Chapter 5

When Daisy got back to her apartment, she immediately called up her dad just to see how he was doing. She hadn't spoken to him since the night of his wedding, when he whooshed Pepper away to Tahiti, and, to be perfectly honest, she missed him. On crazy days Daisy always missed her dad.

It wasn't her dad who answered though, which really wasn't all that bad a thing. "Hey Daisy, how's DC?" Pepper questioned, answering Tony's phone like it was no big deal. (And really it wasn't. She'd been answering his calls for decades before she was even his wife.)

"It's nice. How's Tahiti?"

"Great," Pepper replied cheerfully. "You should go some time. Maybe take Steve with you."

Daisy wanted to hit her head on a wall. Wow. She was a really, really, really bad spy. "By God tell me dad doesn't know."

"Nope, but he's the only one," Pepper's voice sounded mischievous, much more like the older sister than a mother. "Maria Hill called wanting to know if she should prepare a coffin for Steve or for you."

This time Daisy literally did hit her head on a wall. "I'll tell him, I will. Just after I've disabled all his suits and locked him in a nuclear bunker."

Pepper laughed, and sounded more like a mom when she spoke again, "Really Daisy, I'm happy for you. He's a good guy, but even good guys can hurt you, okay? So just be careful and use protecti…"

"Okay you can stop talking now," Daisy interrupted glad Pepper couldn't see her face. "I really hope dad isn't standing there."

"Don't worry, he's just coming in now," Pepper assured, before yelling away from the phone, "Tony, Daisy's on the line."

There was the sound of shuffling, and perhaps some kissing, before Tony's voice rang, "Hey kid. How is the new apartment?"

"It's good," Daisy promised, looking around what she was slowly going to make into a home. "At least no one has yet to have a brawl in it and completely destroy everything…"

Daisy could feel him wanting to say that was only one time, but they both knew it wasn't true. It seemed everywhere Tony went there was trouble, and so Daisy had seen a fair bit of trouble as well. "Let's hope it stays that way."

"Yeah…" As much as Daisy missed her father, their conversations tended to end up like this, with one of them unsure what to say, and the other panicking to hang up. "I'll let you and Pepper get on with your day. It's kinda late here."

Tony knew it was only a 16 hour difference, and so it couldn't be past nine, but he still just answered, "Night", and hung up. Daisy didn't really mind the awkwardness; she was used to it. That had been their relationship for a long time. It wasn't that they were awkward around each other, but that they were both awkward in general, and struggled to keep up a meaningful conversation with anyone, especially not someone who struggled with the same. It was okay though. That was just Daisy's relationship with her father, and she liked her relationship with her father.

The next day, when Daisy got to the Triskelion, she had a message that she was wanted by Secretary Pierce. Shocked and scared, Daisy made her way towards the elevator, certain he knew she'd looked at Sharon's file. Perhaps she didn't know the man well, but Daisy could practically hear his rant. "I go and help you move up, and this is how you repay me- with treason." And then they'd drag her away and lock her up; she just knew it.

Secretary Pierce was smiling at his desk when Daisy arrived, and motioned for the girl to sit. "Try a cannoli," he offered her, holding out a tray of the desserts. Daisy shook her head, confused, but suspecting that those charged with high-treason aren't usually given dessert first. Then again, this was S.H.I.E.L.D. For all Daisy knew the treats were actually laced with truth serum or something. (Fitz had once told her that Jemma was working on something like that. Daisy wouldn't have been surprised if her friend had succeeded in the years since.)

"You know I wasn't aware that you had designed our current security system until yesterday," Pierce finally admitted, after drawing out the silence by eating a cannoli. "But after I saw what you did with Miss Carter's file I did some research. That's quite impressive you know."

Perhaps her father had never been big on manners, but the nuns of St. Agnes were. "Thank you."

"You know Daisy, I wasn't perfectly honest when we first met," he admitted, lifting his eyes up towards her slightly to make him look extra mysterious. And yet, as ridiculous as it sounds, it worked. Daisy found herself hanging onto his every word. "See I'd heard a bit about you, but I really wanted you to move to D.C. because I think you and I share a vision. We can both see what no one else around here does."

Daisy had met supervillains before, and so she was hesitant in her response, "What is this we see?"

"That S.H.I.E.L.D isn't perfect." Okay, Daisy could agree with that. This was, after all, the organization that agreed to send an eighteen-year-old girl on the run for days as a training exercise. "That perhaps there are games Fury is playing that we don't know all the rules of. You like to know the rules, or you wouldn't have cared why there was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent living across from Captain Rodgers."

Daisy was well, well aware of Fury's games. She'd been manipulated into meeting all the Avengers, and in the end she'd probably be what stopped them from fighting each other in a civil war. Fury loved games, and saw everyone as pieces. Daisy saw them as people, people who often didn't realize they weren't making up the rules. "I think that S.H.I.E.L.D needs to be more transparent, especially with its own agents. Within limits of course, like we shouldn't let the Rising Tide have free reign of our servers."

"You're a smart girl," Pierce assured with a nod. "I think you'd be wise to accept that you're beyond security clearances and read up on what S.H.I.E.L.D's really up to. Things are going to start changing around here Daisy, two years from now and you might just find yourself on the top should you have the courage to really get an understanding of all of S.H.I.E.L.D. You understand?"

Daisy did. Daisy certainly understood. She understood that the Secretary of the World Security Council just gave her permission to read any and all S.H.I.E.L.D files, so that she'd be ready for her chance, the chance that was right around the corner. She understood that he was doing this for her, because in his mind they were alike. And most importantly, Daisy understood that he was someone who believed in her fully, and didn't want to hold her back for safety's sake. She understood that that was exactly what she needed.

"Thank you Secretary Pierce. I understand completely."

"That's my girl, now get back to work. And tell that boyfriend of yours I'm a huge fan of the way he destroyed Hydra so completely," Pierce replied, standing to open the door. "I'll see you soon Daisy, and we can discuss what you've done."

Daisy nodded, and returned to her pitiful work with a feeling of elation. She'd been right about the answers being at the Triskelion. Finally she was going to make a difference. Finally she was going to get her chance to be the hero. And all she had to do was read.

"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to go see a movie tonight," Steve asked her a few hours later. "I still can't get over them being in color."

And so that's how Daisy's life became what it was for the next month. By day she worked for S.H.I.E.L.D, during the evenings she fell for Steve, and at night she combed through the files of S.H.I.E.L.D, learning everything she possibly could, and more than she ever imagined.