[ As much as Darcy might've liked to get everything out in time, Wonderland had a weird way of screwing up her plans. So, after a solid day's sleep, she starts making her rounds - dropping off gifts on each floor while using a little red wagon. In front of Fitz's door, he'll find a basket that contains:
• a blanket • a festive mug • a few different flavors of tea • honey • another mug of hot chocolate supplies with a note to just add hot milk • a chocolate dipped stirring spoon • ridiculous fuzzy socks • a tiny stuffed animal • assorted candy • really dumb looking headband with reindeer antlers and a red nose • an empty journal • and an ornament
There's a note dangling from one of the handles that reads:
Hope Wonderland's attempts at holiday cheer didn't go too poorly for you. Here are a few supplies to help get back into the swing of things. Happy Holidays!
- Darcy, the best intern in the universe ]
faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more
[ after these several long months, well, leo certainly deserves something. perhaps klaus would like to honor their friendship with a gift as well, and so he does. christmas brings a present to fitz's door, wrapped plainly and tied with a green ribbon. there is a note:
For our next match, Klaus
inside the box is a hand-crafted wooden chess set with drawers for pieces. ]
[There has been something Cisco has wanted to ask for a bit now, but Wonderland and its events and a few arrivals of late had...distracted him. But time is a thing now.]
[ he knows he will not do this if he waits. he knows also that waiting will only prolong needless anguish and agony, anguish and agony that has already been suffered, and not only for him. he's of one, terrible mind stalking leo out and luckily he's easily found: he can hear fitz from behind the door to his quarters, ruffling papers and books, clearly recently returned from his interview of camille.
klaus pauses for only a moment, terror hard in his throat, and then moves forward with purpose to knock on the door. ]
[It's been a productive day indeed, and the shuffling of papers is mostly from Fitz's attempts to re-evaluate his principles based on Cami's experiences. Memory control was one trait that could be monitored and restrained, but full control required more exhaustive study. Is it something close to what the Kree did to Mack? Something harmful, like HYDRA's methods? There are too many forms it could take.
When there's a knock at his door, he replies without rising from his desk.]
It's open.
[He hadn't intended to stick around in his room, but it's best to get ideas down when they come instead of relying on them to stick around for a more convenient time. The knocking is probably Peter coming to retrieve him after Jemma's noticed he'd been gone for longer than planned. He can't imagine that anyone else would be looking for him here.]
[ he waits for his prey to be alone, in the lab. fitting, klaus would say, as it is the place he was dealt such terrible betrayals. and as dedicated as leo (and what twisted pleasure he will glean from using that name to his mark's face) is to avoiding just this sort of contact, he's not as dedicated as klaus is at finding a sliver to creep into. ]
[It's hard to fully avoid reflective surfaces in the lab setting. Sleek chrome surfaces provide entirely too much visibility.
The message arrives on a tabletop, and startles him out of his chair entirely.]
I'm not interested today, Doctor Banner.
[It's Bruce. It's always Bruce -- he's sure of it. This isn't the first contact something from the mirror side has made. Even if the others all say Bruce has gone back home, Fitz is sure that he's just in hiding somewhere. That means that his mirror is still there, waiting to toy with him again.]
[peter saw damon and fitz's conversation on... klaus' network post (yeah, that's the guy peter invited into his room back after faith died without a second thought. great.) and he knows what fitz said wasn't true. it was peter that told him about damon in an attempt to connect with him about the compulsion that he'd gone through. he's really grateful he ended up talking to elena and bonnie beforehand or else his relationships with both of them could have seriously been damaged. it's not like his friendship with elena isn't already. she's understandably angry, and he's going to try to make it up to her, but their friendship took a hit for it. he feels guilty that the words just stumbled out of him without thought, and he's going to try to be more careful now.
it's just not a world he's used to living in where secrecy is that important. no one ever really suspects that he's spider-man. he doesn't have friends so it's not like he's had to try hard to keep secrets from anyone but his aunt.]
I didn't tell you that Damon was a vampire so you could inform him that you knew that he was a vampire the first time you talked to him.
[So maybe bullet not so dodged. Klaus' warnings have sent him spiraling into a panic, one that he's not approaching Jemma with. It's a weight that sits heavily on his chest. It feels as though he's being quickly sucked into some kind of vampire turf war he hadn't realized existed. It's terrifying and exhausting and someone worse than the usual ambient tensions.]
And I didn't know that idle chatting with a friend was going to end in having my life threatened. Things escalate quickly.
[ Not this again. Not now. Fitz tries to ignore it this time, even though his muscles grow stuff stiff and his movements unnatural. The mirrors are trapped there. They want to get a ride rise out of people on the other side. They can't actually do anything.
He casts frequent glances back to the message, though, hoping it'll evaporate soon. ]
[He almost never sleeps now, after making the decision that the portal needs to happen now. He's focused enough that he doesn't even notice the message until it's almost gone, though he jumps at the sight of it.]
» Hey » Sorry, I know it's late but I can't sleep [Because he just found out earlier that his best friend is trapped on the other side of the freaking glass. Not that he can SAY anything.] » I want to try something different. » [pretend this is a text about some miniscule difference in some equation they've been using!!! yay wibble wibble smart stuff~*~] » I don't know if it will make much of difference in my attempts or anything, but I think it's worth a shot.
[ there's only one thought in his mind, at the end.
it turns over and over, amongst the flashes, the aches, the terrors of this night and all the unknown uncertainties they will usher. he remembers the curve to mirror freya's wrist as she cursed him, the pain that broke his bones. he sees the wide-eyed, clawing determination for life in evelyn's. he tastes the flow of blood, unending. that young girl's screams and desperate fight. caroline's, when his fangs ripped through her flesh. lucifer's terror in his recognition.
he remembers the stain of freya's tears on her cheeks. the willed strength of rebekah's hands. the bow of damon's head and the emptiness in his eyes. the part of elena's white lips, so stark against the blood-red gash on her neck.
but there's only one thought that matters. that sticks. that lifts from the anguish and ashes when all is said and done and he steps out of the violated safety of he and his sisters' home.
he goes to find his friend.
pale and drawn, angry and disquieted in his hope that it's not so and concern that it is, he finds him. leopold is at the labs, of course. because where else would he be, orchestrator of all that is? (and hasn't he, klaus, played his part?)
he goes through the motions. he lets the machinery work, verifying his identity, letting him through the safeguards one by one.
there's no mistaking the scene that greets him, nor the look on leo's face when he lifts his head. klaus' breath shakes; his chest tremors visibly. tears fill his eyes. for a moment he believes he will tear him apart. (what would it do? he might as well tear himself to pieces, for all the blame he desires to cast off.) it's rage. it's decimation. it's resignation. his jaw tightens against it all. ] Was it you? [ the words are thick and tired and commanding; they want answers. ]
[It's wrong. It's already become a presence on the network. Something's unsettled the mirrors and made them brave enough to cross over. Something's happened. Something's drawn them here.
Fitz isn't naive enough to think it's wholly independent from their experiment. Ever since the figure emerged from their portal, it's been a sign of alarm. He can't get in touch with Cisco to help troubleshoot.
There's been screaming.
And so he's been working. The portal has been dead since an hour after it opened, and nothing he's tried has yet yielded results. It's not an event. It's entirely linked to something more mundane than that. The only thing that's been out of the ordinary is this. He's working at a fever pitch when Klaus emerges, and it takes a minute before Fitz acknowledges him. The alarms weren't set off, so it has to be someone with access. It'll be fine.
But when Klaus speaks, it snatches hold of Fitz's entire attention. His eyes raise, and he takes in Klaus as he is in his entirety. There's an emotion there which rarely passes the careful stoicism Klaus prefers to present. Something's happened. Something's happened that's affected Klaus. Is Cami all right??
He doesn't dispute the words that are simultaneously question and accusation. There's no time to deny, to request clarification. They both know what he means.]
It shouldn't have happened this way. I don't know how they've hijacked access.
[She knows it's a small drop in the bucket of the people he's apologized to at the moment, but Freya also understands, far more than she'd like, the cost of single minded focus on the problem at hand. She's hurt people in the process of preserving her family, in ways that she'll never be able to get back.
(She also knows, even if she won't admit it out loud, that it's the thing she'd want to hear, even if she knows she doesn't deserve it. Even if she'll never be able to forgive herself. She doesn't think Fitz will be able to forgive himself anytime soon either, but at least he can hear it from on of them, even if she's not as much of a victim as some of the others.)
[She's not expecting an answer, but he'll send one anyway. Freya is Klaus' sister. He's not privy to what happened, but he saw the hurt in Klaus' eyes. He saw the unspoken accusations and knows that it was something horrendous. The Mikaelsons have suffered, at least in part.]
( The lab is gone. Peter doesn't have any idea what happened. His week was as busy as everyone else's, but it's gone, which means he doesn't know where he should go to find Fitz. It used to be his natural instinct to go there, but he sees the sign and his chest explodes with it, and. He doesn't know how to find him and check in on him, but he searches through the mansion until he does.
[Peter won't have to look very far or long to find Fitz, really. Without a lab environment, Fitz has been spending his time in the kitchen with his other passion. It started with a bowl of pretzels. He'd just come here to grab a quick snack. But then one piece had hooked into another, and there was a cluster of them baked together in an odd shape, and he started to notice the irregularities in this batch.
That was four hours ago. Right now, he's in the center of an elaborate pretzel structure, a fully-functional rollercoaster made entirely from pretzels of different shapes and designs. It kind of just happened while he wasn't paying attention. It's simple, low-stakes work. And there's no way it can ever hurt someone. The best use of his time, clearly.]
go check under seat e4 where the lab used to be. it's not much, but it'll help pass the time. be kind to darcy, and to yourself. you need each other.
[ and when fitz solves the ridiculously advanced math thingy scrawled on top, he gets a combination to open the little lockbox. inside he finds a worn book, worn bookmark, and worn photo. ]
voice. a few hours after his conversation with caroline
[ hey, buddy. just your usual abrupt and demandy call from your high-strung hybrid pal. literally the moment fitz picks up: ] What did she say to you?
[Fitz has no idea how many times Cisco has tried in the past month or so to talk to him. Tried being the key word. He never managed to actually send any of the messages he typed up.
It's late. Too late to be trying to text anyone and actually expect them to be awake. Which is, perhaps, exactly why he chose after 2am to send it in the first place.
Fitz is no stranger to late nights, he knows that, but without a huge project hanging over his head--as far as Cisco knows, he's not touched anything science-shaped lately, but knowing things would require talking to him at all--maybe he's asleep like a normal person right now.
[Fitz doesn't sleep well on normal nights lately. It's worse right now, with the fear that an angry vampire might come scraping her claws against his door at night. He's up, even if he doesn't want to be.]
I got this from a vendor on the space station that we were taken to a few months ago -- remember? He said it shows the cycle of a Higgs-Boson particle, and I think he actually knew what that meant. Pretty amazing. It'll give you the time, too, so there's that. The other will be plain fun, I think.
I know that you have a watch already, but I couldn't pass this up. Gifts are rather tricky, especially when we can get anything we could imagine for the closets, but I hope you like it. And marking a birthday when we're not actually aging despite a passage of time seems almost silly, but I can't resist the excuse to celebrate with you whenever I may. Happy birthday; I know we'll have many more together (though hopefully not here) and I can't wait to share them all with you.
All my love, Jemma
[This is on a small wrapped package, containing this watch (which does the thing, because space!) and the magnetic fidget spheres. Just don't eat them, you'll be fine.]
and peggy carter is perfectly capable of being delicate. she eschews it when she can, yes, but she can put it on again like a uniform. like a pair of boots. like an old weapon slung over her back. she isn't naturally delicate in her approach, but she's learned delicacy through the years. first among her peers, when she learned to act like a lady. then among her comrades, pulling the bricks out of her behaviour at various s.o.e. manors until she replaced the stone with training and the mortar with tradecraft. she doesn't approach fitz like an enemy operative, but rather like a potential ally. like she was taught to do in french towns, eyes peeled for sympathetic hearts under german occupation.
to that end, she doesn't contact him with any pomp or circumstance. starting the thursday after she gave rip her word that she would speak to the shield agent, peggy begins to frequent the kitchen at roughly the same hours she's managed to see him (in passing) before now. it's only a matter of time (of days, in fact) before their paths cross.
and when peggy clears her throat, it's with all the awkwardness of someone whose last interaction with a person devolved into unexpected physical affection. truth is, that darling hug from agent fitz might actually have been a catalyst in why she'd been so adamant to play the liaison.
she glances up from her mug of tea -- smile terse and bordering on unfriendly. there's something quintessentially british in it: hullo, good to see you, but not too good. ]
There should still be hot water in the kettle. Won't take long to bubble back to a boil.
[For his part, Fitz is aware of none of this. He's come into the common space with a book snatched from the library, an advanced physics textbook from someone else's homeworld. He's simply come for his usual snack break, a normal routine. He blinks toward Peggy as she addresses him; he never would have noticed her presence if she hadn't spoken up. Is she -- does she want to talk to him? ]
Oh, is there? I'll be happy to... Um. Thank you.
[Since when is she so casual with him? Shouldn't they be avoiding one another after the last event??]
[ There is a package for Fitz outside of his room. Happy Holidays, Fitz! I promise I made this candy so it won't do anything weird to you. Thank you for all of the conversations you've had with me. They all mean something important.
I just wanted to say thank you for your help during the recent event. You went out of your way to be kind to me and kept me calm and I really appreciate it. I hope you're doing better as well.
[ there's a yelp on his end, followed by aggressive paper-shuffling. The event had been the sort of challenge that they all might just agree to never speak of again. ]
Oh -- no, it was hardly anything you ought to thank me for. It's simply a relief that it's passed without casualty.
Page 1 of 2