This story takes place in a non-canon universe after the finale where Fitz and Simmons are together and Fitz is pretty much recovered. I have written other stories in this universe and this one takes place after Traps. (But you don't really have to read any of those to read this one.) You can click on my profile for the full story order.
It takes place in Scotland but I have never been (I've actually never even been to Europe at all) so feel free to let me know if I make some mistakes with the climate, or the culture or anything really. I want to know so I can fix it.
I put a reference to the science fiction show Fringe in every chapter of every one of my stories (usually) so feel free to look out for it if you want even if you don't know what Fringe is. It may stick out as something unusual like a polka dotted cow or pet badgers. ;). Sometimes it is also a line from the show I like or the title of an episode.
Agents of Shield belongs to its creators who are stupendous :D and ABC and Marvel
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Leo awoke to the feel of Jemma's sweet, gentle kiss on his cheek. He opened his eyes a crack and smiled at her joyful face. The morning sun shone through the open window and lightened the colour of her eyes and hair so that they shimmered beautifully, entrancing him.
"Good morning," she chirped, already sitting up and bouncing a little, ready for the day to begin.
Leo wasn't and they were on vacation so he shut his eyes again, grinning at her. "Good morning sweetheart," he murmured, already feeling the warm, grey fog of sleep pulling him back.
The bed shook as she lay back down and snuggled against him so that their foreheads touched and her arm was wrapped over his shoulders. Her embrace was so pleasant, caused such a wonderful, crinkling sensation across his body, that he let the fog recede a little to soak it in.
"I'm bored," she protested brightly. "Do you need to go back to sleep?"
He yawned and squirmed closer to her, enjoying her warm softness and curling his arm around her side so that more of him was touching her. "Yes please."
She puffed out a breath and wiggled her toes against his feet, tickling them, making the warm fog retreat a little further, too far.
"Go have breakfast if you're bored," he suggested, amused but trying again to drift back into it.
"But it isn't my house," she worried and this time he sighed and opened his eyes, even though he really couldn't see much besides her nose and her cheeks.
"My mum adores you," he assured her, rolling out of her grasp so the he was facing in the other direction and pulling the blanket over his head. "Go talk about that vet show you liked again," he mumbled. "Get it out of your system so I don't have to be bored for another six hours."
"We're leaving at ten," she dismissed and he could almost hear her eyes rolling. "Hardly six hours from now."
"Jemma..." he begged groggily, wanting very much to go back to sleep before then, and she chuckled at him.
"Fine, I'll leave you alone," she teased, peeling off the blanket to give him a quick peck. "I love you sleepy head, see you soon."
He felt her sit up and thought suddenly of the empty space she was leaving.
"Wait," he called, opening his eyes again as he rolled over. She stopped and he gently pulled her back down beside him so he could kiss her. "I love you too," he told her, smiling sleepily.
She chuckled him once more before head-butting him affectionately, their foreheads tapping lightly together, letting him know, without words this time, that he was precious and loved, that he was her someone. Which he most definitely was, she had his heart and his head to keep, he'd gladly given them to her long ago.
Then she patted his cheek, sprung up and skipped away, leaving him alone to fall contently back into grey.
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About an hour later he made his way downstairs, bare feet against the familiar wood floor of his childhood, to hear Jemma and his mum laughing in the kitchen. His favourite sound ringing out beautifully from his two favourite people, after sweet Jemma kisses and sleeping in; if Leo had a heaven, this was probably it. He caught the scent of blueberry pancakes and was absolutely certain that it was.
"Good morning Monkey," his mum greeted brightly from their old wooden table. "Swing over and pull out a chair, it's about time you got out of bed." She shook her head and exchanged a glance with Jemma who scrunched her nose, amused, between stacking pancakes on a plate. "I told you dear, you need to prod him awake or he'll sleep his life away. It's already a quarter past nine." She clucked at him and unruffled his pyjama shirt, fussing over it as if he were going to a dinner recital not having breakfast at home.
"Mum," he complained, wiggling away. "Do you have to... in front of..." he looked to Jemma, who was scooping a another pancake onto the stack, and a blush rose to his cheeks as she giggled at him. "Monkey?" he mouthed, disapprovingly, turning back to his mum.
Leo loved monkeys, they were adorable, but he didn't want her talking to him like he was five years old, especially in front of Jemma.
"Sorry love," she smiled, not really appearing sorry. "I just forget sometimes that my baby boy is all grown up and too old to be swinging into the kitchen."
He crossed his arms and frowned at her because she wasn't doing too well in the, 'stop making me look like a grade-schooler in front of my girlfriend,' department.
"Oh stop being a grump," Jemma scolded, setting down a plate in front of his mother. "It's sweet... Monkey." She grinned mischievously and he couldn't help but grin back.
"Stop being cute, this isn't funny Jemma," he warned but her giggles were infectious and soon the three of them were laughing together and enjoying warm, fluffy pancakes and he found it was impossible to keep his irritation from dissolving like sugar in water. Especially after he realized Jemma had used the extra blueberries to shape out two blue hearts on his his first pancake. What a sweetheart.
He couldn't believe he'd requested Jemma stop being cute, as if that were something that fell under that category of possible. Her sun-beam-smile, irresistible, bubbly enthusiasm for life and her sparkling eyes had him caught like a fish in a net on the idea that she was the most adorable person in all of existence. At least to him anyway.
"Didn't I tell you, he looks just like him," his mum was telling Jemma, holding up a DVD boxset in front of Leo so that he could only see the back of it, while the two of them gazed at the front, nodding in agreement. "Especially with his arms crossed like they were a moment ago," she added and Jemma smiled.
"I do not look like the young James Herriot," he grumbled. "The guy is all old-timey and wears the same clothes as my grandfather."
"It's set in 1933 Leo," Jemma informed him, not for the first time, shaking her head at him like he was being silly. He wasn't, he looked nothing like him. Nothing at all.
"Take it love, it's a compliment," his mum advised and he crossed his arms again before remembering that it was the same pose this Herriot fellow had on the cover and swiftly uncrossing them to return to his pancakes.
"We've been here a day and you're already ganging up on me," he accused between mouthfuls.
They exchanged another glance, grinning traitorously.
"We should stop teasing him," his mum decided.
"We should," Jemma agreed, taking a seat next to Leo and nudging him with her elbow. "Hey, you know we only notice because you're our guy, right?" she inquired eyebrows raised as she tilted her head to the side, smiling at him, as if it should be obvious.
"Yeah," he mumbled, a smile spreading across his own face that widened her grin. "Yeah, OK."
He gazed warmly at the pair of them, at home and family, and Jemma kissed his cheek before returning to her breakfast.
"So Loch Ness," his mum commented cheerfully after a moment. "Is there something Shield isn't telling us about dear old Nessie?" she kidded, laughing at her own joke before the other two laughed along.
"No," Jemma scoffed, pouring some syrup onto her pancakes. "There's no such thing as the Loch Ness monster," she asserted.
"It's easily explainable," Leo put in. "That company, Fleming-Munroe, testing out their new submarines..."
"Seismic gas..." she shot out.
"Ripples due to the shape of the lake.."
"Atmospheric refraction..."
"Seals-"
"Oh, I'd love to see a seal," Jemma chirped and he reached over to give her knee a fond squeeze.
'And I'd love to be there to see your adorable little face light up with delight when you do.' he thought. He'd like seeing the seal too, but it was a far second.
"Better than seeing one of those snakes," he joked and she groaned at him.
"They aren't snakes Leo, they're legless lizards," she corrected, lightly disaproving. "Anguis fragilis is part of the suborder Lacertilla not Serpentes. They have eyelids and shed their skin in patches, not in a single layer and-"
"Alright, alright," he laughed. "Not snakes. Just slithery, scaly lizards I'm going to have to be turning over rocks to find. Here's what it'll look like when I do." He made a horrified face and feigned slamming a rock back down.
"Not snakes at all," Jemma said, pressing her lips together, he was sure to keep herself from laughing with him. "Misclassification of a species is not a laughing matter."
"Sure it isn't," he chuckled, glancing at his mum who was giggling with him.
"Of course not Jemma dear," she added.
"Now who's ganging up on who," Jemma challenged, but as he stuck his tongue out at her the damn burst, letting her wonderful, angel laugh chime through his heaven.
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The stuff about Nessie and Anguis fragilis (A.K.A. Slow worms) is from wiki. There are many species of legless or almost legless lizards.
The Fringe reference is the company Fleming-Munroe. It is the aerospace and transportation division of the show's super company, Massive Dynamic. (They actually have a website as if it were a real company. I love that show so much :D.) I have used another division (Kelvin Genetics) in another fic.
Leo's mom is based on a bunch of moms I know and her calling him Monkey and telling him to swing over is based on how Sarah and Mrs. S talk to Kira (their daughter/granddaughter) in Orphan Black. (Kira is seven I think though). I thought it would fit with him haha.
James Herriot in the mini-series, The Young James Herriot, is played by the same guy who plays Leo Fitz in Agents of SHIELD (Ian DeCaestecker). It was a joke I got the inspiration for while watching Bones. There is a part where one of the interns talks about how he loves Buffy in front of Booth (who is played by the same guy who played Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I thought it was funny haha, so I googled it and put it in.
