Prompt 13 - Why can't we just talk about it?

"Daisy. What is going on with you? Why can't we just talk about it?" Melinda's frustration was peaking. Daisy was being completely unreasonable and stubborn about this.

"Why can't you just let it go? I'm fine."

"You are not fine. You haven't eaten solid food for the last two days and anyone who has a pulse can see the pain you are in. You need to see a dentist. A good dentist."

"Yeah and at the moment there isn't a Shield approved dentist on base, and we are all wanted by the police, the FBI, the military, and many other agencies."

"So you are going to continue to suffer when you don't have to. Daisy, you can make yourself a very good fake I.D. and make an appointment to see a dentist. Jemma found a couple good ones a few towns away, and they do emergency treatment."

"It's not that big a deal. It's not like I haven't dealt with toothaches before."

"Look. Make yourself and me a couple fake I.D.'s. I'll drive you in case they would have to put you under for treatment. You know they can do that or give you lidocaine." Melinda stopped talking a moment as a thought came to her. "Oh it could be your wisdom teeth? Maybe they are impacted or something?"

Daisy's eyes opened wide as she took in the implication. "Don't they pull them out all at once?"

"Usually. Especially if they are crowding or pushing your other teeth or didn't cut all the way through the gum and have become impacted."

"How can you tell if that's what it is? Instead of just a cavity or something else?"

"That's what a dentist does Daisy. I can't tell, and neither can Jemma. Just make I.D.'s for us now and I'll call one of the dentists and make an appointment for today if I can. What names are you going to use?"

"I can just update your Heidi Martin one I guess I can be your kid. I can just use the name Chloe."

"Okay. You get those I.D.'s printed and I'll make the call."

Melinda found Daisy laying on her bed in her room. She walked into the room and Daisy sat up against the headboard. Melinda sat on the edge of the bed.

"Three this afternoon. I made sure the dentist I called was a surgeon so if it is your wisdom teeth, we can go back to the same dentist. "You know he might not be able to do anything today except take X-rays and figure out what is wrong?"

"Yeah. What time do we have to leave?"

"Around one o'clock." Melinda did not usually push Daisy for information but her attitude about the dentist and her hiding her pain did not sit well. "You going to talk to me about what's going on?"

"Huh? Nothing's going on."

"Daisy I know you don't like to talk about your past much. But I have a feeling this not liking dentists and being willing to suffer in pain is related to your past. I just want you to know you can talk to me about anything. If you want to. Okay?"

"It's stupid. I need to get over it."

"Daisy, if it is affecting your judgment and actions, it's not stupid. Why are you afraid of dentists?"

Daisy shook her head. "I'm not afraid of dentists. It's – it's just -it's just a thing that happened."

Melinda stayed quiet and just waited. Daisy would either tell her the whole story, or she would shut her down, making some joke or sarcastic comment. Daisy was silent for a few minutes.

"I was nine." Daisy started playing with the sleeve on her flannel shirt. " I was at a foster home. The Hinton's. I was one of five kids there."

Melinda pursed her lips together as her eyes flashed with anger. Daisy had only told bits and pieces of her foster home past. Each time it made Melinda despise the system more and more. This was the first name Daisy had mentioned. She kept silent hoping Daisy would continue.

"It wasn't the best, you know. Sometimes you are just a way to make money. It's not a lot but, it's supposed to be enough to pay for a kid's expenses per month."

"But if they didn't do that, the money is used by the foster parents for other things."

"Yeah. It's one reason why most reputable foster agencies only allow a couple kids in a home at a time. But six is usually the max allowed. The Hinton's had five of us when I was there. Mrs. Hinton shopped thrift stores for our clothes. The school lunch was free. The State pays all med bills and meds and stuff. The Hinton's were getting around $3000 for the five of us. It was a smaller house, two floors with four bedrooms. One bedroom was really small. Tim got that one – he was the oldest. Me and Jillian shared a room and the two younger boys shared one. E all had chores to do. Mrs. Hinton worked. He didn't. He was on disability or something."

Daisy sighed and then took a deep breath. I had a toothache. I'd had one for a couple days and didn't say anything. But I couldn't eat or chew without pain, so I wasn't eating my dinner. I was usually better at hiding stuff, but I was tired and hurting. I'd told Mrs. Hinton and she hadn't called for a dental appointment or anything. Anyway, he noticed I wasn't eating and yelled at me for wasting his food. I yelled back that my teeth hurt, and they should call a dentist and take me. He got really mad and started yelling about how ungrateful I was for them taking in a brat no one else wanted, and that I was worthless and a bunch of other things. I should have just apologized but I didn't, instead I glared back at him. That's when he slammed his first into my mouth, telling me that now I'd have real pain and something to cry about. He hit me at least three times in my face, and then slammed me to the ground and started kicking me."

Melinda's fists clenched but she tried to keep her face neutral to not scare Daisy. She was absolutely seething inside. Who the hell hits a defenseless nine-year-old?"

"Anyway, I was banished to my room for two days. I think Tim helped me get there and Jilly tried to wash off the blood and brought me cold towels and Tylenol. The boys snuck me a few snacks. I'd missed school though and that's a red flag for fosters, so my case worker came to check up on me and saw the injuries. She took me out of there, and I went back to St. Agnes. A few days later I went to the dentist and had five baby teeth pulled, two that had bad cavities on the bottom and three others that were messed up when he hit me. Luckily, they were all baby teeth. The dentist also had to do some work on these two permanent ones on the top. I had to go back to the dentist a couple times."

"I'm sorry Daisy. No kid should go through that. You should never have had to go through that."

"Yeah. Anyway, I hate the dentist cause of what happened. The memories surface you know?" Daisy glanced up at Melinda and gave her a half smile. "I'm just being dumb and weak again. I know the dentist won't hurt me."

"You're not being dumb, Daisy. You're allowed to feel scared and overwhelmed because of the trauma you suffered. You are definitely not being weak." Melinda took her arm and squeezed gently. "You are one of the strongest people I've ever met. And no, I'm not talking about your inhuman powers. I'm talking about the fact that you get back up over and over, no mater what the world throws at you, and you have been doing that since you were a kid. I'm damn proud of you, and I love you very much."

Daisy fell into Melinda's arms seeking comfort which Melinda readily supplied. A little while later Daisy spoke up.

"Thanks for listening. I've never told that, what happened to me, to anyone until now. I just wanted to - I needed to I guess."

"You know you can tell me anything Daisy. Talk to me about anything. I'm here. I'll listen."

"Yeah. How many ways did you think about killing Mr. Hinton?"

Melinda smiled. "Not kill. Suffer."

Daisy let out a loud laugh. "Yeah, that too. They wouldn't let them keep kids anymore. Tim and the others were taken away too."

"Was he arrested?"

"Nah they bury that stuff. Makes all the agencies look bad. Claim it's too hard on the kids to testify and they can't make a case cause it's all circumstantial. Anyway, he was killed in a bar fight ten years ago."

"You kept tabs on your foster parents?"

"Soon as I started hacking. I also might have leaked some stuff about some of them. Most of them should never take care of another kid. I might have helped make sure of that."

"You are amazing you know that."

Daisy shrugged. "Only trouble is there are so many more I don't know about, you know. Kids like me in the system."

"You can't save everyone Daisy."

Daisy gave her a pained look. "I know."

"But that doesn't mean we can't try. Now you need to get ready and I'll take you to the dentist. I'll stay with you the whole time."

"Even when everyone thinks it's weird that a grown ass adult needs her mom to hold her hand when she's in the dentist chair?"

"I'll death stare down them all Daisy."

Daisy grinned at her.