Chapter Text
Daisy leaned back against the table at the front of the lecture hall, grinning as she faced the two dozen or so cadets in front of her.
“So. Welcome to advanced cyber security and hacking. You all know who I am, and you’re all here because the Director needs a whole lot more people who can do what I do- minus the superpowers. First thing’s first: how many of you think you’ve protected your own computers well?”
Every single one of the SHIELD cadets in the room raised their hand, and Daisy smirked. She never thought she’d see so many Fitzes and Simmonses in one room- most of these people weren’t even twenty, and all of them thought the laptops in front of them were more secure than the pentagon. Some were probably right, but she intended to find out which. She couldn’t teach them anything until she knew what they did and didn’t know. The students were looking at her like she was crazy, but it would be worth it to see the looks on their faces. Daisy got up from the table, walked around it, and sat down in the comfy chair set aside for whatever professor was lecturing that day. She pulled her laptop out of her backpack as the room watched in silence, and started frantically typing.
“Cadet Thompson, call your mother, will you? Her birthday was yesterday, and you forgot. Cadet Xie, I hope your deep dive into the life cycle of the garden snail was enlightening. Weiss- you should use the other headshot, the lighting suits you better. Dunham, remember to cancel that streaming subscription, you haven’t used it in months. Piracy works better anyway with the antivirus you have already, you’re just wasting the cash. And the person who was reading fanfiction of me and Black Widow- you know who you are- Scarlet Witch is much more my type. I’m a bit disgusted, not gonna lie, but it’s arguably better than the other one of you who is currently looking me up on Wikipedia.”
The class’s silence turned from awkward to stunned, the ones whom she’d mentioned unaware that Daisy had even known their names, this was the first day of class after all, and even those who’d been well aware of her skill with hacking were shocked by how quickly she’d gotten through the firewalls they’d thought were secure.
“Now that I have your attention, here’s how to do what I just did.”
An hour later, just before the end of the lecture, Daisy was caught off guard by a door opening at the back of the room. She was facing the front of the room, highlighting a particular piece of code with a laser pointer and explaining a concept to the cadets, but she felt the vibrations of the door opening and closing, as well as the vibrations of the man who’d walked in. Denser right leg, steady heartbeat, no metal aside from the leg- not even a phone- tall and broad-shouldered. It could only be Daniel. She’d recognize his vibrations anywhere. He must have finished his own lecture a few minutes early and come by to watch, as if he knew anything about computers or coding. She should’ve expected as much from him, of course her sappy, chivalrous boyfriend would want to do something as mundane and lovable as wishing her well on a first day at a new assignment- as if he hadn’t driven to the Academy with her, from the apartment they shared. Dork. She loved him.
“Professor Johnson?”
“Hm? Not sure I qualify as a professor, Walters, but what is it?”
She turned to face the student who’d spoken up, seeing Daniel now sitting in the back row, unnoticed by the other students. He looked slightly amused, and Walters had a Cheshire Cat grin that made Daisy’s blood run cold. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like this.
“So I decided to apply today’s lessons and I found something I think you’ll appreciate. Can I put it up on the projector? I promise you’ll like it.”
“If you can get it on the projector by hacking into the computer it’s already connected to, then yes. What exactly is this?”
“Oh, you’ll see.”
After a few moments of typing, Walters’ grin somehow widened, and she pointed behind Daisy at the screen. The entire class was giggling, and she could feel that despite Daniel’s stoic face, he was wracked with silent laughter. She shot him a dirty look before turning around, and her face immediately turned red. Agreeing to this was a terrible idea. On the screen was a picture from nine years earlier, just after the Avengers had saved New York. She was in the background of a group photo, but still clearly visible, and definitely her. 2012 Daisy was wearing a cheap plastic Iron Man suit, chatting with a man dressed like Captain America. The group that was the focus of the photo were also all dressed as different Avengers, and farther in the background was Stark Tower.
“Well. I’d say that’s worthy of an A+, I didn’t know that existed and I’ve wiped my identity from the internet a half dozen times. You can all head out, class ends in two minutes anyways.”
The students, still laughing, filtered out of the room. Daniel made his way to the front once they were gone, where Daisy was frantically trying to scrub all remaining evidence of her cosplays from whatever depths of hell that photo had been pulled from.
“So before you were Quake, you pretended to be Stark’s kid? With a bunch of people who pretended to be Captain Rogers and the Hulk?”
“It’s called cosplay, I’ll explain it after lunch, but pre-SHIELD me was definitely a starstruck nerd. I don’t know who all that group is, but the guy dressed like Captain America is Miles, I think I told you about him. Real slimeball.”
“If I had a nickel for every time I dated someone who had Steve Rogers as an ex, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.”
Daisy snorted with laughter and looked up from the computer long enough to punch him on the shoulder.
“I knew teaching you memes was a bad idea.”
“Did I use it wrong? It’s from the cartoon with the evil scientist and the platypus, right?”
“No, you used it right. It’s just surprising to hear you use memes accurately. And you actually made it funny”
“Eh, memes are a bit funny. Now vaudeville…”
“Oh my god you’re so old.”
“I’m only 102, you’re 32. Seems like a reasonable age to me. Back in my day, vaudeville was the bee’s knees. The cat’s pajamas. A kick in the head.” Daisy shot him a glare foul enough to curdle milk, and he laughed. How had she gotten this lucky? “But if we don’t leave soon, neither of us are going to get much older.”
“Shit, I forgot about lunch. Just give me one second… done. Should’ve done that years ago.”
“You know Howard Stark was a friend of mine? I wonder how he’d feel about this. Or maybe Mack can ask the real Iron Man, or-”
Daisy kissed him before he could propose even more inventive ways to tease her, and quickly changed the subject while stuffing her computer into her bag and throwing on the jacket she’d left on the back of her chair. They headed for the door, they had a lunch to get to halfway across town.
“Tell Mack about that and neither of us will ever hear the end of it. Anyway, how was your class, Professor Sousa?”
“I talked about the SSR in 1945 for an hour. I think half the kids fell asleep, including Kora. They’re not gonna start paying attention until we get to the Isodyne case, and she knows all the history already.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Coulson would’ve been your top student back in his Academy days. I still don’t think he’s gotten over the fact I’m dating his hero, and there’s got to be a couple equally nerdy cadets out there. Besides, I got my students’ attention by sort of spilling their secrets to the class before we got started, and if that hadn’t worked I would’ve kept the chairs shaking all class to keep them awake. Kora though? You can’t live with someone in space for like a year and still take them seriously after. She’s seen you at your dorkiest. She probably just signed up because she needed an easy A to become a full standard agent.”
“You’re a genius, Dais. Humiliation’s the key. If they start to nod off in the next class, I’ll tell them embarrassing stories about you. Even Kora would have to pay attention then.”
“You’d publicly make fun of the woman who both knows where you live and can blast you into the stratosphere?”
“You’d never do that, you’d miss me too much. And it doesn’t count as knowing where I live if you live there too.”
Exiting the Academy and getting into their car, Daisy tossed Daniel the keys and pulled up the address on her phone. Daniel was still hopeless with GPS navigation, but her driving invariably left him white-knuckled and nauseous. Neither of them were very familiar with DC after only a month living there, and he’d learned to drive in the insanity of 1930s New York, so he got to drive.
“I’ve heard plenty of stories about Bobbi and Hunter, anything else I need to know before meeting them?”
“Don’t insult soccer or England around Hunter, he’ll get annoyed about it. Don’t piss off Bobbi, she’s twice as deadly as me. But they’re both really sweet, they’ll love you. You’ve got nothing to worry about. Besides, with Mack, Yo-Yo, and Flint there, they’ll have plenty of things to focus on.”
Daniel claimed not to be worried, but Daisy could feel his heartbeat going quickly enough to know otherwise. She squeezed his thigh- not his hand, he kept both on the wheel religiously when he wasn’t driving manual, like the square that he was. His heart rate rose further after she touched him, and she laughed.
“You all really were prude in the 50s, huh?”
“My Portuguese, ardently Catholic grandmother would have had a heart attack if she saw you touch my leg before marriage. My mom might’ve just fainted” Daisy laughed again, and he looked at her like she was the only thing in the universe. “It would’ve been worth it. I love you, Daisy.”
“I love you too, Daniel. Now eyes on the road, don’t get us killed. I refuse to go out in a car crash.”
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at a small, clearly family-owned Mexican restaurant. Stepping inside, they immediately noticed Mack, Yo-Yo, Flint, Bobbi, and Hunter sitting around a table. Bobbi and Hunter both had a clear view of the door, the table was positioned relatively close to the kitchen, and she had no doubt all three humans were armed. Hunter flashed Daisy one of his signature grins and motioned them over. Hugs and introductions were exchanged, with Bobbi surprisingly starstruck to meet a living piece of SHIELD history.
“When Mack told me you picked up Daniel Sousa in 1955 and he and Daisy were together, I thought he was smoking something. But you’re… actually Daniel Sousa. I knew this team got up to some weird shit but this is something else.”
“Love, I broke Fitz out of military prison so he could go to the future, in an ice box, with a robot. A part-alien spy dating a hundred-year-old dead guy from another timeline is the least crazy thing SHIELD’s done.”
The waiter came by, and everyone ordered. Flint got as many tacos as he could stomach, Daisy and Daniel selected remembered favorites from taquerias in LA, Hunter somehow managed to butcher the pronunciation of burrito, and Mack and Bobbi ordered in perfect Spanish. Elena smiled proudly at her boyfriend before placing her own order, and the waiter took their menus and left.
“How’s the new assignment so far, professors?” Flint asked with a cheeky grin. He was still an academy student, and was delighted by the idea of even more people he knew getting added to the faculty.
“You mean the mandatory readjustment period? It’s definitely working. Nothing says Earth like teenagers and traffic. How long until I can go back into the field, Mack?”
“After this semester. Bobbi can handle some of the more difficult missions until then. We’ve got a new source of intel that’s feeding us information on Hydra remnants, holdouts, and affiliates. I wanted you two at your absolute best before you go after them.”
Daniel leaned forward, brow furrowing.
“As excited as I am about fighting Nazis- again- who’s this source? How bad is it? And can we even discuss this here? It’s not exactly a secure location.”
Bobbi looked as though she was about to speak, but waited a moment, seeing the waiter approaching with their food, and thanked him as everyone was handed their dishes. Flint, listening but without any experience as a field agent, was more focused on his tacos.
“Shit, these are incredible. How did you find out about this place?”
Bobbi smiled at him and slid a manilla folder across the table towards Daisy and Daniel. It was labeled Source Zima: Classified and Daisy couldn’t stop herself from cackling.
“A contact at the Mexican Embassy. This place is run by his cousin, it’s not an uncommon place for meetings that need to be discreet. Open the file, lovebirds. I think you’ll find it interesting.”
Daniel did as the agent ordered, and opened the folder. Well that wasn’t something you saw every day. Daisy’s jaw dropped, and her voice was barely more than a whisper.
“Holy shit.”
The uppermost sheet in the folder was a copy of an old SSR personnel file, paper-clipped to a modern-day SHIELD file and a very familiar picture. Mack laughed at their faces and clapped a hand to Daisy’s shoulder.
“I figured my two best Astro Ambassadors deserved a welcome-home present that didn't involve any babysitting.”
“I don’t know if this counts as a present, but it’s definitely a surprise. I get a second chance at fighting with a Howling Commando.”
Daisy shook her head in disbelief and kissed her boyfriend’s cheek, leaving a bit of salsa behind.
“Finally, someone else around here will be as old as you.”
The SSR file was stamped DECEASED in bright red, while the SHIELD one was instead marked with the word AVENGER. The names on both were the same, however: James Buchanan Barnes.