The next few weeks passed with little incident, and the school semester approached with an ominous kind of certainty, crawling up to Daisy like a shadow. School wasn't so bad. Often it was an escape from parents, from the foster family's cold, empty house. Still, she had promised. And she couldn't just not go to school. Not while she was living with Phil and Melinda.

Phil drove to school and Daisy sat in the passenger seat, fiddling with the straps on her backpack.

"Are you nervous?"

"No!" Daisy exclaimed, much too quickly to be convincing.

Phil glanced at her and she sighed. "A little." She conceded. "I don't know, I- school's never been that bad. I shouldn't be nervous."

Phil smiled. "Hey, it's a new place with new people. Anyone would be nervous about that." He stopped at a red light. "You can tell us all about it tonight, okay? I'll make something nice for dinner."

Daisy forced a smile. "Okay. Thanks." She was trying to be better. She'd gone to therapy like Phil had asked, and she'd talked even though she hated it. In the end she still couldn't say she liked therapy, but that tied with May teaching her tai chi, helped her control her emotions. Sometimes.

Phil pulled into a parking space. "Okay, have a great day." He said. "I'll see you later."

Daisy nodded. "Thanks." She said, feeling a little better. "Have fun at work, old man."

Phil grinned, delighted. "Don't get into too much trouble young lady." He said cheekily, remembering how they had first 'met'.

Daisy smiled, opening the door. "See you later."

Phil nodded, "Have fun."

Daisy closed the car door, hiking her bag up onto her back. She approached the main entrance and took a deep breath.

She could do this.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Daisy tried not to hurry to get out of school at the end of the day. She didn't want to seem desperate. No one had yet picked up on how she didn't call Phil and Melinda Dad and Mom, and she hoped it could stay that way, at least for a while. Everyone thought she was normal. For now.

She looked around through the crowds of people and eventually caught sight of their car. On approaching it, however, she found something unexpected. "May?"

Melinda looked up from her phone, that smile that wasn't really a smile coming across her face when she saw Daisy. "Hey." She greeted. "Phil had to go out on a mission, he won't be back until tomorrow."

"Oh." Suddenly the sun didn't feel so warm. Phil had just... left?

"He sends his apologies." May tried, seeing how unnerved Daisy was at the news. "It was last minute."

Daisy shook herself. "Yeah, of course, I-I get it. Duty calls and all."

She tossed her bag into the back seat and found that May was still watching her. "You good?" May asked softly, and Daisy nodded.

"Yeah." She said, "I'm fine."

"Good." May said, sliding into the drivers seat. Daisy was noticeably silent as they drove home. "How was school?" She asked. She was meant to ask about that, right?

Daisy shrugged. "It was okay. How was work?"

May's eyes narrowed, not sure if Daisy was trying to deflect or if she was just being polite. "Fine. Denied a lot of specialists' requests."

"Like what?" Daisy asked, only half paying attention.

"Like a pair of mechanical wings. What classes did you have?"

"What?" Now she had a bit more animation to her. "Mechanical wings? You have those?"

May raised and eyebrow and Daisy sighed in frustration. "I had English, Math, Geography, Chemistry, Spanish and History. It was boring."

Melinda hummed in acknowledgement. "Did you make any friends?"

Daisy groaned. "I- no? I don't know."

"We have mechanical wings." May said, relenting in the face of Daisy's frustration. "But they're experimental."

"Cool." Daisy muttered. "So, uuh- what should we do tonight? I mean, Phil usually cooks, what do we do?"

They stopped at a red light and May took the opportunity to look at Daisy. "Can you cook?"

Daisy stuttered. "I-uh, not really."

She nodded. "Take-out it is." Daisy smiled tentatively and May moved the car forwards. "I usually get a lot of spicy Chinese food when Phil's out of town, does that sound okay?"

Daisy beamed. "That sounds awesome."

For the first time, a genuine smile came across May's face. "Good. I never get it when Phil's around, just looking at the food makes his eyes start watering."

Daisy sniggered. "I can so see that." She grinned. "I can seriously eat anything though, anything."

"Challenge accepted."

Daisy passed off the ordering duties to May, knowing that she probably had some kind of favourite order, but she was surprised that she checked with her on everything first. Daisy reiterated her claim about being able to eat anything, May rolled her eyes, and they made their order.

Melinda noticed that Daisy seemed to open up more as time passed. School had probably just drained her. "So what other electives are you taking?"

Daisy leaned back into the couch, her eyes flickering to the door every now and then, clearly waiting for the food to arrive. "Computer Science." She said with a grin. "And Art."

May raised an eyebrow. "I don't think there's much they can teach you in Computer Science."

"Yeah, but they let me take it."

May rolled her eyes. "Well I'm sure it'll be fun. Besides, they let me take P.E. when I was at school. Didn't matter that I was a black belt."

Daisy's face lit up. "You were? I mean, you are?!"

Melinda shrugged. "Sure." She said, surprised that Daisy was so excited about it.

"Awesome." Daisy grinned. She knew that May could defend herself, but being some kind of epic ninja was something else entirely.

"I could teach you some time." May suggested innocently. "You've been picking up tai chi pretty well."

Daisy's eyes widened. "I- yeah, totally!" She said, and before she could say anything else there was a knock on the door.

Melinda stood, went to the door, and handed the delivery kid the money, as well as a generous tip. She turned back to Daisy, holding up the loaded bag. "This is how I make dinner."

Daisy beamed. "I love it."

May put the bags down on the little table and nudged Daisy. "Come on, help with plates. You want a drink?"

"Gin?" Daisy asked jokingly, and then when May gave her a hard stare, muttered, "Okay, lemonade. Jeez, I was just joking."

A grin cracked through Melinda's facade and Daisy realised that maybe she was joking too. That was a nice thought.

Daisy carried the plates over to the living room, sitting down just as May appeared with chopsticks and two lemonades.

"Movie?" May suggested innocently.

Daisy shrugged. "Sure."

She was surprised but not displeased to find that the movie was entirely in Chinese, with English subtitles. Daisy wondered if May had only added them for her benefit. It was nice though, it was good. She'd never had anyone to show her anything about Chinese culture, and it was supposed to be part of her. That was what people said, at least.

Unfortunately, it was really hard to concentrate on trying to use chopsticks while at the same time trying to read subtitles on the screen.

It didn't take May long to notice. She cocked her head. "You can't use chopsticks?"

Daisy shrugged. "No one ever showed me how." She muttered, spearing a piece of chicken on one.

May winced internally. Of course no one had. She paused the movie, "I'll get you a fork. That'll be easier."

"No!" Daisy exclaimed, then shrunk, realising that she had raised her voice. "I mean, I wanna learn."

"Okay." May said softly. "I'll show you." She bit the inside of her lip. Maria said to apologise when they got things wrong, to prove to Daisy that everyone made mistakes, to prove that they didn't want to hurt her or make her feel stupid. She'd never been good at that. "Sorry for assuming."

Daisy looked startled. "It's okay." She said. "I guess most people my age know how."

May grimaced and shook her head. "No way. Phil didn't know how until we met." When Daisy smiled, she held up her hand, empty. "Okay, so first get your hand like this," May said, demonstrating. "First chopstick you can hold here, like a pen, then the other goes like this."

Daisy tried, getting the feel of it. "Okay, I think I get it."

May nodded. "Not bad. Try moving that one a little further up."

Daisy did so and immediately nodded in satisfaction. "Oh yeah, that's way better. Thanks." She said a little shyly.

"No problem." May said, starting up the movie.

She noticed the attention Daisy paid to certain words and phrases, mouthing them along afterwards, trying to get a feel for the language. She chose not to comment, but did note bitterly that Daisy's school didn't offer Chinese. She needed this. At first Melinda thought it was just Daisy trying to score points, but that wasn't it.

"You know," She said. "When I was a kid I didn't understand why my parents wanted me to eat with chopsticks."

Daisy looked up. "Really?"

Melinda shrugged, the movie droning in the background. "All the other kids had sandwiches for lunch. I had noodles with chopsticks and a lot of them made fun of me."

Daisy hesitated. "You don't seem- I mean- you're not..."

"Weird?" May filled in, knowing that Daisy wouldn't say it. "I was though. It was the late sixties and I was a little Chinese girl in a mostly white school. I was different."

"Not in a bad way though."

May chewed thoughtfully on a spring roll. "No kid is different in a bad way." She eventually said. She wanted to say more, but she didn't know how.

Daisy shook herself. "I mean, I know that we're not supposed to say that, but-"

"No." May interrupted firmly. "I spent too long as the only woman in the specialist training course to think of being who I am as something that's a problem to be fixed. If I'd have listened to my classmates when they laughed at me for being five foot three I'd have never kicked all of their asses."

Daisy's fists clenched and she looked down. "But you're strong." She muttered. "You're allowed to be different- if you're strong."

"You're strong too." May said, aware that this conversation was veering directly into territory that she wasn't good at dealing with. She had to try though. "And no one gets to tell you what you can and can't be. Got it?"

Daisy nodded. "Okay." She said softly, putting down the food. She suddenly felt quite full.

May decided not to push and instead fell silent, watching the movie. The tension vanished a few minutes later when she heard Daisy whispering phrases under her breath again. This was nice. Nowhere near as awkward as she'd expected.

She was feeling so heavy and tired by the time the movie wrapped up that she didn't immediately pause it when the credits rolled, instead letting them go on into blackness. Just as Melinda was about to suggest ice cream, Daisy broke the silence. "What's in your nightmares?"

It took less than a second for that terrified, clammy feeling to clutch at her chest and her breath to catch in her throat. May swallowed. "What's in yours?"

Daisy looked down. She didn't know if Phil and Melinda knew she had bad dreams. Though she was becoming more and more convinced that May knew everything. "I asked first." She said weakly.

May caught herself from clamming up. From snapping and getting angry so that Daisy would drop it. She liked this kid, and if the two of them were ever going to bond, Melinda knew that she needed to trust her.

Still. That didn't make it easy. "I-" May started, immediately breaking off. "I see myself... hurting people I care about." She paused. "Missions, but then I look back and..." There. Done. Definitely enough to satisfy Daisy, and she didn't have to tell her about Bahrain. Didn't have to face that.

Daisy tried to think of something to say, but could only find it in her to say, "I'm sorry."

The warmth of May's smile struck her, sending a warm kind of peace inside of her.

"Thank you." Melinda murmured. She did feel a little better, for whatever reason. She watched Daisy silently, waiting for her to speak.

Daisy spent a few moments evening out her breathing like May had taught her. "They come back for me." She whispered after a long minute of silence. "They come and take me away like me being here was all just a mistake and... I'm back with them." She felt stupid saying it, selfish even. May was scared for other people. Daisy was just scared for her own skin. Shouldn't she worry about the people she loved too?

That said, when she thought of the people she loved, she mostly drew up a blank.

Mostly. "They won't come for you." May said.

Daisy swallowed. "I know." But what if they do? That scared voice inside asked.

May seemed to sense the fear, illogical and stupid though it was. "And if they did," She continued. "I would stop them." There was a steel in her voice and in her eyes that Daisy hadn't seen before. A steel that she knew would fight for her.

"I believe you." The words slipped out before Daisy even noticed. She shook herself, "I-I mean, thank you."

"No problem." Melinda murmured. "Ice cream?"

Daisy smiled. "That sounds great."