A/N: Hello everyone! This is actually my first fanfic in English and I wasn't going to write it but then my idea became way too big and so I just needed to write it all down - and it didn't turned out so horrible as I thought it would!
And that's how this A-Little-Bit-Agatha-Christie-Like-Story came to life.
Also, I tried my best to do research and also find some words that people used back in 1920s so I hope it's not too inaccurate.
I hope you enjoy and since this is my first fanfiction here, i'd love you if you told me if you like it! And don't hesitate if you want to tell me about any mistakes I've made!
Jemma Simmons isn't so sure she wants to leave her hometown. She's never been to the USA before and she's perfectly fine with living in England, really. Being adopted daughter of one of most famous private detectives, Philip Coulson, is another reason. Whenever he has to leave to visit some strange family where something happened, Jemma comes with him and it's always more than interesting. Sometimes she thinks she could live like this.
But it's all going to end soon, because Jemma Simmons is on a ferry now, with all of her clothes and books packed and going to meet the man her father insists on marrying.
Well, it's not like she hates Milton or something - he's kind of good-looking and nice. But that's the problem - he's too nice and every time she talks to him when he visits her and her father, it's like he doesn't have his own opinion on anything. She used to think being with a man who agrees with her constantly is something nice, but now she really isn't so sure. But no - hating him isn't the problem here. And her father most certainly wouldn't make her marry someone she really wouldn't want to marry - it's not these times anymore, it's 1924. But Jemma wanted to be a good daughter and she realized that her father and herself could use joining a family with higher status than theirs.
She sighes heavily and actually almost bumps into someone - a man in a hat with sandy curly hair, she notices.
"I'm sorry" she mumbles quickly and starts looking for her father.
She finally sees him standing next to the bedrooms corridor.
"Jemma, there you are!" he says, so apparently he's been looking for her too. "I already know where our cabins are. Come on!" they both walk through the door and Jemma exhales again - she's leaving to meet Milton - not her future murderer or something. She can smile if it makes her father feel better, right?
Right?
Leo Fitz looks lost. Probably because he is, indeed, quite lost. Not on the ferry but in his own mind - he's looking around, looking for something or someone but isn't really sure what or who exactly. It looks like he's running from something.
"Are you hiding from me?" he hears and turns around to see Daisy starring at him, wearing this weird shapeless dress she loves so much (Fitz suspects that's mostly because Cal hates it and always says it's very inappropriate). "Oh, come on, Fitz. Don't be so nervous, I know you're not a fan of travelling on ships, but nothing's going to happen!"
"Well, I'm sure nothing's going to happen" he rolls his eyes and follows his step-sister to the cabin corridor. "I mean, what could possibly happen? Someone will be bumped off?" he jokes, his laughter a little bit nervous.
"Who knows!" Daisy smiles wildly and if Fitz didn't know any better, he'd think it's Daisy who's planning something evil.
Then suddenly his sister stops and Fitz realizes it's her cabin.
"Don't forget about dinner, it's in two hours!" she shouts as if she suspects Fitz to be half-deaf, and disappears behind the door. He stands like that for a while, not sure if he should go to his cabin and finish the book about physics he brought with him to Scotland or maybe go somewhere and try not to think about his seasickness.
He decides going to sleep might help him so he finally opens the door and looks at the suitcases - why did he need all of this again?
He lies on the bed that is perfectly soft and keeps thinking about how he can't forget about dinner or else Daisy would actually murder him. Or Mack. Or Fitz's step dad.
The room is big and full of people travelling with them - Jemma didn't even realize there were so many people on the ship. Almost everyone looks like someone from way higher class and Jemma would feel out of place if a) - she wasn't Phil Coulson's daughter and b) - wasn't so dolled up, looking way better than usually. She grimaces a little bit, when she remembers her emerald dress was Milton's gift but then again, she didn't ask for it, right?
She looks around to find empty places for her and her father when her brown eyes meet blue ones that look strangely familiar. She doesn't understand for a short moment and then she remembers - the man she almost bumped into not so long time ago. He's most defnitely upper class - his clothes look expensive and so are those that belong to a man, who must be his father. At their table there are also a dark-skinned man (probably a friend - looks too ritzy to work for them but doesn't look like them at all) and a brunette, dressed in a rather scandalous way, in one of those baggy dresses and a gold headband in curly hair. She doesn't really look like the sandy haired man and Jemma doubts she's family. Fiancée, then?
She narrows her eyes, because the flapper doesn't seem like Sandy's type but then again, how could Jemma even know his type?
She looks away for a moment and suddenly she knows - they will sit at this table. Coulson shows up, as if he can read in her mind.
"I think we can-" she begins, but she's interupted by her father.
"Oh my God!" Coulson exclaims. Jemma's confused for a while and then she notices a rather petite Asian woman who looks quite familiar. "Melinda May!"
Oh, right!, Jemma thinks. Melinda May, old friend of Phil Coulson's. She used to play with Jemma when she was little and then she suddenly disappeared. When Jemma asked about it, Coulson said she had something important to do. Jemma's definitely happy to see her, especially since it's such a surprise.
She wants to say something, but Coulson and May seem very wrapped up in a conversation so she decides she will just sit at Sandy's table and give Coulson and May time to talk. She shouldn't be nervous about it, right?
"Hello! I'm sorry to interupt your conversation, could I join you?" she asks anyone in particular but looks at the man who she assumed is Sandy's father. She feels a bit nervous - are they fine with her not being an upper class person? Can they tell the difference even in Jemma's most expenxive dress?
"Of course!" the father says rather happily and Jemma sighes in relief. "My name's Cal Johnson and these are my daughter Daisy, my son Leopold and good friend of ours, Alphonso Mackenzie".
"It's pleasure to meet you! I'm Jemma Simmons. My father, Philip Coulson" she nods her head in Coulson and May's direction "is over there and he might be joining us." she introduces herself and for some reason, she feels a little bit reliefed that the brunette - Daisy - is not Sandy's - Leopold's - fiancée.
"Cal, please" she hears Leopold groan "It's Fitz, not Leopold."
Leopold - Fitz, apparently - smiles at Jemma kindly, as if he's apologizing for his father's behavior.
"Um, my surname is Fitz, Cal isn't really my father. I mean, not biological one. He married my mother so Daisy is my step sister" he explains quickly and Jemma's grateful for that, since she was starting to wonder why Fitz calls his father by his name.
"But you love me as much as you would love a biological sister!" Daisy grins and Jemma finds her rather not like she'd think a flapper girl would be like.
"Also, my name is Mack, not Alphonso" Fitz's family's friend adds and Jemma wonders what is it with not using their full names.
"I see" Jemma nods, looking rather balled up.
"Don't worry, Miss Simmons, my name is actually Daisy" Fitz's sister adds, laughing.
"Oh, good. It would haunt me forever, for sure" Jemma jokes, surprised how easy it is to talk to those people. "And it's Jemma, please. It's probably a bit weird but I don't like when people call me Miss Simmons.
"Well, then, it's only fair if you call me Daisy! Miss Johnson is annoying and I'm glad someone actually understands me!"
"And how!" Jemma exclaims and then realizes that everyone other than herself and Daisy is quiet. She wonders if she's too loud - oh no, what if they decided Jemma shouldn't be talking to them? - but then she hears Fitz chuckle.
"Daisy, you're going to talk poor girl to death!" he says in quite serious voice, actually.
"Baloney!" Daisy seems offended "Jemma here is perfectly fine with me talking, isn't she?"
Fitz still seems to be inconvinced and so does Mack, but Jemma's grateful, really. She'd never think dinner on a ferry could be so much fun.
"So what brings you to the USA, Miss Simmons?" Mack asks. "Do you and your father live there?"
"First of all, the rule of calling me "Jemma" applies to everyone now!" Jemma says, pretending to be offended. "And second of all, I'm going to. Live there, I mean. My fiance lives in Boston." she adds.
"Oh, that's great, we're from Boston!" Fitz exclaims and Jemma's pretty sure he hasn't said anything louder than that yet. "I mean, um, Boston is great. It's a very nifty city!"
"And how!" Mack adds and this reaction looks unnatural but Jemma doesn't really care - she's known Daisy, Fitz and Mack for about an hour now and yet she feels like she's just met her old friends.
The dinner is over five minutes later and she'd promised Daisy she'll meet them this evening and she's already looking for Coulson and May. They are still sitting at the table, chatting with each other and also with two other people - a blonde in a red, very elegant dress and a man who looks slightly less ritzy. They look smitten and Jemma's sure they're together.
She sits at the table and smiles at May widely.
"Jemma!" May, scary May actually smiles back, even if it's almost unnoticeable. "It's really nice to see you, after all these years!"
"Of course it is, May! I hope I'm not interrupting a conversation, by the way?" Jemma asks, reminding herself that they were talking to the unfamiliar pair before.
"Not at all!" the man says. "I'm Lance Hunter, and this is Bobbi Morse" he looks at the blonde on his left.
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Hunter. My name is Jemma Simmons" she says "What brings you to the USA, if I might ask?"
"Oh please, it's Hunter" he says and really, Jemma would be surprised but she isn't at all - not after Fitz and Mack. "And we weren't travelling together, actually. I was just telling your father and his friend about how I was going to visit my American family and I happened to meet my old love Bobbi? Can, you believe it, Jemma?"
He doesn't ask her if he can call her Jemma but she's not mad - it's quite natural, actually, to hear her name from someone she barely knows after her conversation during dinner.
Also, the story is rather sweet.
"Aww" she can't stop herself, even if cooing is something very not Jemma-Simmons-Like. "That's quite a story, really. And where was Miss Morse heading?"
"Bobbi" she corrects her and she's not surprised because of that "Well, actually it's Barbara. But I really do hate my name" she winces and sighs heavily but cheers up after a moment "But anyway, I found job in New York - I'm an actress. A beginner, really. But I just got my chance to shine and well, I want to use it" she smiles widely and Jemma envies her, just a little bit - she will never get her chance to shine, simply because most people don't believe women can be as good scientists as men.
"Well, that's amazing!" she says and wants to add something but then she suddenly feels kind of tired. Probably too much things happening in one day, she thinks.
She stands up and smiles warmly at everyone at the table.
"It was great to meet you two but I think I'm going to head to my cabin. But see you tommorrow, I hope...?"
"Of course, love!" Hunter says happily and if Jemma didn't see the way he looks at Bobbi, all goofy, she would think he's a little too much enthusiastic. He probably always sounds like this.
"Goodnight everyone, then!" she says and then goes back to her cabin. She's got a lot to think about.
She doesn't get too much sleep, though - she hears knocking that wakes her up.
"Thanks god, you're fine! I'm sorry I scared you" Coulson apologizes "But you see, something happened - an expensive necklace desappeard. It belonged to Cal Johnson, one of passengers, says he wanted to give it to his wife. Not very lucky guy, I guess. But anyway, I just wanted to warn you and tell you to lock your cabin. I was afraid something could happen to you too. And sorry for waking you up, again!" he wants to leave the room, but Jemma's suddenly wide awake.
"Wait! What do you mean Cal Johnson?" she asks and Coulson looks confused "Umm, it's just, I met him and his family yesterday during dinner."
"Oh, really?" her father asks and Jemma nods. "Well, I could actually use your help. I know how you love asking questions."
Jemma indeed loves asking questions when he's on a case and that's why she smiles widely (although she feels bad for doing so - Mr. Johnson must feel awful, not mentioning Fitz and Daisy and definitely also Mack).
"When are you starting?"
"In the morning, after breakfast" Coulson answers and Jemma is sure he knows what she's going to say.
"See you tommorrow, then, dad! It's actually kind of funny how the case found you and not the other way around."