A/N: So I watched the season finale today, and I had to write something. I need to express what I hope/think could possibly happen. I hope you enjoy it, and please leave me a review! More chapters to come soon!
"Dinner." Fitz said.
"Yes, Fitz, dinner is coming closer, I'm sure."
"No." he said. He focused on her, finally getting the words. "Maybe we could have dinner. You and me. Somewhere. Somewhere… nice."
She looked up at him, quiet for a moment. "Of course." She said.
"Great." He said, his face clear with relief.
"But I need to make sure everything's set in here."
"I'll just go and look up some places then. I'll tell you what I find."
She smiled at him as he walked out, closing the door behind him. This was something that had been long overdue. It had taken seeing Hunter's reaction to almost losing Bobbi to show her how she really felt about Fitz.
She had to tell him, before anything else happened. Life was too short, she was starting to realize. So she finished her analysis as quickly as she could and got ready to leave.
Then she noticed the door to the Kree device wasn't fully closed.
"That's odd." She said.
She walked over and pushed it into place, preparing to lock it, and a second later was thrown back as the black stone liquefied and swarmed over her in a tidal wave. She screamed as it dragged her to the floor, trying desperately to pull herself free of the mysterious liquid. She scrabbled for the door as it pulled her back towards the container, mentally crying out desperately for Fitz while audibly expressing only her fear.
But Fitz wasn't there.
She was alone.
And ten seconds later, it appeared that Jemma Simmons was gone.
Fitz had a list of ten different restaurants he thought they would enjoy when he realized Jemma still hadn't come back. He looked at the time on the computer and saw that it had been almost an hour since he'd left her.
She was thorough, that much was definite, but Fitz had been sure she was finishing up when he left. She should be done by now. Was she having second thoughts?
He inspected his list of restaurants. She had been the one to bring up their relationship, not him. She had been the one to once again give him hope that maybe, just maybe, they had a chance at something more than friendship.
So it didn't make sense that she wouldn't come to the lab when she was done. The Jemma he knew was very efficient; he could trust her to do anything she'd said she would.
Which meant one of three things was possible. She could be taking an exceptionally long time finishing her inspection. Possible, though not probable. She could have been asked by Coulson or someone else to look into something; Bobbi could have needed her attention. That was possible as well. The third possibility was that something was wrong. No matter how unlikely it seemed, (since they had just found a temporary peace), that was the conclusion that Fitz most readily believed. He had experienced too much horror in the past few months to not consider it. The "peace" they were in seemed like a joke; he couldn't trust it yet.
Was he paranoid? Probably. Did he have a reason to be? He certainly thought so.
Just to make sure it was just paranoia and nothing more serious, Fitz decided to go and look for her. Two minutes later he arrived in the room he'd left her in, breathing a little faster as he took in the scene: the room was empty.
Trying not to panic, he decided to check her room and the kitchen before making a final decision. He sprinted all the way. Her room was empty, the lights off. She wasn't in the kitchen either.
Now his heart was pounding. Where was she?
He raced to the medical section of the base and found a sleeping Bobbi and Hunter, but again no sign of Jemma. So he went the last place he could think of.
The black liquid-stone felt odd against her skin.
When it had first grabbed her, it had pulled her into itself, submerging her in its thick waves. The last light she had seen had been a glimpse, as she surfaced one last time before being taken captive by the Kree artifact. Now there was only darkness.
The wave had solidified into a stone again after she lost the light. The odd part was that it still felt loose around her. She couldn't move. She couldn't even open her eyes. But she wasn't crushed. She was simply held in place, as if the space had been waiting for her to fill it…
She also wasn't awake. She wasn't fully asleep, but her conscious mind was not fully hers to command. She heard things in the rock, sounds as if it were alive. She had never noticed those sounds before.
Was she breathing? She had no idea.
She must have been able to, because she was alive, but she could tell of nothing besides the thoughts in her half-conscious mind and the whispering sounds of the rock.
She dimly thought of Fitz, and how he must be waiting for her. He seemed so far away from where she was now. She was oddly comforted, nestled into the rock as she was. Her mind was pleased, at least.
She had been scared to be taken in by the wave, but it wasn't so bad.
At first she had felt panic, terror caught in her throat as she struggled to move, to open her eyes, to do anything really. Then she had started losing consciousness, like she was just going to sleep after a long day.
She was brought into a twilight zone until her protests stopped completely, and then she entered the semi-sleeping state she was in now.
The rock started to show her things. Its whisperings became sensible to her the longer she stayed inside it, learning its language. And its purpose.
It was very old. It was also very powerful.
Apparently it became a wave to seek a new host. It had been without one for too many years, so it was desperate for someone to bond with.
Jemma had been that person, simply by being there at the right time.
Now it was bonding with her.
"Sir!" he called, knocking forcefully on the door. "Coulson!"
The door opened and Coulson stood there, looking at him. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I can't find Jemma."
"Did you look-?"
"Everywhere, I don't know where she is."
Coulson hesitated. "Maybe she just doesn't want to be found for a little bit. I can't see anything bad happening to her. There's no one left here that's a threat."
Fitz froze. Coulson was right. There was nothing that could hurt them. "But sir, she said she'd meet me once she'd finished her inspection, and it's been an hour."
"I'll come and look for her with you." Coulson said. "Maybe you just need a fresh pair of eyes; you seem a bit worked up."
Fitz allowed Coulson to take the lead as they walked along, looking for Jemma. He could tell Coulson thought Fitz was overreacting. Maybe he thought stress was getting to him. A part of Fitz understood this, somewhat agreed with the man. But something inside him screamed that Jemma wasn't alright.
He had never been so sure about anything before.
Except maybe for the fact that he loved her.
But this was something different. He knew it in a way he couldn't explain. Jemma was in trouble. He just had to convince Coulson he was right, and then save her from whatever it was.
The list of restaurants he had come up with was folded up in his shirt pocket, hastily stuffed there when he first went to look for her.
He didn't notice as it fell from his pocket, silently fluttering to the ground behind him.
