I'm coming home.
The doors to the lab were unlocked and willing to move. Even so, Simmons didn't dare allow them to budge. Instead, she stood behind the glass, hidden in the shadows of the BUS hangar and her own cataclysmic failures. Her eyes locked onto the one bit of movement that stirred behind those doors: Leopold Fitz. The sole reason she had returned.
Come on, Jemma, pull yourself together. How will he ever know you've come back if you don't go and talk to him?
She took in a deep, slow breath. Her other half was standing inside that lab. Her best friend, the man she abandoned. Fate had aligned itself to give her a chance, yet the fear she felt in her gut was blinding. She hoped he didn't hold it against her. After all, she hadn't left out of anger or spite; adversely, fear had been her motive. She blamed herself for what had happened to Fitz. She had been scared of the future when she'd learned that she couldn't heal him.
But she was done waiting for an impending future.
Simmons walked into the lab.
Tiny little mumblings resonated from the holographic table. Designs both old and new flickered across its surface, casting shadows on the face that moved them. Every once in a while, Fitz would lift up a model overlaid in blue to study it more closely. Simmons couldn't help but soak in those funny little expressions he made when he was focusing. His scrunched-up eyebrows, steady blue eyes, and quirky little mouth nearly set her heart into shock. He was alive. He was okay.
But what would he say when he saw her?
"I know what I'm doing." She walked towards him as he rambled on to himself. "The instructions are very specific. Very... they're very..." Suddenly, his countenance changed. Fitz looked like he'd been stabbed in the side or thrown from a plane. Simmons had seen him react in both scenarios. She knew his expressions and their meanings better than he knew them himself.
"Fitz," She said gently. One word brought silence to the room. One word brought his eyes up to hers. Those eyes set her heart to aching and her mind to screaming. Hatred. Anger. Rage. How could she have left him so weary like this? Simmons was overwhelmed with a sudden distaste for herself - something she'd been struggling with for the past few months. Finally, the chemicals in her brain responsible for producing anger subsided. She could almost think clearly again.
Fitz's eyes were open and his mouth was wide. "Jemma. You found me."
The way he worded his feelings brought tears to Simmons's eyes.
"Yes, Fitz," She nearly choked on her words. "I'm here. I know."
A shadow passed over his countenance. "You... you were beside me. You were beside me, Jemma. Care to explain that?"
They had warned her about this the moment she'd returned. His hallucinations. The way he talked to an imaginary version of her. Simmons hadn't known whether to feel scared, flattered, or both.
"I was gone, Fitz." Her expression crumbled. "I'm so sorry, Fitz. I failed you."
He mulled over her words, trying to make sense of them in his mind. "You were here, Jemma."
She shook her head. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes. "Leo, I was scared. I was guilty. I didn't want to cause more harm to you than I already had."
He looked frustrated. "Not here, Jemma. Here," He placed his hand on the left side of his chest before meeting her eyes, hoping she understood.
Simmons burst into tears.
For a moment, nothing happened. Nothing needed to happen. Simmons knew what she had done. She knew that she had failed him, even when he did so much for her. Nothing she could do would ever change the fact that she left him.
But then, he was there. He was holding her. She didn't know how he crossed the room so quickly, or why he was forgiving her, but he did. He is. Once again, Leo Fitz proves to be more than any other man she's ever known.
"We're going to fix this." He said, resting his chin on the top of Simmons's head. "Fix... we're going to fix this..."
"Together," She whispered in the midst of a sob. "We're going to fix this together."
And so she stood, shaking, crying, and being loved by the only person who ever really mattered. She had Fitz. Fitz had Simmons. Both of them were broken, but they knew that together, both of them could be fixed.