Skye stood rigidly in front of a dank public restroom mirror, she hadn’t been running but she was breathing excitedly, she had just got off the plane and was now taking a good hard look at herself. Her skin was blotchy and her hair was stiff and slightly tangled from the long ride there, her clothes were at least three days old and as she realized after sniffing under arm, she was slightly stinky. She took a deep breathe and suddenly everything seemed terrifying and now she felt absolutely insane for dropping everything and heading over to meet a woman she had only seen through the screen face to face. She shook her head and plopped her one bag onto the questionably sterile counter, in it was everything she owned anymore and she felt a bit like crying now that she was here. She had lost contact with Jemma a few days ago and she was worried that the scientist thought she had left her, and she was almost glad that the other woman didn’t know when she was coming since she didn’t want her to see her like this for the first time.
Skye forced herself to smile despite everything and the strange looks she was getting from the women coming in and out of the bathroom.
“It’s okay, Skye, you’ve worked with less.”
Maybe she looked a little crazy talking to herself but she ignored the sneers and dipped her hands in the sink water and running her hands through her thick hair, she reached in her bad and grabbed a comb before attempting to pull it through her locks without any luck.
“Screw it, I’ll put it up.”
She had a tiny bit of foundation left in her bag and she worked to get the last little bit out and wiping it on the particularly blotchy sections of her face and under her eyes to hide the dark spots.
A lady walked by who didn’t look quite as mean as the others and she stopped her, trying out her puppy dog eyes.
“Excuse me, miss, you wouldn’t happen to have any perfume that I could borrow, would you?”
The lady smiled and handed her a little bottle, she thanked her profusely and sprayed it everywhere, it wasn’t her first choice of scent but it was a million times better than B.O. She gave the nice lady her perfume back and then dug around in her pockets, pulling out two crumpled up dollar bills and a nickel, she sighed and looked back at the mirror.
“Well Skye, at least you know she doesn’t love you for your money.”
She left the bathroom and made her way down the street, she was only a few blocks from where Jemma worked and she was going to need that time to make herself brave. She looked around at all the shops, a couple of them were selling flowers but they were all priced to high for Skye’s $2.05. She looked at the ground, she had promised roses and everything had not turned out as planned. However, Skye wasn’t going to give up that easily, she may not have a steed or even a scooter but she wasn’t going in there without any flowers. She looked around to the residential houses on the other side of the street and smiled devilishly.
“Oh yeah..”
She made her way to the beautiful and rich homes, trying her best not to get noticed. She went through about three houses before finally looking through a hole in the fence and seeing a big Rose bush, full of both red and yellow roses. She looked around her and then hoped over the fence, her feet made a loud crunching sound as she hit the ground, she winced and stopped moving for a second before sprinting over to the bush. The thorns ripped up her hands and she realized how hard it was to cut the stems without any scissors, but she got enough to be considered a bouquet and arranged them clumsily before carefully climbing out of the yard undetected. She casually wiped her bleeding fingers on her pants before scolding herself as the blood showed darkly and obviously on her jeans. She found a water fountain and washed the stems off so that you couldn’t see her blood on the thorns and she then quickly made her way to the large, futuristic building where Jemma worked, rolling her eyes at her own clumsiness and talking to herself, harshly.
“Hi Jemma, yeah I’m that chick you’ve been talking too, will you go out with me? I’ve got two bucks and I swear I’m not a serial killer. Please ignore the blood on my knees. I’m not insane.”
She felt horribly out of place in the professional and high tech building, everyone there was either in an expensive suit or in a lab coat with expensive looking equipment. She patted the modest laptop in her bag.
“Don’t beat yourself up, I bought you for 300 bucks at a pawn shop.”
She made it to the front desk on Jemma’s floor where a proper looking woman was sitting and juggling around three different ringing phones with ease while pointing people in different directions. Skye wasn’t sure if she should talk while the woman had a phone to her ear but the lady waved her to speak up.
“Um, yes, I’m here to see Jemma Simmons.”
“Do you have an appointment with Dr. Simmons?”
“Um.. No but--”
“You’ll have to make an appointment. Over there”
She pointed to a huge line of people in front of a desk.
“She should be able to see you within the next month.. Next!”
Skye clenched her jaw shut, holding onto her bag with a fist. She didn’t go to the huge line of people and instead walked down the hallway while the lady was busy with someone else. She needed to hurry since the roses were already wilting slightly. She found a lab coat with chemistry glasses on top of them lying on an empty lab cart and she swiftly put them on, hoping silently that whoever these belonged to didn’t have pink eye or something, that would be just her luck. After that, no one took a second glance at her. She just wanted to meet the woman, this was beginning to feel like some horribly planned heist however, her heart jumped as she saw the door at the end of the hall and she walked up, cautiously. There were two names on the door; Dr. Jemma Simmons and Dr. Leopold Fitz and they each had a list of their doctorates under the name. Skye’s mouth dropped as she saw the list under Jemma’s name, she knew that she was a Dr. In Biochemistry but there were at least four other doctorates in fields she couldn’t even pronounce. Another wave of self doubt rushed over her and she debated just dropping the flowers and hitchhiking back home, she was only a hacker for hire, this woman was leagues above her, however she put her hand on the doorknob and took a deep breathe. She originally wanted to burst in and surprise everyone but instead as she turned the knob and opened the door, she walked slowly in in, holding her head down shyly. The room she walked in was empty but on one side was a huge window revealing a massive lab. She shed the coat and the glasses, laying them carefully on the ground and walking tentatively to the window. The two scientists were turned around and working lazily, lost in their own little world, Skye knocked on the glass, terror filling up her chest. Jemma didn’t look up but Fitz did and Skye could see his eyes roll and his mouth moving. Jemma practically dropped the piece of equipment in her hands and turned around on her heel. The scientist’s face lit up and she ran to the glass putting her hands on it excitedly, she was jumping up and down like a child at the circus. Skye could see her mouth moving quickly but she couldn’t hear anything through the glass even though the scientist definitely seemed happy. She put a finger up and stripped off her coat and glasses before disappearing on the other side of the room. Skye looked at Fitz for some answer and he moved his hands in a washing motion before gesturing to his whole body, Skye gave him a thumbs up to show him that she understood and then turned away from the glass. It seemed to take forever with Skye standing awkwardly, feeling Fitz’s eyes on her back, finally a door slid open and Jemma practically ran out, patting her hair down and straightening out her stripped sweater. The woman was a billion times even more beautiful in real life and Skye felt a lump in her throat as they both stopped and stared at each other with smiles on their faces. Skye wondered whether Jemma had the same lump in her throat.
Jemma took a couple of steps foreword before reaching out her hand as far as it would go and Skye immediately did the same, they giggled as their fingers touched for the first time. Jemma hopped up and down for a second before dropping her hand and wrapping her arms around Skye’s waste. Skye wrapped her arms around Jemma, keeping the roses away so that the thorns wouldn’t catch on her sweater. Jemma let go and backed away shyly, holding her hands in front of her.
“I’m sorry.. I was just so worried about you.”
She laughed awkwardly, kicking her feet on the ground and blushing.
“You are so beautiful in real life.”
Her face dropped and she started back tracking.
“I-- I mean you were beautiful on the computer as well.. I just mean, you know off it and not so pixilated.”
Skye laughed, surprised that Jemma seemed so impressed with her.
“I understand, you are too.. Beautiful off the screen I mean.. I Uh- I brought you flowers.’
Skye handed the homemade bouquet to the scientist and she took it excitedly sniffing the pedals and closing her eyes.
“They’re perfect, you certainly do keep your promises don’t you?”
Skye smiled, looking away.
“Heh, hardly”
Jemma walked over slowly and tentatively reached her hand up, pulling a piece of Skye’s bangs out of her eyes, she seemed a bit scared, as if she were worried that she was stepping out of line but Skye gave her a little smile to reassure her.
“You poor thing.. You look exhausted.”
“I’m fine, don’t worry about me…Um.. So I was wondering if maybe we could do something, you know, tonight after you get off work?”
Jemma’s face looked much braver than before as she smiled and lightly tapped Skye shoulder as if finding any excuse to touch her.”
“Nonsense! Silly, I finally get to see you and touch you, I’m not staying here!”
Skye was legitimately shocked, Jemma seemed to always be tied to work. The scientist walked over and pulled out a little communication panel ( That would have been useful when she first walked in), she pushed the button.
“I’m taking the rest of the day off, mmkay Fitz?”
The other scientist walked over and hit a button on his side.
“Yeah I got it here. Now that you’ve finally got to meet her are you going to finally stop talking about her EVERY minute of EVERY day?”
Jemma’s entire faced flushed red and she looked at Skye, shaking her head sweetly before hitting the button again.
“Oh.. You.. Shut up.. Fitz..”
In a poor attempt at a comeback. She looked at Skye apologetically and smiled.
“He’s always joking around. Anyway, would you like to come to my flat to relax a little? Then maybe we could go out to a nice dinner?”
Skye rubbed her neck nervously
“I would love that more than anything but.. I don’t really have that much cash on me right now… Or you know.. Anywhere.”
“Oh I’ll pay for everything!”
“I can’t ask you to do that, Jem.”
“Nonsense!”
Her voice dropped, sweetly and hesitantly.
“You came all the way over here to see me, it’s the least I can do.”
“Skye nodded in defeat and walked over to open the door for the scientist and bowing dramatically, she giggled and skipped through the doorway, waiting for Skye to get next to her. She looked down and then looked at Skye.
“Would it be alright, If -- If I held your hand?”
Skye giggled a little sadly.
“There’s nothing I want more. I mean, If you’re alright with your coworkers seeing me with you.”
Jemma had already grabbed her hand happily but was now looking at Skye confused. As they walked
“What on earth do you mean?”
Skye quickly responded, now worried that she had said the wrong thing.
“Well, I just mean, It wouldn’t bother me if you didn’t want your colleagues seeing me with you.”
She laughed trying to ease the moment.
“I don’t want to embarrass you, that’s all”
Jemma looked up at her as if she had just said she saw a unicorn.
“Skye, that’s ridiculous, if anything…”
She paused thinking about her words carefully
“I want to.. Show you off a bit. I know that sounds terrible but I do hope everyone I know sees us. Why would you think that I would be embarrassed by you?”
“Well, lets face it, Jemma, you’re way out of my league and.. I saw all those doctorates on your door, you’re super smart, and beautiful and successful and I’ve never been any of those things. To be honest I’m a little surprised you even wanted to date me.”
Jemma leaned her head on Skye’s shoulder as they passed a group of scientists and squeezed her hand.
“None of those things matter, Skye. You’re absolutely perfect to me, gorgeous, resourceful and kind despite the whole world up against you. Don’t ever think that you’re not perfect to me. Plus, Skye, if I wanted to date some twelve Doctorate, rich, know-it-all prick, I would have dated somebody in this building.”
Skye wanted to cry as Jemma continued talking, some of it was probably because she was terribly exhausted but a lot of it also had to do with how Jemma held on to her as if she were a treasure. At one point while they were walking Jemma stopped a woman and held out her flowers, exclaiming joyfully.
“Look at these roses my girlfriend Skye gave me! This is my girlfriend, Skye by the way!”
Skye blushed and leaned over as they walked away from the slightly confused woman.
“Who was that?”
Jemma laughed
“I have no bloody idea”
They finally made it to the bottom of the building when Skye stopped Jemma just before they were about to go through the doors to the outside, the day was much more beautiful than Skye remembered and the sun was making everything bright. Jemma looked at her curiously.
“I just-- I just wanted to say that I’m so happy I finally got to meet you face to face. Being able to talk to you in person and hold you was worth every minute of waiting. I‘m no catch, especially right now but I sure do love you, Jem.”
Jemma walked over until they were only a couple inches apart, she leaned over and placed a soft, lingering kiss on Skye’s cheek before pulling away slowly, still looking into her eyes.
“Truth is, Skye.. You swept me off my feet.”
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