AN: Please note that this is set between 2x05 and 2x06. Simmons is back from Hydra but Ward is still locked up.


This was the mission: The retrieval of an 084 in Hydra possession.

It went off easily enough: May and Skye infiltrated the base. Ward was locked in the Cage, giving them Hydra intel that they only half-trusted. Coulson directed the operation. Simmons and Fitz monitored the 084 once it had been retrieved. Trip, Bobbi and Hunter were back at SHIELD headquarters following up leads on Whitehall and tracking Raina.

The mission itself was nothing. It was a beginning and an ending folded together seamlessly, a paragraph in the story of their lives that would have no effect on any that followed.

Or at least, that's what they thought.

They forgot the 084.

...

This is how it begins.

...

The 084 sits under the glaring lights of their lab in the Bus, shining and metallic. Simmons and Fitz are working silently on it, taking readings, testing its properties.

Jemma looks clinical and detached, but the tight press of her lips gives her away every time she stands next to Fitz and he averts his eyes, every time she stops herself from completing his mumbled thoughts.

Every time, it hurts.

It hurts, so she pushes it down and folds it away, where no one can see. She is a scientist, and scientists do not let emotions ruin their work.

She looks on as Fitz tests the metal for unknown elements, watching as he thoughtlessly passes the probe to his bad hand, the one that he can never keep steady, not since -

Before, she would have jumped forward almost immediately to wrench it out of his hands.

Before, she would not have hesitated.

But Fitz doesn't want her anywhere near him now, and that gives her just a second's pause.

As it turns out, a second is all it takes.

The probe falls-

(as she reaches out)

-right onto the 084 -

(too late, she thinks as she watches)

-as a spark blossoms from the metal and -

(her hand reaches Fitz's right as the world turns to)

-nothing.

...

Skye wakes up to May hammering on the door of her bunk.

"What?!" she half-groans-half-yells. Her head is killing her.

"There's been an incident in the lab," May says brusquely and Skye hears her walk away, probably to tell Ward.

Skye's heart drops. An incident in the lab? Shit. She hopes Fitz and Simmons are alright.

She hops up from her bed and then violently curses as her ribs scream in protest. Her black top lifts up to reveal a purpling bruise.

Huh.

Weird.

She doesn't remember getting that.

After gingerly poking it, Skye pulls out a plaid shirt from her drawer and edges it on, trying not to aggravate the suddenly numerous sore spots across her body. Then she walks down to the lab.

Coulson and May are already there along with Fitz and Simmons.

"I don't exactly know, Sir," Simmons is saying, "It just sort of flashed, but it's definitely not bioluminescence because Fitz and I ascertained that it's not alive-"

"Yeah," Fitz adds on, and Skye frowns because he looks just a little different than how he did a few hours ago. "We think the um, fluctuating electric pulse is just coming from uh, a-"

"A finely tuned nuclear power source, Sir." Simmons finishes off, shooting a slightly worried glance at Fitz.

Skye's frown deepens because since when has Simmons' hair been so short?

Simmons sees her then, and opens her mouth to say hello in that endearingly British way of hers-

"How did you cut your hair?" Skye blurts out.

Simmons' expression turns confused as her hands go to her head. Fitz blinks, his mouth opening a little as he takes in his lab partner's new hairstyle seemingly for the first time.

"Jemma, don't tell me that you chopped it all off again like at the Academy."

Simmons grimaces slightly, panic creeping into her tone. "No of course not, Fitz. I didn't cut it at all!"

"Well it's short now," Skye says bluntly. "I gotta say, it kinda suits you."

"Oh. Well... Thank you. But I must say, this is a terrible prank. I know it wasn't you, because you've got a fringe now, but perhaps we should draw the line at personal appearance?"

"I have a what?"

"Enough." May says, her face unreadable. She turns back to Simmons. "Are you sure the 084 didn't do any real damage?"

It takes a second for Simmons to refocus, but then she's nodding. "I can't completely guarantee it, but it seems like the emission had no effects."

May nods once and then heads up the stairs back to the cockpit.

Coulson lingers a moment longer. "You're both fine?"

Simmons meets his gaze levelly. "Perfect, Sir."

Skye watches AC go before turning back to her friend.

"Seriously. You're saying I have bangs?"

"You do, Skye. They look quite nice, actually."

"I need a mirror," she mutters, but her thoughts - which primarily consist of a balance between Ward did this and No he couldn't have he's too much of a bore - are interrupted by Fitz.

Skye turns to look at him and pales.

The scientist is leaning against the holotable, pinching the bridge of his nose. His eyes are squeezed shut and one hand is trembling violently against the glass as he mutters incoherently.

Something is very, very wrong.

...

Words.

Jumbled.

Everything's such a...

Such a mess.

His hand scrabbles against the glass.

There is so much confusion inside his head, so many twists and dead ends and missing things (he can't even remember what they are, what they used to be, they're just gone) that he swears weren't there only a minute ago.

"Fitz? Jemma says softly, her voice jarring, and he swears he's drowning, his lungs filling with water and he can't breathe he can't breathe.

"Fitz!" Jemma shouts, panicked. His face breaks through the water and he sucks in mouthfuls of air.

He opens his eyes to find that he's doubled over, panting like he just tried to run the Academy course.

"I'm fine," he mumbles.

What's happening to me?

"No, you're not," Skye says curtly, and the harshness of her tone betrays how worried she is.

A bright light shines in his eyes and Simmons tilts his head up.

"What's the partial derivative of gravitational potential?"

"That's bloody high school math!"

"Well?"

"Gravitational int.. " he can't find the word. He knows what the answer is, but he just can't find the word.

He finds it at the same instant Simmons says it, so their utterance of 'intensity' comes out in her quiet realization and his triumphant exclamation at the same time.

They stare at each other for a few moments before Skye voices what all three of them are thinking.

"What the hell did that 084 do?"