Always Beside Me
Fitz stood over a table, working on a machine. Parts were strewn all over the table, cooling fans, bolts, and wires. Despite his best efforts though, the assembly of parts in his hands simply would not come to life. They just didn't seem to... he just couldn't seem to put them together like he used to. He buried his head in his hands in frustration.
"Fitz,what's wrong?" A bright, if concerned voice, rang out behind him.
Fitz glanced over his shoulder at Jemma, who was standing right behind his shoulder. He almost grinned. She was always there behind him. "Nothing Jemma, I just can't get the electrical signals to jump across the.." He cursed internally. Ever since the... incident, words were always getting caught on the tip of his tongue. It halted his ideas from forming properly. "To jump across the..."
"Wire?" Jemma suggested.
Fitz scowled a bit. "Yes wire, thank you Jemma. It was just on the tip of my tongue!" He snapped. They used to be able to complete each others' sentences, but now he couldn't even complete his own. He turned back towards what he was working on.
"Perhaps if I replaced the copper wire with a gold alloy" He thought "I'd be able to increase the... increase the..." He closed his eyes, put his hands on his temples. He couldn't focus. Why couldn't he focus!
He felt pressure on his right shoulder, so he opened his eyes and turned his head. It was Jemma, her hand on his shoulder, looking at him, smiling at him. "Fitz, you have to be patient with yourself. I know you can do it!"
"Thanks Jemma." Fitz mumbled. He thought of the past, all those times he'd innovated, built, created something, fixed things. Always with Jemma at his side. "I just, I can feel them Jemma. The others, looking at me with so much... so much.."
"Pity." Jemma said. Fitz looked at her, and saw that the smile had slipped from her face. He turned back to the bench and picked up a soldering iron, and began working again.
"I might not be doing much now." He thought as he flicked the switch and watched the tip glow red hot. "But I did so much in the past. Like that time when I went on the mission with Ward. Or that time I was trapped in the ocean with... ocean with..."
"Me." Jemma said. "You were in the ocean with me Fitz. You saved the two of us!"
Tip of his tongue, but she plucked it first. She knew him so well. Sometimes better than he knew himself.
"That's why she's catching these words for me" He thought. "That's why she's always beside me."
He shut the iron off, closed his eyes, and absentmindedly reached at his shoulder, looking for Jemma's fingers.
They weren't there.
He looked around.
She wasn't there.
His eyes snapped open. "Jemma? Jemma where are you?"
"Right here Fitz. I was with you at the academy, at Sci-Ops, in the plane, when we were stuck in the ocean, and here in the Playground. I've been beside you the whole time."
He closed his eyes, and put his fingers over her hand on his shoulder. He squeezed gently and smiled.
"Thank you, Jemma." Fitz muttered "I don't know what I'd do without you."