"You can't just die for me like this. It's- It's wrong!"

Daisy felt like her whole body was going to break into pieces from the weight in her chest. She subconsciously felt her body taking in shaky breaths but all she wanted to do was stop. Why couldn't her power have been stopping time or teleportation? She couldn't quake herself out of this one.

"I don't know," came Lincoln's voice through the walkie in her hand. "Saving the girl I love and the world at the same time? Feels pretty right to me."

Daisy let out another sob as her heart broke then. How could she have let this happen?

"Lincoln, I can't take it if you do this, if you..." Daisy didn't even want to think of the word. She didn't want to live in a world without Lincoln, she loved him.

She loved him.

"I have too much I want to say." Her voice sounded broken and unfamiliar in her ears. Tears blurred her vision and her head felt heavy with the words she had let go unsaid for far too long.

"Me too. Come to think of it I just did... we didn't even realize it." Lincoln sounded out of breath, but still calm, still brave. How could he be so okay right now?

"What?"

"A moment ago," Lincoln breathed. "It was the first time I said I lo-"

Lincoln's voice stopped, cut off by the crackling of the walkie in her hand.

No no no no no no. "LINCOLN!"

Daisy didn't have anymore words. She didn't have anything left anymore. Daisy didn't care how pitiful it looked, how broken she must ave come across to the team. She was broken. And she made her home on the floor of the Zephyr as her world caved in and buried her alive. She sobbed, holding onto the walkie with white knuckles as if his voice would somehow breakthrough once more. But it never did.

It was weeks before she pulled herself out of the darkness she fell into. It almost didn't seem right to go on living without him. But she had promises to keep and sins to atone for so she got up and got to work.

It was slow going at first, living without the team. Living without him. She hated it, every damn minute of it was like fire in her blood ready to burn her into oblivion. She wished she could burn into oblivion.

But as time went on and things began to settle, she started to feel a bit better. Started to breathe again, although she still had her moments of remembering him, remembering how much she loved him; how much he had loved her.

She could see that now, in hindsight. He had loved her with everything in him. And she didn't have the bravery to even say it back.

"That's why I came back," she whispered to the tree. "I came back to say goodbye. And to tell him that I love him."

The old oak tree was silent in response. They never had the chance to come back here, the two of them, after that day off so long ago. She treasured that day, holding the memory in the front of her mind, as close as possible without letting it tip her back into the darkness.

Daisy had leaned up against the trunk of the tree now, looking up at the sky through the branches. "A rabbit," she spoke quietly again to herself. "It's always a rabbit."

Daisy had found some of Lincoln's things left in his locker: his old stethoscope, a picture of his family, and that stupid old phone she used to call him on when he was in hiding. She laughed slightly at how far they had come. Her laughter stopped abruptly when she realized how quickly it had ended.

She had placed all the items in a SHIELD box, the steel cold in her hands as she placed it next the hole she had dug out next to the tree. She buried it perfectly, wanting it to go completely undisturbed. Lincoln had been through enough. Let him rest.

When the box had been sufficiently buried, she stood up. Tears starting falling again and this time she didn't make them stop. She let out a few sobs, trying her hardest not to shake the world around her to the extent that her inner world was shaking.

With a final deep breath, Daisy wiped the stray tears off her face and worked to regain her composure. "Goodbye, Lincoln," she let out a shaky breath. "I love you."

And with the words finally out in the world, a verbal agreement with her and the universe, Daisy walked away. She let herself turn back one last time, taking one last look at that old oak tree that had grown up with her all these years. Daisy felt herself wanting to wave, moving her hand slightly only to realize how awkward she must have looked. She could have sworn the old tree waved back.

The end.

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THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR READING!! I will be going back through and making edits on each chapter, but consider this the end my loves. I hope this story served you well! Feel free to go check out The Winter Widow, as that is the next story I will be putting all my efforts into. I loved this story & I love you all for reading it! byyyye :)