Fitzsimmons

For Team Iain

Quick Note:  For the lovely members of Team Iain!  I promised, didn't I?  Fun Fact: It's exactly 1000 words.

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"So you're the scientist that everyone was talking about?" Lance asked, waltzing into the lab in pajamas.  Simmons had gotten back from her undercover job at Hydra nearly two weeks earlier, and Lance had not even introduced himself in that time.  It was two a.m., Simmons couldn't sleep, and had naturally wound up in the lab (after accidentally entering the garage where the lab used to be).  She was trying to keep her mind off of the stress of everything.  Hydra was after her.  Fitz wasn't speaking to her.  She could practically feel her every fiber splitting at the pressure.  She nodded, eyes wide from the scare he had given her.

"In that case, I apologize for almost shooting you," the heavily built agent said frankly.  He extended his hand.  "Name's Hunter.  Lance Hunter."  Simmons felt a pull on her lips.  Not quite a smile.  She returned his handshake, then started to introduce herself.

"I'm Jemma Simmons-"

"So you're the other one!"  He sounded as if he had just figured it out.

"The other one?" Jemma echoed in question.

"Fitz's partner," he clarified.  "Well, former partner."  Jemma felt her throat tighten.  Clearing it, she began to respond.

"Are you two friends?" she asked hopefully.  Please tell me he had managed a few friendships while she was gone.

"Sure.  We talk sometimes.  Work on Lola together."  Simmons felt the next question ripping out of her, unstoppable.

"Did he say anything about me?  While I was gone, I mean."  She didn't sound too desperate, right?  It was just... Her best friend hadn't spoken to her in months.  When they were finally reunited physically, he was like living stone.  Only said just enough to make the rest of the team think nothing was wrong.  But both of them knew the severity of their injured friendship.

"It's possible.  We couldn't understand what he was trying to say half the time."  Jemma sighed loudly in disappointment.  It was her fault.  And now Fitz couldn't even tell her how to fix it.

"I miss him," Jemma spoke towards the table, surprised at herself for opening up to someone she barely knew.  Lance looked a bit taken aback, but didn't push her or shrink away from the conversation.  "We don't speak anymore," she revealed.  "And I want to know how I can repair us.  And I can't because, even when I try so hard, I don't understand what he wants me to do."  Jemma could feel herself on the verge of spilling into a teary mess.  Lance stayed silent behind her.

Realization dawned in his eyes as he remembered when Fitz had first started opening up to him.  He whispered, not meaning for Simmons to hear,  "Are you her?"

"Who?" Jemma snapped around, rubbing beneath her eyes.  Five minutes and Jemma was basically sobbing at a stranger.  She was such a disgrace.  Lance made a quick decision to tell her, aware that this type of abrasiveness is what made him so un-likeable.

"He loves you."  Jemma stepped back until she was leaning over the counter.  "But you already know that, don't you?"  She did.  Jemma brought a small hand to cover her face, feeling ashamed.  Lance felt indebted to Fitz, since he had saved Lance's life that one time, so he didn't back down.

"I can't help the way I feel," Jemma defended herself.  This was her go-to argument.  The one that was always there when she was justifying her actions in the med pod.  She had stopped thinking too much about it.

"Your loss," Lance replied harshly, striking a nerve deep in Jemma.  "Fitz is such a great man.  Saved my life."

"I know he's a good person!" Jemma shouted back, probably waking half the team.  Now wasn't time for pity and sorrow.  She had to argue for herself now.  "I know him better than you or anyone else ever will!"

"I know that!  Which is why I think you need to reevaluate."

"Reevaluate?  What are you implying?!"

"I think you love him in a different way then you're letting on."  Lance was pulling from thin air here.  He had no real thought on Jemma.  He was only set on helping his friend.  "When was the last time you looked past your guilt and stress to consider how you really feel?"

"I am not..." Jemma started, ready to end this ridiculous argument.  "I am not in love with-"  She found herself unable to finish.

Confusion.  Why was this so difficult?  She was speaking in simple truth.  She wasn't in love with...  Now she couldn't even think it.  Why?

She tried again, flustered and frustrated.  "I am not..."   She couldn't get passed three words.  The energy drained from her.  "I'm not..."

"Am I?" she asked out loud, accidentally, to the suddenly very occupied lab.  The team was standing at the open door of the lab.  While May seemed expressionless, and Coulson only slightly concerned, Skye was biting her lip from the contagious emotions of the situation Jemma found herself in.  Trip was crossing his arms, seeming angry, and Mack stared intently for her to make her next move.  Thank God Fitz wasn't there.

"I'm, um..." Jemma grasped for words.  Something natural to say to explain herself.  But for once in her life, she was speechless.  So she got herself out of the situation the easiest way she could think of.  

"I'm sorry."  She didn't know what she was apologizing for.  "No, I..."  Get out.  Get out.  Get out. "I have to go back to bed now.  Good night, er, morning."

She rushed through the bodies standing by the door and to her pod, all the while shouting at herself.  She could accept her feelings, whatever they were.  What she couldn't accept was how long it's taking to figure them out.

"I can do this," she whispered to herself, closing her eyes as she slipped down the inside of the bunk door.  But this wasn't something she could comprehend in one night.  This would take months.

But Fitz.