Hi everybody! I bring you here the third chapter of my story. I want to thank the people who's reading, it means a lot for me!

As always, sorry for any possible mistakes, Silvia and I are spanish but we try our best writing this.

I don't own AoS, ABC and Marvel do.

Read and enjoy!


She grabbed his hand and pulled him up with all her might, while the last gulps of air escaped from her lungs. Come on Fitz, don't fall, hold on, please, she begged him. She was so close to the surface she could see the sunlight barely a few meters away from her. An armful. Another. Another. But suddenly she felt how his fingers slide between hers. He was sinking.

"No Fitz!" she shouted, but only bubbles came out her mouth while he sank at fast speed into the darkness.

She tried to go back for him but something was pushing her up. I have to return, she thought while fighting against invisible forces to reach him. The air was running out. She couldn't breathe, if she didn't reach the surface she would die down there.

"FITZ!" she screamed again with her last strength as she lost sight of him in the depth of the ocean.

"Simmons, wake up" said a familiar voice shaking her shoulders "Wake up, it's just a dream"

When she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was May's worried face a few inches from hers. She looked around, momentarily confused.

"Are you ok?" the pilot asked, still close to her "You were screaming… his name"

She nodded, unable yet to say a word. After a few minutes, she relaxed. He was there. He hadn't left, he hadn't abandoned her. She approached the bed and leaned carefully on the mattress, crouching so she could kiss his forehead. She entwined her fingers with his and closed her eyes.

It had only been a nightmare. He was still there with her. Connected to cables and tubes that kept his body working, but alive after all.

May observed the young agent silently, frustrated because she couldn't do anything to relieve her pain. The girl standing in front of her was barely a reflection of the happy and cheerful Jemma Simmons she was used to see. The accident had broken her, leaving her weakened by the fear of losing Fitz. The fact that just two days before they had admitted their feelings for each other didn't help.

"What day is today?" she asked staring blankly, so softly it was hard for May to hear her.

"Thursday" she answered after thinking a second. So many things had happened in the last few days, it was difficult to know in which day they were living.

"Four days" she announced sadly. She took her notebook from the nightstand beside the bed and approached one of the screens that showed Fit's vitals. Silently, she wrote down every data, every number, just as she had been doing for the last four days, hoping to find the least sign of improvement. Because she wouldn't give up. She would never give up. She loved Fitz with all her heart and she wasn't going to let anything or anyone to take it from her.

"Simmons, do you need something?" May asked after a few minutes, hoping she could help.

She shook her head.

"You know you can tell me, right?" she said trying one last time. Since they came back, the biochemist had barely said a word. She spent the days locked in that room, making notes and reading books, only resting to approach the bed and caress or kiss Fitz lovingly.

"I just want him to come back" she said after a while, just before May gave up.

"He'll come back" the pilot affirmed, approaching the bed and carefully sitting next to the young scientist.

Jemma caressed softly Fitz's cheek and turned towards May. A bright tear rolled down her cheek. During the four days Fitz had been in the coma, she hadn't cry a single time, she hadn't broken down, she had to be strong for him. But the burden on her shoulders was too heavy. Love. Hate. Guilt. Fear.

"I'm afraid, May" she admitted trying to hold it back "I'm afraid to lose him".

Melinda May hadn't got children, at least not biological ones but she was pretty sure the way she felt towards her agents was much a mother's instinct of love and protection. She approached Jemma and hugged her with all the affection she could, trying to reassure her, to promise her everything would be fine. Jemma hugged her back without any doubt, she rested her head in May's shoulder and cried.


It was almost three in the morning and Jemma was still sitting on the floor with her back against Fitz's bed. She was making nonsense notes on her notebook when a sudden beep took her out of her absorption. She jumped to her feet and brought her gaze to the little screen. Fitz's vital signs were increasing. A mix of relief and terror paralyzed her for a few seconds.

"Fitz" She whispered once she could move again, she leaned over him and held his face with her hands. "Fitz, I'm here" she said, unable to stop trembling.

As someone waking up after a long sleep, he opened his eyes very slowly. When Jemma saw his blue eyes for the first time in nine days she started crying. Fitz looked at her, confused, as he tried to sit up.

"J… Je-Jemma" he managed to murmur.

She nodded and softly kissed his forehead, then one cheek, then the other. She kissed his nose and finally his lips, as she had done nine days ago, before he sacrificed himself for her.


"No one said it would be easy, Simmons" Trip said, trying to cheer her up.

"But no one ever said it would be this hard" she complained with sadness.

"Give him a rest, he's having a hard time. Fitz feels different and it pains him." he explained.

"You think I don't know that, Trip?" Jemma asked, tired. "Fitz is different now and hates himself for it. But I don't care! It doesn't matter! He's still Fitz and I love him the same, maybe even more, why doesn't he see that? Why he avoids me?"

"Because he loves you too" Trip answered "And he cannot stand the idea of you loving the shadow of who he was before. That's why every time he's around you he tries with all his strength to be his former self, to live up. For you."

"But I don't want him to live up!" she replied "I just want him by my side"

"To be with you" Trip went on "First he must want to be with himself."

"You have talked to him, haven't you?" she asked, sure of Trip's answer and hurt by it. The fact that Fitz preferred to talk with him or any other member of the team instead of her, shattered her.

A week had passed since Fitz woke up from the coma and they hadn't had a serious talk about anything yet. Every time they started one was a torture. He couldn't end his own sentences and she tried very hard not to do it for him. When Jemma tried to have any sweet gesture, he got away quickly, so she couldn't see his hands shaking every time she came closer. They couldn't stand in the same room for more than five minutes without Fitz leaving, discreetly, with any excuse. Jemma knew it wasn't his fault but it hurt anyway. She just wanted to hug him again, and kiss him again. Tell him she loved him no matter what.

"He'll overcome all of this" Trip insisted "You both will."

"But I can't take it anymore" she confessed, sitting on the chair in one of the secret base's improvised kitchens. "Seeing him like that it's too painful" Jemma took a deep breath, the last thing she wanted was to make a scene. "His smile, his hugs… I miss him. And I fear that when he's with me, he's going backwards instead of improving."

Trip fell silent, it was true that the young engineer got worse whenever he talked to her, but it was just because he tried to be the same he was for her and that was impossible.

"You know? You may need to take some time" he suggested "Disconnect for a while."

"Leave? No!" Jemma snapped "I cannot abandon him."

"I know it's hard, but it may be good for both of you, Simmons. Fitz needs time to recover and accept himself as he is now" he made a pause. "And you, my friend, you also need time to assume what happened, to rest from all this madness and recover as well."

Jemma spend hours thinking about her conversation with Trip and when she finally decided to talk with Coulson, he made her an offer she was not expecting. But she agreed. She won't do it just for Fitz or her, but for SHIELD.


So this is it! I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I did writing it :)

All reviews are welcome, so please, feel free to give your opinions.

See you soon!