Chapter Text
There's Only One Way...
The bright lights blinded Leo Fitz as he blinked a few times and took in his surroundings.
He was laying in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth.
His head, arm, and ribs hurt and he winced as the room around him came into focus and his hearing started coming back to him.
Thank God he could still hear, he would've gone completely insane if the last thing he had heard in his life was Jemma screaming as though someone was torturing her before everything had gone black. It was a wonder he hadn't gone insane during his coma because her screams were haunting him.
They would always haunt him.
Various monitors and machines beeped and hummed around him, their soft noises barely audible over the gentle music that he realized was part of Jemma's playlist for whenever they were working in the lab together.
Jemma.
He looked around and his heart almost stopped when he saw Jemma laying in the hospital bed next to him.
Her eyes were closed and she was motionless on the bed, lying flat on her back, her head facing straight up at the ceiling, her petite hands folded over her stomach.
His stomach twisted as her position and physical state reminded him of a corpse lying in a coffin. She didn't look like she was breathing. Her skin had paled so it was only several shades tanner than the crisp white sheets on the bed and there were dark circles under her eyes. Her cheekbones were more prominent and her hair had lost its shine.
"Jemma?", he barely rasped, his heart breaking at the sight of her.
She didn't stir, driving home the grief that had seized him.
He had given her his life, had every intention of dying for her and now, because of some sick miracle, he was going to cheat death and Jemma would be the one to die.
He couldn't live without her.
A painful sob ripped through him as a nurse entered the room and told him to calm down.
Everything hurt and he ignored the pain, calling out to Jemma again, his voice now stronger than the whisper it once was.
Then Jemma's eyes flew open and she was there; awake, alive, and at his side.
He cried with relief as she grasped his good hand and peppered kisses across his forehead, whispering the words "You're alive." over and over again.
The nurse removed the oxygen mask and replaced it with a nasal cannula before placing a water bottle with a straw in it nearby and retreating from the room.
Jemma held the bottle as he took small sips.
He wanted to tell her so many things, like how fortunate he was to have her in his life and how sorry he was for trying to be a martyr when he knew how badly his death would have hurt her.
"Don't say a word,", she whispered when he had drunk his fill, "I want to tell you something."
He nodded silently and she broke down in tears again.
"Leopold Fitz... You brave, noble, selfless, silly man... You really thought I would let you go that easy?", she pressed a kiss to the back of his good hand before continuing, "I almost lost you... You almost left me..."
"Jemma...", he whispered, lifting his good hand to her cheek to brush her tears away, his hand lingering there to cup her cheek and Jemma's hand held it to her cheek. "About what happened in the pod... what I said..."
He paused to look at Jemma, who was still grasping his hand.
"What you said about me being more than your best friend in the world, was it true?", she asked, "I'm not doubting you, I just know that situations like the one we were in has often evoked the need to do something like, well, reaching out to whoever is closest, in this case I was the one you reached out to."
He shook his head and cringed internally when Jemma looked upset.
"No, it wasn't like that at all... Jemma, I meant every word of what I said.", he replied quickly.
"But you didn't say it because you didn't want to make things weird if I didn't feel the same.", she added.
He nodded and asked,
"So do you... you know, feel the same way?"
She kissed his knuckles and whispered, "Oh Leo, of course I do."
Hearing her say his first name in such an endearing way gave him the courage he needed to tell her how he felt, how he had always felt for her.
"I love you, Jemma." , he murmured.
She leaned forward and kissed his forehead and his nose, pressing her forehead to his to gaze into his eyes.
He searched her eyes for anything but the truth and found nothing but the truth.
He closed his eyes and leaned in, brushing his lips tentatively over hers, and smiling as she leaned into the kiss.
Nothing would come between them again, not Grant Ward or Hydra or even death could keep them apart.
They broke apart and Jemma whispered against his lips.
"I love you Leo."