This is an alternative ending prompted by klassmartin on AO3, that I had written a while ago but the editing part took way too long. It is not how I actually imagined this story to end, but it was nice to write. Fair sugar warning for this one ;)
The feeling was a little strange but also very nice, Jemma thought while tightening her hold on Fitz's hand. She closed her eyes in content after taking a deep breath of air full of his scent. It was definitely nice and she was hoping with all her heart that if she wouldn't remember all of her loops, then at least she would remember this one, the most important one from her own point of view. She wished that the feelings she had during the evening she had spent with Fitz would stay with her forever, alongside the knowledge that there is something amazing waiting at the end of the road that made the whole journey worth it. After all, after so many loops here she was: laying comfortably with her head on Fitz's chest and waiting, hoping that seconds would last forever and this final half an hour of her loop wouldn't ever come to an end. For once there was no rush or explosion to be expected, just a peaceful moment with the two of them holding onto each other. She wondered how it would be this time: would she fall asleep only to fall to her knees in front of the Monolith again, or maybe she would just blink and be moved in time and space?
She looked at the clock again - only five minutes left. That meant they were laying there for twenty five minutes already, not doing anything except being together. It was such an easy activity and yet it filled her with purest joy. She could hear sounds of a busy street somewhere in the distance, but it didn't capture her attention as well as the heartbeat that was drumming straight into her ear and soul. The couch was soft and comfortable, as could be expected of five star hotel, yet no pillow could beat Fitz in comfort - she felt as if her head was on a warm, solid cloud that was carefully keeping her safe. Everything that was not him was simply the background to what they were sharing and experiencing.
"How many loops have we spent like that?" Fitz asked her, his fingers combing through her hair.
"It's the first one," she told him and looked up at his face.
"What will you do in the next one?"
"Go back to calculations and trying to break the loop. I don't want to think about it," she murmured into his shirt. Her break would be over soon, but for now it was still lasting and she intended to spend every second she had left with Fitz - without any worries.
She wrapped her arms closer around him and hugged him. It was the last point on her list after all - to hold Fitz until the end.
"We're still going for dinner," he whispered, more to himself than to her.
"Mhm," she murmured and looked at the clock. Two minutes. "You can tell me where you're taking me," she nudged him.
"No, it'll be a surprise," he smiled at her. "Let me have this one ace up my sleeve, now that you've had a trial run for everything."
"It was for a glorious purpose of gathering data," she smacked his arm playfully. "I'm not gonna wear that dress," she smiled remembering their previous conversation.
"I liked that dress."
"Maybe for a second date."
"Technically it would be a second date."
"We agreed it wouldn't count."
"Well it wouldn't but you'll still remember. So it will be a second one for you."
"We don't know if I'll remember." She looked again. One minute. "But we will go somewhere no matter what. Even if I forget the loops."
"Of course we will. It's long coming."
Jemma smiled to herself. He was waiting way too long, but now she had 70 loops of waiting too.
30 seconds.
Fitz brought her closer and kissed the top of her head.
"We'll figure it out fast and go on our date in no time, you'll see."
She just nodded, focusing on his smell, the sound of his heartbeat, the rise and fall his chest that was moving her up and down with his every breath, trying to engrave that moment in her memory.
20 seconds.
Closing her eyes she tried to get lost in this tiny bit of time that was left, suddenly remembering each New Year's Eve, when they were together, counting down seconds left to something new, something they were sure they'd face together. It was so different now but also similar. Maybe they would not be together in a minute, but they were now and they'll find their way to each other, always, regardless of what time and space would try to pull to break them apart.
"Ten," Fitz whispered into her ear, pulling her more fully against him, as if he was afraid she would slip right through his fingers.
"Nine," she mumbled into his neck.
"Eight," he pressed his cheek to hers.
"Seven," she kissed his jaw.
"Six," he looked into her eyes. "I'll be waiting for you," he said and she smiled, because that wasn't exactly true, since he wouldn't remember, but she knew that she would. Always. Even if the memories wouldn't be clear, there would be a part of her soul always knowing that they are meant to be like this.
"Three," he gulped, his fingers making soothing circles on her arms."Two,"
"One," Fitz placed the last kiss in her hair.
"Zero," she prepared herself for something, a pull or push or a blow and sharp pain in legs hitting the ground.
Nothing happened.
"One?" Fitz asked with furrowed brows. "You're sure you remembered the time right?"
She abruptly turned her head and looked back at the clock.
"Well, not to the seconds, I know it was 23 past, but maybe not on the dot?" she explained and interviewed her fingers tighter with his. It could be any second now, but she was going to keep their connection until the very end, so she returned to her previous position, breathing him in and out, waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting even more.
"It's already 25 past, Jemma," Fitz pointed out.
"The clock must be broken," she decided and reached for his phone that laid on the table next to them, only to see that the screen showed the same time. She should be gone for two minutes by now.
"Haha, very funny," Fitz suddenly laughed. "You tricked me with the time, didn't you? A surprise extra hour? Not funny, Jemma, you have no idea how stressful it is to wait for your girlfriend to disappear straight from your arms, I can't go through that again!"
"Girlfriend?" She send him a smile that was aiming to be flirty but ended up slightly shy.
"I'll forget anyway, so why not pretend," he shrugged smiling back.
"You don't have to pretend," she pecked him on the lips. "But I wasn't joking. It was supposed to happen..." She checked his phone again. "Three minutes ago. Something went wrong," she shook her head.
"Or maybe something went right," he smiled at her.
"Maybe it's because of solar time differences?" She tried to find a logical answer again.
So they waited a while longer, but nothing happened. She was still in Brazil with Fitz in their luxurious room.
After twenty minutes she called Coulson, asking about the Monolith. All readings were normal, the base was secure and there was no explosions. After an hour Fitz got hungry so they went to the kitchen for him to eat some leftovers of the fruit salad they had had before. She went after him, still holding his hand, afraid that if she let go for a second she would be swept into the loop again, and that the last she was holding onto won't be the man most precious to her. After an hour and a half they figured that maybe that was the problem, maybe she couldn't time jump while touching someone, so she reluctantly let go of his skin, staring right into his eyes the whole time. Still nothing. After five minutes they decided to try closing her eyes but she still stayed in her place. Two hours later they decided that apparently the loop closed on its own and tried to understand why.
"Maybe it wasn't about all those calculations you were doing, maybe what you had to do all along was leave the base?" Fitz proposed.
"No," she shook her head. "I left in third loop, hoping that if I would be far enough from the explosion it won't happen or at least the loop would break. It didn't work back then, it must be something else."
"Nothing happened in the base, they didn't do anything out of the ordinary," he pointed out. "So maybe it was both of us leaving the lab?"
"We did it. In eleventh loop."
"Well then, the answer is obvious." Fitz shrugged. "The universe wanted you to take a day off," he grinned at her.
"Oh, Fitz." She rolled her eyes. "You know perfectly well that it's impossible. The universe doesn't care about such trivial things like me resting or being happy and carefree! It has bigger problems!"
"You're a scientist, Jemma, you can't argue with the facts."
"So all those calculations we did, there were for nothing?"
"Hey, I didn't do any calculations, it was you and previous Fitzes." He twisted his face with discomfort. "Ugh that sounded... bad. But hey, maybe the calculations were meant to teach you that sometimes the best solution is just to take a step back and relax. Rest a moment instead of overworking yourself?"
Jemma couldn't find the answer, couldn't find any counterargument. After all, what did she know? She was focusing on solving the problem so much that she hadn't thought about the source at all. Who knew what the universe wanted? Who knew what it cared about? And who could prove that it wasn't caring for even the tiniest living creatures and its well being in the strangest, inconceivable ways? Maybe the cosmos actually wanted her to get better and wanted her and Fitz to be happy together.
Fitz was smiling with this wide grin she remembered back from the Academy, the one that he showed just before they started bickering about projects because he found something she had to disagree with.
"Why are you smiling so much?" she asked with confusion.
"Because you owe me a whole stash of candy. With some super rare sweets," he grinned at her.
"Ugh, really?" she shook her head. "We just closed a time loop and you think about food?"
"Hey, it's a whole shelf of emergency sugar, you know first hand how important it is to be prepared," he teased. "And you promised that it will magically replenish in less than 48 hours..."
"I've made you a dinner for it," she reminded him.
"Well, I remember you trying to make it," he tilted his head in the direction of a sink full of dirty pots. "But somehow I can't remember actually eating it..."
"Oh, stop it!" She twisted her face in shame after realising that her cooking fiasco wouldn't be erased after all. "Eat your salad, you said you like it," she mumbled.
"Of course I do," he nodded like it was obvious. "But I like my emergency shelf full too. And come on," he caught her hand in his. "Cheer up! You're free from the loop, isn't it what you wanted the whole time? It's going to be a funny story soon. And we're here together now, we still can enjoy the evening. I'm sure there's something great we could do in the evening in Rio de Janeiro. How about we go somewhere for dancing? Without it counting as our dinner of course," he winked and pulled her closer, swaying their hands a little as if he was going to dance here and there.
"You don't like dancing," she reminded him. "I had to battle you about it before our every trip to the Boiler Room."
"Wrong. I can't dance. But we're in Rio - city of music and dance, nobody knows us here, and we have Coulson's credit card."
"Oh no!" her eyes widened at the mention of her boss. "Now I'll have to explain the bills to the Director too..."
"Hey, we've completed the mission, right? The loop stopped. Isn't that enough of an explanation?" Fitz didn't let go of her hands and his smile was contagious. "Besides, what did the loop teach us, hmm?"
She looked him in his bright blue eyes and dropped her eyes to where her hands were surrounded by his warm hold. Smiling, she took a step closer to her boyfriend.
"That I should let myself be happy every once in a while," she told him.
"Mhm. And I'm going to work really hard for it to be much more often. At least everyday." He moved to kiss her forehead but she beat him to it and kissed his lips instead, a happy giggle escaping her.
Tomorrow she would have a lot of explaining to do, but for now, Jemma still had their evening and she was not going to waste a single second of their happiness.