Leaving behind my last two AU chapters, this little one-shot stands on its own after "Face My Enemy" and depicts what I would like to see happen in whatever comes next! I suppose that in the meantime there would have to have been be some sort of HYDRA trauma for poor Simmons to go through and then this could be the fallout.

This story is set straight after S2, E3 in which Fitz declared to Hunter and Mac: "So I don't have an ex, but there was this girl I like and I told her how I felt, but she doesn't feel the same way as I do, so she left."

And, of course, I just couldn't leave it at that. I had to do this instead:

Fitz lay in his bunk on The Bus later that night, dissecting the first "friendly" conversation he'd had with anyone in a long time. Conversations with Hologram Simmons (as he'd come to think of her, inspired by all the Red Dwarf they'd watched back at the Academy) didn't count. Hunter and Mac were nice enough, and it was gratifying to hear Hunter say he'd saved their lives. It just didn't really feel all that triumphant to Fitz…

All he could think about was the confession he'd made in an attempt to join in on the team bonding at Hologram Simmons' behest …there was this girl I like and I told her how I felt, but she doesn't feel the same way as I do, so she left…

Firstly, this girl. How could he have referred to Simmons so casually? So flippantly? She was no mere girl. She may have loved homework more than life itself and been less than encouraging about his dream of one day owning a pet monkey, but she was his motivation in everything. He was only the boy genius everyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. knew him to be, or at least used to know him to be, because of what her enthusiasm and friendship had brought out in him. At the very least she was his best friend in the world. He couldn't merely reduce her to "this girl I like." But he had no idea as to how to go about rectifying that with Mac and Hunter.

The next bit was more heartbreaking to contemplate …I told her how I felt, but she doesn't feel the same way as I do… There was nothing to be flippant about there either. Not much made sense in his brain the way it used to, but the one memory he held with vivid, three-dimensional, surround-sound accuracy was what had happened between him and Jemma in the moments before he blew the window out of their would-be underwater tomb.

Why would you make me do this? You're my best friend in the world!
Yeah, you're more than that, Jemma. I couldn't find the courage to tell you. So, please... let me show you.

She'd embraced him, she'd kissed him over and over, and next thing he knew, she was gone.

…so she left…

He nestled into his bunk, drawing his knees up to his chest. Him loving her meant that he could never leave her. So she mustn't love him. If she'd loved him, she'd never have left. He just wished he could know where she had gone, what she was doing, if she was safe.

So, yeah, as for moving on as Hunter and Mac suggested? Not a chance. He'd be loving Jemma forever, he didn't even have a choice in the matter. He was a loyal old dog.

He heard his bunk door slide open and then closed. Hologram Simmons was back. He sighed. She wasn't nearly as good as the real thing. In fact, she was getting a bit preachy for his liking.

"Fitz?" she whispered.

"I know you're not really here, Jemma," he shook his head. "So you should just go. I have got to stop talking to myself, otherwise I'll never be able to make friends like you're always harping on about."

"Fitz?" she repeated. "It's me."

He rolled over to look at her. Something was different. Her hair was different, it was out of its neat ponytail. Instead it looked sort of wild. And the navy jumper with the little white collar was gone, replaced with a black jacket. Hologram Simmons had changed her outfit! Fitz wondered what that might mean for the state of his brain.

Her face wasn't as composed or as smiley as usual. If anything, Hologram Simmons, standing hesitantly against the door to his bunk, looked positively distraught.

"Fitz, I'm back." Tears began to roll down her face. "Can I…?" she gestured to his bed.

Fitz looked back at her, confused. Hologram Simmons had never wept or tried to climb into his bed before. Was this a good sign or a bad sign? Regardless, he dutifully shuffled over.

Simmons clambered into the bed with him and nestled her head into his shoulder. He wound his arms around her and held her as she wept, inhaling the sweet smell of her hair. It was strange, though a lovely sort of strange, that Hologram Simmons had suddenly become so much more tactile and tangible. He even imagined that he could feel her wet tears on his skin.

"I'm probably losing my mind entirely," he mused to himself, stroking Hologram Simmons' thick hair. "Oh well," he smiled. "At least this is quite nice. There would be much worse ways to go off the deep end."

"You're not losing your mind, Fitz," Hologram Simmons murmured into his neck. "I had to get home, and you're the only home I know."

"You know what, Hologram Simmons?" he said, kissing the top of her head but knowing he was talking to no one but himself. "I think I'm going to let you stay as long as you like tonight. I know you're not her, but this may be the closest I ever get to holding her in my arms like this."

Hologram Simmons let out a sigh that sounded more frustrated than contented. "Fitz!" she cried into his shoulder. "Do you know how heart-breaking it is to be desperately in need and to not even be acknowledged by the person that you love?"

"Yup," he nodded. "I know all about it. Sucks doesn't it."

He suddenly felt a searing pain in his neck. He yelled out.

Hologram Simmons sat up and lent over him as he clapped his hand to the sore spot. Her eyes looked a bit wilder than usual. "Do you know what just happened, Fitz?"

"No," he retorted, rubbing his neck. "But I've changed my mind about you staying!"

"Has Hologram Simmons ever bitten you before?"

"No, come to mention it. She's always been very polite."

"So what do you make of the sudden change?" Hologram Simmons sounded a little bit snippy.

"I don't know!" Fitz shouted, covering his face. "She's not even here! I'm stuck with the best my brain can do at conjuring her up! I don't know anything anymore!"

He felt his head being gently cradled, his hair being stroked away from his forehead. He felt her warm breath as she whispered into his ear. "How am I going to prove to you that it's really me, Fitz? That I'm here and that I need you?"

"When I can see that the others see you," he shrugged, muttering pointlessly to a figment of his imagination.

In an instant, he felt his head drop back on the mattress and heard his bunk door slide open. Hologram Simmons was gone. He found his pillow, pulled his blanket up to his chin and curled back into a ball of self-pity.

About five minutes later, he heard footsteps approaching his bunk. He rolled over and saw that his bunk door was inexplicably open. Coulson stepped into view, followed by Mac and Hunter. Behind them hovered Hologram Simmons, just as she always did.

"Fitz," Coulson began, "At 0300 hours, we intercepted a HYDRA transfer. They were moving an asset that we value extremely highly. Hunter took point and Mac secured the asset." He turned to where Hologram Simmons stood and reached out his arm. She stepped forward.

Fitz blinked in surprise as Coulson held Hologram Simmons' arm, as if she possessed corporeal reality, and addressed him intently. "Fitz? Do you understand me? This is Simmons. She's real. She's safe. We have her back."

Fitz's shock was palpable. He gaped like a goldfish at Coulson and then at Simmons – the real flesh-and-blood Jemma Simmons.

"Fitz?" Coulson demanded. "Simmons has been through a heck of a lot. Right now she needs you. Do you understand me?"

He nodded vigorously, unable to quite find his voice. He held out his hand to Jemma and she took it, grasping his warm fingers with her trembling, icy ones. His eyes sought hers. "You've really come back to me?"

Coulson, Mac and Hunter each took a step or two backwards and then turned to leave them alone.

She smiled a very small, very tentative smile, as if it had been a long time since anything had warranted one. "I said it before but you didn't believe me. Fitz, you are home to me, and home is where I desperately need to be."

Fitz sat back on the bed and Jemma sat next to him, still gripping his hand. "Will you… will you hold me while I sleep, Fitz?" she whispered.

He swallowed hard and nodded. "Can you tell me where you've been?" he asked.

"Not tonight," she shook her head. "And maybe not for a little while. But I do want to tell you everything when I'm ready."

Fitz slid the bunk door closed and then manoeuvred himself into the bed, allowing Jemma plenty of room to lie next to him. Once more she snuggled against him, her head buried in the crook of his neck. Once more he wound his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

"There is one thing I have to tell you," she whispered.

"What's that?"

"I never got to tell you before I left."

"Tell me what?" Fitz waited quietly for her to speak, feeling afraid for her, unsure of what she'd been through while they were apart.

"Look at me, Fitz," she whispered, and he shuffled himself back until they both rested their heads on Fitz's pillow, facing one another.

She was so close, and she was real. Fitz couldn't help but beam at her, despite his fears for her well-being. He found her tiny hand again, and reached for the other, holding them both within his large warm hands.

"Being my best friend in the world isn't nothing, you know," she began.

Fitz smiled encouragingly, despite the pang he felt at her words.

"But it isn't all that you are to me."

He wasn't quite sure what to do with his face while she paused before going on.

"I am in love with you, Fitz," she said. "I feel exactly the same way about you that you feel about me."

A single tear rolled down his cheek.

"And when they asked me what I felt I would need for my recuperation," she went on, gently wiping away his tear with the pad of her thumb, "I said that all I wanted was to be with you and to be guaranteed that I would never be required to be parted from you again."

Now that he had finally let them start, his tears flowed unchecked. "That's what I need for my recuperation too!" he half laughed.

"Coulson agreed," she said, smiling. "He said the best work S.H.I.E.L.D. has got from us has been when we've been together."

"So, hang on." Fitz shook his head in disbelief. "What does that mean?"

She laughed for the first time in a very long time. "We're officially Fitzsimmons now. We're a S.H.I.E.L.D. sanctioned package deal."

"I never have to be without you again?" he whispered.

"And I never have to be without you," she whispered back. "Like I said, you're my home and I'm home to stay."

Fitz reached out for her, drawing her close. "I love you, Jemma." He chuckled to himself. "There, I said it."