All around her was water, as far as she could see in any direction. She looked down, a sinking abyss. She looked up, a mirror image of what was below her. It was an ocean with no surface and no bottom. All there was was water and she was all alone.

"Hello?" It was doubtful that her cries would ever reach anyone, but she was scared and she missed people, missed one person most of all. "Fitz?"

On que, a light flicked on behind her and she spun around to see that, no, the water wasn't endless. It ended in a glass wall. On the other side of that wall, in the air, looking in as if he were at an aquarium, stood Fitz.

He looked sad, though she didn't understand why. She didn't understand why he was there and she wasn't. She tried to move her legs, to kick out towards him but to her horror they were stuck together. Not bound, she quickly realized, but fused into a single tail.

How had she forgotten?

A loud tap pulled her attention back to the glass, and she saw Fitz being pulled away by two faceless men, kicking and screaming for them to let him go back to her.

"No! Wait!" She tried to swim to him but her tail spun her the wrong way and she turned in a circle instead.

When she'd righted herself he was gone, the light turned off so that all she could see in the glass was her own self reflected back, not human Jemma, but mermaid Jemma. Mermaid Jemma all alone.

Her eyes flew open and, finding she was once again under the water, she panicked, bolting to the surface where she could feel the still air on her cheeks. She gulped it in hungrily, slowly waking up to understand that she hadn't been drowning, hadn't been deprived of oxygen. Her hands drifted up to her neck, fingers self-consciously tracing along the edges of her gills. She wanted them gone. Her tail too. She wanted her legs back, her life back.

As she caught her breath, she noticed a dark shape out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to find Fitz laying on the deck beside her net. She blinked at him, her surprise quickly giving way to a kind of fond exasperation.

That silly man, he'll catch a chill out here. He told me he was going to sleep inside.

Maybe he hadn't thought she'd be safe all alone, or maybe he'd know she'd feel better with him there. Maybe he felt better sleeping at least somewhat next to her. They hadn't shared a bed for long, but it felt so natural now it was difficult to picture living her life any differently.

He frowned in his sleep, curling around himself to stave off the cold, and with a sigh she pulled herself onto the deck. He didn't stir when she'd tucked the blanket back around him, he actually seemed to fall deeper into sleep and she remembered that he must have been as exhausted as she was.

Jemma didn't know why she wasn't cold. She did know many marine mammals had strategies for dealing with the thermally demanding underwater life, but she also knew many of them involved blubber which she hadn't acquired. Something was keeping her core body temperature at a toasty 37 degrees Celsius, but they'd yet to figure out exactly what.

Not bothered by the cool air, she lay down next to her bundled up love, watching sleepily for any other signs that he was uncomfortable. He didn't seem it, and he was sleeping in a thick sweater and a pair of wool socks, she thought he'd probably be alright sleeping out here, even if it was on a hard floor instead of the soft bed Radcliffe had provided him.

"I hope you know that you're absolutely ridiculous," she whispered, but her voice was more loving than scolding.

How absurd her dream had been; who could possibly take him away? He would always come for her, whatever walls came up in his path. Who could ever hope to keep them apart for long? The universe had tried over and over and failed each time. Why would now be any different? He was hers, and she was his and that was how it was always going to be.

It did feel better having him next to her, even if the deck wasn't as comfortable as her net, and before she had a chance to realize what was happening, her eyes were drifting shut and she was falling fast into deep thick sleep.

/-/-/

"Dr. Simmons." It wasn't Fitz's voice that woke her the next morning, but Radcliffe's, uncharacteristically tense. "Dr. Simmons we have a problem!"

Blinking out of sleep, she quickly became aware of the slimy mass encasing her. Opening her eyes, she saw to her horror that it had spread across to Fitz. His portion covered his entire body, a great green glob that encased him like an insect trapped in sap. Through it, all she could see was a shadow. And he wasn't moving.

"Fitz!" Forgetting her tail, she tried to stand and slid on the goopy surface, slipping with a yelp into the water.

Instantly, the goop disintegrated, leaving her free of it and a greenish cloud floating around her when she resurfaced.

"Get him into the water!" she cried. "Get it off! He can't breathe!"

How long had he been in there? Why had she allowed herself to fall asleep?! It was stupid, stupid and irresponsible to allow herself to sleep on dry land and now her poor Fitz was paying for it.

Panicked, Radcliffe gave him a jerky shove and he tumbled, not into the net, but into the sea.

"No! What are you doing!" she shrieked.

She only heard the start of his distraught apology though, already she was diving after Fitz. He couldn't move, couldn't swim. What had she done to him?

No. No Fitz, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, please be OK. Please…

When she reached him, he was free of the binding substance and she was shocked to find his eyes wide open, bright and alert. His chest was slowly rising and falling, almost as if… as if he were breathing.

"Jemma?" His words weren't muffled, they were clear like hers had been, and she realized that he was breathing the water. "What-"

Apparently realizing where he was, he let out a strangled gasp, his limbs flailing in a terror as if he were drowning. He must have just woken up, seemingly into a nightmare.

"It's alright," she told him firmly. Soon he noticed, like she had that night, that he wasn't starved for oxygen, and he stopped, allowing her to catch hold of his hand. "It's alright, you're…. well you're…." She trailed off, at a loss. She took his other hand, rubbing her it with her thumb to stop it from trembling. "Well you're breathing the water," she finished at last.

Marveled now, Fitz glanced around, his eyes apparently unbothered by the salt, as he laced their fingers together. When he turned back to her he was almost smiling and, floating together in the open sea, he felt more within reach than he had since she'd transformed. He was in her element, as comfortable as she was now, with her hand in his.

"How is this happening?" he asked. "How-"

He paled, chocking, and suddenly, whatever had been happening a moment ago wasn't happening anymore and he was underneath the sea with lungs full of salt water.

Jolted back into panic mode, Jemma reacted instantly, grabbing him and swimming with one powerful stroke to break the surface, where he could spew out the water and the slime and gasp in air as she helped him back onto the boat.

"Oh good, he's alive!" Radcliffe at least was happy to see them. "That's it Fitz, keep coughing." For once Jemma was grateful for his interference as he hauled Fitz onto the safety of the deck. "You really had us worried there!"

Jemma could only watch in silence as he caught his breath, tongue tied in knots and a stone in her stomach. I nearly killed him. Just sleeping next to him, I nearly killed him. She'd never felt like this before, never felt dangerous in a way she couldn't control, and it was terrifying.

"We need to figure out what happened to him," she said breathlessly. "We need to… he needs a full physical. We have no idea what that substance might have done to him."

"Well I certainly have the equipment for that…" Radcliffe told her. He stood but continued to hover around Fitz uncertainly.

"Well get it ready then," she barked.

As Radcliffe scampered off, she hauled herself up onto the deck, dragging her tail behind her. Fitz was breathing almost normally at this point, and he placed a hand on her tail reassuringly as he allowed her to check him over. She took his face between her hands, checking his eyes, his hears, his nose, for… she wasn't sure what exactly, but anything out of the ordinary.

"Jemma I'm fine," he promised.

"We don't know that," she muttered. "We have no idea what that goop…" She grit her teeth, taking her hands back. "I shouldn't be touching you."

"That's ridiculous," he objected. "You were touching me all day yesterday and I was fine."

A lack of acute effects didn't rule out chronic ones. He should know that.

She moved her tail away from him. "I shouldn't have put you in danger like that."

He snorted. "Me in danger? Jemma how do we know you're not the one we need to be checking over? What if being on land too long hurt you?"

"You mean the goop was a symptom of poor health?" She hadn't thought of that.

Fitz shook his head, clearly disapproving. "You spend so much time worrying about other people but you need to remember yourself."

She needed to worry about herself? It was almost laughable, to hear it coming from him of all people. "You don't think you're being a little hypocritical with that statement?" she asked dryly.

"Oh c'mon Jemma," he grumbled. "You never think of what you need. Remember how you told me why you left after I was hurt? You did that for me, didn't even consider what might happen to you. Didn't you ever worry what I might think? That I might not understand? You're telling me you never thought it'd be easier for you to stay? Did you even once think about how much danger you'd be in?"

"Of course I considered all that," she shot back. "But I did what was best-"

"-what was best for me," he finished, and she scowled at how he sounded as if he'd just proven a point.

"And did you think about what might happen to you when you were risking your life looking for me?" she countered crossly. "Or when you jumped through that portal? Fitz you had no idea what was on the other side of it!"

"Yeah, I did actually," he countered hotly. "I knew you were there. Didn't you wonder what you were going to find on that plane ascending into the stratosphere when you were suiting up for your midair transfer?"

'I knew you were there,' she thought. 'And that was all that mattered.' It was quickly becoming clear that this argument could only chase itself in circles.

Fitz took her silence as a victory, and for once she wasn't sure she had anything to stop him. "We're not that different," he asserted.

He wasn't wrong. What wouldn't she do for him? She knew now that if Fitz had been on the other side of that portal, she would have jumped through too.

"I might have put you in danger," she mumbled, because it was all she could think to say. "If you were hurt because of me…"

"It wouldn't be because of you," he objected firmly. "It'd be because of that bloody mermaid." He shifted closer, careful not to touch her, and his eyes were blue flames. "I want to be with you, for better or for worse, and if that means putting myself in danger then so be it."

Her gaze dropped. "Fitz I can't…" Lose you. Put you in danger. Let you do that….

"We're a team aren't we?" he asked and, still staring at her lap, she nodded because of course they were. "And that means we have to let the other help us sometimes. That means that if there's trouble, we face it together. And that means I'll never stop fighting for you." At last she looked up at him and he shrugged, smiling gently. "That's what happens when you love someone."

Her heart fluttered. When you love someone. She knew Fitz loved her, there wasn't a single doubt in her mind about what he felt, but hearing him put it into words was something she hadn't realized she'd been yearning for. There was a sense of certainty that came with them, they told her that not only did he love her, but he wasn't afraid to remind her. The words weren't a message, they were an embrace, a kiss when they couldn't touch, a nudge of their hearts together when they could. It meant something, even if she already knew.

She was scared, maybe she'd always be scared, but he was right. They couldn't live their lives pretending they weren't going to fight for each other, pretending they could stop each other.

"I love you," she told him steadily. "And yes, we are a team. Whatever happens."

His eyes shone, another I love you, staring as if she were the most captivating thing in the entire universe. "Can I kiss you now?" he asked, mouth twitching up in a smile. "Or do you really think you're poisonous?"

Grinning, she took his face between her hands and answered with a kiss of her own. In that moment, even their biology couldn't keep them apart and land and sea didn't matter.

"Ahem." Radcliffe sounded behind them and she prickled in annoyance at the interruption, but begrudgingly allowed Fitz to pull away. "Can someone explain why we've been surrounded by dolphins?"

/-/-/

Thanks to Fitzsimmonsavengers for tipping me off about that mermaid story where they breathe a breathable liquid :D

Poor Fitz, he always gets slimmed in my stories.

I may be going to do these once a week now. Still working on that course on top of my thesis. But they should be out on Fridays :)

Can you guess why the dolphins are back?