A/N: What can I say, it's spring and I have flowers on my mind, hence this little piece.
Spoilers: For 2x19 The Dirty Half Dozen.
Disclaimer: I own a few flowers, not the rights to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
She used to be a sunflower. Beautiful, bright, curious and so full of sunshine and life. But her summer had passed and all that was left standing now was the wilted floral, reminding people of the glorious nature it once possessed.
Jemma had lost her sparkle - not in any vampire like way - but in her enthusiasm for science and the greater good. It had dwindled until it was small and almost unrecognizable. Suggesting actual killing someone - though Ward of all people deserved it - that was something the old Jemma would have never proposed.
She had developed thorns like a porcupine. It was as if a botanist had grafted a piece of a rose unto the sunflower, making a hybrid that was both beautiful and dangerous.
Strangely enough these changes, though shocking, didn't scare off Fitz. Because no matter how withered and changed the sunflower was, at its core it was still a sunflower. And underneath it all Jemma was still Jemma. Which was why he quietly mouthed: "Be careful, Jemma." as they spilt up into two teams, him with May and Coulson and her and Skye following Ward and Bakshi.
Because even though she now had the will and power to protect herself, Fitz knew that there were still predators out there, who as easily as anything could trample down the delicate flower or worse pluck it from the ground, and remove it from existence entirely.
It was a cruel world, and she had grown thorns in response. But that wasn't always enough!
A/N: Thorns makes me think of Raina now. Sorry if you were expecting anything about her.
I know Jemma has changed, but it's a natural development given her traumatic experiences, everyone copes differently, so I for one won't hold it against her.