A Miracle Starts With a Beat of a Heart

Chapter 14

3 Months Later: May 2019

Lots of things had happened within the last three months.

SHIELD has gotten a better reading on the anomalies that have been popping up everywhere; however, what these anomalies were exactly, no one knew for sure. There was also talk that Mack and May were bringing someone in to get the Academy back up and running. 

The one thing that continued to keep everyone on edge was that Jemma and the Zephyr team were still up in outer space. That was the sign to them that they still have not found Fitz. A year later and still no Fitz. They all could only pray and hope that they all were still alive out there, and it wouldn't be much longer until their team is back on Earth.

Of course, when Daisy's minimum of maternity leave length given by Mack was up, she dove in. Naturally, Mack would definitely have given her more time off if she asked, but Daisy couldn't wait to get her foot back into the field. As soon as a doctor told her she had pretty much healed from giving birth and gave her the okay to start training again, she started right away.

It was definitely difficult, having not trained this extensively since almost a year ago. Daisy did beat herself up a little bit over it, but May reiterated the conversation they had when Nadia was only a week old. Things almost never happened on the first try, and it was okay to take some time to get used to things again. It wasn't long before all her fighting skills came back like second nature.

Using her powers outwardly again was definitely more difficult than she anticipated. She refused to use them outwardly when she was pregnant, in fear of hurting her daughter, so the vibrations moving through and expelling from her arms was definitely something to get used to again. It was moments like these where she was glad that Fitz had created her gauntlets because her powers were starting to cause bruising again. Thankfully, some of the scientists that were at the Lighthouse had upgraded her gauntlets to a setting that was comfortable for her to start using her powers again.

Daisy had just started going on missions once again, but Mack made sure they were simple missions that were safe enough to know that everyone would make it home alive. Daisy didn't understand at first, since she had been on over a few dozen life-threatening missions over the years and came back fine, but she did eventually understand. Not only did she need to be eased back into missions, so that meant starting out small, but she was also a mom now. She had a kid waiting for her to come back home. If she wanted to keep the promise she made to her daughter that she would not grow up the same way she did, she had to be careful.

The biggest change in the last three months was definitely Nadia. Now three and a half months old, Nadia's features were definitely more noticeable, and she happened to look more and more like Daisy every day. Her big, brown eyes made Daisy's heart melt every time she looked up at her. Nadia was also growing bigger every day as well. Now at almost thirteen pounds and twenty-two inches long, the infant was starting to outgrow some of her clothes. She was even barely still fitting in the wrap that Daisy still often used.

Nadia had the entire base wrapped around her tiny fingers. Of course, someone had to be watching Nadia whenever Daisy was gone training or on missions, and to Daisy's surprise, there was a handful of agents who were more than willing to babysit for her. Of course, she did intense background checks on all the agents just to make sure no one had any ideas. She was more than thankful for the agents she handpicked to babysit when she was gone. Of course, this meant leaving behind a detailed list of Nadia's needs and schedule as well as stocking up on breastmilk so her daughter could be fed without her.

The first missions Daisy went on after having Nadia, she was a little reluctant to leave. Elena literally had to pull Daisy onto the quinjet, telling her to not look back at her daughter cause that would only cause her to run back, and if she wanted to get back into the field, she had to get used to leaving her daughter for a little bit. Nadia made every mission for her worth it. To see her toothless smile when she walks back in from the hangar made all the difference.