Robbie needs to integrate more, still. And a touching moment with Deathlok, brought to you by me.
Also, they have to have slept at some point after rescuing Mike and Lincoln. Not sure when, but they did.
(-)
When he walked into the Engineering lab, both Fitz and Mack stopped talking to look over at him. And after that outburst, he couldn't blame them. So as soon as he approached Mack, he said, "Sorry. It's really jealous over Daisy, and that's not anything It's felt before, so we're working on handling it more…constructively."
Fitz, who was completely at ease with Robbie, said, "Well, from what you've told me, It's usually a fairly simple being with a few basic drives. You said It's been evolving into something more complex. So of course there's a learning curve."
Mack looked at Fitz and said, "You're friends with Matchstick?"
"Well, I get on with Robbie. Not sure how the Rider feels about me," Fitz said.
Robbie couldn't help but smile as he said, "You'll have to do better than that if you want to give me a nickname."
"Didn't think you'd appreciate 'Hot Head', even if it works on multiple levels," Mack said.
That actually didn't bother him. The Rider, however, wasn't amused. "Got a split vote on that one. Don't think I can sell It on 'Hot Head'."
Fitz looked between them. "Since when does Mack need anyone to sign off on his nicknames?"
"Since he's smart enough to know he doesn't want to antagonize half of this partnership every time he uses it," Robbie said.
"Not to mention Daisy wouldn't like it," Mack said in agreement.
"So you came down here to haggle over nicknames?" Fitz asked.
Robbie smiled. "No, I was on my way to check on Lucy when I realized I don't have my keys. Jemma said Mack drove Lucy in, so I thought he might have them."
The big man reached in his pocket to bring out Robbie's keys. "Treated her like a precious princess, man. A car that fine needs to be handled properly."
That made him grin. Maybe Mack wasn't so bad. "Glad to have someone who understands. She's my girl." After a thoughtful pause, he said, "Weird to think I can say that now about someone who isn't my car."
Fitz laughed at that, and Mack chuckled. He put the keys in Robbie's hand and said, "I'm sure you don't need any help taking care of her, but if you want any, I'd love to look under that hood."
"Just don't try to say that about his other girl," Fitz said with an impish smile.
That wasn't as funny as Fitz thought, given what had just happened. "He knows Daisy is his," Mack said. "Nobody but her decides who she belongs with, and she's pretty enamored with Hell's Angel here."
The Rider wasn't sure how to feel about that. It wasn't Angel Spawn, but Daisy was. It would be more appropriate for her. "We're no kind of angel," Robbie said. "If we're talking about an angel connected to Hell, that's Daisy."
"Eh, I'll figure it out," Mack said with a smile.
"I'll be waiting," Robbie said, waving as he headed towards the cargo bay. It was surprisingly easy to get his bearings in the enormous plane, at least to get between the places he knew about.
When he got there, Bobbi was hitting a punching bag that hadn't been there before. She paused and wiped some sweat from her face as he approached. "Hi. What's up?"
"Uh, I just came to check on Lucy. Make sure Mack didn't do anything bad to my girl," Robbie said. "Didn't mean to bother you."
"Not bothering me. I mean, we'll be at the base in an hour or so, so I could wait to use the actual training room. But Hunter usually makes me want to hit things, so I couldn't wait." She rolled her eyes.
That was surprising. "You and Hunter are…?"
"We're something. Always something. But you've met him, so I'm sure you can imagine how frustrating he can be," Bobbi said.
Aside from teasing him about Daisy, Hunter didn't seem so bad. But if he kept on teasing, Robbie could imagine wanting to hit something. "Yeah, I guess. I don't know all of you really well yet."
"Get to know him and you'll be at this punching bag too," Bobbi said. And she started hitting again, which he took as his cue to move on.
After a thorough inspection, Mack got a few points in his favor. He'd treated Lucy right, just like he said. And as he sat down behind the wheel, with a moment to himself, it hit him how big this was. He'd been rolling with it because he had no other choice and he trusted Daisy, but he wasn't sure what Shield wanted with him. He was fine with Indexing, but he hadn't been told why he was heading back to Shield's base with them unless it was just that they didn't want to turn around and drop him off at that moment. Which was actually a pretty practical and likely reason.
Even if Coulson had some sinister intentions, which Robbie couldn't imagine being true, they'd have trouble keeping him down indefinitely. It had let their guard down when they were hugging Daisy, so Mack hit him with the whatever-net, but It wouldn't be letting that happen again. And that containment room was solid, but he was betting with enough effort, they could break open one of those doors.
No, Coulson had been smart enough from the start to know he didn't want Robbie and his Rider as enemies, so he wouldn't try anything like that. Great way to get your base burned down. But he couldn't imagine what else he was good for, unless…they would make a great weapon. He'd seen Robbie tear through the Hydra base with little effort. Maybe he wanted that kind of power at his command. But it still didn't quite fit with his image of Daisy's adoptive dad. He wasn't power hungry.
The thing he was most concerned would come up is they would want him to move. Leave LA and Gabe and Canelo behind, and Robbie didn't think he could do that. The scary thing was, if Daisy asked him to…it made the unthinkable thinkable.
I don't want to live without her either.
'Yeah, well, we're in a tough spot, then,' Robbie thought. Choosing between Daisy and his (what passed for) normal life was impossible. How could he ever let her go? But how could he ever leave Gabe behind?
No use debating what-ifs.
Okay, he could agree with that. He got out of his car, locking her, and saw that Bobbi and her bag had disappeared. Well, he'd go see what Daisy was up to. Maybe she needed some distracting.
(-)
Time for a real break. They'd be at the base soon anyway. Daisy stretched, pleased with her progress. She'd wait until the program was built completely to hack the satellites, but it was really coming along. She wanted to brainstorm with Jemma and Fitz about what kind of strange things to look for that she hadn't thought of yet, because she knew she didn't have nearly enough search parameters, but for how much time she'd put in so far, she'd done well.
On her way down to the cargo hold to look for Robbie, she ran into Mike. "Hey, Mike, about earlier…I'm sorry to push, but you're way too amazing to keep from Ace. I just want the best for both of you, and you're the best for each other." She'd felt a little bad for nearly making him cry.
"I understand," Mike said, seeming very calm. "You're right. Coulson's going to come with me to see him. I can't hide from my son."
Beaming, Daisy reached up to hug him. It startled him, and he wasn't super-comfy to hug, but she was proud of him. When she was held in his arms with what she could tell was great care, she said, "Family is important, Mike. I never had one growing up, and now that I've found all of you, no one will keep me from being the best family I can be."
With that same care in judging how much force he was exerting on her, Mike's arms got fractionally tighter on her. "Even when we first met, Daisy, it was like you were determined to be the sun in the sky. All the things I saw as problems you saw as opportunities." He pulled back to look at her, and she saw the Mike she had first met in his smile. "Even when I was unravelling, becoming unstable from the Extremis in me, you cared what happened to me, to Ace."
His expression got darker as he said, "And even at my worst…even after you watched me kill people, knew I was dangerous to you, you still cared about me." And those eyes got wet again. "You took the finger off my kill switch, saved my son…you freed me from being controlled. I don't think I ever thanked you for that."
Daisy just hugged him again. "Family, Mike. You and Ace are family. And that's what we do for each other. We hack eyeball feeds and rescue loved ones and storm heavily-guarded military compounds to save each other."
Mike laughed a bit at that. "Typical family stuff. And speaking of rescues…" He pulled back again to look at her. "How do you know that guy, Robbie?"
Smiling, she said, "I accidentally broke my van with my new powers, and he fixed it. I realized he was Ghost Rider, and the Rider in him recognized what I was…and, well, we're finally dating."
Holding her hands in his and looking at them, Mike said, "These don't look like cataclysmic weapons, but Coulson says you can crack the earth and cause massive craters."
"Yeah, I've never looked as dangerous as I am, and now the disparity is even larger," Daisy said. "I'm an earthquake machine, and my boyfriend's head lights on fire when he lets out his vengeance demon to murder bad guys. Typical day at Shield."
"As long as he never tries to turn that fire on you," Mike said warningly.
That made her beam at him. "I like when he does; his fire doesn't burn me. It feels nice."
Mike ruffled her hair and said, "You're the epicenter of strange things and people."
"I am who I am," Daisy said.
"And we wouldn't want you to be anyone else," Mike said.
These moments with him brought back the real Mike, the one she had met. The one who hadn't been forced to do unspeakable things, to turn his back on everything he wanted to be. "We don't want you to be anyone else either, Mike."
When he looked slightly confused, Daisy said, "Whatever's been attached to you, and whatever you've been put through and forced to do, you're a good guy. You forget sometimes, but I hope you know I never do."
Mike said nothing and didn't meet her eyes, so she continued. "Under all the tech and trauma, you're still Mike, the guy I bothered at the coffee shop and who climbed a brick wall into a burning building to save a woman. The guy who got on our plane as a Shield agent, ready to help us save people. The guy who risked everything to save Coulson after your son was safe. Those choices define you, not the ones you were forced to make. When given a choice, you choose to do the right thing. That's who you are."
There were actually a few tears escaping his eyes. "That's…you'll never stop being everybody's bright side, will you?"
"Don't you mean seeing?" Daisy asked.
"I really don't. I gotta talk to Coulson," Mike said, and he patted her shoulder and moved on.
(-)
He saw Deathlok walking away as he caught up to Daisy. And all the anxiety that had come to him when he sat down in Lucy came back. "Can we talk?"
She frowned in concern but pulled him into a door down the hall. It was a supply closet. "Okay, now I feel like we should make out," Robbie said, a smile tugging at his lips.
Grinning, Daisy pushed him slightly and said, "Start talking, Rider-boy."
Suddenly serious again, he said, "No one has said why they want to bring me back to your base. I'm Indexed, so I'm hoping it's just because you didn't want to turn around mid-flight and drop me off."
"Ohhhh," Daisy said in understanding. "Well, I'm not one-hundred-percent sure what Coulson is thinking, but he probably wants to see if you'd be interested in joining Shield. I'm not sure if you could be a full agent, given that you'd have trouble keeping the Rider in check when the situation called for being surrounded by bad guys and not murdering them, but he probably still wants you involved."
That was what he'd been afraid of. "I can't leave LA. I can't leave Gabe and Canelo behind."
Daisy pulled him into a hug, pressing a kiss into his neck as she nestled her face there. "I know. I've thought about it too. Long distance is tough, but I'd never ask you to leave your life behind."
It was reassuring that she immediately decided to do long distance instead of cutting things off because it was easier, but she was right: it would be tough. He could already feel the Rider's dissatisfaction with the idea of not having Daisy with them after they'd settled that they belonged to each other. It had been displeased enough when Robbie had let her go without trying to start anything.
And that odd mental push came as the Rider came out to say, "I don't want to leave you behind," using Robbie's lips.
Pulling away slightly to look at him, she smiled. "You especially will have a hard time with this. I know you're more interested in me than in Robbie's life, but neither of us are going to pull him into being someone he's not. And he's a devoted brother and dedicated mechanic. We can't take that from him."
He really had no idea how Daisy was his. So kind, always thinking of others…he felt like he didn't deserve her. But she was his, so he'd do whatever he could to make her happy. And she didn't even expect him to sacrifice everything to be with her. Some girls would be pushing him to stay. Daisy understood what he couldn't lose.
(-)
She hadn't been expecting Robbie to pull her into a kiss. It was like their first kiss, scorching hot and burning out of control. One hand went to the back of her head to keep her mouth on his, and his hand grabbing her butt made her gasp and shake, bringing a low-down heat out in her that no one ever had before. Sure, she'd been turned on. But not like this.
"You like that, don't you?" he asked when they parted, gasping. His hand was still resting there and gently grasped her.
"Yeah," she said simply, her body pressing into his with a whimper when he squeezed hard.
"I really need to get you in my car," he said before kissing her again.
And she immediately knew when the fire came out. Her eyes opened, but Robbie's face wasn't burning away. His eyes were glowing with the Rider's heat, and his hands were in flames, making every touch hotter. It was usually so comforting and nice. Right now it was threatening to make her do things she shouldn't.
Daisy pulled away before the Rider could achieve Its goal. "No fire on the plane. And you realize you can only play with it like that when we're on the ground or something, right? We're not setting my bed at Shield on fire."
"Like I said, I need you in my car. Lucy won't burn," Robbie said, eyes becoming normal as the fire died away.
The possibility of actually exploring playing with fire was tempting. And there was plenty of room in his backseat…but, no. Not now. "I've had relationships in the past where I rushed things. And since I really want to do that with you, it means I need to slow down." She pressed a soft kiss to his lips before she said, "I'm not going anywhere. I'm yours. We have time."
Robbie nodded, pulling away and shuddering with a sigh. "You can drive me absolutely crazy, chica. And losing my mind is worth it."
She beamed at that, pleased that he wasn't upset with her decision. The Rider was probably less patient than Robbie, but It would have to learn to deal with it. It would get used to the nuances of relationships in time.
Pulling him into a hug again, Daisy nuzzled into his neck and said, "Thank you. For understanding."
"Daisy, if you had asked me to stay, it would have torn me more than I already am about this. But you understand me. You know what Gabe and my life mean to me."
Smiling, she said, "And I hope the Rider knows the kind of bad men that would come crawling out of the woodwork if LA realized Ghost Rider wasn't there and wasn't coming back."
That made Robbie chuckle. "It hadn't considered that. So now It realizes It has a life too."
"Good," Daisy said. She pressed a kiss to his neck and said, "We'll figure things out. I'm not losing you guys."
(-)
Okay, given what their airplane looked like (and the fact that it had a quinjet attached to it in case someone had to go somewhere else), he didn't think Shield was lacking for resources, but the hangar they landed in was huge. It had to be to hold the plane, but still.
Everyone scanned a lanyard on the way in, the machine verifying their identity by saying "Agent Whatever". What caught his attention was "Agent Hunter" when Hunter walked through. He didn't realize that was Hunter's last name, not his first. Of course, he had the same revelation when May went through. And "Agent Mackenzie" made him wonder what Mack's real name was. And Fitz. And did any of these people use their first names?
"I thought Fitz was a weird name," he said to Daisy in an undertone once they were inside, "but what's his first name if that's his last?"
"Leopold. I'd go by Fitz too," Daisy said.
Fair enough. "So am I staying with you?" Robbie asked, bumping their sides together with a smile.
Grinning, she said, "Absolutely not, you fiend. The base would be in ashes from your misbehavior."
"Hey, I respect if you say you want to take it slow," Robbie said. And given that he'd never been interested in anyone enough to actually date before, he kind of preferred it too.
"But both of you still need to avoid temptation. I think Fitz is staying in a double that he's made into a single. So he probably just has a spare bed covered in parts. We can see about that if no one else has something planned for you," Daisy said.
Coulson was waiting at the next turn. "I was going to talk to Robbie in my office, if I can pry him away from you," he said, eyeing Daisy's arm around his waist.
As she reluctantly detached from him, she said, "I'll wait downstairs in the common area." So she followed them until they came to a kitchen and sitting area with a dining table. With a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder, she went to open the fridge.
Robbie followed Coulson up the stairs, looking around once he was in his office. It looked homey with records and a Captain America poster. There were knick-knacks on display on shelves, and overall, it was welcoming.
"By the way, Mack has already told everyone to treat Lucy the way they do Lola: hands off," Coulson said.
"Lola?" Robbie asked.
"My '62 red Corvette. She flies," Coulson said.
Robbie stared. "Flies? Okay, that's cool."
Coulson looked pleased with that. "Yes, so no one should bother Lucy."
"Under penalty of death, I'm assuming?" Robbie said.
Scoffing, Coulson said, "There are things so much worse than death."
And he was only ninety-percent sure he was joking. He looked amused as he said it, so Robbie was probably safe in assuming it was a joke. "So, what did you want to talk about?"
"Well, we have a few standard options on what to do with someone who is Indexed. Of course, you wouldn't qualify for most of them given who and what you are. But now Daisy has added another option you might be interested in: being incorporated into Shield."
"I can't leave LA," Robbie said. "My brother and my boss need me. I have commitments I can't abandon."
It was good that Coulson immediately nodded in understanding. "I figured as much. Thing is, you wouldn't have all the utility of an agent anyway, given that the Rider has compulsions to solve every encounter of bad guys with murder."
Daisy knew Coulson better than she realized; she'd had the same thoughts. "Yeah, I don't always play well with others. My Rider, even less so."
"I don't know, you seem to get along with us just fine," Coulson said.
"On the plane," Robbie said. "I saw all the people staring at me on the way in."
"It's uncommon to have non-agents on base. And…word about Daisy's abilities has spread, so those stares weren't all for you. It'll calm down," Coulson said confidently.
"So what are you proposing?" Robbie asked, because Coulson had said he wouldn't make a good agent. He never said Robbie had no place in Shield.
"We could have you as a sort of independent contractor. You would just be on-call for situations where we needed you. You can stay in LA and live your life, just taking occasional field trips with us. It means we don't have to bother with any other Indexing options. You'd be part of Shield."
He'd noticed Coulson hadn't said what those options were, only repeatedly implied Robbie wouldn't enjoy them. Shield monitored Enhanced threats. Daisy said if they weren't threatening, minimal measures were taken. But Robbie was a homicidal, nigh-unstoppable, demonic vigilante. If he wasn't attached to Daisy, and if he hadn't already proved useful and willing to cooperate…no, he didn't want to know what the other options were. Of course, as he'd said before, keeping them caged would be a Hell of a job that wouldn't work, long term. Coulson knew Robbie and the Rider were playing nice. That was another reason for this solution.
"I like that idea," Robbie said. "Whatever issues people have with our methods, we just want to keep bad people from hurting good people."
"Great," Coulson said, beaming. "That's pretty much our mission statement."
When Robbie went to stand up, Coulson said, "There's another thing to discuss." When he was settled, Coulson said, "These Angel Spawn will come after you now. Even if we convinced Lincoln it was a bad idea, the others won't take our threats as seriously."
Right. He'd forgotten. "Yeah. And if they come in force, we won't survive."
"If they come in force, they are a large Enhanced threat that is Shield's job to deal with. We can't have fights like that breaking out in LA when you go home. So…we planned to make a temporary base in LA for a while, because we doubt they'll wait too long to make their move. Daisy is working on a program to find their home, and we have a whole arsenal to deal with whatever Enhanced threats come our way."
And Robbie's heart leapt. "Meaning Daisy would be in LA for a while."
That amused Coulson. "How did I know that would catch your interest more than the 'deterring lethal threats coming for you' bit of the conversation?"
"Because you can tell where my priorities are. I assume that's why you aren't giving me a shovel talk like May did," Robbie said.
Coulson actually laughed at that. "She did? Wow, she's come a long way. Daisy is good for all of us."
"Agreed," the Rider said, pushing to the front of their consciousness, making his eyes glow and voice change slightly.
"You know, you both are really fascinating. Especially given what you told Fitz about the normal behavior of the Rider before this." An idea seemed to strike him, and he asked, "How many Riders are out there at any given time? Is there a limit?"
'Do you know?' Robbie asked.
It's not easy to cross over. And the Angel Spawn do their best to find and banish or destroy us. I would say four or five in the world at any given time.
When Robbie repeated that information, Coulson asked, "Can It tell you where It crosses over from?"
Home.
"Home," Robbie repeated.
"Guess I was asking too much with that one," Coulson said. "Anyway, we'll probably be here two days while we get things ready. If you didn't give your brother and boss a timeline, there's a solid one."
And Robbie was at the door when Coulson said, "Oh, wait a minute." He got up and reached into an inner pocket, pulling out a folded piece of paper and giving it to Robbie.
"What's this?" Robbie asked, unfolding it. And it was a check. Looking at the amount, Robbie frowned. He looked at Coulson and asked, "You're kidding, right?"
Coulson shrugged. "We don't expect you to work for free. And we're grateful you were here, or Mike and Lincoln probably wouldn't be."
"Um, thanks," Robbie said, not sure what else to say. And he just ducked out of the office. That much money almost made him uncomfortable since he actually had been expecting to work for free. It was what they did anyway, after all. That much money would do a lot for him and Gabe, which reinforced that it was a good call to join Shield.
(-)
Robbie came down the stairs looking a little dazed, which Daisy doubted was a good thing. She'd made them some sandwiches while Robbie was with Coulson and waited at the dining table with the other plate and some water.
"What's up?" she asked as he got closer.
He sat down and passed her a check before taking a bite of the sandwich. Daisy looked at it and realized why Robbie looked stunned. That was a nice check. But she imagined given the size of the job Robbie had just finished, this was probably fair pay. And she realized something else. "You don't normally get paid for what you do."
Robbie shook his head. "And I wasn't expecting to."
They had yet to make eye contact, and Daisy realized he was uncomfortable. "Hey, you earned it. If you think it's a lot, just consider it retroactive payment for all the work you do anyway." She put a hand over one of his as it reached for the sandwich again, and he finally looked at her. "You sacrifice a lot, Robbie Reyes. You deserve to have financial stability and nice things for you and Gabe."
"Don't even know what I'd do with that much money. I don't have an actual bank account, just a reloadable pre-paid card when I need it."
Daisy wasn't surprised; she knew that when you didn't have a lot of money, you didn't need a bank. She'd lived in her van for a good portion of her life, after all. "I can make you an account," Daisy said. "It'll be easy for me to get that done today, and with Coulson's permission, I can tear up the check and transfer the funds directly to your account. I'll have the bank mail you two debit cards, one for you and one for Gabe."
He looked surprised, and Daisy was glad he was getting paid. The fact that he was stunned and slightly disturbed by the amount reinforced her opinion of his character. He could be jumping for joy at that much money, but he was aware of the weight of it. Especially since he'd been doing his vigilante vengeance for free, never expecting anything but isolation and misunderstanding in return.
"Thank you," he said simply. "This is pretty amazing."
"Well, you signed on as an independent contractor, I imagine? If you aren't full-time, you'll just get paid per job. So it won't be all the time." She'd already eaten her sandwich, so she just pulled her laptop out of her bag and said, "Want me to get started?"
"That would be great," Robbie said. "And thanks for the sandwich."
Smirking, she said, "Just don't expect me to cook for you all the time. Call me 'wifey' or anything, and I'll make you regret it."
He burst out laughing. "I can only call you amazing." She wasn't expecting him to pull her over the corner of the table to kiss her. It wasn't scorching hot this time. It was gentle, full of tender emotions he didn't want to say in public.
When he let her go, her cheeks were warm, and there was a smile on her face that wouldn't go away. "Amazing is a pretty accurate word for you too."
(-)
Enjoying the feels? I hope so. Plenty more to come. We have a couple more chapters until any smut, but boy howdy, things get interesting in the next chapter. I think you're going to love it.
I'd love to know what you thought about this, should you choose to review. But, review or not, I hope you enjoyed this and will read more.