Fitz emerged from the darkness slowly and with dread because god, why did he hurt so much? There was a burning in his chest that helped to spark a memory of….dust and..Ward? It was all fuzzy and he wished he had Jemma there to clear it up for him. Jemma.

With just the thought of her his mind had cleared much of the fog and even brought her voice to him. He thought it might have been his imagination but soon knew it was real when he heard her sniffles and felt her hand in his.

Concentrating all the energy his weak body possessed into his hand he squeezed back earning a surprised gasp from Simmons. He was tired but he needed to see her. Now that everything was clearer he could hear other sounds around him. Like the beeping monitors and the quiet but determined voices of Simmons and Daisy next to him.

He could also feel the sharp intrusion of an IV in his arm and determined that to be the cause of the drug sludge in his head. Concentrating was hard, but he knew it would be worth it if only to see her for a moment.

His eyelids flickered. Light seeped through his eyelids, turning red and blinding him with bright white light when he squinted his eyes open. But his eyes focused and adjusted and there she was.

She was teary eyed but smiling and he felt his lips stretch into a similar shape. He could see Daisy eagerly peeking over Simmons' shoulder and he looked at her bright smile, happy that she was there.

"Jemma"

It was gravelly and his throat was dry but he had said it and she had beamed in pride and god it was good to see her smile.

Bobbi had come in then and made Simmons leave so she could check him over. She had told Jemma off for something which made Simmons clutch a hand around her middle but he didn't know what it was.

Fitz was still trying to understand what had happened when Bobbi reminded him. The monolith. Maveth. Ward. And Simmons had been tortured. He tried getting up from bed, rage burning from behind the fog of drugs but Bobbi only pushed him back and tucked him back in.

"Fitz, we got him. He's not going to get away with it and Simmons is okay." The engineer relented and stayed in bed because bloody hell moving hurt.

Once he had been thoroughly checked over Bobbi went out and came back with Jemma and Daisy.

Both woman smiled and rushed to his bed, Simmons grabbing his hand while Daisy settled for a hand on his leg.

"I'm so happy you're awake Fitz I wasn't sure…." Daisy looked at Simmons as the scientist hesitated and quickly finished her sentence for her.

"It was looking pretty bad. We're all so glad you're okay. We were worried."

Simmons had blinked away her tears and focused on his face again.

"Yes. The others would be here but Coulson is recovering from his hit on the head and Mack and hunter are busy with clean up and containment of everyone. And May is taking Will to his new life. Thank you for saving him Fitz, I know it wasn't easy but-"

The drugs were making Fitz' head heavy and slow, like trying to wade through thick mud, but he managed to interrupt in time.

"I promised. And you love him."

Daisy looked at Simmons and bit her lip to hide her smile as Simmons blushed. Fitz creased his brow in confusion. She loved Will, he was sure about that so why were they looking at him like he had said something silly.

"Yes Fitz but umm. Do you remember anything after you were shot? Before you woke up?"

Leo searched his mind but he had hardly remembered being shot until Bobbi had told him. He shook his head.

Simmons nodded and looked at Daisy for help. She only raised her eyebrows.

"Well, I….I'm sure we can talk about this later. You're probably very tired and just want to rest so I'll let you-"

Fitz interrupted again, a thought having popped into his head that decided to pop out of his mouth too despite him not really thinking about whether or not he wanted to know the answer.

"You never told me why you left."

Simmons looked shocked.

"What?"

"About why you left after my brain…um, you never told me."

Daisy patted Simmons on the shoulder and smiled at Fitz.

"I'm glad you're okay." Then she left the two of them alone, Jemma looking quite guilty.

Fitz wanted to go back and take back what he said. He didn't mean to take her smile away.

"Fitz I….Do you remember that afternoon when you were in the lab and you had been working on your coordination? You had been working on one particularly tricky piece for a while but could never get it and I peeked my head around the corner…. I saw you put it in perfectly. Your hands were steady and knew where it went. Coulson had come in and congratulated you. You talked to him too. You did so well, only a few stutters and when you couldn't find the word you wanted you replaced it with something else or wrote it down. I was so proud.

"And then I walked in and you could barely get a word out. Your hands shook around your tea mug."

Fitz nodded.

"I dropped it. Got tea on your shoes and the mug broke."

Simmons nodded, looking like she wanted to cry again.

"You weren't getting any better with me there Fitz. I was making you worse. I left so that you could get better without me. And you did." She smiled a little at the end because she was proud of him.

Fitz frowned. "So it wasn't because you thought I was?"

He didn't finish his sentence but she knew what he meant. It wasn't because you thought I was useless? It wasn't because you didn't care? It wasn't because you didn't love me?

"No of course not. I would have done anything to get you better but that anything just happened to be me leaving. I didn't want to and I didn't want to lie to you about it either, I just thought it would be easier for you if I.. I'm sorry Fitz."

He squeezed her hand and met her eyes.

"I forgave you ages ago Jemma. And you didn't make me worse, I was just nervous and embarrassed. I wanted to be better, I wanted to be me again and I told you how I felt but you didn't feel the same way. Everything had changed, I hadn't expected to survive and then you didn't love me back. I had saved you but I was damaged… I didn't work properly anymore."

The combination of medication, exhaustion and emotion was making it hard for Fitz to get his words out. He had been holding them in for so long he could hardly stop them now.

"I just wanted you to care about me the way I did for you or at least be my friend again and it wasn't going to happen while I was broken. I failed."

Jemma had tears in her eyes again and her lip wobbled as she spoke.

"You didn't fail-"

"Well Ward didn't come back with hypoxia when he jumped out of the plane to save you."

Simmons shook her head and looked determined as she wiped her eyes and looked at him.

"Fitz who used the EKG monitor to send a signal that brought Fury to us?"

"I did?"

Simmons smiled a little, still holding his gaze with her own.

"Who used the Oxygen canister to give me the Oxygen I needed to get us to the surface?"

"I did." She came closer still. He could feel her breath warm his cheeks.

"Who helped me blow the window in?"

"Well that was your idea and-"

She smiled and interrupted him.

"Fitz. Who gave me hope in the face of death and made me laugh while trapped at the bottom of the ocean?"

Fitz remembered that conversation.

"A monkeeeyyy."

She giggled at the same words he made her laugh with in that pod. She squeezed his hand and brought the other one up to his cheek. He was definitely awake now.

"Who is my best friend in the entire world?"

"Me?" He was breathing heavier now and she looked down at his lips. He looked in her eyes as she whispered.

"Who dove through a hole in the universe for me?"

"Twice."

Simmons inched forward and captured his lips with her own, their eyes closing as they lost themselves in each other. Fitz had his hand in her hair and savored the taste and shape of her. She was everything to him in this universe of uncertainty. And he kept her tethered to this world when all it wanted to do was tear her away. Jemma's pain faded as she kissed him, all her focus on this one moment that she had been waiting for.

Now he knew how she felt, they were on the same page, they could move forward together.

They broke apart, hands still holding each other, with Simmons' hand in his curls.

"What about Will?"

She shook her head and smiled.

"I choose you Leo."

Fitz pulled her in for another kiss, hardly caring about his injuries as he pulled her onto the bed with him. If all he had was this moment with her, before the universe tore them apart again, then he would spend every second of it holding her.