It was a cool, wet, foggy morning when they arrived at the woods around Reiden Lake, the namesake of the nearby town. Green plants shone with raindrops and Fitz irritably swatted away mosquitoes soon after he'd hopped out of the truck.

Giant bees, that was just great. These little bugs were bad enough. He felt a pang of sympathy for those poor souls who'd been killed by them. Not a way he'd want to go. At least one, a girl named Hanna, had survived but she was probably going to have nightmares for a long time to come.

"You have everything you need?" He asked Simmons as they removed their gear from the truck. He'd packed Sleepy, Happy and his tablet. She'd brought an entire box plus an enormous plastic bug cage.

"Giant sized insect enclosure, a sampling kit, an EpiPen just in case..." She listed off the things she'd put together. "Everything you'd need to go after giant bees or maybe wasps, I'd need to get a good look at them. The description was incredibly vague, poor girl. Probably a bee though," she chirped. "Oh! Or perhaps it's something completely knew, it's certainly an undiscovered species! Blue, what a pretty colour. Do you think we'll see one?"

She sounded so hopeful. He couldn't decide if that was cute or distressing.

'Distressing,' he told himself. 'Simmons is not cute, you need to stop that.'

No, she wasn't cute, she was adorable. He cursed himself.

"I'd rather we not see one," he admitted. "Bugs are bad enough when they're small."

"The one Hanna described was only around the size of a chihauha," she informed him, looking through her box. "That's not so big."

"It is for a bug," he grumbled and she rolled her eyes.

They joined their teammates at the scene of the attack. Skye and Coulson were questioning Hanna at her home so it was only May and Triplett.

The state of the swollen people made him sick. No, not a a good way to go at all. Hanna had said her one sting was excruciating, he couldn't imagine what over a dozen must be like.

Fitz stood between the others as Simmons knelt to examine the bodies, May rummaged through Simmons' box for a jar for the alarmingly huge stingers on her request.

"Is it just me or is she way to excited about this," Trip whispered.

"Well, it is giant killer bees," he replied jokingly. "That's always exciting... and horrible."

His friend chuckled.

Fitz liked Triplett, it wasn't the other man's fault Simmons had a crush on him. Well... OK maybe it was a little for him being so annoyingly charming but he'd been good to Fitz after he'd been hurt and he was the second best chess opponent he'd ever come across. Second to Simmons of course. He could like him even if he wasn't happy about the fact Simmons really liked him.

He was trying very hard to get over his unhappiness though, she was going to fall in love with someone eventually. Or maybe not, perhaps Simmons' true love was science and she had no room for anything else. Was it so wrong he was rooting for science?

Yeah, probably. Especially since it was for all the wrong reasons.

"There's probably a nest around here," Simmons was saying. "Can you and Trip get the bodies back into the truck while I take Fitz to scout ahead?"

"For the nest?!" He exclaimed. "Are you insane?"

She cast him patronizing glance before turning her attention back to the stingers. "We'll send Sleepy out ahead of us," she assured him. "A scout for some scouts," she laughed and he couldn't help smiling because his heart melted a little.

"OK", he agreed, cursing himself again. "But we aren't going near that nest without the proper gear."

Like a tank and a twenty foot pole.

"Of course not," she said as if he were being ridiculous. As if she didn't remember the giant hookworms.

She grabbed his arm, sending a vexing, wonderful tingle down his traitorous spine, and led him further into the woods in search of giant, killer bees. Or maybe wasps.

/-/-/

Simmons knelt down beside the beautiful, blue and black body of what looked like an enormous, fuzzy bumble bee. Fitz watched warily several feet away. He was so ridiculous sometimes.

It was arguably smaller than a chihuahua but still gigantic for an insect. There hadn't been insects this big since the Carboniferous and Permian periods, when atmospheric oxygen levels were much higher. She wondered excitedly how the colony was surviving. Possibly, they had developed a new respiratory system to deal with changing conditions.

She had been absolutely thrilled when they'd spotted the body on the screen. Fitz, of course, had insisted on prodding it a few times with Sleepy before going to finds it while she'd bounced around impatiently on her toes.

Carefully, she scooped up the insect's body and opened the container. As she lowered it in the creature sprang to life, beating it's wings and struggling against her. It managed to embed a stinger, like a large black thorn, below her elbow.

She cried out as white hot pain burned across her arm and barely managed to wrestle the giant insect into the container before collapsing to the ground against a tree.

"Jemma!" Fitz shouted panicked, racing towards her and falling to his knees in front of her.

The pain was so intense she thought she'd pass out and she tried feebly to remove the stinger with her good hand. Fitz realized she was struggling and removed it for her, chattering worriedly as he did.

"You'll be OK," he was saying. "Hanna was fine right? It's only one sting. Oh but it looks like it hurts! Does it hurt?" His voice filled with sympathy.

She nodded, gritting her teeth while a small whimper escaped her. He took her hand and she squeezed it, maybe a bit too tightly, while she waited for the pain to subside. He didn't complain and stroked the back of it gently with his thumb. It felt nice, made the burning in her arm easier to bear. The worst of the pain was fading already and she felt her body relax.

"You're OK," he murmured, wiping a strand of hair off her glistening forehead.

The gesture was so loving, so tender it took her by surprise. It must have surprised him too because he pulled away as if he'd touched something hot.

"You're all sweaty," he mumbled, blushing as he searched for a towel.

"Sorry," she whispered her gaze lingering on him as he moved away. She'd been... disappointed that he'd removed his hand, disappointed he'd stopped hovering over her.

"Don't be," he instructed, finding one and handing it to her. "That stupid bug shouldn't have stung you. Does it still hurt?"

"A bit," she answered as she took it gratefully and wiped her face. Her arm was still throbbing and was swollen and stiff but that would die down soon enough. She was finding it difficult to focus and she wasn't sure if it was because of the sting or Fitz touching her face. It burned too, where his fingers had brushed her skin, but it was a nice kind of burning. "She was probably just defending herself." She added, referring the bee who was buzzing around angrily in the enclosure.

"She?" He wondered. "How do you-"

"Drones, male bumble bees that is, don't sting," she explained.

"That's no bumble bee," he objected, glaring at it.

"It's pretty similar anatomically to a female worker," she insisted, getting shakily to her feet. "Except bumble bees don't leave stingers."

He reached out to steady her, looking concerned again. "You sure you should be getting up already?" He asked.

"It's only a bee sting," she dismissed, feeling herself blush as he looked her over anxiously. "I just hope she doesn't die because I was careless. Honeybees die when their stinger is pulled out."

So she enjoyed being fussed over, that didn't necessarily mean anything, it was nice to have people care about you. However, it didn't necessarily not mean anything either.

"That's one hell of a bee," he exclaimed. "Didn't let it get away though did you?" He added proudly, kneeling down to examine it.

She smiled at him. His praise felt good. "Let's get her back to the Bus."

/-/-/

Thank you so much for all the reads, likes, reviews and reads! You are all white hot awesome.

The Fringe reference in this story is the line "that didn't necessarily mean anything... That didn't necessarily not mean anything either." In what lies below, Peter and Olivia are talking about a suspect who Olivia thinks is being sketchy. Peter says the first part and Olivia responds with the second part (making my cousin roll her eyes when we watched it haha).

I thought that one might be a little bit too vague so I also added the giant hookworms from the season 2 episode Snakehead. Think of the first one as a bonus. ;).