You're On Your Own, Kid

Bus Kids

A couple of weeks later, Daisy was fully settled into her life as 'Daisy May-Coulson'. Fitz and Simmons had come over to the house a couple times and Daisy had gone over to the school to hang out. They went swimming in the lake once or twice and had a couple movie nights. They even slept over once.

Daisy was still half asleep one morning when she walked out to the kitchen, mumbling to herself about stupid SHIELD sleep schedules. "Mornin', Dad," she muttered, eyes still closed. She reached for the box of Oops! All Berries and stuck her hand in to grab a bunch. "Did'ja make coffee? I need my life juice."

Coulson grinned to himself. "One cup of life juice coming up, Daisy," he said amusedly.

Her eyes snapped open. "You sound happy," she accused, now wide awake. "I called you 'Dad' again, didn't I?"

Coulson shrugged, trying to hide his smile. "Just a little," he replied. He gave her her coffee. "I'm heading out soon. I think you can handle yourself alone for two days?"

Daisy choked on her coffee. "You're leaving me alone? Here?" She cleared her throat. "For two days?"

The agent adjusted his cufflinks. "Yep. Think you can handle it?" When he got no response, he sighed. "Look. You've got Fitzsimmons over today anyway. They can sleep over again if you want. If you feel unsafe, you can go over to the school. And if you can't, well, you can quake any intruders' ass. I trust you."

Daisy swallowed the last of her coffee. "I guess I can handle it," she said. "As long as you think it'll be fine."

"I have absolute faith in you, Daisy," Coulson replied, smiling. "Come to the garage with me. I have something for you."

She put down her mug and followed the agent to the garage. It's been a couple of weeks since she moved in, but it still amazes her how pretty every aspect of the house was.

They walked to the back of the garage, where Coulson stopped them in front of a big something covered by a sheet.

"Go on," he said, sounding a little excited. "Take the sheet off."

Daisy, not wanting to accidentally break whatever it was under the sheet, carefully pulled it off and let the fabric fall to the floor in a heap of white canvas. "Oh, wow," she breathed. "It's so pretty."

Coulson grinned proudly. "I've had this in storage since, oh, I don't know, '96. It's from '76, though. It was just sitting there in the impound lot at a SHIELD compound in Ohio, so I decided to fix it up a little bit. The engine is new. Put a new dashboard in. Surround sound, radio, wifi, internal power source, etcetera. It's water-tight, so if you drive it into a body of water you could survive for a couple of hours. All that there's left to do is repaint it."

Daisy glanced at him. "What are you going to paint it?"

Coulson smiled at her. "That's the fun part. When I get back, we're going to a paint shop, pick out a couple colours, and you and I will paint it ourselves. And then once you pass the driving course next week, it's yours."

The girl turned to look at him fully. "You're kidding."

"I've been saving it for you for a decade, Daisy," Coulson said with an amused smile. "When you pass, it's yours. No strings. It's your new name on the register. Speaking of-" he pulled a passport and an ID card and handed them to her- "here's your new identity, Daisy May-Coulson." He considered it for a moment. "Kind of weird to say my last name while talking about you, but I'm sure I'll get over it."

Daisy examined the passport. "I look ew."

"You look fine," Coulson assured her. "Better than my first passport as Phil Coulson."