19: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Coulson could barely see through the sweat running down his face as he ran back to the interrogation room as fast as he possibly could. Andrew had also returned and was making notes as he stood by the one-way glass, shocked to see Coulson turn up.

"What's wrong with you?" Andrew asked, concerned.

Coulson's eyes remained fixated on Maya as she sat in silence, unknowing.

"…Phil?" Andrew said, the worry in his voice even clearer than before.

"Get everyone to the briefing room." Coulson stuttered.

"But I thought -"

"Dr Garner…Andrew…please." Coulson begged.

One look into Coulson's desperate eyes made Andrew nod and hurry away. Coulson took a deep, deep breath before opening the door and flicking a switch on the side of the table. Suddenly, it became magnetised and the cuffs around Maya's hand slammed firmly onto the table, the force too strong for her to pull away from.

"What the hell are you doing?" Maya demanded.

"You're getting sick because you are sick. The chemical process that regenerates your cells and forms your new abilities released radiation. You're a radioactive time bomb, Maya." Coulson said coldly, rushing out of the room and briefly turning back.

"I'm truly sorry." He added solemnly before shutting the door behind him.

"COULSON! PHIL!" Maya exclaimed, desperately trying to break free, her skin beginning to turn an all too familiar navy blue.

Coulson stared intently at the control panel underneath the one-way glass. His finger hovered over a large red button. He looked up again and saw Maya staring directly at him, even though she couldn't see through the glass on her side. Her eyes were a ferocious grey.

Coulson closed his eyes and pushed the button.

There was a loud clanging noise as the whole interrogation room began to lower, the breeze of the outside air rushing into the room, forcing Coulson to grip a handle on the wall tightly. With his glazed over eyes, he observed as the room continued lowering before the whole room, made up on a singular cuboid, dropped from the bottom of The Bus and fell towards the Earth below. Coulson remained watching it until he faintly saw it plunge into the ocean.

He closed his eyes again and didn't want to face what would inevitably happen next.

…

The whole team were gathered in the briefing room curtesy of Andrew, and had been waiting for a while before Coulson slowly walked in. A deathly silence filled the room as Coulson walked to the front of the group.

"…Fitzsimmons informed us about Maya being a radioactive bomb." Daisy revealed.

"…Good." Coulson nodded, his focus wavered by recent events.

"Will you care to tell us why we all stood here not too long ago, looked out that window and saw a big chunk of this plane plunge into the sea?" Lance questioned.

All eyes were on Coulson. He saw the fury on May and Mack's faces.

"She could have ignited at any second and killed everyone on board. I had to act right away." Coulson said.

"For God's sake Coulson, WE HAD A DEAL!" Mack shouted.

"You swore you would come to Mack and I about these kind of things, Coulson!" May exclaimed.

"There may not have been time for that! How can you not understand that it was the right thing to do?" Coulson fought back.

"You flat out murdered her!" Joey protested.

"We don't know that." Coulson sighed.

"Cuffed to a table and dropped into the ocean with no means of escape? Yeah, I'm sure she's fine." Bobbi seethed.

"…It was one life – her life – instead of all of ours or God knows how many innocent people if we let her loose!" Coulson shouted.

"And can we add that from personal experience she cannot be going through a very good time right now." Jemma added, placing a supportive hand on a melancholy looking Fitz.

"I MADE THE RIGHT CALL!" Coulson shouted.

"We're not saying you didn't, we're saying you fell at the first hurdle of the new agreement we had. My faith had finally been renewed and now it's gone again. We're a TEAM." May retaliated.

"Look!" Coulson said, pressing a button on his fake hand and causing a hologram to appear on the holotable. It showed a map with a red dot in the middle of the ocean.

"I put a tracker on Maya when we brought her in. The signal is still there. Even that far underwater, it's working perfectly." Coulson said.

"You're welcome." Fitz whispered under his breath.

"The blast will release a lot of radiation, but no civilian population will get hurt." Coulson continued.

"Just some very unlucky fish." Lance chirped up.

"I didn't kill her; she was already dead. I just made sure she couldn't take anyone else with her. Finally, this is over." Coulson said.

The room fell silent again.

"I hate to be a buzzkill, believe me, but the signal's gone." Lincoln revealed, pointing at the hologram. The red dot had disappeared. Coulson's eyes widened.

"That's not possible, it was working fine." Coulson said.

"We've run countless tests on those trackers; there's no fault with the equipment." Jemma explained.

"Which means she's dead, right?" Joey asked.

"No. We still have readings coming from inside the interrogation room; we'd have detected a radiation spike in the data on our system if the explosion had occurred." Fitz revealed.

"So, she found the tracker and took it out. Great." Bobbi sighed.

"Again, not exactly. The tracker was placed under the skin of her arm via a small incision. Painless but useful." Jemma said.

"So she…ripped the tracker out of her arm? Is she strong enough to do that?" Lincoln wondered.

"No…but Rage would be." Mack said, glaring at Coulson.

"Even a weakened Rage is five times as strong as a weakened Maya." May sighed.

"And Rage could easily tear its way out of some cuffs and a metal box and make its way back to shore." Joey said, worried.

Coulson couldn't look May in the eye despite knowing she was staring at him.

"So the most likely scenario is that Rage has escaped and is on the loose anywhere in the local area, and could explode and contaminate thousands will lethal radiation?" Daisy asked.

"I'm afraid so, yeah." Fitz clarified.

Coulson put his head in his hands and let out another sigh.

"So we're back to square one. No leads. The speed Rage can move at, it could be anywhere." Lance said.

"…Fitzsimmons, see if the CCTV from inside the interrogation room still works; confirm what has or hasn't happened. All we can do aside from that…is sit tight and think of a way to track Rage quickly." Coulson ordered.

"There must be a way of tracking high levels of radiation?" Lincoln suggested.

"We could put something together, but it could take a while. Time we don't have." Fitz said.

"We also need to make sure you're not contaminated, sir; you've been in close contact with Maya – I highly doubt you've been around her long enough to soak anything up but we need to run the tests." Jemma said and Coulson nodded.

"I understand. We can't waste time; Fitzsimmons, get to work on a device to track Rage's radiation levels. Everyone else, we're gonna have to patrol the local area on foot. May, survey on a Quinjet and everyone else will need to take a bike or truck from the hangar. Let's get to it." Coulson said and everyone hurried off.

"May, Mack, I -" Coulson began.

"Don't." – "Do not even try it with me."

…

CCTV showed Rage had indeed broken free and escaped to shore. After days of searching, even with devices Fitzsimmons put together, Rage couldn't be located. There had yet to be any kind of explosion or implosion or radiation leak of any kind. The team had concluded that Rage had found an extremely radioactive location to blend into to avoid detection, but there were so many it would take weeks to search them all.

And yet, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't have a choice.

Coulson sent around half of the main team out to cover some locations, sending lower level agents with them to assist. The remainder stayed on The Bus and waited for the inevitable.

Calculating it would be at least five days for there to even be a chance of finding the location Rage was hiding, Coulson gave the medical team permission to finish up one very special project.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Jemma asked Fitz as he lay on a bed. It was time for the implant to be put in place.

"Yeah. I am." Fitz nodded.

"It's just, it could be extremely dangerous and I don't want you to get your hopes up, I mean -"

"-Jemma, I understand. I believe in Mack and I believe in you. More than I believe in anyone or anything."

"Okay…did your call your mum?" Jemma asked.

"Yeah, this morning. She was crying a lot; took a while to calm her down. She worries a lot." Fitz said.

"Quite right too." Jemma stated.

Silence. Eventually, Mack walked in with two other medical team members.

"They're ready to take you in to the operating suite. Only if you're sure, Turbo." Mack said.

"Absolutely. Don't worry about me; focus on finding Rage." Fitz smiled. Mack smiled back, shaking Fitz's hand and patting him on the back before heading out of the room. Coulson was standing at the doorway; Mack said nothing as he stormed by. Coulson and Fitz shared a look and a smile, wishing each other the best in what was ahead of them soon.

Fitz was soon rolled into the operating suite as the medical team prepared to knock him out before the operation would begin.

"Can I just have a minute?" Jemma asked the team, who all nodded and left her and Fitz alone. Jemma looked around nervously at all the instruments and tools.

"Jemma, you use all this stuff every day, don't look so nervous." Fitz chuckled.

"Yes, but it's not every day they're used on you."

"Jemma," Fitz said, holding Jemma's hand tightly, "it's gonna be okay."

"…Leo, I -"

"-Jemma, please. I'm gonna be okay. No goodbyes and no tears, okay? I'll see you soon." Fitz smiled. Jemma nodded and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you." He whispered. She couldn't hold back her tears any longer.

"I'm a mess." She chuckled.

"But you're my mess." Fitz smiled. Jemma smiled back.

A moment.

Instinctively, she leant down and pressed her lips softly against his. It was happy and it was sad and it was beautiful.

It was Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons. It was perfect.

…

Coulson sat at his desk as Andrew walked into his office.

"Any news?" Andrew asked. Coulson shook his head.

"No luck."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Andrew said, taking a seat on the couch in the corner of the room and looking out the window.

"I thought I made the right call." Coulson admitted sadly.

"If you ask me, you did. I think everyone knows you did, you just lacked in the execution department." Andrew said.

"…Are they gonna forgive me? May and Mack?" Coulson asked.

"…Just give them time. I can't say I know Mack too well, but Melinda will come round eventually. Even if she tries to hide it." Andrew smiled.

"…I can't see us coming out on top, Andrew. I just, I can't…I don't want to lose." Coulson admitted, tearing up slightly. Andrew looked him straight in the eye.

"Then don't."

…

Jemma wasn't allowed in until the next morning. Fitz's face lit up when he saw her approach his bed.

"Did it work?" Jemma asked the nearby nurse.

"We don't know at this stage; we don't want to push him to try anything until he's comfortable. I doubt the medication and pain relief has even worn off yet. Since the technology you designed seems to at least be repairing the damage to the spinal cord, the incisions we made as part of the operation should heal very quickly too. I imagine he'll only need to stay in bed for a few days before it's all healed. The real question is if the firing of the electrical impulses worked; that is one thing we don't know yet." The nurse revealed.

"Thank you." Jemma smiled, returning to Fitz's bedside.

"You look tired. Shall I come back later?" Jemma asked.

"No, no. I'm glad you're here." Fitz smiled.

"How're you feeling?"

"Like I did when I fell off the treadmill at the gym back at The Academy." Fitz smirked and Jemma laughed.

"One of the funniest moments of my life." Jemma grinned.

"That did bloody hurt." Fitz recalled with a chuckle.

"…No news on Rage yet, I'm afraid." Jemma revealed and Fitz nodded understandingly.

Silence.

"Can you clarify something for me?" Fitz asked eventually (and nervously).

"Of course I can."

"…It might have just been me high on meds, but…you kissed me, right?"

"…Yes, I did." Jemma blushed, looking down at the floor.

"It was very nice." Fitz smiled.

"It was, yes." Jemma agreed.

"I was just wondering if that was ever gonna happen ag-"

Fitz was silenced by Jemma's lips meeting his for a second glorious time. They parted only once they required air and shared an embarrassed smile.

"Jemma?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you wanna have dinner sometime?"

"I really, really would."

"…Good."

Silence again, but this time it was a blissful one.

"…Jemma…"

"Yeah?"

"…Look."

"At what?"

"Jemma…look." Fitz said, tears in his eyes as he pointed to the end of his bed.

They both cried happy tears as he wiggled his toes for the first time in months.

…

"Ugh, can this day get any worse?" An exhausted Coulson sighed.

Mack rushed into the office in a state of panic, making Coulson and Andrew instantly stand up.

"Someone's transmitting on our radio frequency. Tremors picked it up." Mack revealed. Coulson was left confused as he pressed a button on his fake hand and turned on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radio wave. Greeting him was a familiar voice he was hearing again far too soon.

"Coulson, it's found me. Rage has found me again. I repeat, Rage has found me again!"

"I recognise that voice. Who is that?" Andrew asked. Coulson sighed.

"Ward."

"As in…Grant Ward?" Andrew asked.

"Yep." Mack grimaced. Coulson felt his heart start beating faster.

"…Day got worse."