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Fitz hugged his pillow to his chest, pensively touching the bruise under his eye.
“Do you think Ward’s okay?” he wondered.
“He’s fine,” Simmons snorted, pulling a cardigan over her pyjamas. “I’m sure May gave him a run for his money, but it’s not as if he’s not-“
“That’s not what I meant.”
Fitz’ tone stopped her rolling her eyes. Instead, she stuck her head into his doorway, frowning.
“What did you mean?”
“Well, Lorelei…she slept with him, didn’t she?” Fitz said. Simmons nodded for him to continue as she perched on the low chest of drawers just inside Fitz’ small room.
“That must be kinda scary, is all.” Fitz shrugged. “I mean, she made me behave like a complete idiot, but what she did to Ward, that was…that was assault. That was sexual assault.”
He looked up at her for a response. Simmons shook her head.
“Come on, Fitz, I think you’re overreacting a little…“
“How?”
His eyes were on her hard now, his scowl fiercer than she’d been expecting.
“I just meant that, you know, he can defend himself…and she is very pretty.”
“Pretty?” Fitz’ eyebrows shot up his forehead. “Pretty. Oh. So that makes all right then. Because obviously, if she was pretty, he must have liked it, so it’s okay.”
“That’s not what I-“ Simmons stood up, reaching forward gently to placate him. Fitz tossed aside the pillow from his lap and stood too, but with clenched fists and fire in his voice.
“Then what did you mean? ’All men are weak’? He might have been interested if he wasn’t brainwashed, so in that case it’s fine? So- so- if…ifSkye came in here right now, threw you out, handcuffed my hands behind my back and- and- had her way with me then that would be fine, would it? Or if Lorelei had taken an interest in me instead of Ward?”
“What? No! Of course not, that’s awful!”
“How is it different? Because it’s me? Are we assuming I can’t defend myself? Because I’ve got a syringe of tetrodotoxin in my pocket right now and nobody's asked about that this whole time.”
Simmons’ jaw floundered for a response as Fitz tossed the syringe of poison onto the bed and went on. His tone was softer now, and a little squeakier. His hand gestures turned from aggressive flailing and pointing, to hugging himself and worrying the sleeves of his own cardigan.
“We were brainwashed, Simmons,” he said. “We were drugged. What Lorelei did to Ward was date rape – not even date rape, he didn’t even know her – it was flat out rape. If this had happened to May, or to Skye, or to- or to you? You’d be angry about it, wouldn’t you?”
He gave her a moment to process the realisations that he could see were falling into place behind her wide, horrified eyes. She sat back down on the chest of drawers, raised her hands to her mouth, and sucked in a breath.
“OhmyGod,” she sighed all at once. “Oh my God. I feel awful. I’m so sorry.”
They stared at each other for a moment longer, then they heard someone stir outside in the hall. Fitz dropped his gaze and let his arms fall back by his side – though his fingers still stressed the edges of his sleeves.
“I’m going to make tea,” he resolved. “Care to join me?”
Nodding, Simmons stood. She wiped her face to make sure no stray tears had slipped out, and followed Fitz into the kitchen. Ward hadn’t taken outright expressions of any kind of emotion, least of all sympathy, too well in the past, but at least pancakes had the added benefit of tasting good.