Redirection — Chapter Nine

The Playground, S.H.I.E.L.D, all of it— just wasn't the same with Bobbi and Hunter's absence.

Everyone had been a little bit quieter, more closed off, and grieving the friends they'll never be able to see again. Maybe it was the fact that it was still so fresh— it only happened three days ago. But still, it won't be the same. Just like the team was never the same after Trip died, they'll never be the same without Bobbi and Hunter.

It was a new direction.

Not exclusively just for S.H.I.E.L.D, for the world too, and Russia as well.

The world just had their first inhuman politician and he was murdered, it wasn't exactly doing great things for Team Inhuman. Especially how that inhuman tried to kill the prime minister of Russia with his powers, the news decided to skip over the whole coo part. Daisy has been checking the current state of Russia, and boy, it was a mess. But it would have been an even greater mess had they not intervened, so it was a win— partly— ish. They still lost two good agents forever. Two good friends who Daisy considered family at this point, regardless if she had only known them for a year and a half.

Bobbi was like an older sister, and Hunter was the annoying— but awesome-to-be-around cousin.

Daisy was gonna miss the pair, that was for sure.

She blew out a breath as she spun around in a swivel-chair in the lab in such a childlike manner, but Daisy didn't care. It helped, it helped her mind keep off every little thing that was brewing in her head right now and off all the sad vibrations that were being passed around like a virus.

Shortly after she got her powers she realized everyone gave off a different vibration, but it wasn't always the same vibrational… frequency, per-say. It changed from day-to-day or even from hour-to-hour, but Daisy couldn't figure out what it was. And then Simmons disappeared via-la-rock and everyone's vibrations matched each other. When that happened, Daisy realized what it was.

It was the emotions that caused the shift in their vibrations.

Depending on whether someone was so hot from rage and their blood was on fire. Or was so nervous they wanted to crawl out of their own skin. Or they were so happy they wanted to jump on the walls in celebration. Or, someone was so sad, and so devastated, that they barely recognized the outside world fully.

When they were angry the vibrations were raucous and obnoxious, like the bees— or the vibrations themselves were pissed off. When they were nervous the vibrations bounced around everywhere and off every cell in their body— just begging to be released. When they were happy the vibrations were calmer and quieter yet were still active, they moved around a lot. When someone was sad the vibrations were like a storm, it was loud— but a different type of loud from being angry, there was no real way to describe it.

Then when someone was content, their vibrations were calm and relaxing. On the rare chance someone was feeling that way around the base, Daisy would try to stick closer to them for a nice change of pace. The way someone's vibrations were when they were content was so mesmerizing and therapeutic to her, it was so different from everything else in the vibration-chaos that consisted in the base.

So now that everyone was devastated by the sudden leave of Bobbi and Hunter, the whole base was like a hurricane that was eating her whole. And now after three days of it, she needed a break. Daisy considered hanging out with Luk— Kelly for a while in his containment pod, but he still had lied to her and she was still trying to figure out why.

He lied to her— to everyone about his name, his age (probably), and she was freaking training him!

It's like the universe was playing a sick joke on her, first Ward— who was training her, now Kelly and she's training him. If she wasn't so mad at the idea she would have been laughing at the irony.

It had been five days since she found out Lukian wasn't actually Lukian, he was Kelly— and sure, that seems like a lot of time to work everything out and dig up something. However, the mission with Talbot took place the day after, and yes… she had technically off that day but so had Lincoln and their evening had been extraordinary… up until May barged in and interrupted it all saying that all had to head to Russia ASAP.

Two-for-two that May.

First Miles, now Lincoln?

Daisy sincerely hoped this wasn't becoming a habit. But hey, at least this time she didn't get disapproved, betrayed, angry stares afterwards? All she got was teasing looks from Simmons, uncomfortable looks from Coulson, and disgusted looks from Mack.

Anyways… back on track.

Then the whole Russia mission took over two days— one day of fighting, another day of trying to get Bobbi and Hunter out of prison. Then another two days of grieving, and today she was trying to push herself back into work but she couldn't focus due to everyone still being in the grieving stage of things, not that she can blame them.

But their vibrations were thunderous enough to make her head hurt after two and a half days of it... which was why she was spinning in the swivel chair trying to clear her head (she ignored the fact that the chair was vibrating— and so was the floor, table, and all the objects on that table).

The spinning from the chair made her less aware and made her dizzy, obviously. It was similar to being drunk... almost— at least in the aspect of she couldn't walk straight afterwards. It helped block out the world in a way, plus she couldn't even get drunk anymore.

Stupid Inhuman metabolism.

Everything floated around her head but the vibrations were too distracting to focus on anything specific that she wanted to.

It's how she didn't notice Lincoln calling her name until he put a hand to her shoulder and she stopped spinning. Unfortunately the room didn't seem to get the same memo.

"Daisy!"

Daisy latched onto Lincoln's hand as she steadied herself. The vibrations slowly reached out for her again as the black spots in her vision disappeared.

"Woah," Lincoln chuckled. "You alright there, Dais?"

She stood up shakily. "Yeah— no. I-I'm good. I'm good."

The ear splitting up-roar caused her to wince when it fully came back to her. Maybe spinning in the chair was more like being drunk than she thought because now it felt like she had a hangover. Headache, the world (vibrations) are too loud, dizzy and can't walk straight (but she already covered that). Only thing she was missing was being blinded by the lights.

"Are you sure?" Lincoln questioned, concern ever present in voice. Daisy nodded in confirmation after she got her bearings.

Lincoln grinned at her. "So is there a reason you were spinning yourself in a chair like a two year old?"

"Like a six year old, thank-you. " Daisy straightened. "Also it helped get rid of the vibrations for a bit."

As her transitioner Lincoln knew how overwhelming the new presence of constantly hearing the vibrations can be, which is exactly what Lukian (Kelly) was going through right now (and currently he deserved it). But nonetheless, she had mentioned the odd shifting in the vibrations to Lincoln when they were at afterlife, then she had also told him what she figured out in one of their very few chats when Simmons was gone.

His brows furrowed in worry. "You doin' okay?" Lincoln asked one more time.

Daisy smiled at his concern. "I'm doing fine, it's just a lot and I needed a small break. So excuse my immature behavior, Mr. Pikachu." She teased him with a poke at his chest.

"I wore that shirt one time!" He protested. "Worst mistake of my life." Lincoln muttered.

Daisy chuckled at his face. "Yeah, well you did look cute in it, it was almost… electrifying— I guess you could say." She pulled him close.

Lincoln bowed his head to hide his stupid grin, she could still see it though. "I thought I was the one with the stupid jokes?"

"I'm learning," She said barely a whisper.

Daisy caught his lips with her and pulled him in for a nice kiss. But she almost burst out laughing at the tingling feeling that was spreading through her body. As the betraying tickling continued, Lincoln deepened the kiss up until she couldn't help the giggle that escaped her. Lincoln pulled back and glanced at her confused for a second before realization of what he was doing occurred to him.

"Sorry, I lost control." He joked with a lopsided grin. She slapped him on the arm.

"Are you gonna say that everytime we make out now?"

Lincoln shrugged. "I guess I need better impulse control," He quipped, Daisy rolled her eyes. "Speaking of impulse control, I was supposed to come and get you, Coulson is having a meeting in his office. He texted and called you a couple of times and he's having a meltdown over you wouldn't answer."

Daisy's eyes widened as she hastily fished for her phone in her pocket, maybe spinning in the chair worked too well— she didn't even feel her own phone buzzing in her pocket. When her phone turned on sure enough she saw six calls, voicemail, and eleven texts. All was from Coulson, with the exception of one text from May.

May: Get your ass up here, now.

Heartwarming.

Truly.

"Crap,"

Lincoln nodded in agreement.

The hum of the ventilation was the sound that filled the room, along with the white noise that followed suit.

Lukian tried to tune out the static using the advice Daisy gave him but all that did was make the actual sound of the ventilation louder (the static lowered drastically though)— which only fueled his never ending headache. Apparently there was a heat wave going on so they couldn't turn it off otherwise the containment room would become a baked oven, and he, a burnt potato. Which was fair considering they were underground.

Or at least he thought they were, it was hard to tell honesty.

A little while ago he ended up watching something on the big screen to tune out the sound, yet— just like when he was trying those tips Daisy told him, the tv sounded louder than it should have been. It was still loud even after he turned down the volume. It was almost like he was hearing it from two different sources, the other one not being his ears.

Another source the white noise was coming from was the tennis ball he was lightly tossing up in the air. Lukian was laying down with his head at the end of the full white bed, while playing mini-catch with gravity. The tennis ball took around a second and a half to fall back into his hand after being tossed directly upwards.

When his watch started beeping as the ball was in mid air he promptly got distracted and the ball promptly hit him in the nose.

He swiftly caught the rolling ball before it fell off the bed as rubbed his slightly throbbing nose at the same time. It barely hurt though— he's had worse, much worse— it was just the blood pulsing through.

I'm fine—

Lukian shut off the alarm on his watch and checked for what it was for. It was to mark that it was ten o'clock and that Daisy would be here soon for training.

He wondered what they would be working on today, probably redirecting again. They had been working on it for the past three days, and so far no luck. He can create a strong tornado around him without emotional ties (and with). He has also gotten the hang of stopping the tornadoes— or weakening them in-the-very-least, to a small breeze. But he hasn't been able to stop the cyclones before they started though, which is a small problem.

He's getting better though.

And Daisy says as long as he's taking steps forward that's all that matters. But it still worries him that he's not learning fast enough. He's trying though, he's trying his absolute hardest to make a smaller, more concentrated cyclone. But trying will lead you nowhere if you can't actually do it.

Do it again—

Not good enough—

Nice try—

Weak litt—

no, no, No, No, NO—!

The breeze in his hair pulled him from his thoughts, this was always how the tornado's started. He let his thoughts drift to then, and then it starts. Lukian shook his head to clear it. He couldn't have her voice filling it up if he wanted to avoid a natural disaster in his room, again.

Once his head was clear and he was calm the tornado never became more than a light draft, as if the air-con was pumped up and he was standing right below it.

Lukian let out a sigh of relief and relaxed his neck to let his head dangle over the end of the bed. His neck was strained from holding his (Stupid—) head up for so long, he could feel the blood making it's way to his brain. After five seconds he sat up and turned around to rest his feet on the bench that was at the foot of the bed.

While still seated he started chucking the tennis ball at the wall in front of him to discreetly let out his pent up emotions— without causing another EF1 tornado. Even though that didn't exactly do much that other time last Tuesday. The ball ricocheted off the wall and bounced once on the floor before it made its way back to him.

He let his thoughts wander back to training once he realized it had been five minutes past ten and Daisy still hadn't come. She could be on a mission, he knew she was gone for two whole days— three days ago. He didn't know the full extent of the mission, just bits and pieces Daisy told him— like how two of her close friends had to walk away (Which was why she was feeling down)— and also stuff he heard from the news and is assuming is part of it.

When you turn on the big screen the first channel that pops up is the news. Usually it pisses him off because the news is so sad and just boring, but this time he lingered longer because he saw Inhuman in the headline and got curious. Apparently a few people in Russia's government got murdered, and the Minister of Defense was an inhuman— he was a part of the group that was killed.

And it all happened while Daisy was away and that's why Lincoln took over his training for those two days. He could make a pretty fair assumption that, that was related to something S.H.I.E.L.D had a part in.

While he didn't believe that Daisy and S.H.I.E.L.D purposefully killed those people, he also didn't know the full story. Lincoln said S.H.I.E.L.D was there to stop the bad guys and to protect people, and Lukian believed that.

They protected him, they still are.

So all in all, she might have a mission again— but if that was the case Lincoln would probably be here by now since it was also ten-ten now. Unless Lincoln was also on the mission, then that meant he had an off day. Lukian wasn't sure if he was happy about that though because he wanted to learn how to redirect his powers and he needed to stay distracted and not think about—

To be honest he just really wanted to see how cool it would look.

Both Daisy and Lincoln had shown him and explained how it felt when redirecting their powers. Both explained it a little differently— Daisy had to absorb the vibrations around her first, store them, then send them out through her arm. Lincoln of the other hand could generate his lighting shocks directly from him, he didn't need an outside source. Daisy said that every power was different despite all the similarities between them.

Lukian checked his watch again.

10:15 AM

At this point the mostly case was both Lincoln and Daisy were away off… base? Is that what this was, a base? Whatever, it didn't matter— all it meant was he had a free day. Which kinda sucked now because he was restless, he could feel the thoughts he usually kept away crawling back towards him. It was probably because of the nightmare last night, and that caused the lack of sleep— hence bags under the eyes.

He didn't want to sleep, and he needed to stay focused.

On anything but—

Nope, he wasn't even gonna say it… even in his brain.

Currently he wished his power was mind-reset. Was that even a thing? Then again, a kid creating tornadoes wasn't a thing up till almost four months ago either.

His mind was a mess, his body felt forgin to him still— after three weeks, and now he was struggling to control a tornado that he could create. Honestly he rather go back in time and go back to—

This time when he felt the breeze in his hair, he didn't stop it.

He couldn't stop it.

His mind was a mess, he was a mess. He was...

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid—

How are you—

I'm fine—

Not fine— Not fine—

Fine—

The wind grew and grew, spinning around at speeds he couldn't comprehend. His messy hair going in all of the directions simultaneously, he stayed put on the bed curling into himself. The tennis ball was in the mists of the storm, a yellow blur around him. His breathing was centered but his heart rate was rising.

It's fine—

I'm fine—

The pounding headache that seemed to never go away was head splitting now, the white static was deafening. Even near the walls of the room the noise was chaotic and too loud. At the center of the storm (him) it wasn't anywhere near chill and yet, it was quieter. He could hear every molecule swirling around him, forming the cyclone. If only he could just stop it he'll be fine—

If only he could just…

No second chances—

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, STUPID—!

Lukian's hands went up his head and he squeezed his eyes shut, his nose was definitely bleeding at this point, possibly his ears too. He couldn't get it to stop— the tornado, or the voices. It was so loud around him it was almost quiet.

It was too quiet for a natural disaster.

It was quiet.

Hold on…

Lukian's hands stopped mid air as his eyes cracked open to see the tornado free room. The air was completely silent apart from the low whistling which was his own breathing. As far as he could tell, each air molecule was completely frozen in place. His hands fell down in shock considering he just stopped the cyclone in less than a second by accident, no less.

When he lowered his hands there was a small gust of wind targeted at the floor and the static returned as if it was commentating the air-molecule's every move.

Huh.

The sound of the door opening grabbed Coulson's attention away from Simmons' scientific explanation that he honestly understood none of even after all these years.

The sight of Daisy and Lincoln entering brought him small relief. He had called the girl multiple times in the last fifteen minutes— no answer. And May had also texted once— again, no answer. That was enough to worry Coulson to the bone considering how attached she was to her electronics— enough for some people to think she glued her phone to her hand.

Plus, they were a group of spies— when someone doesn't answer their phone, most of the time that means something happened. Mack tried to reassure him that if something happened they would've felt the base shaking at some point, Lincoln had agreed and went out to search for her. That was three minutes ago, and now they're back— no trouble. And she didn't look hurt at least.

Daisy shot him an apologetic look as she walked in. "Coulson, I'm so sorry. I didn't feel my phone buzzing."

Coulson smiled to accept her apology, yet internally frowned at her excuse. He knew Daisy always kept her phone on vibrate because for her it was louder than an actual ringtone. Plus nothing could block it out, so what was going on that she couldn't hear it?

"I'm just glad you're alright, and not kidnapped or hurt." He told her despite his worries.

Daisy rolled her eyes. "It was twenty minutes or something. And if I was hurt or kidnapped you would have felt me quaking their asses."

May smirked beside him and Mack grumbled an, "I told you so."

Coulson sighed and shook his head. "Alright, now that everyone is here… let's get started." He put down the tablet in his hands. "I know we've all been down about Bobbi and Hunter's leave, and we all took a much needed two days rest. But we need to get back to work. Hydra is still out there, being bad. Ward may be gone but Gideon Malick isn't. He's the new head and we need to take him down."

Lincoln raised his hand, almost shyly. Coulson wanted to chuckle at how small the inhuman was trying to make himself when doing so. "Yes, Lincoln?"

Lincoln cleared his throat. "Will then Hydra finally be done for?"

"They better be." Simmons muttered.

Coulson and May smirked at her enthusiasm. As much as he wanted to say yes to that question though, he honestly had no idea.

"I very much hope so," Coulson sighed. "Hydra's not making too much noise right now, they know they're close to being extinct. They're being careful. Only popping out when they need to make an important move, like kidnapping Talbot's son, or inhumans— whether they got control of their powers, or just got them. No matter how silent they may go we still need to find them." He clapped his hands together. "So, any leads?"

"Short tov," Fitz said, the pen he was chewing on muffled his voice. He took the pen out to speak. "Me and Daisy have been tracking the funding of the ten offices that Gideon Malick closed. Try see see where the leftover money has been repurposed too, track the bank accounts and all of that. We got a hit. The account is old, and barely been used in the past forty semiod years, but it just became active in the... the previous month. It's under the name Nat-Nathanial— no last or other name listed. We're working on finding where it's based, maybe find an address or something."

"Nathanial Malick," Coulson supplied. "Brother to Gideon Malick, he was in a boat accident shortly after the death of his father, Wilfred Malick. He supposedly died at sea, because nothing about that situation sounds suspicious and like a cover up at all." He smirked at his own sarcastic tone.

"So a supposed dead guy now has a reactive bank account," Mack said. "You think the guy's alive?" He raised an eyebrow.

Coulson sighed. "At this point— who knows. It's possible but I highly doubt it. I think the guy really died. And the boat accident at sea leads me to believe there was no body to dispose of when it happened though."

"Sir, I believe there is a possibility he may have been a sacrifice to... It." Simmons voiced. "We know the Distant Star Pathfinder program was co-Ed by Hydra and was made for that purpose. It's possible they could have been sacrificing themselves. It…" She sighed. "Had to stay alive all those years somehow."

Coulson nodded in understanding, it was a good theory and made logical sense. But they were off track now.

"Okay, now we've solved that mystery— Hydra? Fitz, how long until you think you could gather an address?" He asked.

Fitz looked over to Daisy seeing if she wanted to respond instead... only she was having a staring contest with Coulson's desk. Her brow was furrowed and it was clearly thinking about something entirely in her own head. Fitz took it as she didn't know and responded anyways.

"Yeah, m-maybe in the next day or so." Fitz scratched the back of his neck. "Definitely by the end of the week if it's possible."

Coulson nodded again but this time absently, his focus was on Daisy. She looked deeply troubled by something and he could see the wheels turning in her mind, about what he had no clue. But nonetheless he needed her mind physically and mentally here, plus, he was worried.

"Daisy? You think you'll be able to fast track the process a little bit more, we need to know where Hydra is yesterday."

No response. Not even a twitch.

"Daisy?"

Now everyone was focused on her sharing his own concern, but she still didn't respond. Lincoln, being the closest to her nudged her side while calling out her name again. Daisy startled, she looked like she was a second away from ripping Lincoln's arm off right before realizing it was him. Her body instantly relaxed as she seemed to recognize the figures in the room.

"Daisy?" Coulson tried again. "You alright?"

She gave herself a little head shake. "Yeah, no— I'm good. I'm good, I just got a little lost in fantasy land, sorry."

"You sure you're okay?" Her reaction caused him to worry. He had a feeling whatever it was that was bothering her, it related to why she was late to the meeting in the first place.

Daisy nodded. "I'm okay, Coulson. M'sorry for zoning out."

Coulson nodded but made sure to keep an eye on her during the rest of the meeting. She was doing fine for a while, participating her knowledge and opinions like normal up until Lincoln asked about the growing presence of the Watchdogs.

"Is there a plan to do anything about them? Because they have a growing— strong presence everywhere on the internet and people are starting to side with them." Lincoln explained. Coulson also heard the hidden statement of and what they're saying it's exactly nice.

The Watchdogs made Coulson want to kill someone…. well, someone else that's not named Ward. The terrible things they say about inhumans were absolutely horrific. Saying they are: diseases in desperate need of eradication, or intruders to this earth, dangerous beings needing to be put away, not even human. They make up false facts and platitudes to hide behind.

They say even worse things that Coulson doesn't even want to begin to think about.

He didn't understand how they could get away with saying stuff like that, it made his blood boil. How could they say that to people like Daisy? Or even Lincoln?

It wasn't fair to them, to any inhuman.

Coulson sighed away his anger (It didn't work). "As much as I want to do something against them, we can't. It's a free country, people have the freedom of speech. Even if the speech is… well, there's not even a word for how wrong it is." He shook his head. "We just will have to wait until they make a wrong move."

He saw in the corner of his eyes May clenching her fists a little tighter.

"And when they do," Coulson continued. "We'll be ready."

May smirked in May fashion when it involved hurting someone, and Coulson could only imagine what was going through her head in the current moment.

At least May will be ready.

And really, that's all they'll need.

Coulson glanced at Daisy for a quick moment, slightly surprised to hear she didn't pitch in at all. He knew the Watchdogs have been putting an ache to her mood recently, she kept mentioning wanting to throttle some of them and, frankly, he desperately wanted to do the same. He's honestly surprised May hasn't snuck away recently to do just that.

But right now Daisy was quiet and again staring at the small stack of papers that were resting on his desk. He exchanged a look with May making sure she noticed it too, obviously she did.

Something was bothering Daisy and it wasn't the Watchdogs or Hydra, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

Coulson took a look at his checklist to make sure he covered everything:

Hydra

Inhumans

Inhumans they have

Dr. Buckerds

Terrigen spreading

The President

Becoming public again

Russia

Bobbi and Hunter's leave

Lash

New tech in development

Personal projects

Any leads on anything

Basically they got everything. Coulson nodded to himself then looked around the room.

"If no one has anything else they'd like to share with the class or question— I think we're done here." Everyone nodded. FitzSimmons left together, Coulson hid his smile (It's about damn time). Lincoln looked like he almost couldn't get out fast enough, not that he blamed him. And Mack, Daisy, and May didn't move an inch. May he wasn't expecting to move— Daisy, he honestly shouldn't have been surprised, but with Mack he definitely was.

Mack straighted. "I would like to request some vacation time, sir."

"Mack…" Coulson started, this was literally the worst time to take time off. "I need you here. I just lost two good agents and things are still a little hot right now even if we've gotten a few days relax. I can't lose a third, not right now. Maybe in a week or two when we have a better assessment of how things are. I need to move some people around too with the new absents, so, soon."

Mack nodded. "That's all I ask, sir." The big man said before heading out.

Daisy on the other hand still hadn't moved an inch, the little furrow was back in her brow. He approached carefully, definitely not wanting to lose a hand.

Well… another hand.

"Daisy,"

Surprisingly this time saying her name was enough to pull her back to reality with a gasp and a small look around.

"Wha—?"

Coulson eyed her wearingly. "Daisy, is something wrong?" He prodded. "You keep zoning out today, and you were late to the meeting."

"Oh please, it's not like I've never been late before." Daisy waved a hand.

"You're deflecting." May stated.

Daisy looked two seconds away from arguing before sighing and becoming deflated. "Yeah, I— I'm sorry. It's just— I didn't get really any sleep last night, I kept thinking about Bobbi and Hunter and where they are. And because of the little sleep it feels like I'm being swallowed by a vibrational hurricane. It's why I didn't notice my phone buzzing." She paused. "So, I'm sorry... again."

Coulson softened, he did notice the bags under her eyes and he knew how much the vibrations can bother her from time to time. Saving the world from modern-day Nazi's was heavy work on all of them.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for Daisy." Coulson looked at this watch. "And maybe catch up on some sleep before lunch, otherwise you probably will end up being kidnapped. It's only ten-thirty, so it's not too late."

Daisy groaned when he said the time. "Crap, I was supposed to train with Lukian thirty minutes ago."

"Daisy, get some rest— you can train the kid later." Coulson ordered. "You look exhausted."

"Thank, A.C." She spoke with sarcasm dripping in her voice.

"Daisy," May warned.

The girl sighed. "Yes, yes— I know, I know. I will."

Coulson nodded, satisfied.

"Simmons said you were looking into his family, find anything?" May questioned.

Daisy had an odd expression on her face, it was only there for a moment before falling away. Coulson made sure to put a sticky-note on that up on his mental wall.

"Maybe… I don't know, I have to keep looking. I found a lead, maybe his mom's boyfriend or something. I-I'm completely sure. But I'll keep looking. He's progressing very well with his powers, I'm hoping we'll be able to send him back home before school starts though."

Coulson raised an eyebrow at that. "Since when have you cared about attending school?"

Daisy shrugged as she made her way to the door. "He's thirteen, up 'till he's sixteen then I won't care."

Coulson chuckled as she stepped out, yet his expression faded once the door closed. Tons of thoughts were floating around in his head.

"She's hiding something." May voiced one of them.

Phil nodded, he knew that too. He wasn't an expert like May was, but Daisy wore her heart on her sleeve and on her face. Plus, he knew Daisy.

He turned to face the specialist. "You think she'll come clean on her own?"

May shook her head. "She'll talk when she figures it out. Give her a chance first, Phil."

"I'm still worried. Whatever it is— it's bothering her, a lot." Coulson said.

She rolled her eyes. "You're always worried."

"No I'm not." He protested.

"Whatever you say, Director."

"I'm not!"

"Hm-Hmm,"