Chapter Text
Fitz had left at the end of May, leaving Jemma to stare at an empty desk with an aching heart for the next four months. She knew Fitz’s value and was glad that the higher ups in the company had finally taken notice of it, offering him up a deal that was too good to pass up. She also was pretty sure he had been desperate to escape Pittsburg and go to DC. He had always talked about moving there one day, putting his degree and mind to use in a real life lab.
“As much as I love selling people paper,” he had said, “I’ve never meant it to be my forever job. Plus, I could take my mum to see the cherry blossoms in the spring. Oh, and we could see all the museums, Jems. It would be great.”
Jemma was pretty certain that moving to DC for Playground Paper Company was not what he had meant when he had voiced that dream, and she also knew that this reality DC did not include her like his dream one did, but she guessed he didn’t care much right then. In fact, he seemed rather happy to go, with or without his best friend in the world.
He didn’t want a farewell party. Fitz never was very social when it came to talking to people in the office, well people apart from herself. She had always gotten on with Fitz like a house on fire, the two of them nearly inseparable in the office. Before everything had happened, he had bounced back and forth between his desk and hers, the ten feet between them feeling like nothing as they exchanged smiles, jokes, and the occasional in-sync air-five when one of their office pranks landed. They had basically reserved seats in the conference room next to one another, they always took their lunches at the same time, and they never walked out at the end of the day without the other, cramming in as much conversation as they could before they had to go home. Selling paper wasn’t the most fun of jobs, but with Fitz as her friend, the days went by quicker than they normally would have. She only realized after he was gone just how many hours were between nine and five.
After Fitz had left there had been a rearranging of the sales desks and Mack had taken his spot. Having worked with Mac for over a year, it wasn’t as though Jemma didn’t know him or was unable to talk to him. It was just that somehow the ten feet that separated her chair from his seemed a whole lot greater of a distance than it had when it was Fitz in the chair. Every time she looked up from her computer or finished up a phone call, she half expected to still see him sat there, pushing back the lumbar support of his chair and flashing her his boyish grin as he avoided making the calls he hated. For the incredible sales rep he was, Fitz was surprisingly averse to talking on the phone. Jemma guessed it was more his obvious brilliance and unique kind of charm that made sales come so naturally. Now when she looked up to meet his gaze, however, her eyes just caught sight of Mack, working hard on entering his numbers or talking with clients.
She hadn’t talked to Fitz much before he left. It all went rather quickly. He had a meeting with Phil in his office, spent two days almost entirely on the phone notifying clients of his transfer and new contact information, packed his desk up in a half hour on a Friday, and was gone. They had exchanged a good morning, a goodnight, and a goodbye, leaving Jemma with so much left she wanted to say; words she was still working towards admitting and words she wished more than anything she could take back.
It was nearly two weeks after Fitz had left when Jemma decided to break off her four-year-long engagement with her fiance, Will. She didn’t blame Will for the things that happened between them, the slow dissolving of their relationship, the endless string of disagreements, and she did appreciate that he was a very large and important part of her life. He had arrived in her life just when she needed him and they had been together so long it had been hard for her to let herself leave. After everything that had happened at the office party, the things she was pretty sure had been the catalyst for Fitz’s transfer and her revealing emotions, she knew she could no longer stay with Will. It was just that, as much as she had once loved him, Jemma just knew for certain that he could never be her life. He deserved not to be dragged along just as she deserved the same.
She had been staring at Fitz’s three-week empty desk and gathering up her things to leave work for the night when Will had come up from the warehouse. He was saying something about getting take-out on the way home, something from the greasy fast food place he loved and she didn’t very much like. It was then that everything she had been feeling just boiled over. The next day she had given him back her ring and she was out of their apartment by the time she went back to work on Monday.
Now that Jemma was newly single with an apartment all to herself, Friday nights had become stay-in nights, long soak in a hot bath with a book, catching up on episodes of her shows, and in bed at ten. As much as she informed her coworker, Daisy, of this, the customer service representative refused to accept Jemma’s insistence that she liked being by herself.
“Look, Jemma,” Daisy said, leaning on her crossed arms over the reception desk, “I know that you are post break-up with Will and that you miss Fitz, but I really think that going to Patrick’s with the rest of the office would be good for you. I know you like the beers they have on tap.”
Jemma spun the plastic phone cord around her fingers. Perhaps going to the old Irish pub would help her let off some steam and maybe it would also get Daisy off her back for a while. With an overemphasized puff of air, Jemma agreed to go.
Daisy squealed with delight. “Oh, yay! Jemma, I promise you’ll have a blast! And Mack signed up to be designated driver if you don’t want to call a cab so you can drink all you want. And I heard there was some pretty juicy gossip floating about having to do with corporate. Once we’re out of earshot of Nathanson, maybe I’ll be able to get it out of someone. Oh, Jemma, this is going to be great!”
Despite the lightning fast speed with which Daisy communicated, Jemma was still able to take in what her friend was saying. Maybe it was better that she didn’t go home to an empty apartment and nothing to watch on the telly. Maybe she would finally be able to get her mind off of Fitz.
Patrick’s Pub was a favorite of the employees of Playground Paper and had been for over fifty years. The bartender was the son of the original owner and had been taught to be especially kind to anyone hailing from the paper company. This meant that if enough of them showed up, drinks got cheaper, people got drunker and the owners of Patrick’s got paid.
Jemma hadn’t been to Patrick’s since just after Fitz had left. The first time she went without him had been surprisingly dull. There was no one to people watch with, so seeing her coworkers get more and more drunk was no longer as entertaining as it usually was when Fitz was there sitting next to her. When a very drunk Davis had gotten his head stuck in the wooden room divider, she had turned to her right only to find an empty stretch of red booth cushion. She hadn’t been to the pub since.
“Piper just bought the whole office a round of beers,” Daisy said as she slid onto the bench across from Jemma. She had one drink out in front of her and the other nearing her lips as she bounced a few times to get comfortable.
“That’s very kind of her,” Jemma said, taking the chilled mug of beer once Daisy had slid it across the table.
Daisy’s eyes narrowed a fraction and Jemma turned to look out at the bar. She knew what was coming before Daisy even spoke.
“Have you gotten any more information on the gossip you mentioned?” Jemma asked, cutting off the question she knew had been about to leave Daisy’s open mouth. She really didn’t feel like talking about Fitz.
The flicker of curiosity in Daisy’s eyes quickly transformed as a wicked smile flooded her features.
“Not yet, but it’s still early in the night. Now that everyone has had a round of free drinks, I’m sure information will soon begin to flow.”
Jemma grinned. “Let me know what you hear.”
The football match playing on the television roared in a crescendo and somewhere in the pub Hunter whooped. Distracted by the noise, Jemma’s reflexes were weakened and she missed her chance to fend off Daisy’s questioning.
“Have you talked to Fitz lately?”
Jemma didn’t answer right away, her head still turned out towards the bar but her eyes unfocused.
“No,” she said, finally facing the table again.
Daisy took her hands off the table and replaced them with her elbows, adjusting herself in her seat like she was forming a two person huddle. “What happened between you two. One minute you guys are as thick as thieves and the next Fitz avoids your desk like you’ve got the plague. I honestly thought one of you was sick or something and didn’t want to infect the other before Fitz announced he was leaving for the DC branch. And then I thought there would at least have been more of a goodbye between you two but you guys acted like it was any other day. I mean--”
Daisy cut herself off, catching the clouds that had seemed to form in Jemma’s eyes. Jemma swallowed up the proceeding silence, taking deep breaths before responding.
“It’s nothing, Daisy. He got a chance at a promotion and he took it. I’m proud of him. He deserves the recognition. As for what happened between us, I guess I just thought it would be better if I gave him his distance. Thought it would make it easier for the both of us when he left.”
“And did it?”
Even if the lie were true, Jemma knew it wouldn’t have worked. She would have missed Fitz no matter what and no amount of training would make the miles between them now feel shorter.
Jemma smiled softly in a way she knew did nothing to fool Daisy and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Yeah.”
With a little tilt of her head, Daisy drew her arms from off the table, breaking the huddle and somehow bringing back the noise of the bar. She turned her head to the side, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear.
“Oh, Deke’s got a Zima. Information is on the horizon,” she said, breaking the tension with one of her snooping smiles. “Be back in a minute.”
In one easy movement, Daisy slid out of the booth, leaving Jemma alone at the table. She was curious as to what was going on in the office. There had been quite a lot of talk and Maria Hill had been coming into the office far more than she normally did. It wasn’t unusual to see the corporate overseer of their branch as she often had to make trips to assure Phil was following management’s orders. Phil was a great boss but he didn’t love following instructions when he felt there was a better way of going about something. This meant many visitations from Maria but not as many as there had been in the past week. Whatever was going on, Jemma was certain Daisy would be the one to find out. The customer rep was nothing if not persistent.
As she waited for her friend to return from coaxing out gossip from their coworkers, Jemma busied herself with a napkin, folding it and unfolding it as she looked about the pub. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, talking to one another, playing pool, or watching the football match on the old boxy television. The pub was nice and busy, the air warm and smelling of alcohol and the door continually opening and closing as more people arrived. With as packed as the tiny pub was, Jemma felt the booth she sat in was rather like a lonesome life raft, just floating in the ocean of people.
After ten minutes had passed, Daisy returned, plopping back down into the booth with very little grace and a rather unhappy expression.
“What did you find out?”
Lips in a line and eyes more sober than they had been when she had left the booth, Daisy spilled.
“I just heard from Deke who heard from Mack who got it from Hunter who was snooping on May and Phil that there may be a chance that our branch is closing.”
Jemma blinked blankly across the table, dropping her napkin down flat and covering it with her palms.
“Wait, what?”
Daisy bit her lip. “I said that, by the looks of it, there's a chance that if we don’t boost our output by the end of the month management will be closing the Pittsburgh branch.”
“So,” Jemma said, looking away from her coworker so as to piece together her thoughts, “we might lose our jobs?”
“Yep,” Daisy said, popping the “p” before taking a swig of her drink. “Looks like Fitz left just in time.”
“Yeah,” Jemma said, feeling hollow and missing Fitz more than ever, “Just in time.”