Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Marvel. It's not my toy box and I'm merely playing. I also don't own anything to do with SGA, though the char from there is only mentioned.
A/N: Written for grlgoddes for Yuletide.
A/N2: Knowledge of Marvel comics canon is not needed for this fic. I did snitched a few Marvel characters, most of them in some way related to Agent Jimmy Woo and their appearance in the fic is brief. Angelo was borrowed from Generation X because he wanted to be and Bob needed a partner. Radek Zelenka is from Stargate Atlantis, but he isn't actually in the fic as he dies before the fic even begins. A huge thank you to Angel Negra for all the help along the way. Thank you also to Midnightclarity for the beta.
Learning and Moving On:
Jemma feels hollow, gutted and confused as she drops into the chair behind the empty desk and takes in the rows of empty shelves. She presses her lips together and wills the tears back, they won't help her now. She takes a deep breath, forces herself to her feet and begins running her fingers over the shelves, looking for any scrap, any sign of the man who'd once breathed life into this office. When she exhausts the shelves she folds herself back into his chair and opens a drawer.
"You won't find anything," a male voice says from the doorway.
She spins the chair and the accusations wither in the back of her throat. She knows him, he saved her, and he'd been working with Dr. Zelenka.
"We removed any evidence that Dr. Zelenka worked with us and then allowed his colleagues to come in and divide what was left of his work. Then we cleaned the space," he explains.
"And his home," she points out.
He nods.
Jemma presses her lips together, sinks farther back into the chair as she struggles to find her indignation, but she's too tired. He leans against the doorframe, body language loose and open. She's not sure what to do with the worry on his face.
"You're American?" she asks eventually.
His lips quirk upwards, "Most people point out to me that I'm Chinese first."
"You sound American," she continues, "but you could just be faking an accent."
"I'm not."
She nods and makes a half-hearted effort to wipe at the tears that are starting to slide down her face. She forces herself to sit up as she points out, "You could be lying to me."
"Agent Jimmy Woo. I'm with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Dr. Zelenka consulted for me several time before now. I was putting a team together to take out Yellow Claw, I needed an engineer. You were never…"
"Never what?" Jemma interrupts, "Never supposed to get kidnapped from my home? Never supposed to watch the man who had been one of my mentors for years, who I was looking forward to finally being able to call a colleague…I what? Wasn't supposed to watch him…he died saving my life."
Agent Woo straightens from his slouch against the door. He stands there silently, giving her the space to continue.
"Did you get him, this Yellow Claw?" she asks.
"He's been taken care of."
"I suppose that's reassuring," she tries before pressing her lips together again, hands falling into her lap. She isn't sure how to continue.
"Congratulations on your graduation."
"That was a lot of work."
"Most people would've taken a leave of absence after what you've been through," he points out.
"I was nearly done, I had to finish." The words sound hollow even to her. They don't convey the scrambling of the last few weeks, of the struggle to pretend outwardly that nothing had happened.
"You didn't just finish, you covered up any evidence that you were involved in the occurrences surrounding Radek's death."
"I know what I did," she says as a way to keep him from going farther. She doesn't need a reiteration of the last few weeks. She's not sure she can deal with that, it was difficult enough going through it once.
"I think you'd be an asset and I'd like you to join us," Agent Woo tells her.
"I'm a scientist," she counters trying not to let her voice break, "and in case you hadn't notice I'm starting to come apart at the seams."
"If you'd like I can arrange counseling and you don't have to join SHIELD for that. We employ scientists. You'd be required to share lab space with at least one other and we have an academy for new recruits," he stops, looks for a moment as if he has more to say and then falls silent.
"You don't normally do this, do you?"
"Recruit new scientists? No. Loss a friend on a mission? Not often," he admits.
Jemma feels some of the tension in her shoulders ease at his words. She looks at him, not sure if she wants to commiserate or blame him. It's be easy to blame him when he's already blaming himself, but Jemma's never been one to take the easy path. She struggles for words, but can't find the right ones. Silence stretches between them, the ache of their mutual loss near tangible, but just out of reach.
Agent Woo scrubs a frustrated hand down his face and tells her, "Come on, let's get you some sleep."
"I'm not going home."
"I have a hotel room. I'd like you to have had a shower, some food and a good night's rest before you make any decisions regarding joining SHIELD."
Jemma wants to trust him, which strikes her as odd because she hasn't felt comfortable or safe around anyone since the Yellow Claw had decided to use her to throw Woo's team off guard.
"I'd like to see some credentials," she eventually tells him. He hands her his badge, leans back against the wall as she looks it over. She hands it back, stands and makes an attempt to straighten out her clothes, "Some sleep would be good. Afterward maybe a shower and some food."
Nightmares wake her three times that first night, but Agent Woo takes the time to reassure her that she's safe each time. By the morning she's calling him Jimmy and agrees to counseling, though she's still unsure if she wants to join SHIELD. He tells her to take her time and that she can stay with him as long as she feels like it. He takes a vacation from work and she plays tour guide. It's a nice week, she can almost pretend her life is semi-normal. If randomly learning self-defense techniques and having the guy you're playing tour guide to offer to teach you how to shoot a gun is normal.
When he needs to temporarily relocate to Chicago they pack up her apartment and most of it ends up in a storage unit that SHIELD pays for. She does eventually learn how to shoot a gun, even though she carries pepper spray and is trying to become more comfortable with going out on her own. Then Jimmy needs to go on a trip, he can't tell her where since she doesn't have the clearance level. She tries to reassure him she'll be fine, but she immediately accepts when he offers to have another SHIELD agent spend time with her while he's away.
Angelo Espinosa and Robert Grayson are closer to her age than Jimmy.
"He recruited both of us," Bob tells her.
Angelo smirks and points at Bob, "And now he's stuck working with me. Feel bad for him."
They answer her questions about SHIELD. They also don't complain about staying in and watching movies with her. They help her keep up on her self-dense training and she teaches them about the importance of basic bio containment. They also play board games. When Jimmy comes back she accepts his offer to join SHIELD, if she gets to share her lab space with an engineer.
"Leo Fitz," Jimmy tells her two days later.
"Who?"
"Your engineer," he elaborates.
Jemma grins, "When do I start? When do I get back into a lab? I…what?"
"I put in your equipment requests and everything's been approved."
"But?"
"It's Fitz. I know I don't need to ask you to give him a chance because you will, but he's had some trouble fitting in."
"In what way?" Jemma asks.
"He's repeating his freshman year at our academy. He's absolutely brilliant, polite. I have met him. When I didn't understand what he was working on he was more than happy to answer my questions."
"However?"
"He never went to class. He submitted all his paperwork and made excuses so as not to leave his lab space. He's shared his lab space with three other perspective SHIELD scientists. The first one decided we weren't for her, the second took over the entire lab space and wasn't kind to Fitz. We gave him a notice of unemployment. The third decided to change tracks and become a field agent so he may be occasionally using Fitz's equipment and space. The two of them were collaborating on several projects and they still get along. "
Jemma nods and smiles, "Okay. Got it. Don't hide in the lab and try and get him to stop hiding."
"Thank you," Jimmy smiles back.
Jemma feels confident in that moment, though her nervousness comes back when she actually gets to the academy. Her roommate Betty Brandt seems nice enough and the two of them quickly arrange their room so that they're both satisfied.
The first glance of her shared lab space seems to indicate chaos. Then Jemma gives it another look and notices the work area that's been cleared away for her. The equipment she's requested is carefully set up. The boxes the equipment must have come in are neatly stacked at the end of her workspace with a folder lying on top.
Leo glances up at her, then back to his computer, his shoulders tensing. She waits till he glances at her again before she smiles and waves at him. He blinks at her owlishly. She makes a motion at the door, essentially asking to enter. He looks from her to the door then nods as his gaze goes to her again. He tries a brief smile when she enters, then frowns and shifts uncomfortably.
"Hi," she tries.
"Ah, hi," he tells her before scratching the side of his face and glancing around the lab before he indicates her workspace, "I, ah…unpacked for you and followed the instructions. I believe everything is set up properly, but just in case I put all the manuals in a folder on top of the boxes. I didn't know if you needed the boxes or not."
"Thanks. It's been weeks since I've been in a lab. I'm really excited."
"Weeks?" he questions, his attention suddenly fully on her.
"I had some bad things happen. It's actually how I came under SHIELD's radar," she manages.
Leo nods before he drums his fingers against a nearby counter looking at her with concern.
"I'm alright," she reassures.
His smile is faint, "That's good."
She shuffles her feet and offers, "I'm so excited to be in an actual lab again I'm not sure where to start."
"I should probably show you around?" Leo offers.
"Yes, that would good," she agrees.
The tour is brief, but he takes care to make sure she knows where all the safety features/stations are and she has permission to use the cot he's set up. He's seems to be relaxing to her presence until she offers to buy lunch and compare their class schedules. He drops back into his original seat and frowns at her.
"Come on Fitz, you know you have to go to class," she prods.
"I know. I know," he complains before he shifts uncomfortably, "It's just we're freshmen and so we'll get pranked."
"Did someone…" she starts.
"No, I just heard about this tradition my first day and I wanted no part of it."
"We could prank them back," she's offers.
He's eyes widen slightly and he starts to give her an actual smile.
"We could," she tempts.
"With science?"
"With science," she agrees.
He nods and considers the idea a moment before he offers, "But it might be difficult to think of these things on an empty stomach?"
"Exactly."
He smiles at her shyly, "I like prosciutto."
"Good. Ang gave me a list of the best places to eat in the area. Let's go find ourselves some sandwiches."
It isn't until they're sitting in a booth, enjoying sandwiches and agreeing that Ang's recommendation of trying the buffalo mozzarella is spot on that Jemma realizes that for the first time since the Yellow Claw interrupted her life she feels safe all on her own.