Home away from home
I was walking down the halls, heading towards Phil's office, when I saw Daisy. With the new inhuman. Lincoln. I headed towards her and she grinned when she noticed my presence.
"Mama May!" I rolled my eyes at the nickname.
"Agent May."
"Lincoln. Daisy."
"Right. This is Lincoln, you know him from the Afterlife."
I nodded.
"Daisy, you ready?"
"Uh, yeah. I just ran into Lincoln on my way back to Dad."
"Well, come on. Or me and Phil will leave without you."
"Geez. I'm coming." She faced Lincoln, gave him a soft, short peck on his lips and smiled, "Bye Lincoln."
She followed me, "Ok. You can say it."
I looked at her in confusion, "Say what?''
"Lincoln? Aren't you going to warn me about things?"
'Why?"
"Because you love me, are my mom and want me to be safe."
"Be safe, Daisy."
She huffed. "You just want to be a grandma."
I looked at her in disbelief, "If he gets you pregnant, I'm going to kick his ass. Phil will send a unit behind him. He knows that. He won't do it."
"Ok."
The rest of the walk was spent in silence.
I opened the door to Phil's office and held it open for Daisy.
"Finally!"
"Daisy wanted to kiss Lincoln, we got late. And then she kissed him."
"Mel tell you what we're going to do if he does something wrong?"
"She did."
"Well, Let's go home now, shall we?"
"We shall."
We walked till our private garage, where Lola was stored.
"I'm driving."
"Yes, Ma'am. "
"Wait.. Mom can drive Lola? I thought nobody could."
"Well, I could always drive Lola. I just didn't need to. I've have the right to drive Lola ever since I helped Phil finish working on it."
"Oh, wow."
"Let's go."
I drive in solitude as Phil and Daisy had a debate about technology. I realized that the father-daughter were far from similar.
"We're here."
I parked the car and got out, Phil and Daisy followed me. Phil ran up the stairs and ahead of me to open the door. I rolled my eyes and his chivalry.
"M'lady."
He entered the password in the keypad and held the door open for me.
"I was kind of surprised when you still remembered the password after all those years."
"Eh, I think it had something to do with the fact that I put cooked meals into the fridge when you weren't home every week."
I smiled, "I know."
"Wait, so you guys lived here? I lived here? Wow."
"Yep. We still have the nursery." I looked at Phil, "We couldn't get rid of your stuff."
Daisy nodded, and her stomach grumbled.
"You hungry?" Phil looked at me, "There's a Cafe down the street. An old friend owns it. We can grab a muffin and coffee or tea."
"That'll be awesome."
We got out of the apartment and locked the door, Phil put his arm around me and I let my head fall onto his shoulder.
"Reggie still owns it, right?"
"Yeah, he does." I smirked, "He also asks each me out each month, not knowing that I'm married. To you. "
"He had this massive crush on you since you moved here."
"He did."
"Wait, so Reggie? The guy who called you a week ago? And I answered?"
"Yes, Daisy. That guy."
We continued our conversation about Reggie and in what felt like seconds, we were outside the Cafe. Reggie's Cafe. I opened the door and examined the room for suspicious activity. Old habits never die.
"Melinda? Phil?"
I faced the man wearing an off white apron with salt and pepper hair.
"Reggie!" Phil walked over to give him a side hug, "Long time, huh?"
"Very long." He said with an Italian accent.
"So how are you both?" He looked at me.
"We're good." I nodded, "We were just at the apartment. Showing Daisy around."
Reggie nodded, slowly taking it all in.
"Daisy?"
"Uh, yeah. This is Daisy." Phil took a deep breath, "Our daughter."
Daisy waved at Reggie.
Reggie just nodded, "Nice to meet you, Daisy."
His reaction kinda surprised me, he asks me out every month.. is he not shocked that I have a 27 year old daughter?
"So, Phil, did you and Audrey break up?"
"It's.. complicated."
"Isn't everything?" Reggie gave his a short smile.
"What about you, Melinda?" He looked at me, "How's your life?"
I softly chuckled, "I'm not going out with you, Reggie. But I'm good. We're good."
He nodded and looked down to the floor, his eyes stopping at my left hand, noticing the diamond ring on my ring finger. His eyes widened and he looked back up at me.
"You're married."
"I am."
"Who,-" he looked at Phil's sheepish face and realized, "Of course, it's you.
I honestly thought that you two were married when I met you."
Phil nodded.
"So wait, why didn't you tell me when I asked you out every month."
"It was more fun this way."
"Ah."
"So what can I get for you all?"
"I'll have a black coffee."
"A green tea for me."
"And I'll have a Vanilla Cram Cold Brew, with extra Vanilla."
"Anything to eat?"
"I'll have a chocolate glazed, cream-filled donut."
"I'll have a blueberry muffin."
"I'll just have a crossaint."
Reggie nodded and put away his notepad, "it'll be ready in about 7 mins."
"Thank you."
"So he had a crush on you?" Daisy asked me.
"Sure. You can say that."
"And you knew?" She faced Phil.
"Yeah, I did. Couldn't do anything about it. Wasn't going to." He looked at me and smiled, "couldn't stop the woman infront of me if she wanted to do anything."
"That's true. I once tried to get mom to wear a dress. It did not go well."
I smiled, remembering that day. Daisy had snuck into my room and hid in my closet. I thought she was an intruder and I knocked her out. It taught her to never sneak up on 'The Cavalry'.
"Here's your order. Do you want me to put it on your tab?"
"Uh, no thank you. We'll just pay after we're done eating."
"Of course." With that, he walked away.
We ate and drank in silence until Daisy decided to pop the pause.
"So, when are you going to tell the team about me and the baby?"
The team. S.H.I.E.L.D. Director. Commander. Hill. Maria!
"God, we have to tell Maria."
Phil sighed, "She's either going to be super happy or super sad."
"Wait..." Daisy looked at us in confusion, "What does Hill have to do with this?"
I sighed, "She was the closest to the apartment. She was going to check on you but her mission lasted longer... and she stayed. By choice. She blames herself. Like everyone blames themselves." I looked at Phil, "She was pretty lost when I told her Daisy might be our daughter. That was the day I agreed to the DNA test."
"It might be too much for her to take."
"Yeah, but we need to tell her. It would hurt her more if we don't."
"You're right. Should we call her and ask her to come to the apartment?"
"I'll call her." I grabbed my phone and excused myself.
I walked out the Cafe and sat on the bench down the street.
Ringing. Ringing.
"Melinda?"
"Hey, Ria."
"Are you okay? Is something wrong?"
I rolled my eyes, "No, I'm good. Everything is fine. It's just,-" I took a deep breath , "Can you come over by the apartment?"
"Yeah, sure but why?"
"Just come over. Please?"
"Ok. I'll be there in 10."
"Do you want coffee or something?"
"Uh, sure. The regular is fine."
"Ok. See you."
I ended the call and walked back into the Cafe.
"Everything good?" Phil asked as I sat back into my seat.
"Yeah, she's gonna be there in 10 minutes. I'm gonna get her a coffee. You mind throwing away my tea? I'm not that hungry anymore. "
"Sure."
I walked over to the cashier and asked for a large coffee with cream. I also payed for our tab so Phil and Daisy don't have to.
I grabbed the coffee once it was ready and headed back to our table.
"Ready? I payed the tab."
"Yeah, okay."
I sighed, "Let's go tell Maria."