Reunion
The first thing Jemma sees when they arrive back is crayons. Crayons, scattered everywhere like a minefield surrounding them.
Phew. We must be back on Earth, most known alien species do not allow their offspring to participate in leisure activities and those that did have far more technologically advanced and sophisticated toys. Unless it's an undiscovered species… Please no, I think I've done enough discovering for a lifetime.
She is woken from her thoughts by a loud "thud", the panic suddenly flooding her body, her eyes dart everywhere looking for the cause of the noises while her mind runs through countless logical and illogical hypothesises for what could have caused the noise.
Oh, its only Fitz…
Her body and mind relax when her eyes rest on Fitz sitting on the floor rather puzzled.
He must have slipped on one of the crayons…
The next noise she hers ringing in her ears are shrill high-pitch giggles. In all of her panic she failed to assess possible threats in her surroundings. She puts it down to being tired ( fighting aliens in a spaceship in the future and then time travelling back in a rock does that to you).
Luckily, the owners of the giggles definitely didn't appear to be a threat. The two little girls were rolling around howling with laughter, clearly amused by Fitz's crayon mishap. The older girl stood up suddenly, pulled the green crayon that was snagged in her brown hair out and then gracefully ran towards Daisy, somehow managing to dodge all the crayons before launching herself at her legs. "Welcome home."
Jemma examines the girls face. Is that…?
"My you've grown Robin." Fitz answered her question. "Are you and your mum well?"
She nods and shifts her gaze down shyly.
Jemma shifts her gaze to the younger girl who is still laughing and rolling around, oblivious to the adults observing her behaviour…
Or perhaps she just doesn't care. She certainly doesn't seem to care that her beautiful pristine baby blue top now looked like a mixture between one of her drawings strewn all over the floor and a Picasso painting. She's so beautiful and… perfect, Kaisus would-
Jemma shivers glad that this girl doesn't live in the Lighthouse, although she isn't quite sure where she lives, who she lives with or who she actually is. Jemma continues to observe her.
I wonder if she's-
She looks up and her eyes met Fitz's. She could tell he was clearly thinking the same thing.
"Do you think-" Daisy began.
Daisy thinks so too.
"I mean it's highly illogical or logical depending on whether she was pl-"
"Simmons!" Daisy shouted which got the little girls attention.
Oops, the last thing I should be doing is upsetting this little girl who may or may not be…
"Keep colouring sweetie its ok, we mean you no harm." Daisy told her encouragingly. The mystery girl looked to Robin for approval. The older girl simply nodded. Satisfied, the younger girl became engrossed in her colouring again.
"I don't know whether she's lucky or if I feel sorry for her," May smiled softly at the girl.
Yoyo stood their quietly, Jemma could tell she was confused but knew that this little girl was special and had a connection to the team.
Maybe we have all inherited Ben's mindreading abilities or we are all thinking of different people and just think we are coming to the same conclusion. Or maybe we are all really desperate to see some familiar faces on Earth again.
" No," Mack began chuckling whilst simultaneously shaking his head slowly "she can't be…"
"Well of course she can her features…"
"She's the spitting image of her, I know Simmons, it's just that she never brought up that she wanted this…"
"It's not something I ever told anybody because I honestly thought that I had more chance of becoming an Avenger" a familiar voice calls out.
"You are an Avenger," Mack points out.
"Exactly,"
She swoops the little girl up before adjusting her on her hip comfortably.
" Besides what you lost.." She pauses realisation dawning on her face what she had said in front of the others. " I'm so sorry Mack I-"
"It's ok Barbara, they all know about Hope," his tone shifts " does this adorable cutie have a name?"
" I am NOT adorable and I am NOT cute and my name is Isabelle." The younger girl asserts.
They all chuckle. Any uncertainty that this girl wasn't who they thought she was fades away.
" Somebody's strong like their mom." May observed.
That sets Isabelle off again: " I am not Somebody I am-"
"Isabelle!" Bobbi asserts. The younger girl immediately pauses and looks obediently up at her mother.
"Yes?"
"Why don't you and Robin go play upstairs for a little while, ok?" She brushes the curls off her daughter's face before setting her down and placing a kiss on her forehead. The two girls run out of the room hand in hand, dodging all the crayons.
"Is it safe?" May questions, her eyes lingering on Robin and Isabelle leaving the room.
"This place is not the Playground or the Zephyr which is stored somewhere they can't get to, it was stored here but there was an accident and-"
"This is the Lighthouse." Fitz states.
"Yes, it was specifically designed to keep Robin safe and so far it has done it's job well. Polly's also around as is Hunter, somewhere, not that that's really a relief…"
"No ninjas this time?" Fitz cuts her off.
Ninja's?
Jemma follows Fitz's gaze to the white light reflecting off Bobbi's hand.
Ohhhh, I must ask Fitz to fill me in on the 'ninja' thing later…
"Well…" she nervously plays with the ring but makes no attempt to try to hide it, they were trained spies after all,she knows that most of them spotted it the second she walked in. "Ninjas?" she processes what he said, "how did you find about the- Hunter of course. They weren't actually ninjas you know and by the way why didn't you contact me when you needed help?"
"I did."
She looks at him confused.
" Those messages Hunter found were for you." He said dead seriously.
"Oh of course, those messages that were in those football zines that I read all the time." She states sarcastically.
"I honestly thought he would tell you ,if you were still together."
" I'm really sorry I didn't help you Fitz, I honestly didn't know, Hunter never told me what he was doing if he did I would've come I promise."
"I know that, it's ok. Besides Hunter managed to get me back to the team in the end."
" I know, I'd never thought he would be capable of something like that."
"Hey! I was capable enough to do that." Hunter retorts from the doorway where he is walking in with their daughter in his arms.
" I never said you weren't."
He notices the team and his face lights up.
Mack beings to cough.
Thank goodness. As much as I am glad that they are still together I'm not really in the mood to witness a Bobbi and Hunter fight.
"Your all back! You made it back. You did it Fitzsy, you brought them back." He goes in to hug Fitz only to realise that his daughter was in the way. Mack notices and lifts her into his arms.
"I never thought I'd be happy to see you but here we are." May mutters.
"So, how was space and the future?" He asks casually just like he was asking them how their day was.
" Oh you know, we fought some blue aliens. We won." Coulson explains.
"As you do."
"So yeah, the usual."
Bobbi shifts her attention downwards.
What is she looking at oh… Fitz's hand in mine and the makeshift ring...
Bobbi's eyes meet hers and she raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah… we…"
She knows the question that's coming.
" I'm guessing the ride was worth it?" Bobbi inquired.
"Yes." She answers without having to think twice about it.
"What about yours?"
She glances over at her husband and daughter adorningly, "definitely."
"We're being watched…" They all look towards the door to see a (single) strand of brown hair sticking out.
"You can come in Robin."
She sheepishly slinks in. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have spied-"
"It's ok, it's because of you we made it back, what you did- I mean are going to do saved not only us but humanity."
"But it's my fault you had to go through that in the first place."
"You were just the messenger Robin. You and your gift helped us save the world."
" Not to mention also helping to save us on countless occasions."
There was a brief pause as Robin contemplates what they said.
" Deke says hi, but you already knew that." Daisy mutters.
"Thanks for telling me Daisy, I appreciate it."
"So, anything important or interesting happen when we were gone that we should know about?" Coulson inquires.
"Nothing really." Hunter answers. Bobbi snorts and rolls her eyes.
"Yeah, sure, nothing. Just a minor incident involving a really powerful alien trying to destroy the world and nearly succeeding."
"Oh yeah, Gemstone man. I forgot about him…"
"The world managed to scrape by without SHIELD but the world could really use its SHIELD again."
" Can't we have a 5 minute break!" Coulson exasperates. " At least enough time to get some pie?" The team's faces simultaneously lit up with horror and they murmur "no thanks sir, no more pie."
"I love pie!" Isabelle sung out.
"Really?"
"Yes."
"No, she doesn't," Robin corrected.
Isabelle laughed, satisfied that she tricked them.
"Come in and relax you all deserve a five minute break before the next catastrophic disaster occurs."
They all nervously laughed hoping that they actually got more than 5 minutes this time.
"At least 10 minutes would be nice, 15 would be a luxury."
As they leave Daisy notices the drawing Robin was doing before discarded on the floor. "It depicts their reunion with the words: ' end of the future, beginning of the next challenge…