"Please!? This might be the key to understanding how to help new Inhumans get a handle on their powers." Pleaded Jemma to Lincoln's cynical face.

Daisy crossed her arms and pursed her lips. "I told you." She said to Jemma before turning back to Lincoln. "Listen, they're just trying to help."

"I've had other people try to 'help'. It usually means they want to know how they can use our abilities. You said yourself that we were first created as weapons. We were created by beings that wanted to use us. And they probably told the people back then that they just wanted to 'help'." Lincoln did not take his eyes off Jemma, who tried to make her face as innocent as possible.

"Lincoln, they're not trying to weaponize us. And they're not trying to take away our abilities either. You know we're out of our depth with all these new recruits. How are we supposed to help them if we don't even fully understand it?" Daisy reasoned.

"For now maybe. But who are we actually working for anyway? Coulson? The United States government? How long before somebody powerful sees our 'potential'? They are either going to want to use us or put us down. And this is how it starts."

Jemma had no interest in getting in the middle of this particular fight, especially when she could tell by the look on Daisy's face that it had been ongoing for some time now. But she had a goal, so she decided to take a new angle. "You're right Lincoln." She declared. Both Lincoln and Daisy gave her a funny look.

Daisy was the first to break the ensuing silence. "Um, Jemma? You're not exactly helping your cause here."

"No, but he's right. It would be foolish to deny it. It is entirely possible that someday Fitz and I will be tasked with finding ways to exterminate your people. Or ways to make you their private army. Or they may want to use the research we are conducting right now to help them with that. But Lincoln, you should know that I consider us friends. And Daisy is one of my best friends. You have my word that should that day ever come I will be proud to stand, even fight, on your side. And to prove it, I think you should work in the lab with us, when you're not needed on your missions that is."

Lincoln and Daisy both stood agape. He was clearly not expecting that proposition. "I'm not a…" Jemma watched him search for the word that would describe why he didn't fit in with the agents in the lab. "…genius." He finally finished.

"Perhaps, but you are a doctor. That should qualify you plenty for this project, and any others relating to Inhumans and their powers."

"But…" Lincoln moved to protest again, but Jemma intercepted him. "Just let us show you around the lab, and show you what we've got so far. We'll show you where we are going with this, and if you aren't comfortable with it… well, I guess we'll change it." She vowed, although making that promise made her nervous. She wasn't entirely sure she could make that call.

The important thing was, though, that it worked. "Okay, fine. I'll come with you. But I won't promise anything. I'm not going to let you run any tests until I know what happens to the research you do, and talk to Fitz." His demeanor was still defensive, but ultimately she'd won.

"Excellent!" Jemma beamed and motioned toward the lab. "Let's get started then!" She moved purposefully to lead the way, ignoring Daisy's obvious bafflement at what had just transpired in front of her.

"Fitz! We have guests!" She called as she marched into the lab with Lincoln and Daisy in tow. She hardly needed to announce their presence, however, since Fitz was already walking towards the door when she came in.

Fitz nodded a greeting to Daisy, and held out his hand to Lincoln. "So, she managed to talk you into it, huh?"

"I haven't decided yet." Lincoln replied, shaking Fitz' hand professionally. "But being allowed to monitor the project personally might make me more comfortable with the whole thing."

Fitz didn't look at all surprised. "Sure. Glad to hear you're keeping an open mind."

"I promised Dr. Campbell here that we would show him around, and then he we could discuss how we're going about this mission and hear his concerns." Jemma explained, suddenly getting nervous that she'd not asked him before making that offer. "I hope that's alright."

"No, yeah. Always good to have another voice on board." Fitz replied to Jemma's relief. There was still a chance she'd hear about it later, but Fitz' voice carried none of the off put tone Jemma'd grown adept at identifying over the decade they'd worked together, so that was a good sign.

"I'll try not to get in the way if I do end up sticking around. I don't know how much I'll be able to help, but I appreciate the opportunity."

Fitz looked around awkwardly, unsure how to proceed. "I suppose we should start here. This is the Medbay, in case you're wondering."

Lincoln chuckled. "Yeah, I've been around this part a few times. Wouldn't mind getting a look at the other side of the curtain though."

"Yeah, right of course. Um… I can show you the engineering lab and then the bio and chem labs. That's probably more up you're alley."

"At the chem lab we can show you the progress we've made with the samples. You can see the results from the mass spectrometer and we can explain our thoughts behind the EEG." Jemma offered.

"Not that that doesn't sound FASCINATING," Daisy jumped in, "but I've got mission to prep for… so how about I just let you do your thing and come back…"

Jemma wasn't about to let her put this off again, even if she was already backing away towards the door. So she grabbed Daisy's arm and said to the boys, "Fitz, how about you show Lincoln around while I get Daisy's EEG done so she can get started on her mission prep?" Fitz and Lincoln both agreed, so she continued, "And I don't think I need to remind you, Fitz, that we need Dr. Campbell to feel comfortable so that he will help us?"

Fitz grinned at Lincoln. "Leave that to me."

Jemma pulled a grudging Daisy out of the lab toward the EEG room. Once they were out of earshot from Fitz and Lincoln, Daisy clarified, "So… let me get this straight… you just recruited a member of MY team for your lab while I was standing right there?" She was clearly still dumbfounded by Jemma's technique.

Jemma smiled. "Hardly!" She said, "I just thought it would make him more likely to cooperate."

"I think I'm starting to get the rivalry between SciTech and Operations."

"In fairness, I think that had more to do with funding." Remembering the somewhat good natured competition between the two academies made Jemma smile. "The most successful school got the most funding. And there might have been some competitive recruiting as a result." She acknowledged.

"Sure. Well, when Lincoln starts spending all his time in the SciOps wing I'm going to blame you."

This made Jemma laugh. "I'm sorry. I should have asked you first. Actually, I hadn't given it any thought at all, it was rather spur of the moment. Have I mentioned this is a very important project?"

"Yeah, you don't seem to stop." Daisy flopped into the reclining chair Jemma motioned to.

"Few things I need to ask you," Jemma began as she carefully attached each electrode to Daisy's scalp, "First, have you taken any drugs or medications in the last 12 hours, including NSAID pain relievers or caffeine?"

"No."

"Are you fasting?"

"No, I ate breakfast. Was I supposed to be?"

"No, it's a good thing you've had breakfast. And there are no styling products in your hair, right?"

Daisy rolled her eyes. "Yes, I followed your instructions, no conditioner even."

"Excellent!" Jemma finished setting up the machine. "The rest should be very easy. Are you comfortable?"

"As comfortable as I can be with wires coming out of my head."

"Good. If you'll kindly close your eyes, I'm going to need you to be as still as possible. I'm going to be sitting on the other side of that window so that I don't cause distraction."

"Um, doc? What if I fall asleep?"

"That won't be a problem. You can if you want. If you do I may wake you up toward the end to have you do some breathing exercises."

Jemma turned on the EEG and watched the progress for a moment to ensure it was running smoothly. Then she quietly exited the room and seated herself in the observation room.

A little under 2 hours later, the test was complete. She had to awaken the dozing Daisy, asking "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Yeah, I think I could use a nap more often. Wanna convince Mack & Coulson this is a mandatory daily test? I'd settle for weekly. But maybe we could skip all these electrodes and this… ew… gel."

Jemma smiled. "Sadly I don't think even I could get them to buy that. You could always get kidnapped to another planet for 6 months though. People don't usually complain when you take a nap break after that."

Daisy gave Jemma an apologetic smile, to which Jemma gave one to let Daisy know it was okay. That was one of the most persistent symptoms, she found: exhaustion. For being back on a planet with lower gravity, it might as well have been twice as severe. The first few weeks had been really rough, and even now cloudy days made it especially difficult to function. But luckily for her, everyone had been extremely understanding when she needed to pass out for an hour or so in the afternoon. She suspected Fitz had a lot to do with that, but they never talked about it. She was also trying to get on a regular sleeping schedule, a more difficult task than she anticipated.

Having finished removing the multitude of wires from Daisy's scalp she informed her she was free to go.

"Okay, thanks. I'll see you around. And if you see Lincoln again, tell him he's late for the mission." Daisy joked on her way out.

Jemma made sure to reset the machine and sterilize the area before she headed to her work station to get a preliminary look at the results. She wanted to have a little more information for Lincoln before she saw him again, just in case he needed more convincing.

"Agent Simmons! Did the EEG work alright?" Asked a passing lab tech.

"Um, yes Agent Jones. It seemed to work just fine. Was it acting up yesterday?" Jemma suddenly became worried. If something was wrong with the machine, all their tests so far could be meaningless.

"No! It's just that Agent Fitz asked me to play with sensors, make them more sensitive to the lower frequencies. I just wanted to make sure I'd done it right."

"Oh! Yes, as far as I can tell the machine is operating perfectly! I'm sorry, Agent Fitz left me with the impression he'd made the adjustments himself."

"Figures!" Jones huffed, clearly indignant. "I slave over that thing for 3 hours just so he can take credit..." the grumbling continued as the agent hoisted the load he had been carrying back into his arms.

"A miscommunication I'm sure!" Jemma quickly tried to reassure the young man. "And it was a job well done, too, since I didn't even know Fitz hadn't been the one working on it."

Jones simply grunted once more as he walked away, not fully appeased. Jemma felt bad for the man. And a bit concerned, since it wasn't like Fitz to take credit for another's work. She'd have to ask him about that later.

For now, though, she glanced over Daisy's marks. To her elation she noticed a unique pattern in the same ranges that were most unusual in Joey's results. She rushed to the chem lab straightaway to share her discovery, but to her disappointment found Lincoln and Fitz to be absent. She quickly ducked into the MedBay area, Bio lab, and even the engineering lab, inquiring along the way if anyone had seen the two. Finally, one of the techs was able to tell her she was under the impression they were on their way to the EEG room.

Sure enough, that's where she found them. She burst in, panting slightly- she reminded herself she'd not been making time for physical fitness since her return, and needed to begin a regime again if she was going to start training with Bobbi.

"Hi Agent Simmons." Lincoln greeted her first.

"Hello Lincoln. I didn't realize you'd gotten started already!" She said pointedly to Fitz.

"Yeah, well, after I showed him around a bit and showed him what we've got on the ISO-8 so far, he told me he wanted to do the test. Sorry I didn't find you first, didn't know where you'd gotten off to."

Jemma gave him an exasperated sigh, then asked Lincoln, who was sitting in the reclining chair getting his hair mussed quite ridiculously, "Did you have any concerns or questions?"

"Nope. I feel very confident in your hands." He gave her a small half smile which, to Jemma, made him look almost dazed.

"That's good to hear… Well, while Fitz gets you ready, I wanted to share what I saw on Daisy's results. I didn't look at it in depth, but I noticed an unusual pattern in the same ranges of frequencies that Joey demonstrated." Jemma waited for some sort of response from Lincoln, but he just kept looking at her, so she continued. "I suspect this is in response to the development of your powers, which your test results will either support… or disprove."

"Cool."

"Good!" The conversation had suddenly taken a turn for the awkward, so Jemma was relieved that Fitz was just about ready to turn on the machine. "Looks like Fitz is ready to begin, so I'll step out and let him get you started. And really, Lincoln, I can't thank you enough for agreeing to this."

"No problem."

With a final nod, Jemma stepped to the other side of the door and watched Fitz talk Lincoln through what they needed, as a doctor he didn't need much explanation on the procedures. She observed him cooperatively close his eyes and lean back, being very still. Fitz turned on the machine and shortly after stepped out the door after her, tablet in hand to monitor the progress.

They stood in silence for a minute watching Lincoln, and for some reason Jemma felt that to an observer they might look very much like parents watching to make sure their young child goes to sleep. The analogy sparked very uncomfortable plume of feelings for her, so she turned sharply away from the window and looked at Fitz instead. "Did you hear what I said in there Fitz?"

"That you looked at Daisy's results without me? Yeah." Fitz teased, still dutifully keeping his eyes trained on Lincoln to watch for movements that might affect the outcome of the test.

"I didn't look at it closely." She reiterated. "But isn't it exciting, Fitz? We could be seeing actual changes in the operating of the brain in response to the terragen evolution."

"Yeah. Very neat."

"We should definitely try to get them to agree to an MRI. Maybe we could make it standard intake procedure for inhuman team members."

"Good luck convincing everyone of that."

"I'll have you know I'm very persuasive. I got Lincoln here, didn't I?"

"Yeah, but I'm the one that got him to agree to the test if you'll recall." Fitz jabbed.

Jemma couldn't think of a good come back to that one, so changed the topic instead. "How do you think they became… you know?"

"Who?"

"Lincoln and Daisy, of course. She's rather dodgy about it."

Fitz was quiet for a minute. "She said she met him at Afterlife, right? She went there after she changed?"

"Uh-huh."

"That's a rough transition. You feel lost, like a freak. She's lucky she didn't have much change to her appearance. That makes it even worse. But even still, when you're making things happen and you don't know how, or how to stop it… when you're hurting the people you care about… Well, I can imagine if he were her guide, how easy it would be to fall for someone who knew what you were going through, had mastered it, and maybe made you feel like you could be… amazing."

Jemma stared at him in astonishment, her mouth hanging open slightly. "Her guide?!" She demanded incredulously.

Even in the dim light she saw Fitz' face get red. "Yeah. Ancient inhuman tradition. The elders assign you a guide, someone to work with you to discover and master your full potential. They usually choose someone whose powers operate in a similar way, they're usually the most helpful." Fitz explained, adding quickly, "Daisy explained this all to me after… while you were gone."

Jemma was shell-shocked by the revelation. "I didn't realize you and Daisy had gotten so close while I was away."

Fitz just shrugged, which sent a wave of jealousy over her. There was so much she'd missed while on that hell-hole of a planet. Every week it seemed she learned of something that had happened to one of her friends, or something about them that was now common knowledge amongst the team. Every time it made her feel like an outsider. It frustrated her because she should have been here. She should have found out with Fitz about Afterlife, been the listening ear for Daisy as she worked tirelessly to build the new team. And Fitz should definitely have gone on a date with her instead of spending the months losing himself to get her back.

But there was no time to wallow in that now. There was still plenty to do on their latest discovery. So she quashed her longing for what could have been and started towards the door. "Looks like you're doing alright here, so..."

"Yep."

"I'll be in the chem lab if you need me. Oh, and you might want to apologize to Agent Jones when you see him."

Fitz' head whipped towards her. "Why!?"

"He was under the impression you took credit for his work on the EEG machine. I thought you were the one who fixed the sensors." Fitz turned his eyes back to Lincoln, so Jemma took the opportunity to study Fitz' reaction carefully. "I assured him it was a miscommunication, but it may be better if you talk to him." Jemma didn't see much of a reaction to speak of, but her traitorous eyes still scanned his features greedily... dancing from his eyes so big and blue… to his lips so soft and relaxed…

"Hm. Yeah, I'll talk to him. Thanks Jem."

Realizing she no longer had any excuse to stare, she moved to slide past him, eyes stealing a last glance along the way, when they caught on something out of place and half hidden by his shirt collar. "FITZ! What happened!?" Without thinking she brought her hand to the back of his neck where the long scab ran vertically over the vertebrae to get a better look.

Just as soon as her hand brushed him though he ducked away and spun around, hiding the injury from her examination. He had a look of violation as he rubbed the spot with his own hand and Jemma immediately got the sense she'd done something wrong, had crossed one of their de facto boundries, and she backed away from him.

"I'm fine, Jemma, really. It's, erm, something that happened while I was working last night. You know me, always clumsy. But I already had it looked at and it really is fine." Fitz explained quickly, not looking her in the eye.

Jemma nodded and left quickly, not having the confidence to press further after it seemed she'd betrayed his trust just by initiating brief physical contact. She ruminated on the incident for the rest of the morning trying to figure out what had caused him to react so severely. They'd been maintaining a sizeable bubble of personal space since Fitz returned from the planet, she wasn't sure why, but he'd seemed to be in such a good mood lately, more at ease than she'd seen him in a long time. What was more, though she'd only gotten a glimpse of the cut, but there was no noticeable inflammation and she could have sworn it was in the proliferation stage of healing, which would indicate it was at least 3 days old. But she couldn't imagine why he would feel the need to be dishonest about it. Eventually she was forced to content herself to add that to the list of mysteries she hoped would be resolved once they had a good long conversation.