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(1) Academy Era
Since he met her at the awkward formal cadet meeting a week before classes began at the SHIELD Academy, he knew she was only 23 days younger than him -she made sure to tell that.
"I am Jemma Simmons, biochemistry. And you are?"
Fitz wiped the sweat from his hand on his pants before shaking hers. "Leo Fitz"
"-engineer?"
Fitz swallowed. "Yes-yes, that's me."
"Great! Did you know I'm 23 days younger than you?"
"I don't-" Why on earth would he know that? "No, I'm sorry. I didn't know that."
"There's no need to apologize, Leo Fitz, after all, there's only can be one younger cadet ever accepted in the entire SHIELD Academy's history and that turns out to be me." She said, with a proud smile.
Fitz swallowed. She was intimidating.
"Uhm-"
How could Fitz answer that? She scared him and at 16, Fitz had never found the courage to talk to a girl -and she was the ultimate exponent of A GIRL! What the hell was his mother thinking to let Fitz go into this madness?
"Okay," She cut his thoughts. "It was nice meeting you. See you around." She gave him another smile and left.
WHAT- THE HELL?
However, a year later, Fitz found himself marking the date as a monkey with a birthday hat on his wall. It was no different from any other day: he woke up and drew a monkey, brushed his teeth, and went to class. He forgot about that for the rest of the morning.
But of course, when he left Advanced Physics, Jemma caught up with him in the corridor, with her incredibly big smile and energy, he couldn't stop thinking about that.
It wasn't a big deal and they didn't do anything different from what they did on Fitz own birthday either, but for a moment a sudden thought came to his mind: Jemma Simmons, who had lots of friends and fans, decided to waste her birthday's night eating noodles on his room, discussing about Doctor Who and the generation of a hydrogen-based biofuel to power an engine.
Apparently, she liked spending time with him as much as Fitz with her..., he cleared his throat, anxious. "Ahem, hap-happy birthday," he swallowed "Jemma."
She looked up from her notes with a big genuine smile.
"Thanks, Fitz."
Fitz had begun to differentiate hers smiles. And that, he liked it.
(2) SciOps Era
It took more time than they thought to finally build the hydrogen-powered engine. Mainly because of budget issues and freedoms, not to mention a big lack of trust. They had three PhDs together, they worked better than anyone and they were bloody geniuses! But then, Dr. Weber closed the case:
"You are too young, it's dangerous -we, if something went wrong, would face a lot of charges."
"You mean," Fitz stepped forward in his chair "It's okay for us to build weapons but you won't let us try a biofuel since we're too young?"
"-and how much is too young?" Simmons added next to him.
"-yeah because we are adults in the UK."
"-and we are not asking for permission to -drink or something-"
"-not that we did, of course, but-"
"-but it's ridiculous that you are considering our age of ever-"
"Fitzsimmons, stop." Dr. Weber stopped them. "Listen, I value you both as great scientists but you are- this is not happening, okay? I checked your calculations and there are some flaws."
Fitz groaned insulted which earned a look from Simmons. Fitz covered his mouth, hurt.
"You can take a year, adjust the data, and talk about it in the future..." Dr. Weber continued.
"In the future do you mean?"
"Your senior year, likely. The idea is brilliant, but no Academy's head will agree to let you build something that can potentially exploit an entire building, much less being minors."
" Uhm-okay." They agreed.
However, they graduated two years ahead and had no opportunity to develop the biofuel. Years passed and it wasn't until they were particularly bored during a meeting at the SciOps that Fitz convinced Simmons to give it a try and the prototype reached an epic thrust before exploding.
It was incredible to watch the engine fail like that -they looked at each other and laughed in amazement before releasing each other's hands that they had imperceptibly held during the explosion.
The one who didn't laugh was Agent Phil J. Coulson when, a week after the explosion, he invited them to join his field team. He said he was impressed by the biofuel demonstration. Fitz and Simmons were even more impressed to see him alive after the NY's battle.
"Fitz?" That was Jemma's conciliatory voice, the one she had been using with him since they meet Agent Coulson. "You are not eating ..."
Fitz looked at his plate and pushed it away. "I'm not hungry."
"Are you still doubting?"
"I-"
"Because I repeat myself, this is a great opportunity to see the world, we would be fools if we let it escape."
Fitz toyed with the fork in silence.
"Or it's because you are afraid of, Fitz?"
"I don't!"
"Then, what is?"
Of course, Fitz was afraid, and he had doubts and a lot of reasons why he didn't want to accept Agent Coulson's offer and the worst wasn't even the fact that he had the body of a 12-year-old boy that would make him fail the field's evaluations. He liked how things were between them. He liked calm, security, and the familiar know and none of that was synonymous with a SHIELD team. But he didn't want to admit any of it to Jemma, so he distracted her:
"It's just that you had to say, there's only can be one youngest, sir, of all things."
"Fitz-" She gasps. "-didn't say that to make you feel bad."
"No, you didn't, I know but-, it's not like that, you know? You've always been my equal, you're not a minor or something-"
Simmons rolled her eyes. "Of course I am Fitz, for almost a month. But age is only a number-"
"That gives you distinction-"
"Yes, but-"
"I hate when you're proud of that -of all the great things you are."
Jemma blinked, "Oh, I don't-"
Fitz smiled. He decided to continue distracting her from the real matter. "Do you know that men take longer to mature than women? It has been confirmed by one University of Oxford's study."
"And with that, you are trying to say?"
"That psychologically I am minor than you." Fitz pointed the fork at her.
She waved it away. "Pff, please."
"No, no. Think about it Simmons, when we met at 16 I was practically a baby compared as how woman aged."
Jemma giggled imagining him and soon, they were both laughing out loud, receiving bad glances from scientists in the cafeteria. Fitz was so happy to put an end to the team thing and the avenues and be--
Suddenly, Simmons wiped away a laughter tear and looked at him, smiling. "Then, we are saying yes to this adventure?"
Fitz sighed in defeat, knowing he would follow her wherever she dragged him, whether he wanted to or not.
(3) Maveth Era
Jemma had lost track of time.
The blue planet was eternal darkness, stars, and heat. There was no sun and according to her understanding -thanks to the calculations by the abandoned NASA computer in the cave- the movements of the two moons in the sky did not follow the normal day on earth pattern so, there was no way for Jemma to know how many days had passed since her arrival to the blue planet without constantly watching the moons, which by the way, was very dangerous.
Jemma had been able to use her phone for a while and stick to the time on it but she had decided to start saving power to feed the old computer. On the other hand, Will had a watch, and he had offered it to Jemma but the battery was over years ago and now it was useless.
At this point of her stay on the blue planet, Christmas could well have passed and she didn't know ...
The good thing -because she is Jemma Simmons and knows how to get the extreme situations best out - is that Will had a routine of sleep, shower, and food, and being herself a biologist, Jemma knew the importance of a routine for mental health so, she insisted on following it every day.
But sometimes, the incessant noise of a sandstorm hitting to the cave hatch or the sun absence brought out the worst in her and her emotions flooded her.
Frustration, boredom, helplessness.
Loneliness.
Jemma had Will, of course. She thanked every known god on earth when she found Will, but the point is, Will was not Fitz -and tonight, she was terribly overcome by loneliness. She needed her Fitz.
So she rolled onto the bed and turned on her cell phone before playing the old video where the entire team wished her a happy birthday. She replayed over and over again, always stopping it when Fitz's face appeared.
She missed him. So very much.
More than her parents, more than the feeling of clean sheets and much more than a cup of tea.
"Happy birthday, Jemma." Fitz says on the video, for the fifth time.
There was no way for her to know if that's words were true this time, at this moment, on this planet, but, like most of the times that Jemma watched the video, she imagined that it was. Seeing him was, always, her own little personal gift.
Jemma imagined what Fitz would say when she related that not a single day had passed on this planet since she was dragged into it -not astronomically, at least. Surely he would go mad. Fitz was always so on edge when she mentioned being 23 days younger than him and now, Jemma was an eternal day on a blue planet, minor than him.
Fitz would do a big deal about it. She would be smiling throughout the discussion.
(*Those six months were relative to the earth, no matter if the sun went down or not, they both lived linearly those six months which is why the writers mentioned the hours in the episode title, but I liked adding this part and I feel Jemma could have teased Fitz about this, about just being 1 day younger versus his 6 months on earth, just to tease him)
(4) "End of the World" Era
"Let me understand this well," Jemma says, during late breakfast the morning after their impromptu marriage in the meadow. "You lived six months in a secret prison and fugitive days with Hunter."
"AHA." Fitz nods as he brings milk for her tea.
"Thank you." She accepts the milk and puts it in her tea. "So, according to my calculations, now I am at least 23 days and 6 months younger than you."
Fitz's mouth falls open, halfway to eating his beagle. "You are not!"
Jemma smiles triumphantly. "I think I am."
"No, Jem." Fitz drops the beagle and pinches his nose- "How do I explain it to you? Okay, look -since the whole team went back in time, that is, to our present, you and I are exactly the age we are living on this day if we had never left."
Jemma raises the cup of tea to her lips and smiles. "That is twisting reality very skillfully, husband."
"Not!" Fitz yells and then remembers that most of the new lighthouse agents got terribly drunk at their wedding reception party and lowered his voice. "It is not."
"Yes, it is because going back to this point in the present doesn't change the fact that you lived six months longer than I did in the past."
"Jemma." Fitz looks at her, betrayed. "I didn't do it."
"Yes, you DID and you know what? Also, you traveled for 74 years so now I am 23 days, 6 months, and at least 74 years younger than you."
"Jemma you are not. " Fitz complains, shaking his head. "And -and, okay I already told you, I was on a cryogenic trip, which is, the equivalent of sleeping on suspension energy mode."
"Please Fitz, your cells remained alive throughout the process."
"Well yes, or now I would be dead! That's why it's called neuro-cryogenation or do we have to go over the Brownian motion to absolute zero again? You know that, it's basic biophysics!" Fitz picks up his beagle with a little angry move.
"Which, again, proves my point. Your body lived 74 years in a hibernate state, at no time did you cease to exist, you lived the process-"
"I was suspended!" Fitz interrupts her and sticks a fork in his fruit. "Let's agree that to live something as human, you must be conscious okay?"
"Well yes but-"
"Ah ha-ha! So according to that thought, you lived consciously a trip of 74 years to the future with a crazy slave Kree, Simmons!"
"I was transported by a monolith in seconds and lived there for a few weeks." She rolls her eyes "I am still technically minor to the time you have spent in prison."
"But you lived for weeks in the future Jemma!" Fitz hisses.
"Okay, so we are equal considering the weeks you spent fugitive but I will not forget the previous 6 months on prision, and by the way, at what point do you tell me that Enoch woke you up? Because if you want to talk about conscience..."
"I will repeat, we all returned to this present so we are, right now, literally this day years old."
"And what about the six months at Maveth-"
"-Bloody hell, not that again-"
"-Relatively, I don't-"
Daisy suddenly stands in front of them and taps the table with one hand. "Stop!"
"Uh, hi Daisy." Jemma blinks and her friend rolls her eyes.
"You two are hurting my brain and everyone else's with this."
Fitz looks around, noticing for the first time the looks that the new agents and Deke were giving them.
"I really love you guys, but don't you have better things to do on your first day of marriage?" Daisy sighs and goes for a cup of coffee.
(5) "Lost in the space" Era
Back to the matter of fixing the ship's communicator under the orders of the nice lady Izel, Fitz has a question,
"So Jemma," he begins, halfway through connecting circuits. "you lived six months in space, looking for me."
Jemma looks up from her own circuits and smiles at him. "If only we had found your ship before the attack-"
"Yeah I know, but we are together now." Fitz nods in response, knowing her line of thought.
Jemma returns to the circuits and Fitz cannot miss the opportunity to be right:
"So," He continues, casually "before we had reunited in that crazy mental prison, did you lived in the future for days?"
"Yes. Oh, Fitz, I have so much to tell you! It was crazy and there were Krees, gravity storms and true believers people and-"
"But-" Fitz cuts her off with one finger up, smiling. "You also have lived weeks in the past before the Earth's destruction ..."
Jemma snorts, rolling her eyes, "What, again, didn't happen."
"And after that, my other me died."
Jemma's eyes drop sadly but then narrow at the ridiculous pretentious smile lingering on him- "What is this all about, Fitz?"
Fitz puffs up her chest and shrugs, reconnecting the ship's circuitry. "I just think that I'm younger than you this time, that's all."
Fitz can't help but laugh out loud at Jemma gasps when she finally realizes that he is -in fact-, at least days younger, which ends up making him worthy of receiving a screw thrown at his back.
(+1) "Come back to the future" Era
Finally, after all this Chronicoms craziness and painful team losses, they are back on a safe timeline so, Jemma can't help but bring up a matter of utmost importance:
"So...," she begins, massaging the pain points on Fitz neck and back "since I went back to the past-"
Fitz raises an eyebrow, rolling onto his stomach to see her "Yes?"
"And I only lived there days while you were in the future, living your day by day for weeks before meeting in the past-"
Fitz stops her with a painful gesture, he knows the complication of everything they both did, he does not need that she reminds it to him. Or at least, NOT NOW -of all things. Not while he's trying to make up for lost time with his wife.
"Where do you go with this?" Fitz kisses a freckle on her chest that makes her laugh.
Jemma smiles, pulling away from the distracting tickles he started to make. "We can say I'm the youngest, you know, I literally went back in time more than you-, our first stop was the 30s!"
Fitz's mouth drops, betrayed, stopping the tickling completely. "Come on, it doesn't work like that-"
"Yes Fitz, think about it. We both lived together after losing the Lighthouse but since I went back in time with the team and you continued on the normal route and obtained weeks while I do only days we-"
"Jemma," Fitz pulls himself up and holds her against the cushions on the bed. "Just keep kissing me, okay?"
"Fine." She swallows the words, approaching for a kiss- but then, before closing the space, Fitz smiles in her mouth:
"And for the record, with time travel or not, I'm still at least days younger than you."
"FITZ!"