Leo lay in one of the the new Sandbox's infirmaries, watching Jemma's sad eyes watching him back as she slowly ran her hand over his hair, over and over in a soothing loop. Her other hand gripped his, holding it against her cheek.
"You should rest," he insisted, even though he was enjoying her gentle touch. "You were hurt too."
"Not like you were," she answered quietly, eyes bright.
"That wasn't your fault," he told her firmly.
She didn't answer, instead she leaned forward to lightly kiss the side of his face, and once she lifted her head again he saw a single tear streaking down her cheek.
He moved his hand, pulling hers with it, to wipe it away.
"You didn't do this," he pressed staring into the miserable eyes of his poor darling, wishing he could blow away the heavy storm clouds darkening them. "And you stopped worse from happening, you stopped it from killing millions of people."
"I still let it kill seven," she murmured. She shut her eyes tight, pushing warm tears out onto his hand and her face. "I.. k-killed them."
His heart broke for her and he hated the thing that had done this, that had used Jemma, sweet Jemma who'd never harm a soul, who valued human life and who was kind to everyone she met, to end the lives of those brave agents.
He struggled to move over, wanting her near him, to comfort her. "Come here," he invited, patting the space beside him.
"I'll hurt you," she sniffed.
"Nah, I'm fine," he assured her, smiling confidently. "I'm made of Adamantium, all engineers are, they fill you with it when you get accepted into the program."
She made a noise somewhere between a chuckle and a hiccup and, very carefully, got in beside him, pressing her face into the side of his good shoulder. It did hurt a little when the mattress bounced but she was gentle and it passed quickly.
Jemma cried quietly against him and he took her hand, drawing circles on the top of it with his thumb as he kissed her hair and sang the lullaby to her again.
"You never gave up on me," she murmured once he'd finished, and he could hear the smile in her voice. "Not once, you always thought I was going to beat it."
"And I was right wasn't I?" he reminded her, brightening. "You're too big a flame to ever be put out," he told her. "That stupid pair of bracelets didn't stand a chance. Though I'm glad you were wearing them when you were hit so they could protect you. It was the weak one in the end, imagine, being dissipated by a blaster gun, what a wimp," he kidded.
She let out a watery chuckle. "You really need to stop egging on the bad guys, you'll wind up making enemies-"
"I thought the bad guys already were our enemies," he teased.
"-or painting a target on yourself," she finished, amusement fading.
He scoffed. "I'm not scared of them."
She sighed, turning serious, releasing his hand to wrap her arm across him in an awkward hug, squeezing him lightly. "But I need you alive," she said softly. "You're my family, my home."
She was those things to him too, somewhere, somehow, things had shifted, they'd become the one the other was waiting for, the one who needed to return to them. A very long time ago, they'd decided that they were the ones each other came home to.
He couldn't lie to her, couldn't promise that he would always come back, and, though it terrified him, he knew she couldn't make that promise either.
"Well I'll just need to be extra careful then wont I?" he joked instead, pressing his cheek against the top of her head and smiling. "Look both ways before I cross the street."
"I hope you already do," she scolded, laughing.
/-/-/
A week later, the team was sitting in a retro-style restaurant, munching on burgers, fries and, in Triplett's case, grilled vegetables.
Leo winced as he sat down beside Jemma, his arm hugging his stomach for a moment, where his bones were still healing, before his smile returned.
"If this is too much-" she whispered beside him, concerned.
"I'm fine Jemma, stop worrying," he dismissed, shaking his head at her before giving her a quick peck. "Just relax and enjoy the evening. It's our party after all."
She smiled back but resolved to keep a close eye on him anyway, just in case. It had been only a week since she'd... since it... since... she didn't really like to think about it, about how much blood had gushed out of him when they'd removed the sword, about how pale he'd been, how still. His injury had been far more serious than she'd realized, he was lucky to be alive, and though he kept insisting she'd had nothing to do with it Jemma still blamed herself. They were her hands, it had been her body, and as unfair as it was she couldn't help feeling she should have taken back control of it sooner.
"Sweetheart, stop frowning," he whispered, nudging her lightly. "You're going to hurt Coulson's feelings, he'll think you don't like the place he reserved." The mischievous glint in his eye told Jemma he was joking but she stifled her frown because he wasn't wrong. This was their party and scowling through the entire thing would be incredibly rude. They were alive, they were happy and they were together. That was certainly something to celebrate.
The restaurant their leader had brought them to, to celebrate their engagement, was lovely. They drank milkshakes from glass measuring cups and received their meals in metal baskets. A jukebox beside the dance floor played an old love song Skye had picked out, saying it reminded her of them and as they reached the chorus Leo took Jemma's hand, a soft, sentimental expression on his face as he gazed lovingly at her, causing her cheeks to redden before she laughed and kissed him again.
Trip tried to steal another fry from Skye and she swatted his hand away, shaking her head but amused.
"You should have gotten your own," she scolded.
"I decided to go with the healthy option," he defended. "I only want a few."
"You've eaten half of them," she accused, bumping his shoulder, chuckling.
May rolled her eyes and pushed a few of her fries onto Skye's plate.
"There you go, now you can both eat your fill," she told them fondly.
Coulson snuck a few of his own fries onto her plate when he thought she wasn't looking, but the slight lift of the corners of her mouth and the sparkle in her eyes told Jemma that May had seen him do it.
She gently lay her head on the side of Leo's arm, watching their friends with a small smile, feeling Leo kiss the top of her head and sighing contentedly.
Jemma didn't really believe in luck, things happened by chance, or by hard work, or something in between the two, but she did think herself incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by so much love. She was fortunate to have her team to laugh with and to come to her rescue, always, and to have Leo who treated her as if she were the most precious thing in the universe, who made her so happy and who she loved from the inside out with all her heart.
It was all so fragile though, the life they lived meant she could lose any of them in the blink of an eye, the way she'd almost lost Leo up in that room filled with weapons. Every moment together was precious.
/-/-/
For all their worry, and even if neither neither of them believed in luck, Jemma and Leo were lucky and always found their way back to each other. They survived, together with their team, to see the horrors and the wonders of their universe, the ones hidden from everyone else but a select few.
As time went by and they grew older, some things changed, but some things didn't, probably never would. Skye was still their closest friend, Coulson was still their leader and May was too, though she wasn't officially. Trip and Leo never did agree on which superhero was better, Batman or Mantis, however the pair remained close with him for the rest of their lives.
And Jemma and Leo remained FitzSimmons, solving problems and seeing the world together, always together, in all its terrifying beauty.
Years later, Leo would tell their children stories of their adventures, leaving out the bad like the man who made people sick by touching them, the alien woman who could cause men to turn on their loved ones with only her voice and the monsters that had destroyed New York, and focusing instead on the spectacular. He'd sit them on his lap, bouncing them on his knees until they giggled and tickle their imaginations with tales of far off worlds and noble warriors who always fought for good, of tiny bits of matter that could make transport trucks fly into the air and people who could fly or hold fire in their hands, while Jemma tried to look disapproving but usually ended up joining in, wrapped up in her children's excitement as well as her own.
"We can't tell them these things," she scolded lightly, when they were asleep. "It's classified."
"Ah, C'mon Jemma, they think it's a fairy tale," he answered, kissing her cheek.
"They believe in fairy tales," she mumbled but she smiled, pressing herself against him, filling with joy at the feel of his laughter.
"After everything we've seen," he grinned, "I think I do too."
/-/-/
And they all lived amazingly ever after
The End
You have reached the end :D of not just the story, but this series of stories. Thanks for coming along, if you just read this one, or read them all, you are awesome!
Super special thanks to Notapepper who has helped me and reviewed every single chapter of this series. They are awesome (and write some great fanfiction)
The Fringe reference in this chapter is the man who made people sick by touching them. In Olivia in the Lab with the Revolver, a man who was experimented on with a drug called cortexiphan as a child is sick with cancer but can heal himself briefly by touching other people who have been experimented on with the drug (including Olivia!) and spreading his sickness to them.
Adamantium is the fictional, super strong alloy, Wolverine's claws and bones were replaced with.
