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"The flight's canceled," Jemma reports, flopping down on the bench, totally defeated. "So is everything else crossing the Atlantic Ocean that's not a boat, and I think they're turning those back too."
Daisy pats her shoulder and finishes the last of her cold coffee. "Guess we should call your parents."
"They'll be so disappointed," Jemma says, taking a breath. She probably wouldn't be near tears if it wasn't the middle of the night in potentially the worst airport on the eastern seaboard. Newark was crowded, so many flights had been delayed or cancelled that she and Daisy had barely gotten a bench after they'd barely gotten through customs. They'd already queued for hours, had terrible food, and the bathrooms were overcrowded and everyone was annoyed. Everyone was so annoyed that the air seemed to crack with it.
"Hey," Daisy said, smiling. "They'll understand. We can get a hotel or go back to base and we'll try again."
"Before the world ends or we get attacked by killer robots."
Daisy laughs and leans back. "We're good at that though, so it'll have to be another horrible thing."
"Like aliens." Jemma tries to smile. "Or weeping angels."
"Why are the angels sad?"
"Oh they're not actually weeping they're just covering their faces because they're evil and they're going to get you as soon as you stop looking."
Daisy grins. "Wait, what?"
"It's complicated, but the gist of it is that the angels sneak up on you when you're not looking at them."
"And they're evil."
"So evil."
"So let's not fight them." Daisy pulls her feet up and wraps her arms around her knees. "What do we do if there's no flight?"
"We rent a car-"
"Oh no, it's like The Day After Tomorrow death blizzard out there, we're not driving, you get annoyed with the traffic around the Playground."
"I'm only pointing out that roundabouts would be much more efficient."
"Uh huh." Daisy takes another sip of her coffee and frowns. It must be gone. Daisy looks for the bin, but of course there's no bin, this airport is the 8th circle of hell.
"We could get a hotel, hang on," Daisy opens up her laptop, touches something, does something else and even in hell, Daisy has wifi because she's Daisy. She's probably hacking NASA or something.
"Dammit," Daisy mutters after a few minutes.
"Let me guess, they're all booked."
"Everything. So many people are stuck here that I can't find a hotel anywhere within a hundred miles."
"And we'd have to get the hundred miles."
"Yeah." Daisy rubs her eyes. "We could just sleep here."
"In an airport?"
Daisy shrugs. "It's not the worst. It's safe, but the stupid lights are on all night and it's really not very comfortable."
Jemma sighs, buries her head in Daisy's shoulder and groans. "Spending the night in the airport on Christmast?"
"With a couple thousand of our stranded new friends," Daisy mutters. "Better call May and tell her we're not leaving the country."
It's somehow one of the shortest and most touching conversations of her life.
"May's coming to get us."
"What?" Daisy asks, eyes wide. "It's like...actual hell out there."
"She's driving, she said two hours, maybe three, but she'll be here before dinner."
Daisy shakes her head. "Okay."
"That's really nice of her."
"She is really nice."
"I know, I just--" Jemma stops, because she really can't complain about not getting to see her parents for Christmas because she's seen them every other Christmas of her life and she has parents, and a wonderful girlfriend and May who's coming to get them through the worst blizzard of the last sixty years.
She still wants to be home. She's earned it. It's been such a long year. She sniffs, and shakes herself out of it.
"What movies do you have on your laptop?"
Daisy wraps an arm around her and they settle in as best they can. May will be here.
Oddly enough, two hours later it's Coulson who comes in to get them. He's all wrapped out, parka and hate and scarf and a big smile for both of them.
"Come on, May's just outside." He hugs them, Daisy first, then Jemma, and it's so terrible outside that he somehow smells like snow and cold.
"Aren't you--?" Daisy asks and Coulson just smiles.
"I didn't want to leave May alone in the base for Christmas."
"She said she doesn't celebrate Christmas."
"We like not celebrating together," Coulson says, but there's something that makes him smile about that. "Give me your luggage."
"It's on the plane already, or not unloaded, or--" Jemma stumbles over the words, yawning, and Daisy finishes.
"I think they're going to have to drop it off with us."
"That bad huh?"
"It's Newark," Daisy grumbles, folding her arms. "I wanted to just let May fly us."
"We can't possibly ask May to fly us to my parents house."
"She'd love too," Coulson reminds them both, leading them towards the frozen hellscape of outside. They have to stop talking as they reach the doors because the wind screams around them and whips ice and snow like a sandstorm.
Hell is frozen, and all the devils are here. They hurry into the (once) black SHIELD SUV that's covered in so much ice and snow that's it's almost grey-white.
Daisy doesn't even have a hat because it was nice when they left and they tumble into the backseat, rubbing their fingers together and trying to catch their breath.
May turns around, looking at them both with a very gentle smile. "There's food in the backpack, hot chocolate in the thermos and blankets. Phil, where did you put their hats and mittens?"
"They're in the cloth bag. You didn't really take the hard core winter gear."
"Yeah, it was like 40 degrees when we left the base." Daisy buckles up and grabs the backpack. "I'm starving."
"We thought so, the food here is terrible."
"The worst," May agrees, checking that they're in before she pulls out from the curb. Another car slides past them, like actually slides and Jemma grabs Daisy's hand.
Daisy pats her knee with a smile and mouths "It''s May."
It's not that Jemma doesn't have every confidence in May, she does. May is a legend at everything she does, it's just that the weather outside is actually legendarily bad. They crawl along on the freeway, surrounded by giant trucks that can't stay on the road and Jemma counts fourteen cars in the ditch before they're even out of New Jersey.
Daisy leans over, close enough that Jemma can smell the hot chocolate on her lips. "Stop panicking."
"Did you not see the cars in the ditch? The overturned lorry trucks? The complete lack of plows and gritters?"
"What's a gritter?"
"Those big lorries that throw grit on the roadway."
"Grit?" Daisy teases, eyebrows high.
"Stop making fun of me, you know what I mean."
"I do, I just like making fun of you."
Jemma rolls her eyes and tries to forget about the chance of them spinning into a ditch and spending the night sleeping in the SUV. Does SHIELD have any anti-ice and snow technology? Is there some kind of SAT NAV that May can follow out of the storm.
"Stop panicking," Daisy whispers again.
"How are you not?" Jemma snaps back in a whisper. "That car almost hit us."
"Look." Daisy points carefully in the dim light. It takes Jemma far too long to figure out what she's looking at.
Coulson's hand is on May's knee. It's innocent enough, maybe he's just- but it's right there and it looks like it's been there a long time.
"That's not all," Daisy whispers, smiling at the secret she's discovered. "Wait a minute."
Jemma curls up with Daisy and the blankets in the backseat and watches as Couls holds on May's tea so she doesn't have to look away from the road. They talk in low tones, and Jemma and Daisy can't hear them over the sound of ice thudding against the roof and the windows, but sometimes one of them will laugh.
May, laughs, while driving through the worst mess Jemma's ever seen. Time crawls, Daisy falls asleep for a while, then Jemma, but when she wakes up again, they're still driving, and Coulson's hand is on the back of May's neck.
She couldn't really tell what he's doing unless May's getting some kind of stress headache, and Coulson's hand is really hidden in her hair, except the snow's softer now and she can hear them talking.
Still not quite the words, but there's something almost flirty in the way Coulson won't stop looking at May.
Of course, they have a connection, years of history. They're really good friends.
Except friends don't really spend lonely holidays together alone at a secret base.
Jemma falls asleep wondering what they're saying, because May's laughing again and even in the middle of the darkest, most miserable, cold and wet Christmas Eve she's ever had, there's something nice about being curled up with Daisy just listening.
"We're home," Coulson says, shaking her a little. "Nice and safe and warm in the garage."
Jemma slowly blinks herself awake, stretching as she crawls out of the car. Daisy stands by the other door, still half asleep. They both yawn and check their phones. It's well after two in the morning.
"Happy Christmas, mum and dad," Jemma whispers to her phone and sends them a text. Maybe she'll see them by New Year.
Daisy circles the back of the SUV, whistling at the snow. "I didn't know the roads could be that bad."
"May did a great job."
Hugging Jemma sleepily, Daisy nods. "Course she did, she's Agent May."
Still arm in arm, they walk towards the front of the SUV to thank Coulson and May for coming to get them, but they stop.
They're kissing.
Not just, light, gentle, Happy Christmas, kissing, but wrapped around each other as if this kiss is the first one of the rest of their lives. There should be music with this kiss.
Daisy stops, mouth open.
Jemma should pull herself together but she doesn't. She stares too, because they keep going until both of them are gasping for breath.
"Ummm."
"Merry Christmas," Coulson says, blushing a little.
"Mistletoe," May says, pointing up at the high ceiling of the garage.
There's nothing up there. Jemma looks and Daisy looks and they both nod and May grabs Coulson's hand and they walk into the base together, Coulson's arm around her shoulders.
Daisy stares and stares and then her expression softens, warms. "They--"
Jemma kisses her, stopping her speculation. When they part, Daisy looks at her, confused.
"Mistletoe," Jemma teases and Daisy rolls her eyes.
"You know there's nothing up there."
"Maybe that's the point."
Daisy strokes her hair, then smiles. "Sorry. you're stuck here."
"I'm not," Jemma says, and now, finally, wrapped in Daisy's arms, she might mean it.