"Jemma, we regret to tell you some unfortunate news." My gaze bolts up, staring Maria Hill in the face. She is only a few years older than me, but she looks older. Especially with her her rank.
"Agent Fitz, didn't make it,"
"Fitz!" my eyes open, and I see the walls of the plane which has been my home for the last couple months. Instantly, my gut is filled with cramps, and no matter what position pain consumes me. I haven't seen Leo since Director Fury pulled my out of the middle of the ocean. I don't know his status, I need to see him. Alive. He has to be.
Nightmares consume my nights since leaving the sea. The depths of the Pacific, with all the pressure around me, lungs burning, and the fear of not making it out alive is something that scares me more than anything. But Fitz, I don't even know if he made it out alive, my only best friend. The only news I know is he didn't have oxygen to the brain for along time, and he is in a medical facility. I need more!
I roll over in bed, staring at the other wall. I haven't told anyone what Fitz told me right before he blew up the storage container at the bottom of the sea. I feel so stupid for not realizing. Me and Fitz are together all the time and I didn't even notice. I was too busy gawking at Ward's or some other Agent's body to notice how good I had it with Fitz.
After trying to rest for another 45 minutes I get up and head to the bar, in spite of needing rest desperately, I need to be on my best edge so I can help Coulson in any way needed. I grab a glass of orange juice, something Mum always gave me at home, right before bed. I feel so alone. But I don't want to talk with anyone about Fitz. Whenever I felt like this before Fitz would talk with me, and he would crack some stupid joke or make fun of me.
I head down to my lab to start working on samples of Skye's blood. Just after I arrive, I realize that all my work is lost, to Ward.
I am so angry, but I don't have the strength to throw a real fit. I just sink to the floor and start to weep bitterly.
After a few minutes of this, I get up, tears still streaming, but silently now, and I start back to my room. I grab my Kindle and start reading These Happy Golden Years. I can relate to how desperate Laura feels and I feel myself absorbed by the story as I feel the blanket around my shoulders start to warm me. Soon, I am fast asleep in a sense of false safety.
Xxxxxxxxxxxx
"Hey! Simmons! Get up! We need you in the lab!" Skye knocks on my door loudly, but she knows I have been through a lot, so she isn't rude despite my tardiness. I pull on my hair into a simple bun, button up my dotted shirt and pull on my cardigan. I breath in deeply and pull open my door to my quarters. Skye puts her arm around me and we start down the hallway. I feel terrible for being so helpless after all she has been through, she was closer to Ward than me. But Ward didn't attempt to kill Her and Her best friend by throwing her out of a moving Plane. I suck up my pride and I refuse to mention anything about Fitz.
As soon as I walk in Coulson smiles, but looks incredibly melancholy, but he begins his talk about our next mission. I struggle to listen because it all seems pointless, but I know it is all very important. Besides the rest of the world needs to move on even if Fitz isn't around.
He starts on a talk about a prisoner escaped from the Fridge. Of course he has powers, only enhanced by Project Centipede. We will knock him out using the "Night-Night" gun, and I will have to figure out how to defeat him, in a way that preferably doesn't involve me killing him or him destroying the whole ship. I would feel more sure of my ability with Fitz next to me, but it is a fairly simple job and I must do it without him. Without Ward and Fitz the room seems a lot bigger and less crowded. It feels like we are alone in the mission of saving the world, and Coulson is supposed to be restarting S.H.I.E.L.D.