Chapter Text
They had managed to settle on Friday evening for Lincoln and Daisy’s talk, allowing the weekend for any potential fallout.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to be there? Just to act as buffers or something?” Fitz asked as they walked down the corridor to Daisy and Jemma’s apartment door.
“No. This is something we need to do just us. Thanks for driving me here though man, you’ve been a good friend to me through all this. Thanks.” Lincoln replied earnestly.
“Don’t mention it. And don’t worry Jemma and I will get out of your way. Just gimme a buzz when you’re wanting picked up.”
Lincoln just nodded, distracted enough by his own thoughts that he didn’t even notice Fitz calling Jemma by her first name, rather than his usual disgruntled Dr Simmons. Fitz hung back as Lincoln rapped nervously on the apartment door, wringing his hands as he waited for it to open. It was Jemma, not Daisy who opened the door, her face seemingly calm, but Fitz recognising the small furrow in her brow which usually meant she was nervous, from many long, late night study sessions before exams in high school.
“Hello Lincoln.” She said with a kind of stiff cordiality.
“Daisy’s just in the living room. Please let us know if you need anything, Fitz and I won’t go far, but we’ll leave you two to talk.”
“Thanks.” Lincoln replied, not quite meeting her in the eye.
Fitz wasn’t surprised by either one of their behaviours. The last time they had seen each other Lincoln had been screaming the most awful abuse at Daisy after all. Jemma stepped out into the hallway, allowing Lincoln into the apartment, closing the door behind him. Jemma just stood for a moment, staring at the door, waiting for something, anything, to happen. Fitz noticed the nervous furrow in her brow deepen and gently took her hand into his, giving it a light squeeze.
“Hey. They’ll be fine.” He whispered comfortingly.
Jemma squeezed his hand back in reply.
“There’s a great little place just down the road that does the best Indian food I’ve tasted in the US, their peshawari naan is to die for, or we could go find a late night coffee shop, if you’re not hungry.” Fitz suggested, slowly leading her away from the apartment door.
Jemma just nodded.
“Nowhere more than five minutes away?” Jemma asked tentatively
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Fitz assured.
“In that case, Indian sounds nice.” Jemma said quietly, following Fitz down the hallway, allowing a small smile to form across her face.
Back in Daisy and Jemma’s apartment, Lincoln was steeling himself. Tentatively he made his way down the small corridor and into the living room. Daisy was sat on one of the couches, her face pale, worrying with her hands as she waited, only looking up when she heard Lincoln’s careful footsteps.
“Hi.” She said quietly.
“Hi.”
“Take a seat.” Daisy gestured to the couch on the opposite wall.
Lincoln sat down carefully. It did not feel like the meeting of two people who just a week prior were happily engaged.
“Daisy I’m so sorry. I know that that doesn’t even begin to cover what I did but I will say it every day for the rest of my life if I need to. I was stupid and insecure and irrational. I love you so much and I hurt you so badly and I just, I cannot forgive myself, and I completely understand if you don’t want to forgive me either.” Lincoln burst out, unable to take the silence any longer.
Daisy gazed at him for a second.
“You did hurt me. I don’t think I spoke in full sentences for about twelve hours after…” Daisy trailed off.
“I wanna forgive you, cause I know you were misled by Ward, that he fed you all that bullshit about me cheating on you, about Hunter using me to get back at Bobbi. The thing I’m finding hard is you believing him. Did you distrust me that much, that you believed I would run off with Hunter the second he crooked his finger at me, which by the way, ew no, Hunter is like an annoying brother to me I would never. I love you Lincoln. I would never do that to you. So why did you think I would? I just, I need to understand that.”
Lincoln let out a shaky sigh.
“Because you are too good for me. The fact that you fell in love with me is absolutely unfathomable. You’re this wonderful, amazing, intelligent, kind and beautiful woman and I’m just me. I’m nothing special. Of course I thought you would jump ship the first second you were able.” Lincoln replied, staring down at his hands.
Much to his surprise, Lincoln felt the space on the couch next him sink, and felt Daisy’s hands wrap over his.
“You’re special to me. Okay? And I love you for you, I want you to know that. I would never ‘jump ship’ or whatever because I love you. I agreed to spend the rest of my life with you didn’t I?” Daisy questioned softly.
“You did. I knew, in the back of my head that I was being stupid, hell even Fitz told me that. But the irrational voice in my head just gets there quicker and louder than the rational voice. I’m just, I’m so sorry Daisy. If you never want to see me again I completely understand.”
“Lincoln, whilst you behaved stupidly, I don’t put all the blame on you for what happened. Ward, for whatever twisted reason decided to use both of us as pawns in the sick game that he’s playing. That wasn’t your fault. Despite everything that’s happened I still care about you, but I don’t think I can go back to directly where we left off.” Daisy explained.
She reached into her trouser pockets and pulled out a ring.
“I’m not giving this back permanently, I would love to wear it again someday, but right now I think we need to take things slow. Make sure we trust each other properly before we go rushing into a marriage neither of us are ready for.”
Lincoln took the ring from Daisy’s hands and ran his fingers over the silver band.
“I’ll keep it safe. Until we’re ready.” Lincoln said softly, placing the ring carefully into his jacket pocket.
“Until we’re ready.” Daisy assured him with a small smile.
They talked quietly, working out the new terms of their relationship, not getting married as planned, and putting off living together for a little while longer, just allowing themselves time. Their discussions were interrupted by the sounds of squabbling outside the door, which were followed by three short raps on the apartment door.
“That’ll be Mr and Mrs Fitzsimmons coming to check up on us.” Lincoln said with a small smile.
“God, it’s been over two hours no wonder, I said to Jemma an hour at most.” Daisy said as she got up, checking her watch.
They opened the door to find Fitz and Jemma staring at them nervously.
“Guys, we’re fine, you can chill out.” Daisy said with a smile.
The pair visibly relaxed, and Jemma sprung forwards and hugged Daisy tightly.
“I guess I’ll see you at work on Monday?” Lincoln asked tentatively after Jemma had finally let Daisy go.
“Sure, I’ll see you then.” Daisy replied.
“I’ll see you on Monday Jem-Dr Simmons.” Fitz said as Lincoln joined him in the hallway, doing his best to make his voice sound somewhat passive aggressive.
Jemma looked at him with some confusion as he and Lincoln started walking back down the hall, and almost missed him looking back, winking at her, mouthing the word ‘tomorrow’. Jemma smiled to herself before shutting the door and turning round to face Daisy.
“So, how did it go? I assume not badly because you’re not crying, and you didn’t seem to hate each other there?” She asked frantically.
“It went okay. I gave him back the ring, and we’re just going to take it slowly, which means no wedding and I’ll be staying here for a while yet. I hope that’s okay. I know you were thinking about finding another roommate.” Daisy explained.
Jemma just looked at her incredulously.
“Of course it’s fine! You’re saving me a job and most importantly, doing what’s right for you.” Jemma said, sympathy flooding her voice.
Daisy’s eyes began to fill up with tears.
“Thanks Jemma. You’ve been so good to me this last week, I really appreciate it.”
All Jemma could think to do was wrap her in a tight hug again.
“So you and Lincoln are really okay?” Jemma worried into Daisy’s shoulder.
“Really. I promise. It’s not gonna be fun or easy for a while, but we’ll get there.” Daisy assured her.
“I’m glad.”
“I’m just sorry you had to spend your whole evening with Fitz. I know that you two aren’t exactly the best of friends. I just hope you didn’t spend the whole evening tearing chunks out of each other.” Daisy murmured as she pulled out of the hug.
Jemma felt her face go red. They certainly had torn chunks out of each other but not in the way that Daisy was meaning. They had had a lovely meal at the Indian restaurant that Fitz had suggested, but had spent the latter half of the evening snogging, amongst other things, in Fitz’s car which had been parked in the garage underneath Daisy and Jemma’s building.
“We managed.” Jemma eventually managed to choke out, hoping that Daisy was too preoccupied to notice the resemblance she now bore to a tomato.
The following Monday at work things felt almost back to normal. Daisy and Lincoln were quieter than usual, but that was only to be expected. Lincoln and Hunter had had a quiet chat with one another, and Hunter was now back to his usual springy self. The day chugged on as usual, albeit a lot quieter now that Jemma and Fitz weren’t shouting at each other every five minutes. This last fact didn’t go unnoticed, as Jemma and Fitz had hoped it would. May had never looked happier as she worked away, her well earned peace finally restored to her beloved lab. Bobbi and Daisy however, were slightly more suspicious about Jemma humming under her breath and the frequent ‘ping’ of her phone, which every time she picked it up, she began to smile uncontrollably.
“What’s up with Jemma?” Bobbi whispered to Daisy as she sidled over to her work bench.
“I don’t know. She’s been in a really good mood since Friday night, she went out somewhere on Saturday, and managed to avoid telling me where every time I asked about it.” Daisy hissed back.
“Wait so what happened on Friday?”
“Lincoln came over and Jemma was stuck with Fitz the whole evening”
As soon as Daisy said it, her eyes went wide, and a sneaky smile spread across Bobbi’s face.
“You don’t think???” Daisy whispered excitedly.
“That maybe Team FitzSimmons were actually successful in their goal? Maybe??”
They both glanced over at Jemma, who was grinning at her phone again, completely oblivious to everything else around her.
“She certainly is very happy and very preoccupied by her phone.” Bobbi whispered.
“Do you wanna see if we can get a look at it? See what’s making Simmons so smiley?” Daisy suggested with a grin.
“How are we supposed to do that?”
“For one I know her password. I’m her best friend and her roommate, plus it isn’t even that hard. I’ve sat through far too many Doctor Who marathons with that girl, and really the numbers that make up the word TARDIS?! For a literal genius it’s not exactly up to her usual standards. Anyway, if she goes down to the biohazard facility, then she’ll have to leave her phone here. They aren’t allowed down there. Just give her some excuse to go down there so we can snoop on her phone.” Daisy explained.
“You really are some kind of relationship scheming genius.” Bobbi smiled.
“I know.” Daisy said happily, skipping over to Jemma’s workbench.
“Hey Jem! I was wondering if you could go down to the biohazard facility and check on my samples for me! I have such a backlog of work to do today, after everything, and it would really help me out!”
Jemma jumped about a mile as Daisy began to speak, her phone clattering onto her desk.
“What? Yes of course! I have bits and pieces I need to check on today down there anyway. So it’d be no trouble at all!” Jemma exclaimed, once she’d taken in what Daisy had actually said.
“That’s great! Thanks so much Jemma, you are a lifesaver!” Daisy sighed happily.
“No problem. I’ll just finish up what I’m doing here and I’ll pop down.” Jemma smiled.
Daisy grinned at her before hopping back over to where Bobbi was standing, looking pleased and impressed.
“All hail the master.” Bobbi murmured to her, when a few moments later, Jemma got up and left the lab, leaving her phone behind, plugged neatly into its charging port.
They all but ran over to Jemma’s bench the second she had left the lab, Daisy snatching up the phone, her fingers deftly slamming the numbers 827347 in.
“Ah-ha! She’s been texting Fitz all morning, and most of last night, and the day before and the day before that.” Daisy said, scrolling through a long chain of messages between the two, Bobbi peering over her shoulder.
“Okay they message each other I love you like every five minutes, that is adorable.” Bobbi cooed, her eyes flitting over the messages.
Suddenly Daisy dropped the phone as quickly as if it had just spontaneously combusted and jumped back from the worktop, her hands over her eyes.
“What?” Bobbi asked, staring at Daisy
“I just glimpsed something dirty and I love Jemma and I’m glad that she’s happy and from what little I saw there, clearly getting some, but I do not need to know intimate details. I may never be able to look at Fitz’s hands again.” Daisy exclaimed from behind her hands.
“Right okay, so we clearly know that they’re together, now just put the phone back and we can go find some bleach for your eyeballs if you want.” Bobbi joked.
“I’m good.” Daisy said, hurriedly closing the messaging app and placing the phone back where she had found it.
“I’m thrilled and partly horrified by what I just saw, but mostly thrilled!”
“Me too! But also clearly they’re being sneaky about it. Why?” Bobbi asked.
“Jemma’s been giving me the kid gloves treatment ever since everything happened. Maybe they didn’t want to flaunt it in front of us? Which, that’s really sweet if it’s true but totally unnecessary. If she really wanted to bring me out of the pit of misery I was in last week, telling me that her and Fitz had finally got their geeky freak on would have had me jumping over the freaking moon!” Daisy exclaimed.
Bobbi just laughed.
“She just cares about you. Clearly they had their reasons for keeping it to themselves. For one how often is it that you go from the deep ten-year long grudge hatred thing that they had going on, to a deeply loving relationship?” Bobbi reasoned.
“True. So do we tell the rest of Team FitzSimmons about this, or do we be actually good people and keep it to ourselves until they’re ready to share?” Daisy mused.
“Well, if I know Hunter, he’s probably already figured something out already, especially if Fitz has been grinning at his phone like a doof all morning.” Bobbi considered.
As if on cue, Hunter came barrelling into the lab, a look of utter and absolute glee on his face.
“Guys, guys! You’ll never guess! So Fitz has been acting weird all morning and…” He started.
“He and Simmons finally did it, we know!” Bobbi exclaimed.
Hunter’s face dropped and the expression that replaced it could only be described as devastated.
“How did you find out?!” Hunter yelled in utter outrage.
“We stole Jemma’s phone. How did you find out?” Daisy replied.
“Knicked Fitz’s phone. He’d been grinning at it like a lunatic all morning, so I figured something was up and lo and behold I was right!”
Bobbi just shot Daisy a ‘what did I tell you’ look before turning bemusedly back to Hunter.
“So?? What are we going to do??” Hunter prodded.
“We thought nothing.” Daisy said plainly.
“NOTHING?! Oh come on!” Hunter exploded.
“They’re keeping this to themselves for a reason Hunter. Just let them tell us in their own time.” Bobbi reasoned.
The look on Hunter’s face at these words was akin to that of a petulant school child, his mouth open and a retort on the tip of his tongue. However before Hunter could utter his reply, Coulson appeared in the doorway.
“You three, my office.” Coulson said in an urgent but quiet voice.
“Have any of you seen FitzSimmons? I’ll need them for this too.”
“Jemma is down in the biohazard facility.”
“Fitz went to go check on parts for his new drone idea.”
Bobbi and Hunter spoke simultaneously.
“Find them and come up to my office immediately. I want them both in on this. Don’t speak to anyone else until you get there, understood?”
The trio nodded and split silently, Bobbi and Daisy to go and find Jemma and Hunter to fetch Fitz. Less than fifteen minutes later, they were joined by Lincoln in Coulson’s office. The six of them stood nervously in front of Coulson’s desk, curious as to why they were there in the first place.
“As we speak, Grant Ward, our security guard, is being escorted from the premises by law enforcement.” Coulson began.
“Last week after FitzSimmons came to me with their concerns about Ward we began a quiet internal investigation to determine if he was a mole, planted by HYDRA Labs, which as it turns out, is exactly what he was. It was his job not only to steal intel from us but to begin to break us apart from the insides, to turn colleague against colleague until this organisation tore itself apart internally. All six of you are here today because all of you were to varying degrees, victims of this and I wanted you all to hear it from me, not in an email, not on the evening news or over your breakfast in the morning. Ward will feel the repercussions of what he did to you I promise. He didn’t just steal information from this organisation, he stole the trust that we hold within each other as colleagues and as friends. Daisy, I know we spoke this morning when you came in but I cannot apologise enough for my behaviour towards you, it was irrational and unprofessional. I extend this same apology to the rest of you, despite the fact that Ward was using us as his own personal puppets, my personal reactions were not what they aught to have been and I can only apologise and try to make amends for that.”
Coulson sighed and paused for a moment, not looking at the six people in front of him.
“Unfortunately what this all means is that at some point all of you will need to testify in court. It won’t be small and hidden away either, this will be a big public trial, but if it is successful it could mean the end of HYDRA and their rotten core of ethics. I’m sorry that I have to ask this of all of you, but it is a necessary evil. I will ask you to keep this to yourselves for the time being, I’m planning on sending out a company wide email at some point in the next twenty-four hours and after that I trust you all to use your own discretion in discussing the matter. Thank you all for your time, you are now free to go.” Coulson concluded.
He looked exhausted, too exhausted for a Monday lunchtime, so no one sought to argue with him and they all filed silently from the room. To absolutely no one’s surprise, it was Hunter that broke the silence first.
“Well lads, I thought we were about to get our arses handed to us. I didn’t know why, but I thought we’d had it.” He said conversationally.
“Ward is definitely getting what he deserves though. I never liked him personally, big tall quiet git.”
Bobbi and Jemma glared at him, Bobbi jerking her head towards Daisy and Lincoln who were both quiet and pale.
“Cup of tea?” Jemma suggested, after Hunter had finally gotten the message.
“I will take the biggest cup of coffee I can get my hands on right now. You Brits can keep your tea.” Daisy piped up, much to everyone’s surprise.
They all congregated in the break room, passing around tea and coffee, Fitz had unearthed a packet of biscuits from somewhere (he had a secret stash somewhere but no one ever knew where), and for the first time in what felt like a while, things felt somewhat normal. That was until Hunter decided that it was time to speak again.
“So are we really just going to ignore the fact that FitzSimmons have been snuggled up together at that table like an old married couple for the last twenty minutes?” He declared to the room at large.
Daisy and Bobbi groaned at him, whilst Jemma and Fitz sprung apart like someone had simultaneously given them very powerful electric shocks.
“Hunter, no! We said we wouldn’t do anything!” Bobbi cried at him, hitting him in the arm.
“Okay, what the bloody hell are you lot on about?” Fitz asked.
“We know about you two!” Hunter exclaimed, jumping out of Bobbi’s reach as he did so.
“U-us two? I-I’m sure we have no idea what you’re talking about.” Jemma spluttered.
“Bullshit Jemma. You and Fitz have been doing the nasty dance for at least the last week and kept it to yourselves.” Daisy added, realising that thanks to Hunter, the jig was up.
“Me and Fitz?! No no no no no no no no no no no…”
“We stole your phones and saw your texts. They were both cute and horrifying.” Daisy interrupted.
“I really think you’ve got the wrong end of the stick. I mean really? Me and Fitz? What a sill…” Jemma continued to protest.
“Oh we’ve been rumbled. Just shut up would you.” Fitz said with a smile, interrupting her protests by kissing her soundly.
The room burst into applause and Fitz and Jemma broke apart, red-faced but looking rather pleased with themselves.
“I’m so happy for you!” Daisy squealed.
“But I do want to lay down some ground rules. Firstly, you absolutely cannot have sex on our couch.” She continued, causing both of them to go even redder than they had been.
Daisy continued to bombard them with questions for the rest of the day, whilst Bobbi listened on intently. Lincoln patted Fitz on the shoulder with a quiet ‘congrats man’ and said nothing more on the topic. Hunter just leaned back and grinned triumphantly. As far as he was concerned this was his victory. Jemma put up with it all, with the stipulation that it would all stop tomorrow. They didn’t even protest the looks on Daisy and Bobbi’s faces or the wink from Hunter when they left work at the same time, heading back to Fitz’s flat for the night.
“What do you think our eighteen-year-old selves would think of us now?” Jemma asked later that evening, as she lay in Fitz’s bed, wrapped up in his arms.
Fitz chuckled.
“I would have to pick my eighteen year old self up off the floor so he could answer. I think the idea of us being naked in bed together would be far too much for the poor wee bugger to take. Remember how drunk he had to get to even make a move in the first place.” He laughed.
Jemma laughed.
“I think I would be surprised initially, but realise just how much sense it made.” She mused.
“This coming from the woman who took ten years and our friends doing some truly pathetic meddling to realise she was in love with me.” Fitz teased.
Jemma reached back and swatted him on the chest.
“I knew I loved you. I just didn’t want to admit it.”
Fitz went quiet for a moment, and Jemma craned her neck around to look at him, silently asking ‘are you okay?’.
“D-do you ever wonder, about those ten years? What would have happened if we hadn’t fought that morning?” He asked tentatively.
“Yes. I’ve thought about that a lot this last week, and it’s not worth dwelling on what might have been. Surely all that’s important is that we’re here, now, together.”
Fitz just smiled and leaned down to capture her lips in a kiss. They lay there together and dozed for a while, just incandescently happy to be together. After a while, Jemma became aware of Fitz letting out a long, low groan.
“I’ve just thought.”
“What? What is it?”
“Our mothers are going to be absolutely insufferable when they find out.”
THE END