Alright, I totally blame this post (laangoltumblrcom(insert dots)(slash)post(slash)83507962292) as the culprit for this story. I had a few ideas of FitzSimmons being parents in my headcanon series but this post just made my mind go in overdrive with an insane amount of plot bunnies.
And now I'm wondering whether to write them all separately or make a collection of drabbles; either case they'll fit in the headcanon series. -bonks head against the table-
However...
I've tried to research all the pregnancy facts and I hope that I didn't mess up too much. If I did, please let me know... :)
Thanks to my Beta StarryDreamer01 who helped me edit this and notapepper who gave me useful advice about pregnancy stuff. And laangol who did the gifset that sort of inspired this story. I'd suggest you follow all either on and tumblr. ;)
Oh, right. Watch out for the fluff-attack!
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN AGENTS OF SHIELD.
Voices
"That doesn't make sense!"
"It does. You only have-"
"It doesn't. And if you let me see the object, I'll just show you-"
"Absolutely not."
Jemma huffed in frustration and was almost tempted to toss the tablet in her hand across the wooden table of their sitting room. Or against her husband.
This was ridiculous...
They were in their house in Glasgow and were working as consultants for the newly-built SHIELD. Mostly, they worked for the Team whenever Skye, May or Coulson called, asking for help.
She and Leo had been doing their work from home for almost two years and while they missed their teammates, they were both happy with their life.
That was until her husband had started to banish her from their lab in the basement, bringing her only test results and analysis to work on.
Coulson had called that morning, announcing that he was sending an agent with an object that they had to analyse. Jemma had only seen the metal box when the ops agent had arrived and handed it to Leo before leaving immediately. Her partner had taken the box to the lab, telling her to stay there and came back after a while with their tablets while the DWARFs were scanning the item.
Every now and then, he'd go downstairs to check something and then come back up again.
Jemma had resisted two hours but now she had had enough.
"Leo, I can't do my share of work if I can't even look at the samples or objects that we're being sent," she remarked, standing straighter as she brushed a hand across her swollen stomach. She let out a breath as her spine cracked slightly; her body was still getting used to the additional weight as the baby grew.
"I'm not sure that it would be safe for you to go into the lab," Leo said, running a hand through his hair and sending his curls flying in every direction. Jemma was suddenly torn between wanting to stay angry for his stubbornness and dragging him by the lapels of his lab coat to their bedroom and... get distracted.
Bloody hormones...
"I'm pregnant," she said, trying to reroute her mind to her previous thoughts. "Pregnant, not physically disabled. What harm will it do to me to be inside the lab?"
"You won't just be inside the lab and stay still..." Leo looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I know you."
"Oh, so you're saying that I'm reckless now?" If he wanted to turn her frustration into anger, he was doing a wonderful job. And it also hurt to think that he thought that she would endanger their child.
She felt tears prickle her eyes and cursed her wayward hormones again.
"Wha-? No!" His eyes widened and he flailed his hands in front of him. She realised that he must have noticed her emotional state. "No, no,no. Jemma..."
Leo dropped his tablet on the table, walked to her side and took her hand in his, squeezing her fingers.
"I'm not saying that you're being reckless," he said softly, cupping her cheek with his other hand. "I know that you're not." Jemma opened her mouth to speak but he brushed his thumb over her lips, stopping her. "I know, sweetheart. You'd never do anything risky."
She sighed, moving her free hand up to cover the one on her face.
"Well, if you know that," she said, gazing up at him. "Why don't you let me do my work, Leo? Coulson asked for our help for this mission: it must be important and we have to give him results quickly."
Leo sighed softly, dropping his head against hers so that their foreheads touched.
Jemma felt her frustration and anger melt away as she saw the look in his eyes. The usually clear blue had taken a darker shade: she recognised it as the look he had when he was concerned.
Jemma moved her hand to his face, fingertips grazing his jaw.
He had been acting differently ever since she had entered the sixth month of pregnancy, a few weeks ago. He had always been protective -honestly, he had been protective of her before they were even a couple- but he'd been even more careful when they learned that she was expecting.
And even though it drove her insane sometimes because she seemed to be unable to do anything on her own, she couldn't help but be touched by his constant attentions.
"I'm feeling fine, love," she whispered, stepping up to press a kiss on his lips. "And so is she." She moved their joint hands to her stomach. "You'll worry yourself sick if you constantly think that something bad is bound to happen."
He smiled slightly, splaying his fingers over the bump and she smiled as well.
When they learned the sex of the baby, Leo was overjoyed. Jemma knew that he would have been happy with either a boy or a girl, just as she would have, but the thought of having a little girl made him giddily happy.
She had seen him talk with her dad and with Alec, probably asking for advice and Jemma just knew that their baby girl already had her father wrapped around her little finger before even being born.
And that love was also fueling his protectiveness...
"I just want to be sure that whatever Coulson sent us is not dangerous," he admitted softly. "As far as we know, it's an 0-8-4 and we have no clue what it does. For all we know it could be alien and if that's true, I don't want either of you even remotely close to it."
The hidden urgency in his tone, added with the concern on his face made Jemma's heart flip in her chest. He was worrying about her -their (the baby and her) well being over his own. She hadn't even thought of the Chitauri virus but Leo did; he probably dreaded that something similar would happen again, without anyone expecting it.
She kissed him again, slowly, pouring her feelings into the kiss and trying to calm him down. He responded softly, holding her as though she was made of glass and she felt him relax slightly.
When they moved apart, Leo's gaze was fixed on her and was so tender that she felt her chest brim with emotions.
Whatever did she do to deserve this wonderful man?
"Alright," she conceded. "We will both wait here until the DWARFs have finished the scanning." He was going to protest but she stopped him with a finger on his lips. "We don't want you to be in danger either."
He shot a crooked smile and nodded.
-:-
The information collected by the DWARFs showed that the item was not alien but seemingly human-made. It's core had an inner generator that somehow worked with solar power and, after a quick analysis, it seemed to be a new form of laser and not an advanced battery as they had thought before.
They were working at their workspaces, trying to crack the mechanisms of the device from every point of view.
Jemma passed her scans to the holotable and made her way to it, slowly pushing a chair aside. She loved her unborn child and was enjoying her pregnancy life but she would be more than happy to not have to be careful of every single movement she did
She was tired of realising just how much space she took everywhere...
"Leo, you should see this," she said as she swiped her fingers across the scans, getting more information and growing more and more fascinated. "This generator works like a plant: it absorbs sunlight and releases pure energy rather than oxygen. Are you working on the mechanics already?"
"Yes, I'm looking at the core right now," he replied, tearing his eyes of the device that was inside a transparent containment box. Even though it wasn't alien, he didn't want to take any risks and worked on the device through mechanical arms that he had built for those sorts of items. If it were to explode, the containment box had a mechanism that would send it flying out of a chute and into the sky immediately. They had adopted all the security measures of a SHIELD facility lab.
Leo approached the holotable, looked at his tablet and sent his scans to it and started working on them opposite her, so that they could both see what the other was doing.
"There are photovoltaic cells inside the generator," he remarked, expanding a scan and studying it. But how does it-?"
"-turn the solar power to energy in such a small space?" Jemma finished. "It needs another mechanism to turn-"
"the electricity into a direct energy source." Leo nodded and enlarged another section of the device. "This looks like-"
"-a miniaturized power supplier!"
They started bouncing ideas, talking together and in sync as they always did while they worked. In less than a hour, Coulson had his information and the laser device was boxed and ready to be given back to SHIELD.
They were both still at the holotable, saving the scans and talking.
"Can you imagine that laser equipped on an aircraft?" Jemma was very glad that the device was one of a kind and that their Team had stopped the organisation that was trying to make more of them.
"It would be deadly," Leo remarked grimly. "An endless weapon; no bullets or any sort of recharge necessary."
"And it could destroy anythi- Oh!" Jemma jumped, startled.
She was pretty sure that she had just felt a kick in her stomach.
She had felt the baby move every now and then but it had always felt like a flutter or a light brush; it usually increased when she or Leo spoke loudly.
Even when she was working, she would feel the little nudges that showed her that her child was moving inside her body but it had never been this strong.
She had talked with her doctor and her mother (and Leo's mother and sister just to be sure) and they had all claimed that it was normal. The baby was growing fine and her strength was growing with her; Jemma learned that she would feel something more only after the twenty-fourth week.
She quickly did the math and realised that she was currently in the twenty-sixth week.
Eyes glazing slightly, Jemma gently put her hand on her bump.
-:-
Leo was sure that everything inside him froze when Jemma let out a surprised note and then touched her stomach.
He was by her side in a flash, all thoughts about the device, SHIELD, Coulson and the world gone from his head.
"Jemma?" He cupped her face with a hand and reached with the other for her tummy. "Are you alright?"
She didn't speak and just watched their joint hands. He saw that her eyes were glassy and dread coursed through his veins.
"Is it the baby? Is she alright?" What the hell was he asking her? How could she know if the baby was fine? "Do you need to sit down? Wait.. why I am I even asking? Of course, you have to sit down." He rushed to grab the chair by her workspace and made her sit down before she could move or say anything; he then crouched in front of her, taking her hand again. "Jem?"
She looked at him with a small frown on her face and he felt another wave of concern.
"Jemm-" His mouth was closed by his wife's smaller hand, fingertips delicately covering his lips. He let out a muffled sound and she looked at him as though he was interrupting an experiment that she had been working on for hours.
"Ssshh," she said. "I just want to try something, Leo. I'm trying to understand..."
She was trying to understand?, he thought. What the hell was she talking about?
Leo watched as the frown faded from Jemma's face and she took on a thoughtful look. Then, without any warning...
"Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium..."
Leo's eyes widened and he honestly wondered if his wife had lost her mind. Why in the world was she reciting the Periodic table?
She stopped when she came to Chromium and frowned again.
Leo took it as his cue to remove her hand and understand what was going on before he went insane.
"Jemma?" She looked at him in surprise as though she had momentarily forgotten that he was there. "What the-?"
"Leo, you need to run a test with me," she remarked and Leo stared at her.
"What? A test?" He waited for her to tell him that she was pulling a prank on him but she didn't. She just looked at him with clear amber eyes.
"What's going on?" He asked and couldn't hide his concern. Jemma's eyes softened and she took both of his hands in hers.
"You'll understand," she said, pulling him up slightly. "I promise, sweetheart." She smiled in the way that made his heart flutter even after years of being together and he nodded.
"Repeat with me, yeah?" He nodded again and she put their hands on her bump. "Hydrogen-"
He arched a brow, puzzled, but she smiled and he followed her, as always.
"Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron,"
Their voices echoed together in the silent lab...
"Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxy-"
...until...
"Woah!" Leo's eyes widened and he looked up at Jemma who was beaming at him.
"Did you feel-?" "Is that-?"
They talked at the same moment and then hushed down. Leo looked at her and Jemma nodded, eyes glazing again.
"She wants to say hello to Mum and Dad," she whispered, voice wavering slightly.
He felt a lump in his throat: he had just felt his baby girl for the first time.
Oh, mother of all things, he was not going to cry!
Clearing his throat, Leo spread his hands across Jemma's tummy, weaving his fingers through hers and smiled broadly. He straightened up on his knees and gently bumped her forehead with his.
Jemma laughed slightly.
"She seems to like to hear our voices," she whispered softly. "That's what I was trying before. She didn't react much to our voices singularly but when-"
"-we speak together she moved more," he completed along with her. And they both felt another small nudge beneath their hands.
Leo swallowed thickly, feeling something prickle his eyes and Jemma's eyes were shining with unshed tears but they were both smiling broadly and holding on to each other.
"Again?" She said with a laugh.
He laughed and nodded.
"Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium..."
-:-
Later that night, after taking a shower, Leo walked into their room, putting on a long-sleeved t-shirt. He stopped short of the threshold when he saw Jemma lying on their bed, propped up on the pillows so that her back was cushioned (he had noticed that she often had back pain, probably due to the additional weight of her bump) and reading a book.
Said book was positioned against her bump and he smiled when he recognised the cover before hearing her read a passage.
"Harry Potter?" He asked, making her look up at him and smile. He smiled back and joined her in bed, brushing a kiss to her temple before lying next to her. "Isn't it a bit too early for her?"
"I thought that we could do this together, no?" She remarked, looking pensive. "Since she appreciates the sound of our voices-"
"You want us to read together?" He asked, turning so that he was facing her and wrapped an arm around her waist.
"Yes," She smiled again and squeezed his hand. "It could be something that we could do before going to bed."
Leo nodded and looked at her as she smiled softly while turning the pages of the book.
Jemma had always been beautiful to him, although he had tried not to admit it when he was younger, but right now as she spoke about their child, she was glowing and he felt his heart trip in his chest, almost overwhelmed with emotions.
"You're staring, Leo," she remarked, glancing at him through her lashes and then returning to look at the book.
He smiled slightly and leaned forward to press a kiss to her head.
"Just admiring you," he whispered against her hair.
"Well, aren't you a charmer?" Jemma teased and he ducked his head, hiding against her neck, feeling warmth on his face. Jemma giggled softly, dropping the book to her side and ran a hand through his hair.
Leo smiled, basking in her joy and moved his hand on top of hers, splayed across her bump.
"See if I'll ever pay you a compliment again..." He huffed against her neck and Jemma squirmed, giggling again when his breath tickled her. He laughed, knowing perfectly well that he'd get this reaction from her.
"Leoo..." She squeaked, moving as much as she could while being trapped between the pillows and his arms.
As on cue, they both felt another nudge from Jemma's stomach and stopped moving. Jemma caressed the spot with gentle fingers and Leo smiled, seeing the soft look on her face.
He blinked when he was suddenly hit by a thought.
"Does it hurt you?" He asked and his wife turned to look at him with confusion. "When the baby moves... Does it hurt?" He hadn't thought about it before; they had been talking and repeating things together for most of the evening just to get a reaction by their child and he hadn't really thought that everything was occurring inside Jemma's body.
"No," she said with a smile, brushing a kiss to his forehead. "She's kicking a bit harder now but it's still quite light. I was used to her little fluttering moves before so today was a surprise."
"Good." He didn't want her to be in pain while he was so happy to feel the baby move. He moved down, on impulse, and softly kissed the spot where the baby had kicked earlier.
"I know you want to see us and this big mysterious world, baby girl," he said with a smile. "But don't hurt Mum, yeah?" He looked at Jemma who was staring at him with glassy eyes.
She was usually more guarded with her emotions but he had noticed that the pregnancy had shambled her self-control.
"Mostly, because she'll get cranky with me," he added teasingly.
Jemma scoffed and swatted his arm with her hand and he laughed.
"Daddy's an awful prat, darling," she said loudly. "Don't listen to him."
He felt his heart twist at being referred to as 'Daddy' and had to swallow thickly. God, he wasn't still used to the fact that he was going to be a father...
It was elating and terrifying altogether...
Jemma looked at him and sat up slightly, running a hand through his hair and bringing him closer to her.
"You're a sap," she whispered, nudging his chin with her nose. Leo let out a little grumbling noise before kissing her softly.
"We should think about names, you know?" Jemma remarked when they parted. "She'll be here in three months..."
"Yeah..." He agreed and smiled. "Knowing us, it will take a while..."
Jemma snorted.
"Knowing you, it will take a while," she corrected him.
"Hey!"
"Oh, have you forgotten the Night-Night gun?"
Leo opened his mouth and then shut it down. She did have a point...but he wasn't going to tell her that. Jemma shot him a knowing look and he rolled his eyes.
She yawned and he decided that it was time to tuck her in.
"We'll talk about names tomorrow," he remarked, picking her book and putting in on her bedside table. "Now, we sleep..."
"Hmm..." She commented drowsily. He had noticed how she would be suddenly tired and just fall asleep immediately as though she turned a switch off.
Leo moved them both under the covers after turning off the lights and shifted so that he was hugging her from behind, her back against his chest; it was a habit he had taken since she preferred to sleep on her side now. He moved a hand over her bump and felt Jemma's fingers entwine with his.
Feeling content, Leo brushed his lips against her nape and felt Jemma shiver and hum softly.
"Don't..." She warned him. "You know what that does to me..."
"I won't say a word: our daughter can hear us and I don't want her to know."
"Prat."
"Your prat..." He teased.
"Yes, mine," she whispered and he smiled. "We'll think about names tomorrow, yeah?"
"Alright... We could use the book Skye gave us; maybe read the names and see if the baby reacts?"
"We could..." Jemma was nodding off: he could hear it in the slur of her words. "And we'll also start to read her some books..."
"Alright...but I'd suggest not to keep reciting the periodic table."
"Hmm?"
"She might mistake it for some lullaby of sorts..." Jemma giggled softly. "Can you imagine if that happened? Skye would never let us hear the end of it."
"Well, she'd be a true child of scientists."
Leo snorted and she laughed until she yawned again.
"Sleep, love," he said softly.
"Hmm..." She hummed again and he felt her relax against him. "Goodnight, Leo."
"Night, Jem,"
As he fell asleep, Leo smiled, nuzzling against his wife and wondered what other little joys their child would bring them.
It was a whole new adventure for them...
Please, leave a review... :)