Thank you to a guest reviewer for this suggestion! I'm so excited to write this.
Special thanks to Galaxy Girl 084 for helping me through this chapter. This has been a very tough week for me in my personal life and it means a lot that you all have given me the platform to write and let out my stress. Thank you for that.
WARNING: major spoilers for 7x06!
ONE-SHOT #4: The Aftermath of Nathaniel Malick's Torture
SUMMARY: After season 7 episode 6, when Daisy was tortured by Nathaniel Malick to take her powers
It had been a long time since Daniel Sousa had cared about someone so much. As he carried the sick, unconscious Daisy from the collapsed barn, he couldn't help but hope with all his might that she was going to be okay. The badass woman had saved the both of them by hiding a piece of glass in her skin, all the while being drugged and restrained, and he had to return the favor.
Earlier when she had first been dumped back into the barn room, Sousa had made sure to check her pulse. It was weak from the excessive blood loss and that majorly worried him. He and Daisy had become so close in the past few days and she already meant a lot to him. He couldn't imagine his life without her.
He was going to get her home safe, and he didn't care if he died while doing so.
Despite his bad leg and the debris, Sousa managed to carry the girl out of the broken barn, but not before stealing Nathaniel's keys from his pocket. Once he got into a clear area, he had to take a breather. He gently set her down on the soft grass, continuing to keep a steady hand resting on her arm at all times. It was just constant reassurance for him that she was alive.
Maybe not okay, but alive.
As he sat on a small log on the ground, Sousa looked at all the blood spots on Daisy's white tank top and the multiple bandages covering her. Yeah, he'd seen some bad things in his day, but this hurt him at a personal level. Daisy mattered to him, she mattered to him a whole lot, and he found himself wanting to murder everyone who'd caused this awful thing to happen to her.
Taking one more deep breath and a swallow of air, Sousa dusted off his hay-covered pants and bent down, sliding his arms under Daisy and grunting as he lifted the grown woman from the ground. She began to stir a little at the sudden movement and he found himself pressing his forehead to the side of her head in reassurance.
"Shh, Daisy, you're going to be alright. I've got you," he soothed as he continued to walk down the gravel road.
At the end of the gravel Sousa encountered a van and heaved a sigh of relief. His leg was aching from not using his cane. He used the keys he'd stolen and unlocked the van, opening the back doors and gently sitting Daisy on the floor of the vehicle, her back against the wall. He grabbed a spare towel and rolled it up, taking Daisy's shoulders and lowering her head onto the towel to use as a pillow. He grabbed her blazer from earlier that Nathaniel had taken off of her and flung it over her chest and shoulders to keep her warm. He made sure to check her pulse one more time before affectionately stroking her head and hopping out of the back.
Daniel shut the back doors to the van and walked up to the front seat, starting the car. It was an interesting experience for a 50s man to drive a late 70s car, but he knew Daisy sure as hell couldn't help. He figured it out, and was planning on heading toward the last place he saw the Zephyr, but there was no telling where the large plane was now.
"Mack and Yo-Yo are soon going to touch down onto the Zephyr with the quinjet shortly," Simmons said to Deke and Enoch.
"Good," Enoch said mechanically.
"I've found Daisy and Sousa's last location," Jemma told them.
"Where?" Deke asked without hesitation. Despite being a wee bit jealous of Daniel, he still worried deeply about Daisy.
"A barn somewhat near here," Simmons replied, looking at the computer. "Well, that was their last location, anyway."
"We will scout out that area," Enoch told them monotonically, heading toward the cockpit to get started. Jemma heaved a sigh of relief once he was gone, glad that her best friend and the newest addition to the team were found.
Sousa slammed on the brakes as soon as he heard the thrusters of a plane, immediately regretting the sudden action when he remembered that Daisy wasn't strapped into the car. He swallowed, anxious to check on her, and crawled into the back as soon as he had eyes on the Zephyr.
"Daisy, you okay?" he asked her, patting her cheek. It was even colder than before. "Stay with me, girl, stay with me," he whispered. "They're on their way."
Giving her one last look, Sousa opened the back door and hopped outside, waving his arms to the sky at the Zephyr started to land in the nearby field. Satisfied, he hopped back in the van and drove toward the plane.
Once he pulled into the hangar of the Zephyr, Sousa gently stopped the car and turned it off, tossing the keys onto the passenger seat. He crawled into the back just as the back doors were opened from the outside, revealing Deke.
The young man's jaw dropped when his eyes fell upon Daisy. "Wh-What...What happened to her?!"
Daniel grunted as he slid his arms under her again, tossing her blazer to the side. "I'll explain later," he replied, exasperated as he hopped out of the back.
"JEMMA!" Deke shouted. She and Enoch appeared from the top of the balcony, both of them gasping when they saw Daisy. Well, Enoch gasped in his own Chronicom way.
"Go get a stretcher," Jemma told Enoch before rushing to the ladder and climbing down. She rushed to her friend, immediately checking her pulse. She looked up at Daniel, noticing his exasperated expression. "Sousa, you need a break."
Swallowing, the man shook his head. "'M alright. Worry about her."
"What happened to her?" Simmons asked, extremely concerned as she lifted Daisy's limp arm, looking intently at the bandages covering her body.
"Nathaniel Malick kidnapped us," Daniel told her as he watched Enoch make his way into the area, wheeling a stretcher with him. "They took tons of her blood and spinal fluid and..." Sousa quickly set Daisy down on it, backing up and settling into a chair, taking deep breaths as his leg ached. Besides his leg, he was also still drowsy from the drugs.
Jemma and Enoch wheeled Daisy toward the lab as quickly as they could. "Deke, you make sure Sousa is alright," Simmons told her grandson as they left.
Sousa stood up all-too-quickly, making Deke put a hand on the man's shoulder. "I'm going to make sure she's okay," Sousa grumbled, pushing against the skinny man.
"Sousa..."
"No," the older man mumbled. Intimidated, Deke moved out of the way and allowed Sousa to follow the path of Daisy's gurney.
Simmons shook her head in disbelief as she removed Daisy's filthy neck bandage, replacing it with a clean one. "I have no idea what happened to her, I..." she said to Enoch.
"Nathaniel wanted her powers," Sousa said to them as walked in, leaning against the wall of the medical room. "He drugged us, and she couldn't use her powers. He managed to take a lot out of her, and he was going to cut her open and take her organs, but thanks to Daisy he never got to that."
Jemma gasped. "He was going to do what Whitehall did to her mother..." She knitted her eyebrows in pity, stroking her friend's head.
"It's nothing our medical pod cannot fix," Enoch assured the humans. "I cannot be sure how this will affect her powers or emotional state, but she will live."
Sousa was comforted by that, but not fully. Daisy was still lying there, bleeding and pale.
"I've got this from here," Jemma told the other people in the room. "Enoch, you go get the medical pod." The Chronicom nodded, leaving to go do so. Jemma turned to the man. "Sousa, go get yourself some water."
He shook his head. "Not until I know she's okay."
Jemma walked toward him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "She'll be okay. We'll take good care of her. You go take care of yourself, and come back when we've got her all situated in the capsule."
Sousa narrowed his eyes, but finally nodded, leaving the room. Deke put an arm around his shoulder to help him walk toward the galley.
"Oh, Daisy," Jemma whispered as she stroked Daisy's cheek. "I'm so sorry we didn't get there faster."
Compartmentalizing in her doctor-mode, Jemma cleaned Daisy up, changing her bandages and clothing for her. After taking some blood to check for drugs, Jemma got an IV started in her hand and attached it to a blood bag. While waiting for the blood test results, Simmons took a cool, damp cloth and dabbed Daisy's sweaty and troubled face. Daisy's eyebrows were constantly furrowed in pain.
Suddenly, Daisy's eyes opened in slits and she started to mumble nonsense.
"Shh," Jemma soothed, stroking her head.
"No!" Daisy said, at a normal volume, which was surprising for someone in her weak state. She started trying to yank out her IV and heart monitors, but Simmons was easily able to stop her.
"Daisy, sweetheart, calm down. You're okay now. You're safe," Simmons assured her, trying to multitask by both holding her arms down and soothing her simultaneously.
Daisy was writhing under Jemma's grasp. She wasn't strong, but she was making Jemma nervous. "No, p-please, just don't t-take everything from me," Daisy sputtered, her lips chattering. "Stop, please! It hurts!"
Simmons felt so bad for her friend. She didn't know what to do for her, for once. Sure, Daisy was lethargic and delirious, but Jemma had a feeling most of what her friend was saying was her flashing back to the moments in that barn.
"PLEASE!" Daisy screamed as she jerked around on the gurney. "DON'T!"
Wanting to end her suffering, Jemma grabbed a syringe from the counter, injecting Daisy's IV with the sedative. She heaved a sigh of relief once Daisy's body relaxed.
"I'm so sorry," Jemma whispered to her friend, stroking her hair. She couldn't imagine what kind of past traumas this was making Daisy remember. Especially when Fitz forcibly took out her inhibitor.
Jemma shuddered at the thought.
Soon, both Enoch and Sousa appeared, the former bringing the medical pod with him.
"How is she?" Enoch asked as he positioned the medical pod, looking over Daisy's vitals.
"Stable," Jemma replied. She was checking Daisy's blood test. "She'll be okay. She just needs time."
Sousa insisted he help Simmons get Daisy into the pod. Once Daisy was all situated, Enoch left to check on the rest of the team, which was arriving on the quinjet.
"How is she really?" Sousa asked.
Jemma sighed, putting a hand on the cold glass of the pod and looking at her friend sleeping peacefully inside.
"She starting freaking out and shouting 'please, no' and things of the sort. I had to sedate her. Obviously, she's delirious from the blood loss and drugs, but when she wakes up she'll be very traumatized. She's been through something like this before and I can't imagine what kind of memories this brings up for her."
Sousa knitted his eyebrows, placing his hand on the pod as well. "I'm so sorry," he whispered to Daisy.
"What happened to her?!" May exclaimed, running into the room. She rushed to the pod and looked at Daisy, making sure she was okay.
"Nathaniel Malick tried to take her powers," Sousa replied. He had this explanation on-tape at this point. "He took a lot out of her, but he didn't get to the bad stuff. Daisy got smart and managed to slip a piece of glass into her hand, which helped us escape."
A corner of Jemma's lip rose. "She's always been so strong."
"I want to touch her," May said mechanically. It wasn't a want, it was a need.
"May..." Jemma started.
"Now," May ordered.
Jemma sighed, unlocking the hand-holes in the sides of the pod and allowing May to slide a hand in. She touched Daisy's arm, gently patting it and making sure she was alive. She was immediately overwhelmed with emotions of intense fear, distraught, pain, and sadness.
Damn, Daisy was going through a lot.
"That's enough, May," Jemma whispered. "She needs to heal."
May swallowed and nodded, removing her hand from the pod. Jemma closed the holes again using the keypad on the side.
"What does she feel like?" Jemma asked May.
May swallowed. "She's scared," was her short reply.
Despite having none of her own emotions, May continued to seem overwhelmed as she watched her surrogate daughter sleep. "I will go check on Mack and see what's happening with Coulson," May announced a moment later.
Before anyone could say anything, the senior agent left the room.
Deke popped his head in. "We're about to jump," he said.
Jemma turned to Sousa. "Last chance if you—"
"I'm where I need to be," he insisted.
Thanks for reading! I can't wait for next episode; I hope they don't skip over Daisy's recovery, emotional and physical. I love the platonic Daisy/Sousa relationship, it's so adorable and I'm so glad Daisy has a companion to help her through this.
*Alright, I fixed a few errors in this chapter, including the part where May feels Daisy's emotions. Sorry, I'm so used to writing season 1-6 May and not the special season 7 May XD*
Also, I will hopefully be doing a part two of this when we get another episode of Daisy.
Please give me suggestions as to what you'd like to see next!
