After a few days to recuperate, they needed to go back to work. People were still changing and Coulson set up a meeting with the president. But in order to keep him from knowing where their base is, they met at Rosalind's home.
The president told Coulson that while he knew SHIELD survived, they had to remain in the shadows. The public still remembered what happened when Hydra destroyed SHIELD.
Coulson wanted the president to go after Malleck as he ordered the hit on Rosalind, but the president said he was untouchable. Nothing could be done. But he did hint that Coulson was free to do what he wanted.
Coulson assured the president that they were handing the inhuman situation. Meanwhile Daisy and Joey were in Colombia at a police station after hearing reports of incidents that indicated an inhuman. Guns were stolen and they were concerned the inhuman may be using them for bad reasons.
Things went sideways when Mack and their car went missing.
"What?" Nat said over comms. She was at the base running back end while Coulson met with the president.
"I don't know." Daisy was frustrated. "How do you lose someone as big as Mack?"
Her, Bobbi, Hunter, and Joey were back on the jet.
"Same way you lose an arsenals worth of weapons in a few minutes." Hunter remarked.
They pulled up video footage that showed Mack looking at a woman, and in a flash he had lost his weapon, the back hatch to the car was open, and he was thrown in.
Simmons analyzed it and determined that it was the woman, she was extremely fast. Daisy managed to track her down and found Mack being held hostage in her apartment. They knocked her out, freed him, and placed her in a containment module. She look wasn't happy when she woke up and started to try to break out.
But they had been wrong about her. She was taking the weapons to prevent the police from abusing their power. Bobbi and Hunter found her cousin dumping the weapons in the river, just as she had said.
But by the time they arrived, Bobbi and Hunter were gone and the woman, Elena, had lost her cousin and accomplice.
"I'll tell my dad and Nat what happened. He's back at the base." Daisy went to call her father.
Mack and Joey thought it was odd the cousin's body was stiff as if rigor mortis had already set in. But it was too soon. The police must have an inhuman with them, and that was how they had taken Bobbi and Hunter.
Daisy got Elena to explain her powers, they were going to use them to get into the police station to get Bobbi and Hunter.
Elena took a badge from an officer.
"You're my new best friend." Daisy grinned. Elena smiled back, she was happy to be helping.
They got into the station where Joey did something about their armory and Daisy and Elena fought their way in. They had a location for Bobbi and Hunter. Mack went for them and Bobbi warned him about the inhuman the police had.
Elena, Joey, and Daisy ran into him.
"Joey his glasses!" Daisy said. Joey melted the glasses into his face to disable him. He had already knocked out Elena when she tied his wrists together.
On their way out, Hydra abducted the inhuman with the eye powers. They tried to convince Elena to stay but she wanted to go home, and tell her aunt what happened to her cousin. So they gave her a bracelet that would allow them to contact her or vice versa with ease in case either needed help. Mack nicknamed her Yo-yo and she was on her way.
Cousin managed to get to talk to Malleck after putting a vegetative Von Strucker kid in the brain torture machine. They tracked everywhere the phone connected to. This was the beginning of his end.
"Hey you." Daisy smirked at Natasha when she got back.
"Hey." Natasha kissed Daisy on the cheek. "Glad you're okay."
Daisy blushed, still getting used to things.
"It could have been worse." She said.
"Yeah. Hunter will never let it go that Mack was knocked out by a tiny Colombian woman."
"I don't think any of us will. So Joey told me he missed his old life."
"Yeah?" Natasha could see where this was going.
"He's packing up. He got the same deal as Elena, if he needs backup he can call us, if we need it we can call him. But he's earned it." Daisy looked sad.
"Hey." Natasha tilted Daisy's chin up so they could look at each other. "You're doing right by them. You're amazing, we can do this."
Daisy smiled and touched her forehead to Natasha's before kissing her.
May joined Coulson in his office at the end of the very long day. He poured them a drink and they leaned on his desk together.
"The new hand looks good." She commented, gesturing.
"Fitz outdid himself. It looks like the others but it still doesn't feel right." He looked down at it.
May reached out a hand and ran her fingers down his new prosthetic hand.
"It feels real." She said.
"It's not the hand, it's me."
"Maybe you're not supposed to get over it. Some things you can't move past. They scar you, change your permanently."
May wound her fingers with the ones on Phil's prosthetic hand. Coulson smiled and gripped her hand back. Even if he couldn't get past it, May could and it helped him feel better about it.
They turned to the screen nearby that was announcing that Malleck was closing accounts and stock prices were tumbling, investors tried to reach him but couldn't.
"He's still collecting inhumans. Any idea why?" May asked.
"Lincoln said there's a reason for powers. An equilibrium. We got a lot of heroes on our side. Makes me wonder what Malleck has on his." Coulson answered.
The president informed Coulson that Talbot would now be the head of the ATCU, as he had worked with Couslon before. But he would now be taking orders from them, something they were sure he was absolutely thrilled about.
But Talbot refused to take their calls. So Couslon had to track him down to an airport especially since they were supposed to be going to a diplomatic conference.
May and Lincoln were there as backup. Lincoln tailed Coulson just to be safe and May watched from the car. Lincoln spotted a person looking suspicious walking shortly behind Couslon and Talbot. May warned him and Coulson spotted Carl Creel.
"Lincoln forget what I said rush in and use your powers!" May panicked and rushed from the car to get to Couslon.
"On it!" He zapped Creel.
The fight ensued, and ended with Lincoln having to be ordered to stop electrocuting Creel. Coulson let Talbot out of their car.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" An angry Talbot stepped out.
"It's Creel. He was trying to assassinate you." Coulson said.
"Assassinate me? He's here to protect me." Talbot helped Creel up and all three SHIELD agents were shocked.
They took Creel back to base so Simmons could evaluate him. Neither Nat nor Hunter were happy about this, considering he tried to kill Barton and he did kill Hartley and Idaho.
"He killed my friends! I watched them die!" Hunter raged.
"He was brainwashed by Hydra. It took us months to undo that." Talbot said.
"A little help here Widow?" Hunter turned to Natasha.
She sat with her arms crossed and a pissed off look on her face.
"Just keep him in containment. For his sake." She got up and marched away. Daisy watched her go with wide eyes.
"He is a murderer." Bobbi chimed in.
"And he had a criminal record long before Hydra got ahold of him." May added.
"He's from the streets he made some mistakes." Talbot countered. "He's reformed."
"I believe everyone deserves a second chance." Coulson agreed.
Daisy raised her eyebrows.
Talbot refused to go to the symposium without Creel to protect him.
"Fine. We'll go without you." Daisy said and then looked at her dad. "We don't need him."
"Actually we do. If the acting head of our own ATCU doesn't show up if sends a bad message." Coulson pointed out.
The debate was over, Creel had to go. Daisy warned that if he stepped out of line he would be taken down.
"You're not on this op." Coulson said.
"What? I should be there." Daisy was shocked.
"I agree. But there are two rules. The first is no aliens."
"Excuse me?" May was surprised he would use that word.
"Not my phrase." Coulson put his hands up. "The delegates want to be able to speak freely without fear of offending anyone ."
"Yeah well it's too late for that." Daisy crossed her arms.
"What's the second rule?" Bobbi asked.
"No weapons." Coulson stated.
"And what are we supposed to do if someone else decides not to play by those rules?" Hunter demanded.
"That's why having Creel there might not be such a bad idea. He's not inhuman so he'll pass any DNA screenings they may have."
"What?" Natasha was confused later when Daisy told her. "So what are you supposed to do sit here and wait? I get why I can't go but you should be there."
"They don't want to offend anyone." Daisy rolled her eyes.
"They didn't think about that before they called all of you an alien contagion. What did your mom say?" Natasha asked.
"You know her. She doesn't like me being an agent anyway. She's probably happy I'll be stuck here." Daisy grinned.
"Oh come on. We'll take the time and use it to our advantage." Natasha moved over to Daisy and smirked.
"So sparring?" Daisy raised an eyebrow.
"Come on it's been a while." Natasha lifted one side of her mouth in a crooked grin.
Coulson and May went on the mission with Bobbi, Hunter, Talbot, and Creel. They needed to find out if any of the countries were stockpiling inhumans.
And just like Natasha suggested, they sparred. She had to promise Daisy they would lounge and watch a movie later but they would train first.
"I still can't believe this is how you want to spend our free night." Daisy circled Natasha.
"Come on. I can't be out in the field as much as you, I need to blow off some steam. Indulge me." Nat took a swing and Daisy ducked.
"Oh no, we're making junk food and watching a movie after this just like you said." Daisy made a move and tried to take Natasha down. Natasha gracefully moved out of the way and grabbed Daisy from behind.
"Let's see how you do first." She got her face close to Daisy's. Then she used the distraction to pin Daisy to the ground.
"That's an unfair tactic." Daisy smirked.
"Anything is fair when you need to take an enemy down." Natasha kissed her nose and stood up.
After the brutal sparring Daisy made her way to her room so she could grab a change of clothes and shower when she saw Lincoln in the lab with FitzSimmons. She walked in and over heard them. They discovered that Carl Creels blood resisted the terragenisis process. It could be used to create a vaccine.
"This could put an end to-" Lincoln started.
"To us? That's what you were going to say isn't it?" Daisy interrupted.
"You can't save everyone Daisy. And not everyone that can change should change." Lincoln said. "That's why Jiaying was so selective in Afterlife."
"She was also crazy." Daisy put her hands on her hips.
"Not about this." Lincoln said. "There is a balance that has to be maintained. Things are getting way out of whack, a vaccine might not be the worst thing."
"Do you even hear yourself?" Daisy asked. "You sound like one of those hate groups. The watchdogs of whatever they're calling themselves. Kill the aliens and take back the planet."
"What's going on?" Natasha overheard the arguing and came in.
Daisy sighed.
"We may have a vaccine to prevent terragenesis." Lincoln informed her.
"We don't need to be eradicated!" Daisy said.
"Easy." Natasha pulled her out of Lincoln's personal space.
"No!" Daisy jerked away. "It's not a bad thing."
Natasha looked at Lincoln.
"Not everyone needs to change. Look at Gyera, at what happened in Bahrain with May." Lincoln said.
Natasha put her hands on Daisy's arms.
"He's right." She said.
"You can't be serious." Daisy stepped back slowly.
"Daisy-" Natasha tried to start. She could see the hurt in her eyes.
"We are not monsters." Daisy said.
"No you're not, neither is Lincoln, or Joey or Elena. But some people are and don't need to be given a power they could use to hurt anyone." Natasha pushed.
Daisy shook her head and walked out.
Natasha put her hand to her forehead. This was not how she wanted this night to go. She went back to her room and sulked a little. This was the first relationship she had that wasn't tactical, and here she was screwing it up. But Lincoln had a point. There were so many people she could think of that did not ever need to have an advantage like powers. People that would destroy the world.
Eventually she realized she needed to get her mind off it for now and grabbed a book. About an hour later, her door was opened. And then quickly closed again because she was sitting behind it in a chair, she stopped the door and assumed it was Daisy and she just couldn't see her. She was right.
Daisy stepped around the door and sighed, looking sheepish.
"I'm sorry." She said. "I got a little crazy. I don't know what's going on with me today."
"You know I'm not the one making the vaccine." Natasha pointed out.
"I already apologized to Lincoln." Daisy said.
"I think you're just frustrated. You can't help with the mission, the mission that involves people sitting around and discussing what to do about inhumans. And I get it, words like alien contagion hurt." Natasha sympathized.
"Well the worst part about my little tantrum is I know you know how I feel. People think you're dangerous, you've been profiled for your past."
Natasha had told Daisy everything, her past with the KGB and the Red Room. Her defection to SHIELD. Even Dreykov's daughter.
Natasha smiled. They understood each other. She got up from her chair and pulled Daisy to her. Daisy let Natasha embrace her and relaxed into the hug, leaning her head on the other woman's shoulder and breathing in her scent.
"Stay with me tonight?" Natasha said into Daisy's hair.
Daisy pulled away and looked into the bright green eyes that she had fallen in love with. She felt the now familiar flutter and smiled. She tugged Natasha by the hand to the bed and they both climbed in for the night.