Work Text:
Jemma Simmons had the perfect life.
Her job was something she had always dreamed about. The perfect lab, with only slightly incompetent assistants, in the best facility in the world. Sure her perfect job also meant she worked for one of the most secretive organizations in the world - but that was just a minor issue after all they did let her in on some other scientist's work if it meant it would help hers. And she got to rub shoulders with some of the brightest minds in the world.
She had the best person she knew as her best friend. Leo Fitz understood her, he knew how her brain worked and he helped make her an even better scientist. They had been two of the youngest SHEILD recruits and had gone through the academy together. They were perfect as best friends, and Fitz understood that was all they would ever be.
She had the perfect husband. Sure he was only around half the time, and alright half of that was spent in recovery, but that just gave Jemma time to work on her medical skills. After all, her perfect husband was a field agent for SHIELD. Well he was more than just a field agent, but what he did exactly was above her clearance level and Jemma was perfectly fine with that. As long as he came back alive with all his pieces still attached - or in well enough shape that they could be re-attached, like that one time with two of his fingers.
Jemma's life was perfect.
Until Brock started to change.
Jemma assumed at first it was just because of his work. He had been a lot busier recently, and he had always been a little sullen whenever he returned from an assignment. But for whatever reason, Jemma was slightly distressed. He didn't hold her as much during the night, and he was eating less which was worrying since he was a big man and needed to keep in shape. Sure her cooking had gone off for a while there when she'd accidentally found herself pregnant, and sure she probably should have been more careful in the lab, but Brock hadn't even known she was pregnant when she accidentally caused herself to miscarry. She'd had every doctor and Fitz swear not to say anything to Brock about that. She also thought she had hidden her grief over losing their child - which she had only learned she was pregnant with the week before the accident and hadn't even adjusted to carrying - pretty well when Brock had returned from a mission, only three bullet holes in his flax jacket and one in his body.
But none of that explained why he was acting differently all of a sudden. It was subtle at first. If she hadn't been married to the man for two years and dating him since half way through her time at the academy - and yes the bomb that caused their meeting was slightly her fault, but Fitz suggested running the unstable compound into the stairwell so he was also to blame - she might not have noticed the change in him.
After three months of it, Jemma truly began to worry. That was, partially, why she signed herself up for a psychology class. She knew Brock met with psychiatrists regularly because of the nature of his work, but they didn't seem to see anything and Jemma knew something was off with her husband. Two months later she thought she might have figured out what the problem was. It took aliens attacking New York to help her gather the courage to do something about it.
She had never met SHIELD Director Nick Fury until she three months after the attack. People kept brushing her off, a level five scientist demanding to speak to the director? Even Jemma saw the incredulity of the fact. But she finally got to see him. It was scary, but she got what she needed to say out.
Jemma's perfect life began to crumble.
Every SHIELD agent's life began to crumble, after all, Hydra was inside and there was no telling who was SHIELD and who was Hydra. Jemma hated that she had betrayed her husband, who despite everything she still loved with all her heart. She visited Brock every day - when SHIELD would let her in. Since he was the first confirmed Hydra agent in SHIELD he was frequently questioned - or more accurately, interrogated - and so she wasn't always allowed in. But from what Agent Hill said, Brock was cooperating. Jemma was grateful to hear that.
During her first visit to see Brock she had tried to make him see that she still loved him, but he was cold with her. In time he began to open up again, Fury said that that was around the time he admitted why he was working for Hydra. Fury wouldn't say anything else, not even if Brock had been turned or had always been Hydra. Jemma tried not to think about that though. She just wanted Brock to be alright.
Jemma's life was no longer perfect.
She needed to escape to looks, and the attempts on her life. One thing Fury said was that each time a Hydra agent tried to kill her for having exposed them, they found more Hydra bastards. But the need to escape forced her to convince Fitz to take a field assignment with her. They were assigned to Coulson, who she thought she'd heard Brock mention having died during the New York attack the year before.
Either way, she got away after saying goodbye to Brock, and promising to see him as soon as she could. He understood, a little, of why she needed to leave. He agreed it was for the best after he learned about Hydra trying to kill her - he'd gotten violent, threatening to kill each of the would-be-killers when he heard of the attempts on her life. Despite what she had done, he still loved her.
Jemma's tattered life slowly began to repair itself.
It was after Ward - who was one of the Hydra agents still in hiding - attempted to kill her that Skye asked why Jemma's life was in such danger. And why Jemma was no nonchalant about it.
"My husband." She answered the hacker simply.
Skye exploded, "You're MARRIED?"
Jemma looked up from her work to see her friend, "Yes, nearly four years now."
Skye fell into silence. It was a few hours later that she spoke again, asking "Is he with SHIELD?"
"That's sort of complicated." Fitz answered before Jemma had a chance.
"He was a field agent, STRIKE team actually." Jemma offered at Skye's curious look. She only learned what he did for SHIELD exactly after Fury dragged him in as a traitor to the organization. And because over half his STRIKE team turned out to be Hydra and the whole of their operations needed to be re-evaluated.
"Was?" Skye asked, grief passing over her face for a second before settling in confusion. "I'm confused is he alive or dead?"
Fitz muttered "Bastard should be dead."
Jemma glared at her best friend, "He's alive, but no longer serving."
"Why?"
"He's Hydra!" Fitz suddenly yelled, "Jemma went to Fury when she found out and that's how all of Hydra was exposed. But now Rumlow sits in a god damned cell and his buddies are trying to kill her."
"Wait," May said in the doorway having heard the last of the exchange, "you're the one that exposed Hydra?"
Jemma shrugged and went back to her work. Despite how everyone makes it seem, it wasn't that big a thing for her, she was simply trying to help her husband, nothing else. Certainly nothing heroic.
"How?" Coulson demanded causing Jemma to jump. When did he enter to lab?
"Brock was acting differently, I was worried." She answered offhandedly as she kept focused on the strange plant before her.
She wasn't sure but it wouldn't have surprised her if Fitz rolled his eyes before adding, "She took a psychology class and analyzed him, found out that way."
"Seriously?" Coulson asked incredulously, "You psychoanalyzed your husband, that was how you did it? Rumlow was already seeing therapists because of his work and they missed that?"
"Maybe they were Hydra?" May suggested.
Jemma shrugged, "He also talks in his sleep."