Where Your Treasure Is

This fan fiction has been written for my own enjoyment and that of any who chooses to read this. There is no profit or intent to infringe any copyright.

This story takes place after the events of "One Head, Many Tales" episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Consider this AU after that episode.

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Chapter One: Wretched

Leo Fitz was hiding in his sanctuary. He sat in a comfortable chair with his disc player playing soft music in the background. The space had originally been intended as a maintenance access for the computers in his lab at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. After the brain injury he had sustained as a result of hypoxia that occurred during his escape from the Medi-Pod that Ward had dropped into the ocean, Fitz had begun to use it to decompress when he felt over stressed. Most of the time he appeared fairly normal but under stress his aphasia would return with a vengeance; especially if he tried to pour too much information through his damaged connective tissue. Being able to step away and reorder his thoughts helped him feel more in control and improved his sense of teamwork.

Now, however, it was his jealousy that was driving his stress levels. Since Jemma confessed to him her relationship with Will Daniels on Maveth, the planet she had been transported to by the monolith, he was slowly being consumed by his green eyed monster. He found it to be a very bitter emotion and every time he saw his Jemma pining for Will the pain ate a little deeper; embittering the world around him.

It was tough watching her wandering around the lab, hollow eyed and haggard. She had not had much time to recover from her ordeal on Maveth before plunging headlong into plans to rescue Will. The idea was driving her to distraction; she did not seem to be able to eat or to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. She was also finding it difficult to focus on her regular duties as the Sci-Ops team leader. If that wasn't enough, the guilt she was feeling for having dragged him into her quest made it that much harder for them to work together. Occasionally she snapped at him, and more than once he had noticed her in one of the storage closets crying because she had hurt his feelings again. They were both feeling wretched.

In trying to shove jealousy out of his mind he inadvertently reverted to anger at the cosmos in general and Will Daniels in particular. He could never be angry with Jemma like she felt she deserved. He had been dealing with things like this for as long as he could remember. His intelligence had placed him among students three to five years his senior, while in the best situations they respected his intellect, he was never regarded as a social equal. Differences in emotional maturity had always caused him problems. The jocks had never accepted him and he couldn't even be the chess club geek because he had never developed the killer instinct required to master the game. Sure, the mathematics fascinated him but he never liked the concept that pieces had to be sacrificed for positional advantage. He always regarded his pieces as a team and to lose team members just didn't make playing the game worthwhile. In the meantime the jocks had always seemed to grab all the attention and recognition that he as a young boy was desperate for.

Now just when he felt he might have a chance with Jemma the monolith had snatched her and dropped her into the arms of a jock. A really intelligent jock, a military man, as well as an accomplished astronaut; but still Fitz felt like Will was the same as his old nemeses. That hatred might have felt good if he could forget that Will had saved Jemma's life. Without him and his equipment Jemma probably would have died in that blue-litten hell hole. Fitz was sure he didn't want to live in a world that didn't have Jemma in it, but it was hard to be grateful because the man had stolen Jemma's affection from him.

Unable to sustain his anger at Will he lapsed into despair at the unfairness of it all. He and Jemma could have been. If only he had not been so reluctant or hesitant they could have been together. Even Ward, psychopath that he was, had warned him to make a move. In his frustration Fitz slammed his fist onto his knee. Five more times the dull thwap overpowered the music from his disc player. The pain brought his thoughts into focus once more. It did no good to be angry with an astronaut marooned hundreds of thousands of light years from Earth.

With that frustration the cycle was complete, in a little while he'd start to feel jealous again. It did him no good to try to completely repress these emotions there were too many triggers, Jemma mooning over Will, Jemma crying because she felt she had betrayed the both of them, the computer programs trying to predict where the wormhole would open on the face of Maveth, and on and on.

Sighing Fitz pressed his palms to his temples. The pressure helped him try to focus his thoughts into new paths. Hopefully more productive paths. He left his sanctuary heading for the stacks of books he had ordered. Scanning through them again might provoke a new idea. It would have to be something new. None of the hundreds of simulations he had run suggested that the matrix of the monolith could be repaired. He had to try, Simmons was depending on him to help. Leo Fitz wanted a lot of things in this world, but most of all he wanted for Jemma to be happy again, even if it couldn't be with him.

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The object of Fitz' affection was currently seated on her bunk with her back against the rough brick wall of her quarters with her arms encircling her knees. Jemma Simmons was dressed in surgical scrubs but had ditched her jogging shoes and socks; warming her bare feet under an Afghan. Unlike Fitz, Jemma had company. Daisy was trying to help her friend by providing a listening ear as Jemma tried to sort her tangled emotions. It was true that they came from vastly different backgrounds but they were roughly the same age and years of missions had created a camaraderie that transcended their differences. Simmons was certainly closer to Daisy than to Bobbie or May.

Jemma had just finished recounting how Will had pulled her back from the despair that set in when they failed to reach the portal in time. She was, once again, struggling to hold back her tears. "I almost decided to try to end it, Daisy. There seemed no point going on, we had almost no food and Will was sharing what little he had. I had no real survival skills that would help in the long run. Felt more of a burden than a help to him."

"What did he say?" asked Daisy.

Simmons continued in her soft British accent, "Not much, really, he was just there. Providing a shoulder to cry on. When we did talk it was about how we had switched roles he was the hopeful one and I was the pessimist. Slowly he helped me see that there was hope if we could hang on long enough, somehow, I knew Fitz wouldn't give up. What was it like when I disappeared?"

Daisy looked at her friend warily, she knew that Jemma had not specifically asked but she divined that Jemma was asking about her lab partner. "Fitz doesn't want me to say anything about that. He sees you tearing yourself up for dragging him into this as it is. He doesn't want you to be worse, and neither do I." She gazed at Jemma taking in the lack luster hair pulled back in a careless pony tail, the deep circles under her eyes, the drawn look to her face, and lastly the fact she was barely more than skin and bone.

"Please…"

Daisy sighed, "Frantic is the best description for the whole time you were gone. He was devoting more and more time to try to find you, neglecting what he was supposed to be doing. Bobbie and Mack covered for him so the work got done, but I think that Coulson and May weren't fooled for a minute."

"At first we did a search of the local area. It was a few days before we eliminated the possibility something from outside had taken you. Fitz developed theory after theory each wilder than the last. It was painful to watch as he basically re-wired his brain; forcing it to make new connections He had to re-learn things he had lost. I know he's not back to were he was before the Medi-Pod incident. What he has concentrated on was learning about the monolith, the science and history surrounding it."

"I also know he put is life on the line getting a vital clue from a gang of cutthroats that dealt in stolen antiquities. It was that parchment that lead us to the castle in the U.K. The one where we got you back from Maveth.

"I figured it would have been something like that," Simmons hid her face from Daisy, resting her forehead against her knees.

"All right, Jemma, quid pro quo, why can't you sleep? You look like you can't hold your head up any more.

Reluctantly Simmons whispered, "Nightmares, after four or five hours the nightmares wake me up. It is almost like a premonition. Something horrible is coming after Will and I just have to help him get home. When I try to eat, all I can think about is Will eating those meager roots and lichens, and I just lose my appetite."

Jemma's whisper trailed away to nothing. Daisy stood, walked to Jemma's bedside, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Please try to get some sleep and some decent food. You can't help Will if you jeopardize your own health, Jemma."

"I know, Daisy, I just can't help it," Jemma whispered after her friend, "but I'll try." Daisy shut the door behind her as she left to find Coulson. Lying in the dark Jemma wondered about Fitz, driving himself like that, for her. It was obvious he loved her, had loved her a long time. What was it about Will and Maveth that so consumed her? Love wasn't supposed to make you feel so wretched.