Daisy was pacing back and forth on the roof of Avengers Tower, patiently waiting for the team to get back, the once thunderstorm now just a light drizzle. The rooftop lights had turned on as it was pitch black out now.
Natasha had called her about 10 minutes ago giving her a basic rundown of what had happened. The Inhuman was elated when the redhead told her they had Karley.
"I'm here," Simmons said, pushing through the door with Fitz, May, Coulson, Tess and Bruce.
"I have the cell set up for when she gets here," Bruce said, putting a hand reassuringly on Daisy's shoulder to stop her pacing. "Don't worry, Simmons and I will do everything we can to help your sister."
"And I've been working all day and night to reinforce the room with the slightly altered Quantum Field Disruptors we used to defeat that teleporting Inhuman," Fitz said proudly, putting his hands on his hips with a smile. "What was his name?"
"Gordan," answered Daisy, eyes never leaving the skyline waiting to see any signs of the Quin Jet. "Thanks Fitz, I couldn't have asked for anyone better to help me with this."
"They're a minute out," May said, hanging up the phone she had. Ever since her surgery the older woman has been taking it easy on her leg, still needing crutches to get anywhere, but thankfully there was an elevator to the roof. Beside her was Coulson, sitting in a wheelchair which was usually seen being pushed around by Tess.
Ever since they had returned to Earth, Tess had been enjoying everything she could, but she was also seen following around Simmons. She was like a shadow to the older woman, trying to make herself useful in any way that she could. The more time they spent together, Tess was starting to realize that she liked the idea of studying and learning new things. The young lady found herself wondering if it was too late for college.
"They're here," Coulson said from his wheelchair, glancing to Daisy who was standing next to him. He could see how nervous she was. "Are you ready to meet your sister Daisy?"
"No," she replied instantly. "This isn't how I imagined meeting her, but I'm just happy she's not dead."
"I'm with you every step of the way," he said, turning his focus to the plane that had landed, the cargo ramp lowering to the ground.
Walking off the ramp was all of the Avengers, Lyla, Flint, Mack and Yo-Yo. They looked a little beaten and bruised, but otherwise alright. Daisy did notice the giant white bandage that covered half of Lyla's face and made a mental note to check on her later.
Being wheeled slowly down the incline was a familiar figure on a gurney, arms and legs strapped down, an IV stuck in her arm.
It was her sister.
Daisy rushed forward to meet Natasha, Lyla, Steve and Sam who were all surrounding the gurney and pushing it forward across the uneven gravel. Looking at down at the figure on the bed, Daisy could finally get a close up look of her sister.
She looked so small and frail in the black and blue leather suit she had worn, her facemask hanging on the corner of her mobile bed. Karley's eyes were closed and she seemed to be sleeping peacefully, but Daisy knew that it was whatever drugs were being pumped into her system to keep her under. Her hands clenched into a fist when she saw all the old bruises on her sisters face and the trail of blood dripping out of her ears and nose. She couldn't see the rest of the girls body as it was protected by her suit, but she just knew that there were more underneath.
She didn't like the fact that Karley was strapped down but she knew that they had done it for a reason. Daisy debated on reaching out to grab her sisters hand.
"She's going to be okay Daisy," said Natasha, seeming to read her mind. "You can touch her, she's not going to wake up."
Daisy nodded before slowly slipping her hand into the leathered ones that were strapped down. The other hand was being held by Lyla.
As they made it to the elevator, only Stark, Sam, Bruce, Simmons, Fitz, Lyla and Daisy entered, no room for anyone else, making their way down to the cell that had once held Loki and even Thor. Fitz had thought ahead and moved some medical equipment in the cell as well, just in case things had went worse.
Lyla hasn't had time to process everything that happened in the last 30 minutes, but all that mattered was she had her girlfriend back and alive. She was grateful that she had taken Natasha's offer to come to Avengers Tower.
Rushing Karley into the cell the team readily got to work, transferring the girl off of the gurney and onto a padded bed that was cemented to the ground.
"I'm going to need some space to work you guys," Bruce said apologetically. "Daisy you can stay as her next of kin, and Lyla you can too since you're a pre-med student anyways and her girlfriend. Every one else other than Dr. Simmons, Lyla and Daisy needs to leave I'm afraid."
Stark, Fitz and Sam nodded their heads in understanding, turning to leave.
"Let me know if you need anything," Tony called out over his shoulder.
Jemma got to work and gently rolled the unconscious patient over on her side, struggling to unzip the suit. Lyla stepped in, doing the unzipping as Simmons held the girl.
Daisy stood in the corner and watched in silence. She was glad that her sister was finally free from Red Dawn, she was, but there were still plenty of other Inhumans that were unaccounted for. What was stopping them from making yet another version of the Winter Soldier? She wasn't going to rest until she knew every last Inhuman was free.
As they managed to take the suit off, Lyla set to doing the small things that she knew how to. She has been a pre-med student for six years now, but she still had another two years until she graduated from college and started her residency, so she was a little out of her depth here as she followed the two senior doctors lead.
The blond was having trouble concentrating however, as her eyes roamed over the utterly bruised and bloodied body of her girlfriend. She could also see the somewhat fresh bullet wounds, not fully healed from the incident in Afghanistan, having only happened a few months ago. How had their lives gone from two completely normal woman living their days together, to being shot, transformed and brainwashed within only a few months?
"Lyla," a hand caught the blonds, an inch from accidentally pulling the IV out of her girlfriends arm. "Dr. Banner and I can take it from here, could you go grab an extra set of sweatpants and a shirt though?" Simmons asked.
"Yea, I'll be right back," she said, taking off.
"Is she alright?" Daisy asked, uncrossing her arms and moving closer to see her sisters bare body, still in a bra and spandex though. She could see three red, angry patches of skin on the brunettes chest, instantly recognizing them to be semi-fresh bullet wounds. Her torso was mostly black and blue as well, most likely from Rumlow.
"So far yes," Bruce said, turning to the medical trolley next to him before grabbing a few bottles. "She's currently under a very heavy dose of anesthesia to keep her under while we examine her. Physically, her body is fine except for the obvious," he motioned to the bullet wounds and bruises. "Those aren't my concern though. She has a small infection starting in one of the bullet wounds." He gestured to the bullet wound next to her sisters lungs, which Daisy could now see was oozing puss and slightly green. There wasn't stitches in the bullet holes but she knew there probably should've been.
Daisy watched as Simmons injected her sister with some clear liquid. Seeing her friends questioning look, Simmons explained.
"It's just antibiotics for the infection. I'm more concerned with the needle marks on your sisters arm though," she said, dropping the needle and picking up Karley's left arm where the three of them saw countless injection sites.
"Huh," Bruce said, adjusting his glasses on his nose to take a closer look. "We'll have to take some blood and run some tests to try and figure that out. As of right now though, your sister is fine Daisy."
At that moment Lyla entered back into the cell with a pair of black sweatpants and a grey long sleeve shirt. The Doctors quickly updated her on what they had just spoken about.
"I can go get the stuff to do a blood test, and I'll rinse her off before I dress her," Lyla said, setting the clothes down and taking off through the doors once more, taking Karley's old suit and mask with her, clutching them as if they were burning her.
Half an hour later everyone was gathered in the common room with the rest of the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, as Bruce and Simmons entered to update them, their work done for now.
"Karley is fine physically, but we don't know how much she remembers or what her psychological state is," Simmons explained to the room. "We took her off of anesthesia so she should hopefully be awake by morning."
The room visibly relaxed at the news, glad that it wasn't anything bad.
Downstairs Daisy and Lyla sat in chairs outside the cell, both of their eyes glued to the person inside of it.
"You love my sister?" She asked the blond, startling her out of her thoughts.
"I've loved your sister for 12 years now," she answered honestly. "When she enlisted in the Marine Corps it was the hardest thing in the world for me, knowing what she was going out and doing, never knowing if she was coming home. We didn't start officially dating until she came back from her second deployment, after we were told that they didn't know if she was going to make it, but she pulled through." Lyla laughed in memory. "The first words out of her mouth when she woke up in that hospital were 'I can't be in heaven because I belong in hell, so what is an angel doing here?'"
Daisy smiled, shifting in the uncomfortable chair. She was eternally grateful that her sister had grown up with such loving parents and an amazing friend turned girlfriend.
"I didn't even know I had a sister until a few weeks ago, but now that she's here I couldn't imagine being anywhere else but by her side," the older woman hesitated before continuing. "I'm glad you're here too, it can't hurt for her to have someone she used to know."
"That's a big part of why I agreed to come here," Lyla admitted. "I knew that Karley was alive, and when I saw 'Surge' on the news, it confirmed my suspicion. I just knew it was her."
"Whatever happens next, I just want you to know that I'll be by your side every step of the way," Daisy said, putting her hand on the other woman's shoulder. "Karley doesn't know me but I wanna change that. I'm never going to give up on her."
"I'm glad to hear that, because neither am I."
A couple hours later the elevator dinged, waking the two sleeping women as they sat up sharply.
"I thought that you two could use something a little more comfy than those awful chairs," said a certain redhead, carrying one half of a futon, Steve carrying the other half.
Natasha knew that Daisy and Lyla wouldn't leave the cell area, so she asked Steve for his help carrying the redheads futon down from her room. It was around 11PM and she knew that they were exhausted.
"I personally know how terrible those chairs are," Steve said as they gently set the futon, loaded with some blankets and pillows, down to the ground. "I'm going to run back upstairs and grab you guys some of the dinner that Vision cooked. I'll be right back."
Daisy stood up and stretched out her neck, rolling her head a few times to help with the pain. She quickly walked over to Natasha and wrapped her arms around her waist, pulling her closer to her chest as she enveloped the smaller woman in a tight hug. As they stood there in each others arms, a little of the stress from today had seemed to leave Daisy's body.
"Thank you Nat, seriously. Those chairs should be a crime," she smiled, not letting go of the shorter woman.
"You're welcome, I figured you two weren't leaving so I thought I'd bring my futon down for you to sleep on."
Daisy's smile widened, her heart full of warmth that the redhead had been so thoughtful to bring them down a bed. Now she could stay with her sister and get somewhat of a decent nights sleep.
"Where are you sleeping though?" She asked, the thought of not getting to cuddle with Nat making her smile disappear.
"I'll be upstairs."
"You two can share the futon," Lyla spoke up from behind them, having just finished stretching as well. "I'll sleep on the gurney as long as I can steal one of your pillows and a blanket."
"See?" Daisy said, turning back to the woman in her arms. "You can stay down here with me."
"I don't wanna intrude on you two, well, three," Nat explained, nodding her head to the cell. Daisy sighed, backing up from the shorter woman and running a hand through her hair.
"You won't intrude, besides Fitz set the cell's glass on dark mode. Karley won't be able to see us but we can see her," seeing the redhead not budging, Daisy quickly added on. "I need you down here with me, I sleep so much better with you by my side."
Nat smiled, finally relenting to the younger girls wish as she lay down on the futon, the brunette not far behind her as they curled up.
After about 20 minutes of laying there, Nat being the big spoon so Daisy could stare at the glass cell, the redhead broke the silence.
"You do realize that if anyone comes down here they'll see us cuddling together."
Daisy broke her relentless staring on the cell to turn around and face Natasha, brushing a stay piece of hair from her face, before gently kissing her. Every time she kissed the older woman she would get butterflies, feeling like she was on top of the world. As they parted, green eyes opened to find hazel ones staring adoringly back.
"I don't care what they see Nat, as long as you don't care," Daisy whispered, stroking her cheek. She could stare into Nat's eyes all day.
"I don't care Speedy," she said with a smirk, which turned into a laugh as she watched Daisy groan at the nickname.
"That wasn't my fault."
"I know. Go to sleep."
"You're so bossy, you know that?"
"Me? Bossy? Never. It's not like a babysit a bunch of boys every day."
Daisy laughed at that, knowing it was true, as the two of them fell asleep.
Daisy didn't know what time it was when she woke up to the sound of whimpering. Sitting up carefully, as to not wake the Spy next to her, she slipped out of bed and walked towards the cell, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
What she saw inside made her heart sink.
Karley was still asleep in the bare cell, all of the medical equipment moved to the outside, as she thrashed about in her slumber. Even from here Daisy could see the thin line of sweat on the younger girls face, which was scrunched in pain.
"She has gotten nightmares even since she came back," a small voice said, startling the brunette as she saw the reflection of Lyla next to her, arms crossed.
"I want to go in there so bad," Daisy admitted, watching as her sister seemed to calm down from the nightmare, rolling to sleep on her side, clutching her chest in pain.
"Trust me I know," Lyla said, "it's taking everything inside of me to not go in there and hold her. I know that she's sick though, I know that she's not herself."
"We'll find a way to bring her back," Daisy promised, grabbing Lyla's hand as they stood there in a silent agreement, watching over a woman they both loved.
As morning came, Natasha had forced both Lyla and Daisy that they needed to go upstairs and eat something as they hadn't ate in awhile. Last night Steve had gone to get some leftovers for the woman but found them all gone. Guess they needed to cook more than they thought with their growing team.
Begrudgingly they agreed to run upstairs and eat something quickly on the promise that Steve would stay down and watch out for Karley.
"You better let us know if she wakes up Rogers," Daisy said, pointing a finger at him threateningly as Nat kept pushing her to the elevator.
"I'll let you know if she so much as sneezes, Daisy," he promised, getting comfortable on the futon that was turned back into it's couch form, pulling out a book as the rest of them left.
Steve had felt invested in Karley ever since he had learned about the girl. Bucky may have taken off after the 'Civil War' because he was scared of himself and needed time to himself, but this wasn't Bucky. This was Karley, someone who he had never met, but she was right in front of them and needed help, so he promised himself that he would do whatever he could.
It had barely been five minutes since the girls had left when movement from the cell caught his eye. He immediately dropped his book to the couch and approached the cell, watching as Karley slowly sat up from her bed, head whipping from side to side to take in her new surroundings.
As Karley slowly woke up, the first thing she noticed was her new cell, eyes scanning for any exits. She could tell it was made out of glass but she couldn't see who was on the other side of it as it was all blacked out. Her head was pounding as she started to rub her temples. She couldn't remember anything about herself.
Cautiously standing up, she flinched as her bare feet hit the icy cold pavement, making her way to what look like the glass door inside.
The reflection that stared back was an unfamiliar one. She couldn't even remember her name. What was her name? This isn't normal. She should be in a hospital.
"Hello?" She called out to who ever may be on the opposite side of her cell. Karley cleared her extremely dry and hoarse throat, as she did so she started coughing, just now realizing the agonizing pain in her chest that she hadn't earlier. She tasted the familiar metallic flavor of blood as she swallowed. That wasn't her main concern at the moment.
For a moment, she swore she saw something shift behind the door. Waiting expectantly for what felt like ages, nothing came. She reached her hand out and placed it against the glass door, her thoughts going wild.
On the other side of the glass stood Daisy, her hand pressed against her sisters on the glass. It pained her to just stand there.
"We can't just open the door! Karley is dangerous and she doesn't even know it," Clint said, gesturing towards the girl in question.
"I'm going in there," Daisy said, pulling her hand away from the glass abruptly as she made her way to the control panel to the cell, starting to click some buttons. As she did this the whole room erupted into chaos of everyone arguing about what to do. Just as she was about to unlock the door, a small hand grabbed hers.
"Daisy, I know you want nothing more than to go in there right now, but we have to be smart about this," Nat said apologetically, a evident frown on her face.
"Everyone quiet!" Coulson shouted from his wheelchair in the corner, moving himself so he sat in the middle of everyone. "We need to talk to Karley to see what mindset she's in, but it's too dangerous to open the door just yet. So lets unmute the cell and bring the blacked out window panes down so she can see us. Lyla," he turned himself around to face the blond, "you and Daisy should take the lead on this."
Lyla simply nodded her head. After all, she knew her girlfriend better than anyone else in the room.
"So now that that's settled, Daisy, if you wouldn't mind?" He said, gesturing for her to continue, which she did.
As the black window panes dropped down, Karley's eyes were scanning every face in front of her confusingly, taking a few steps back in shock.
"What the hell?" She asked, her knees hitting her bed as she fell back onto it, clutching her side in pain. "Wha- why?"
"Hey Karley," Lyla said, approaching the glass in front of the others, Daisy by her side. "Do you know who I am?"
Karley stared at the blond for a minute, a look of unsure recognition coming across her face.
"I- I do know you, from somewhere. I-" she trailed off in thought, "I think I love you?"
Lyla gave a sad smile at the fact that her girlfriend at least recognized her a little bit.
"It's me Karley, your girlfriend Lyla?" As her girlfriend stared at her in confusion she tried, "You like to call me by my full name sometimes to annoy me, Del-"
"Delilah," the brunette finished, standing up again while still holding her side. "Delilah Elizabeth Bering," she said confidently, a small smile appearing on her face. "I don't know how I knew that, but I did. What happened to me? I don't know who I am. You all know me?" She asked the rest of them, no one in particular standing out. The brunette standing next to Lyla looked a little familiar but she couldn't place why.
"We don't know you," Coulson said from just behind Daisy. "But we are here to help you Karley."
"My name's Karley then?" She asked, closing her eyes hoping that it would help. Everything that was happening was too much for her as she clutched her head in pain once more, trying desperately to remember anything.
"Yea, you're full name is Karley Aster Danvers," Daisy informed her sister, trying to help in any way she could.
"And who are you?" Her sister asked, opening her eyes once more.
"My name's Daisy Johnson, I'm your older sister," she stated.
Karley took in the two woman in front of her. The blond, Lyla, who claimed to be her girlfriend seemed oddly familiar. The brunette however, did not seem as familiar to her, and she wondered why that was. Looking behind them she could see a lot of familiar faces that anyone would recognize as the Avengers, and some unfamiliar faces as well. There were so many people there.
Suddenly the walls felt like they were closing in on her, her breathing starting to pick up, which hurt like hell since it hurt to take deep breaths.
"Why am I locked up?" She asked, walking towards the door and looking for any way out. "Please let me out," she said, her breathing getting faster by the second.
"Shit," Lyla said beside Daisy. "I forgot to mention that Karley is claustrophobic. When she was in Afghanistan she was captured and held in a tiny room for weeks before the Marines found her."
Simmons stepped up next to them.
"She's having a panic attack," she stated, her face written with worry. "With the state her lungs are in I suggest we do something quickly."
Without hesitation Daisy turned to the control panel, consequences be damned, to find Natasha already there, opening the cell for them. The redhead knew what Daisy was going to do so she took it upon herself to help her out and open the door.
As the cell opened Karley stumbled out, clutching her side still as she almost face planted before Daisy and Lyla caught her. The quick, panicked breathing had now turned into a series of unhealthy sounding coughing.
"You need to focus on breathing Karley," Bruce instructed as he made his way to the girls, Simmons hot on his heels.
"I-I need o-out o-of h-here," she barely got out through the coughing, leaning against the cell. She quickly stood up, vision swaying at the lack of oxygen she was receiving, as she made a beeline for the nearest exit, Daisy and Lyla of course helping her.
As she approached what she now saw was an elevator, she shook her head, unfamiliar flashbacks of being tortured in her cell in Afghanistan plaguing her fading vision. She couldn't be closed in right now, and she instead turned to the stairs.
"Karley we're in the middle of the tower, if you want outside we'd have to climb 30 flights of stairs," Lyla tried to explain.
Daisy knew what to do, as she had done it many times since arriving.
"Lyla let me take her, trust me," Daisy said, taking the full weight of her very tall sister into her arms and going to the stairs. "Just breath Karley, we'll be outside in no time," she promised, scooping her sister up bridal style before focusing the vibrations into her feet and jumping. All that was left was two foot indents in the ground as the two sisters shot up the 30 floors in no time, Daisy gently setting her sister down and helping her walk out into morning sunlight of New York City.
The relief was immediate on her sisters face as Daisy watched her younger half walk a few feet forward, still violently coughing, before plopping down onto the gravel roof.
"Th-thanks," she said, focusing on her breathing as best she could. Daisy just nodded her head before making her way to her sisters side, laying down as well.
"You're welcome Karley," she said, crossing her arms behind her head and using them as a pillow. "Are you feeling better now?"
"You have n-no idea," the younger Johnson got out in between coughs, which have slowed down to Daisy's relief. "I don't even know w-what happened. I was fine one s-second then the next," Karley threw her hands in the air in exasperation, not knowing how to explain what she saw.
The first glimpse she gets of her past and it was traumatizing to say the least.
"Hey, it's gonna take some time," Daisy sympathized, hesitantly reaching out and placing her hand on Karley's arm. She was relieved when she didn't flinch away, instead moving a few inches closer.
"Why do you not seem familiar to me at all Daisy?" She asked, turning her head to look at her older sister next to her. She didn't feel any kind of connection to Daisy like she did when she saw Lyla.
Daisy shifted uncomfortably, not exactly sure what to say or how to answer.
"So this is going to be a lot, but I'll explain what happened to you if you bear with me," she said, turning to meet her younger sisters face, getting a good look at her for the first time.
Karley was easily five foot ten, her skin tone the same as Daisy's. That wasn't the only thing they shared in common, however, when she noticed that they had identical facial features and hair, both cut at their shoulders. It was a little freaky how similar they looked. The obvious difference between them was their height and their eyes. Where Daisy had soft hazel eyes, her sister had piercing deep green ones, the opposite of Natasha's, who were more of a soft green.
She could tell her sister was muscular just like herself when they had fought briefly, and it showed now too when Karley rolled her sleeves up in the sunny heat, defined biceps now on display, along with numerous scars and bruises and cuts. On Karley's right shoulder she could make out a tattoo that she hadn't known her sister had of a clock, skull and rose together, with two dates as the arms of the clock. She noticed one date was when her sister was ambushed in Afghanistan, the day that her sister was presumed dead. Where the numbers were supposed to be on the clock there were names she didn't recognize.
Daisy could only assume those were the Marines that died when her sister was taken captive as she read them.
Chyna, Doc, Tanner, Sheffield, Gomez, Jackson, McKean, Dowell, Hamon, Helm, Granger.
She only counted eleven, curious enough. Maybe one day she'd ask her about that.
"Please tell me what you know Daisy," Karley said, letting out a heavy sigh as she stared out into the busy city of New York. "I'll take anything you can tell me."
With that, the sisters lay on the roof together, Daisy recalling everything she could tell her sister, pulling out her phone and showing her pictures as well.
As Daisy showed her pictures and told her stories, Karley had slowly started to piece some fleeing memories together. It was all starting to make a little bit of sense now.