This story takes place in the same not-canon universe as Monster Goo where Fitz and Simmons are together. It is a sequel to both that story and Blue Bumble Bee but can definitely be read on its own :).
Things you should know: Skye has super powers, telekinesis and something else I will explain if it becomes relevant.
Trip is totally a member of their team and he is friends with everyone including Fitz.
Fitz and Simmons are in looove.
In case this is the first the story you have read by me, I leave a reference to the TV show Fringe in every chapter of every story. Even if you don't watch the show feel free to have fun trying to spot it ;).
Agents of Shield belongs to the many faces of its creators and ABC and Marvel.
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Jemma knew it was morning the moment she woke up. No sunlight was able to enter the room and she hadn't seen the clock but it felt like it was time to get up.
She opened her eyes and gazed at the time, 6:45am. Time for breakfast.
Sitting up, she rubbed her eyes before looking down at Leo who remained asleep, a soft, peaceful expression his face.
Her mouth formed a small, loving smile and, very gently so as not to wake him, she leaned down and kissed his cheek. He didn't stir, still dreaming.
She greeted Trip in the kitchen, he was already drinking coffee and munching on toast while he looked over their next mission.
"Hey morning buddy," he chuckled. "You're late, breakfast club starts at six thirty."
She'd earned the nickname morning buddy from her friend because the two of them were always the first in the kitchen. May and Skye were up, but they were training together and wouldn't eat until later.
"I was up late looking through studies on metamorphosis," she defended good-naturedly as she made her tea. "Shapeshifters! Can you imagine what their biology must be like?"
"I'm sure you could," he teased. "Frozen heads though... what's up with that?"
She shrugged, buttering her toast. "Hell if I know. I can't imagine freezing only my head. Though, if it works..."
"I meant why are they stealing them?" he clarified, amused.
"Oh there could be all sorts of reasons," she chirped, suddenly excited. "They could be using the skin- though then why not go to a morgue?- or eating them, maybe shapeshifters eat brains and eyeballs, how would we know?"
She went on about the many theories she and Leo had discussed the night before, leaving out a few of his more ludicrous suggestions.
"Maybe they collect them like baseball cards!" he'd shot out. "Or they like to suck on them like popsicles."
It had been pretty late when he'd suggested those and they'd both erupted into giggles.
After about half an hour Coulson, May and Skye joined them and she made another cup of tea for Leo while Trip popped two slices of toast in the toaster for him. Leo almost always showed up at 7:20 when they needed to leave at 7:30. Sleepy head! It both entertained and exasperated her.
Perhaps she should kiss him a few more times to wake him up when she rose or bounce on the bed a little before leaving.
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Leo woke to a gentle kiss on his cheek but he didn't open his eyes, pretending he was still asleep. Jemma kissed him every morning and then skipped off, thinking he was still dreaming but he'd watch her leave through cracked open eyes.
He didn't want her to know it woke him up because he was worried if she did she would stop doing it... or make him get up with her and go have breakfast. Mostly he was worried she'd stop though.
It was the best way to wake up, to the feel of her lips on his face, better than any alarm clock. After she left he could take time to clear the sleep from his head and slowly let the world come into focus.
At 7:15 he stretched and got dressed to be in the kitchen for 7:20.
Everyone else was there already there and Jemma chided him for being late as usual as she handed him his tea and he buttered his toast. He thanked her and Trip, breakfast club was always making him breakfast, and kissed her quickly before sitting down to eat.
"So we don't really have a lot to work with," Coulson was saying as Jemma sat down beside him and whispered for him to stop crunching so loudly. (It was toast, it crunched. But he did his best to quiet down.) "We only know that they're shapeshifters because they have impersonated several staff members who were present on the security cameras doing something else while the robbery took place. They could all have twins but..."
"That's highly unlikely," Jemma finished and he nodded at her.
"Exactly," he said. "So we're going with shapeshifters, unless anyone else has a better suggestion."
He paused, waiting for an answer but the others were silent.
"Well then, shapeshifters it is..." he decided, "for now. We're going to the Cryonics facility in Edina New York to interview some of the staff. FitzSimmons I want you to be on the lookout for anything that might help us explain what these things are or why they are stealing frozen heads."
Leo met Jemma's eyes, seeing she was trying not to giggle and knew she was thinking of popsicles and baseball cards.
"Do you have any ideas?" he inquired, seeing their expressions.
"No sir," Leo told him. "It's just-
"-just a joke we made last night while trying to figure it out," Jemma explained. "Fitz thought maybe they were collecting them like baseball cards"
"- or using them for snacks." he finished.
The others smiled, amused. "Keep thinking," Coulson chuckled.
"Could they be using them for snacks?" Skye wondered apprehensively. "You don't think they eat brains do you?"
"Brains, eyeballs, livers, what does it matter? None of it's good." Trip teased.
"We haven't really figured it out yet." Jemma assured them. "We don't have a lot to go on to begin with, no reason to jump to conclusions."
"Yeah, it was more of a joke than an actual suggestion," Leo added.
It was a joke Jemma thought, but considering how little they knew, he might not necessarily be wrong.
/-/-/
Jemma and Leo were bouncing with excitement as they entered the facility.
"They're using cryoprotectants from an ancient species of bacteria they've found in the arctic!" she gushed, as they examined the brochure. "I read about this, Cryosis alaskensis, it came back to life after being frozen for 50, 000 years. Can you imagine? Oh I wonder if they have some!"
"And look at those coolant systems," Fitz chirped. "The XT 400! I didn't even know that was available yet. I wonder how they get the temperature to drop so fast..."
"Welcome," a technician greeted, polite but seeming a bit anxious. Jemma thought she'd probably be too if she were him. "I am so glad you guys are here, we have no idea what to make of this. Our clients are getting nervous," he fretted. "And I can't help feeling that we've let down the people whose heads were stolen."
"We'll sort it out," Jemma assured him. "No need to worry."
She liked this man already, he had his priorities straight. The woman on the phone had seemed far more concerned about losing money than the stolen heads being people.
"Jemma Simmons," she introduced herself. "And this is my partner Fitz."
"Walter Broyles," he said, shaking her hand and then Leo's. "Let me show you to where the robbery took place."
Mr. Broyles showed them the crime scene, frowning as he took in the broken storage tanks, and they set to work.
"Would you ever want to have your head frozen?" she asked Leo as they searched the scene of the break in.
"Only if you did," he replied, examining the side of one of the tanks. He probably wasn't only looking for clues she mused.
"You'd follow me anywhere wouldn't you?" she teased.
"I would," he told her seriously and she felt her heart melt.
"I'd follow you too," she said warmly.
He smiled affectionately at her and she smiled back, amazingly happy.
She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about cryonics but her life was wonderful, filled with science and new discoveries and Leo. She understood the need to extend that sort of happiness.
A figure blurred across the door to the tank room and something about the speed at which it was going set her hair on end.
She exchanged a glance with Leo and they moved cautiously to investigate.
/-/-/
Leo and Jemma peered out into the hallway to see Mr. Broyles watching them from further down.
"Did you need anything?" Jemma called nervously. He was acting strangely, staring at them as if he were trying to decide if he knew them or not. What if...
"We need backup here," Leo whispered into the coms device.
Mr. Broyles eyes widened and, with terrifying speed, he bolted towards them, tossing Jemma aside so that she crashed against the wall with a loud smack and tackling Leo to the ground.
He struggled feebly against him turning his head to the side to be sure Jemma was OK. She'd hit her head on the wall but was getting shakily to her feet.
This man, this thing was incredibly strong and held him down with one arm while it ripped the coms device from his ear.
"Never mind," it said into the device, perfectly imitating his voice, and he felt his blood turn to ice. This must be one of the shapeshifters.
It began choking him and he fought pointlessly, kicking and clawing at its arms. His nail caught on something metal just beneath the skin and tore open.
Jemma was screaming and hitting it, trying to push it off of him but it ignored her. To him she was like a fly bashing itself against a window, unable to even scratch the glass.
'Run! There's nothing you can do just run,' he thought, trying to tell her with his eyes but she was either not listening or didn't understand. The edges of his vision were darkening and he knew that when it was done with him it would move on to her.
"Hey!" a voice called and he blearily recognized May.
The shapeshifter looked up, surprised and she shot it in the head. It's grip loosened, allowing him to breath and it collapsed on top of him.
Jemma shoved it off of him and helped him sit up.
"Leo?" she breathed clearly shaken, her eyes bright as she watched him intently.
"I'm OK," he gasped, gratefully breathing in oxygen.
She let out a sigh of relief and rested her forehead against his for a moment, eyes closed.
"Are you two alright?" May asked kneeling down beside them.
"Yeah," he told her, glancing at Jemma who had pulled away.
She nodded. "We're fine, " she said to May.
"Thanks," he added. "That was close. Why did you still come?"
She shrugged. "The second message sounded strange and I figured: shapeshifters."
"Good thing," he grinned at her and the corner of her mouth tugged up in a smile.
"What is this thing?" she asked, nudging the dead shapeshifter.
There was no blood where the bullet had pierced its head, only metal and shorted out wires. It no longer looked like Mr. Broyles but a featureless, human shaped mass of chalky skin. Grey metal showed through the place he had scratched it.
"It's a machine," he realized in amazement.
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Fun Background
Thank you for all the reviews, likes, follows and reads. And for anyone who hasn't read any of my stories "Welcome to the trip man." (quoting Cosima Niehaus of Orphan Black haha)
This story is a sequel to Monster Goo and is following Notapeppers suggestion that I go through with the stealing frozen heads case. This was my Fringe reference in that chapter and this did happen in an episode of Fringe but in this story both exactly how the shapeshifters work and the reason they are stealing the heads is different. Still the creators of Fringe own the idea.
The Fringe Reference in this chapter is Edina New York. This is a made up town from the second season episode of Fringe The Johari Window where the citizens look normal in the town but become disfigured as soon as they leave it. Metamorphosis is a them in that episode so I thought it fit. According to wiki Edina is the name of a real town in Liberia (a country in West Africa).
Cryonics is "an experimental procedure that preserves a human being (by freezing them)" Virtification is the process of solidifying water without freezing it (or forming crystals). It is accomplished using rapid cooling of water which has added agents called cryoprotectants to reduce the formation of ice crystals. When tissue freezes, ice crystals that form can destroy cells, causing damage. In virification there are no ice crystals formed and so this damage is avoided. Information on virtification is from the Alcor life extension foundation website and wikipedia.
Walter Broyles is a combination of the names of Fringe characters Walter Bishop and Philip Broyles.
The bacteria is based on a real bacteria found in Alaska that came back to life after being frozen for 32, 000 years. So cool! The name of it is made up though.
I'm pretty sure breakfast club is a movie but I have never seen it.