Where Your Treasure Is
This fan fiction has been written for my own enjoyment and that of any who chooses to read this. There is no profit or intent to infringe any copyright.
This story takes place after the events of "One Head, Many Tales" episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Consider this AU after that episode.
OoOoO
Chapter Four: Where's Fitz?
The hours following the rescue of Will Daniels from Maveth were busy ones for everyone. Many of the things that were happening had been worked out beforehand. Will was sedated, the lights in his quarantine pod were dimmed and all of the equipment was silenced. Jemma barely stirred as the monitoring leads were attached to her body. She'd been through it all before, she'd even written most of the protocols. Now Daisy and Bobbi were watching her sleep. The five hour limit came and went without her even flinching; everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Things began to settle down a bit and Coulson met with Mack and Hunter. "We searched for three miles out from the center of the transmission point. There was no sign of Fitz except the vehicle he checked out." Lance reported. He'd been in charge of the grid search.
"Any ideas about that artifact Simmons brought back?"
"No nothing yet," answered Mack. "Outside of the fact it seems to be pure gold set with some kind of crystal. The materials alone would be worth quite a bit."
"It doesn't do anything?"
"Not that we have found so far."
With nothing to do immediately Coulson set out for his own quarters. As he approached his door he heard the soft whirring of propellers. Turning he found he was being followed by one of Fitz's D.W.A.R.F.s carrying a manila envelope. He took the envelope and the drone reversed its course and flew back towards the lab.
The first note he had received from Fitz was written by hand. This one was from a bit earlier, he surmised, and was typed.
I am going to take Jemma and try to rescue Will from Maveth. If you have received this I did not return from the mission.
There is a bio-energy cost to operate the Bifrost. Over the vast distances the bridge operates the final transmission point is determined by the ones using the bridge. The Asgardians have no trouble providing this energy, for them the cost is negligible, not so for us. Jemma, I'm afraid, is too weak to help with this and Will is in even worse shape after all the time he has spent there. I believe I can do this, if not then Jemma will have to get Will and herself home.
I would be remiss in my duty if I did not remind you that this monster Will spoke of can get into your mind. It is possible that Will is the monster or it will be using him to try to escape the planet. As a favor to me a squad of Asgardian warriors is standing by under Lady Sif's command. If this thing tries to fight you they will come to your aid.
If Will is the monster or is possessed by it you will have no choice but to destroy him if you can. Please take care of Jemma. She will need all of you in the days to come regardless of my fate.
Thank you and all the team for all you have done for me (and Jemma) over the years. It has been great to find a place where I could truly belong.
Fitz.
OoOoO
Twenty hours later Coulson stopped by the quarantine pod to find Daisy, Lincoln, and May watching over Jemma.
"How is she?"
"Normal sleep patterns until a few minutes ago, I think she's waking up." replied Lincoln. Indeed, when they looked Simmon's dark brown eyes were watching them through the window.
Waking up took a bit of time as she found her bearings. She showered, ate, and slept again. Over the thirty days of her quarantine her normal sleep cycle reasserted itself and she began to regain a little bit of her weight back. She spent many of her days typing reports about where she had gone and what she had seen. There was much she could not answer, often in those situations she deferred to Fitz, he was the engineer after all.
After about fifteen days she began to become worried, the stock answer to her question, "How is Fitz?" was "He's expressed his concern about you, what should we tell him?", but the remark always came with a noticeable stiffening of shoulders and an odd look. The only thing that kept her mind off of Fitz was her oversight of Will's course of treatment. As the days passed there were more and more anomalies cropping up in his behavior. Along with some major deficits in his memory and personality. This provided little trouble to his minders; mainly what he did was sleep. He would wake, eat, and then go back to sleep. Her experiences in recovering from her time on Maveth were invaluable in helping him readapt to life on Earth.
At last the thirty days were done and the technicians cracked the seals on the pod. Jemma emerged to the anxious faces of her teammates. Coulson was flanked by May and Mack. Bobbi and Lance were back and to the left. Lincoln and Daisy, hand in hand, were to the right. Slowly she catalogued each face from left to right and back again.
Simmons began to tremble slightly as she whispered, "Where's Fitz?"
Coulson answered quietly, "We were hoping you might help us figure that out. He hasn't come back from Asgard."
Her tears overflowed as friendly hands reached out to steady her. In all that crowd, however, the one she most longed to hold her was not there.
OoOoO
A short time later the team had gathered in one of the secure conference rooms. Jemma was hoping against hope that Fitz was possibly sick and the Asgardians were healing him. She gathered her thoughts as she prepared for the debriefing.
"Fitz collected me and we drove to where you found our vehicle. He never said anything on the way there. I noticed the atmospheric disturbance, of course, but it was quite frightening when that beam flashed down from the sky. My initial impression was that it was very cold, the sensation of flying at very high velocities. I've already told you in my written reports about when we arrived on the platform in Asgard. That was when Fitz spoke to me…" Jemma was losing her focus thinking about each detail of Fitz's demeanor.
Coulson's voice was firm but not unkind, "Agent Simmons, I need you to report."
Jemma's voice firmed up a bit at the reprimand. "Agent Fitz appeared rather winded, it was like he had been running. It took two or three minutes while Bifrost changed vectors. He touched my elbow and told me to hurry, that there wasn't much time. He didn't look sad, hurt, or angry like he had been up until that point. He appeared focused, as if he was concentrating on something very important. Heimdall said, 'Ready,' and Fitz gave me a gentle push and suddenly it felt like I was falling. There is no sensation of slowing before your landing, just a cessation of motion. I stepped forward out of the beam and I was on Maveth just outside Will's hideaway. The beam didn't disappear like you reported in New Mexico, I tried to hurry like Fitz said. Will was sleeping, he recognized me but just barely, it was as if he knew my face but the experience we shared was gone. He was frustratingly slow to respond or move because he was afraid of the beam. I don't know how I got him into it, I suppose he just trusted me not to hurt him, but I couldn't reason with him, he just couldn't understand. I'd guess it took seven or eight minutes to get off Maveth
When we re-appeared on the platform the scene had changed. Lady Sif and some warriors were there. Heimdall had moved closer. I didn't see Fitz, though I really didn't think to look for him, I thought he might have returned home since he looked slightly sick. I would guess the vector back to Earth was automatic and Heimdall wasn't pointing the bridge himself. I wasn't looking close in. I was trying to memorize the cityscape, it is beautiful and very impressive. Sif gave me an amulet and told me to hurry, that we were running out of time. I was to focus my thoughts on home and she pushed us onto the bridge. The next thing I knew was that Will and I were staring into your headlights. You know the rest."
"Agent Fitz, did not explain the operating principals of the Bifrost to you?" asked May.
"No, all he said was I needed to hurry, he didn't say why."
"You haven't looked at the amulet Lady Sif gave you?" asked Mack.
"No, it was quarantined separately, I haven't examined it yet."
Mack pushed the golden oval toward Jemma. She picked it up and turned it over in her hands. One side was flat. The other was curved and inset with an clear, round crystal. "Lady Sif said this was 'for later' but I don't know what she meant."
At the words 'For later' the amulet began emitting a soft hum. It was later determined that it was activated by Jemma's voice.
Puzzled, Simmons placed the amulet on the table top. Moments later a holographic image of Fitz's head and shoulders appeared above the device. It was so realistic that she involuntarily reached out to touch his cheek, her hand predictably passed through the image.
The hologram began speaking, "Jemma, if you are seeing this it means that I won't be coming back from our mission. I'm sorry, I guess it means I miscalculated somewhere. The Bifrost uses the bio-energy of the ones using the bridge to guide the power beam. I think it is a very elegant solution to an enormous problem in orbital mechanics." Fitz's eyes lit up as he thought about it, then as if he was remembering what he was doing he refocused. "As I informed Director Coulson the energy cost for them is negligible for us, not so negligible. I'm afraid you are too weak from your ordeal on Maveth to be of much help but if I can't fulfill the energy requirement you will have had to make up the deficit."
The recording paused for a few moments while Fitz composed what he wanted to say. "Jemma I want you to be happy. If you've made it back with Will I'm satisfied. I've heard the others talking behind my back. They think I'm so noble…selfless is the term I've heard most." The hologram showed Fitz was having trouble breathing, as his stress built his Scots brogue began creeping in. "But I'm not," his voice dropped to a whisper, "you know that in your heart of hearts too, Jemma. I'm too jealous to want to see you be happy with someone else. So even if I had made it back, I would be saying good bye anyway. Be happy Jemma, you know I love you. Take care of Will, I know he's a good man. Farewell." The image faded away leaving Simmons looking shocked, just before she covered her face with her hands and began to scream.
Daisy was the first to reach her side. Medical personnel were summoned and a fast acting sedative brought quiet to the conference room.
OoOoO
It was several hours before the sedative wore off. Bobbi was the one watching when Jemma woke up. Shattered was the best adjective Bobbi could come up with watching Simmons struggle with the concept that Fitz was gone. Sitting dejectedly on her bunk she was currently beyond tears.
"This isn't like it was on that planet, is it?"
Simmons shook her head no, raising her eyes in a unasked question.
"Daisy told me a little bit about it, you felt pretty hopeless then too, didn't you?"
"For a while," Jemma whispered hoarsely, "Will pulled me back, I thought I would be there for the rest of my life. Still, I knew that even though I couldn't be with him, I knew that somewhere in the universe that Fitz was alright and at the least had a chance to be happy. Now…he's gone. There just doesn't seem to be any point to anything.," Jemma fell silent, it hurt too much to continue.
The situation turned into a very long night for everyone.