Avengers and Inhumans

She looked so fragile, lying in the bed with her stomach bandaged. Her closed eyes fluttered, but she didn’t open them. She just groaned like she was in pain, and Steve could feel a slight tremble in his surroundings.
He was angry. He looked at Daisy, and seeing her lying like this, it made him very angry. It has only been an hour since they arrived and Tony was showing the tower to the Caterpillars. While Daisy was not to be moved, her team was allowed to stay at the tower too. Steve offered to stay here with Daisy until they got settled, because they didn’t want to leave her alone.
To be honest, he only offered because he suspected she won’t wake up just yet. He didn’t want to talk to her, even though the reason for that escaped him. He sort of felt like he invaded her privacy, and he was ashamed of himself, even though he knew he didn’t have a choice. But being in someone’s mind like that…
He was almost relieved when he heard two people coming in the room.
“You like the tower?” Steve asked, not turning to look at them.
“Under different circumstances, I would absolutely love this place.” Joey answered, Steve recognized his voice. “Not now though, not so much.”
“I can understand that.” Steve said, as Joey and Jayce stood next to him.
“How is she?” Jayce asked.
“The same.” Steve stood up, and looked at the guy. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you.”
Jayce nodded, and followed Captain America out of the room, no questions asked.
“I understand that you are angry at me. You have every right to be. I couldn’t protect you. I said I could, and then I couldn’t. Then I forced you to do something that made you uncomfortable. I’m sorry.” Jayce said in a calm manner.
“Apology accepted.” Steve said.
“Just like that?” Jayce asked, surprised.
“You did your best. It was your brother’s fault what happened and not yours. I hope you know that. But this is not what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Then what?” Jayce asked, frowning.
Steve looked around, checking if anyone was in hearing distance. Then he turned to him.
“What do you think, can you protect my mind against his now? He still hasn’t recovered from the anesthetics.”
Jayce seemed to be considering this, then slowly nodded.
“Without doubt. What are you planning?”
“Come with me.” Steve nodded. He knew where Lucas was locked up, asked Tony as soon as they came back.
“Jarvis, open the door. Code Rogers 6-4-5-3-9.”
“As you wish, Mr. Rogers.” The polite voice answered. Jayce jumped next to him.
“That was Jarvis. I thought Tony mentioned him.” Steve noted.
“He did. Still unusual though. I can’t feel his mind.”
“I’m not sure he has one. You ready?”
“Yes.”
Steve opened the door and they stepped in. Lucas was sitting at the other end of the room, but when he saw them enter, he stood up, smiling.
“I knew you would visit me, little brother. Wasn’t expecting company though. Back for another round, Captain?” He asked, with a sly smirk on his face.
“Actually I am.” Steve said. And then, he strode across the room and hit him.
“Whoa.” Jayce said, stunned. “What are you doing? Captain?”
Steve ignored him. He grabbed Lucas by his shirt, and hit him again.
“Why did you shoot her?” he asked, furiously. “You should have known you won’t get out.”
“I thought I will. I planned it aaaall.” Lucas said, still, grinning. Steve hit him again. “But of course, you are Captain America. Your mind was stronger than I anticipated. You fought back. How did you fight back? You should have been out cold if not dead.” He twitched.
“But why shoot her?” Steve asked again.
“Come on, she was a threat. She knew too much, and she learnt to lock me out. Not like I had a choice. Plus she was annoying. And I needed a distraction.”
“You shot her because you found her annoying?” Steve hit him again, this time stronger. Lucas’ face jerked back, but he smiled nonetheless.
“Actually the plan was to kill her. But then again, I was afraid if I try to shoot her in the head, I’d miss. Had to go for sure. She dead?”
Steve’s face twisted in anger, and hit Lucas again. He half expected Jayce to hold him back, but the guy never even moved.
“I suspect she is.” Lucas said, grin growing wider. “That is why you are protecting him while he is hitting me, little brother?”
“No, I’m simply enjoying the fact that you are suffering.” Jayce said angrily.
“I love you too brother.” Lucas laughed again, but it choked into a cough, as Steve hit him again, but then someone dragged him off of Lucas.
“Cap, what the hell are you doing?” Tony asked, demanding. “You can’t just attack our prisoners and beat the crap out of them. Even if they look like that.”
“He shot Daisy.”
“I know, but that doesn’t give you the right to beat him to a pulp. Yet.” Tony looked at Jayce, then at Lucas. “Okey, maybe a little. But right now, we have more important things to do than hitting people. SHIELD is sending an agent.”
Steve finally tore his eyes away from Lucas, and looked at Tony.
“Also, change your clothes, for god’s sake.” Tony added. “You look terrifying.”
Steve’s eyes wondered to his clothes, and realized they were soaked with blood. He shook his head. “I didn’t even realize” He said.
“I know you didn’t buddy. Let’s go.”

Daisy woke up with her stomach hurting like hell. She blinked, and tried to sit up, but someone pushed her back down.
“Oh no you don’t.” He said.
“Where am I?” She asked, her voice muffled by the pain.
“In the Stark tower. In the infirmary. You were shot. Again.” She recognized the voice now. It was Jayce.
“Yeah I remember.” Daisy groaned. “But I survived. Again. What kind of magic drugs did you use this time to heal me?”
“It was Kyle.”
“Oh. But I thought he was…”
“On the base Cocoon with Lincoln, still practicing his powers, not being strong enough yet? Yep, that’s exact. Thus the reason you are not fully healed yet, only the vital parts.”
“I already have two scars on my stomach.” She said in a sad voice. “Why is the universe so against me wearing swimsuit?”
“You seem like you are in pain. Want some pain meds? To be honest, I told them not to give you, since I really hate them, they baffle my abilities.”
“Not unless you like earthquakes.”
Jayce didn’t say anything to that. He was silent for a time, before talking again.
“How much do you remember?”
Daisy tried to think back but it was all blurry. “There was an explosion. I held it back. Then…”
“You were shot. And you probably won’t like this, but in order to save your life, I linked your mind with the mind of Captain America.”
“You did what?” Daisy tensed, which was a bad idea as it sent a jolt of pain through her spine. “Do you have any idea the secrets that I could have…”
“So what? It was the only way to save your life. And I couldn’t let you die because of my brother. I will take full responsibility for all the secrets leaked because of my actions. You taught me that.”
“I can’t let you do that. I’m your supervising officer. What you did is on me. We need to find out how much he knows.”
“No. You need to rest.” Jayce stood up. “All of this shit can wait. May is on her way here. She will take care of everything.”
Daisy couldn’t help but feel relieved hearing that. May always knew what to do.

May had no idea what to do. She stood next to Daisy’s bed. It brought back painful memories, seeing her lying like that, her stomach bandaged. At least she was in no danger this time, thanks to the Avengers.
Who still didn’t know that Coulson was alive. Probably. She had to talk to Captain America to find out. If he knew…. she had no idea what comes next. But first, she had to do something else.
The Avengers were in the common area. This was the first time she met most of them. She already knew Hawkeye and Black Widow, but not the others, only knew what Phil told her about them, and what was in the files.
They all looked at her when she walked in. They were all there, even the Caterpillars, who seemed to be in a rough shape. They all had circles under their eyes, and though they looked unharmed, it made May kind of sad. Not that she would show it.
Natasha, when she saw her, immediately got up and hugged her.
“May, it’s good to see you.” She said.
“Woah woah woah” Stark said in the background. “Is there something you want to tell us, Natasha?”
“You too, Nat. I see you are taking good care of our rookie superheroes.” May nodded with half a smile, looking at the Caterpillars, who were at the moment playing cards with Barton and Banner.
“Nice to meet you Agent May. “ Tony Stark stood before her, his trademark grin on his face, offering his hand for a handshake.
“Stark.” She shook his hand. Then she turned to look at all the Avengers at once. “Thank you all for saving Daisy.”
“She saved me first.” A familiar voice said.
May turned to look at Captain America, who just entered the room. He looked tired, with circles under his eyes. A lot like the Caterpillars, she noted.
“I read Jayce’s report. Actually, I hoped to talk to you about what happened. But first, I wanted to thank you all. For Daisy. She means a lot to us.”
“We are just glad she is alright. Does she get shot in the stomach a lot though?” Natasha asked, sitting back on the couch, inviting May to sit next to her. “I mean, she had two bullet scars there already. Even in our line of work, that’s a lot.”
“Give that poor girl a bulletproof vest already.” Barton said, smirking. “Also, good to see you again May. Back on the field?”
“I am.” May nodded. “And nice to see you too, Barton. And Daisy, she can be… reckless. As you know.” May looked at Bruce.
The man nodded, his face grim. “I am sorry about that, you know. It was Lucas, he mesed with my mind.”
May nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“I analyzed her gauntlets, I hope you don’t mind.” Stark said suddenly. “It’s amazing. Not that I couldn’t make better ones of course. But still remarkable. Who made it? I wanna meet them.”
“Our engineer. He is very talented.” She almost smiled for a moment. Then she turned to Captain America, her face serious again. “Mr. Rogers, can I talk to you? Alone?”
The blond man looked at her thoughtfully, then slowly nodded.
“Of course. Come with me.”

They were in a much smaller room now, with not many things in it but a few couches, a fridge and a table.
“Something to drink?” He offered.
“No.” May sat down, her face a mask. “I think you know what we need to talk about.”
“I was linked to one of your most highly ranked and trusted agents. You are afraid about the secrets I might have found out.”
“I don’t blame Jayce for his decision, or Daisy if she did share information with you. It wasn’t either of their fault, and as of now all that matters is that she survived. Thank you.”
“As I said, I owed her.”
“You let someone in your mind. That takes more than a favor.”
He nodded, thoughtful. “What did you want to ask me, Agent May?”
“You are an honorable man, Captain. And I need you to know that your answers will be of no consequence to Jayce or Daisy. What did you find out?”
The blond man sat down on the couch opposite her, and looked into her eyes.
“I found out a lot. But it was filtered. Skye didn’t tell me anything about the organization.” May winced when she heard Daisy’s old name, and she realized Rogers deliberately used it to emphasize. “I understand that she loves SHIELD, she is loyal to the very basics. Nothing particular about classified data.”
May could feel the relief wash through her.
“Good then. I’m happy that all those times spent practicing with our telepath wasn’t for nothing.”
“But I have a question. I don’t mind if you don’t answer, but I’m really curious.”
“Shoot.” May tensed. She was afraid that maybe Daisy somehow let them know that Coulson was alive.
“It’s about a person, I think.”
“Go on.” May said carefully.
“There was someone she really hated. She wouldn’t let me know who he was. But she hated him so much it almost hurt.”
“You want to know who he was.” May said with a little relief.
Rogers nodded, not saying anything. His face didn’t reveal his emotions, but May suspected them. Captain America was worried for Daisy. She couldn’t blame him for it, Daisy had a way of making everyone fond of her.
“You are going to have to ask her that question. But you don’t need to worry about him. He is dead.” She stood up. “It was nice talking to you, Mr. Rogers. I look forward meeting you again.”
“You are leaving already?” He asked, standing up too.
“I have other things to attend to. I mainly came here to check on Daisy.”
“’Until the next time, then.”
“One more thing, Mr. Rogers.” May said, in the door. “The man who shot her…”
“He will be put in your custody when the Caterpillars leave the tower. Is that alright with you?”
“That’s not what I wanted to ask.”
“I beat the hell out of him.”
“Good.” She said, with a dark smile on her face. “I did the same the last time she was shot. Until the next time, Captain.”