The 5k

We needed this. Daisy thought. There was a brief pause after the song ended and everyone turned their attention to the band. Daisy’s teammate, Mack, held the microphone and his girlfriend, Elena laughed and blushed. Mack said something sweet Daisy couldn’t quite make out in his trembling voice and the garbling of the sound system, but it was clear what was happening anyway: Mack with a small box open toward Elena, now bending down on one knee to ask her the age-old question.

Elena clearly said yes, as she climbed up on the small stage and kissed him deeply. Of course the whole crowd whooped and clapped and whistled.

Daisy was thrilled for them, of course. She’d even helped Mack narrow down the ring options. But she couldn’t help but look around her and notice she was the odd one out. Mack and Elena, Jemma and Fitz, her parents, all of the other vacationing couples around them… It was hard to keep up her silly buzzed party mood after that. Her free hand not holding the drink felt suddenly empty without Carol’s hand to hold. She subtly moved back into the shadows of the bar, sitting on the stools there to just watch the couples and maybe pull her phone out of her pocket to see if she had a text…

No new messages, no word from Carol in the past four hours. Daisy knew Carol’s plane was delayed, but Carol hadn’t had an ETA for when to expect her. Daisy sighed. She knew she shouldn’t feel sorry for herself; it was Carol dealing with the travel nightmare, after all, while Daisy was here partying with their loved ones. But if she was ever allowed to have a moment of melancholy about a mildly inconvenient situation keeping Carol from being by her side, surely it was on her birthday vacation.

Daisy felt someone’s presence approaching before she saw who it was. She turned slowly with a bit of an anticipatory eye roll, preparing to fend off a typical hotel bar pick-up line from a dude.

The woman’s face was still hidden by shadows, but Daisy knew her voice immediately.

“Excuse me, ma’am. Is this seat taken?” Carol leaned in and winked.

Daisy squealed and jumped off her barstool, abandoning the nearly empty tiki cup on the bar behind her for the night.

“You’re here!” Daisy stopped grinning just long enough to kiss her girlfriend. “Did you just get here?”

Carol nodded and hummed in the affirmative, kissing Daisy again. “I put my stuff in our room and then came back down as fast as I could. I needed to see you. You would not believe the day I’ve had.”

“Aw,” Daisy sighed in sympathy. “And you just missed it—Mack proposed!”

Carol smiled again. “I saw it just as I was walking up. Couldn’t hear anything, but I could see it from the path from the hotel.” Carol nodded toward the route she’d taken, a flower-lined walking path that wound around the hotel grounds and down to the beach, like a concrete river making its way to the ocean, but with tourists instead of water.

“Wanna go for a walk and you can tell me about your trip?” Daisy offered. Other couples were breaking off from the party too, most going back up the path to their rooms for the night or headed to the other nearby hotels.

As Carol and Daisy walked, there wasn’t much to see as the ocean was pitch black and the stars were mostly drowned out with light pollution, but the torches and string lights lining the path made it pretty anyway. Carol recounted a stressful day of airport crowds and delayed flights and a missed connection. All for a work presentation for a contractor who ended up rejecting the proposed business deal anyway! The relief of venting to Daisy seemed to deflate Carol’s frustration like a balloon. She’d been about to burst with it, but the combination of Daisy’s hand in hers, the sound of the waves to their left and the rustle of palm trees to the right, and the ocean breeze worked their magic.

“Anyway,” Carol concluded when they reached the point where the path looped back in the direction they’d come from. “It’s over now. And I’m here with you. Just in time to make your birthday week the best ever.”

Daisy leaned in and slipped her arm around Carol’s waist as they rambled vaguely in the direction back to their hotel.

“A whole week of island life ahead of us,” Daisy agreed. “We don’t have to think about work or stress over anything here.”

—---------------------

Right on cue, as they approached the party area, Melinda called out, “DAISY! It’s your dad! Hurry!”

Daisy and Carol took off running the best they could in their flip-flops but were only by Phil’s unconscious side a minute before the EMTs pushed them away. Daisy met her mom’s worried eyes. Melinda was exceptionally good in a crisis, but the look between them was haunted with the last time they’d nearly lost him…

“Stroke history!” Carol shouted at the EMTs for them, seeing Melinda and Daisy couldn’t speak, still in shock. “Five years ago, mild, no lasting effects.” Carol looked to Daisy and then Melinda for confirmation. This spurned Melinda into action and she followed them quickly to the ambulance, filling them in as they went. He was breathing, but they said it looked like a “cardiac event.” Daisy and Carol jogged after the rolling stretcher, unsure of what to do now.

“I’m riding in the ambulance,” Melinda informed everyone, leaving no room for debate. She commanded Daisy, “Meet us there. Don’t worry the others.”

Daisy nodded. No sense in ruining Mack and Elena’s engagement night until they knew more. And Jemma and Fitz were similarly already in their room, but Daisy sent Jemma a text anyway, that everything was probably fine but Phil had passed out and was going to the ER just to be safe. She figured that was vague enough to not worry them for the moment.

(It wasn’t, of course, but Dr. Jemma Simmons didn’t check her phone and see the text for a few hours.)

In the meantime, Carol helped Daisy focus on what to get from their hotel room in case this turned into an all-night wait.

“Car keys, obviously,” Daisy mumbled, wandering around the room with hands already full of two water bottles and a blanket and her phone.

“Hey,” Carol said softly. She took the water bottles and blanket and put them in the now-empty beach bag that had held their sunscreen, swimsuits, and beach towels in preparation for tomorrow. Carol faced Daisy and put her hands on Daisy’s upper arms. She inhaled and exhaled, and Daisy followed suit. “We’ve got this. Let me drive, though.”

Carol winked as she took the keys from Daisy and hooked the carabiner to the strap of the beach bag.

“Are you sure? After the day you’ve had?” Daisy searched Carol’s eyes, but didn’t find any obligation or frustration or exhaustion there.

“I got what I need to refresh me.” Carol shrugged. “Plus, I need you to figure out where the hospital is. Do you know what it’s called?”

Daisy realized she didn’t and texted her mom for an address. They gathered some protein bars and a phone charger, and they rushed down to the rental car.

“Fuck, what color was it? White? Why are they always white?” Daisy searched the parking lot. Carol hadn’t seen the car yet, so she just clicked the remote in every direction, looking for the lights and sound of a car unlocking.

“Ah HA!” Carol spotted it a few rows over, clicking it locked and unlocked a few times, just to be sure.

“That’s it!” Daisy confirmed.

The drive to the ER and waiting room went similarly, looking everywhere for first the hospital, then the right parking lot, then for the right door, then for any sign of Phil and Melinda inside amidst the noise and general misery.

A text from Melinda came in, finally, informing them that he’d been admitted and was now on an upper floor. A nurse helped direct them to the right elevator. As soon as the doors closed, the silence washed over them, and they visibly relaxed.

“We have a room number. That’s a good sign.” Carol kept Daisy’s gaze and breathed normally, keeping Daisy from a panic attack.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, it means he’s not in surgery and not in the ICU.”

Daisy nodded.

Phil was sleeping peacefully with the help of an IV when the girls stepped into the room. Melinda looked up from the paperwork she’d been filling out. She nodded to the hallway and they stepped back outside.

Melinda was always direct, but she conveyed the news as concisely as possible to ease Daisy’s anxiety.

“It’s his heart. He’ll be okay if he takes medication, goes in for regular tests, and has less stress.” Melinda’s raised eyebrow told them what her suggestion would be.

She’d been encouraging him to retire from his university department chair position for the last year. Things had gotten heated in the faculty senate, with parents of university students becoming more overbearing, with technology and academic integrity, with all the online systems that the university kept changing… They’d both taken the summer off of work as a compromise, but this sealed the deal. Unspoken but understood in this conversation: If Melinda had her way, he’d hand in his resignation and retire as soon as they got back, but Daisy knew he’d never leave like that without a replacement hired and trained. Loyal to the core, even to institutions who never appreciated him enough.

“The doctors still admitted him to a hospital room, though?” Carol prodded.

Melinda sighed. “They want to keep an eye on him overnight. If it happens again, it’s time for heart surgery. If he doesn’t but still gets any worse, they said the diagnosis might change.”

She was a champion of stony-faced determination and resilience. Never one to complain or even admit when she’d been beaten. Daisy usually considered it a virtue that was nearly impossible to emulate. But tonight, Daisy could see the toll this was taking on her mom. Melinda looked years older than she had a few hours ago, and she kept glancing back at Phil through the open door to check on him.

Carol offered, “Can we get you anything? Water, tea, something to eat?”

Melinda just nodded and headed back into the hospital room, leaving Carol to decide what that meant.

“I’m going to stay with her.” Daisy watched as Melinda took Phil’s hand and whispered that Daisy and Carol were there, but his eyes stayed closed and the monitors kept their steady watch over his healing rest.

Carol squeezed Daisy’s hand and set out on her quest for something comforting, perhaps chamomile tea.

—-----------------

“Ugh,” Carol groaned and stretched. She’d slept sitting up. Was she still in that damn airport?

She peeked open her sleepy eyes, saw the dawn illuminate the sheer curtains, and realized where she was.

Professor Phil Coulson, PhD, had been her mentor—her life raft, really—as her family had fallen apart while she was away at university. She wasn’t even a history major, but his History of Space Travel course had given her life a clear direction, a purpose, a calling. He’d been there after the Christmas break when coming out to her parents hadn’t gone well. Instead of telling her to grow up or to hide her true self or to not let it affect her schoolwork, he’d called his daughter, also a student there who was already out and proud as bisexual. With a knowing smile, he left them in the history building’s courtyard so they could bond over being queer young women and everything else they had in common.

They’d taken a while to confess their feelings for each other and name their relationship, but in the years since, being with Daisy and her family felt far more natural than Carol’s own blood relatives ever did. But family wasn’t all happy, easy times. Sometimes it meant hospital rooms and fear and your turn taking care of those who took care of you in your time of need.

Daisy whispered that she was going to get coffee, and the doctor called Melinda into the hallway to discuss further tests and follow-up with Phil’s doctors back home.

“What a vacation, huh, Doc?” Carol scooted her chair closer to Phil’s side. “You know, we really need you to be healthy for a long time to come. But you have to at least promise me you’ll be healthy for Christmas, okay? There’s a question I’m gonna ask. But I need you to be here for it. And assuming she says yes, we really need you here for that too. You understand me?” Carol’s eyes welled up without her consent. “You’ve gotta get healthy and strong again. There’s so much left for you to do. We…”

Carol trailed off, and she heard Melinda thank the doctor and come back inside. Carol sniffed and wiped her eyes in a hurry.

Melinda walked over to place a hand on Carol’s shoulder and said simply, “It’s okay. He knows.”

They exchanged a wordless understanding. “Thank you,” Carol said finally. The emotional heaviness in the room was broken as Daisy returned with breakfast and coffee.

Phil groaned. “Bring any for me?” he rasped out. This led to delight and relief, but also a flurry of nurses as they filled him in on the last nine hours and the life changes he needed to make.

“You’re one lucky bastard that this is all you need,” one of the nurses teased while handing Melinda a sheet of instructions and a prescription list. “If it’d gone undetected much longer, you’d be on an operating table right now. You must have a whole crew of guardian angels looking out for you.”

“Yeah,” Phil said softly and looked to Melinda, then Daisy, and then Carol. “I really do.”

—---

Phil took a few more days to recover, but then he and Melinda flew home early, using their time off to instead have serious discussions about appointments, health, budgets, retirement, and all the things that come with a major medical wake-up call.

Daisy had been in communication with Jemma throughout their time at the hospital and Jemma had helped translate the medical jargon, and she and Fitz had visited the next morning when they were ready. Elena and Mack brought a get-well card and fruit basket and offered their help with anything Phil and Melinda needed.

—------

However, in the days after that, the vacation had turned into less of a group activity and more of a coincidence that four couples had been in the same place. With her parents safely home and back to their regular life, Daisy was determined their last day, her actual birthday, would bring the friend group back together for a full day of shared happy memories.

“And that’s why we’re renting the boat,” Daisy explained as the friends lounged on the beach for the “group meeting” she had called.

“Rad.” Carol lathered sunscreen on Daisy's back. “But who’s going to sail it? My pilot’s license is only for small planes, not boats.”

Mack was the next guess, as the group turned to him and he held up his hands. “No, no. I fix cars. No idea what all the rules of the ocean are.”

Elena pulled down her sunglasses in dry humor. “We’re lucky we’re getting him on the boat at all.”

Daisy smirked at their banter, but assured them all, “The boat comes with a captain. We don’t have to do anything but follow instructions and enjoy ourselves.”

Business concluded, they relaxed for their beach afternoon—with no other events or activities or tours or agendas for a few hours—which Daisy realized was their first beach time all together all week.

—--------------------------------------------

What Daisy didn’t know is Carol had been in communication with the boat company secretly for a birthday surprise. When they arrived at the boat, it was suspiciously quiet. Yet Carol was undaunted.

“C’mon, let’s check it out before the others get here!” Carol bounded ahead of Daisy onto the dock and turned back to see Daisy following skeptically.

“Shouldn’t we at least wait for the captain or something?” She tilted her head in a way that made Carol return to kiss her. While Daisy wasn't one to turn down an adventure, she liked to know when she was trespassing or going to be in trouble before she did it.

“You’re so cute. Now, let’s go!”

Carol took Daisy’s hand this time and led her aboard, swinging open the unlocked gate to the boat entry with ease. That’s when Daisy was sure something was happening.

They stepped onto the open-air passenger deck, and Daisy only had a second to notice the birthday decorations before the oddly arranged deck furniture exploded into smiles of their friends and cheers: “Happy birthday!!!”

Daisy laughed, “Thanks, guys.”

“Did we surprise you?” Carol asked, like a golden retriever who had just done a new trick.

Daisy couldn’t let her down, but she was honest, “I had no idea! Though I did think it was a little weird that we could just walk on the boat without anyone here.”

They laughed and rearranged the stacks of coolers, bench cushions, and tarps as Elena and Jemma climbed fully out of the built-in storage.

Before the party could begin, the boat’s crew stepped out from the crew-restricted area and greeted their passengers for the afternoon and presented safe guidelines. With a ring of a brass ship’s bell, which they made Daisy perform with gusto as the birthday girl, they backed the boat away from the dock and into the harbor, then turned toward the bay and open water.

The friends held on tightly to the railings as the shoreline grew smaller and the waves bounced them higher. Carol watched Daisy’s joy in careful, infatuated study. She wanted to remember this moment for the rest of their lives: Daisy’s messy, short, dark ponytail fluttering in the sea breeze, the exhilaration of the salt air and the temptation to let go of the railing to hold Daisy close… Carol resisted, knowing she’d fly off balance, but the urge to simply be as close to her as possible remained.

When the boat settled down into a slower speed, and then only rocked on the water with a stopped motor, Carol plopped onto one of the cushioned benches and pulled Daisy onto her lap.

“Thank you,” Daisy said with a peck to Carol’s cheek, “for all of this.”

“Hey, you found the boat. All I did was make it a birthday party. And I’m not even sure the decorations survived.”

Above them, the sagging banner with Happy Birthday written on it and tangled balloons tied to the ropes were all looking worse for wear.

“It’s still good,” Daisy concluded.

With a loud bang of an accidentally slammed door behind them, they started into standing and turned. Fitz emerged from the boat’s miniscule galley with a cake as Jemma tried to latch the door to keep it from banging again while wrestling a small stack of plates, plastic forks, and a very real cake-cutting knife.

Fitz set the cake on the life-vest-storage-turned table in the middle of the deck. “They wouldn’t let us light candles, so just… I dunno, stand there.”

Jemma set down her items and lifted her hands to direct the friend group like a choir. They sang happy birthday, distinctly not with choral-worthy skill, but it was all Daisy needed to feel special and loved, as was the intention.

When they were done, Daisy closed her eyes, “I’m making a wish!” She turned her face to Carol’s and blew a puff of air.

“Someone help,” Daisy pretended to whine, “this light won’t go out.”

They all chuckled at her joke, but the attention of the party turned to Jemma carving up the cake and distributing it in accordance with requested frosting-level preference.

Carol, however, only had sappy puppy-dog eyes for Daisy calling her a light that wouldn’t go out.

“I promise,” Carol said, with cheeks nearly sore from smiling so much in the bright afternoon sunlight.

“Promise what?” Daisy draped her forearms lazily over Carol’s shoulders and her fingertips teased the delicate skin hiding under Carol’s wind-whipped blonde waves.

“To be your sunlight that won’t go out.”

Daisy smiled softly as she replied, “And when you can’t be, I’ll be the moon, shining it right back for you.”

“Oi!” Fitz called. “Birthday girl, cake time.”

Daisy and Carol obeyed gladly, taking their slices and settling in on the benches with their friends, watching the gulls sweep over the water and hoping to see other wildlife at the surface.

“So,” Carol said after a time, “maybe not the perfect birthday vacation with a night spent in the hospital cardiac ward at the start, but still a good ending?”

“Yeah.” Daisy met the eyes of each of them—Jemma, Fitz, Mack, Elena, and Carol. “Thank you, all of you, for this week. It’s been rough at parts, but my mom says my dad is recovering well and just needs to rest. Which… seems unlikely. But if anyone can handle him, Mom can.”

They chuckled, all of them knowing how true her assessment was.

“But just, thank you,” Daisy continued. “It’s not in the perfect beach days or the romantic dates or margarita happy hours that show who your real friends are. It’s the people there in the hard times. Who check in even though they literally just got engaged.”

They all turned to Mack and Elena, who raised their drinks in acknowledgement.

“And the friends who can translate medical speak into human language.” Daisy nodded to Jemma, and then addressed Fitz, “And who can be both funny and helpful at the same time.”

She got to Carol and her voice softened. “And the kind of partner who loves your parents like her own.”

Carol quipped, “Probably more to be honest.” The rest of them laughed as expected, but more in empathy than pure humor.

Mack broke through the bittersweet moment before it could get awkward. “To Daisy!”

Daisy intended to protest and counter, “To friendship,” but she was drowned out by the toasts to her as the birthday girl, the one who brought them all together.

For one moment, as bright as the shining sea all around them, love and joy won out over all the fears and sadness of the world.

The sappy moment exploded like a firework as a pod of dolphins splashed behind the boat. Their attention turned to the ocean for the rest of the boat ride.

The vacation continued on: photos taken and sun setting and packing up to head home.