This was, quite possibly, the happiest day of Fitz's life. Not only were they finally done with the ordeal with the Inhumans and "New SHIELD," meaning everyone's lives weren't constantly in danger anymore, but he'd finally accomplished the thing he never thought he'd be able to do: ask Jemma Simmons on a date. And she'd accepted.

Well, kind of. She'd smiled and really, she was the one who'd suggested they become closer and maybe try out a relationship, which caught him completely off guard. He'd thought she was utterly uninterested in him, and he was just getting to the point of accepting it. Then she threw him that emotional curveball and he knew everything would change between them. For the better, he hoped.

So now he sat, absolutely giddy, in front of his laptop, searching for the best local place to take Jemma. It had to be local, since it was doubtful Coulson would let them be gone for hours just for a dinner date, and there was no chance he'd let them take the Quinjet. So they were stuck in the immediate area around the Playground. It was alright. There were plenty of nice places they could go to enjoy a meal and finally talk about everything both of them had been holding in for the better part of a year.

Once he had chosen a location suitable for their date-he still couldn't help but grin internally every time he thought the word-Jemma still hadn't come back from analyzing the Kree stone. Maybe she was just taking a while putting everything away. Or she stopped to talk to Skye to gossip about some girl thing. Or maybe she was getting dressed up. He hadn't seen her gussied up since their days at the Academy, and that had only been for graduation and a party or two. Now that he was thinking about it, Fitz decided he probably should spruce a little, too. He must have something nicer than a button-up and sweater combo. Or maybe he didn't. He could at least run a comb through his hair.

He went to his room and straightened his clothing (apparently nice was not in his wardrobe). As he checked his hair in the mirror for the third time, he checked his watch again. Six-fifteen. Three and a half hours since he left Jemma. She was always perfectly punctual when she could help it. Either she'd completely forgotten about their date or something bad had happened.

He couldn't leave, though; he'd told her to come get him when she was ready. If she was just running late, he didn't want her to find an empty room. So he scribbled a note for her on his desk: "Jemma- Looking for you. Fitz" and left.

First he swung by the girls' hallway and knocked on her dormitory door. There was no reply. As he was standing there, Skye happened by. She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall in mock surprise.

"My, my," she mused. "Is this a gentleman hanging out in the girls' hall? Try'na get some action?" She jerked her head, gesturing toward Jemma's room.

"What?" Fitz spluttered. He could feel the heat rising in his face. "No, I-I wouldn't-we're just-that's not-"

Skye grinned. "Yeah, I'm just messing with you. Although it's honestly nice to see you back over here. You guys had me thinking the amazing duo was done for at one point." She shrugged. "Friends is better than nothing, I guess."

The corner of Fitz's mouth twitched upwards and his expression changed slightly. Skye raised an eyebrow. "What?" she asked.

"It's nothing," Fitz assured her.

She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Fitz? I think I know when you're hiding something. You're not as bad as Simmons, sure, but you've got beans to spill. So spill 'em."

"Erm…I may have asked Jemma to dinner with me."

Skye's eyes grew wide and her smile was brighter than he'd seen it in a long time. "You what?" Then, she half-squealed, half-giggled and threw her arms around the surprised engineer's neck. "I'm so proud of you!" she cheered, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Fitz was able to pull her off him after a moment, understandably flustered. "Really?"

"You do not know how long I have been waiting for this moment. Everyone has.

Practically since I met you, I figured you two were bound to end up together. Like scientist destiny or something."

Fitz rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Thanks?"

"So, when's the big date?"

He frowned. "Well, it was supposed to be tonight, but I can't find Jemma anywhere. Has she been down here this afternoon."

"No, I haven't seen her at all since you two were checking out the creepy rock." She shrugged. "Could she still be down there? Maybe AC gave her something extra to work on and she couldn't make it."

Fitz sighed, distressed. "Maybe. I would've thought she'd tell me."

Skye clapped him on the back. "C'mon. Let's check it out. We'll have you two lovebirds smooching over dinner when the day is through." At a look from Fitz, she added, "Or not. Smooching is optional."

On their way to the part of the base where the rock was being analyzed, Skye made Fitz outline where, exactly, he was planning the dinner and what, exactly, they were doing afterwards. He told her that there was a nice restaurant only a few miles from the base with good reviews (Italian-Jemma's favorite and now Skye-approved) and if everything went well, they could try stargazing for a while, since the temperature was moderate and there hadn't been any clouds in the forecast.

"Aw, Fitz," Skye smirked as she playfully punched his arm. "You're such a romantic. If it hadn't taken you a frickin' decade I'd think you were Casanova with a Ph.D."

Upon entering the stone's containment room, Fitz stopped in his tracks. Jemma was nowhere to be seen. And…

"She left the door open," he remarked. "Why would she leave the door open?"

"Maybe she forgot. Even geniuses forget to close doors sometimes. Let's check the labs next," Skye suggested.

"But she left the door open." Fitz stared intently as he closed and locked the clear storage unit. "Jemma doesn't forget these things. Especially not something as big as this." He backed away slowly, searching for clues with darting eyes. "This is not good. Something is wrong." Suddenly he turned and began walking quickly toward the door. "If something's happened-"

Skye reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders, spinning him around to face her. "Fitz. Everything is fine. Simmons is probably in the bathroom or something. Maybe there was some huge discovery she had to run out for. Don't freak out. We're going to find her."

She had Fitz take a few deep breaths before they decided to go to the surveillance room. There, they could check the whole base at once.

"After all," Skye reasoned, "the base isn't that big. She's around here somewhere."

After a brief and unsuccessful run-through of all the base's security cameras, the knot of worry in Fitz's stomach was tightening. If something happened to Jemma...he thought. He didn't want to think about it. The probability of an attack on the base was slim, but it could be happening right now. Jemma could be held captive, or-

No, he thought, chiding himself. Don't let yourself think about that. Skye's right. She's probably in the bathroom.

"Why don't we check the tapes?" Skye suggested. "We can follow her out of the room and-"

"See where she went from there. Yes," Fitz cut in. "Good plan." He missed the mildly annoyed and amused smile Skye gave him as she pulled up the footage from a few hours ago. They watched as screen-Fitz awkwardly maneuvered toward the topic of dinner and screen-Jemma realize what he was doing ("Absolutely adorable!" according to Skye). Screen-Fitz left the room and screen-Jemma continued puttering about the room.

Then the unthinkable happened. The Kree rock liquified, surging out of its cell and enveloping Jemma, dragging her as she screamed and clawed at the floor, all the way back to its original form and leaving the door wide open. If she hadn't seen it happen, Skye wouldn't have noticed the difference. "Oh, no. Simmons," she whispered, her throat tightening.

Turning to Fitz made it ten times worse. He stood still as a statue, eyes wide open, barely breathing as he watched the now-dormant stone still on the screen. His eyes glistened, but he didn't blink. He was frozen.

"We need to tell Coulson," she finally rasped out. This broke Fitz out of his trance, but the look on his face was cold. Before she could say anything more, he pushed past her and took off out of the room. "Fitz, wait!" she yelled, but there was no stopping him.

He sped through the corridors, feeling nothing more than the slams of his feet against the concrete floors and the blood pounding violently in his ears. He thought he heard Skye shouting behind him, passed a familiar, concerned face in the halls, but nothing got through. Something was blurring his vision as he got closer to the stone, closer to Jemma, and it was there, in front of him, and he was reaching out to open the clear door, but suddenly there were large, powerful arms around him and Mack's voice was calling his name. He writhed to get free, kicking and screaming the only name that actually mattered right now. Skye was there, blocking his view of the rock-no, Jemma, saying something he couldn't hear. Mack's arms proved inescapable, and then there was a sharp pain in his arm, and everything began to fade away. The last conscious thought that crossed his mind before oblivion was, Be safe, Jemma. I'm coming.

o0o0o0o

(A/N): Holy crap, that ended up longer than I thought it would be. Most likely, none of the other chapters will end up this long. Yes, there should be more chapters, although I have never finished a fic in my life longer than two chapters. This one's more planned out than the others, though, so hopefully it'll work out. Reviews are very much appreciated! : )