The thing about Skye
Self-preservation is low on her list of concerns
The way May wakes, she knows that something has gone terribly wrong. Rough hands harshly shake her shoulders, and still, it's an effort to open her eyes. For her brain to start working.
She opens her eyes to dust and heat and smoke. May's shoulders heave as her lungs seize and she starts to cough, stirring up more dust and dirt.
"May, come on. Get up. We have to go," a voice buzzes in her ears, and it would set her on edge more if her head weren't spinning dizzily and she could process what happened. When Daisy starts tugging her to her feet before May can orient herself, she knows that it's worse than she thought.
"What happened," May slurs, putting a hand to where the pain is sharpest on her head. Her fingers come into contact with open skin and blood.
"We didn't make it in time. There was more than one bomb."
May tries to work through the information as Daisy drags her through the office space. The walls are on fire- licking hot and rolling like waves, they spill across the ceiling as well. "The civilians-"
Daisy shoots her a concerned look over her shoulder, fear creasing the corners of her eyes. "They were all evacuated. It's just us." Daisy doubles over with hacking coughs, letting go of May so she can cradle one of her arms. May tracks the movement. Notices the way it dangles limply at her side. "We have to get out of here," she wheezes. "Th-the building's coming down. I can feel it."
May shores up her resolve. Forces her fuzzy brain to work. To get them out. She can work out the specifics later once they are out of danger. Once Daisy is in a medical cot and being looked after.
"The stairs-"
Daisy shakes her head and straightens up with a grimace. "They're collapsed. This way." Daisy grasps May's arm again and hauls her forward, and May allows her to take the lead.
The ground trembles and groans under their feet. She's pretty sure it's not her head injury warping reality. The ceiling just in front of them crumbles, and Daisy shoves May away as cement and debris rain down.
"Daisy," May cries out as a big chunk bounces off the girl's shoulder, and Daisy staggers before catching her feet. Her hair is white with ash and dust. Her cheek is smudged with blood.
"Hurry," Daisy grits out, dodging around the pile and leading May deeper. The ground is a constant shift and tremble now, and she's certain it's not in her head. Even she can tell, without quake powers, that the building is coming down.
They reach the edge of the room, and what was once a wall of windows is now open space with glass fragments littering the ground and street below. Stable ground is far below. Too far to jump.
Daisy doubles over again, and May reaches out.
"Daisy, what-"
Daisy shoves May. May's eyes widen. Her heart stops. The ground falls away and Daisy grows smaller and smaller in the empty widow, staring down and arm outstretched.
Bees engulf her, surging up from the hot concrete street and pressing against her like a harsh, buzzing, wind. It catches her for only a moment before the vibrations cut off as the building May was just flung from screams and caves in.
May falls the rest of the way to the ground, slamming into it hard and then being flung farther away by a rush of wind from six stories collapsing into one.
When May finally stops rolling, she stares at the rubble numbly. "Daisy," she whispers, the air hissing out past her lips in a breathless sort of way. Her eyes stretch wider, and she surges to her feet. Well, she tries to. Her knees buckle, and she has to catch herself several times with her hands before she manages to maneuver herself into an upright position. "Daisy!"
That's when Coulson reaches her. He collides with her, arms tugging her back and holding her up all at once, but May can't take her eyes off the crumbled building. Can't stop straining toward it.
"May- May- calm down. Where's Dais-"
"She was still in there," May snarls at him, trying to shove away, but the ground isn't steady and he ends up being the only thing keeping her on her feet. "She's still in there."
Coulson's heart is racing. She can feel it under her palm as she braces against him and wheezes from the smoke.
"Okay," Coulson says. "Okay, just…" May's ears are ringing loudly, or maybe it's the clamor of sirens and screams and emergency services trying to keep the gawking crowd back. May can hear Coulson clearly, though. The strain and fear.
It's a rare thing to hear that fear in his voice. It's more reassuring than the carefully constructed calm. Because May knows that he loves Daisy just as much as she does. That there isn't anything in the world that will keep him from finding her and bringing her home again.
Even as he passes her off to frenzied EMTs, May watches Coulson. Watches his eyes that are already trained on the rubble, and as soon as she's being led off, he's running toward it.
It's reassuring to see him so frantic. So panicked. Daisy doesn't need calm. She needs someone to tear the world apart- to split the Earth in half for her- like she would do for any of them. Maybe then she might realize that she's just as important.
…..
Hours pass. As each minute drags on, Daisy can feel them. Under the pain, and the blood, and the crushing sensation, she can feel them buzzing under her skin, looking for her.
She's good and trapped. Her legs are pinned under a concrete pillar and one of her arms is useless. She hesitantly tried her powers a few times, but it only caused more dust and rocks to fall down on her, and she hastily stopped. She's not in a hurry to try again.
Daisy can feel them above her, frantically looking. She breathes shallowly. She doesn't know anymore if it's to avoid inhaling dust or because her lungs won't inflate. All things considered, she got lucky. She wasn't completely flattened, at least.
She knows they are looking for her. She can feel Coulson up top, directing the search. She can feel May close by- her vibrations injured and disoriented, but alive. She can feel Jemma and Fitz skirting the debris- their drones' electronic buzzing harsher than the human vibrations. She can feel the dozens of first responders sifting through the rubble that sometimes sends more dust floating down on Daisy that then gets stuck in her lungs.
She knows it's just a matter of time before they find her. It's just… maybe she can take a nap while she waits. She's so tired, and her arm hurts, and she doesn't want to think about the lack of pain in her legs.
There is a heady, heavy, airiness to her head that's been trying to pull her unconscious, but she's been fighting it off for a while. Maybe just a short nap. It doesn't look like they're going to find her for a while yet. They're looking in the wrong spot.
Daisy's eyes drift closed. She takes another shallow breath.
They'll get here eventually.
…..
It's getting dark by the time Doppy picks up on a life-form and Fitz gives an excited shout. May immediately swings her legs out of the gurney she'd been forced onto, and when the medic moves to stop her, she snatches up the scalpel she's so far restrained herself from reaching for.
The EMT takes a stuttering step back, and May uses the opportunity to finally swing out of the back of the vehicle (she hadn't allowed them to drive off with her). The world spins and dips as she jumps down to the ground, but her thoughts are working better than they were before, so she's functional enough.
She pushes into the thick of it where the rescue crew immediately sets about moving chunks of debris from where their resident geniuses anxiously direct them. Coulson looks up as she approaches, and reaches out a steadying hand. May pretends that it isn't the main thing holding her up.
The seconds drag on to long minutes as the rescuers work at an excruciatingly slow pace, but slow is important in moving the rubble. Eventually, they get to a large chunk that has to be carefully slung and lifted with a heavy duty machine, and as it lifts one foot, two feet, teetering in the air, one of the workers gives a shout.
They see her. They see her. Coulson leaves May standing on shaky legs and lunges for the hole, peering down into the crumbled space on hands and knees, and his suit can't possibly get further dirty and torn, but it somehow does.
"Daisy! Daisy!" he calls, laying flat on his stomach as the firemen work to produce a hasty propulsion system.
Simmons suddenly darts forward, snatching the drone control right out of Fitz's hands. He doesn't give any protest. "Don't touch her!" she shouts as she comes to the mouth of the hole and peers down at the men already inside. May's heart jolts at the yell.
May can't see. She can't see what's going on, but she knows that Daisy's right there. Getting closer is hard. Her balance has left her, but she picks her way over anyway, hands splayed on large chunks of rock and plaster.
Eventually, she makes it next to Coulson, and falls to her hands and knees. Desperately, she looks over the edge.
A little girl flashes before her eyes. Limp and bloody from a bullet in her brain. So small, crumbled on the ground with a pool of blood spreading out, still reaching for May. May blinks, and it's worse, because it's Daisy looking so small. Her eyes are closed- the bags under them looking even darker from the unnatural paleness of her skin- made so by dust and blood loss.
The concrete around her is smeared red, and she can't even see half of the unconscious girl's body. It's trapped under a slab of stone as wide as a car.
Simmons' voice sounds sharp and authoritative, and May desperately tunes into her words. "She's been stuck like that long enough that she could have developed crush syndrome, and if you lift it now, she could be dead in minutes. Just give me a few seconds. Fitz, did you-"
"Yes, yes, I did it. You just have to-"
"I know, I got it-"
All seven of the drones descend into the hole, scanning Daisy, and the rock, and Daisy under the rock.
"Alright," she says, voice tight but entirely in control. "Alright, she has a fracture in her left tibia and fibula. It looks like an open fracture and the weight is stemming a lot of the blood. We need to get this slab off now, or she could lose her leg."
May's mouth is full of cement, but Coulson's isn't as he looks toward the chemist anxiously. "What about-"
"It should be fine," Simmons cuts off firmly, and May might be more inclined to trust her certainty if her knuckles weren't wrapped white around the controller.
They move quickly after that. The crane is utilized again, and then suddenly Daisy is at the surface getting strapped to a carrying board, and May can't move. Her damn body won't move, and Daisy looks so small being rushed towards the ambulance May abandoned, and suddenly May wants to be back there, sitting on the gurney, and waiting for Daisy to join her.
She's useless. May is useless right now, and she absolutely hates it.
Daisy's board is carefully but quickly taken past May, and she reaches out. Her fingers graze grimey, cold, and bloody ones, and then Daisy's being carried away.
"Come on. Let's meet our girl at the hospital. Jemma will ride with her and make sure she doesn't get herself into any more trouble."
Damn it, Daisy. "She's so grounded when we get home," May mutters weakly as Coulson helps her to her unsteady feet. He laughs, and it's too loud, too orotund, but May gets it. Feeling so tense and terrified that you just want to burst into uproarious, inappropriate, laughter the second there is a fraction of relief.
May lets him help her out of the rubble and toward one of the SHIELD vehicles. She doesn't know if she could have made it on her own.
A/N: Daisy being Daisy and giving everyone heart attacks. Please let me know what you think. This might be the last one for about a week, depending on how the internet functions where I'm going to be going, but I'll be back soon if it's not working. I still have a few more idea before I run out.
~Silver~