Well today didn't go as I had expected. Fitz laid his head back on his bunk and began recounting what exactly happened earlier that day.
Everything seemed fine. He looked at Skye who had the biggest grin on her face and even saw a smile from May. Trip and Coulson looked happy as well. The only thing that made it different from what he had hoped for was that Simmons just stood in the back with a smile. He had thought that she would probably run up to him, maybe hug him a bit, say a few words of how she had missed him (and he'd reply that he had missed her terribly).
But she just stood there as Skye went up and gave him a bone crushing hug. Stronger than she looks. He looked down at his cast and remembered Skye fussing over him. Something he had expected Simmons to do. But it was still nice to be fussed over once in a while.
Even after everyone had greeted each other, he had tried to talk to Simmons. But all she had in reply was that she was glad he was alright and other tight-lipped responses. He wanted to talk to her in private, but never got the chance to get her by herself.
And in fact it seemed as if she was trying to avoid a one on one conversation. His mind reeled at the thought. Maybe that was her response to that whole pod incident.
Well that would be depressing. I mean, I have misinterpreted a lot of signals from her before. I guess I should clear it up for my own sake sometime or another. And hopefully sooner than later. He looked at the time, 10:00 PM.
Well as they say, tomorrow is a new day. He closed his eyes and willed sleep to come.
Jemma Simmons had never been so shocked in her life. There had only been a few times in her life that she had been genuinely shocked, when her parents admitted that she knew more than them (and not the, she knew more than them when they were her age, but as in when they were 35 and she was 10), when she finally found a person as young as she was and almost as brilliant, and finally the sudden realization that maybe she couldn't function without Fitz.
The moment she had laid eyes on him, all of the stress and problems that were piling up had just disappeared. It felt like an out of body experience for her. I guess that's what they mean about being on cloud nine. The only drawback was that she hadn't been able to think straight the entire day.
She looked at the clock. 10 PM, where had all the time gone? And she didn't feel a bit tired, seeing Fitz and knowing that he was ok, made her feel energized. She opened her eyes, there was no way she could force sleep to come, so might as well make the most of this newly found energy.
She got up and headed for the lab, being careful not to wake any of the new occupants of the base.
Fitz opened his eyes and looked over at the clock, 11:35 PM. Well, new record of just laying still and doing nothing. The anxiety of not knowing where he stood with Simmons was literally keeping him awake.
Well if he couldn't sleep, might as well check out the lab. He reasoned that everyone should be asleep, including Simmons. So, now would be a good time to explore and get a better look at what he was going to be working with.
He stepped outside and traced his steps back to where Koenig had showed the newcomers the lab and was pleasantly surprised to see that the light was already on.
Well, only one person on the base besides me that could possibly be in here. He turned around and took two steps before pausing. He knew Jemma well enough that if he asked, he'd get an answer, either by confirming the truth or seeing right through her terrible lying habits. Might as well. He thought determinedly.
He turned around and slid open the door and was immediately greeted by a gasp.
"Sorry did I spook ya?" He tried smiling at her, but his heart rebelled against that action, so he just settled with looking at what she was doing instead of looking at her.
"A little. It's been awhile since someone else was also in the lab late at night." Simmons smiled at him and followed his eyes to the material on the table. "Oh. I forgot to tell you! This is something I just created, it seals wounds and the foam acts like a biological bandaid that can seal broken blood vessels or arteries. With this, bullet wounds are a thing of the past."
"What happens if the bullet is stuck in them?" Fitz looked at Simmon's smiling face and couldn't help but smile back.
"Oh. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe if the foam could detect foreign metals in the body and eject it out via the open wound." Simmons began jotting down the notes furiously.
"Or maybe it can disintegrate the foreign metals? It'd be pretty painful if during the ejection of the metal it didn't have enough pressure to exit the wound and instead led somewhere else." Fitz walked next to Simmons until they were shoulder to shoulder to look at her new notes.
"Brilliant idea Fitz." She had missed this. She took a brief glance at Fitz studying the material and suddenly noticed how close they were. Her cheeks began to rebel against her mind that was desperately trying to tell her body to remain calm. Apparently her face decided otherwise.
Fitz oblivious to the rising discomfort of his partner remarked, "How would you inject this? And what container are you using to hold this?"
"Haven't got that far yet." She replied meekly.
As if suddenly noticing how close they were, or how she responded, Fitz looked up at Simmons before hastily backing away from her. "Sorry." He muttered under his breath.
Simmons scrunched her face, "Why are you apologizing?" She stepped forward and noticed Fitz stiffen before stopping herself. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Was the immediate reply, before he began again, "Actually, how are you fairing?"
"Honestly, Skye and Antoine have been grating on my nerves for the past two weeks." She sighed exasperatedly.
"What have they been saying?" said Fitz who was genuinely curious as to what was bothering her.
"Nothing of importance. Just… small things." She swore inwardly, she was terrible at lying.
Fitz hid his smile with a cough as he heard Simmons voice go four octaves higher than usual.
"Well, was it about what happened down there?" He studied her face for any cues.
She shook her head furiously before realizing who she was trying to lie to, resistance is futile I suppose, "Yes."
"Was it about what I said?" He looked at her just nod once. The silence was a good enough answer for him.
"I mean it you know… you're more than that. Even if you only see me as a friend, I just needed you to know that." He turned to leave and only made it a few steps to the door before he was enveloped in a hug. Shock and then relief filled his body with warmness he couldn't quite describe.
"You never let me say anything after your confessions." She said into his back. "I do love you, and rest assured Leo, I know for a fact that without you, life wouldn't be the same." She paused for a second and let Fitz turn around in her embrace before continuing. "Nor as entertaining or meaningful without you by my side."
He wrapped his arms around her and sighed contently, "Well I was worked up for no reason."
"To be fair, I should be the one apologizing." She smiled into his neck.
"No argument there." He scoffed out.
She just laughed in response and got out of his embrace to grab his hand. She paused and stared at his hands determinedly, knowing that if she looked into his eyes, she wouldn't be able to say this next part.
"Want to try sleeping together?" She was blushing terribly, and if anyone saw her face now, it would probably have been as red as a tomato.
He sputtered, "Wha'?"
Her head darted up as he sputtered. "Not that type of sleeping." She paused to look at him concernedly, "You don't have a problem with that do you?"
"Absolutely not." He replied before Simmons all but dragged him back to her room. A smile adorning both of their faces.
A/N: I don't own Agents of SHIELD.
So this was an interesting chapter for me because I had the option to stretch this out a bit longer, but really it'd be unnecessary drama. And Fitz and Simmons are kinda a no nonsense type couple in my head. Both are pretty straight forward with their expectations of each other.
Also, I wanted to expand on the misinterpretation of Simmon's actions during the Fitz's welcome back. But I couldn't really word it without making Simmons seem like a jerk. And she's not a jerk. She was just suffering a huge brain fart because of an unexpected appearance. Kinda like how people freeze up when they see a celeb and get star struck but 10x more "struck". So that's why her explanation during meeting him up again was pretty short. I planned for it to be longer, but oh well.
But yeah, a lot of fluff in this chapter and I tried my hardest for them to make it seem like their interactions when they created or improved something. Hope you guys enjoyed this and epilogue is coming up.