A/N: The third episode was so funny! And heartbreaking near the end, but there was so much to enjoy throughout the episode! I loved the scene with Jemma and Daisy at the bar. It inspired this one-shot. I hope you like it.
She can't appreciate it in her drug-induced state, but Fitz has remained her safe space in the year she's been searching for him. He's protected her from the worst of fear, grief, isolation… all without even being with her.
Daisy didn't ask for Jemma to say a specific spell, at the bar on Kitson. Jemma recited one that relates to protection and reminded her of Fitz, without consciously planning on it.
She knows Harry Potter. The spell expecto patronum is a protective enchantment to be used against dementors, the creatures that try to drain all the positivity from your life and make you a shell of yourself. The spell produces a patronus: a solidified light that resembles a creature the caster deems important. Jemma cast the patronus charm, and she saw her patronus on the end of the straw she used as a wand.
She saw Leopold Fitz, in a monkey suit.
It seems ridiculous, she knows. But Fitz is her patronus.
Brilliant, awkward, heroic Leopold James Fitz.
Fitz, who's always wanted a monkey.
A patronus takes the form of an animal. When she jokingly cast that spell, her brain automatically associated her protector (Fitz) with a compatible animal (the monkey he's always wanted, and somewhat resembles), to fit the parameters of the books and still be true to her. Fitz is her patronus.
Later, once she's had a brief, wonderful, teasing reunion with him before losing him once again, and the effects of the hallucinogenic food have worn off, her thoughts turn to her experience in the casino. The time spent there is something of a blurred memory, but she's always been sharpest when Fitz is involved. She remembers clearly one part of her conversation with Daisy at the bar, when she used a straw to cast a spell from Harry Potter, and the image of Fitz smiling in a monkey suit comes to the front of her mind. Everything else is a blur, but that hallucination is as clear as her meeting with the real Fitz in the hallway, some time later.
She remembers picking up the straw and swishing her wrist, and saying expecto patronum before seeing the hallucination. Though it wasn't anything she would normally do, she can see the reasoning behind the action and hallucination, now. Her brain was reminding her of her mission. It takes some of the sting of his kidnapping away, realizing that, even when she isn't fully herself, Fitz is always part of her thoughts.
Nothing else happens that night. They return to the Zephyr and Enoch tells them to sleep off the lingering effects of the hallucinogens before deciding their next course of action. Jemma feels perfectly normal, but just nods and goes to her bunk. As she lays down on the bed, a fresh wave of grief starts battering down at her. She was so close it hurts to think of it. She hadn't even gotten to say his name before he'd been taken from her again. It's enough to make her start to lose hope that they'll get a happy ending together.
She closes her eyes tight against the thought. They'll get their happy ending. They have to.
"Expecto Patronum," she whispers.
Her patronus appears behind her eyes, and Fitz's smile eliminates the worst of her fears.