Work Text:
December 1993
Daisy’s earliest memory was from when she was 4 years old; her foster family had taken her to see a Santa Clause in a local department store. She had been so excited and had danced the whole way there. She stood anxiously in the long line of kids and parents waiting to see Santa, she started standing on her tip toes to see how close they were to seeing him.
When she was two children away from her turn the child that was currently sitting on Santa’s lap started crying, Mary Sue couldn’t understand why they were crying, after all they were sitting with Santa and could ask for anything they wanted him to bring them for Christmas.
“Ok Mary Sue,” her foster father said once the sobbing child had been removed and they were one child away from it being her turn, “Get ready to tell Santa what you’d like for Christmas.” Mary Sue looked up at him he seemed just as excited as she was.
When it was finally her turn Mary Sue jumped up on Santa’s lap with a big grin on her face.
“Ho, ho, ho hello there,” Santa said, “what’s your name?”
“Mary.”
“Well then Mary, have you been a good little girl this year?”
“I’ve tried my bestest Santa, really I have!”
Santa smiled at her, “well then I think I can have a present or two under the tree for you this year; what would you like for Christmas Mary?”
“A Doll of my own, a pair of skates, the new Barbie video, umm…” Mary trailed off here, even though she was four she knew the difference between her and all the other kids, she didn’t want to not have parents any more.
“And Parents I really want parents.”
Santa looked surprised, but he quickly recovered, “Well those are all very good things Mary I will do my best to bring you all the items on your list, but if I can’t just know I tried my hardest.”
Mary nodded with a smile and thanked Santa before jumping off his lap.
On the way home Mary Sue’s foster parents were very quiet this didn’t bother her as she was only four after all.
Two days before Christmas Mary Sue was picked up by her social worker and taken back to the orphanage; when Christmas came none of the things she had asked for were under the tree there, Mary Sue just thought that Santa had thought she hadn’t been a good enough girl to get what she asked for.
. . . . . . .
23 years later
The playground was being decorated for Christmas. After everything that had happened with Fitz and Coulson ending up on the planet, Jemma being rescued and then being captured by Hydra not to mention everything else that had happened over the last few weeks, Daisy thought that they could all use some cheering up. So she had enlisted Sam, Billy, Hunter, Mack, and Bobbie to help haul out some Christmas decorations and set them up. Soon their posse expanded to include Fitz, Jemma, Lincoln, and Joey. Garlands covered the dreary gray walls, lights were strung up with them, mistletoe was hung strategically, -Daisy managed to hang some above the lab doorway in order to get Fitz and Jemma to have a Christmas kiss and maybe talk about their feelings.- and a large Christmas tree was set up in the lounge area.
Hunter, Mack, and Lincoln were now trying to disentangle the lights while being supervised by Bobbie, who was mostly laughing at their attempts.
“Arrg! Why is Christmas so much work?” Hunter complained as another knot turned up in the lights.
Mack laughed at him, “It wouldn’t be so enjoyable if we didn’t have to work hard. At least that’s what my grandmother always said,” he commented as he became entangled in the unyielding lights.
Daisy, and the rest of the crew, was in the kitchen starting on cookies which Jemma had insisted on making. They already had a list of 12 different kinds of delicious treats to make and the room smelled like sugar.
“Fitz! That’s not how you mix sugar cookie dough!” Jemma scolded.
“It’s how my gram always did it. Besides Jemma I’m going with the Koenig’s to pick up more ingredients, we can’t possibly have everything we need here.”
Daisy hid her fond smile, those two were such a married couple, and they just needed to make it official. Fitz and the Koenig brothers left and Jemma, Daisy, and Joey continued to work on the cookies.
“You know,” Joey said at length, “in my house we always had Christmas music playing when we decorated for Christmas and when we made the food too come to think of it.”
“That can be arranged.” Daisy said excitedly as she wiped off her hands, “I’ll be right back.”
Daisy took off to her room to get her laptop. She had hidden it in one of the drawers in her desk as it had been downloading some special gifts before the decorating had begun. She pulled out the drawer got out her computer and sat down not even bothering to close the drawer it had been tucked away in.
Daisy hacked into the sound system and started playing Christmas music over the base speakers. She turned to put the computer back when she spotted the papers she’d hidden beneath it.
The papers were mostly filled out, they were more a dream than anything, they just needed signatures from the individuals to make the papers a reality; they were the adult version of adoption papers. Ever since she had found out who her real parents were and that she hadn’t legally existed as a person in either her birth country or her home country she had been toying with the idea of asking May and Coulson to adopt her. But every time she felt like she could some sort of catastrophe happened causing her to lose her nerve.
Daisy looked wistfully at the papers but once again placed her laptop on top of them and closed the drawer. She didn’t want to be let down again.
. . . . . . . .
May and Coulson were walking out of a law firm close to where the base was located, they had just finished getting through all the red tape and were feeling rather confident. Well one of them was.
“What if she says no Melinda?”
May let out a sigh that turned into a puff of smoke in the cold air, “Phil, I doubt she will, she’s never really had a family, even those few days with her parents probably haven’t filled the void. Even if she does say no we can still undo everything.”
“I guess you’re right, I-I just don’t want her to say no.”
Melinda smiled at Phil; he was starting to sound like his old self.
“Come on let’s get a hot chocolate before we head back. We’ve got a base to decorate.”
“Does this make it official then? You and me, I mean.”
“Yes. But so help me if you tell Hunter first I’ll knock you into next year Phillip Coulson.”
Phil grinned and offered his arm to her which she took.
. . . . . . . .
May and Coulson arrived back on the base to find greenery and lights lining the walls, tinsel hanging on random patches of the greenery, and Christmas music playing over the sound system. They walked into the lounge and were greeted by a half decorated tree taking up a corner and the smell of freshly baked cookies.
As they took in the sight Daisy’s head poked out from the kitchen, she was covered in dabs of flower.
“Hi guys! We decided the old base needed some Christmas cheer. We made cookies and hot chocolate if you want some. Simmons promises that no one will die from the cookies.”
The director and agent looked at each other with neutral faces, not wanting to give anything away.
“Thank you Daisy, I think I will have some cookies.” Coulson said making his way for the kitchen.
Melinda on the other hand walked over to the tree and the three valiant men who were trying to wrestle the lights onto it. She tapped Lincoln on his knee causing him to look up at her from his position on the floor.
“Need some back up?” She smirked.
“Please.” Hunter whined from above them. The man was nearly tied to the tree by the lights, causing Melinda to laugh at the sight.
In the kitchen Coulson saw that most of his team was working on frosting or mixing cookies.
“The finished cookies are on the plates next to the sink.” Bobbie called from her end of the table where she was frosting ginger bread men with Joey.
Coulson picked up a frosted reindeer and took a bite. “Oh, did you use red hot’s for the nose?”
“Yes, it was Billy’s idea.” Jemma said before turning on the mixer in her hand.
“These are delicious. What other kinds do we have here.” He asked as he looked over the other plates of finished cookies.
“We have iced sugar cookies, gingerbread men, chocolate kiss cookies, chocolate covered pretzels with crushed peppermint bits, raspberry thumbprint cookies with icing, and we are currently making chocolate chip cookies and fudge.” Fitz supplied from his place at the stove where he was attentively stirring the fudge.
“Wow, that’s a lot. Are you planning on feeding the whole base?”
“Yep,” Daisy replied as she dumped a bag of chocolate chips into her bowl.
“Well then I’ll just take a few of these cookies and leave you to your fun.” Phil said as he picked out his prizes, just barely managing to sneak a gingerbread man off the rack before retreating to his office.
. . . . . . . .
The decorating was a success and before anyone knew it Christmas Eve was upon the base. Coulson had let most of the agents go home to their family’s for the holiday with only the core team remaining on the base. The day was filled with laughter, baking cookies, and Christmas movies.
Daisy was content; she had witnessed Fitz and Jemma under the mistletoe sharing a kiss before they retreated into Jemma’s room. They were now seated next to each other on the couch snuggling and sharing cookies.
“Daisy, I’d like to have a word with you in my office.” Coulson said from across the room looking every bit the imposing director that he was.
Daisy looked at Lincoln who was next to her he shrugged as she got up to see what Coulson wanted.
Upon arriving in the office she saw that May was there too. Daisy’s stomach dropped into her shoes.
“Have a seat.” Coulson said kindly, indicating that this could be a long discussion.
“Daisy,” Coulson began, “it has come to Melinda’s and my attention that even though you have a birth certificate with your real name and birth parents on it, that it was never registered with either China or the U.S. So we had a thought to remedy that.”
For some unknown reason, Daisy’s heart started to hammer in her ears, but she controlled herself.
“We thought,” May picked up, “that if you were willing that Phil and I would legally adopt you, giving you a social security number and – parents such as we are.”
Daisy was shocked and crying, “You-you want to adopt me? Both of you?”
Unable to form words they both nodded in answer to her question.
“I can’t believe this is happening, after so long. Yes. Yes, I’ll let you adopt me, of course!”
The three hugged as Daisy cried and laughed. This was by far the best Christmas ever.