Chapter Six.

A few weeks later Fitz was in the kitchen making tea. He had had his plaster cast removed and was volunteering to do anything that required two hands. He heard a noise behind him and spoke before he could see who had entered the room. "Tea?"

"Ooo yes please, that would be lovely," the warm, English tones of his best friend met his ears. He turned to smile at her but could already feel the heat creeping up his neck. Every time they were close now his thoughts drifted back to the conversation he'd had with Skye. He'd noticed things too... like the way Jemma's arms stayed around him a few seconds too long when they hugged, or the way he caught her staring when she thought he wasn't looking. He barely dared hope that she could really return his feelings.

"Good day?" he asked politely, setting a plate of biscuits in front of her. She grinned at him and took one.

"Mmm," she nodded. "I've been looking at the version of the Night Night gun Centipede built. The toxin they used works differently to the one we developed..."

"You developed."

"Okay, I developed," she grinned. "It's different to the stuff they used in their grenades too." She munched on her biscuit. "We've got one of the guns so you could have a look at it when you're up to it."

He nodded happily at the thought of going back to work with her. Things were slowly returning to some semblance of normality; he'd stopped needing to go to speech therapy and was still making progress in physio. He used a crutch to walk but generally only used the wheelchair when he was tired. That was still frustrating; he couldn't get used to how completely wiped out even seemingly simple tasks left him feeling. Simmons had devised a planner to make sure he had regular breaks which seemed to be helping, but he had to keep reminding himself that his brain needed to rest, to recharge. Simmons called it 'charging his batteries', which felt better than just saying he needed a nap.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about something. I er... I spoke to Skye." Fitz was almost as surprised as Simmons was at the words that left his mouth.

Simmons looked at him expectantly, trying to stop herself hoping too much where this could be going. "Oh?"

"She said I needed to talk to you. Do you know anything about that?"

Simmons shook her head slowly, but something in her eyes told him that she did. He sat on a stool opposite her, balancing his crutch against the table top.

"Why do you think she would have said that?" Simmons voice was high pitched and shaky.

"I told her something," Fitz spoke slowly, quietly. He was sure nobody would hear them; they were all off busy with other things but he wanted to be certain. "Something about when we were at the Academy, about before we got offers for SciOps."

Jemma swallowed audibly. It was happening; they were actually going to have this conversation. "Oh?"

"She didn't seem very surprised," Fitz raised his eyebrows at her, a smile tugging at his lips.

Simmons picked up a chocolate biscuit, "these are nice. We should really get some more..."

"Jem," he placed his hand on hers, quieting her.

"I might have told her," she smiled apologetically before taking a breath and stammering, "B...but it was just because of what you said in the pod. I was confused and..."

"What I said in the pod?"

"Yes." She knew he didn't know what she was talking about, that he would never know unless she told him.

"What did I say?" He studied her face intently. Even though he didn't remember what had happened he had an idea where this was going. He knew he'd given her the oxygen tank, they'd told him. He knew he loved her. And he knew somehow he had managed to convince her to take the only breath in the cylinder.

Fitz's hand still covered Jemma's on the table between them and she took comfort from its warmth. She had been longing to tell him this, and yet dreading it at the same time. What if it hadn't been real? What if he'd only said those things because that's what you say when you're about to die? One look in his eyes told her otherwise.

"You know you rigged the oxygen cylinder, and that there was only enough for one of us?" He nodded and she continued, "Obviously I wasn't going to just take it. I realised what it meant and tried to make you think of another plan but there was no time. I couldn't understand why you would make me take it; we're best friends, but..."

"...You're more than that."

She blinked at him. It wasn't possible that he actually remembered what he had said to her in the pod; it was literally seconds before he lost consciousness and he had amnesia. He just knew.

"You're more than that too you know," she smiled weakly, her eyes filled with tears as he squeezed her hand. He slowly pushed himself up from his seat and moved to stand next to her, pulling her into a tight embrace. She stood too and he slowly kissed her forehead, her temples, her cheeks, before finally setting a soft, chaste kiss to her lips.

Jemma lifted her hand to cup his cheek and softly stroked his jawline with her thumb. She gently pulled his face towards her once more and gave him a long, lingering kiss.

As they broke for air Fitz breathed, "I'm sorry Jemma, I've been so stupid. I should have told you..."

"Shh. You haven't been stupid. Things got in the way... but they aren't there anymore. It's just us now Leo, you and me."

"It's always been you and me." He smiled before kissing her again.

fin

A/N: Thank you for reading, I hope you liked it!