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It took Jemma thirteen and a half minutes to finally decide to get out of the car. Should she have parked up front? Maybe that was a bad idea, she wondered as she walked around to the back of the grocery store, clutching her purse tightly to her side and wishing that it was better lit. Surely there should be more street lights. This couldn’t be safe. There could be strange people hiding in the bushes waiting to jump her, it was the middle of the night.
Oh, god, she was going to break into a grocery store in the middle of the night.
Geocaching was supposed to be a simple hobby. Something she could do for not quite mindless fun on the weekends that would get her out of the house and away from her research when it got too overwhelming and even maybe learn a bit about the city. Geocaching was not supposed to end up making her a felon—she was almost entirely sure this was a felony.
Really, this was all because someone else decided to break the rules. Jemma had been excited when the so-called Ultimate Geocaching Challenge had been posted for the area—it was a multi-cache hunt with the additional challenge of puzzle clues and Jemma was determined to complete it before anyone else. It wasn’t even that there was a prize involved; she just wanted to solve puzzles and beat the competition. But now the final clue was leading her inside a building, which violated all norms and rules of geocaching, and she was going to end up in jail.
Logically, she knew that this was part of the challenge: it was hard enough to find a hidden case during normal geocache rounds, let alone in a grocery store, let alone during normal operating hours. Idly, she wondered if it was cheating that her roommate worked there and she was using her connections to circumvent that last obstacle. The rules hadn’t said otherwise. And none of Skye’s other jobs in the extremely long list of two-months-until-she-couldn’t-stand-it-anymore employment had ever been useful. Certainly she was going to miss the employee discount when Skye inevitably quit, she might as well use her for this, right? And it had been Skye’s idea…
Oh, god, it had been Skye’s idea. They were going to get arrested.
When she made it around to the back of the store where Skye usually parked, she saw another car parked as far away from the building as possible. It wasn’t Skye’s van, but maybe that was the point—that thing could be spotted from space. Feeling her stomach churn with nerves, she suddenly wondered if her roommate had brought anyone else into these shenanigans.
Fishing her flashlight out of her bag, she flipped it on to light the way up to the back door of the building. The LED light shone a path up to the door and she approached carefully, worrying about sensors or trip wires or—
A sudden man that jumped out from the shadows! Holding in a scream, Jemma reared back, holding the flashlight above her head, ready to strike. “Whoa!” he said, voice almost familiar, though she couldn’t place it in her terror. “Skye?”
Stumbling back against the wall of the building, Jemma pointed the light at his face with one hand, digging into her purse for her pepper spray with the other. “I am not Skye!” she sputtered out, fumbling with the cap on the pepper spray. “Who are you?”
He held up his hand to shield from the light in his eyes, blinking rapidly. “Oh, no, you’re—you are not Skye.”
“Yes, I just said that!”
“No, I’m—my name’s Fitz, I’m a friend of Skye’s?” he said, ducking his head. “Could you point that elsewhere?”
Slowly, Jemma lowered the light, aiming at his chest instead. “You’re a friend of hers?”
He nodded, running a hand through his curly hair. “We used to work together at Best Buy, doing computer repair? She got fired because they learned she doesn’t have any of the credentials she said she had? It was like two summers ago?” When Jemma didn’t immediately respond, he said, “I did hardware, it was the worst job, but working with Skye was cool for as short as it was. We still hang out sometimes.”
It was suddenly occurring to Jemma that this must be the “sweet geek you should totally meet” that Skye sometimes talked about—always with an exaggerated Scottish accent. Jemma had always figured Skye was mocking her and getting the nationality wrong, but now she realized that she was trying to copy Fitz, whose accent was neither that stereotypical nor that strong, but actually did remind her a bit of home. “Oh. Well, do you know where she is? I’m Jemma, her roommate, I’m supposed to meet her here.”
“I was supposed to meet her here too,” Fitz said, scuffing his foot across the concrete awkwardly. “She was supposed to help me out with something.”
Frowning with concern, Jemma put away her pepper spray and fished out her cell phone instead, immediately going for the first speed dial number. She hoped she wouldn’t hear Skye’s ringtone from the bushes or the trunk of the car across the parking lot; she still wouldn’t hesitate to hit this guy with her flashlight. She was pretty sure she could take him.
Skye answered on the third ring. “Sup?”
“Skye? Thank goodness, are you okay?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
Closing her eyes and counting to five, Jemma said, “You said you were going to meet me here at your job tonight?”
“Did Fitz not show up?”
Her eyes darted over to Fitz, who was listening to her side of the conversation intently. “Uh, yes, Fitz is here.”
“Awesome, because I’m having a really good date and Trip will be sad if I leave.”
“Skye!” Jemma snapped. “What is going on?”
Clearing her throat, Skye said, “Okay, well, here’s what I thought. I promised both you and Fitz that I’d get you in my job, but also I’m not wearing pants anymore? You’re both weird geocache geeks, I don’t know where I pick you guys up. Anyway, Fitz promised me that I wouldn’t even need to snag my boss’ key to get in so he can get you in and I can tell him how to disarm the alarm over the phone and then it’s up to you two what you want to do from that point on.”
She knew she was just standing there, her mouth hanging open in shock and dismay. Finally, she shoved the phone at Fitz, who took it hesitantly. “Hello?” he said, as if expecting for someone to yell at him. “Oh, hey, Skye. Um…yeah, okay. Okay, yeah.” Fitz looked at Jemma, cleared his throat, and nodded. “Okay, I’m going to put you on hold.” He hit the mute button before slipping her phone into the pocket of his jacket while Jemma made a slight noise of protest. Then he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out what immediately looked like a wallet but soon revealed itself to be a lock pick kit.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, eyes darting through the parking lot as if she suspected a SWAT team to storm down on them.
“Obviously I’m picking the lock,” he said, kneeling down so the door handle was at eye level. “Can I get some light over here?”
Her heart was caught in her throat. “This is illegal. This is breaking and entering!”
Fitz raised an eyebrow at her curiously. “Just what did you think you were going to do with Skye?”
“Skye was going to have keys!”
“Did you really think that?” he said, laughing. “And I think it would still technically be breaking and entering.” When Jemma just stood there, frozen, Fitz reached out and took the flashlight from her hands, balancing it between his chin and his shoulder as he aimed the beam of light at the door. She watched breathlessly as his long, nimble fingers worked the lock open and in less than a minute he made a noise of triumph. He grabbed for the phone and unmuted Skye. “Yeah, you were right, this lock is super easy. Probably could have done that with a screwdriver. Okay, yeah, hold on.”
Then he looked up at Jemma, chewing on his bottom lip. “You know, you don’t—if you’re uncomfortable, this is probably the time to go. Because I’m about to open that door and if Skye can’t talk me through the alarm, well… I mean at this point, you’re kind of an accessory. At least aiding and abetting, probably? I mostly know American law from CSI.”
Jemma ground her teeth, ready to tell him where he could go and more than ready to tell Skye where she could go. She wanted to go home and tell Skye to put on pants and yell at her for putting her in this position—even more for putting this guy in this position because he actually seemed fairly nice, honestly. Clearly he had not had enough Skye time to know that everything was going to end terribly and he didn’t even live with her so he couldn’t make her life miserable in return.
She was going to bring so many lab samples home. Just rats everywhere.
But a bigger part of her—the part of Jemma Simmons that had never given up on anything in her entire life and hated to see anyone else win—figured that the door was already open, so… Sighing, she shook her head. “Well, go on then.”
Fitz raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Really?” When Jemma shrugged, he grinned. “Uh, hold the light for me?” Jemma took the flashlight back from him as he switched the cell phone on to speakerphone mode.
There was no immediate alarm when Fitz opened the door. Jemma had expected sirens and red lights and buzzing, but as soon as Fitz slipped inside, Jemma hot on his tail, his hands were on the alarm panel and Skye was talking him through the sequence of buttons. Dutifully, Jemma held both the phone and the flashlight, keeping the beam of light on the keypad. In less than a minute, there was a satisfying beep and the panel flashed green. “Got it!” Fitz announced, grinning over at Jemma, who couldn’t help but smile back.
“Fantastic,” Skye said over the speakerphone. “Well, I’m gonna go back to…things now. Have fun doing whatever you crazy dorks are gonna do. Lock up when you’re done. Or don’t, whatever, the guy who closed last night is an asshole, I don’t even care if he gets fired. See ya.”
As Jemma stepped into the store and let the door close behind her, Fitz pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned the flash on to use as a flashlight. “It would probably look kind of suspicious if we turned all the lights on, huh?”
“Probably,” she agreed, tucking her hair behind her ears. Skye probably could have come up with a good excuse, overnight resets or something, but Jemma had a feeling neither of them were Skye.
“Good luck, then?” Fitz said as they walked into the main area of the store. “May the best person win?”
Jemma nodded. “Agreed. Good luck.” After she felt like she had waited long enough to acknowledge the friendly competition, she headed to her right, seeking out what she knew to be some of the lower trafficked aisles.
About a third of the overhead fluorescent lights were on, enough to see where she was going and what she was looking at—but probably enough to be seen from the outside if anyone was looking. Jemma kept her flashlight in hand for any spots that were still too dark, trying to ignore the way her heart was thumping in her chest. If she was going to break into a private business in the middle of the night, she was going to have to deal with the consequences. Or at least that’s what she kept telling herself.
She had two clues as her prize for getting to two of the four previous geocaches in the hunt first: “Things are looking up” and “It’s bigger on the inside.” Things looking “up” made her believe that she was possibly looking for something up high, possibly a top shelf or something similarly off the ground—not a benefit with her shorter stature, but certainly something that she could work around when the time came. The second clue she knew was a Doctor Who reference, and since she believed she wasn’t looking for an actual TARDIS, she had to assume perhaps that the container was blue or was around something blue, perhaps even TARDIS blue. And if an unauthorized box was sitting on a shelf in a grocery store, it was probably in an area that didn’t get stocked very often, or the person who made the challenge was coming back often enough to check that it was still there.
After more than half an hour of searching, her neck was starting to hurt from staring up at the shelves and her hand was cramping around the flashlight. She told herself that it was no different from being bent over her microscope or lap table all day, but her spinal column said differently. She and Fitz passed each other every so often, each time nodding politely, so at least she knew that he wasn’t having any better luck than she was.
Before today, she had never realized just how large this store was and she was starting to realize just how much work Skye probably had to do on a daily basis. Granted, her roommate mostly rang up customers behind the register, but just having to memorize all of the products and know where they were was probably a fairly daunting task, even for someone with a memory as good as Skye. As Jemma rounded the bread aisle—there were English muffins here, maybe that was the Doctor Who reference?—she was wondering if they were going to be here all night.
Ten minutes later, she groaned in frustration was she tried to march over into frozen foods only to literally run into Fitz. “Whoa!” he said, grabbing her upper arms to steady her as his phone fell out of his hand and crashed to the ground. He had a surprisingly strong grip and she couldn’t help notice how his fingers wrapped all the way around her arms.
“I’m—I’m so sorry, I should have been watching here I was going,” she said, flushing with what was certainly embarrassment. “Is your phone okay?” She pointed her flashlight at the floor as he searched for it.
The cell had skittered a few feet away, but when Fitz picked it up, he got the light to come back on immediately. “It’s fine, no harm. I pretty much designed this casing myself, nothing’s going to break it.” He shone the light in a way that illuminated her face without blinding her and she could see him smile. “So…this isn’t going so well for me. What about you?”
“I’m also not having any luck,” she said, running her hand through her hair, the loose waves settling on her shoulders.
He blew out a long breath. “Look, I bet whatever the prize is, we could share it. Or at least share the credit for winning the competition? Maybe get out of here before the store opens in the morning.”
Laughing to herself, she nodded. “Probably be best. I would like that, actually. We’d probably work better together than alone.” At least she could share neck straining duties.
Grinning widely, his shoulders relaxed. “Excellent. Um, so, what were your two clues? I had ‘It’s the heart of the matter’ and ‘It’s hot or it’s cold.’”
Jemma was a bit surprised by how forthcoming he was, but couldn’t help her smirk. “What makes you think I have any clues?”
“Because I’m pretty sure you’re the only one smart enough to beat me on the other puzzles.”
She licked her lips slowly. “I had ‘Things are looking up’ and ‘It’s bigger on the inside.’”
“Huh, a Who fan.” He nodded slowly and she grinned at his recognition of the series. “Well, I was looking mostly in the freezer section—”
“Because of the cold clue, right,” she said, clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth. “It could be hidden on the top of the freezers. Or, gosh, even inside on the top shelf, knowing this person, but I suppose they probably get stocked so much, they’d have to worry about it getting shoved aside or removed.” She considered for a second, then said, “What about the deli?”
Putting a hand on his hip, Fitz considered this. “That…makes sense. Cold cuts, hot rotisserie chicken.”
Jemma nodded enthusiastically. “I’m not sure if they actually sell any animal hearts the way a butcher would, but animals have hearts, or at least they did once upon a time.”
Fitz made a face, skin paling a bit at the idea. “Worth a shot.”
He gestured for her to lead the way and Jemma set off for end of the store where deli and bakery was, Fitz no more than a step behind her. She seemed to be hyperaware of every time her arm brushed against his or his chest nudged her shoulder, but she shook those thoughts away to concentrate on the matter at hand.
It was odd to see the usually bustling deli empty of customers, no one behind the counter operating the meat slicers, no chickens rotating in the rotisserie. Jemma frowned as she tried to find a place that could be considered high enough to satisfy the challenge. The deli counter was rather tall, but even with someone of her below average height, it wasn’t really something that would be considered “looking up.”
“Any thoughts?” she said to Fitz, whose eyes were darting around just as quickly as hers. She could see the gears turning behind them.
“Nothing that makes a lot of sense,” he admitted. Across from the deli were refrigerators for coleslaw, potato salad, and other lunch sides, but that wasn’t particularly large either, even if he checked inside of it. “You don’t think whoever did this could have gotten it on top of the rotisserie oven, do you?”
Wrinkling her nose, Jemma said, “I should hope not, that sounds like a fire hazard.”
Sighing, Fitz said, “Right, okay, what about the bakery? There’s hot pastries, ice cream cakes?”
“I think we’re running into the same height problem there though. The countertop is the same height and the display tables are even lower.”
“But they have a large refrigerator outside where they keep some of the premade cakes to keep them fresh. It’s tall like the freezers from the frozen foods section!” Fitz said, pointing at her enthusiastically as he walked backwards towards the bakery.
Jemma grabbed his arm and spun him around before he could crash into a display of bagels. “Don’t get too excited,” she warned, but it came out a bit breathless as they walked quicker to the refrigerator.
Neither of them were tall enough to see the top of the refrigerator. “Here,” he said, sticking his phone in his pocket and cupping his hand to give her a step. She hesitated for a moment, then rested her hand on his shoulder for balance before sticking her foot into his hands and using that brace to pull herself up. He was surprisingly steady, his shoulder solid under her hand and his hands never shaking as he helped to boost her up.
She flashed her light across the top of the refrigerator, cursing when she saw nothing but dust. “It’s not here,” she told him, understanding his frustration when he groaned under his breath. Fitz let her down gently, steadying her with his warm hand against her back when both feet hit the ground. She gave him a tremulous smile in thanks that he returned before clearing his throat and stepping back outside of her personal space.
“Maybe…” she said, chewing her bottom lip. “Maybe inside?” He shrugged, but opened the refrigerator, hitting them both with a blast of cool air. Fitz took the top shelves while she took the bottom and they moved ice cream cakes and sheet cakes and cheesecakes out of the way, searching for a blue box that Jemma was starting to believe didn’t exist.
After a few minutes, they came up empty-handed and Fitz groaned in frustration yet again. “Sorry,” Jemma whispered. “It was a silly idea, they have to put new cakes in here every day, it would be a bad place to hide it.”
“No, no, it’s not you, sorry, I didn’t mean to make you…” He trailed off and sighed before letting the refrigerator door closed with a slam.
Three loud beeps sounded through the large space and Jemma immediately jumped towards Fitz, grabbing his arm. “What was that?” she demanded.
His mouth opened and closed several times before he found his voice. “Um…well… I think it might have been…”
“What, Fitz?”
“I think it might have been the alarm.”
She pointed her flashlight at his chin, staring at him hard. “The what?”
Rather than answer her, he scrambled for his phone and within seconds, she could hear Skye’s sleepy voice on speakerphone. “What the hell, Fitz?”
“Skye, what’s the chance that the alarm could turn back on?” he said, a slight tremble to his tone.
There was only a second before Skye answered, but it seemed to take minutes. “I mean, it’s not impossible…”
“Skye!” Jemma shouted. She suddenly felt a bit faint.
“Okay, is it possible for you two to get to the alarm?” Skye said.
Jemma made a noise of distress deep in her throat. “Okay, but there are cameras! And…and…laser sensors! Aren’t there supposed to be lasers? What if we set one off?” She chewed on her bottom lip as she stared at Fitz, desperate for him to fix this.
Scrubbing a hand over his face, he said, “I’ll go first, okay?” Before she could protest, he shook his head. “I know a lot about lasers, I know where they tend to be and how they work. If they’re on, I bet I can avoid them. Just…just stay right behind me.”
After a split second of indecision, Jemma followed Fitz as he carefully plotted his way back to the employee entrance. One of her hands curled into the back of his jacket as she focused on his feet, trying to mimic his steps exactly. She held her breath as they made their way through the store; even Skye was silent and Jemma was slightly suspicious that she had fallen back to sleep.
When they reached the back door, Fitz read the display on the alarm system. “It says ‘door and windows.’”
“Oh, okay! That’s good,” Skye said. “That just means that the door and windows are armed. No motion sensors. I don’t think the cameras will be on either? Whatever, I can hack the cameras tomorrow, no big deal. You guys are fine.”
“Alright,” Fitz said slowly. “How do I turn it off?”
“Oh, you don’t.”
Jemma whimpered and rested her head against Fitz’s shoulder blade as he closed his eyes and sighed. “What do you mean, Skye?” he said and Jemma could tell he was trying to keep his tone even.
“I only knew one hack for this alarm and that’s the one you just did. I mean, you’re welcome to try it again, but it’s probably just going to default to doors and windows. It wasn’t a great hack to begin with,” she admitted, then yawned. “Honestly, it’s not something I would risk.”
“I thought you had the alarm code!” Jemma said.
“Hey, I never said anything about a code, I just said I could get you in,” Skye said. “You guys are just going to have to wait until I get there to open in like—ugh, way too soon. I can sneak you out then.”
Jemma yanked her hands through her hair, letting out an exhausted sigh. “So we’re stuck here until then?”
“You’ll be fine,” Skye said. Jemma couldn’t help but be perturbed by how dismissive she sounded. “Just hang out, I’ll be there as soon as I can and I’ll get you two out when my manager isn’t looking. There’s honestly nothing else I can do now.”
Before Jemma could protest, Fitz said, “Yeah, okay. Bye, Skye.” He hung up without waiting for Skye to respond, then turned to Jemma with a grim look on his face. “So.”
It was impossible not to be overwhelmed by everything and Jemma simply walked away, wringing her hands together. “I’m going to kill her. I’m just—I can’t believe her!”
“C’mon, she helped us break into her place of work so we could win a prize,” Fitz reasoned when he caught up to her.
“This was her idea!” Jemma said. She was walking aimlessly at this point, randomly correctly askew items on the shelves as she passed. “If she couldn’t get in here, she shouldn’t have offered!”
“Because she knew it was important to you,” Fitz said. Before she could wander down another aisle, he grabbed her arm and led her to the register counter. Boosting himself up to sit on it, he nodded for her to do the same. “Skye doesn’t care about geocache, she just wanted to help us out. Let’s just not think about that for a while, okay? If we’re going to be stuck here, let’s not focus on frustrating things.”
She nodded, rubbing her eyes. “No, you’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry, I’m being ridiculous.”
Nudging her gently with his arm, he shook his head. “You’re not. This is not exactly how I planned on spending my entire night, but, I don’t know, could be worse. Imagine if the motion sensors were on? At least this way we can move around.”
Smiling at him, she said, “You make good points.”
He smiled back at her. It was a nice smile. Something at the register across from him caught his eye. Sliding off the counter, he went to investigate, coming up with a half-empty box of chalk. Jemma raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what could possibly be so interesting about some broken chalk. “You play chess?” he said, raising an eyebrow at her.
“I do,” she said slowly.
Smirking triumphantly, he left the register area and she couldn’t help but tag along behind him in curiosity. There was a wide area off to the side of the produce that was clearly meant to be set up for some sort of display, but it was currently empty. Using the chalk, Fitz quickly mapped out an eight by eight grid on the tile and Jemma couldn’t help but be extremely impressed by how straight and even his lines were. She was still confused when he disappeared down aisle 3 and came back with two bottles of RC Cola. He held them out to her. “Do you want to be regular or diet?”
Jemma laughed loudly as the idea clicked for her. “Oh, that’s genius.” She slipped her flashlight into her purse and took the bottle of diet from him, setting it on the spot for the king. He seemed relieved that she liked his idea as he placed his own king and they went back to the soda aisle to gather more. Jemma chose Coca-Cola for her pawns and Fitz chose Pepsi in what he called the “ultimate showdown.”
“So, you fix computers?” Jemma said as they set up their bottles, after agreeing which brand would stand for which piece. “That must be good money, Skye makes a lot doing it on the side.”
The look Fitz gave her was full of confusion. “What? I—no, I just. I’m finishing up my doctorate in engineering.”
That wasn’t at all what Jemma suspected and she tucked her hair behind her ears as she tried to get her bearings, almost knocking over her Sprite. “Oh! Oh. I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t offend you. You just—you said that you met at Best Buy and…”
“Right, yeah, I worked there two summers ago, when—”
“—when the faculty was on strike!” Jemma finished, everything suddenly becoming clearer. Half the universities in town had at least one department on strike from massive budget cuts. She had spent that entire summer back in England when all of her projects and classes had suddenly been canceled. “Oh, that’s right, I totally forgot. So you just…worked at Best Buy?”
Fitz shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “All of my research was sponsored by the university and got canceled with the strike; by that time it was too late to pick up any other internships. I was really worried about my visa status if I wasn’t studying or working and there weren’t that many part-time summer jobs for a guy who was halfway done with a doctorate in engineering, they either want you all the way there or none of the way there.
“But Best Buy was desperate for someone good with hardware and I can build basically anything, so they hired me on for the summer holidays.” He twirled a bottle around on one of its feet. “It wasn’t so bad, actually, it was nice to spend a few months just working with my hands, not worrying about research or papers or anything like that. And they almost never made me interact with customers because they knew better.”
Staring at his hands, Jemma said, “Huh.” When Fitz raised an eyebrow at her questioningly, she shook her head. “It’s just all sort of coming together now. Skye used to call you ‘Geek Squad.’” Fitz sighed and rolled his eyes, causing Jemma to quickly assure him, “In a very loving, Skye sort of way. Said that I should meet you. I just imagined more…more geek than squad, I guess.” She wrinkled her nose at herself, meaning to be complimentary, but not sure if it actually made sense.
“Um, thank you?”
“I never took it seriously because I thought she was making fun of me,” she implored, an apology in her tone. “She used to use the most horrendous Scottish accent and she never said that you were Scottish, which isn’t really important, but I guess also isn’t not important because I think it’s interesting about you, but regardless, I thought she was just…I don’t know, mocking me for being British and nerdy. Which I’m not sure is really even fair because she knows far more about computers than I do. I wasn’t avoiding you, I swear.”
He was grinning widely at her. “Okay.”
Twisting her fingers together in front of her chest and ignoring the fluttering within, she nodded. “Okay.”
Fitz looked like wanted to say something else, but finally just raised his eyebrows at her, gesturing to the floor. “You can go first.”
It didn’t take long for Jemma to realize they were very evenly matched. It had been a long time since she had met someone who was viable competition, though perhaps she should have expected that—he had found just as many geocaches as she had. As it were, they were trading pawns for pawns, bishops for rooks, bluffing knights against knights. “This is sort of reminding me of the chess scene from the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” Jemma mused as she moved one of Fitz’s Pepsi bottles to the side with the other pieces she had collected.
Fitz barked out a laugh. “Oh god, I was thinking the same thing.” As he considered the board ahead of them, clearly wondering if he should castle his king, he said, “I mean, they would probably have butterbeer and pumpkin juice…”
“Have you been to the theme park?” Jemma said, eyes lighting up.
“I wish.” He shook his head sadly. “Can’t find enough time off, unfortunately. Or the times I do have off end up being the worst times to go. My skin can’t really handle Orlando sun in the summer. And my patience can’t really handle the crowds.”
Nodding energetically, she said, “I know what you mean. Skye and I find it hard to take vacations at the same time and she says we have to do Disney World first, to make up for her tragic childhood—her words, not mine.” She moved her bishop across the board, coming to stand next to him. “I did get to go see the studio tour in London the last time I went home to visit my parents though.”
“Really?” His eyes lit up as he stepped even closer to her, their shoulders brushing. “What was that like?”
Chatting excitedly about the experience, Jemma almost didn’t realize that her king was about to be in danger, but also realized that Fitz had left his queen unprotected. She took it with her last rook, watching his face fall. Feeling ultimately pleased, she grinned at him. “Check.”
Fitz quickly moved one of his few remaining pawns in front of his king, blocking the path of her rook; Jemma took it with her queen, sticking the bottle aside. “Check.” When he moved his king out of the path, she followed it with her queen and a smile. “I do believe that is checkmate.”
He laid the bottle of RC Cola on its side in a show of humility and defeat. “Well done,” he said, rolling the bottle back and forth with the toe of his foot. Despite the low lighting, she could see his blue eyes perfectly as he glanced up at her. “Do you want to play again?”
She immediately went to set up her soda bottles and Fitz did the same. She allowed him to go first this time and as he contemplated his first move, she said, “So, engineering. That must be exciting.”
“Just my life’s work, mostly,” he said as he moved one of his pawns forward. “Probably not much different from you and biochem.”
That startled Jemma and she accidentally knocked over one of her rooks. “Did I mention biochem?”
“I…I just…” His face turned bright red and he squeezed his eyes shut. “I mean, you’re Skye’s roommate, you know? She talked about you. I mean, just that you were working on your degree too. That you wanted to work in biochem.”
“Oh,” Jemma said as she made her move.
Fitz made a few noises that were almost like words before settling on saying, “What, uh, what is it that you’re studying exactly? I mean, Skye mentioned some stuff, but I assume none of it was even close to being correct.”
She rolled her eyes at the idea of Skye trying to describe anything about her work before launching into an in-depth description of her current research on bioinorganic electron transfer. To her surprise, Fitz actually seemed to understand what she was talking about, asking smart and intuitive questions at appropriate times—there were tenured professors in her department who didn’t understand what she was saying a lot of the time.
In the middle of moving his bishop, Fitz interrupted her. “Hold on, did you say Dr. Vaughn?”
“Oh, yes, he’s such a blowhard sometimes. When he’s not boring you to death.”
“Richard Vaughn?”
Jemma blinked several times, running her hand over the tops of the pawns she had collected from him. “Yes…”
“I know him,” Fitz said, running his hand through his hair. “He works at Harvard.”
“I know,” Jemma said, laughing a bit. “So do I, that’s where I’m getting my doctorate.” At Fitz’s startled impression, she shook her head. “Did Skye not mention that part?”
Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he shook his head, taking a few steps back from their handmade chessboard. “Uh, no, no. That’s…that’s where I’m getting mine too.” Biting his bottom lip, he said, “I can’t believe we haven’t met before or run into each other.”
Flabbergasted herself, she could only shrug her shoulders. “I suppose it just…never happened. Engineering doesn’t usually come hang out in our department very often unless there’s a specific reason. And my last project was biomedical so I was at the medical school rather than the main campus. It would have been impossible to randomly find each other.”
“Yeah, they try to keep us rather isolated over in there in engineering,” he said, staring at the chessboard, though she wasn’t sure if he was contemplating a move or just avoiding her gaze.
After he moved a pawn, she said, trying to keep her voice casual, “Would have thought you’d be over at MIT anyway.” Her rook captured a different pawn as a trophy.
The noise he made was somewhere between a laugh and a groan. “Yeah, I hear that constantly. Truth of it is, Harvard offered me more money and made it easier for me to get over here as an international student. I love MIT, they were the dream, but when it came down to it Harvard was just more practical.”
She watched him closely as he moved his queen, studied the shape of his eyes and the long line of his throat. “I understand completely. It was the same way with me.”
“Right,” he said, licking his lips slowly. “Right. Um, anyway, check and mate.”
“What?” she demanded, ripping her eyes from his mouth. She studied the board carefully, looking at the position of her king in position to all of his pieces. Her queen, nor any of her other pieces, was not close enough to save her and she wasn’t able to move out of the check. She walked around to his side of the board to see if there was any possible way, but could see none, before shoving his shoulder and staring up indignantly at him. “How did you do that?”
“Well, chess is a game where—”
She shoved him again. “Were you trying to distract me?”
Rubbing his arm, he said, “I was not trying to distract you! I just…I just wanted to get to know you a bit better, is all.” He ducked his head, rubbing the back of her neck, and she felt her heart leap in her chest.
“Oh.” She found herself chewing on her bottom lip absentmindedly. “Well, I don’t want to play anymore if you’re going to beat me when you’re not even paying attention.” He smiled at her as she started collected the soda bottles. “Come on then, we’re not just leaving this here, we’re not children.”
Jemma insisted that they put all of their soda bottles back and Fitz acquiesced before she could nag too much, pulling a shopping cart from the front of the store. The wheel was slightly squeaky, but it got the job done as they piled the bottles in and wheeled them back to the aisle, shelving them perfectly—better than they had been before if Jemma had anything to say about it. Her smile was more than a little pleased as they wheeled the cart back to the front, with her leaning on the handle and letting Fitz do most of the pushing all the way to the end. “That was fun,” she said, lingering against the cart and stretching her arms up over her head. Her neck was still bothering her a bit from searching for that thing they were not supposed to be thinking about, but was still bothering her in the back of her head. “We should do something else fun.”
“Yeah?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Like what?”
She sighed. “I don’t know, I didn’t plan an itinerary for getting locked inside of a grocery store.”
Fitz’s gaze flicked from her, to the lines of shopping carts, then back to her. “Do you want to go for a ride?”
“What? I am not five-years-old, Fitz!” she protested, adjusting her purse on her shoulder and letting out a small breath in a huff.
“C’mon, I’ll push you.”
“You’ll do no such thing.” She could definitely tell why he was friends with Skye.
Snorting and mumbling something under his breath, he disappeared down one of the aisles for a moment, returning a minute later with a can of WD-40. “What are you doing?” she asked, voice noticeably shrill as he sprayed down the wheels of their cart. “That is stealing!”
“I’ll put it back,” he said, giving the cart a test push a few feet in front of him, then adding more WD-40 to the left front wheel.
“That doesn’t make it not stealing.” Her face was starting to grow warm and she knew it was turning red. “This is nonsense! Utter nonsense. This is not what educated adults do!”
This time, the wheels moved easily, gliding across the linoleum without squeaking. “C’mon,” he said, pushing the cart in front of her. “Hop in.”
“I don’t think so.”
“It’ll be fun.”
“This is something children do. Children and immature preteens.”
“Live a little!”
Finally, with a roll of her eyes, she balanced herself with one hand on his bicep and the other on the cart, leveraging off the bottom until she could get her leg over the side. She folded her legs underneath her as he wheeled to the farthest side of the store, finding the longest open path. Then, suddenly, he took off at a run. Jemma clung to the metal sides of the cart, fingers digging into the weave as she squeezed her eyes shut. Halfway through, Fitz picked his feet off the ground and they slid thirty, forty, fifty feet to the opposite wall, air whipping her hair back against his face.
Fitz stopped them just before they crashed into the milk refrigerator, breathing heavily against the back of her neck until she shivered. “Well?”
Instead of answering, all Jemma could do was laugh. She threw her head back against his shoulder, her flushed cheek pressed against his warm one, the adrenalin of the moment sending her heart pounding. “I think—” she said through fits of laughter. “I think five-year-olds have all the fun!”
“Yeah?” he said, a grin of enchantment lighting up his face. She turned to smile back at him, lips hardly an inch away from his. Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that it physically hurt.
Finally swallowing hard, she leaned back in the cart, staring dead ahead. Her hand went to cover his where it was still wrapped around the handle of the shopping cart, his knuckles white. “Let’s do it again!” she said, the excitement in her voice choked by the dryness in her throat.
Without any further prompting, he spun the cart around and started jogging in the opposite direction as she whooped in glee.
They did a few more laps around the store until Fitz was panting, leaning his weight against the handle of the cart. Jemma turned onto her knees so that she could face him and he raised an eyebrow at her. “So I don’t know about you,” he said, shrugging his shoulders, “but I’m starving.”
“I can imagine you’ve worked up a bit of an appetite,” she allowed. “Skye might have some food in her locker.”
Fitz looked around slowly. “Jemma, we’re in a grocery store.”
“We can’t just steal food!”
“It’s not stealing,” he said as he wheeled her towards the snack aisle and she braced herself on his arms at the sudden movement. “We’ll leave money for Skye and she can pay for it tomorrow when the store is actually open.” He stopped in front of the crisps, then held up two family size options. “Original or barbecue?”
She considered him for a moment. “Both.”
They quickly filled the cart with an amount of junk food that would normally make her sick just thinking about it: Oreos, sour worms and gummy bears, peanut M&Ms, goldfish crackers, pretzels. She insisted on grabbing raisins and dried apricots just for some semblance of a healthy snack and he indulged her before maneuvering the cart over to one of the small refrigerators near the front of the store to get a few cold bottles of soda and water.
The door to the employee lounge was open and, luckily, no alarms went off when they turned on the light. It wasn’t a large room, housing a row of employee lockers against the far wall, a small couch, a table with four chairs, and a small shelf under a very full bulletin board full of store notices and people looking to sell their bikes. Fitz unloaded their haul onto the shaky card table before he moved a chair next to the shopping cart and offered Jemma his hand. Smiling to herself, she held on to him for balance as she stood up and stepped on to the chair. She rested her other hand on his shoulder, not trusting her own stability—grace had never been her strong suit.
He took off his jacket and slung it over the back of his chair before settling down at the table. After spreading out the food, they dug in, Fitz tossing a handful of M&Ms into his mouth. She shook her head with a smile as he offered her some, hanging her purse on the corner of her chair. Jemma took a long sip of her water, watching as he opened one of the bag of crisps. “So what would you be doing tonight if you weren’t stuck here with me?”
Shrugging, Fitz didn’t look at her as he unsealed a tub of onion dip and moved it to the middle of the table. “Dunno. Probably nothing as exciting as this.”
“Really? You don’t have anything else to do on a Friday?” She cringed at how judgmental she ended up sounding. “I didn’t mean—I mean…don’t you have a girlfriend or something?”
Even in the dim lighting, she could see the redness extend down his neck. “Uh, no. No girlfriend. Uh, you know, sometimes I’ll be working on something in the lab, or go to the movies, or watch television. That’s why I picked up geocaching, you know? I had worked with a colleague on some GPS tech and we did a lot of our trial runs on geocaching. I sort of realized it was the only time I left my house to get outside and I should probably do that more often.” He rubbed the back of his head, looking a bit embarrassed and she was quick to nod her assurance.
“Oh, no, it was the same for me! I was starting to look the same color as my lab coat, I think. What’s the point in coming to America and not see any of it, even if it’s just little places in the town I live in, right? And I’ve been able to find some nice parks and hiking trails, even cute little local shops and restaurants that I don’t think I’ve have ever heard of if I hadn’t been in that area.” Smiling to herself, she said, “Skye thought it was all a little silly until I brought home really good Greek food one time.”
“Yeah, she makes fun of me for it too.” He shrugged, leaning back in the folding chair. “Sort of gotten used to it. Realized that she wouldn’t be so specific in how she made fun of me for Doctor Who unless she knew what was going on in the show and now we actually talk about it.”
Jemma giggled around the chips in her mouth. “My doing, I’m afraid. I was very insistent that we spend the extra money to get BBC America in the cable package and when she wanted to know why, other than general homesickness, I forced her to watch the series with me. She took quite a shine to Donna Noble.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” He rolled his eyes as he laughed. Sticking half of a sour worm in his mouth, he pulled on the other end, stretching it out until it snapped and he swallowed the part in his mouth. “But, um, so what would you normally be doing on a night like tonight? I assume that breaking and entering is not something you usually do.”
“I’m not the one who owns a lock picking kit.”
Fitz flushed, the bouncing of his knee shaking the table. “It was a gift from my mum.” At Jemma’s startled look, he said, “When I was young, I used to get into trouble all the time, taking things apart. I would always put them back together, but, you know, sometimes she needed to use the microwave right away. So she used to try to find ways to distract me, keep my hands occupied. After trying a few different things, she got me this lock picking kit and there’s different levels and it was something I was supposed to break, essentially. When I got too comfortable, she’d tell me to time myself to set new records or do it blindfolded or in the dark, something like that.”
She found herself beaming at him, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. “So your mother encouraged your criminal tendencies.”
“Only so much as I did it on the locks she gave me. But then right after I moved to America, I got locked out of my apartment and I had the worst super, he was just a horrible man and I had to call her at the worst bloody time over in Glasgow, I felt like such a child because I didn’t know what else to do. I managed to get back in eventually, but she sent me this lock pick kit so I’d never have to deal with that again.”
A warmth filled Jemma’s chest as she regarded him carefully. She twisted a lock of hair around her finger, biting her bottom lip thoughtfully. “She must love you a lot.”
Fitz focused on tearing open the bag of gummy bears. A few of them spilled onto the table. “Well, we only ever had each other.” Coughing to clear his throat, he said, “But you are avoiding to the question.”
She frowned in confusion before understanding dawned on her. “Oh! Oh, what would I be doing tonight? Hm, well, if Skye didn’t have a date, whatever Skye wanted us to do, probably. She tends to dominate weekend plans unless I definitely have to do something for work.”
Nodding understandingly, Fitz said, “Skye does tend to do that.”
“I don’t even think she realizes it and she always asks for my opinion, but she has things all laid out and she’s always so excited that—”
“You just can’t say no to her. Yeah, exactly.” He laughed and ran a hand through his curls.
Ripping open a box of raisins and pouring some into her hand, Jemma leaned back in her chair. “We’ll go to movies or a concert sometimes. Once in a while we try to cook together, it usually doesn’t end as well as we’d like it to, but Skye is always frightfully optimistic about it.” As Fitz watched her with undisguised interest, Jemma wrapped her hands around her water bottle. “But Skye does have dates or work sometimes so when it’s just me, I’ll be in the lab or watch TV or read. I’m actually quite a bit behind in my academic journals, I should probably not let Skye convince me to hang out during my downtime.”
“You don’t date?” The question was asked without Fitz looking up from his very steady stare at the linoleum floor.
“I…” She swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. “I don’t not date? I mean, I would, if there was anyone that I wanted to date. I’ve gone on a few dates, guys from work or blind dates, but no one worth seeing again, really.”
Fitz nodded, then suddenly fumbled for his phone as it vibrated in his pocked. He cursed under his breath. “Great, it’s dying. Skye just did a bunch of upgrades and they’ve been draining the battery like crazy.”
Jemma reached over the table for his wrist, turning the phone towards her. “Looks like you have the same phone as Skye. She always keeps a charger in her locker.” She got up and walked over to the locker that was labeled with Skye’s name. There was a radial lock hanging on it, but it wasn’t locked, so it only took a minute of searching before Jemma found the cell phone charger. Fitz took it gratefully and went to plug his phone into the wall while Jemma noticed something else on the small shelf.
“Do you play cards, Fitz?” she said as she turned around, waving the deck in her hand.
“Skye keeps cards in her locker?”
“She likes to hustle people on her lunch break,” Jemma said. When Fitz looked startled, Jemma was quick to assure him, “She’s actually quite brilliant at counting cards. And I’ve never seen anyone better at Three Card Monte. I actually think a lot of the concerts we’ve been to she won the tickets for.”
He opened and closed his mouth several times before settling on a thoughtful noise. “You know, our boss at Best Buy was rather furious about suddenly ‘misplacing’ a very expensive laptop right before Skye was fired.”
Taking her chair, Jemma couldn’t help but think of the laptop Skye had brought home and said she had gotten with her “employee discount.” She opened the pack and laid the cards out on the table. “What do you say? What’s your game? Gin? 21? Five card?”
“Do you know how to play Texas Hold ‘Em?” he said, taking the cards in his hands and beginning to shuffle them, his long fingers easily manipulating the cards.
Trying to hold back a grin, she crossed her arms on the table. “Played it once or twice.”
He did a few fancy shuffles, bridging the cards between his clearly talented hands, though she probably shouldn’t have been surprised—he was an engineer who had also fixed computers for a living. Jemma glanced at their spread of food, an idea coming to her. “Gummy bears can be a dollar,” she said, handing them each an unopened bag. “The ante. Pretzels will be worth five and Oreos will be ten.” As she divvied out even amounts of the snack food, Fitz raised an eyebrow at her and she shrugged. “It’s no fun if there are no stakes.” After placing her stack of Oreos in front of herself, she said, “Unless you were hoping for strip poker?”
Fitz choked and shook his head quickly, his entire face turning red. “No! No, I would never think—god, no, I wasn’t going to suggest anything like that.” The way he wouldn’t meet her eyes as he anted and dealt the first two cards made her wonder if it really had crossed his mind and she smirked a bit, crossing her legs under the table.
There was nothing noteworthy about the first few hands; neither had anything higher to play than a pair and they didn’t swap anything more than a few gummy bears for a few minutes. It was a few hands in when Jemma suddenly had the possibility of a flush. Her original two cards were the ace and nine of hearts and two of the cards in the flop were hearts too. She immediately bet an Oreo, smiling winningly at Fitz’s surprised reaction. He didn’t hesitate, however, before matching her Oreo and raising a second one.
The next card wasn’t a heart, but Fitz quickly bet another Oreo and after a quick scan of the cards she was realizing that he could be forming a straight, if he didn’t have one already. The competitive part of her that had yet to be satisfied by the geocache was growing concerned but she refused to show it as she matched the bet. He made a soft noise with his tongue against the roof of his mouth and drew the river card: it was the queen of hearts.
It took everything in Jemma’s power not to close her eyes and wiggle happily in her seat, but she desperately fought the urge. Instead, she picked up a cookie from her pile as nonchalantly as possible before sliding it to the middle of the table. Fitz instantly countered with three of his own and she bit down on the inside of her cheek to temper her smile. After drumming her fingers on the table for a moment, she matched the bet with a calm flick of her wrist, as if to say ‘oh, alright.’
Neither of them moved after that, each of them breathing heavily as they stared at each other across the table. His blue eyes stared intensely at her as he ran his tongue over his lips, leaving them pink and damp. “What’ve you got, Jemma?”
“You first, Fitz, I insist.”
His eyes didn’t leave her face as he laid the pair in his hand across the table. “I’ve got a straight, ace high.”
Exactly as she had suspected. Nodding in an attempt to be impressed, she said, “That’s very good, Fitz, and would be so much better if I didn’t have a flush.” She put down her two hearts, watching as his face fell. “Also ace high, actually.”
It didn’t take him more than a second to check all the cards to verify her claim and he leaned back in his chair and groaned with his hand over his eyes. “You really are Skye’s roommate.”
“Or maybe Skye’s really my roommate.”
His eyes flew open at that and he stared at her as she slid her pile of winnings over to her side of the table. As Jemma stacked her new monumental pile of Oreos, she nodded towards the cards. “Well, aren’t you going to shuffle? I hope I didn’t bruise your ego too badly.”
Fitz grumbled playfully under his breath as he gathered the cards up and shuffled them together while Jemma picked up an Oreo from the top of the nearest tower and unscrewed the two sides together. “Whoa, whoa!” Fitz said, holding up a hand to stop her. “What are you doing?”
Blinking rapidly in surprise, she said, “I’m eating a cookie.”
“You’re eating ten dollars.”
“It’s a cookie. By that logic, there’s probably hundreds of thousands of dollars out on the shelves right now.”
He rolled his eyes as he finished shuffling and dealt out the first two cards, reaching across the table for her ante. “It’s the principle of the matter. You’re eating your own money.”
“And I’m okay with that. You’re certainly not winning it back.” She licked the inside of the cookie, letting the cream coat her tongue as Fitz watched with something she could only scientifically describe as “awe” on his face. When the chocolate surface was clean, she popped both cookies in her mouth, raising her eyebrows at him and picking up her cards. It took him another minute before he realized that they were supposed to be playing cards and he shook his head and picked up his own, voice barely a squeak as he asked her what she wanted to bet.
They played for another dozen hands before she had to really lean back in her chair and stretch her arms over her head, feeling her back and shoulders pop as she arched her chest. Unable to stifle her yawn, Jemma covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, my, excuse me.”
“Nah, it’s, uh, it’s fine.” He pushed back the sleeve of his jumper to look at his watch. “It’s, I mean, well, it’s early. I’m sure you didn’t expect to be here all night, it’s no wonder you’re tired.”
“Are you not?” she said, rubbing her eyes and stretching her legs under the table. Her ankle brushed against his thigh and she murmured an apology through another yawn.
Fitz started wrapping up the food, keeping bags closed with whatever rubber bands and paperclips he had managed to find around the lounge. “When I’m working on a project, sometimes I get really into it. Stay up late working on it, hammering out the details, that kind of stuff. I can be kind of a night owl.” When Jemma yawned again, Fitz nodded over at the couch. “Why don’t you take a nap? Skye probably won’t be here for a little while. You don’t need to entertain me. My phone’s probably charged.”
She eyed the couch warily; there were several suspect stains dotting the beige fabric. It was probably generous to even call it a couch, it was far closer to a loveseat, really. But Jemma was feeling a bit drowsy. Pushing her chair back from the table, she toed off her shoes and climbed up onto the couch, tucking her feet under her. “Guess a quick rest couldn’t hurt,” she said a she pillowed her arms under her on the arm of the sofa and closed her eyes.
Before she realized what was happening, she felt something drape across her and peeked to see Fitz laying his jacket across her shoulders. Murmuring her thanks, she tucked it around herself, inhaling the deliciously spicy scent of his cologne where it clung to the fabric. Fitz squeezed to sit into the bit of room that was left on the small sofa.
Secretly pleased, she glanced over her shoulder at him, biting her bottom lip and watching him closely. She wondered if he smelled as good as his jacket. After a moment’s contemplation, Jemma turned around so that she was leaning against his side instead. “Is this okay?” she whispered. She sort of fit perfectly there, her head leaning against his shoulder.
“No, yeah, it’s fine with me.” There was a clear hesitation, but he wrapped his arm around her back, fingers stroking down between her shoulder blades. Her skin tingled at the touch.
It was easy to see all of his features from this close. His face was almost perfectly symmetrical, his eyes an overwhelming shade of blue. She liked looking at them. She like looking at all of him. Smiling into his shoulder, she said, “You know, as ridiculous as this has all been, I actually had a lot of fun tonight. I’m glad we got this chance to get to know each other.”
“Yeah, me too. I guess Skye was right.” He laughed drily, biting his bottom lip.
Jemma was almost distracted by his lips until she pulled back, blinking wearily at him. “What do you mean?”
Blowing out a long breath, he bounced his foot against the floor as his arm slipped down from around her shoulder. “She’s been trying to set us up for a while. I mean, don’t really know if she meant, like, date, you can never really tell if Skye’s joking, can you? But she was always inviting me over and out and would mention when you were there, talking about her hot roommate and I—I always sort of blew her off. She told me I should just meet you, that we’d really like each other, perfect dork match or whatever, but I just never did.”
She chewed on the inside of her cheek, trying to ignore the flare of pain in her chest. “You didn’t want to meet me?”
Fitz shook his head quickly, twisting his hands together. But he forced himself to look at her before he answered. “I did want to meet you. I just didn’t think you’d want to meet me.” At Jemma’s confused stare, he clarified, “Look, I’m just a guy who likes to build things. The only people I hang out with on a regular basis are Skye and Mack, and Mack’s my roommate, you can’t really beat proximity. I’ve never dated a girl long enough that I could even call her my girlfriend. I’m in the lab constantly and if I’m not, I’m probably still working at home or watching Doctor Who or Star Trek or playing video games. Skye told me how amazing you are and I still don’t think she gave you nearly enough credit because you’re just…” He trailed off with a sigh, looking away from her. “I just thought it was better for everyone if I didn’t disappoint you.”
“You didn’t disappoint me,” Jemma said quickly, grabbing his hand.
He laughed shortly, gaze fixated on the floor. “Yeah?”
“Fitz,” she said to get his attention. When he looked up at her, she kissed him, her lips meeting his in a decisive press as her hands went to hold his head. It was clear that it surprised him, but he recovered quickly, returning the kiss with enthusiasm. One hand became tangled in her hair while the other settled at her lower back; his palm was warm and firm, his fingers spread wide. Jemma licked his bottom lip first, delighted when she was rewarded with a groan, but as Fitz kissed her deeper she was starting to doubt his claim that he’d never had a girlfriend before because she had begun to feel a bit lightheaded.
Finally pulling away, Jemma panted against his neck. Fitz’s cheeks were flushed and his blue eyes were bright as he watched her, clearly waiting for a reaction, a hint of what the next move was to be. Smirking at him, she said, “Still not disappointed.”
Laughing despite his breathlessness, he buried his fingers deeper in her waves, dragging her to him. Jemma licked inside his mouth, moving closer on her knees until one was resting on his thigh. As he whimpered into her mouth, she tickled the back of his neck with her nails, tips of her fingers dancing in his tightly cut curls. There were more butterflies in her stomach than she could ever remember before; it wasn’t that she had never met a guy and wanted to kiss him, but it hadn’t happened for a while. Not without Skye goading her on. Not this sober.
Fitz pulled her bottom lip between his teeth, tugging until she groaned and she had to stop herself from just pushing him back and fully climbing into his lap. Instead, she just cupped her hand behind his head so she could maneuver his mouth against hers and kiss him deeper. He tasted like gummy bears, overwhelmingly sweet and slightly fruity, and a hint of something else that she couldn’t place but was definitely going to keep working on until she could.
When he moved back to breathe, her eyes fluttered open slowly, taking in his red cheeks and the way he was licking his lips. “Did you, uh,” he began, clearing his throat. “Did you still want to take that nap?”
She shook her head as she giggled, patting his shoulder. “I think I can hold out, actually. Want to keep making out instead?”
“Yes, please.”
Her arms went around his neck as their lips met, slotting together hungrily. Jemma found herself leaning back against the arm of the couch and Fitz leaned over her as she explored his mouth. Then his lips trailed across her skin, tickling the sensitive skin behind her ear, before moving down to kiss her neck. Jemma shivered when he sucked at her pulse point, lightly scraping his teeth against it.
“Are you cold?” he whispered, voice pitched low and rough.
It took a few seconds for Jemma to find words. “No,” she said, shivering again. “I think it’s rather warm in here, actually.”
“Yeah, it is.” Using one hand to hold himself over her, Fitz ran a hand through his hair and looked around the room. “Wonder if you can adjust the AC in here.”
As she tried to catch her breath, Jemma did a quick sweep of the room, startled when something on top of the lockers caught her eye. “Is that…is that my jumper?” She pushed on Fitz’s shoulder so that he would roll off of her, and she climbed off the couch, walking over to the lockers. She reached up to sweep her hand over the top, but it remained frustratingly out of reach.
Fitz came up behind her and pulled up a chair for her to stand on, holding it still so it wouldn’t shake. “Here, try this.” Jemma smiled at him and put one hand on his shoulder as she stepped up on the chair. At that height, she was just able to see over the top of the lockers. Sitting there, in a messy ball, was the black and grey heart patterned jumper than she had been sure Skye had borrowed from her two weeks ago and had not returned, and, of course, she was right. It was blocking the A/C vent, and more cool air instantly filled the room once she pulled the jumper out of the way, dropping it down on to the table below.
It was then that she saw it: a box, no larger than a shoe box, painted TARDIS blue. It was even designed to look like the TARDIS. Jemma’s breath caught in her throat as she reached for it, pulling it down to hold it out to Fitz. “Fitz, look!”
His jaw dropped as he put a hand on her back to steady her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I suppose it makes some sense,” Jemma said, as she climbed off the chair and put the box on the table. “’Things are looking up,’ it was up on the lockers; ‘it’s bigger on the inside,’ well, it’s a TARDIS box. The heart clue was my jumper and the hot or cold clue was the A/C vent.”
He shook his head. “But why would they have your jumper?”
Frowning to herself, Jemma quickly pried the top off the box, finding a folded letter at the very top.
Dear Nerds,
Congratulations! You’ve either found this or I’ve given it to you after I’ve literally smacked you over the head with it. Either way, you’ve gotten your prize: finally getting to meet each other. Also tickets to next weekend’s Doctor Who convention, but that’s just a bonus at this point.
I’ve been trying to set you two geeks up for FOREVER because it’s obvious to me and anyone else I talk to about it that you’re stupidly perfect for each other, but you’re also stupidly stubborn so yes, I absolutely locked you in a building together. Whatever, you’ll thank me when you’re married. This is going to be a great story to tell your kids.
(Seriously, how did you not realize that this entire geocaching thing was set up so that you would win it? The first clue was at the Starbucks you both go to! The second one was at the fountain at the university you BOTH WORK AT. I mean, for real, I’m starting to doubt the super genius thing.)
So, here, two full weekend passes to next weekend’s Doctor Who con that neither of you were going to go to because you didn’t have anyone to go with. Well, now you do. Go get laid in all of your geekery. And if you don’t want them, I will gladly get my money back, these were expensive as hell and I pre-ordered. You can dress up, you can mega-geek with your fellow nerds. Karen Gillan will be there and I know you both have a crush on her. Hopefully after tonight, you both have a crush on each other too. If you don’t, I give up. I just give up.
Someone who loves you both and thinks you two are hopeless,
Skye
“She set us up,” Fitz said as he read over her shoulder.
“I’m going to kill her.” Jemma huffed in disbelief. “I’m absolutely going to kill her.”
Quirking his lips, Fitz reached into the box and pulled out two lanyards. “Well, now, these are platinum passes.”
“Fitz!”
“I’m just saying, she went through a lot of trouble.” He shrugged and set the laminated passes back in the box. “I mean, just setting up the geocache alone must have been pretty time consuming, coming up with the puzzles and stuff. And I know the platinum passes cost money, I was thinking of getting one before I thought about how boring it would be to go alone. They get you VIP seats and come with a photo op and autograph with Karen Gillan and everything. Probably took her quite a bit of card counting to earn the money for these.”
Jemma couldn’t help but smile even though she still wanted to be very, very angry. “It would be very boring to go alone. Probably a very dull experience otherwise.”
Fitz reached up to tuck a flyaway piece of her hair behind her ear, the feeling of his fingers brushing her cheek making her entire body tingle. “Yeah, I’d much rather go with someone…someone great.”
Ignoring the way she knew her cheeks were flushed and the rest of her hair was undoubtedly a mess, she folded the note back into the box and closed the top before checking her watch. “Skye probably won’t be here for at least another hour. At least, she’s never left the house on time in all the time I’ve known her.”
“Oh yeah?” Fitz said, raising an eyebrow at her and squeezing her hand. “What should we do until then?”
Within seconds, she was pushing Fitz on the couch, straddling him, her legs bracketing his thighs. Fitz’s hands held her hips firmly and she couldn’t help but groan against his neck before sinking her teeth into the tender flesh. His grip tightened as she soothed the marks she’d made with her tongue, slowly easing the sting. The stubble on his jaw rasped against her face.
“Want to kiss you,” he murmured, his breath hot against her ear, and she picked her head up, nose brushing against his before he pressed his mouth to hers, insistent and longing. He hummed happily and goosebumps ran up her arms. Jemma couldn’t remember a time in her life when she’d ever fit so perfectly in someone’s grasp, the way her arm hooked easily around the back of his neck, as he urged her closer. Their chests pressed together and their rapid breathing synched up as she kissed the underside of his jaw. It was fairly amazing to her, the idea of meeting someone to smart, so interesting, and so sexually compatible on top of that.
His hands skimmed down her thighs, hot over the denim and she instantly tried to spread wider for him. He thumbed the inner seam of her jeans and she whimpered against his collarbone, grinding down against his lap. She could feel his erection straining hard underneath her. Feeling her entire body surge with heat, Jemma attached her mouth to his neck as she pressed her hips against his, rolling down on him.
“Christ, Jemma,” he said, cursing under his breath. He brought his hands up to cup her cheeks, taking her mouth with a need that could be matched only by her own. She was tugging on his jumper now, twisting and stretching the material in her hands as she clung to him. He moved one of his hands to her lower back, then slid it down to her arse, pushing her closer until they were as flush together as they could possibly be with clothes still on.
As his teeth found the shell of her ear, then his tongue the tender areas below it, his whimpered indecipherable words against her skin. She turned her head to kiss him softly, trying to coax out the words with her lips. “Fitz?”
“I just…” He swallowed hard, then kissed her fiercely. “I want you. God, I want you.” His voice was almost sad and hopeless, accent stronger than she had heard it thus far, and the weight of it was laying on her chest.
Taking his chin firmly, she forced him to look at her. “So take me.” After kissing him solidly, she rolled her hips into his again to feel him pulse underneath her, to feel the rumble of the moan in his chest reverberate into hers. “Please, Fitz.”
Snaking an arm around her to steady her against him, Fitz leaned forward so that he could reach into the back pocket of his pants to pull out…his lockpick kit. He cursed, then sank his teeth into her shoulder in frustration. “My wallet is in my car,” he said. He pressed his face against her neck, eyes squeezed tightly shut. “I don’t have a…a you know.”
“Fitz.” Jemma drew her hands up his spine, letting her fingertips sooth him before she worked her way up his neck and into his curls. “Fitz, we’re in a store.”
He leaned away from her sharply, eyebrows raised in surprise. “Right. Right.” After giving her a swift kiss, he moved her aside and stood up. “I’ll be right back.”
She could hear his shoes squeak against the floors as Jemma kicked off her own trainers and shimmied out of her jeans, picking them up and folding them over the edge of the table. Fitz came back at a run, closing the door to the break room behind him. For a moment he just stared at her bare legs, then he tore open the box of condoms, pulled out the first one his fingers found and pulled her towards him, kissing her roughly.
They fell back onto the couch together, her in his lap as she straddled him. Oh god, she wanted to ride him. As she licked his bottom lip, his right hand drew up her bare leg, fingers trailing lightly over the pale skin as he continued between her thighs. Fitz stroked the thin cotton of her underwear and they could both feel how wet the fabric was under the pads of his fingers. As he pushed it aside to dip under it, Jemma groaned, leaning her forehead against his. It didn’t take Fitz more than a few seconds to find her clit, rubbing it under his index and middle finger until she was panting.
Squeezing his shoulder, Jemma said, “I definitely want you to do that—a lot, trust me—but right now I need you inside of me.” Fitz groaned at that and she took it as an agreement. Jemma reached for the button on his pants, ignoring the way her hands shook a bit as she pulled down his zipper. His chest rose and fell heavily as she tugged his boxers down over his dick and balls and she licked her lips when she saw how heavy and hard it was.
She was going to do every naughty thing that she could think of to this man when they got out of here.
After sitting back so that he could roll the condom on, Jemma raised herself over him, moved her panties out of the way, then slid down so that he was inside of her. Fitz had his hands on her arse and was pressing kisses to her jaw, murmuring things that might be words, but were entirely incomprehensible. After a moment, she started moving, pushing herself off his shoulders to get more height. Fitz leaned in for her mouth, head synchronized with the thrusts as he kissed her.
Jemma could barely believe how amazing this was. She was practically a felon and now she was having quick, dirty sex with a man she didn’t really know, but really, really liked in her roommate’s job. And it was damn good. Really, really damn, freaking good.
Fitz’s hand wrapped around the back of her neck as he pushed into her harder. He groaned as he mouthed at her throat. Eyes closed, Jemma enjoyed the sensations of his warmth underneath her and around her. “Kiss me,” she begged and before she could open her eyes, he had obeyed. He kissed her slowly in comparison to his quick, almost brutal thrusts. When she sighed softly into his mouth, Fitz nipped playfully at her upper lip before kissing her cheek and her nose and her chin before returning to her lips, licking hungrily at the roof of her mouth.
Her nails dug into the back of his neck as she wrapped her arms around him tighter. Jemma wished they had more time, wished she could feel his naked skin against hers. Instead his hand rooted up her blouse, cupping her breast over her lacy bra. It wasn’t that Jemma didn’t appreciate a quickie when the time called for it, but she had a feeling that Leo Fitz had far more to offer.
As if he knew her thoughts, Fitz’s hands were at her hips and he took her, lifted her up, and brought her down on him. Jemma’s breath was knocked out of her lungs at the sudden intensity of the pleasure she felt. It wasn’t quite an orgasm, but it was almost unbearably close. Without letting go of her hips, Fitz continued hitting the same spots, sending fireworks behind her eyes as she clung almost uselessly to his shoulders. It was almost a minute before she could arch her back and ride him properly again and by that time he had his lips pressed against her cheek, murmuring, “I’m so close.”
“Me too, almost.” As she bit her bottom lip, his hand wound its way down her leg, slipping back into her underwear to rub her clit. Twenty seconds and she was done, throwing her head back and calling his name into the empty room before pressing her forehead against his Adam’s apple and rolling her hips with the aftershocks as his fingers refused to still. He finished a minute later, repeating her name over and over again into her hairline as he pressed his lips there, his one hand gripping her so tightly she realized she’d have to be made of steel not to break after that. It felt good.
She pushed his hand away from her clit while he caught his breath. “Sensitive,” she murmured, nuzzling his neck. Then she kissed him lazily and appreciatively, enjoying the residual hum throughout her body.
“Sorry,” he said, stroking her hair with his clean hand. They indulged in the pleasure of a slowly, casually making out for a few minutes before Fitz looked over his shoulder at the room. “We should probably clean up,” he said, kissing her clavicle.
She looked down to where his dick was still in her. “Probably.”
By the time they had finished putting their clothes back on, straightening up the break room, and making a list of everything that they had “borrowed” from the shelves, it was almost time for the morning shift to get there. They flipped the couch cushions—“That’s just general couch maintenance anyway”—before sitting back at the table, playing quick hands of Texas Hold ‘Em for the last of the gummy bears. When they heard noise at the door, Fitz jumped up to turn off the lights as Jemma sat remarkably still.
“Why is the door unlocked?” a male voice was heard saying. “And this alarm… What is this? It’s not set correctly, it looks like it had some sort of error last night.”
“Like a power outage thing?” That was Skye.
“No, like it wasn’t set right or something,” the man said.
“Huh. Well, Ward closed last night, you know how useless that guy is. Probably screwed up. You want a donut before I go put my bag away and eat them all?” There was the sound of a paper box being opened and closed. “Oooh, chocolate glazed, good choice, good choice. I’m all about the jelly myself. Good luck with that paperwork, holler for me if the computer in the office gives you fits again.” There was muffled talking, then the sound of a door being opened and closed before the door to the break room was opened. “Fitzsimmons?” Skye said softly, poking her head in. “Are you in here?”
As she reached for the light switch, Fitz said, “Oh, we’re in here.”
“And we are pissed off, Skye,” Jemma said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Holding out the box of dozen, Skye said, “I brought make up donuts. I got your favorites. Boston Cream for Fitz, French crueler for Jemma.”
When he reached for his donut, Jemma admonished, “Fitz!”
“Well, I’m going to eat it, that doesn’t mean she’s forgiven!”
Sitting down and biting into her jelly donut, Skye said, “I’m not entirely sure what I need to be forgiven for.”
Jemma’s jaw dropped. “Let’s start with false imprisonment!” she squeaked out, trying to remember to keep her voice down now that other people were there.
Skye rolled her eyes and kicked her feet up onto the edge of the table. “Only, like, technically. So says the people who broke into my store. Nice hair, by the way, Dr. Hickey.”
One hand flew to her hair and the other to her neck as Fitz blushed a deep red next to her. “Th-that,” Jemma stuttered, trying to keep her emotions in check. “That is neither here nor there.”
“Oh, I’m sure they’re here, there, and everywhere.” As Skye grabbed another donut and smirked, she said, “What’s the big deal? I’ve been trying to hook you two up for ages, and clearly I’m very successful at everything I do. Do you want to go to the Doctor Who geekathon?”
Jemma remained tight-lipped but Fitz nodded, “Yeah, it’s super cool, actually, thanks.”
“If I told you that I had a suite saved for you that you could book at a—“ she laughed “—‘managerial special’ of 70% off listing plus free minibar for the whole weekend, would you want that too?”
Fitz and Jemma quickly looked over at each other; she wasn’t sure if the way he licked his lips was intentional, but she did know that it made her stomach twist with need. “Yes,” Jemma said, nodding quickly. “We would…be interested.”
Quirking an interested eyebrow, Skye said, “I’ll help you book it when I get home tonight. See, I’m not the bad guy here. So take a donut and you crazy kids go geocache or talk about aliens or whatever it is you guys do.”
As Jemma stood up, she eyed her roommate carefully. “You’re not fully off the hook yet.”
“But…donuts!”
Sliding the piece of paper over to her, she said, “This is a list of things we took off the shelf while we had to spend our night here. The leftovers are currently in your locker. You’ll pay for them and bring what’s left home after your shift.”
Though she groaned under her breath, Skye nodded. “Cruel but fair.” She peeked out into the hallway, then waved them on. “The coast is clear, the boss is working on paperwork.”
“Alright,” Jemma said, grabbing her purse, the blue box and her heart jumper as Fitz swung his jacket over his arm. “And Skye, the next time you think I need to meet someone, maybe you, I don’t know, maybe try making me a profile on Match.com or something.” She glanced over at Fitz and tried to temper down a grin. “Not that such a thing is necessary.”
Winking lustily at her, Skye said, “Gotcha. See you at home.”
The morning sun was bright to her eyes as she and Fitz headed out into the parking lot. It was practically blinding after a night of dim fluorescents. They walked about halfway between their two cars before they stood and stared at each other, each holding a hand up to block the sun from their eyes. “Are you still tired?” he said, scuffing his foot against the asphalt.
“I know I should be,” she admitted, bringing her hand down through her hair. “But I’m not. Probably overtired at this point.”
“If you’re still hungry, there’s an IHOP just down the street. I mean, if you like pancakes. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like pancakes, but it’s okay if you don’t.”
Jemma laughed, nose crinkling fondly. “I do like pancakes. Actually, I make really good pancakes. And, you know, my roommate is not going to be home for a while.”
Nodding seriously, his brow furrowed under eyes that had brightened at the suggestion, Fitz said, “That is true. And, uh, we do have a whole box of these.” From under his jacket, he pulled out the box of emergency condoms they had snagged and she threw her hand over her mouth in laughter before kissing him.
“Did you really take those?”
“What, you thought I was going to leave them behind?”
Biting her bottom lip to hold back a giggle, she said, “I don’t think we actually put those on the list of things for Skye to buy. So that was kind of stealing.”
He stroked the top of her arm gently. “We defiled their couch, I’m not sure they’re going to care that much about the condoms.”
“Hold them out for me?” she requested as she opened the camera app on her phone. She took a picture of the condoms and sent it to Skye along with the message: Forgot something else you need to pay for. Thanks! :)
The response was immediate: You fuckers! Did you fucking do it? OMG you did I can totally tell I can’t believe you got laid and you want me to apologize. YOU’RE WELCOME
She turned her phone to silent to ignore the barrage of incoming text messages, then leaned up to give Fitz a gentle kiss. “So, pancakes? You know where I live, right?”
He smiled at her, then pressed his lips to her temple. “Yeah, I’ve dropped off Skye a couple of times. But I’ll just follow you anyway.”
“Yeah?”
“Of course.” He kissed her cheek before pulling his keys out of his jacket pocket. “I’ll see you there.”
As silly as it was, Jemma couldn’t keep from humming under her breath as she went to her car, unlocking it and putting her purse on the passenger seat along with the box and her jumper. She could see Fitz in the rearview mirror as she went to pull out of the parking lot, but it was the bright blue of the box and the heart pattern on the sweater that kept catching her eye. Maybe, she mused to herself as she took the fastest route home, Skye had been right about a few things. It had been a matter of the heart after all.