A/N: Thank you so very much to the lovely people who've favourited and follow this story, most especially to those have left amazing reviews. I am grateful to each and every one of you! The title for this chapter comes from Lady Antebellum's song "Compass" which was what essentially inspired much of this chapter.
LET YOUR HEART BE YOUR COMPASS
When Jemma enters the lab the next morning, she finds the bright lights blinding. She's spent much of the morning trying to wash away the cottony feeling from her mouth and trying to make sense of what exactly happened on her way home from the Boiler Room. At the center table she finds Leo, a hex key in one hand and the innards of the spectrographic analyzer in the other.
"'Morning Fitz," she says with a softened voice as she hangs her bag on the coat tree and removes her lab coat. Her stomach does a little flip and she wonders briefly if it's the hazy, disembodied memories of the previous night or the physical after effects of alcohol consumption.
"G'Morning, Jemma. How're you feeling?" He asks. While he doesn't look up from his work, his voice is lively and more welcoming than she's heard in a while.
She smiles in spite of her mood as she slides her arms into her lab coat. Leo's finally saying more than one word to her (and using her first name) and she wonders what caused the change in temperament.
"Your voice sounds like you're talking through a megaphone," she replies with a groan as she sits heavily on her stool across the table from him. She balances her chin on the balls of her hands.
Leo chuckles and points with the hex key to a glass sitting at her station. "A little cure to help you out," he says. "I hope you don't mind that I raided your chem lock up. It's a mix of sodium bicarbonate and citric acid. The frat boys at M.I.T used to shell out a pretty penny for that lil' beauty."
She'd laugh, but her head hurts too much. Instead she replies with, "Thank you. Really." Jemma reaches for the glass and greedily gulps it down. It tastes fizzy and disgusting, but already she can feel the cloud lifting from her brain.
"Listen Fitz… about last night," she begins. Olivia had told her that she'd called for Leo's help and that he'd escorted her home. What she isn't sure about is if the hazy memory of kissing him was an embarrassing reality or a dream. She had been dreaming a lot about him lately…
Leo shakes his head, silencing her on the subject. "I took your advice," he says as he returns the mechanical innards to the spectrometer and begins to screw the compartment shut. "I re-calibrated the influxer. You were right. It was off."
Jemma lifts her head from her hands, her failed attempt at discussing the previous night already forgotten. "I was right?"
He smiles and nods. He reaches for a large cardboard box that sits behind him.
"So it should work now?"
Leo begins to pull out various shaped earth matter from the box and lines them up on the table between them. "It should." He hands her the spectrograph. "Would you like to do the honours?" She nods greedily and moves to his side, taking the machine from him.
Leo stands back from the table, tablet in hand and keys in a few commands. Suddenly, Jemma feels a light vibration as the screen lights up before her. The words, "RESULT: PENDING" flash in amber.
"It's working!"
"Excellent!" Leo replies, equally excited. "Now run it across the pieces on the table, see if it picks up the alien matter."
Jemma turns to him, surprised. "Alien matter?" He gives her a look and waves his hand, urging her forward. "Alright, alright," she says with a grin, stepping toward the samples. She hovers the spectrograph over each sample. With each item, it reads "RESULT: NEGATIVE"
"So far so good," Leo confirms. "Keep going." Jemma continues and the result is the same for each until she comes to a geode-looking sample. Suddenly, the light flares red and her screen reads "RESULT: POSITIVE".
She laughs. "You did it, Fitz! It works!"
He laughs alongside her, the excitement in the room palatable. "No, we did it. Together."
While there is an underlying awkwardness between them (and a kiss that hasn't been discussed), Jemma believes that it's that very moment that solidifies their working partnership and opens the door for their renewed friendship.
For Leo, that partnership had begun when they were just thirteen and she'd given him the mathematical calculations to build an adamantium shield. He's just now realizing the potential that exists when they work together.
Leo hands Jemma the alien sample. "For you," he says with a nervous smile. "Snatched it from Professor Vaughan's lab. You might as well take it-"
"And I can define its chemical properties," she finishes, taking the rock and putting it into a containment box. "We can use it for your D.W.A.R.F development." Jemma slips on her goggles and clicks her microscope's lens into position, readying her station.
...
When the school year ends, both Leo and Jemma are kicked out of their respective dorm rooms for the requisite student turnover. While the Academy students head home for the summer, the two scientists- now official employees of SciOps are permanent fixtures at S.H.I.E.L.D and without a residence. After a nervously initiated suggestion by Jemma, a deal is brokered between the two scientists where they agree to share a 2-bedroom apartment near Boston Commons, a short walking distance from their lab space.
The apartment is perfect; there's a spacious common room with a well sized kitchen and each of the bedrooms is almost equal in size. Leo teases that Jemma's is slightly bigger and insists that he's begrudgingly relinquishing it in favour of the better view of the Commons. The truth is that he'd do anything to see her smile.
When they sign the lease, Leo takes Jemma out to dinner to make up for the one he'd declined so many months ago. It's not a date, they both insist when asked, but there is an undeniable, underlying current. There is a certain truth that remains unspoken between them: While they are now friends, neither is willing to admit out loud a desire for more. They each fear destroying the very partnership (and friendship) they've managed to finally bring together.
They still argue on an almost constant basis, but their arguments are functional, routine even. It's a way for them to hash out the complex problems that they encounter in the lab. It pushes each to improve their respective science. Sometimes they argue over animal particulates that are left unattended near Leo's workspace, other times it's about the impossibility of using monkeys in legitimate technological innovations. The difference now is that their arguments are functional. They may get angry but that anger never leaves the walls of the lab and is never taken personally. In fact they often find themselves teasing the other about their personal quirks. They have finally become truly best friends.
Leo and Jemma are known as the team that everyone envies. Their creations are years ahead of anything any of the other SciOps scientists are creating, and they're often on the receiving end of many side projects from Operations. Professors at the Academy now come to them for technical advice and scientific expertise.
Sometime in their second year with SciOps they catch wind of the portmanteau that's being used behind their backs. Aloud, they groan and complain about its use; they are two different people, with two very different backgrounds and accomplishments. Secretly, however, they don't mind the singular reference of "FitzSimmons," it makes them feel as though they are a part of a team.
…
When Jason Riets, a biology professor at Boston College meets Jemma at a conference, he's quick to ask her to dinner. Jemma, however, is surprised by the overture. She stutters and stumbles over her words and finds a way to avoid giving a firm answer. He promises to call her and ask again and when he does, she's hesitant. A part of her wants to say no, but she has no real reason not to accept. So she asks Leo what she should do and he springs up from his stool in the lab and tells her that she should go. "Why not?" He says, quickly. "It's not like you're dating anyone."
Jemma gets the distinct feeling that he's unhappy about it all, but he's closing the door behind him before she can inquire further.
After Olivia tells her that she has nothing to lose as it's not like she's dating Leo, she agrees to dinner with Jason. He's funny, intelligent and pushes her to try new things. It's because of Jason that she finally learns how to ski, sees a musical for the first time and discovers that she has a talent for painting. Jemma enjoys his company and thinks that for once there might be life outside of her studies and science.
There's only one problem with Jason Reits: It's that he's not Leo Fitz.
When she tells Leo about how Jason secured reservations at La Haute, a pricey French restaurant on Newbury Street, she can't help but notice the strain on his face. His words are happy and supportive, but there's a stress crease forming at his temple that Jemma knows all too well.
"Are you mad at me?" She asks over a dinner of homemade lasagna. She reaches for the last of the garlic toast, tears it in half and passes a piece to Leo. Wordlessly, he takes it, dipping it into the sauce on Jemma's plate.
"No, of course not," he replies, dismissively. "You should be happy. Jason seems like a great guy."
"So you wouldn't mind if he-" Jemma blushes a bit at the thought of what she's about to ask. "- if he were to come over. I mean- sleep over some time?"
Leo feels his heart sink into his stomach. He hopes that the feeling isn't translating on to his face; he steels himself. "No. Of course not. You pay rent here as much as I do."
While the issue is settled, she wonders briefly why it doesn't feel settled.
…
With Jemma in a seemingly stable relationship, Leo tries to force himself to date. A week after their lasagna dinner, he decides to ask out the pretty girl that works the references section in the Academy's library. Beth has light hair and eyes and he quells the suspicious feeling that he's trying to find the one girl that looks the least like Jemma.
Beth is nice enough. They talk about computers, she laughs at his Doctor Who obsession and she tells him how a love for Kate Chopin's "Awakening" led her to studying American literature in college. He thinks she's lovely and charming and after the third date he takes her to his bed. Even with Beth lying next to him, curled against his chest, he can't shake the feeling that something is missing and that asking her out in the first place had been a terrible mistake.
When Jemma catches him saying goodbye to Beth at the threshold of their apartment the next morning, Leo makes an immediate decision to break it off with her. He feels guilty over it and avoids the library for several weeks after the fact.
Months pass and he watches with a hardened heart (mixed in with much regret) as Jason's nights over become increasingly common. Leo's worst fears become a reality when his phone rings as he's putting Jemma's 21st birthday cake into the fridge.
"Fitz, I need a huge favour from you." It's Jason and Leo suppresses the urge to respond with a flat no. Instead, he measures his voice and says: "Sure. What's goin' on?"
"I know you and Jemma usually do something together on her birthday, but I was wondering…" He pauses as if collecting his thoughts. "I was wondering if she and I could have the apartment tonight instead. I've got- well, Fitz… I'll be straight with you. I was hoping to ask her to marry me tonight and wanted to surprise her. You know, flower petals and all that."
Leo is speechless. He's not sure if he wants to vomit or hang up the phone. Maybe both. He's silent for so long that Jason eventually asks, "Are you still there?"
"Yah, yah. I'm still here. Sure. Whatever," he says as dismissively as he can muster. "I'll leave a key under the mat. Jemma said she'd be home around 7."
Leo does what he promises and stays as far from the apartment as he can. He nurses a few pints at the local pub and attempts to flirt with one of the waitresses. He figures he's rather poor at flirting after he mentions Jemma's name a few too many times.
When he returns home well after midnight, he finds a tearstained Jemma curled up in the corner of their sofa, clutching a pillow to her chest.
"What happened?" He asks, stunned.
Her face breaks into renewed tears as she lifts her chin from the pillow. "Jason and I broke up…"
…To be continued...
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