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Chapter 10: Inevitable

Bobbi was stood with the majority of the team, in the entrance of the bus. She quickly wrote a few notes on the official record whilst the team listened in on what she was saying about the case. Everyone shrugged off the comment she made about the state of the vehicle as if they never heard, although she wouldn't let it rest. May joked it was therapeutic for her. Morse didn't quite know how to respond, so she hid her suspicion and carried on spilling intel on the man she saw with the mystery illness.

It was clear that she was affected by what she had witnessed. She wouldn't exactly say all the details, but the general assumption was out in the open; the man had died, and she certainly hadn't taken it lightly. No-one asked her anything since, not wanting to pry. If something needed to be said, they knew she'd say it. Some things need to be kept private; Skye knew; May knew; the whole team had learnt this one way or another, since joining the taskforce. They left it at that.

The man had died. They needed to piece the puzzle together before anyone-else suffered at the hands of this hooded man.

Fitz gained his composure after his tiff with Simmons; leaning towards the experienced agent, he whispered with caution, "May, the bottle we-"

"Not now, Fitz."

"But May, the-"

"Fitz, Please. I need to speak with Agent Morse."

His failed attempts left him to keep the important information at bay, at least until he spoke with Coulson in confidentiality. Although, May always seemed like the easiest to talk to when things went wrong. Coulson was different, distant, probably dealing with his own troubles after Tahiti and becoming director; May on the other hand, even when she didn't speak, you knew she understood. No sympathy, just a motherly touch of kindness once you see past the cold exterior. She would have kept calm if he told her the bottle was broken, and the contents missing.

Hunter walked to the front of the team, past the still very distanced Fitzsimmons, and silently gave Bobbi a hug. She kept a rigid facial expression; not in protest. More so, solace. Everyone-else left them to talk about whatever she saw, in private. However, May didn't leave; she stood solitary until they released their embrace. Hunter, despite having history with Bobbi, felt obliged to leave her to talk with May. Politely taking his ex's clipboard, he left in the direction of Coulson's office.

"May, I really don't need a pep talk."

"Sometimes it isn't better to keep things bottled up. You may not need me to talk to you, but I can tell you've experienced something. Something you wish you never saw. I won't talk if you dont want me to... but if you need someone to listen, I'm all ears." May gently placed a comforting hand on Bobbi's shoulder.

"You really don't want to hear."

"Agent Morse, you must have heard my nickname? It may haunt you, what you saw, but don't let it become who you are. You know where I am."

Without her replying, May walked away.

"The doctor's here!" Mack shouted out to whomever it concerned, from the main doorway of the vehicle.

Coulson was heard walking close by, eager to greet the man.

"Hello, I'm Agent Coulson, director of SHIELD." He holds out a hand to shake, followed by a fast embrace.

"Dr. William Mulder." He was a tall man, dressed in a navy, casual suit, with his large medical-case at hand, for examining his patients. As Coulson spoke, he continually nodded his head in acknowledgement of hearing the intel. It didn't take a genius to understand that he was yearning to see the person in question. He probably hadn't had an urgent call like this in a while. S.H.I.E.L.D.s scientific unit rarely got to visit their patients out of their usual routine check-ups, ever since the fall. They had to keep their head down, away from such agent-related incidences. Try not to attract unwanted investigation from the press and what-not. Thankfully, May landed in the closest military airport, so that it wasn't easy to be released as national news.

"I'm sure you've already heard, but a member of my team took a turn this morning and fell in the lab, colliding her head with the side of a table as she went down. She needed steri-strips but nothing more, however there was lots of blood and she reported feeling lightheaded for a few hours after the incident. It's probably nothing but we just want to make sure she's in a good enough health to continue her work for the week. We have a big case and we need her expertise. There isn't another doctor on the craft that specialises in medical science, so it left us with no option but to call one of SHIELD's most trusted workers." Coulson taps the man on the back and guides him towards the place where she should be.

"What is her name?" He asked, rather anxiously. Taking his beastly hand, he brushed the dark, grizzly hair from his eyes and glanced around the room, in hunt.

"Agent Simmons."

"Has she had any recent dizzy spells or symptoms you might want to inform me about?"

"She's claiming to be okay now, however we couldn't take any risks. And besides, she's always been slightly stubborn to reveal how she really feels, so it's anyone's guess."

"I see." The man stumbles on his words, "Tha- that wouldn't be an Agent Jemma Simmons now, would it?" He fiddles with his smartwatch on his wrist.

"Yes, yes it would. Heard of her? Unsurprising. Quite the bright spark." Coulson chats, gliding to the outside of the lab. The man shrugs his shoulders and nods his head.

"Yes, the remaining lecturers from the Academy weren't sure who survived the fall. I'm glad one of their best students is here, safe with SHIELD's best field-agents."

"We all suffered our loses. We're thankful every day for the people still here with us. Losing one of our close members to the Hydra high-ranks... it took its toll on the heart of our team." Coulson let out his arm towards the entrance of the lab. "She spends most of her day in here. Simmons! Doctor Mulder is here to see you."

The doctor gingerly walks in, trying to force a calm, collected, friendly stature. Hard to do when you're at least 6ft tall, towering over someone considerably small for a woman of her age. The mystery bottle was seen hovering in its holographic state before Simmons' eyes. He pokes his head around the glass wall to see Jemma working with a hologram that Fitz made so she could get a better view of the casing and solution, without actually getting near the alien produce. Soon realising she wasn't alone, she jerked her head to see the man in the archway. Not realising his height, she accompanied her eyes to somewhere above the hip. Awkward to say the least. Not the first time, unfortunately.

"Oh, hello. You're here to see me? I was working on this... case. Sorry. Nevermind. You're Doctor Mulder?" She asks, on edge ever since Skye revealed her true self.

The man couldn't take his eyes off the hologram floating in front of him, so Jemma tapped a dial on the program which faded the levitating bottle into oblivion.

"Yes. I'm here to see you, yes. Although I'm not sure why you need my evaluation. Coulson knows you could do the same tests with equal skills."

Mulder takes a seat on the nearest table to Simmons. She blushes.

"He's on edge. Lots of people can't be trusted these days. With all this alien shenanigans, who can you trust?" Simmons shook her head. "No- sorry, what level are you? I shouldn't have said that. I'm really not with it today. Sorry. Everything is rather secret here in this secret organisation..." She nervously chuckles to herself, trying to hide her jitters with the worst lines possible. She really wasn't good at improvising in social situations. Small talk wasn't her thing.

This is going terribly. Why can't he just take the tests and leave?

Taking the seat next to him, so to stop her fiddling on the spot, she lifted her black and white, patterned sleeve, prepared for the tests. Firstly placing the blood pressure gauge on her arm, then pressing the machine for activation.

"Eager, I see." He raises an eyebrow, removing the gauge and quickly mounting his medical case on the table in preparation for the small examination.

"Well, you kind of get used to this procedure after years of training. Seriously though, what level did you say you were from?"

The doctor pulled out his syringe.

"I didn't. Hold still." Mulder placed his cold hand on Simmons' arm, making her jump a little. Taking the blood, she placed her own plaster on the arm and maintained the pressure. "Level 3."

"Ah, I see."

"Then that will be all." He said, packing his equipment away from the cluttered table.

"Wait, that's it? No symptom checks, temperature, eye-dilation, samples... so on?"

She began to raise from her chair as he gently placed his great hand on her shoulder to seat her still.

"Agent Simmons, I think you need to rest."

"But-"

"I know you've already taken those tests yourself, at least several times, Miss Simmons. You don't need my special approval. Your blood pressure is healthy. You know your vision, speech and balance is self-approved. All you need to do now is tell me some simple facts and I'll send your blood for a diagnosis test to get back to you in a day or two." He soothed his words out like a snake charmer, not phased by her paranoia.

Simmons kept silently seated as he stood over her, drawing out his pen and notepad.

"Name?"

"Agent Jemma Simmons."

"Date of birth."

"11th September, 1987."

"Level as a SHIELD scientist."

"5."

"Who you have had physical contact with, since the incident."

Jemma, taking more than a moment to retrace her memories, continued. "May- Agent, Melinda May. Leo Fitz. Maybe Coulson, I can't remember sorry. Skye."

"Skye?" Looking at her confused, she rolled her eyes back, trying to think of Skye's second name.

"Skye... I'm not sure if she's on the team or not. She only joined us last month."

Doctor Mulder began to smirk. "Anyone else?"

"I'm sorry, what was your name again?" She asked, feeling all of a sudden not herself.

"That doesn't matter. I'm leaving now. I came to pick up my bag." The doctor leaned down to pick up his medical kit from the side of the chair Simmons was sitting on. Moving swiftly out of the lab, he gave one last meaningful glance to his patient before drifting out of view.

She could have sworn she saw a blue glint in his eyes as he gave a wide grin and left her sitting alone in the laboratory.

"How bizarre."

Bobbi, noting that the cockpit door was ajar, took it upon herself to confront her emotions.

"May? I might take you up on that offer." She said, sliding the door open a little more to poke her head in.

A smile was vaguely seen on Melinda's features. "Come in."

Even though Bobbi invited herself into this conversation, she's never felt so full of nerves. It wasn't like her to wear her heart of her sleeve, but this time, she had to. So she sat down on the co-pilot seat and took in her view. Not much. A military base somewhere off the coast of Washington. A long, desolate, runway ahead; a few fighter aircrafts here and there; it looked pretty deserted. It must have been out of training hours. Everything was quiet, with no nature, only the odd bird flying over restricted airspace. Free to fly wherever it wanted, without the unnecessary rule of humanity.

"It never gets easier." The voice cleared the thin air between them. "It only gets easier to hide inside. From people who don't need to hear your stories." There was a moment of silence. May hasn't ever had a whole conversation with Bobbi. Just the odd words here and there. Drifting conversations that stem from ice-breakers.

"The man. The man that died." Bobbi began to speak. May kept her eyes on the runway. "He changed. His family kept telling me he was different from before. He had fits of rage afterward. After... whatever happened to him. Whatever that man did to him.

He couldn't remember his wife, his children... At one point... he started talking to his mother. His dead mother. 2 years she'd been gone, but he was talking to her like she was in the room, sitting by him. Listening to the words he was rambling on about. His memories of what he thought was yesterday, but were actually from before he had his two children. You could almost sense her presence. I mean, it's all in delusion and his mind wasn't there, but it felt too real. His children had to be restricted from seeing him in his last moments. Their mother, Jayne... she didn't want to risk her kids having that image of their father in their heads as they grew up. They are only 7 and 8. She sent them to their rooms. He was on the couch in the backroom. I knew they could still hear our words but by this point he grabbed my arm and wouldn't stop squeezing harder and harder and harder." A tear slipped down Bobbi's cheek.

"He would have been glad someone was there, trying to help." May said in almost a whisper.

"He... he kept hold of me as his wife left the room. She was crying uncontrollably, but I was just kneeled there. On the floor. I didn't know what to say. How to help. I came to get an update on his condition, not to witness his last moments in front of his heartbroken family. There was nothing I could do. Nothing anyone could have done. He was gasping for air and wheezing. I called for Jayne to come back in the room but by then I heard her screams. They were the worst blood-curdling screams I have ever heard in my life. Screams of pain. Pain of losing someone so close."

May offered Bobbi a tissue, well prepared for the talk they were having. She knows far too well how emotionally draining it is to experience this fieldwork first-hand.

Bobbi took a large, shaky breath and frailly continued.

"His grip started to loosen." Bobbi exhaled. "May, I don't know how this man got infected. Jayne said he hasn't had any association with SHIELD nor secret services."

"There must be something he was hiding." Believing this man was targeted for no good reason was too cold for her to touch upon; triggering Bobbi to look May in the face.

"I refuse to believe this man had any ulterior motives. Trust me on this, May. There's no way he was with any secret organisation or had any association with Hydra. The things he was saying. The pain he went through... he would have said something."

"Symptoms?" May asked, relieving part of the tension between contrasting opinions.

"All I got from his family was that he was light-headed, no real visible symptoms. It caught them unaware. I mean, they did say he constantly forgot things, but that was just his character. He was a real family man. He took care of the kids. Had a lot on his plate with the charity work he had going. It all really started going downhill from a few days ago. He collapsed and since then, wasn't able to move his body properly. His family said he had spasms and they called a doctor, who couldn't do anything. Two days later he was paralysed from the waist down. Jayne was so scared. Amber and Ben had to move in with their Aunt in the next town because their mom couldn't take care of them and her husband."

"Then you visited?"

"Yeah. I went to see his wife to get updated, but he kept asking me if he was going to die. I had to stay. I thought only an hour, but that's when he lost control of his arms and couldn't move his entire body. It was truly distressing. Words can't describe what it was like to see this man, so hopeless, so alone. I stayed until his last breath."

"What about the fits of anger?" May got straight to the point.

"They didn't last long. He stayed vexatious until the day he started losing mobility, or so they say. He wasn't pleasant to be around. Snapping at kind words, totally astray from his personality. It scared everyone who cared for him. He only calmed in temper after his violent turn on Jayne. Physically attacked her. Thankfully he snapped out of it before he snapped her out of consciousness."

"So no prior warning signs that he was infected?" She pressed, easing information from the trusted agent. Bobbi cleared her throat, reeling from the emotion expressed.

"No. That's what I wrote in the report. There was no warning signs. It was all out of the blue."

"And there were no blood samples taken before the attack?"

"No reason to have any. As I said, no symptoms."

"I see." May put on her sunglasses and began to power up the engine on the plane to move it to somewhere more efficient. The younger agent began to stand up and head towards the exit.

"Thank you, May."

Melinda simply looked up slightly, then back down to the runway and gave a small smile, paralleling her smile from before their talk.

They knew this would stay between them. They both took comfort in this fact. Bobbi more than ever.

I'm not going to lie, that was longer than expected. I'll slowly update over time. I generally had a plot going from the previous chapters, but I just realised that I could make it so much better if I made some alterations. And besides, I was fed up of always writing about Skye, no matter how awesome she is.

But yeah, back to Skye next chapter :') I lot less though, hopefully. Let me know what you want and I'll incorporate it in. There's definately going to be a leap in story direction, which I hope you've noticed in this chapter. There seems to be a clearer plot so let's pray it stays that way.

More Mack, Fitz, Simmons, Skye, and Coulson in the next chapter. Maybe Bobbi and Hunter but I'll probably give them a rest for a while since Hunter's story isn't essential and Bobbi has a huge dialogue in this piece.

Until next time...

(I'll proof read this tomorrow and notice 100 mistakes.)