Still no closer to a Fitzsimmons reunion, I entertain myself with this parallel universe in which Simmons is back from HYDRA (perhaps after the events of my previous chapter?) and, as a consequence, Fitz is getting back to his old self…

Director Phil Coulson, long-term Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and universal law enforcer of no small consequence, was pretty adept at noticing when something was up. He rapped smartly on the opaque back window of the black SUV parked next to his ailing Lola. A moment of muffled scuffling passed before the dark glass slid away to reveal the slightly flushed visage of Agent Jemma Simmons. Next to her on the back seat, attempting to look nonchalant, was an equally flushed Agent Leo Fitz.

As much as he was aware of the deep inconvenience, and even danger, of having two agents romantically involved within such a small team, Coulson couldn't help but be delighted for Fitzsimmons. And the recent leaps and bounds in Fitz' health and productivity in the mere fortnight since Simmons had returned had been beneficial for everyone. Nonetheless he summoned his least sympathetic tone.

"Care to explain yourselves, Fitzsimmons?"

"Err, we were… um… running a simulation, sir," Simmons began.

"… to, err… test the limits of my claustrophobia," Fitz finished. He smiled brightly. "A few more hours of this and I reckon I'll be cured for life!"

Simmons coughed.

Coulson smiled inwardly. Had he not witnessed so much of their unmistakeably mutually-in-love behaviour, he might have even believed them. Since the incident, Fitz had been prone to panic in tight spaces, but now that Simmons had returned, that was just one of the many symptoms fading into nothing. If anything, he was developing quite a penchant for tight spaces, so long as he was accompanied by his extremely attractive fellow scientist.

A charitable spirit came over Coulson. "Alright," he nodded. "But I can only spare you one more hour. Then we'll need you both back on deck in the lab."

It took quite a bit of his training and self-control not to laugh out loud at the four wide eyes gazing back at him.

"Oh, and Fitz?" he called over his shoulder as he turned away.

"Yes, sir?"

"I think you must have missed a button this morning."

Fitz's face, which had only just regained something akin to its usual shade, flushed to beet as he scrambled to do up his open shirt.

Jemma raised the window. Once obscured, she turned to her clandestine lover. "Fitz?"

"Mm?"

"Do you think we just got caught?"

Fitz grimaced. "I don't think Coulson's easily fooled."

"Especially not by me," Simmons laughed sheepishly. "So why walk away and give us another hour?"

"Well," Fitz grinned, reaching to gather her back into his arms. "My claustrophobia is improving."

"Hmph," Jemma snorted, half laughing. "If anything we'll need to watch that you don't suddenly go the other way."

"Agoraphobia?" Fitz sounded sceptical. "I'm only keen on broom closets when you're the one pulling me into them. I'm pretty sure the same would apply to wide open spaces."

Simmons rested her head in the crook of his neck. "Your recovery has been amazing, Fitz, everyone says so."

"And it started the moment you came back to me." He tightened his hold of her. "I can handle anything if you're by my side."

She turned her face upwards for a kiss. In the fleeting instant before he leaned down to oblige her, he studied her familiar features from this newly intimate angle. The sweetness of her expression, eyes closed, smiling contentedly as she awaited the touch of his lips on hers, caused his heart to almost burst within him. Until he acknowledged the depths of his feelings for Jemma, he had been a bit baffled in so many stories and movies. Until he knew this woman, he had had never quite understood the crazy things that people did for love. Now he kissed her with the tenderness and passion of a boy suddenly grown, remembering that he had done all those crazy things himself for this woman in his arms. With the refreshing calm and clarity that only her presence could bring him, he knew that he would do them all again, continuing to hold even his own life loosely for the sake of her survival, her thriving, her happiness.

Of course it was at that precise moment that Skye got nostalgic for the old days in her van and decided to snuggle with her laptop into her old refuge in the back of the SUV.

"Wo," she muttered, turning away before she even absorbed the scene before her. "Sorry, I didn't realise this seat was taken!" She slammed the door behind her.

A moment passed, then two, of Fitz and Jemma clutching one another, eyes tightly shut as they waited for the moment of impact.

Skye suddenly stopped. They could hear her through the bullet-proof glass. "Wait… WHAT!?" And a second later the door swung open again. There was nowhere they could hide. First Coulson, now Skye…

"Fitzsimmons?" her face was incredulous.

They could only smile sheepishly back at her.

Skye grinned. "About damn time."