𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐘
Quake, no

"SORRY. I wish I didn't have to, but..."

Skye could faintly hear Lincoln's voice before a throat was cleared. She shook her head, getting rid of her many thoughts before turning to face Lincoln, "Is it my go?"

"You're about a million miles away," Lincoln told her, his eyebrows raised as he looked at the younger girl in amusement.

She sighed, slumping down in the seat. "Sorry. I'm back at dinner," she admitted, a faint smile appearing on her lips, but she couldn't help but feel guilty as she thought of her family back n Beacon Hills.

"Dinner with my parents can stress me out, too."

She sighed again and shook her head. "It wasn't stressful, exactly." She made a wild hand gesture, "I mean, I didn't want to see Cal, let alone be in the same room as him. I was sure he was gonna have some twisted surprise, but he didn't. It was..." She tilted her head, trying to find the right word, "Nice."

"That's good." Lincoln nodded, chuckling lightly before he saw the concerned look on her beautiful face. "Isn't it?"

"Did Jiaying tell you that she's sending Cal away?" She asked him, getting straight to the point, "He's not coming back."

"He doesn't exactly belong here." Skye looked away from him and at the floor. "You think it's a bad idea." He realized, and she shrugged.

"It's not a good one," se admitted before sighing. "He'll get upset, and someone will get hurt."

"Talk to her." She looked to him. "She's your mom." He lightly chuckled as did she.

"Yeah." Skye nodded. "It's nice having someone normal to talk to." He chuckled before pointing his finger at his white piece on the board, and used his electricity power to move it, hitting her black piece. "You hit me!"

SKYE knocked before entering her mothers' office. She stopped as she saw that Jiaying was talking with Gordon. "Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"No, we're finished here," She told her before giving Gordon a look.

"I'll let you know how it goes," he told her before leaving, giving Skye a look over his shoulder.

Skye walked towards her mother. "Was that about Cal?" She m asked her but she shook her head. "I want to talk to you about that. Cal's dangerous, I know, but he's better when he's with us."

She tilted her head. "That may be true, but he can't stay here."

"Well, can we give him a heads-up or—"

"And risk how he gets?" She interrupted Skye. "You think you've seen him at his worst. You haven't."

"That's my point," she told her roughly. "You know how he'll get when Gordon just abandons him in the middle of nowhere."

She chuckled. "Not nowhere..." She let out a breath, "We're taking him home."

Skye shook her head. "It doesn't matter. He will feel abandoned, and people will get hurt."

"Those people aren't my concern."

Skye scoffed, crossing her arms. "Well, they're mine," she paused, "I'm a potential S.H.I.E.L.D agent."

Jiaying sighed. "The longer he stays, the more attention he draws, the more attention he demands. I can't make exceptions. He's not one of us. Sometimes, as a leader, I have to do things I'd rather not do."

SKYE knocked on Cal's door, her heart sinking into the pits of her stomach. She opened up the door just as Cal stood up from his bed, a smile on his face.

"Hey," he said in surprise which made her smile lightly; He looked so much like a happy puppy right now. "Um... sorry. Uh, I was expecting Gordo."

"He can't like you calling him that," Skye pointed out, smiling.

He chuckled. "Oh, he loves it." He nervously smiled. "Uh, come in." She hesitantly walked in. "Uh, so, I was, uh, gonna find you today, but, um." He slung his brown jacket on, "I-I didn't want to overdo it after last night. I-I tend to overdo... big overdoer."

She chuckled and nodded, fiddling with a bracelet that was on her wrist. "Yeah, I noticed."

"Oh, so I guess you heard I'm gonna be out of here for a little bit."

Skye swallowed thickly and nodded before saying, "Yeah, I heard."

"Hey, you want to put in an order? I'll bring you back something from the mainland ... gossip mags, soda pop. Do you like funyuns?"

She chuckled lightly, shaking her head, her brown hair flowing side to side. "I'm ... I'm okay, thank you." She cleared her throat, "So, where are you going... China?"

He looked down, his eyebroes furrowed. "What makes you think I'd go there?" He turned away from her, but she did briefly see a look of horror cross over his features. "No. God, no."

She quickly intervened, feeling bad, "Oh, I-I'm sorry. Jiaying said that you were going home, so I just assumed that — that..."

"Oh, oh, of course." He nodded his head, turning to face her again. "No, that makes sense. No, I was in China volunteering for doctors without borders."

"Wow."

"Hard to picture that, right?" Skye nodded. "I was supposed to be there two weeks, but I met your mother and I couldn't leave. She stole my heart." He swallowed, smiling lightly at her. "No, home is, um, Milwaukee. That's where we were gonna bring you up. I should take you there sometime... I don't know... maybe show you around the old haunts."

She abruptly stepped closer to him, "Why not tomorrow? I want to go with you."

"Okay." He nodded enthusiastically, "Best day ever!"

"Yeah..."

"YOU can't just leave him on the side of the road like an unwanted puppy," Skye told Jiaying angrily. "It's irresponsible and cruel for both a puppy or Cal, and Cal's not a puppy ... he's a pitbull, a big bad, fire breathing, evil, raging pit bull who will attack if he doesn't—"

"I don't want to hear about the people you think you're responsible for," She cut Skye off of her rant that probably would be a whole essay long.

"This isn't about them. This is about me," Skye shot at her, her hands clenched at her sides. Thanks to Jiaying and Lincoln helping her, she's actually able to control her powers. "You asked me to be decent... give Cal one dinner. I did that. And I... empathize."

"After one night, you understand him?"

"Yes," Skye told her. "Because I spent my entire life searching for you. I lied and I broke laws just to get the... the tiniest sliver of information. And I had no memories of my family. Cal had memories. He knows what he lost." She pulled a seat towards her and took it. "Listen, I'm... I'm not asking you to let him stay. Just let me go with him. I'll talk to him. I'll soften the blow... let him know I'll visit and that... he hasn't lost us forever."

GORDON dropped Cal and Skye off in an alley, paper flying all around them, and she held onto the wall to steady herself.

"Thanks, Gordo. Now beat it."

Skye turned to her father. "Cal," she warned.

"I'll be back when you're ready," Gordon told Skye, giving her a look which she swallowed thickly at.

"We'll let you know." Electricity crackled as Gordon left them. "Our first father-daughter date!" Cal exclaimed as they started walking. "Though "date" might be the wrong word. Is that weird? Is... Is this weird?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "It's weird. It's a little weird." She chuckled lightly. "So, did you have an apartment around here or...?"

"Oh, I didn't live here... worked here. My office is, uh, over there." He pointed to a building a couple streets away, behind them.

"Oh, then where are we going." Skye grew confused, "I thought you said you had to grab some of your things."

He shook his head. "No, I told you I wanted to show you around. Thought we'd get a pastry, get to know each other a little?"

"Sure." She nodded, feeling quilty. "Who doesn't love pastry?"

"Right?" He chuckled, his smile so big that it almost lit up the alley they were in. "Oh, there's this great, little Mom-and-Pop bakery just around the corner... Swedish place... Swiss —I don't know. I mix them up." They walked around the corner and he looked up, his face read; disappointed.

"What's wrong?" Skye asked, frowning, and fiddling with her fingers.

"You know what doesn't have the smell of buttery goodness wafting out of it on your way to work?"

"A currency exchange?" She questioned and he nodded.

"Got to be someplace to eat around here," hd told her as they started wandering around, a tension surrounding them.

"So, you had a — you had a practice here?" Skye questioned as she topped fiddling with her fingers, but now her bracelet.

"Yeah, before I met your mother."

"She was a doctor, too?"

He nodded, "Studying to be one. She had a natural gift for it... compassionate, beyond intelligent, wise... always five steps ahead of me. She wanted to finish med school here. Oh, and there was this great, little charter school just around the corner."

"A charter school for medicine?" Skye asked, confused which made him chuckle. "What?"

"Oh, no, not for her... for you." She bit her lip, looking down. "Oh, it was gonna be perfect. I was gonna drop you off every morning and pick you up, help you with your science-fair project... the volcano, because who doesn't love a volcano, right? We'd go to the father-daughter dances together, get ice cream." He let out a breath as they stopped walking. "Ah, the life we could have had... should have had." She swallowed thickly, kinda depressed now. "I'm sorry. Memory lane isn't always that fun to visit."

"It's okay," Skye told him, but he shook his head.

"Come on. I've got ice cream on the brain."

"BOOKSTORES... dead. Video stores... dead. Old-fashioned ice-cream shops... dead. The internet killed everything," Cal complained which made Skye laugh, tilting her head backwards as she did so.

"I'm not sure the internet killed ice cream, but, uh, how about we get a forty ounce of malt liquor instead?" She asked which made him look at her abruptly. "I'm kidding... sort of." They both chuckled.

"A-ha!" She jumped slightly as he enthusiastically shouted. "I learned something about you... you're funny." She looked towards three thugs that were walking towards them, and a plan popped into mind. "That's good." When close enough, she rammed herself into one of them and stole their phone. "Hey. Hey, where are your manners?" Cal shouted after them. "Apologize to my daughter."

"Hey. Hey. Calm down, okay?" Skye tried to calm Cal down, kinda scared of what might happen if he lashes out. "I bumped him." She looked towards the dude. "Sorry. That was... that was my bad."

"Yeah. It's all cool here." Cal smiled after them before looking at a store a couple buildings down. "You know what? I bet they have ice cream. I'll go see."

Skye nodded and watched him walk away before quickly dialing May's number. "Hello? May, it's Skye. I need to talk to Coulson," she rushed out, watching out for Cal.

"Skye, where are you? Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, but I don't have much time. Where's Coulson?"

"He's out, looking for you. Where have you been?"

"I'm with Cal, but I won't be for long. And when I leave him, he's gonna be pissed. Okay? Dangerous. S.H.I.E.L.D needs to come get him and make sure he doesn't hurt anyone."

"Skye, slow down."

"Okay, look, there's no time to explain. Please, it's just too complicated. Just don't hurt him."

"Skye, where are you?"

Skye quickly threw the phone in the trash just as Cal approached her. "I got Neapolitan and vanilla."

"Uh, you pick," she stuttered out, glancing back at the phone which laid in the trash can.

"PLEASE, uh, excuse the mess... and the, uh, the roaches," Cal told Skye as they approached a door in the building.

"Johnson..." She read the name that was on the door. "Is that your last name?"

"Was," Cal corrected her, "Pretty ordinary, huh?" He unlocked the door, "I changed it to something more sinister when I went on the run." He walked into the room.

"Daisy Johnson," she tested the name before walking in as well, noticing a Hawaiian bobble head on a desk. "I, um, I had one of these."

"Coincidence? I think not." She smiled at Cal as she grinned largely. "Genetics."

"How is all this stuff still here?" She asked, looking around at the room.

"I own the building."

"You own the building?" She asked in disbelief, a humorless chuckle escaping her.

"Mm-hmm, every wall, every bulb, every cockroach." He inhaled deeply, "I wasn't rich, but you would have grown up quite comfortable. Had to shutter everything down after, uh... well, you know. Only been back a few times over the years."

"So, this is like your stash pad, where you keep all of your old stuff?"

He chuckled. Oh, I like that... "stash pad." Makes it sound better than a crappy office." He took out a kit, "Okay. My grandfather's field kit from WWII." He unraveled it, allowing Skye to see all the tools that laid in it. "I used this to put your mother back together again. Truth is, her gift was the real healer. She's a walking miracle, your mother. The way she suffered and endured and fought through it..."

"You still love her," Skye realized.

"How could I not? I mean, I know she resented me for a time after we lost you, but I think now that we're back together, that we can—"

"Please, stop," Skye begged him, almost to tears.

"What?" He looked up at her, concerned. "What? What'd I say?"

"We're not all back together," she admitted. "You can't hang on to the past like this. You need to move on. We all do. Jiaying... she's responsible for all those people, and I... I-I'm an adult... now. And as much as you want to turn back the clock to the time of science fairs and father-daughter dances—"

"They're gone," he interrupted her, nodding sadly. ""Yeah, I know."

"But, look, it doesn't mean that we can't see each other. I could visit," Skye admitted without thinking.

"Visit?" By that one question, she knew she fucked up. "Where are you going?"

A door closing was heard which made Skye jump before they ventured out into the hall. "Who's there? Come out where I can see you."

"Relax." They abruptly turned to face Lincoln, "It's just me."

"What are you doing here?" Skye asked him, confused.

"Jiaying sent me to make sure everything was cool."

"Why wouldn't everything be cool?" Cal questioned, "What's going on here? Wait a minute. Y-You think Daisy isn't safe with me?"

"I didn't say that. Just calm down."

"Don't patronize me," Cal spat, his face contorting into anger. "Who the hell do you think you are? I'm her father!"

"Cal, let me explain. I—"

"No." Cal held out his hand, telling Skye to shut up. "What an idiot I've been, huh? I see what's happening. You were gonna dump me here like yesterday's trash. You don't want to spend time with me. This isn't daddy's day out. This is goodbye."

"It's not forever," she tried to reassure him.

"Skye, don't." Lincoln grabbed her, placing her behind him protectively.

"Her name is Daisy!" Cal yelled out, slamming Lincoln into the wall before throwing him onto the floor. Skye ran towards Lincoln, trying to help him up. "After everything I did for Jiaying, for our family... years of searching, the pain, and the rejection!"

"Cal, I'm warning you," Lincoln warned, tilting his head slightly as he looked up at the older man with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, you're warning me?"

"Watch out!" Skye shouted as a man came around the corner, holding up a gun. Lincoln turned around, grabbed the man's arm, and threw out his hands towards the guys metal wear, using his powers which electrified the guy. "What's S.H.I.E.L.D doing here?"

"It's not S.H.I.E.L.D, it's HYDRA," Skye informed them.

"Get her out of here," Cal told Lincoln. "I'll take care of this." He started walking towards the three Hydra agents who had came around the corner.

Skye went to help, but Lincoln grabbed her wrist, stopping her. I can handle myself," she told him, trying to get out of his grasp.

"No, don't use your powers. You could bring the whole building down. I'll help hold them off," Lincoln said just as Cal launched himself at the agents who fired at them. Lincoln pulled her to safety, but they tripped, Skye landing on top of him, his hands landing on her hips, and hers on his chest. She breathed in his scent before he spoke up, "Just go, please."

She got up and ran away but was approached by Mike — a cyborg who Coulson had told her all about. Lincoln showed up out of nowhere and tried to use his powers on Mike, but to no avail. Like Lincoln had told her, she ran, again.

"Skye?" Her ears perked up as she heard Coulson's voice. "Skye!?"

Skye ran around the corner to see Coulson and Ward. "Coulson," she breathed out and was about to run towards him when Gordon showed up in front of her, and then everything went blank.