First of all, thanks for the enormous response to this story. I'm beyond flattered and in awe. After three years of almost non-writing, seeing all these reviews and followers is great.

Thank you..

As for the story, it's turned into a three-shot. Off we go..and I hope you'll enjoy.

P.S: This story has been re-edited. Thanks to StarryDreamer01 who has become my wonderful Beta. :)

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Agents of Shield. Neither Katy Perry's song Unconditionally.

Unconditionally

Chapter 2: Leo Fitz

-:-

Come just as you are to me
Don't need apologies
Know that you are worthy
I'll take your bad days with your good
Walk through the storm I would
I do it all because I love you, I love you

Unconditional, unconditionally
I will love you unconditionally
There is no fear now
Let go and just be free
I will love you unconditionally

-:-

He was sure that his perception of time had been altered. He couldn't explain why everything -including himself- seemed to move slowly as he got up, reaching for the back of his neck where a dull ache sent shocks of pain through him. The lights seemed dimmer and the sounds more muted.

He lifted himself up, trying to bring some clarity as to why he was on the ground in first place, muttering under his breath when a movement on the table caught his eye.

Nothing should be moving on the table.

'Unless..' He realised.

He incredulously put a hand on the table to get up when he heard it.

A squeak.

The rat was alive.

-:-

(We did it... Her voice came out as a whisper: a voice that finally had hope in it. It was her tone again. Her smile again. It was her again. Not the shadow that he had been seeing until now..)

His elation had matched hers as they looked at each other. He could see the gratitude and relief in her eyes. Her smile and clear eyes just warmed him to the core.

His relief was overwhelming. They hadn't given up even when they had both almost surrendered at some point.

(You have to fix this... His voice came out pleading. Desperate.

And she looked at him through the panel with the same desperation in her eyes.

I don't know how, Fitz... It came out almost as an apology. An apology because she was confessing him the truth, voice cracking as she took pauses and deep breaths. There wasn't a solution and all her attempts were futile.

And she had known and had stringed him on. She had made him hope...)

Their carefully built facades of strength had crumbled and single tears fell from their eyes.

They knew each other enough to understand when the other was pretending. He knew that she had put up a strong face for his sake. He had done the same for her even though every cell of his body wanted to scream.

But then, when they had been on the verge of letting go, it happened again.

They happened again.

(..the Chitauri... Their voices mingled together in perfect sync.)

He felt pride. Pride not for himself but for them. They had found the solution. The two of them. Together. As it had always been. And will be.

But then there was a flash of blue...and all went numb.

He remembered snapping his head down, eyes staring at the rat. The rat was floating. He just stared at it... but it didn't stop floating. His mind couldn't grasp what his eyes were seeing. They had found the solution! The antiserum was there in his hand!

Then why was that bloody lab rat floating?!

The silence around him was deafening.

"No..." He heard himself say. He moved forward to touch the glass box and his brain suddenly processed everything.

He was surrounded by silence and his mind quickly started to calculate and re-calibrate the antiserum. He didn't know how much it took him: it could have been instants, seconds or whole minutes. He didn't know..

'First attempt: failure..but we're almost there.' He thought, walking towards the equipment (Their equipment.. It was their lab, never his. He'd never want it any other way..)

"Try again," He said, knowing that she was there next him, even though he couldn't strangely hear or feel her presence. "The electrostatic pulse from the third rat seemed much less so.. if.." He felt his voice crack. Why?

"We're making progress..if we can.."

Words were not flowing out as usual. His heart was finally allowing his mind to grasp the whole situation. He felt his hands tremble.

"Calibrate...the.. antiserum.."

He took a shaky breath.

"Antiserum, yes.." She said, a hint of mirth in her tone.

She was finally there. A knot came to his throat and he didn't dare to turn around and just attached the antiserum to the machinery.

"You finally got it right, Fitz..."

Her voice was laced with something that he couldn't identify. And then he heard her whisper something that he couldn't grasp.

Then, it was a blast of pain and everything went black.

-:-

He kept staring at the live rat as he straightened up.

"Hey, it worked!" He exclaimed, hope flared up in him. She mustn't have noticed and he didn't hear her around. Where was she?

"The pulse just knocked the rat unconsci..ous.." His words faltered as he looked in front of him. There was a blinding light. He blinked and he made out a figure standing.

(I'm so sorry... Her whispered apology echoed in his head right before blacking out.)

"Jemma..?" He said questioningly, standing up. His slight smile faltered as he stared at her. She was standing with her back to him, the light was blinding.

Why was there so much light in the Bus?

And then he saw that it wasn't light. It was the sky: he could make out the clear blue and whizzing white clouds.

The cargo ramp had been lowered.

Suddenly, he was hit by the sounds. The wind was roaring and he heard the distant sound of sirens.

It was as though someone had shocked him.

'She wouldn't...?'

"JEMMA!" He shouted.

He tugged on the lab's doors, desperation coursing through his veins. They weren't budging. Why the hell weren't these damn doors opening?!

She was swaying right at the edge of the ramp. Wisps of hair flew around her.

'No,no,no..God, no..'

"JEMMAA!"

She turned around and he saw her face. He saw her eyes and raw fear hit him.

"JEMMAA.. PLEASE,DON'T... NOOO..!"

She was giving up. She wanted to save them and was giving up on herself.

She was giving up on him.

Giving up on them.

(Oh please, as if I forced you to follow me anywhere? Her sharp reply hit him harder than expected and he came up with a merciless mimic of her voice to counterattack. But he realised, in that very moment, that she didn't need to force him to follow her. He would follow her anywhere anyway...)

'Don't do it..don't go.. don't leave..'

"JEMMA.. NOOO!"

Time slowed down as he screamed her name again.

She stared at him, tears rolling down her cheeks just like on his own. Her eyes softened slightly and the look on her face was new to him.

It was new to him and he would never find out what it meant.

Despair flooded his mind.

Why didn't she trust him? Why didn't she believe that he -they, both of them- could find the antiserum together?

Why was she doing this on her own?

'Don't leave me..'

She smiled. A smile that reached her tearful eyes. The smile that he had been graced with for years. The smile that he had learned to love but never admitted.

It was her last smile for him.

"JEMMAAA..!"

He screamed his anguish, hands clawing the doors as the realisation that he was watching his best friend, partner and other half give her life away.

Time played with him again.

He watched her stand there and then disappear, swallowed by the winds the second later.

His brain went numb.

His voice echoed in the lab.

"JEMMAAA!"

For an instant, he was on the verge of giving up himself. He just stared at the void space in front of him. Space where she had been standing.

But then his heart thumped painfully against his chest. Protesting for his lack of movement.

He had to do something. He had to find her. He had to save her.

She wasn't gone until he let her go himself.

With a final tug, he opened the lab's doors, the wind that had swept Jemma off, hitting him now.

His mind was in overdrive.

'Come on, come on.. It will be fine.. Just find Jemma..'

He stumbled back into the lab, removing the antiserum with shaky hands, breath coming out in heavy, painful puffs and ran back out.

He stumbled to the parachutes and hastily took one. He kept muttering the mantra going in his head.

"It will be fine.. Find Jemma.."

He threw the parachute over his shoulder, struggling with the straps, ignoring the rational part of his mind that was screaming that he didn't even know how to put a parachute on.

He only had to find her.

Then everything would be fine.

A thud on his side made him look up. Agent Ward was there and he seemed to have understood what had happened.

"The antiserum worked!" He shouted nevertheless, through the noise. Ward ripped the delivery mechanism from his hands along with the parachute. He didn't even have time to stop him. "But she jumped!"

And Ward jumped down.

He stared at the sky below and above.

"And..I couldn't stop her," He whispered to no one, stumbling back and hitting the lab's doors with his back. He slowly slid down to the ground.

"Find my Jemma... Bring her back to me.."

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