Biochemist and the Engineer

Chapter 9

9//Jemma jolted upright on the table, gasping for breath.

"Fitz!" She cried, voice breaking as she tore the headset off. Her body no longer ached, but the throb in her heart was more than she could bear.

Fitz.

Gone.

She relived the moment when his pulse had faded into nothing, tears spilling from her eyes.

Swinging her feet off the table, she nearly collapsed as she dizzily found her balance.

Coulson stirred awake beside her. She hardly heard him. Her head pounded with memories.

Fitz was everything. He couldn't be gone.

But...but he was.

She couldn't comprehend it. Every fiber of her body fought against accepting such a fact.

She had watched the life bleed out of her best friend, her true love, her other half.

She had seen him die with her own two eyes.

But he couldn't be gone. He couldn't be. She wouldn't allow it.

She had gone in there to save him. He had to be alive.

"I have to find him." She concluded aloud, voice throaty and foreign thanks to the tears that were choking her.

A hand came down on her shoulder and she flinched, though the gesture was meant to be comforting.

"He's gone." Coulson whispered gently. But words like those were never gentle. They stung her ears and her heart like shrapnel, piercing every part of her.

"No." Her voice refused, almost tricking her into believing she was confident in this. Her legs began to buckle. "No." She denied again, much weaker this time as tears trickled down her cheeks.

Coulson supported her weight as her legs gave way beneath her.

She shook her head furiously, breaths coming in heavy, pained gasps. No.

The voice of Agent Piper broke through her painfully silent world.

"The other agents from your team have been located, sir." She relayed the information matter-of-factly to Coulson. "I will list off the names of those confirmed:"

The room grew deafeningly silent.

"Agent Hunter."

A pause.

How many gunshots had gone off in the background?

Please let there be more names...

"Agent Daisy."

Coulson let out half a breath.

A long pause.

"Agent May."

Coulson let out the other half of the breath he was holding, and Jemma felt him relax slightly.

Jemma's ears burned from waiting.

Her heart even paused it's furious beating, waiting for any word on Fitz.

Her mind knew that was the end of the list.

Fitz was gone.

Her Fitz was dead.

But her heart...

Her heart told her to wait one more long second.

One more second that seemed to stretch on for years.

Piper glanced in her direction without a word.

Her eyes clouded over.

Then the confirmation came

"And Agent Fitz."

Jemma's eyes filled with tears of relief. He was alive. She'd watched him die but he was alive.

The world rang with cheerful silence, and a breathy laugh escaped her lips. He was alive. She buried her face in her hands, a smile surfacing on her face.

He was alive.

It would be a happy ending to this mission after all.

9//Miraculously as the last petal falls, the Beast transforms back into a human, healing from the fatal wound. Belle and the Beast have confessed their love for each other, and all live happily ever after. The end.//