A/N: I do not own Marvel, or Agents of SHIELD. Please leave reviews. =D

Nine days. Nine days without a sign of life beyond the steady beeping of the heart monitor. Nine days of waiting for Fitz to wake up.

"Jemma?" Skye was standing at the door, holding a mug. "I made you some tea."

Jemma looked up at Skye. Her face was pale, marked with tears. "Thank you, Skye."

"You should get some rest." Skye told her, coming to sit in one of the other chairs in the room. "It's late. Almost midnight."

Jemma shook her head. "I don't want to leave. What if he wakes up and I'm not here?"

"Jemma. If you don't get some sleep, you won't be here." Skye put her hand on Jemma's shoulder. Simmons began to tear up. The simple, comforting feeling reminded her of Fitz, and how he had put his hand on her shoulder at the last second. "I'll stay here with Fitz."

"Do you remember when we were at the Academy?" Jemma asked Skye, fighting to keep herself from crying again. "We were teasing him for looking so young." Simmons laughed a little through her tears. "He was so angry. He told us that we would be jealous of him someday."

"I remember that. He told us that we'd be jealous, wrinkly old hags." Skye chuckled with Jemma.

"I've never seen him looking as young as he looks now." Jemma sobbed, putting her hands over her face. "He looks like a child. I'd never dream of teasing him again. I just want Fitz back."

"Jemma." Skye gave her friend a hug, squeezing her warmly. Jemma put her head on her shoulder, crying uncontrollably. "Fitz is going to come back. He'll be awake before you know it, and everything will be the same."

"I wish I could believe you, Skye." Simmons lifted her head from Skye's shoulder, and wiped off her face. "But I'm a doctor. I know what brain damage looks like. He's not going to be the same. He won't ever be the same, and because he had to be such a bloody hero."

"There's brain damage?" Skye's whole face dropped as she whispered in a traumatized voice. "Nobody told me."

"I'm the only one that knows, yet." Simmons told her. "They showed me some of his scans. It's why he's taken so long to wake up."

"Is it from the coma? I don't know anything about this." Skye was crying now, not sobbing, just tears trickling down her face. "Why haven't you told anybody?"

"It's called hypoxia. Because he gave me the oxygen when—when Ward dropped us onto the ocean floor. His brain went without oxygen for too long. I haven't told anybody because I want to hope that he'll be all right when he wakes up. I know, it's stupid, but still-"

"It's not stupid, Jemma. It's hope. And right now, it's all the hope we have. He's going to wake up, and he'll be the same Fitz that saved your life, that's saved all of our lives. You'll see."

"I want to believe you, Skye. I really do, but—" Jemma was distracted by a change in the sound of the monitors. Her head spun back to look at Fitz.

His blue eyes were looking right at her.