A/N: After the season finale I had so many feelings and I was desperate to understand what was going through Jemma's head. This drabble was the result. It was quite cathartic to write, but I must say that I still continue to have difficulty getting through those underwater scenes. Hopefully when AOS returns to us, we won't be stuck with an amnesiac or drastically different Fitz...!

In any case, I hope you enjoy this one-shot!

Jemma is barely fourteen years old when her parents force her to apply for a job as a lifeguard at the local swimming pool. She protests, begging them to reconsider, but they are adamant; they want their daughter to have life experiences outside of her science textbooks. Begrudgingly she agrees, she is certified in first aid and she figures that at the very least the job can be added on her application to Cambridge.

As part of her interview, management throws a 14 stone plastic dummy they've nicknamed Charlie into the water. Jemma weighs barely 8 stone herself and she doesn't think she'll be able to manage it, but she dives in just the same and handedly pulls Charlie to the surface. She can tell by their faces that they're impressed and if she's being honest, she is too.

She tells her parents that she's gotten the job and they're ecstatic. Her mum claps her hands, nudges her dad and declares that pushing Jemma into taking swim lessons was the best idea they'd ever had. Their daughter doesn't share their enthusiasm, but she's happy to have the few extra quid in her pocket just the same.

Fitz on the other hand, is a poor swimmer. When he was younger, he and his mum would go to Llyn Idwal for holiday and some of the boys there would laugh at him and toss him in the water. After the second time that it had happened, he taught himself how to swim. He was never particularly good at it but it was enough that he could swim himself to safety.

Years later, when they find themselves trapped in a medical pod at the bottom of the ocean, Jemma can't help but think that the water that surrounds them is rather beautiful. Its quiet darkness highlights its scientific mystery and she secretly wishes that she could have time to study it further. But time, for once, is not on their side. They will die.

Defeat is written across Fitz's face and Jemma wishes for once that she could read his mind. She tells him this and he can only offer her a weakened smile.

There's a tension that hangs in the air between them as they talk. Fitz knows his words are charged and Jemma's raised eyebrow reminds him that he's being a smart aleck; but he's scared. Not just for him, but for her.

He can't bare to lose her and the one thought that runs through his mind is the possibility that when the oxygen in the pod runs out, he may have to watch her die. It almost happened once before and the memory of it has haunted him ever since. He can't allow it to happen again, even if the difference between life and death is counted in seconds.

Her eyes gaze out into the endless sea before them and she speaks the language of science, comforting him. Jemma's words of thermodynamics, energy and the universe wrap like a warm blanket around his shoulders. His resolve is close to cracking and he can feel his eyes begin to sting. He's desperate to tell her everything and to fill those last minutes with the truth found only in his confession. He's hopelessly in love with her and when he thinks he can finally say it aloud, they stall at his lips and her distraction interrupts him. It's not unlike them as they are always interrupting each other and this time she has a plan of escape.

They rush into action nervously excited, readying the pod for their explosive exit. Fitz measures the rate at which the pod will fill up with water and Jemma readies the ethanol. They are a team to the very end.

It's to those very last minutes that Fitz waits before telling her what he's known since they first landed at the bottom of the ocean; there's only enough oxygen in the resuscitator for one person. Jemma will need to be that one person.

He's remembered that she'd won the regional swim tournaments in school and he understands implicitly that despite her protests, she is the stronger swimmer. Even if she wasn't, he wouldn't have it any other way. There is no other plan, there is no alternative. She must take the resuscitator, one of them must live.

It is in their interruptions that the truth pours from his lips at last: he can't bare to live without her.

She's unable to read his subtext and he knows that she's never been particularly good at deciphering subtly. His words become a whisper when he clarifies; she's more than just his best friend.

Jemma is stunned by his confession and what remains unspoken is that she's his everything. He can't bare to look at her when he explains that for months he's been unable to find the courage to tell her how he really feels. Fitz begs her again to take the resuscitator, he needs her to. He wants his actions to speak for how he feels.

Her heart jumps into her throat and she can't stop the sob that escapes. What Fitz doesn't know is that she's loved him for as long as she can remember. What she's failed to tell him all along is that she'd believed that they could never be anything but friends, that she'd mistakenly thought he'd never see her as anything but. Her arms desperately reach for him and she pulls him tight against her, relief flooding her body.

As she cries into his shoulder, it's then that realization finally dawns on her: she can't lose him. With her resolve finally broken, the pain in her heart overwhelms her and she wishes she could tell him everything. But, as Fitz cautions, there isn't enough time and she lacks his courage. His hand rubs at the small of her back, attempting to comfort her. His words tell her that it'll be okay, but Jemma knows that it won't.

She loves him more than she can say in the minutes that they have left and she chooses to do as he had and she shows him instead. Her lips press against the skin of his face, frantic and seeking, hopeful that it says everything she can't say with words.

Fitz tells her again to take the resuscitator and she repeats her refusal. She needs more time, he needs to give her more time. He forces it into her hands and when she's at last able to look him in the eyes, her courage surfaces and she thinks that finally she's able to tell him everything.

Jemma wants to ensure that the last words he hears are of her love for him. But her words stall upon her lips and much like she did to him earlier, he interrupts her, slamming his palm against the defibrillator.

…

For weeks after their watery escape, Jemma obsessively studies cases about patients in comas. She reads about auditory sensory and becomes convinced that Fitz can hear her despite what the doctors at the Playground say. She ignores their advice and talks to him just the same, telling him stories of her childhood and how her parents had forced her into lifeguarding. She recounts for him their adventures before the BUS, reminds him of the time that she'd sneezed on the Faraday cup and she imagines that he's laughing alongside her, interrupting her story to protest with his own version of events.

There are days that she falls asleep in the chair next to his bed and it's Coulson that awakes her, telling her that she needs proper rest. She's stubborn and unwavering most days, but others she relents. Those days are the hardest as she dreams of water and feels the heaviness in her lungs.

It's on one of those days that she's rustled from her sleep by Skye and there's an urgency to her voice as she tells Jemma that Fitz is awake.

Her bare feet race down the hall, following Skye to Fitz's room. Her heart is in her throat and she wonders if the whole compound can hear its racing, staccato beat.

The doctors have him sitting upright, there's colour to his face and when he sees her standing in the doorway, he smiles. Relief floods her body and she moves forward, a smile pulling at her own lips.

"Hi."

"Hey."

This time, Jemma thinks, she won't let him interrupt her.

::Fin::

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