After a few of you told me you liked my first chapter, I decided to prolong this one-shot and make it into a longer story.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy it!
I don't own Agents of Shield.
Nobody answered. They screamed their lungs out to reach anyone, but there was no voice coming back out of the tunnel in the ground.
So Fitz grabbed their equipment, at least the things that were still functional and repairable, and started packing up.
"What are you doing? We have to help them!" Jemma said and whipped away the bag he was stuffing their devices into.
"And how…how would you like to do that? Our equipment is broken, the rope fell down during the quake, absolutely no technology is working down there that we could reach them with and it's dusty as hell. I just want to get out of here", he snapped.
The astonishing fact that he had only stuttered once during this long sentence went unnoticed as she huffed out in annoyance and pressed the bag a little too hard against his chest."I'm not leaving our friends down there. There has to be-"
"There is no other way, Jemma! Don't you get it? They're most likely dead! The quake came from where they were and if it was that strong up here, it must have been even stronger underground. They're gone." His voice had gotten louder than he intended to and he could clearly see the effects his harsh tone and words caused.
She tried her best to hold back the tears that were already lingering in her eyes, while she gave him a dirty look. She was trying to cover up the pain that both of them were feeling right now, though she failed miserably.
To not upset her any further, he tried it again with a calmer tone. "Look, Jemma, I'm sorry-"
"What if I had been down there?" she suddenly whispered and looked up at him curiously.
She caught him off-guard with that. He had expected her to argue, to scream back at him so that she could let out all of her built up energy and pain, but not a question like that. Not after he made it clear to her that she still held a special place in his heart when he told her he was unable to work with her.
"That…that doesn't matter. You're here. And even if you weren't, I wouldn't be able to do anything from here. We have to get back; maybe they made it in time and came out of May's side." He answered and was glad that his voice didn't crack. He had to keep it together now or they'd never leave this dirty hell.
A tear made its way down her cheek, but she quickly wiped it away, nodding. She silently helped him gather the rest of the equipment and climbed over the rocks in front of them.
Neither of them said a word when they reached the exit, sunlight streaking their faces and making it hard to see.
Some people around the square gave them weird looks, as both of their clothes and hair were dusty and dirty. But most of them were busy talking with each other, probably about the earthquake that they seemed to have noticed too.
There was no sign of Hydra and for one second Fitz wondered if they had finally decided to not wear their more than suspiciously looking dark suits.
Just to be sure, they walked cautiously, keeping their surroundings in view. There didn't seem anything off though, as everybody was recovering from the quake.
A few flower pots hadn't survived, because the plants had fallen over, breaking the vessel. A hat vendor was screaming after two kids who had stolen one of his goods, while he picked up the few that had fallen to the ground. A mother tried to calm her crying baby, whispering soothing words while holding it tightly in her arms.
Life around them seemed to normalize again, as everybody made sure that nobody was hurt and that everything that had fallen to the floor was picked up again.
Fitz noticed that Jemma had slowed down, her anger towards him fading minute after minute. At least it seemed like that because she had stopped giving him dirty looks or "accidently" bumping a little too hard against his side when she sidestepped some broken obstacles in their way. But she still didn't say a word to him.
When they finally made it back to the BUS, it was empty. Nobody was there, and they had been unable to contact May, Bobby or Hunter. Jemma had lost her ear-piece during the earth quake, while his had been damaged when he had fallen on the ground. His mobile phone had a huge crack on the screen and was nothing but black and when Jemma tried to call with hers, nobody answered.
Now they were here, alone and waiting for at least someone to come back. Fitz let the bag sink to the floor, walking up the stairs while Jemma stared after him. Two seconds later he came back with two bottles of water in his hands while Jemma was frantically searching the boxes in the Garage.
He silently held the beverage towards her and she took it without a word. She was more exhausted than pissed it seemed. Well that and shocked, tired, sad, hurt… When you've just lost four good friends and colleagues, experienced an earthquake and wandered around an alien city it was a bit hard to describe the mental and physical state you found yourself in.
"Did you reach anybody?" he asked, already knowing the answer. He mentally smacked himself as he saw her shoulders sink, but what was he supposed to do or say in such a situation?
He didn't want to stay quiet; he needed to hear her voice in moments like that. It calmed him down and made him think straight. It was easier ignoring the anger and the pain deep down inside him when she was there.
But Jemma didn't bring out a single tone. She just ever so slightly shook her head and took another sip of the cold water.
For Fitz, the silence became almost unbearable. After beginning to talk to each other just that same day again, he never wanted to go back to not saying anything at all. He needed her. But right now she looked anything but capable of calming him down.
She sat still on the ground, tightly gripping the bottle in her hand and stared on the floor. There were tears forming in her eyes and he wanted nothing more than to hold her again and tell her that everything would be alright.
But he couldn't. Something stopped him. He couldn't bring himself to sink to the floor beside her, to just lend her a shoulder to cry on.
He couldn't sit down. There was a feeling in his legs that he couldn't really describe. They were restless and twitching and it felt like he would have to run miles before he could even think about standing still. He was pacing around the garage, clicking with the plastic bottle in his hand. His breath was uneven and his heart was thumping heavily inside his chest. And no matter how much water he drank, the disgusting taste on his tongue didn't quite resolve.
He felt it, he was about to lose it. Not long and he'd be throwing around things again. The only thing that had kept him from doing so, was Jemma. He tried his best not to scare her any further, but he was unsure of how long he could withstand the feeling that was forming inside of him.
But then all of a sudden they weren't alone anymore.
Bobby and Hunter were standing in front of them. And then Skye entered, with Coulson and May and … Mack?
He smiled, feeling relief float his body. They were all safe.
But strangely enough nobody seemed happy. None of them smiled back, let alone opened their mouth to say even a word.
Didn't they know how much luck they all had? They were alive. They had managed to get everybody out safely from an alien built city while the earth was quaking; Mack had survived the fall into the black hole without even a scratch and Trip had…
Only then, he noticed.
He wanted to ask them, but Jemma was faster. She didn't have to look for the words before speaking.
"Where's… Trip?" she whispered, her voice cracking at the name of their teammate.
He looked at Skye, waiting for an answer. Because ...maybe this was just a big misunderstanding. They almost died, were tired and shocked and a lot of other things too.
Trip could just be checking on something outside, some scratch on the BUS….
Maybe he lost something important and had jogged back to get it…or perhaps he just wanted to celebrate their immense luck and was out to buy some snacks and beer. That were all possible explanations for his absence, weren't they?
But when Skye looked to the ground he didn't have to wait for her to shake her head.
He already knew by then.
Thank you for reading and just like last time, I'd really appreciate feedback! So if you can, please leave a review! :)
The next chapter is already in process and I'll probably post it this week on Thursday or Friday.
Happy New year to everybody!
To brenna: (whom I couldn't respond by pm and who asked me where I came from) I'm from Austria, Europe and therefore my mother tongue is German.