"Ow!"

"I - oh, dammit. Sorry!"

Fitz winced apologetically at Skye as he finally inserted the needle into the prominent vein inside her elbow on the fourth try. The test tube quickly filled with her blood and he withdrew the needle just as gracefully as he had inserted it - causing the girl to hiss in pain.

"Sorry!" He said again.

Skye waved off his attempts to dab the area with a cotton ball and grabbed a Band-Aid to apply herself. She rubbed the area lightly, wincing, before folding her elbow closed and holding it up slightly.

"So, not to be rude Fitz, but where is Simmons? Because as much as I love being your pin cushion, for some reason I prefer her method of getting the needle in the right place the first time."

Fitz sucked in a breath as he watched Skye wipe off a line of blood that had trickled down her arm during his shaky withdrawal of the needle.

"Yeah, uh," he stuttered, turning away and focusing on his smart watch, flipping through the text app until Skye was done. "I suspect her lack of discomfort around needles and blood probably helps her with that particular skill."

He turned around and collapsed in a chair near his friend's bed. He felt as tired as she looked. "Her two medical degrees probably don't hurt, either."

Skye hummed in acknowledgement, dropping her arm to the bed and sinking back into her pillows.

The pair sat in weary, companionable silence for a moment.

"I'm exhausted," Skye finally mumbled.

"Well, that's understandable, considering your body just went through terragenesis. I wonder if-" Fitz started, but Skye cut him off.

"You can just say you're exhausted too, you know."

"Oh. Well, yeah. I'm exhausted too."

Another moment passed.

"I can't believe Tripp's gone," Skye said softly.

Fitz just hummed an agreement. This is why the team never took breaks. If they had more than 5 minutes to sit down and think about what had happened to them, they'd never get up again. He checked his watch again.

"So?" Skye prompted after another long silence. "Where is she?"

"Hmm?" Fitz asked, her voice forcing him out of his thoughts and back to the present. "What?"

"Where's Simmons?" Skye asked, repeating her question from earlier.

"Oh." Fitz said flatly, sinking even deeper into his chair. "Simmons."

"Yeah... Simmons? You know, pretty, brunette, short, very British?" Skye prompted, looking at her friend, who seemed to be intensely studying the back of his bad hand. She watched him clench and unclench the fist for a while, flipping his watch to check it every few seconds, before he responded.

"Simmons," Fitz finally said, the word coming out harsh, "Is an actual, certified genius. Did you know that? She has an IQ of 195."

Skye just stared at him. She had no idea what that meant, but now she was curious, "What's yours?"

"194," Fitz said, not looking up from his hand. "I had a fever when we took the exam, so both Simmons and I maintain that I would've gotten at least a 195 if I hadn't felt so ill."

"What was Einstein's IQ?" Skye interrupted again.

"Depends on the source, the most generally recognized answer is somewhere between 170 and 190," Fitz said, detached.

"Oh." Skye said, eyes widening. It was one thing to hear gossip that her friends were smarter than Einstein. It was another thing entirely to have it confirmed so casually. She shook herself out of her shock to focus on the matter at hand, "So why is Simmons' IQ relevant to her current whereabouts?"

"It's important," Fitz said, anger starting to tinge his words, "Because I just wanted to make sure you knew how much of a genius Simmons is before I tell you that she is an absolute idiot. A complete, absolute, stupid idiot. She's back in those damn underground caves right now."

"What!?" Skye asked, sitting up quickly. "Why!? There's no way that's safe, the -"

"The structural integrity of the caves is extremely compromised because of the quake? Yeah, yeah it is. It is so compromised, in fact, that someone with an IQ of 194 and two degrees in BLOODY ENGINEERING deemed it a hazardous zone and told the director of SHIELD not to allow anyone in there for fear that it would collapse completely on top of our entire team."

Fitz's hand stopped flexing open and closed when he curled both of his hands tightly into fists. Skye could see the knuckles turn white.

"And," Fitz continued, still staring down at his blank watch face and seeming to talk to himself, "The quake knocked out all communication we had set up, so the team is blind in there and can't reach anyone outside in case of an emergency. So we just have to wait until they're back to hear from them... Not to mention the minor fact that, oh by the way, if the cave does collapse all around them, then they'll be plummeted into a bloody haunted devil city that caused Mac to go completely evil."

Ending his tired, Fitz slammed a fist down on the armrest of his chair before standing up quickly. He started to pace around the room, massaging his hand.

"I'm sure she'll be fi-" Skye started, only to be cut off again.

"You know, it's funny. It really is," Fitz said to himself, checking his watch again.. "She got me to join this team by convincing me that we'd only go into the field when absolutely necessary, and we'd never take unnecessary risks. And then when I risk my life - for her, I may add - she basically puts me on bloody suicide watch. But running headfirst into Hydra's headquarters? Jumping into a collapsing cave with actual demons living inside of it? Sure, no problem for her!"

"Fitz?" Skye asked softly, forcing his attention to her. "How long ago were they supposed to get back?"

"Thirty seven minutes," he bit out, looking at his watch again, his fingers flying as he checked every messaging app. Nothing.

"This would be a lot easier if Coulson would just agree to letting me put trackers on everyone," he muttered.

"Whoa! Hold up! You want to add trackers to everyone? Doesn't that seem like a huge invasion of privacy? Don't-"

"Oh, come off it, Skye. You know as well as I do that with the level of danger we face every day, something like this makes absolute sense. And the trackers would be completely undetectable except to me or Coulson, who would know how to access them. And it's not like we would ever invade anyone's privacy."

"Yeah, but -" Skye paused before jumping into a rant as she saw Fitz check his watch again. He heart ached for her friend, so she switched tactics and employed a technique she'd watched Simmons subtly use to calm Fitz time and time again. "That actually sounds fascinating, Fitz. Tell me more about how that would work."

The worry in Fitz's eyes eased some as a smile flashed across his face, "Oh, okay, so Simmons was talking about injectables but honestly I don't think that's so necessary. I was just thinking of something simple - like the bracelet you wore last year - that could measure heart rate and provide GPS. It will be very similar to those fitness bracelets that are so popular right now-"

"And how are we feeling today, Skye?" Simmons' voice floated through the room as she entered the doorway, running a hand through her mussed hair. She rubbed at the red line along her forehead, left there from the Hazmat mask.

Simmons bit back a smile as she watched Fitz react to Simmons' voice. He stood and whirled around, his mouth dropping open slightly. He reached out towards her, then pulled his arm in and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he seemed to remember himself.

The biochemist pretended not to notice, puttering around Skye, but Skye could see the small smile she hid at Fitz's reaction.

"How did it go, then? In the - in the caves?" Fitz asked hesitantly, nervously scratching behind his ear.

"Oh, fine. Ran into a little trouble on the way back when we ran out of fuel - we had to wait for someone to come fill us up."

Fitz let out a relieved breath, then headed towards the door. "Well, I'm going to go see if Mac needs any help," he said quickly.

Skye rolled her eyes. When would these two work it out?