Before You Go

My Dreams Are Fading Now

Guess who's early? ;) Yup, I couldn't stay away. And considering I've gotten two more chapters written in three days (WHOO) I figured I'd update early. Also because my social life is severely lacking, but you didn't hear it from me O.o

As always, enjoy!!! :)

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"Jemma, you're pregnant,"

She stared at him. He was joking. He had to be joking. There was no possible way there was a fetus inside her.

But his eyes were so honest and she could read him like an open book. She was staring through the windows of his soul and he wasn't kidding. She was carrying his child. Their baby.

"No," she whispered. "No, there's no possible way,"

He gave her a strained grin. "You're a biochemist, Jem. You know how it works,"

She shook her head, tears beginning again as she brought her hands to her flat stomach. "But . . . you, we . . . you hate me,"

Fitz curled her into his shoulder. She allowed him to arrange them both against the wall, facing each other. He brushed a strand of hair out of her face.

"Look," he spoke softly. "I know it's a lot to take in, and I don't wan' to overwhelm you, but I also know how you are, Jems. You wan' answers all at once, so I'm goin' to give them to you."

Jemma nodded softly, using a hand to wipe away her tears. It was so strange to see such an affectionate side of him, caring for her so gently. She kept her hands tucked tightly to her midsection.

"It's 2018. You and I work for SHIELD as heads of the Science Division. Sometimes that means we have to go out into, ah, field work. That's what we were doing yesterday." Fitz halted a moment, watching her reaction. Seeing as she was looking quite proud of her future-self's accomplishments, he continued. "HYDRA - the, um, bad guys - they had invented this . . . memory machine. It was our job to disable it. The machine - it read brain frequencies somehow and it . . . it must have damaged you somehow." his hands stopped gesticulating.

Jemma looked up at him. "You mean I don't remember a decade of my lifetime? Because they took it from me?"

"Yeah, that just about sums it up," Fitz rubbed sheepishly at the back of his head, though he seemed relieved that she wasn't trying to fight him anymore.

She nodded. "And the machine?"

"It's a . . . bit unavailable at the moment." she leveled a glare at him. "Fine. It was a bit damaged in the escape, so . . ."

"Okay," Jemma nodded, sniffling a bit. "I think I get it. But, there's one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"What about us?" She looked absolutely crest fallen at not being able to remember. It took all of his will power not to grab her and kiss her tears away. "How did we resolve our conflicts? Get into SHIELD? Have Lizzie . . ." she shrugged. "Fall in love?"

Fitz just grinned, glad that he was getting her to calm down. Though her breaths were still shaky, her tears had begun to dry. He could see Lincoln approaching from behind Jemma's back, but he discreetly waved him off.

"That's . . . quite a long story. But I'll cut it down quickly." he squeezed her arm reassuringly. "In high school, we got paired up in Chem lab. They said we had to, 'cause we were the only ones able to keep up with each other. Eventually we got accepted into a summer program, made up somewhere in the middle over the Who," he grinned at the memory.