Chapter Text
December 13, 2016- 13 weeks
“This fucking sucks, you know?” Daisy was laying next to the toilet with her head on Lincoln’s thigh, her breathing heavy and her face pale. “I really hope these floors are clean, by the way.”
“I’ll pick up some antiemetics when I go filch you another IV from medical.” Lincoln stroked a hand through her hair and half-heartedly smiled. “And I cleaned the floor after your last date with the toilet, I promise.”
Daisy groaned at the prospect of another IV. “When will this hyper-whatever it’s called end?”
“Hyperemesis gravidarum. It varies from person to p-“ Daisy sat up quickly to lean over the toilet and retch for the seventh time that morning. “-erson.” Lincoln sighed and rubbed Daisy’s back. “But general consensus is it usually resolves by week 20.”
Daisy sat back and wiped at her mouth with the wet towel Lincoln was holding out to her. “You mean I might have 7 weeks left of this? Ugh, this kid is going to kill me before it’s born. Maybe I should just marry the toilet.” Daisy burped loudly. “Whew, I think I’m done for now.”
She slowly stood, using Lincoln’s offered arm to steady herself and praying the movement wouldn’t make her stomach revolt. Once upright, she relaxed slightly and headed to the sink, intent of brushing her teeth and ridding herself of that nasty taste.
“You know… May’s back on base as of a few hours ago. You officially have no excuse to not tell her and Coulson.” Lincoln’s eyebrows were raised, his mouth set in a straight line that told Daisy he was done with her shit on this particular topic. “You know if you don’t tell May, she’ll probably figure it out within a few days and be mad because you didn’t tell her, right? And if, by some miracle, she doesn’t figure it out and you keep hiding this, Jemma is literally going to explode over not being able to talk about it.”
Daisy rolled her eyes and continued brushing her teeth without acknowledging him. If she was going to listen to this, she’d rather do it with her mouth clean of any vomit residue.
“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to pressure you. I just-“ Lincoln scratched at his scruff as she started rinsing her mouth. “All I’m saying is May and Coulson are both incredibly important to you and you are incredibly important to them. You’re family. They deserve to find out about this from you, not from Jemma or I accidentally slipping up, or because they figured it out themselves. One of which will happen because you know May’s going to ask the questions that Coulson didn’t when you requested time out of the field.”
In truth, she was lucky that Coulson hadn’t already asked her why she had asked for an unspecified amount time out of the field. He’d just accepted her request with a concerned look on his face, but had refrained from asking questions, telling her to take all the time she needed. But she knew May wasn’t going to accept it without a real explanation.
And he was right. After all May and Coulson had done for her, they deserved to know. It was just scary. Once she started telling people, it would be real and her life would never be the same.
“Fine, I’ll go up to Coulson’s office now. May will probably be up there trying to organize Coulson’s paperwork disaster.” Daisy glanced at her reflection in the mirror and winced. She looked pale and exhausted. Coulson and May would know something was up the second they saw her.
But she knew she had to do this, so she straightened her hair and clothes, and gathered her courage, dropping a kiss on Lincoln’s cheek as she made her way to the door. “I’ll smell ya later. Gonna go face the music. And hopefully not throw up while I do so.”
Lincoln snorted. “Good luck with that one.”
Daisy exited the room with a laugh, quickly making her way through the halls and up the stairs to Coulson’s office. Stopping in front of the door to gather her thoughts, she registered the sound of May and Coulson bickering about the amount of backlogged paperwork he had. The familiar argument made her smile and roll her eyes good naturedly, her nerves taking a back seat for a moment. It seemed that no matter how much the world changed, some things always stayed the same. They had this argument at least once a week.
Hearing a lull in the bickering, Daisy took the chance to knock gently on the door, waiting until she heard Coulson’s muffled voice telling her to come in before opening the door and stepping slowly into the room.
“Daisy.” Coulson smiled briefly, his expression quickly turning into a frown as he took in her disheveled appearance and the nervous expression on her face. Whatever this was, wasn’t good. “What’s wrong?”
The frown in Coulson’s voice caught May’s attention, making her look up from the disastrous mess of a report she’d been concentrating on straightening out for the last hour. Panic sliced through May’s heart, a concerned expression taking over her features as she took in the girl’s appearance. Daisy looked sick, sicker than she had seen the girl since they’d gotten her back from Hive.
“You okay?” May asked, her voice uncharacteristically gentle.
Daisy’s eyes darted nervously between them. She was suddenly terrified about what they’d think about this. She didn’t want to have to leave SHIELD.
A wet sob escaped her throat and tears began falling down her cheeks.
“Oh no.” Coulson stood quickly, making his way around his desk until he was at her side. “What’s going on?”
At Daisy’s lack of an answer and the sound of her sobs growing louder, he gently grabbed her hand and led her towards the couch where May was currently seated. Daisy plopped herself down in the middle of the couch without any encouragement, bringing her knees to her chest and resting her forehead against them as Coulson sat next to her. She didn’t even know why she was crying so hard. It was embarrassing.
But she just couldn’t stop, even as May started rubbing soothing circles on her back and Coulson placed a hand on her shoulder.
It took her a solid ten minutes to calm down enough to lift her head from her knees and speak. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean t-to come in here and start crying.”
“You don’t need to apologize for that.” Coulson stated simply as May’s hand moved to wipe a stray tear from Daisy’s cheek. “And you don’t have to tell us what’s wrong if you don’t want to.”
Daisy’s chin wobbled as she made eye contact with him. “I-I’m pregnant.”
There was a long pause as both May and Coulson froze at her words.
“I’m sorry, you’re what?” May asked, her tone disbelieving.
“Pregnant.”
Daisy didn’t know what she was expecting, but May bursting into laughter was definitely not it. Even Coulson was looking at May with what looked like concern for his partner’s sanity.
May’s laughter was disconcerting, which must’ve shown in Daisy’s face because May sobered the second she caught sight of the look on her face.
“You’re not kidding.” May’s words were statement, not a question.
The inhuman shook her head solemnly, fishing out the sonogram picture she’d been carrying around in her pocket for the last week and handing it to May.
“How far along are you?” Coulson asked, his voice muffled as his hands covered his face.
“Thirteen weeks according to the sonogram Jemma did.”
“Good lord, Skye. Is this why you asked for time out of the field last week? Why didn’t you just tell me?”
Daisy didn’t even have the heart to correct his mistake on her name. He didn’t sound disappointed, he just sounded sad that she hadn’t told him earlier.
“I wanted to wait until May came back so I could tell you together.” Daisy shrugged dejectedly. She hated making Coulson upset.
“Are you happy? Do you want this?” May asked quietly, running a finger over the little blob on the sonogram that was Daisy’s kid. She hadn’t looked up from the picture since Daisy had handed it to her.
“I- yeah. I’m scared out of my mind but I’m happy. So’s Lincoln.” Daisy turned to smile shyly at May, happiness bubbling in her chest despite her nerves.
A small, genuine smile played at May’s lips as she leaned across Daisy and pressed the picture into Coulson’s real hand. Coulson took it gently and put on his reading glasses, a grin overtaking his previously shell-shocked expression as he took in the image.
“Well, being scared is probably a good thing, I think. This is pretty big, even though it doesn’t even look like a human yet.” His expression turned serious. “Are you doing okay? You seem happy, but physically you don’t look like you feel very well.”
“Um, I’ve honestly not been very okay. It’s not serious, but I have something called-“ Daisy paused and frowned. She was never going to remember the name of this thing she had. “I think it’s called hyperemesis something or other. Simply put, I can’t keep anything down. Lincoln’s been stealing IVs and anti-nausea meds from medical to help combat it. Sorry about that, by the way.”
May frowned and placed a hand on Daisy’s arm. “You’re going to be okay?”
“Oh, for sure, yeah. It’s pretty common and definitely not life threatening. It’s just unfortunate and gross.” Daisy said, attempting to reassure May as best she could. She didn’t want them to worry.
Both Coulson and May narrowed their eyes, seemingly unconvinced by her words. Daisy was sure they’d be asking Jemma or Lincoln about her health later, but she couldn’t bring herself to be annoyed by it. Their concern was endearing.
Coulson met her eyes, holding out the sonogram image to her. “I’m assuming this wasn’t planned?”
“Ha, yeah right.” Daisy paused, taking the picture back gently and smiling at it. “I- We hadn’t even spoken about kids. I mean, we’ve barely been together a year and in this line of work... I don’t know, it just never came up. Besides, even if we had thought about having kids, we wouldn’t have- Not so soon after Fi-“
His name caught in her throat as emotion overcame her. Seven months later and the pain still felt as fresh as it had on the day it happened.
May’s calloused hand grabbed onto Daisy’s, giving it a squeeze. “He’d be overjoyed for you.”
“He’d probably be coming up with creative ways to ensure the baby’s nickname would end up being ‘Monkey’.” Coulson said, chuckling sadly. “And he’d probably read every single child psychology book out there, just to make sure he had all the necessary information to end up with the title of favorite uncle.”
Daisy laughed, wiping at her eyes. They were right, Fitz would’ve been so happy for them and he would’ve definitely wanted to be the favorite uncle. He, Joey and Mack would probably be trying to out-uncle each other constantly.
“Speaking of titles…” Coulson paused, a hopeful glint dancing in his eyes. “Can May and I claim the title of honorary grandparents?”
May groaned. “Phil-“
“I think-“ Daisy interrupted, pausing and smiling shyly. “No, I know my kid will be luckiest kid in the world if it has you two for grandparents.”
A shocked expression flickered over May’s face for a brief moment, then her eyes filled with tears and she launched at Daisy, hugging her fiercely, almost like she was attempting to convey all her love through it. “Thank you,” she whispered, kissing Daisy’s temple before meeting Phil’s eyes.
The idiot was smiling like a goof and had a mischievous look on his face.
“May, are you crying?” Coulson asked, clearly amused by the scene in front of him.
Daisy snorted loudly and buried her face in May’s shoulder to muffle her laughter. Of course Coulson would ruin the moment.
“Oh, fuck you, Phil.”
He gasped, placing a hand over his heart. “May! There are little ears in the room!”
May sighed, rolling her eyes in mild annoyance. “Phil, just shut up and help me hug her.”
Coulson chuckled, his arms coming around both Daisy and May, wrapping them in a warm hug. “I’m proud of you. You’re going to be a wonderful mother.”
“Oh no.” Daisy’s voice trembled with emotion. “Don’t say things like that. You’ll make me cry again.”
“Well then cry, because it’s absolutely true.” May said, giving her a squeeze.
Sniffling, Daisy snuggled herself further into their arms and sighed contently. She wished she could stay in this moment forever.
But her stomach, as usual these days, had other plans.
“Uh, guys, I hate to ruin the moment, but puking is imminent and I need a trashcan.”