can i please read adhd daisy discovering that she's also autistic? (bonus points if it's jemma and/or fitz who help her find out!!!)
Thanks for the prompt!! This takes place directly after episode 1x07 and i’m kind of intending it to be a sequel to this
Read on AO3
What Friends Are For
Jemma left Fitz’s bunk and went right next door to Skye’s. Her door was open and she was sitting on her bed watching something on her laptop. Jemma knocked on the outside of the bunk and Skye looked up, taking her headphones out of her ears as she did so.
“Hey, what’s up?” she asked, smiling at Jemma.
Jemma wrung her hands. “I just wanted to apologize for the giant mess I caused today with Agent Sitwell.”
Skye chuckled. “Yeah, not your finest moment, Simmons.”
Jemma sighed and pressed her hands to her jaw. “I know. I just find it so difficult to know what to say sometimes.”
“Because you’re autistic?” Skye asked. Jemma nodded. Skye scooted over on the bed to make room and patted the space next to her. “Come on in.”
“Thank you,” Jemma said as she sat down on the bed.
“When I was a kid it seemed like I was always getting in trouble for saying the wrong thing,” Skye shared, “or saying something at the wrong time. Every single school report I ever got before I dropped out had the words ‘impulsive’ and ‘interrupts frequently’ on it. One of the foster families even sent me back because I was ‘too hyper’ and ‘never stopped talking.’”
Jemma nodded. “I had difficulties with that in school as well. I was so fascinated by science and wanted to share everything I learnt. They didn’t like my stimming either.”
“Stimming’s like the hand flapping thing right?” Skye asked.
“Well, that’s the stereotypical example, but yes, hand flapping is a common stim. My stims are more pressure stims. I press against my neck and jaw,” Jemma demonstrated the action, “or I rub my thumbs across my fingers,” she demonstrated that too. “It helps me when things get to be too overwhelming.”
“It seems like things get to be too overwhelming a lot in SHIELD,” Skye observed. Jemma nodded in agreement. “I think writing code is a stim for me. Can that be a stim? And can I have stims if I’m not autistic?”
“Yes and yes,” Jemma answered. “ADHD is considered a cousin disorder to autism.”
“Cousin disorder,” Skye repeated.
“Yes, that means that a lot of the symptoms overlap.”
“Like what? And how do you tell the difference?”
“With autism, the main issue is difficulty with social situations, like not understanding others’ body language or facial expressions, or not knowing the ‘rules’ of how to have a conversation. With ADHD, the main issue is difficulty with attention. They overlap with issues like executive dysfunction, stimming, special interests, and hyperfocus.”
“How did you realize you were autistic?” Skye asked.
“I always knew I was different,” Jemma explained. “When I was young, everyone told me it was because of my IQ score, but that never explained my sensory processing disorder, or why it seemed like everyone else had received a rulebook on how to interact whereas I was never given the rulebook. When I was 12 and stuck in bed after surgery to correct my scoliosis, I started researching and quickly stumbled across the term Asperger’s Syndrome. What I read described me, so I told my parents. My mum didn’t take it seriously at first, but my dad researched it with me and he realized he was autistic as well. Once I recovered, we both got tested and diagnosed.”
Skye used the trackpad on her laptop to move the mouse around the screen as she thought about what Jemma said. Finally, she spoke. “When I was a kid, I always felt different to everyone. I thought it was because I was a foster kid, or because of my race. I was always getting in trouble for saying the wrong thing or not reading the situation correctly. What you said about it seeming like everyone else had a rulebook, but not you—that describes me too.”
“Do you think you may be autistic?” Jemma asked.
Skye bit her lip. “I don’t know. Maybe? What does it mean if I am?”
Jemma put a hand on Skye’s knee. “It means you’re Skye. You’re Skye and you’re autistic and you’re ADHD and now you have words to explain feeling different.”
Skye nodded and reached up to wipe away a tear falling from her eye. “Thank you, Jemma.”
