"I could be convinced to give you a full physical," Jemma winked at him.
Fitz gulped, eyes widening at the thought. "Really?" he asked, voice climbing the registers again with hope and disbelief.
"You're scheduled for one with Dr. Kumari at the end of next month," she grinned, "But I can pull some strings and do it myself."
Fitz laughed and collapsed back on the bed. "You evil..." He looked over at her. "I'm glad I tickled you! You deserve it for that!"
"What?" Jemma asked, innocently, curling into his side and running a finger in circles over his chest. "Did you think I meant something else?" she asked archly. She had to admit, she wasn't exactly opposed to the idea.
"Noo," he said sarcastically. "Not at all." He slipped a hand under her arm and tickled her again for good measure. "I had no thoughts about 'playing doctor' with you at all," he said, and that had been true... until about an hour ago. Sure, there'd been the occasional dream, but nothing conscious. At least... nothing too detailed.
"Leo 'I-hate-biology-and-everything-it-includes' Fitz wanting to play doctor?" Jemma smiled, resting her chin on his shoulder. "I never thought I'd see the day." But then, that's kind of what they'd just been doing after all. And she'd be lying if she said it wasn't hot. Really hot.
He wrapped a lazy arm around her shoulders and curled a strand of hair around his finger. "I don't hate all biology," he muttered self-consciously.
"Oh really?" Jemma asked, "Name one part you like, then." This was going to be good.
Fitz's eyes got a bit wide and he cleared his throat before pointing to where she was pressed up against him. "Well," he said hesitantly. "There's, y'know..." His fingers stopped pointing and started cupping in a gesture that made it clear what he meant before he said it. "Boobs?"
Jemma laughed and leaned up on her forearms, one on the bed and one on his chest, to give him a quick kiss on the lips. "Of course," she grinned. "How could I forget those?"
Fitz gulped as he looked up to meet her eyes and then down past her laughing smile and her elegant throat to the expanse of skin once more exposed to him between the open sides of his cardigan. As gorgeous as they'd been when they were naked in front of him, there was something unbelievably sexy about seeing them peek out from his sweater.
"I have no idea," he breathed. He certainly wouldn't be able to.
He desperately hoped he wouldn't have to.
Jemma's laughter quieted down as she saw where his eyes were focused, and she felt herself start to blush again. If she'd been thinking rationally an hour ago instead of jumping to scary conclusions, she would have waited and asked May to give her a quick once over in the medlab. But no, she'd needed instant feedback on the situation and gone to the first person she always went to when she needed confirmation on a theory. And now he'd seen her topless. For an extended period of time. And had... touched her in way she never thought he would.
And then there was the kissing.
The kissing had been very nice. She'd like more of that.
But first they really should finish what they'd started here. How they were going to manage it professionally, she really didn't know.
"Um," Jemma cleared her throat. "So..." she lifted herself a bit higher on her forearms, her breasts now just barely touching the soft cotton of his button down. She took a deep breath and heard him inhale sharply as well.
"So?" Fitz asked, his pulse thrumming in his neck as he tried valiantly to remove his eyes from where her nipples were grazing his stomach.
"I should..." she sat up, wrapping the cardigan around herself loosely for warmth, but not worrying about covering herself completely. Not only had he already seen it all, he was about to be seeing it again.
Fitz's brows came together in consternation. She wasn't leaving was she? He sat up, too, turning so they were facing each other on the bed, their knees almost but not quite touching. "Yeah? he asked, holding his breath.
"I should probably," she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked down before finally meeting his gaze. This was fine. This was totally fine and professional and fine. She took a deep breath and smiled. "Show you how to do the palpation properly," she continued and she saw his shoulders immediately relax. "So we can be sure you don't miss it."
Fitz was momentarily confused. What would he be missing? They were right... Ohh. "Yes," he said, nodding. "The lump." He shook himself mentally. You're a bad man, Leo Fitz. Your best friend is sat there wondering if she might have breast cancer and all you can think about is touching her boobs. He forced himself to calm down, listing as many digits of pi as he could and looking determinedly into her eyes. "What do you need me to do?"
Jemma felt herself vibrating inside at the way Fitz was staring at her. Much more of that and... "Lie down?" she asked in a slightly shaky voice, motioning lengthwise along the bed.
Fitz closed his eyes as he lay down on his back, close in against the wall. He'd moved on to the Fibonacci sequence in his head, but things still hadn't quite settled down yet. "Have you got enough room there?" he asked, looking over to where she was kneeling on the mattress beside him. His sweater had opened up again, revealing her cleavage right down to her belly button, and he swallowed hard before firmly turning his head to stare at the ceiling.
"I think so," she replied. Strictly speaking, palpation shouldn't be done through a shirt. She wondered if... No. She probably shouldn't suggest that. Biting her lower lip, she twisted her fingers together for a moment, resisting the urge to undo his buttons. Instead, she reached out and took his hand from where it rested on his stomach.
Fitz jumped slightly in surprise when he felt her hand on his. "What-?" he asked before he could stop himself, and when he looked at her face he saw that he'd embarrassed her. "Sorry," he apologized, blushing in return. "Wasn't expecting that," he chuckled awkwardly.
She smiled back just as awkward. "I should have warned you," she apologized. "I need to put your arm up over your head." She nodded to the space above the pillow and leaned forward to place his hand there.
The movement opened one side of the cardigan and draped it around his head as her bare breast hovered just above his lips. It was only for the briefest of moments, and his sweater had acted like a curtain and blocked out some of the light in the room, but still Fitz couldn't quite contain a small moan.
His eyes widened as he heard it, and he tried to cover it up. Shifting slightly and moving his arm a little bit higher over his head, he stretched and turned the moan into one of comfort instead of desire. "I could get used to this," he joked. His smile faded as he realized what that sounded like. "Lying in bed of an afternoon," he clarified.
"Right," she smiled back. "Alright," Jemma took a deep breath, trying to get herself back to a professional mode. "So there are two things to remember when you're palpating," she told him. "First, use the pads of your fingers," she held up the three middle fingers of her right hand and rubbed along their length to demonstrate what she meant. "Not the tips," she shook her finger prohibitively.
"Pads," Fitz nodded, holding up his fingers. "Got it."
"And second, make sure you cover all of the breast tissue." Leaning forward again, she outlined a sort of triangle shape on Fitz's chest from his armpit to his clavicle around his pectoral. He was more solid than she'd expected. Apparently, Skye wasn't the only one who'd been training.
"Right," Fitz nodded again, taking a deep breath. How in the hell was he going to do this without having a trouser emergency?
"There are three common ways to do it," she continued, squeezing her thighs together as she knelt by his side. It was his far arm she'd lifted up because that hand had been resting on top, but now she realized that she'd be leaning over him the whole time she demonstrated. Suddenly, she wasn't sure she needed his sweater after all. The room had warmed up considerably.
Biting her lip, she traced her finger pads in each of the patterns as she described them. "You can do vertical stripes, leading from the armpit downwards," she listed. "Or concentric circles leading inwards to the top of the breast, or you can do spokes radiating out from the nipple." She looked at him expectantly.
Fitz blinked, trying to regain focus on her face. He was supposed to touch Simmons like that?
"Hmm?" he asked. She looked like she'd asked him something, but he had no idea what it was.
"Which one did you prefer?" she asked. She still had to demonstrate technique, and it would be easier to do so using the pattern he chose.
"Uh," Fitz's mind was a blank. "The first one?" he said, not at all sure.
"That's the one I'm used to, as well," she smiled. "Alright, so you'll start up here," she placed her fingers under his arm, pressing firmly. "And no tickling, now!" she warned him.
"I would never!" he winked up at her adorable pouting face.
"Mmhmm," she said with a tone that indicated her disbelief. "So, starting up here, you'll press in small circles all the way down." She demonstrated on Fitz's chest, trying to focus on the movement instead of how warm he was under her fingers. She got a bit caught up in his shirt as it bunched up around her hand and she laughed self-deprecating. "Sorry," she apologized. "You're not meant to do this through a shirt." She glanced at his face and then quickly looked back at what she was doing, leaning further forward so that her hair partially covered her face.
Fitz's eyebrows rose at that information. "Should I-" he started to bring his arm down from above his head but left it up there because she wasn't done her demonstration yet and he didn't want to ruin it. Instead, he brought his free hand up to his top button. "Did you want me to, um, t-take it off?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady. He was having a difficult enough time as it was with just one of them half-undressed, he wasn't sure why he was volunteering to join her.
Oh, who was he kidding? He knew exactly why he was volunteering.
And it wasn't for medical reasons, that was certain.
Jemma blushed prettily and took a deep breath. She hadn't really meant to suggest... But since he'd offered... She bit her lip. It would make her demonstration much more accurate. "Maybe..." she hesitated slightly, debating internally. "Maybe just for the demonstration?" she asked. "If that's okay with you!" she added in a rush. She was already trespassing quite a bit on his friendship and she didn't want to push him further than he was willing to go.
Fitz swore his heart stopped beating for a moment when she said yes. His mouth suddenly felt dry and his palms wet. "Sure," he said hoarsely, nodding quickly. At some point he was going to wake up from this dream, and he wanted to get as much out of it as he could before that happened. "Can I...?" he tilted his head towards his arm, still laying behind it on the pillow.
"Oh, yes," Jemma nodded, suddenly unsure of what to do with her hands. "Of course!" She reached out towards the buttons of his shirt and then retracted. "Did you... I mean, can I...?" She searched for the right question to ask in this situation, but etiquette was failing her. "Would you like some assistance?" she asked and then winced. She sounded like a shop clerk.
His first thought was Definitely! but his second thought was how that might trigger the emergency situation he was still very much worried might occur. "I've got it," he assured her. Reaching down, he tugged his shirt out of the waistband of his jeans and then sat up.
She rocked back slightly in her kneeling position as he sat up and they ended up beside each other, their faces as close as they'd been not that long before when they'd started kissing. She found it impossible to look away when he reached up behind his head and grabbed both his shirts at once, the button-down and the t-shirt he wore beneath it, and pulled them both over his head. She couldn't help but laugh at the mess that made of his hair.
He pulled the clothing off his arms and threw it on the floor beside the bed before grinning at Jemma. "Something funny?" he asked, knowing he must look a fright, but thankful he was able to break the tension.
"Your-" She covered her mouth as she tried to stop laughing. "Your hair!" she said, reaching out to touch one of the bits that was sticking up at a particularly funny angle.
"What?" he asked with fake confusion. "Something wrong with it?" He brushed his hand back through it doing nothing but make it stick up even more. He grinned at her and raised his eyebrows. "Better?"
"You've made a complete hash of it," she said fondly, running her own hands through it to try to set it right. She couldn't help herself. It was just so soft and thick and felt so good beneath her fingers.
He felt his chest tighten as she played with his hair. He'd meant to distract them from... whatever was going on between them, but apparently that didn't work. Gripping her wrists lightly, he pulled them away from his hair. Licking his lips and taking a deep breath, he gave her a look he hoped she understood. "We should, um," he said, trying to get them back on track. "Your demonstration?"
Her smile faded and her breath hitched as Fitz looked into her eyes. She'd been looked at like that before, and she knew what it meant. Her eyes dropped down to stare at his lips, and she had to force them back up again when he spoke. "What?" she breathed, not quite able to hear over the rushing in her ears. Blinking, she watched him lie back down again, and if she'd been distracted by having him in her bed before she was doubly so now that he had his shirt off.
He lifted his arm and placed it back behind his head again. Looking up at Simmons kneeling over him with his cardigan doing a rubbish job of staying closed over her naked breasts, he wished he hadn't thrown his shirt aside. He could really do with something in his lap right now. "Like this, yeah?" he asked, making sure he was in the right position.
Jemma nodded, breathing deeply and reminding herself that she was a medical professional, at least in terms of their team, and that she had a job to do. "That's perfect," she said, using her bedside-manner voice. She just had to pretend this wasn't Fitz, that was all. Nothing to it.
Fitz raised his eyebrows at the sudden appearance of her doctor voice. He couldn't stop himself from checking to make sure his intestines were still inside his body because she only used that particular voice when she was having a hard time staying calm. She must be more worried about this lump than he'd thought. He reached out a hand to stroke her arm from her shoulder to her elbow. "It's alright, Jemma," he reassured her with a smile. "We'll get you all checked out in a minute." He couldn't stop himself from wincing as he played that back in his mind.
She smiled back and focused on the task at hand. "Right," she said, determined not to let her mind wander again. "So as I was saying," she placed the pads of her fingers back under his arm. "Starting up here, you'll massage the whole area, pressing deeply to feel for any lumps under the skin." She sucked her lower lip into her mouth as she slowly worked her hands over that entire side of his chest.
For his part, Fitz decided within thirty seconds that he needed to keep his eyes closed if he was going to learn anything at all. Her movements above him were making her breasts sway and jiggle on her chest with every press and circle she made. Not only that, but when she turned to the side to get a better angle, he couldn't help noticing how the curve of her back lead into the swell of her ass.
"And then you do the same thing on the other side," Jemma concluded. She'd finished with her hand resting over the centre of his chest, and she couldn't help noticing how quickly his heart was beating. Almost as fast as hers was. Without her permission, her fingers started stroking over his chest, following the lines of his musculature. She started listing the anatomy in her head, out of habit. Sternum, anterior rectus sheath, external oblique, abdominal head of pectoralis major...
Fitz cleared his throat, trying to catch her attention. She'd been idly stroking him for at least a full minute now, and if she didn't stop soon...
"Your turn, then?" he asked, shifting to a seated position that caused Simmons' hand to drop to his thigh.
She squeezed it unconsciously for a moment before realizing what she was doing and pulling her hands back quickly and grabbing onto the back of her neck. "Sorry!" she apologized, blushing brightly.
He reached out one hand and lifted her chin so she'd look at him. "Hey," he smiled. "That's hardly any worse than anything else we've been doing," he teased. And it was certainly nothing in comparison to what he was about to do.
Jemma laughed nervously. It wasn't the action so much as the thought it had caused. "I know," she confessed. "I think I'm just a little... on edge," she explained.
"Of course you are," he agreed. "I would be too in your place."
She pursed her lips together to keep herself from telling him it had nothing to do with worries about her health and everything to do with... well, with everything else they'd been doing.
Poor Simmons looked a wreck. He hadn't seen her this nervous since their last year's finals at the Academy. Giving her a reassuring look, he wrapped her in a quick hug and kissed her cheek. "Now, let's get you sorted shall we?" he asked cheerfully.
Jemma blushed and her eyes went wide. She knew he couldn't read her mind, and yet...
Fitz's smile dropped off of his face to be replaced with horror as he realized what he'd just said. "I meant, get your medical situation sorted," he clarified. He dragged a hand across his face and groaned. "I swear I'm not trying to make every single sentence a euphemism," he promised.
Jemma had to laugh at that. Reaching out, she pulled his hand down from his face and kissed his palm. "Tell you what," she suggested. "If you stop acknowledging the double entendres, I'll pretend I don't hear them."