Work Text:
How bravely beautiful it is,
that sometimes,
the sea wants the city,
even when it has been told
its entire life it was
meant for the shore.
Since becoming a professor at SciTech, Jemma Simmons had never once been nervous about the first day of school - until now.
It might have something to do with her daughter starting her first year at the Academy.
Jemma knew Maggie was capable - she was, after all, a Fitzsimmons - but at seventeen, she was still much younger than the rest of her cohort. Jemma had tried to convince her daughter to wait a little longer, but in addition to having her parents’ brains, she had inherited their stubbornness. Fighting against her was a losing battle, especially since Jemma didn’t have any real reasons not to allow her daughter to apply. And, of course, with all the connections she had to S.H.I.E.L.D. and her formidable intelligence, when Maggie applied she was accepted.
Jemma had only taught two classes that day (Applications of Biochemistry and Advanced Xenobiology), held her office hours, and then spent the rest of her time worrying over Maggie. Four o’clock, when Maggie’s last class of the day ended, came and went, and still her daughter was gone. Just when Jemma was sure she needed to call in an Amber Alert, Maggie burst through the door… and she wasn’t alone.
“Hi, Mum!” Maggie chirped, running a hand through her messy brunette curls. “Sorry I’m late!”
Jemma raised an eyebrow, inclining her head in the direction of the purple-haired girl standing awkwardly behind Maggie. “Oh! Sorry. Mum, this is Isabelle -”
“I go by Bells,” the girl interrupted, stepping forward to offer her hand to Jemma. “It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Simmons.” Jemma shook the girl’s offered hand, giving her a once-over. She was probably Ops, given her all-black dress and obviously toned muscles. May hadn’t mentioned any young cadets enrolling in Ops - that was a question worth exploring. It wasn’t like her to forget things like that.
“Bells is a cadet with Ops. She’s only six months older than me!” That confirmed Jemma’s suspicions about Bells’s placement. Maggie grinned excitedly at her mother. Jemma had prepared her for the reality of not having many friends her age, so this was probably as much a shock to Maggie as it was to Jemma. It was certainly better news than Maggie being bullied, which Jemma had feared.
“Maggie said I just had to meet you.” Bells smiled good-naturedly. “Cuz you’d never believe I existed otherwise.”
“She wouldn’t!”
“I would have, Maggie,” Jemma admonished quietly. Her daughter wasn’t prone to over-exaggeration. It was probably Fitz who would be more suspicious of the story of a purple-haired eighteen-year-old in Ops.
“I should be getting going. My mum’s supposed to call soon.” Bells stepped back to the entrance of Jemma’s office. “Have a nice night, Dr. Simmons. I’ll see you tomorrow for lunch, Mags?”
Maggie nodded, waving Bells off. The door closed behind her, and Jemma turned to her daughter, crossing her arms over her chest. “I thought you didn’t like it when people called you Mags.”
“I dunno.” Maggie shrugged. “It’s kinda cool. Bells and Mags. Like we match.”
“You know, you don’t have to be friends with her just because she’s your age.” Maybe it was her overprotective side coming out, but it made Jemma more than a smidge uncomfortable how Maggie was already changing for her new acquaintance.
“I don’t have to, but I want to. She’s really nice, Mum. And like, crazy smart. I don’t know why she’s not in SciTech like me. She was telling me about her research -” Maggie spent the whole walk to the car and then the majority of the ride home regaling Jemma with the story of Bells’s research into pH-stable nucleases, and at the end of it all, Jemma had to admit she was impressed. Maybe she had been too quick to judge Maggie’s new friend.
---
“Owen report?” Fitz poked his head into the bedroom, and Jemma rolled her eyes. Fitz was convinced Maggie was going to meet Owen Shaw at the Academy, and then they’d fall madly in love and have a Deke. Jemma wasn’t sure she was convinced.
“If there’s an Owen Shaw enrolled, he’s not in SciTech.” If she wanted to, Jemma could look through the rosters for Operations and Communications as well, but it felt like an unwarranted violation of privacy.
“Good.” Fitz plopped himself into the bed beside Jemma, kissing her cheek. “How did her first day go?”
“Well, I think. I’ve now learned the life story of one of the Ops cadets who she made friends with.” In addition to talking about Bells’s research, Maggie had also mentioned the other girl had lived in twelve different homes in seventeen years, and was a competitive gymnast for most of her life.
“Not Owen?”
“Not Owen, Fitz,” Jemma said, rolling her eyes fondly. “It’s a girl. Bells.”
“Good.”
“Fitz!”
“I’m just saying, one Deke is enough for any universe. We’ve already reached our quota.” Jemma smacked his shoulder, but her husband remained unapologetic. “One Deke, Jemma!”
“We still have plenty of time before Deke comes into existence.”
“Not if Owen gets her pregnant on the first date!”
“Fitz,” Jemma groaned. They had already given their daughter The Talk, which meant she theoretically knew about condoms and birth control and the like. “She’s seventeen. Let her live her life before you start talking about babies.”
“But -”
Jemma leaned over to cut him off with a soft, lingering kiss. “No buts. Maggie is wonderful and intelligent and independent, and when she meets Owen and falls in love with him, we’ll support her wholeheartedly.”
“Deke -”
“Uh uh,” Jemma tutted. “You say one more word about Owen or Deke and you’re being couched.”
Fitz pouted, but the prospect of a night on the couch was enough to keep him mum on Owen Shaw… for now.
---
Two weeks later, Jemma was waiting in her office for Maggie when she received a text from her daughter. On the quad with Bells. She’s teaching me how to cartwheel!!! It was followed by an obscene amount of emojis, from a heart-eye emoji to a panda bear Jemma didn’t understand the significance of. Either way, it seemed Maggie wanted to meet her on the quad, so Jemma packed her things into her messenger bag and made her way to the stretch of green space.
When they had rebuilt the three S.H.I.E.L.D. Academies, everyone had been adamant they interact more, so the quad was shared by all three campuses. From what Jemma had observed over the years, it seemed mostly Communications cadets hung around, but Ops had been known to use it for a game of Capture the Flag. Jemma couldn’t remember the last time she had seen a SciTech cadet on the quad except for when using it to travel from building to building.
But there was her daughter, flushed and laughing as she and Bells flipped and turned. It didn’t seem Maggie had gotten close to mastering a cartwheel, but she was having fun, and that was all that mattered.
“Hi Dr. Simmons!” Bells called, waving her arm wildly. “Look at what Maggie can do!” Maggie obligingly tumbled into what some would call a cartwheel. Other would call it a suicide attempt - or maybe that was just Jemma.
“Still need some work,” Maggie panted as her mother got closer. “But look, Mum! Bells did my hair!” Maggie’s hair was indeed different than it had been when she left the house - it was tied up in an intricate braid that looked far too complicated to be easily replicated. Stray tendrils of hair had escaped from the braid and were plastered against Maggie’s cheeks and neck with her sweat, but most of it had held up admirably well for the amount of movement she seemed to be doing.
“Looks nice, peanut.” Jemma smiled. “Ready to head home?”
“Peanut?” Bells repeated, snorting.
“Okay, you’re one to talk, little bird! ”
“Aw, Mags,” Bells whined. “I didn’t tell you that so you could make fun of me!”
“Play with fire and get burned, little bird.” When had her daughter gotten so sassy? Jemma forgot sometimes Maggie was a teenager. At least it was someone else bearing the brunt of the sass this time.
“We’re not friends anymore.”
“See you tomorrow, Bells!” Both girls were smiling when they parted, so Jemma assumed their argument was all in good fun.
“I think when I get out of the Academy I’m going to try for Sci-Ops like you and Dad,” Maggie announced without preamble as they made their way to the faculty parking lot. “Bells was telling me about her marksmanship class and it sounds like loads of fun.”
“Margaret Phillipa Fitzsimmons.” Jemma stopped in her tracks, forcing Maggie to stop, too. Jemma looked her daughter in the eyes, voice low and serious. “Nothing that happens in the field is fun , darling. People risk their lives for our organization and what it stands for. You should never want to fire a gun - you should do it because there’s no other option. Marksmanship class is so people can still be safe even when there are no better options. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Mum.” Maggie looked down at her shoes and began scuffing at the pavement. “It just seems like Bells really enjoys her classes, is all.”
“Don’t you enjoy your classes?” Jemma asked, frowning.
“Yeah, but they’re kind of… I dunno.” Maggie shrugged. “I just like it better when Bells is around, I guess.”
Jemma softened slightly. She had tried her best to give Maggie realistic expectations about what being at the Academy would be like, but just like with every school, it was work. It made sense her daughter had more fun when she was goofing around with Bells.
“We can talk more about Sci-Ops when you’re closer to graduating, alright?” Jemma asked, beginning to walk again. “Daddy and I both have stories we want to tell you before you make your decision.”
“Alright, Mum.”
---
The last person Jemma expected to come to her Friday afternoon office hours was Bells. Most cadets preferred the office hours she held on Mondays or Wednesdays, so her office was empty when Maggie’s friend poked her head in. Bells’s once vibrant purple hair was fading to lilac, but it was still instantly recognizable.
“Hi, Dr. Simmons. Is it alright if I ask you some questions?”
“That is what office hours are for,” Jemma answered.
“Yeah, but I mean, I’m not one of your students, so…”
“It’s alright, Bells. As you can see, I’m not exactly popular right now.” Jemma gestured to her empty office with a wry smile, then beckoned the girl in. Bells sat across from Jemma, fidgeting slightly.
“I was wondering if you knew anything about the Wall of Valor? I asked my Tactics professor about it but he said if I had questions I should ask Director May, and she kinda scares me, so… I thought since you know the Director, maybe you’d be able to tell me more?”
Jemma blinked. Most cadets didn’t care about the Wall of Valor until they were second years and took their mandatory History of S.H.I.E.L.D. course. Especially in Ops the professors tried to stress the importance of the Wall and how one day it was possible the cadets would end up giving their lives to S.H.I.E.L.D., but Jemma hadn’t heard of a cadet who had only been at the Academy for three months caring so much about the Wall.
“What would you like to know?”
“Well, it says it’s for people who gave their lives to S.H.I.E.L.D. I thought that meant people who died, but…” Bells clamped her mouth shut, obviously pondering her next words. “I mean, there’s someone on there who didn’t die, right? Bucky Barnes?”
“There’s more than one way to give your life to an organization, Bells.” Jemma swallowed hard, unwanted memories tugging at her thoughts. “The Wall of Valor is for those who did everything in their power for S.H.I.E.L.D. Who followed their oath to the last.”
“Like the quote says?”
“Yes, just like that.” The old quote on the Wall of Valor, about wars being won by people, had felt terribly old-fashioned, especially since so many lives were lost when S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t technically at war with anyone. Coulson had suggested the replacement quote - We took an oath. To be the shield. To protect those in danger. - and it had been ratified in short order. Jemma took a deep breath, fighting against the tears prickling at the backs of her eyes. Most of the time it was easy not to think about her friends, but there were times she was reminded of them and the weight of their absence hit her all over again.
“I’m sorry,” Bells whispered. “I didn’t mean…”
“It’s quite alright.” Jemma blinked away the tears, composing herself. “Did that answer your question?”
“I think so.” Bells shifted in her seat. “I kind of have more questions now than when I started, though.”
“Anything I can answer?”
“No, I don’t think so. Not about this, at least. I was kind of wondering…” Bells trailed off.
“Yes?”
“Never mind. It’s no big deal.” Bells flashed Jemma an uncertain smile. “Thanks, Dr. Simmons.”
“Any time, Bells.”
When the girl got up and left, Jemma grabbed a tissue from the box on her desk, carefully blotting at her eyes. Funny, how grief worked, she thought to herself as she waited in the lonely office. Just when she thought she was done with it, it reminded her - some wounds never quite healed.
---
“Hey Mum?” Maggie appeared in the entrance of the kitchen, shoulders hunched and eyes downturned. “Can I talk to you about something?”
Jemma paused in slicing the cucumber in front of her, worry already nipping at her. Jemma could hardly remember the last time she had seen Maggie look this nervous. “Of course, sweetheart.”
Maggie shuffled across the kitchen, propping herself against the counter. “IthinkIlikeBells.”
“Pardon?”
“I think I like Bells,” Maggie repeated, more slowly.
Jemma furrowed her brow. “Well, she is your friend, so -”
“I mean like like,” Maggie interrupted, voice cracking. “As… not a friend.”
Oh. Before now, Maggie hadn’t expressed much interest in dating anyone, of any gender. It had pleased Fitz, and Jemma had always assumed it was because Maggie was waiting for the right person - for Owen. Jemma hadn’t prepared for this. She had no idea what to say, or how to say it. She and Fitz had been so focused on knowing Owen was coming they hadn’t thought much outside of him. Now, Jemma was realizing what an error that was. They weren’t living in the same timeline as before, which meant -
“You’re mad.” Red crept up Maggie’s neck and into her cheeks, and her lower lip trembled precariously. “You know what, forget it, it’s -”
“Maggie,” Jemma said softly. “I’m not mad. And it’s not nothing.” Jemma felt like she was bungling everything. She still hadn’t a clue what to say next, and her daughter was a breath away from tears because she had just come out and her mother was staring at her.
“Come here, peanut.” Jemma opened her arms and Maggie stepped into them, burying her head in her mother’s shoulder as she let out a sob.
“It’s so stupid! ” Maggie sniffled. “I’ve never liked anyone before and now I have to like my best friend and I don’t even think she’s gay and it sucks!”
Jemma combed her fingers through her daughter’s hair, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “It’s not stupid, Maggie. Sometimes it’s confusing to like someone. But no matter who you like, I’m here to listen, okay?”
“Yeah.” Maggie sniffled again. “But you don’t really have advice for being gay, do you?”
“No, I’m afraid not. But I do have a plethora of knowledge about being in love with my best friend.”
“That’s gross, Mum,” Maggie said with a watery laugh.
“Sorry, peanut.” Jemma kept running her hands through Maggie’s hair until her daughter’s crying had stopped. Maggie stepped away, rubbing her eyes with the backs of her hands.
“Please don’t tell Dad.”
Jemma had to hold back her shock, but she nodded. If Maggie wasn’t ready to have this conversation with Fitz, she wasn’t ready. “Of course not.”
“It’s just that he keeps telling me about how boys are gross and I don’t want him to think he made me a lesbian, because I don’t even think I am a lesbian, I just really like Bells and I might be bi, and… I’m rambling, aren’t I?”
“A little bit.” Jemma smiled softly. “But that’s alright. Sometimes talking helps.”
“She’s just really nice, Mum. She cares about everyone so much and she likes to make me laugh and when she smiles at me it’s like - wow, you know?”
Ah, young love. “I know.”
“If you say something about Dad again I’m going to barf.”
“Noted. Now, do you want to help me with dinner and you can tell me more?”
---
Jemma spent the better part of three days pondering how to broach the topic with Fitz without breaking Maggie’s confidence. Her husband, for all his good qualities, could be set in his ways. If he found out there was no Owen, he’d probably be relieved - no Owen meant no Deke, after all - but confused. Besides, Jemma had questions, and whenever she needed answers Fitz was the easiest person to talk to.
As they got ready for bed one night, Jemma finally found the words she was looking for. “What if there’s no Owen?”
“Huh?” Fitz asked, sliding his pajama top over his head.
“What if Owen Shaw doesn’t exist in this timeline?” Jemma repeated.
“Of course Owen exists in this timeline,” Fitz scoffed. “He existed in every one of the loop timelines, which means -”
“But we’re not in a loop timeline.”
“Jemma.” Fitz sighed. “You know my beliefs on the rigidity of time.”
“And you know I don’t share those beliefs,” Jemma fired back. It was too depressing to believe they had no choice, no free will - that everything was going to happen to them had always been destined to happen. They had broken the time loop, it was obvious they had broken the time loop, which meant things could be different. Things should be different. “If it makes you feel better, consider it a thought game. What if there’s no Owen?”
“Well, Owen was Maggie’s soulmate -”
“How do you know that?” Jemma interrupted. “All we know is Deke’s parents were happy together and loved each other. You can be happy with someone who isn’t your soulmate. You can love plenty of people who aren’t your soulmate.” They didn’t even know Deke’s mother was Maggie - maybe in the loop timeline they had had a different daughter, with a different name and a different heart and a different soul.
“Are you trying to tell me something?” Fitz put his hands on his hips, and Jemma had to backpedal. This wasn’t about her relationship with Fitz, or even the notion of soulmates in general. She just didn’t want Fitz thinking Owen was their daughter’s end game, that it would always be Owen. Not when Maggie was in love with someone else.
Granted, she was seventeen. There was no saying Owen wouldn’t come along eventually and Bells wasn’t anything more than a stepping stone on the path to true love, but Jemma didn’t want to hang her hat on that assumption.
“I’m just saying, maybe waiting for our daughter to meet someone who may or may not exist isn’t healthy for us - or for her.” She and Fitz didn’t talk about Owen in front of Maggie, but they could’ve been subconsciously projecting their expectations onto her. Fitz’s fixation on Owen (and the eventuality of Deke) was annoyingly endearing, but the more Jemma thought about it, the less healthy it seemed.
“I’ll grant that.” Fitz shrugged. “There’s no way to prove a negative, though.”
Jemma nodded. She couldn’t prove there was no Owen Shaw, and Maggie wasn’t ready to talk about not-Owen with her father, so that had to be the end of that.
---
“ MUM! ” Maggie burst through the front door with a billion-gigawatt smile on her face, and Jemma set aside the papers she was grading to turn to Maggie.
“Yes?”
“Guess what happened to me today?” Before Jemma could so much as open her mouth, Maggie was talking again. “Bells asked me on a date! Like, a real date! She wants to take me to an ice skating rink and she promised to buy me hot cocoa and I’m pretty sure she only asked me to go ice skating because I don’t know how to skate and she wants an excuse to hold my hand!” Maggie threw herself onto the sofa, draping herself over her mother’s lap. “I’m going on a date! With Bells!” She let out a giggle unlike one Jemma had ever heard before, and Jemma couldn’t help but smile.
“I’m happy for you, peanut.” Jemma paused. “How, exactly, did this happen?”
“You know that shirt Aunt Daisy has? The one about Bi-Fi? Apparently Bells has it too and she wore it yesterday and I asked her if she was bi and she said yeah and I said me too and she looked at me kind of funny and I didn’t know why and then today she asked me out!” The words all tumbled out in a rush and Jemma looked at Maggie, amused. Like both her and her husband, their daughter had a habit of rambling when she was nervous or excited. Jemma thought it was cute when Fitz did it, but when Maggie rambled, it was a new level of adorable.
“When is this date going to be?” Maggie knew how to drive (and had begged and pleaded until she got her own car), so Jemma wasn’t worried about her getting there, but she did like to know where her daughter was, if possible.
“Saturday night. We’re going to the ice rink on Hudson Street, you know, the one with the disco lights on the outside?” Jemma nodded. She and Fitz had gone there more than once on dates, though she wasn’t going to share that tidbit with Maggie.
“I think I’m going to tell Dad,” Maggie blurted out. “I mean, I didn’t want to tell him until I had a girlfriend, because if I ended up with a boy maybe it wouldn’t be a big deal and I’d never have to tell him, but I don’t want to lie to him, you know?”
“Even if you didn’t want to tell him still, it wouldn’t be lying. That’s something you get to share when you’re ready, not a moment before.”
“I know. But I am ready, I think. And maybe then he’ll stop bothering me about boys.”
“You never know with your father. He's a little strange sometimes.”
“You’re the one who married him, Mum.”
“I did, didn’t I?” Maggie pulled a face, and Jemma shook her head fondly. “So, peanut, have you planned an outfit for your date?”
The color drained from Maggie’s face. “Hey Mum?”
“Yes?”
“Can we go shopping?”
---
“So… Maggie.”
“What about her?” Jemma asked, brushing her hair back from her face as she continued washing the dishes.
“You were right about there not being an Owen.”
“I know.”
“How long?”
“How long have I known? Or how long has there been no Owen? Because you can’t prove a negative, you know.”
“Jemma,” Fitz said with a sigh, picking up a towel and beginning to dry the dishes she finished with. “You know what I mean.”
“A few weeks,” she answered. “Though really, I think I should have seen it earlier.” In hindsight, the way Maggie had talked about Bells had never really been friendly. It had always been different, but Jemma had attributed the difference to Maggie being younger and not used to having friends her own age.
“I didn’t see it at all, so you have one up on me.”
“She’s always been a mama’s girl, Fitz, you know that.” Maggie loved her father, of course, but as long as Jemma could remember her daughter had gravitated towards her. They weren’t carbon copies, nothing close, but Jemma understood Maggie, and she rather thought her daughter understood her, too - at least as well as a teenager could.
“I just feel bad. For focusing so much on Owen, and boys, and making her think…”
Jemma laid a comforting hand on Fitz’s arm, leaving a wet spot on his cardigan. “You were doing your best. And now you know better.”
“Yeah.”
They finished washing the dishes in companionable silence, then turned in for the night.
---
Instead of Maggie meeting her at her office at the end of every school day, Jemma had taken to finding her daughter on the quad, where she was a nearly-permanent fixture when not in class. Maggie was actually getting a tan, which was practically unheard of for a Fitzsimmons. Jemma was of the opinion that all the outdoor time was good for Maggie - not just because of the vitamin D and the fresh air, but also because she made more friends, or so it seemed. Bells was always nearby when Jemma went to collect Maggie from the quad, but a fair few times Maggie had been chatting with someone else, her girlfriend a half-dozen meters away or even across the quad.
When Jemma approached the quad this time, though, the scene wasn’t nearly so idyllic. Maggie was practically hiding behind Bells (who was easy to spot thanks to her recently-redyed hair), a trio of SciTech cadets uncomfortable close to the purple-haired girl. Jemma quickened her pace, uncertain of what they were saying that might’ve made Bells look like a snake about to strike.
Just as Jemma was reaching easy speaking distance of the group, one of the SciTech cadets made to punch Bells. She caught his hand easily - she was Ops and he was SciTech, of course she could beat him in a physical fight - and shoved it away from her. Another of the older cadets was quicker, and shoved Bells backwards a half-step. Maggie scuttled a few feet away, glancing around nervously.
“Mum!” Maggie called when she caught Jemma’s eye.
The three SciTech cadets all whipped their heads to the side, and when they spotted Jemma turned tail. By the time she was next to Maggie, the trio had disappeared into the Friday afternoon crowd on the quad.
“What was that about?” Jemma asked, glancing from Maggie to Bells.
“It’s fine,” Bells answered immediately.
“It’s not fine!” Maggie retorted. “They were saying a bunch of rude stuff about Bells and how only idiots get into Ops!”
“I’m fine.”
“They were going to hurt you!”
“Yeah, like they could’ve actually done anything,” Bells snorted.
“They’re older than you are, and there were three of them,” Jemma interjected before the squabble between Maggie and Bells could get any worse. “They could’ve hurt you if they wanted to.” Sometimes numbers meant more than skill in a fight.
“Well they didn’t want to hurt me. They just wanted to show off how smart and awesome they were.” Bells rolled her eyes. “Like I said, it’s fine. They’ve been bugging me for a while and this is the first time they got close to being physical.”
“ What!? You didn’t tell me this wasn’t the first time!” Maggie looked unsure of whether she ought to be angry or concerned, and Jemma sympathized.
“It’s fine, okay? I have it handled.”
“Obviously you don’t, or they would’ve stopped!”
“Bells,” Jemma interrupted, “why haven’t you reported this?”
“Because I’m not a snitch! It’s just some hazing thing, okay? They’re only avoiding Maggie because they know she’s your daughter and you’d hear about it if it happened to her.”
“Well I’m hearing about it now, and despite what you keep saying, it’s not fine. You said this is the first time it’s gotten close to being physical, which means they’re escalating. They’re going to keep getting worse if they think they can get away with it.” Jemma knew a thing or two about bullies, including how they worked. Bells wasn’t going to get away from this unscathed. “And since I witnessed the altercation, I’m going to have to report it to Directors May and Mackenzie.”
Bells went from looking put together to almost-crying in an instant. “You can’t! My mum will kill me if she heard I almost got in a fight!”
“I’m sure that’s -”
“She and Dad said I could only stay if I kept my head down! I’m not supposed to - you know what, forget it. I’m going home.”
“Bells -”
“Fuck off, Maggie!”
And with that, Bells stormed away.
---
As soon as they were home, Maggie flew up the stairs and into her bedroom, all but slamming the door behind her. Jemma ran her hands over her face, overwhelmed and unsure. Maggie probably needed her mother right then, but getting her to admit she needed her mother was going to be… not particularly fun.
Jemma trooped up the stairs, turned, and hesitated outside Maggie’s door. There were no telltale sniffles coming from the other side, but that didn’t mean much. Sometimes there were worse things than crying.
Jemma knocked quietly. “Peanut? Can I come in?”
“Go away.”
She sighed, and mentally apologized to her parents for all the times she had been ornery. “Maggie…”
The door swung open without warning, revealing a red-faced Maggie. “My girlfriend hates me and it’s your fault. I asked you to go away. ” The door slammed again.
Jemma blinked. How was this her fault? She stopped herself before she could overthink it. It didn’t matter why Maggie thought she was the root cause of the fight – either way, her feelings were valid and Jemma was going to have to deal with them.
Jemma retreated to her bedroom, deciding to wait out the storm. It had been at least a year since Maggie had been this upset, but when she was hurting, the same thing always happened. First, Maggie shut herself out from others. Then, she cried an awful lot. It was only after she had cried herself blue in the face that Maggie could actually talk about how she was feeling. Jemma had hoped with age and maturity they might’ve been able to skip the first few steps, but that had been naïve.
Two hours later, just as expected, Maggie appeared in the doorway of the master bedroom, her eyes puffy and her cheeks tear-stained.
“I don’t get it, Mum,” Maggie whispered as she snuggled into Jemma’s side. “I just wanted to help her.”
“Some people aren’t good at accepting help. They think it makes them weak.” Jemma kissed the top of Maggie’s head. “But really, it just makes us strong.”
“But…”
“Maggie, I know you don’t like it when I remind you of this, but you’re just a teenager. And so is Bells. You both have a lot to learn yet.” Jemma rubbed her daughter’s shoulder, attempting to give some semblance of comfort.
“I just want to talk to her, Mum. Things would make more sense if we could talk.”
“She might not be ready for that, peanut. People process things differently.”
“This sucks.”
“It does.”
“Does it ever get easier, Mum?”
“It does, love. I promise.”
---
Jemma had had a spectacularly shitty week. The fight between Maggie and Bells still hadn’t resolved, which meant she had a cranky, heartbroken teenager on her hands and no idea of what to do about it. A part of her wanted to believe this was it for Maggie and Bells and now Owen would swoop into their lives and fix it all, but a much larger part just saw her baby was hurting.
She trudged up to her office for what was sure to be an empty Friday office hours, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a familiar head of purple hair outside her office hours. Bells was sitting on the floor outside Jemma’s office, knees tucked up to her chest. A tendril of anger wrapped itself around Jemma’s heart - even if she knew Bells wasn’t entirely to blame, she was a large part of the reason Maggie was hurting - but it disappeared when she got closer and the shake of Bells’s shoulders became more obvious. She was crying, hard. The girl didn’t even notice Jemma was there, even when Jemma was standing right over her.
“Bells?”
Bells turned her face towards Jemma, and Jemma gasped. The entire left side of Bells’s face was swollen, and there was dried blood on her nose - and all over her hands.
“You w-were r-right,” Bells said. “Th-they… they…” Bells gulped back another sob, unable to finish her sentence.
“Come here, sweetheart.” Jemma helped Bells to her feet, watching as the girl shifted all her weight onto her right side. They had gotten her ankle or knee, too, it seemed.
“There’s a bathroom just down the hall. We’ll get you cleaned up there, alright?” Halfway down the hallway it became obvious even walking the short distance was hurting Bells, and Jemma offered her arm for the girl to lean on. It was a testament to how much pain she was in that Bells actually took it.
Even after cleaning off the blood, Bells’s face looked bad. Jemma ran her fingers over Bells’s eyebrow, then her cheekbone and nose, checking for breaks. Even her gentle touches made the girl flinch, and Jemma murmured a soft apology as she double-checked her work. It had been a long time since she’d done a medical exam, and she didn’t want to miss anything.
“Nothing in your face is broken,” Jemma announced finally. “Ankle or knee?”
“Kn-knee,” Bells stammered, looking ready to cry again. “My m-mum’s g-going to k-kill me, D-Dr. Simmons. She’s actually g-going to k-kill me.”
“Did you start the fight?” Jemma asked as she knelt to inspect Bells’s knee.
“N-no.”
“Then I doubt she’ll be angry. Mums tend to worry more than they get mad when it comes to things like this.” It was hard to inspect over the fabric of Bells’s jeans, but it seemed like her knee had also avoided a break.
“B-but she’ll b-be angry I d-didn’t s-say anything earlier. It’s m-my f-fault.”
“Isabelle,” Jemma said, straightening so she could look the girl in the eye. She hadn’t actually realized Bells was taller than her until that moment, but Jemma tilted her chin up so she could still meet Bells’s eyes. “Being bullied is never your fault. Yes, you should have reported it when it first happened to you. But I’m partially to blame, too. I should’ve made you report it when I saw something happen.” Jemma tucked a strand of Bells’s purple hair behind her ear gently. “But we’re going to do something about that now, alright?”
Bells sniffled, then nodded. “I r-really w-want m-my m-m… mum.”
“You can call her when we’re done, alright? And you’ll come home with me for dinner.”
“M-Maggie…”
“We can talk about Maggie later,” Jemma interrupted firmly. “I’m going to see if Directors May and Mackenzie are in their offices, and we’ll get this all sorted.”
---
Four hours later, Jemma opened the front door of her house to a very confused husband.
“I got your texts,” Fitz said as soon as she stepped into the house. “What’s -?” He stopped talking when he saw Bells huddled behind Jemma, still looking scared and awfully breakable.
“We have a guest for dinner,” was all Jemma said to him.
“Can I go talk to Maggie?” Bells asked quietly.
“Of course, sweetheart. Her bedroom’s up the stairs, first door on the right.” Normally Jemma would’ve asked Maggie first, but the entire week she had been bemoaning how much she just wanted to talk to Bells and figure their whole mess out, so Jemma was going to forgive herself just this once.
When Bells had limped her way up the stairs and was out of earshot, Fitz once again turned to Jemma.
“That’s Maggie’s girlfriend?”
“Yes, that’s Bells.” Jemma wasn’t entirely sure if Maggie and Bells were technically still together, but it wasn’t exactly her biggest priority at the moment.
“What happened to her face?”
“Bullies,” Jemma answered. She took a deep breath, trying not to get too worked up again. She had been foaming at the mouth by the time Bells had finished recounting the entire story of her bullying to May and Mack. No matter how many times Bells had insisted it was no big deal, she was obviously affected by what had happened. She had been shaking by the end of her story, and it had tugged at Jemma’s heartstrings. It would have been awful even without Jemma’s own personal history with bullying and her connection to Bells.
“They’re getting expelled, aren’t they?”
“May and Mack won’t tell me.” There weren’t many times Jemma regretted turning down the offer to be the Director of SciTech - it had let her focus on raising her daughter the way she wanted to - but this was one of them. Faculty weren’t allowed to know what was happening in an ongoing investigation. Jemma would learn if the students were expelled at the next faculty meeting, which wasn’t until after Christmas break.
“Spend seven years on a team with them and this is how they repay us?”
“Fitz,” Jemma admonished, even though she agreed, at least a little bit. Sometimes May and Mack could be such sticklers for the rules.
“Is that why Maggie’s been in such a shit mood?”
“Kind of.” Jemma wasn’t sure how much to tell her husband on the subject, especially since it was on its way to being resolved.
She and Fitz finished making dinner while Jemma filled him in on the details of the situation. Jemma called the girls down for dinner, and when they came down the stairs, they were hand-in-hand. At least one good thing had come out of this awful day.
“Thanks for inviting me for dinner, Dr. Simmons,” Bells said, a bit belatedly. “I didn’t really want to go to the cafeteria looking like a blimp.”
“You look fine,” Maggie said softly.
“Like a fine blimp.” Bells smiled as much as she could manage with her swollen face.
The four of them gathered around the dinner table and began eating. For a few minutes there was somewhat stilted conversation as Fitz and Bells got used to talking to each other, but after the initial awkwardness, the conversation was lively. Things got a bit dicey when Bells revealed she was a Liverpool fan, but Jemma thought she probably got points for referring to the sport as football despite her unapologetically American accent.
Halfway through dinner, Bells’s phone rang. Her mother’s phone had gone to voicemail when Bells had called earlier, and Jemma expected Bells’s mother had been none too pleased by the short explanatory voicemail Bells had left.
“I’m going to go take this,” Bells said, leaving the table for the nearby sitting room. Jemma kept an eye on Bells as the Fitzsimmons family continued to eat. Bells looked upset at some points, but considering her fear for her mother’s reaction, that was to be expected.
Bells came back into the kitchen, phone pressed against her chest. “Dr. Simmons? My mum wants to talk to you.”
Jemma nodded, accepting the phone when Bells offered it.
“Hello?”
“Jemma?”
“Bobbi?”