When May walked into the medbay the next morning she found Daisy still there.
"Daisy?" she asked.
"Mm." was the reply.
"Have you slept at all?" it was a rhetorical question, she knew Daisy well enough to know the answer, "Jemma was brought in yesterday afternoon you need to rest. You're not long out of that bed yourself, after all."
Daisy made no movement or any sign that she'd heard but May knew she was listening.
"I'm going to go start Tai Chi, and you should go to bed." May said as she left.
Daisy looked at her hands, and sighed. She hadn't been fast enough yesterday. She should have been the one to go in.
"It wasn't your fault you know." came a small, croaky voice from the bed in front of her.
"Jemma! You're awake! Are you okay? Do you need anything? I have a water bottle around here somewhere..." Daisy got up and searched the room until she found what she was looking for, and then handed it to Jemma, helping her to sit up, and helping her to hold the bottle to her lips.
"Thank you Daisy."
"No problemo, you've certainly had to do this a few times for me, so I'm just returning the favour." Daisy gave a wry grin and Jemma laughed dryly.
"Daisy, how long have you been here?"
"Since you came in."
"Which was?"
"Uhh, about 16 hours ago."
"Have you slept?"
"Yeah, yeah of course I have."
"Daisy." Jemma growled.
"Okay fine, no I haven't but I've been worried about you. If I went to sleep and then there was an emergency and I didn't wake up in time-"
"Daisy, I'm okay."
"The IV in your arm says otherwise."
Jemma laughed, a genuine laugh, "Okay you got me there. But seriously Daisy, you should go to bed. Rest. Recover."
Daisy mock saluted and stood up from her chair, perhaps standing too fast because she swayed slightly.
"No stops to the kitchen or the gym, go straight to bed."
Daisy sighed, "yes mom."
When she got to her bunk, she mentally chastised herself for not checking how Jemma was doing psychologically after yesterday. She threw herself onto her bed and cried. She'd almost let Jemma die. It was her fault Jemma was injured.
Daisy decided after rolling over for what felt like the hundredth time that she wasn't going to get any sleep. Her mind was too full of thoughts, so she decided to stretch, to see if that would make her tired, or at least relax some muscles.
After that didn't work, she thought about heading down to the gym to do some light workouts and work on some physiotherapy exercises.
May thought it would be a good idea to relieve some stress in the gym.
She stopped by Daisy's bunk to check she was okay and was drawn out of any thoughts of the gym. Telling herself not to panic, she went to the kitchen, hoping to find that Daisy had just got hungry, but she wasn't there. Heart sinking, she hurried to the medbay.
"May? What's wrong?" Jemma's voice was stronger than before, and May felt a twinge of happiness, but that was quickly drowned out by fear for Daisy.
"I can't-I can't find Daisy. Have you seen her?"
"Not since this morning, is everything okay? She isn't in her bunk?"
"N-no, I looked for her in the kitchen too but she wasn't there." the normally calm May was terrified. What if she ran away again? How could she tell Coulson that she'd let Daisy just run away?
"May." Jemma said firmly, but gently, "May, I need you to focus."
May snapped out of her thoughts, but remained silent, not trusting herself to speak.
"Have you looked in the gym?" Jemma asked quietly.
May shook her head.
"Okay, please go there and if she's not in there, check her bunk again, and if she's not there either, we will alert Coulson and the Director."
May nodded slowly and bit her lip. She wasn't looking forward to any conversation with either Coulson or Mace if Daisy was gone.
Daisy punched the bag again. Her knuckles were starting to bleed but she didn't care. Right now, there was no difference between the bag and people trying to hurt her sister. The one she let get hurt all because she feared being suspended.
"Daisy!" came a strong and gentle voice she recognised, "Daisy stop, you're bleeding."
She ignored May and continued punching, each punch harder than the one before. She ignored the pounding in her head, she ignored the increasing pain in her arms and fists, she ignored the darkening spots in her vision and she ignored May's calls.
She was vaguely aware of May pulling her away and dragging her to the bench, but she didn't fight it.
She was so tired, and the darkness was so inviting.
She let it take her, and the pain was replaced by unconsciousness.
"Daisy!" May cried as the girl slumped in her arms. She'd tried to drag her to the bench so she could get some water into the poor girl, but she'd passed out.
May's heart sank at seeing how terrible Daisy looked. She took off her jacket and gently raised Daisy's head to rest it underneath her. She then radioed for Coulson and asked him to bring the bandages, first aid kit, and preferably a medic if one of them was free.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" worry laced his voice.
"No, no it's not for me. Daisy-"
"No need to finish, I'm on my way."
May looked down at the girl and brushed a stray hair out of her face, "I'm sorry." she whispered.
"Agent May, I would like to speak with you."
May cursed him under her breath, "Director, I'm currently here with Daisy, she needs me-"
"I'm well aware of that, however, something has come up about the mission Agents Johnson and Simmons went on, and I need my best agents on this. Come out into the hall, we don't need to disturb anyone in recovery." May reluctantly followed.
"With all due respect, Director," May's voice was laced with venom, "two of your best agents are in the medbay," she jabbed her thumb at the two girls, "one of whom is unconscious and the other can't dress herself for the pain it causes."
Mace sighed. He'd been diplomatic, but his patience was already thin, he didn't need May pushing it to breaking point.
"Agent May, go to my office, you'll see Coulson there and he will fill you in on the situation. That's an order." he commanded sharply.
May swallowed the arguments begging to be made. Arguing wasn't going to help anyone, least of all Daisy and Jemma. She slowly walked past Mace, gracing him with a glare as she went.
Coulson was pacing in the Director's office. What he'd learned made him scared for Daisy and so much more relieved that Jemma made it out alive.
A few moments later May appeared in the doorway, "What's so important I had to leave Daisy's side."
"May, I'm so sorry, but that USB Jemma recovered? It told us everything."
May frowned, "What did it say?"
"Those men, they weren't Hydra. They were Watchdogs."
May's frown deepened, "What are Watchdogs doing in old Hydra bases?"
"They're using them as a base, a hub for their tech, and it gets even worse."
May raised an eyebrow.
"They've got a senator in their pocket. We don't know who for sure but we can make some pretty educated guesses."
"Senator Nadeem." May growled.
"Once again we don't know for sure, but it's a good place to start."
