Chapter Text
Melinda
Jemma is pleased to note that when she returns to the lab, Agent Hunt is not there. As she continues pretending to work on the cube, she is shocked to see Agent May enter the lab and she hurries to embrace her.
“May! Thank God you’re back. Everybody keeps leaving.”
When May gives no response to her quick hug, she looks at her with concern.
“They weren’t too harsh on that awful ship?”
“No, they were very fair. In fact, they gave me command of the base.” May replies.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that if our team makes contact, I answer the call. And it means we’ve got work to do. And I’m leaving you to get that box open. Alone.”
Jemma hesitates at this news. She doesn’t think that May knows about her altercation with Agent Hunt, but this is May, she’s talking about. It wouldn’t surprise her if she knew every relevant detail.
She nods at May, and May moves closer to Simmons and shows her a diagram on a tablet.
“Were you aware that you’ve been working on Deathlok technology?”
Jemma squinted at the screen. She recognized the diagram as one of Fitz’s designs.
“Oh no, you’re mistaken. That’s a design for a hybrid capacitor.”
May shook her head.
“No, it’s Deathlok’s supercharged battery pack.”
Simmons was shocked at this revelation. She and Fitz had been working on Deathlok??
“And that may not be the only thing he kept from us.”
Jemma struggled to process the news as May moved closer to her and lowered her voice.
“Did Coulson ever talk to you about a project named ‘Theta Protocol’?”
Jemma’s eyes widened.
“May, I have no idea what that is. Is that why they took Coulson down?”
May nodded her head.
Jemma stiffened her spine.
“Then what can I do?”
“We need to find out if they’re telling the truth. I’ve been through a lot with Coulson. He doesn’t go off the reservation without a good reason.”
Jemma had a sinking feeling that her faith in Coulson may have been misplaced. Was there no one she could trust?
“Simmons, I need you to get me into Fury’s toolbox.” May informed her, and Jemma swallowed. It was one thing to deceive Agent Weaver and Bobbi, they were on the other side. Well, at least they weren’t completely on their side.
But deceiving May? The Cavalry ?
She nodded mutely as May turned away.
Frenemy of My enemy
“They’re bringing in some state-of-the-art, next-gen fiber laser.” Simmons informed May as she stood in the door of the director’s office.
“That can cut through vibranium?” May asked as she perused a report.
“If anything can.” Jemma said.
“Good. It’s time we have it all out in the open.” May said with finality.
Simmons closed the door.
“It’s not exactly quite so simple.” she said haltingly as she tried to summon the courage to admit what she had done.
May prepares herself for bad news as she has a flashback to a flustered Simmons interrupting her T’ai Chi routine to inform her that she had shot someone at the Hub. She fixed the younger woman with the interrogating stare that she had learned from her own mother years before.
“Simmons, what did you do?” she asked in a stern tone. Somewhere in her past, Simmons must have had a very severe teacher who had instilled in her a deathly fear of disappointing authority figures, because her face fell and she confessed.
“I duplicated the box. Switched out Fury’s real box for a fake, and all this time I’ve been pretending to be working on it, when -”
“ Where is the real box now?” May demanded as she leaned forward, fearing the worst. If it was still on the base, it could be switched back out with no one the wiser. Hopefully, Simmons hadn’t done anything too foolish with it…
“Fitz has it.” she confessed, and May rolled her eyes in exasperation.
So much for keeping the situation manageable. For all their intelligence, the two scientists were like a couple of puppies; constantly underfoot at the most inconvenient times, and always sticking their noses into places that they didn’t belong. As she silently considered how she was going to clean up this mess, Simmons kept babbling, a sure sign of her nervousness.
“I didn’t know who else to turn to. You’re the only one I can trust here anymore.” Simmons said.
“I’ll handle it.” May informed her with an internal grimace. Despite herself, she had to admire the audacity required to pull off such a feat under the noses of their superiors. The two of them had seemingly been at odds ever since Simmons’ return from Hydra, but that hadn’t dulled their teamwork. The sheer effrontery of their plan was breathtaking, if not a scathing indictment of “real” SHIELD’s security protocols.
As Simmons left the office, May shook her head. The scientist was unburdened now, having confessed her duplicity to May and in the process dumping a huge problem in her lap, unerringly confident in the belief that she could fix it. May briefly wondered if her own mother had found her as equally exasperating when she had been a child.
She spun through the possible scenarios. Simmons wouldn’t like it, but Fitz was going to have to be offered up to the board as a sacrificial lamb. At least he had managed to link up with Coulson, and was beyond real SHIELD’s reach.
May was considering whether or not Simmons was too old to be sent to her room while the scientist sat petulantly staring at her monitor. She nearly rolled her eyes as the biochemist made it clear that it had been her idea, and not Fitz’s, as if she was afraid he would get credit for her work. She nearly scoffed at Simmons’ ego, but then the scientist's true motivations made themselves apparent when she stood and stepped towards her, accusing her of throwing Fitz to the wolves.
For all of her genius, Simmons couldn’t understand the intricacies of bureaucratic politics. She saw the world in black and white, whereas May lived in a world shaded by grays. As she set Simmons straight, May remembered the days when she herself held such a naive worldview and part of her wanted to protect Simmons’ innocence. But this was a dangerous game that she was playing, and she needed to be aware of the risks involved. Going undercover at Hydra had allowed Simmons to hold onto her good versus evil black and white morality, but when it came to fighting with your own people, things got hazy.
When May finished, Simmons sat back on her heels and replied that the only thing she was concerned about was protecting Skye, May had to suppress a grimace. If only things were that simple …
The Dirty Half Dozen
Simmons sat vibrating with energy as Mack and Bobbi reported that Coulson had surrendered himself and his team to them to be returned to base. Fitz was coming back. She hadn’t thought about the note she had written to him on the sandwich she had packed for him, but now she was starting to wonder what he had thought when he saw it.
Had he taken it as an expression of friendship? Or had he read more into it? She honestly couldn’t explain what had possessed her to add the “love” before her name. In all the years they had known each other, the word love had never been part of their lexicon. Even at the bottom of the ocean, he hadn’t actually said it. But now she had taken that step, and she still wasn’t sure what she had meant by it.
She was dragged back to the present moment when May entered the lab and approached her.
“The Bus is nearing. They’ll be landing soon. Do you want to come greet them?” she asked her.
“No thank you.” Jemma replied. “I don’t think I can stand the sight of Ward on this base again.” she said with a barely suppressed shiver. “I can’t imagine what Coulson is thinking, bringing him back.”
“I’m sure he has very good reasons.” May responded. She observed Simmons carefully before speaking again.
“That’s not the only person he’s bringing back.” she stated.
“Oh?” Simmons said, feigning disinterest while at the same time tucking her hair behind her ear, one of the many tells that May could pick up on.
“Jemma.” May said softly, shocking the scientist with her gentle tone. “If there’s something that you want to tell Fitz, don’t wait any longer.”
Simmons’ mind went blank at that. What was happening? Was May giving her relationship advice? Why had every female on the base seemingly taken an interest in her … well, not quite love life, but the … murky swamp of emotions she felt for Fitz?
Jemma blushed deeply as she began stammering out protestations that she and Fitz were just friends, but May cut her off.
“The two of you have had a rough time this past year.” she said flatly. “Don’t pull away because things are difficult. That’s a mistake. And one that can’t easily be undone.”
Jemma peered at May, but the older woman’s face was impassive. She felt the question bubbling up, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to ask it. She thought it quite obvious that there was still something between May and Dr. Garner, but there was more to their story than she knew. Was she trying to save her from following the path that she had taken?
She shook herself from her thoughts, all too aware that May was studying her with a knowing look.
“I … uh … Fitz …” she was casting about, trying to figure out what to say. Her feelings towards Fitz had been all over the place, and being forced to watch him swoon over agent Hunt all over again had caused her to seriously question the notion that what she felt for Fitz was merely friendship.
“I don’t know.” she meekly admitted.
May nodded knowingly and left the lab without another word, leaving Jemma alone with her swirling emotions.
Yes, she was excited for Fitz to return, but that was because it would make things seem more normal, wasn’t it?
Oh, who did she think she was fooling? She was on the precipice of something with Fitz, even if she wasn’t quite sure of what it was. She still wasn’t sure of her feelings, or even of Fitz’s for that matter. It had been nearly a year since the pod, and she had never acknowledged what he had said to her. With everything that had happened since then, it was only logical that his feelings would have changed, wouldn’t they? It stood to reason; his distance ever since she had returned from Hydra, his deception with Skye over the changes to her DNA, his fraternizing with agent Hunt. Those were obvious signs that he no longer felt the same way, weren’t they?
But there was still the niggling little voice in the back of her head that reminded her that he had held her hand when real SHIELD had appeared.
Maybe …
Maybe he still felt something for her after all?
Maybe there was more to her feelings then she was letting herself acknowledge?
Maybe there was a chance that they might be something more?
Maybe there was …
She pursed her lips and began straightening up Fitz’s workstation for his return. When he was back they would talk at some point, and then they would see.