A/N: Just a heads-up: There is moderate drinking and a curse word in this story. Still well-within the "T" rating, just wanted to point it out. Enjoy and review, please!

"I gotta tell you, Simmons, I was impressed by what I saw out of you today."

Fitz was walking down the main hallway in the bus and paused, hearing Skye's voice as he approached the common room.

"Really?" Simmons asked, he tone surprised. "I believe you referred to my improvisation back at the Hub as 'terrible.'"

"Yeah, that was terrible. I'm just saying, I was impressed by the lengths you went to."

"Well, of course!" Simmons almost sounded offended. "Our team was in trouble! I had to do whatever was necessary to get them back."

"You mean, whatever was necessary to get Fitz back," Skye prodded, her tone teasing.

Fitz's eyes widened as he quickly glanced around him to see if anyone else was within hearing range. He didn't want to eavesdrop, but Skye's nosiness provided the perfect opportunity for him to satisfy his own curiosity.

"Well, yes, Fitz is a member of our team," Simmons said slowly, sounding confused.

"Yes… A very important member to you, especially," Skye prompted.

There was a pause. "Skye, are you implying I only saved our team because of my deep friendship with Fitz?" Simmons asked, sounding upset. "I assure you, I take my duties as a SHIELD agent very seriously, and I would do what I did today for any member of our team, regardless of my personal affection for them."

"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" Skye said, "I know! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply you're not. Of course you would help anyone on the team. I was just saying… I'm sorry, I was just trying to tease you. About your 'deep friendship,' as you called it, with Fitz."

"Oh," Simmons said, confused again. A moment later she gasped, realization hitting her. "Ooooooh, you think we have a relationship of a," her voice suddenly dropped to a whisper, "romantic nature."

"Yes, that's what I was trying to say before this all spun out of control," Skye said, exasperated. "I was just saying it's a lot easier to be motivated to take action when someone you you really care for is in the field. So… You know…. Is Fitz someone you, ya know…Really care for?"

Fitz stopped breathing, guilt hitting him again as he knew with certainty that he should not be listening to this conversation. But at the same time, he felt…. Hope.

Hope? Oh, no…. Fitz closed his eyes and took a deep breath, willing the feeling to go away. When he opened his eyes, it was still there. Hope. Hope. The desire for Simmons to say yes, she really cared for Fitz, yes she had feelings of a 'romantic nature.' Yes that she returned his feelings.

The pit of Fitz's stomach dropped, similar to the way it still did every time he pictured Simmons falling out of that plane. He hadn't wanted to admit it to himself, but there was no denying it now. He had a crush on Simmons. A very, very deep crush. Right after the Chitauri virus incident, he had been forced to face his feelings for his partner. If they really were "just friends" as they had insisted for years to anyone who questioned their relationship, why would he willingly risk his life not once, but twice for her? Going into the lab with her and working closely with her while she was infected. Grabbing that parachute and planning to jump out of an airplane, for heaven's sake…

He had always known he loved Simmons. In the way that you love a sister or a best friend. But more and more lately he was starting to notice the way the light from the TV screen while they watched Doctor Who together reflected back on her face, highlighting her lovely cheekbones. Or the way her laugh when they discovered something amazing in the lab was his favorite sound in the world. Or how, when he got ready in the morning, he fixed his hair a little different, in a way he thought made him look a little more mature.

Oh how, when he was in a team briefing and glanced over to see her at his side as usual, staring intently at Coulson as he spoke, he was occasionally filled with a fear and anguish so overwhelming his knees almost buckled. The realization that, had things gone just a fraction differently, she wouldn't have been standing by his side ever again.

He wasn't willing to see what a world without Simmons in it looked like.

So it was there, standing in the darkened hallway of the Bus, that Fitz the scientist finally forced himself to look at the evidence and draw the only logical conclusion: He was in love with Jemma Simmons.

Dammit. This was just going to complicate everything.

Fitz closed his eyes again and banged his head lightly against the wall in frustration, the impact making a dull thud.

He froze, the reality of his situation suddenly flooding back to him. Had they heard him? Were they gone? Why had they been so quiet for so long? How long had he been standing there, lost in his own thoughts?

Fortunately, at that moment the Bus experienced a little turbulence, creating some natural thuds from within the plane as a result of the shakiness. Fitz hoped that covered up his movement.

"Thanks," he heard Skye's voice say finally, then heard the ping of two glasses clinking together. "Oh, this is amazing, what is it?"

"Something Fitz and I created at the Academy after a long night at the Boiler Room," Simmons said. Fitz smiled at the memory, he knew exactly what they were drinking. "We call it 'The Solution.'"

"That… Doesn't surprise me at all, that's very sciencey of you," Skye said. After a long pause, Fitz could hear ice cubes clink around the bottom of an empty glass. "What's the Boiler Room? And is it bad that I already finished it? That was delicious."

"Aw, thanks!" Simmons said, and Fitz could hear the smile in her voice. "No, it's okay, I put a lot of ice in our glasses since the ingredients weren't cold. I'll fix you another one."

Fitz pressed himself even tighter against the wall as he heard her stand and walk towards the bar at the back of the room.

"The drink gets its name from the story of how it was invented. We had been puzzled on an invention for days and it was incredibly frustrating. I was losing it and I know Fitz was on his absolute last ounce of patience. So we decided that we needed a break and to think about something other than the project and headed out for a few drinks at the Boiler Room, this bar on campus." Fitz heard her drop ice into a glass and then the clinks of glass bottles as she picked them up and set them back down on the counter.

"We came back to my room and still wanted more to drink, so Fitz and I invented this concoction," Simmons walked back to her seat and must've handed Skye her drink, because soon Fitz heard the hacker smiling appreciatively. "By the time we were in the middle of the second drink, we were talking about the project again, and just throwing out wild ideas to solve it, and what do you know?" Fitz heard her snap her fingers, "Just like that, Fitz came up with a simple, brilliant solution."

At that, Fitz wanted to burst through the door and reveal his eavesdropping, but he held himself back. He could hold his liquor better than Simmons and thus had a clearer memory of that night, so he knew for a fact that she had in fact been the one with the brilliant solution. He had just been the one to build it. He had tried to correct her multiple times since that night, every time she told the story and gave him credit, but she refused to change her mind about her version of events.

A moment of silence passed, then Skye prompted, "You never answered my question."

Simmons sighed. "I know," she admitted, her voice quiet, "I just… Don't know. And I'm a scientist, I don't like not knowing something! Fitz is…." Another sigh, "My best friend. I love him so much, he is so important to me…. Have I thought about a romantic relationship with him?"

Fitz froze at the rhetorical question, straining to hear every word.

"Yes, of course I have. But I never let myself get past that. I don't want to think about anything beyond friendship with Fitz, because I have a horrible feeling that if we were to get romantically involved, our friendship would just fall apart when it ended."

"Hey, you don't know that it would end!" Skye insisted, echoing Fitz's thoughts.

"Oh, so you've already married us off in your head, then?" Simmons scoffed.

"Well, no, I'm just saying-"

"You're just saying we make a good team," Simmons cut her off angrily. "Which I obviously know, and Fitz knows, and the entire planet feels the need to remark on. Why does everyone want to parlay that into romance?" She took a breath and relaxed a bit, "Being half of Fitzsimmons makes me happy. I feel safe and at home with Fitz. Joining this team, being out in the field… I'm really happy with how things are right now. I know I put on a brave face, but sometimes being here still terrifies me. It's one of the only things I don't talk to Fitz about, actually, because I'm the one who talked him into coming out into the field and getting caught up in all this danger, anyway."

Again, Fitz had to physically restrain himself from running in and correcting Simmons' revisionist history.

"I mean, today is the perfect example. The amount of danger Fitz was in… He could've died today. He could've easily died. And if I let myself get emotionally invested in him - beyond what I already am - I would not have been strong enough to do what we did today and help save him. And if we hadn't been successful," Simmons started to choke up, "I would barely be able to function without him as it is. I don't need to add another layer of heartbreak on top of everything else."

Well, that was that, then. Fitz was disappointed, but a little relieved. He understood. Simmons was the more logical of the pair, he was more likely to get swept up in romantic notions. She, of course, had a logical response: Don't indulge the fantasy, and everything will go on exactly the same.

"Shh, shh," Skye quieted Simmons softly. "I'm sorry to get you upset. I was just poking my nose in places it doesn't belong, I'm sorry. I won't tease you about it again…. But for the record? I think being with Fitz would make you stronger, not weaker. The two of you together could be wonderful."

Simmons sniffed, "Maybe," she agreed dubiously. "But that's not a risk I'm willing to take. We aren't going down that road, and I don't want to think about it and get my emotions all muddled. I won't let myself even consider it. Besides, even if I did allow myself to develop a crush or start to examine or label my feelings, it's not like Fitz would be interested in return."

Fitz's eyes went wide, his body instantly warring with his brain between wanting to correct her and emotional self-preservation.

Skye laughed, "Okay, that's just one more thing you and I will have to disagree on."

"Huh?" Simmons' clueless response spurned Fitz to finally act. The biochemist quietly crept back to his bunk, took a deep breath, and loudly walked back toward the common area, approaching it as though he hadn't been hovering there for the last ten minutes.

"Hi, Skye! Hi, Simmons!" He said cheerily, smiling at the pair, who looked at him like a pair of deer caught in headlights. He ignored their looks and stared pointedly at their glasses, "Aw, you've been me to it! I was coming in here for a drink, as well."

He walked over to the bar and retrieved a fresh glass, busying himself by filling it with ice.

"Oh, well, perfect timing, then!" He smiled softly when he heard Simmons' voice approach him from behind, "I was just introducing Skye to our Solution!"

He turned and smiled broadly at his partner, "Oh wonderful! Isn't it delicious, Skye?"

He looked over at the hacker and was met with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. Oh, she saw straight through him, alright. Glancing at Simmons, who was focused on pouring his drink, he subtly shook his head 'no' at Skye, pleading with her not to press the issue. Her eyes relaxed and he thought he glimpsed a hint of pity behind them before she rose and joined them at the bar.

"Delicious enough for me to want another!" She laughed, raising her once again empty glass.

The trio filled their cups and sat. "Now, Simmons, what was that about shooting 'a superior officer in the chest'?" He asked, mimicking her accent.

The girls exchanged a glance and burst out laughing, "Oh, Fitz, do I have a story for you," Skye said, leaning forward.