Cisco was scared to touch anyone.

It had only been a day since he'd apparently evolved like a Pokémon, but he didn't think he liked it. His body felt… off. Sensitive might be the word, but Cisco didn't know exactly what was going on. Except that the two times he'd touched people, he'd seen these visions.

Right when he'd gotten out of the husk, he'd had that vision of Fitz and Simmons being taken somewhere by force.

And then he'd seen another one, when Daisy tried to reassure him and touched his hand in the gym. The world cut out for a few seconds, and he saw a field of shifting blue. A high-pitched sound accompanied the immediate change of view, and then he saw Daisy talking to May. May had tears in her eyes, and she was starting to say something. Mouthing something that looked like…

"Cisco?"

Cisco took a gasping breath as the vision ended, and saw Daisy leaning closer to him. Barry was looking a bit concerned as well. "I saw something," Cisco said.

"What?"

Cisco shook his head, trying to bring the image back. "I saw this blue background, and then you. You were talking with May. She was upset." He remembered the word May had been starting to say. "I think she was saying 'Andrew.'"

Daisy was looking at him intently when Cisco focused on her again. He could see her trying to figure out his power, but he didn't have any guess. How was she supposed to?

"Andrew?" Daisy asked, without really asking him.

"It happened when Daisy touched you?" Barry asked.

"Yep." Cisco drew his hands to his lap, looking at them.

"Did you feel any different right before you saw the vision?" Daisy asked. And so began a series of questions to try and understand Cisco's abilities. A series of questions that did nothing to help him understand anything, and were interrupted by Mack and Bobbi rushing in.

"We found Lash," Mack said in a booming voice.

Daisy was up faster than Barry, completely focused on Mack. "Where?"

"Gilbert Hospital."

"Coulson's calling the ATCU now. We're going to meet him there," Bobbi said.

Cisco followed them out of the room. He saw Barry race ahead and return in his uniform. "How do you know where Lash is?" Cisco asked.

"Because May sent us a message."

"What's going on?" Simmons asked, appearing in a doorway as they approached the hangar.

"Lash," Daisy said shortly.

"How can I help?" Cisco asked.

"Stay here, Blockbuster. We'll take care of it," Mack said.

Cisco finally had a nickname. He just wished it had been given to him under different circumstances, when he could actually appreciate it.

"What about me?" Barry asked.

Mack looked at Barry and nodded. "You can come."

Cisco watched the four of them get into a black SUV and drive out the hangar doors, disappointment sagging his shoulders. He wanted to help. He didn't know how he could, but being told to stay made him feel relatively useless.

"I'm sure they'll get him this time," Simmons said, as if that was what he was worried about.

"Are you going to be on comms, like the last mission they were on?"

Her eyebrows rose. "We can go there now, if you'd like. I don't know if they took anything with them, but it's worth trying."

He nodded, and followed her to the op center.

0-0

Caitlin stayed with Fitz and Simmons after breakfast, helping them process the information Daisy retrieved from S.T.A.R. Labs for them. She'd gone to see Cisco for a minute before going to the lab, but seeing him in the containment module had made her feel almost panicked. It didn't matter that he looked completely fine. Something felt wrong, so she made an excuse that she had lab work to do and walked away, trying to push away the feeling.

"Want to help me compare Cisco's DNA before and after terrigenesis?" Simmons asked.

Caitlin nodded and looked at the monitor closely.

"Daisy's not telling her theory for Cisco's powers," Fitz said.

Simmons was looking at the computer, and it was clear her focus was torn between Fitz's words and the task at hand. "You think she has one?"

"She's already said as much, hasn't she?" Fitz continued. "When he said he saw the two of us being taken somewhere, she thought it might have something to do with telling the future. Noticed she didn't say that again a few minutes ago."

"She probably wants to collect more data before filling Cisco's head with what may be his power."

"Then why say it last night?"

"To reassure him?" Simmons guessed. "To let him know he's not going crazy?"

"Fair enough," Fitz said, turning back to his work.

Caitlin found it harder to focus on the nitrogenous bases she was sequencing. Daisy had a theory, but wasn't telling Cisco? It was clear Fitz and Simmons didn't think it was much of a theory, but they definitely thought she had one. Did Daisy have a bigger reason for keeping it to herself? Maybe she knew something they didn't?

She knew this pattern of thought bordered on paranoia, but she couldn't shut it down. She'd been scared of S.H.I.E.L.D. when they'd first come here. What if her fears then had been valid?

Simmons went to see what was going on when they heard voices in the hallway. When she called them through the communicators to explain that most of the team had gone to capture Lash, fear worked its way through Caitlin faster than ever before. She looked at Fitz, trying to tell from his immediate reaction how she was supposed to feel about this. His face was serious, but not scared. She tried to emulate that same expression as she followed him to the op center. It was never this hard to hide her emotions. Why was she struggling so much all of a sudden? Why was the fact that she was struggling filling her with even more worry and fear?

Maybe she would ask Simmons if this was some sort of reversal of shock. Later, of course, if they had a free moment. She was willing to admit she'd been in shock yesterday, and even when she'd woken up this morning. She didn't think normal shock ranged from feeling nothing to feeling everything (especially so suddenly), but she'd never really looked into it before.

She just hoped the shock (whatever stage of it she was currently in) ended soon. She hated feeling so vulnerable to her emotions.

She had more important things to deal with, as she tried to assist Fitz, Simmons, and Cisco in whatever way she could.

0-0

"We… we got him," Bobbi's voice said over the comms, over an hour after they'd left the Playground.

Fitz and Simmons cast relieved smiles at each other. Cisco was tempted to smile himself, until he registered something. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Is everyone okay?"

"Barry," Caitlin said.

"We're okay. On our way back. It's just a lot to take in. Andrew is Lash."

"Andrew," Cisco said to himself. The therapist had seemed so normal, when he'd met with Barry. The team had said Lash could turn into a normal-looking man, but the idea that he'd been so close to the team this whole time…

"Where is Dr. G- where is Lash now?" Simmons asked.

"May's with him, about to put him into stasis."

"Poor May," Simmons said. Fitz put a hand on her arm. Caitlin turned and left the room.

Everyone was quiet when they got back to the Playground. Cisco stayed in the op center long enough to hear about how they'd found and captured Lash, and then went to his bunk so he wouldn't accidentally touch someone and see another vision.

The only good that came of the day was the decision that, though he had no idea what his abilities were or how to control them, he didn't seem to be dangerous, so he was allowed to move back into his room if he wanted. He chose not to, though knowing they didn't think he was a threat to anyone was reassuring.

It was the early hours of the morning when cold woke Cisco, still in the containment module. The lights in the hall were dimmed. Since he wasn't locked in, Cisco eased the door of the containment module open and stepped just outside it. It was colder out here than in the module, but he wouldn't be able to sleep without more blankets. He decided to go to the kitchen and get a drink.

He thought it was fitting that the first thing he saw in the fridge was a beer, but settled with water. It was a little early in the day for alcohol, though he thought it might help him sleep a little longer.

He wasn't in there long before someone else walked in. It seemed like everyone on the S.H.I.E.L.D. team had a radar, to know when someone was alone. It was Daisy who walked in.

"I'm guessing you couldn't sleep either?" she asked, filling a mug with water and popping it in the microwave.

She didn't comment on the cold. It must have just been him. She grabbed a tea bag and spoon and slid into a seat across from him. "Didn't see you much after we got back. You doing okay?"

"I'm fine. Just thought you guys were busy enough."

"Things are definitely picking up," she agreed.

He rubbed his hands together over his lap as he felt a fresh chill, trying not to let Daisy see as he did. It was probably his body still adjusting to being an Inhuman.

"So Dr. Garner being Lash…" he started.

"It's a shock, alright."

"Is it weird the ATCU is putting him in stasis?"

Daisy nodded. "They really are trying to find a cure. It's not possible, but I'm not gonna be the one to tell them to stop trying."

Cisco rubbed his hands together again, a bit more vigorously. "How's May?" He hadn't seen much of the senior agent lately. He hadn't seen a lot of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but May less than the others. And knowing Andrew was her ex-husband… she had to be struggling with him being Lash.

"She's tough. Diving into the mission, trying to keep busy. Now that we have Lash taken care of, for the moment anyway, I can work with you again later."

Cisco crossed his arms, trying to act like he just wanted to change positions while really attempting to warm up. "You have more important things to do than help me figure out my powers."

Daisy looked at him sternly. "Helping and training Inhumans is one of my top priorities. That means working with you is exactly what I should be doing right now."

"Didn't know you cared so much," Cisco said teasingly, with a half-smile.

Daisy laughed in a little puff of air. Cisco's smile faded as he looked closer. "What?" Daisy asked.

Cisco opened his mouth wide and exhaled. The breath was white and visible. "I thought it was cold, but this is overkill," he said.

Daisy had a thoughtful look in her eyes. "The temperature dropped really fast."

"Too fast," Cisco said, understanding. If it was cold enough, maybe the others weren't waking up because of it. He stood. "Think the whole base is cold?"

"One way to find out." She walked out of the kitchen, Cisco following closely. Just moving into the hallway gave Cisco a chill. He paused. It seemed like one direction was colder than the other. Daisy seemed to feel it too, because she headed in the colder direction.

They stopped at every turn, Daisy peering around to look for signs of trouble, Cisco breathing out and assessing the temperature. It became clear that they were heading toward the bunks, and Cisco hurried his step. He was freezing by the time they reached the hallways of rooms, so cold that his teeth were chattering. He didn't stop when they reached the divergence between the halls with rooms, turning immediately to the side his room was on. He quickened his step to a jog as he approached the doors for his room, Barry's, and Caitlin's. All of the doorways were cold, but Caitlin's was especially so.

Cisco stopped in front of it, and Daisy knocked on the door. "Caitlin? You in there?"

She waited a few seconds, looked at Cisco, and opened the door, one hand tensed at her side. The act of opening the door made Cisco's scalp tingle as a wave of cold shot through him. Daisy was looking in in confusion. Cisco stepped around her and inside, and almost stopped. There was a frozen mist over the entire room, making it hard to see the floor. He could see the bed though, and Caitlin stirring on it.

He ran over to her without hesitating. She was curled into a ball, her eyes squeezed tight and fists balled up, but clearly asleep. Asleep, and having a nightmare, from the way her head was moving. Cisco put a hand on her shoulder, shaking her. "Caitlin. Hey, Caitlin, wake up!"

She woke with a gasp, eyes darting across the room. The temperature immediately became more bearable, a fair portion of the frozen mist vanishing. She sat up in a rush, looking at Cisco and Daisy. "What's going on?"

Daisy stepped closer. "You started freezing the base in your sleep."

Caitlin looked at the last of the mist on the floor, scrunching her fingers up in the crumpled sheets. Cisco put a hand over hers and had to force himself not to flinch. It was colder than ice.

"But I didn't -."

"It's okay," Cisco said. "You're okay."

Daisy met Caitlin's eyes. "You're also an Inhuman."

0-0

"Is everyone around us an Inhuman?" Hunter grumbled. "First Cisco, then Andrew, and now Snow. Who the bloody hell is next?"

"There's no way to tell before terrigenesis," Bobbi said.

Barry listened to their conversation as he leaned forward in his chair in the rec room, waiting for the others to come back. He'd woken feeling extremely cold, and when he heard talking right outside his room, he'd stepped out to find Cisco and Daisy talking to a very scared-looking Caitlin.

Barry had run to Fitz's and Simmons' doors to get their attention, but otherwise, he'd been sidelined in this whole process of helping Caitlin/figuring out what was going on. He'd come to the rec room so he wasn't pacing in the way, and now sat with an anxiously tapping foot, waiting for news.

"How did Fitz-Simmons not notice?" Hunter asked. "She had to have changed when Cisco did, right?"

"The husk around her broke almost immediately," Barry said. He did know this part. He could see Hunter and Bobbi looking at him, and explained what he'd heard the scientists say. "The remains of the HYDRA agent who broke the terrigen crystal look like an Inhuman's husk. Since Caitlin was so close to the agent's remains, they thought all of the rock was from the HYDRA agent."

Hunter didn't seem to have a complaint for that, but he did mutter a "still seems like a lot of changing going on 'round here in such a short time."

"Yeah," Barry murmured in agreement. Yet he knew that it had been much longer than it seemed. The three of them had been with the S.H.I.E.L.D. team now for over two weeks. He would need to go and visit Joe and Iris soon, so they didn't worry about him. He hadn't gone this long without seeing them since college.

He waited ten more minutes, realized it would probably be a while before things were relatively settled, and walked out of the room. He grabbed his cell phone from his bedroom and lay across his bed as he hit speed dial.

"Barry!"

He smiled immediately upon hearing Iris's voice. "Hey. I owe you a call. Care to collect?"

"Give me one second." He heard shuffling, and then a door being closed. "Okay. Now we've got some privacy. You'll never guess where I am?"

"CCPN?" She did work there, so it was his first guess.

"One letter, a couple buildings off, sorry. Your room at CCPD." He started to ask why, but she beat him to it. "I was visiting Eddie."

"Oh… how's he doing?"

He heard her sigh. "I know you don't think we're a good match, but -."

"It's not that," he said quickly. "I just know it can be hard, since Eddie's Joe's partner. Awkward."

"A little. We don't talk about it much. It's still new, you know? But enough about me. What's going on there? How's Caitlin's mom?"

"She's doing a little better," Barry lied. He knew he had to avoid specifics, but he desperately wanted to tell Iris what was going on. She had always been his confidante; even before he'd gone to live with she and Joe, as a kid. Talking with her always made him feel better. "I miss you," he said, when he couldn't decide how to tell her without telling her everything.

"I miss you too, Barr. You're… you're okay, right?"

"I'm fine," he promised. "Just really wanted to hear your voice. Things are changing, and I feel like it would be easier if we were home."

"Then come home!" she said emphatically. "Barry, there's nothing you can do for Caitlin's mom. You guys are all missing work. It might be easier on Caitlin to come back to a normal routine."

He closed his eyes. He shouldn't have let himself say it. It was a moment of weakness he already regretted. It might be easier for him to be able to see Joe and Iris at the end of the day, but with all of their powers, they definitely needed to be here. And Barry was committed to helping the S.H.I.E.L.D. team with the ATCU/HYDRA threat. "We've got some things to work out before we can come back."

"You're keeping something from me," she said. "What's going on?"

He'd really done it now. He decided he had to tell her something of what was going on. She was a journalist, and knew all his tells: she would start digging for the truth if he didn't offer some of it now. "There was an accident two days ago. Cisco and Caitlin were involved, and now they need help from the people here."

He knew she was starting to doubt him, but he also knew she could tell he wasn't lying, with that last part. It wasn't all the details, but it was definitely the truth. "How bad is it?"

"We don't know much yet. They're not in danger or anything. We just don't know exactly what's going on."

She was quiet for about half a minute. "I get what you mean now. As much as I want you back, you really need to stay with them. Just promise me you'll tell me everything, when you do get back?"

"The second we come home."

"And that'll be somewhat soon?"

He honestly didn't know, at this point. "Possibly," he said.

"I guess that's as good an answer as I can get right now."

"Goodbye Iris."

"Bye."

He lay there in low spirits for a few minutes, feeling worse than he had before he'd called her. Then he jumped up and ran to his treadmill, sprinting as fast as he could. He couldn't help Cisco. He couldn't help Caitlin. He could run. He could train himself to be faster, so next time someone he loved was in danger, he would be there in time to save them.

He didn't know how long he ran, feet pounding against the treadmill, static and wind dominating his hearing. He pushed himself to go faster, and when he felt like he was at his limit, he slammed the stop button and ran off the treadmill. He leaned panting against the wall, his clothes smoking and his legs burning. A few minutes to breathe, and he would start running again. Until he was needed, he would train as if he were already a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

A/N: And now we officially have three of our favorite metahumans (as Inhumans for this story, of course). So exciting!

Review Response: Review 1. (Indigene Syke) Glad you like it. Mack and Diggle do have that same kind of serious-but-funny balance. Mack is a great character. Also, thank you for your regular reviews.

I love hearing from you guys. I hope everyone's enjoying the story as much as I am. Until next chapter!