Chapter 16Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Chapter TextJJ could feel the awkwardness in the air. No one had tried to speak as they flew back to Quantico. How do you speak after a teammate's ugly, raw, emotional wounds were ripped open in front of you against their will? She wanted to get Daisy away from the team. It had been… watching the CIA team picking up Cal had been hard.
The entire flight back had been exhausting. But finally, finally they landed. She ignored Reid's guilty looks, Morgan and Emily's twitching towards Daisy, and Hotch and Rossi's serious expressions. "I'll drive you home."
"It's fine." Daisy brushed her off, all coiled tension in her slumped position as she waited for the plane door to open.
She raised a brow. "I wasn't asking, you shouldn't be driving after this case."
"I…" Daisy looked up her eyes sharp before softening ever so slightly as she looked at her. She gave a sharp nod. "Ok."
JJ stood and nabbed Daisy's go bag. She was the first out of the plane. Marching towards the SUV's she hit the clicker and tossed Daisy's bag into the back before climbing into the driver's seat.
Sure enough Daisy slid into the passenger seat. She didn't mention it, and simply started up the car. As she pulled onto the main road into the city she broke the silence, sort of. "You're going to need to put your address in the GPS."
JJ parked the SUV and climbed out, grabbing Daisy's go bag. She was making sure Daisy ate, and actually slept so help her. She looked at the apartment building as they silently made their way to the elevator. Nice enough building, not Emily nice, but nice. Once they reached the fifth floor, Daisy led the way to a nice enough looking door.
"I'm good." Daisy tapped one foot on the front mat. "Thank you for driving me back."
She looked at her girlfriend and knew she couldn't leave Daisy like this. "How about some tea?"
"You hate tea." Daisy snorted, her shoulders falling. "Alright." She turned and opened the door. Stepping in she clicked on the light and stood to the side, silently welcoming her in.
JJ looked around as she entered. It was very open, the kitchen was neat and airy. There was a carpet with nothing on it sitting where the dining room table normally would be. The couch looked like you'd just sink into it. There were photos around the room.
Daisy snagged her go bag and slipped towards the bedroom.
She sighed before walking further into the room. JJ stopped in front of a photo on the mantelpiece. It was a group, everyone laughing, smudged with grime and blood but looking like the weight of the world had been taken off their shoulders.
There was a mild middle businessman looking gentlemen standing to one side. He was smiling over the rest of the group like a proud father. Besides him, the faintest of soft smiles on her face was the badass asian woman who'd picked Daisy up after work a few times.
To the other side was a giant of an african american man in a sooty t-shirt. He towered over the others, but he also radiated sincerity. Leaning against him was a Latina woman with two robotic prosthetics. Her hair was pulled back, no make up, clothing mussed and actually smoking in some places, but she was truly radiant.
Molded to each other was a pair with wedding rings. The young man's hair was curly and stuck up on one side. He had the biggest goofiest look on his face as he looked at the woman, who was clearly his wife, with adoration. She was wearing neatly corralled field gear, but there was blood splattered across one cheek.
But there in the middle was Daisy. She was wearing the oddest looking metal gauntlets. Her hair was long, blonde in it, and full of what looked like concrete dust. Daisy was wearing a tight micro weave of some sort, tactical belt around her waist. She looked happy.
"That's my old team. We took that when we realized we'd survived our last mission together. It was… we were, are family." Daisy's voice came from the kitchen.
JJ turned, and couldn't help the slightest thrill of gratitude at the sight of Daisy filling up a tea kettle. "They look like good people."
"They are. I understand why they thought I should retire. Coulson and May, the couple to the left, are planning to retire in another year. Fitzsimmons already have. Mack and Yo-yo might go back in for a couple more years, but are out right now. But they're all getting out. I think May's the only one who gets why I can't, not really." Daisy pulled two mugs from the cabinet and a box of tea leaves.
JJ smiled slightly at the giant vintage Captain America recruitment poster. "What was your role on the team? I've wondered."
"I got brought on as a hacker, but then it was deemed too dangerous for me not to have some field training. Then I chose to keep training as a combat specialist. That means weapons, sniper, hand to hand, basic infiltration, driving, etc. And then well… things happened and that wasn't my role anymore." Daisy pulled out a pot of tea. "I was the team tank, first one through, the one who cleared out the enemy. It's why while I did hold authority no one trusted me to lead. I don't blame them. I've always cared about the people I love more than the big picture. And how do you trust the person whose job it is to kill the enemy to remember ethics?" She snorted.
She touched the fluffy Captain America throw blanket. "You're one of the most morally sound people I've met. Do you know how many people your tranq gun has saved? And you used it when you were on your old team too didn't you?"
"Yeah, we used tranq rounds when we could." Daisy began to transfer tea leaves to a filter looking thing in the lid of the teapot. "Do you want biscuits with your tea?"
JJ raised a brow at the use of English vernacular. "That sounds good." She paused as she realized the teapot was also Captain America themed. "You really like Captain America don't you?"
"Eh he's ok, but he's Coulson's hero. And Coulson brings more memorabilia every time he visits. It's his way to mother hen me for leaving the nest. Mind you it was his idea I join your team, but he's still got empty nest syndrome over it." She smiled and it was so soft and affectionate.
She slid onto a barstool, and pretended the stool's legs didn't look suspiciously detachable. "This place is very you. I have to ask, what's with the bookshelf of partially full wine glasses?"
"Control training." Daisy's voice tightened.
JJ tilted her head up slightly in confusion. It could wait though. "Interesting, maybe you can show me sometime."
"You don't have to stay, you know? I'll be fine and you didn't sign up for the psychotic serial killer dad or the bioterrorist mom, who despite everything, I love." Daisy looked at her and it was clear she really wouldn't be upset, that she expected her to run even.
JJ frowned. "I'm not going anywhere, at least not over this. We still have a date at a fancy restaurant to figure out. And honestly your insistence that I'm going to break up with you over it, is more frustrating than the fact your biological parents are both in prison for life."
Daisy stared at her looking slightly baffled, and then awed. Then she was around the counter and kissing her desperately.
She gasped into it as Daisy's arm around her waist yanked JJ into her arms. It was quickly almost bruising in intensity.
JJ fisted her hands in Daisy's hair. She stepped into her, herding her against the counter. It was a rush to have her pinned. Not that she paid much attention to anything besides the feel of Daisy against her.
Her shirt was half shucked up, Daisy's flannel outershirt had hit the floor, and JJ had just gotten Daisy onto the counter. She was sucking in air one minute and then pulling back sharply the next as the kettle went off.
Daisy's cheeks were hot as she reached over yanking the kettle off and turning off the burner. "Sorry."
JJ huffed, leaning her head against Daisy's shoulder. "Not really feeling tea anymore."
"Uh so um…" Daisy cleared her throat. "Probably should mention I'm part alien before we go further?"
She groaned straightening so she could look Daisy in the eye. "Nope." JJ slapped a hand over Daisy's mouth before she could say anything else insane. "I accept your life is insane. But right now I do not care about anything, except whether you want to continue this?"
Daisy's eyes were wide, pupils blown. But as she spoke, Daisy's mouth quirked up into a smirk against JJ's palm.
"So, yes or no?" JJ dropped her hand to Daisy's thigh.
Daisy smiled before pulling her back in.
////
Garcia spun in her chair. "You've come to the domain of all things. Speak and be advised." She looked at JJ's slightly concerned expression. "You ok Sugar?"
"Theoretically, could aliens be real?" JJ twitched slightly.
She leaned back in her seat. "Oh honey. Take a seat and let's have a conversation about the truth the government doesn't want mankind to know."
"We're the government." JJ huffed, her expression baffled, except for the slightest bit of doubt.
Garcia giggled. "Not government, Government. There's a difference. There's even rumor of an entire organization that deals with them." She reached out and pulled up her file off the desktop.
"That's…" JJ trailed off.
Garcia sighed, oh to be so naive. "You just realized Daisy was part of it didn't you?"
"It?" JJ asked cautiously.
She patted the empty chair. "SHIELD."
Garcia squealed in delight at the sight of the finished uniforms. "Oh Sugars you're going to love this!"
"Why am I suddenly deeply afraid?" Emily looked up from her current profile she was working on.
Morgan leaned back against his desk, arms deliciously loose, framing his chest. "What's in the box mama?"
"Your new uniforms for paintball." She clapped her hands. "Oh you are going to look delicious Hot Chocolate."
Daisy sniggered from where she was sitting, with her heels up on her desk. "I've got to get sexy bad boy points now that ya'll know the dark secret parent backstory."
"Oh Terminator, you already were rocking the disenfranchised bad boy look." Garcia tossed a skin-tight work out shirt to wear under the armor. It was red with black lines. Would look super hot.
Daisy held it up. "Should I be concerned this is my exact size?"
"Huh…" Emily caught her's. "Wait, I don't do the paintball craziness. I know I said I wanted in, but then you mentioned the special forces thing and I'm out."
Garcia tossed Morgan's to him. "And where else are you going to find dozens of hot, eligible, former soldiers, who'll probably be chill with the badass agent job?"
Emily stared before letting out a disgusted groan. "I'm still not going on morning runs with you lunatics."
"And this weekend is the new tournament, Rossi and Boy Wonder are doing college recruitment so that means the rest of us are free to watch the badassery." Garcia was going to take so many photos. "I got one for Hotch, think you can talk him into it?"
Emily and Morgan looked at each other. "Maybe."
////
Daisy stared at the menu and felt like bluffing. "You know if this was a mission I'd confidently say something about my wine preference, dismiss the wine here and order a fancy sounding cocktail and one of the most expensive items on the menu and pretend like I knew what on earth it was. I have no idea what any of this is?"
"You and me both." JJ's eyes trailed across the menu. "Except there's no prices on the menu."
Daisy blinked and looked back at it. "Well that's… how did you even find this place?"
"It's the nicest French restaurant in the city, I always wanted to come here. Thought it was romantic." JJ lowered her menu. "We could get out of here, go find a place that lists the prices on the menu that we read the language for?"
Daisy straightened in her seat. "No, let's stay. I mean we're already here. If we tip well I'm sure we can integrate our waiter."
"And be judged mercilessly?" But JJ had that pleased looking twinkle in her eye.
She smiled, well so what if they ended up ordering snails by accident or something? JJ was happy, besides, maybe snail tasted good? "Eh, let them judge. If anyone says something I'll ruin their credit score."
"You and Garcia worry me sometimes." JJ laughed as she looked back down at the menu. "So what is Coq au Vin?"
Daisy frowned. "Uh...I think Vin is wine? And I don't think I should comment on what Coq is."
"You're terrible." JJ kicked Daisy in the shins. "Let's start with wine."
Daisy looked at the wine menu...it looked like a novel.. "So uh… thoughts? Cause I got nothing."
Daisy's lips twitched up, her eyes still closed. "Tickles."
"Hmmm." JJ didn't stop tracing her fingers along her stomach. "So...alien?"
She cracked an eye open. "Now?"
"I needed a day to decide on questions." JJ poked at her side.
"Ok!" Daisy laughed, her eyes closing again. "So what do you want to know?"
JJ ran her thumb across the raised skin from when she'd been shot by Quinn. "So part alien?"
"Failed attempt at creating sentient weapons for a galactic war over a thousand years ago. Human experimentation, it's basically junk DNA in less than 1% of the population. But if exposed to a chemical called terrigen it forces your body to...well evolve. It activates that junk DNA."
JJ hummed. "You look human enough."
"I didn't have an outward reaction to it." She rolled, pinning JJ to the bed beneath her and nipped playfully at JJ's fingers. "Want to see what I can do?"
JJ groaned letting her head fall back. "Before I met you things like aliens weren't real. I had to ask Garcia if aliens were even a thing."
"I know, surprisingly her file was pretty accurate when she ambushed me with it a few months ago. Though some of it was wild. Can I just say no tentacles." Daisy grinned.
With a groan JJ dropped an arm over her eyes. "Please say the whole Asgardian, New Mexico conspiracy theory was wrong?"
"One of the right ones actually." Daisy fell serious. "There's paperwork you're going to have to fill out for knowing the alien thing."
She let out a truly miserable groan. "Of course there is." JJ let her arm fall back onto the pillow, her blue eyes looking up at Daisy. "So, what secret alien powers do you have? Because I know you don't have a tail."
"No tail." Daisy laughed, her eyes crinkling up around the sides. She reached out towards the bookshelf of champagne flutes. To be fair she had different types of glass covered shelves in every room for practice. But she liked the soft ringing of the flutes better in the morning. And sure enough, the flutes all began to ring at their specific frequencies. She smiled, these delicate type activities had taken weeks of practice.
JJ made a sound of surprise. "How are you doing that?"
"Vibrations, I control the vibrations between everything." She grinned at her girlfriend. "You don't want to know how long it took to be able to make glass vibrate at just the right frequency to make sound but not explode."
JJ giggled. "That is such a better explanation for the endless tableware everywhere."
"What did you think they were?" She laughed rolling off of JJ and onto her side.
JJ shoved at her shoulder with a laugh. "I don't know, maybe you just had hideous decorating sense?"
Chapter 17Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Chapter TextEmily pulled on the terrifyingly perfect fit of a sports shirt. She looked at the lightweight body armor. "Why do we look like a lazer tag team when everyone else is in camo?"
"Because Baby Girl likes a show." Morgan tightened his belt, holding up the black combat pants he was wearing. "Don't worry, we just provide covering fire, don't get hit."
Daisy laughed as she pulled on the kneepads. "The course is covered in paint, our broken up color will blend better than their camo. It's why the Rock Raider team in their paint splattered camo will be harder to spot."
She stared down at herself before sighing, and pulling on the chest armor. "We're going to look ridiculous."
"Oh accept it already Prentis." Morgan chucked sports tape at her. "It'll be fun."
"If I have to do this, then so do you." Hotch yanked his ridiculous plastic helmet over his head.
Emily sighed, Garcia played dirty using Jack to get Hotch to agree. It was evil, brilliant, but evil. She pulled on the gloves. "Why do we need protective equipment for this?"
"Half cause it feels cool, half cause paintballs smart like hell," Morgan replied. "And the soldiers go crazy with paintball firing clusters."
Emily grunted as she landed flat on her back after having to jump off a barrel. "Fuck." She rolled over, paintballs flying with uncomfortable speeds over her head. Eyes narrowed behind her stupid plastic mask she crawled to the edge. Shifting she let her back thunk against the barrel. She had a few seconds before she needed to move…
Why was she doing this?
"Prentiss!" Hotch's voice hissed at her.
She nearly shot him in the face as she realized he was behind a road barrier, this 'apocalypse' themed field was the worst. "Hotch! You see a way out?"
"No, stay down." Hotch's eyes were narrowed as he looked around them. "If Morgan or Daisy break up their defense of the fake fast food joint, we can make our way to the burned out car. It might still roll."
Emily couldn't help it, she grinned. Looking to her left she saw the distance between them and the car. "That's a long way to make it."
"We'll have accomplished something other than running if we make it." Hotch's jaw clenched.
She chuckled giving an exhausted nod. "Alright, we're to the edge of the course anyways." Emily glanced fifteen feet in front of her where there were large sheets of plywood with 'city apocalypse' scene painted on. Of course it was riddled with brightly colored splashes of paint.
Emily paused as there was a sudden explosion of paintball fire, and inarticulate cries of something along the lines of 'God Fucking Damn It' and 'Come On!' She didn't pause for long. She and Hotch both scrambled to their feet and took off for the car, and possibly mobile cover.
She glanced over her shoulder and brought her gun up and fired a burst of hot pink paint.
The army guy's arms dropped. "Fuck."
Emily had a well of satisfaction as she kept sprinting. With a last burst she skidded behind the car with Hotch. She panted, her mouth unable to close from how much she needed oxygen. "Now what?"
"We pry the door open, put it in neutral and push." Hotch had gone all steely eyed, sweat streaming down his face.
She was going to strong arm Garcia for photos later. Now she just blinked the sweat out of her own eyes since she couldn't wipe without removing the mask. "Give me some covering fire while I get in."
Surprisingly the door was only a little stuck, not that she was sure what they'd have done if it was actually stuck. It was awkward, staying as low as possible, but she got it into neutral before sliding out of the car. "We're good."
Hotch dropped down behind the hood of the car he'd been shooting over. "I'm giving Morgan more paperwork for challenging two teams at once."
"I'll help make his life hell." Emily grunted while bracing herself against the door.
He gave a sharp nod. "Now let's get this twenty feet up so we can shoot into the three guys camped behind the dumpster."
"Let's get them." Emily hissed through her teeth as she braced herself against the door. Sure Morgan had challenged them, but god those assholes had been irritating.
Emily stared at their team's scoreboard. It was...well uh. "Pay up Morgan."
"How did you get six of them?" Morgan grunted, ignoring the baby blue paint splattered across his shoulder and the number two by his name on the board.
She was positively smug. "You got cocky."
Hotch was ignoring them, just dumping his water bottle over his face. Besides he'd shot three of them before he'd gotten hit in the head with bright orange paint splattering through the air holes in his mask. His face still had a slight orangish tint.
Daisy pulled off her mask, shaking out her hair. "Fun right Prentiss?"
"Thirty? You took out thirty military paintball nuts." Emily was still breathing too hard to cross her arms. "How?"
"Didn't you hear? I'm a badass." She folded her hands behind her head. "But naw, you and Hotch with that car got all their attention on you. It's like they forgot I was hunting them."
Morgan paused from where he was taking off his gear. "Did you just describe this as hunting them?"
"Well what else is it?" Daisy huffed.
The team captain from one of the two other teams they'd just fought cleared their throat. "So I believe my team bet yours $500 they'd crush you in ten minutes."
"That would be correct." Emily looked at him curiously. "You're not surprised you lost?"
He snorted. "Please, my unit got pulled out by a crazy little asian specialist who blew up three tanks, and then proceeded to steal the insurgent's own weapons and clear out five city blocks. Most terrifying thing I've ever seen. Heard she got a fancy name on her next mission. The Calvary."
"Oh she hates that name." Daisy winced as she stepped up besides Emily. "But that's cool you met May, she was my SO."
The man rubbed at the back of his head. "Well fuck. We were doomed from the start then." He laughed, rubbing at the neon blue paint Daisy used that was splattered across his cheek. "It's an honor to meet one of you crazy mother fuckers again."
Daisy reached out shaking his hand. "Nice to meet anyone who knows May."
"Name's Rick, and you two are?" Rick turned his attention to Emily.
She raised a brow while accepting his hand. "Emily, and our secret weapon here is Daisy."
"Nice to meet you ma'am." He held out a wad of crumpled tens and twenties. "We're men of our words ladies."
Daisy actually laughed as she accepted the stack. "You boys weren't half bad."
"I should hope not, we built a lot of the courses here." He fell into a light parade rest. "So what do you think of our set up here?"
Emily looked out at the courses. "It's impressive, why paintball?"
"It helps." He smiled proudly. "Makes the transition easier if you don't leave combat behind cold turkey, helps keep those of us going back over sharp, great training tool, and it's just damn fun."
Emily huffed but nodded. "So you're working with psychologists?"
"VA, but yeah." Rick grinned. "And you won't find too many paintball courses where full contact is allowed. But if you don't get to go all out, where's the fun?"
So the paintball wasn't too terrible.
////
Morgan looked over at Daisy as the last of the kids were driven away from the crime scene. "So, paranoia and profiling apparently have a lot in common."
"If it's ever easy it's a trap." Daisy shrugged. "Good thing Reid spotted it was a trap too."
He looked up at the house. "Think we'll ever have a whole weekend without one of these scumbags popping up?"
"They don't end." Daisy's hands slid into the back pockets of her jeans. "You'd know why better, but the fights, they don't end. And the best you can do is get up and do it all again the next day. It's like manscaping, it'll just grow back. Doesn't make the smooth manscaped chest any less worth it. Or do you disagree, Mr Manscaper?"
Morgan looked at her. "Ouch, that hurts." He shook his head. "You're comparing serial offenders to personal grooming?"
"Am I wrong?" She challenged with a stupid cocky tilt of her head.
He sighed. "No." His eyes sharpened. "Concealer, it's a thing."
"Fuck." Her hand slapped over the side of her neck where there was a surprisingly dark bite mark.
Morgan smirked, who knew JJ was a biter? Not that he could use that for ribbing the communications liaison for it. "Might want to cover that up before we get back to the precinct."
"You're an ass." Daisy frowned slightly. "This whole house should be bulldozed."
He eyed the house critically. "I don't know, some work, the murder basement renovated and it'd be a nice family home."
Morgan looked at the new crime scene photos. "This one is not going to be good. There's got to be more victims. His ritual is too perfect every time, no hesitation marks, no attempt at anything new. He's comfortable."
"Why the cleaning stuff?" Daisy paused. "No it's for the torture. He's a watcher isn't he?"
JJ spoke up. "I found two priors from a year before, only it was call girls. Same MO, gutted, bleach and ammonia under their nails, and the same household cleaners arranged the same way."
"It's the same unsub." Hotch agreed as the photos went up on the screen.
Morgan shifted. "How'd he get the confidence to go from prostitutes to nightclubs?"
"We know he's hunting in night clubs though?" Daisy looked around the plane. "You're sure that's how he's going to hunt?"
Morgan nodded. "Yeah, he's hunting alpha females in a club setting now. It's an ego boost."
"Well this is going to suck." Daisy cracked her neck before setting her case file aside. "I can't help much with this one, but I make excellent bait."
JJ stiffened. "What? I thought we weren't doing that anymore."
"What are you thinking?" Hotch looked at Daisy.
Daisy leaned back in her seat. "You guys investigate the case, I'll troll the night clubs. Probably won't get anything, but it's better than sitting around and running security camera footage. I go in, and you can put a tracker and a wire on me if you want. Besides, he's not drugging or blitzing them right? I'll be fine."
"She's got a point." Morgan silently apologized to JJ, she was going to kill him. "It can't hurt, and it looks like this guy is using charm and a knife to isolate and keep control. I don't think that would get him anywhere with Daisy."
JJ spoke slowly, her voice carefully not overly invested. "I'm sorry, are we considering sending her in by herself as bait for a sadist who is making gutted women clean up their own crime scenes?"
"I mean last person who stabbed me, I took the knife out and stabbed him with it." Daisy looked around as if she hadn't just said something horrific. "And Garret, may his ashes be shat out by weasels, was gutted on mission. He stuffed them back in and duct taped himself back together till he could get out of the combat area and get help. Evil Fucker was hard to kill."
Morgan opened and then closed his mouth. "Anyways, I think it's a good use of manpower. At least for this one."
"Wire and gps tag." Hotch said finally. "And you're going to have a patrol car assigned to you as on scene back up."
Morgan couldn't help it, he smirked. "So you can do alpha female?"
"I've done chinese pop star, I can handle Queen Bitch." Daisy made a disgusted expression. "God I hate heels."
Morgan wolf whistled as Daisy came out of lost and found done up for her cover. He could feel every cop in the bullpen screeching to a halt. She was wearing something that shone with reflecting light from the station. The v of the neck practically went to her waist, and the skirt barely covered her ass. "Well that'll get people's attention." He frowned. "Is that a wig?"
"The victims had long hair, and more blondes than brunettes." Daisy's heels clicked as she made her way over to him. "But I've got the wire on, gps in the bangles." pulled out a compact mirror from her shiny looking clutch and checked her lipstick. "You know this reminds me of the time I went into a garden party in a pink sundress."
He laughed, though avoided slapping her on the back. "How many guns do you have on you?"
"None." She giggled. "Dude what took so long was covering up the scars. Fortunately most of them are central mass. But do you know how many glass windows I've jumped through?"
Morgan chuckled. "Going to have one in the clutch then?"
"In the words of a woman far more badass than I, 'if I need a gun I'll take one'." She rolled her eyes as if it was that easy.
He paused before nodding. "Ok, just stay safe ok?"
"I'll be fine." Daisy looked positively smug as Reid came to a complete halt, having just then recognized her. She lolled her head back, not even flinching under JJ's gaze. "Sup guys."
Chapter 18Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Chapter TextRossi chuckled as he saw JJ dropping off a stack of paperwork on Daisy's desk. "Ah true love's bite."
"JJ cares about privacy Dave," Hotch chided from his desk.
He turned away from the window looking out over the bullpen. "I know." Rossi leaned against the wall. "Coulson's good though. She didn't get our unsub, but eight date rapists? She filtered through the non threats and accepted come ons from scum like a maestro."
"She did." Hotch lowered his pen. "What are you saying?"
Rossi's mustache twitched. "We should use her more. I doubt she'd do well under cover for long, but as bait on some of these cases? The age range she can mimic alone is impressive."
"If we use the profile we won't have to set traps." Hotch straightened. "But on occasion, if it's useful."
He accepted that. "No concerns about inter team romance?"
"As long as it remains professional I see no reason to bring it up." Hotch picked up his pen again, going back to his current file.
Rossi gave a grunt of agreement. Personally he thought it was good for team morale. "Well if that's all, I need more coffee."
He left Hotch to his work and Hotchniss. With that duty done for the day, well unless they had a case. As he was walking by the kids's desks he deftly avoided a wadded up piece of paper being chucked at Morgan by an annoyed looking Ried.
Pausing he did a double take. "Might want to cover up those scratch marks."
Daisy didn't even bother adjusting her scoop neck sweater. "Badge of honor dude. Badge of honor."
"And here I thought kissing and telling was a no no." He chuckled making his way to the kitchenette.
Morgan made a snickering sound from his desk.
Reid spoke up. "Leaving physical marks during coital relations is a marker of possession. You should be careful if there are also gifts of inappropriate financial value."
Emily, Morgan and Rossi all barely kept from snorting.
Daisy folded her hands behind her head. "Or maybe I'm that good. Pro-tip, vibrations good."
"Don't you mean vibrator?" Emily turned laugher in her voice, but slightest crinkle in her brow.
Daisy looked far too smug for it to be allowed. "Sure, let's go with that."
Rossi shook his head. "Oh to be young once more." He picked up the coffee pot and refilled his mug. "Maybe it'll be a slow day for once?"
"Grab your go bags, we've got one," JJ announced from the walkway before ducking into Hotch's office.
He groaned. "I jinxed us."
////
Morgan didn't question when he spotted Daisy waiting for him in the driver's seat of the SUV. "I can drive."
"I'm sure, and if we went with your 'vibing it' method you'd end up late. And being late to a funeral is rude." She locked the doors, and then pulled out into traffic.
He stared out the window at the traffic as they passed it. "Why you? Usually it'd be Rossi."
"Check the visor." She didn't look away from the road.
Morgan frowned, before reaching up and pulling the envelope out from behind the visor. He turned it over his hands and pulled out the paperwork. "How did you afford this?"
"Part of my work I do for the CIA still is defunding terrorists. As long as it's draining out of the enemies accounts they don't care too much where I'm diverting the funds." Daisy's whole posture and voice were blase.
His voice thickened. "Do you know what college funds for those kids will mean?"
"It'll mean they won't end up fighting the fights we had growing up." Daisy's eyes flicked to him.
Morgan breathed deeply. "Thank you. It'll mean the world to them." He fell silent after that. It was… refreshing not to be told he didn't have to go to the funeral every time a cop died, leaving kids behind on one of their cases. But then Daisy was a foster kid, she'd get the solidarity between the abandoned.
He paused as the SUV came to a halt. "You're not coming?"
"No." Daisy looked at him seriously. "This is important that you do on your own. At least to you it is. I'll be committing mass fraud against corrupt businessmen on my phone in the parking lot."
Morgan closed his eyes for a brief moment. "Thank you."
"Anytime." She reached out grabbing the door handle. "Now shoo." With a sharp move she shut the door leaving him on the sidewalk and pulling away.
He shook his head as he put on sunglasses. Morgan slid the envelope into his pocket. It was time to pay his respects.
////
JJ woke next to Daisy for the third time that week. It was becoming a habit, one she didn't want to end. She looked at the woman besides her in bed. It was always beautiful to see Daisy still, the constant tension she carried gone. Her eyes followed the lines of her face.
She didn't know how long Daisy would continue to be so understanding about keeping their private life private. Well, at least leave her name out of it. The team had taken to ribbing Daisy about who she was seeing. JJ's cheeks heated at that, it wasn't her fault she kept leaving marks on Daisy. Who said vibrating girlfriends were real? Because it was unfair was what it was. She let her head drop onto the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. What was she going to do? This relationship was making her crazy. They'd been together less than two months and already she knew it was getting serious.
"I can hear you thinking." Daisy murmured sleepily.
JJ shifted, looking down at Daisy. "It's nothing, go back to sleep."
"Uh huh." Daisy's eyes opened slowly, her head rolling on the pillow so she was looking at her with warm brown eyes. "Want to try that one again?"
She pressed their foreheads together. "This is just very fast for me."
"Do you need to slow down?" Daisy's voice lightened. "Cause I wasn't the one pressing you into my front door."
JJ rolled her eyes, shoving Daisy's playfully. "You can be such a guy."
"You're hot, it brings it out of me." Daisy's face was still sleepy as she smiled fondly before pushing up, leaning her head against her arm. "But is there something you want to change about us?"
JJ looked slightly up at her. "No. And that terrifies me."
"Then we don't have to change anything." Daisy dipped her head slightly and brushed her lips against hers softly. "I'm happy, I think you're happy. It's a good thing."
She reached up, curling her fingers in Daisy's dark hair. "You don't want to tell the team? Tell our families?"
"Well…" Daisy bit her lower lip before laughing. "I'm pretty sure my family and the team know. The paperwork you had to fill out over the alien thing, would have been a pretty big clue to professional spies like my family."
JJ blinked before burying her face in her pillow. "Of course your family knows."
"It'll be fine. We're spies." Daisy tickled her side lightly. "It's fine, no shovel talks in your future."
JJ batted away the now wandering fingers. "You're sure you're ok with this?"
"I'm happy like this JJ. Sure at some point our relationship will probably need to be properly filed with the Bureau. And I don't know, if we end up adopting some kid in a few years or something it'd be a bit awkward if we hadn't mentioned it to the team yet. But seriously I don't mind keeping our personal life private." Daisy grinned, pointing at herself with her thumbs. "And again, alien here. I'm good with secrets."
She huffed in amusement, softening against Daisy. "You promise?" The thing was, as much as she did love how they currently were, she was worrying about it. But maybe that wasn't because Daisy was the one who was wanting to move so fast?
"We can take this at whatever pace you want. No pressure, like at all." Daisy curled her arms around her. "Now, we can keep talking this to death, or we can try that thing with my tongue again?"
And well, JJ was only human.
JJ looked at her cellphone. "Babe, you're going to want to bring a go bag with you. I think we're going to be going straight to the plane."
"I'll grab yours from the closet!" Daisy called from the kitchen. She popped her head into the bedroom before JJ could call the Orange County Sheriff back. "If we take my bike we'll have time for breakfast before we leave."
She smiled at her girlfriend. "Sounds good."
////
Emily dropped her go bag on the plane, while raising her coffee to her mouth. "California again?"
"Indeed." Hotch replied as he dropped his own go bag onto an empty seat.
She stretched before taking the seat by her go bag. "At least this call didn't come in the middle of the night."
"Sup." Daisy raised a hand in greeting as she made her way in, sunglasses covering her eyes, slightly hungover slump to her posture, and large thermos in hand. She dumped her bag in a seat and slumped in one herself.
Emily grinned. "Long night?"
"Longest." Daisy pushed her sunglasses up, showing the slightest bags under her eyes. "You?"
"Good, would have been better if I had gotten to sleep in at all." Emily tossed Daisy a granola bar. "Thanks for the paintball. Soldiers with good therapists are so hot."
Daisy smirked. "Told ya."
Emily sipped at her coffee. She paused when JJ stepped in, perfectly put together, not a single sign of hangover, and holding a to go cup of coffee. Huh, someone was a dirty rotten liar. "Just eyeliner today Daisy?" Damn, those dark circles were totally believable. Fucking spies.
Daisy looked up and a spark of understanding in how she pushed her sunglasses back up. "Oh you know how it goes, not enough time. And so much effort."
She snorted softly while raising her coffee in salute of a job well done.
Emily stopped as they made their way to the SUV. "Where's Daisy?"
"Fuck." Morgan ripped the door open. "We're hitting the gas!"
She shared a wide eyed look with Reid as they jumped into the SUV. Emily grabbed the chicken handle and braced herself.
Emily was out as soon as the SUV screeched to a stop. She could tell the race was over already. As she jogged to the unsub's parked car, she relaxed at the sight of Daisy leaning against the unsub's SUV. "What happened?"
"SHE'S INSANE!" A cop yelled as he looked at them . "I...SHe…."
Daisy held up a hand in a slight wave. "His window was open so he could shoot at us." She shrugged. "So I tranqed him and jumped through the window and drove the car to a halt so it didn't crash and hurt anyone."
"He's out?" Morgan demanded, the horror of the phone call they'd just gotten from Hotch still clinging to him.
Daisy gave a sharp nod. "And in the back of the cruiser of the incoherent one."
Emily holstered her gun at that. "He killed his family. They were gone before we even got here."
"The house?" Daisy asked.
She gave a sharp nod. "JJ and Hotch found them."
"Bastard thought his family was in the car." Daisy pushed off the car and walked across the road over to them. "Let's get out of here. This state is like cursed this year or something."
Emily blew out a breath. "Yeah, let's finish this up and go home."
Chapter 19Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Notes:Merry Christmas!
Chapter TextDaisy sighed as she pulled her rain jacket closer and concentrated on the vibrations in the ground. She looked up the hill. "Go search over by those bushes."
"Uh sure?" One of the damp police officers with a rake trudged up the hill.
She caught the shoulder of another officer. "You're going to want a go dig by that pine on the other side of the path."
"That's not part of our search grid?" The cop looked confused.
Daisy shoved her hands into her pockets. "I outrank you and I'm telling you to. Or should I ask not nicely?"
"I'll go do that then ma'am." He shivered slightly and then was grabbing a rake and heading towards where she'd pointed them.
She pulled out her cellphone while moving out of the way, the dump area wouldn't tell her much, but it would Reid and Morgan. Daisy smiled as she heard the greeting on the other side of the line. "JJ, we're going to be back in an hour or so. They're about to find two more victims."
-"Do I want to know how you know they're going to find bodies?"- It was JJ's voice she'd developed just for reality breaking information.
She smiled. "I've been taking lessons from Toph. If I can feel vibrations, I can feel what is vibrating as well. I can feel the bones. So I told them where to dig."
-"That's going to bring up questions, ones you can't answer."- JJ cautioned.
Daisy looked at the woods around her, the quiet of the sopping wet body dump. It felt right oddly enough that this depressing case was her last one before things changed. "You know that mission I told you I was leaving for in two days? Once it's done a whole lot of stuff won't be classified anymore. Just a whole mess of things most people aren't ready for."
-"You mean the ET problem?"-
She felt like laughing at that. "Yeah, that's not classified anymore after this case. Frankly it doesn't matter if it gets out now. The reason it was classified is already accomplished."
-"So you're not going to tell Garcia her file on ET is over 90% correct."- JJ's end muffled for a moment. -"Daisy, what's the chance that the psychic on this case is for real?"-
Daisy paused. "Not good. I've met two individuals with actual cognition abilities like that. One was an autistic little girl who drew the future and the other was her father. And his was far more limited. But the ET problem…" She tapped her foot. "Do you buy it?"
-"A little bit, yeah. The missing girl's mom really does."- JJ replied.
She nodded. "If he is an Inhuman, some of his power might be manifesting pre terrigen. Lincoln used to joke he always was cursed with static shock. Joey always didn't trust metal as much as most. It's not… sometimes parts of us are just a few thousand years from being something tangible." Daisy let her head fall back, feeling the rain on her skin. "Bring him into the station. When we get back we'll see if he's for real or a grifter."
JJ sighed over the line. -"Thank you. I don't want to take away this woman's hope if it might not be false hope."-
"Then we'll be sure." Daisy rolled her shoulders forward. "I'll stop by the jet and grab some things."
-"Might take till tomorrow to bring him in, it's getting late."- JJ admitted.
She bit her lip. "Sneak into your hotel room later tonight then?"
-"I'll pick up dinner."- JJ's voice lightened and regained that familiar warmth.
Daisy smiled. "Sounds good."
Daisy paused as the detective stepped in front of her. "Did you need something?"
"Look, he hasn't committed a crime." The detective's crushed spirit was practically palpable.
She could feel the team's eyes on her. "I didn't say he had. But he's wasting valuable time and resources. Give me five minutes and we'll know whether to listen to him or not." Daisy looked at the man, christ did they have a dementor in Washington or something? "Look Detective… what's your name again?"
"Detective Fullwood." He dropped his hands to his hips. "Look, he can't hurt."
Daisy couldn't help it, she scoffed. "Fullwood? Like you live in the Evergreen state and your name is Fullwood and just...wow take your wife's name when you marry dude. That is like hella unfortunate for you. Middle school had to have been a bitch."
"Excuse me?" He rocked forward, face twisting with affront.
She shook her head slightly. "Look, Detective Fullwood, this is taking away from the case. Agent Rossi is frothing at the mouth to kick this guy out of the investigation, and you all are listening to him. So you can watch as I handle it, or you can sit at your desk and wait five minutes. Your choice."
Daisy stepped around the man spluttering as she made her way to the interrogation room. She saw JJ, Hotch and Rossi already on the other side of the glass. No doubt Morgan and Emily were going to join them. Daisy opened the door and stepped into the interrogation room. "Sorry for the wait."
"I haven't done anything wrong." Stanley Usher and apparent psychic said as he focused on her.
She set the briefcase she was carrying with her on the metal table and sat down. "I'm here because you're either an asset to this case or a hindrance. My job is to see which you are."
"You can't quantify what I can do with science." He folded his hands on the table in front of him. "It's spirit."
Daisy chuckled. "That's where you're wrong, it's science, just science so advanced most people mistake it for magic. So the first question, are you worth my time?" She set her Hawaii Hula girl on the table in front of him. "Tell me what that gives you."
Stanley slowly picked up. He breathed out, eyes closing. It took a minute but he finally spoke. "A van, a plane, a kitchen. I don't know how you expect to prove or disprove anything from that."
"I wouldn't say that. You just told me either you're for real, or you got information out of one of five people on this planet." She carefully plucked her Hula gil from his hands and slipped it back into her coat. "So let's rule some options out shall we."
He tilted his head to the side slightly. "You believe me?"
"Yup." Daisy held out her hand. "Hand."
Stanley slowly reached out, giving her his rough and worn hand.
"This might sting." She stabbed his thumb with a needle. And hung on when he jerked his hand back. "So you're blood's red, and breakable by a needle. Which means not Asgardian or 92% of alien life." Daisy released his hand and pulled out the teragen crystal from the case and shut it. "You have a choice to make now."
Stanley held his hand against his chest. "What are you talking about?!"
"There are two types of humans who have abilities not seen in the rest of the human population. And I've seen the background report Rossi had run on you. No human experimentation, radioactive vats with 99.9999% death rates, no alien weapons of mass destruction, which means your ability isn't a gift. It's part of you. So how badly do you want to help Brooke?"
He frowned. "Is this a trick? Of course I want to help her. Anything."
"Then congrats." She dropped the crystal watching the mist fill the interrogation room. Daisy's eyes caught the cocoon starting to cling to him. "Welcome to the future."
Stanley startled to his feet. "What?" He started to struggle as the rock began to cover him.
"It's ok, it won't hurt you." Daisy held her hands out, and caught his hand. "You're safe."
His eyes widened as he held her hand. And then he was completely covered.
Daisy dropped her hand. She looked at the one way glass. "He's alive, scared, but alive." She pulled out the necklace they'd gotten back from the family from the briefcase and set it on the table. She turned to the cocoon. Someone was trying to rip the door off its hinges, they wouldn't be able to, her vibrations were bracing it. Who knew what boredom could do for developing skills.
"Stanley." Daisy spoke slowly. "I know you can hear me. You're going through something called terrigenesis. It's going through like a million years of evolution in a few minutes. Believe me the hangover is going to suck. But you're going to be able to help Brooke. And I promise, I'll make sure you stay safe. Cause there's a whole bunch of shit that believe me you are not ready for. No one ever is. But I've been in there, and I've helped other people who've been through it. I just need you to focus on your heart beat ok?"
She waited, and then there was a crack in the shell. Daisy smiled, huh so he was a fast hatcher then. Picking up the pieces of the crystal she swept the dust off the table and into the briefcase. Sure it was a bit dramatic, but well tomorrow was going to suck for the team anyways. Might as well give them a head start on processing. "Stanley? Mr Usher?"
A chunk fell off his face, he was gasping, eyes wide. "I can't get out."
"I know, let it break naturally. Just breathe, you're doing good." Daisy picked up the necklace. "I think I know what your powers are going to be. And it's going to be really overwhelming once that happens. So I need you to listen to me ok?"
He strained as if to nod and then spoke. "Ok, yeah."
"It's going to take a while for your powers to develop too strongly. That's going to help you. But you should not touch me. Or anything of mine, National Security, but also I've been shot, stabbed, tortured, drugged, like a bunch of bullshit, like if you live the events of people if you touch them like that would be super traumatic. So don't do that."
Stanley managed to nod as some more of his cocoon cracked. "Ok."
"Now, the first thing you're going to want to touch is that necklace, I'm going to put it in your hand. Cause you're not going to be able to control this thing for a while, but we need to know where Brooke is now."
He swallowed. "I can do that."
"Good. Once you tell me where Brooke is, those people on the other side of that glass are going to go get her. And I'm going to stay here with you. A team of baby agents with far less trauma for you to accidentally pick up will be here in about an hour. They're going to take you to a castle in Scotland actually. The two top specialists on people like us are there, and other people like us. You'll be safe, learn to control and even use your gifts if you want."
Stanley chuckled hoarsely. "Sounds pretty insane, but I'm in a rock."
"Yeah, believe me, I get it. There's a welcome video you can watch on the jet to the new Afterlife." Daisy picked up the necklace by the chain and held it above his hand as the stone cracked and fell off his hand. "Ready?"
"If it gets that girl home," Stanley said.
Daisy dropped it into his hand.
Daisy could feel how the team was looking at her. They'd herded her into a tiny office at the station as soon as they got back with Brooke and the unsub. She turned, refusing to focus on the understanding look on JJ's face. "So, I can't answer everything till I get back from the mission I'm leaving for as soon as we land. But I'll answer what I can."
Morgan's head shifted to one side. "I gotta say it, aliens? Like ET phone home, aliens? I mean I was figuring super soldier serum though so like… not sure if this is better or worse than that."
"Yeah, haven't met any that look like ET. The blue ones are assholes though. Also the ones' I'm related to so...ya know." She shrugged, but it was stiff.
Emily cleared her throat. "So we should have been calling you ET not Terminator? Cause I liked Terminator but if you want us to switch it up we can do that. Is there alien human hybrid stuff we should know? Like food allergies to look out for on missions?"
"You guys…" Daisy felt her eyes tearing up. "No gonna go running to the hills about having an Inhuman on the team?"
Rossi slapped her shoulder. "Naw kiddo, though does this mean some of those other psychics might be the real deal?"
She laughed, eyes definitely wet. "No, less than 1% of the population has the Inhuman gene. If JJ hadn't thought he might be legit I'd have ignored him."
"Huh, at least I'm not completely wrong then." Rossi sighed. "I'm guessing your mission has to do with letting the world know aliens are real then?"
Daisy cocked a brow. "Something like that, I asked an old teammate of mine to keep an eye on you guys while I'm gone. You're not exactly used to dealing with the weird world." She grinned, but it felt...she wanted to beam. Her team wasn't freaking out. They looked like they were going to integrate her the entire ride home on the plane. But they weren't scared of her. And JJ? JJ was standing next to her, not seeming to realize she was just a hair too close. It was...well way better than the last time her team found out.
There was a knock on the door. The whole team turned in confusion.
"Yes?" Hotch opened the door sharply.
Detective Fullwood was slightly curled in. "There's a giant black guy asking for a Daisy Coulson? And uh...he's like...really big and the little CIA agents who are slapping classified all over my favorite interrogation room got all wide eyed. So…"
Daisy perked up, a grin pulling up her face. "Does he have a shotgun axe?"
Morgan and Emily exchanged a look while mouthing the word 'shotgun axe' at each other, in clear confusion.
"Is that what that thing is?" Fullwood blinked, making a 'huh' face. "Yeah, is he like another alien or something? Cause he's huge."
She laughed. "No he's human." Daisy slid past the team towards the door. "That's Mack."
"Your partner before he got promoted up?" JJ asked curiously.
Daisy grinned. "Yep, and he owes me one." She jogged into the main bullpen of the police office and then half tackled him. "MACK!"
"Daisy." He hugged her back tightly before setting her back on the ground. His familiar gruff voice comforting, but oddly not as comforting as she'd expected. "I got your call. You woke up an inhuman in the middle of a police station?"
"It saved a life, and BTW he's supes powerful." She grinned. "What are you doing here early? I wasn't expecting you till we got back to Quantico tonight?"
Mack grumbled slightly. "Change of plans, Fury wants you to pick up Banner."
"Haven't been to South America since the nuke. Sounds fun." Daisy turned to her team. "Guys, this is Mack. He's gonna make sure you don't get pulled into the shitshow that's coming cause I'm on your team."
Mack sighed. "I'm retired, I'm just here cause somebody took that paranoia thing a bit far."
"Not paranoia if they're really out to get you." Daisy sniped back, before stepping back into her team's space. "And I'm trusting you take care of them. They're my team."
He gave a nod as he took in the FBI team. "I gotcha. At least you aren't telling people I'm a teddy bear anymore."
"Has she always been this irreverent?" Hotch asked as he stepped ever so slightly so that Daisy was surrounded by their team. He didn't cut her off from Mack, but he stood at her shoulder.
Mack chuckled. "Afraid that's just how Tremors here is."
"Tremors?" Emily nudged Daisy with her elbow. "You got a thing for nicknames starting with 'T'?"
Daisy couldn't help beaming as Morgan slapped her shoulder and spoke in a low voice. "So badass brothers as your dainty backup a thing for ya?"
She turned, taking a step back from the team, with a smile firmly on her face as she walked backwards towards the exit. There was a schedule after all. "Naw, the nicknames just happen, kinda like Terminator more than some of my others. And Morgan, look on the bright side, you are great at covering fire on the paintball courses."
Chapter 20Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Notes:And here we are. Thank you for all the kind comments and surprising love for this one. I wasn't expecting much of anyone to be interested in this, so it's been a really pleasant surprise for you all to have enjoyed it so much. And yes you all have convinced me to write a sequel, I've sketched out a rough outline for one. I'm going to finish Happy Accidents before I start working on it actively, but it's actually something I'm working on. So think three to four months before I consider posting said sequel, but I'll get there. You guys are the best, legit.
Chapter TextJJ had barely slept, it had been hard not knowing what Daisy was doing but knowing it was alien big. Because that was her life now. By four in the morning she threw her blankets to the side in frustration and got ready for work. So what if they had Daisy's old field partner watching over them for a couple days? She still had to do her job.
She paused as he went to make coffee. Instead she opened the cupboard and pulled out the tea Daisy kept up there. Black tea with milk was the least objectionable one Daisy had made her try, and it felt like the day for it.
JJ stared at the tv screen. "Is that…. a wormhole above New York?" Her voice felt like it was coming from miles away.
"That's not possible. A wormhole that size would swallow the earth from the gravitational pull." Reid replied. "Realistically most likely a powered rip in the fabric of space. But the technology for that is…"
Morgan looked over where Mack wasn't paying much attention to the news. "Come on! That's insane! I don't care how powerful she is, she can't take a whole army of aliens!"
"Yeah she can." Mack looked up from his burger. "Look I've seen that girl contain a nuclear explosion with her bare hands. She's the most powerful Inhuman, ever. And Inhumans aren't cute cuddly toys. They're weapons of mass destruction. And Daisy, well she's got this." He chuckled. "Sides, there's a team going in with her to take care of it."
JJ turned, her nails biting into her palms. "She's just one person! It only takes one bullet."
"Agent…" Mack sighed. "I don't think you understand how terrifying Tremors is. If someone fucked up and gave her enough energy drinks she could crack the planet like an egg. Her call sign was Quake, but mostly people called her Destroyer of Worlds."
Reid spluttered. "That's mathematically impossible! I mean you couldn't crack a planet like an egg even if you used every single nuclear weapon on the planet. The current binding energy of the earth is 2,24 x 10^32 joules. All of the nuclear bombs on earth only have a force of 2.67 x 10^19 joules. It's actually impossible to build the one quadrillion nuclear bombs needed to crack a planet!"
"Yeah, the world is way freaker than you know." Mack took a large bite. "You should check those unclassified files. Like just how Daisy ended up on your team is uh...it was a ride."
Hotch frowned. "She made too big of a scene on a mission. The rest was psychological recommendation."
"Yeah, not how she got on that mission. How we ended up in this moment in time. Cause this is the second time I've seen the Battle of New York." Mack got up. "I'm gonna go order some more food. We're gonna be here for a while."
JJ grabbed Emily's hand as a giant alien creature came out of the sky. Why was she so worried about this ridiculous alien stuff, and whether their relationship was going to last? Why? None of it mattered. So what if apparently time travel was a thing, at this point she'd believe anything. But none of it was the point. The point was she saw a single individual standing on a skyscraper that the camera person had just picked up and she knew what Daisy looked like.
////
Daisy bent her neck back as she saw the Chitari coming down out of the sky. Well, time to go big. Pulling out a syringe of pure adrenaline she stabbed it into her neck. "It's been too long since I got a chance to really break loose."
"I've got your back." May hefted up her rocket launcher. "Rodgers and the Avengers have Loki and any who get past you. Just keep the numbers through manageable."
She breathed out, and then raised her arms towards the sky. And the army coming through started to disintegrate. Her mind went blank, there was nothing but manipulating and channeling vibrations. She couldn't be sure how long she stood there, channeling destruction.
Her breath was knocked from her as a chitauri speeder hit her, sending her and itself flying off the top of the skyscraper.
Grabbing onto it she sent a burst of vibrations destroying the engine. And then she was flipping in mid air as she fell. Her hands dropping towards the ground as she started to cushion her hurtling descent.
There was a flash of red and gold, and then she had a hand holding the back of her suit. "No falling to your death."
She grinned at Iron Man. "Toss me onto the top of the next skyscraper Sparkle Pants."
"Oh I like you McShake." He quipped back before launching her towards the helipad on top of the New York Times building.
She rolled, snarking into her comm. "Way to throw me to the vultures." She yanked out a handgun and started clearing the roof. A blast of vibrations sent six chitauri flying off the roof to hopefully their deaths. Spinning over the back of another shot three in the face. Holding her arm up she vibrated the ship coming through the opening. No full ships coming through to kill tens of thousands of civilians.
Daisy grunted as a chitari slammed a staff into her face. Spitting blood out she spun, kicking it in the head so hard it's neck cracked. She huffed as part of the roof exploded from an arrow hitting the fuel tank of a chitauri speeder.
She grabbed a chitari spear...gun thing and shot the last of the stupid aliens off the roof. "Good shot."
Daisy ached everywhere as she stuffed her face with shawarma. She looked up at Steve. "So I've got some merch of yours if you could sign it."
"Is Coulson contagious?" Steve asked with some disbelief, he was mostly too exhausted to actually put much emotion into it.
She huffed. "You're a national treasure Rodgers, at least your ass is."
Natasha held up a hand and high fived her. She spoke up. "Quake here is Coulson's daughter from the future."
"Huh…" Steve's cheeks were slightly pinked but he nodded. "I'll sign the trading cards."
Tony spoke up. "Phil has a kid?"
"Will have." Natasha pulled out her cellphone that was somehow not cracked. "Pepper says we can crash in her 12% of the tower."
Banner and Thor grunted. Thor looked up. "Quake, daughter of Phil son of Coul, if I could speak with you of the Kree in the morning, I would be honored."
"Can't." Daisy stood slowly, and god she hurt. "I've got a team to get back to. It's my home. You can come get a burger with me sometime and we can talk Thor."
He gave a slight dip of his head.
The Avengers were awesome, everything Daisy had ever imagined and hoped they be. But she didn't want to stay with her heroes from when she'd been a seventeen year old. She wanted to go home, and huh. This FBI thing wasn't dumb, she wanted back with her team.
////
JJ wasn't sure how long they'd been watching the news. Every time new footage came up with Daisy in it her heart felt stuck in her throat. She wasn't in her usual mix of leather, jeans and business casual. Instead Daisy was in a black skin tight field suit, with yellow seams, a black eye mask, and metal gauntlets. It was different. She might actually have enough brainpower to find it hot if she wasn't too busy watching a god forsaken alien invasion.
The rest of the team had lost their minds as a group when Captian fucking America showed up, or the God of Thunder, Garcia had said something when she spotted Iron Man. It was all chaos, the world changing before their eyes and all JJ wanted was for it to be over and her girlfriend back.
"I get why the unsubs never scared her." Morgan uttered from the chair he was in.
Emily carefully pushed coffee around the conference table. "Are they showing the green one punching that one ship that got through in the face again?"
"The green one is Hulk." Garcia corrected, surprisingly the bubbliness had been subdued all day. "Have they posted about what happened in the subways?"
Rossi cleared his throat. "They're fine, nothing collapsed. Dai-Quake was channeling the shock from everything back into the bug looking ones." He grunted. "Why? Do they all have to have names?"
"Just be glad our girl is wearing a mask." Morgan picked up his fresh cup of coffee, and quietly toasted Emily. "You'd think she'd have called by now. The fighting and the blue hole..thing ended three hours ago."
Hotch spoke up. "We don't know what everything on the ground is like. And she'd have verbal reports to give."
They all fell silent, just watching more cellphone footage, and listening to more commentary. It was surreal. They hadn't left the conference room all day. If a case had come in someone would have had to have held JJ back from the unsub.
JJ felt the faintest prickle along the back of her neck. She spun around and something unknitted in her chest. "Daisy."
Daisy held up a hand, her gauntlets still on, cement dust lightly coating her, a hint of dried blood showing her nose had been bleeding, her lip was split, and she was radiant just bashfully smiling from the doorway.
She didn't care that her team was there. JJ was out of her chair and slamming into Daisy, hugging her tightly. "You're alive."
"I'm safe." Daisy hugged her back. "I promise I'm ok."
JJ pulled her head back slightly and cradled Daisy's head between her hands. "You are an adrenaline junky and for some reason I love you." She saw the widening of Daisy's eyes, the soft awe. And well, she was human. JJ pressed their lips together and drank in having her girlfriend back and safe and in her arms.
Morgan wolf whistled, warm laughter filling the conference room.
Their mouths separated, but JJ kept her forehead pressed against Daisy's. "I'm glad you're back."
"Only stopped to stuff my face with shawarma before coming back." Daisy giggled slightly.
JJ finally stepped back, and smiled as she saw Emily and Garcia colliding into Daisy with hugs of their own. And Morgan was slapping her on the back.
Garica poked at the gauntlets. "These are badass Terminator."
"Well done." Hotch gave Daisy the shoulder touch.
Emily hipchecked JJ. "So making it official, official?"
"Well apparently I'm dating a superhero." JJ's shoulders were finally relaxed, because their team was together, their family complete. She smiled. "And I'm sure."
Emily gave her a look of understanding. "I'm happy for both of you."
"Who wants to go to a bar? I could use a drink after today." Morgan slung an arm around Daisy's shoulders.
"Yes Sugar." Garcia groaned in relief.
Reid smiled, his hands twitching slightly as he grabbed his messenger bag. "There's a new place down the road, the reviews have been unusually high."
"Aliens are real and I need a scotch." Rossi grabbed his blazer.
JJ didn't startle at the warm hand on her back. She just looked at Hotch. "I'll have the paperwork on your desk by the end of the day tomorrow."
"It can wait, I'm happy for you JJ, really." His eyes were surprisingly warm.
JJ stepped forward, taking Daisy's hand as they trooped for the bar, and their team was whole.