Chapter 38: Castaways
The snow fell gently to the ground as Daisy trudged through the cold trying to get away from Ward.
"Hey flowers, where the hell are you going?"
"What does it look like? Away from you obviously! If I have to spend another second in your company it will be too soon."
"I thought you were here to kill me?"
"Yea, well it's freezing and cold and I'm just not in the mood anymore." She huffed her breath coming out in cold puffs as she left footprints in the snow.
"But you don't even know where we are genius. For all you know we could be days from the nearest town" He said crossing his arms with a smugness in his voice.
"Ya know what! I really don't get you. One minute you're as cold as ice and then the next you take on this teasing, high and might type attitude. Why don't you make up your god damn mind?"
"Where's the fun in that?"
"Not everything has to be a joke. We are in the middle of god damn nowhere with no idea how far we are from civilization and you think now is the time to actually get a sense of humor!" she yelled.
"At least I'm not an idiot" he scoffed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she said crossing her arms and glaring at him defiantly.
"Just what I said you're an idiot because only an idiot would go traipsing through the snow when it's below zero instead of taking shelter for now and waiting until the morning when it's less likely to be cold. It's going to be dark in a few hours and believe me that's when it gets really cold, no sun to protect you at all"
"Right because you would know"
"Well I did spend two years in the wild, can you say the same?" he said with a tilt to his head.
"Shut up" she muttered. "You don't even look cold?"
"That's because I'm not. I have hellfire in my veins and that makes me impervious to the cold"
"Well lucky you" she mumbled under her breath.
"Come on flowers. Let's go find shelter for the night"
"Who said I wanted to go anywhere with you?"
"Look you don't have a choice because you're going to die out here with me so, get used to it. Do we have a truce for now?" He said Looking at her, waiting for a response. Nodding her head, he grabbed her arm and began dragging her.
"We need shelter for the night. To protect us not only from the cold but from animals that are looking to make us dinner"
Rolling her eyes, she decided to follow him. She didn't like working with or even being near to Ward but right now she didn't have a choice.
They walked in silence through the snow. Daisy had her arms wrapped around her body trying to stay warm as she shivered in her clothes which weren't really made for winter anyways. Ward stopped abruptly and she bumped into him.
"What? Why did you stop?" she asked looking annoyed.
"I found us a cave" he said a little too smugly.
"Oh joy" she muttered following him.
{Stark Residence}
Tony looked at Coulson with a look of shock on his face as he tried to take in that a friend that he had once thought dead years ago was actually alive. Coulson had surprised him by coming to the stark tower with his team. He never saw it coming.
"Are you kidding me? I thought you were dead and all this time you weren't what kind of bullshit is that and Daisy knew!" Tony yelled.
"Tony, we don't have time for pleasantries, your daughter is missing. She left a few days ago without even a word of where she was going and she hasn't contacted anyone in days."
"I don't understand how could you let this happen and why would she just leave?" Tony exclaimed.
"Because of Ward" A voice spoke startling all of them and they turned to see Logan standing there with his arms crossed.
"Logan this is a surprise. How the hell did you get in?"
"The front door obviously"
"Jarvis!" Tony yelled glaring up at the ceiling.
"I let him in sir"
"Some help you are" he muttered. "And what do you mean Ward who the hell is Ward"
"He's an agent of Hydra and an inhuman. He escaped from the cell we were holding him in a few days ago thanks to Hydra, but I never understood why Daisy was so interested in him I guess it was because he was the only inhuman she had never met, but I don't understand what he has to do with her leaving"
"She's going to kill him and she wasn't interested in him because he was an inhuman"
"You sound like you've spoken to her recently" Coulson said raising an eyebrow.
"I have, a few days ago she came to the X-mansion and she wanted the professors help in tracking down Ward"
"Why is she so obsessed with killing one hydra agent I don't get it. She doesn't even know him?"
"That's not entirely true" Logan said.
"What are you talking about?" Coulson said.
"The professors a telepath, remember. He knows everything." Throwing a piece of paper on the desk he spoke again. "Nine years ago, Grant Douglas Ward was arrested for arson and he spent exactly less than a day at the police station"
"Yea, we all know the story" Tripp said crossing his arms. "Does this have a point?" Bobbi asked.
"At the same time…" he said ignoring the shield agents. "A young fifteen-year-old girl almost three years younger than Ward was arrested for breaking into a car that didn't belong to her, she was arrested and her name was Daisy Louise Johnson. She also spent exactly less than a day in a police station before her lawyer came and told her that she was Tony Stark's daughter."
"I don't get the connection why does it matter if they were both future convicts" May said.
"They were both arrested on the same day and on the same day they were both in the exact same police station" he said pausing to let them all soak it in.
"What?" Coulson breathed.
"Actually, they were sitting right across from each other for several minutes while they were waiting to be booked for something"
"Your saying they met each other before" Tony murmured.
"This proof that they were in the police station at the same time, sitting next to each other at the same time doesn't prove that they even spoke to each other let alone even acknowledged each other, but it doesn't have to. When you saw Ward you also saw the look on his face when you took him away. What did you see?"
"At first, I was surprised that he had been caught and I didn't notice it then, but he couldn't take his eyes off Daisy. It was like he was looking at a ghost."
"Judging from all that you've seen it's safe to say that these two met that day and spoke to each other. The day Daisy found out Tony Stark was her father and the day Ward met Garrett for the first time. Ward left first with Garrett and Daisy left second and they parted ways and for nine years their encounter drifted from their minds completely forgotten and then they met again. They didn't recognize each other at first, nine years had passed, but eventually the past has a way of forcing people to remember and they stopped fighting the second they recognized each other. It's the only reason you caught Ward."
"But that wasn't just the first time Daisy met Ward. She also saw Garrett for a brief moment when he took Ward away"
"I don't understand what you're getting at?" Coulson said.
"Daisy and Ward from that brief moment they spoke became friends even if it was fleeting and now meeting nine years later, Daisy blames herself"
"Blames herself? Blames herself for what?" Tony asked.
"She thinks she could have saved Ward. She saw Garrett that day, she saw him take Ward away but she did nothing."
"She was only a child that wasn't her fault"
"The professor tried telling her that, but it doesn't matter. The guilt was eating her alive but when Ward shot her she realized the boy she knew was gone and she hasn't gone to save him. Daisy's going to kill him. She wants to kill him before the boy she knows is truly gone and that all that's left is a monster. This is her way of saving him, but if she does this the professor says that she might never be the same again"
"Then we'll stop her because that's what family does" Tony said.
They of course needed to find her first.
{Middle Of Nowhere}
Huddled in the cave she rubbed her hands together while she waited for Ward to get firewood so that she wouldn't freeze to death. Her thoughts were now running a mile a minute and she couldn't seem to think straight and now she had to rely on Ward which was something that she wasn't comfortable with.
Wrapping her arms tighter around herself Ward came back a few minutes later and threw a pile of wood on the ground. Holding out his hand a blast of fire hit the wood, lighting it.
Holding her hands out towards the fire she glared at Ward. "Are you going to glare at me all night?" he said raising an eyebrow.
"I don't trust you so, yea I am"
"Suite yourself. I don't exactly like working with you either, but neither of us has a choice so suck it up" he said.
"Well at least you haven't lost that trait" He muttered throwing another piece of wood on the fire.
"And what trait would that be"
"You were always very stubborn"
"You only knew me for like five minutes. How could you possible know that?" She said rolling her eyes as she scooted closer to the fire.
"I only had to know you a second to know that. You never backed down from me and you never took any of the shit I threw at you and you never gave up on me. You thought I was a good person nine years ago and when we met again, you still thought that. I would definitely call that stubbornness either that or you're a fool"
"Some might call that being strong" Daisy said. Narrowing her eyes when he called her a fool.
"Well that too"
"But your wrong because I gave up on you"
"Then I guess you're not a fool anymore. So, tell me Daisy what's it like to get the white picket fence life I'm curious. The last time I saw you both of us were the same and now look at us"
"Despite what you might think I didn't have an easy life"
"Oh really? Do tell me your sad sob story daisy about how you got everything you ever wanted and me, I was left alone. Fighting to survive"
"When my powers first started awakening they weren't because of terrigenesis. I never went through the mist, instead my step father that experimented on me when I was a baby awakened something inside of me and when I was a teen and hit puberty my powers awakened without the need for Terrigenesis, but it also did something else to me as well" She said pausing for a moment.
"Because I didn't go through terrigenesis my powers didn't develop right and because of that I'm not completely immune to my own powers." She said lifting up her sleeves to reveal the bruises along her arms.
"I usually wear gauntlets to protect me but I left them back at shield"
Ward stared at her arms. Taking one of them he lifted it up and traced the bruises with his thumb. Jerking away from him, startled at the touch she looked away before he could see a blush.
"Eventually I became afraid of myself so I ran away and then I ended up meeting your brother. He was at college and he flirted with me which was kind of disturbing since I was only like sixteen"
"I think I saw him flirting with you" Ward muttered suddenly startling her.
"What?" she said shocked and surprised.
"Well you had your back to me and I couldn't see your face, but this was during the time that I was preparing to enter shield and I went back to my home town and I saw my brother talking to a girl, didn't know it was you and I never got the chance to find out because Garrett dragged me away."
"After that things were relatively normal until I was kidnapped by my step dad who thought that I belonged to him or something. He took me to a forest and during the escape I stumbled onto a tree with the initials GW carved into the tree, that was you wasn't it. I honestly at this point am starting to believe that us meeting was fate"
"Coincidences they were all coincidences. Nothing more" Ward said with a shrug.
"So, what happens after this? Do we go back to trying to kill each other?"
"That's the general idea. What did you expect us to just sit around the fire, hold hands and start singing Hakuna Matata?" He sneered.
"It's Kumbaya"
"What?" he asked looking at her confused.
"Hakuna Matata was from the movie the lion king. What you meant to say was kumbaya"
"Never seen the movie" he said with a shrug.
"What!? Are you kidding me?" she screeched sitting up straight and completely forgetting about the cold.
"I was never a movie person even as a kid and I don't see what the big deal was" he shrugged.
"Oh my god! No wonder you turned out evil. So, have you seen Star Wars, lord of the rings, Jurassic park, Mulan, little mermaid, beauty and the beast, Pocahontas, brother bear…."
"Your rambling Daisy Mae and to answer your question I haven't seen any of those movies" he said nonchalantly.
"Okay that's it! Campfire story time!" she yelled.
"Are you five?"
"No, shut up while I tell you the tale of the lion king. Once upon a time…."
"Are you really going to start a story like that?"
"Yes, now shut up. Once upon a time there was a lion king known as Mufasa who had a son known as simba…"
It was only about an hour later when Daisy finished the tale and Ward sat there trying to process it all.
"You memorized every single song in that movie and sang it all word for word" He said more to himself than her.
"Yea, well it's a classic"
"Wait, so if there was only one male lion in the tribe does that mean he was just having a massive orgy with all the female lions"
"Eww gross, that's seriously what you took away from the story."
"Was there a deep underlying message into that story unless never trust your creepy uncle who has a scar and is named scar was supposed to be the message"
"Also, what the hell was with that freaky baboon?"
"I'm done talking to you. Story time over" she groaned as she lay down on the floor and curled into a ball.
"Good night and if you even attempt to make a move towards me I will shatter every bone in your body"
"Sounds kind of kinky"
"Shut up!" she said with a glare. A silence fell over the pair before Daisy spoke again.
"You know what I feel like right now?" she said sitting up.
"What's that?"
"A castaway. It's like those one of those movies where two people get trapped on a deserted island and they spend the whole movie alone living off coconuts and it's just the two of them in the world but that's okay because all they needed was each other. It's always been a dream of mine. I like the simplicity and the quiet. I don't think I've ever been happier than when it was just me, alone. Kind of sad right, but it's always been a dream of mine"
"That's your dream, really?" He said raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, it is. Well actually I stole it" She said biting her lip.
"Really? And who pray tell had the same genius idea as you"
"Joey Potter"
"Seriously, well now I have to meet this girl"
"You can't!" she said quickly and a little too fast.
"And why pray tell not"
"Because she's not real." She grumbled in a low breath. "She's a fictional character in a fictional tv show" Laughter burst from Ward and she glared at him.
"Shut up!" she yelled but his laughter didn't stop and eventually she let out a huff.
"I'm going to bed!" she yelled turning over quickly and ignoring him.
"Aww did I make you mad Flowers" He teased.
"I hate you, I really hate you and I am done talk to you, Goodnight!" she let out a humph and turned away from him again. Hoping that he would take the hint and shut up.
Quiet fell over the pair and before long they were both asleep and despite the cold Daisy was exhausted.
Waking up at 4am Daisy opened her eyes slowly and saw that the fire had gone out and that her skin was a stark white. She was freezing and her lips were turning blue. Sitting up she rubbed her hands together which was shaking now and tried to bury her hands into her pockets to get even a little warmth.
A cough escaped her lips and she hoped to god that she wasn't getting hypothermia. More coughs escaped her lips and she muffled them with her hands.
"Hey" A voice said startling her. Looking up she saw Ward staring at her.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you" she said softly.
"Come here" he said beckoning her towards him.
"What?" she asked not thinking she heard him right.
"You heard me I said come here." He said waving his hand at her. Inching towards him she was in touching range when he grabbed her hand and roughly pulled her towards him.
"What are you doing?" she said struggling to get out of his warmth and body heat.
"Right now? I'm saving you from hypothermia unless you want to die." He said sarcastically.
"And your being stubborn again Flowers. Just shut up and go to sleep" he said tightening his hold on her and she could feel the body heat radiating off him. He was like a furnace and he was also very warm and she could feel her whole-body tingling as warmth was traveling back into her.
A sigh escaped her unintentionally and she closed her eyes settling into the warmth. Resting her head on his head she could feel his heart beating in his chest and the sound slowly began lulling her into sleep like a soft lullaby. Her mind going cloudy she began drifting off. Surprisingly content despite the person she was sleeping with and in the back of her mind she had a small conscious thought that maybe she should be on guard, but already she didn't care anymore.
Feeling his chest rising and falling her conscious thought began fading and she placed her hand on his chest snuggling closer to his body heat as everything faded to black.