I Didn't Mean You!

Jemma/Rollins

BioStrike. Because it sounds cool, alright, and the alternative was Jellins, which sounds WEIRD.

Theme song:

Jason Derulo – Fight For You

The premise: After HYDRA was revealed and the fall, Rollins escaped the Triskelion (who knows how) and went rogue. He wound up as a mercenary in Africa, working for Ulysses Klaue; decided after the events of AoU that he was seriously done working for bad guys. It's not good for his health. So he built himself a new identity and joined the South African police force.

It's just Jack's shitty luck to be the man on the spot when SHIELD come crashing into the middle of a case he's working on a series of mysterious explosions. His bosses think there's a bomb-maker somewhere in Johannesburg and, since Jack saw no reason to leave his previous expertise as a demolitionist out of his resume, he's part of the team that's sent in.

SHIELD are also sent in. Both teams are unknowingly closing in on the suspect's location at the same time…

"I don't get it," Jack muttered, puzzled, to his partner. "There's no residue. Nothing. It's like the explosive just burned clean away."

Henrik gave him an expressive look. "I never heard of any explosive that left no chemical trace."

"Neither did I." Not even with SHIELD and HYDRA. Jack got up from his crouch, walked around the site, examining the blast radius. "It's like a directional mine," he mused, considering the 180° spread. "Only… there's no shrapnel. No casing parts."

Henrik was examining a map, marking locations on it. "Jack," he said, "look at this."

Shaking his head, Jack came over, leaning over the car hood where Henrik had the map spread out. "What?"

Within minutes they were back in the car, Henrik driving, heading for the location he'd pinpointed on the map. The pattern of recorded explosions was a spiral, tightening on a central location, the timing getting closer and closer together. Neither of them could believe that nobody else had noticed yet. But there was no time to call for backup, if they were right the next explosion would be occurring any minute now…

The car fishtailed to a stop and the two police officers stared incredulously at the jet lowering vertically into the dusty, deserted lot they'd been just about to drive through.

"What the fuck is that?" Henrik said incredulously.

"It's a SHIELD quinjet," Jack said, and mentally cursed himself as Henrik's head snapped around.

"How do you know that?"

The jet's ramp was coming down, half a dozen agents sprinting off it and fanning out in various different directions. One of them, a smallish, slight woman with light brown hair, came running straight towards them.

"Looks like we're about to find out what they want," Henrik said, shutting off the car's engine and getting out.

Jack glanced across at the ignition, but his partner had taken the keys. Probably for the best. Driving off at top speed seemed very tempting, but he'd have to kiss goodbye to his identity and disappear again. With any luck he'd be able to bluff his way out of this one by telling SHIELD he and Henrik would just leave. Certainly he'd never seen the pretty brunette still hurrying towards them before.

Slowly, he got out of the car and stood beside Henrik, hand casually poised over the butt of his gun.

Jemma's step faltered. Goodness, the second policeman was massive, looming intimidatingly over his average-height partner. Hard green eyes stared at her, and she addressed him instinctively. "I'm terribly sorry about this, but I have to ask you to clear the area," she said in as polite a tone as she could muster.

Jack froze for a moment. "Well, this just about completes the shit show that is my life," he said sarcastically after a moment, before realising, as Jemma's face turned bone-white, what utterly fucking awful words he'd saddled his soulmate with. She'd have spent her entire life – because she was just over a decade his junior – certain that her soulmate would be disgusted by the very sight of her.

"Oh, fuck. It's not you! I didn't mean you! It's…" he really couldn't explain. And as Melinda May came striding down the quinjet's ramp, he realised he probably wasn't going to get the chance to, because she had a gun out and pointing at him.

"Jack Rollins," May said incredulously. "I thought you were dead!"

"Not yet," he said glumly, looking at the gun pointing unwaveringly at his face. She knew all too well that South African police wore body armour, he suspected.

"May, he's my soulmate," Jemma said, looking from him to May, and Jack realised he might only ever get this one chance to apologise.

"I'm so sorry about the words," he began, "but my life has just been a series of crappy decisions leading to even crappier consequences, and this is probably the worst possible situation for us to meet…"

"Oh, shut up," May said tersely, and shot him in the face.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Jack woke – much to his astonishment – in a cell. Well, he assumed it was a cell. It didn't seem to have a door, all four walls smooth concrete, so he assumed one of them was probably a force-field wall. He was lying on a simple mattress. The only other furniture visible was a plain solid table that he suspected was bolted to the floor. Getting up he saw that on the table was a tray with a paper bag on it, and a plastic bottle of water. Investigating the bag he found a sandwich; well at least they weren't planning to starve him.

Prowling the cell briefly, he shrugged. Might as well eat. It was shortly after he'd finished that one of the walls hummed and turned transparent.

Jack's eyes bugged out. "Coulson?"

"It's nice to know that HYDRA didn't know everything," Coulson said sarcastically. He was standing with his arms folded, staring at Jack.

"They might have done, but they sure as fuck didn't share it with their grunts," Jack retorted, glaring back at the older man.

Coulson stared at him for a moment before taking a seat. "You left HYDRA after the Triskelion fell," he said without preamble.

"I left SHIELD after the Triskelion fell," Jack corrected, "because there was no SHIELD anymore. As far as I knew." He glanced pointedly around the cell.

"You had to know that you were working for HYDRA!" Coulson looked startled.

"I had absolutely no idea. As far as I knew, I was following legitimate SHIELD orders from Pierce and Rumlow," Jack said honestly. "It wasn't until Fury and Romanoff confronted Pierce that I realised things were very fucking wrong."

"You arrested Captain America," Phil said indignantly.

"Under orders!" Jack replied fiercely. "But yeah," wearied suddenly, he sat down on the edge of the mattress. "After that, I knew I wasn't exactly going to be welcomed with open arms by any legitimate agency in the US. My face was on national TV holding a gun to Cap's head while Rumlow cuffed him."

Silenced and surprised, Phil watched him for a moment. "So you went overseas?" he invited Jack to continue eventually.

"Yeah," Jack shrugged. "There's always work for an honest merc with skills like mine. Without a team or references, though, I couldn't exactly pick my spot. Wound up working for Ulysses Klaue."

"Oh, dear," Phil said with what looked like actual sympathy.

"Quite. Barely survived Stark's mad robot. I decided after that the money wasn't worth it. Figured I'd settle for a small but regular pay packet and a nice easy life."

"I'm not sure the South African police force qualifies as an easy job," Phil raised an eyebrow.

Jack knew what he meant; that South Africa was a violent country and many of its police officers ran afoul of criminal elements. He shrugged again. "Compared to STRIKE, it was a walk in the fucking park."

That made Phil laugh quietly; he leaned his chin on one hand – in a leather glove, which made Jack blink curiously – and studied him in silence for several long minutes.

"I want to believe you," Coulson said after a while. "Would you be willing to sit a lie detector test?"

"Sure," Jack said. "I've got nothing to hide."

A huge black guy who matched Jack for size came down with a whip-thin Brit and the pair of them cuffed him and led him to a small room, where a middle-aged guy strapped him to a weird chair and asked him a bunch of questions before Coulson came in.

The questions were long and detailed, and Jack had to think hard for some of the answers. He realised immediately that Coulson was probing what he knew about HYDRA, which frankly was almost nothing. He detailed everything he thought might be important, though, and several hours later Coulson wound down the session with one final question.

"Would you be willing to rejoin SHIELD?"

Jack hesitated a moment. "My soulmate – the beautiful girl with the brown hair. She's one of yours?"

"She is."

"She probably won't want me around. I opened my stupid mouth and said something seriously unfortunate." Jack grimaced. "My guess is she's spent her whole life waiting for her chance to smack her turd of a soulmate in the face and walk away with her head held high. I wouldn't want to force her into a situation where she had to see me around all the time."

Coulson surveyed him thoughtfully again. "You're not what I expected," he said at last, "for Jemma."

Jemma. Jack savoured the name. It was pretty, like her. He'd looked into them for only a moment but he could still picture her eyes perfectly, light golden brown with green flecks that would probably be called hazel but were so much more than that.

"I'm sure I'm not what she'd want. And that's OK, I'll leave, I'm sure there's guys queuing up around the block for a chance at her, beautiful as she is." Jack's tone turned a little wistful at the end, but he tamped it down firmly.

"I'm not sure about that. She's witnessed this entire interrogation," Phil said quietly, and he got up and left the room.

Jack, still sitting in the chair, was stunned for a moment, and then he froze up completely as his soulmate – Jemma – came in.

No longer dressed in SHIELD black tactical gear, she was wearing a pretty blouse, white with tiny flowers on it, and slim grey trousers that showed off gorgeously slender legs. Jack couldn't stop staring.

"You are stunning," he said a little hoarsely.

Jemma stood surveying him for several long moments. "I really wish you'd picked that to say to me first," she said finally, "but considering what I've heard today – I think I actually understand."

"I'm sorry, I really am." He was still strapped into the chair, doubted he could get out by himself, but he yearned to go to her, to take her hands – to kneel at her feet and worship her. "I understand you probably hate me."

She smiled, suddenly. "I did wonder – hoped, I suppose – if you spoke first. If I might have accidentally stumbled across some handsome Specialist in the middle of a firefight who was snarky even under fire. It's why I went into the field."

"Ah, shit," he hung his head miserably. "I've failed you on all counts."

"Have you?" Her voice was closer, her feet – dainty little feet in neat black shoes – moved into his lowered vision, and suddenly slim fingers were unfastening the restraints on his left wrist. "Not all counts."

She was speaking gently, and a tiny spark of hope kindled in Jack's heart. He looked up to find her face close to his, her eyes intent as she worked at the restraints. His left arm was free suddenly and he caught at her hand, brought it to his lips, savouring the fresh, clean scent of her skin, the softness of it against his callused fingers.

"Not all counts?" he parroted back at her, turning it into a question.

Jemma blushed shyly as Jack's lips brushed lightly over her knuckles, his green eyes looking up at her. She knew one of them wasn't real, had been lost in a long-ago STRIKE mission, but the colour match was so good she really couldn't tell which just then. "You're as handsome as I'd always hoped," she said, her throat dry with nerves.

Jack's lips parted with astonishment. "Me?" he said in shock. Who the hell would think him handsome, one-eyed, rough and scarred as he was? He was the Beast to her Beauty, that was for sure.

Jemma's blush deepened, but she nodded, took a deep breath – and suddenly twisted herself sideways and sat daintily on his knee, leaning in close to as her fingers traced down the front of his police uniform.

"I'm hoping you can keep this. I always did like a man in uniform," she whispered in his ear, too quietly for the room's microphones to pick up. She hoped. Or she'd never be able to look Coulson in the eye again.

A low rumble sounded in Jack's broad chest. "For you, angel, I'll get any uniform you like," he whispered back hoarsely.

Jemma wiggled shamelessly in his lap at the thought. His big hand came up and caressed her cheek gently, and she pulled back enough to look him in the eyes. Slowly, never breaking eye contact, Jack slid his hand to the back of her neck and pressed very lightly, drawing her closer, amazed when she leaned in willingly, her eyelashes fluttering down to rest on her cheeks as she closed her eyes, soft lips parting.

"All right, all right, break it up, you two," it was May's voice. Coulson had chickened out and sent her in instead. "Can I take it you're going to accept SHIELD's offer, Rollins?"

He pretended to think about it for a couple of seconds, eyes locked with Jemma's pleading ones. "As long as you promise not to shoot me in the face again, Agent May, I'm in."

Jemma smiled and leaned back in to kiss him.

"Oh God, I'm outta here," May slammed the door on her way out.

Good decision, May. Very wise. Jemma's still got Jack mostly restrained, after all…

Now, in other news, I've reloaded the Poll. BUT... because this site only allows a masimum of 100 options, and that's not enough, it's not located here any more. And because this site doesn't allow links, you guys will have to either go to my Tumblr (ozhawkauthor) where you'll find a link down on the left-hand side of the blog, or do a little typing to put in the site address, which is kwiksurveys DOT com SLASH s SLASH ibZ8bO7X (delete spaces and switch DOT for . and SLASH for /) You get 10 votes and I'll do my best to work on the most popular ones first! You can send me a request if there's pairings/groupings you'd like to vote for that aren't on the Poll, but please first a) read the Criteria, and b) check I didn't already write it!