Because Raina (part 25)

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

Note: this chapter is crossover with GoG, because it so needs to happen.

Note 2: this chapter contains spoilers for an upcoming film.

Note 3: this chapter contains OCs.

And so it came to pass that (some of) the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. found themselves in the Canadian High Park (Toronto, Ontario), because one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s (less important) safe houses was located close to it, and even agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. need some time off to themselves.

"So, who wants to go with me and check out the impromptu petting zoo?" Leo Fitz told brightly, (looking primarily at Jemma Simmons…for the obvious reasons).

"Fitz, it's not a petting zoo!" Daisy rolled her eyes. "All of the animals are in their enclosures and cannot be petted. Well…okay, they can be, if you climb into their enclosures…but I'm fairly sure that you shouldn't – even if you are agents and all, this isn't the sort of publicity that DC wants from us-"

"Are you coming?" Jemma nodded thoughtfully, as she eyed the other female agent.

"No," Daisy said brightly, as she sat down – heavily, due to her now-advanced pregnancy – onto a nearby bench, holding onto Grant. "We'll stay here and enjoy the fountains."

"Don't they make you want to pee instead?" Leo asked, skeptically.

"…" Jemma took one good look at Daisy's face and promptly dragged Fitz downwards, down the stairs, before the InHuman agent just shoved him down, with her vibrations.

"… this was embarrassing," Grant commented, as he sat down next to Daisy, observing the FitzSimmons disappear onto a lower level of the High Park with an almost InHuman speed. "Do you need to pee, though?"

"No," Daisy said brightly. "Our lovechild isn't pressing down onto my bladder with all of his, or hers, weight."

"You're wearing some sort of an adult diaper, aren't you?" Grant said wryly. "Joey has hinted at this to me…"

"Maybe," Daisy gave Grant a look. "You know, you should be disturbed-"

"I am, especially in private. In public, not so much. Not with the director, and the Mrs., and Stephanie, and the others, hanging not so far away from us, in the Grenadier. Nice place, BTW – very deceptively comfy, like the rest of the park."

"You don't like it?" Daisy raised an eyebrow. "Jemma thinks that it is very British – wild-looking and all."

"The British style is to imitate the 'pristine wild nature' as much as possible," Grant rolled his eyes, "hence the lake in the park, the maple leaf mosaic – hello, Canada! – and the trees. This particular part – with the fountains – is French instead: the French were very big on this sort of elegance, until the Revolution at least."

"And you know this because?"

"I like Canadian parks," Grant said with a slight smile. "Just not customized ones, in a British or French style. With you around, I don't care about park styles, period."

"Nice catch," Daisy prodded Grant's chin with one of her fingers. "Also, there is some sort of cloaked airship above us, and I'm not sure that it is of Earth."

"Ah! Hi there!" another couple walked over to Grant and Daisy, "I'm Peter! Quill! And-"

"I heard this name!" Daisy blinked. "Are you here looking for Jemma specifically or for the rest of us in particular?"

"You're friends with Jemma?" the woman raised an eyebrow. "Are you Melinda May or Daisy?"

"Daisy; this is Grant Ward-"

"Last time we heard, he was supposed to be kind of evil?" the woman did not put down her eyebrow.

"He got better," Daisy shrugged. "Leo and Jemma are down there, checking out the animals. You can go and talk to them instead if you like-"

There was a pause as Peter and his date exchanged looks. "What kind of animals?" Peter asked, carefully.

Daisy and Grant exchanged looks of their own. "What are we missing?" Grant asked.

/ / /

Leo and Jemma were observing the caribou in their enclosure, especially the large, dark chocolate-brown stag with impressive antlers. (The rest of the deer in the enclosure had smaller antlers and lighter fur, BTW.)

"You know, between the screaming peacocks, and the smelly bison, this really is like a real zoo," Leo commented to Jemma as the two of them just had a time off – even geniuses cannot think about genius-level ideas all the times. Sometimes even they just want to sit back on a bench and enjoy the view.

"I am Groot!"

…But it does not mean that their wish will come true, however.

"Jemma," Leo asked skeptically, as he observed an apparent refugee from Middle-Earth and a racoon wearing pants (among other articles of clothing). "Do you know those people?"

"Yes," Jemma replied in a (slightly) more cheerful voice. "This is Groot, and that's Rocket. I have been telling you about them in the past, remember? Rocket is the racoon-"

"Yes, I am," Rocket looked somewhat uncomfortable, "Jemma, hi. It has been a while since your boyfriend here has rescued you, supposedly-"

A completely ordinary, Earth-born racoon climbed out of a garbage bin while looking completely pristine, from the black and white mask down to the striped tail. It (racoon genders are not very different from each other, especially on Earth) looked around, saw Rocket, and decisively scurried over to say hi and to see if Rocket was free this evening (for it was evening right then on Earth).

"Let me guess – you'll be dumping Jemma now, if you haven't a while ago," Leo said sourly, without moving to help: S.H.I.E.L.D. labs had had racoons in the past, and Leo knew that the animals could be actually very badass, especially if you were fighting them barehanded. "Jemma had told me about you and your friend-"

"I am Groot!" the other alien said brightly as the two racoons tried to work their issues; Rocket, in particular, was muttering about his mother under his breath.

"Yes you are!" Jemma nodded sagely. "Who's Lylla and what's she got to do with this?"

"I am Groot!"

"Oh, she is an otter!"

"A local otter or one from the Old World?" Leo could not help but to ask.

"I am not sure," Jemma sounded genuinely thoughtful. "Rocket, is Lylla from here?"

The other racoon chittered something. Rocket twitched. "Okay, now I know that my mother just couldn't be behind this, because we've never really met, but I still feel that she is behind this, somehow, and she doesn't approve of my ways and of Lylla-"

"Been there, done that with Jemma," Leo spoke in a sympathetic tone of voice. "At least you didn't have a Kree Monolith ruining your life, did you?"

"No, no Monoliths," Rocket agreed, "but plenty of Kree otherwise. They're dicks."

"I am Groot!"

"Oh look, here comes Drax," Rocket said without any sympathy or regret in his voice. "In disguise, but he still got someone with him, I see."

"…And now I can see why you're acting so strange," Stephanie nodded sagely, as she hanged onto Drax, just because. "Jemma, Leo, are your friends real or just cosplayers?"

"I am Groot!"

"Why can't you be both?" Jemma drummed her fingers on the bench. "Groot, do you even know what a cosplayer is?"

"I am Groot!"

"Yes, I can explain – we can explain," Jemma nodded, after Leo jabbed her in the side. "Now – oh, hey Peter! Gamora! What are you people doing down here, BTW? Also? Apparently the other racoon with Groot isn't Lylla – she's an otter."

"Hey, Jemma," Gamora nodded to the smaller woman. "We must admit – your friends down here are like how you have described them-"

"Okay, and you're riding Quill piggyback because-?"

"He offered nicely," Gamora shrugged, as she indicated upwards, where Grant was carrying Daisy down, (for expediency's sake, no doubt).

"I am Groot!"

It was then that a small black-and-white woodpecker of some kind flew onto Groot in question and began to probe him for insects and their larvae.

"You know," Drax said simply, "we are having an off day, aren't we?"

/ / /

"Okay, this was new and exciting, even by our standards," Daisy commented to Grant a while later, once Jemma's reunion with her non-S.H.I.E.L.D. (but also non-civilian) friends finally ended. "Especially once Rocket had almost released the emus – WTF with that?"

"This place is not a real zoo," Grant shrugged, "there are no predators, for one thing. It is designed to be as safe as possible, even though they have several bison there, for example. If bison feel threatened, they charge, and no barrier will hold them. Pound for pound, they are much more formidable than any cattle are, domestic or feral. In addition, all of those geese, and ducks, and turkeys? I think that the zoo staff was almost aiming towards a petting zoo for a while and then they tried to backpedal, and now they got poultry among them that they do not know how to handle, however. The wild chipmunks were cute, though."

"…I was talking about Rocket himself, instead," Daisy blinked.

"…He's a racoon who wears pants and is actually trying to be loyal to his Lylla, whoever she is. He is just strange, period. Racoons are not really big on loyalty, at least not on this planet. Still, if he wants to make it work…good luck to him, especially from Leo."

"Fiiittzz!"

"…for the obvious reasons."

"Yes," Daisy nodded to herself. "Jemma should just expect to wake up pregnant herself one of those days…the Asgardians have been busy those last few weeks, hah?"

"Yes," Grant nodded curtly, his own mood now souring some. "I don't know much of this Thanos person, but if everyone is getting scared of him, then he must be scary."

"Well, maybe it's all relative? Apparently, Jemma's guardian friends had once thought Kismet to be this big scary deal, and they still defeated her. Come to think of it, Captain America being dominated by Hydra was a big deal – and it still got resolved. Who is to say that the problem with Thanos won't get resolved-"

"Of course it will be," Grant shrugged, "the trick is to ensure that we're the ones getting the resolution as opposed to him. Closure and all that, you know?"

"You're still big on this closure thing, aren't you?" Daisy muttered wryly.

"And you're still big – just big-"

Daisy opened her mouth to say something scathing, when she twitched. "Grant?" she said carefully. "This was more than just another kick. Can you get Kara and maybe Simmons if Jemma still isn't too busy-"

"Fiiittzz!"

"Let's go get Kara first. Period."

/ / /

"…Lincoln? What's going on in your mind?" Raina asked with a certain nonchalance that, however, did not fool the other InHuman (the one in question).

"I don't miss Li Shi," he admitted quietly. "At least not as much as I even do miss Australia."

"…"

"Yes, I know," Lincoln shook his head. "We can go back either there or to Li Shi, I know. It's just that Li Shi has become a better place with Jiaying gone, and I still don't want to go there – not anymore."

Raina nodded. Lately, their lives seemed to be alternating between shorter, more intense periods of activity, and the longer periods of inaction, especially since they stopped working for the Australian government and returned (sort of) back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Fair enough, and-

"How did you get involved with Grant and S.H.I.E.L.D. and the others, anyhow?" Lincoln asked idly, as he eyed Raina thoughtfully.

"Meh, the old fashioned way, with the emphasis on the 'old S.H.I.E.L.D.'," Raina shrugged, "though it probably didn't hurt that my grandmother used to be a fairly important person back when she was alive." She looked away, clearly investing time into a trip down the memory lane. "In her own right, that is. Anyhow, I did not have very clear idea of where to go and what to do once I graduated from high school, for example, so when I came across an ad of the old department, I decided to apply to the Academy – and it worked. I do not know why they accepted me, and I am not going to probe – nothing good will emerge from this – but I was accepted. And-"

"And?"

"And S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposedly designated by agent Peggy Carter and her like-minded cohorts to be a place for lost people, the oddballs, where they would be accepted and be given purpose," Raina nodded. "It sounds like a noble goal; it really does, only in my case? I guess I was not ready to accept some foreign purpose, so as I was getting closer and closer to graduation and acceptance as a new agent, I realized that I had no idea of why I was really here and did I want to be associated with S.H.I.E.L.D. for the rest of my life?"

Lincoln gave Raina a very thoughtful look.

"No, it was different from your case," Raina said firmly. "If you're an agent, then you're an agent, or at least an asset, as Grant's and…Kara's case has showed. You accepted the oath, took the metaphorical shilling, the end. S.H.I.E.L.D. will be keeping eyes on you for the rest of your life, whether you like it or not – or unless you join Hydra, AIM, or some similar organization, which is like S.H.I.E.L.D., only eviller. However, if you are still a cadet, it is somewhat different – you can drop out of the Academy and leave, and this will be the largely the end of that. You tried your best, you could not make it, so sorry, good luck, S.H.I.E.L.D. wishes you well. It was called, unofficially, the 3.63 percent, and everyone, including Hill and Fury, accepted it. Only, in my case, it was rather unexpected, 'cause I was one of the best students in the Academy, before the FitzSimmons, so agents Weaver and Roland sent one of the agents to try and bring me back into the fold. By fate's grin, it just happened to be Anne Weaver's good friend John Garrett and his protégé, Grant. By then, I was working alongside Cal – I tried hustling on the streets before, but after the Academy it just wasn't the same – and honestly? Even Garrett was a better mentor and man than Cal. So when John and Grant came across, I was ready for new pastures again…only because it were Garrett and Grant, I didn't go back to S.H.I.E.L.D., but rather to CyberTek and Hydra, and then…well, you know the story from there on, right?"

"Yes," Lincoln nodded. "I-" Words failed him, because yes, while he was lost with Jiaying gone and the rest of Li Shi down for the count, he wasn't ready to embrace S.H.I.E.L.D. and Daisy just yet, this wasn't what he had wanted, and he didn't want to turn his life around – only he had to, when Daisy and Mack had let Lash to him and his last pieces of independent life had vanished. S.H.I.E.L.D. was not against underhanded or strongman tactics when it suited them, including Daisy…only not anymore. "Somehow, I think, we have changed it," he muttered to Raina, "S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course, the Mrs. has helped somehow too."

"The director is the sort of a man who changes only when he wants to. The same goes for my big brother," Raina muttered back. "No wonder they were caught in a dominance fight. The elephant vs. the rhinoceros – who would win?"

"Hey! This is our place! Get lost!" a much bigger woman, complete with a Mohawk, sat down next to the two InHumans and glared at them. "Or else-"

"Hey, Cousin Tara," Raina gave her a look. "Cousin Rashida and auntie are worried about you, so they asked me if I could look you up? I did, so yeah?"

"Cousin Raina," 'Cousin Tara' muttered back, now downright unhappy. "Of all the people, it had to be you, whom I actually stand-"

"Unfair – no one can stomach Cousin Rashida after all, now can they?"

"True," 'Cousin Tara' shot Lincoln a look – this time. "And this is-?"

"Lincoln. He is with me."

"We're getting married," Lincoln nodded.

"Why else do you think I agreed to talk to auntie and her daughter voluntarily?" Raina finished.

"You're getting married?" Tara blinked. "At last! Congratulations!" She gave Lincoln another look. "Though couldn't you pick someone better?"

"No," Raina said flatly and firmly. "No. Now, what about you?"

"I'm fine," Tara spoke with a dismissiveness that did not fool anyone. "Now, did you get the shovel speech?" she turned back to Lincoln.

"Go right ahead," he spoke resignedly.

"Good!" Tara reached out and grabbed him by the shirt. "Now-" she instinctively took a sniff and frowned even more. "What the Hell are you?"

"He's an InHuman, as am I," Raina spoke, grabbing yet her cousin in question by an arm, "and so are you, aren't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about – you were the smart one in the family, maybe even the smartest one," Tara muttered, as she let Lincoln go and shifted, sprouting extra arms and a row of purple spikes across her back (vertically). "See?"

"You can shapeshift," Raina said flatly, as she removed the mask to reveal her own visage. "Seriously? You can shapeshift and you complain? I cannot shapeshift and you don't hear me complain about this," she shot Lincoln a look. "And the issue with meals is different – I still have my old lousy metabolism: almost everything goes right to my butt and thighs and I start looking like a Kardashian-West love child gone wrong."

"I didn't say anything," Lincoln said innocently, while eyeing one of Tara's companions thoughtfully. "We haven't met, have we?"

"No," the Black Widow (in a very convincing disguise) said flatly.

"Okay," Lincoln switched his attention back to the two cousins. "So, do we give your cousin the sales pitch or what, Raina?"

Tara gave him a very unfriendly look. Lincoln did not back down.

"Tara – no," Raina said simply. "I'm sorry if we hurt your feelings-"

"I'm sorry if I got onto your shtick-"

"How did you get onto it?"

"Axel got me some special pills to give me a buzz. Boy, did this did not go right! And now, well, here I am, and here you are, and what do you want to offer me?"

"A new beginning – of course you can keep your old one, since you seem to be handling it well enough," Raina shrugged. "Of course, for all that we know, you might end up fighting one of the Avengers sooner or later, and-"

"Yes, I actually don't want this happen on a regular basis," Tara confessed, looking at her cohorts, (cough). "But, yeah, what can you offer, Raina? You do not tend to offer anything, and you do not like our auntie's approach to things as well. What has changed you?"

Raina pointed to Lincoln, who just gave Tara a look.

"Oh, come on – even I can see that he is part of a package…" Tara face palmed, having become more human looking once more. "Can we forget that I said that?"

"Except that you're correct – sort of," Raina admitted. "We work for S.H.I.E.L.D. now. Do you want to do that too? Work for S.H.I.E.L.D., not full-time, but part-time? The pay is good, and it's not like you had thrown your lot with Hydra or Sons of Hector for real-"

"They're not the Sons of Hector… never mind," Tara looked down, clearly in thought. "Okay, so what's the pay is like?"

Raina and Lincoln exchanged a look of their own, and continued their 'sales pitch'.

/ / /

"…This is so not how I imagined that tonight will go as," Daisy muttered, as she looked at hers and Grant's newborn son. "I mean, unlike DC and the Mrs., the dates aren't wrong, and yet he is perfect-"

"Of course he is!" Kara nodded simply. "Don't forget, however, both you and Grant are InHumans, rather than…ordinary humans? Cro-Magnons? Whatever. I and Raina had discussions about this, we, on occasion would even rope Lincoln into this – well, try to: it's amazing how fast a man could become manly if the topic turns to ladies' parts, cough…"

Daisy gave the older woman a look. "What? Don't give me that sort of a glare!" Kara protested, half-heartedly. "You had a typical, and a good one, InHuman pregnancy, I don't know what sort of powers your boy has inherited-"

The boy sneezed, releasing a tiny jet of smoke into the air from his nose.

"Takes after his father right now," Kara spoke without missing a beat. "Hm. In addition, Melinda is expecting twins, BTW. Things are getting more interesting in this place by the day."

"…Melinda is going to have twins? But she's so small…" Daisy blinked and thought over her choice of words. "You know what I mean?"

"Yes, but it is still fairly early in her pregnancy, so she is already beginning to make plans, not unlike you and your diapers – you're ditching them, right? – including Andrew sleeping on a separate couch, maybe, nearby," Kara shrugged. "Do you have the name for the boy?"

"Jonas Philip Johnson-Ward," Daisy shrugged, "and yes, DC is the original Philip. Speaking of him and his youngest, how is yours?"

"We're here," Lance answered instead, as he entered the medical office. "The little geniuses are asleep – they exhausted each other that much! Your boy looks almost as good as our girl does," he pointed to the (slightly) older baby in question; who was at looking at Jonas Philip was a very clear curiosity. Following some sort of an instinct, Grant brought their son over to Lance and Kara's youngest daughter, who reached out and touched the boy very briefly on the nose. The boy sneezed, (releasing another tiny plume of smoke) and giggled. The girl giggled back.

"You know, maybe she won't marry Coulson's youngest," Hunter told Kara in a conversational tone of voice. "Not that I have anything against young Aaron, but still. Weren't you telling me that a girl needs to have choices?"

"Speaking of choices," Grant said quickly, "what about that Djeeta woman? Has she recovered?"

"Yes!" Kara said brightly, because Hunter's latest suggestion was really out of the blue. "Well, no," she caught herself. "But she is getting better, and-"

Raina and Lincoln 'chose' this moment to make an appearance. "Well, my cousin is on board, however tentatively," Raina told Kara and others. "Is this my new niece or nephew?"

"You're in an intense mood," Daisy raised an eyebrow. "Another bad family reunion?"

"I love my mother's side of the family, really," Raina confessed wearily, as she kept on hanging onto Lincoln as if he was a life raft of some sort, "but I never wanted to fit in with them – I loved my grandma just too much to give her legacy up. In addition, Rashida is an insane clotheshorse, and Tara and I like each other better at a distance, as examples. Now…" she looked down at Jonas Philip Johnson-Ward thoughtfully, "he takes after both of you, you know?" she shot Grant and Daisy a look.

"You know, I think that he does," Daisy admitted thoughtfully, as she took him from Grant. "You also know? I think I like the idea of being a mom more and more." She gave the others an askance look. "Plus, yes, no, that's it, really. Anyone else got anything else?"

"It's seven in the morning," Lincoln shrugged. "Whatever missions will come up today, maybe you should sit them out?"

It was then that the bear-dog trotted into the room, took several sniffs, and began to lick the babies. "Only us," Lance muttered quietly, clearly not wanting to startle the big mammal into anything rash, for the obvious reasons. "Only S.H.I.E.L.D."

The babies giggled, and then yawned, and their mothers took them to bed. "Um," Lincoln looked at Lance, (since the Englishman was the closest to him, anyhow). "Where's the director. We still need to get debriefed, right?"

And Lance told him.

TBC