A/N: Lots of action last chapter! We're right at the midpoint for the story, and I want to thank everyone for all the support it's gotten so far. It makes me so happy to see the number of views increasing, and more favorites and follows. Review Response: Review 1. (Emrys Akayuki) Barry meeting Yo-Yo would be a cool interaction. As of right now I haven't introduced Yo-Yo, but I'm sure I can add that in...

Read on!

His arm was still around her when he woke up, and he tightened it instinctively. She hummed in satisfaction, and he saw her give a relaxed, happy smile. They'd woken up like this before, wrapped up in each other's embrace. This was the first time it had truly meant something; even if all they'd done was climb into the bed and fall asleep.

"How did you sleep?" Jemma asked, pressing herself closer to him.

He wrapped her up in his arms, taking a long, slow breath. He felt her giggle against his chest.

"Me too."

As much as he didn't want to ruin the moment, he had to make sure he wasn't teasing himself. Yes, she'd kissed him last night, but she'd also just been through a lot. Now that she'd slept on it, he had to make sure this was what she wanted. "You're sure you're ready for this? For us? I don't want to rush you."

At this she sat up, abruptly looking fully awake. "Fitz… we can't waste any more time. Do you hear me? We've been dancing around this for years because we've been afraid of losing each other if something were to go wrong. But you know what?"

He pushed himself upright. "What's that?"

"We're only afraid because we love each other so much. And if we love each other so much, why should we be afraid?"

He half-smiled. "I think you're missing a few steps in your logic," he teased. He brought a hand up to caress her cheek, serious again. "I don't know if I'll ever stop being afraid of losing you," he admitted.

"I feel the same way." She pulled his hand down, placing a kiss on it. "So we'll always be a little afraid," she said, tracing designs over the back of his hand with gentle fingers. "I'd rather be afraid of losing something I have than something I've only dreamed of."

Her eyes were steady with his, and Fitz found it difficult to swallow, let alone formulate a response to tell her he agreed with her completely. He wanted nothing more than to be able to think of her as his partner, and have her think of him in kind. She didn't seem to expect him to speak. Maybe she knew everything he wanted to say. Maybe she knew how desperately he wanted to hold her. She moved closer, fitting herself against him so well he thought his body was made to be with hers as they held each other. Again, nothing happened. They eventually stood and separated, to get dressed and ready for the day. But Fitz felt the residual warmth of Jemma's body long after they'd separated, long after he knew it had really faded – kept fresh in his memory by his heart that now beat confidently with the knowledge that she loved him.

0-0

The base seemed quieter than usual when Cisco got up. It took Cisco a few minutes to realize it was because everyone was still in their rooms. It had been early morning by the time they got back from the English castle, so he guessed it was normal for them to be still sleeping in the early afternoon, but it was still strange. He'd come to expect the S.H.I.E.L.D. team to be up early no matter what.

Now Barry being asleep still didn't surprise him. Honestly, Cisco had thought he himself would sleep later. No such luck.

He was amazed that there were barely any injuries on their side. A few bruised hands (his own included), a bruised knee for Daisy (from the boomerang), and a few scrapes. Otherwise, he assumed everyone was just tired. He knew Caitlin was. She'd practically fallen asleep as they flew back to the base, sitting between Cisco and Barry.

Cisco had been hoping Daisy would be awake. He really wanted to tell her about the energy blast he'd used at the castle, and start learning how to control it.

He quickly found that he wasn't the only one out of his room. In the kitchen (he always seemed to find people in the kitchen) were May and Hunter, though Hunter grabbed two apples and walked out as Cisco entered the room.

"I didn't expect to see anyone yet," May said.

Cisco slid into a seat across from her. "I did."

May was quiet, her gaze in the direction of the table but clearly not focused on it. "You did well last night," she said eventually.

Cisco blinked in surprise at the praise. "I mean, I didn't do that much."

"You were there," May said, a little bit more forcefully, "and you fought for our team."

Our team, Cisco noticed. No hesitation, no reminder that he wasn't really a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He felt tempted to smile. "There was some awesome fighting," he said, suddenly more relaxed.

He expected May to react to that in some way, even if it was just the usual May micro-expression, but she seemed troubled by something. Cisco's first thought was that she was worrying about Dr. Garner. She may have been, but that wasn't what was at the forefront of her mind. "Have you noticed anything different about Caitlin lately?" she asked.

He felt his eyebrows scrunch together. Where was this coming from? "No. Why?"

She shook her head, not elaborating, but Cisco's mind was turning over all his interactions with Caitlin since discovering she had powers too. He felt himself sink back against the chair a little as he realized he hadn't seen her as much. He'd been with Daisy basically all day, training, and Caitlin had been... "Wasn't she with you?"

May nodded. "I just wanted to make sure she's adjusting alright, since you know her better than I do. Forget I said anything."

That wasn't likely, but Cisco did let it drop. He let himself get carried away as more people started emerging from their rooms, recounting his epic fighting skills and an only slightly dramatized version of the emergence of his vibrational ability.

"So you took out a boomerang – after you threw it," Hunter clarified.

Cisco had been hoping to gloss over that detail. "No one really threw anything at me," he said in self-defense. "I think it was that stimulus that made my powers activate."

"Hunter's just jealous you have another ability," Bobbi said kindly. "I'm glad the three of you were there."

At that point Fitz and Simmons walked into the kitchen, momentarily distracting Cisco from commenting. He felt his mouth twitch up when he saw them enter together, thinking of their movie-worthy kiss. Though he knew he hadn't really done anything, he was happy with his matchmaking skills. It looked like the two were finally together. Now he just had to start thinking about his own love life.

His eyes darted over to Daisy as he wondered what she thought of his new power. She'd heard him explain it, but hadn't said anything.

"How's your knee?" he asked her.

He could see a thought leaving her eyes at his question, and realized she probably hadn't really been listening. "Sorry, what?"

"The boomerang hit your knee pretty hard."

"Oh. I've had way worse, trust me. I'm fine."

"Maybe we can train more," he said, trying to sound casual. He was pretty sure he missed the mark, but no one laughed. Barry actually perked up.

"The lightning!"

Cisco pressed his lips together for a second. "Yeah, Barry's lightning. That's why I wanted to train."

They didn't seem to realize it was a half-hearted comment. Cisco bounced back quickly. He did want to help Barry practice with his lightning. Actually – "hey, why don't we all practice together?" he asked, gesturing between himself, Barry, Caitlin, and Daisy. He looked at Daisy. "You said your priority is training Inhumans. It makes sense to train together."

"That's a lot for Daisy to handle alone," May said.

"I guess we could pair off and keep switching partners," Daisy said.

"I can help," Mack offered.

Then things would be uneven, Cisco was about to point out, but May said she would come too, and Cisco's point was moot.

"You can show off your energy beam, Blockbuster," Mack said with a smile.

Cisco nodded, hoping he could figure out how the power worked in time to keep from looking like a fool.

"How do we want to start off?" Daisy asked when they reached the gym. "Who's pairing with each other?"

"Cisco, you ready?" Barry asked.

Cisco grinned. It wasn't gym class, but he'd still been picked first. It was a welcome change. He saw May start to ask Caitlin to practice, and Caitlin walked resolutely over to Mack. May and Daisy walked to the far side of the room. "That fight would be epic," Cisco said.

"I think that fight's happened before."

Cisco opened his mouth. "How did you get gossip I didn't?"

Barry just smiled. "Alright, man, let's see what you can do. I'll be a human target. Try to use your energy blast. And no, you won't hit me," he added at the expression on Cisco's face.

Cisco breathed out low, shaking out his hands. He held up his right hand and faced it toward Barry, who was bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. C'mon, Cisco thought. Aaand now!

He closed his eyes after about thirty seconds of this. "I guess I'm gonna need some motivation," he said. He opened his eyes. "Barry, maybe you could – what the frack?" He ducked as a stapler was thrown at him. It clattered to the floor, and Cisco turned to him incredulously. "What was that?"

"You were supposed to use your powers!"

Disgruntled, Cisco raised his hand back up. His breathing staggered slightly as he became aware of an energy inside him. It rippled and spread from his core, fluid, and when it reached his hand, he imagined it extending out beyond his body. A shot of vibrational energy discharged from his hand. "Aw, this is what I'm talking about," Cisco said to himself.

"Got it?" Barry asked.

Cisco could still feel the energy, and focused on it, refusing to let it go. "Yeah," he said, shoving another blast in Barry's direction, "I got it." He tried short blasts of energy and then longer ones, each time aiming at Barry. Barry barely had to move to dodge them, and kept looking at him with encouragement.

"That's awesome," Daisy said after a few minutes. Cisco hadn't even noticed that her sparring match with May had ended, and both women were looking at him.

Cisco put his hand down, a bit tired. He felt the energy settle inside him and experimentally called it back to his hand, and smiled when he felt it respond. He liked being an Inhuman a lot more now. "Barry, it's your turn to show off," he said. He looked over to where Mack and Caitlin were facing off, wondering if they were at a stopping point. Barry would need space to try to create lightning. It seemed like Mack was helping her with timing. Cisco watched as Mack moved to strike her and Caitlin ducked, forming an icicle and jabbing it up toward him. It stopped just short of touching him, and Cisco whistled. "You guys wanna see a show?" he asked when they looked over at him.

"Cisco, I don't know how to do this," Barry reminded him.

"I got a plan." He waited until Caitlin and Mack walked over before continuing. "You said the last time you created lightning -."

"- the only time -."

"- you had been running steadily at your top speed, right?" Cisco said, ignoring Barry's interjection. "So all you need to do is run in a circle until you reach that speed again."

"Why will that be any different than last time?" Daisy asked.

"Because in here, you can change direction. On the treadmill you can't really move around. The lightning had no place to go. In here -."

"I can turn with it, and send it out," Barry finished. He nodded. "It's worth a shot."

"Is it safe for us to be in here?" Mack asked. "I really don't want to get struck by lightning."

"It would make a good story, though," Cisco joked. He shook his head, trying to be serious. "Barry can run around us, and aim at the wall."

Mack shrugged. Cisco looked at the others and saw that they seemed fine with the plan, and nodded at Barry. "Do it."

Barry started moving around the room, running counter-clockwise. He really did seem to be faster than he'd been last time Cisco had genuinely watched him run. The lightning trail behind him didn't have a chance to fade, because he was already back and creating a new layer. He ran for about half a minute before Cisco realized something, and looked at Caitlin with widened eyes.

He could see the alarm mirrored in her expression, and started to call out for Barry to stop. He didn't even finish saying his friend's name. A blast of frozen mist collided with Barry, stopping him short and knocking him back against the wall. He dropped to the ground at normal speed. Caitlin faced him, leaning forward with one arm perfectly extended in Barry's direction.

"You okay?" Mack asked.

Barry stood and ran over to them, looking at Caitlin. "What was that for?" he demanded.

She looked at him levelly. "We needed you to stop."

Barry's fist was clenched at his side. "You could have just yelled."

"You might not have heard. This got the message across."

"We have to be outside the area you're running," Cisco said, "otherwise you'll take away our oxygen. I didn't think, before."

"I was about to try it," Barry said. "The oxygen wouldn't have been depleted that fast." He breathed out low. "But I didn't think of it before either."

Cisco could see May studying Caitlin. Have you noticed anything different about Caitlin lately? He took in the distance in Caitlin's eyes and realized she did seem different. It was the same look she'd had at the English castle. She'd been so impulsive both times, staying to keep HYDRA back and striking out at Barry like that. Did she realize that she wasn't acting like herself?

"I'm going to practice on my own," Caitlin said.

Everyone was looking after her as she left, and Cisco was pretty sure Barry was thinking the same thing he was: she didn't ask if Barry was okay. Whenever Barry had even a chance of getting hurt, Caitlin always asked if he was okay. And this time, she'd caused the danger.

"It is a little hard for everyone to practice in here at the same time," Daisy said, by way of moving on.

Cisco met May's glance and nodded slightly. Her jaw tensed as he confirmed her suspicions. Cisco realized he wasn't in much of a training mood anymore. He wasn't in a very good mood at all.

0-0

Jemma's desk seemed empty. Fitz's as well, but she knew that would be remedied soon enough. Fitz filled his workspace quickly, because it was ony clear until he was invested in a project. Which was most of the time, actually. Jemma was a bit slower to take up the space. There were the permanent fixtures of her desk, of course. The picture of she and Fitz from their second mission was practically glued down in its spot in the corner. Her parents had gotten her a frame for multiple smaller photos, which she'd filled with images of her teammates and set at the back center. The notebook she and Fitz had first filled in during their Academy days was fairly stationary as well, though it moved occasionally, when she was feeling nostalgic and wanted to see the first drafts for the D.W.A.R.V.E.S. and Fitz's Mouse Hole tech. She moved the folder that had been on top of that notebook, looking at its contents. Another structural analysis of the monolith. Into the bin it went.

The reason her desk now seemed so empty was the loss of the books on everything related to Maveth. The volumes had taken a semi-permanent residence on her desktop, and now that the portal was destroyed, they had no reason to continue their stay. So she had two growing piles on the floor by her desk, one being the stack of books, the other a trash bin with all the printed diagrams and case studies she and Fitz had accumulated.

"I can see your workspace again," Fitz said.

Jemma looked over at Fitz's desk and saw that he already had a few folders open, mostly regarding the stasis modules the ATCU had developed. "And yours is already going back into hiding."

"I'm really not that messy."

She looked at his collection of documents and then to her own pile of folders, and hummed. "I can't really blame you, though. You need to spread out your work. That's just how your mind works."

"I've seen your desk when it wasn't so neat," Fitz reminded her. "When we were doing our report for Dr. Weaver, right after the clean room -."

"Oh, don't!"

"Your desk looked like a warzone," he laughed.

Jemma sighed when her own embarrassed laughter faded, leaning against Fitz's desk. "You feel it too, right?"

He leaned back, his expression sobering. "You mean the sudden calm?"

"Exactly. It doesn't seem like we've finished anything. Honestly, it feels like we're in the eye of the storm, and more trouble is coming."

"We work for S.H.I.E.L.D.," Fitz said. "There's always more trouble coming." He placed a hand on hers where it gripped the desk. "Let's just appreciate the temporary calm."

0-0

There wasn't much of the day left, since everyone had woken up late; the strange training session had disbanded soon after Caitlin left, but Barry found time to do a little more training before going to sleep. Right before going to sleep, when the base was mostly dark. He went back to the gym alone, and stretched as his eyes adjusted to the harsh lights.

Cisco had mentioned something about Avatar: The Last Airbender earlier, and shown Barry a scene from the animated show. One of the characters had taught another how to generate lightning, stressing the importance of fully extending his arm once he had the lightning created so it didn't strike himself. Barry didn't think it was fully applicable (it was a cartoon after all), but he'd already struck himself with lightning once, so he didn't mind trying the fully extended arm thing.

Barry ran around the gym, arms pumping as he built up speed. He could feel the lightning in his body, as he always did when he used his speed, but he paid close attention to it now. He realized that the excess lightning he produced usually created the trail behind where he ran, but now that he had increased his speed, he could generate more lightning. He built up speed until he felt he could go no faster, and then took mental stock. He could feel the extra lightning churning inside him. He focused on that mass of energy and directed it through his body, sending it from his feet up to his torso. He stopped running and turned his entire body, lifting his arms and moving them to full-extension to his right. The lightning appeared near his shoulder, and he watched as it travelled across his extended arm and continued in a straight line past his fingertips, striking the wall with a static rush.

He panted slightly as he stayed in that position. Now he was glad Cisco had shown him that clip. It really did help.

"Glad I didn't startle you before you threw that."

Barry turned at Hunter's voice, standing normally. "Me too."

"You gonna bring that out next time we go in the field?" Hunter questioned.

"If I can do it like that every time, yeah. I've only used lightning twice, and it's worked once. Not the best track record." Barry expected Hunter to make some sort of crack about that, and when the Brit remained silent, realized he seemed oddly introspective. Hunter had never struck him as the pensive type. "Everything okay?"

Hunter leaned against the wall with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Just wondering if I'm looking at the future of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Barry opened his mouth, maybe to say he wasn't sure what his future with S.H.I.E.L.D. was, and Hunter chuckled. "Nothing to worry about, mate. No pressure here." He turned to walk back out. "The team would be in good hands with you around, though."

Hunter left. Barry almost took a step after him at that last comment, but managed to stay still. He was definitely wondering what it meant, because there was something in Hunter's voice… it almost seemed like he was thinking he wouldn't be part of the future of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Barry shook his head. There was no point in trying to decrypt that little visit. Maybe Hunter was just in a thoughtful mood, and it didn't mean anything. Barry took another breath and started running again. Time to make some lightning.