The Jotun's Daughter

Chapter 8

Sky?

        The name didn't fit. Mom was a hard person-going anywhere with her was a never-ending cycle of covers and cases and story-lines that weren't my own.

        Sky.

        He said he knew her, that mom's husband loved her. She had never even told me she was married! Surely he never knew what she was capable of. She had done things-seen things-that no person with such an innocent name could have possibly gone through.

        Sky.

        Perhaps that was why she told him her real name. Daisy-it was innocent, unsuspecting. Whoever my mother had ran into on that other world would think she was a pretty little thing, not able to hold a knife in her hand with such firmness. She had once told me that sometimes to play weak was your greatest strength, maybe that's what she was getting at. That certainly couldn't be her real name.

        I sat back in my chair, taking it all in. Absorbing it, analyzing it. This wasn't my past-it was mom's, but it was clearly becoming a part of mine. I recalled how Coulson had said that her husband had tuned down the banishment and did the math before standing and leaving the area. I caught a glimpse of the stunned expression of Simmons' face when I pushed aside her filing cabinets, showing the last of the secret passageway as the wall closed it in behind me. I moved past her-past Fitz, and skidded to a stop in front of Mack as he was closing the door to the interrogation room. I caught M's eye, and he slowly smiled.

        "What is it?" Mack demanded, seeing the reaction between us.

        "She knows," M said simply. I took a deep breath, trying desperately to stop myself from lashing out in anger.

        "Move," I shoved Mack out of the way as he started to ask me something. It didn't matter-none of it mattered. We needed to get out of here. My pulse pounded the drums in my head as I ran, and the whole world was slowly turning inside-out around me, but I could only think of one thing. My mother's name was Sky.

"Coulson, we are nearing the base now," May instructed through the speakers. I skidded into Coulson's office, and he looked up at me expectantly.

"Eighteen years," I hissed, putting my hands on my knees to steady myself. "Eighteen years, Coulson." He studied me for a moment, and then put down the thing he had been twisting around in his hands. I saw that it was a small cube, blue, and glowing.

"I didn't want to tell you, Kayla."

"He's coming back," I stood.

"Yes," Coulson nodded.

"Why?" I threw out my hands in agitation. "Why am I dangerous if he doesn't even know I exist?"

"Because you're the daughter of a not-so-popular guy," Coulson said in his usual manner. I wanted to strangle him.

"Look," I put my hands on my hips. "If mom wanted to keep me safe, she should have left me in the streets." He straightened in his seat, the look on his face blank. He had put on a mask, but I didn't care.

"Is that so?" He cocked his head to the side.

" What makes you think you can protect me when you've already been caught twice?" I shook my head and said flatly, "All that I'm doing is putting you guys in danger. I don't want innocent people getting hurt." I looked him in the eye. "My mother would have demanded no less, and you know it." He stood, picking the small cube back up and setting it on a stand in a glass case next to some blood-stained Captain America trading cards.