The light of the flickering light bulb above him made his head ache.
Slowly, very slowly, he started to wake up, realizing his hands had been cuffed to a table.
The room was empty. It was a small room, with nothing more then a light bulb, a table, him being handcuffed to a table, and him sitting behind the table with a chair across him.
What in the name of- How did he end up here?
“Agent Sousa. A word.”
The only door in the room opened up.
“Did you ICE me?”
“It is my job to do what needs to be done.”
He had been on countless of operations with the woman standing in front of him; He still didn’t understand how her gift exactly worked, but hey, he was a guy from ’55 who had ended up 70 years in the future. He deserved a free pass.
“State your full name for my report please”.
“Agent May, is this really-“
“Your full name.”
Daniel had to admit it to himself: As someone who worked for the main part of his life at organizations such as the SSR and SHIELD, he did not get scared easily, but with this tiny Asian woman across him… He knew that she could become scary really fast.
“Daniel Jordan Sousa, born in Idaho, North-West USA. Agent May, may I ask why I am handcuffed to a table?”
The Asian woman looked up from the papers she had in front of her.
“As I said before, I do what needs to be done. Lying would be a bad idea by the way: I can feel it when you’re lying”.
“So… I need to be interrogated?”
“As Daisy her previous love interests were a hacker who brought multiple lives in danger, a psychopath who betrayed our entire team, became a squid inhuman wanting to destroy the world and someone who broke her heart by sacrificing himself for her life, yes agent Sousa, you need to be interrogated”.
Daniel opened and closed his mouth again.
Oh. That was what this was all about.
“Do you know what happened to some of the last men who made me mad?”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“I killed some of them. From one of them, I broke his lyrics. If you thought some of the people in your time were dangerous, you have no idea what we can do.”
“Agent May… I… Would you honestly take me for someone who’d want to hurt Daisy?”
“Not according to your file.”
“All I want for her is to be happy and safe. To find some kind of peace. I don’t know her full story, but I know enough to know she could use it.”
The women’s eyes didn’t change. She grabbed her papers from the table and left the room, slamming the door behind her. Daniel sighed in relief. If this was what today was gonna be all about… He had had the toughest hurdle, right?
Not long passed when the door opened again.
“Agent Sousa, I hope agent May wasn’t too hard on you?”
Dr. Simmons came in, sitting down across of him. She sounded nice, but he had been long enough with them to know that could easily be a façade.
“She… She’s a very protective person.”
“That’s who May is. I believe Daisy once described it as hate fu. She collects all anger she has against someone and puts it in her efforts to kill him. Now, I know we are not quite that acquainted yet, but did you know I have two phd’s in fields no one on this base can pronounce?”
Daniel shook his head in response.
“Brings me to the time I killed one of Hydra’s main heads, Sunil Bakshi. I am assuming that you have never heard of a fragmentation bomb, but rest assured, it leaves nothing behind. You become dust. No one will ever find you again. Do we understand each other?”
“Are you all gonna threat me with murdering me?”
“If we must, we will.”
“So… What did the others say?”
Fitz was the one of the group of futuristic agents that still was most of a mystery to Daniel. He had interacted with the others on a more extensive note, while he had only met Leopold Fitz when they picked him up from god knows where.
“Agent May and your wife basically threatened to kill me.”
“Good, that’s… No wait- Dead is not good, but the thing is- Look.” The scientist sighed.
“The last time Daisy was in love with a guy, he sacrificed himself in space to save her, causing her to go on a destruction rampage through the United States. In the end she started to roll with ghost rider, which was weird and somewhat scary, don’t ask, but you may understand that we kinda want to know she’ll be okay, know what I’m sayin’?”
A nod.
“We’ve all done things in our past were we’re not proud of, me in special, but we all want Daisy to be okay, to find some well-deserved rest, all though I deem the fact of that actually happening very small. You agree with me here?”
Another nod.
“Good. That makes things settled then.”
When the door opened up again, the big muscular director came in, also known as Mack. Daniel had gotten to know him as a calm and easy person, so he really hoped-
“Oh, c’mon. Are they for real? Did May really cuff you up?”
He grabbed some keys from his pocket and unlocked the handcuffs. Daniel made a mental note that thus far, Mack was the most reasonable of all of them.
“Here, you look like you need a drink. Dunno what kind of crap the others pulled on you, but I’m more a down to earth kind of guy.”
Mack handed him a beer, which Daniel took on gladly.
“Look, I can’t get into this for too long as Yoyo is the one behind me, but I figured we can also have a normal conversation about this. I assume you’ve noticed Daisy is basically like a little sister to me? She’s been through a lot, so I’m kinda guessing that your getting my point of her needing someone who wants the best for her-“
When Mack left the room, Daniel put the count of death threats on 3. So far, if someone from these people was going to murder him, May seemed the most tempting one. He wasn’t really looking forward to Mack his shotgun axe.
“Agent Sousa.”
Of course he hadn’t seen Elena get in.
“Look, I respect what you’re all trying to do for Daisy here, I really do, but to spare you the effort, I’ve already had three people threatening to kill me so far.”
“Good. Agent Sousa, I am not going to threat you, because if I wanted you dead, you would be so.”
She sat down across from him and kept looking him right in the eyes.
Five minutes passed.
Ten minutes passed.
Suddenly she started to laugh.
“My goodness, have the two of you even noticed how you act around each other? You’re such a perfect fit, it’s almost disgusting. Let me give you one tip, if you’re going to have sex, stay far away from May. She feels it when you’re doing the thing.”
Well… Yoyo had surely been interesting.
Deke on the other hand… Deke just made him very tired.
“Look man, we’re out of time bros. I’m from the late 21th century, while you are from hallway the 20th one. I’m not gonna bitch about things, or threatening to kill you, because that’s not who I am. But ehm…”
“What?”
“Just take good care of Daisy, okay? She deserves that at least. When she gets upset… My time has seen what her powers can do. I swear when this is over, I’ll help you out with setting things up, that is what out of time bros do for each other. Did you know how easy it is for us in SHIELD to get chocolate flown in from Belgium? It’s amazing!"
“Hello Agent Sousa. I notice that your afternoon must have been quite interesting.”
And last, but definitely not least… The robot Enoch.
‘After the time we have all spend on the Zephyr, my systems noticed how compatible you and agent Johnson are for each other. If my database has not betrayed me, you both have lost loved ones and people close to you. I do hope you understand that the seventy years between the two of you could become a problem.”
Daniel rose his eyebrows.
“What?”
“And don’t forget that I got the last chromicom Hunter programming.”
Daniel had almost forgotten about it, but when Enoch had left, agent Coulson came in.
“Don’t worry, I’m the last one. Here, let me.”
He uncuffed Daniel for what would be the last time that day.
“Why… Agent Coulson, if you don’t mind me asking, why was all of this necessary?”
“We look out for our own. After previous events, you might understand that we like to… Look into things.”
“So… Did I pass your interrogations?”
“Oh, that is not up to me to tell. We’re not done yet. You know that Daisy basically the daughter is I never had?”
Daniel sat back down on his spot. Oh oh…. This was a moment he had also dreaded in the fifties. Meeting… Well, the parents.
“I assume that May already threatened to kill you if you would get any unwise ideas, so I’m leaving that nicely behind us. What I know from SHIELD history and my own experience tells me that you’re a better man than any of us in many ways, Daniel Sousa. We’d hate to lose you, but I won’t hesitate if you ever decide to run from your actions. I’ll fly multiple birds down to your location and they will shoot you right on the spot, before you can even make the lobby. Have I made myself clear?”
“You certainly have, sir.”
“Good. Then we are in an understanding. I also have to say that I greately believe that you and Daisy will find the closure you so need. The both of you.”
He turned around, leaving the room.
“Daisy will pick you up shortly.”
When Daisy entered the interrogation room, she led out an annoyed sigh.
“Daniel, I am so, so sorry. They insisted on doing that. Are you okay?”
Daniel stood up from his spot and embraced Daisy.
“Well, they threatened to kill me multiple times, but so far I think I did fine.”
The brunette started to grin.
“Good. Threatening to kill someone basically means “we like you” over here, so now I finally have the excuse to do this without looking over my shoulder.”
Before Daniel could do or say anything else, Daisy had kissed him. Even he had to say it: Doing this without looking over your shoulder felt absolutely amazing.