The way his expression and demeanor completely changed when she asked what he was doing there made her frown, and finish stepping up to the cell so she was standing right in front of him.

There was something about him that drew him to her– a deepness to his eyes, and she completely believed he was telling the truth about wanting to help, and having it go wrong.

That was something she could relate to.

“Why not a police box?” She blinked, being pulled from her thoughts thankfully before they had a chance to get too dark. “I like the police box, and I don’t really know what I’m doing here yet. That happens sometimes. This ship… It belongs to the Inhumans, doesn’t it?” She asked, pulling out her Sonic from her inside pocket and scanning the air. “Definitely Inhumans.” She answered, before he had the chance, and then turned to subtly unlock his cell with her sonic.

@imthcboss

Fitz was very used to the fantastical and weird happening all around him. It was pretty much his bread and butter these days. 

Aliens trying to take over New York? Seen them. Avengers kicked their arses. No big deal. An alien trying to take his friend? Shot him with a big-ass gun. Said friend’s father hopped up on his own homemade science juice? Smashed him with a car, erased his memory. Inhuman monster made of flesh-eating microbes? Shot him into space and blew the hell out of him. Ghosts? Watched a demon kill them. Robots and cyborgs attacking? Been there, done that. 

All that said, it was still a very strange day when he was taken onto a space ship and imprisoned by Inhumans for ‘crimes against Inhumanity’. 

It was an even stranger day when a woman appeared in a blue police box just like a few they still had in Glasgow. 

He’d been looking that way because the guard was coming back any time and he’d been working on a way to get the tracker out of his arm. He had a ragged shiv and some liquid nitrogen to freeze the tracker with. But when he glanced back, there it was, a blue police box sitting right there on the deck like it was always there. 

“The hell?” he blurted.

Of course, the TARDIS often decided not to listen to where she wanted to go, and take her somewhere else.

Which is how she ended up in a space station run by a race of Inhumans... Hmm it'd been a while since she'd run into them. Her last encounter with them had been on Earth a few faces ago, she was quite certain. She stepped out of the TARDIS, and immediately turned to rub her hand affectionately along the siding.

"What are we doin--" she paused when she heard a voice -- a Scottish one that made her smile nostalgically before turning around with a reminiscent smile.

"Bristol... I love Bristol. My last face spent quite a lot of time there-- You know what, Never mind that. This... This beautiful thing is my ship." She beamed over at the TARDIS and then back to the confused man... Who she was finally noticing was standing in a cell.

[SMS: Jemma] I’m always happy to ASSist you.

[SMS: Fitz] Oh I know, you always have been the best lab partner a girl could ask for.  😘

[SMS: Fitz] 👅 you first, until you were weak at the knees. Start working on that 'Lock and Key' method a bit early.

[SMS: Fitz] Probably would want to take you in the supply closet now, if you were here. 😉

[SMS: Jemma] I’m always happy to ASSist you.

[SMS: Fitz] Oh I know, you always have been the best lab partner a girl could ask for.  😘

[SMS: Jemma] Have I told you recently that you’re so hot you denature my proteins?

Fitz let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding when Jemma told him that was not, in fact, what she’d been saying. “Thank god for that,” he mumbled under his breath.

“Wait, what?” he blurted again when she told him that she’d thought of them together before—and getting married, apparently. 

He brought a hand to his forehead, a pained expression on his face. “Jemma. If you were that sure…why—for heaven’s sake—wouldn’t you have said anythin’?”

“Yes, it would’ve been worse that way,” he agreed. “Because if I’d gone through with the weddin’, even if you’d told me later…I wouldn’t have left. I know it’s an arbitrary line but it’s the one that I’ve drawn for myself. I wouldn’t just leave. I would’ve stayed and we all would’ve been unhappy.” More than that, he felt it likely would’ve ruined his and Jemma’s friendship along with it.

He didn’t mention it but Mara had wanted to start trying for a baby sooner rather than later and Fitz already knew that, had that happened, he and Jemma never, ever would’ve happened. 

Fitz could never do to his child what his own father had done to him. Sometimes he thought the abandonment was worse than the rest.

When she refused to wait for him upstairs, promising to bring her mobile and wait back at the door to the building, Fitz could see that she wasn’t going to be reasonable about it.

“He won’t hurt me,” he said with far more confidence than he felt. “But if—if—anythin’ happens, or anyone gets close to that door, you close it and call the police. Promise me?”

He put an arm around her that was half reassurance for her and half for him. “It’ll be fine. I just want to be cautious.”

“What?” She practically spluttered again, when he asked why she hadn’t said anything before, if she’d been so sure. “Because I never thought you felt the same way, obviously!” She retorted, crossing her arms against her chest indignantly. 

“ I just meant, there was a time I’d imagined it -- but once you and Mara got together... I tried to forget about it.”  

The first time she thought she had been sure, she chickened out of actually ever saying anything, and then he introduced her to Mara, and she knew it was too late. And her assumption, and hope, that it could be them that end up together quickly started to deteriorate. 

He didn’t fight her too much again when she offered to wait by the door at least, and she had to consider that a small win. “It’ll be fine,” She agreed, sliding her hand down that had been crossing her chest to graze her fingers against his at her side.  

No matter what he said.

She frowned when he continued, and reached out to give his arm a gentle squeeze when she came back from the window. “I know you don’t,” She whispered, taking a step closer. “I’m not saying that mistakes weren’t made, and that unfortunately feelings won’t be hurt. But it’s better that it happened now, than later, yeah? Or not at all?”

The last question came out a bit more strained than she’d intended, and she felt guilty for worrying about her own feelings considering everything. Factoring in everyone involved, she definitely got the better end of the deal.  

Then he was pleading with her to stay behind, and she folded her arms against her chest defiantly. “I could always call the police from down there with my mobile,” She pointed out. “That’s not really a very sound argument. You shouldn’t have to do this alone, Fitz. I don’t want you to get hurt, either.”

She considered it for a moment longer, before dropping her arms back to her side and continuing. “If it would really make you feel better, and you’d rather speak to him alone – I could stand back by the door to the building. Give you some space, if you really want it.”

Fitz frowned at Jemma’s response. “Wait, what? Are you sayin’ you may not have been unhappy if I’d married Mara?”

Though he’d been self-deprecating when he’d suggested it, he had mostly thought it was a joke. Faced with the possibility that Jemma would’ve been just as happy if he’d married Mara, his entire decision-making process was suddenly called in to question.

She’d been trying to downplay her own feelings just a smidge, in an attempt to be less selfish and not make this about her. It wasn’t all about her, it was about Fitz and Mara as well, and she’d wanted to be there for Fitz. But apparently she’d said something wrong, and she couldn’t figure out where she’d implied that she’d not have been unhappy.

“That’s not what I was saying at all,” she hurried to say, maybe just a bit indignantly. “I said I’d regret not telling you. And that’s putting it lightly. Why ever regret not telling you how I felt or that I’d at one time before you and Mara got together thought it’d be me in the white dress instead of her, if I were happy!?”