"Enoch you have to hold on, the others aren't back yet!"
"We can't! It has to be now!" Deke's voice was the one to answer.
"Just a few more seconds!" Fitz cried, turning to look at the doorway. Jemma had to get back in time. He glanced forward, about to say something else into the communicator, when the monolith activated. It liquefied before he could do anything, surging out and latching onto him, bringing him into darkness.
He landed on a solid floor with a thump in the same position he had been in before, though he staggered immediately, slightly disoriented. So that was what travel by a monolith felt like when you didn't jump through. It took three or four seconds for him to realize he was in a large, empty room. As soon as the disorientation faded he didn't care where he was. He was more concerned with where Jemma was.
"Jemma?" he called, looking around. He could see Coulson a few feet away, kneeling with a still unconscious Daisy in his arms. "Coulson, where are the others?"
"Apparently it can take different amounts of time to move people," Coulson said. "You came through about a minute after me."
Fitz continued to look around the room. "C'mon, Jemma," he whispered. He paced nervously for about two minutes before there was a small flash of light as another person appeared. It was May.
"Did you see the others?" Fitz asked in a rush.
May looked over at Coulson and Daisy and solemnly shook her head. Fitz wrung his hands together, staring at the monolith. They had to have made it through. They'd been on their way back to the room seconds before the monolith activated. They were just taking longer.
They had to be.
"We should see where we are," Coulson said seriously. "Start looking for a safe place to hide while we figure things out."
Fitz took a final look around the room they were in before bolting to the door. "Jemma!" he shouted, throwing it open. She had to have appeared in a different place, that was all.
"Fitz, stop!" May yelled.
Fitz ignored her and raced down the hallway. "Jemma!" he yelled. "Jemma, where are you?"
He stopped to listen for a few seconds before running in the opposite direction. Apparently they were in some sort of warehouse, because it was big. And empty. Perfect for sending people to the future, he guessed.
"JEMMA!" he bellowed when he reached the final room, a stitch in his chest. He stopped, breathing quickly and listening for any trace of sound.
"Fitz!"
His head snapped up, breath catching. His legs started moving automatically, carrying him in the direction of her voice. "Jemma!" he called as he ran back towards that main room.
He reached it and saw her in the hallway, just outside the door. She saw him and started moving closer, even as he increased his speed to close the distance. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second before they reached each other, and then Fitz was holding her as tightly as he could, relief at seeing her making him shake slightly as she buried her head against his chest. He sighed, moving one hand through her hair and feeling the stress pour out of him.
"Fitz, it's alright," she said warmly. "I'm perfectly safe."
He looked at her for a few seconds before she reached up and stroked his cheek, smiling at him. "Coulson said you ran out looking for me."
"I didn't know if it worked," he explained, his eyes still locked on her. He couldn't bring himself to look away from her. "I thought you didn't make it in time."
"We almost didn't. We were just through the door when the monolith sucked us in."
He kissed her, acting on the sudden and overwhelming urge that rose in him as it sank in that they were safe, and she responded enthusiastically, her hands tracing his shoulders and neck, her lips smiling as they met his.
"We're home," Jemma murmured in wonder, touching her forehead to his as they breathed. She said it almost giddily, looking squarely at him but no doubt thinking of the others as well and the fact that they had all made it back from a nightmare.
"You are my home," Fitz said simply. Of course he cared about the others, but at this moment, his only priority was Jemma. He was done with skirting around what he wanted to say to her. He wanted her to know, without a doubt, just how strongly he felt about her. They'd moved around so much that location didn't matter to him anymore. He didn't care where he was staying, what time they were in or which world - as long as she was by his side.
He heard the little hitch in her breath when he said this, and saw something shift in her expression as she looked at him with complete openness and attention. Her brown eyes softened, all thoughts of the others vanishing. With extreme gentleness Jemma brought her lips to his, softly, silently telling him she felt the same way, though he already knew. Their lips parted and Fitz opened his eyes to look at her, wishing they could stay like this. He knew they'd already taken longer than they should to get back.
Jemma's eyes mirrored his own feeling of regret as they leaned away from each other to walk back into the room with the team, but before they'd even taken a step she moved her hand down to entwine it with his, which made it more bearable.
They walked into the room together, a trace of a smile playing at Fitz's lips from that last little moment, his hand holding tightly to his home.