Breathe Again

Still, I'm Searching for Something

"We're cursed. The universe wants us apart."

Jemma Simmons was a bright, valued scientist. She cherished love over selfishness, gratitude over hate, intelligence and knowledge.

In turn, she learned to value love over anything else. Love, she found, was the key to seeing life clearly; love was the key to giving her life meaning. When she found that love in a pale, pasty boy named Leopold Fitz in her younger years at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, it brought something more to her life as well: direction, beauty, and meaning. 

Their love slowly developed over the years. He was there for her, always. Like a subtle shadow following her around, he stayed right beside her. The brunette learned to be silently grateful for his presence, somehow placing a still sense of safety and calmness that tamed the rough waters haunting her mind. Their relationship eventually became something more than "just friends," more than best friends, even, despite the fact that she denied she felt anything more for him. They had become hopeless lovers, dangerously in love. 

Before their hearts mended together and they found a home in one another, they had absolutely no idea what the universe had in store to terror to their souls.

The engineer had no idea that Jemma would be ripped from his tender grasp by the hands of the Monolith, swallowing her whole and keeping her in its possession for six long months; Jemma had no idea that he would be lost in space, tampering with time to get to the future to find her loving heart after dying (It was complicated. Time was complicated). 

She'd searched and conquered almost every part of the galaxy to locate Fitz with Daisy by her side, she needed the extra muscle to complement her astounding brain. He had become their mission. 

Find Fitz. 

That was all that consumed Jemma's restless mind. 

I just need to find Fitz. 

Now, after what seemed like an endless year of searching, they were close. 

Close to him.

Closer to having his sweet, soft lips on hers and his delicate touch on her skin. 

Closer to his heart.

For once, she felt like the universe wasn't trying to tear them apart, disregarding Fitz's claim that they were cursed.

"I found something in the cryo-chamber that Fitz was in," Jemma announced, walking rather quickly to Daisy and the rest of the team to show them her new discovery. "This says something that could possibly lead us to Fitz. I know his mind, I know where he's--"

"It's in alien. And we need to refuel and stock up on food. We're not going to get Fitz now," the inhuman said, being the leader of the team that was in space on the Zephyr. "We have to stop back at earth to regroup."

"No."

"No?"

"You guys can go if you want, but I'm staying here," the biochemist protested. "For Fitz. He's our mission. This chip that I found, it says that the chamber was made on Naro-Atzia."

Daisy bit her lip as if to say something in retaliation, but decided to keep it to herself. "You're right. He is our mission but if we go after him now, we could run out of fuel and other necessities. We'll regroup, come right back where we were, and get Fitz."

Jemma wasn't convinced. 

"How can you just give up when we're so close? We have the coordinates!" She practically yelled at Daisy. "Who's side are you on? Because I thought I knew, but I'm starting to doubt myself."

"You know damn well who's side I'm on, we went to a fire planet for you, which nearly burned the Zephyr! We're going home."

"No."

"Piper, Davis, set coordinates for Earth and get us on route." Daisy glanced at Jemma, partially sorry while trying to make the best choice for the team. For survival. 

"Alright, coordinates are in. We're headed back home, team," Davis announced from the cockpit. Agent Piper raised a questioning eyebrow at him while her lips tugged into a playful smile, which he returned. 

Just as Davis was about to lock in the course, there was a sudden hesitation on the ship.

Jemma had pulled the hyperdrive, putting them on course toward Fitz instead.

Daisy was lounging in the cockpit with Agent Davis and Piper; when she noticed that the ship had been rerouted to go the opposite direction of where they planned --- she wasn't so happy. 

"What the hell..." The inhuman muttered under her breath. She looked around, searching for anything that was broken on the control pad. "Jemma."

                                                                       _________________

"Fitz?" 

"Jemma?"

"You're here."

"Of course I am, who else would it be?"

Then she woke up. 

Damn dreams. Most of them now were about Fitz --- getting him back, seeing him, kissing him... it was more than she could hope for. 

Daisy was there when she woke up. "Look who's finally awake," she remarked, chuckling lightly to herself. 

"Uh, yeah... where are we...?" Jemma asked groggily. 

"Well, thanks to you, who nearly put us in danger, we found Enoch's coordinates--"

"Which means Fitz is with him," Jemma finished.

"Right."

Her heart skipped a beat.

"And luckily, we've docked right on their ship. Might've took a bit of fighting, but we took over the ship. They were held hostage."

Jemma bit her lip in concern. 

"He's a little bruised and rough around the edges but---"

"Jemma?"

A thick, Scottish accent. 

"Is that really you?" 

He was there. Standing right in front of her. 

She nodded, and immediately ran into his arms to meet him for a tight embrace, tears running down her cheeks.

"I'm never losing you again. And I know I said that the last time we got separated like this, but this time, I mean it," Fitz was also crying, burying his face in Jemma's neck. 

She pulled away for a moment to take his face in her hands, grinning through tears. "What matters now is that I have you, and I'm never letting go."