"Argh, Fitz." Simmons groaned, looking up from her new copy of 'Scientific American' to look at him standing on the other side of the lab. "I'm fine. Stop treating me like I'm made of glass." she continued, looking back into the magazine. She was clearly annoyed by the fact that Fitz had been treating her like glass since the incident. But she was his best friend, and he already saw the cracks in her, they just hadn't made all the way through yet. And maybe she was fine. Maybe she didn't see or feel the cracks. Maybe she was fine, just for now. But she was going to break, and he needed to know when.
"Okay, okay. Just checking." Fitz said, raising his hands and turned away from her to keep working on one of his new robot designs.
Ever since Simmons had thrown herself out of the plane he had been sleeping less and less, walking around the plane just waiting and listening to see if she was about to break apart. Sometimes he thought maybe he was more scarred then her from it. But he would quickly discard the thought as vain.
"Fitz. I was thinking about Skye. You haven't talked about her in awhile. Actually, you haven't even mentioned her." Simmons said, not looking up again from the magazine. "You still- you know?" she awkwardly asked. He was her best friend, but he was so occupied with either being just busy or asking if she was find that she hadn't had time to ask him about her. And he hadn't had time to talk about her.
"Uhm- She's something special. She's hot and she's the smartest woman I've met." He said looking up from his work and turned around. "Besides you of course." he quickly added before she could say anything about it. Simmons eyed him before looking down in her magazine.
"But you know 1) she has a boyfriend and 2) girls like her don't go for guys like me. It's the law of the universe." he said and chuckled, leaning on the desk behind him.
"Yeah, probably." Simmons sighed, putting away 'Scientific American' to put her full attention on Fitz. "You should just tell her, because we break the laws of the universe all the time so why should she be any different?" She said reluctantly, but she felt like she had to support him in this. Especially after the whole throwing herself out of place while he watched.
"Well, first, ouch that hurt." he said a bit more high pitched than he had planned, referring to the fact that Simmons just had agreed with him on that girls like Skye don't for guys like Fitz, meaning Fitz was one of those guys. Whatever that meant. "Second, we do. But if it doesn't go my way it would be all awkward after. And I can't just walk of this plane, even after landing. And as much as I love this lab, I can only spend a certain amount of time here without running out of ideas." he continued, looking down on his feet.
"Well, you could. But please don't, because I would get awfully lonely. I mean, all on board are my friends, but I only really have you Fitz." Simmons sighed and smiled, leaning back in the chair.
"Mm." Fitz agreed. And that was the end of that conversation. It didn't matter what kind of silence that occurred between them, it was never an awkward one. They had spent so much time together in silence that it was their natural state really. And as much as Fitz just wanted to talk to Simmons and not just be around her in silence, her saying that she was the only she really had did throw him a little off guard. He turned around to continue working as she started doing work of her own. But mostly also because he didn't want to see her face when he asked the question to come.
"So, how are you? Like really? No lies." Fitz said and squeezed his eyes shut because he knew how dumb it was, opening them again quickly because the flashing images of Simmons face just before she threw herself of the plane.
"Fitz! For the last time, I'm fine. And that is not a lie!" Simmons shouted at him. She was so sick and tired of it. What, 10 minutes or so had gone by since he last asked her that? It was like having an overbearing parent breathing down her neck.
"Jemma." Fitz said, turning around again. He wanted to add something, but it would probably just make matters worse.
"Fitz." Simmons sighed. To tired of it to even try and defend herself once more. If wasn't going to end there, something they both knew. It was only a break from it.
"I- I read this article. It was about Prosciutto and Buffalo Mozzarella sandwiches with just a hint of your homemade Pesto Aioli." Fitz said and stopped and sighed, waiting for Simmons to turn around, hopefully with a smile. As she turned around he could see a hint of a smile on her lips.
"It had this hypothesis that if you give one to your friend, that friends hunger will be reduced to an incredible level, and sometimes even be gone completely. It also said that it's more than likely that it also will taste incredible." Fitz said, smiling as Simmons smile slowly became a full blown grin.
"Just a hypothesis, not an actually scientific statement?" Simmons asked.
"Mhm, but we can always run some test and make it out of the hypothesis stage. But for that we would need one of the said sandwiches." Fitz answered. Simmons nodded, walking over to his side of the lab and past him to walk up to the little but nice kitchen they had on the plane.
Moments went by before Simmons came back down. Fitz turned around with a big smile that quickly turned to a frown as he saw that Simmons was crying. She walked into the lab and sat down, burying her face in her hands, talking sharp intakes of air.
"Jemma? Jemma what's wrong?" Fitz asked, with a clearly concerned voice. What was he supposed to be but concerned when his best friend sat in front of him crying. He crouched down right in front of her and tried the make her look at him.
"I just looked out the window. Leo I- I don't think I am fine. Or well I know so because I threw myself of a plane and I'm for certain suffering from PTSD." Simmons said sitting up straight and drying her tears in vain because just as the were gone another wave of tears came. Not really making anything of the fact that she used Leo instead of Fitz. He noticed it but he didn't say anything because he didn't want to ruin that maybe Simmons was about to actually talk to him about what happened.
"And then Agent Coulson said that thing about that I'm brave and all that but stupid, but just because I took one for the team I'm not allowed to let that cloud my judgement like I'm going to make everyones life hell now and now I'm all stressed about that because I'm only human and I make mistakes. And then there's this thing with us and I don't know what to do about it and I'm stressed about that too because you're my best friend and I don't want to ruin that but I also can't just sit around and do nothing about it." She continued, rambling and crying. Fitz's heart physically hurt from seeing Simmons fall apart in front of him, knowing that there was nothing he could do about it.
"What thing?" Fitz asked, having completely no idea about what thing Simmons was referring to. Simmons had spent so much time trying to deny that she wasn't fine and that she was falling apart piece by piece inside, she had spent so much time denying her feelings for him, making the falling apart a faster but more painful process. But the already torturing, excruciating pain of not being with him as more than a friend won over the falling apart, and she couldn't take that pain that had been with her from the beginning.
"What thing?" Fitz asked again.
"Argh, Fitz." Simmons groaned. She cupped his face and kissed him. Sighing of relief into the kiss.. Everything that had been bottled up for so long about him was all let free, and that torturing, excruciating pain finally lifted from her body. Leaving without any traces that it had even been there. As she broke away, Fitz's eyes were still closed.
"Oh, that thing." Fitz said in surprise, opening his eyes. "You should've told me." he continued, smiling a little.
"You should've told me." Simmons said.
"Well, doesn't matter now does it?" Fitz asked.
"No." Simmons answered.
It had been so hard.
"So this thing, does it make us a thing?" Simmons asked.
"If you want it to." Fitz answered.
"I want it to." Simmons said.
But now it was so easy.
