With Season Four now just two weeks away, I've a number of ideas about here it could go. Here's one of them! Hope you enjoyed!
This job had her feeling more isolated than anything had before. No one seemed to trust her anymore, some of the lab assistants refused to even talk to her at this point.
And Fitz…
Fitz. He was, well, he was trying. He really was. But this new job, it was putting a strain on their relationship, one that neither of them liked. On the plus side, they were keeping their personal and professional relationship as separate as they could.
It was working until one day, things got pushed too far between them.
"You should have told me Jemma."
She shook her head, knowing that she had been placed under strict orders not to tell him. "I wanted to Fitz, I really did but you know what he's like."
Fitz shook his head, and took her hands in his, rubbing gentle circles on her wrists. "I know, Jems. I know. I just don't like you getting hurt. It worries me."
She nodded this time, and tried to hold back her tears but still they made tracks down her cheeks. "I'm trying Fitz, I really am."
"I know," he whispered, pulling her in, holding her close. "I just… I just can't do this Jems. Worrying about you all the time. You're too precious to me." He allowed himself to look at her, before placing a kiss on her forehead. "I just… I don't want to lose you again."
He pulled away. "I just need…" he didn't know how to finish that thought, didn't know how he could say it.
"Fitz?"
"Jems, I'm sorry."
"Fitz?" Her voice broke at this, and just hearing it made him want to cry. He couldn't see her like this, it broke his heart. "Fitz, please."
He shook his head. "I'm sorry."
And with that he was gone.
Jemma didn't know how long she spent wondering the base, looking for him. Nerves were starting to settle in. No one had seen him. No one had known where he had went. She continued to make her way around the base, still twirling the engagement ring around her finger. But still no Fitz.
She wondered if he had gone somewhere to cool down, to clear his head. But she didn't know where he could be. And if he had, he would be back by now. It had been hours. But he hadn't come back. Not yet anyway.
Returning to their bunk, there was a note, addressed to her in his handwriting.
Jems, I love you and don't you ever forget that. But I can't do this job anymore. S.H.I.E.L.D. I'm just too scared to lose you again. So I'm taking Radcliffe up on his offer, working in his Glasgow lab. I know how much you want this job, to be able to help change the world. I don't want to get in the way of that.
But I will always love you Jemma. Never forget that. You are the most important person in my life and I want you to be happy. And you can't be that with me holding you back.
Love always, Fitz.
Tears were now flowing freely. He had left. Left because he thought that she couldn't be happy here with him. But he was wrong. He was oh so wrong. How could he think that? How could he think that she wasn't happy when they were together?
For the first time in so many months, Jemma had a restless sleep, plagued by so many nightmares.
The next morning Jemma knew what she had to do. She knew what she had to do, where to go, who she had to go to.
She had almost made it to the door of the base when she heard a voice behind her.
"Agent Simmons."
She didn't turn. Didn't speak. Didn't do anything. Just waited for the Director to leave.
"Agent Simmons. Fitz made it…"
"Agent Fitz. Or Dr. Fitz if you want to be more accurate."
"Fitz made it clear that he didn't want to work for us anymore."
Jemma had no reply to this and went to move forward.
"Agent Simmons, please we can discuss this, discuss how you want your relationship with him to work."
She took a step forward this time.
"Agent Simmons. I am not losing another one of my best agents. And if you're thinking of leaving for him, of jeopardising everything for love… It's not a smart career move."
This statement caused her to spin. Her eyes, still red and puffy from crying, fixed upon the Director with a fiery intensity burning in them. "You think I'm throwing everything away for him? You think that I am risking everything for him? Because, I love him? I am because I do love him. More than anything else. And I'm… I'm to marry him. And I don't want to lose him. I can't lose him. Not like this. Not after everything that we've been through." And she didn't know what she would do without him. She didn't want to live her life without him.
She removed her attention away from him, and moved towards the door.
"If you leave this base, you're no longer an S.H.I.E.L.D agent. You won't ever be one again. You'll lose everything."
Jemma didn't look back as she made her way out the door.
Fitz wasn't expecting to find a soaked Jemma standing at his apartment door that night. She stood there, shivering, a small suitcase her only possession.
She smiled at him. "Hi Fitz."
"Jemma?" he asked.
She nodded.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm your fiancée, aren't I? Can't marry you if I'm on the other side of the world, now can I?"
"But S.H.I.E.L.D.? Jems, that was your life, that was all that you worked for, all you wanted!"
She shook her head. "Fitz, if working there means I lose you, then I don't want that life. You said you wanted me to be happy, and being there, alone without you… The nightmares were back… I wasn't happy Fitz. Not without you. You're the only one I feel safe around, the only one I can be myself around. You're the only one I want to be with. I love you Fitz, and if being with you means losing my job… then so be it. Because I would rather be here, with you, where I'm happy, than there, alone and without you."
He just stared at her. "How did you get here?"
"Commercial flight. They are not cheap to come by last minute, and I had to withdraw all my money from my account, not that there was much anyway after booking the flight and trusting him it's probably closed now. And then from the airport I took a taxi here, though I had to walk most of the way. You can't get far on just over £20 in Glasgow. But half way here it started to rain…"
"Why didn't you phone?" he asked, interrupting her rambling.
"I wanted it to be a surprise… Surprise." She shrugged.
He embraced her, pulling her into a hug that turned into a long, tender kiss. "C'mon," he whispered, once they broke apart. "Let's get you dried off."
Once Jemma had dried off, and gotten changed into a pair of pyjama shorts and an old hoodie, she curled up on Fitz's sofa, well their sofa. She was moving in. There had been no need for discussion. They were engaged after all, why shouldn't they share an apartment (and Fitz had asked her to move, to which she had said yes, there was no other answer)?
He smiled at her, as he walked in from the kitchen, carrying two mugs of hot chocolate.
She thanked him as she accepted one and he sat down beside her. Her head immediately went to his shoulder, resting there. It was home. He was home.
"You're still wearing the ring." He was unsure of what their status was, Jemma seemed to want the marriage to go ahead. So did he, but he was still nervous he had ruined everything.
"I am. Fitz, I love it and I still want to get married. I don't want to not get married because of one silly thing. Plus, it's amazing. How can I not love it? Or you?" She set her mug on the table, an action which Fitz copied and then held up her hand, allowing the light to catch the ring, the jewels catching the light.
It was an elegant but simple ring. It was a ring designed in the shape of DNA, personally made by Fitz himself, with tiny diamonds embedded in the parts of the silver that formed the nitrogenous bases. He had truly outdone himself with it.
"You do?" he asked.
She laughed at this. "Fitz, it's one of the most precious things in the world to me."
"And what's the most… what would…" he trailed off.
"You are." She leaned up, allowing herself to kiss him, something that he returned, before dropping her head back to his shoulder. They sat in silence for a number of minutes.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, bringing his own head down to rest on top of hers.
"It doesn't matter."
"I left you," he replied.
"Because of me. I messed up with the job. It was my fault. I almost ruined everything."
"No," he breathed reassuring her. "It wasn't your fault."
"Then whose was it?" she asked.
Fitz thought this over before finally settling on this. "Maybe it's no one's fault. Maybe we just miscommunicated. We're quite good at that, aren't we?"
"We are. How about, from when we're married. No more of this. No more miscommunication. No more of this. We both say what we think. And we compromise if we have to. Okay?"
He agreed with a kiss to her forehead. "But why after the wedding and not now?"
She smiled, her voice soft and light. "I'm very specific about what flowers I want."
I really don't want any Season 2 angst this year, but an engaged FitzSimmons would be nice... Feel free to check out my Pinterest under the same name, leave a prompt here or check out my longer fics on A03, I'm not sure yet if I'm going to transfer them over, but most of my One Shots will be moving here. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this!
