The clear solution bubbled on the hot plate as Jemma bustled around the lab. Test tubes and a variety of scientific instruments littered her counter, the only half of the lab in disarray.
"Y' know, Simmons, y' get too wrapped up in your experiments. Y' haven't stopped t' put anythin' away in hours," Leo casually commented as he sketched new designs with clear, defined strokes of a pencil. "Maybe y' should take a break."
"I can't, Fitz, I'm-" With the sudden noise of breaking glass, her erratic movements sent the solution tumbling off the hot plate and smashing into a variety of the test tubes, the new solution hissing and sending up great clouds of gases. Alarms blared as the door slammed shut and the word QUARENTINE flashed across the screens in giant red letters. Jemma nearly fell over backing up from the frothing countertop, instead stumbling into Fitz's arms. Her shoulders pressed against his chest, the two scientists backed into a wall before realizing that they were sealed in a quarantined lab with the substance.
As soon as the thought passed through their minds, though, Jemma felt Fitz getting limp behind her and realized how heavy her muscles felt. Together, they slid down the wall and passed out, hands brushing and minds fuzzy.
Fitz blinked awake. Sleep still heavy in his muscles, he stretched and frowned. A hand went to his shoulder to find… a strap? Under his shirt? Curious, his fingers followed it downwards, feeling through the fabric, and he pulled out the collar so he could peer down.
Fitz's head snapped up so fast he thought his neck might suffer from whiplash, eyes wide and face paling. Okay, something's very, very wrong. "Jemma?" Both hands snapped up to cover his mouth, breathing becoming heavy with panic.
"Fitz?" replied a heavy Scottish brogue to his left. Bracing himself, the engineer turned his head and nearly screamed. The self-preparation amounted to absolutely nothing as he scrambled backwards as fast as humanly possible, back hitting the glass doors.
"Jemma?" Damned British accent. "Don't tell me-"
"-we switched bodies, somehow. Yes." Leo scrunched up "his" face. It was weird to see himself talking. "-and I swear, if you look down my top one more-"
"It was an accident!" he cried, blushing furiously and scratching the back of his neck. "I found your- er- strap, and it didn't make sense, and-"
"-you decided to investigate, sure. But for now, we have to figure out-"
"-how to get back." His partner nodded once, then stood. As she took a step forward, he watched as she tripped over herself and came crashing to the floor again. "Jemma?"
"Ugh, Fitz, your legs are long." The engineer grinned, then stood himself to walk to his counter. The biochemist got up again, and this time maintained control over the new body. "Okay, so it seemed to be a mixture of potassium chloride..." she let the thick Scottish tones fade out after a moment, realizing how weird it was to hear herself speak in her partner's voice.
"Jemma?"
"M-hmm?"
"Are we going to explain this?" he asked, gesturing downward. She let out a huff of air and he stared at his small trinkets around the counter. Hearing her is weird enough, he thought. Might as well avoid looking.
"I don't know. Should we? I don't want anyone to panic…"
"As long as we stick together and talk over each other, we should be okay… right, Fitz?" he said with a sly grin.
"Wha- oh. Um, yes, Simmons." There was the sound of hissing for a moment before he heard her speak again. "Oh, my that's weird. Okay, then. Should we release the quarantine? Sneezy says the air's clear," she said, gesturing to where the tiny drone was hovering. He nodded and entered the code into the system. Almost immediately, Coulson was inside the lab, closely followed by Skye.
"What's happened? We heard the quarantine alarm."
"Oh, nothing," Simmons-as-Fitz said breezily. "Just a bit of a spill. Nothing, er-" she glanced at Fitz, a clear call for help. Chemistry babble, he thought desperately.
"It's just that the ethanesulfonic acid and the polystyrene sulfonic acid mixed with the tartaric acid and-"
"-sent up loads of gasses that triggered the alarm," she finished for him, quickly shooting him a look that screamed don't ever try to talk science like that again. It still seemed to do the trick for Coulson, though, as he just nodded and told them to "keep him posted" before walking out. Skye, on the other hand, didn't seem so convinced.
"Guys? You're working on each other's side of the lab." Two heads popped up, and stared at each other for a moment.
"Oh, just a change-of-pace kind of thing," Leo managed to get out. "You know, we don't have to stay on one side." Skye raised an eyebrow, but didn't push any further.
"Anywho, it's girl's night tonight! Fitz, I'm stealing Simmons!" she said, and in the half-second of realization, Fitz almost passed out from panic. Instead, he let Skye drag him to her bunk, sending Jemma (who didn't look much better) a desperate look of please-oh-my-god-help-me before disappearing around the corner.
Skye plopped down on her bed and Leo followed suit as she hit the code that locked up the door.
"Okay," the bubbly hacker started, "how's the whole Fitz thing going?" Fitz blinked.
"Fitz thing?"
"Yes, the Fitz thing," Skye sighed. "You know, the whole thing where you're madly in love with him and don't know how to tell him?"
"Wha- no- what're you going on about 'madly in love'?" he managed to stutter out. Simmons is- he cut off that train of thought immediately. He didn't have time to ponder it- or so he told himself.
"Okay, so I took liberties on the phrasing, but you know what I mean. Have you told him yet?" Her eyes glinted as she leaned in. "C'mon, something had to have happened."
"No, sorry, Skye. Nothing, nothing at all," he managed. Then, on a total whim, he blurted out, "What about you and Ward?" Skye sighed and settled back onto her pillow.
"He's ignoring me because of the Miles thing, still." She looked up at him, all injured bambi eyes and hurt. "He doesn't get it. Miles saved me. I owe him everything."
"You made the rounds. Apologized to all of us. He couldn't ask for any more." Skye paused, tilting her head at him, and Leo immediately panicked.
"Psychically linked, I swear," she said, half in awe and half in exasperation, and Fitz let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Your idiot said the exact same thing." Silence covered them like a blanket and they sat there for a few moments as he tried to come up with a response.
"Jemma!" cried his voice from the hallway. "Jemma, I need your help in the lab!" Immediately, he was up and out the door, sputtering out some lame apology to the hacker as he ran. As he joined Jemma-in-his-body in the lab, he noticed the hissing beaker, complete with Halloween-style smoke rolling out of it.
"Don't worry, it's just dry ice," she hissed to him as they stepped inside. "Just dump some of the solution to the right to stop it." He nodded and did so, and the smoke stopped almost immediately.
"Gods, Fitz," he chided her, "I leave for ten minutes and you almost kill us all." She let out a little huff and a small smile.
"So what did Skye say?" she asked casually, though he could hear the strings of tension running through it. Madly in love with him, echoed his memory.
"I- er- nothing, nothing at all. Just some- er- it was rather pointless- um- something about Ward, that kind of thing…" Jemma nodded, though her furrowed brow suggested she was anything but convinced by his admittedly pathetic performance.
"Fitz, I need to speak with you in my office," came Coulson's voice over the intercom. Jemma stood, wringing her hands together.
"Oh, maybe we should just tell them," she murmured, worried. "I can't act, much less lie."
"You can do it," he told her with a smile. "It's just a quick meeting, right?" She nodded and stepped through the doors.
"Wish me luck."
"Of course," he responded as she walked down the hall. Picking up a DWARF, he began to fiddle with the components, tightening screws and double checking the functions. He let his mind wander, until it finally came to rest on why Coulson would want to see him. Eyes widened, muscles tensed, and he was sprinting out the door to the lab before he could even think of what he was going to do.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, Fitz, sit down," Coulson said, not looking up from his papers. She sat and waited politely as he put down the file and looked up. "You remember the message you sent me?"
"I'm afraid I don't, sir," she responded, trying to keep the quiver out of her voice.
"The one concerning section seventeen?"
"Oh, of course," she tried to lie. "The letter about section seventeen." Coulson sighed and leaned forward on his elbows.
"See, Fitz, I'm the new director, so I could technically remove it. On the other hand, it's there for a reason. But I think you missed a clause." Her boss pushed a paper in front of her. "Read the highlighted section, please."
S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists and assets may be exempt from this clause under the license of the Director, she read. They will be placed under rigorous investigation and only be cleared if the relationship does not contain excess potential for an agent to be compromised. She looked up from the paper.
"I am willing to clear you two, Fitz, but have you even told her about your feelings?" asked the Director. Jemma swallowed hard.
"N-n-no, s-s-sir," she managed to get out. Coulson's brow furrowed.
"Are you alright?"
"I-" Jemma was lost. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, especially after this deluge of new information.
"Sir!" cried a voice from the hallway, panting and breathless. "Coulson!" Jemma cringed as Fitz-in-her-body came practically crashing through the door.
"Sirtherewasamixupandathingwhereweswitchedconsciousnessand-"
"Slow down, Simmons. What?"
"The quarantine was a thing and we switched consciousness and that's Jemma," Fitz sputtered, panting and pointing at his teammate.
"What?"
"Bit late there, Fitz," she choked out. Coulson was rubbing his temples.
"Both of you, out. Tell me if you need help with the problem, and Simmons, tell Fitz what I just told you. Dismissed." The pair looked at each other and rushed out, bumping straight into Skye. Crossed arms and eyes that threatened immense bodily harm. Crap.
"I heard that." With those words, she turned to Fitz-in-Jemma's-body and slapped him across the face.
"Ow!"
"That was for not telling me when I dragged you off," she grumbled. She then turned to Jemma, apologizing profusely and incomprehensibly about accidentally telling Fitz something or other. Slowly, both scientist's faces paled. They glanced at each other, then pointedly away. Voice trailing off, Skye sighed and rolled her eyes. "You two should just work it out in the morning. Mainly because I think that you'll end up kissing by the end of it and doing it like this would just be weird," she said casually, walking away with a snort. The two watched her leave, wandering into her bunk and closing the door behind her. They glanced at each other.
"Morning?" she asked.
"Morning," he confirmed with a nod. They each went to their respective bunks, dialing in their codes, when Jemma turned around at the last second.
"Fitz?" He glanced up. "Don't try and change, yeah?" Both scientists flushed a brilliant red.
"Yeah that'd just be-"
"-horrible. And awkward. And-"
"-tremendously embarrassing." They stood there for a moment, shuffling awkwardly. "Goodnight, Jemma," he finally said, slipping inside his bunk.
"Goodnight, Leo," she responded, disappearing inside her own.
The morning started with an alarm blaring in his ear. Alarm? I don't own a- Groggy, he raised his head to find himself in Simmons's bed, staring down the alarm clock he had built her at MIT. Quickly, he glanced down and let out a long sigh of relief. A hand ran through messy curls and shut off the screaming machine before he wandered across the hall to his own bunk.
Jemma was curled in his covers, head buried in his pillow. For a moment he stood there, taking in the sight, before his sleep-deprived brain drove him to flop down next to her. Carefully, he reached an arm around her waist and pulled her closer.
"Fitz?" came the sleep-garbled question.
"Yeah. We're back, by the way. Must've been a time thing."
"Mkay." She turned and curled into his chest, tangling her legs with his. They stayed like this for a little while, until she broke the silence again. "Leo?"
"M-hmm?"
"D'ya like me? 'Cause Coulson…" She let her voice trail off.
"M-hmm. 'nd Skye said you…" It's rather self-explanatory, he mused, so why continue?
"M-hmm." There was a long pause as they took in the information.
"Jemma?" In response, she mumbled something into his chest. "Jemma?"
"M-hmm?"
"Love you," he breathed into her hair.
"Oh, Leo," she murmured, and he could feel the smile in her voice. "I love you, too."