2A/N: I love character analysis. I love looking at a character or a pairing and trying to puzzle out what makes them tick. I got especially interested in Daisy and her various parings when I found myself unexpectedly shipping Dousy after the last season. It took me a good long while to figure out why I liked Daisy and Daniel together so much, and also why I like him better with her than with Peggy. Long story short, it has to do with the Enneagram personality typing system, which I won't go into here. BUT, what that also made me do was take a closer look at Daisy's other significant attractions. Combine that with the fact that I'm watching back through the show, and I got this short piece. If you're interested in talking more about characters, PM me and I'll love you forever. :)
Thanks!
-Mells
Hate.
Skye never loved Ward.
If anyone were to ever ask about that particular entanglement, she would want to make that abundantly clear. She had felt drawn toward him, attracted, even, but she had never loved. He was her perfect tall, dark, and dangerous. A mystery waiting to be solved, with all the right ingredients for the proverbial Beast to her Beauty – a kindhearted man cursed to suffer under the weight of his past sins.
I am not a good man, Skye.
Yes. You are.
She had bought his lie wholeheartedly because she had so badly wanted to. Someone like Ward (the SHIELD agent) needed to be saved. He was broken, but not beyond repair. And maybe – just maybe – her subconscious thought, he could help fix her broken places too. They could figure it out together.
She didn't know if Ward had pegged her that closely and chosen his persona accordingly, or if she was really so basic that his generic cover drew her in almost by accident. Whichever it was, the moment he showed his true colors, the illusion was shattered. This was no Disney hero in need of a savior, this was a hollowed-out shell of a man who chose to fill his void with hatred, blame, and brutality. His sick obsession with her only repulsed her more, and when her nightmares feature him, he doesn't hurt her, he kisses her.
She always wakes up with bile rising in her throat.
-0o0-0o0-
Heart.
Daisy loved Lincoln because he was her mate.
Her counterpart, her equal. Like Yin and Yang, they were of the same material – equal but opposite and inherently attuned to each other.
In the confusion and fear of becoming an Inhuman, Lincoln had shown her that normalcy was possible. Their time in Afterlife connected them, as did their DNA. That connection remained even after he had made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with SHIELD. It flickered back to life any time they saw each other, and – ironically – grew even stronger when he was running from SHIELD and the ATCU. It was the true form of the lie that Ward had fed her. Here was someone who really was struggling with himself, struggling because he wanted to control the darkness inside himself. She had been in that situation too, by the time she met him, and he had helped her. Even better, he let her help him.
We'll figure it out together.
It was that push and pull, the give and take, that made her love him even more. They had arguments, fights even, but they always came back together. An implicit understanding grew, that they both knew the other only wanted what was good, and that even if they didn't agree, their hearts were in the same place. The connection was so intrinsic and natural that it would have been impossible not to get swept up by it.
Sometimes it's good to lose control.
Then, Hive.
Daisy thought more about her life during her quarantine than she ever had before. Trapped in that pristine white containment room, she had never been surrounded by such blackness, and she steeped herself in it. She hated herself. She wished there were a stronger word than hate. She knew she didn't deserve forgiveness, but as she sat in that room and despaired, she had never wanted anything as badly as she wanted Lincoln right then. She wanted him to come in and berate her. They would hash it out and argue, and maybe even yell a bit, but after that he would somehow – impossibly – forgive her. Then she would know what she needed to do.
But he didn't come.
Though others did, they couldn't offer the same clarity. They didn't understand her. She needed him to come shake her out of her despair, and when he didn't, she did the only other thing she knew to. She went back to Hive. The connection she had experienced there was too strong. She couldn't live without that, not if Lincoln had given up on her.
Losing him… it was like she had lost her right arm. Even worse, it was like she had been the one to tear it from herself. Everything she saw reminded her of him. She couldn't do anything without feeling the emptiness he had left. Her partner, her clarity, her other half… gone.
Eventually is a long, long word. But eventually, she was able to heal. Her heart has scars though, and she visits one of them every now and then, not because of the pain which caused it, but because of the love which made it possible.
When she thinks of him now, somehow, she can smile.
-0o0-0o0-
Home.
Daisy loves Daniel because he is her home.
All her life, Daisy had been searching for permanence. Not immobility – she loved excitement too much – but steadiness. She wanted something that she could be sure of, and not have to worry about whether or not it would be there tomorrow.
I'm twenty-five, and I have never spent more than two years anywhere.
She found that with SHIELD, eventually, but organizations can be impersonal. They can leave you wanting connection, and not just a cause. Daisy's family had fallen apart after they broke the time loops. Fitz and Coulson died. Yes, they got Fitz back, but then May died, and Jemma showed up, and Fitz was gone, and Coulson was an LMD, and… If she had had any time to think about it, she would have realized that nothing was ever going to be the same.
Then, Daniel had waltzed into her life. Actually, he had been dragged from his own life, and just barely managed to hobble (literally and metaphorically) along with them until they could get him up to speed. He was completely out of his element. He had no idea what was going on, but he still wanted to help. He asked how he could help, and was ready to do anything that was asked of him. Always.
In this, the craziest chapter of her life so far (which was saying something), he didn't even flinch.
It all fazes me. Just maybe not my face.
He asked questions and was thoroughly confused for the better part of the whole fiasco, but he never stopped. He kept trying to understand and to do his part, and he kept looking after her. It wasn't like Coulson, who took care of her but was very clearly in charge, and it wasn't like Mack, who gave her big brother tough love when she needed it. Daniel was… concerned. Not about what other people might do to her (ok, maybe he was a little concerned about that), but about what she might not do for herself.
Why do you care?
Because you don't.
In a way Daisy was grateful for the time storm. She honestly wasn't sure she would have noticed Daniel if it hadn't been for that. In just a few days-worth of time (for her), she got to see years-worth of his character play out in front of her. How he helped and sacrificed and cared, and how he was there every. Single. Time. He wasn't doing it because he hoped to get something out of it, either. As far as she could tell – even after she found out that he was interested in her – he wasn't being so attentive because he wanted her to notice him. Sure, he liked her, but his first concern was with her well-being. Any other agenda wasn't part of the equation.
"Steady" wasn't a word Daisy Johnson ever thought she would associate with her dream man, but it was exactly that quality that had let her fall for Daniel. It was his constancy that had made her let herself fall for him. After all she had been through, and the way the world seemed perpetually to be upside down at SHIELD, she would never, ever take stability for granted again.
And every morning that she wakes up and sees Zephyr 3's artificial sunlight glinting off of her and Daniel's matching wedding bands, she's realizes all over again that she's home. She realizes that she's a little bit more thankful for – and a little bit more in love with – her wonderful, caring, brilliant, dorky, beautiful, steady man.