"Do you believe this one? This boy was probably an Inhuman, but S.H.I.E.L.D. classified it as magic."
Daisy glanced at Jemma from her own stack of files. "How do you know he was an Inhuman?"
Jemma sighed. "I can't definitively tell from this page, but that's the most likely explanation. It certainly wasn't magic. Magic is simply science we don't understand yet."
"You still think magic isn't real?" Daisy asked.
"Yes," Jemma said.
"After everything we've been through? Really?"
Jemma looked at her. "All of it can be explained by science, Daisy. Even if the science has a few gaps we can't fill in yet."
Daisy set down the folder she was holding, and Jemma saw from a quick look at Daisy's face that her friend wasn't done with her yet. "Let's test it. Explain the feeling you always talk about, when we see the first snow of the year. Every year you get it, no matter what's going on. That's not magic?"
Jemma chuckled, filing away another folder. "More like hormonal. It's just happiness, Daisy. Each time it's been months since we last saw snow."
"Okay. How about…" Daisy grabbed a box of folders waiting to be sorted and sat on her bed. "What about Lorelai's effect on men? Sif called her a sorceress, right?"
Jemma rolled her eyes. "Lorelai must have a genetic mutation or quality that affects men. Maybe it's something to do with pheromones, or sound. Fitz and I discussed several theories about it, actually. None of which involve magic."
Daisy crossed her arms, biting her lip. Jemma shook her head and went back to sorting files, believing she had made her case.
"Fitz." Daisy said suddenly, a few minutes later.
Jemma pulled her head out of the 0-8-4 file in her hands and looked up, confused. "What?" Fitz was working with Mack, assessing the structural integrity of the hangar while she and Daisy cleaned up the mess that had been made by the government. He would probably be busy for a few more hours at least. Then again, so would they at the rate they were going. Fitz wasn't at the door. Had Daisy texted him or something?
Daisy smiled at her. "You and Fitz prove that magic exists. Explain that one away. Your relationship is way more than science."
Jemma scoffed lightly. "Our relationship is not magic." It was touching that Daisy thought so highly of it, but…
"I don't buy it."
Jemma closed the folder in her hands and placed it in the box for 0-8-4 pages, and then turned to face Daisy. "Exactly what about it can't be explained by science?"
"Well first there's the fact that you've been ripped apart and found your way back to each other about fifty times."
"In our line of work, getting separated is easy. Unfortunately, Fitz and I seem to have a knack for it," Jemma said carefully, trying to make light of the past trials, "but it's science that brings us back every time."
"Maveth?" Daisy pressed. "Fitz dove through a portal and just happened to find you, when you could have been anywhere on the planet."
"I calculated the likely spot for a portal opening and went there. Fitz dropped a flare that confirmed it, and then we were pulled back. Science and mathematics, and observation." She declared.
Daisy frowned slightly. "Okay, I'll take that one as science. But what about the bond you two have?"
"Well that's easy," Jemma said, leaning against the table and fully facing Daisy. "Fitz and I have always had similar interests, and extremely compatible personalities. Once we realized just how similar we are we spent more time with each other. Years of friendship and working together will make any people have strong bonds."
Daisy was looking at her with a raised eyebrow, and a quite skeptical expression. "There are twins who have less of a bond than the two of you. You can practically read each other's minds."
Jemma turned back to the files they were neglecting. "I know Fitz better than anyone, I suspect, just as he knows me."
"And you're still gonna tell yourself that's all science?"
"Of course." Jemma said. She heard Daisy sigh and pick up a new folder, and picked one up herself, opening it mechanically. She looked at the pages without really seeing them, her thoughts on Daisy's inquiry. There was no reason to think magic was even remotely related to her relationship with Fitz. She knew that. Magic was simply science they couldn't explain yet, and she and Fitz made perfect sense.
It was a combination of hormones, emotions, and shared experiences that shaped their relationship. It was completely logical that he understood her more than she understood herself. There was a perfectly rational explanation for the way he always made her feel so safe and loved, even when they were on the most dangerous missions.
She just couldn't put a name to it at the moment.
Though if she said this out loud, she knew what Daisy would call it.
She supposed she could call it magic too, thinking on it as she went back to work.
Until she figured out the science, of course.
