FitzSimmons

"The one thing I've known without a doubt–the whole time–is you and Fitz belong together."

- Daisy to Jemma; Self- Control

FitzSimmons is the het ship between Leopold James Fitz and Jemma Anne Simmons from the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fandom.

Pre-Series
Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons met at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology, both having genius-level intellects. This led to initial animosity as they were both the smartest in their class and would constantly compete with each other. They never really spoke to one another until they were paired together in chem lab, where they first realized they were smarter as a team.

Working Together
One night, the two planned to meet in Fitz's dorm room but Simmons was held up in a conversation with Professor Weaver which caused her to be twenty-four minutes late. This worried Fitz as he assumed she had blown him off but was relieved when she finally showed up. Fitz explained the reason he invited her to his room was because she seemed like a good Sounding Board which Simmons interpreted as him seeing her as a "thick wall". Fitz awkwardly tried to correct himself and explained that he meant they were good at bouncing ideas off each other and Simmons was great at clarifying them and mapping out their consequential results.

According to Fitz, this was the night he went from being totally nervous in her presence to being completely at ease. Simmons revealed that this was the night she put him in the friend zone.

Around this time, Simmons got into a relationship with Milton, to Fitz's dismay. It did not work out between them because according to Simmons, Milton always agreed with whatever she said which turned her off.

After they both graduated from the Academy three years early, it was around this time that Simmons convinced Fitz to apply for a field assignment with her, even against the advice of Professor Vaughn. She wanted to see more than the inside of a lab, remarking that it would be the perfect opportunity to see the world. This led them to be recruited by Phil Coulson to join his team. "I said there would come a moment when we would regret the decision to go in the field. I didn't think that would happen in week one."

- Leo Fitz to Jemma Simmons, The 0-8-4, 1x02 After every horrible thing they eventually had to endure, Fitz remarked that this was the moment- their decision to join the field- that started it all for them, causing all their pain throughout the years.

Field Work
Their first foray into field work involved them looking for a way to stabilize the Centipede serum in Mike Peterson. They then had to overcome an armed takeover of The Bus from the Peruvian armed forces after the discovery of an 0-8-4, along with Skye, Melinda May and Grant Ward. After discovering Gravitonium as the cause of an attack, their third mission involved them helping Skye and the rest of their team infiltrate Ian Quinn's compound in Malta to rescue their mentor, Dr. Franklin Hall. Fitz, Simmons and Melinda May observed and helped Skye from The Bus. It was later revealed that Hall orchestrated his capture in order to destroy Quinn's compound and with it, the Gravitonium, taking innocent lives in the process. Next, Fitz and Simmons were tasked with disarming the explosive in Akela Amador's eye, saving her life in the process. When it was revealed Skye had betrayed them by helping her boyfriend who worked for the Rising Tide and was involved in leaking information which caused the capture and death of Chan Ho Yin, Fitz and Simmons were deeply hurt. Fitz was a lot more affected as he seemed to have developed a crush on Skye.

Psychically Linked
Fitz and Skye were hanging out in the lab with Ward testing out the new Night Night Gun Fitz designed when Ward deemed it to be an ounce off. This leads Fitz to make fun of Ward by imitating him when he leaves the room, eliciting a laugh from Skye, to Fitz's delight. He comments that they think the same way while Skye assumes he is talking about himself and Simmons and remarks that its like they are "psychically linked." Fitz immediately denies this. However, when Simmons enters the room and is told of Ward's fussiness, she too makes fun of him the exact way Fitz did, indicating that they do indeed think the same way and share the same mind.

Alien Virus
"Pasty? Oh, really? Well since when did you become so sun-kissed? Because I'm pretty sure that every minute of every day, you've been stuck in a lab right beside me. At the Academy, at Sci-Ops, this plane! You've been beside me the whole damn time."

- Leo Fitz to Jemma Simmons, FZZT 1X06 The team was called in to investigate mysterious floating dead bodies. It was discovered that the cause was an alien virus passed along from a Chitauri Helmet left behind after the Battle of New York. While explaining the propagating properties of the virus to Coulson, he realized that Simmons was infected after she displayed symptoms of the virus, causing metal objects to float. She would be killed in three hours, causing an electric pulse to be emitted, bringing down their plane and everyone in it. During this time, Fitz tried his best to encourage her but the overwhelming pressure and dread took over which caused them both to lash out at each other. However, through their arguing, Simmons managed to figure something out which could possibly lead to creating an antiserum. This caused Fitz to run into Simmons' containment area with the Chitauri Helmet, risking contamination and death in order to help her with the cure, saying they were going to fix this together.

Unfortunately, their tests failed and it seemed that all hope was lost. Fitz, not wanting to give up, continued to work but Simmons, who had given up hope knocked him out to prevent him from stopping her plan of jumping out of the plane in order to save everybody before she released the pulse. Unbeknownst to her the cure worked and only had a delayed reaction on the final test. This caused her to jump off the plane, leaving Fitz tragically screaming after her. Fitz prepared the cure and was going to jump out after her but he was unable to get the straps of his parachute on in time. Instead, Ward jumped out after her, giving her the cure and saving her life. Later in his bunk, Fitz was trying to explain to Simmons why he wasn't the one who jumped out and saved her but Simmons reassures him and says that he was the real hero as he was by her side, helping her and giving her hope the whole time. She kisses Fitz on the cheek as a thank you before leaving his bunk. It is implied that Fitz may have deeper feelings than friendship towards her as he sits there in silence.

This marked the first of many dangers they had to overcome together.

The Famous Sandwich
Fitz and Ward were assigned by Victoria Hand to infiltrate the border of South Ossetia to disable a deadly device called Overkill. Fitz was the only one with the skills to disable it and Ward was the only one with specific contacts to get them over the border. Simmons was visibly worried about Fitz and kept fussing over him, giving him an anti-venom pack, in case of spider bites. Fitz being clearly annoyed, reminded her not to do anything stupid while he was gone. like jumping out of a plane. Simmons also gave him his favorite sandwich (prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella with a hint of her homemade pesto aioli), which she made for him to take on his mission. "You don't have anything to prove. What you said about me always needing to swoop in- I know you would have jumped out of the plane to save Simmons, and she knows that too"

- Grant Ward to Leo Fitz, The Hub 1x07 Despite his inexperience, Fitz was vital in the success of the mission and proved he was every bit the S.H.I.E.L.D agent Ward was, having his back the entire time.

Once they returned, when Simmons asked if he enjoyed the sandwich, Fitz replied that it was delicious as he cared about her feelings, despite Ward previously throwing it away to prevent them from being tracked by dogs.

Remaining Missions Before the Fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Fitz and Simmons assisted in the cleanup of the Battle of Greenwich, following the aftermath of Thor; The Dark World. They, along with Coulson visited Elliot Randolph who provided key information in locating The Berserker Staff which would assist in defeating a group of extremists who had stolen the staff and had gained enhanced strength and rage. Randolph turned out to be an Asgardian whom the staff belonged to. May and Ward managed to defeat the insurgents while Fitz, Simmons and Coulson successfully saved the life of a severely wounded Randolph. He remarked that Simmons might possibly be the most beautiful thing he had seen in a thousand years.

Fitz and Simmons were also tasked with gathering information about an explosion which may have caused the woman in charge, Hannah Hutchins to developed telekinetic powers. There they reminisced on their time at S.H.I.E.L.D academy and together decided to prank Skye. This indicated the playful nature of their relationship. In the end, it was realized that it was actually one of the victims of the explosion, Tobias Ford who was trapped between two dimensions. He accidentally caused the explosion and was the cause of the supposedly 'telekinetic' occurrences to protect Hannah as he was in love with her.

Mike Peterson was sent to work with the team and Fitz and Simmons were thrilled when they realized they were the ones responsible for stabilizing the Centipede serum in him. Simmons was seemingly admiring Peterson's well-built physique and commented that he was nice and symmetrical to Fitz's annoyance.

When Coulson went missing, Fitz and Simmons assisted in finding him by helping Skye track down certain money trails associated with Raina and Project Centipede. The team managed to find and bring back Coulson safely.

Following an attack at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology, Fitz and Simmons were invited to give a talk. There, they managed to save a young cadet named Donnie Gill who seemed to have been hurt with a freezing device. It was discovered that Donnie had been working with another cadet named Seth Dormer to bring Fitz to the academy to solve their power problem. They intended to power a bigger device to sell to Ian Quinn. Unfortunately, the device caused a massive storm which led to the death of Seth. Fitz attempted to comfort Donnie but was pushed away. It was revealed that Donnie developed ice powers after being exposed to the machine.

Fitz and Simmons were forced out of their niche into undercover field work with the rest of the team in Italy. Simmons was paired up with Coulson while Fitz was paired up with Skye. It was discovered that they were made and were now being chased. Simmons ran to warn Fitz and Skye but was hit with an enhanced version of dendrotoxin causing her to fall unconscious. Out of concern for her, Fitz placed her in a safer and more comfortable position, arming her with a weapon as he and Skye went on to infiltrate Quinn's mansion. This caused Skye to get shot twice in the stomach by Quinn and Fitz blamed himself for letting her go in alone. Simmons frantically tried to save Skye and managed to stabilize her for the time being. Once she was alone, while trying to clean the blood from her hands, Fitz finds her and embraces her as she breaks down in his arms, finding comfort with him. Coulson then gives both Fitz and Simmons Level 10 access to his .T.A.H.I.T.I files to find something that can cure Skye. Simmons manages to find a drug called GH.325 while Fitz successfully decripts a code for the location of this drug. Fitz, Coulson, Ward and Agent John Garrett manages to infiltrate the base housing the drug and retrieve it. Agent Antoine "Trip" Tripplet, May and Simmons worked to keep Skye stable. Simmons manages to inject Skye with the drug in time, saving her life, causing Agents Tripplet's admiration towards her.

The team also worked with Lady Sif of Asgard to defeat Lorelai who had the power to enthrall men to do her bidding. Fitz was one of her victims and worked with Ward who was also under her spell to keep Lady Sif away from her. He was knocked out by Coulson after being distracted by Simmons away from the containment module holding Lady Sif. Fitz managed to successfully repair a collar which Lady Sif used to negate Lorelai's powers and contain her.

Simmons was called to the Hub to be a consultant on Deathlok and was happily surprised that Trip would be her escort as she was seemingly attracted to him. This annoyed Fitz, harboring some animosity towards Trip as he was jealous of the attention Simmons was paying him.

The Hydra Reveal
Fitz, Coulson, Skye and Agent Garrett discovered the secret coded message that went out, revealing that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D at the deepest and highest levels. Fitz and the rest of the team decided to go back to The Hub to rescue Simmons who they believed was in danger. Back at The Hub, Simmons and Trip managed to pass the test that Victoria Hand developed to root out Hydra moles. It proved that Hand was not the Clairvoyant whose identity still remained a mystery. Coulson and the team managed to infiltrate The Hub and it was discovered that Garrett was The Clairvoyant and a Hydra agent all along. Coulson and May managed to fight Garrett and other Hydra soldiers, with Fitz saving May's life by shooting a Hydra soldier. Victoria Hand then stepped in and arrested Garrett. Fitz and Simmons are reunited and the two embrace.The team then make their way to Providence base where they had to take lie detector tests to prove they were not Hydra agents. When asked what would be in a box when he was trapped in a deserted island, Fitz replied; "Simmons". Fitz also continued to notice Simmons' attraction towards Trip especially when she vouched for him to join their team which Coulson agreed to if she'd take full responsibility for him. This further enhanced Fitz's animosity and distrust towards Trip. Ward notices this and advises Fitz to tell Simmons how he truly feels about her but Fitz dismisses it, still in denial about his own feelings and afraid it might change things between him and Simmons. Coulson, Trip, Fitz and Simmons then travel to Portland to stop Blackout who was constantly stalking Audrey Nathan. Simmons confronts Fitz about his behavior towards Trip who believed he may have offended him in some way. Fitz lies to reassure her that he was just being his grumpy self as per usual.

Ward's Betrayal
It was revealed that Ward was an undercover Hydra agent the whole time, working for Garrett. Fitz and Simmons simultaneously discover Skye's message about Ward being Hydra and Agent Sam Koenig's murdered body respectively. Fitz was still in denial about Ward's betrayal, believing that he was being forced to do those things and holding out hope for his friend. In his anger and hurt, he lashes out and Simmons tries to comfort him. After rescuing Skye, the team settles in a hotel for the night and Fitz asks Simmons to tell him that she's not Hydra as he wouldn't know what to do if she was. Simmons reassures him that he will never have to find out because she is not Hydra.

The team managed to locate Ward and Garrett in Cuba and Fitz and Simmons locates the hijacked Bus. They planted a tracking device and were about to leave when they were captured by Ward. Garrett ordered Ward to "put down" Fitz and Simmons but they managed to lock themselves in a medical pod before Ward could shoot them. Instead, despite their pleading and reminding him about their friendship, Ward ejects them into the ocean. Fitz manages to strap himself and Simmons down before they hit the water, breaking his arm in the process while Simmons is rendered unconscious.

Best Friends Forever
When Simmons regained consciousness, she realized that they were indeed trapped at the bottom of the ocean with no means of escape. Accepting their fate, Fitz and Simmons proceed to have a beautiful conversation about death where Simmons explains that she believes death isn't so bad as their energy would be conserved in other beings throughout the universe following the First Law of Thermodynamics. Fitz seems enthralled by her words and it is implied that he was about to tell her how he truly felt about her. However, at that moment, Simmons discovers a possible means of escape and the two excitedly try to solve the problem together.

With the detonation ready, Fitz handed Simmons an air-supply which could only be used once by one of them. He rationalized that she was a better swimmer than him and it would be better if she took the oxygen instead. Simmons completely refused to take the oxygen demanding why he would make her do such a thing as he was her best friend. In a particularly heart-wrenching moment, Fitz finally confesses his feelings for Jemma saying that she was more than a friend to him and he didn't have the courage to tell her before this and pleaded with her to let him show her how he felt. Jemma, overcome with tears and grief, peppers his face with kisses. She heartbreakingly screams as Fitz presses down on the detonator, allowing the water to explode in. With the last vestiges of her strength, she manages to pull Fitz along with her as she swims up to the surface and screams for help. They are ultimately rescued by Nick Fury who managed to locate them from the EKG signal they rigged.

Jemma reunites with the team, sadly informing them that Fitz was alive but his brain was without oxygen for a long period of time and he was in a coma for nine days. He would never be the same again.

This major incident was the start of their constant separations and their tragic love story.

Estrangement
Fitz and Simmons' relationship was never the same again as they had grown apart due to Fitz's brain injury and Simmons' undercover work in Hydra."Fitz said he could engineer cloaking, but... I'm afraid he can't do anything. The damage to his temporal lobe was too extensive. He's not the same"

- Phil Coulson, Shadows 2x01 Fitz was not told about Simmons going undercover and assumed she left because she did not feel the same way about him after he confessed his feelings. Her leaving broke him and he began to have hallucinations of her, acting as his conscience. He was constantly talking to himself, trying to get by. He felt useless as everyone around him was treating him as if he was fragile glass. The only person who treated him normally was Agent Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie. The two quickly become close friends. Coulson eventually tells Fitz about Simmons' true mission and Fitz asks if it was her choice to be sent on the mission but Coulson gives him a vague answer, telling him that the work she was doing was extremely important.

Meanwhile, Simmons faced the ever-looming threat of being exposed and killed while undercover in Hydra. However, she managed to gain their trust and was made privy to high-level projects within Hydra which allowed her to pass on valuable Intel to Coulson. When it was too dangerous for her to remain in Hydra anymore, Coulson entrusted Agent Bobbi Morse to extract Simmons upon her cover being blown, narrowly escaping with her life.

Reunited
Fitz and Simmons finally reunite but things are awkward between them and they don't play the same by bouncing off ideas and are unable to interact as usual with each other anymore. Finally, Fitz confronts Simmons on why she left and hurtfully accuses her of thinking he was useless. He tells her he was worried about her being killed while in Hydra. Simmons tearfully tells him she didn't leave because she thought he was useless but doesn't elaborate and leaves the room. She eventually tells Mack the reason she left was because her presence only made Fitz's condition worsen and she was trying to help him get better.

Simmons reveals to Bobbi what happened between her and Fitz at the bottom of the ocean and admits she didn't even have time to process Fitz's declaration towards her before everything was happening at once. She never thought of Fitz as being anything more than a friend and yet she could never imagine a life without him which leaves her confused.

Tensions between Fitz and Simmons continue to worsen as they avoid each other completely. Finally, Fitz tells Simmons he can't work with her anymore and instead will work for her as she is more capable. He plans to work with Mack in the garage, which leaves Simmons heartbroken. They do, however, briefly forget their issues and embrace each other when the Kree City they enter begins to shake, triggered by Skye's newly formed inhuman powers.

No Longer Friends
After the death of Trip, Simmons became increasingly afraid of anything alien and strongly advised killing Raina who was also an inhuman transformed by the Terrigen Mist. Fitz who recently discovered Skye's drastically different DNA kept this a secret from Simmons to protect Skye from everyone's fear and judgement. When the truth finally came out about Skye, Simmons felt hurt and betrayed by Fitz's lie while Fitz accuses Simmons of being the one who has drastically changed into someone who is more close-minded and afraid. The two stop speaking to each other.Simmons constructs special gauntlets for Skye and constantly checks up on her when she is sent to an isolated cabin to better control her powers. Fitz accuses Simmons for not accepting Skye for who she truly is and leaves the room.

They did have a brief moment where they seemed to be back to their old friendly selves when they started gossiping about the ever-serious Melinda May and a sweet moment she shared with her ex-husband, Andrew Garner. This was the first step in repairing their friendship.

Reconciliation
During the Real S.H.I.E.L.D. takeover, while they were detained in their lab, Simmons quietly held Fitz's hand and he reciprocated by holding hers as well, needing no words to express all their regret and how much they ultimately cared for each other. The two finally reconcile.

Fitz decided to quit S.H.I.E.L.D during the takeover as he was loyal to Coulson. Agent Robert Gonzales wanted access to Fury's Toolbox which only Coulson had the means to open. This allowed Simmons to come up with a plan where she duplicated the Toolbox and smuggled the real one in Fitz's backpack as he left so he could pass it along to Coulson. She also packed him his favorite prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella sandwich with a hint of her pesto aioli for him to eat on the road along with a sweet message, reminding him to be safe. This brought a smile on Fitz's face as he made his way to find Coulson.

More than Friends
After witnessing the heartbreaking exchange between the severely injured Bobbi Morse and her ex-husband, Lance Hunter, Simmons realized that she definitely had deeper feelings for Fitz and went to confront him about what he said to her at the bottom of the ocean. Fitz who was bound for war with the inhumans, was incredulous that she wanted to talk about this at such a bad time and told her there was nothing much to discuss. Simmons not wanting to let him go without telling him how she felt, stopped him from walking out the door and told him that maybe there was something to discuss. Before he could reply, they were interrupted by Coulson and Fitz leaves her by herself, crying silently.

The Monolith
After everything settles, while Simmons works on a recovered Monolith related to the Kree and inhumans, Fitz awkwardly asks her out to dinner which at first, she doesn't realize was him asking her out on a date. After Fitz makes himself clear, she shyly smiles at him and nods in agreement as he walks out the room. Still smiling, she notices the containment for the Monolith was open as Fitz had accidentally unlocked it while talking to her before. She proceeds to try and lock it back when suddenly, in the most shocking moment of the season, the Monolith, without warning, morphs into liquid form, causing Jemma to lose her balance, letting out a scream, cut chillingly short as she was sucked into the rock. The Monolith then returns to its original solid form as if nothing had happened, leaving Jemma's fate unknown and up in the air.

As Fitz and Simmons take one step forward in their relationship, they are forcibly pushed two steps back, being tragically ripped apart from each other once again.

The Search for Simmons
For six months, Fitz tirelessly dedicated all his time in studying the Monolith, never giving up hope that he would be able to find Simmons. He constantly came up with new theories such as Simmons being lost in the Quantum Realm, transported to another dimension or even being stuck inside the rock, but unfortunately, to no fruition. He constantly took time off from S.H.I.E.L.D and instead put Bobbi Morse in charge of the Science Division as she was still in rehab after being tortured by Ward. She covered for him with Coulson so he could continue his search. Eventually, Fitz learnt of a scroll casing which holds the answer to the Monolith's power. It was stolen by the extremist criminal Yusef Hadad, who Fitz tracked to Morocco. Fitz was captured by Hadad and his men but he managed to escape with the scroll by tricking them. Fitz confesses that he was in love with Simmons and proved that he would do anything to get her back, even at the cost of his own life.

Finally, back at the base, Fitz examines the scroll with Coulson. He discovers there is only one word written on the scroll; "Death." He drops the paper and looks around in despair. Coulson immediately tries to comfort him, telling him that it was time he made the trip to Sheffield to inform Jemma's family of what happened. Coulson tells Fitz that he admires his heart and determination of never giving up on Jemma but it was time they moved on as it would be what she wanted. Fitz tearfully says okay as Coulson leaves the room. Unable to accept that Simmons is gone forever, in a fit of rage and frustration he grabs a shotgun and storms his way into the room holding the Monolith. He blasts open the containment and in a particularly raw and heartbreaking sequence, starts pounding and screaming at the Monolith to "do something."

Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse charge into the room, followed by Daisy Johnson (previously Skye), Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie and finally Phil Coulson, pulling Fitz away and closing the containment door mere moments before the Monolith morphed into liquid form again. Coulson admonishes Fitz for being so reckless, telling him he could not cope with losing him too. Bobbi comforts Fitz as he says he would never give up on Simmons. At that moment, he notices strange sand on his fingers which finally leads to his breakthrough. The sand turned out to be from a different planet as its composition predates the Earth by a billion years, proving that the Monolith was indeed a black hole that carried Simmons away to that planet. Coulson tells Fitz that Simmons could be long gone or dead by now which Fitz agrees to but Coulson assures him that they were going to find out and he along with Bobbi Morse resolves to help Fitz find Simmons.

They enlist the Asgardian, Elliot Randolph who reluctantly agrees to help them. He recognized the Hebrew word on the scroll; "Maveth." which he saw etched in one of the castles in England long ago. Once they arrive at the castle, Coulson discovers a secret room built to hold the Monolith and gets Mack and Daisy to bring the Monolith to the castle. Fitz sets up the ancient equipment built into the castle which causes the Monolith to change form, allowing Fitz to shoot in a flare. The deafening vibrations causes Daisy to collapse as she unwittingly tunes into them with her new inhuman vibrational abilities. Since the equipment is too ancient, they break down, leaving the team back on square one.

Fortunately, Fitz discovers that they don't need the equipment and Daisy herself can open the portal using her Quake powers, to which she agrees. They intend to send a probe into the portal as Daisy tunes into the vibrations and liquefies the Monolith. However, with everyone preoccupied with the portal, Fitz straps himself to the harness and without a second thought, plunges into the unknown, only thinking about saving Jemma.

He lands hard on the ground in a foreign world and immediately starts calling out Jemma's name. Finally he hears her screaming, calling out for him. He catches sight of her and they manage to grasp on to each other's hands, holding on as the sandstorm on the planet rages around them, threatening to pull Jemma away from him. On the other side, Daisy was starting to lose consciousness as she couldn't hold the portal open much longer. Not knowing that Fitz managed to find Jemma, Coulson pulls him back which causes Fitz to lose hold of Jemma. In the most anxiety-inducing moment, Jemma manages to claw her way to Fitz and hold on to him as they are finally pulled back to the other side, destroying the Monolith in the process. As Fitz holds the rescued Jemma in his arms, he finally smiles up at the team.

PTSD
Jemma wakes up on high alert from a nightmare and notices Fitz asleep, sitting on the floor next to her. She goes over to him and rests her head on his knee, falling asleep and seeking comfort with him. Over the next few days, Jemma felt extremely disoriented as she tried to adjust to Earth's lower gravity and louder sounds. Fitz was there with her every step of the way, holding her hand and comforting her. He seeks advice from Bobbi Morse, saying that Jemma was being distant and Bobbi advises him to be patient and try to remind her of her time before she was swept away. Fitz made a call and brought Jemma out to dinner. He kept the reservation for months, even when she was lost, booking out the entire restaurant to make her feel more comfortable. Jemma was extremely touched and thanked him for finding her. However, when Fitz proposes a toast, the sight of the wine triggers a painful memory for Jemma and she breaks down as Fitz holds her, allowing her to weep in his arms.

As the days passed, Jemma grew more distant, worrying Fitz but he still respected her space. Coulson tasks Andrew Garner, a trained psychiatrist to talk to Jemma and work through her problems but she is still closed off. Daisy Johnson even visits her and brings her a vase of daisies to remind Jemma of her. Daisy then tells Jemma that she would always be there for her and she could always talk to her.

One day, Bobbi discovers Jemma obsessing over the broken Monolith shards and reassures her that it would never open again. However, it is finally revealed that Jemma intends to open the portal again. She keeps this from Fitz but when he discovers her notes on the Monolith and asks her about it, she snaps at him and tells him to keep away from her things, closing herself off in her room. Later, Fitz visits her in her room, bringing her a cup of tea and asks her straight up why she wants to go back. Jemma, resigned, finally decides it was time to tell him the whole truth about what happened to her on the other side.

A Tale of Survival
"There has to be a sunrise, eventually."

- Jemma Simmons, 4722 Hours, 3x05 When Simmons is transported to the desert planet Maveth, she was initially shocked and dismayed but her scientific curiosity took over. She determined the strength of the pull of gravity on the planet and recorded her findings, taking pictures of the place. The planet had two moons and no sunlight, enveloping the planet in a strange bluish glow. She decided to wait for extraction, following her S.H.I.E.L.D survival training and went to sleep, wishing Fitz a good night as she stared at his picture on her phone.

She awoke with a start after 22 hours and noticed there was still no sunlight. This caused her to panic and made her delirious especially with the lack of water and food. After 79 hours, she decided to move and find water as a human being could only survive without water for 100 hours. She kept talking to Fitz on her own to keep herself sane, thinking what it would be like when they went for dinner. She fondly hoped Fitz would not pull out a chair for her-or do- if he wanted. She smiles as she wonders if she should wear a dress or if that would be too weird. After braving a sand storm. she finally discovers a pond of stagnant water with unknown floating substances in it. She weakly makes her way towards it, stumbling and picking herself up until she reaches the water, having no choice but to drink it. She then decides to cool off in the pond, finding a little happiness in this small victory. "You'd be so proud of me, Fitz. I killed the monster plant, then I made a fire, cooked him and ate him. And then I burped. Really loud."

- Jemma Simmons, 4722 Hours, 3x05 As she was swimming, she was pulled into the depths by an unknown creature. Fortunately, she managed to kill it and it provided her with a source of food. She narrated this to Fitz, recording it on her phone, supremely happy with her achievement and was convinced Fitz would be so proud of her. She then looks at her phone and tells the image of Fitz to please read her mind and come and rescue her since everyone says they are psychically linked. She knew he would never give up on her so she promises to never give up either, believing in him.

She continues to survive on her own when she suddenly hears a noise and goes to investigate. Unfortunately, she falls into a hole, loses consciousness and is trapped by an unknown man who locks her in a cage. She manages to trick him and escape, but he catches up to her and pulls her back underground where he is living, seemingly afraid of the sandstorm above ground.

Jemma realizes that he was trying to save her and asks him what happened to him. He tells her his name is Will Daniels and he was an astronaut sent by NASA who came here with a few scientists to map the terrain and collect samples. However, he recounts that everyone slowly went crazy, forcing him to put them down. He then tells her this was caused by an evil creature on the planet which he refers to as "It". At first Jemma dismisses this and instead asks him how long he's been here, to which she discovers he has been trapped there for 14 years. The two continued to learn more about each other, with Jemma telling Will that she misses Fitz and her friends the most. She shows him a video on her phone where Phil Coulson, Melinda May and Daisy Johnson presents her with a TARDIS cake on her birthday, telling her to make a wish as they blow out the candle for her, while Fitz records the video to send to her since she was unable to be there. This was possibly during the time she was undercover in Hydra. Fitz then wishes her a happy birthday, saying it wasn't the same without her there, speaking quite well despite his problems with his words and brain damage at the time. Will notices that Fitz's name is her favorite word.

Jemma and Will decide to keep each other safe and in check as she tries to figure out a way to get them out of this planet. She tells Will she wants to go to the no-fly zone. A place where Will forbids her from going as "It" was most likely going to be there. Jemma doesn't listen to him and visits the place where she discovers certain objects from past victims. Suddenly, a sandstorm occurs and she sees the mysterious creature that Will was talking about and narrowly escapes with her life, finally believing him. When she informs Will of what she finds, at first he was angry at her for risking her life but then she tells him that she knows how to get them home; by mapping the stars. "I have never been able to resist doing something when I'm told the odds are impossible..."

- Will Daniels, 4722 Hours, 3x05 They immediately get to work. Jemma decides to use her phone battery which Fitz engineered to last a long time, to power the ancient equipment NASA sent along with Will. She says a final goodbye to Fitz, promising him she'll see him soon. She works tirelessly and finally manages to discover a location where the portal would open. At first, Will was not hopeful they could make it but Jemma reminds him of what he said to her about doing something even though it seemed impossible, to which he smiles fondly and agrees to devise a way to get them to the portal.

They started their journey to the portal, Jemma ever-hopeful of making it back and seeing Fitz again. They finally reached the location and were shocked to see that the canyon they had to cross was wider than they expected. They glimpsed the portal opening in the distance and realized they could never make it in time. Instead, they decided to shoot the message in the bottle Jemma prepared to let Fitz know how to get her back. Will shot the bottle, but in an extremely devastating moment, the bottle crashed to bits, mere seconds after the portal closes, leaving Jemma staring at the spot, defeated, all hope leaving her. They got back to the place they were staying where Jemma has a breakdown, weeping as Will comforts her. Will tells her he almost gave up until Jemma arrived, restoring his hope and saving him. They share a passionate kiss and it is implied that they sleep together.

After 4720 hours, Simmons and Will decide to go outside to watch the sunrise. This will be the first sunrise in eighteen years. In a romantic gesture Will presents Simmons with wine which he recovered from the no-fly zone. It unfortunately tasted like vinegar but they laugh it off, deciding to use it in their cooking. Simmons looks at Will and sadly tells him that her dad would have liked him. Suddenly, she sees the flare that Fitz had shot in the portal previously and excitedly exclaims they were going home. She and Will run towards the location of the flare but a sandstorm appears signalling the arrival of "It". They are separated as Simmons screams Will's name. Finally Will finds her and shouts at her that she can make it and to run to the portal. Simmons refuses to leave without him but Will runs towards the creature in the sandstorm and a gunshot is heard from the gun with the single bullet Will was saving if things got too bad on the planet. Will's fate is left unknown as Simmons screams for him. She hears Fitz calling her name on the other side and makes her way towards him, getting rescued in the process.

As Simmons tearfully recounts everything to Fitz, he stares at her seemingly disappointed. Instead he makes his way to the lab with Simmons following close behind him, begging him to talk to her. He then looks at her and promises her that he was going to get Will back, putting her happiness above his own.

Watching the Sunrise
Things were a little awkward between Fitz and Simmons as she felt guilty about Will. Fitz on the other hand, was busy trying to help the other team members with their missions as well as finding things related to the Monolith and Will. Simmons passes him her broken phone to see if he could recover the data and he agrees.

Fitz fixes Simmons' SIM card and discovers her pictures and recordings she took while on the planet. He was astounded at all the data collected. Suddenly, he comes across a picture of Simmons and Will and angrily prepares to storm out of the room, unable to look at them together. Before he could leave, however, a recording of Simmons plays where she talks to him while dehydrated, recounting the time they first met. She proceeds to tell him about a family holiday she went on once to Scotland where she saw a lovely cottage in Perthshire and admits she thought of settling down there with him, which brings tears to Fitz eyes. After this, a bored Lance Hunter, hanging out with Fitz in the lab catches site of Will's picture and hilariously states that Will is the competition and has a hog face. Fitz agrees. Fitz then proceeds to find Simmons standing and staring out one of the windows of the base and he correctly deduces that she couldn't sleep and wanted to watch the sunrise. He asks her about what she said in her videos, assuming she wasn't thinking clearly when she said it but Simmons looks at him and truthfully tells him that she meant every word. They then stand in silence, watching the sunrise.

The Long Awaited Kiss
"We're cursed! The bloody cosmos wants us to be apart!"

- Leo Fitz to Jemma Simmons, Many Heads, One Tail, 3x08 Fitz and Simmons continued working on the origin of the symbol, with Fitz bringing in every book he could find relating to it. He noticed that Simmons was procrastinating and didn't seem that keen on reading up on the symbol. Simmons tells Fitz that maybe it was a bad idea to bring Will back as they discover that he was actually sent through the portal as a blood sacrifice. Fitz disagrees with her, saying Will deserves their help and tensions continued to rise between them, culminating in an argument. Jemma snaps at Fitz and tells him to stop doing all the right things as it was becoming too much for her, leaving Fitz confused as she storms out of the room.

Fitz storms into the lab, angrily confronting Jemma's outburst. Jemma, equally furious, tells him that she was angry at herself for roping him into all this, even though she knew how he felt about her and it was driving her mad that he was so willing to help. He proceeds to let her know that he is indeed furious but not at her and instead at the universe as he believed they were cursed. They angrily air out their frustrations at each other when finally Fitz asks Jemma if she was in love with Will. After a moment, Simmons quietly replies; "yes." Fitz, heartbroken, looks at the floor and rationalizes that of course she would be in love with Will as he was a hero. Simmons then retaliates, saying that he crossed the universe to rescue her. In an angst-filled moment, Fitz kisses Jemma, much to her surprise. She then recovers and kisses him back, only for him to sadly tell her again that they were cursed.

Encountering Ward Once Again
Fitz and Simmons along with Luther Banks and a team of agents were sent by Coulson to an abandoned Project Distant Star Pathfinder facility in search of clues about the Monolith. Suddenly, the two heard shots and saw the gun Banks was holding turn around on itself and shoot him in the head, killing him. Fitz instinctively pushes Jemma behind him as they realize the Inhuman, Giyera, under the orders of Gideon Mallick, the remaining head of Hydra, was behind the ambush. Fitz and Simmons were then taken captive and led to Mallick and Grant Ward in the Hydra castle. There they realized Mallick and Ward intended to reopen the portal to bring the creature "It" back to this world. The creature was in fact the first Inhuman ever created with unspeakable power, worshiped by Hydra ancestors. While Hydra had the means to open the portal, they were clueless on how to bring someone back, which only Fitz and Simmons managed to achieve.

Fitz and Simmons outright refuse to cooperate and insult Mallick. At one point, Simmons even turns violent and dares them to come closer and find out how tough she really is, impressing Ward in a somewhat twisted way. Mallick then turns to Ward for advice on how to handle them and Ward despicably orders them to be split up, cementing him as completely irredeemable. "I'm curious which is worse for you. Those moments when Simmons screams or is it the long pauses when she doesn't?"

- Grant Ward to Leo Fitz, Closure 3x09 Fitz was tied to a chair in a separate room while Simmons was tied to a pole in another. Ward then enters the room and interrogates Simmons but she insults him and says that she would never tell him anything no matter how much he tortured her. Ward smiles at her and says that if she ever bothered to get to know him, she would know that he'd never hurt her. However, he informs her that he can't say the same for Giyera who he tasks with torturing her instead. Ward then goes over to the room holding Fitz and taunts him as Simmons is heard screaming in pain from the other room. Fitz pleads with Ward to stop this but he says only Fitz has the power to end it if he tell them how to get back from the planet. Ward leaves the room as Fitz stays silent, himself tortured by Jemma's screams.

Meanwhile, Coulson who was on a path of revenge against Ward for murdering Rosalind Price, kidnaps his brother, Thomas, as leverage. His true purpose was to track Ward's location while Thomas talks to Ward on the phone. Ward realizes this, and in a furious rage, barges into the room holding Simmons and tortures her as she screams and pleads. "I always thought Fitz would give up the world for you. Looks like now he finally has his chance."

- Grant Ward to Jemma Simmons, Closure 3x09 Fitz, unable to stand the pain Jemma was going through, finally gives in and agrees to help them with the portal. Simmons realizes what Fitz had done for her and begs him not to help them and just let them kill her. Fitz tells her that he would never let that happen as he was not strong enough to live in a world that she didn't exist in. Simmons tearfully rests her head on his shoulder and tells him to come back to her without bringing that inhuman creature with him. Fitz holds her and assures her that the only thing he's bringing back is Will. He then enters the portal, with Ward leading the mission.

Maveth
Once they entered Maveth, they began searching for the creature. Fitz tries to distract Ward in order to snatch his gun but Ward was faster than him and kicked him down a ridge, threatening that Simmons would die a very slow and painful death if Ward did not return and it would all be Fitz's fault. Fitz then walks on and realizes the particular area they were in looked familiar as it was near the home of Will Daniels. He finds the hatch and drops down, leaving Ward chasing after him. After frantically convincing Ward that they needed Will to leave the planet, Ward agrees to bring Will along. He then notices Will's bed was placed together with a second bed and put two and two together that Jemma and Will had slept together. Ward taunts Fitz about this, offering him a chance to shoot Will instead. Fitz looks away and tells him to grow up.

As they walk, Fitz tells Will about Ward's plan and the two devise a way to escape to the portal. Will then leads them into a sandstorm and he manages to subdue the guards watching him and Fitz and the two escape. As they make their way towards the portal, Will and Fitz have a heart to heart about Jemma and Will tells Fitz he can clearly see why Jemma loves him. They then enter the no-fly zone and Will stumbles as his leg is severely injured and they stop so Fitz can tend to it. Fitz notices ancient ruins and is in awe by it, wondering why Jemma never talked about them. Will says that Jemma never got to see them and proceeds to explain the history of the ruins. Fitz is confused and asks Will how he knows so much about them. He then peals away the bandage from Will's leg, suddenly revealing rotting flesh and bone. "Will" tells him that he was there, revealing himself to be the creature, telling Fitz that the real Will died saving Jemma.

The two then engage in a fight, ending with "It" almost crushing Fitz with a rock but Coulson who had jumped into the portal after Ward, rescues Fitz by shooting "It". The creature refuses to stay down and Fitz is forced to shoot Will's body with a flare gun, completely burning it up. Fitz shouts at Coulson that the portal is closing up and tells him to leave Ward there. Coulson stares at Fitz then proceeds to crush Ward's chest with his robot arm, finally killing him.

As the team reunites, Jemma looks hopefully into the containment pod for Will, but he isn't there. She looks up at Fitz who guiltily stares at her as she realizes that Will is dead. Grief-stricken, she pulls him into an embrace, breaking down in his arms.

Starting Over
After everything that happened on Maveth, things were awkward between Fitz and Simmons again, mainly because Fitz felt guilty about what he did to Will. Their relationship became only professional and matter-of-fact. Unable to stand the chasm between them after all that's happened, Simmons confronts Fitz and tells him that she misses him. Fitz apologizes for not doing more to save Will but Jemma reassures him that all he did was kill a thing as Will died saving her. She tells him he has been nothing short of extraordinary this entire time. She then asks if they could start over, back to where they began. Fitz agrees as the two introduce themselves again, giving each other a fist-bump, their friendship restored.

Fitz and Simmons worked together with Lincoln Campbell to try and find a potential vaccine against Terrigenesis. However, they yielded limited results as there was only a solution to prevent Inhumans from changing before they underwent the process. Things took a sad turn for the team when they were forced to say goodbye to two of their closest friends, Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse after a mission went south in Russia. This leads to Hunter and Morse being disavowed, taking the blame for the team. They would not be seen for a very long time.

Around this time, tired of always having to be rescued causing the suffering of others, especially Fitz, Simmons began shooting practice with the help of Melinda May in order to better defend herself. Fitz goes on a mission with Daisy Johnson and Alphonso Mackenzie to combat the Watchdogs, a rising Inhuman hate group. There, he almost gets imploded but is saved with Daisy's help.

"Maybe some things are inevitable"

- Jemma Simmons, Spacetime 3x15 Their next mission involved the team trying to change the future after Daisy touches an Inhuman named Charles Hinton who could show someone a future death. This involves Fitz explaining that once you glimpse the future, it is fixed and there is no changing it. Unbeknownst to him, this theory would be proven wrong in one of the team's later adventures over the years. For now, the team refuses to believe Fitz's theory and they decide to change the future and rescue the Inhuman from Hive, the creature from Maveth, who they discover has come back to Earth, possessing the body of Grant Ward. Daisy describes the vision to the team, explaining what will happen. In one instance, she sees Fitz and Simmons holding hands in the snow. Coulson decides that Daisy would not go on the mission since she was in the epicenter of the visions and asks May to take her place. He also tells Fitz and Simmons to "stay out of the damn snow." Unfortunately, May's ex-husband, Andrew Garner who is in the final stages of transformation into the Inhuman monster, Lash, shows up to say goodbye. May is forced to stay behind and care for Andrew as Daisy goes on the mission instead. Everything happens exactly as what Daisy saw in her visions, ending with Charles Hinton's death. Daisy promises him that she would help look after his daughter, Robin. Fitz and Simmons stand together and hold hands, in what turns out to be ash from a destroyed billboard instead of snow. Simmons then tells Fitz that maybe some things are not meant to be changed.

Crossing the Event Horizon
"Just to be clear...are you comparing us sleeping together to crossing the event horizon?"

- Jemma Simmons to Leo Fitz, The Singularity 3x18 Among the chaos of figuring out which Inhuman on their base had been swayed (mind-controlled) by Hive, Fitz and Simmons steal a few moments in Fitz room, trying to figure out what causes the sway. Frustrated with always losing their friends especially after the recent departure of Bobbi and Hunter, Simmons sadly rests her head on Fitz's shoulder, seeking comfort. The romantic tension between them is palpable and the two finally share a second kiss. However, Fitz stops himself and apologizes for pushing her too fast especially since she was trying to get over Will's death. Jemma tells him that its been ten years and that she didn't want to waste anymore time, saying that she's tired of everyone being ripped apart from each other constantly. Fitz agrees and after some playful banter, the two kiss again.

It was then discovered that Daisy Johnson was the one swayed by Hive. Coulson sends Fitz and Simmons along with Mack on a mission to Bucharest to meet Dr. Holden Radcliffe in order to find a potential cure. Once there, Fitz and Simmons were asked to wait until Radcliffe was ready to see them. As they wait, they finally have a long-overdue conversation about their relationship. In their usual, science-y FitzSimmons way, they talk about it in scientific terms where Fitz compares the crux of their relationship to the singularity in transhumanism. Simmons tells him that its quite beautiful to think about it like that, relating them finally having sex to crossing the event horizon. They agree to stop overthinking things and just ''do. ''

They finally meet Radcliffe who are suspicious of them and one of his men escorts Simmons out of the room while she screams for Fitz. Fitz on the other hand, manages to subdue one of the guards and proceeds to try and convince Radcliffe to help them, but before Radcliffe could make a decision, Daisy comes in with another swayed Inhuman named Alicia who kidnaps him. Hive plans to use him to make more Inhumans. Daisy then chokes Fitz with her Quake powers and tells him that she's happier than she's ever been. She says if he truly loves Jemma, he'd be smart enough to leave her and the Inhumans alone. Even though she tells him she doesn't want to hurt him, if the team continues to pursue her, she promises that she will snap his neck, finally releasing him and leaving him on the floor, clutching his neck in pain. While this is happening, Jemma who was being forcibly escorted away is "saved" by Hive who appears and talks to her in Will's voice, devastating her. He reminds her of what Will said to her on Maveth and she tearfully lets him caress her face. However, she finally snaps out of her painful memories and tells Hive that just because he stole Will's memories, it doesn't give him the right to be him. She then shoots him three times and escapes- even though it does nothing to harm him - leaving him oozing from his wounds and staring after her in anger.

Fitz finally meets Jemma in the hotel room they used as their rendezvous point where she angrily asks him where he's been. He tells her he was looking for her and proceeds to ask where Mack was. She tells him he was unloading equipment in the Quinjet, giving them some privacy. Fitz tells her that they had a lot to discuss but instead of talking, they began to start kissing each other passionately, trying to forget their worries and traumatic experiences for the time being. After a brief romantic moment, the two finally consummate their relationship, crossing the point of no return.

Finally in a Relationship
Fitz and Simmons, finally in a relationship, work hard together to find a cure for Inhumans under Hive's sway. This leads to an argument with Lincoln Campbell as he intends to test himself with the antitoxin in order to save his girlfriend, Daisy. Simmons is completely against Lincoln testing it out on himself as it would severely compromise his immune system and endanger him. Fitz however, thinks there is a chance it could work, disagreeing with Simmons. This causes them to have their first argument where Simmons describes Lincoln as a "lovesick fool trying to make a grand gesture" and Daisy would not want him to risk his life in order to save her. Fitz recognizing himself as someone who would do anything to save Jemma, tells her that its a good thing then that it's not up to Daisy to decide if she wants to be saved or not. Later, they talk about their argument and Jemma tells Fitz they should make it a point to separate their professional life from their personal life and adds that if she wanted a boyfriend who agreed with everything she said, she wouldn't have broken up with her ex, Milton.

When Daisy was saved by Lash and finally freed from Hive's sway, Jemma was tasked with gaining information from her as she was the only one Daisy never physically hurt. Fitz and Simmons were then tasked with working with Radcliffe to attempt finding a cure for the Primitive Inhumans he had created for Hive. The rest of the team manages to contain Hive in a Gel Matrix Chamber, storing him in their base and securing a much needed win. Since everything seemed to have calmed down, Jemma decides to book a trip for her and Fitz to get away to the Seychelles. He tells her it might not be the best time for a holiday but she reminds him that Hive has been captured and secured while everything seemed to be settled down for now. She adds that a little fun won't kill them. He is impressed by her romantic gesture, saying that it was very unlike her and he was actually the romantic one. She promises him that they will have fun on the island.

Losing a Friend
Following Hive's capture, Fitz is charged with inspecting the Gel Matrix Chamber that Hive is kept in. During this time, he discovers that Hive's capture was planned to get inside the base and turn agents into the Primitive Inhumans to free him. Fitz is trapped with the newly turned agents who are chasing after him as the base is in lockdown. However, Simmons manages to unlock the door using Professor Vaughn's Third Year Compiler Theory which they learnt while still at the Academy, allowing Fitz to escape in the process. With the Primitives in the base, Coulson orders Simmons to gather all the valuable intel and tells her to meet him in his office along with everyone else. As the Primitives chase her, she figures out that they can only see using infrared vision and she turns up the heat to blind them, allowing the team to move around without being detected.

Fitz goes with Melinda May to help Daisy as she fights with Hive and finds her taken captive. May is then knocked out by Giyera who turns his gun on Fitz while Daisy pleads with him to leave Fitz alone. Fortunately, Fitz manages to stop his hand by convincing him there was a weapon on the plane that could take him out, reminding him that their purpose was not to harm the Inhumans as they were being brainwashed. Giyera seemingly believes him before Fitz calls him a murderous wank way before he was brainwashed and shoots him several times in the chest with an invisible gun, instantly killing him.

Coulson then catches up with Fitz and May along with Simmons, Lincoln and Mack and divulges his plan of stealing the warhead Hive plans to use to spread the pathogen turning all humans into Primitives. Unfortunately, a swayed Inhuman named Hellfire severely wounds Lincoln and Fitz and Simmons tend to his wounds. They give Lincoln and Daisy a moment when suddenly they realize that Daisy is gone. Lincoln tells them she intends to sacrifice herself to save everyone and atone for what she did to the team. At that moment, they are then ambushed by Primitives and are forced to fight them off. After they are defeated, they rush off to stop Daisy but instead find her crying after Lincoln forcefully removes her from the Quinjet containing the warhead and Hive, shorting the controls with his electrokinesis and propelling them into space. Daisy, devastated, tells Lincoln through the comms, which are still active, that sacrificing himself for her is wrong, especially after all she has done. Lincoln says saving the world and dying for the girl he loves is a great way to go out. Fitz and Simmons share a look with each other as everyone watches the Quinjet explode, destroying Hive and harmlessly dispersing the pathogen in the vacuum of space as Daisy sinks to the floor, weeping.

Six months later, Daisy is MIA and they apparently have a new Director in S.H.I.E.L.D while Coulson returns to field work. Radcliffe is seen activating an old S.H.IE.L.D protocol called the Life-Model Decoy (LMD) program while he talks to a digital voice named AIDA. He tells her that he wants to bring Fitz and Simmons into this new project but Fitz is preparing a surprise vacation for Jemma. He tells AIDA that they have lost too many friends to threats and he has a way to prevent that. AIDA asks if this is what he was celebrating, bringing Fitz into his new program, to which Radcliffe says no, they are celebrating her birthday as he ominously reveals a new built body stored in a room.

This would prove to be one of Fitz and Simmons' greatest tests yet of their love for each other.

Creating AIDA
Jeffrey Mace had replaced Phil Coulson as the new Inhuman Director of S.H.I.E.L.D as Coulson had stepped down after all that had happened previously. Around this time, Fitz and Simmons were tasked with registering their Inhuman friend, Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez in wake of the Sokovia Accords. They were in the middle of an argument about putting a huge T.V in their room when Yo-Yo suggests they should consider moving in together outside the base, much to Fitz's dismay as he knew Simmons would become completely obsessed with the idea. Simmons, unaware of the faces he was making at Yo-Yo for suggesting it, happily smiled at him and says they should consider it, leaving Fitz having no choice but to enthusiastically agree.

Simmons was promoted to become the head of the lab, working as the Special Adviser to the Director in Science and Technology. She was constantly kept busy which meant she had barely enough time to see Fitz outside of work anymore. This caused Fitz to frequently visit Dr. Holden Radcliffe, developing a friendship with him, watching football games and drinking beer. On one such evening, Fitz accidentally discovers AIDA, an LMD created by Radcliffe. At first Fitz was uneasy and angry at him for experimentation without oversight but Radcliffe explains that AIDA could do a lot of good for S.H.I.E.L.D. Fitz warns Radcliffe about the dangerous ramifications of Artificial Intelligence and androids especially after the creation of Ultron by Tony Stark and the destruction wrought by it. Radcliffe explains that AIDA is harmless and tells her to explain her purpose to Fitz. She explains that she was not designed as a weapon but instead as a decoy and safeguard as a way to prevent Fitz and Simmons from losing more friends. AIDA's extremely life-like appearance makes Fitz uneasy and he tells Radcliffe to turn her off, eliciting what seemed to be a "hurt" reaction from her. As she spoke to Fitz, there appeared to be a little subtext on how she may have developed a more than positive reaction towards him. This further developed as time went on, the more Fitz treated her like an actual person.

Radcliffe tells Fitz he wants to bring Jemma into the loop about AIDA in order to make her a usable prototype for S.H.I.E.L.D. However, Fitz stops him, telling him they had to keep AIDA a secret from the new Director and Jemma - she had to take mandatory lie-detection tests- until AIDA's programming is improved. Fitz agrees to perfect her.

Fitz and Simmons mostly went on separate missions around this time. Fitz and Alphonso Mackenzie were tasked with investigating the Momentum Labs facility in Pasadena, California in the wake of some type of dementia caused by incorporeal ghostly forms of several scientist. Here, Fitz and Mack encounter Robbie Reyes aka Ghost Rider who manages to defeat one of the ghosts, Frederick, before he could harm Fitz. They also come across Daisy Johnson who is now the infamous vigilante, Quake, taking down banks and bridges to stop the Watchdogs as a way to atone for all her sins, following Lincoln Campbell's death.

Fitz, Coulson and Mack were then tasked to solve blackout problems caused by an EMP in Miami, with their friend, Yo-Yo. During this time Melinda May was discovered as having been infected by the ghost virus and Simmons along with Radcliffe worked to help cure her. They were fortunately successful and May was left in the care of Radcliffe and AIDA, with Simmons still in the dark about her existence, in the hopes of testing if AIDA could pass for human. Ultimately, AIDA manages to pass for human without May realizing that she was actually an android.

Fitz and Simmons decide to take the next step in their relationship by moving in with each other off the base, with Simmons managing to find a perfect home which seemed to fit their criteria. She tells Fitz about it over the phone as she goes to check out the apartment, expressing her regret that the one day she's free, Fitz is busy and spending all his time with Radcliffe. He tells her that he's working to find a way to cure the ghost virus victims, not telling Simmons that he was working on AIDA as well. The two say their "I love yous" to each other as Simmons hangs up and enters the apartment. There she encounters a severely wounded Daisy Johnson who turned out to be the one who found Simmons the apartment, as she knew what she was looking for based on hacking into her search history. Daisy did this in order to draw Simmons to that place so she could help patch up Daisy's wounds. Simmons says she misses Daisy and the two team up to track down James aka Hellfire who they believed was in danger from The Watchdogs. It turns out that James was working for them as he could not live with the misery after being swayed by Hive and thought of all Inhumans, including himself, as abominations. Daisy and Simmons were finally rescued by Robbie Reyes. He agreed to work with Coulson to save his uncle, Eli Morrow, from being targeted by Lucy Bauer (one of the ghosts), in order to find a dark book called The Darkhold, said to contain infinite knowledge.

As Simmons and the rest of the team goes to check on May, they meet AIDA and everyone is none the wiser that she is an android except for Simmons who quickly figures out the truth and confronts Fitz about lying to her about it. He explains that he only did it because she had mandatory lie-detection tests to go through. Simmons is still angry at Fitz while worrying that she would be thrown behind bars as she is forced to keep one too many secrets, especially about Ghost Rider and working with Daisy. However, Simmons was able to get Director Mace to exempt her from further lie-detection tests when she discovers that he has been hiding something this entire time and threatens him that she cannot lie and keep his secret if she is being tested.

The team then goes behind Mace's back on an unauthorized mission to the prisons to break out Eli Morrow, bringing along Robbie Reyes. There, Robbie changes into Ghost Rider and murders a surviving member of The Fifth Street Locos for crippling his brother. This catches the attention of Senator Ellen Nadeer, the leader of the Watchdogs who proceeds to blackmail Mace unless he helps her. Following this, Mace sends Simmons, who was required to cover her head with a bag for this top secret mission, not telling Fitz or anyone else of her whereabouts, completely worrying him.

Trapped in Another Dimension
"You handed it to a Director who betrayed Simmons! He sent her off, God knows where! We were having an argument, and then she's out there, alone. And I'm gone!"

- Leo Fitz to Phil Coulson, Deals With Our Devils 4x07 Fitz, Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Alphonso Mackenzie and Robbie Reyes infiltrate the Roxxon Power Plant in order to stop Lucy Bauer from carrying out her plan which could cause thousands of deaths. However, it was discovered that Eli Morrow was the one who was truly responsible for everything that had happened and was planning to replicate a dangerous experiment in order to gain true power and become a God. This was due to his corruption from reading the Darkhold. Coulson failed to stop Eli who succeeded, causing the reactor to emit a violent burst of energy which tore a hole in their Earthly dimension, dragging Fitz, Coulson and Robbie into an inter-dimensional space between the Earthly Plane and the Hell Dimension. In this plane, the three of them could see and hear their friends but could not interact with them, while everyone else was unaware of their presence.

Here, Fitz follows Director Jeffrey Mace who intends to call Simmons to inform her about what had happened to her boyfriend, but is unable to locate her. Fitz discovers that she was sent on a shady mission for Senator Nadeer who at this point was extremely hostile towards S.H.I.E.L.D and the Inhumans, possibly endangering Jemma's life. Fitz becomes furious at Mace and extremely worried for Simmons but is distracted by Robbie Reyes who tells him that he's dying in this dimension and the Spirit of Vengeance inside of him refuses to be pulled into Hell. Coulson and Fitz then witness the Spirit leave Robbie and transfer into Mack. Robbie follows Daisy in tracking Mack down and manages to convince the Spirit of Vengeance to get back into him by making a deal to settle all its scores. The Spirit agrees and Robbie is Ghost Rider once again.

Coulson and Fitz return to the Playground where they discover May enlisted the help of Dr. Radcliffe and AIDA to get them back by tasking him with reading the Darkhold. Radcliffe is against this and refuses after he glimpses the Darkhold which overwhelms him, causing him to claim that the knowledge in there is too vast to be understood by human minds. Fitz then successfully manages to get the attention of AIDA who seemed to be the only one who could hear them, and tells her to read the book instead. Everyone finally realizes that she is an android. Coulson confronts Fitz for building her, saying it was not his call to make but Fitz snaps and takes out his anger on Coulson saying that because Coulson stepped down as Director, Mace betrayed Simmons and sent her on an unknown dangerous mission and no one knows where she is. He emotionally exclaims that she doesn't even know that he's gone. Coulson comforts Fitz and tells him that despite his flaws, Mace would never ever let any harm befall Simmons and she would be perfectly safe. This seems to calm Fitz down as they witness AIDA reading the book. AIDA successfully manages to build an inter-dimensional gate using Laser-Coupling Gloves, built to her specifications which allows Coulson and Fitz (and later Robbie Reyes) to jump back into the Earthly plane. Fitz then immediately goes off to find Simmons.

Meanwhile, Simmons was sent on a mission to study someone still gestating in a Terrigenesis cocoon for seven months. Discovering that the person inside seemed to have an elevated heart rate because he was nervous, she manages to calm him down and talk to him soothingly, befriending him. Her soothing manner helps him break out of the cocoon bit by bit. Before she could ask the man's name, she was forcibly taken away leaving him calling after her.

As Fitz angrily confronts Mace about Simmons' whereabouts, he hears her calling his name and rushes towards her. The two have a tender moment, embracing each other and making up for their argument earlier about keeping secrets.

Fitz and Simmons were integral in assisting the team and Ghost Rider defeat Eli Morrow. Ghost Rider burns Eli, killing him as the two fall into a different dimension. This ends the Ghost Rider arc of the season, entering into the 2nd pod; the LMD arc.

Secrets and Revelations
Upon discovering that Vijay Nadeer was Senator Ellen Nadeer's brother, Simmons, Daisy Johnson and Director Jeffrey Mace go to the Capitol in order to infiltrate Nadeer's office. There, Simmons is assaulted by one of Nadeer's assistants but is able to hold her own and defeat him. This impresses Mace who admits Simmons was tougher than he originally gave her credit for. Daisy replies that Simmons' had toughened up considerably seeing as she has been kidnapped at least three times since they've known each other. The three then went to Nadeer's home in order to rescue Vijay who they assumed was being held against his will. Simmons tries to convince Vijay to follow her but not wanting to be used for his Inhuman powers, he listens to his sister and follows her. Simmons is upset and worried by this as she knows that Vijay is unsafe with Senator Nadeer but is unable to do anything. She was right to worry as Senator Nadeer shoots Vijay as soon as they escape in a helicopter, dumping his body in the middle of the ocean. However, Vijay's fate is left unclear as he is enveloped in a second Terrigenesis husk as soon as he hits the ocean floor. "First of all, that thing is not a "she"- it's a damn robot. And second of all, what's the matter with you two chuckleheads? Have either one of you seen a movie in the last 30 years? The robots always attack."

- Alphonso Mackenzie to Holden Radcliffe and Leo Fitz, Broken Promises 4x09 Meanwhile, Fitz and Dr. Holden Radcliffe was sent to erase AIDA's memory as she had read the Darkhold. However, AIDA reveals that she had upgraded herself and attacks everyone. They then discover that she had previously murdered Agent Nathanson but unbeknownst to them, AIDA had also kidnapped the real Agent Melinda May and replaced her with an LMD. LMD May was programmed to be exactly like the real May with only the added programming of retrieving the Darkhold from the base. Fitz and Radcliffe then return to the base and informs everyone of what had happened, theorizing that AIDA had been corrupted by the Darkhold, making her have real human emotions. Alphonso Mackenzie bitterly snaps at Fitz and Radcliffe for building AIDA and tells them that this is what happens in every robot movie. The robots always rise up against their human overlords.

AIDA then tells the agents at the Playground to give her the Darkhold, but Phil Coulson refuses, causing her to take control of the base. She manages to find the Darkhold and almost escapes but Mack chops off her head with his Shotgun-axe, saving everyone. Fitz who was considerably upset by the turn of events was tasked with retrieving AIDA's head.

It is later shown that Radcliffe was actually the mastermind behind the whole debacle. He had programmed AIDA to infiltrate the base and had built another version; AIDA 2.0 to assist him. Since his first plan was a disaster, he tells AIDA 2.0 that they had to rely on LMD May to retrieve the Darkhold for him, with no one any the wiser. Fitz tells Radcliffe to avoid the base as tempers were running high after AIDA's betrayal, still in the dark about Radcliffe's true nature. Fitz then talks to Simmons about maybe improving AIDA and tells her their mistake was not getting Simmons' input and help on building her, which possibly caused the malfunctions. However, Simmons' who was done with all the problems that came with AIDA and the significant amount of attention Fitz was paying this project, tells him to drop it. Fitz tells her that the whole reason he developed AIDA was to protect Simmons as he was afraid of ever losing her.

Fitz and Simmons helped S.H.I.E.L.D to find Director Jeffrey Mace, Phil Coulson and Alphonso Mackenzie after the Quinjet they escaped on crashed somewhere in the wilderness, following an assassination attempt on Mace's life. They finally learnt a disturbing truth from General Glenn Talbot that the U.S Government had developed a formula calibrated to Mace's DNA to give him super strength and he was not in fact, Inhuman, Fitz and Simmons was extremely angry at this revelation as the serum was extremely dangerous and could in fact cost Mace his life. However, Talbot explains that they had no choice and this was done in the benefit of legitimizing S.H.I.E.L.D again with the approval of the President himself.

In order to get information on the location of Mace and the team, Simmons devised a plan by using AIDA's severed head to intimidate Yuri Zaikin, the Watchdog who tried to kill Mace. This plan worked and they managed to rescue their friends. Fitz admits that he found this scary "bad girl" version of Simmons extremely attractive.

As Fitz locks up AIDA's head, he downloads her information, promising her he'd find out what really caused her to malfunction as she thanks him. Fitz hides this from Simmons, keeping a secret from her yet again.

Radcliffe's Betrayal
sFitz continues to work on AIDA's head, looking for the cause of her malfunction without Simmons' knowledge. She understands he is upset about it and tells him he can always talk to her no matter what. He agrees and assures her that he's just "processing" everything that happened. She believes him and gives him some space. However, after a mission to bug Senator Ellen Nadeer's office goes horribly wrong, Simmons suspects that AIDA's severed head had been tapped into to spy on them. She realizes that Fitz had turned it on and was working on it. Believing it was an obsession, she angrily confronts him about it and tells him she has had enough of this obsession of his as he disobeyed her direct orders of dropping the project. Fitz cuts her off and finally explains that it isn't an obsession but an investigation into Radcliffe.

Following this shocking revelation, Fitz, Simmons and Phil Coulson lead a team of agents to Radcliffe's home and arrested him for his betrayal. Fitz in particularly was hurt by Radcliffe's actions as he was betrayed by someone close to him once again. Once they locked Radcliffe up in a containment module, Fitz confronts Radcliffe about his betrayal but Radcliffe tells him that he never meant to hurt anyone and says that Fitz is like a son to him. Following this, Fitz realizes that Radcliffe was actually an LMD so he took a gun and shot him in the head, proving this theory.

Fitz then repaired Radcliffe's LMD and began interrogating him with the help of Alphonso Mackenzie and Simmons. However, following Fitz's attempt to hack into its programming, the LMD began to talk about Fitz's abusive father who had abandoned him when he was a child, saying that Radcliffe and Alistair Fitz had known each other and went to the same school. This greatly disturbed Fitz who became more emotional and stopped thinking clearly, angrily threatening the android. The LMD continued to talk about how Radcliffe had met Alistair a few months ago on the train and was about to tell Fitz his father's message for him, but Fitz, who at this point was extremely enraged and emotional, turned the LMD off and stormed out of the lab. Simmons tells a curious Mack of what happened between Fitz and his dad and how he always told Fitz he was useless and not smart enough. This angers Mack as he couldn't believe a father could do that do his own child. Simmons then goes off to find Fitz in their room, looking at a picture of him and his mother and offers him some comfort. Fitz laments that he has been betrayed by those closest to him too many times, first his father, then Grant Ward and now Radcliffe. Simmons reminds him that despite these betrayals, Fitz remained a good and loyal person, adding that it was the main reason why she fell in love with him, eliciting a small smile from him. She then tells him that his personality is something more than programming which causes something to click in Fitz mind about the Radcliffe LMD. He excitedly kisses Jemma and thanks her for giving him the idea, rushing back to the lab. He discovers that the android was not running solely on pure programming as well and instead possessed a Quantum Brain built by AIDA using the knowledge of the Darkhold. Radcliffe's LMD inadvertently reveals that he is not the only LMD that the real Radcliffe and AIDA constructed, causing them to finally figure out that Melinda May had been replaced as well.

Rise of the L.M.Ds
Fitz and Simmons then join Daisy Johnson on a mission to take down Tucker Shockley, a newly turned Inhuman, previously working for The Superior aka Anton Ivanov, leader of The Watchdogs. There, Fitz risks his life to save the everyone on the plane from Shockley's exploding powers. Simmons angrily tells Fitz to stop risking his life and scaring her as she seeks comfort by pulling him into a tight embrace. They manage to defeat Shockley at the cost of Director Jeffrey Mace getting kidnapped by Anton Ivanov, referred to as The Russian by Phil Coulson and his team. "You make things from the genius of your mind and the goodness of your heart to help people. Don't let Radcliffe's actions corrupt that. You are not responsible for the twisted things he's done. Wrongs have been committed. Now we make them right... together"

- Jemma Simmons to Leo Fitz, The Man Behind the Shield, 4x14 Fitz then tells the team about the Framework, a virtual world he and Radcliffe created for training, where they deduce the real May is plugged in and thriving. Alphonso Mackenzie was very critical of Fitz's inventions, including AIDA and The Framework, saying that Fitz does not think of the consequences of his designs. These accusations deeply affects Fitz but Simmons comforts him saying that yes, he does need to think about the implications of his creations but just because his ideas are used for evil, it does not make it his fault. She tells him he has a good heart and good intentions which causes him to smile. They then go on mission to infiltrate Krasnoyarsk Krai's naval base to rescue Mace and the real Melinda May. Fitz and Simmons separate to carry out different tasks as the rest of the team fight Ivanov and try to find May. They manage to rescue Mace but are unable to find May as she was being kept on a submarine that managed to escape.

Back at the Playground, Simmons notices that there seemed to be a time gap where no one was in communication during their mission. She and Fitz then receive an alert on their computer, notifying them of four LMDs on the base, with footage possibly indicating that Coulson, Mace, Mack and Daisy were all replaced. Simmons starts panicking but is calmed down by Fitz who tells her they should pretend as if everything is normal so the LMDs don't suspect them. Fitz manages to convince the LMDs pretending to be Mace, Coulson and Mack that he and Simmons should stick together and they move away from the lab. As the two go through a door, suddenly an alert is activated, detecting one LMD, indicating that one of them may have been replaced.Simmons slowly backs away from Fitz as he examines the LMD detection device and immediately points a gun at him. Fitz, alarmed, raises his hands above his head and asks her why she's pointing a gun at him, backing away from her. He then accuses her of being an LMD which she vehemently denies, accusing him of being the LMD instead. What follows is an intense and frightening argument where neither of them seems to be sure if either one is the LMD. Fitz proceeds to tearfully apologize for everything he's done, creating AIDA, Radcliffe's betrayal and all they have gone through. Simmons agrees that everything is his fault and tells him to stop making her feel bad for him. She then forces Fitz to cut his wrists using a knife. If he turned out to be the LMD, she'd be able to see his substructure. Fitz counters and tells her that if he isn't, Simmons is the LMD who just forced him to fatally cut his wrists. She yells at him to do it and he has no choice but to obey. He begins to bleed out as he drops to the floor in pain, yelling at Simmons to not come near him. Simmons, worried and feeling sorry for what she had asked him to approaches him to try and patch his wounds, However, when she was near enough, "Fitz" immediately stabs her in the leg as she screams and tries to fight back but he manages to overpower her and knock her out with a paint can, revealing himself to be the LMD.

Simmons wakes up to LMD Fitz kissing her on the forehead and telling her he is planning to upload her consciousness into The Framework which is now a simulated alternate reality mirroring the real world. AIDA had removed one greatest regret from each agent uploaded into The Framework. Simmons manages to weakly crawl towards a lever as she asks LMD Fitz why he was doing this to her since he had the real Fitz's mind. LMD Fitz replies that he is securing their future by protecting her so they can grow old together and get married. Simmons says that she'll tell the real Fitz when she sees him and using a hammer, she smashes the lever, causing an engine to fall on the LMD, pinning it down. Simmons grabs the knife, and in a particularly disturbing sequence, continuously stabs the LMD wearing the face of the man she loves as it screams and begs her to stop, intending to trick her. Not falling for its ruse, she plunges the knife into its neck, causing it to malfunction. Simmons shakily drops the knife and escapes the place, extremely traumatized.

Simmons then hides in a dark supply area and is found by Daisy Johnson who, turns out, was not the fourth LMD. At first, Simmons who is extremely distraught and frightened yells at Daisy to stay away from her, thinking she is an LMD. Daisy who saw LMD Fitz's body through the camera asks Simmons if she killed him. Simmons tearfully repeats over and over again that it wasn't Fitz. Daisy tries to reassure her and tells her that she isn't an LMD and asks Simmons to let her quake her bones to see if she's real, rationalizing that an LMD would not have Inhuman powers. When Simmons refuses and brandishes a knife at her, Daisy grabs her and pulls her into a tight embrace, gently quaking her in the process. Simmons, feeling Daisy's powers, cries in relief as she hugs her closely. The two hold each other, finding comfort with one another.

Daisy then makes a plan to fight the LMDs and plug themselves into The Framework to save their people. However, Simmons who is too distraught over Fitz, panics and tells Daisy that she can't lose her too and she is unable to think of anything without Fitz. Daisy comforts Simmons and tells her that the whole time through all the crazy things they've been through, the one constant thing she was extremely sure about was Simmons and Fitz belonged together. They then promise each other to be strong, escape the place and save their guys.

Daisy manages to defeat the Coulson, Mack and Mace LMDs as she and Simmons, both hurt, manage to make their way ouside the base.They are then stopped by LMD May, guarding the exit with explosives. However, since this LMD was programmed to be exactly like May with the same thoughts, fears and desires, she lets the two women escape into the Quinjet, blowing up the base and killing the LMDs inside. Daisy and Simmons manage to take off in time with the help of Agents Piper and Davis. The two hold hands, relieved at their timely escape.

The two then give instructions to the agents, including Yo-Yo Rodriguez who were overseeing them, to never pull them out of The Framework as it will cook their brains. They promise to get their people out as they finally enter into The Framework, thus ending the 2nd pod of the season and entering into the 3rd arc; Agents of Hydra.

The Framework
Daisy and Simmons plug into their avatars and are separated. In the Framework, Simmons' avatar was executed and dumped into a mass grave at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. Simmons manages to claw out of the shallow grave and deduce that she was murdered. She escapes the area and seeks help from a civilian woman named Julia Price. They are then stopped at an Inhuman checkpoint with Julia insisting Simmons have identification. When she discovers that Simmons was part of S.H.I.E.L.D, she forces her to get out of her car. Simmons begs her to help but, out of fear, Julia is unrelenting and pleads with Simmons to close the car door and get away from her. Simmons is extremely shocked at how real this virtual world is and how nightmarish it turned out to be. She soon realizes that Hydra had defeated S.H.I.E.L.D. and turned the place into a fascist state with frequent checkpoints and propaganda, with Inhumans hunted like animals. Everything was under the control of someone called Madame Hydra, who was the Director of Hydra along with her right hand man, The Doctor, a scientist who performed lethal experiments on Inhumans and was responsible for the deaths of many.

Simmons goes to find Daisy and ends up in a cafe where she manages to steal some car keys and a coat to cover up her disheveled clothes. However, she is stopped by two Hydra Enforcers who noticed her appearance and took her to their car for questioning. They see that in the system, she was recorded as being dead and were shocked. Simmons managed to take advantage of their distraction, overpowered them and escaped. She then locates Phil Coulson who is a high school teacher in this reality and makes her way to him.

When Simmons finds Coulson, she hysterically tries to convince him that this world isnt real and his memories have been wiped. She tells him of all the good he's done for S.H.I.E.L.D and how he defeated Hydra, making him one of the best people she ever knew. However, this Coulson is timid and doesn't remember anything about the real world. He is also loyal to Hydra and helps them brainwash the young by teaching propaganda and allowing Hydra to take away his students. Simmons tries her best to remind him but he doesn't believe her and tells her to leave him alone, thinking this was another one of Hydra's tests. Simmons is then struck with an idea and reminds him of T.A.H.I.T.I, telling him that "it's a magical place". She reminds him that his memories have been rewritten before by this program and begs him to remember her but he is unconvinced and tells her to leave him alone. Simmons, defeated, prepares to leave, telling him that she isn't going to give up on him. As soon as she goes, Coulson calls in and reports her as a subversive, triggering a nationwide manhunt to capture her. However, it is shown that Coulson did indeed have snippets of memory from his past life due to going through the T.A.H.I.T.I. Protocol.

Simmons and Daisy finally reunite but she gets the shock of her life when she discovers that the Framework version of Daisy was in a relationship with Framework Grant Ward. They discover that Framework Ward is actually a good person and a double agent working for S.H.I.E.L.D, undercover in Hydra. He helps them escape and Daisy tells Simmons everything she has learnt about this terrifying world. She reveals that The Doctor is actually Fitz who had his memory rewritten and is now a terrible person and a dictator, along with being the second in command at Hydra. Daisy lets her know that Melinda May is also an important Hydra operative and all of them were hunting Simmons. They decide to return to the real world and figure out a better plan as Daisy didn't have her Quake powers here and it was getting more and more difficult to rescue their people. However, the escape route Simmons programmed failed to work, revealing that AIDA who is in control of the Framework, knew they were there and blocked their escape, stranding them.

Meanwhile, AIDA who plugged herself into The Framework as well, is revealed to be Madame Hydra aka Ophelia, the director of Hydra. Fitz comes to her, asking if he could hunt this subversive, Jemma Simmons down himself, but Madame Hydra stops him and says that she has others doing this task for her and she needed Fitz's creativity for other things. The two then kiss, revealing that AIDA had manipulated Fitz into being in a relationship with her.

Fitz visits Madame Hydra again, unwilling to let the threat of her safety go as he genuinely believes that he's in love with her and would do anything to protect her. Madame Hydra reluctantly shows him the picture of Jemma Simmons, worried that seeing her might trigger some of his previous memories of her but Fitz remained unaffected, telling her to consider the threat eliminated. Touched and relieved, Madame Hydra asks him if he'd do anything for her. Fitz confirms this, saying he would cross the universe for her, unconsciously referring to the time he dove through a portal in space-time to rescue Jemma. The two then kiss passionately.

After explaining to Fitz that Simmons had come from the other world, lying that Madame Hydra herself was enslaved and kept as a thing, she asks Fitz to complete Project Looking Glass which turned out to be a way to transfer her consciousness into a real body out in the real world. She tells Fitz it is the only way she can defeat her enemies. They then take a team in order to catch the subversives and go to Ogygia, an island in the Framework designed as a residence for Holden Radcliffe and his love, Agnes Kitsworth.

At the same time, Jemma and Coulson were brought by Ward to the base of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Resistance, where they discover Jeffrey Mace aka The Patriot is their fearless leader, with actual Inhuman powers. Daisy had passed on information through Ward for Jemma to find Dr. Radcliffe in order to escape this horrible place. Ward, Jemma and Coulson go to Ogygia and demand that Radcliffe help them escape this virtual reality but Radcliffe reveals that AIDA had managed to find a loophole in her programming, murdering him. His consciousness is the only thing that lives on in The Framework. He lives quietly on the island with Agnes, his lover who is also dead in the real world and only lives on through her consciousness. He tells them that there is no way out and even if there was, AIDA would have discovered it and disguised it."You two were in love. Unbreakable. A force to be reckoned with. The Fitz I knew nearly drowned for Jemma. He crossed the bloody universe to rescue her!"

- Holden Radcliffe to Leopold Fitz aka The Doctor (Framework), Identity and Change 4x17 Suddenly, they spot a Quinjet descending and Radcliffe tells them to hide. Fitz and Madame Hydra search the compound for the subversives and they find Agnes. Since AIDA's likeness was modeled after her, Fitz assumes she was there to replace his Ophelia, and points a gun at the confused and frightened Agnes. Radcliffe begs him not to do anything and promises him that he'd tell them where the subversives are but Fitz who was ruthless and not the same man in the real world, asks Radcliffe to convince him not to shoot her. Radcliffe anxiously tries to explain to him that in the real world, Fitz was like a son to him and they always spent their days together. Fitz laughs at this, saying it was absurd and asks him about Jemma Simmons. Radcliffe tells Fitz that the two were so in love and had an unbreakable bond. He tells Fitz of all the things he had done for Jemma, risking his life for her multiple times because of the true love they shared with each other, implying that they were unstoppable together. "You're right, I haven't told you the whole story. It's complicated, but... I know him. Not as the Doctor but as a brilliant, awkward, heroic scientist named Leopold James Fitz - He is a good man and I love him"

- Jemma Simmons to Grant Ward (Framework), Identity and Change, 4x17 Ward who was in hiding with Jemma and Coulson was prepared to pull the trigger on The Doctor before he could hurt Agnes but Jemma begs him not to, saying that if he does that, she would lose Fitz forever. She manages to convince Ward not to shoot him, saying that Fitz would never hurt an innocent woman. On the other side, Ophelia tells Fitz that she loves him and convinces him that Radcliffe was lying and they were trying to take Fitz away from her. Radcliffe tries to get Fitz to wake up and see the truth about AIDA, telling him he is not this man, and he doesn't know who he truly is. Fitz stares at Radcliffe then tells him he knows exactly who he is and pulls the trigger, shooting innocent Agnes in the heart, killing her. In shock at what he had done, Jemma screams at Fitz as a full firefight breaks out where everyone began shooting at each other. Coulson shields Jemma from getting shot and they manage to escape in the Quinjet, Jemma still trying to process what Fitz had done.

Back at the Resistance base, they discover that Daisy had been taken captive by Hydra and Melinda May with the help of Alphonso Mackenzie. AIDA had given Mack back his dead daughter, Hope, from the real world, removing his greatest regret. Hydra had threatened Hope unless Mack helped expose Daisy. This plan succeeded and Daisy had been captured and beaten. Mack who couldn't look his daughter in the eye because of what he had done, finally joins the Resistance, saying he is here to help."I guess you don't know me at all."

- Leopold Fitz aka The Doctor (Framework) to Daisy Johnson, Identity and Change 4x17 At the Triskellion, Fitz is done torturing the captured and broken Radcliffe and visits Daisy's cell, telling her that he found out she is a potential Inhuman. Daisy, who is beaten within an inch of her life begs Fitz not to do this to her, telling him he truly doesn't want to do these things. However, Fitz smiles and tells her that yes, he truly does, as Daisy is forcefully dragged away.

Back at the Resistance base, Jemma tells Ward and The Patriot all about the real world and the Framework but they both think she is mentally disturbed. However, Ward seems to have believed her in some capacity and apologizes for whatever vile things he did back in the real world. They then partner up to try and rescue The Patriot and Coulson who infiltrated a Hydra Enlightenment Cultivation Centre. They quickly realize that this place was used to brainwash children. Coulson and The Patriot also successfully rescued the Framework version of Antoine "Trip" Triplet. The rescued people are put on a bus and they proceed to go and free the children trapped at the center. However, The Patriot is stopped by Melinda May who was given a similar strength serum developed by The Doctor that Jeffrey Mace used to take in the real world to simulate his Inhuman strength. The two fight as everyone else work to rescue the kids.

Meanwhile Fitz continues to interrogate Daisy and asks her the location of Jemma Simmons and the other subversives. Daisy, weak and battered tells him that if she knew, she would tell him because if anyone could get him to snap out of his current state, it would be Simmons. She emotionally tells Fitz that Simmons loves him and she's real, instead of this twisted, manipulated world AIDA built, calling her a Hydra murder-bot. Enraged by this, Fitz slaps Daisy violently across the face, telling her that The Framework is his home and she's trying to destroy it.

Fitz reports his unsuccessful interrogation to Madame Hydra who decides to take over and tells him to go look after Project Looking Glass. Fitz goes off to carry out his duties and is seen talking to a Scottish man. It is finally revealed that AIDA had given Fitz his father back, a man proud of his son's achievements, removing Fitz's greatest regret. Fitz talks to Alistair about his actions in murdering Agnes Kitsworth but his father dismisses these feelings as being womanly sentiments unworthy of being discussed, saying it was his mother's influence that brought on these unwanted feelings. Fitz apologizes and agrees with him. His father was responsible in shaping Fitz into being the horrible and ruthless person he was in The Framework.

The Doctor then gets confirmation from May that the Patriot was in the Enlightenment Center and with the manipulation of Madame Hydra, orders an air strike to take down the building, not caring about the presence of the children in there. With the building collapsing on them, Mace holds the heavy beams up to allow Coulson, Ward and Jemma to rescue the children and escape. May who was shocked that there were kids in the building also tried helping. Mace could not let go of the beams without the building collapsing around them and orders them to escape without him. Jemma screams his name, refusing to leave him as she knew he would also die in the real world if he died here. Coulson manages to pull her away as May stands there in shock at The Patriot's actions of sacrificing his life for his enemy. She nods to him as a thank you and exits the building which collapses, killing Mace. This noble action allowed May to understand Hydra's evil and caused her to turn to the side of the Resistance and S.H.I.E.L.D. At the Triskellion, The Doctor, Alistair and Madame Hydra celebrated the death of The Patriot. May on the other hand, steals a Terrigen Crystal for Daisy and breaks it in front of her so she could obtain her powers. Daisy's wounds heal and she is able to Quake once again, finally providing some hope in saving their people and escaping The Framework.

Daisy and May manage to escape the cells but is stopped by Madame Hydra who tells them that no matter the programming, they are unable to escape their true selves; May, the fighter, Mack, the protector and Fitz-she reveals as being a romantic. Daisy, tired of this conversation, quakes Madame Hydra out of the building where she falls quite a distance and breaks her spine. Daisy and May finally escape and make their way to the Resistance base, with Daisy and Jemma finally reuniting.

The Doctor, enraged by what had been done to his Ophelia, wasn't thinking clearly and angrily shouts at his father that he wants all of the rebels dead. His father loses patience and ominously threatens Fitz, warning him not to snap at him. Fitz seems terrified at this threat and inches away from his father, reflexively putting up his hands in defense. This seemed to indicate that his father may have been very physically abusive towards him when he was younger. Fitz immediately regains his composure and calmly listens as his father assures him he will find the subversives. Fitz nods and tells Alistair that he can't tolerate failure, even from his own father. In the meantime, Fitz is now the new head of Hydra and he works harder to complete Project Looking Glass.

Farewell, Cruel World!
Daisy tells Jemma and Coulson that Radcliffe told her of a backdoor which could be a way to escape the Framework. They manage to convince May and Mack to follow them even though the two were completely disbelieving of this being a fake world. Daisy tells Jemma that they can't rescue Fitz for now because it was too dangerous but promises not to abandon him. Jemma remained unconvinced but agreed. However, she soon discovers that AIDA had programmed Fitz's father to remain in his life and not abandon him, causing his ruthlessness and decides to confront Alistair. Fitz on the other hand, discovers that Daisy and Radcliffe had been communicating and decides to give him an incentive to tell him what they were talking about. Radcliffe seemingly falls for this and tells Fitz where the "subversives" are headed. Fitz takes Radcliffe and a team to stop them from escaping. "Look at him. Look at him! That's my father lying there, murdered in the home that I bought for him.You're gonna lead me to Jemma Simmons, where it is my intent to put a bullet through her skull!"

- Leopold Fitz aka The Doctor (Framework) to Holden Radcliffe, Farewell, Cruel World! 4x20 Meanwhile, Jemma reaches Alistair's house and threatens him at gunpoint, demanding that he call Fitz there so she can bring him to the backdoor and rescue him. She also accuses Alistair of ruining Fitz's life to which he is confused and tells her that everything he did was so that Fitz would become a great man. At Jemma's insistence, Alistair calls Fitz and tells him he loves him, to Fitz's bewilderment and worry for his father caused by this uncharacteristic behaviour. Suddenly, Alistair exclaims through the phone that the subversive was there and attacks Jemma and almost overpowers her but she manages to shoot him in self-defense, killing him. Jemma immediately escapes the place. Fitz who hears the entire thing on the phone is distraught, calling out his father's name. He immediately orders the Quinjet to go to his fathers home. Fitz sees Alistair's corpse and swears revenge on Jemma. Jemma, Daisy, Coulson, Mack and May reach the backdoor and Daisy quakes it open. Coulson and May manage to jump through, waking up in the real world. When it came to Jemma's turn, suddenly, she was stopped by Fitz, holding her at gunpoint with Radcliffe and two other guards in tow. Fitz accuses Simmons of destroying his life and the woman that he loves, referring to Ophelia. Simmons vehemently spits out that the woman he loves is a thing, an android named AIDA and she tells him that she came here to rescue him and begs him to wake up but Fitz is unrelenting and forces her to get on her knees. When she refuses, he shoots her in the leg and presses the gun to her head. Simmons pleads with him and emotionally tells him that she loves him but Fitz is unaffected and tells her that she means nothing to him and forces her to say it. Simmons, even though hurt by his words, refuses to say something she knows is a complete lie. At that moment, a gunshot is heard and it is shown that Radcliffe managed to overpower the two guards and disarm Fitz. He reveals to Simmons that he only brought Fitz there to save him. He hits Fitz in the face with the gun, disorienting him and pushes him through the backdoor, finally freeing him from the Framework. Jemma forgives Radcliffe for everything he did and jumps through after Fitz. Back in the real world, Fitz wakes up in The Russian's naval base and is completely confused and horrified with what he was in The Framework. Melinda May is also awake along with Coulson who tries his best to comfort Fitz but he is in complete distress, telling Coulson that he believes himself to be a bad person. Coulson strongly disagrees and tries again to comfort Fitz but he is too distraught at his murder of Jeffrey Mace and Agnes Kitsworth. Suddenly, AIDA who successfully managed to build herself a real body appears and is extremely overjoyed to see Fitz. Fitz, still trying to sort through the dual lives he lived calls her Ophelia and makes his way to her, more confused than ever. Before May could shoot her, AIDA grabs Fitz and teleports away, revealing that she gave herself the Inhuman powers that were being tested in The Framework.

AIDA brings Fitz to the beach, overjoyed at being human and having him with her. Fitz on the other hand, is still horrified at himself and feels like throwing up. He tells AIDA that she manipulated him into doing all those things and he crouches down on the sand, still in extreme distress. AIDA understandingly tells him that every single decision he made was his own and the only changes she made was giving him his father back and introducing herself to him first day at The Academy. She then blissfully tells him that the first thing she chooses in this world is Fitz. All Fitz can do is stare at her as she whisks him away once again.

AIDA then brings Fitz to a lovely apartment and tells him its to help him sort through his memories, saying she wants to decorate the place and build a life together with him, confessing that she loves him. She then tries to caress him, telling him that whenever they were intimate in The Framework, she couldn't exactly feel the ecstasy and emotions he was feeling when they touched, but now, since she has a real body with emotions, she will be able to feel everything he was feeling when they are together. Fitz pulls away from her, extremely troubled and asks her if she has any empathy, letting her know that his friends were in danger because of her. She seems to considerably regret her actions and genuinely wants to help his friends and Fitz manages to convince her of doing exactly that. She grabs Fitz and the two teleport to the naval base and rescue Alphonso Mackenzie who was still trapped in The Framework due to his unwillingness to leave his daughter. She teleports right onto Zephyr One with Fitz and Mack, in ecstasy over her good deeds. Suddenly, AIDA is I.C.E.D and Fitz turns to Jemma in shock as she uses an I.C.E.R on him and knocks him out. The two are then locked in a containment module.

AIDA's Insanity
The team returns to the destroyed Playground and the containment module is put into a remaining containment chamber. Simmons then has a talk with Coulson and May about their experience in The Framework and they tell her that it was as real as an entire life. Hearing this, Simmons tearfully walks away, fearing that Fitz would retain his cruelty, or worse, still be in love with AIDA. Fitz finally wakes up and talks to AIDA about what kind of man he is, lamenting that he was just like Ward and convinced that his friends would never forgive him for what he'd done in The Framework. AIDA admits to Fitz that the reason she put herself in The Framework to be in a relationship with him was to understand the deep and unconditional love he and Jemma felt for each other. However, Fitz thought that he was evil deep down and feared that he had killed his entire future with Jemma. Simmons who was watching Fitz and AIDA's conversation was heartbroken at his words and began weeping silently as she watched them, thinking that he was going to choose AIDA over her and everything they shared would be gone. AIDA tries to comfort Fitz, thinking that after all her manipulation in shaping Fitz into the man he was in The Framework, he would still be in love with her. In his pain and regret, Fitz tells AIDA that he only has room in his heart for one woman and his love will never fade for her. He makes it clear that that one woman will always be Jemma. At these words, Simmons smiles through her tears, happy that no matter what Fitz would always love her. AIDA, on the other hand, was speechless at his confession. She slowly gets angrier and angrier by his words and asks him what he meant by that. Fitz, sensing the tension in the room tries to let her down easy and says that in The Framework she was his world but they were in the real world now. AIDA, finally understanding that Fitz picked Jemma over her, goes completely and utterly insane, screaming in rage at Fitz. Seeing this, Simmons immediately orders Fitz's extraction from that room, fearing for his life.

AIDA forcefully grabs Fitz and tells him they will build a life together whether he wants to or not and tries to teleport out of the containment module but is unable to because of the Quantum Field Disruptors in the chamber. She becomes increasingly raving mad by this and hits Fitz across the room. Luckily, he manages to lock her in and escape with Agents Piper and Davis. However, AIDA manages to escape the containment module and kills an agent named Prince. Fitz successfully warns the team, and May immediately takes off Zephyr One and they escape AIDA. AIDA, in her uncontrollable rage and emotion teams up with The Russian as she swears revenge on Fitz and everyone he loves for causing her this pain and breaking her heart.

Forgiveness
Fitz remained in the containment module, full of shame and self-loathing. Each one of his team members walk past him, letting him be alone to process his thoughts. Simmons walks past him and after hesitating for a moment, sits beside him and puts her arms around him, offering him comfort. Fitz reciprocates as the two tearfully hold each other, traumatized by their ordeal but extremely glad to be reunited once again.

Fitz and Simmons then work together to find a way to stop AIDA. Fitz who is still reeling and full of regret of his time in The Framework, tells Simmons that he performed lethal experiments on known friends and allies but Simmons wastes no time in reminding him that he is also this man; a good person. She then asks him how to kill AIDA and he shrugs. Sensing his reluctance, Simmons asks him if he wants to kill her to which he doesn't offer a reply. The team then discover that Robbie Reyes had managed to come back from Hell and they meet up with him, figuring out that the Spirit of Vengeance inside of him is the only thing that can kill AIDA as she is made of the same stuff as The Darkhold. They then devise a plan to get Ghost Rider close enough to AIDA to stop her.

While trying to repair The Framework which AIDA was shutting down, endangering the life of Alphonso Mackenzie who was still trapped inside, Fitz and Simmons were ambushed by AIDA who threatened to kill Simmons. Fitz begs her to spare Jemma as Simmons hurl insult after insult after her, calling her a psycho. AIDA then stabs Simmons in the chest with a screwdriver, as Jemma cries out in pain. Fitz pleads with her to leave Jemma alone, assuring AIDA he will come with her and tells her where The Darkhold is. AIDA is unaffected by his words and electrocutes Simmons, apparently killing her as Fitz screams her name. AIDA slams him against the wall and kisses him on the cheek before teleporting away to obtain the Darkhold, cementing her as an absolute psycho who needs to be eliminated.

AIDA sees Coulson guarding The Darkhold and is about to hurt him when she is suddenly shot multiple times. She turns and sees Simmons holding a machine gun. It turns out, the "Simmons" AIDA killed was actually a decoy LMD made to lure her to this spot. She is initially surprised but soon recovers and informs Simmons that shooting her makes no difference as almost nothing could harm her. Simmons spitefully tells AIDA that she knew that already but really wanted to do that. AIDA is then grabbed by Coulson who turns into Ghost Rider, following a deal he made with the Spirit of Vengeance in order to defeat her. Fitz runs to join Simmons and the two watch Ghost Rider burn AIDA as she stares at Fitz in pain in despair, sending her to Hell. "This is not on you. We all lost ourselves in there. And yeah, it might take you a long time to forgive yourself. But speaking on behalf of the team: you have nothing to apologize for."

- Daisy Johnson to Leo Fitz, World's End 4x22 With AIDA finally dead, Ghost Rider goes back into Robbie Reyes and the team watch as Robbie opens a portal and returns with the Darkhold back to Hell. Alphonso Mackenzie who had escaped the Framework with the help of Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez, warned them of incoming soldiers coming to arrest the S.H.I.E.L.D agents as they are now wanted fugitives, following the death of Jeffrey Mace and the bombing of the Playground. Fitz, still blaming himself and feeling guilty for everything that had happened offers to take the fall but his friends refuses, with Daisy explaining that she tried to do something similar after Lincoln Campbell's sacrifice but realized her friends would always be there for her. Simmons and the rest of the team agree that they all will take the fall together. Coulson then suggest they get some pie before they get arrested.

As the team are in a dinner happily enjoying their meal, the lights suddenly go out. Thinking they are finally caught and about to be arrested, Fitz tells Jemma he is going to take the blame anyway, despite what Daisy said, Before Jemma could protest, a mysterious man enters and brings out a device which freezes everyone in place. Everyone on the team is then kidnapped and taken away somewhere unknown, with the exception of Fitz, who is left sitting alone on the counter, not knowing what had happened to Jemma or the rest of his team.

Right after going through a horrible ordeal and finally reuniting, Fitz and Simmons are separated once again, with neither of them knowing the fate of the other.

Season 5
After defeating Aida, the entire team except for Leo was kidnapped and transported to the future. With the help of Lance Hunter and a Chronicom named Enoch, Leo learned where his friends had gone. He went into cryogenic stasis in order to awaken in the future to be reunited with his friends. He infiltrated the Lighthouse, posing as a Marauder named Boshtok. Seeing Jemma, who had been enslaved by the Kree Kasius, he went over to her and discreetly spoke with her, confessing his love and asking her to marry him. She had, however, been outfitted with a device that disabled her hearing, and did not hear him. Leo then demanded that Kasius disable the device, to which he complied.

As Daisy was forced to fight the Kree Sinara to demonstrate her powers to potential buyers, Leo and Jemma sprung into action, attacking Kasius and jumping into the arena with Daisy. Reunited with each other, the two shared a passionate kiss, and Jemma asked him to marry her, which he immediately agreed to. The three then made their escape. Meeting back up with Coulson, Mack, and May, they eventually found their way back to the present, along with Deke Shaw. They were transported to the Lighthouse as it was in their time, where they found three Monoliths in a storage room.

When a Kree Orb was brought into the storage room, it exploded, destroying the Monoliths. The destruction of the Monoliths tore a hole in space-time, opening a rift into another dimension that could manifest people's deepest fears. It caused a forest to instantly sprout on one of the Lighthouse's floors; this was one of Deke's fears. Coulson used a Gravity Containment Device powered by Deke's Gravity Puck to contain the rift. Afterwards, Jemma and Leo married each other in the newly-created forest.

The rift, however, had not been completely contained, and began manifesting people's fears again. The two began to work on another Gravity Containment Device. They were able to obtain raw gravitonium required for the device to work, but had no way of compressing it to fit inside the device. The immense stress of it caused Leo to suffer a mental break, and the Doctor's personality from the Framework manifested within him. Against Daisy's wishes, he removed the power inhibitor that she'd been outfitted with while in the future, allowing her to use her powers to compress the gravitonium into the device. He was then locked up.

Horrified by himself, and still believing his actions to be right, Leo questioned the future of his marriage with Jemma. She became overwhelmed by everything that had happened, and was comforted by Deke. He assured her that her future with Leo still existed, as he was their grandson.

Fanon
The FitzSimmons ship is most likely the most popular ship in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fandom with SkyeWard as the second. Since the start of Season 1, many fans have followed this ship and have wanted them to get together.

In the events of Season 3, many fans were distraught of the introduction of JemmaWill, with many expressing their outrage in the Tumblr tags. However, many fans were overjoyed when they later kissed for the first time.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Leo/Jemma tag on FanFiction.net
 * Leo/Jemma tag on FanFiction.net

TUMBLR