A/N: Sorry for no stories for this collection in a long time. I have several I'm working on, I just haven't finished them, too distracted by other projects. But I did come up with this and another Christmas-based story, and get them finished. The other Christmas story will be posted closer to Christmas (or maybe Christmas Day).

Also, I've shifted 5x14 to occur shortly before Christmas, just because I wanted to incorporate that.

Fitz climbed down from the ladder and said, "Flip it on, Daisy."

He had just finished hanging the last of the Christmas lights on the outside of the Lighthouse, and now it was time to turn them on and see how they looked.

It had taken a lot of persuading, but Daisy and Simmons had finally convinced Coulson that it would be completely normal for the owners of a lighthouse to decorate the outside of it and the grounds around it in Christmas lights, and that it wouldn't send up any red flags that a top-secret facility lay beneath said lighthouse. They didn't think Coulson had actually bought their argument, but he'd finally relented anyway, and gave them his permission to hang their Christmas lights. But that had been several weeks before, and life as SHIELD agents had crashed down around them, and they were just now finding time to actually put up the lights they'd had Deke buy for them from the local shop, since none of them could be seen in town without risking immediately being arrested.

But now that they did finally have a few spare hours in which they could hang the lights, it had also taken Simmons a lot of convincing to persuade Daisy both to let Fitz help them hang the lights, and to take the time off from searching for Coulson to hang them at all.

It had only been four days since Fitz, as Leopold, had cut the inhibitor out of the younger girl's neck, and she still hated him for both cutting it out of her in the first place, and then refusing to be sorry for having done so, only sorry that that was the way he had to do it. And in those four days, the search for Coulson hadn't been going very well either, so all in all the acting director was not in a very lenient mood.

But after begging her all morning, Simmons had finally convinced her wife that hanging the lights, and letting their husband help them hang the lights, was the best way to get Daisy's mind off the fact Coulson was still missing. The rest of the team was doing everything they could to find the Director and bring him home (especially in time for Christmas), and he would really appreciate seeing the lights he'd finally given them permission to hang actually up, and see them keeping traditions in his absence. The search wouldn't suffer any from Daisy and Simmons taking a few hours off, and including Fitz would be a good chance for the two of them to peaceably work out some of their problems with each other in the crisp, fresh December air — or at the very least lessen the open hostility between them some.

So finally as she ate lunch with Simmons that day, Daisy relented to letting Fitz out of his cell for the afternoon to help his wives hang Christmas lights, under threat that she'd quake him into tomorrow and the hospital wing of the Lighthouse if he put so much as one toe out of line.

And so now the three of them were all outside, working together again for the first time in almost week. Over the few hours they had been out there, Daisy had lightened up considerably, and even started laughing and joking some with her husband again. At times the silence that would fall between them as they worked could become rather tense again, but for the most part things were going well. At least for a few hours, all of their relationship struggles were pushed out of their minds.

So when Fitz said, "Flip it on, Daisy," it was a full of Christmas cheer Daisy who plugged the power cord in, and smiled brightly as the light display they'd created together lit up.

"Beautiful!" gasped Simmons as she stood in the yard in front of the Lighthouse looking at what they'd made.

After Daisy walked over to stand by her wife's side to marvel in their Christmas creation, Fitz slowly moved towards them as well, still unsure of exactly how Daisy would accept his close physical proximity even after a mostly pleasant afternoon between them. They had returned for the most part to the joking and talking and messing around with each other that they'd had before he'd gone all Leopold on her, but he'd also noticed that she'd subtly, or perhaps unconsciously, kept her physical distance from him all afternoon unless she had to. But he hoped they were at least good enough at the moment that he could stand within a few feet of her, Simmons standing between them.

But as he approached, Simmons slid slightly away from Daisy, creating a small gap between her and their wife, a clear unspoken request for him to stand between them, directly next to Daisy. So trusting the girl who knew him better than he even knew himself, he quietly slid into the space between them, hesitantly slipping his arms around both their waists, gently pulling them into his sides.

Simmons complied without hesitation, nestling into her husband's side like there was nothing in the world she'd rather do, wrapping her own arm around his waist. Daisy was a little more reluctant, but she let him pull her gently up against him without saying anything, and after a few seconds of slight stiffness, finally relaxed into his side and leaned her head against his shoulder like old times.

They stood there like that in silence for a long time, enjoying each other and the lights they'd hung up in the slowly darkening evening, until eventually Daisy spoke softly into the calm night air.

"We're still not completely okay, but Jemma was right — this helped."

Fitz didn't reply with words, instead turning his head slightly to kiss the top of her hair, and slid his hand up from her waist to run gently up and down her arm. Daisy may not have had the same psychic link with him that he shared with Simmons, but his meaning was still loud and clear to her.

They were going to be okay eventually, and for now it was nice just to all be together again, basking in the literal glow of something they had created together, even if it was just hanging Christmas lights.