You Shot Me
Written for @ekingston's really fun flash fiction challenge
The Wheel Speaks and I must Listen Genre: Crack Premise: In a Hospital Waiting Room Trope: Memory Loss or Amnesia Subject: Passport
Words: 1000 With ample trimming and slashing
It was a miracle in and of itself that Lena was able to get her to the hospital on her own. Asking for another one in such short order seemed remarkably greedy but from the way that Daisy kept fidgeting, stealing furtive glances at both her and the door, clearly ready to make a break for it the moment she sensed the opportunity, Lena felt herself praying for another one anyway. “Who am I?” Daisy asked again, springing the question on her as if that might elicit a different answer. Lena glanced around the waiting room, at a woman leafing lackadaisically through a magazine, a man with what looked like the world’s worst head cold, nose as red as a fire-engine slumped halfway over in his seat and two men trying to placate their fussy baby before she answered. “I already told you. Several times.”
Daisy nodded grimly. “Daisy Johnson,” she said, not sounding convinced that it was actually her name. “Daisy,” she said, testing it out with the same kind of trepidation one might have when walking across a very old, very rickety bridge.She pondered this for a moment before making a face. “No. Nope. I don’t know who I am but that just doesn’t sound right. Do I look like a Daisy?” “Yes,” Lena said baldly, not looking up from the hospital admission form she was trying to fill out while keeping watch over Daisy. “Stupid question,” Daisy grumbled and took another long look towards the door. Lena guessed that she was perhaps counting the number of steps it would take to reach. “You run faster than me and that’s when I’m not wearing heels,” Lena said, pointing to the Louboutins she was wearing. “You can absolutely beat me to the door.” “I bet I can,” Daisy said, sounding pleased with herself. “If you’re going to run, please wait until we’ve seen a doctor,” Lena said, still not looking up from the form, brow ever so slightly furrowed as she pondered just what to put under ‘reason for visit’. Somehow she thought that laboratory mishap would not go over well.Even if that was exactly what had happened.
She had been testing a device meant to induce a temporary short-term memory loss. Perfect to help a spy maintain their cover when someone started asking too many questions. All well and good if you ignored the part where Daisy had wandered in to see what Lena was up to and wound up with a soap-opera-esque level of amnesia.
Funnily enough, temporary amnesia would have been a problem that Lena could have handled without too much trouble. It was the way that Daisy had bolted in the immediate aftermath of losing her memory when all of Lena's attempts at calming her had had the opposite effect, running face first into a very heavy, very secure door. From the sound Daisy had made upon contact Lena feared that Daisy had given herself a concussion and decided then and there that a hospital visit was the best possible option. It at least seemed the safer alternative to coaxing her onto a Quinjet and landing at a SHIELD medical facility.
“Slip and fall,” Lena said, scrawling that into the tiny box before going to hand it off to the receptionist.
“That isn't what happened,” Daisy called after her, sounding more suspicious than ever, eyes narrowed to distrustful slits. “Would you like me to put down ran facefirst into door?” Lena asked once she had sat back down. “If you put down that you shot me with some weird gun,” Daisy said, raising her voice just enough to be heard over the dulcet tones of the fussy baby now being placated with a set of colorful ring of plastic keys jangled in their face. “And that’s why I happened to fall into a door.”
“Not on purpose,” Lena said as placatingly as she could under the circumstances. “And not to point fingers,” she said which made Daisy jab an accusing finger in her face, moving it back and forth like a metronome. “Not to point fingers but you shouldn’t be waltzing into labs without knocking first. You realize how many supervillains start out that way?” “I should knock,” Daisy agreed, nodding vigorously to herself, trying to catch the eye of the man with the bad head cold who was now glancing over at them covertly, “because if I don’t you might shoot me again.” “Oh God.” “Daisy. There wasn’t a vase of flowers that you spotted on the way in here, was there?” she asked beginning to look for the offending vase. “You got me,” Lena said dully. “No flowers,” Daisy said, slumping down in her seat looking somewhat deflated. “I know it's weird,” Lena said, leaning closer so that she could whisper without being overheard. “And I know that I technically shot you,” she said, ignoring the second appearance of Daisy’s accusatory finger. “But trust me when I say that this is probably the least weird thing that’s happened to both of us this week.” If I tell her that I’m from a different Earth she’ll try to have me sectioned. “I’m sure,” Daisy said, nodding sarcastically. “But one more thing,” she said, digging around in the pocket of her pants for something, trying and failing to extricate it with the appropriate flourish. “Yes, Columbo?” “Why would a woman named Daisy have a passport belonging to someone named Melinda May?” She looked equal parts triumphant and confused, seemingly aware that Melinda didn’t seem to suit her either. “Hero worship,” Lena said, aware that answering any of Daisy’s questions would simply lead to more. “Your amnesia will wear off soon and after we see the Doctor I will try and explain everything. It’s a fake passport,” she added. “A fake passport? What am I, an amnesiac spy? How cliche.”
“Something like that,” Lena grumbled.” “I am not a Melinda,” Daisy said hotly. “Daisy Johnson,” a nurse called unenthusiastically. “That’s not my name either!”
