Simmons walked from the lab to the kitchen for lunch.
But when she opened the fridge door to get out her half of the prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella sandwich with a hint of her homemade pesto aioli that she had made the night before for herself and her boyfriend, she found nothing sitting there. And this wasn't the first time that this had happened — far from it, in fact. Now, the fact that Fitz's half was gone didn't surprise her in the least, as he'd had to take his lunch break an hour earlier since Director Coulson needed him for a mission that afternoon and she had been busy with time-sensitive biochemistry experiments at the time, but her half definitely should have still been in there, as she certainly hadn't eaten it herself.
But as it wasn't there, she grudgingly began making herself a much more mundane Italian sandwich out of the lunch materials that Coulson kept stocked in the kitchen for the entire team. And she had just finished making it and turned to go sit down at the table when her girlfriend, Captain Daisy, walked by outside the kitchen, and Simmons was reminded of a previous suspicion that she'd had.
"Daisy!" she called out. "Can you come here for a minute?"
Daisy turned at the familiar voice and quickly changed her course, walking over to the English girl and giving her a quick kiss.
Simmons returned it, but as soon as they broke apart she asked, "Daisy — have you been stealing my lunch?"
"What? Me?! No! Does that sound like something I would do?" Daisy exclaimed with a pretty good façade of shock, and disbelief that such egregious accusations were being thrown against her.
When Simmons merely raised a pointed eyebrow in response, she dropped the act and continued on, "Okay, yeah, that does sound like me — probably because it was."
"Daisy! I made those for Fitz and I!" Simmons exclaimed scoldingly. "Did Fitz at least get to eat his?"
"There was only what looked to me like half a sandwich in there when I got it out thirty minutes ago, so I'm going to say yes. But before you turn this on me too much, why do never make me lunch?" Daisy answered slightly defensively, an accusation of her own.
"I didn't know you even liked our sandwich," Simmons replied honestly. "You've never asked for it, and I didn't think you've cared all that much for it the times Fitz or I have given you a bite of ours. And that's still no excuse for stealing either of our lunches, today or in the past."
"I know, I know," Daisy apologized. "I shouldn't steal your lunch. But in my defense, I only do it when I'm in a hurry from meeting to mission or something, and I feel less bad because you don't ever make me lunch."
"I only do that for Fitz with this one sandwich, but I am sorry for never making you lunch — I've just never really realized that I've never made you anything, and I never realized that you wanted me to. I thought you were like Fitz and just wanted to make whatever sounded good whenever lunchtime came around," Simmons replied.
"I do, I do," Daisy sighed. "And most of the time I don't even know what days I would like a lunch already made that I can just grab, because I rarely know my schedule more than five minutes beforehand whenever Coulson finally tells me where he expects me to be in five minutes, but little things like not ever having lunch made for me still occasionally make me feel like the third wheel here, since you and Fitz have known each other for so long that you just automatically know what the other wants when they want it, and I don't have that with either of you."
Simmons threw her arms around Daisy and hugged her tightly.
"I'm sorry, Daisy," she whispered into her hair. "You know I never want you to feel less than or left out in our relationship. And I would be more than happy to make you lunch every evening when I make my own if you would like. Fitz and I may have known each other for a lot longer, and been inseparable friends long before we started dating, but you are just as important in our relationship, and we both love you just as much as we love each other."
"I know, Jemma, I really do," Daisy sighed, squeezing Simmons back. "But you know my insecurities and difficulties in trusting people and feeling like I belong."
"I do, I do," Simmons replied, pulling back slightly from the younger girl in order to look at her, but keeping her hands on the inhuman's arms. "And I'm sorry for not being more cognisant of that, and making sure you always know that you're one of us now. And like I said, I will happily start making you lunch so that you can just grab it when you need to, without it being mine or occasionally Fitz's that you grab. I just need to know what you want, or else I'm going to have to make something up, and I honestly don't know your lunch tastes very well since we so rarely get to eat lunch with you, because our fairly steady lab schedule never seems to coincide with your very hectic and random schedule as Coulson's number two and leader of the inhuman team."
"I can do that," Daisy replied with small smile. "And we really need to try to eat lunch together more often."
"Absolutely!" Simmons said eagerly. "Fitz and I's schedule is usually pretty flexible, if you can just let us know before we take our normal lunch break when you'll be available. We'll work our lab schedule around your schedule, that's no problem for us. We'd be more than happy to do that if it means we get to see you more."
"I'll talk to Coulson, I'm sure he'll be happy to try to give me more time to spend with you two," Daisy answered. "And really, I am sorry about stealing your lunch, both today and all the times in the past, but you do make good sandwiches regardless of what they are, and I know that you almost always have enough time to make something else if I steal yours when I'm pressed on time myself."
"You're forgiven, Daisy, of course," Simmons replied with a chuckle. "Let's just start trying to make something that's actually for you, so that I can have the lunch I planned on, too, why don't we, Flower?"