Drabble 26: Tremors in the Night

Requested by awesomeness-in-white.

He looked around and saw metal walls keeping him in. Immediately his pulse started climbing, his breath coming in short and rapid gasps. For a few minutes it was all he could do to allow his body to go through the motions. He was just barely functioning, leaning against the cold metal wall as he hyperventilated.

Somehow he managed to breathe normally again. He realized he was just standing in a room. A very small room with thick metal walls and no real windows, but a room. It wasn't moving anywhere.

So of course that changed. There was light coming from the top of the room, the ceiling more see-through than any other part of the room. It had been giving him an abundance of light, which made the room seem more cheery. He heard a sound, something metal, and then felt the room he was in fall. He clung desperately to anything he could to hold him down as he was thrown upward by the sudden change. After a moment of falling he heard a resounding crack and felt the room hit something with force. He thudded to the floor with a groan.

The box (he'd realized by now that it was a box) started shifting, moving down. He could see the light above him, with a strange bluish tinge. The light faded rapidly, and he realized the blue tint was water. He was sinking.

He also noticed that Jemma was in the box with him, just as scared as he was. He could see her faint outline in the fading light. How had he not noticed her before? He walked over to her and got her attention, with surprising difficulty. He felt the box settle against something solid. By now all he could see of the light was the faintest trace, laughing at him from above.

He knew what he had to do without having to think about it. He found an oxygen-mask and told Jemma what to do while he prepped the window-like part of the box. There was a second one now, on one of the walls. He swore it hadn't been there before, but it didn't matter.

He forced Jemma to wear the oxygen-mask and blew out the side window. He was thrown back against the hard metal wall with great force, his breath taken from his body. He immediately inhaled to replace it, but it was water instead of air. Water was rushing into the box swiftly. He swallowed some, started choking even as he felt his consciousness dimming. He had hit the wall hard, and the swallowed water didn't help. He felt a hand barely touch him, and then nothing.

And more nothingness.

He could feel that something was terribly wrong, even as he lay unresponsive immediately after the explosion. And it scared him, because he felt it, but couldn't do anything about it. It took everything he had to even feel it.

Fitz woke up with a strangled gasp. He had been asleep. It was just a nightmare.

He touched his face and felt wetness on his cheeks. He had cried in his sleep. His breathing was quick and shallow, and he was in a cold sweat.

"Are you okay?"

He looked up and saw Jemma sitting next to him, leaning forward with a worried expression.

Of course she was there. She stayed by him most nights, making sure he was alright since the… event. It had only been a short time. Her sleeping bag lay unused on the floor.

"I'm fine." He lied, wiping at his eyes. His breathing regulated, and he forced himself to smile.

Even he knew it wasn't convincing, so he wasn't surprised when she narrowed her eyes.

"Please tell me what it was about." She said softly. "I want to help."

He sighed. "How did you… how did you…?"

"How did I know you were having a nightmare?"

He nodded.

"You were whimpering a bit, and tossing near the end."

"Oh." He sat up in his bed, fixing the sheet around him. Jemma moved closer to him, pulling her chair as close as it could be. "It was just about our um… trip."

She reached for his hand timidly, and when he didn't show any signs against it, started rubbing soothing circles on the back of his palm with her thumb. For the moment they were beyond words. She knew he needed comfort first.

She could feel it after a few minutes, the ever so slight ease that replaced the tightness of his body after just waking up. So she let go of his hand and looked at him. "Which part was it?"

He took a breath before responding. "Everything from the fall. But much faster. And I was more… more…"

"Afraid?" she asked.

He shook his head, and managed to find the right word. "Alone. You weren't there at first."

"Was I there in the end?"

He swallowed. "Yeah. You saved me again, but I didn't know it. I just felt the… the wrongness of it, after I hit the wall. The nothingness."

"Oblivion." Jemma put in.

He nodded. "It terrified me. I knew something was wrong, but was so… helpless."

She gave him a comforting smile. "But you're better now. You're recovering so well, Fitz, you really are."

"Yeah." He said. But he didn't sound like he believed it.

"What's really wrong?" she asked. "I know the nightmare was upsetting, but there's something else you're not telling me. What is it?"

"I'm scared." He whispered. "I shouldn't be, but I'm scared. I'm terrified."

She knew he was putting all his trust in her when he said this, and saw how true it was. She could see it in his eyes, that bit of fear.

"I hate to say it, but give it time." She said. "A lot of it is because of how recently everything happened, I'm sure. Your brain is trying to process this huge event in your life based on science, and it just can't. What we experienced can't be solved by science alone. So your brain is trying to make you heal the only other way it can: through emotion."

Fitz looked at her for a moment with an unchanged expression, and then to her relief smiled.

"Thank you for that."

She nodded slightly. There was more she wanted to say, but that was just trivial information. It could be talked about later, in the morning. "Do you think you're okay now?" she asked.

He blinked and she saw his eyes clear. "Almost. Could you… could you come next to me?"

She swallowed and nodded as she stood up. "Of course."

He moved to the edge of his bed, and she perched there next to him, trying to take up as little space as possible.

"Thank you Jemma." He whispered. "I'm glad you're here."

She found his hand and gave it a squeeze. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

She lay down comfortably next to him, just like they had so many times after late nights studying or just having fun. So close, but that barrier was still between them, the one she knew only time would bring down. But it was a start.

They drifted off to sleep like that, and when Fitz woke in the morning it was with a clear head. With Jemma by his side, he hadn't had any nightmares.

She had chased them all away.