Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there! Agents of Shield has taken over my brain for the last few months, and I finally managed to finish something for it (and it's still technically Father's Day in my current time zone). The team's plan and the card they use are both based on something my friends and I did for our coach years ago, and it felt appropriate to borrow the idea for the Shield team.

Coulson slipped into his office with a sigh, rubbing the stump of his left hand. It had been a long week and the weekend hadn't been much better. He wasn't sure which ached more: the loss of his hand or the loss of his agents. (That was a lie—he did know, and it wasn't the physical pain.) At least he knew where May was, but sometimes the chances of her coming back seemed as low as their chances of finding Simmons. The rest of his team wasn't doing much better—Daisy still dealing with the fallout from finding and losing her family, Fitz tearing through research trying to find Simmons, Bobbi in rehab, and Hunter itching to set out on a quest for vengeance. He hoped Mack wasn't about to have an existential crisis as well.

Coulson dropped into his desk chair and reached for Skye's—no, Daisy's—latest report on the Inhuman situation. It was no longer at the top of his stack. Instead, a blue envelope sat on top of his paperwork. Coulson was scrawled on the back of it.

Whoever had left it for him clearly had his new situation in mind; the flap wasn't sealed but was merely tucked into the envelope. He had to use his stump to pin the envelope to the table, but after that it was fairly easy to free the flap and pull out the card with his right hand.

He chuckled as he looked it over. It must have begun life as a standard funny card, but it bore clear signs of modification. "What Dads Have to Deal With" was printed at the top, but someone (Daisy by the handwriting) had drawn an arrow and inserted "SHIELD Director" between the first two words.

Several similarly altered cartoons decorated the front. The first showed two kids squabbling and was captioned, "It's my turn to play with the ball super-secret gadget!" in Fitz's handwriting. The next featured two children standing back-to-back appealing to dad to settle their argument over who was taller. The boy was labeled Mack and the girl Bobbi. Coulson was glad he hadn't actually been called in to arbitrate that one—yet. In third cartoon, two children labeled Hunter and Daisy flopped on the couch, asking, "Why do we have to do yardwork hunt Hydra on Saturday?"

Coulson chuckled, glad for the reprieve from his worries. His team would pull through. They always had.

He flipped open the card, and his laughter died away. Inside, it read, "Yeah, you definitely deserve a day of recognition. Happy Father's Day!"

They had given him a Father's Day card? He should have known from the line about dads on the cover, but it hadn't occurred to him. He hadn't even realized the holiday was today. He knew the team liked to joke about him being a dad, but he hadn't thought they would go to all this trouble for him.

Below the printed message there was a note.

Hey AC, we know you've been extra busy lately, so we wanted to make you smile and thank you for taking care of us. We all rewrote the front of the card together, and no one minded being made fun of. (Okay, maybe Hunter was an exception—but he really does like to sleep in on weekends!)

Thank you for being the best dad I've ever had.

Daisy

A warm feeling spread from his heart, and Coulson felt a soft smile steal over his face. He knew why Daisy had dropped the card off instead of giving it to him herself. She'd have enjoyed watching his reaction to the front, but she'd been rejected too many times to call him her dad to his face. She'd be waiting somewhere now, pretending to type but just killing time until she knew how he'd react.

Coulson stood up. The paperwork could wait. He had a daughter to hug.