Daisy detoured down one of the branched off hallways. She had a stop to make before she went up for her meeting with Whitehall and Ward.

  She slipped into the storage room past the sleeping security guard (they wondered why they kept having security issues). Luckily, the boxes lining the shelves were organized by case number and Daisy had long ago memorized Jemma’s case number.

  She located the box and rummaged around until she found the one bag that was designated Jemma’s and tugged it out. The only contents were a SHIELD ID card and a cell phone. Daisy smirked to herself when she remembered confiscating the items from Jemma. The phone had been stuck in one of Jemma’s back pockets and she had almost kicked Daisy in the shins when she reached for it.

  She tucked the items into her pocket and closed up the box, before slipping out of the room unnoticed. Once she finished up her meeting, she could go meet Jemma and give her back her things. They could be a combination “sorry for kidnapping you” present and a way to get Jemma out of here. Hydra was a bit dumb about technology and all they did to disable cell phones was turn them off. Jemma could easily get a call to her SHIELD team and have them come extract her before Hydra realized that they had a breach.

Daisy strolled up to Whitehall’s office, taking her sweet time up the hall. The hair on the back of her neck prickled the closer she got to the office. Something about Whitehall was unsettling but she couldn’t place why. Maybe it was just the sleazy smile we always seem to have spread across his lips, like he knew something that no one else did. Or maybe it was the way his eyes always landed on Daisy like she was a piece of meat that he was dying to cut into. Either way, she did her best to avoid interacting with him.

  A guard was positioned in front of the double doors that led into Whitehall’s office. As she approached, the guard appraised her briefly before stepping aside and pushing the door open. Daisy squared her shoulders and tried to don her cocky Hydra agent persona as she stepped into the office.

  She was pretty sure this one room was bigger than her apartment. The wall opposite the doors was entirely glass, providing a panoramic view of downtown Boston. There was a bar off to one side of the office, right next to a portion of the room where the dark hardwood floors gave way to while tile.

  Directly opposite her, perched behind a massive mahogany desk, sat the man himself: Daniel Whitehall. His white hair and old-fashioned gray suit made him appear much older than his face seemed to indicate.

He smiled gently at her and something in it made a shudder run up Daisy’s spine, but she tried to repress it.

“Ah, Agent Skye. Glad you could join us. Please, sit,” Whitehall greeted, gesturing to a plush chair across from his own desk. Ward was settled in an identical chair beside the other with a somber expression. Daisy gingerly sat, trying to mask her nervousness.

“I heard you took care of a security threat a few days ago,” Whitehall began.

Daisy nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“According to Ward, you hesitated. Care to explain why?”

Daisy fought to keep her heart rate steady and her face impassive. “I was worried that the blood might upset some of the experiments the techs were working on. You know how they can be pains in the ass about their work space.” She shrugged.

Whitehall nodded. “Understandable. I haven’t heard any complaints of that variety, so hopefully we avoided that scenario.”

Daisy nodded. She could feel Ward’s eyes on her, so she assumed that this wasn’t the only purpose of this meeting.

Whitehall stood suddenly. “Come over here. I want to show you something.” Ward slipped from his chair and moved to follow Whitehall, so Daisy did the same. He strolled over to the bar and pulled out a decanter of honey-colored alcohol and poured a single glass, before gesturing them to follow him over to the screen that was mounted on a white wall in the tiled portion of the room.

“I’ve always been fascinated by how information travels. In the past, people used crude drawings on the walls of caves to tell stories. Then, we started using things like carrier pigeons and messengers to convey information,” Whitehall said. “We had to come up with so many innovative ways to tell each other things. Now, we can hardly stop sending each other information.”

Whitehall spoke like he was discussing a particularly interesting work of art in a museum. Daisy was still waiting for the point.

“Isn’t it fascinating how once something is repeated enough times, people will just assume it’s true?” Whitehall smiled. “Like how everyone believes that the Vikings wore horned helmets, or that the garage has no security cameras.”

Daisy’s stomach plummeted. A guard she hadn’t noticed before was now positioned inside the door, blocking her exit. Whitehall clicked a button on a small remote and pulled up video feed from the garage.

Daisy saw herself on the screen dart into the room and start searching the cars for other slacking employees. She kept her expression schooled into indifference, praying that she was just getting reprimanded for screwing around on the clock.

“For a time, that was true. Then we realized the potential of that ‘common knowledge’ that our agents love to spread around. Of course, we had to spend extra on the audio feed,” Whitehall continued.

He pushed another button and Daisy heard her conversation with Jemma filtering through the speakers. She squeezed her eyes shut, somehow hoping to stop the words she knew would be coming out of her mouth on the video.

“— I’ve never been on board with this ‘discovery requires experimentation,’ Nazi crap they like to spout—”

Daisy’s mind raced, trying to figure out how to talk her way out of this. It wasn’t looking good. Ward paced into her line of vision, his arms crossed firmly over his chest as he leveled her with a disappointed glare.

Whitehall silently watched the rest of the conversation on the screen play out. He had clearly watched through it many times before Daisy had arrived. Neither he nor Ward seemed surprised at anything that was said.

Once it reached the point where Jemma and Daisy were crawling into the backseat of the SUV, he paused the video.

“Security stopped watching at that point. They had gotten the important information and didn’t need to see their cars defiled anymore,” Whitehall informed. “We should really give them a raise, don’t you think?”   

He directed the last part to Ward who quirked an eyebrow slightly. Whitehall seemed downright jovial, so he wasn’t deterred.

“It’s a shame, Agent Skye. You’ve done some excellent work in the past and, with all the trouble we went through to recruit you, one would hope that you would be a little more willing to comply with Hydra’s ideals.” Whitehall strolled towards her. “Don’t worry, you’re still quite valuable to us. We won’t kill you.”

Daisy wanted to kick herself for being slightly relieved.

“We will, however, make you comply.”

Daisy went numb. She briefly thought of the knife that she kept strapped to her thigh. Whitehall was close enough that she could slash his throat before he knew what hit him. Then, she would just need to fight through Ward and the security grunts.

Ward would be the hard part. Despite what she told Jemma, she still owed a lot to Ward. She didn’t know if she had in it herself to kill him.

Her thoughts gave her away in the slight twitch of her fingers towards the knife. A hand clamped around her wrist, jerking it above her head. Before she could fight against it, a thick metal clamped was snapped tightly around her wrist. She thrashed against the restraint. Ward stalked around her to grab her other wrist and pull it into the same position.

“Ward, please,” Daisy begged. “Don’t do this to me.”

His face was a mask, giving no indication of emotion as he wrestled her into the restraints. After her wrists were secure, he crouched down to clamp down her ankles.

Daisy pulled up against the clamps on her wrists, using them to hold her body up as she kicked out at Ward. Her feet connected with his shoulders sending him stumbling backwards. She used the momentary distraction to throw her weight against the contraption holding her, hoping she could knock something loose.

No such luck. The cold metal bit into her wrists, but showed no signs of budging. The entire thing seemed to be bolted to the floor. Whitehall stood a fair distance away, sipping on his scotch and undisturbed by the struggle in front of him.

Ward recovered and growled at her, before throwing a punch into Daisy’s stomach. The wind was knocked out of her long enough for Ward to clamp her ankles into place.

“I figured you would be a fighter,” Whitehall remarked. “This should prove interesting.”

Ward continued moving around the contraption, snapping straps around Daisy’s waist and thighs to further prevent her from moving. Whitehall clicked the remote to bring up a loop of some kaleidoscopic video on the screen Daisy was now forced to face.

“This might take awhile, but this is the most effective method for these kind of situations.” Now that Daisy was effectively restrained, Whitehall stepped towards Daisy, so close that she could smell the scotch on his breath.

“Not to worry. I have plenty of patience. Now, Skye, are you going to comply?” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Present

Ward released Jemma with a shove, sending her stumbling forward. This would be the perfect opportunity to run, but Jemma couldn’t leave Daisy like this. Daisy’s gaze was firmly fixed on Ward and her posture remained soldier-like.

“D-Skye?” Jemma tried.

No response.

“She’s not going to listen to you,” Ward said, sauntering towards Daisy. “She’s been programmed to only respond to me.”

“You can’t program a human,” Jemma spat.

“That’s where you’re wrong Doctor Simmons.” Ward wagged a finger at her. “That’s the kind of limited thinking that will ensure that Hydra always wins. We think outside of limits of ‘morals’ and ‘ethics’ and look what we can do.” He gestured to Daisy. “You could have been a part of this, too.”

Jemma growled. “I would never join Hydra.”

Ward shrugged, all his mannerisms suggesting that this entire situation was boring him. “I know. That’s the one thing SHIELD has on us.”

“Loyalty?”

“I was going to say ‘idiotic stubbornness,’” Ward replied, shrugging again. “I knew you would never join us voluntarily. Skye thought she could convince you, though. Little did we know, she wasn’t on our side either.”

Ward turned his attention to Daisy, who hadn’t reacted to anything he said. Jemma’s stomach rolled. All she wanted was for Daisy to make some snarky comment or make a face at Ward’s back. Anything but the blank expression and stiff posture she seemed locked in.

Ward spoke again. He really loved the sound of his own voice.

“So, Skye, you’re going to listen to everything I say, right?” Ward asked.

“Yes.” Daisy’s voice was hollow.

“And if I ask you a question you have to answer truthfully?”

“Yes.”

“Good. First, have you ever been loyal to Hydra?”

“No.”

Jemma winced. Somehow, Ward already knew, but hearing Daisy say it out loud seemed like another nail in the coffin.

“Shame,” Ward muttered, “Was there any chance of Doctor Simmons being loyal to Hydra?”

“No.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

Ward nodded thoughtfully. He shot Jemma an appraising glance. “Now, about Simmons. Did you only express interest as part of our bet?”

“At first.”

That seemed to surprise Ward. “So, what? Do you actually have feelings for her?”

Daisy’s eyes flickered to Jemma, but her expression remained blank and lifeless. “Yes.”

Ward’s eyes flashed briefly with anger, before sliding back into indifference. “That’s a real shame. Then, this is going to hurt both of you. Skye? Shoot Doctor Simmons.”

In a flash, Daisy’s gun was out and pointed at Jemma’s chest. Jemma held her hands up, hoping to delay the command.

“Skye, please. You don’t want to do this,” Jemma pleaded.

Ward paced behind Daisy. “I think she does,” he insisted.

Daisy clicked off the safety with her thumb and cocked it.

“Skye, I know you’re in there. Please fight it.”

No reaction. Jemma saw her finger hover over the trigger. She had one last resort. She only hoped Daisy wouldn’t hate her for it.

“Daisy, please!” Jemma cried.

Finally, a flicker of recognition flashed in her eyes. Daisy’s brow furrowed slightly, before noticing the gun trained on Jemma. She gasped and dropped the gun with her face contorted in disgust.

“Jemma. I--” Daisy stammered. She groaned and fisted her hands in her hair. “What did you do to me?” She demanded at Ward.

Ward looked baffled. “‘Daisy?’ It seems there’s still some things you’re not telling us. I was hoping to make this cleaner, but--”

Before Jemma realized he was moving, Ward had crossed the short distance between them. Jemma saw a quick flash of silver before a blinding pain sliced through her chest right under her ribs.

“Jemma!”

She looked down and noticed the hilt of a knife sticking out of her abdomen. Her hand hovered over it, before clamping around the base trying to stem the flow of blood. Instinct told her to pull the knife out, but her medical training told her not to. Her mind whirred, trying to self-diagnose, but all she was registering was pain.

More pain shot through her knees and suddenly, she was closer to the ground. Warm hands cupped her face, but it took her a few moments to register the worried brown eyes taking up her field of vision.

“--mma? Jemma, can you hear me? Listen, you’re going to be okay, alright? Just hold on, we’ll get you out of this,” Daisy insisted.

Even in her state, Jemma could tell Daisy didn’t believe her own words. Tears welled in the corner of Daisy’s eyes, and Jemma wanted to comfort her in some way. Every time she tried to speak, though, pain would lance through her side.

Ward loomed at the corner of her vision, glaring down at Daisy. “Now, let’s try this again. Skye, or ‘Daisy,’ whoever. Take a deep breath. You know what is best--”

Daisy’s face twisted in pain again. “Shut up!” She screamed.

Ward’s words started to melt together, as Jemma’s vision blurred. Daisy growled and her hands slid from Jemma’s cheeks. Jemma pawed at the empty air in front of her, trying to call Daisy back. Ward could wait; she wanted Daisy close right now.