PARADISE ↝ Leo Fitz

↳ EPILOGUE

       Forcing a smile, she nodded whilst looking over to the stranger, who returned the warm expression. "Yeah", she mumbled nervously, sweeping her tongue across her bottom lip briefly before her teeth sank in.

       "Maybe you could show me around tonight?", he suggested, "you know, to make up for that", a brave grin spreading over his lips as he reminded her of the awkward first meet with him. Blushing, Jenna was unsure what to say, but in the belief that it couldn't hurt to make another friend, just so she wouldn't have to be so lonely and rely on either Jemma or Leo 99% of the time, she decided to take a leap of faith and push one hand from behind her stack of books.

       "Sure. I'm Jenna Rivers", she smiled as the boy took her hand and shook it gently.

       "Grant Ward."

—————

        JENNA HADN'T EXPECTED to find such a good friend in Ward, especially with all the differences between them. Frankly, they were like polar opposites, and it could have driven them apart, but instead they only got closer — but it was simply platonic, and Ward figured as much with Jenna constantly gushing about her boyfriend, some cute boy that she had undeniably fallen for. It was obvious in her sparkling eyes, blushing cheeks and twitching lips whenever she spoke of her, in such a fond manner.

        It wasn't too easy for the two of them to carry out a friendship, however, with Jenna spending her days at Sci-Tech and Grant working to become an agent in Operations. But, every once in a while they met at one of the cafés in one of the buildings or spent their weekends catching up somewhere downtown, and it was nice. It was normal.

         Even Evan seemed to like Grant — in fact, the two hit it off as soon as they met.

        But like everything around Grant Ward, their friendship crumbled down eventually. It was yet another Saturday, quite normal in its nature, with Jenna catching up on some reading before talking on the phone with Fitz. The plan of having no plans came to an ending, though, as Jenna ended the call with "I love you", hearing Fitz return the softly spoken words before the door of her room had opened up and the tall man she was quick to recognize as Ward stepped in.

        "Uh, something wrong?", she inquired, noticing the stress on his features despite his attempts to hide it, but even if he had succeeded, the nervous pacing back and forth was quite enough to give away the weight on his racing heart. Silence had fallen into the room, leaving Jenna in anticipation, until Grant looked up with the most serious stare rooted deep in his dark eyes, one that she couldn't look away from.

       "Can we talk?", he pleaded quietly, and nodding in agreement, Jenna stood up, believing that whatever she could do to help relieve her friend of this anxiety, she was up for it. That was Jenna — a caring, kind person, even when she should have known better.

        Ward had led her outside, into the dark night with a few lamps and the starry sky illuminating the way as he played with his fingers and avoided Jenna's gaze. "Okay", she had taken in a deep breath, "now you're really worrying me, Grant. We're friends, you know you can tell me anything", before reaching out and attempting to place a hand on his shoulder. But she couldn't, not when he had reacted by taking a step back and pulling a gun from the waistband of his jeans, one that he was quick to point at Jenna rather threateningly.

      It took Jenna a lot of time to process what was happening. At first, she didn't even realize she was in danger. Not until Grant had spoken up, breaking the eerie silence with, "Don't come any closer", with his finger resting steadily on the trigger. At the realization that she was in grave danger, Jenna took in a sharp breath and she could feel her palms collecting sweat despite the chilly evening, her heart rising to her throat as she lifted her hands to prove that she was harmless. And she really was. Innocent, too.

       "What are you doing?", Jenna whispered in heartbreak, feeling utterly betrayed by this man she had deemed her friend. An ally. Someone to rely on. Someone worthy of her trust and affection.

        Ward hadn't even answered, when someone had arrived from behind the corner, questioning what was going on, and the agent was quick to fire the gun, unloading a bullet into whoever had intervened. In horror, Jenna turned around, and in that moment, her heart cracked in two as she realized she was looking at Evan, her own brother, bleeding out in the cold, dark night with his eyes already staring at the sky blankly. He was dead, Ward had killed him and now Jenna was downright panicking, not only because she had now lost her father and brother, but because she was about to die too.

       And she thought about Fitz. The nerdy, ambitious little Scottish boy that she was terribly in love with. How she missed him, how she would have given anything to be in his arms right now, how she wished he'd arrive and take out Ward with one of his geeky, but effective toys with a funny name. At least the last words she had said to him were I love you.

       "Why?", Jenna let out a sob, unable to hold back the misery that spread within her like a wildfire as she forced herself to look away from Evan's dead body. "I trusted you", she cried, "I don't deserve this."

       Nodding in agreement, Grant took a better hold of the gun before stepping closer. "You really don't. You're a good person, Jenna. You care about everyone, and you feel with your heart and soul, and you are loving and funny and ambitious. But I'm not allowed to have any emotional attachments. And right now, you're just about the one person I care about", he explained, staring coldly at Jenna, who was unable to stop crying. "But not as much as I care about my leader", was the last thing Grant said to her, before pulling the trigger one last time.

       And as the echo of a gunshot rang throughout the yard, inside Jenna's head, everything felt slow-motioned. She closed her eyes and thought about her family — her mom, her sister, her deceased father and brother. She thought about the future she was supposed to have. The long life she was supposed to live. Simmons, her best friend, who she missed dearly. And Fitz, the love of her life. The boy who had stolen her heart, only to give his in return. And his face, was the last thing she imagined before the bullet flew through her chest, piercing her and earning a gasp from her before she stumbled down onto the grass and fell into the sweet touch of death.

       Just like that, everything had come to a quick end. But although Jenna Rivers was officially deceased and would eventually be buried next to his father, she would never be forgotten. She was a legend, and much like her father, she had died a part of S.H.I.E.L.D, meaning that her story was one that would be shared many, many times.

        It was funny, really, how she had walked into that building in the belief that S.H.I.E.L.D would be her paradise, only to realize that she had actually found that in someone special named Leopold Fitz. But now, it seemed that she had been meant for a whole other kind of paradise all along, and this one, just like the love between her and Fitz, would last forever.

»»»

goodbye my sweet little nerd ❤️

wow, this is my second time killing off an oc (+ evan, of course MY POOR SON I'M SORRY) and it's such a weird feeling, especially because they deserved to be happy 😭

thank you so much for reading this book, your support means the world to me and kept me going even when i was struggling to get anything done. i had lots of fun working on this, although it also took a lot of tears, and even though ending a book is always bittersweet, i'm also proud (': and i will miss jenna wow.

thank you!! i really hope you enjoyed this ❤️ fingers crossed that fitzsimmons will finally be happy in season 5!