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Jemma Simmons

When Jemma enters the room early in the morning, it's not to check his pulse or do anything remotely scientific to him at all.

She's come to talk, and in the midst of all this, is analyzing him and everything about him.

He wants to cringe at the cold, furious stare she's giving him, but then again, even when he had a purpose, he could never bring himself to expressively show emotion. He'd been a cold, empty shell of a being then, and was only a shell of that shell now.

He looks up, fixing her with the dark-eyed, hungry stare everyone's learned to hate. "Why?" is the question his lips form but can't quite manage to speak.

She understands him nevertheless. "I want an apology." Her tone is cold, brisk, and professional, the "scientist" voice she could never quite pull off back on the BUS.

They've both come a long way from then.

There's thick 2-inch glass separating him from her, but it feels like the distance is so much more. But he commands his voice to speak, using vocal chords that haven't been exercised in weeks. It comes out sounding weak. "I'm sorry," Grant whispers.

"Not for me. For Fitz."

"I'm sorry," he whispers again, more sorrow leaking painfully into his words.

Something about the words is more convincing because her frame relaxes. But her frown does not ease back into a smile. Grant does not think he will be seeing much more of smiles for his future. "He's in the hospital, suffering." She spits the word out, like it's filth, but it strikes home anyway. "Because of you."

Grant sucks in a breath. Sharp, like everything else about him.

With a sideways glance at him, she adds, "He's getting better, no thanks to you."

He stares at her, now lonelier than ever.

She turns, facing away from him. "I would say it was nice to talk to you, but I think you and I both know it wasn't."

Those are her parting words as she leaves the room. And it's those words that he replays again and again for days after she leaves. He shouldn't care; after all, they don't care much for him anymore either.

But deep down, Grant Ward knows that Jemma is right and always has been.

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Chapter 3: Melinda May.