Disclaimer - I own nothing, Marvel does.

One.

They do say that there are many ways to tell someone you love them, wear your seatbelt, wrap up warm it's cold out, things like that. Telling someone you love them is never usually a planned event. It tends to be more of a spur of the moment kind of thing. Sometimes someone will do something or say something that just makes something click so satisfyingly inside of you, and it just falls out, as easily as a sigh. Other times it knots up inside you, twisting and turning, as if you'd swallowed a snake, getting tighter and tighter until it can't twist any further and the whole knot just bursts open, similarly to a firework going off, with hopefully less explosives. Sadly in the case of Leopold Fitz, the first time he told Jemma Simmons that he loved her, it was very much the latter, explosives and all.

He was ready to die then. In that godforsaken pod. He'd done the maths, worked out the statistical probability of his survival and placed the bar on the ocean floor. He wanted her to live, so much more than he wanted himself to survive.

"I couldn't live if you didn't."

"I feel the same way. There has to be another way-"

"You're taking it-"

"Why would you make me do this?! You're my best friend in the world!"

And then the knot bursts, the fireworks lit. No more holding this feeling in, no more crushing this great boulder of emotions until it becomes a diamond. It just comes out.

"Yeah and you're more than that Jemma."

Silence.

"And I couldn't find the courage to tell you. So please, let me show you."

And there it was. All his cards laid out on the table, as they say. He often thought back to this moment, after she left, wondering. Wondered what would have happened if he hadn't said anything, wondered what would have happened if he did say those three little words. Would she still have left? Would the outcome have been any different? Would he still be stuck in the exact same position that he's stuck in now?

A/N - Hello readers! This fic will be updated every Saturday until it's finished, I hope you enjoy it :)