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"Wha...what happened..." Lincoln mumbled. He opened his heavy eyes to see Daisy sitting at the foot of his bed. Upon seeing him awake, she smiled warmly and patted his foot under the covers.
"You took a rest. I called my friend and she thinks you have the flu."
"But..." he grumbled, sitting up so he looked at least a little dignified in front of Daisy. He was already embarrassed enough that she had probably half-carried him to the bed. "It's very rare we Inhumans get sick, unless..."
"Unless you get it from another Inhuman," Daisy finished for him.
He nodded. "How'd you know that?"
She shrugged. "SHIELD has a lot of new info after the whole Afterlife thing."
Lincoln scoffed, reminiscing in those days. "Here you are, helping me, when this all started with me helping you."
"Hey," Daisy said, working hard to meet his gaze. "You're important to me. I can take care of you. But first, tell me if you've been around any other Inhumans besides me lately."
"Not that I know of."
Daisy pursed her lips, thinking.
Lincoln groaned from the pain in his sore throat. "I feel like crap. Would you mind letting me take a nice, hot shower?"
Daisy smiled. "Sure. But be aware; that bathroom is untrustworthy. I think I saw a family of roaches in there earlier."
Lincoln chuckled a little to himself and shakily stood up, making his whole body ache. Daisy stood up quickly, rushing to his side to try and help him walk, but he swatted her away. "Stop, Daze. I can get you sick."
"I don't care," she said. "Let me help you."
"I'm fine," he assured her, making his way to the bathroom.
Once it got to be evening, Daisy ordered a mushroom pizza for them to share. Lincoln complained and asked her why he didn't get to have any input on the topping choice, but Daisy just told him to shush and that if she was paying, she got to choose.
The pair watched TV until Lincoln decided to go to sleep. Since there was only one bed, Daisy tried her best to fall asleep on the understuffed easy chair in the room. She tossed and turned all night, partially because she was worried about their safety, and partially because she was hella uncomfortable. Once she finally got some sleep, she awoke at about five in the morning to someone calling her phone.
"Hello?" she mumbled groggily, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Her neck ached from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position.
"Daisy? S'that you?" came a familiar voice. It took a second for Daisy's groggy mind to realize it was Mack speaking.
"Yeah. What's up, Mack?"
"Just wanting to check on you. This is a secure line, so feel free to tell me where you are."
"A motel a few hours south of the apartment. Is everything okay with the ATCU?"
Mack sighed loud enough for his partner to hear him. "Not really. We asked them if they'd drop the search, but they're refusing unless we hand one of you over. If we do, they'll completely clear your names."
"Don't you dare let them have Lincoln," Daisy said. "He's not prepared for something like that."
"It's not like you are, Tremors."
"But at least I can control and handle myself. Lincoln's a loose cannon right now."
"Look, we are trying our hardest to negotiate something that doesn't involve handing one of you over. For now, you just need to focus on keeping Lincoln safe and healthy."
"Alright. I'll try." She hung up.
Daisy yawned and laid back, hoping to sleep a little longer. But she was interrupted by one of Lincoln's coughing fits.
"Hey," she said to him, turning on the lights. She grabbed a bottle of water that was left over from their pizza dinner last night and tossed it to him. He groaned, sat up slightly, and sipped it, ending his coughing fit.
"Thanks..." he managed to say.
Daisy sat on the edge of the bed, giving him some of the coughing medicine. "I'm worried about you. This isn't normal; you should've been better by now. We heal fast, don't we?"
"Yes..." Lincoln let out an exasperated sigh. He ached everywhere. "...We're supposed to."
Daisy was looking out the window. "Then what should we do?" After a few seconds, he didn't respond. She turned around. "Lincoln, what should we do?"
He had passed out again.
"Crap," Daisy mumbled. She stood up from the bed and decided to call Bobbi again.
"Agent Morse speaking," she said from the other end.
"Hey, Bobbi."
"Oh, hi, Daisy. Is everything okay?"
"No, I'm terribly worried about Lincoln. He keeps passing out and having coughing fits and body aches and..." She sighed. "We Inhumans are supposed to heal quickly with minimal treatment, but he hasn't gotten any better."
"Let me get Fitz and see if he knows anything. This could be worse than I thought."
After a few minutes, Bobbi came back on the line. "What is it?" Daisy asked.
"Fitz found something. It...it isn't good, Daisy."
"What? Tell me!"
"Someone has tried to develop a bioweapon, a disease designed to kill Inhumans specifically. Lincoln..."
"He might have it..." Daisy finished, her heart dropping.
"We've already sent an extraction team to get you two. Daisy, don't panic, but you need to get as far away from him as possible. Leave the room and get in the car or something. Just stay away from him."
"But, who did this? I have so many questions..."
"They'll have to wait. Get out of that room, Daisy, now!"
"Lincoln won't be happy about SHIELD taking him in. He insisted it was just me," she told Bobbi as she opened the motel room door. She shut it behind her and approached John's car, hopping inside.
"He'll have to deal with it if he wants to survive. Look, Daisy, I gotta go. We need to prepare the lab for Lincoln."
"Good luck."
It had been too long since Daisy had ended that call with Bobbi. Two hours; she'd been counting. Lincoln had tried to come out of the motel room, but Daisy quickly called him to let him know he had to stay inside.
Daisy fidgeted with the car's radio buttons. She was scared, scared for Lincoln more than for herself. All she wanted to do was bust into that motel room and be with Lincoln; he was bound to be terrified. She wondered who would do this, and clenched her teeth at the thought of getting her payback.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the car window. Daisy nearly jumped but she rolled it down. She groaned when she saw it was Banks, from the ATCU. A black SUV was behind him, holding a few other agents.
"What do you want?!" she snapped.
He scoffed. "You know, if you want to get away from us, you really should go to a more secure location."
Daisy bit her tongue to keep from cursing him out. "I thought you were negotiating with SHIELD civilly about this."
"Ms. Price is, but I still have orders to take one of you."
"It was you all, wasn't it?" Daisy demanded, touching the handgun which was attached to her pants. "You would weaken Lincoln just so you could get your hands on him."
Banks narrowed his eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't lie to me," she huffed.
Banks put his hands up in defense. "I give you my word, Agent Johnson."
Daisy sighed. She didn't trust this man, and never would. But she decided to play along. "Then who is it? Someone has created a bioweapon meant to kill, or weaken, I guess, Inhumans. Lincoln Campbell probably has it."
"Then let us take you two in and we can keep you safe."
Daisy narrowed her eyes. "I know well and good that there are huge ulterior motives at play here."
Banks clicked his tongue. "Yes, we need results, but you must understand that we won't hurt you or Mr. Campbell. We can keep you safe, I promise."
"We already have some people taking care of that," Daisy said, and she smirked as a cloaked quinjet landed in the nearly-empty parking lot, uncloaking for all to see. Mack hopped out of the jet and walked towards the car Daisy was in.
"Is he bothering you?" Mack quipped, eyeing Banks.
"Oh, yeah," Daisy said.
"Scat," Mack said, waving his arms as if telling Banks to leave.
"Come on, now," Banks told him, his hand reaching to the gun in his pack. "We have far more resources to keep your Inhuman friends safe from this disease, whatever it may be."
"How do we know you're not the ones who created it?" Mack inquired, reaching for his gun as well.
Banks let out an angry huff. "Our intentions are not to wipe out Inhumans, just to contain them."
Mack used air-quotes: "'Use lethal force if necessary,'" he said. "I think I remember you saying that more than once."
"If necessary," Banks clarified.
Mack pointed his chin at Daisy, who took the signal to hop out of the car. She stepped to Mack's side. "Let us take them back to SHIELD for now," Mack told Banks. "We'll negotiate more later, but for now, we need to help Campbell."
Banks groaned. "Ms. Price won't be so happy about this."
"I'm sure she'll be more lenient than you, Captain Uptight," Daisy said.
Banks raised an angry finger. "You...You're not one to talk," he said through clenched teeth.
Mack grabbed Daisy's bicep and pulled her towards him. "C'mon, Tremors, let's get out of here."
Daisy nodded and the pair started towards the quinjet. Daisy was surprised when she realized that Banks didn't protest.
In the jet, Lincoln was barely able to sit up in the seat. He had a surgical mask over his face.
"Sit as far away from his as possible," Mack told Daisy. She nodded and found a far seat.
Once the plane took off, Daisy started to worry. She watched Lincoln slip in and out of consciousness.
"I'm worried about him," she told Mack. "This weapon was designed to kill..."
"You don't know that," Mack snapped. "It could've been designed just to make you all sick."
"But..." Daisy sighed. "We need to get him there quick. I can't let another person die because of me."
Mack placed his hand on her shoulder. "He's gonna be okay. We have the best doctors available at the Playground."
"Yes, but one of them is recovering from an alien planet and what if the ATCU has better resources than us after all and then it'll be my fault..."
"Calm down, kid," Mack said, putting a big, gentle hand on her shoulder. "You've done good taking care of him so far, but it's time you leave it to the rest of us."
She sighed and nodded. "Yes, yes, you're right..."
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