Chapter 60

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Everything belongs to their rightful owners.

AN1:


After a pretty long flight Daisy and Bobbi arrive at the Hub, and as they two of them walk down the ramp neither are surprised to see Melinda standing and waiting for them.

"Hey Mom, I'd love to stay and talk, but I'm already late for a briefing," Bobbi says, before hurrying past her mother, without so much as another word.

"Hey Mom," Daisy says, as she walks towards her.

"Daisy," Melinda greats, walking towards her. "You're going to have to wear this," She says, handing Daisy an ID badge.

"Okay," Daisy confirms, as she pins the badge to her shirt. "Thanks for letting me come back, and stay,"

"You're welcome. There's going to be rules," Melinda reveals.

"I know. Dad said," Daisy admits, "Where's everyone else?" she asks, as the two of them start to walk.

"Uncle Phil is with Agent Victoria Hand, Simmons is on the Bus, and Ward and Fitz are on a mission," Melinda explains to her daughter.

"Together? Just the two of them?" Daisy asks, sounding surprised.

"Yes," Melinda confirms, as they arrive at the bus.

"Why? What's going on?" Daisy asks, and her mother just gives her a look, "Not supposed to know, right," Daisy realises, and as she sees Simmons she hurries over to her, "Jemma,"

"Daisy!" Jemma says, looking glad to see her, and she hugs her friend, "I'm glad you're back,"

"I'm actually glad to be back," Daisy admits, as they break apart, "I've got to take my stuff upstairs, but let's talk," Daisy requests, and Simmons nods, "Mom said Ward and Fitz are on a mission alone?" Daisy asks, sounding concerned.

"Yes, they've gone in Dark, into hostile territory," Jemma explains, and as she does it is clear to Daisy that Jemma is worried, "How'd you get back here?"

"My sisters a S.H.I.E.L.D agent too, she flew us back here before running of for a mission briefing," Daisy explains, "Do we know anything about the mission Fitz and Ward are on? Mom wouldn't share details,"

"Nothing, just that it's a level eight mission, but your Mom and Ward were briefed on everything too," Jemma admits, causing Daisy to frown.

"You don't like this, do you?" Daisy asks Jemma.

"No, not at all," Jemma confirms, as the two of them get to the upper level of the plane.


A while later Daisy has put her stuff in her bunk, has collected her laptop and is back in the lab with Jemma, her mother, and a team who are running tests, and re-stocking, the plane.

"Oh, no, no, no, no," Jemma says to a man who almost knocked over the prototype night-night gun, "Please be careful," She requests, as she takes the Night-Night gun and puts it her bag, "Can you imagine what Fitz would do if the nigh-night gun was broken when he came back?" Jemma asks Daisy.

"He'd be pissed," Daisy admits, as Jemma sighs.

"Surely, he'll be okay out there, right?" Jemma asks, looking worried.

"Well, Mom's agent seven, maybe she can give us an update on their mission?" Daisy asks her mother, knowing she is majorly pushing the limits but she has to try, and in response Melinda just gives her daughter a look, "Okay, I have spent my entire life around you, but I still don't know what everyone of your non-expressions mean," Daisy admits, "Does this mean you know something and you can't tell us or that you don't know her anything?" Daisy asks curious, though she is leaning more towards door one than two.

"When we have more information, we'll react," Melinda tells her daughter. "All right, clear out," Melinda says to everyone, "That means you too, off," Melinda tells her daughter, who closes her laptop, and walks over to Simmons, as Melinda leave the lab.

"I really not good with being left in the dark," Daisy says, as its one thing that she has always hated the most while growing up, "I need answers, and I know just the person who has them," Daisy realises.

"Who?" Simmons asks, looking confused.

"Uncle Phil, I'm obviously talking about Uncle Phil," Daisy explains, "Let's go," She tells Jemma, and the two of them head out of the lab.


While Daisy and Jemma are being kicked out of the lab on the bus by Melinda Phil is in the operations centre with Agent Victoria Hand discussing the mission.

"I'm going to need three more chalks queued up at the border..," Hand starts to say.

"And a fourth standing by in Armenia," Phil finishes.

"Great minds," Hand says, with a slight laugh, "It must be nice to be off that plane. I understand you're almost through your recovery," Hand comments.

"The plane has nothing to do with my recovery," Phil comments.

"I only know what I've read. Seems Fury has a soft spot for his favourites. Not everyone gets sent to Tahiti," Hand comments.

"It's a magical... place," Phil says, feeling awkward as he realises that he has been answering with that answer a lot.

"All I meant was it must feel good to be back in the big leagues," Hand comments.

"Two of my agents are the key to this operation. I never left the bigs," Phil says, knowing that when you have Melinda May on your team you can't be considered anything other than in the big leads.

"Let's hope they're as good as you think they are," Hand comments.

"They are," Phil says, knowing that for a fact, and while he is a little worried about how Fitz and Ward are going to go with the mission, but at the same time he has complete confidence that they are going to pull it off.


A while after she and Simmons decided to go to Phil Daisy has tracked him down, having very much enjoyed seeing the Hub.

"Hey, fancy seeing you here," Daisy greats, smiling at her Uncle.

"Daisy," Phil says, sounding glad to see her, "When did you get here?"

"Not that long ago," Daisy answers.

"Does that mean Bobbi's here?" Phil asks, hoping the answer is yes, as he would very much like to see her, as apart from Daisy he hasn't seen any of the Stark-May children since coming back from Tahiti.

"Not sure, she got called into a mission brief," Daisy admits.

"Oh," Phil says, looking slightly disappointed, "Did you need something?" he asks curious.

"Yeah, I wanted to know more about Ward and Fitz's mission," Daisy explains, "Simmons is seriously starting to unravel without Fitz,"

"Daisy, you know better than asking about something like this," Phil explains, "You know that you have to have clearance, which you don't,"

"Yeah, but I do have eyes, and I've always been taught to notice things, which is why I noticed six squads in full tactical gear, three creates of RPGs and a full crew of analysts heading to operations," Daisy explains, "Are you really going to tell me that has nothing to do with their mission?" Daisy asks as the other option is that it could have something to do with Bobbi's mission, and she really doesn't want to think about that, "If I'm right, give me a signal by not saying anything," Daisy requests.

"Trust the system," Phil says, to Daisy's annoyance, before walking away, Daisy rolling her eyes at him as he goes.

"How'd it go?" Simmons as she walks over to Daisy.

"Nothing," Daisy says, crossing her arms, "Uncle Phil's acting like a robot version of himself right, something I really haven't seen that often," Daisy admits, as she is pretty sure she can count the times she's seen Phil act like this one hand, "If we want the truth, we've got to get it ourselves," Daisy says, knowing that it is properly not the best idea, but it is how her mother, her father, Natasha and Clint would handle this situation and so that's what she is going to do.

"Okay, how would you suggest…," Simmons starts to say, but then she notices the look on Daisy's face and she realises, "Oh, wait, no, no!"

"Yes," Daisy says, with a nod.

"No, I can't be a part of your bad-girl shenanigans," Simmons comments, "I like following the rules and doing what's expected of me, It makes me feel nice," She explains.

"Simmons, wake up!" Daisy exclaims, "Ward and Fitz went on a top-secret, two man operation, and look," Daisy says, gesturing to more tactical soldiers, "There are more men, and either it's a bigger deal and they're not telling us, or something went wrong out there," Daisy comments, "Maybe there's nothing we can do to help, but we got to know if there is," Daisy tells Simmons, "What if they're injured or being tortured somewhere right now?" Daisy asks.

"Fitz, Tortured," Simmons says, looking horrified, "What do you have in mind?" Simmons asks, and Daisy starts to explain her plan.


While Daisy and Simmons are planning their, potentially very bad plan, Phil has headed back to the Bus where Melinda is doing Tai-Chi, seeing her Phil walks over and sits down near Melinda.

"Sorry, am I disturbing you?' Phil asks, and Melinda doesn't respond, just continues to do her tai-chi, "You know, I like this plane, I like the way we do things here," Phil admits, "Everyone's on the same page, no red tape. So far, it's working for us," He says, and Melinda gives him a less than impressed look, "Most of us," He corrects, "And maybe I'm getting soft, but I don't like keeping things form our team. If you knew…," Phil starts to say, and Melinda gives him a another look, "No, you're right, level eight, but…," He starts to say once more and once more Melinda just gives him a look, "I know, trust the system," He says, "May, thanks," Phil says, before walking away, not seeing Melinda rolling her eyes as he goes.


While Phil is talking to Melinda Daisy and Simmons have made their way to a restricted corridor and Jemma has used her access to open the door.

"Okay, you have the flash drive I programmed with a decoy crawler. It'll use my browser history to simulate my usual online activity, so while S.H.I.E.L.D thinks I'm trolling reddit and Facebook with the you gave me…," Daisy starts to says, being thankful for JARVIS as he inspired her to use the decoy crawler.

"You'll be hacking the files for Ward and Fitz's mission," Simmons finishes, and she walks through the open door and towards a panel. While Simmons does that Daisy hides around a corner, and just talks to Daisy on coms.

"Yep, and remember once you plug it in, I'll only have about…" Daisy starts to say.

"Three minutes before S.H.I.E.L.D catches on," Simmons finishes.

"Do you realize that you keep finishing my….," Daisy starts to say.

"Your sentences, I know," Simmons admits, "I'm sorry, bad habit, this is actually a bit thrilling," Simmons admits.

"Ah, good. I'm glad," Daisy says, with a grin, glad that Simmons likes what they are doing, "Now we've just got to figure out a way to get the panel open," Daisy realises..

"Don't worry, I made a special something, it's what we do," Simmons reveals, and once she does she sprays a substance over the wall, allowing Simmons to press the panel and gaining access to it, "All done," Simmons reveals.

"Really?" Daisy asks, sounding surprised, "Wow, okay, um, just find a USB port," She requests.

"Okay," Simmons says as she starts to search her bag for the USB.

"Agent Simons?" A voice asks, and Simmons turns to see Agent Sitwell.

"It's fine, just play it cool," Daisy says, through the coms.

"Hello, Mr Agent Sitwell," Simmons says, "May I help you?"

"Call me Jasper," Sitwell requests.

"Um, what brings you to this restricted hallway so late at night?" Jemma asks.

"I could ask you the same thing," Sitwell responds.

"No, don't," Simmons says, laughing slightly.

"Simmons, focus, just make up an excuse," Daisy advices.

"I was just on my way to the loo," Simmons says, with a slight laugh, "I could swear it was two rights and a left, but is this here?" Simmons asks, pointing to the wall panel.

"That's a wall panel, why are you accessing it?" Sitwell asks suspiciously.

"Don't spiral, just say something… anything," Daisy instructs.

"You certainly have a gorgeous head," Simmons comments.

"What?" Daisy asks, sounding shocked.

"I like men that are about my height, but heavier than me," Simmons says.

"Stop talking," Daisy quickly says, being pretty sure that Simmons is only making things worse.

"Agent Simmons, do you have authorization to access that panel?" Sitwell ask.

"Say yes, say you do," Daisy instructs.

"Ye.. of course," Simmons says, "Of course, um, I certainly have it right here in my bag," She explains, as she starts to search her bag, "He's onto me," She says, to Daisy.

"Stop talking to me! He can hear you!" Daisy exclaims, through the coms.

"Are you on coms with someone?' Sitwell asks suspiciously, and he raises his walkie to his mouth, "This is Agent Sitwell, I need an escort…," He starts to say, but before he can finish his request Simmons shoots him with the night-night gun.

"Oh my god," Daisy says, sounding shocked, as Simmons plugs in the USB, and drags unconscious Sitwell out of sight.

"Was that all right?" Simmons asks, as she gets back to Daisy.

"That was terrible!" Daisy exclaims, "You are terrible at this," Daisy tells her, "That was total meltdown,"

"The night-night gun was right there, and I…," Simmons says, before gasping.

"We need help, you need to go get my Mom," Daisy instructs, as she knows she needs her mother, even though she is going to be in serious trouble.

"Your Mom? No!" Simmons objects, looking horrified.

"Listen, the flash drive will only give me a few minutes of access to the Hub's mainframe to find out what happened to our boys, so just go get my Mom, okay?" Daisy asks, "Just tell her it was an accident,"

"I'm going to be court-martialled," Simmons says, before hurrying off.

"I really hope this works," Daisy mutters to herself, before hurrying away.

After hurrying away from the restricted corridor Daisy hurries to somewhere where she can be alone, and starts to type on her computer, "Okay, come on Daisy," She mutters to herself, and she continues to type, quickly she manages to find exactly what she needs, "Oh, my god, no extraction?" Daisy asks herself, sounding horrified, but before she has more time to react her laptop closes.

"What did I tell you?" Phil asks.

"You told me to trust the system, and the system sent Ward and Fitz in there to die," Daisy says, looking at Phil with an angry look on her face.

"With me," Phil instructs, and Daisy goes to object, "Now, Daisy Lin Antonia" He warns, and so Daisy sighs and gets up, and the two of them begin to walk, Daisy carrying her laptop.

"What were you thinking?" Phil asks angry.

"I was thinking I needed to know what was going on with Ward and Fitz," Daisy explains.

"You hacked S.H.I.E.L.D!" Phil exclaims, though his voice is only loud enough for Daisy to hear, "To find out information on a classified operation," He says, being reminded of Tony right now.

"It's a suicide mission!" Daisy objects, "I saw it all, Uncle Phil," Daisy reveals, "The troop placements, the aerial assault. Once Ward and Fitz disable that device there's going to be a huge attack on the compound, with no extraction plan and you hid that from us!"

"I didn't hide anything from you, you don't have the clearance to know that, which you know," Phil explains.

"Seriously? You're going with that? Are people really expendable to S.H.I.E.L.D? Just a number?" Daisy asks angrily, as that goes against everything she thought she knew.

"Are you done, Daisy?" Phil asks.

"For now," Daisy responds.

"If S.H.I.E.L.D keeps a secret from you its for a good reason," Phil explains.

"Right…," Daisy starts to say.

"Don't interrupt me Daisy," Phil warns, "You just hacked a level eight secure sever, saw operational plans that you have no context for if details got out the whole operation could be compromised, lives could be lost, Ward and Fitz included," Phil explains.

"I know that, which is why I would never let the details get out.' Daisy explains, "Uncle Phil from the stories I've heard from you and Mom, Uncle Clint, Aunt Nat, Maria, Sharon and Antoine, I know that teams watch each other's backs, so that's what I was trying to do, and yes, I thought outside the box to do that, but I was trying to protect my team," Daisy explains.

"The reason our team, and your Mom, Aunt Nat, Uncle Clint, Maria and I once upon a time could go off book is because there is a book, a Hub, an organization watching our back," Phil explains, and Daisy looks down at the ground, "Daisy one day I may have to trust you with a secret, and I need to know that you can keep it," Phil explains.

"Can I ask you a question?" Daisy asks curious.

"What?" Phil asks.

"Did you know there was no extraction plan for Ward and Fitz?" Daisy asks, as she can't see Phil being happy about that.

"That's classified," Phil says, before walking away, leaving Daisy standing alone in the corridor, and for a few moments Daisy looks annoyed, before she realises what she has to do and so she goes in search of her mother and Simmons.


After leaving Daisy Phil heads straight to the operations centre as there is a phone call he has to have with Victoria Hand.

"Agent Sitwell is in the infirmary, apparently a member of your team rendered him unconscious," Hand says to Phil as he walks in.

"A misunderstanding," Phil says, "I'll handle the matter internally,"

"Tranquilizing an agent does not qualify as a misunderstanding," Hand points out.

"You're right, but being told there's an extraction team in place when, in fact, there isn't, that does," Phil comments, "I'm level eight, I'm entitled to information regarding the welfare of my team. You should have told me!" Phil exclaims.

"I didn't have to, and what would that have changed, Agent Coulson? You yourself have designed dozens of operations like this, you know how this works," Hand says.

"Usually with an extraction plan," Phil says.

"Barton, Romanoff, May, they never have an extraction plan," Hand points out, saying what Phil knows.

"They know that going in!" Phil says.

"Agent Fitz is unproven in the field, and knowing would have caused him lose focus or courage," Hand argues.

"That should have been my call," Phil argues.

"I wasn't sure you'd comply," Hand admits, "Your team includes a seventeen-year-old girl who…,"

"Has more training, and knowledge, than most level two agents, which you know" Phil argues, "I know what the safety of a thousand men is worth, I know the importance of taking the overkill device out of play," Phil argues, "But I also know my men, and what they're worth!" Phil exclaims, "The decision to go should have been theirs to make,"

"Perhaps, but you need to trust the system, Agent Coulson," Hand says, before walking away.


After a little bit of searching Daisy manages to track down her mother and Simmons, who are clearly dealing with the aftermath of what Simmons did to Sitwell.

"Daisy…" Melinda says to her daughter, as Daisy walks towards her.

"I know, I know, I'm in serious trouble, but I did the right thing!" Daisy exclaims, and her mother gives her a look which Daisy knows to mean she better start explaining, fast, "There's no extraction plan," Daisy explains, "Whoever is running this mission sent Ward and Fitz in with no backup," Daisy explains, and because she knows her mother so well Daisy knows that she is pissed about that.

"Let's go," Melinda tells her daughter and Simmons, who exchange looks, and the two of them follow Melinda to the Bus.


Not long after she met her mother and Simmons the three of them are walking up the ramp of the Bus together.

"You got the information, now we react," Melinda says, looking at her daughter.

"We're gonna get our guys," Daisy comments.

"Somebody has to," Melinda confirms.

"What about the S.H.I.E.L.D assault?" Simmons asks.

"We won't interfere you don't need a battalion for an extraction, three can pull it off," Melinda explains.

''Four's better," A voice say and Melinda, Daisy, and Simmons look up to see Phil standing on the catwalk.

"You're in?" Daisy asks, "I thought we all had to be level eight to discuss this,"

"We're not discussing anything," Phil says, and as he does Melinda and Daisy exchange amused looks.


A little while later Fitz and Ward have been rescued, thanks to the fact that Melinda did some pretty fancy flying, and are back on the bus. As he finishes talking to Phil Daisy walks over to Ward and gently hits his shoulder in a affectionate way.

"You know, for a second there I though the team was going to be down a member," Daisy comments.

"Sorry to disappoint, truth is, I was in good hands," Ward admits, "So, you're back?" he asks.

"Yeah," Daisy confirms, "It was nice spending a few days with my family, but things on this plane are certainly more interesting," She admits, "Which actually says a lot," Daisy admits.

"Do you and your siblings get along well?" Ward asks curious, doing so as he has never heard about May having three children, it was something Garrett didn't tell her.

"Yeah, they're both my best friends," Daisy says, with a nod, "When you grow up with practically everyone in your family, and everyone you consider family, being spies, or soldiers, or just plain heroes, its hard to relate to people, to get close. The only people who understand what it's like to grow up like that are people who've experienced it," she explains, "We're different, and my sister is older and my brother is younger, but we're close," Daisy explains.

"I get that," Ward comments, and Daisy gives him a look.

"Do you have Siblings, Agent Ward?" Daisy asks curious.

"Brothers," Ward answers, looking awkward which Daisy didn't think was possible, "We're not as close as we once were," He says, before walking away, leaving Daisy to wonder what she is missing.


A little while later Daisy is just sitting cross legged on her bed, waiting, because she knows her mother is going to talk to her about what she did, and her new rules. After what feels like a really long wait Daisy finally hears a knock on her door.

"Come in," Daisy says, and once she does Melinda walks in, "How much trouble am I in?" Daisy asks curious.

"Why did you do it, Daisy? Why'd you hack the Sever?" Melinda asks her daughter, as she sits down on the edge of her daughter's bed.

"Because every single story I've ever been told by you, by Dad, Uncle Phil, by Aunt Nat, Uncle Clint, and Maria, taught me that teams protect each other, and that's exactly what I was trying to do, protect our team," Daisy explains to her mother, "That's something I'm not going to apologise for," Daisy tells her mother, who is proud of Daisy's words, "Plus I'm pretty sure it's exactly the kind of thing you would do, and it's definitely what Dad would do,"

"Watch it," Melinda tells her daughter, trying not to look amused, "You should have talked to me first," Melinda explains.

"Maybe, but wouldn't you have just tried to stop me?" Daisy asks, "Because when I brought it up to Uncle Phil he told me to trust the system," Daisy points out.

"I would have listened to your concerns and had a conversation with Phil myself," Melinda explains.

"Oh," Daisy says, not sure how to respond, "So we're back to Major trouble?" Daisy asks.

"No," Melinda answers, to Daisy's surprise, "You did hack a level eight sever, which is a very serious matter, you could have been arrested," Melinda reveals, and Daisy looks down at that, "Tomorrow I'm going to bring you some books, and you're going to read them, and then we're going to talk about what you read," Melinda tells her daughter.

"More homework? That's my punishment?" Daisy asks, and Melinda, "Can I pick being arrested instead?"

"No," Melinda says, standing up and heading to the door of Daisy's bunk, "You did do a good thing today, Daisy, I'm proud," she explains, as she stands up.

"What are my new rules?" Daisy asks curious, as she wants to know.

"You have to keep on top of your online work and undertake training," Melinda explains, "Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I can," Daisy confirms, and once she does Melinda heads out of the room.

For a while after her mother leaves Daisy just sits on her bed, not sure to be glad that she didn't get in serious trouble, or to dread the reading her mother is giving her, and so she just sits and stares out into space, until she is distracted by a phone ringing, and so she answers it without even looking at the caller ID.

"Yello," Daisy answers.

"Hey," Bobbi's voice responds.

"Hey," Daisy responds, sounding glad to see her sisters voice, "How'd your mission go?"

"It was interesting," Bobbi admits, "What about you? You sticking to you decision?" Bobbi asks curious.

"Yep, I think I belong here," Daisy admits, and once she does the two Stark-May sisters proceed to talk and catch up even though they only recently saw each other.