Fitz walked through the door to find an emotional Simmons. She sits in the couch, head in her hands, sobbing quietly. Every nerve in his body told him to go and comfort her, to tell her it's all going to be okay, but he can't.
"Jemma." He said quietly. She shot her head up.
"Oh, Leo. Hello." She said, trying to hide her tears but to no avail. A silence came over the room. She looked away and stared into the fire she sat in front of.
"Are we going to talk about this?" she asked her voice but a whisper.
"I don't know, Simmons, are we?" Fitz already had slight anger in his voice. He immediately regrets his tone, but nothing can change it now.
"What should we do? We have only been fighting for over a week. What are we going to do?" she asked. She hated arguing with him, but it did seem to be all they did. "What ever happened to us?"
"You have so many questions, and I don't have any answers, because my questions to you are the same." He said gently. He did not know what to do.
"What do you want me to say?" She asked him. He shrugged. "How can you only shrug at this?" She yelled. She now stood in front of him, her eyes pleading for some sort of answer.
"Because I don't know what I want you to say. I don't know what to do." A single tear leaked from his eye. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force them away. He opened them to see tears streaming freely down her face, not trying to hide them like she has these past few days. They stared at each other for a few moments when Jemma finally snapped.
"Say something!" she yelled to him, backing away a few steps. Fitz looked up at her. She held only sadness in her eyes, a trait he knew so well now, and he regrets ever having to see it. He thought for a few moments, what should he say? Nothing? Something? Anything?
"I'm giving up on you." He said quietly. Jemma gasped. How could he say this? Weren't they supposed to be together forever? "I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you."
"You can still get to me, please don't do this." She pleaded when he started for the door. "Anywhere I would have followed you." She informed him. It was true. She couldn't imagine what her life would be like without him.
"All couples have their rough patches." She said in between sobs. "Please, I'll be the one if you want me to."
"That is all I want, Jemma. I just don't know how to do it." He said to her. He opened the door and stepped outside. Jemma followed quickly.
"Don't do this." She said.
"I am so sorry, Jemma. What do you expect me to do?" He asked her. She came up and put her hands on his shoulders.
"I want you to stay with me."
"Jemma, you're the one, that I love, and I'm saying goodbye." He sighed. "I'm still learning to love, just starting to crawl. I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want to leave, but I feel so small, and I feel like I can't help you or be there for you. You feel so distant, even when I am right next to you." He said. "Even when I do this." He cupped her cheek and brought her face to his. He kissed her, softly but passionately, and she returned it. He pulled away.
"You do not feel distant from me. I do not want to be distant from you. Hell, I can't even bear my days away from you when you give lectures at the University. Please, stay with me." She begged again. He sighed.
"I feel over my head, like I don't know anything at all." He said. He feels lost and desperately in love, but also distant and unhappy. Why was this so confusing?
"I still love you, Fitz. I love you more than anything. Why can't you return it?" Jemma was so addled.
"I do, God help me I do, but I can't continue like this. Please, Jemma let me go." He said again. She leaned her forehead on his and nodded.
"I have stumbled and fallen in love with you." She reminded him.
"I am one hundred percent sure that I will come back to you, one day. It just isn't meant to be right now."
"I will wait every day for you." Jemma said. "Please don't go."
"I have to." He said, before the memory faded away.
Jemma sat in front of a lonely tombstone, smiling. Memories was all she had left, so she re lived them fondly. She set the white rose down neatly in front of the smooth stone. She looked upon its surface and finally thought of letters to engrave in it. He was lost to soon, but he will live on in our hearts and in the hearts of those he saved on that terrible day. She thought.
"Perfect." She said. Now all she could think of was that one fateful day when they had lost each other forever.
Jemma looked out at the sky from the Bus. The small plane flew until it was out of her sight.
"Simmons, we need you to set up." Mae told her. She nodded and walked over to the holographic table and put her headset on.
"Fitz, do you copy?" She asked into it.
"Copy." She heard his voice call back.
"Okay, let's get a move on." She said quietly.
"I am hacking into the doors routing system, one moment." He said more to the others than her. "We're in." She looked to the table and saw the outlines of Ward, Coulson and of course, Fitz.
"The next phase is making sure the 084 is stabilized. Be careful and be on your guard. It is highly unpredictable and can level a whole village in seconds." She said in the earpiece.
"Copy, 084 detected. Let's see what we got here." He replied back. A screeching sound went through the mike and Simmons threw them off. She put them back on and the sound was gone.
"Fitz! Ward, Coulson! Do any of you copy!?" she called into it.
"Simmons, this is Ward. Coulson and I are okay but Fitz, oh God Fitz, he saw the 084 begin to blow and covered it with his body, oh God! We need backup!" Ward yelled. Simmons froze in her spot. Mae grabbed the mike off of her head and began speaking into it, but Simmons did not hear a word. She sat in her chair and saw images of Fitz crouching over and 084 and being blown to bits. She had silent tears rolling down her face and she closed her eyes and thought of the thing she loved more than life itself.
She sat in front of the tombstone still. Two months. Two months and she still couldn't believe he is gone. He was a great man.
"Is a great man." She said. She sighed and closed her eyes as a tear rolled down her face. She felt a hand come to her face and she looked up to see the man she loved.
"Fitz!" she exclaimed. He laughed. He was see through. "Are you a ghost?" He nodded.
"I love you Simmons, but it is time I go. Please don't cry for me any longer, I am in a better place and I will wait by the entrance for you, but live a long happy life. I have patience, and you must live long." He said to her. The tree nearby began to glow.
"Goodbye, my dove." He said as he stroked her cheek. She let the tears run down and tried to grab his hand but her hand went through it.
"I will come to you." She said. He smiled and nodded.
"I will hold you to that." He smiled and walked into glowing tree. Simmons smiled for a moment and then fell to her knees and broke out into sobs of both happiness and despair.
"I will come back to you." She said again. She stays for a moment until she rested her hand on the smooth stone and went back to her car. She drove to her home and fell onto Fitz's side and breathed in his scent that still lingered on the pillow.