"A super baby?" Skye stared at her friend incredulously over the two cups of (decaf) coffee that Simmons had generously brewed specially for the hacker in the hopes of an equally generous and completely amoral favour to be given in exchange. "That's awesome! Really, I wouldn't think Fitz had it in him, are you sure its his?"

Jemma sighed and suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at her friend. She had just explained to her the conversation she had had with Hand while at the Hub, and Skye was not currently matching her feelings. She was well meaning, sure, but she was acting like this whole situation was like some juicy subplot from a crappy night time soap opera, and honestly, she was grinding on her gears a little bit.

"So you can see the future now? That is super awesome, you could like be the worlds first pregnant superhero, we should get you a cute maternity little costume, a cape... Wait, isn't it a bit weird that you kind of caught super powers from Fitz? Is it like a super STI, or does it go as soon as the kid pops out..."

"Skye!" Simmons burst impatiently, ignoring the colour flooding her cheeks, "You're going completely off topic, and I want to know if it is a terrible invasion of privacy..."

"To hack your boyfriends personal files? Yes, yes it is,"

"He...Fitz is not my boyfriend, Skye, and I am just doing a bit of background research, because honestly it doesn't add up that the fetus is gifted despite neither of the parents have any of those hereditary qualities, I mean, precognition? I doubt Fitz would forget to mention a family member with such an improbable power,"

"Maybe he didn't want you to dissect his aunt or something," Skye gave her a sideways look, "How about you just ask him?"

"I cant. Not without telling him I'm pregnant, which, due to the current circumstances, would just result in all the more unnecessary stress,"

"You should tell him," Skye replied bluntly.

"I am not going to tell him!" Simmons snapped, "Not yet! Eventually! So will you help me or do I have to figure this out on my own?"

It was Skye's turn to sigh, "fine, but only because I'm going to get the files out anyway to delete them, but I'm not happy about this,"

"Oh when have you ever been unhappy about hacking into something private and confidential?"

"Okay you got me," Skye grinned at her, before swiveling round to her laptop and getting down to business.

"So have you told your parents?"

"No, its not right to tell them now, could you imagine you only daughter calling you up with, hi mum, hi dad, sorry its been a while, just letting you know that, you let me leave to pursue a career in biochemical sciences at fourteen only so I could end up pregnant at twenty six, unmarried, and officially non existent to the worlds government and on the run from a group of freaking Nazis who want my boss dead… that being said, I would actually like to talk to them one last time…"

"I can give you Coulson's cell, but… Hey, look, I found something! Wait… no I haven't,"

Simmons' eyes snapped up from her lukewarm cup, "What?"

"It looks like some one already got all the information on his Dad…"

"I didn't think there would be any information anyway, He was always absent, disappeared when Fitz was small, he doesn't like to talk about him…"

"No, something's definitely missing here,"

Simmons bit her lip, suddenly feeling anxious, "Well is there anything else?" she asked as the file disappeared forever.

"Nope, nada, nothing outta the ordinary about our boy. And now you're officially a ghost couple. How romantic…"

Skye stopped talking as she noticed her distress, "Here," she said in a softer tone, handing her Coulson's battered cell, "Call your parents, you're going to have to be fast, I need to call Ward so just give it back to me when you're done,"

Simmons nodded half-heartedly and moved to shut herself in her bunk. She hadn't been able to her parents since she had first found out about her current situation. Her mother had instantly caught on that something was wrong, but she just couldn't bring herself to get it off her chest. Now her identity was about to be wiped from existence, and it would be a long time until she saw her family again. She would have to come clean. The nerves were eating away at her from the inside out. Or maybe that was her unquenchable hunger.

She stared at the keypad for a good minute before she could bring herself to dial their number for possibly the last time, and stared at the screen as it rang.

And rang.

And rang.

Until finally she reached voicemail, and a horrible feeling of dismay crashed over her.

"Hello! You've reached the house of Richard Simmons," said a familiar gruff voice that brought nostalgic tears to her eyes.

"And Jane Simmons!" her Mothers perky voice chimed in, "We must be away right now,"

"Or just unable to take your call,"

"But please leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can,"

Beep

Simmons inhaled shakily as she sank onto her bed and tried as best as she could to keep her voice from wavering.

"Hi, Mum, Dad, Its Jems, I'm sorry I haven't been in touch in a while, its just been a little hectic around here, you know... Oh you must have seen it on the news by now, but, well... S.H.I.E.L.D is gone but I just cant come home right now, there are just some things needing to be taken care of and..." she swallowed hard at the lump in her throat,

"I don't know when I'll be able to see you again, we're all being wiped from the systems, but, please don't worry about me, I have Fitz... And Coulson, and my team will take really good care of me,"

She couldn't help the crack in her voice, "I'm running out of time now, give Nana my love, and the boys of course and… I have something else to tell you when we actually get to speak again; I don't want to tell you like this. Just please try not to worry, Mum, I love you-"

Simmons had just managed to finish before she was cut off by another high-pitched beep. She wiped at the tears that had managed to escape. This was the first time she had felt homesick in a long time. She had never felt this aching sensation since her first days at the Academy. You should have just told them, you should have just told Coulson and Fitz and you would have gotten sent home… but as she thought that the ache only got worse.

Simmons looked to the bedside table and promptly threw open her drawer to fish out the framed picture of her parents that she would look to whenever she had felt lonely. They had looked like the perfect family; her dad had his arms wrapped tightly around her beautiful mum and a girl she could hardly recognize with large brown eyes as they grinned brightly at the camera.

The picture was taken at her second year at Sci-Ops, when they had come to visit while they took a holiday in the States. She remembered how it was Fitz who had forced them to smile like that with his nervous rambling about the simplistic technology of her Dads camera causing his accent to become thicker. It had been the first time Fitz had met her parents; she had to assure him afterwards that they had in fact adored him, but she didn't mention however how her mum had insisted on what a cute couple they made. That day was one of her fondest memories, but now it just seemed so long ago.

"Simmons?" someone called, interrupted her thoughts. She only had time to thrust the picture frame back into the drawer and shut it before Fitz burst into the room, "Simmons, Skye said that… wait, Jemma, what's wrong?"

"Hm?" she sniffed in reply, "Oh, nothing really, I'll be right out,"

Fitz didn't leave. Instead he slid the door shut and sat down next to her slowly on the pristine white bedding. He didn't touch her, but he didn't have to. "Your parents?" he asked her softly. Simmons averted his gaze as she shook her head.

"No answer… its fine. I left a message,"

"We could try again late, maybe? I'm sure wherever we end up will have some means of communication,"

She remained silent.

"Is there something you need to talk about, Jemma, because you know you can always…"

"There's a lot I need to talk about, Fitz, but… you're just not the right person,"

She tried to ignore the flicker of hurt in his eyes before his expression hardened.

"I understand," He muttered, "But you know I –I'd never judge you,"

"I should hope not," she smiled weakly at an attempt to lighten the mood she had dampened, but she couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Hey look at that," Fitz said, noticing the picture frame sitting on her lap, "I remember that,"

"You should, you took it,"

"You don't look any different,"

"That was seven years ago!"

"You don't look a day over 20"

Simmons laughed, Fitz smiled, secretly pleased with himself to have gotten that reaction.

"Well I'm certainly not 20 years old anymore, and neither are you Mr. Fitz,"

"No, I know, I do miss it though, the Academy,"

'The work, the tests… too bad it was all for naught…"

"I wouldn't say that, Shield's gone but… I'd do it all again regardless because, I mean, I got you,"

Simmons stared at him speechless, he flooded a tomato red and dropped his gaze, "Well no, I mean, not to say that I own you or anything, I just mean, I mean I-"

"Fitz, Its okay, I understand," she assured him quietly. She hesitated before pressing her lips in a chaste kiss against his cheek.

"Thank you," she whispered, then, standing, she left her bunk and went back to Skye.

*peeks put from behind fingers* Hello? yeah I know its been so long, feel free to let me have it. I'm so terrible I know but just life got in the way... Im so sorry for not having updated in ages, really, you guys are so great if you're still with me on this after that hiatus, I have just been SO busy with A levels and i know thats a crappy excuse, but here, sorry this chapter isn't so action packed but i hope you've enjoyed it, I've been getting back on a roll and no promises but the next chapter should be coming up very soon :) Soph x