A few weeks past, and although generally the awkwardness had subsided, something was still off. Jemma couldn't quite put her finger on it, and it was driving her mad.

Her and Fitz were communicating in the lab wonderfully, finishing every task Coulson put in front of them in next to no time. They were able to watch TV shows together, cook together, make fun of Hunter together, plan Mack's birthday party together—all of the types of things they had done before, they could do once again.

But there were moments that Jemma didn't know how to handle, and so therefore avoided them.

Like when they were alone in the lab, and Fitz said something that was rather sweet to her, and her mind went blank as she stared at him. Or when she caught him looking at her for an amount of time that was perhaps longer than necessary, and he reddened, coughed, and left the room. Or when, without really thinking about it, Jemma placed a hand on Fitz's shoulder, arm, or knee, and he looked up at her with such shock that all Jemma could do was remove her hand as quickly as possible.

She really did know where all of this was coming from, but had a hell of a time admitting it to herself. Things were not going to go back to how they were before. Things had changed, and not necessarily in a bad way, just in a very, very different way. Jemma never used to blush if she accidentally bumped elbows with Fitz, but she did now. She never used to get that churning feeling in her stomach if Fitz gazed at her, but now she did. Something about her feelings had changed. Fitz was no longer just Fitz, but had somehow become her Fitz. She still had no idea to what degree all these feelings changed, but they had.

Part of her wanted to tell him, yet since she didn't know how strongly her feelings had shifted into some vague, non-platonic zone, she knew she had to wait. She had to wait until she could tell him something of substance, and not just blushes and jumbled words.

That particular day had been remarkably awkward. It was technically holiday time, and so most of the lab workers were gone, leaving the lab very quiet except for the two of them. There had been a number of awkward elbow bumps (and worse—Jemma accidentally bumping her hip into his bum in the small supply closet), some compliments from Fitz that made Jemma's face burn in nerves and a little guilt, and then, worst of all, Hunter coming through, babbling nonsense about lovebirds in the lab, and it slowly dawning on Fitz and her that Hunter was talking about them.

"Oh, Hunter," said Jemma, in a singsong voice to cover her embarrassment, "always spewing rubbish out of his arse."

Fitz smiled briefly, before looking back to his work, red-face and somewhat saddened.

Oh no, thought Jemma. That didn't sound right. "Not-not that us, you know," she tried to recover, terribly, "that us being, what did he say? 'Lovebirds'? Not that the idea of that is rubbish, just he generally doesn't know what he's talking about." She smiled largely at Fitz, trying so desperately to lighten the mood and remove any remaining remnants of awkwardness, but looking more or less like she had an ulcer.

"Jemma, it's okay," said Fitz, looking somewhat defeated. "You don't have to say anything—I know, I know you don't think of me in that way." He took a deep breath. "It's okay, I'm okay with it, you don't have to hide it from me."

Jemma just stared at him, partly relieved that he hadn't noticed her recent blushing habit and partly astounded that he hadn't picked up on it at all.

"I, um…" Her mind went blank. What on earth was she supposed to say to that? "Fitz, it's not that, I guess." Crap. I'm going to have to tell him now, she thought.

Fitz perked up from his computer with a look of sheer panic, or so Jemma thought. "What is it then?"

"Well, it's actually funny," she said, pretending to laugh, "you're going to laugh when I tell you, because I'm just silly. I'm a silly person." What the hell are you saying?

Fitz's eyebrows contracted as he looked at her with concern. "What?"

Oh, damn it all. "I don't know," she responded, throwing her arms up in defeat. "I don't know what I'm saying, I don't know what I'm feeling. It's all very muddled up here in the brain space," she motioned to her head, indicating she might be crazy, "and I have no idea what is happening to me."

Poor Fitz looked more confused then ever after this, and Jemma could sense that he still had no idea of what she was trying to say. Damn. Damn, damn.

"Okay," she took a deep breath as she said, "I'm going to try again."

"That might help," said Fitz, eyeing her with caution.

"I have realized recently that, in fact," she said, with a tone of amazement at herself, "I somehow moved you from the friend, lab partner, completely platonic, compartment of my brain," oh goodness, please understand this metaphor, "to this, strange, non-platonic compartment, that, one: I didn't know was there, and two: I have no idea what to do with you when you're in that compartment. So, all in all, to summarize, I- well, you-"

"Jemma," Fitz said, finally ended her torture of trying to continue that metaphor, "are you saying you have feelings for me? More-than-friendly feelings?"

"Technically," she started, wanting to be as close to what was going on in her head as possible, "yes."

Fitz's eyes widened. "Oh," he said, seeming equally as tongue-tied as Jemma now. "That's—well, that's weird."

Somehow they both ended up laughing at this comment, and laughing more and more, because a tummy ache was much better than an excruciatingly awkward conversation. But when the laughter subsided, they were once again facing each other, and having no idea how to move forward.

"So," Fitz finally said, breaking the silence, "what now?"

This was an excellent question that Jemma didn't have an answer to. "I don't know, Fitz," she started. "I still have a lot to figure out. These feelings are a little scary, to be honest."

Fitz smiled fondly at her, and said, "Yeah, I know."

Warmth radiated from her abdomen when he smiled, along with a billion butterflies that made her want to vomit. She smiled back, though, knowing it would be better to meet the blushing and awkward glances head-on and finally figure things out. "I'll let you know when I get things more figured out, okay?"

He nodded his head, still smiling, and said, "Yeah, yeah, take all the time you need."