Disclaimer: Don't own it. Wish I did.

Author's Note: Anyone know what happened to Simmons? Me neither, but here's the start of an idea. Let me know what you think?

The Monolith, part 1

"Hey, Skye, Lincoln, have you seen Simmons this way?" Fitz popped his head in the medical bay. Coulson had been released, but Lincoln had agreed to help with Bobbi. His needles could speed up her recovery and reduce her dependence on pain medication, both of which Bobbi was in favor of, but they found that they needed to sedate her during the treatments. Her PTSD from Ward torturing her was just too much. Dr. Garner had been working with her, but he'd left a few days ago, recommending her to a S.H.I.E.L.D therapist, whom she had yet to speak to. It had put off Lincoln and Skye's planned trip, but he couldn't say no when they asked him. He was a healer, after all, even though Fitzsimmons constantly were trying to weigh and measure the effects of his electric acupuncture, trying to find the science behind it. It had been hard enough to get them to admit the "alternative" medicine worked, but seeing Bobbi wake up afterward proved it did rather nicely.

"No, sorry," Skye said. "She hasn't been this way in a while. I thought she was working on the stone with you?"

"The Monolith? We were, but then I left and she was going to come find me shortly. I thought maybe she'd stopped the check on Bobbi." He flushed, and Skye raised an eyebrow. "I asked her, I asked her to dinner."

"Oh Fitz, really?" She hugged him. "It's finally happening!"

"Before...everything with the aircraft carrier..."

"You mean before my mom tried to wipe out S.H.I.E.L.D?" she asked wryly.

"Yes, that. Before I left, she told me that we should talk about what I told her, you know, when we were trapped after Ward...yeah, that. It wasn't the right time, and after she blew me off the first time, I wasn't sure I wanted to, ever, but then after Gordon released that crystal and I almost died, I realized life's too short to have regrets. So, dinner. But where is she? You don't think she's backing out, do you?"

"Of course not. You're Fitzsimmons. She probably just got involved in some project. Are you sure she's not still with the Monolith?"

"I'm going back that way, to check."

"I'll join you." She turned to Lincoln. "You want to join the Simmons search?" She dropped her voice to whisper conspiratorially, "I can't believe this is finally happening!"

"You said that already. Yeah, alright."

They wandered through the base, checking all the usual places – the rest of the medical wing, the labs, Simmons' bunk, the common areas, but nobody had seen her.

"FITZSIMMONS!" Mack's roar surprised them all. They followed his voice to find him standing in the storage room that held the Monolith.

"What, Mack?" Fitz asked, before stopping short. The door of the Monolith's enclosure was open. "What the...?"

"That was my question. I thought I made it clear that we were never in a million years going to open this damn thing!"

"It was closed when I left," Fitz protested.

"Where's Simmons, then?"

Fitz's face fell. "Nobody knows," Skye answered for him.

"Well, there's one way to figure this out. Skye, can you access the security feed for this room?"

"Of course," she said, with an eye roll.

"Guys," Lincoln interrupted. "I thought we said that thing was dangerous. Who's going to close the door?" They all looked at each other.

"I could probably vibrate it closed from a distance," Skye offered.

"Absolutely not," Mack said. "No powers around this thing. That means you, too, Lincoln. In fact, I want you both out of this room."

"Geez, alright, I was just offering," Skye protested, but they left.

Fitz and Mack looked at each other. "I'll do it," Fitz said. "I was the second-to-last one here."

"No, this alien crap is my responsibility. I'll do it." Mack grabbed a long pole, and managed to poke the door closed without incidence. The latches shut automatically. "But you're designing a lock for that damn thing so this doesn't happen again. Now, let's see what happened."

They found Skye and Lincoln in front of a monitor as Skye was fastforwarding through the video feeds. "I found today," she said, finally running it at normal speed only to hear Fitz's voice saying, "Dinner".

"Uh, you can fast-forward through that bit," he said embarrassed. Skye giggled, but she sped it until Simmons was alone.

"Here we go." They all looked at the screen. Simmons seemed to realize the door of the enclosure was cracked open, and when she reached out to close it, the stone turned to liquid and engulfed her. Then it went back to its normal rocky self.

"OH. MY. GOD."

Fitz took off, but Mack caught up to him at the entry to the storage room, grabbing him by the back of his shirt. "No way, Turbo."

"SHE'S IN THERE!" He struggled, but Mack held him tight. "SIMMONS! SIMMONS!" he screamed over and over again. "We have to get her out. SIMMONS!"

"Fitz, look. Do you see her? No, you see the Monolith. Looking like it normally does. You open that gate, you end up there too maybe. Not happening on my watch."

"I don't bloody care. SIMMONS!"

Skye came up after them, putting both hands on Fitz's shoulders and making him look at her. "Fitz. Fitz, look at me. We're all in shock here. But you're gonna have a better chance getting her out of there if you don't end up in there too. Fact is, you may be her best chance. So think, Fitz, think. You're good at that." He seemed to calm, slightly. She turned to Lincoln. "Lincoln, can you find Coulson, please? Tell him what happened." He nodded and ran off. She turned back to Fitz. "We're gonna work this out, you hear me? She's not gone. She's not."