SPOILERS for season two, which I don't think is going to be a problem, because season three is coming out soon! But just in case...
When she woke up, she was different.
It was her attitude, her personality, her sense of duty.
She acted differently. She didn't cherish her time in the lab. She didn't take her tea the same way. Her sense of humor was drier, darker. Her smile was rare, and her laugh was almost nonexistent. Her enthusiasm for her work was gone. The way she looked at you was different. Instead of peering into your soul, she looked as if she was looking through you. Conversations were stiff and stilted, like she was reading from a book that told her what to say in a particular instance. Sure, she was still a brilliant biochemist, and her work was no less than superb. But you got a sense that there was something missing. Some sense of joy or accomplishment that came with a good job done. Some sort of life that had been sucked out of her.
Everything was different after she got spit out from the rock.
But mostly, it was her eyes.
They used to have a sort of sparkle, like she was amazed with the world around her and just wanted to figure out how everything worked. It was the sign of a true scientist. The way she wanted to know everything about everything. Her mind was always going in a million different ways at once, and sometimes she would trip over her words, her mouth struggling to keep up with her brain. The inquisitive way she would peer at you, like she was trying to solve your life's puzzle, was gone. She no longer tilted her head when she was working on a problem. She approached it like she would a duster; with dread and reluctance. It was like she no longer took pleasure in figuring things out. And that was scary. It was like she had lost the scientist part of her.
Because if she didn't want to be a scientist, what did she want to be? What if she wanted to get away from him? What if he wasn't enough to entertain her? What if he was the one who pushed her away? He would never be able to live with himself if he was the one who drove her away. She needed to stay, if not for him, then for herself.
He truly believed that the only way she would get back to being the Simmons he knew before, was to stay with SHIELD, and figure out what happened. She had always been the better of the two in biology and genes and blood. He preferred machines and grease and oil; she preferred DNA and people. So if she could somehow figure out what happened, then she would maybe stay with him and try to get better. But she seemed to have lost all interest in her field.
And it was up to him to fix it.
He needed to make her Simmons again, so they could be Fitzsimmons and finally have that date they had been working towards for more than ten years. He had invested too much time and experienced too much stress to lose her just as he was starting to make progress.
He started with her interest in biology.
He knew she loved looking through a microscope, getting down to the level of cells and atoms. So he got her a microscope. One even better than the one she had before. At first her eyes lit up, like she remembered what it was like to feel joy, but it was dimmed out almost immediately. But it gave him hope that the old Simmons was still there somewhere.
He got her a new set of test tubes, ones that immediately stoppered themselves in the presence of gas so nothing would escape. Again, that bright sparkle was seen, but was extinguished as soon as it had appeared.
He started to get more creative with his gifts. A new pair of goggles with monkeys on them, more for his amusement than hers though. An update on her computer that would allow her to directly upload an image of the sample of whatever she had taken, and then would hook up to the hologram instantly. A bedazzled lab coat with "Fitzsimmons" embroidered on the front. A contraption of his own invention that could be programmed to analyze blood for whatever she set it to. With each gift, the spark lasted longer and could be seen by everyone, not just him. She was slowly getting better, but was still dull and unresponsive away from the lab.
There was one other way he had to make Simmons come out of her shell.
He didn't want it to ruin their new friendship when they had just established the tentative feelings they both had for each other.
But he had to try.
And the way her lips met his was totally worth it.
He had thought that maybe she would just push him away, or be disgusted with him, but she had been completely responsive and almost relieved that he had kissed her.
He held her in his arms and kissed her with all the desperation and despair he had. He just wanted his Jemma back. The one who would discuss scientific theories with him, using huge science words that confused everyone on their team. The one who pushed him to be better than he was. The one who always had his back, no matter what. The one who would always be there to make sure he was okay. The one who he could trust and depend on.
As he met her lips with his over and over, he felt her shudder, then go boneless. He immediately caught her in his arms, worried that maybe he was such a bad kisser she had fainted. But as he looked into her eyes, he saw a faint glimmer of something. Some sort of spark. Some sort of joy and intelligence that hadn't been there before. And he kissed her again, knowing that his Jemma was back and so was Fitzsimmons.
All right, that was very cheesy, I know. But I thought it would be perfect if it was Fitz who brought Simmons out of the funk she was in after the rock. It kind of plays into a Sleeping Beauty kind of thing, which I think is cool.
Let me know what you think!