as if i forced you to follow me anywhere,

written by wickedsong.

Disclaimer/Note: I obviously don't own AoS or else we would have had this as a flashback episode already. Because, the rest of the team must have been doing something, or had some sort of reaction to the Battle of New York, of course.

There's a thrum of excitement in Jemma's veins - a new type that she's never felt before - as she walks down the corridor – resisting the somewhat odd and out of character urge to run – heading towards the lab she and Fitz have shared for the better part of four years now.

It's been a few days since the Battle of New York and her mind has been working in overdrive since; thinking of the new discoveries that now are just waiting to be made. She's giddy just wondering about the ways in which their world has changed. It can never go back to being the same again – and she's realised, that neither can she.

Of course, she already knew the world was never quite as normal as she had grown up to believe. Years working as a SHIELD scientist had taught her that and yet-

Well, the events that had transpired in New York – putting SHIELD on a high alert, and opening the wider world up to the idea of new worlds far beyond their own – had changed almost everything.

And she's determined that she and Fitz will be a part of this change too.

"Jemma Simmons, Level Five," the automated voice says, recognising her and opening the door.

She strides into the room beaming, and her smile only seems to grow when she finds Fitz already there, pouring over detailed blueprints. Sidling up beside him, she notices it's the plans for a device he's been trying to push through for years now. The Night-Night gun, he calls it. Personally, she thinks they have to come up with a much better name, before presenting anything to SHIELD HQ.

Once he notices she's there, however, he rolls the plans up, and they settle into the world that they and, it seems, all SHIELD scientists have been working on in recent days. They've been set to work identifying the component's belonging to various pieces of alien technology that fell from the skies on that fateful day in New York.

Of course, it's not their place – or their clearance – to ask questions about the why but as Jemma examines the alien (it's alien) metal, she wonders what other things it could be used for – what the pros could be of having something so possibly advanced on Earth.

It's fascinating.

"It might be junk, Simmons," Fitz points out from his workbench, as cynical as usual. "Could be the alien equivalent of scrap metal." He shakes his head, adjusting his own microscope, before peering into it. "This is probably work a monkey could do."

"For the last time, Fitz, we are-"

"Not getting a monkey," Fitz finishes, as she predicted, in a terrible impersonation of her voice. It's far too high and far too Scottish to believably be her. "Come on, Simmons, where's your sense of fun?"

She rolls her eyes, and they continue to work in comfortable silence, which is only finally broken a few hours later, by Jemma's faint sigh of disappointment when she realises Fitz is most likely right – there's nothing special about this scrap of metal at all.

She can't help but notice Fitz that sounds somewhat relieved when a suited agent stops by and retrieves their findings and what they had been examining, nodding to them briskly before leaving their lab.

Jemma sighs wistfully at her work station.

"So, how about lunch?" Fitz suggests, obviously happy to have anything new or potentially terrifying out of his hands.

Jemma's never thought of Fitz as a static person and she can't imagine that there's anyone else in the world who understands her – or this world – better. He's her partner and they make an excellent team, but she wonders if he's ever imagined a life outside the four walls of a SHIELD lab.

"Earth to Simmons," Fitz says, waving a hand in front of her face. "Lunch?" he repeats.

She nods, smiling, but the question she wants to ask him weighs down on her so before he leaves the lab she calls him back.

He looks at her expectantly, as if to say 'go on' and it bolsters her confidence immediately. She just knows if she can make him think of it logically then he'll be sure to say yes - or at the very least, he'll consider it.

"Have you ever thought about working beyond here?"

"Like, not for SHIELD, do you mean?" he asks, looking confused, and as if he's wondering where she's going with this.

Jemma waves her hands. "No, no, not like that. I mean, outside of a SHIELD-lab."

"In the field?" Fitz asks, almost incredulously.

Jemma nods, but his face tells her all she needs to know.

"Have you gone mad, Simmons?"

Jemma gives a small 'humph' noise at the amused look on his face. She thought he would take this a great deal more serious.

"I mean us, in the field?" he adds, sounding more surprised than before.

"Come on, Fitz, think about it," Jemma says, trying to appeal to that side of him that's always in pursuit for new knowledge; almost as if she's trying to cancel out the part that's terrified of change. "New York's changed things. They need more scientists out there now. All we'd need to do is undertake some training, pass a physical-"

As she's talking she realises it's not just change he's afraid of. Yes, the field would be a wonderful place to get closer to the phenomena that had presenting itself for years now, but-

"It'd be dangerous, Simmons," Fitz says, as if he's trying to appeal to her common sense, as if she hasn't realised how risky it might be.

"It would also be the most perfect opportunity for us to see the world, Fitz." She smiles. "Where's your sense of fun."

"In this lab, where it can't get hit by a bullet or something else equally as horrible," Fitz mutters. For a brief moment it looks like he has something else he wants to say but it passes as he looks down and begins fiddling with something on his workbench.

Simmons sighs. "Can you at least think about it, please? Go talk to some field agents or something, before completely disregarding everything I've said."

She sees him resist the urge to roll his eyes, but he looks up, and to her surprise, nods. "I can see it's important to you," Fitz says, and the acknowledgement makes Jemma smile. "I'll think about it," he adds, "but, I'm not promising anything."

"Thank you," Jemma replies, trying to sound as neutral as she can, while her mind is already whirring at the possibilities.

She shrugs off her lab coat as Fitz, in what is probably an attempt to change the subject, whines that all the good food will be gone from the cafeteria by the time they get there now.

"Listen to my stomach, Simmons, just listen."

"You know Fitz," Jemma begins in a sing-song voice, as they exit the lab and stroll down the corridor, "we could have the opportunity to try delicacies from all over the world,"

Fitz wrinkles his nose at the suggestion and she gives a small giggle in his direction.

Hopefully, she thinks, it'll only be a matter of time.