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“I don’t think you have a right to that,” Daisy chimes in from the backseat and Jemma makes a grimace.
Fitz gives her a pointed look for a fraction of a second, and even though they are alone in the road and he didn’t lose control of the car, both women scream at him, “Eyes on the road!”
“Sorry, sorry, sorry!”
Jemma makes a mental note to remember that overwhelming him might have worse results than almost anything he could do on his own. She lets a couple of minutes pass by, and with Fitz still poignantly focused on the road and Daisy busy on her phone, she makes another valiant attempt to go for Fitz’s phone that is connected to the car’s dashboard.
“Ah, ah, ah. ” Jemma pouts but retreats her hand at Fitz's scolding. If Daisy hadn’t warned him, she could totally have sneaked on him and by the time he noticed, they would have been in too deep to change things, but now all her plans are ruined. “Driver chooses the music, Jemma, that is a universal rule.”
“But I don’t understand why we can’t do podcasts instead! Why would you even waste a learning opportunity like that!” She is not looking at her, but she knows her girlfriend enough to know that Daisy is rolling her eyes.
It takes Fitz a minute to reply and in the meantime, Jemma sulks on her gunshot seat hard enough for Daisy to feel sorry for her and start rubbing her shoulders. When Fitz finally speaks again, his voice is softer and his facial expression has relaxed.
“Didn’t we say that part of the trip was to share new parts of ourselves, to be in closer touch with each other? Well, having this playing while I drive is part of me, and I want to share that with you two.”
It’s not even funny the way he can warm up both her cheeks and her gut at the same time. She doesn’t know what she did to deserve this romantic of a man, but she will forever be grateful for that.
Luckily, Daisy can read them well enough to know that they are both on the verge of tears, and she drinks her own to poke Jemma on the hip, drawing her attention to the backseat so Fitz can wipe his own discreetly.
“Besides, babe, a road trip can’t be a road trip without music!”
“Please, put all this and anything my boyfriend and my girlfriend pick on this card, thank you!”
Daisy places a card on top of the counter of the gas station and smiles at the cashier. Yes, it might just be snacks, and yes, it might be a card paid by S.H.I.E.L.D., but she does do the work to earn the paycheck, so whatever. She never before had a lot of money to splurge on a partner, less alone two, so though Jemma and Fitz have the same kind of spending ability she has, now she takes any possible chance to buy things for them.
The middle-aged woman smiles at her and starts checking Daisy’s items slowly while Fitz and Jemma are still arguing over boxes of cookies.
“It is sweet that you are paying for your friend too,” the woman comments conversationally, and Daisy’s heart drops to her shoes.
She understands how that is the conclusion this woman in the middle of nowhere got from what she said. She is not even sure it was said maliciously, but it still wrangles her gut to not have them recognized as what they actually are to her. Of course, she will be the first one to say that friendships are crucial and life-changing, and it’s not that much a matter of importance as a matter of… recognition. Of being seen. Of being able to put yourself out there whole and be acknowledged as valid.
Now, there are many reactions she could have to that. Daisy knows that Jemma would correct the woman- Marie-Ann, her name tag reads-, loudly and pointedly. Jemma has no patience for people being obtuse. But Fitz has many awful memories related to his father, about confrontation in general, and particularly about queer issues. He never asked Daisy or Jemma to hide their relationship or their identity for him, but Daisy has noticed he gets panicky around casual homophobia and hateful commentary in general.
It’s a sour business because there is no way she can get to have her cake and eat it too, so he just sends a tight, forced smile Marie-Ann’s way, tells Jemma to take the card on her way out and steps outside. Closes her eyes, takes two deep breaths. You exist, Daisy. You exist and the way you love them both and they love you back is only one of the many manifestations of that.
If she kisses Jemma square on the mouth the second they walk out, while Marie-Ann is still calling goodbye at their backs, well. That is just as bad.
“You know, your teeth won’t fall out if you pick a fruit every once in a while instead of chips and candy.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Leopold James Fitz, you are a scientist! How can you say that?”
“Precisely because I am a scientist! I defer to evidence, Jemma! I haven’t died yet, so I rest my case.”
“... please, Daisy, hold the wheel, I am going to murder him.”
“No, no, no, no, you are not doing anything! We are all going to take a deep breath, okay? One, two, three... breathe, Fitz, stop glaring at her! Now, Jemma you are going to keep on driving because otherwise you will murder him, and we all know that. And you are going to promise Fitz that you won’t treat him as a child anymore, okay? No buts! And Fitz, you are going to thank Jemma for worrying about your health and acknowledge that she does it out of love, okay? And, man, eat a goddamn apple every once in a while, for God’s sake. I promise you it won’t kill you. Have I made myself clear?”
“...crystal.”
“Do you think there is any chance we will get there by midnight?”
“By midnight, no, but by dawn… who knows.”
“Can it, you two!”
Jemma tries to hide her laugh against Fitz’s arm, and he smiles at her in return. Daisy has been quiet while it’s her turn at the wheel, not really responding to any attempts on their part to engage her in conversation, and Jemma quietly whispered at him that they might succeed if they were trying instead to get a rise out of her. And for some reason, talking about how over-careful she is at driving always gets her in an argumentative mood.
But not this time. After the only one call for them to stop Daisy doesn’t say anything else, and Fitz observes her carefully through the rearview mirror. She doesn’t look sad, distressed or angry, but you can never be sure with an Agent, especially one that has trained under May for so long.
Jemma has dozed off a little during the silence, lying down against his chest, so instead of wondering and worrying and eating himself up in anxiety, he decides to ask her about it.
“Are you okay, baby girl? Does it bother you when we laugh at your driving?”
Daisy lets out a breath so long that there is no way she wasn’t holding something else inside.
“Not always. I can take a joke because I want you two to take it lightly when I make fun of you too. I just had a thing in my mind and the timing was… poor.”
“Okay.” He waits to give her a chance to say something else. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Alanis Morissette croons on her phone What are you, my blood? You touch me like you are my blood, and Fitz hopes his chills won’t wake up Jemma. “Want to hear why I drive like a grandma?”
“You dont-”
“Don’t ever try it, Fitz: I do. I drive like an old lady, and I am proud of it. So, wanna hear it?”
“A story about you? Always.”
For the first time in hours, he sees her smile in the rearview mirror.
What are you, my air? You affect me like you are my air.
“Okay, so, the second and last time I totaled a car, I was seventeen and I had been living out of it for six months-”
“Hold on, the second time?”
“Oh, Fitz.”
“Just pick a pair of sunglasses. I am sure he will love them.”
“Excuse me? You spent twenty minutes picking up a freaking postcard to send to Hunter, and I am supposed to just choose whatever for Coulson? Why am I even in charge of choosing something for him anyway?”
“Because you are his favorite, of course.”
“You can’t even dispute that.”
“You know what, no, I can’t, so, um, do you think another aviator type or maybe a mug-”
“Which jam do you think will Bobi like best: orange or strawberry?”
“I just realized we didn’t assign anyone to choose something for May.”
“Not it!”
“Not it!”
“Damn. I should have stayed quiet.”
“Can you believe we have been gone for a month already?”
“No. Not really.”
“And can you believe we are going back tomorrow?”
“Not really, either.”
Daisy lifts her torso from the grass to support it with her elbows, looks at both Jemma and Fitz looking up at the sky. She has been ruminating over this idea for a while, long enough that it feels like she needs to say it in a spur of the moment because otherwise, she’d never gather up the necessary courage to ask them.
She inhales, exhales, and begins to build for the moment.
“Are you happy we are going back?”
Jemma scrunches up her face in the most adorable way Daisy has ever seen.
“I don’t know if 'happy' is the proper word. I miss work, of course-”
“Of course.”
“-and the team, too. But-”
“But having all this time together, focusing only on each other? Priceless.” Fitz picks up Jemma’s statement seamlessly, and before Daisy’d have felt jealous, but now she just feels fondness. “I know we share a bunk on base and everything, but it’s not the same.”
Inhale, exhale.
“What would you think about making this arrangement a more permanent thing, then?”
Fitz laughs, “Daisy, I know Coulson loves you, but I don’t think he will let even you be on permanent vacation…”
“No. Not that. But, um, there are other ways. Maybe we could move out of the base, or maybe we could, um.”
“Daisy,” Jemma interrupts her, not unkindly. “There is something you want to say, I can tell. So say it.”
“Yes. Um, you are right. So. Here we go.” She looks at them. Jemma is now mimicking her position; Fitz is still laying down, his eyes now closed, but everything in his face tells Daisy he is listening intently. “Okay, I will say it as it comes, otherwise I will never say it. I want to get married to you two.” That makes Fitz open his eyes and sit up quickly, and Daisy would smile if she weren’t so damn nervous. “I don’t have a ring or two for that matter, but um. That’s a thing I have been wanting for a while. And since we all agree that we liked spending so much time together…”
Now that she has said her part, she feels herself deflating like a balloon. It’s too dark to properly read their expressions, and even the seconds of silence feel like torture. But then both of her hands are being taken, and with Fitz’s warm hand and Jemma’s freezing one against her skin, she can breathe again.
“I can’t speak for Fitz, but-”
“Yes, Jemma, you know we both want to say yes!”
There is a shriek after that, and Daisy is not sure if it was her or them, but the next thing she knows is that she is being tackled back to the ground, and she ends up with Jemma laying on top of her chest kissing the air out of her, Fitz playfully poking both of them in the ribs.
“You know the team will say this is just an excuse for us to get more vacation time out of Coulson.”
“Well, they wouldn’t be necessarily wrong.”