An AU in which Jemma Simmons met, not rugged astronaut Will Daniels on Maveth, but his nine-year-old son Cody, born and orphaned all on the blue planet.
Many thanks to @fitzsimmonsaf for the beautiful banner!!
One Step at a Time: Three New Chapters
~4k new words
I want it to be perfect - in which Jemma stress bakes over Cody’s second birthday on Earth and has a heart-to-heart with Daisy about parenting.
Mom - in which Cody tries out the Mom label before Jemma’s quite ready to hear it.
I come in peace - introducing Fitz’s mother Anna, coming to check on Jemma and Cody in the tumultuous aftermath of the Framework.
Do FitzSimmons have any other children in the Cody Verse other than Cody, Peggy, and their second baby? If so, I’d love to read about that!
Hi Nonny! I’m sort of hiatusing / idk stepping back from the things more permanently but I didn’t want to leave you hanging!
As a matter of fact, fs end up with four kids in total in the Cody-verse, most of the time anyway, lol. It’s a little mutable in my head, as everything in fandom is, and sometimes I think four would be too much given all the special needs Cody and Peggy have, and also, you know, wanting to have time to science, but generally they end up with four.
After Peggy they have a boy named Phillip (named after Coulson, of course, who is decidedly alive and well forever in this universe because I said so). And after that they have another boy named Noah.
These children are originally @fitzsimmonsaf‘s creation and I know she absolutely loves talking about them and has some graphics over there for them (plus it was her birthday a couple days ago and she’s like the awesomest person around) so I’d encourage you to go hit her up for details on the fitzsimmons brood if you’re looking for more.
AN: Cody verse drabble for Fitz’s first Father’s Day. (Also check out this cool new drabble collection with some old and a bunch of new snippits from the Cody verse)
One Step at a Time: Chapter Nine
Words: ~700
Read on AO3
“I can do it,” Cody insists for perhaps the thirtieth time that morning.
“This is pretty tricky, bud, I better-”
“No I can.” Cody nudges his way under Fitz’s arm, and slips the spatula out of his hand.
Should kids be standing this close to a stove? Fitz thinks probably not. Especially not Jemma’s kid. But when Cody decides he wants to do something, stopping him is almost impossible. So Fitz pulls a chair over from the table for him to kneel on so he can get a better angle and holds the frying pan while Cody works the spatula under the battery pool and flips the pancake.
“Nice job,” Fitz tells him.
He read an article about acknowledging small successes, especially when kids volunteer to help or do chores. It wasn’t the neatest flip in the world, but the pancake stayed in the pan, so success.
Only two pancakes fall to their demise in the transfer from pan to plate. Cody says he can eat them anyway, but Fitz, feeling slightly green, manages to convince him they have plenty non-floor pancakes to share.
Fitz carries the plate to the table while Cody fills his arms with condiments from the fridge. Whipped cream and maple syrup, but also butter, jam, Hershey’s chocolate sauce, cherries, cream cheese, ranch, ketchup, pickles, and mayonnaise.
“I don’t know if all of those things go good with pancakes,” Fitz says as Cody lines them up in a circle between them.
“Don’t know till you try it out.”
He’s had to develop a stronger stomach to share meals with this kid.
As they eat, though, Cody’s demeanor changes. He loads his first pancake with syrup and whipped cream and cherries, but spends so much time pushing bites around his plate, the whipped cream has melted before he gets halfway through. He’s gone a little quiet and twitchy.
“Hey, bud,” Fitz says after several minutes of this, and waits for Cody’s attention to shift to him. “Something wrong?”
Cody shakes his head and shoves a big bite into his mouth. “I have something for you,” he says before he’s even finished chewing and rises to his knees on the chair to pull it out of his pocket.
It’s a small package wrapped haphazardly in printer paper decorated with crayon scrawls.
“It’s not as pretty as the special paper Coulson got for Mother’s Day,” Cody says apologetically.
“I like it,” Fitz says, examining the scribbles. “Very abstract. Post-modern.”
“What’s astract?” Cody asks, turning himself sideways in his chair to look at Fitz better.
“Um, kind of hard to explain. Is this for me?”
Cody bites one of his knuckles and nods a little shyly. “I hope you like it.”
Fitz feels something hot and sweet glowing in his chest. Makes it a little hard to find words, but he smiles and ruffles Cody’s wild hair. “Thank you, Monkey.”
He takes care peeling back the tape so as not to rip the drawings. At first he thinks it’s a bright orange ribbon inside (which would not be the strangest gift Cody has ever presented him with), but on closer inspection, he sees that it’s a tie patterned with the Broncos’ logo.
“It’s okay if you don’t want it,” Cody says quickly, watching Fitz’s face closely. “I just thought - Daisy said ties were ‘customary’.”
“Customary for what?” Fitz asks, endeared by the gesture but also somewhat baffled.
“Don’t you know what today is?” Cody asks.
“Sunday…?”
“It’s Father’s Day,” Cody tells him. “I know you’re not my dad, but Daisy got stuff for Coulson and he’s not her dad and you do a lot of things I guess dads do - but if - if you don’t want us to be like that, then I can send it back -”
He’s already reaching for the tie, looking anxiously at the tears gathering in the corners of Fitz’s eyes, but Fitz quickly loops it around his collar and does his best to tie a loose knot. Father’s Day. He hasn’t thought about it in over fifteen years.
He clears his throat. “C’mere you little monkey.” He pulls Cody onto his lap and hugs him, careful not to squeeze too hard. “I’m keeping this forever, okay? It’s the best present I’ve ever gotten. I love it.”
A/N: since it’s taking me 500 years to write anything these days I thought I’d share a few drabbles from this au (more context here) where Jemma finds and ultimately adopts a little boy stranded on Maveth.
The last two prompts are excerpts/missing moments from the next chapter of Learning to Breathe. A little bit of Fitz with Cody.
Prompt: “Watch your step.”
“Careful,” Jemma chides as he gets out too far ahead of her, moving faster than his balance will allow for long.
“I’m careful,” Cody objects. He’s using the wall to stay upright, both hands pressed against the rough brick and clipping along pretty well for someone who has to shuffle sideways.
“The floor’s cement out here,” Jemma reminds him. “If you fall, it’s going to hurt. There isn’t any carpet or mats like in our room.”
“Cement,” Cody repeats, drawing out the c into a long serpent's hiss. He pauses to peer down at the hallway floor, kick it lightly with his heel, and she manages to catch up with him again. “Cement’s not a mineral. I know all the minerals.”
He resumes his rapid shuffle along the hallway, clawing hand over hand is if he’s climbing the bricks sideways. The intense vertigo of planet-hopping has kept him nearly-immobile for weeks now, and all the pent-up energy has just been waiting for a release.
“You’re right. It’s a lime or calcium silicate mixture. I suppose it would be more accurate to say the floor is concrete, because the cement has to mix with sand to form a stable, solid surface.”
“The floor’s sand?” Cody asks, turning to look at her without breaking his pace. A seam that has lifted into a bit of a ledge near the wall trips him up and Jemma lunges to grab his elbow before he can go crashing to the floor.
“Watch where you’re going, please,” she implores, putting him back on his feet.
“How’s the floor sand?” Cody asks.
As soon as she lets go of him he’s back to a near-run.
Prompt: “It’s not heavy. I’m stronger than I look.”
When Lincoln finally comes home, he flies into the big international airport in DC. His flight lands at ten o’clock at night, and Daisy planned to pick him up, but she, Coulson, Mack, and Fitz are pulled away to save the world - or Montana anyway - last minute. Which is how May, Jemma, and Cody end up standing around baggage claim nine at 10:30 PM.
“Is he coming yet?” Cody asks, impatiently flapping the poster board he’d spent the better part of the afternoon coloring with Lincoln’s name in big block letters (missing the second L).
“I don’t see him, Monkey,” Jemma says, hand on his shoulder and eyes fixed on the escalators. “But he’ll be here any minute.”
As with most of the big, public places he’s been, Cody doesn’t like the airport much. It’s very loud for one thing and far, far too crowded for another. The sheer number of people in the immediate vicinity hurts his head. But he thinks if he had to wait an extra minute to see Lincoln he’d probably explode, so he’d much rather be here than back on base.
“He’s still coming, isn’t he?” he asks, looking up at Jemma anxiously.
“Yes, love, he just texted me. It takes a little while to get off the plane though.”
Cody sighs and bounces from foot to foot. “Tell him to walk faster.”
“You can tell him yourself,” May says suddenly, nodding to a different escalator at the far end of the baggage claim area.
Lincoln, much more tanned and scruffed than he’d been when he left but definitely Lincoln, is just stepping off the last step.
“Cody!” Jemma yelps grabbing for him, but he’s already taken off at a sprint down the crowded aisle, the poster board fluttering in his wake.
“Lincoln!” he shouts seconds before crashing into him at full speed.
But Lincoln’s ready for him. He catches cody up in a bear hug, lifting him off the floor and turning in a circle with the momentum. His beard is scratchy against Cody’s cheek and his jacket smells funny, but Cody doesn’t mind at all.
“Hey, bud,” Lincoln murmurs into his shoulder. “I missed you.”
“Don’t leave anymore, okay?”
“Okay, deal.”
He lets Cody slide back to the floor as Jemma and May catch up. Jemma throws her arms around his neck in a hug almost as fierce as Cody’s and he spins her too, her toes at least a foot off the ground.
“Alright?” he asks when he sets her down again and there’s a lot in the question, a lot that makes Cody think he knows she cries at night still and sometimes sits in the closet with the door locked.
Cody is very glad he’s back.
“Hey, I got that, bud,” Lincoln says reaching for the overstuffed duffle bag Cody’s heaving off the floor. “It’s bigger than you are.”
“It’s not heavy,” Cody says, panting and wobbling a little with the excess weight, but adamantly refusing to allow Lincoln to lift it off his shoulders. “I’m stronger than I look.”
Lincoln’s grin is lost in his beard. “I believe it, kid.”
Prompt: “I made your favorite”
“Come on, Code.” Fitz’s voice comes from a long way away, like from underwater. “You’ve got to eat something. It’s chocolate chip pancakes. It’s your favorite.”
Cody blinks slowly, and Fitz’s face swims above him. Then his gaze slide past to the patch of lamplight on the ceiling.
Fitz eases himself down onto the floor, propped up on an elbow, and brushes the hair out of Cody’s eyes.
“What’ll Mum say when she wakes up and finds out you haven’t had anything?”
Go on, love. That’s what she’ll say. Go on, love. That’s the last thing she said to him and it’s all he can hear her saying.
Go where? Where is he supposed to go without her?
“Hunter’s making soup,” Fitz says and his voice is quiet and close now. There is a crease in his brow and he reaches over to rub his hand up and down Cody’s arm like he’s trying to warm him up. Like Cody’s turning to ice in the middle of the rug. “That sounds good, doesn’t it? You’ll have some of that?”
Cody turns his head to look at the gap under the couch. Fitz lets his breath out in a quiet puff.
“I’ll bring him a bowl when it’s ready.” This is Hunter, from a long way off again.
Fitz bends low to whisper in his ear, “You better eat that, or I’ll tell Mum on you.”
Then he kisses Cody’s temple and is gone and Cody lets his eyes drift closed.
Prompt: “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
“You can hate me if you want.”
“What?” Fitz, half-asleep and reeling on three-and-a-half days of stress like nothing he’s ever dealt with, is sure he’s hearing things. He rolls over to look at Cody, who’s curled up on Jemma’s half of the bed, hugging her pillow to his chest..
“You can hate me,” Cody repeats and that’s definitely what he says. “Or be mad at me. You can shout at me if you want to.”
Fitz scrubs a hand over his face. “Honey, what are you talking about?”
“It’s my fault.” Cody’s voice wavers all over the place. “Mom and the baby. It’s my fault, and so it’s okay if you hate me, I understand.”
“Cody -” Fitz sits up and reaches over him to turn the lamp on. “This isn’t your fault, monkey. Hey - look at me, alright?”
He pulls the pillow back so Cody can see his face.
“First of all,” Fitz says, dabbing at Cody’s wet cheeks with his sleeve, “I could never hate you. You’re my kid, yeah? So I love you no matter what. Second, I’m not angry, not at you or at anyone. Maybe at myself for not being here, but definitely not at you, okay? Third - and I really need you to understand this one, okay? Because it’s important - this is not your fault.”
Cody’s face crumples. “I’m s-sorry. I didn’t mean for it to - to happen. I’m sorry.”
Fitz sighs, pulls him upright and gathers him against his chest. “It’s not your fault, honey. It’s not your fault.”
Hi! I really love your Cody verse fics and was wondering light of the new story (which is awesome btw, can't wait for the next chapter) and how close Fitz and Cody seem to have become, if you had any headcanons on how Cody and Fitz bonded. Hope this makes sense English isn't my first language. Love your writing
Aw, thank you so much Nonnie! I love this universe but I know OC’s (not to mention kid OC’s) are tough sells so hearing someone else enjoys it too and wants to know more is like the best thing, you don’t even know.
I have lots of headcannons and am trying to get a fic out one of these days on the topic, but since that doesn’t seem to be happening any time soon, I shall share some of the headcannons:
Fitz is the first person outside of Jemma Cody actually speaks to. It takes weeks and it’s just one word at first. As Fitz is leaving their bunk he says bye. Doesn’t look up. Doesn’t stop scribbling on a piece of paper. Fitz would think he was hearing things if Jemma wasn’t beaming.
But even before he starts talking, they find ways to communicate. Having once been that quiet kid in the corner who doesn’t know how to interact with other people, Fitz gets him a little better than some of the team. Cody may look like he’s ignoring everyone, but Fitz is pretty sure he’s paying close attention to everything.
Once Fitz leaves his Milenium Falcon key chain sitting on the night stand. When he comes back to retrieve it, he finds a rock in its place. A rock with a crude smiley face etched into it. He takes the rock and leaves a rubix cube and the next day there’s pile of cotton balls waiting for him. It might not be words, but it’s definitely interaction and that’s big. He keeps finding things to trade.
The change from stranger to friend happens imperceptibly and Fitz is never totally sure what triggers it. One moment Cody is studiously ignoring his existence as always, the next he’s climbing into Fitz’s lap to watch him draw up blueprints on his tablet. Still no words and not much eye contact, but occasionally Cody’s hand will come up to pat at his scruff or play with a button on his shirt, barriers apparently evaporated.
Cody doesn’t sleep like normal people sleep. Not for a long time. No matter what Jemma tries, he finds his way out of their bunk and wanders the base on his own while she’s out. This is how a lot of his relationships with the rest of the team are forged, but Fitz and May are who he finds most frequently. Fitz rearranges his schedule a little to accommodate this because he knows Cody’s usually awake at 1 AM and Jemma has to sleep some time. Fitz is a little awkward the first few times they’re one-on-one, but he never minds the company and starts keeping juice boxes and coloring books in the lab.
On his brief excursion to Maveth under Ward’s coercion, Fitz manages to smuggle back some things for Cody: a few rocks and a vial of sand, the journals his mother Laurie kept while she was on Maveth, a couple of toys Will fashioned for him years before. Having them means the world to Cody.
Cody’s favorite movie ever in the world (once he starts watching them) is Tarzan. They always skip the beginning because it hits way too close to home, but everything else about it Cody is obsessed with and, once, Fitz watches it six times in a row with him.
Fitz builds the best blanket forts. Mack has a corner on pillow forts, but Fitz owns the blanket fort market and he builds them all over base for Cody. They are a major tool for easing into being around big groups of people because Cody feels much safer listening to everyone from under cover, plus everything is more fun in a blanket fort.
Fitz is the only other person on the team besides Jemma who calls Cody “Monkey”.
Another term of endearment Fitz picks up for Cody is honey. His own father and Radcliffe sort of ruined ‘son’ for him, but he calls Cody honey even when he’s grown out of childhood. Fitz is determined to be soft and to protect Cody’s softness at all costs.
When Jemma goes into preterm labor at only twnety-eight weeks, it leaves both her and the baby fighting for their lives. Meanwhile Fitz, their son, and the rest of the team struggle to keep it together, unable to do much more than wait and pray.
AN: This fic is set in the Cody verse, an AU where, instead of finding Will Daniels on Maveth, Jemma finds his orphaned son Cody, and brings him back to Earth. You should be able to enjoy this fic without having read any of the others in the serries, but it may be more enjoyable if you take a look at I won’t let go and this post with some context/background info first.
HUGE HUGE thank you to @fitzsimmonsaf for being a tireless beta and cheerleader and basically single-handedly dragging this story out of me. Could not have done it without her, truer words.
Words: ~7,600 (Part 1/3)
Read on Ao3
Jemma presses one hand to the aching small of her back, the other splayed over her protuberant belly as she stands before the stove waiting for the kettle to boil.
“Oh, hush,” she chides as the baby resumes its assault on her bladder. “Haven’t you already given me enough trouble today, hm?”
“Little bugger’s a handful, i’nt she?” Hunter smirks, juggling a bowl of cereal in one hand and a squirming Landon in the other. “Probably gonna be a brat just like her mum.”
Jemma snatches a spatula from the counter and lands a sound whap to Hunter’s shoulder as he edges past her, causing milk to slosh over the rim of his cereal bowl.
“See that, Ladybug? She can’t resist proving me right,” Hunter says to the toddler.
Landon points to the spilled milk, mouth popping open in a worried O.
“Don’t call my kids brats,” Jemma huffs, impatiently cranking the burner up to fullblast.
“D’you want me to ask Bob where her heating pads are?” Hunter asks as he kneels down to mop up the mess. “These two were wicked up towards the end, wherencha Ladybug? Reckon it’d help with your back or your ankles or whatever the kid’s flaring up today.”
“Everything,” Jemma groans. “It’s everything. The next three months cannot go quickly enough.”
“You say that now,” Hunter says darkly. “Just wait till the banshee keeps you up three days straight.”
The kettle starts up a shrill whistle, and Jemma hurries to turn it off, grabbing the dish rag draped over the oven handle to pour herself a steaming mug of caffeine-free herbal detox tea.
“Did you want some, love?” She cranes her neck to see Cody where he’s hunched over the kitchen table, head buried in one of Laurie’s thick geology journals. He gives a barely perceptible shake of his head, not glancing up from the yellowing pages.
Hunter raises a questioning eyebrow at Jemma who sighs. She knows exactly what the matter is. Fitz left for a field mission yesterday morning. It’s a fairly standard investigation into a new 0-8-4, but Cody’s been having a hard time with either of them leaving base recently. Jemma is quite at a loss to explain the sudden spike in separation anxiety. He hasn’t worried about them being in the field like this in years.
She grabs a second cup anyway and fills it with some of the sweet lemon tea he likes for some unfathomable reason (she can only blame his American genes), adding a healthy amount of milk and honey to it, too. A mug in each hand she carefully negotiates Hunter, Landon, and the counter to join Cody at the table.
“Which one’s that?” she asks, trying to read the text of his book upside-down.
It makes her woozy, though, so she stops.
“Essays by Stephen Jay Gould,” Cody tells her, finally glancing up. There’s an apology on his face. He knows he’s being rude, but focusing on the reading stops his mind from spinning toward Fitz.
Jemma reaches out to tousle his hair affectionately. She knows Gould is his go-to.
“I’ve got to get back to the lab,” she says reluctantly after a few minutes of sipping her tea and watching him read. “Dad’s waiting on those compound assessments and there’re a million genetic sequences that apparently need my immediate attention.” She rolls her eyes - new lab techs.
Cody marks his page with a napkin and gets up to join her, offering an arm to help her out of her chair. He’s been following her around like a ghost all day. Jemma groans loudly as she stands, making a face and rubbing her back again. Cody’s face pinches worriedly, and Hunter frowns at her from the island where he’s sharing his cereal with Landon.
“You could take a break,” Hunter suggests bravely.
“Oh, honestly, I’m creating a human being as we speak. Can’t I complain without being rushed to the fainting couch?” She kisses Cody’s forehead, which, thanks to his latest growth spurt, is conveniently at chin height. “I’m perfectly fine, so both of you can quit hovering.”
Truth be told the back ache is particularly bad today, and it’s making her a bit nauseous. But having spent most of her life in a male-dominated field fighting tooth and nail to prove to her colleagues that her gender has no baring on her ability to excel at her job, she loathes the idea of shucking responsibilities for a little pregnancy discomfort.
“Come on, Monkey, you can help me run some particle analysis.”
Because I haven’t gotten arround to filling in as much of the Cody verse as I would like, I’ve compiled some context/background information for the latest installment: Learning to Breathe. It’s not necessary to know all this or even to have read the previous fics in the serries to read this one, but some more information may make it more enjoyable.
Learning to Breathe takes place in the near future about four and a half years after Jemma and Cody are rescued from Maveth. (About three years from present.)
A bunch of things go down that I have not written yet, but eventually Jemma ends up adoptiing Cody and becoming a single parent to him. And when she and Fitz get together and then get married, Fitz adopts him too.
The whole team is pretty involved in his life and in helping Jemma do the single parent thing, so Fitz feels and acts a lot like a parent even before he officially adopts him.
Cody struggles a lot with the physical and mental ramifications of a childhood on Maveth, in particular with panic attacks and going nonverbal. Bobbi teaches him (and some of the team) ASL to help with this.
Because Jemma kills It before escaping Maveth, there is no Hive arc and so Lincoln never has to saccrifice himself and is blissfully still alive and part of the team. He’s primarilly head of the medbay now and works more as a doctor than a spy.
Bobbi and Hunter do end up as wanted fugitives for a few months, but once shield is legitimized again in season four, they come back (as they obviously should have lol, I may just be in denial of them leaving).
A lot of stuff goes down between them too and they end up accidentally getting pregnant. After some tough decision-making, they decide to have the baby (which turns out to be twins as would happen to the overachieving Bobbi Morse) and attempt the co-parenting thing. The twins are a little over a year old by this fic.
After the base is pretty much destroyed in the LMD attack (which does still happen similar to cannon, but with some adjustments to fit the AU) the team moves to the Avengers’ base in upstate New York, which pretty much becomes shield’s new headquarters.
Coulson’s team occasionally works with the Avengers on the odd mission and there’s a lot of comradery between them, but the shield fam still remains a separate team.
The shield fam has their own section of base with some shared common spaces like a lounge, large kitchen, and gym, but their individual bunks are a little more like small apartments.
Hi! I don't want to sound like one of those anons who harass writers, so that's not my intention.I just want to let you know that I love your fics and your beautiful writing, thanks for taking the time to write them! I was wondering if you were thinking about continuing Learning to breathe or the Cody verse? Not judging, just curious. l love it!
Hi Nonny! thanks so much for popping by! Talking about this verse is one of my favorite things. I just answered an old old ask about this here but yes, I do hope to continue with Learning to Breathe.
I have to be in a pretty specific headspace to write it which is why it’s taking so long but polite encouragement like yours and knowing there are still people interested is very helpful!
In the mean time if you have any prompts or things you’d like to see from the Cody-verse that could fit into a drabble or one-shot, I can probably get around to those much sooner, so please feel free to send them my way :)
