#3 Sweet break in
Fitz demanded answers, which was not surprising. He had run to her, all pale face and trembling hands, desperate to make sure she was still there. Not wanting to say the same story over and over again, she dragged him to Coulson, forced them both to watch the video of her capture and release again, and explained all that she could. The time loop making her repeat the same day over and over, until she got it right. The calculations Fitz and her were working on in countless alternative versions of this day. And what she needed from Coulson now. They took it surprisingly well, especially after she showed them a flash drive with recordings they both made in her fifth loop, for the sole purpose of convincing them faster and not wasting time on trust issues.
"So, you want me to continue those calculations?" Fitz asked looking through the data on the flash drive she gave him.
They figured this one on her 8th loop. They didn't have enough time to make calculations and plans, but she had. So Fitz was putting everything on her flash drive and she took it with her on the next loop where Fitz was continuing right from the spot he stopped. He was doing surprisingly well with this abstraction.
But not this time. This time there would be no calculations, just actions. Coulson gave her a free hand in everything, assuring her that she would get everything she needed. Exactly like it happened in all other loops. This one was different though, but she didn't see any reason to tell Coulson that. It wasn't like any of this would be permanent.
Still, she hoped she would go unnoticed with this one action. She sneaked quietly around the corridor, carefully checking every corner in case someone would be there and could spot her. She managed to get to the door without any incident. Looking around again, just to be sure, she then pushed a few buttons, the same combination she knew for years now, since back at the Academy.
The lock opened and she pushed the door, disappearing inside the room like a proper super spy that she technically was. She went straight for the drawer, pulled first the top one, then the second. Finally she found it, hidden in the last one: Fitz's secret stash of candy, the one only for emergencies and blackest of hours, when there's nothing but healthy food in the pantry.
Jemma took them all out, the simple biscuits made from real butter without even a trace of anything resembling organic ingredients, packs of crisps, chocolate, pretzels, wine gums, doritos, red vines, gummy worms, all flashy foil and paper, high in sugar and fat. There was even a Scottish tablet in there! Jemma was looking at it for a moment and then with trembling fingers, knowing that what she was doing was bad, she reached for the first pack. Maybe she would go with it unnoticed. Maybe nothing bad would happen. Maybe Fitz wouldn't notice and in a few hours all evidence would be erased anyway. So truly, there was no harm done, right?
Right, she nodded to herself and tore the first pack open, catching a few chocolate biscuits immediately and pushing them into her mouth.
It was so long since she allowed herself some junk food. The biologist in her was screaming about all the poisons she was putting into her body with this food, about the absolute lack of nutrition value and bad influence it could have on her. But her mind was calming it with logic: the loop will erase it. She can have all the pleasure of eating this without having to worry over consequences, of her health, of her weight or shape. It will all be erased just like the bruises on her knees. All but the memory of this moment when after years of war she was making peace again with the pleasures of every kid. Others sweets soon followed, ripped foil covering the floor and "food" disappearing in her mouth.
"Wha-" She heard a shriek and a crash of some metal shattering on the floor.
Jemma looked behind, trying not to feel guilty even when she had evidence smeared all around her lips and on the edges of her fingers. Fitz stood in the doorway to his room, his mouth hanging open, looking at her with eyes wide as plates, some device crashed at his feet.
"What a-are you-" he stuttered, still in shock.
"I can explain," she rushed with her speech about logic, catching occasions and missing some things even when one knew they are destructive and how it doesn't change the fact that he shouldn't have those things in the first place.
She was right. Fitz was furious.
He calmed down only after 43 minutes when they were both debriefed for a mission she told Coulson about, having only a few hours left in the base before they would fly away. His hesitant forgiveness came with the price of her promising to prepare supper with dessert as an apology and peace offering. And ensuring him that it won't count as the dinner date he invited her for.