"You disobeyed a direct order, went along with the plan of a known felon, placed yourself in the middle of combat... again," Coulson was reprimanding her.
Jemma stood in his office, listening to his lecture. He was glad Leo was OK but he'd had things to say to the both of them after what had happened.
"Sir, Fitz was-" she defended.
"Don't worry, I've talked to Fitz," he let her know, shaking his head. "He's lucky to be alive. That was an incredibly stupid... stupid idea he had."
"You don't need to tell me that," she agreed.
"And do you two have any idea how much paper work it is for me when you guys pull stunts like that?" He lamented, seeming as if he was imagining said paperwork with dread. "And on top of everything else, both Donnie and David managed to escape, we have no idea where they are."
"I'm sorry sir, really I am, but I don't regret what I did," she admitted boldly. "If I hadn't gone with Donnie and David Fitz would be dead. I would do it again if I had to."
Jemma expected to be scolded for her words but she knew she needed to be honest with their leader. If he was going to make decisions for their team he had to know where each of his members stood. He needed to understand that order or no order, danger or no danger, if Leo was in trouble and he needed her she would go to him. Maybe that was a weakness, maybe it made her weak to care so much about someone, but she'd rather have Leo than have that sort of strength.
To her surprise, Coulson nodded and told her, "Me too." Her eyebrows rose as he continued. "We look out for each other, we protect each other. That's part of being a team, part of what makes us strong. What we don't do is go behind each other's backs and take off on our own to confront dangerous suspects, but, like I said, I've already spoken with Fitz."
He frowned in soundless disapproval for a minute and Jemma wondered if he was finished.
"May I-" she began slowly.
"You want to go see him?" he guessed, his expression softening and she nodded. "Hold on, I have one more thing for you first. It's not six pages but," he paused as he opened his drawer and pulled out a short document. "I wrote up those rules you wanted."
"Thank you sir!" she chirped, beaming at him as he handed them over.
"I thought it'd make you feel better to have them written down," he smiled back. "You've seemed pretty stressed out lately," he commented. "Was it only about this or is there something you need to tell me?"
"No, no... nothing at all," she lied nervously, thinking of Skye. "I'm...," she laughed uncomfortably. "Stressed out... I was...worried about Fitz that's all."
He didn't look as if he believed her, but he let it go.
"We'll if there is something else I'll be in here... doing that paper work," he sighed, sitting down. "And remember, you can go into Fitz's room until he's feeling better but after that... well... I did give you a manual, maybe give it a read through."
/-/-/
Leo was playing on his gameboy when she entered his room, deep in concentration as he combated whatever villain his game had thrown at him.
"Eat that you wicked ugly devil," he was muttering under his breath. "You're no match for Steel Fist. Pow! Pow!"
Jemma cleared her throat and he snapped his head towards her, pink as the inside of a grapefruit.
"Er... I... how long where you...?" he wondered nervously.
"Long enough Steel Fist," she teased, beaming at him, her gaze brimming with affection as she sat down on the side of his bed next to him, placing the document on his bedside table, and kissed him. "How are you feeling sweetheart?" she asked softly, stroking his cheek.
He paused his game and set it to the side before kissing her again. "OK. It hurts a little still," he admitted, referring to his broken rib.
"I brought you some more painkillers," she said, pulling out the tiny bottle from her pocket and pouring two out into his hand before reaching for his water bottle and handing it to him.
"Thanks," he said, once he had swallowed them and she smiled at him.
He leaned his head against the front of her shoulder, eyes closed and she kissed the top of it as she carefully wrapped her arms around him. Then she leaned her face against his hair and held him silently, marveling at how frighteningly, wonderfully, precious he was to her.
"The reasons are innumerable you know," he announced quietly after a minute. "I think we'd be here all day if I tried to tell you every reason why I love you."
"There are so many reasons," she agreed. "I could never list them all either."
She kissed his face before reaching onto the desk and taking the document.
"We do have a list we need to go through though," she told him, holding it out in front of them.
"Mmm," he replied, closing his eyes again.
"Or not," she chuckled.
"Those pills makes me drowsy," he complained. "And I still feel a little strange from... well, you know, being broiled."
"Sleep then," she whispered, returning the papers to the desk and rubbing his shoulder until she heard his breathing become steady.
Then she carefully lay him back down on his pillow and kissed his eyebrows lightly.
"Thanks Jemma," he mumbled sleepily.
"Sweet dreams," she murmured, tucking him in but he was asleep again.
She tried not to be too disappointed that he was sleeping through the whole time she was allowed in his room. It wasn't that they would do anything beyond cuddling together, they respected the rules their leader had put in place, but she had been enjoying the privacy it gave them.
At least now that he was occupied by his dreams (and snoring a little) she could finally figure out what was happening with Skye, and besides he needed to rest if he wanted to get better.
She placed one more loving kiss between his eyes, soaked through with the marvelous joy of having him as her second heart, before quietly rising, shutting the light and leaving to finish her tests.
/-/-/
A few hours later, Jemma and Skye were in the lab, discussing what Jemma had found out about her condition.
"You're perfectly fine," she told Skye happily, showing her findings for the final test. "All your results are completely normal... well almost," she chuckled as Skye made made Jemma's pen fly out of her pocket and float above her head, wobbling a little as it did so.
"I could be the world's greatest pick pocket," Skye kidded, and they both giggled. "Or I could move to Vegas and reel in the cash with my magic show, watch out David Copperfield."
"Watch out indeed," Jemma mused, delighted with her friend's new upbeat attitude towards her powers. "Now... If you'd like, I can move on to puzzling out how it works."
"How's Fitz?" Skye asked, changing the subject.
Jemma frowned, a little disappointed, but didn't push it. They knew Skye was alright and that was enough. Anything else was her extra, a fascinating new mystery to solved, but extra and Jemma was sure she'd come to her when she was ready.
"He's fine," she let her know. "Still a little sore, my poor brave sweetheart," she fussed, remembering how bruised up he was. "He's sleeping now."
"Jemma?" Leo's voice called over the walkie talkie on her desk.
She'd taken it in case he needed anything,
"Or maybe not," she mused, reaching for it and flipping the switch. "How are you doing?" she asked. "Need any more water?"
"No, I'm fine, thanks," he assured her, quickly, clearly distracted by something. "I was looking over the document Coulson gave us."
Skye gave her a questioning look but didn't make a sound and Jemma guessed she didn't want Leo to know she was there.
"I don't understand rule number five, we aren't together on a mission?" he worried. "I mean is that during the whole mission? Even when we aren't working? Because we're always on a mission, that would be horrible. I can't imagine never being able to kiss your sweet, lovely face. Or hold your soft, perfect hands or-"
"I'm a little busy at the moment, can we talk about this later?" she requested, blushing as Skye wiggled her eyebrows, grinning.
"Oh, you are? What are you doing?" he wondered, surprised.
"Umm... I'm... it's..." Jemma fumbled. 'Think of something, anything,' she ordered herself but she was drawing a blank. "I was... preparing... lobster, no, no... spaghetti... in the lab- umm- the kitchen... and-"
"She was running some tests on me," Skye interjected, raising her voice so she would be heard over the walkie talkies. "I have super powers, like, Carrie without the pig's blood or something, and Simmons wanted to make sure I was OK."
There was a long silence before he spoke again and Skye bit her lip, confidence fading to be replaced by apprehension as Jemma stared at her incredulously, mouth hanging open.
"So what where the results? Are you OK?" he finally asked, concerned and Skye grinned at the source of his voice.
"She's perfectly fine," Jemma assured him, smiling too.
"What sort of powers do you have?" he inquired curiously. "Pig's blood? I don't get it... how did you..." there was another pause. "Can I come see?"
"You're suppose to be resting," Jemma chided, crossing her arms even though he couldn't see. "Why are you up reading documents and worrying over rules?"
"But I want to see," he protested.
"I think I'm ready to show everyone anyway," Skye told them, amused. "And it's not like he's really going to go back to sleep."
"I guess not," Jemma agreed, shooting the walkie talkie a disapproving look.
"Stop scowling at me Jemma," he complained and Skye giggled as Jemma rolled her eyes. "I'm not tired, and you can't just expect me to take a nap instead of going to the meeting. Skye has... wow." He seemed impressed, shocked, taken aback.
"We should go get the others," Skye suggested, taking a deep breath and looking like she was volunteering to walk through a field of poison ivy.
Jemma took her hand comfortingly.
"You'll be fine," she soothed. "You're still Skye, they'll understand."
Her friend nodded. "Yeah... you're right, besides Coulson and May already knew I was an 084, they just didn't know..."
"You'd hit puberty?" Jemma offered and they giggled together.
"What's happening?" Leo demanded because he could only hear them when someone flicked the switch.
Skye picked up the Walkie talkie. "Meet us in the sitting room," she instructed.
"C'mon," Jemma said, pulling her behind her. "Let's go gather them up."
/-/-/
"Mantis would beat Batman in a fight, easy," Trip was arguing with Leo as Skye and Jemma entered the room.
"Mantis?" Leo scoffed. "You mean the insect? Bats eat insects!"
"That's your argument?" Trip chuckled and Leo made a face at him. "Mantis is a superhero, just like batman."
"Except not as good," Leo asserted and Trip nudged him good naturedly.
"Only according to you," he protested.
"According to everyone," Leo countered. "Raise your hand if you've heard of Mantis," he challenged the group, however no one was paying attention and not a single hand was raised. "See my point?" he said smugly.
"I see that no one else cares about this conversation," Trip teased and Leo rolled his eyes.
Skye cleared her throat and the room fell silent.
"Hey, umm," she began hesitantly and Leo gave her an encouraging smile along with a thumbs up.
He'd been shocked to hear his friend had super powers, however, in a world filled with Gods and men who turned giant, green and unstoppable when they were angry, it wasn't the strangest thing he'd ever heard. And if anyone could handle having powers it was Skye, he knew she would use them for good, whatever they were. He'd been trying to figure it out for the past half hour as the team had gathered together, but he was still groggy from his pain medication and he couldn't understand what she was going to do with the pig's blood.
She began by explaining where she had come from, news to Leo and Trip but seemingly a familiar story to May and Coulson who nodded along.
"Until recently that was all I knew," she said, glancing nervously at Jemma who nodded at her to continue. "But a few weeks ago I found out... I discovered I could... well do this." she informed them, holding a pen out in the palm of her hand and, impossibly, causing it to fly into the air, floating in front of her face.
She zoomed it around the room, passing each of her teammates and they all stared at her, eyes wide, in silence.
"Huh," Coulson finally remarked, watching interestedly as Skye made the pen dance around.
"Cool," Trip added.
"How does it work?" Leo wanted to know.
"We could use that in your training," May commented, likely thinking of new tricks for the telekintic field agent. "If you're comfortable with that." She added and Skye nodded, smiling fondly at her.
"I'd be up for some psychic slammin'," she joked and they all laughed.
They surrounded her, asking her questions and requesting she make the pen do various tricks which she sometimes struggled to comply with, obviously not entirely in control yet.
This was all knew and maybe a little scary for her but she had her team, her family. She wasn't alone in this and Leo new she would be OK.
/-/-/
A week later Leo received an email from an unfamiliar sender with the subject 'I hope you're cool'.
He knew who it was from before he opened it.
'Hey Fitz,' it read. 'I wanted to thank you, seriously thank you, for what you did for me. I don't think many other people would have believed in me like that, and I know even fewer would risk so much to save someone they only met once, but I am starting to see that there people out there who want to help me.
I went home, not for long, I am still wanted by Shield, but long enough to see my parents. My mom cried and my dad cried too, I wasn't expecting that. I think I really scared them when I disappeared and even though they were mad at me I know that they care.
I'm going back to school, under a fake name and I can't tell you where but let's just say it's my field of choice. You probably don't know him, but agent Adams wrote me a letter of reference and Dave helped me change my name in it so I could get in under my new alias. It doesn't really feel like breaking the rules, the letter is for me anyway, agent Adams kept his promise, what does it matter what the name is? I'm me, whatever I'm called and I know what I want to do with my life now.
I want to learn, expand on what I know, improve the world and use my skills (all of them) to help people. I want to be more like you.
My life is better now, I like to think that I've become a better person and I have you to thank for that.
I hope you're doing well and I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused
-D.
P.S. Do not try to contact me through this address, I am never using this account again, they could find me if I do.'
Jemma read the email with him, her arms around his shoulders and her cheek pressed against his, making him feel safe and loved and the complete opposite of alone.
He was glad, that Donnie was doing so well and he hoped he'd be careful, that Shield wouldn't find him, which was an incredibly strange thought for a Shield agent to have but his thought nonetheless.
"I'm proud of you," Jemma told him softly, kissing his cheek, before standing up. "You were right," she admitted. "He deserved a second chance. I hope he really does bring some good into the world."
"He will," Leo said confidently. "I know he will."
/-/-/
Thanks for all the likes, reads, follows and reviews! You guys are all super powered with awesome juice. Mmmm awesome juice.
You have reached the end, I hope you enjoyed it and I can't wait to see what MAoS actually does with Donnie (if they do anything) I am sure it will be awesome because this show rocks. (Even if he turns out to be a villain)
The Fringe reference is Mantis. He is the alternate universe version of Batman and two of the show's characters actually do have a debate over which one is better (I think it is Lincoln and altLincoln).
I still try to spell drowsy like drowzee. Pokemon, what have you done to me haha.