Daisy woke up the next morning before Logan or Victor woke up. She was still holding Logan's hand and almost started crying all over again. She didn't want him to die or to leave and in the end one of those two things were going to happen, she just knew it. Victor was stronger than he was, if anyone could kill Logan, Victor could. Even if Victor decided not to kill him this time, or if they could manage to beat Victor, Logan still might leave. Everyone always left her.
Daisy bit back her tears and reached for her laptop on the bedside stand. She opened it and started looking to find out where her father might be. He wasn't far away, only a couple of miles, both him and that creature he'd stolen. The news reports were saying he hadn't killed anyone but several people were hospitalized and buildings were ruined.
Apparently her father was pretty determined to find her. He'd been determined to find her most of her life. The man had a terrible method for reaching her but he had at least been consistent. He was the only person in her life with that kind of commitment to her. She couldn't live with him though. Not after the things he had done, the people he had killed, the insanity that followed him everywhere. His idea that they were going to be a family was a fantasy, but he was still the only the family she had. Maybe she could use that.
Daisy closed the computer and quietly slipped out of bed. She picked up her boots and jacket and left the motel room as slowly and silently as possible. She put on her boots and jacket outside the door and set off to the coordinates where she knew she would find her father. This could end badly and she knew it. He might not listen to reason. Actually, there was a pretty good chance he wouldn't listen to reason. And while she was out Logan and Victor might kill each other anyway but she would never know if she didn't at least try.
Daisy was less than a mile from the location when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned and found Logan approaching.
"Where are you going Daisy?" he asked her. Victor was nowhere in sight so that was a good sign.
Daisy bit her lip. She didn't want to tell him. He wouldn't like it. "There's something I have to do. I'll be back in like an hour."
"You know where your father is, don't you?"
She nodded.
"You shouldn't go alone. He might not let you leave."
"I don't care…" Daisy said, unable to hold back her tears.
"Well you need to care."
"Why?" Daisy crossed her arms across her chest. "Give me one reason why I should care?"
"Cause you could have a better future than some sort of captive daughter of a madman," Logan said.
"Which future would that be? The one where the people I care about die or the one where they leave me?" Daisy said, more angry and emotional than she had intended.
Logan looked a little hurt by that. He crossed the distance between them and put a hand on her shoulder. "Listen kid, I don't know how this is all gonna turn out...I can tell you though that I've had a lot of partners over the years and a lot of friends. If I make it through this, I'll make sure you know where to find me. You're a good fit."
Daisy gasped. "You really mean that?" He didn't answer. He just hugged her. It wasn't the same as a promise to stay but it still meant something. It meant a great deal. After a while Daisy pulled away. "I have to talk to my father. I think I can convince him to help us."
"I think that's a bad idea."
Daisy shrugged. "I have to try.."
Daisy agreed to let Logan go with her most of the way to talk with her father. He'd leave them to speak alone but he'd stay nearby in any case. They hadn't gone far before Victor caught up to them.
"Where do you two think you're going?" Victor said, still a distance away.
"Just walking," Logan said tersely.
"If I didn't know better, I'd think they two of you wanted to spend some time alone," Victor taunted as he caught up to them.
"All I wanted was some fresh air," Daisy said though she didn't expect he would believe it.
"It's not fresh air out here," Victor said. "Air smells the same as it did when I started tracking you two, which means Calvin Zabo isn't far away. But if it's fresh air you want…" Victor put a hand on Daisy's back before she could even react. She felt his sharp fingernail claws tear through the back of her jacket and slowly shred it into tatters as it fell from her body. He cut her shirt in a few places too but never harmed her skin.
Logan's claws were out and he was tense, probably about to attack Victor. Daisy raised a hand to stop him. "Don't. Logan don't. I'm not hurt. I'm fine."
Victor grinned. "Hear that? She's fine. No need to get all riled up."
Daisy turned to Victor, "Do something like that to me again and I'll quake you."
Victor only laughed. "Bad news Jimmy. There are military vehicles parked out by the motel. They got people checking rooms. Lucky for us I grabbed our stuff before I left," He passed Daisy her bag, Logan his, and held on to his own.
"So we can't go back and you're not interested in letting us go forward," Logan stated, waiting to see what Victor was going to suggest they do next.
"We go that way," Victor set off for the woods. Daisy and Logan reluctantly followed him. "We go on foot to another town, pick up a ride, maybe a room. I don't really feel like fighting the whole Russian army today. Might as well put some distance between them and us."
It didn't take long for Daisy to get cold without a jacket. She stopped and pulled out the two sweaters Jemma had sent to her and put on both of them. It helped but it wasn't enough. Victor kept them moving at a pretty quick pace, a lot faster than Daisy was used to. She was physically fit but she didn't have the speed or endurance that Logan and Victor had. The third time that Daisy stumbled and fell Logan went back to help her up.
"You gotta slow down Victor," Logan told his brother.
"If she can't keep up I could carry her," Victor said.
"I can keep up," Daisy said, seeing how tense Logan had become at Victor's words. Logan ignored her and picked her up and carried her himself.
They actually did keep a much faster pace without Daisy struggling to keep up with them. In a few hours they stopped to eat and then started off again because Victor wasn't ready to stop yet. All day they kept moving. Daisy hated it. It made her feel helpless to just be carried all day. She was cold and her arm was cramped against Logan and falling asleep. Plus the fact that she knew he didn't want to be stuck alone on the wilderness with Victor. He was only following Victor to try to keep her safe a little longer, because he was convinced that Victor wouldn't let anyone else kill him. It was a miserable day and by the time Victor stopped to make camp for the night, Daisy was worn and frazzled.
"We don't need a fire," Victor said as Logan started to gather wood.
"Yeah we do," Logan said, ignoring him and continuing to pile up wood.
"You and me slept outside in the snow a hundred times. We don't need a fire. If you're worried about her, keep her warm yourself," Victor tossed a blanket at Logan's head. With a sigh, Logan went to Daisy and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders.
Just one wool blanket wasn't enough. Not without her jacket, not in these extreme temperatures. Logan took off his leather jacket and gave her that too. She put it on and wrapped herself in the blanket again, still shivering.
"She's still cold," Victor pointed out. "If you don't want to keep her warm then I will." Victor started to her and without even thinking twice Daisy raised her hand and she quaked him. There was no way in hell she was sharing a blanket and keeping warm with him. Her quake, thrown in anger was a large one, not the largest she was capable of, but large enough to knock him on his back to the ground with a great deal of force and hold him there for a good three seconds.
Victor got to his feet growling and angry as the quake ended. He took a few steps towards Daisy and she raised her hand again. Logan had his claws out. "I could do this all night," Victor said, "Or you can let Jimmy keep you warm. Your choice."
"Fine," Daisy agreed. She was going to have to keep warm somehow anyway and she wasn't sure she had the energy or endurance to truly fight Victor at this point or if she ever would.
It really wasn't so bad wrapped up in the blanket with her partner. Daisy lay on her side facing him and he kept his arms around her like they had when she had hugged him. It was a lot warmer this way than it had been any of the other nights they'd spent in the woods. He was warm and safe and she could hear his heartbeat against her ear. Maybe in other circumstances it might have been relaxing but in this case she couldn't relax enough to sleep. She couldn't stop trying to figure out why Victor was behaving like this. What was he trying to accomplish?
"Why is he doing this?" Daisy asked quietly once she heard Victor's snores.
"To prove a point."
"And what point would that be?"
"That he can hurt me and that I can be just as much of a beast as he can," Logan explained.
"I don't see how…" Daisy didn't quite understand how Victor was accomplishing either of those things."
"I shouldn't even tell you this...especially not here...He told me rape you," Logan said, angry to admit it. "He said I'd have plenty of opportunities and if I didn't do it then he would. Of course I told him it would never happen. He said that the deal is, he'll help keep you alive until all of our troubles blow over or we kill the people after us and he won't lay a finger on you if I admit once and for all that I'm just as much an animal as he is. That's the only way you get to live. If I refuse to prove that to him, he'll make me watch while he…" Logan couldn't seem to finish the words. "It's not gonna happen though. Never like that. After the Russians get tired of looking for us and your father is somehow out of the picture, you have to run. I'll give you as much time as I can…"
Daisy felt sick and horrified and sad and so many other things she couldn't quite put into words. "That's really messed up," she finally said.
"Yeah," Logan agreed with her.
Daisy found herself starting to cry.
"Hey, I'm not gonna let him hurt you." he tried to reassure her.
"I'm not crying about that. I can put up a pretty good fight if I have to." she told him truthfully. She was afraid of Victor but that wasn't the thing that was bothering her most.
"Then why…?"
"How can he do that to you? Your own brother?" Daisy hugged him a little tighter. "My whole life I wanted to have a family but you were right. The only thing they're good for is fucking up your life….how can he do that to you?"
"Daisy are you for real?" Logan said with a sigh. "When Coulson told me you cared more about other people than yourself I didn't believe him...I haven't met too many people like that, like you. That's why I'm not gonna let Victor win."
"Okay, but if he does, don't let it change you," Daisy said.
"What?"
"If he kills me...if I don't survive this sadistic plan of his, you have to find a way to still care...about people and about life and about yourself. If you can't do that then he really does win."
"I never cared in the first place," Logan said.
"Yes you did. Promise me you won't stop."
"I don't do promises, but maybe I'll try."
***************************888
It wasn't until the next day when all three of them were walking towards civilization that Daisy had the crazy idea that could possibly fix their problem with Victor. Logan wasn't going to like it. In fact he was probably going to like even less than her idea to ask her father for help. She wasn't sure she even liked it herself or how exactly they would pull it off. But if it could be done, it would be better than what Victor wanted for them.
She waited until late that morning when Victor had wandered off to relieve himself before mentioning it to Logan, "I was thinking, what if we can make him believe you killed me?"
Logan thought for a moment. "Maybe...maybe that could work if it was staged right. Thing is, he'd want to see it, and see all the violence leading up to to it. I don't know how we'd pull that off."
"I'll think of something," Daisy said as she heard Victor returning to them.
They reached a town that day. It was a larger town than the last place so it had a slightly nicer hotel. They got checked into a room and Daisy pulled out her computer to see if there were any updates on her father's whereabouts or the status of the search for her and Logan. Victor tossed his bag on the floor in one corner and sprawled out on one of the beds.
"I think you should go get us some food Jimmy," Victor spoke up.
"I think you should get it yourself."
Daisy waited a little tensely for another argument to break out between the two of them but instead Victor simply got up and headed towards the door. He turned to them just before he left. "You two had better behave while I'm away."
"Was that supposed to be…?" Daisy began but didn't know how to finish the question,
"Yeah. An opportunity. Just forget it. See any sign we're being followed on that computer?"
"Well there's nothing about the military movements but I guess there wouldn't be. My father was seen thirty miles away, to the south."
"Not too far then. If Victor gets violent, maybe your best bet might be to go to your father. Maybe he'd help you and he'd be easier to escape than Victor," Logan suggested somewhat reluctantly.
"Just leave and let your brother try to kill you?"
"He's tried before. It didn't take. Besides, I thought we had an understanding that you were were going to leave when it came to that." Logan said.
"No. you had an understanding. My understanding is that I don't abandon people I care about."
"Daisy...there's no sense in getting yourself killed or hurt."
"Maybe I don't have to either one. Maybe we can give your brother what he thinks he wants," she argued.
"Even if we could make Victor believe you were dead, there would have to be evidence that it had been a violent death or he wouldn't be happy with it. He's smarter than you think and he has a good sense of smell. There would need to be blood, probably yours and mine. And he'd still need to be convinced that I raped you. There's no way we can fake something like that. He'd know it didn't smell right and he'd still try to kill you and me too." Logan said, frustrated.
"Well would he believe it if we actually did…?" Daisy found she couldn't complete the question. She found herself blushing and tried to focus her attention on her computer screen.
"Probably," Logan answered the question anyway. "But that's not the solution."
Daisy nodded her agreement wishing she had never voiced that question. She hoped it wouldn't ruin everything between them.
One thing the brothers had in common was their appetite. When Victor came back with food, the both of them ate a lot. Daisy didn't feel like eating but she made herself do it anyway. She knew she might need the energy sooner rather than later.
Daisy found a place to exchange her coin for cash and picked up a new jacket in a shop once that was done. She had very nearly made it to the register to buy the coat when Victor suddenly stopped.
"My brother needs new boots. Aren't you gonna help him out Daisy?" Victor said.
She hadn't noticed that Logan's boots were starting to come apart in one place. He had never so much as complained.
"There's no need. I still have money." Logan said.
"Then where are your boots?" Victor asked. "We never even went near the shoe department."
"These ones can hold up a while longer," Logan said.
"Maybe you should have new boots," Daisy spoke up, hating to agree with Victor but he did have a point. "We don't know when we'll have the chance to get some again."
"See that? Daisy is offering to buy you boots. You gonna offend her by saying no?" Victor said.
"I never…" Daisy began but then stopped. She didn't really care about buying the boots one way or the other. She was happy to do it if he actually needed her to. Logan had done plenty to help as it was so it really wouldn't be a problem to do something in return. She just didn't want to play into Victor's games.
"After everything he's done for you, you don't want to pay him back?" Victor asked Daisy.
"It's fine, I can buy the boots," Daisy said, hoping just to shut him up.
"She doesn't owe me anything," Logan cut in.
"Except maybe her life," Victor argued.
"That's not how it works," Logan said. "If I need to buy something, I'll buy it. Has nothing to do with Daisy."
"Sounds to me like you don't want any help from a woman. Maybe we aren't so different." Victor pointed out. "Go ahead Daisy, get the boots, see if he lets you buy them."
"He's your brother," Daisy said, a little angry. "If you're so worried about his boots, you buy them."
The entire day progressed in much the same manner alternating between squabbles and sullen silences. The afternoon was spent in the hotel room. Victor seemed to be taking a nap but Daisy was pretty sure he wasn't really asleep. Logan got a beer and switched on the TV while Daisy sat down at the table with her laptop. They had already decided that tomorrow they would rent a car and head east.
That night Daisy tried to sleep a foot away from Logan with her back to him. It was difficult to sleep. She knew she needed to try. She might need her energy to run or to fight at anytime so sleep was vital but every time she closed her eyes she couldn't manage to stop her heart from racing. Logan had mentioned once that he could hear people's heartbeats so he probably knew exactly how not relaxed she actually was. Some part of her wished she could hide that from him. He already seemed to feel responsible for her enough as it was. He didn't need to know how anxious she was about sleeping. Eventually she heard the sound of Victor's snores and she let out a breath of relief. Logan reached over and put a hand on her arm. Not long after that, Daisy fell into a restless sleep.
Daisy woke in the morning to find that she had rolled closer to Logan sometime in the night. Actually, he had rolled closer to her as they were on her side of the bed, she was still facing away from him, and he had one arm around her almost possessively. He was still asleep and was holding on to her rather tightly. Daisy tried to pull free and he only held on tighter. Then she heard Victor laughing from somewhere across the room. Logan woke up at the sound and let Daisy go. "Sorry," he said.
Daisy nodded and fled to the bathroom. Victor only laughed harder. While Daisy was in the bathroom she heard a knock at the door of their room. She opened the bathroom door a crack to get a look. Victor had answered the door to find two men in uniform on the other side. His claws were slowly coming out. Daisy pulled the bathroom door shut and locked it as sounds of violence filled the air. She headed for the window. She wasn't running off, she was going to get them a ride.
The jump from the window down to the ground wasn't difficult. Daisy had made similar jumps in the past before, slowing her fall with her powers. The difficult part was staying out of sight of the military vehicles. Daisy stayed crouched down behind the cars in the parking lot and went around to the other side of the hotel. Twenty minutes later she had a rather beaten up truck which the owner sold to her for her $500 and she parked a block away to wait. She knew Logan and Victor would come and find her. It wasn't long until they did, carrying their bags of stuff, and with blood on their clothes. She heard gunshots as they climbed in and caught sight of two military vehicles coming towards them. One bullet hit Victor as he climbed in and he roared in anger. Daisy started driving before the doors even closed.
She wasn't sure how they were ever going to lose their followers in this crappy vehicle but Victor took out a gun from his bag, hung out the window, and started shooting.
"When did you start carrying that?" Logan asked.
"About the same time I got this," Victor took another gun from his bag and passed it to Logan.
Daisy was too occupied driving to really pay attention to what the brothers were shooting at. After a while the shots died down and they put their guns away.
"We clear?" Daisy asked.
"For now," Victor said. "They're gonna send more though now that we've killed some."
Daisy drove for several more hours. Three times Victor told her to take a particular street. She didn't know where he was taking them but she didn't question it. They went a lot of miles before the truck sputtered to a stop in the middle of a small town near some sort of a fish market. It wasn't out of gas.
"Where did you get this piece of junk anyway?" Victor asked as smoke billowed out of the truck's hood. "You couldn't steal anything better than this?"
"I didn't steal it." Daisy said.
"Well you should have. This thing wasn't worth buying." He kicked the truck hard, denting it. "Guess we gotta walk now." Victor got out and led the way towards the market further down the street.
Daisy grabbed her bag from the back of the truck where the guys had stashed it and followed them. "Why is he he buying fish?" She asked Logan as she caught up to them.
"I guess he's hungry."
"I'm not buying fish. I've been here before." Victor said, irritated. "Woman back there by the name of Irina will help us."
"The truck just happened to break down right next to a place you've been before?" Daisy found that a little hard to believe.
"I used to live about fifty miles from here. I know lots of people around here," Victor told them.
"And they...like you?" Daisy asked.
Victor grunted ignoring the question and headed towards the back of the store. An older woman behind a counter saw him coming and greeted him with a smile. They spoke in Russian for a while and then she led them out of the building across the street to what seemed to be a rooming house. All three of them were given a key and a room and Irina left them, sharing one last laugh with Victor before she left.
"She said we can stay as long as we need," Logan told Daisy as Victor disappeared into his room. "She said she's gonna get her sons to get rid of the truck and she even thanked him for his help the last time, whatever that means."
"So...what do we do now? Just stay here?" Daisy asked.
"I guess so," Logan said.
Feeling uneasy about the entire situation, Daisy went into her room and did her best to settle in. It was a small room with a single bed, a desk, shelf, and bathroom. She doubted a place like this would have internet but it turned out she was wrong about that. With internet, Daisy kept herself occupied the only way she could, keeping an eye on the search for them, and with hacking projects. At some point during the day she heard the brothers leave their rooms probably to eat but Daisy didn't bother. It was late into the evening before Daisy realized she actually was hungry. There was a cafe or some sort of restaurant downstairs in the rooming house but she wasn't sure she even wanted to leave her room. She paced back and forth a few times and finally decided to open a can of soup that was left in her bag. She ate it cold rather than face anyone just yet.
After a shower, Daisy tried to go to sleep. She found that it wasn't an easy thing to do. It wasn't because of fear. Not entirely. She was a little cold and uncomfortable though and she realized that maybe she kind of sort of missed Logan. The more she thought about it, the more she had to admit to herself that she did miss him. She missed his warmth. She missed his smell. She missed the protective way he tried to shield her from Victor. But that was stupid. She'd only slept next to him for a few nights and that was out of necessity so...it shouldn't matter now to be back to sleeping alone as usual. Except it did matter and she couldn't seem to figure out why. Eventually Daisy fell asleep.
By the time Daisy woke up in the morning she had it figured out, the reason that she couldn't fall asleep, the reason that she had missed Logan. She had it figured out and she didn't like it. She didn't need these sorts of complications in her life. Not with everything else going on. Logan had already made it clear that he thought she was a kid. Any feelings she might have for him he wasn't going to have in return. It would be best to try not to think about it anyway.
Daisy focused all of her attention on one of her hacking projects that day. She refused to come out of her room at all. That was her way of forcing herself not to think about her feelings, not to face them. Logan knocked on her door twice to try and get her to eat and without opening the door she told him she wasn't hungry. The third time he knocked on her door it was late afternoon and he knocked a little more forcefully than the last two times.
"Daisy? Open the door. You need to eat at least once today," Logan said, frustrated with her.
"I'm fine. I had soup. I need to finish this project," She knew she was being stupid, childish maybe. And she knew she was going to have to face him eventually and do her best to pretend that everything was normal. She couldn't do that just yet. It was easier not to face him until she was a little more ready.
"You need more than soup Daisy," Logan argued. "What is going on with you? Why won't you come out of there?"
He wasn't going to go away. She was pretty sure of that. Daisy got to her feet and wrenched the door open, not really sure why she was angry.
"You've been crying," Logan observed the moment the door was open. Daisy hadn't even been aware of it herself.
"It's...it's nothing. Let's just get some food," Daisy said.
She ended up eating dinner downstairs with both Logan and Victor. She updated them on the sightings of her father which had him most recently rather far away. Mostly though she picked at her food.
Victor talked with some the people who came in and out of the cafe area. They seemed to like him. Apparently he knew how to to be charming and friendly when he wanted to be.
"You gonna tell me what's going on with you?" Logan asked her, while Victor was busy talking with some old acquaintance.
"I'm fine, it's just stress." Daisy said.
Daisy stayed awake far too late that night working on her computer. She didn't want to even try to sleep because that would mean she'd have to acknowledge that she missed him, she'd actually have to face it. It was nearly 2AM when Daisy finally got into bed and tried to sleep. She hoped that she'd simply exhausted herself enough to sleep without having to think or to feel the loneliness but she hadn't. She curled up and bit her lip to try and keep from crying. Her room was between Logan and Victor. Either one of them could hear her if she didn't keep her tears to herself. She couldn't manage to do that though. She burst into tears and within a short time there was a knock on her door.
Daisy got up and opened the door. It was Victor.
"I don't like it when people wake me up from a good sleep. I'm not gonna listen to that all night." Victor grabbed her arm and pulled her to Logan's door, knocking hard. Logan opened his door and Victor shoved her part of the way into the room. "Shut her up or I will." Victor slammed the door shut as he left.
Logan moved as if to go after him and then stopped, seeing Daisy standing there with tears on her face, arms crossed across herself protectively, "Did he hurt you?"
"No…" Daisy shook her head.
Logan stood there a moment as if he were unsure what to do next then he lay down on the far side of the small bed. "Are you coming?"
Daisy didn't hesitate. She climbed into the bed and sighed with relief as his arms came around her and he pulled her close to him, closer than he ever really had. "I missed you…" Daisy whispered.
"Yeah...me too." He said, hugging her a little tighter.
Daisy didn't know what he meant by that. She knew he cared about her in some way or other but she couldn't really define it. At the moment she didn't care to. She was happy just be near him again for a little while.