You Belong with Me, Not Swallowed in the Sea

The Talk

Once the team had finished the packing and loading of the plane, they set off. Fitz, Mack, and Jemma were in the loading bay of the plane.

The room was filled with awkwardness and dead silence. But that was only because Fitz and Simmons were in the same room. You could literally slice the tension in the air with a knife. Mack was only silent because he didn't want to cause more of a rift between the two scientists. He knew the staw that broke the camel's back was coming, but he didn't want to be the straw. The pressure being put on the specialist's back was too great for him. Mack was crouching on the floor watching the two set up their equipment. "Ok," he started with a sigh. "I'm gonna go check on the landing gear." He grabbed his tool bag and was eager to get out of that room when Fitz stopped him.

"Wait. No, no no. Wait. No, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What. Why? Why!?"

"Because the awkward silence in here." He turned to look back at Simmons. "Is killing me." And with that he strode away.

Jemma was wondering who was going to speak first. She finally decided she should say what she needed to say. "I would like to say something." "No," interrupted Fitz. "Please just let me say something." But Fitz kept interrupting her. "I know bu' I got t' say sometin', " said Fitz.

"Please," pleaded Jemma.

"Ok." The room had gone silent again. Jemma took a deep breath and began. "I know things have been difficult between us since I got back from being undercover, but I need you to understand that I didn't leave because of you."

"No, no, no, no, no," said Fitz. "Jemma, Jemma, just please." He stated pacing across the room. "It's just. I got a whole, um, thing. It's, just it's hard to get the words out." Silence "I've been thinkin', and I'm going t' leave the lab so you can..."

Jemma's heart stopped when those words came out. She didn't think it could hurt more. Then he started speaking again.

"I think you need to be the once that runs the science division."

Jemma was so scared at that point. "You're quitting?" she asked him.

"No," he replied flatly. "I'm, I'm, I'm going to the garage, on the bus, with Mack."

Her heart started cracking. She would see him, but very rarely now.

"But why?" she asked. She already knew the answer to that question, but she couldn't formulate proper sentences at the moment.

"You know why." He broke her gaze and looked down at the floor when he said that.

'It's my fault,' she kept telling herself. 'I'm the reason everything is happening. This is all my fault.'

"You're clearly far more ca, ca-capable of running the lab than I am..."

Hot tears were threatening to pour over Jemma's eyes.

"At this point in life," he finished.

"That's not true! You just need more time to heal. And..."

Fitz cut her off. "I've had time. And I'm, And I'm not getting any better so you should run the lab. And I can work for you. Just not with you."

Jemma's heart shattered into a million, tiny little pieces.

"...And I think that's what's best." He started scratching the side of his head. A nervous habit he had picked up during his youth. He strode off, and the tears that Jemma was trying to hold back started falling.

She was standing there alone, in the plane, with the demons she had picked up at the bottom of the ocean.