#you can't just dangle grandparent fs in front of us

[theartofbeinganerd]

I absolutely love your stories!!!! And blog!!!! Thank you for sharing them!!! I’m still heartbroken over the finale... would you be able to write a fun fic about Fitz and Deke remeeting where Deke interacts with Fitz before he sees anyone else from the team and he is unaware of what happened to the other Fitz so both are confused, then Jemma comes and is happy to see Deke didn’t blink out if existence, and upset that Deke didn’t even say goodbye before leaving. Just some fun family fluff! :)

Aww thanks anon!! :) There is a lil bit of angst in this, just because of the subject material, but the family feels are still very much there! :D

Also, I know I said that I’d be writing all of my prompts in order for the Summer of Writing, but I figured I’d switch it up a bit and throw in a s6 spec prompt every now and then. I’m sure that’s a lot of what you guys are wanting to read right now, anyway! 

(Ao3)

-

“Fitz!”

At the sound of his name, Fitz paused in hisexploration of their new base, the Lighthouse, whirling around and peering aroundthe corner of the hallway that he’d just passed by. There, he found a man that he’dnever seen before, grinning at him and waving, now picking up his pace to catch upwith him.

Unsure what to do, Fitz hesitantly stepped forward tomeet him, rubbing at the back of his neck as he tried to figure out how tohandle this. They’d been back at the Lighthouse for only a few hours now, andwhile Jemma was putting their things away in the bunk she’d said was theirs, he’ddecided to give her some time and have a more thorough look around – in thebrief amount of time that he’d spent there before cryo-freezing himself, hehadn’t seen much of the vast bunker at all.

Finally reaching him, the man, who had dark hair anda beard, greeted, “Hey! Where is everybody?”

Fitz briefly glanced at the empty halls around them,wondering if this man had made a mistake somehow or was talking to somebodyelse – even though that was a bit far-fetched, given that he had referred to him by name. “Uh…”

“I mean, I’ve been all over this place,” the mancontinued, seemingly not noticing Fitz’s obvious confusion or lack of response.He chuckled, patting Fitz on the shoulder and offering him a relieved grin ashe said, “I’m glad I found you, at least.”

“Everyone’s um…getting settled back in,” Fitz finallyreplied, eyeing the man warily and wondering just how much detail he should gointo. Obviously, he had to be involved with SHIELD somehow if he’d gotten intothe Lighthouse, and it was easy to deduce that he must’ve known the Fitzthat hadn’t made it out of Chicago, but thisFitz still had no idea who he was.

“Yeah, I actually stopped back in last week and no one washere,” the man went on, widening his eyes as he held out his hands helplessly. “Bigmission or something? I didn’t see anything on that…news thing you guys have.”

Fitz squinted at him slightly, making a bit of a face as heanswered simply, “Something like that, yeah.”

The man nodded sagely, agreeing easily, “Yeah, I thought so.And hey, great job on saving the world from falling apart, by the way.”

“Er…thanks,” Fitz muttered, even though he’d had nothing todo with that particular victory.

Suddenly, the man frowned, squinting at him in much the sameway that Fitz had been looking at him just moments ago. “You okay, man? You’reacting even weirder than usual.”

“Uh…”

“Deke?”

Jemma’s surprised, eager voice had them both turning, andFitz gave a silent sigh of relief to see her heading toward them. Clearly, sheknew who this guy was, and would be able to make this conversation (if it couldeven be called one) a lot less awkward.

“Jemma!” the man – Deke, apparently, which Fitz thought wasa rather strange name (but that didn’t mean much coming from a Leopold, did it?) – greeted her, a grinspreading across his face once more.

“Oh Deke, I’m so relieved to see you,” Jemma told him,stepping right up to him and wrapping her arms around him in a hug. “We weren’tsure what happened to you after we’d changed the timeline.”

Deke returned her embrace with only a brief second ofhesitation, admitting, “Yeah, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen either,for awhile there. Half expected that any moment, the world would crack apart,or I’d just disappear.”

Jemma stepped back, her smile still firmly in place – until hereyes narrowed in an expression that was veryfamiliar to Fitz. Then, she gave Deke’s shoulder a little smack, planting herhands on her hips. “I can’t believe that you didn’t even say goodbye before youleft! What if we’d never seen each other again?”

More than a little bemused by Jemma’s interaction with Deke,Fitz glanced back and forth between the two of them, the latter now lookingproperly chastised after her reprimand. “I know, I know, I’m sorry,” Dekesighed. “I just wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, see as much ofthis world as I could before I lost my chance.”

“Wait,” Fitz cut in suddenly, causing both Jemma and Deke toturn and look at him, “you’re from the future? The one where the planetactually did break apart?”

Deke stared at him blankly, as though he’d just spoken in aforeign language, but Fitz noticed a flash of guilt crossing Jemma’s features.It was followed by a heavy sadness, then a brief resignation, only for herexpression to ultimately settle on determination.

“Um, yeah?” Deke said finally, glancing between Fitz andJemma, as though looking for some sort of answer as to what was happening. “You’veknown that for ages. What…what’s going on?”

Jemma released a quiet sigh, tucking a strand of hair behindher ear, and met Fitz’s gaze as she gestured toward Deke. “Do you remember whenI told you about…our grandson?”

Fitz, of course, remembered very clearly the briefconversation that they’d shared on the Zephyr just days ago, headed back towardEarth. He’d sensed that there was something she wasn’t telling him, something thatshe was holding back – more than just what he’d been told about them stoppingthe upcoming apocalypse, and then coming to wake him up.

But, he hadn’t pushed her on it, and had given her some timeand space, let her come to him when she was ready. After a bit, she’d done justthat, and had begun to explain everything that had happened while he’d been incryo-sleep, to explain about the version of him that had made it to the future,only to be lost after they’d returned to the present and saved the planet fromits impending doom.

She’d also mentioned them having a grandson that had comeback to the present with them, but she hadn’t gone into much more detail thanthat, let alone mentioned his name – and, well, Fitz had been in far too muchshock at the very idea to ask.

Quickly putting two and two together, Fitz turned to gape atDeke, looking at him with new eyes. This man was their grandson (well, their grandson from an alternate future, one wherehis future self hadn’t died and had instead lived to conceive his mother)? “This– he’s – our…?”

“Yes,” Jemma answered simply, taking a step closer andresting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“A bit, yeah,” Fitz replied a little absently, arching hiseyebrows and dragging a hand through his hair as he studied Deke. He didn’t look much like either of them (he didn’teven have an accent), and he wasdecidedly…strange, but that could just be because he was from a future where he’dspent his whole life in a bunker run by aliens.

“What is happening?”Deke finally burst out, throwing his hands up and shaking his head. “You’veknown that you were my grandparents since waybefore I left! Remember, you thought I was an annoying kid, and I thought youwere a grumpy old man? What, did you get your memory erased or something?” Whenneither of them spoke, his hands dropped to his sides and his eyes widened. Ina whisper, he asked, “Oh my god, did you really lose your memory?”

“I didn’t lose my memory,” Fitz told him flatly, folding hisarms over his chest and glancing at Jemma beside him, waiting for whatever hernext move was going to be. He didn’t really feel that it was his place to bethe one to tell Deke what had happened to the Fitz that he’d known, after all.

“Deke,” Jemma murmured, closing the space between them oncemore and placing a gentle hand on his arm, “there are some things that you…missed,after you left. Things that didn’t happen in previous loops.”

Deke frowned, his brow furrowing. “Well, yeah, because theplanet’s fine.”

“No, other things,” she corrected, shaking her head. “Fitzwas very brave, he helped Mack and May rescue Robin’s mother, who unfortunatelyhadn’t made it previous loops. But…”

She paused, and Fitz noticed her blinking rapidly to holdback the inevitable tears, and he watched as she briefly bowed her head in thegrief that was obviously still there, and likely always would be. Offeringsilent support, he slipped his hand into her free one, lacing their fingerstogether. Almost immediately, she gripped it tightly, gaining the strength tocontinue from him.

“But he was hurt very badly,” Jemma went on after a longmoment, raising her head to meet Deke’s confused gaze once more. “And…and he…wasn’table to survive his injuries.”

“What…” Clearly confused, Deke blinked, glancing at Fitzstanding right there beside her. He shook his head, obviously not comprehendingwhat she was telling him. “But he’s rightthere, I’m looking at him, I was talkingto him!”

“That’s where we were, why no one was at the Lighthouse,”Fitz explained to him, giving Jemma’s hand a supportive little squeeze.

“Fitz got to the future by putting himself in cryo-sleep,”she told Deke, “and when he…when we lost him, we took a trip out into space tofind the version of him that was asleep.” With that, she nodded her head towardFitz.

It took a moment, but then Deke’s grew wide and his mouthdropped open. He gaped wordlessly at Fitz for a beat, then slapped his handagainst his forehead, his voice rising as he asked incredulously, “Fitz died? He really just… And – and, this isa different Fitz? That’s why he doesn’tremember anything?”

“He’s not a different Fitz,” Jemma corrected, quicklyshaking her head, and Fitz had a feeling that she was so quick to correct himbecause it was something that she’d had to struggle with as well after losingthe version of him that she’d married, that she’d met Deke with, that she’dtried to stop the end of the world with. “He’s simply the Fitz that didn’tquite make it to the future to save us, because we weren’t there anymore.Really, he only lost a couple of weeks.”

“Yeah, I…I guess,” Deke agreed hesitantly, eyeing Fitz asthough he was now a stranger – which, in a way, Fitz supposed that he was.

And, with that in mind, Fitz cleared his throat and held outhis free hand to Deke. “Um…hey, I’m Fitz. I’m…your grandpa, I suppose. Nice tomeet you.”

Deke’s eyebrows rose slightly as he studied Fitz and hisoutstretched hand, but after a moment the corner of his mouth quirked upslightly and he took the offered hand, shaking it. “Deke. Where I come from, Iactually called you ‘Bobo’, but…let’s just stick to Fitz, okay?” He paused,then added, “And, nice to meet you too. Again.”

“Bobo?” Fitzrepeated to himself under his breath, making a face. He glanced at Jemma then,and was surprised to find that there were tears standing in her eyes, but thata content smile was spreading across her lips. It was one of the few, trulyhappy smiles that he’d seen on her face since he’d woken up to find thateverything had changed, to find that she’d been broken apart by losing himwhile he’d simply been sleeping through it all.

And, well, if the three of them being a family (albeit avery…unconventional one) made herthat happy, if it put that smile on her face, Fitz would gladly accept Dekewith open arms.

“Why don’t we head to control, see who else is around? I’msure they’ll be pleased to see that you’re alright, Deke,” Jemma offered, gesturingin the direction of the control center.

“Sure,” Deke agreed easily, following them as they beganheading down the hall. “Oh!” Suddenly elbowing Fitz lightly in the ribs, he pointedout, “Hey, you don’t remember it, but you promised to teach me how to playcatch.”

Frowning and narrowing his eyes slightly at Deke, Fitzasked, “I did?”

“Yeah, definitely. Like, after the whole ‘end of the world’thing was over, you said you’d be happyto show me.” Deke nodded emphatically, arching his eyebrows high on hisforehead. “So, when are you free?”

Slightly bewildered, Fitz glanced between Deke and Jemma,who was trying unsuccessfully to hide her amused laughter behind her hand.

Well, it looked like being a grandfather was yetanother item to add to the growing list of things that he was going to have toadjust to now.