Chapter 1
“Who did this to you”
“Shit- May I” Daisy stuttered. She hadn’t expected to be found, to be honest, she hadn’t really expected anyone to be looking. After they got back to base Daisy had slipped away to try and look at her injuries. She remembered the days when after a mission Coulson would force her to get checked out by Simmons. Things aren’t like that anymore, Daisy had to remind herself. It was easy now that she was back on base to forget what had happened, that is until nighttime where she’d relive it once again and be reminded of why she left in the first place.
May stepped forward to grab her arm and Daisy flinched. An emotion crossed briefly across her former S.O.’s face. Hurt? Fear? Anger, it must be anger. After all, aren’t they all angry at her?
“I’m fine May, really. I promise this won’t affect my performance on the field.”
“Really?” May scoffed, “That’s what you think this is about? Your performance on the field?”
“I-“ Daisy started…
“No, this has gone on long enough, first we find out you’ve been literally quaking your own bones apart, and now you’re back to hiding injuries?” May asked. It was no longer a question if she was angry, the blaze in her eyes was enough to send most men running, but Daisy needed to face her.
“Why do you care?” Daisy retorted.
“You know why I care,” May said firmly.
“No, you know what, I don’t!” Daisy felt tears prickling in the back of her eyes. “I don’t know why you still care about me, I don’t know why any of you care about me! YOU SHOULD HATE ME!”
Images of Mack on the ground, Lincoln’s ship exploding, Coulson beaten to a pulp, flashed through Daisy’s mind. Images that were ingrained in her eyes, flashing before her every time she blinked.
“Why won’t you just hate me?” Daisy whispered in a broken voice. She was surprised when she felt May’s arms embrace her, carefully avoiding the broken rib clearly sticking out. It felt so familiar that it made Daisy sob even harder. May shushed her, mumbling incoherent comforting phrases while Daisy broke in her arms. She hadn’t cried once since she had left, preferring the numbness to dealing with what had happened.
Eventually, Daisy’s sobs turned to whimpers, and then occasional sniffles. May paused in stroking the girl’s hair to look down at Daisy’s face. She had fallen asleep, clearly exhausted from the mission combined with the crying. May scooped her up, minding the parts of her body that were injured, which honestly felt like everywhere. How had she let it get this bad? May wondered, looking at the deep lines of bruising covering her girl’s arms. May had little difficulty carrying Daisy down to the medley, which was concerning to say the least. May had definitely noticed how skinny Daisy had gotten, but feeling how light she was made tears come to the older woman’s eyes. She walked in, ignoring Simmons’ questions, and gently set Daisy down. She looked so tiny on the hospital bed.
“She has a broken rib, and she’s breaking her arms again, probably more. Check her out please.” May said in a controlled voice, not looking away from Daisy's form.
“Of course May” Simmons responded gently, clearly picking up on her discomfort.
“Well, the good news is, her legs aren’t broken, but that’s pretty much the only thing that isn’t,” Jemma began, looking around carefully at the rest of the team. May looked stoic as ever, having had time to compose herself from earlier. Elena was also calm. Fitz looked concerned, but she could see bitterness in his gaze, focused on the floor. Mack looked angry, but she knew it was anger at the people who had done this to Daisy, not the girl herself. Coulson looked perhaps the most agitated, which wasn’t much of a surprise. It was clear the bond he shared with the girl, and the months of searching for her had taken a toll on him.
Jemma took a deep breath and then began, “Daisy’s arms are clearly the worst, almost all of the bones in her arms are fractured or broken, and they’ve been healing wrong” she mentioned, pointedly looking at Elena who had the decency to look ashamed. “I had to re-break a couple to reset them but if she continues to let them rest, her inhuman DNA should take care of the rest.”
Coulson scoffed, “Like she’s gonna listen to that, even before she ran off she never let her injuries heal properly” Coulson looked bitter and sad, not at all like the man she's used to seeing
“Well, she also had one broken rib and two others that were fractured. Along with an old stab wound on her abdomen that still hasn’t completely healed. She has a contusion on her forehead, and I’ll have to check for a concussion when she wakes up. She also shows signs of malnutrition, she hasn’t been eating enough.” Jemma finished sadly. May looked murderous, Coulson heartbroken, and the rest of the team shocked.
“What do we do for her? How can we get her back?” Coulson murmured sadly, clearly not expecting to be answered.