Somewhere Only We Know

The Call

College isn't it's all cracked up to be. Daisy thought it was supposed to be hard, but she finished her bachelor's degree by the time she could drink in Canada. Of course, that was nothing compared to what Fitzsimmons did at her age. By then, they already had six PhDs between them, with Fitz's three in engineering, quantum physics, and robotics, and Simmons's three in xenobiology, biochemistry, and physics. She also somehow had a SHIELD medical degree, which was similar to a regular medical degree, but she didn't need to go through years of med school to obtain it.

Daisy herself was working on her master's when she got a call from her dad.

"Coulson, what's up?" she answered, swivelling in her chair in her dorm room. "Miss me already?"

"Very funny," Coulson replied dryly. "No-"

"Ouch-"

"I'm calling about a mission," her dad told her. "You get to pick a team. How great is that?"

"Ooh." Her interest piqued, Daisy swivelled back to her laptop. "What kind of mission?"

"Recon. You, two science officers, and a specialist. You are going to Lake Ontario," Coulson said, sounding like he was reading from a file on his table. Daisy imagined him squinting at it with his head tilted to his shoulder, holding the receiver down whilst he tried to read the 'tiny' font SHIELD used. "Some reclamation project."

"Whose is it?"

A pause. "Director Carter."

Daisy sighed. "Didn't she retire, oh, ten years ago?" she asked with a small smile. "Still doing her work?"

"She's the founder of SHIELD, Daisy," Coulson protested. "How can you say no to that? Plus, she's my mentor-in-law. I-"

"Don't want to get on May's bad side?" Daisy guessed, chuckling. "Okay. I'll get the team together. How soon is it?"

"December. You get to decide the day." Coulson huffed lightly. "You're lucky. I wish I got personally requested by the founder of SHIELD to do a mission."

"You know it's mostly because of you and May, right?" Daisy asked with a slight grin as she got up. She grabbed her coat as she walked across the room. "Whatever. You guys are famous and you don't even know it. How many assets can I bring?"

"One," her dad replied. "And I'm not famous. May is because she's awesome and nice and cool. But I digress. I'll see you home for...?"

"The 22nd, I promise, Dad," Daisy said, rolling her eyes as she stuck her wallet inside her pocket. "Send me the file and say 'hi' to Mom for me, 'kay?"

"Got it, sweetheart. I'll talk to you later?"

"Definitely." Daisy closed the door to her room and walked down the hallway. "I heard you proposed again last week."

A groan. "Did Em tell you about that?"

"Yeah, on our weekly mother-daughter calls," Daisy retorted. "She thinks it's funny. And Scrooge McDuck? Again? It didn't work last year, and it's never going to. Just be yourself or something. Be a dork."

"This is me being a dork!" Coulson laughed. "You have to help me, sweetheart. You're the one person who knows May as well as I do."

Daisy walked down the stairs slowly, chuckling to herself. "What- reception- bad- can't- talk- call- later-"

"I know you're faking it, Dais'," Coulson grumbled.

"Don't- know- can't- hear- stairwell- love-" Daisy gleefully ended the call with a laugh and shoved her phone in her pocket. She left the building, fall breeze blowing her hair about.

The cadet walked to the coffee shop and got three orders, a regular latte for herself, a matcha latte for Simmons, and a hot chocolate for Fitz. She collected the drinks and made her way to the Science building on campus, where she was sure the two biggest nerds in her life would be. They basically lived in their lab.

"Delivery, one cute girl with drinks!" Daisy called, walking into the mostly empty lab. She spotted Simmons at the desk, head resting against the counter. "Hey, Jem," she said, nudging the older girl awake with her foot. "Wake up, girl. I brought you coffee."

"Coffee?" Simmons opened her eyes. "Matcha latte?" With a nod, she accepted Daisy's proffered coffee cup. "Thank you. Fitz is under the table over there," she said, gesturing over to the other side of the lab. "We failed our field test."

"Correction: I failed my field test," Fitz's voice called out. "Simmons aced it. As always. Ooh, hot chocky. Thank you," he said as he sat up to take the drink. "What's the favour you need this time?"

Daisy rolled her eyes and sipped her own drink. "Why do you always assume I need something from you when I come visit?"

"It's human nature," Simmons said, crossing the room to be closer to the other two. "But anyways, why are you here at-" she checked her watch- "ten-thirty in the morning?"

Daisy put down her cup. "Director Carter requested me for a recon mission," she sighed.

"Lucky!" Simmons gasped. "I'd love to be personally requested for a mission by-"

"You two have to come with me," Daisy interjected before they got too far off-topic. "You two are the only two science officers I can work with without my head exploding."

Fitz took a long swig of his hot chocolate. "Also, we're your best friends, right?" he asked, as if he was unsure.

"Oh yeah, that too." Daisy smiled. "I'm getting the team back together."

Simmons clapped in excitement. "Oh, I haven't seen Yo-Yo and Mack in so long!" she said brightly. "I miss them so."

"You'll get to see them soon," Daisy assured her. "We need to pass our field test together to actually work together. We can do it during our trip back."

"Fun!" Fitz fiddled with some gadgets. "When is this mission of ours?"

"December. We can pick the best day for ourselves but it has to be in December." Daisy rolled her eyes. "I have no idea why."

"If we find something, I'd love to keep it," Simmons commented offhandedly. "Imagine we found something back from the old SSR days. Files on Peggy Carter galore!"

Daisy chuckled. "You sound like Dad when he talks about Steve Rogers and it's kind of weird and uncanny-"

"Speaking of Captain Rogers, did you hear that they might've found something in the Artic?" Fitz interrupted. "Howard Stark marked that place as too deep to go, but they think they have something!"

"And oh! Daisy, did you hear about Tony Stark's kidnapping?" Simmons spoke up. "It's so crazy- and he's such a big weapons manufacturer, it's no wonder that he's gotten himself kidnapped."

Daisy shook her head. "It's just some billionaire getting himself into more trouble." She downed the last of her latte. "I'll talk to you more about the mission. Think about some dates you can do. I'm gonna go."

"Bye! Have a good rest of your day!" Simmons called behind her.

Daisy could hear them bickering about dates and things and wondered if they'd ever just stop and kiss each other instead.

Next stop: the car shop.