Episode 6: FZZT Part Two

Sara stood in front of Fitz, letting him scan her with a device. Men in hazmat suits were walking around. Coulson, May, and Ward stood near Sara, waiting for their turn. "Clear," Fitz told his sister before moving on to Coulson. He got through the rest of the team before putting the tool away.
"All clean, no traces of electrostatic energy."

Skye looked at Simmons.
"What about the other firefighters?"
"They'll be quarantined and observed at S.H.I.E.L.D. biohazard facility," Simmons answered. Two men in hazmat suits walked out of the back room, holding a big metal box between them. The rest of the team all met up in the center of the firehouse.
"Um, anyone else notice they're putting the infected alien thing in our truck?" Skye asked.
"We're flying it to the Sandbox," Coulson told her.
"Sandbox?" "
It's a S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility across the Atlantic," Sara said. "They specialize in hazardous materials."

Coulson nodded, watching it get loaded. He glanced at Sara and Simmons.
"If what you suspect is true, that this is a virus, then those firefighters could be infected, and they're gonna need a cure. Find one."
"Yes, sir," Simmons nodded. She and Sara exchanged worried the bus, two men in hazmat suits carried the metal case into the holding cell. They set the cases on the table and walked out.

Once the Bus was in the air, Coulson entered the cockpit.
"What's our E.T.A.?"
"3:37 West Africa time." Coulson looked down at his watch.
"Gonna be a long 4 hours and 26 minutes."

Coulson went to walk out, but May stopped him.
"You okay?" she asked.
"Fine," he nodded. "I just want this alien thing off our plane as soon as humanly possible." May turned in her seat to look at him.
"You want to talk about your physical?"
"Nothing to tell," he shrugged. "My physical therapist requested it. He's updating his files or something."
"You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?" Coulson scoffed at her.
"Of course."

There was a beep and Simmons' voice came over the intercom.
"Sir, Sara and I think we've discovered something. Could you come down to the lab?"
"I'll be right there." He turned away again, but once more, May's voice stopped him.
"Phil. The fireman, you did everything you could do for him." He gave her a smile and nodded his head.

Staring at the monitor, Coulson studied red blood cells.
"So, what am I looking for, exactly."
"Wait for it," Sara yawned. Simmons had a large smile on her face as she fed a picture into the monitor. After a second, there was a blue electric spark between two of the cells. Simmons laughed just a bit.
"What was that?" Coulson asked.
"A groundbreaking discovery," Simmons answered. "I – we believe the firefighters initially contracted the virus when they cleaned the helmet, the friction activating some long-decaying Chitahuri organism –"
"Hang on. These cells are from the bodies of the firefighters?"

Simmons nodded, but not as excitedly as Simmons
"Brain cells, yes, the last vestiges of the infection. Some viruses "sleep" inside host cells for years before reproducing as they did inside the helmet – the initial source. But what those cells tell us is that we're dealing with a propagating virus, which means –"
"The virus can come from person to person," Coulson said.
"Exactly!" Simmons bubbled.
"It's quite interesting," Sara said. "How it spreads, I mean, not through the air or through direct fluid transfer but through electric static shock."

Coulson wasn't paying attention anymore, but noticed an object levitating behind the girls. His eyes traveled from the object to Simmons with worry. Sara caught his expression and saw the object from the corner of her eye. She cursed inwardly, but continued as to not worry Simmons.
"It's like nothing we've seen on Earth!" Simmons said. "I didn't think it was possible that a virus could alter its host's molecular density and polarity."

Simmons looked down, her eyes back on the microscope. Coulson slowly walked to the exit of the lab, while Sara took a deep shaky breath. He stopped at the door. "That explains the floating," Sara said.
Simmons nodded, "I can't wait to tell the virologists at the CDC and S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ see this." Simmons finally stopped talking and looked up to see Coulson no longer in front of her.

The smile dropped as she saw him standing in the doorway.
"Sir, is something wrong?"
"I'm so sorry, Jemma, Sara." He hit a button next to the door. An alarm sounded throughout the plane and the doors closed on a very confused looking Simmons. She turned around and saw the object floating in the air behind her. It sparked when she looked at it. After the spark, the object dropped to the ground with a clatter and she gasped.
"Oh, no."

Simmons sat on the floor with her back against the lab doors while Fitz sat on the cargo hold floor, mirroring her. Simmons was deep in thought and Fitz was running a buffering drill over a piece of equipment. Sara was sitting at her desk, rapidly flying through equations and ideas. She had music blaring in her ears to ignore everyone else.

Finishing his project, Fitz turned around and tapped on the glass to get Simmons' attention. She turned and looked at it, giving him a weak smile, which he returned. Both of them looked despondent and close to tears.

Coulson, May, Ward, and Skye were all circled up behind Fitz, discussing what was happening.
"Simmons thinks she contracted the virus approximately 36 hours ago," Coulson said. "When she received an electrostatic shock from the first victim."
"But Sara was clean," Ward reminded him. "Why is she still in there?"
"Sara isn't sure if she's even infected, they're taking precautions."
"How much time do they have?" Skye asked.
"Based on when the firemen were infected, how quickly their symptoms manifested… two hours at most."
"That's enough time, right?" Skye questioned.

May looked away, avoiding Skye's eyes.
"I mean, S.H.I.E.L.D. has dozens of labs and scientists working on this thing, don't they?"
"They do," Coulson nodded. He looked at May.
"How soon can you get us on the ground?"
"Three hours," May answered. Skye covered her mouth with shock. "Our path to the Sandbox has us right in the middle of the Atlantic."
"Sir, correct me if I'm wrong," Ward began. "But if we can't land in time…"
"Simmons will release a pulse that will blow this plane right out of the sky."

Skye shook her head wildly.
"We can't just sit here and watch them die! We have to do something!"
"There are only three people on this plane capable of finding a solution to this, and I'm willing to be on my life that they will." May followed his gaze to the lab, finding Sara crumpling up a piece of paper.
"They're just kids," she sighed.

Finishing up his project, Fitz put it into a box. He closed the lid and Simmons opened the lid on her side.
"How's Sara?"
"She's not infected. We retested three times," Simmons answered. "She could leave, but she's refusing." She spoke quietly enough that only Fitz heard her. He went to open his mouth, but she shook her head. "Don't." He blew out a tense breath but nodded to his project.
"I believe we have a winner. Fast and efficient, the perfect delivery mechanism."

Simmons picked up the machine, and hurried over the lab table. Fitz knocked on the glass for her attention.
"Uh, hey, um, not that it was easy to find a mineralized solution that could suspend the vaccine and conduct electricity." He was trying to impress her, and she gave him a small smile as a reward.
"I wish you wouldn't use the word "vaccine". It's really more of an antiserum."

Putting something in the device, she turned to a white rat inside a cage. Sara took out her earphones, watching closely.
"Okay, so… These antibodies should be able to target the virus' antigens, if this bloody alien virus even has antigens." She picked up the rat and zapped it with the device. The rat squealed and put it back inside the cage. "Come on, now. Come on."

Simmons looked down into the cage and Sara flinched at the zap of electricity and they saw a blue glow. Simmons' eyes filled up with tears as the rat floated up dead into the air beside their first attempt.

Fitz' face filled with worry.
"Well, that wasn't very cooperative of him now, was it?" Sara asked lightly. Simmons gave her a teeny tiny smile. Simmons took a deep breath to steady herself and keep her tears at bay as Fitz' face showed just how worried he was.

Up in the planning room, Ward watched the feed from the lab with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were glued on Sara.
"Why aren't you down there?" Skye asked from the doorway. He glanced over at her then back at the screen.
"They don't need an audience," he answered.

After an awkward beat, Skye started to walk away.
"You can stay…" Ward said. She turned and looked at him. "If you want." She fully entered the room and stood next to Ward, watching the feed.
"I hate this. I just feel so –"
"Helpless," Ward finished. "Yeah." He grunted in agreement. "I wanted it to be some person, some superpowered psychopath. Someone I could hurt, someone I could… punish." His jaw was tight, and he stood up straighter with anger. "That, I could do. What I can't do is protect you guys from stuff that I can't even see or understand."

Skye looked at the ground for a moment before looking up at him.
"So, what do we do?" Ward took a deep breath.
"We wait… and get ready."
"Ready for what?" Skye questioned.
"For whatever it is we're called upon to do." Skye nodded her understanding.

Coulson stood in his office, speaking to a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent on his screen.
"Coulson, nice to see you're not dead," said Agent Blake.
"Did you get our analysis of the virus?" Coulson asked.
"We did," Blake nodded. "And S.H.I.E.L.D. has no record of anything like it. No one does. So it's imperative it reach the Sandbox without incident. In case of a pandemic we're going to need it."
"I'm aware of that, but I don't need more orders of ultimatums. I need answers."
"I wish I had some for you. I'm sorry Coulson, I've been ordered to inform you that if you have infected cargo, you need to dump it."

He didn't have the strength to look Coulson in his eyes when he said that. Coulson's faced turned hard.
"Do you copy me, Coulson?" Coulson turned and hit buttons on his tablet. "These orders are coming from up top…"
"I'm sorry, bad connection. Didn't get that last part." Coulson hit one last button on his tablet and the screen showed static then cut out.

While he was cutting off the screen, May had entered the room. He looked over at her and she tilted her head to him.
"Don't even think it," Coulson snapped.
"I don't have too, that's your job," May told him quietly.

Sara was working at her desk and turned around to help Simmons with something. She startled at the sound of an object falling to the ground. She sighed deeply, rubbing at her temples.
"It's all right," Fitz told his sister. "Everything's gonna be fine."
"Please stop saying that," she snapped at him. "I see you looking at your watch."

Feeling scolded, Fitz lowered his arm.
"Are you sure you don't need my help just to –" He stopped talking when Simmons threw him a quick glance.
"Are you sure this thing even works?" She picked up the device he mad and showed it to him. His face turned hurt by her question.
"Yeah, well, you know it does. My device isn't the issue, it's the vaccine."
"Antiserum!" Simmons corrected angrily. "And all I'm wondering if whether you calibrated it correctly."

Insulted, Fitz glared at her.
"Hey, it's not my device. Hey, don't put this on me! I was doing just fine tucked away in a safe, indoor, non-mobile lab at the academy!" She gave him a humorless smile. "Then you had to go and drag us into this flying circus!" He took a deep, panting breath. "Didn't even pass our field assessments, for God's sake!"

Simmons rolled her eyes and Sara collapsed in her chair, rubbing at her forehead again.
"Oh, please, as if I forced you to follow me anywhere."
"You said, and I quote…" Fitz adapted a high pitched tone. ""Oh, Fitz, it's the most perfect opportunity for us to see the world! We'd be fools to pass this one up!""
"I hate it when you use that voice," Simmons groaned. "That's not even how I sound!"

She stormed towards the door in anger.
"And you were just afraid of going into the field."
"I was not afraid," he scoffed. "And don't you dare act like these last month's haven't been the highlight of your entire pasty life!"
"Pasty? Oh, really?" Sara sighed, sick of their bickering. "Well, when did you become so sun kissed?" Simmons scoffed at him. "Because" he continued. "I'm pretty sure that every minute of every day you've been stuck in a lab right beside me. At the academy, at sci-ops, this plane, you've been beside me the whole damn time!"

That hit both of them and they became teary. Simmons turned away and went back to her lab table. Neither of them knew what to say. They were silent for a long time, something Sara was thankful for.
"You have to fix this," Fitz said quietly. Simmons dropped her shoulders in defeat.
"I don't know how, Fitz. The antibodies from the three firefighters aren't strong enough to fight this virus. It's born from alien DNA. There's no one… to create the antiserum from because no one's actually survived this except…"
"The Chitahuri!" Sara said, sitting up straighter.

Fitz' head started bobbing.
"The Chitahuri. Well, the minky bastard who actually wore the helmet had the virus."
"Yeah," Simmons agreed. "And managed to survive without ever emitting an electrostatic pulse because..."
"It was immune," Sara breathed out. "Yes!"

Simmons grew excited at the thought and walked closer to Fitz and Sara.
"She… she was just the carrier, like Typhoid Mary."
"Uh, "she"?" Sara asked, rolling her eyes.
"Never mind, doesn't matter," Fitz said.
"So if, we scrape some epithelial cells from inside the helmet, we can create a vaccine?"
"Yes!" Fitz ran off, but Simmons remained at the door to point out one last thing.
"Antiserum!" she corrected. "But yes!"

Fitz opened the door to the holding cell where the helmet was being stored. He picked the box up and hurried through the plane, passing by Skye and Coulson.
"Isn't that…" Skye began.
"Fitz!" Coulson shouted.

They hurried after him and he arrived at the door to the lab. He broke the seal and entered the room. Simmons and Sara looked up at him, Simmons wearing a look of shock.
"No! You can't be in here?" The door sealed behind Fitz.
"Too late. It's done. Just try and do your best to keep your hand off me, yeah?"

Fitz set the box down on the table as Skye and Coulson walked down the spiral staircase and looked into the lab.
"Fitz, I don't know what you think you're doing, but –"
"He's doing what we always do," Sara shushed Simmons. "We're gonna fix this, together." Simmons had a small smile and tears in her eyes by his gesture and belief.

Setting the helmet on the lab table, Fitz scrapped some stuff out of the inside. May and Ward walked down the stairs to see what was going on. Fitz ran the swab onto a culture disc Sara was holding. As the three of them worked, the others watched nervously from outside the lab.

Sara looked out the doors and sighed when she saw the others pacing anxiously. She caught Ward's eye and they had a silent conversation. The breath he was holding released, only noticeable to May, who quickly caught Sara's eyes. She let out a silent breath of relief.

Turning away from them, Sara watched as Simmons opened a machine and the vial of antiserum floated up in the air. Simmons went to grab it, but an arc of electricity raced through it and it dropped into Fitz' waiting hand.
"Third times the charm." He loaded it into his device.

Simmons reached for the device, but Fitz stopped her.
"May I do the honors?" She nodded and he gave her a smile. Walking over to the last rat, he zapped it with the device. Everyone outside the lab stepped up closer to the doors to watch. It squealed and Fitz returned it to its cage.
"I can't breathe," Skye whispered.

Fitz-Simmons and Sara watched for a tense moment and nothing happened. Simmons smiled.
"We did it." Fitz looked at her with a smile when suddenly there was a zapping sound and a blue light from the cage. Fitz quickly looked at the rat and it floated into the air. Everyone's faces fell.
"No," Fitz moaned. Sara collapsed in her seat, staring at the rat with a blank expression.

Looking at the ground, Simmons slowly walked closer to the door where Coulson was waiting. When she reached the door, she looked up at him, trying to give him a smile.
"Sir, I know the protocol in these circumstances, but could you please tell my Dad first?" Her eyes began to fill with tears and her voice broke. "I just think my mum will take it better if it comes from him."
"We're not there yet, there's still time," Coulson tried.
"Sir, please?" He nodded.

Turning away from him, she looked at the others. A tear ran down her cheek.
"Would you mind if I had a brief moment alone with Fitz and Sara?" Ward glanced at Sara and she nodded at him. He forced himself to move away from the door and May pulled Skye along.
"Come on, let's go," she said.

Simmons wiped away her tears and turned back to Fitz. He was fiddling with the device and didn't look at her.
"We'll try again. The electrostatic pulse from the third rat seemed much less, so we're making progress. If we can calibrate the antiserum…" While he spoke, Simmons picked something up, smiling with tears in her eyes.
"Antiserum, yes. You finally got it right, Fitz." Her face crumpled in sadness as another tear went down her cheek. "I'm so sorry."

Sara barely had a moment to process the small fire extinguisher in Simmons hand before she used the base of it to hit Fitz in the back of his head. He fell heavily to the floor, not knocked out, but knocked for a loop.
"What did you do!" Sara asked angrily.

As gently as she could, Sara wrestled the fire extinguisher from Simmons' hands.
"Don't stop me! I don't care what you do. But I won't be the reason this plane goes down. Don't stop me!" Simmons begged, heading for the doors.
"What are you doing?" Sara asked as they opened, being careful as to not upset her friend. Simmons stepped outside and locked the door.
"I'm so sorry," she said again, lowering the ramp.
"No!" Sara yelled, banging on the glass, trying to get the door unlocked. The thing beeped and she cursed under her breath. Fitz had changed the passcode again.

In the planning room, Coulson looked lost in his own thoughts. May walked up to him.
"Agent Blake is on the line," she told him. "He wants to know what's going on. If you won't answer, he asked for Ward." Ward looked at Coulson.
"Sir… what are our orders?" he asked, swallowing harshly.
"They're unchanged."

An alarm sounded out through the plane.
"What is that?" Skye asked. May hurried over to the tabletop monitor and started hitting buttons.
"Someone's lowering the cargo-hold ramp." Ward's eyes went big, realizing what was happening and he hurried off.

In the lab, Fitz tried to get to his feet again. He groaned, holding his neck.
"Bloody hell," he groaned. He used the table as leverage to get up. When he did, he saw that the third rat, the one thought dead, was actually alive and sniffing around. "Hey. It worked. The pulse just knocked the rat unconscious…" He looked around his eyes locked onto Simmons. "Jemma?"

He walked to the closed glass door where Sara was still trying to get it open.
"Jemma!" he yelled. He saw the lowered ramp and Simmons stood on the edge, wind blowing in her hair as Fitz tried to get the door open. "Jemma! It worked!" She could barely hear him as she turned. "Please don't!" he screamed. "Jemma! Jemma, don't!"

Frantically, he tried to get the door open to get to her. She gave him and Sara one last sad smile before she fell backwards and out of the plane.
"Jemma!" he shouted. "Jemma!" He looked down at Sara, eyes wild. "Get the serum!" he yelled at her. She hurried over the machine and worked frantically. She put the vial into the device and hurried back to him as he got the door opened.

Fitz took it from her and grabbed a parachute off the wall, hurrying to put it on. Feet landed hard on the floor and Sara stumbled back as Ward appeared in front of her. Fitz held up the device, showing Ward.
"The anti-serum worked, but she jumped. Ward quickly took the parachute pack and device from Fitz.

With the pack slung over one shoulder, Ward jumped out of the plane. He quickly put the pack on and steadied himself in the air, looking for Simmons. He spotted her falling and streamlined his body to dive faster towards her. Ward got in close to her and spread out his body, trying to slow his decent. He grabbed hold of her, shocking her in the thigh with the device. He pulled his chute and held onto her. While they floated down to the ocean, a blue pulse emitted from Simmons.

Inside Coulson's office, Simmons and Ward both stood in front of his desk. They both looked contrite, as if being lectured by a parent.
"Don't get me wrong!" he snapped. "I'm happy you are both alive, truly. And I realize you were trying to save the team But what you did today, that was not your call." The smile on Simmons' face disappeared. "Just getting you out of the water. Do you have any idea what lengths Sara and I had to go through while dealing with the Moroccan office? Don't you ever pull a stunt like that again!"

Simmons' face was filled with apology and he softened his voice.
"We'd hate to lose you, Jemma."
"Thank you, sir," Simmons said. Coulson unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat. Ward started out of his office. "Oh… does that mean we're to leave now?" Coulson just stared at her. She waited a beat and then walked out with Ward.

The two of them walked down a staircase.
"So, what did you think of your first time skydiving?" Ward asked.
Simmons sighed, "Honestly, I'd rather not think about it anymore."
"I thought what you did was incredibly brave," he told her.

She stopped waling to stare at him with surprise. He stopped to continue talking with her. She made a face at his words.
"Oh. Well, I-I suppose now's a good time as any to tell you that, um, I may have misled you earlier." She gave him an apologetic smile. He seemed to know what she was talking about as he smiled a bit and closed his eyes. He crossed his arms, preparing for what she was going to say. "You see, when I gave you back the night-night pistol, well, I lied. It's still an ounce off."

Ward smiled a bit.
"I know."
"You do?" Simmons asked.
"Of course. After all…" He scrunched up his face, putting his hands on her hips, deepening his voice.
"I'm Agent Grant Ward. I just jumped out of a plane without a parachute on and saved your life!" Simmons began to laugh as Sara rolled her eyes, joining them.
"That's not quite right, Ward. It's a bit more nasally than that." Ward laughed, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend.

Skye poked out from around a corner behind Ward and Sara.
"Oh, hello, Skye," Simmons said. With tears in her eyes, Skye walked quickly to Simmons and gave her a big hug. "Ohhhh!" Simmons smiled as two of them hugged.

Pulling Sara into their bunk, Ward crashed his lips on hers the moment the door was shut. She squeaked quietly before responding. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. "You scared me," he murmured, pulling away slightly. She didn't have time to reply before he was kissing her again.

Coulson sat in his office, reading over a file. May entered and stood in the doorway.
"How was Simmons?" she asked. He closed the file and looked at her.
"Amazingly resilient. You'd never know she almost died."
"Experience like that, it takes a while to sink in." She looked at the file he just set down. "That her medical report?"

Looking at the folder for a moment, he looked back up at her.
"Mine actually. Blood work finally came back. I'm perfectly normal, little heavy on the iron. But don't worry, you don't have to start calling me "Iron Man"." May smirked, "Wasn't planning on it."
He took a deep breath, "My doctors never requested any tests. I ordered them for myself, but you know that."

May said nothing, but nodded. He pointed down to the folder.
"This piece of paper is telling me that everything's fine, but… I don't feel fine. I feel different." There was a long moment of silence between them.
"Take off your shirt," May said suddenly.

Coulson's eyes turned shocked. He wasn't expecting his request.
"Excuse me?" may walked deeper into the office.
"Your shirt, unbutton it." His hands went to his suit, first undoing his jacket then a few buttons on his shirt at his chest.

Walking closer, May stood right in front of him, opening the shirt across the scar on his chest from when he died. She looked at it then up to him with kind eyes. "Whether it was 8 seconds, or 40, you died. There's no way you can go through a trauma like that and not come out of it changed. You know how long it's taken me to –"
"I know."
"The point of these things –" She looked down at the scar. "Is to remind us that…" She looked back up at him. "There is no going back. There's only moving forward. May gave him a smile. "You feel different… because you are different."

Fitz-Simmons sat in Fitz' bunk. Fitz had his pillow in his lap that he was hugging tightly.
"I was going to do it," he said.
"I know you were," Simmons nodded.
"I had the antiserum, the chute, everything. I just couldn't get the straps on."
"Fitz, please…"
"And you know, maybe I couldn't have done the whole "James Bond in Midair" type thing."
"Fitz shut up! Please, just… Ward did an amazing thing, yes, but it wasn't Ward on my side in that lab searching for a cure. It wasn't Ward by my side in that lab searching for a cure. It wasn't Ward giving me hope when I had none. It was you. You're the hero."

He looked up at her and they smiled.
"Yeah?" Fitz asked. She nodded, still smiling.
"Yeah. Thank you." He nodded with a happy smile. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She walked out of his bunk and his pleased smile slipped a bit. He hugged his pillow tighter.

THE SANDBOX; LOCATION: CLASSIFIED

Coulson stood in the cargo hold as the Agent Blake walked onto the plane with a couple of soldiers.
"Blake."
"Coulson." Blake nodded to the box and the two soldiers picked it up and took it off the plane. He turned back to Coulson, starting to shake his head.
"That's the best you could come up with, "we've got a bad connection"?"
"I was pressed for time," he shrugged.
"It's a bold move," Blake corrected. "You know your chat wasn't exactly private."
"They never are," Coulson said.

Blake took a deep breath, crossing his arms.
"I don't know what happened to you in New York, if you really flatlined or if that's just what they tell us when we reach level seven, but whatever did happen doesn't give you license to disobey a direct order from HQ. You keep pulling stunts like that, someone might decide to take this little dream team away from you."
"I'd like to see them try," Coulson smirked.
"That doesn't sound like the Phil Coulson I used to now."
"No, I suppose it doesn't. Get used to it." Blake nodded a couple times then started down the cargo ramp. He eyed Lola for a moment as he passed.