(please forgive me for all i've done)

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is really more of a bonus then anything else, but I hope you enjoy it all the same! Warning, if you aren't caught up to Season 2, there may be spoilers.

I hope you've enjoyed this! I had lots of fun writing it, actually.

0.

This is how it is afterwards; broken friendships, unresolved arguments and days spent without the girl who's long since traded in her princess curls for strained smiles and polite comments about the weather.

It's better now, he supposes. With the toolbox in his pocket and an empty wrapper in the trash and a small note with her familiar writing on it leaned up on the dresser. He should be happy, after all. This is what he wanted, isn't it? To have some space to himself to think.

But all he can think about is how heavy the box feels and the betrayal of friends (again) and Jemma and May still stuck admist the wolves. He has faith in them, he really does, but he can't fight the feeling of worry that keeps surging up at random moments.

The hotel seems unbearably empty, so he busies himself with work. Tries to find out what to do next, tries to find a way to contact Coulson. He tries not to think about what could be happening back at the playground, tries not to think what will happen if the "real" SHIELD finds out what he's done.

The box gets heavier every second.

By the third day, he's feeling so lonely that it almost scares him when he sees a voicemail waiting for him on his phone. It takes him a few minutes (scratch that, it takes him hours) before he can manage the courage to pick up the phone, his horror only growing when he notices the number so familiar that it's probably engraved into his brain. Maybe she's been found out. Maybe it's a call for help, or a plead or an urgent message that he's missed because -

"Hi, Fitz." The relief that comes crashing down is overwhelming. Jemma's okay, she sounds fine.

"Um, I - I shouldn't really be doing this. I'm supposed to be working on the box." So she's being watched. Okay, okay he can deal with that. "I know you left SHIELD, and - and everything, but.. today is.. today is a special day. We've always spent it together."

Fitz's eyes flick to the calender as he races to find the date, and - oh. It's Jemma's birthday. Suddenly he remembers every birthday he ever spent with Jemma, as a kid, as a teenager, as a partially drunk young adult, and he feels a pang at how easy things used to be, at how they could fight one night and then curl up with a pizza the next, at how she could grin at him and he'd know exactly when to set off the trigger for a prank.

"I know we haven't exactly been on speaking terms lately, but I just - yeah. I was going to call but then you weren't picking up and you're probably busy anyway, so," there's a pause and then a crackling that sounds like she's taken a deep breath. "In case you didn't remember, it's my birthday."

As if he'd ever forget.

"I know this is super silly and maybe we're not ready to go back to being FitzSimmons, but, you should watch it. Tonight. Or whenever. Just like we always did." Suddenly, there's a burst of quiet laughter from the other end. "Do you remember that one time at Sci-Ops, when you pretended that you knew how to bake a cake for my birthday, and ended up setting fire to the flat?"

He wants to tell her yes, he wants to say that that had probably been one of his favourite birthdays even though they had to use all of Jemma's birthday funds to replace the oven, but then he remembers it's a voice-mail and clams his mouth shut instead.

"Um, anyway, I was just calling for that reason." There's a long gap of silence that almost makes Fitz think the call's over, but then she speaks again, her voice low. "I miss you. Be careful. May's getting - "

There's an abrupt noise and then, "oh, Bobbi! Hello, I was just - "

The receiver clicks off.

(That night, he purchases Alice In Wonderland. But he's decided he's not going to watch it. He never really liked the movie anyway. Too many grinning cats and odd happenings. The only real upside had been a familiar figure curled by his side. He slips the DVD into his bag. When he gets back to the base, when he knows she's safe and they have no worries, he'll take it out again. He's had enough of skirting around. He just wants his best friend back.)