Jemma ducked into Coulson's office the next morning and squeezed in behind Daisy for the briefing.
"You were almost late," Daisy whispered.
"Almost being the key word here," Jemma replied with a smirk. She glanced around the room. Fitz, Mack, May, Lincoln, Joey, Bobbi, and Hunter joined Jemma and Daisy in the slight semicircle opposite the Director. Coulson cleared his throat at the front, and the rest of the agents fell silent.
"As you may have heard, yesterday's mission to the ATCU facility was unsuccessful. However, it wasn't a total failure. Agent Fitz managed to get his hands on a map and confirm that there are indeed inhumans being held captive, and their exact locations. Unfortunately, the team sent in yesterday was ambushed by a team of a dozen Hydra soldiers, and were unable to retrieve the inhumans. For that reason, in six days, there will be another team, which will return to the ATCU facility in order to do just that. Fitz's map of the facility is not a live feed, so we'll have to go on the hope that Hydra has no expectation of us returning and keeps the inhumans where they were at the time we acquired the map." He turned to the screen behind him and pulled up the map. He used his fingers to zoom in on the red spots, which were now very clearly at the ends of two different, rather far apart corridors.
"We will only be sending six agents into the facility; two teams of three, one for each potential group of inhumans. The teams will be led by Agents MacKenzie and Johnson; each consisting of an expert in Inhuman biology and someone who can assist in the inhuman evacuation in the event that the operation is compromised. Agent Simmons and Agent Gutierrez will accompany Agent Johnson, and Agent May and Agent Campbell will accompany Agent MacKenzie. Bobbi, Hunter, you'll be monitoring the situation from here, waiting for Daisy and Mack's okay for you to send in backup. Any questions?"
"Sir," Lincoln began, "What makes you think they'll let us waltz in and out with however many inhumans are there? Last time there were only four of us and we barely got out without a scratch. Why send in six of us now?"
"That's a good question. Agent Fitz?" he gestured and Fitz came forward with a small device in his hand.
"Last time, we were going in blind. Now we know exactly what we're up against. The security system in the facility is based mostly on thermal detection. This," Fitz held up his device, which Jemma recognized as what he had been working on for the past few weeks, "is a Thermal Damper. When worn, it blocks your thermal signal from the detection program of the security system. We only have six, and the materials are incredibly hard to come by, thus the agent limit."
"Thank you, Fitz. Bobbi has agreed to show you how to disable the stasis cubes tomorrow. That's all." Coulson concluded, and the rest of them dispersed.
"Are you messing with me?" Fitz asked suspiciously. Mack examined the Thermal Damper, which looked even smaller in his hand.
"No. I can't ask a genuine question? I wouldn't want to be the one to compromise the mission." Mack replied.
"No, your size won't affect how the Damper works. Your signal should still be blocked."
"Good. Now, tell me what's been bugging you."
"What?" Fitz was taken aback.
"You've been acting funky lately."
"I have?"
"Nothing wildly outrageous, but yeah. What's up? You okay?"
"You sure you want to go there? It's a lot."
"I asked, didn't I?" Fitz looked up at Mack and noticed the expression of genuine concern on his face and took a deep breath.
"It's just- Jemma's pregnant. And I'm okay with that, I think. But we've only known for five days and we haven't decided what we're going to do yet so she's fine with going on the mission back to the ATCU facility."
"Wow. Okay." Mack was dumbfounded. "So where's the problem?"
"I'm… not. I don't want her to go on the mission. Is that selfish of me? To want her to be safe?"
"You're trying to look out for her. I wouldn't call that selfish." Fitz's lack of response told Mack that wasn't the end of it. "Does she know you don't want her to go?"
"No."
"Well, why haven't you told her?"
"I kind of told her I was okay with whatever she wanted." Mack opened his mouth to chastise Fitz, but Fitz cut him off. "I thought I would be! It's only been four days, and believe me, I want so badly for that to be true, but…"
"Sounds to me like you've already made up your mind."
Jemma sat down on the bed and put her head in her hands. "Fitz, this shouldn't be a debate! We go on missions regularly. This is no more dangerous than any we've been on before"
"Things are obviously different now!"
"They shouldn't be! Not until we've decided what we're doing…" she trailed off as Fitz looked at the ground and sat down next to her.
"Unless you already have," she finished. Fitz opened his mouth to object, but knew he could say nothing to convince her of anything other than the truth, so he closed his eyes and nodded.
"You want to keep it? You said, and I quote, 'whatever you want to do, I'm here in full support.' Did you mean a word of it?"
"Jemma, of course I meant it when I said it! I've been thinking about it is all. I mean, are you so against keeping it?"
"Well, no, but I just thought you had my back whichever choice I decided to make."
"I do, really. But it's like I said, you don't have to make the choice alone. And you can't just act like nothing is different until you decide, though. You have to be careful. If you decide you want to keep it, you'll be glad you did. If not, well, no harm no foul. This is a baby, Jemma, our baby. Please don't go on this mission. It's in two days. Please think about it." With that, he stood up and left the room.
Daisy stepped out of the elevator and into the vast infirmary. Back in the day, it had been one big room filled with beds and overhead lamps that spanned underneath almost the entire base. In the four months since Coulson had reopened Vault C and placed Lincoln in charge, the infirmary had undergone a major transformation. No longer a vast room, it was now more of a mini-hospital. Prepared for a major disaster and also routine checkups, the infirmary now had two exam rooms, an O.R., five recovery rooms with two beds each that doubled as trauma rooms if need be, three mini-labs, and just about every different type of scanner. Lincoln had dedicated one of the labs to studying the biology of inhumans, but Daisy wasn't here to see Lincoln. Over the past few months, he and Jemma had been working together as he taught her what he knew about the inhumans' biology. On the rare occasion that Jemma and Fitz were fighting, Daisy could find Jemma avoiding the lab and occupying one of the infirmary's labs. She peeked in the doors of all three of labs and found her in the last one. She knocked on the doorframe.
"There you are," Daisy smiled. Jemma looked up from the computer.
"Daisy, hi. What's up?" she turned her chair and smiled at Daisy. Daisy scanned the table and noticed a few vials in the machine on the table.
"I was just checking on you. Making sure you were okay. Whose blood work is that?" Daisy asked.
"It's mine," Jemma admitted. "I'm just, I don't know, triple checking." Daisy had to smile.
"Jemma, you've been sick like clockwork for the past week. And I don't think I've ever seen you eat so much the entire time I've known you." Jemma exhaled slowly.
"I know. The results correspond with all the other tests I've taken. I suppose I was just hoping for an easy way out. Fitz and I could stop fighting about this if there was no baby to care about."
"So you're considering…"
"Oh, goodness, no. I would never."
"So you want to keep it too?"
"Yes? I don't know. Maybe."
"Then why don't you tell Fitz that?"
"I don't know. I think we have different pictures in our heads of how this will play out if we go through with it."
"And that's a bad thing? Trust me, Jemma. I had pictures in my head of what my perfect family was. I spent my first two years at SHIELD trying to find it, and it wasn't until after I finally met my parents that I realized my real family had been around me the whole time. Pictures in your head can be nice, but reality can surprise you. In more ways than one."
"I suppose you're right."
"It sounds like you guys are both up for it. Give it a shot. See what happens."
"It's a lot."
"I know. But you're Jemma Simmons. You've survived six months on an alien planet. You jumped out of an airplane without a parachute and lived. Hell, you've saved my life at least once. I think you're pretty kickass."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. Now come on," Daisy extended her hand towards Jemma, "It's getting late and we've got a mission tomorrow."
Fitz was woken by Jemma stirring long before sunrise. "Jemma?" he called.
"Go back to sleep, Fitz. It's early," she whispered as she sat up.
"So you're leaving, then?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied. He turned back over to face away from her.
"So you didn't listen to a word I said the other day?"
"Fitz, it's not like that." She didn't want to argue this early.
"Isn't it?" Jemma turned to look at him and took a deep breath.
"I want to keep it," she said. Fitz sat up and looked at her in the darkness.
"What?"
"The baby. I'll go on this mission, but it'll be my last one, until… for now."
"You're not just saying that, are you?" Fitz couldn't help but smile a little.
"I've been thinking about it a lot, since before our fight, and I'm sure. Fitz, I want this. We can tell Coulson when I get back. I suppose you can tell him before that if you really want to."
"So we're actually doing this?"
"We're actually doing this." Jemma smiled and looked back at him. He leaned forward and kissed her long and deep. When he stopped for breath he touched his forehead to hers.
"Please stay," he whispered.
"Fitz," Jemma said, almost scoldingly.
"Fine. Be safe, okay?"
"I will. Go back to sleep," she insisted, and stood up.
"I love you," he said, laying back down and rolling over, pulling up the blankets to his chin.
"See you when I get back," she said. "Love you too," she whispered from the doorway as he fell back asleep.
The quinjet touched down in the same place as last time, and the agents all turned on their cloaking devices. Jemma double checked everyone, stopping at Mack.
"Fitz told me," he said.
"I see," she replied as she made sure the light on his Thermal Damper was lit.
"You guys work everything out?"
"For the most part, yes." He would have said more, but the quinjet's door lowered and the six figures emerged, heading for the ATCU facility. They made their way into the atrium as it they had before, and everything looked exactly the same as they had left it. Jemma noticed the shattered computer monitor in the corner and felt something off.
"This way," Daisy said. She led the way to the hallway that a week ago armed Hydra agents had been pouring out of. After a few minutes of navigating the facility, Jemma recognized the fork at the end of the hall from the map.
"Alright, D. This is where we leave you," Mack said.
"See you on the other side," Daisy replied, "And hopefully not empty handed." Jemma and Joey followed Daisy and headed down the passage to the left. There was still a long way to the room where they believed the inhumans to be, so Daisy soon fell back in pace with Jemma while Joey remained in the lead.
"So did you talk to him?" Daisy asked quietly.
"Yes," Jemma replied, "I think things are going to be okay."
"Good, that's good." Daisy looked down at the map on her tablet. "We're getting close. It should be that door at the end of the hallway. I'll commence the scan." Joey walked ahead and began examining the door. Suddenly Mack's voice came on Daisy's earpiece.
"Daisy, come in," it said.
"Mack, is everything okay? Have you found any inhumans?"
"Not yet, but here is a problem. May's cloaking device isn't on. We just noticed but I can't say for how long it's been like that. Something's not right, D. Shouldn't there be Hydra goons on our asses by now?"
"I'll keep you posted. Stay sharp, there's definitely something going on here," Daisy replied.
"What happened?" Jemma asked, noticing the worried expression on Daisy's face.
"May's cloaking device is dead but there's no sign of Hydra." Jemma nodded.
"I'll tell Joey," Jemma decided, and began walking towards him.
"I'll melt the lock so we can get in," he yelled to her as he saw her approaching from the far end of the hallway. Just then Daisy's tablet lit up, but not with life signs.
"Joey, wait!" she called. Jemma tuned to look at Daisy over her shoulder and opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but was cut off. Heat and fire burst out from the open door where Joey stood and forced its way into the narrow hallway. The three of them were blown backwards and everything went black.