Past to Present and Back Again

Chapter 10

We had only been on the plane for 30 minutes before Hunter was glaring at Natasha and Bobbi was smirking at the situation. It wasn't for another hour that Natasha finally put on her noise-canceling headphones and let Hunter listen to his music. Bobbi at this point had moved to the seat beside mine and was watching me read. I was at that point on my second book of the trip. It took another 45 minutes for Bobbi to say anything.

"I can see Simmons rubbed off on you."

I look up from my book, "That's usually what happens when you spend a lot of time with someone, especially when you spend that time in an enclosed space or in life or death situations."

"You have changed a lot since the last time I saw you, Daisy, you used to be so cute and semi-naive, you've grown up."

"Ya, I guess I have."

The rest of the flight was quiet and uneventful. People were drifting in and out of sleep and I was able to take over the controls and manually fly for the last third of our trip. By the time we landed, it was almost the next morning. You could tell the sun was just about to rise. It was almost as beautiful as re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

The landing field was empty of people and all the lights were still off in the compound. The light part surprised me but hey sometimes I guess you just need to sleep in. I could feel the mood shift in the quinjet, Bobbi's heart started to beat faster in a way that told me she was nervous. Hunter went silent and Hunter is never silent. I can understand their nerves, they haven't seen the majority of us in at least seven years. They didn't go through the same weird shit as us.

We snuck into the compound, careful not to wake anyone or make any loud noises. Natasha went off to take Hunter and Bobbi on a tour and to show them their new room. I thought about heading back to the room I shared with Sousa but decided against it because I wasn't very tired. Instead, I went to the kitchen and started to make breakfast. I knew it wasn't long before everyone started to wake up and make their way to the common room to eat.

I started by making muffins, apple strudel ones because that is what I wanted. Then I started on pancakes. After about an hour I had a giant mound of pancakes, some fresh muffins and I was just starting the eggs. The lights in the compound were starting to turn on and doors beginning to open. I had just turned on the blender to make smoothies when I felt the little footsteps of Alya coming down the hallway.

"Auntie Daisy, did you make food, and where were you?" Alya said as soon as she entered the kitchen.

"Of course sweetheart, now what do you want?"

"I want that muffin there with 3 pancakes and tons of whipped cream!"

"Now that sounds like an amazing plan."

Five minutes later Alya and I both had heaping plates of food. We had just sat down when everyone else started to trickle in. The last to enter were Natasha, Hunter, and Bobbi. It was awkward for a second because Sousa was sitting beside me with his arm around my shoulder and Fitz and Simmons were chastising Alya for eating so much sugar at breakfast, not that Alya seemed to care. It just showed how much had changed.

Although it didn't take long for the awkward moment to pass, Hunter gave me a thumbs up because he seemed to clue in to me and Sousa, then made his way over to introduce himself to Alya. Bobbi went right to Mack, they were always so close before she and Hunter had to leave.

Everyone seemed to be having a merry old time, catching up with Bobbi and Hunter or meeting them for the first time. By the time I had finished my breakfast my eyes were getting droopy. Sousa noticed and dismissed us from the table. I was pretty much leaning on Sousa by the time we had reached our hallway. I guess I hadn't truly slept in two days, so the effect has just started to set in.