Chapter 114 - It's a Weird New World by Rhino (RhinoMouse), RhinoMouse ch 1-5

Summary:The BAU has a new agent assigned to them against their wishes. After-all they don't need a new agent, especially one with a file so classified they can't see anything but the agent's name in it. But Strauss's orders are Strauss's orders. It would help if this Daisy would stop taking stupid risks and acting like she's bored. Of course Daisy really is bored and isn't exactly allowed to mention that after fighting aliens, Inhumans, and Hydra, dealing with regular serial killers is kind of low stakes.

Notes:I was convinced to post this one. Hope ya'll like it.

Chapter 1Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Chapter TextIt was not a good couple of days for Hotch, in fact this was one of the worst days of his career. His technical analyst Garcia had been shot. Turns out she'd been trying to use FBI privilege to keep cold cases active and stumbled on a serial killer. A serial killer who was also a cop. And who was in the FBI offices, standing in Hotch's bullpen, bullying the IA technical analyst to do something that he thought would protect him. Considering the profile this unsub was going to go down shooting.

Hotch grimaced as he saw the worst possible added element to an already horrible situation. If only they'd had a few more minutes to surround him without tipping the unsub off. But no, a civilian had just walked into the bullpen. Officer Colby, serial killer, and unstable human stick of dynamite was starting to get jumpy and a civilian was walking past him. 

Colby grabbed the girl, raising his gun as he opened his mouth to speak. 

"Seriously?" The civilian girl rolled her eyes. Then grabbed Colby's arm twisting it sharply so the gun aimed at the ceiling. "Well, less boring." She shrugged like a murderer wasn't behind her trying to use her as a hostage. She moved then, it was fast. So fast Hotch could barely track it. 

Colby went flying over her head, the girl twisted and then it was over. Colby's gun was in her hand and pressed to the back Colby's head. The girl had a knee shoved into Colby's back, his gun arm twisted back behind him, and looked completely unruffled. She looked up at them. "He's a bad guy right? Or is this some sort of hazing thing?" 

"FUC--Ow-ow-ow-ow." Colby yelped. 

She sighed dispassionately as if she hadn't just applied a lot of pressure to his wrist when he'd tried to swear. "So, does someone have handcuffs?" 

"Oh thank god." The techy fluttered backward. 

Rossi stepped forward, pulling out his handcuffs. "That was quite the takedown." 

The girl clipped the cuffs on while shoving the gun into the back of her pants. It was all practiced motions before she hopped up, Colby handcuffed and laying on the ground. 

Hotch eyed the new threat as Rossi packed off Colby. He stepped forward offering his hand. "Thank you, you just saved a lot of lives." 

"Not my best work." The girl had a strong grip as she shook his hand. "My name's Daisy Coulson by the way, and I'm pretty sure I'm your new team member." 

"You have a civilian guest pass." Hotch was tense as he re-evaluated Daisy. She looked civilian at first glance, but then at second glance? The graze scar across her right cheek said combat, outfit of jeans, green turtleneck sweater, and black leather jacket were all sized so that despite being civilian gear they wouldn't limit her movement at all. But her eyes? Her eyes said soldier. 

She smiled with a lazy ease. "Well I don't have a fancy FBI badge, but I do have one of these." Daisy pulled at a chain that had been hiding under her sweater, and then brandished a CIA shield. "Sorry about how shiny it is, kinda blew up my last one." 

"I haven't been notified of any changes to my team." Aaron's mouth tightened. One of his agents had just been shot, and now someone was muscling in on his team? No.

Daisy snickered. "Agent dude, I am the notification. Your uh...section chief should be coming down to brief you anytime now. Really I'm just here cause I got bored of waiting. But if you get killer cops in your offices I gotta say this assignment might not be as awful as I was thinking." 

"Excuse me?" He was going to send this spook back to wherever she came from so fast. "Thank you for your assistance today Agent Coulson, but there's been a mistake. You're not being assigned to my team." 

"Agent Hotchner." Straus's voice cut through the general chaos of bullpen post killer cop arrest. 

His teeth clenched. But he still turned to face her. "Can I help you ma'am?" 

"Yes, your office." Her cold gaze moved to Agent Coulson. "You sit." 

Agent Coulson popped a gum bubble while dropping into Morgan's chair and spinning. "Got it boss lady." 

Hotch's jaw tightened, but he followed Straus into his office. As soon as the door clicked shut he turned on his heel. "Garcia was just shot. I don't know what you're trying to do but I won't stand for it. We had an understanding." 

"It's not my decision." Straus looked out the window, unease in her tight shoulders. 

He paused, frowning at the tells he was seeing. Straus was nervous. "What's going on here?" 

"I got a call from the Assistant Director this morning. This decision is out of my hands, it's from way up the food chain Aaron." Straus moved away from the window. "Agent Coulson's file is so classified I don't even have access to much more than you do. But I was told I had to find a team for her, and you're it." 

He narrowed his eyes. "Why us?" 

"Because she's a specialist, which is a fancy way of saying assassin for our government. Wet work, torture, the things we don't officially know about." Straus's fingers flicked with distaste. "What I know is that she was undercover and was burned. Whatever happened it was bad, she can't go back to her old work. So she was given to the Assistant Director who gave her to me and I'm giving her to you." 

Hotch pushed the fury down. "And you're putting her on my team. Why?" 

"Her psych eval. One of the few things that wasn't classified to hell and back." Straus brandished a folder. 

Hotch flipped it open. His eyes flicked through, picking up key words. But he could see why immediately. 'Agent is highly protective', 'obsessively loyal', 'isolation should be avoided', 'does not respect authority', 'works well with junior agents', 'unsuited for civilian life'. He looked up at Straus. "You want her to protect the team." 

"You have to admit the last year has been hard on your team. Just yesterday Garcia was shot! The two by four to the head Prentiss took in Milwaki? Gideon? And frankly I wouldn't put someone this dangerous on just any team. At least if she starts to be a threat you'll be able to spot it." Straus sounded disgusted. "She had to go somewhere." 

Hotch closed his eyes briefly. It made sense. But an assassin being assigned as essentially a bodyguard to the team was...it was disturbing. He didn't want it. But even he could read the writing on the wall. This was happening. He glared at Straus. "And if I say she's dangerous?" 

"I suspend her, stick her in therapy and we hope the CIA comes and picks up their asset." She pulled out a very thick file and dropped it into his hands. "For all the good it'll do you." 

He glanced down at it. "What is this?" 

"Her file. Her name is the only thing not blacked out in it." Straus straightened her shoulders before looking at him over her shoulder. "Go take care of Garcia, maybe with Agent Coulson on the team you won't have this happen again." 

He gave a stiff nod as she left his office. Hotch opened the massive file. Well...that was...useless. Every god forsaken line in the thing was blacked out. He looked back out the window. Agent Coulson had put headphones on and was using two pencils to play drums on the files on Morgan's desk. 

Fuck. 

////

"We have a new member to the team." Hotch opened up the conference he'd called that morning. "First though, are you even allowed out of the hospital Garcia?" 

She held onto her fluffy pen defensively. "I'm not in the field, and missing a newbie? No way." 

"She's not a newbie." Hotch kept his voice even, but it was important that the team took this part seriously. "Our new team member is a former CIA specialist. Agent Daisy Coulson, her cover was blown and is being assigned to us temporarily. She's been assigned to us for our own protection." 

Morgan looked up from where he was slouched in his chair. "We can take care of ourselves Hotch." 

"Can we?" Aaron looked at Garcia for a pointed moment. "She's not a profiler, but she could be helpful. And frankly this assignment comes from the Assistant Director himself." 

Emily leaned forward, folding her hands on the table. "What type of specialist?" 

"The type that can't reintegrate back into civilian life." He saw the understanding on the team's faces. "I want all of you to be careful, but she is one of ours and should be treated accordingly." 

"Yes sir." Emily nodded. "So when does she get here?" 

////

JJ set down the phone. Pressing the palms of her hands into her eyes she breathed in and then out. 

"You ok?" Agent Coulson asked from the doorway. 

She startled, looking up. "How'd you…" 

"Ninja skills." Coulson wiggled her fingers. "Sorry for scaring you."

She slowly calmed leaning back in her seat. "Right, still not used to that." 

"It's cool, took me a while to get used to it when I first got recruited." Coulson shrugged. "So do you need help with anything? Cause like I'm not much use with the profile stuff the rest of the team is doing." 

She paused and then considered it. "Sure, uh yes you could help me work through these. Sort them into cases by number of victims and notate the ones that stand out as escalating, developed methodology that sort of thing?" 

"I can do that." Coulson left the door open while peering at the horrific piles of paperwork on JJ's desk. "So uh...where do you want me to start?" 

JJ started to push a stack of new cases towards their new team member only to pause. "Some of the images are pretty graphic…" 

"I've seen worse." Coulson hefted the stack up. She stepped towards the door. "You know you shouldn't feel guilty for being scared of me. Most people are." 

JJ stood. "It's not like that. You're just new and… I'm sorry." 

"It's cool." Coulson shrugged. "Not sure how long I'll be here anyways. Although if you wouldn't mind passing it around, I prefer Daisy to Coulson. Agent Coulson was my dad." 

JJ gestured to the slightly uncomfortable lounge and coffee table in her office. "You can always work here if you want. Daisy." 

"Well, I'm partial to pizza if we end up ordering in." Daisy's lips twitched up slightly as she moved back into the room and dropped the stack onto the small rickety old table. 

JJ glanced over her latest case file. She found their newest team member a bit of an enigma. Daisy was wearing elbow length fingerless gloves made of some sort of sport material. But the soft sweater over them, and loose jeans aided in softening her already young features. Late twenties maybe? Her hair was braided back. 

Actually...JJ frowned. "What's that?" 

"Huh?" Daisy looked up at her. 

She gestured to the side of her neck where she could see a large corresponding scar on Daisy's neck. "That looks like it hurt." 

"It did." Daisy went back to where she was flipping through a file of her own. "Supes classified though." She looked over at JJ's desk. "So how long am I going to be getting the cold shoulder from Morgan? Cause I get it from Hotch and Rossi. I kinda got shoved onto them, and I don't play well with authority figures. But Morgan seems a bit bent out of shape." 

"Ah, well Morgan…. It's been hard on all of us with Garcia being shot. It'll just take time." JJ didn't trust this woman, but she was starting to get the feeling that she was a good person. 

Daisy grabbed a slice of pizza. "You know I didn't know how amazing pizza was till I had to eat field rations." She closed her eyes with hum as she took a bite. "God it's so good." 

"More of a Chinese person myself." JJ picked up her next file. "So if you weren't helping me, what would you be doing?" 

Daisy hummed as she set her pizza to the side. "Chinese take out next time then. And hmm…. Depends, have been helping out my old team with a bit of hacking. And I've been learning Mandarin."

"Mandarin?" She asked curiously. 

Daisy nodded absently as she flipped through a file without so much as flinching. "My SO spoke it and honestly the only speaking English and a little bit of Russian thing was irritating. I'm not sure why, but learning more things is always something to do." 

"Not going to learn how to profile? Work with the team properly." JJ knew the others were worried about the danger Daisy likely posed. But she was fairly sure Daisy wasn't dangerous, at least to the team.

Daisy shrugged. "I don't need to understand the bad guys to catch them." 

"Do you even want to be on this team?" JJ frowned, that wasn't right for someone who didn't want to deal with the darkness and depravity they handled if they didn't have the drive for it. 

Daisy's whole face shuddered closed. "No." And then she was smiling again. "But hey, it was this or retirement." 

"Surely there are other departments?" JJ felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. 

Daisy unfolded her legs out from under her, shoes touching the ground for the first time in hours. "It's classified, but there really isn't." Daisy looked up at her sharply. "You should be careful. They have a saying, where I go death follows." Standing up, Daisy set down her file and gave her a sharp nod before leaving without another word. 

////

Reid stepped forward and held out a coffee on Coulson's desk. "I wasn't sure if you liked coffee. But getting you tea seemed reductive and racist if it was green. But I've seen your Captain America coffee mug which led me to the conclusion you may drink coffee. So I got you some. But then I wasn't sure what you might like in your coffee." He stuffed his hands into his pockets desperately dumping the sugar and creamers he'd grabbed onto her desk. They spilled across the surface in a mess. "Sorry, but I thought I should be prepared. Hopefully you like it." 

Coulson's lips turned up as she picked up the coffee. "Thank you, it's very sweet of you." She seemed to wait for him to say something else. 

"Do you like coffee? Or maybe tea? I can go get you tea if you prefer, I should have just gotten you tea and coffee, but then green or black tea? Or maybe herbal. Coffee was the statistically most likely beverage of choice." 

Coulson laughed and it was light and happy. "I like coffee, but green tea is nice sometimes too." 

"Are you...going to drink it?" He asked cautiously. 

Morgan called him from his desk. "Come on kid, leave the newbie alone." 

"I don't drink or eat things I haven't prepared or seen prepared." Coulson stood up, but touched his shoulder. "It's cute you tried though. Thank you, really." She winked at him.

He blinked. "Oh...why are you holding the coffee then?" 

"Because I know JJ likes coffee and you three already all have your own. Don't worry, I'll let her know it's from you." She idly scooped up the creamers and sugars and stuffed them into her own pockets. 

Reid paused, he needed to say something or for a third day in a row she'd just disappear on them. "Did you know coffee is the second largest internationally traded commodity?" 

"I'm pretty sure the FBI does it's fair share in encouraging that." Coulson snickered. "The fuel of the workaholic and all that." She cocked a hip looking at him curiously. "Hit me with another coffee fact." 

Reid's fingers twitched, people didn't want more facts if it didn't pertain to a case. "You uh… want to know more about coffee." He perked up as a fact popped through the haze of confusion. "In 1511 it was banned in Mecca because it was believed to stimulate radical thinking." 

She giggled at that. "Not wrong. Fitz was slipped a couple doctored caffeine pills, and well, the rest is classified." There was a distinct impression of amusement to her. Whatever had happened was likely humorous. 

He cocked his head to the side slightly. "Is this why you don't drink coffee you don't make yourself?" 

"Hazing ritual for newbies at the Agency." Coulson shrugged. "But I should get this coffee to JJ before it goes cold." And with that she slipped up the stairs. 

Reid raised a hand. "Well uh bye then…" He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

"Don't take it personally kid." Morgan slapped him on the back. "But there's other fish in the sea and she's a shark."

Emily rolled her eyes. "She's at least trying. You should give her some slack." 

"She's an unsub employed by us, instead of wandering the streets. People like that, especially the ones the government doesn't trust without a team of profilers keeping an eye on are dangerous." Morgan took a swig of his coffee. "We're better off without her." 

"That's not fair." Emily glared at Morgan. "I'll give you that she's dangerous, but she's not a psychopath. She's traumatized, not a threat." 

The tendons in Morgan's neck tightened. "Trauma triggers people like her." 

"For her work to be so classified none of us know anything means she's saved lives. We both know spook work chews up good people and spits out the survivors." She sharply grabbed a new police file and opened it up. "Despite which she's trying more than you, and that's just sad." 

"Who's side are you on?" Morgan turned fully facing Emily. 

She didn't back down. "There's no sides Morgan." 

Reid winced. "Can we not fight?" 

"Yeah, sorry kid." Morgan slapped him on the back again. "She just rubs me wrong." 

Emily scoffed, though her posture softened. "Oh, issues with women who can kick your ass Morgan?" 

"Oh shut up." Morgan chuckled while rolling his eyes. 

Reid relaxed. He settled back behind his desk and opened up a police file. This made so much more sense to him. 

////

Emily didn't watch the presentation on the new case they were shipping out for. She'd get caught up on the plane. Instead she watched Coulson, or she supposed they should be calling her Daisy. The images of gangbangers ripped to shreds hadn't elicited more than a slight rise of her eyebrows. She stayed comfortable, never faltering in her lazy gum chewing. 

She was interested by what she saw of the new team member. On their way to the plane she noted Daisy was far more at ease the closer to the plane they got. "You travel a lot with your old team?" 

"You could say that." Daisy took in the lines of their plane. "Gotta say, I haven't been on a plane that didn't have parachutes, weapons, and well more than a bar with little hotel bottles of vodka." 

Emily laughed at the vaguely disconcerted expression on Daisy's face. "This is my first assignment with a plane. And your last plane assignment sounds significantly more exciting than my last assignment." 

Daisy looked at her curiously. "I don't know, your last assignment read as pretty exciting." 

She froze. "You…" Emily grabbed Daisy's arm pulling her aside, ignoring the looks the team was giving them. "You read the reports." It wasn't a question. 

"I was curious why you were being nice." Daisy gave her a slight nod. "I won't mention it." 

Emily wanted to panic, but tamped it down. CIA spooks knew how to keep their mouths shut about Interpool missions. "Just me? Or are you researching all of us?" 

"I mean I did some basic research on all of you. Bad habits." She held up her hands and wiggled her fingers. "You were an anomaly on the team." 

She dropped her arm and forced herself to relax. "You don't want to be on this team, why bother researching us at all?" 

"I like to know who I'm working with." Daisy's face turned oddly serious. "I can protect this team from the demons you all have collected. Even yours Prentiss. Even once I'm off your team you can call. People like your demons shouldn't be walking around."

Emily took in the woman in front of her's body language and the iron in her face. Well then. She hadn't seen more than the brief take down of the man who'd shot Garcia. But she gave Daisy a sharp nod, this woman was more than capable of following through with her promise. "If you need help, let me know." 

"Best way to cause Hotch to have an aneurysm and get kicked off the team?" Daisy grinned. 

She snorted as she made her way to a seat in the plane. 

////

Rossi sipped at his coffee, holding in his amusement at the ever increasing eye twitch Hotch was developing. As the newest member of the BAU, he was learning a lot about his team from watching this newest development. It was funny really how predictable they were.

Reid was trying to make a connection. It was one part his reaction to a pretty girl, one part curiosity, and one part floundering at the change in mood since Coulson had arrived. Altogether it was amusing enough, and Coulson was handling him well. Morgan on the other hand was all bristling. He was used to being the protector of the team, give it some time and he'd settle. JJ and Garcia were both cautiously curious. But Hotch? Hotch was losing his control and his well oiled machine of a team's dynamics were shifting. There was some similarity to Morgan, Hotch was clearly worried about the stability of their newest member. 

"Rossi, what do you think?" Morgan asked from where he was settled in the plane. 

He considered the crime scene photos. "Psychotic break. A lot of rage." 

"He's escalating, and no sexual component. Hasn't started to devolve yet, but in this type of situation it'll be inevitable." Prentiss flipped to a different page. "What is he using? It's a type of knife but…" 

Coulson spoke up. "Two swords, curved ends but sharp points." She flipped to a new page of her comic book. Hotch twitched. 

"Can you confirm that?" Reid looked at her curiously. 

Coulson looked over her book. "I've dealt with a few, that's what it looks like. Haven't used one.. Did use this one like european broadsword once though." She glanced at the photos, her nose scrunched up. "At least he's not ripping them apart with his hands." 

Rossi knew the distraction that was about to happen. He cut in before it could happen. "So our unsub has two swords. Does that narrow down our profile?" 

Rossi dialed the office, his eyes tracking the guy he'd just dealt with.

-"Penelope Garcia, Oracle of all things."-

He huffed. "I need you to run a name for me, just see if he pops up. Could be nothing, but add him to the list. Name's Johnny McHale." 

-"The graphic novelist? Oh no, I love his work."-

Rossi frowned. "Artist...it's probably nothing. Just keep his name to the side in case he's connected to any of this." 

////

Morgan stayed silent as JJ said "Sometimes what the unsub does actually makes sense." 

He looked back at the evidence. The sick feeling in his gut deepened. This one was hard, unsub was just a guy who had been through trauma and it broke him. "She's right, I get why this guy did it." 

"You know in cases of trauma from violent crime-" Reid started on a tangent that would undoubtedly include numbers.

"Nah uh." Morgan held up his hand. "Let's just get through this so we can find our dirtbag and go home." 

It was a relief to have the location. He unholstered his gun, the familiar presence of Prentiss at his back. "Let's do this." He paused, seeing Coulson leaning against the side of the SUV, no bulletproof vest, totally at ease. "You coming in with?" 

"No, I'll be in the back. If you run into any trouble I'll be here." Daisy frowned slightly.

Prentiss unholstered her gun. "We don't have time to waste, come on."

He gave a sharp nod and moved in.

Morgan walked towards where Coulson was eating red vines and reading comics. "So are you a part of this team or not?" 

"What do you mean?" She looked up at him, her face may be cocky but he could see how dead she was behind that. 

He dropped his hands to his hips. "I don't see what you bring to this team. You help JJ with her paperwork? What else? Cause from where I'm standing you don't have our backs." 

"Look this isn't what I do." Coulson 's eyes flicked back to the comic or graphic novel or whatever it was. 

He pressed his tongue into his lower lip. "What, you go in, do the job and get things done. None of this team shit?" 

Her entire body froze. She looked back up. "What did you just say?" 

"You're the whole solution. It's what you're trained for right?" Morgan slowed as he took in her body language. 

Coulson practically tossed her comic aside and stood up. "That's not me." Her fingers flexed. "I protect the team, I handle the threats." 

"Where is your team? Clearly you can hack, why aren't you running surveillance or something for your team?" Morgan could feel the rest of the plane, he had moments before the situation was de-escalated. 

Coulson's jaw tightened. "Because-" She cut herself off before breathing in. "You're right, I don't want to be here. I want to be with my team flushing out nazi scum. But I made too big of a scene taking out one of their bases three months ago. So I'm stuck here. And I'll protect your backs while I'm here."

"You're trying not to get attached." Morgan relaxed, his arms falling from his waist as the horrible off feeling clicked into place. "That's why the fake behavior." 

She paused and then rolled her eyes. "Like it doesn't have anything to do with you not trusting I have your back." Coulson seemed to consider him. "When we get back, after you help Garcia, cause it doesn't take a profiler to know you're itching to get back to her, I'll meet you in the gym and we'll see if you can get a hit in." 

He chuckled at that. "Alright, we can see what you have." 

Mogan bounced on his toes, watching as Daisy stretched out her left shoulder before stepping up onto the mats. "So rules?" 

"No breaking anything." Daisy shrugged. "No causing unconsciousness?" 

He paused. "Your rules include no horrific injury or asphyxiation? You do know what tapping out is right?" 

"Of course." Daisy dropped into a stance. "And we mostly just avoided injury worse than some bruising and the occasional broken finger." 

Morgan considered that. "I can work with that." 

She gave a sharp nod and bumped her fists into his in the generally accepted signal of starting. 

He started to punch only for her duck under it. And then slam her knee into his diaphragm. As he naturally bent in half from that, her elbows both came down hard on his back, two inches from where they'd have snapped his neck. Morgan barely registered this as his feet were swept out from under him, a hand caught him by the throat, and slammed him into the mats. 

Morgan stared at the lights as he struggled to breathe. His left hand tapping on the mat. If that had been for real he'd have died. Wheezing he looked up at Daisy's face. It was slightly bored and mostly amused. He got out a low. 'Fuck.' But then she held her hand out to help him up. 

He took the hand.

Morgan wheezed as he stared at the gym ceiling, again. Rolling over he pushed himself back up to his feet. "Ok what are you a ninja?" She'd been restraining herself to not almost killing him for the last couple rounds.

"I'm a specialist." Daisy's face was alight with humor that reached her eyes properly now.

He shook his head before raising his fists. He threw a sharp jab.

She slapped it aside, and then he was on the ground again. 

Morgan grunted. He pushed up on his elbows. "What was that?" 

"You trust your strength too much." Daisy held out her hand.

He nodded and accepted the hand. "You pack quite the punch." 

"Want to go another round?" She grinned. 

Morgan rolled his shoulders. "Maybe give me a half a chance?"

Chapter 2Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Notes:Yeah I'm just going to do daily updates with this one since it's already completely written. But know that this means if something happens in my real life it might mean an update getting delayed. So you know, daily with a chance for interruption.

Chapter TextDaisy poured herself a bowl of grape nuts. "Why do I eat this stuff?" 

-"Because you need a balanced diet to stay healthy. So how's the new team?"- Jemma's voice was far too perky.

She rolled her eyes while reaching for the milk. "I don't know how to be an agent. Couldn't they have put me in terrorism or something?"

-"We need you close to the Triskelion and New York in case you're needed. And Hydra doesn't care about serial killers, and neither does teen you."- Jemma made that sigh of hers when she was mildly frustrated with someone being obstinate. 

Daisy hummed as she stirred her hot chocolate. "I get it, the others are working with Fury to root out the remains of Hydra. I just don't know what I'm doing here Jemma. Serial killers are just… I'm not useful."

-"Of course you are, you're a very talented agent. Maybe help your tech specialist? And you've always been good at guessing what the bad guys are going to do. You'll do great."- There was the sound of a kettle whistling briefly. 

She sipped her hot chocolate. "I don't know how not to be an agent of SHIELD. Being an FBI agent is just weird."

-"You need friends, maybe you could meet someone nice. We can't time travel again, too many paradoxes already. This timeline is our final one. Maybe put up a dating profile or something."- 

Daisy rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to find my Fitz on a website. And what happens when the other me gets to be a SHIELD agent? It'll be too weird. I don't think using Coulson instead of Johnson so Skye can have our name is going to keep it from being super weird." 

-"You could stay there, pop out for Avenger level threats. I mean, do you want to go back to SHIELD missions after this? Frankly I'm tired of the kidnappings, nearly dying, space travel, alternate realities, killer AIs and fear dimensions. Fitz and I are talking about staying out here, maybe some teaching and safe research. Of course running the New Afterlife could be lovely and a bit slower than we're used to."-

She finished chewing her bite of cereal. "The only thing I've been, other than an agent, is a teenage cyber terrorist Jemma."

-"Well maybe this is your chance to be something new. We saved the world, again and again. A better future is here for everyone else now. We get to have roots. Maybe in a few years you'll be an aunt."-

"You're thinking of having little genius babies?" Daisy perked up. She missed her friends.

There was a smile audible in Jemma's voice. -"You'll be the godmother and try to tempt my kid into your bad girl shenanigans."-

"Sounds nice." Daisy lowered her spoon. "Any word from May?"

-"No, but as soon as she's sure Hydra is down and Coulson is on track for being director she's retiring with LMD Coulson, so she doesn't exactly contact us. She's busy."-

Daisy flinched. "If I hadn't quaked that Hydra base I could still be helping her." 

-"You did the right thing, you got Pierce and Whitehall. That base had over three hundred Hydra operatives and we couldn't afford for any of them to make it out and warn what's left of them. It was the right call. You did the right thing, now you get a stable team. This could be a good thing if you let it."-

She dug her spoon into her cereal. "So what new science mambo jumbo you working on?" 

'"A field method to stop bleeding long enough for the agent to be brought in for medical testing. It's sort of a greenish foam? But really it's fascinating because--"-

Daisy dropped down onto her desk. Pulling her legs up she opened up her computer. "So how do you know which cases need you personally and not just a profile?" 

"Escalation, short cooling off period, number of victims, signs of a psychotic break, level of violence, signs that the locals are unable to catch the unsub." Morgan rolled back in his chair. "You wanna be a profiler and a ninja now?" 

She let her head tilt. "You have enough profilers, you don't need another one." 

"I mean JJ's been getting out of the office on time since you got here. So you gotta be doing something right." He stood grabbing his empty coffee mug. "Trust me to get you a refill of coffee?" 

Daisy grinned. "Nope." She picked up her mug and sipped. "Besides, it's tea."

"How'd you find your unsubs when you were off doing CIA missions?" Morgan asked as he swiped Emily's mug. 

She pulled up the SHIELD chatter, she'd been combing through it to find any Hydra goons that might have been missed. "Point, we follow the evidence and try to predict the enemies next move. I miss the resources. Like the Night Night guns." Daisy snickered at all of the signs of disbelief. "Laugh now, but those were the most advanced tranquilizer rounds."

"I thought you were a wet work agent, why the tranquilizers?" Emily looked up curiously, and vaguely surprised. 

Daisy paused, she opened and then closed her mouth. "I mean, I technically have the body count, I can see the mistake…. How did you guys even get that idea? Like my file is totes blacked out." 

"Your name was the only thing not blacked out in your file, which is a massive file, CIA, not able to integrate with civilian life. It was the logical assumption." Reid blinked from behind his glasses. 

She snorted. "I mean, your file gets that big from command, and eight years of service. Also my recruitment has to be like a chunk of that." Daisy hopped off her desk. "And that's classified. I also may have added some My Little Pony fanfiction to my file since it was being blacked out anyways. It amuses me." 

"Nuh uh." Morgan cut off before Reid could ask anything else. "You're just playing with us. You going to microwave your tea or keep teasing us with classified?" 

Daisy blanched, pressing a hand against her chest. "Microwave tea? My SO might just teleport here to kick me." 

"Teleporting isn't possible, but there's some quantum teleportation research that sounds promising." Reid perked up, the familiar excitement of the nerd herd. 

Daisy smiled. "You think it will be like Star Trek?" 

"Theoretically-"

"We've got a case," JJ announced from the catwalk before going into Hotch's office. 

Daisy looked up. She considered that. Well, this time she could help out. Really help. If she was going to be part of this team for a while then she would participate. And there were some things she was uniquely suited for. She glanced at her outfit. Well going in as a potential victim was going to be fun. Actually, she was bored enough it probably would be. 

////

Emily felt a mix of pity and empathy for the old wreck that was John Colfield, the former sheriff. The way the man zeroed in on the photos of the old victim photos was tragic. The price of the job sometimes. She paused. "Where's Daisy?" 

"I thought she went with Hotch?" Morgan looked at her.

Rossi's face twitched. "We have a CIA agent disappear when she's within the age range of victims. I don't think that's an accident." 

"Do we need to rescue her from our unsub?" A Deputy asked, all alarmed diligence. 

Emily winced. "I think it's more that we should hope she doesn't find the unsub before us." 

The former sheriff frowned. "What are you talking about?" 

////

Daisy whimpered and jingled her cuffs. Honestly, he was a shitty kidnapper. So dependent on being bigger, stronger, and the girls not being able to fight back properly. It probably helped a lot that thanks to her being inhuman and the centipede serum she'd burned through the drugs within ten minutes. 

The truck was jostling a lot, off-road then. She rolled her eyes under the burlap bag. Of course the fucker listened to bad country music. Daisy weakly pulled at her cuffs. This man was not smart. If there wasn't a still living girl she needed to find, she'd have taken this man down ages ago. She let out a low moan, keeping the man sure he was in charge. 

Finally, finally, the car came to a halt. The drivers door banged open and then shut. 

She kicked weakly as he dragged her out of the passenger side floor. As she hit the ground with a thump she winced, that was going to bruise her ass. 

He hiked her up to her feet and half dragged her. Clearly a cave, the damp was telling. 

"HELLO! Help...oh god." A female voice came from further down. 

Daisy closed her eyes, she ran enough vibration into her handcuffs to shatter them apart. 

"What was that whore?" The creep shook her, his grip on her upper arm tightening. 

She grinned, too bad he couldn't see how fucked he was about to be. 

Daisy used her knuckles to punch him in the throat. 

He let out a wheezing choke of pain. 

She grabbed the back of his head and slammed him into the side of the cave. He crumpled.

Daisy pulled off the burlap sack. "Damn that thing stank." She pulled her hair back and slipped the hairband off her wrist to keep her hair up. She reached into her bra and pulled out the zipties. Looking up she softened at the sight of the girl. "You're Molly right?" 

"Yes?" The girl whimpered, her eyes flicking to the unsub.

She sighed. "I'm here to get you out." Daisy snapped the zip ties around the man's limp wrists and then grabbed his feet. "Alright, don't worry, we're going to secure him and then get you out." 

"How, how'd you get out of that?" Molly shifted, moving away from the second set of chains. 

Daisy grunted as she hauled the man to the moldy mattress in one corner. She grabbed the chains and snapped him into them. She squatted in front of Molly. "Hey, can I touch your wrists so I can get those cuffs?" 

"Yeah, we gotta get out of here." Molly practically thrust her wrists into Daisy's hands.

She slid a lock pick out of the beat up sole of the sneakers she was wearing. It was easy enough to get to work. "You're going to be ok. My name is Daisy Coulson and I work with the FBI. Do you think you can walk?" 

"Yeah, I can walk." Molly shoved the chains away from her as soon as they came off. 

Daisy hopped up onto her feet. She gently helped the shaking teenager up, pulling the girl's arm over her shoulders. "Lean on me, I'll hotwire his truck and get us to the hospital." 

////

JJ knocked on the hospital room door. She poked her head in and felt a weight fall off her shoulders at the sight of a living Molly. "May I come in?" 

Molly's eyes widened, her shoulders tightening. 

"Hey, it's cool. She's with me," Daisy spoke up and JJ almost had an aneurysm. Because sitting in a chair by the side of the bed, worn sneakers, old jeans, flannel and a tank top, hair cascading down in loose waves was Daisy. But she looked like some sort of local teenager. 

"Daisy?" JJ couldn't help how her voice raised in surprise. 

She snickered. "Sup!" Daisy offered a redvine to Molly. "Hey, you need to eat and hospital food is the worst." 

JJ slowly stepped into the room. "I'm here to take your statement." 

"Ok." Molly reached out grabbing Daisy's hand. "Don't go?" 

Daisy's face was soft as she held Molly's eye. "I won't go anywhere till that taser I ordered for you gets here. And your parents." 

"Thank you." Molly pulled her knees up. She looked at JJ. "I..what do you need to know?" 

JJ sat slowly at the end of the bed. "We can go at whatever speed you need. And if you need to stop we take a break. There's no time pressure." And there wasn't, Morgan and Prentiss were escorting one very sore and cold unsub to the station. 

Molly sniffled. "I was at the party..."

JJ tucked another heated blanket over Molly's sleeping form. She gave the girl's mom a nod, before slipping out of the room. As she closed the door behind her she looked to Daisy, who was slouched against the wall. "That was a terrible risk. Hotch is not happy." 

"She's alive, it was worth it." Daisy shrugged. "Besides I wasn't in any danger, a drunk hillbilly isn't going to be what takes me down. I've been kidnapped by far, far worse. Believe me when I say I wasn't in any danger." 

She nodded slowly. "Let's go, the team is waiting for us." 

"Are you mad?" Daisy bounced off the wall and easily fell into step besides her. 

JJ stared at her, it was disturbing to see an agent looking like a sixteen year old, but yes she was mad. "You didn't tell anyone. You went in without any backup." 

"It's what I can do." Daisy stuffed her hands into her pockets. "You don't need my computer skills, my combat skills, my working knowledge of several incredibly classified things, or well anything else I offer. That girl needed me." 

"And if the unsub had just shot you?" JJ swallowed bile at the memories of the hacked bodies the man had left in his wake. "Why not tell us? Go in with a wire, gps, something in case it went wrong?" 

Daisy reached out catching her forearm. "I don't think you understand really how much your serial killers don't scare me." She held JJ's gaze. "I've broken into military bases and had to fight my way out. Been tortured and had to drag myself out despite it all, a single untrained civilian murderer is…" She vibrated. "I wasn't in danger against this unsub. And if I was, I could have handled it." 

"You…" JJ wasn't a profiler, but even she knew that this was an agent who needed help. "You're still going to get reamed by Hotch." 

Daisy's face dropped back to pleasant. "I can survive it." 

JJ called Garcia.

-"Portal for knowledge of all things and glitter."- 

"Garcia, I need you to do something for me." JJ watched out of the corner of her eye as Hotch turned a new shade of red as he lectured Daisy. "Can you tell with Daisy's file if she's ever been to required therapy?" 

-"Gumdrop that's a hard question. I've looked into her file and it's all classified. But off the format of the files, there are a series of reports about two years into her record that vaguely look like psych evals. But I can't tell you for sure."- There was some distinct clicking. -"I did some digging, cause that's what I do. And I can tell you is that there was one name associated with Daisy's in the CIA info I have access to. Qiaolian May. Want me to keep digging?"-

JJ bit at her bottom lip. "How old is she? Because she said eight years of service and if she's over twenty eight… There's something really wrong about her record. We don't just use and throw away our agents like that." 

-"You think she needs help?"- Garcia sounded curious. 

She crossed her arm across herself. "She said she'd been tortured and had to drag herself out of there. You didn't see her face, but I believe her. And I don't think she meant to say it. After something like that you shouldn't just be tossed into a new team in a new agency." 

-"I'll see what I can find, buttercup. Garcia out."-

JJ slipped her phone back into her pocket. She walked to where the rest of the team was packing up, ready to leave. "We have to give Daisy things to do or she'll do this again." 

"You're right." Emily pushed some of her hair back. "And she'll know if we try to give her something that's not necessary." 

Rossi picked up a pair of keys. "Give her some cold cases to go over for new insights. It'll keep her busy enough she won't just disappear on us again." 

"I don't know about all of you, but when we get back to DC I'm going to need a drink." Emily pulled on her blazer. "If Daisy's part of the team she should come." 

"Thank you." JJ eased, the others would help. They weren't going to just let someone like Daisy spiral. Because after seeing their newest teammate with Molly she knew one thing. Daisy was good people.

Chapter 3Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Chapter TextGarcia froze as her screens started moving without her telling them to. "Oh no." She pulled up the security, someone was hacking her. "No you don't." 

"Don't worry about grabbing the power cord." An amused voice came from the doorway. 

She squeaked, spinning in her chair. "Daisy?" 

"You tried to squeak into the CIA?" Daisy grinned as she bumped the door shut while waving her sticker covered laptop. "Which, I'm impressed. If you promise not to search for my files in there I'll show you how to get in." 

Garcia paused. "You know how to get in?" 

"My handle's skyenet." She grinned with the cocky confidence of being one of the best hackers in the world and knowing it. 

Garcia dropped her fluffy pen. "No way?" 

"Yours is The Black Queen. Which, your work was fabulous before you got caught." She wiggled her eyebrows. 

"But Skyenet is currently one of the central hackers for The Rising Tide?" Garcia frowned, but skyenet's hacks were legendary. 

Daisy winked. "You don't exactly have to go undercover for hacking." 

"Your spoofing technique you used against the Chinese was inspired!" Garcia vibrated. 

She grabbed the second rolly chair, and curled up in it. "So I show you how to get into the CIA, you stop looking into my highly classified past?" 

"You answer two questions and show me how to get in and I stop looking?" Garcia bargained. 

Daisy shrugged. "You can ask them and I might tell you if it won't get you hurt to know. And I get to ask two back." 

"Deal, no takes backs." Garcia held out her hand. 

Daisy accepted her hand and shook it firmly. "So, why are you settling for mediocre tech guy Kevin?" 

"Oof, straight for the deep stuff." She put her pen behind her ear. It took a few minutes to find the right words. "He gets my work, is cute, and likes me." Garcia touched her gunshot wound. She knew not to trust strangers who were too hot. "Where's the rest of your old team?" 

Daisy pulled out a pack of pink bubblegum and offered some. "Fitzsimmons are on their honeymoon and talking about getting out of the business, having a few kids. My SO and three others are reforming the agency and well Yo-yo has gotten really into roller derby for some reason." She grinned as Garcia accepted the gum, it was the good kind. "Your turn, how do I get the team to stop digging into my past?"

Garcia chewed her new piece of gum thoughtfully. "Let them get to know you. But they're profilers, and profilers are the most irritating people to be around if you want to keep a secret." Garcia stared at the woman sitting across from her. "I think I'm gonna keep my second question for a better time." 

"Oooo, scary." Daisy wiggled her fingers. "So, how do you feel about some hacking?"

Garcia looked around her office. "We need some snacks." 

////

Morgan flipped through his case file absently as he walked. "Hey, Babygirl! I need you to look into some school records for…" He blinked as he stood looking into the room. "The hell is this?" 

Garcia and Daisy both spun in their chairs. Equally red-eyed, guilty looks on their faces. Garcia beamed, with a slightly manic gleam. "Chocolate Thunder! What brings your smokey hot self to my lair of fab?" 

"I needed you to run some student records, see if they have any staff overlap." He folded his arms and took in the disaster of an office. Due to the bloodshot eyes, and energy drinks they'd been at this for a while, paper wrappers from the sandwich shop were laying around with half eaten bags of chips and crinkled energy drink cans. "What is going on in here?" 

Daisy grinned. "Expanding your Oracle of All Things's reach." 

"There were places you couldn't reach?" Morgan huffed in amusement. 

Garcia hit a key on her keyboard, causing the screens to all switch to puppy pictures. "You don't want to know Sugar." She held out her hand. "Pass the student names over so I can work my magic." 

"Nuh uh, how long you been here?" He noted the disheveled looks both of them had. 

She blinked slowly and then looked at Daisy. "Twenty hours?" 

"Thirty." Daisy groaned, straightening her back, it audibly cracked. "Oof, think I'm gonna go stretch it out in the gym." She looked down at Garcia. "Wanna come with? It'll help with the bullet wound ache." 

Garcia shook her head. "Oh I couldn't, I'm not flexible. The gym is an anathema to me, Terminator." 

"Terminator?" Morgan asked, baffled. 

She waved him off. "Her hacker handle is Skyenet and she kicks ass." 

"Garcia." Daisy reached out catching one of Garcia's waving hands. "Come on, we can get something greasy and delicious at that diner down the street afterwards."

Morgan looked at Garcia and dropped the file on her desk. "Go, and get some sleep Mama. The case will be here when you get back." 

Daisy slowly slid to her feet. "We're a call away if a new case comes in." 

"I didn't say I'd go to the gym with you," Garcia grumbled as she let herself be pulled out of her chair by a surprisingly strong Daisy. 

Morgan chuckled as he stepped out of the way. "Don't let me keep you from your bonding." He shook his head as he listened to bickering about workouts as the two disappeared down the hall. With a last amused huff he made his way back to the bullpen. 

"Do you want more coffee?" Prentiss asked from the kitchenette where she was pouring herself a large mug of it. 

He shook his head. "I'm good, and I think Garcia's lair needs to be fumigated from the caffeine in there. She and Daisy are out for the rest of the day." Morgan considered that. "Or, well, Garcia will be cleaning it. I don't think I've ever seen her let her lair get that disorganized." 

"She let her lair get dirty?" Prentiss made a sound of surprise. "I didn't know that could happen." 

Morgan dropped into his chair. "Only when she hacks things I know I don't want to know about." 

"Noted." Prentiss handed a fresh cup of coffee to Reid who was zoned into whatever his case file was. 

He picked up the next file from the stack of his paperwork. It never ended. 

////

JJ opened up the file as the plane lifted off. If the case was less graphic she'd almost smile at the disheveled, dragged from bed state of the team. Rossi was holding a thermos and looking at it like it was his salvation. Hotch was crisp as always, but the slow blinks gave away his exhaustion. Reid's hair was flat on one side, and standing up on the other. Morgan was half asleep while spread out over his seat. Emily's eyes were closed as she swayed slightly. Daisy had slumped down into the seat next to JJ's. 

She cleared her throat getting the attention of the plane. "Chula Vista California, two teenage girls disappeared this evening. They were reported missing when they didn't come home from the movie theatre." 

Morgan frowned at the pictures of the teens. "Any divorce proceedings?" 

"No, victim one has married parents, and victim two has only her father who is a widower." JJ answered. 

"So not a custody hearing." Prentiss frowned. "Do the police have any suspects yet?" 

Hotch spoke up. "No going off on your own." He leveled a serious glare at Daisy. 

Daisy gave a slow salute. "Got it bossman." She paused looking at the photos. "They're not runaways." 

"Why do you say that?" Rossi glanced up curiously. 

She pointed to the picture. "New clothing, but not brand new. They're both smiling with their eyes, makeup is trying to look grown up but classy grown up. Kids like that don't run away. Or if they do they don't last through the night before they're calling their parents."

"I agree, what do you think? Age preferential offender?" Morgan chimed in. 

JJ kept herself open as she spoke to the parents. Only an hour into the flight and a body had been found, five hours later and the body still hadn't been identified. 

Mrs.Owen spoke carefully. She was barely holding herself together. "Jack dropped off the girls at the movie theater."

"And I arranged to pick 'em up, but they never came out. I went inside, but they weren't there. And an usher told me he saw them leave the, uh, the theater halfway through the movie." Jack, the father of the second girl continued. 

Morgan guided the questions. "Where'd they go?" 

"He said they went outside for a cigarette." Jack shifted. 

Mrs. Owen looked devastated. "We didn't even know Katie smoked." 

"Did he say if they came back inside?" JJ was good at this part, getting the families to speak instead of just shutting down. 

Jack shook his head. "No." He was staring at the ground.

Mr. Owen cut in, frustrated furry in his tone as he spoke. "We've been here all day. Why won't they let us know who that is?" 

"Cause they don't know who it is." Jack answered, and something in his face unnerved JJ. He understood. "Do they?" 

"Why?" Mrs.Owen seemed to shake with what she refused to accept she knew. "What did they do to her?" 

JJ had to get them away from accepting the horror of the situation. "Look, until we know who it is and what's happened, we--" 

"By 'we' you mean the FBI, right?" A fourth voice cut in.

Daisy moved then. "Look, we're here to help." Her lips pulled slightly as she stared at the man who'd spoken dead in the eye. "And I'm a consultant who specializes in cases like this. So if you want to help, talk to these agents who are trying to help you." 

"You're a little late for that don't you think?" Jack stepped away as the Owens' curled into each other. 

The interloper stepped closer. "I'm Pat Mannan, Jack's friend." 

"And you don't trust the FBI." Daisy moved just ever so slightly between JJ and the man. 

JJ took in the action and allowed the move. If Daisy thought this man might be a threat, she wasn't going to disagree. 

"Look, Jack's wife passed away a few years ago. Lindsey is all that he has." Mr Mannan justified, and given the dead body laying just yards away it rang true. 

Daisy stepped closer to the man. "You've got something in your back pocket. It's not a wallet that's in your front pocket, but strong shape means it's solid. And I don't play by the same rules as these fine FBI agents." Her voice was low, the parents having now moved far enough that they wouldn't hear. 

He pulled himself up. "I don't know what you're implying here-"

"That you have something, based on the background checks our computer analyst and I ran on everyone who was part of the search, it's a badge. But what I want to know is which agency?" Daisy didn't so much as blink as she stared down the significantly larger man. 

Mr Mannan finally reached into his back pocket and pulled out credentials. "You're not a consultant." 

"CIA." She glanced at him. "And you're witness protection." 

Morgan stepped forward then. "Do you know something we need to know?" 

"Jack and Lindsey are under my jurisdiction and protection." Mr Mannan glared. "It has nothing to do with this." 

Morgan crossed his arms. "Why don't you let us be the judge of that?" 

JJ rested her hands on her hips as she looked at the geographical map that Reid was working on. Her eyes avoided the photos of Katie's brutalized body. "How do you do it?" 

"Do what?" Daisy looked up from the laptop she was running data for Garcia on. 

JJ looked away from the board. "Did you ever blink?" 

"Oh." Daisy's fingers pulled up from her keyboard. "I grew up around things that...well I didn't have a traditional childhood. The first time I aimed a gun at a man, who'd just kidnapped me and fully intended to murder me mind you, I couldn't pull trigger. Everyone blinks. It's what makes us human."

JJ spoke softly. "Do you still flinch, even now?" 

"I do. Sometimes I'm so terrified that I just want to hide. But that's who people like us are, we go out there anyways." Daisy closed her laptop. 

She leaned against the desk behind her. "How did you know Mannan was an agent?" 

"His priority wasn't finding the girls. And clearly he had a different agenda. So different agency, or well." She shrugged. "If he hadn't of been white I wouldn't have picked up on it." She leaned back. "Or well if he'd seemed more like me." 

JJ let out a sigh. "You should be a profiler." 

"I don't think I want to be." Daisy offered out the chair next to her. "Want to help me go through these facebook photos for boys to identify?" 

////

Rossi passed a beer to Reid. "I'm sorry kid." 

Reid silently accepted it. 

He sighed, and left Reid to his solitude, or well as much solitude as the plane had. It would take a long time—if ever—for Reid to move past watching Jack shoot the teen who'd kidnapped the man's daughter. The kid had been a monster, but Reid had still had to watch him die. If the boy wonder needed some quiet after that, Rossie wasn't going to interfere. 

Rossi made his way to where the pretzels were stuffed. The stupid little plane compartment door was stuck. "Damn thing." 

"Fuck!" Rossi barely got his hands up in time to stop the case from falling on him. He frowned. "What is this? I thought this was where the pretzels were?" 

Daisy's cheeks actually pinked from where she was sitting. "I might have equipped the jet better." 

Hotch's attention snapped from the window to the matter at hand. "Agent Coulson, what is now on this plane?" He sounded tired as he asked it. 

She slid down in her seat a little. "Just the basics that we might need; parachutes, sniper rifle, tranq handgun and rifles, grenades, rocket launcher, pepper spray canisters, gas masks, some other odds and ends...enough ammunition to secure a location till help can arrive." 

The entire plane fell silent. 

Rossi barked out a laugh. "You think you have enough equipment to take a military base there?" 

"Depends on the size of the base and if I have to protect the team or not," Daisy replied like that was a typical and understandable question. 

He shook his head. "There's no pretzels on the plane are there?" 

"I can get rid of the redundant life vests and put snacks in their locker?" Daisy offered. 

Rossi shut the locker he'd opened. He was fairly sure the case that had nearly brained him, was a sniper rifle case. "If you're getting us snacks how do you feel about jerky?" 

"Completely necessary." Daisy nodded solemnly, her posture relaxing. 

He snorted as he dropped back down into his seat. Well then, it would seem they had their own personal specialist. Rossi reached under the arm of his seat, he had a feeling. Yup, that was a spool of garrat wire and a KA-bar… Well, at least there were tranq rounds.

Chapter 4Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Notes:Holy crap guys, thank you for all the comments and everything. I wasn't expecting this odd crossover to get much of a reaction at all. So it's been super sweet that it has.

Chapter TextEmily paused as she entered the bullpen. "You alive there Morgan?" 

The slumped form of her partner let out a wheezing groan. 

"He really should have listened when I said he shouldn't try to keep up with my workout." Daisy chirped from her desk. A desk that was slowly turning into a casefile sorting station, filled with colored tags and filing organizers. It was mildly horrifying to know it was all work JJ had been doing on top of the rest of her duties. 

She shook herself out of horrified awe at JJ's workload. "What is your morning workout?" 

"You know morning stretches, tai chi, a nice run-"

There was a gurgle of protest from the Morgan lump.

Daisy continued as if her idea of a workout hadn't nearly killed their coworker. "Then some minor strength upkeep, and finally stretching it all out. I told him that after mile five he really should have slowed down." She shrugged while looking at Morgan with a bemused look. "You really ought to have some more of that gatorade I got you on the way in." 

Morgan raised a single middle finger.

Daisy looked at the Morgan lump critically. "You don't have to come to the gym for sparring practice after work you know?" 

Morgan lifted his head up enough to glare. "You're not human." 

"Nope." Daisy's eyes sparkled as she silently laughed at the man. She turned her gaze towards Emily. "Want to join Garcia and I at lunch? I'm teaching her tai chi and a little self defence." 

Emily set her things down while trying not to laugh at the Morgan lump. "Will I look like that when we're done?"

"No." Daisy laughed at that. "I just thought Garcia would feel better if she felt less vulnerable, you know? I mean I didn't start taking my training seriously till after my first undercover mission." 

Emily understood that, the terror of being undercover. And Daisy was probably right about it helping Garcia heal. "I might pop in." 

"Cool." Daisy grinned as she stood up, a stack of files in her hands. "Guess what I have for you Morgan?" 

The Morgan lump let out a long groan. "Nooooooo...." 

"Yes." Daisy dropped the stack next to him. 

He let out a whimper as he cracked an eye at it. 

Emily bit her lip to keep from losing it. And if she spent the rest of her morning poking Morgan just to get pained grunts from him, well it was team bonding. That was her story and she was sticking with it. 

////

Garcia paused as she spotted Daisy, this was not going to go well. Underneath the layers the agent typically insisted on wearing, and contrary to her dietary habits, Daisy Coulson was apparently ripped. Because there was Daisy in her work out clothes. Yoga pants and a sports bra that left nothing to the imagination and sweet jesus the girl had abs, and biceps, and god this light workout was going to kill her. 

"Hey!" Daisy smiled happily as she skipped over. She took in Garcia's work out clothing and seemed pleased, despite them covering a great deal more skin. "Don't worry, we're just working on some basics. You're not a field agent so you don't need to know how to snap a man's neck with your thighs while shooting a gun." 

Garcia gulped. "You've done that?" 

"A couple times, similar positions allow for non lethal takedowns as well." Daisy eagerly herded her further towards the mats. "To start with though you're going to learn some tai chi. It'll help with any back issues from your desk chair and is good for learning to control your body." 

Garcia cringed, but she knew enough to know escape was impossible. "Alright, Terminator…" Huh, such an apt name.

Daisy smiled. "Alright, you just want to follow what I do and we can get boba tea afterwards." 

"Only because we're hacking bros now." Garcia slowly shifted into the same stance Daisy was in. 

Daisy gave an approving nod. "Good, and remember to let yourself be loose. Don't worry about doing it perfect, you just want to feel a sort of flow and your muscles pulling and pushing against each other." 

And so Garcia dubiously followed along. It was...nice. As the slow movements continued she honestly relaxed. She let out a sigh, this wasn't the hell of gym class she'd been expecting. This she could do. Garcia lost track of time as she followed the smooth practiced motions of her friend. 

Finally Daisy straightened, her arms falling to her sides. "Good work out." 

"That wasn't…" Garcia paused as it dawned on her she was sweating slightly, and her muscles had a slightly pleasant gooey feeling to them. 

Daisy laughed, patting her on the back. "Come on, let's get some water, shower and go get some boba tea and lunch. Maybe in a week or two I can show you how to disarm a man with a gun?" 

"You think I can do that?" Garcia smiled slightly, she wasn't used to...well people assuming she could do active things like that. 

Daisy's face scrunched slightly. "Why not? I mean I was in worse shape when my first SO showed me. But then I'd been living in a van for like two years before that and eating food from convenience stores. You're already in way better shape for some basic training than I was." 

Garcia flushed, pleased with the compliment. She did file away the van comment for later though. "So is Emily joining us for lunch?" 

"Maybe? She was pretty intent on that arson case I passed to her earlier." Daisy shrugged. 

Garcia popped a piece of sushi into her mouth. "How are you single?" 

"Well if you think the BAU is bad about secrets, schedules, and strains on a relationship my old team was worse. The only successful relationships were between colleagues. And I don't have the best dating history." Daisy shrugged before taking a large mouthful of teriyaki. 

She balked at that. "Come on, you're gorgeous. How can you not have a laundry list of 10s?" 

Daisy snorted. "I've been involved with three guys. Miles was ok? I mean he treated me fine but the age gap looking back was...not right. And he sold information he'd hacked for money and it got people killed." She poked at her food somewhat listlessly. 

"Age gap?" Garcia's eyes narrowed, oh she was going to ruin someone's life.

Daisy shifted. "I mean I lied and said I was eighteen, but he was twenty and yeah." 

"How old were you really?" Garcia reached out touching Daisy's hand. 

"Doesn't matter." Daisy seemed to shake herself slightly. "Then Ward and the less said about him the better." Her face darkened. "Short story is he was a plant and a traitor on our team." 

Garcia swallowed. "You got him?" 

"He's dead," Daisy replied tightly. 

She paused, her eyes widening. Well, yeah that would make sense. CIA did not put up with traitors lightly after all. Garcia tried to think of something to say, wait three. Maybe the third one at least wasn't terrible. "And your last boyfriend?" 

"He died." The pain on Daisy's face filled in more than enough blanks. 

Garcia opened and then shut her mouth. "I'm sorry." 

"You get the award for worst first date though." Daisy's snagged a piece of Garcia's sushi. 

She oddly didn't feel upset about it. It didn't feel like a personal failure when Daisy said it, instead it was as if she'd had a date who hadn't showered in a week and had to get a friend to call and rescue her. Garcia nabbed a piece of Daisy's teriyaki. "You're going to shadow me on my next first date." 

"I've got a sniper rifle and could use the practice camping out." Daisy sipped her tea. "So, this again tomorrow?" 

Garcia took her last piece of her sushi roll. "We could have a case." 

"Webcams exist." Daisy grinned. "And we're dragging Emily." 

She laughed. "Come on, let's grab food for our missing lady." 

Garcia laughed as she spotted the pink glittery taser on her desk. "Alright Terminator, you're a badass." 

////

Morgan eyed the house. "Prentiss, you have a case that's stuck to you like this?" 

"Yeah, but it's done." Prentiss tapped her fingers against her belt. "What do you think? This case has been cold so long... " 

His mouth thinned. "We go meet the kids, see if they know anything that can give us a place to start for working the case." 

"And hope you don't have to run after an unsub?" Her voice pitched up. 

He groaned. "It's not…" He physically winced as his muscles pulled. "Ok yes, but she's a beast in the gym. You try to keep up with her." 

"You could not pay me to try and keep up with someone who switched my watch with a nearly identical one, only with garrote wire spooled in it... Also I'm pretty sure there's a GPS tracker in all of our badges." Prentiss gave him a look. "Why would you work out with her?" 

Rossi called from the driver's seat. "If you're working the case, work the case."

Morgan gave a stiff nod, and the stiffness had nothing to do with the workout from hell, really it didn't. He climbed into the SUV. "Any new leads or are we just working with the case file Garcia printed out?" 

Morgan did not like clowns. Trying to find a clown who'd murdered a couple in their home with an axe was not helping that. He jogged between rigged games. Where did that guy go?

"Stop." Daisy was suddenly in front of him, one hand flat against his chest. 

He frowned. "We have to catch our unsub. He's getting away!" 

"He's scared, remember the profile you gave? He's developmentally a child and FBI agents are chasing him." She stayed rooted. "Go circle and make sure he doesn't leave this place. If he's hiding I'll find him. Ok?" 

Morgan grit his teeth but nodded. "Go." He jogged off, glancing behind, he frowned as he saw her pressing her hand to the ground before taking off. 

////

Daisy slowed at the tarped up game stall she knew someone was hiding under. She carefully pulled the rubber tarp like fabric away, showing the crying man. He was large, clown paint mostly washed off his face, and so clearly terrified. She took a large step back and sat down on the beaten down and dying grass. "You're safe." 

She stayed there, ignoring the fact she knew the others had found them. They were staying back though. So she just waited. And slowly the unsub stopped sobbing. He was a massive man, but then he was just a kid inside. It took almost twenty minutes, but he did slowly crawl out from under the booth till he was sitting in front of her. 

Daisy smiled and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Daisy." 

"Lenny." He shook her hand, his grip sweaty and strong. 

She gave him an encouraging smile. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her badge and passed it over. "I work with the police." 

"I don't wanna go to jail." He whimpered. 

Daisy reached out touching his shoulder. "I've been locked up, and you'll be ok. You see over there, is that your dad?" 

"Yeah." He nodded after a quick look over at the man Rossi was holding back. 

She carefully took his stupidly large sweaty hand. "He loves you, he'll always be there. You're going to be ok, but you did something bad." 

"I was just so angry." He curled into himself. 

Daisy nodded. "I understand, sometimes when you're angry you do things that you regret. Do you want some McDonalds? We can get some on our way to the station?" 

"With a toy?" He uncurled slightly. 

She hopped to her feet. "Yeah with a toy." 

He managed to clamor up to his feet. He was nervous as she cuffed his hands in front of him. But he let her. 

Daisy held onto his forearm and carefully led him to the police car. She looked up at JJ who was looking at her with an inexplicable expression. Daisy looked back to Lenny. "I'm going to stay with you until we get to the station." 

She sat down across from Lenny's father. "I hired a lawyer for you and Lenny." 

"What?" The man gaped at her. 

Daisy slid a card for the lawyer service across the table. "Your son needs to be monitored, he can become violent. And you deserve the time you're going to get for not giving that family closure. But I get it. He's your son." 

The plane was silent as they made their way back to DC. Rossi finally shifted, staring her in the eye. "Why did you do that?" 

"The profile, you said the unsub would be simple, intelligence of a child in the body of a large man. Easily scared and wouldn't have meant to hurt those people, not really. He wasn't a serial killer that needed to be off the streets or bodies would keep dropping." She rested her forearms on her knees. "And I would have killed for a father who cared as much as that man did. So I paid their lawyer fees, and I made sure Lenny didn't get tackled and dragged into jail scared shitless." 

Rossi touched the keychain of the kids's faces. The victims he'd tried to bring justice to for more than twenty years. "Okay."

Chapter 5Chapter by Rhino (RhinoMouse)Chapter TextJJ blinked at the cup of coffee that had just appeared in front of her. "What's this?" 

"Green tea latte." Daisy grinned. "I will convince you tea is good." 

She huffed, smiling as she accepted the drink. "We'll see." 

"So how far are we on getting through the mountain?" Daisy dropped into the chair in front of her desk, and then dropped her crossed heels onto the desk. She raised her own cup of something and sipped at it. 

JJ took a moment to look at her desk. "I haven't seen this much of my desk since I started. Thank you." 

"Anytime, I have no idea how you were doing as much as you do without help." Daisy's nose scrunched up. "Maybe I'm just used to missions that don't involve this much paperwork?" 

JJ took a sip of her drink. "No!" She pushed the cup away. "It tastes like grass!" 

Daisy let out peals of laughter, her head falling back. 

"This isn't a real drink, is it?" JJ raised a brow at Daisy's laughter filled head nods. "Seriously? Why?" 

Daisy leaned up and snagged the drink and took a drink while wiggling her eyebrows. "It's good." 

"That's disgusting." JJ shook her head. "Coffee is more than enough." 

"I mean coffee is good, but I will find a tea you like." Daisy grinned. 

She shook her head. "So there was a cactus on my desk this morning?" 

"You complained about your office plant dying on you." Daisy shrugged. "I also swapped your lights for sunlight full spectrum ones. Or well the lights for the whole floor. We used those when we were in the underground bases." 

JJ was surprised she wasn't upset by the changes. It made sense though, this was Daisy's way of showing she cared. And it was also her job, protecting the team. "You take the job of protecting the team seriously. Please let me know before you make a large change to my office again in the future." 

"Right, sure." Daisy glanced at JJ's window. "So can I change that to bulletproof glass?" 

JJ wasn't sure if she was surprised that hadn't happened yet or not. "How are you affording these changes?" 

"I'm a hacker who was told to defund a terrorist organization. He wasn't clear on where all he wanted the money to go." Daisy looked positively smug. "And if I use it for strengthening the FBI, well he can't complain." 

She barked out a laugh. "No?" 

"Yup! He should know better. I mean I was cuffed, black bagged and in an interrogation room the first time we met." She took a long drink of the disgusting grass latte. 

JJ paused. "What, op gone wrong?" 

"Op gone right." Daisy's face shifted to something more serious. "I was a black recruit. I know you guys have noticed I'm not military or police. Definitely not college." 

JJ had heard of black recruits before. But that was… "Your skill set is too broad for you to have just been a hacker like Garcia was?" 

"When I was fifteen I got involved with an anarchist terrorist group. Then when I was seventeen I was blackbagged and given a choice." Daisy gave a shrug. "Disappear into a blacksite solitary cell till I died; or sign on the dotted line and join." 

JJ felt a sudden ice. At seventeen she was playing soccer trying to get a scholarship for college. "They didn't have you run missions for a few years though?" 

"Well the next day we flew to south america, gunfights, then captured by corrupt government officials, blew out the side of the plane to retake the plane, and got slatted for field training after that whole disaster." Daisy laughed like it was a joke. 

JJ's fingers dug into the arms of her chair. "You were a child." 

"I turned eighteen a week later." Daisy's head tilted to the side slightly. "JJ? Are you ok?" 

She closed her eyes. "How common is it for our government to recruit underaged individuals?" JJ opened her eyes and stared at Daisy. 

Daisy froze, she looked like a rabbit in the headlights. "Uh… classified? So classified." She winced. "Theoretically it's not uncommon?" 

JJ shook, it was so wrong. This job wasn't for people who couldn't choose it for themselves as adults. It was hard, brutal, and the risks and ways it changed your life. "I'm sorry." 

"Why?" Daisy's face was scrunched up in confusion. 

JJ breathed out, this wasn't a time or place for that. She looked at Daisy, re-examining her. "How old are you?"

"Uh...it gets all a bit mixed up for super classified reasons." Daisy bit at her lower lip. "But I think I'm around twenty sixish?" 

"What about your age could be classified?" JJ was going to get Garcia, and together they were going to hunt down the CIA director, if Daisy kept saying truly horrifying things like they were matter of fact. 

Daisy tightened up, her feet dropping down to the floor. "Look by the end of the year things are going to change. My files won't be this classified. But for right now I've already said way too much." 

"Why are you saying anything to me? I mean I appreciate it. But why?" JJ wasn't sure what to do with the confusing mess that was Daisy, dangerous but sweet, surprisingly well adjusted adult for the most part. 

Daisy looked at her, face full of bemused warmth. "I've never met anyone like you before." She stood up. "Want to join Garcia and I? You can skip the workout and just meet us for lunch?" 

"You just want to use me as a human shield to keep Agent Michaels from asking you out." JJ was amused by the poor man who Daisy was straight up ignoring since he'd ignored her 'no' to a coffee date. 

Daisy gave her puppy eyes. "It's like kicking a dog. I'll pay." 

"Fine, but I am not working out with you. I'm not insane."

////

Emily stepped onto the crime scene, a pang rent through her, at the sight of the poor husband holding the baby. "This wasn't suicide." 

"No signs of a struggle." Morgan looked doubtful, he was starting to agree it was a serial killer. 

She shook her head. "With a baby in the next room?" Emily spotted the momentarily stricken look on Daisy's face. "Daisy can you go investigate the perimeter?" 

"Of course." Daisy nodded sharply and dipped out of the house like her heels were on fire. 

Morgan paused in his examination of the kitchen. "We don't profile each other." 

"You don't need to be a profiler to notice she wanted out of here." Emily shot him a look before refocusing on the case. "Look at this place, she'd moved on. This is not the home of someone consumed by the past." 

Emily jogged around the corner. The unsub had his latest victim lined up and had to know they were onto him. He could break pattern and start killing people without care for his method. She dropped her hand to her gun as she spotted Laurie Ann Morris, the next name on the man's sick list. And there was someone in the car with her. "Rossi!" 

She took off running. If he had a gun she wouldn't make it in time. "LAURIE ANN!" 

There was a single crack. 

Emily practically hit the car before ripping the drivers seat open and hauling Laurie Ann out of the car and behind her. She froze as she moved to draw her gun. The unsub was slumped, but there was a single bullet hole in the windshield. 

She hit her comm while looking for the glint of a sight. "Daisy was that you?" 

-"Just a tranq, so you might want to handcuff the unsub."- Daisy's voice crackled through.

Emily pressed the back of her hand to her forehead and took a deep breath. Not a third party sniper. She holstered her gun, and took out her cuffs. Rossi was handling Laurie Ann. She frowned at the way the unsub's veins looked blue radiating out from where the round had to have hit him. Clicking the cuff into place she straightened. 

"Sorry about not warning you. I didn't have a shot and then I did." Daisy's voice was unnervingly close. 

Emily spun, and there was Agent Coulson meandering over, a modded rifle loosely held in her hands. "You're sure he'll wake up?" 

"Dendrotoxin. Gonna be honest, despite using it a lot, I'm not sure what exactly it does besides knock people out." She scoffed. "He'll be fine, some bruising on his forehead from impact, and a wicked hangover headache when he wakes up, but you've got our unsub." 

Emily nodded. "Right, I just… It's a good thing you were here. That could have gone really bad." 

"Glad I had time to handle it." Daisy's eyes flicked to the side pointedly. 

Emily carefully followed Daisy to the side, just out of the chaos of police tape going up, agents and cops securing the scene. "What's going on?" 

"I'm going to be gone for the next three days, four tops." Daisy's body was ready for action Emily noted. 

She frowned slightly. "Why tell me like this?" 

"I have a mission, one day there, day for my job, one day back. Rough estimate of course. And I'll inform Hotch and JJ. But you're the most likely to spot anything wrong while I'm gone." Daisy gave her a nod of acknowledgment. 

Emily straightened at that. "What type of trouble are you expecting?" 

"I'm not, but this case was hard on the team. Make sure they eat, don't dwell on it. And if you think for even a second someone is too interested in the team, there's a panic button under the lid of your watch." Daisy wasn't fully alert, but she was clearly more alert than typical. 

Emily ran through what she knew, this woman was highly paranoid, actually coming to her to ensure the team's safety was kind of sweet. "You expect it will be all quiet?" 

"Should be." Daisy shifted slightly. "But you'll do it?" 

Emily nodded. "Yeah, I'll look out for the team." She paused slightly. "Come back safe." 

"That's not a problem." Her grin showed too many teeth. "No offense to this team, but retirement doesn't suit me." 

Emily let out a huff of surprise. "You call this retirement?" 

"I have an apartment for the first time in my life. And I haven't been shot at in over a month. My longest streak of not being shot at used to be a week." She shrugged. "This is retirement." 

Emily sat down next to JJ and passed over a bag of cheetos. "They're from Daisy." She opened up her book of Vaugner. 

"Do you want to play some scrabble?" JJ asked, tone carefully carefree. 

She lowered her book. "Yeah that sounds good." 

////

Hotch stared at the inside of his fridge. It was full of groceries...he hadn't been home for a week but they were all fresh. Slowly he turned. "You filled my fridge?" 

"You have terrible eating habits." A bland middle management sort of balding man was sitting at the rickety kitchen table. 

Aaron shut the fridge and turned. To his guest. "Who are you?" 

"Assistant/moral compass to the Director of SHIELD. Name's Coulson." The man gave him a banal smile. "And my daughter is on your team. Well the closest to a daughter I'll ever have. Thought I should check in." 

He moved slowly, losing his tie before sitting down across from the man. "Credentials?" 

"Of course." Coulson passed his badge over. "They must expect a lot of you, or, well, once did if you were given clearance to know of our existence." 

Aaron passed the badge back. "Why put Daisy on my team? What's the agenda?" 

"I want better for her than I have been able to give." He straightened his sleeve. "And she can't have that in SHIELD, she's level 10 by the way." 

His jaw tightened. He knew what that meant, it was the highest clearance level on the planet. Less than a dozen people were at that level. "She shouldn't be on my team." 

"She's never lived anywhere longer than two years. Our team went through more in a few years than most face in their entire careers. You know how agents like that burn out." Coulson didn't blink.

Hotch blinked. "They run suicide missions." He took in the man in front of him. "She's already started running them." 

"She's alive because she's exceptional. But she'll crack if I keep her in the field where she belongs." Coulson gave a slight shudder. "Based on the requisition orders I've had to sign in the last month, she likes your team." 

He could feel himself softening, this was an agenda he could understand, and the man before him had all the body language ticks of being honest. Of course if he was who he claimed to be and likely was, that was entirely on purpose. But still. His teeth had been on edge for the last three months he'd had to deal with Agent Daisy Coulson. But keeping a bright and promising agent from burning out wasn't a threat to his team. "If I find out you were lying to me…" 

"The consequences will be felt even at my high perch." Coulson finished for him. He smiled warmly, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Assist my daughter to continue bonding with your team and I'll see to it that your Strauss problem goes away." 

Hotch considered the content of the fridge he'd just seen. "Do you want to stay for a drink?" 

"Only if you let me cook something. Your separated/divorced apartment depresses me." Coulson got up and started pulling out ingredients. 

Hotch stood himself and opened the cupboard he'd put the whiskey in. "Rough day for you?" 

"In a way. I have advantages many don't." Coulsons eyes twinkled. "Any unlisted allergies I should know about?" 

Hotch wasn't surprised Coulson had read his file. "No, whisky fine?" 

"Haven't had a good whisky in months." Coulson replied with a laugh in his voice. "Omelettes good?" 

He poured glasses. "It's two am and I just spent a week investigating suicides." 

"Fair enough." Coulson easily replied while rolling up his sleeves to his elbows. "My daughter requested six military grade drones for your team." 

Hotch took a sip of his dink while sliding the second one to the man across from him. "The money would be better spent funding more BAU agents for more teams." 

"The more serial offenders the more funding and teams come about. And I didn't approve the drones. I'm mostly hopeful she knows it was overkill." Coulson hummed as he began to crack eggs. 

Hotch set his glass down. Well, at least he wasn't alone in his apartment. "Should I expect more of your team to visit?" 

"The Fitzsimmons might, but they're on honeymoon so I'd give it a few more months." Coulson chuckled. "Mack and May might. Otherwise no, and likely if any of them drop by it won't be to your offices" 

He nodded. "Good."