to see him again.


Eight hours later, in the dead of night, Daisy's phone begins to ring.