Getting Home — Chapter Fifteen
"Remember, Luke, no powers— okay? No one can know, not even your family."
Lukian grimaced lightly, Daisy still caught it. "Yeah, yeah, I got it. Everything's a secret… Blah— Blah— Blah— Blah…" His head bounced from side to side as he spoke.
Daisy stared at him. "Lukian, I'm serious."
His expression grew innocent. "I'm very serious. I'm the most serious person on the planet." Daisy chuckled and shoved his shoulder.
"Alright, Mr. Earnest, what floor?" She asked.
"Fifth," Lukian answered. "Race you to the top!" He took off running.
"Hey!" Mack whisper yelled. "It's five-forty in the morning, keep it down."
Daisy turned back around to face Mack. "It's Wednesday, anyone who doesn't want to get fired is already up." She started sprinting up the stairs in haste to catch up with the kid.
"Tremors, wait— ugh."
Even with her twenty-four-hour fitness plan she still couldn't catch up with the teen. He was damn fast and climb the stairs like lava was rising below them. Once she did reach the top floor she was impressed by the fact he wasn't out of breath or sweating at all. Granted neither was she but Melinda May was her S.O— he just played baseball. Or at least she only thought he played baseball, who knows, he could be a running junkie too.
Lukian smirked at her. "Good race," Mischief sparkled in his eyes.
"Hmm-hm. Totally," She agreed. "You cheater."
"Cheater?! How the hell did I cheat? How could I have? This isn't Uno."
Ha! She knew it!
"Ah, so you do admit you cheated at Uno!"
Lukian looked too smug for his own good, he shrugged. "For a spy, you pay terrible attention to people's movements."
She narrowed her eyes. "I'm going to get you back for this, maybe with some of that blackmail material I have."
He starred at her for a long moment. "You're bluffing," He stated.
The fact he knew that was scary. Like how did he know that?
Daisy smiled. "I'm not." The lie came to her easily.
He raised an eyebrow. "Sure," He didn't sound or look all that convinced.
At that point, Mack and Lather had caught up to her and the kid. Mack nodded in acknowledgment at them. "What door, Turbine?"
Daisy looked down the hallway. The walls were painted a dark brown making the area seem smaller than it was, all the doors to apartments were a forest green color. The doors themselves were metal or something magnetic at least judging from the many reefs hung up by strong magnets. The lighting in the hallway was dimmed to a low setting probably due to the time to not disturb anyone, but for anyone passing by they could still see well enough to get by. The hallway and staircases were decently clean and when they passed the neighborhood it didn't look dodgy. Satisfied with that, Daisy followed Lukian down the coffee-colored hallway.
He went down to the very end of the hall on their right, stopped and had a hand up ready to knock then paused and promptly turned around. Both Daisy, Mack, and Lather looked at him like he was crazy.
Lukian took a breath before explaining. "I told you I move around a lot. I was only here a month before going to Hydra's summer sleepaway camp."
Daisy walked up to him, she resisted the urge to put a hand on his shoulder. "I totally get it, I moved around a lot too and half the time when coming home from school I would get entire buildings wrong sometimes. But are you absolutely sure that this is where you live?" Daisy gestured to the apartment door that said 5K.
He shrugged. "Eh, it's like twenty-eighty." Lukian flashed her a grin. "If not we can always visit every apartment in Queens to make sure." He joked.
"We need to hurry this up, the director wanted us back by ten." Lather reminded them while glazing at his watch.
Daisy rolled her eyes. "O-kay, eager beaver, it's fine, we've got time." She looked back to the kid. "Do you want to do the honors?" She asked.
After a long moment of trepidation, Lukian hesitantly knocked on the door.
A few seconds after, he rang the bell.
Daisy knew he had short patience, however, it was freaking five in the morning— give them a minute. He was about to ring the doorbell again when Daisy grabbed his hand since she had seen an eye peeking through the peephole. Less than a moment later the door flew open to a woman with messy dirty blonde hair, a dark grey bathrobe hugging her, and an extremely relieved/ worried expression on her face. Daisy recognized her to be Leona Halloway.
"Lukian?" She whispered. The woman quickly pulled him into a hug. "Oh-my-god. Thank goodness you're alright, Oh my god." She began to cradle Lukian's head and shoulders in her arms.
Daisy, Mack, and Agent Lather stayed back and observed the interaction, she and Mack exchanged a small glance between each other. This woman generally did seem concerned for her son's safety— she was even shedding a few tears as she clutched him. In the woman's eyes, she could see the genuine heartbreak of his disappearance and the happiness of seeing Lukian again. This woman wasn't acting to put on a farce, Daisy could tell. However, Daisy could also see Lukian's body was stiff and he gave little to no effort to hug her back.
She knew very well from experience that not everyone is what they seem to be at first glance, even if they were being genuine. Some people were shit people and made their actions justified by their own shitty reasons. As much as she hated Ward, he was right about one thing at least.
Everyone does look clean on the first check.
Eventually, Lukian did lean into the hug a little bit and slightly relaxed. Leona kissed the top of her son's head as she silently sobbed. Slowly Leona pulled away from the hug, yet she still kept her hands firmly on her son's shoulders— fearing he'd disappeared again. Daisy could see it in her eyes.
Leona started scanning Lukian up and down for injuries. "Are you alright? We were all so worried about you— I filed a police report, there was a whole investigation. But after a month they j-just— stopped looking. I argued with them for hours on end to continue… C-Celeb, he-he tried everything…." Her voice was breaking during the last part, tears were strolling down the woman's cheeks.
Lukian exchanged a small glance with Daisy and Mack before giving a sheepish grin. "I was kidnapped?"
His voice was raised an octave making it sound almost like a question. The kid merely shrugged his shoulders as Leona nearly fell apart all over again. She huffed a wet laugh. "I know, sweetheart, I know. I'm so sorry." She pulled him close and touched her lips to his sandy-colored hair again. It was then when she finally made eye contact with Daisy, Mack, then Agent Lather, suddenly making the realization that there was someone else there.
"L-Let's go inside, I'll make you some hot cocoa, does that sound good?"
Lukian simply shrugged, not caring. Leona guided him through the doorway by his shoulders but she didn't move.
"Are one of you the agent who called yesterday? I have so many questions—" She cleared her throat and wiped her cheeks with her left palm. "Do I have you to thank f-for returning him to me?"
Daisy unfolded her handed behind her back and held her right out. Leona shook it after a moment. "I'm Agent Julia Powers, this is Agent Teddy Soportar," She gestured to Mack— who glared relentlessly back at her smug smile. It took a lot of May's training to not burst into laughter. Daisy pointed to Lather. "And this is Agent Mark Olson. We're CIA, as I'm sure you know by now." Daisy glanced down at her fake CIA garb and grabbed her (very real) government badge to show her.
"We were just doing our job, ma'am," Mack stated.
"Well I want to thank you anyways, in fact, I need to." She gestured to the door. "Please, come in,"
Daisy looked to Mack to see his thoughts on this, she could tell he had his reservations— they shouldn't stay long. Like Lather said they had to be back by ten, eh, Coulson could wait an extra hour. Plus they needed to make it one-hundred percent sure that Lukian was in a safe environment, they had to.
"Alright," Mack agreed. "Agent Olson, go back to the car, we'll meet you there when we're done."
Lather nodded rather reluctantly. "Yes, sir." He walked away.
As they walked in, Daisy looked around with observant eyes— she could see Mack doing the very same. It was a fairly big apartment— open floor plan, nice great windows overlooking a park. There were big blue curtains that were shielding the morning sunlight that was peaking through. The apartment had two hallways at opposite ends of the room, leading to the bedrooms— Daisy assumed. The place was overall decorated incredibly well, it looked very homey and welcoming. For some reason her eyes started searching for escape routes— she immediately recognized the habit and forced herself to stop.
Nothing was going to happen, Daisy told herself over and over again, hopefully not here at least.
The kid was sitting on one of the bar stools at the kitchen island, she could tell he was being skittish. He was staring at his folded hands and was fidgeting with his bracelet. His knee was also swaying back and forth. That was all of his tells habits right there.
"Please have a seat," Leona slid into the kitchen and got to work. "What would you like? Tea, coffee, water, also hot cocoa?"
Mack nodded. "Coffee is fine, Ma'am, thank you."
Just then they all heard a squeak in the floorboard, she felt the vibrations of a very tired person behind her as well as the vibrations of their steps that were sent through the floor.
Daisy quickly whipped in her stool to see who it was; her right hand was resting on her hip to have close access to her gun (it was an ICER), just in case. But after seeing a tall, scruffy-looking man carrying a worried expression she relaxed. Daisy recognized the man from the photos: Celeb Dougg. She wasn't sure why she was so jumpy— maybe it was the environment? It was reminding her of too many foster homes.
"I thought I heard some voices. Is everything alri—?" The man stopped short at the sign of the kid. "Lukian! You're here!"
Leona smiled. "Everything is perfect, sweetie."
Lukian turned around with a real smile. "Hey, Mr. Dougg."
Celeb was now in the kitchen helping Leona, he broke out in a dopey grin. To be honest, rather than Trip's— it reminded her of Coulson's a small bit.
Fatherly.
"Kid, how many times have I told you, it's just Celeb." He ruffed the boy's hair. "Oh mate, it's so— so good to see you, I'm glad that you're all safe and sound even if it is five-thirty in the morning." He joked. "This one here," He gestured to Leona. "Worried about you every single day. She wouldn't give up on you. Neither did this whole family."
Lukian's mouth was left open like a fish. The expression was completely identical to Coulson's shocked face, though she knew Lukian wasn't shocked. He was just overwhelmed with emotion. After a minute, he mutely nodded.
Celeb refocused back on Daisy and Mack. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met,"
Daisy smiled at him and held out her hand. "I'm Agent Powers, and this is Agent Soportar. We're with the C.I.A. We aided in— Lukain's here, escape. We can't tell you too much about the operation as most of it classified, but we'll try and answer any question you guys may have."
"Detective Dougg, 99th precinct. We met up the phone, didn't we, Agent Powers?" He shook her hand.
"Yes, we did." She confirmed.
He then shook Mack's hand too.
"When you said you were bringing him home today, I hadn't thought it would be at the crack of dawn. I would've brought some of the guys over." Celeb said.
Daisy smiled sweetly. "Exactly why we did it at the crack of dawn, Detective. We've already given Lukian a full debrief. Even if the case had started out as missing persons, it was turned over to the CIA. We handled everything, there's no reason to worry or to bring any of the guys over. It's all been covered."
"CIA? You're saying he was taken out of the country?" Leona asked, realization coming to her now. Not that Daisy blamed her at the moment, her kidnapped son who went missing for four months suddenly showed up on their doorstep at five am with the only prior warning was a phone call.
Celeb's face darkened.
"England," Mack supplied.
Leona gasped. "That far?" She looked like she was going to be sick. "How? Why?"
"Because they were assholes."
Everyone turned to look at the small teenager, each adult in the room was giving a disapproving gaze at the language— well everyone but Daisy. She was smirking… slightly.
"Kelly…" Dougg scolded in the same voice he used when Anika swore.
That was good, he treated all the kids the same then, she could only hope it was all well.
The kid rolled his eyes at the scolding. "It's Lukian," He corrected, automatically it seemed. Daisy knew the feeling, Coulson still called her the wrong name and it's been almost a year now.
"He's not wrong, they are assholes." Daisy spoke. "The group who took him were based in England temporarily. The real estate there piqued their interest where nowhere else could, so-to-speak."
Celeb seemed to try to figure out what she was saying, only the puzzle was missing a few too many pieces. Leona didn't even seem to be listening to what Daisy had said— her teary eyes were locked on Lukian's arm.
"They hurt you…" She stated with a wavering voice, bringing everyone's attention to the white bandaging.
Lukian looked up, honestly surprised. "I didn't even feel it, I'm fine."
Leona looked at him like she could see through the clear lie (and funny enough, there was no lie, apparently), Celeb on the other hand merely stared at the medical wrap with a stone-cold expression. Something dark was probably shifting through his brain, little did he know, the kid just got it from being stupid.
Mack chuckled. "Yeah, Turbine here's a champ." He praised.
"Turbine?" That broke through Celeb's reserve.
"It's a nickname, Teddy likes to give everyone nicknames." Daisy clarified and couldn't help but think of that day in the med-bay.
Celeb nodded even with the ever-present confusion shown on his face. "But why Turbine though, may I ask?"
"Because they found me under a wind turbine." Lukian lied coolly, thinking fast.
Daisy was impressed and she could tell Mack was too.
"You escaped?" Celeb questioned, seeming to see what that entailed. "On your own, before they found you?"
Lukian clearly wasn't expecting that as a follow-up, he took it in stride anyway. "Yeah, there was a— a distraction. And someone else there broke me free."
"There were other hostages there?" Leona asked, looking at the agents.
Daisy exchanged a look with Mack, then nodded. "There was, but, unfortunately, they didn't all make it out." She said slowly. It was the truth, technically.
Mack smiled lightly and put a hand on Lukian's shoulder. To Daisy's surprise he didn't flinch— only tensed. The was a faraway look in his eyes, she noted. "This kid is slippery to get a hold of, those guys had nothing on him." Mack praised.
His reassurance did little for Leona who looked as if she was about to burst into tears again. Celeb looked as if he was about to ask something yet it quickly disappeared when a: "Mommy?" was heard from the hallway. "What's goin' on? Why're you being so loud?" A very young (and very tired) voice came around the corner into the open kitchen.
Kye, Daisy suspected.
And her guess was confirmed when she saw a small tuff of sandy hair, not unlike Lukian's. The six-year-old was more than half asleep when he walked straight into Leona's arms ignoring everyone else in the room. Everybody watched as the mother picked up her youngest son, not without a bit of strain though, Daisy would imagine a six-year-old being quite heavy. Lukian had an odd expression on his face— one that Daisy couldn't make out.
Leona bounced the boy on her hip to wake him up. "Hey, sweetheart, look who's here," She cooed.
Kye looked up, eyes half-closed, and gave a little wave. "Hi, daddy."
Daisy noticed the pure emotion on Dougg's face when Kye said: daddy. It no doubt must have been a recent development for the two.
Leona chuckled. "No-No, not Celeb, sweety. Look who else."
The very sleepy Kye seemed to perk up the instant he recognized Lukian. He immediately started squirming in his mother's arms to be let down. "Luke'in!" Kye cheered.
Without any hesitation, Lukian stood from his seat and prepared to be bolled into by a six-year-old. The hug Lukian got nearly sent him to the floor, yet the teen seemed to hold his ground.
"Long time no see, eh, Kye?" Lukian grinned.
Kye jumped up and down in the hug. "You're back! You're back!"
Lukian laughed at the kid's excitement.
The genuine joy on Lukian's face when Kye ran up to him could not— could ever be staged. It was then Daisy knew he would be okay here. Not because the soon-to-be stepdad was a detective (there were dirty cops), and not because they seemed like nice people— but because of their genuine pure reactions with one another. This was a true family, Daisy couldn't doubt that for a second. If she were, to be honest, this is something like she would've dreamt up as a kid back at St. Agnes. While there's no picket fence, you could feel the family love in the air.
Kye backed away from the hug with a very serious expression on his face, Daisy found it absolutely adorable. "No more leaving me again," Kye said. "You're not allowed."
Lukian's face mimics Kye's down to the very last detail, the very serious look the six-year-old held— did not hold up as well as it did on the thirteen-year-old. It was hilarious and if she wasn't CIA right now she definitely would have taken a photo. But while the teen's face told one story his eyes said another. They held emotion and a thought Daisy couldn't place herself.