Moments Caught by the Weather

3/? of the "Moments" series.

Timeline – starts at the Playground and ends at the (fictional and new) SHIELD facility in New York (that was built for them by Tony Stark).

Sun

It was late February and a rare late winter warm day, the first that they had had in months.

When Jemma looked outside that morning to see sunshine and a cloudless sky, a sense of giddiness filled her. Antoine came walking into the kitchen a little while later, she had a thermos of coffee (both needed it, first thing in the morning) and breakfast sandwiches wrapped in napkins. He arched an eyebrow her in question. Five minutes later, Coulson knew they were going for a walk and they were out for a morning hike.

Neither one was particularly inclined to speak at first. They were content to enjoy the nice weather and eat their breakfast. When they had stuffed the used napkins into their pockets, Antoine poured coffee into the cup and they passed it between them, drinking deeply.

There were still mounds of snow around and would be for a few weeks yet. The Playground, classified location as it was, was in the part of the country where snow stuck around into March. Jemma didn't mind that so much. She enjoyed it, in fact.

They reached a bluff overlooking a lake and stopped.

Antoine slipped an arm around her shoulders. Jemma looked over at him. He gave her a smile and bent down to press a kiss to her cheek.

"Morning, Jems."

She returned his smile. "Morning, Antoine."

Rain

Coulson had sent them out on an assignment to be his liaisons with a covert US military team to go into a Hyrda-affiliate base to retrieve one of the 0-8-4s released from the Fridge. Both were required because the item in question had dastardly effects on the people surrounding it, when it was active.

They got the 0-8-4 and got it into a containment field for transport back to the joint SHIELD-US containment facility (or the Mini-Fridge, as Skye had taken to calling it). Now that the United States government had realized that not all members of SHIELD were part of Hydra or terrorists, they had opened up extremely tentative dialogue with the active (and highly vetted) members of SHIELD who were still operating under the auspices of the organization. There were far fewer of them than before, but they were, at the very least, not treated like active threats to the safety of the planet.

Still, with that in mind, both Antoine and Jemma went out on this assignment with the greatest of caution.

Once the 0-8-4 was in transit to the Mini-Fridge, they were escorted to their safe house. Or, rather, Antoine and Jemma were allowed the illusion that they were going to said safe house without any escorts – and really had a dozen plain FBI agents clothes watching them at various points along the route. (Said agents were painfully obvious, given that both SHIELD agents knew what to look for.)

Though, neither was particularly interested their observers when the weather took a turn for the wet and a sudden torrential downpour had them dashing for the safe house. It was just their luck, since they had forgotten the umbrella.

Their escorts kept at an almost respectful distance, once they were secure in the safe house, soaking wet and laughing at their misfortune.

"We should offer them tea," Jemma said, once she had fished out towels from to dry themselves with. "After all, we weren't the only ones caught up in that storm."

Antoine grinned. "Yeah, we should," he answered, taking an offered towel, "but something tells me that they've already got that taken care of." He gave her a grin and wrapped an arm around her. "Besides, that would also require us to be presentable and we both need to get cleaned up from this mission."

She laughed cheerfully. "Presentable, hm?" Jemma teased "And what would be more presentable than the sodden clothes they escorted us here in?"

"Clean and dry ones," he answered, bending down to press a kiss to her lips. "The ones that we're going to wear after we've had some time to relax and such."

Jemma's grin was bold and hinted at so much. "I like the 'and such' part."

"Me too."

Wind

May's flying abilities were second to none, especially when the Bus was involved.

That being said, Jemma was having a hard time holding onto her lunch as they flew back after their latest mission. They were catching the tail end of a hurricane that was kicking up a lot of winds and turbulence along the East Coast, especially around New York.

Melinda had escorted Jemma, Fitz, and Skye back to the Hub – or what used to be the Hub, after the United States government had taken it over. As the scientific and technological minds of Coulson's team, the three of them were required to decipher and parse out what knowledge was housed at the Hub.

On the surface, it appeared to be a perfectly peaceful arrangement and a way to build good faith between the new SHIELD and the United States. At least, that's what the head of the Congressional sub-committee handling the official relations between the US and SHIELD had told them.

What it really ended up being was two weeks of instructions and heavy-handed rearrangement of information. Coulson had ordered them to be as open and honest as possible with what remained at the Hub. It had been hard for the man to let most of his immediate team go into the Hub without backup, but it had been the specific request of the aforementioned sub-committee that Coulson send the people who would understand what was in the Hub computers to be the SHIELD representatives.

All opinions agreed that they wanted to see what the unofficial brain trust of the new SHIELD looked liked – which meant that the famous (or infamous) Melinda May showing up as the lead SHIELD agent was a surprise and a not-so-subtle threat. Coulson knew the impact his wife could have.

"We're coming in for a landing in New York," Melinda announced over the intercom.

"Finally," Skye breathed, her hand clamped firmly in Fitz, who had spent most of the turbulence-ridden trip with his eyes closed and parked between Jemma and Skye, crushing both of their hands in turn.

When they finally did land, safe home in the SPA (officially, the Stark Protected Arena; unofficially, the new headquarters for SHIELD), Jemma had never been happier to get off the Bus.

Fitz and Skye had wrapped her up into a shared hug of relief at their safe arrival before Skye pulled Fitz in for a kiss. Moments later, Fitz was leading Skye towards their quarters on the bus. (The whole team maintained personal spaces on the craft, just out of necessity.) With a smile, she left them to their own devices and made her way off of the Bus, falling in line with Melinda as neared the back of the Bus.

Coulson and Antoine were waiting for them, though not for any reasons of debriefing. That would happen in a few hours. Most of the paperwork had been sent through before they had even left the Hub, so everything else was just a mere formality.

Melinda and Coulson had a quiet reunion, though warm nonetheless. Jemma saw the pride shining in her boss' eyes as he congratulated Melinda on her superb flying skills in the face of adverse conditions. The pilot in question smirked and kissed her husband on the cheek.

And Jemma smiled at Antoine, who cupped her face and kissed her deeply.

"Welcome home," he said – and it was!

Short and sweet. Again, more fluff, but I hope that you enjoyed it. Please review and let me know what you thought.

And, if you think I should continue (and if the Muse is kind), I will get something up for your continued enjoyment.