Jemma looks at the small green dot that indicates the last location of the Quinjet. It continues its endless blinking on the huge screen covering much of the wall of Director Coulson's office.
She wonders where their team could be—why they haven't made contact yet? She can't help but worry for Fitz; her insides clench painfully at the thought of him being hurt—she can't even bring herself to think about anything worse occurring.
She wishes now that she had gone on the mission—then at least she wouldn't be marking time, her mind suffused with worry.
Doctor Garner had urgently wanted her input on some of the bio-tracking tech that he wished to arrange for Skye. Though the truth was, Skye was currently grounded, at least until she could get a better handle on her new abilities, but Jemma really wanted to be here for her. Skye was putting up a good front but she had taken Trip's death harder than anyone—Jemma fears that she blames herself.
As much as she hates to admit it, even to herself, she has been feeling so hurt by Fitz's removing himself from the lab that she hasn't really wanted to speak to him. After their last conversation, she fears the prospect of more things that cannot be unsaid.
"Where are they?" Skye yells from Coulson's desk, smacking her palms on either side of her laptop. The wooden crack echoes loudly through Coulson's office. It's immediately followed by a low rumble as the entire base begins to roll under their feet.
"Skye! Your breathing," Jemma cries, running around the desk to her friend.
Skye, eyes wide with horror, immediately begins puffing out through her mouth in exaggerated breaths. "Hoo, hoo," she intones as the building slowly ceases it's worrisome sway.
The light fixtures are still swinging as Jemma edges closer, placing a hand on Skye's back. "In through your nose," she tells her soothingly.
Doctor Garner enters through the hall door, he looks much calmer than Jemma feels. "Everything under control?" he asks in his usual unflappable manner.
"I think so," Jemma replies, still rubbing small circles on Skye's back. She tells her, "I'm sure they're fine. Maybe their communications just got scrambled?" Skye's eyes appear less panicked and Jemma nods to the doctor.
He checks the tablet in his hand and says, "That was a 3.0. I think it might be a good idea if you came back to the lab, Skye."
"No," Skye says through clenched teeth, a distinct air of finality permeating the word. "I sent them in there. If they're not back in an hour, I'm going after them."
Garner gives Skye the same look that Jemma felt on her own face. As self-possessed as he usually was, his face is a mask of utter surprise. "Skye—" he begins.
"Thanks, Doc. I'll see you later," she says turning her back to him.
"Uh, okay," he says quietly and turns, giving Jemma a pointed look as he goes.
"Skye," Jemma begins, still stroking her arm calmingly. "You—"
That's when the alarm blares.
"What the—" Skye says, covering her ears and whirling toward the sound.
"It's the old SSR alarm," Jemma recognizes immediately. "The emergency warning system. They must be back. We should—"
But Skye doesn't wait, she runs for the hangar. Jemma follows. Oh, Fitz.
As they jog down the stairs, they hear the commotion before they see anything. Someone is screaming.
Skye stops at the foot of the stairs and Jemma can see tears shining in her eyes. "Coulson," she says under her breath.
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph, stop being such a bloody baby," Hunter says. He appears in the archway on his way down the hall; he's carrying one end of a stretcher. "Don't be a wanker, I've seen worse paper cuts for all your bellyaching." Whoever is screaming is apparently unmoved by the argument as he continues his onslaught.
Skye grabs Jemma by the wrist until the occupant of the stretcher is revealed to be a member of the tac team and she finally sees Coulson carrying the other end of the stretcher. She releases an audible breath. Coulson smiles apologetically and continues down toward the medical bay with his charge.
"What happened?" Skye calls, running after him but she's forced to halt for a second stretcher.
Agent Lis is carried, one shoulder wrapped in a bloody pressure dressing by Mack on one end and Fitz at the other. He looks filthy, with smudges of dirt all over his face and clothes; his eyes are wide and concerned. Perhaps he might even be suffering from shock? She opens her mouth to ask if he's okay but when he spots her, he looks away quickly. He says something to Agent Lis and Jemma shuts her mouth again.
She trails the procession behind Skye. Doctor Garner is already looking at the screaming Mr. Viale who appears to have been shot in the shoulder. She decides to go see if there's anything she can do for Agent Lis. The woman looks pale and drawn, probably from blood loss, if she'd been shot.
"What happened?" she asks Mack. He's moving back, getting out of the way after helping Agent Lis to the exam table from the stretcher—he shrugs and points at Fitz. She drags her eyes up to Fitz's face, which is still looking a bit shell-shocked. "What happened?" It leaves her tongue completely without authority but she clears her throat and continues, "Was she shot?"
Fitz is shaking his head firmly. "She got hit with a Splinter bomb."
Jemma has to stop herself from backing away. She's seen the footage of what had happened at the UN—and to Agent Walters. "Is it—"
"It was a dud," Agent Lis says, she looks exhausted. "It cuts whether it goes off or not, apparently." Her lips are thin and bloodless as she manages a short mirthless laugh.
"I've got it in a…a containment unit," Fitz adds, not meeting her eyes.
"Well, let me take a look," Jemma says, beginning to unwrap the dressing. "Fitz, do you want to…" She gestures toward the door minutely. She knows how he hates this.
"I'm fine," he says firmly. She looks up to see him giving Agent Lis a reassuring smile. She feels a tiny bit of hope—she has been so worried for him—he's made friends with Mack but he still seems so isolated. She was glad he was evidently trying to make more friends.
"Okay," she says, as she removes the bandage. "Oh, well, this isn't that bad at all, really—a few stitches perhaps. Agent Lis, you were so very lucky." She has to shake off the chill that runs through her at the thought of being disintegrated alive.
Lis smiles gratefully. "The devil's own," she says, her smile turning wistful.
Fitz looks a bit green but he stays. "I thought it was…deep," he tells Lis, and smiles reassuringly again. "Jem—Simmons will fix you up," he says, never once looking in her direction.
"What have you given her for pain?" she asks.
Fitz shakes his head.
"I'm allergic," Lis says quickly. "I'll just have to grin and bear it."
Jemma shakes her head. "I'm sure we can find some—"
"Trust me," Lis replies. "I'm sure there's nothing. I'd like nothing more than to be wrong but…" she trails off. "I'm not."
"Alright, if you're certain," Jemma agrees.
She ends up stitching Lis without any sort of pain relief. Jemma hates to admit it but it seems to make her more nervous than Agent Lis. She shows no sign of discomfort other than her tightly clenched jaw. Fitz fares less well, finally retching dryly after accidentally forgetting to avert his gaze from the work being performed.
Lis seems to be amused as Fitz turns away, saying, "I'm fine, I'm fine...bleh...I'll be fine in a...egh…minute."
Fitz continues to stay by Lis' side even when Jemma finally excuses herself to look over May and Agent Worthing, both of whom had evidently been hit with Dendrotoxin grenades. Doctor Garner continues to be tied up with his troublesome patient Mr. Viale.
She happens to catch a small fluctuation on Mr. Bakshi's monitor while she's finishing her examination of Agent May. "Let me know if you notice any ill effects but I think you should be fine," she tells her. May nods stoically.
She doesn't see anything unusual on Mr. Bakshi's monitor when she inspects it more closely. She does a brief examination just to be sure, but he proves to be in much the same condition—still in a coma, still unresponsive.
She tries not to think of Fitz in the very same bed, in nearly the same condition. She squeezes her eyes shut as if it could keep the thought out of her head.
She looks at the gleaming medical equipment, all beeping displays and polished surfaces, and thinks how strangely forlorn they look with their aged brick and mortar background—like some post-apocalyptic mix of old and new. Being back at the base again, she is already beginning to forget that there are still people outside this place, going about their normal lives in the conventional fashion.
She decides to check on Agent Lis again and finds that Fitz has finally left and Hunter seems to be keeping her company instead. "…Now, that hurts," he's saying. "Got shot in the leg once and—"
"You got shot in the leg, too?" Lis says, incredulous. "How many times have you been shot?"
Hunter begins tallying on his fingers, switching his half-eaten sandwich to the opposite side when he runs out of fingers.
"Don't know exactly..." he says finally, "...Loads of times. You're gonna be fine, piece of piss. Trust me. And I won't even go into how many times I got hit with a blade," he says, shaking his head sadly.
He looks to Jemma and says, "Hey! You should've seen—" then he seems to think better of it and continues, "Well, never mind. I'm sure you'll hear all about it soon enough. I should get to the debriefing—should be starting in a moment." He gives her a protracted look before he saunters away, waving at Agent Lis as he goes.
Jemma looks after him not sure what he could be on about.
"How are you feeling?" she asks Lis. "Sounds like you all had quite an adventure."
"Okay," she answers neutrally. "I suppose we did."
She's hoping for more information and when Lis isn't forthcoming Jemma finally asks, "It must have been frightening. I'm glad you're alright. Seems you made a friend though." She tries to sound casual but Agent Lis immediately meets her eyes keenly.
"I guess," she says, looking away into the distance. "We saved each other, I think."
It's so enigmatic—feeling the need to know more, Jemma prods. "Really? Who's that?"
Lis meets her eyes again. "He's pretty amazing, everything was going crazy and he just sort of—took over."
Jemma suddenly thinks maybe she got it wrong she had assumed Fitz had been with Lis but perhaps it had been Hunter. "Who did?"
"Fitz," she answers matter-of-factly. She looks a little surprised as if it were obvious.
"Took over…Fitz?" she hears the disbelief in her own voice. She tries to imagine Fitz taking charge of the team—giving orders. She smiles dreamily.
"Um, yeah, so can I leave now, Agent Simmons?" Lis asks plaintively. "I...well, I just hate hospitals." She seems anxious but she's clearly trying to hide the fact.
Jemma shakes off her reverie. "You need to rest. You did just have quite a trauma and though you were extremely lucky, you did required twelve stitches," she says sternly. "That being said, I don't see why you can't rest in your bunk if that is what you would prefer," she relents gently. "It really wasn't too deep. You were incredibly lucky, you know?"
"Yes, uh…thank you, Agent Simmons," she says, a little half smile on her lips.
She gets up, looking quite steady—Jemma is surprised considering her state when she arrived.
Skye come into the medbay and spotting her immediately says, "Director Coulson would like you to join us in the debriefing." She seems a bit uncomfortable but Jemma assumes it's the aftereffects of her last episode.
"Oh, of course," she says quickly. "I'll be right there."
She washes up and heads straight to the debrief. Fitz, Skye, Coulson, Hunter and Bobbi are all clustered around the desk while May, Mack and Agent Worthing stand near the wall screen behind them. Mr. Viale is still in the infirmary and Agent Lis is also absent, undoubtedly excused to rest after her ordeal.
"Sorry, I'm late," she says automatically. She pulls up the last remaining chair and sits down next to Bobbi. She glances over at Fitz, he's clean and changed now, his hair still damp from a shower.
Fitz glances over meeting her eyes, just as Coulson says, "Well, it looks like we've got our answer." Fitz immediately drops his eyes to his lap.
Returning her eyes forward, she sees that many sets of eyes are now on her.
"Sir?" she says. She's suddenly feeling as if she were having that recurrent dream from her Academy days, whereupon finding herself late for an exam, she discovered not only that she had not studied for the particular class but she had also apparently forgotten to put any clothes on before arriving.
"It seems we definitely have a mole," Coulson is looking pointedly at her.
She looks around at all the eyes still on her and still uncomprehending, says, "That's terrible, sir. Are we able to crack the encryption on the message? Skye, do you know yet how they got the message into our system?"
The eyes are beginning to burn into her and suddenly Jemma can't take it anymore. "Why are you all looking at me?"
Coulson looks at his highly polished dress shoes and Bobbi finally says, "Honey, is there anything you want to tell us?"
The light clicks on in her head. She gasps. "Oh! No! You think it's me!"
"That was my first thought," Coulson admits. "I'm very sorry for putting you in there in the first place, Jemma, but they had the means and the opportunity to…" he seems to choke on the words, "…to brainwash you."
She's reeling with the possibilities. "I can't just being doing things without knowing it, can I?" she wonders aloud. "I mean, could I do it subconsciously?"
"No, sweetie, not that I know of," Bobbi says with a regretful quirk of her lips.
"You think that I'm lying right now, don't you?" She's in shock. The room seems to get tighter suddenly focusing her attention down to just her and the few faces of the people she really cares about. "So, there's nothing I can say that will convince you, is there?"
Coulson is shaking his head.
"It was kind of convenient that you just happened not to come on this mission with us," Mack says suddenly.
"Thank you, Mack," Coulson says with a glare.
"All I can do is assure you that I'm fine. I'm in complete control of my conscious actions. I'm not working for Hydra." She can see by their stony faces that she is gaining no ground and finally says, "What are you going to do?" She has visions of being put into the basement where Ward had been for all those months and shivers.
"Well, I can't very well lock you up," Coulson says, mirroring her own thoughts. "You could be telling the truth. But I can't leave you to wander around sending information to Hydra either." He looks away, distaste written on his face.
"We're going to have to watch you," Bobbi says. "You'll have someone with you at all times and we'll have to lock you in your bunk at night." She shakes her head a little sadly at the last. "I'll have to search your bunk, too." Bobbi looks truly pained to say it. Jemma feels for her and smiles a little trying to reassure her that she feels no betrayal at her actions.
"Alright," Jemma says. "I understand."
"This is abo—absolutely stupid." Jemma whips her head around to see Fitz glaring at Coulson. "You're wasting…uh, resources on this foolishness instead of finding the..the real threat." He looks back at Jemma. "I would know if she was…brain—" but he can't seem to finish.