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"Is everything alright, Fitz?"
"Yeah," he replied, his eyes not leaving the road.
"So you're not mad at me or anything?" Jemma insisted and he only gave her a quick side glance.
"No. Why would I be?"
She sighed. He really was impossible sometimes.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you haven't said a word to me since we left the Academy an hour ago!"
"I just did."
"Ugh, Fitz!" she cried out, her voice feeling really loud in the car despite the heavy rain and thunder. Being sent to Boston to give a lecture at a science conference was an incredible honor for two cadets and this was supposed to be a fun little road trip and an exciting weekend. Instead it was the most uncomfortable she'd ever been with him since those first few months at the beginning of their first year. And she didn't even know why.
He just shrugged and looked back at the road, looking decidedly grumpy.
"You only said "sounds nice" when I tested my part of the lecture on you, you refused to test yours on me,"
"I didn't need to, I don't always have to—"
"I'm not done," she cut him off and even as grumpy as he was at the moment, he knew better than to not let her finish. "You didn’t say more than ten words during our study session last night and actually, you’ve said so few words to me since we went to The Boiler Room on Saturday that I could put them all in a tweet and still have enough characters to include a picture of your stupid, grumpy face to ask people for their opinion about what you're mad at me for!"
They remained silent for a moment, Jemma's slightly panting breath the only sound in the car as the rain kept hitting the windows and thunder rumbled in the distance. And just when she thought he was just going to keep sulking, he made it even worse.
"I thought you didn't like Twitter."
"Oh for God's sake… Stop the car, Fitz."
"What?"
"Stop the car, I'm getting out," she cried out.
"Are you mad? What are you going to do outside in this weather? It's the middle of nowhere!" he cried out even louder, looking at her like she'd gone crazy.
Oh, now he was allowed to sulk and act like a baby but she wasn't allowed to be a little irrational?
"If you're not going to talk to me and tell me what's wrong, then I'm going to find myself a nicer travelling companion."
"Oh yeah, you'll have no trouble replacing me again," he mumbled under his breath, still showing no sign of even slowing down the car.
"Oh for Christ's sake, is that it?" Jemma let out with a loud sigh. "Are you mad at me because I kissed Milton the other night?"
"What?!" he yelled, his voice going all squeaky as the car swerved for a second. "I don't care about bloody Milton. You can kiss whoever you want, you can kiss the whole Academy if you want to! I don't care!"
"Hey!" she cried out, nudging his shoulder and making the car swerve again. "What does that even mean? You think I go about kissing everyone?"
Was this all about some kind of moral judgement? It didn't sound like Fitz at all and she'd be horribly disappointed in him if it really was the reason for his grumpiness.
"Hey, stop that! Do you want me to crash the car?"
She pushed him again, not enough to make the car swerve, just to make her point. He groaned and made a sudden sharp right turn and drove into the rest stop Jemma hadn't even noticed, leaving her wondering why her best friend was suddenly acting like such an arse. He didn't even bother parking in a designated spot and stopped the car abruptly before unbuckling his safety belt and getting out.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" Jemma mumbled as she struggled with her safety belt, put her hood on and stepped out of the car as well. She ran after him and grabbed his arm to force him to turn around. He was completely drenched already, his hair sticking to his forehead and his shirt clinging to his torso. And she was only just slightly better thanks to the hood of her (his?) sweater. "You don't get to run away like that, I said I was getting out of the car!"
"I know!" he yelled. "Well, then go, it's a lovely day to go hitchhiking, I'm sure you'll find a nice trucker to get you to the conference."
"Oh that's just lovely!" Jemma cried out, throwing her hands in the air. "You judge me for kissing one guy but you have no trouble seeing me get kidnapped by a serial killer!"
"I told you I don't care who you bloody kiss, Jemma!" he replied as he moved closer. The rain was getting even thicker it seemed and the storm was intensifying. Even with his yelling, it was getting hard to hear him over all that noise.
"Then what? What are you so mad at me for?"
"You left me alone!"
"What?"
"You insisted on going to The Boiler Room together and then you left me all alone!"
His voice had gone all squeaky again and his eyes were wide and she would have felt bad if it wasn't so ridiculous.
"Fitz, I left to dance with Milton for twenty minutes and there were a hundred other people in there, you were never alone."
"No one I care about, Jemma! If you're not here, I'd rather be in my room watching TV."
"Oh, Fitz," she let out, feeling all the fight leave her body. She knew Fitz was a little awkward and not exactly sociable but she thought he'd been getting better lately. "But Kim was there, I thought you liked her at least..."
He sighed, suddenly looking completely defeated.
"Oh, forget about it, let's get back on the road. I just want to take a shower and change clothes," he said as he walked back to the car.
"Hey, hey, hey, no Fitz! I want to know!" Jemma said as she ran after him, putting her hand on the door handle before he could open it.
Fitz kept his head down for a long moment before finally looking up at her. Rain was beading on his long lashes and Jemma's heart clenched as it made it look like he was crying.
"Why Milton of all people?" Fitz asked, voice cracking on the last words and breaking her heart even more.
It was actually more a question of why not? She needed to let off some steam after the week they'd had preparing the conference on top of everything else and Fitz hated dancing anyway. So when Milton offered, she thought why not? He was boring but nice and reasonably attractive. So as long as he didn't talk too much, they could have fun dancing. And since she was nineteen and usually too busy to think of dating, when he started moving forward to kiss her, she just thought it could be fun as well.
"You always said he was boring. I must have set the bar pretty low if you'd rather spend the evening with him than with me," Fitz added with a humorless chuckle.
"Oh, Fitz. It didn't mean anything. It was just... fun." It wasn't even a very nice kiss actually, and she certainly didn't intend for it to go further or even happen again. "Is that it, are you afraid I'll start dating him and have less time for you?"
She was still mightily pissed off that he decided to sulk for five days instead of just speaking to her but it was kind of sweet in a way. He should know that were she to find an actual boyfriend, Fitz would still be the one she'd want to spend the most time with.
"No, it's just…" he paused as thunder rumbled. It was getting too loud and too close to speak over it, even while yelling. "When you said you wanted us to go together, I thought…"
Oh.
"Fitz?"
"Never mind," he said, so low that she read it on his lips more than she heard it. The look of sadness mixed with the tenderness that was almost always there when he looked at her kind of already answered her question but she had to ask nonetheless.
"Fitz, did you think it was a date?"
"Don't worry about it," he said as he tried to push her away to get into the car but she kept her hand firmly on the handle. They'd be more comfortable having this conversation inside the car but if they did get in, he would start driving again and this deserved their undivided attention. If she'd known that kissing Fitz was an option, maybe things would have gone very differently on Saturday.
"But, I didn't even know you thought of me as—"
"Jemma, get in the car."
"No, Fitz, please I want you to—"
"Jemma, please move, it's getting closer!"
"What are you talking—"
"Jemma!" he cried out. Then there was a bright light and then nothing.
-0-0-0-
It all happened so fast that Fitz barely had time to move before Jemma was on the ground. Fitz had an instant of panic before adrenaline kicked in and then he was on the ground by her side, not giving a fuck for his own safety as the storm still raged around them. He called her name and squeezed her hand but she was obviously unconscious. Then, putting his head on her chest, he would have given anything to feel even the slightest movement but she wasn't breathing and they were in the middle of nowhere with no one to call for help.
"Oh god, oh god, oh god, Jemma please wake up!" he cried out as tears started streaming down his face. She looked so pale and cold and… lifeless that for an instant, Fitz thought he was going to throw up and he felt himself gasping for breath.
No, no, no! This couldn't happen. He had to get ahold of himself. He couldn't lose her because he was stupid enough to stop in the middle of a storm because he couldn't face his feelings for her. He wasn't going to let his stupid grumpiness take her away from him before he even had the time to... Taking a deep breath, he willed the panic to go away and tried to remember his first aid training. It wasn't so hard, if he could -theoretically- build a nuclear reactor, he could give CPR, right?
Placing his hands on her chest and pulling her chin up, he started with chest compressions then, with a slight hesitation, pinched her nose placed his mouth over hers and blew three times. Nothing happened.
"Come on, Jemma!" Fitz cried out, half screaming and half sobbing.
He started the chest compression then placed his mouth on hers for the second time when nothing happened. On the third blow, she let out a loud gasp, possibly the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard in his life, and her eyes opened wide. Fitz tried to move back to give her some space and make sure she was stable before running to call an ambulance, but he couldn't. As her heart restarted and she woke up, her hand had closed, quite firmly, on his shoulder, forcing his face to stay only millimeters away from hers.
"Fitz," she croaked and the next second, her lips were on his, and not to give CPR, which would have been strange anyway. She trapped his lower lip between hers and for a moment, Fitz forgot everything else. Her lips were cold but still felt wonderful as they glided against his and he would have been happy hearing any sound coming out of her mouth after he thought he'd lost her but still, that little moan she let out was so incredible it sent a shiver down his spine. It was only when he tried to keep his balance and put his hand on the ground, meeting mud and cold water, that he remembered where he was and what had just happened.
"Jemma," he whispered as he managed to pull back and look down at her. "What are you doing?"
"Kissing you back," she replied matter of factly.
"But I wasn't kissing you, I was giving you CPR!"
"What? No that doesn't make any sense! I was just thinking about kissing you and then… it's unclear but I guess you just took the first step and—"
"Jemma," he cut her off, voice getting shaky again. Could being struck by lightning cause brain damage or memory loss? "Do you think I would have chosen to kiss you while laying in the mud during a storm? We were fighting and you were hit by lightning, and then you fell and you weren't breathing and-and…"
He put his hand before his mouth to try and stop the sob from escaping his mouth but it failed miserably. And tears were falling down his cheeks again anyway. This was too much emotion to deal with in so little time. Him half admitting his feelings for her and then Jemma being struck by lightning and almost dying and then kissing him and… wait.
"Wait, you were thinking of kissing me?"
"Well, yes! You were mad that I kissed Milton because you thought you and I were on a date and I was just thinking that if I knew that was something you were interested in, I would have kissed you instead. And I would have been right too. I can already tell you're a much better kisser than he is and…" she trailed off and, holding on tighter to his shoulder, she managed to pull herself to a sitting position as Fitz sat back on his heels all while keeping her arm around his shoulders for support.
"But you weren't actually kissing me, right? More like… saving my life?" Jemma finally said, looking at him with wide eyes.
"Well yeah, of course I did. What else was I supposed to do?! It was my fault you were outside in the first place and there was—"
She cut him off with another kiss, her hand sliding into his hair as she pulled him closer. If he thought the first kiss was just confusion or even possibly brain trauma, this one was deliberate and perfectly conscious and absolutely wonderful. And, okay, he was still a little confused about the situation but that wasn't going to stop him from kissing her back. Tilting his head slightly to get a better angle, he pressed his tongue against the seam of her lips and she parted her lips to deepen the kiss. Fitz felt goosebumps erupt all over his body at the sensation. It might have been a little bit because of the cold and rain but mostly because he was kissing his best friend and it was just as wonderful as he'd imagined since, well pretty much since he met her if he was being honest. He wound his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, sighing in delight as she pressed herself even closer and made the cutest, sexiest little noise.
"Wow," Jemma whispered against his lips as they broke the kiss and Fitz let out a happy little laugh.
"Yeah."
"This is the most amazing kiss I've ever had."
"Yeah?"
"Although it might have to do with the adrenaline and the whole hero thing."
"Oh."
"Which is why we're going to need to repeat the experiment after, you know, I go to the ER for the lightning strike situation."
Fitz let out a relieved sigh as he remembered that, yes, he should really get her to the nearest hospital.
"So, when you mean, repeat the experiment, do you mean…" Fitz trailed off as he helped her up.
"Oh you know, get you into the lab, put a few electrodes on both of us and then—" She swatted his chest playfully. "I mean go out to dinner and kissing at the movies and then go back to my dorm and maybe kiss some more and then—"
"So a date?" Fitz insisted. He knew it seemed pretty obvious from her words but it sounded too good to be true so he really wanted to be sure.
"Well, yes!" she replied, rolling her eyes at him.
"Well, I don't know, Jemma! If that's so obvious, why did you never ask me out on a date?"
"I don't know! You're such a wonderful friend, I never thought… But once your mentioned it, it just sounded so…" She wound her arms around his neck and pressed another kiss to his lips. "…obvious."
"It does, doesn't it?" he replied and she nodded, kissing him once more. He could get used to that.
"Just, next time, don't sulk in your corner like a moody teenager and talk to me! Results can be pretty nice, right?"
"Hey! Technically, I am a teenager! And why do you suppose there'll be a next—"
"Fitz?" she cut him off. "This is really nice but I'm freezing. Can we get into the car, warm up and keep bickering on our way to the hospital?"
Fitz laughed as he shook his head.
"How about we plan that date instead?"
"Even better!"