Who: Leo Fitz and Daisy Johnson Where: The Lighthouse When: Tuesday, March 29, 2019 | Evening What: Jemma is gone, and it's a problem. Rating/Warnings: None Status: Complete
When Jemma hadn't made it for Alya's bedtime, Fitz had been concerned, but not alarmed. While she almost always was there, things in medical weren't always predictable, and she'd left the tucking in to Fitz a handful of times since he'd arrived in this world. The first time, it had made him feel good that she trusted him with it, and by the second he'd appreciated getting the solo bonding time with his daughter. But she always told him beforehand, and tonight there'd been no message. He'd (somehow) kept his cool while reading Alya no less than three stories—she'd been more temperamental than usual at bedtime, no doubt because of Jemma's absence—but as soon as the little girl had dropped off, he'd sent a message to every person in medical, and maybe a few more.
He'd thought for half a second that it was an overreaction, but then he'd gotten the response: Jemma wasn't there, and they didn't know where she was.
He'd started at her room, which felt like this weird forbidden land (that he'd only actually seen once), but nothing looked strange about it other than its owner's absence. He'd checked the labs and everywhere else he could think in the Lighthouse (Jemma's staff had promised to check the Facility and report back) before he ended up at Daisy's room. He knocked once, then again without much pause between. "Sk—Daisy? It's Fitz." If he looked distressed when the door opened, he didn't care. He was distressed. "Is Simmons here?"
*
Daisy had been in her room, looking over the network. Ever since she arrived she never really got to just sit back and read back through old messages. Did she need to? No, not really. But after having the Lighthouse disappear with everyone in it, she thought it might be a good idea to read back and see what other weird things had happened. Maybe there was a pattern. Maybe there was some other clue that people could have missed. Either way, she didn’t want anything else to happen to the people she cared about.
When the knock came, she looked up and over at it, about to ask who it was, but she got her answer before the question even left her lips. She set her phone down and opened the door. “Fitz, hey…” It didn’t take her long to see the look on his face. “No, she’s not. Why? What’s going on?”
*
Fitz blew out a heavy breath and turned away, both hands running through his hair as he paced a few steps. "She's missing." He hadn't wanted to use that word, because there was a certainty to it that he didn't want to feel. With everything that had been going on the last few weeks, it was impossible to avoid the sense of dread that was creeping up on him. So far all the things that had gone missing had turned up again, but considering they still didn't know the cause, there were no guarantees. What if this was the time things were different? "She didn't show up to—" Despite how much better he'd been doing lately, words failed him for a few seconds. A groan of frustration, and he started again. "No one in medical's seen her in the last few hours. She's not in her room, not answering my calls." He looked back at Daisy. "This was the last logical place I could think to look."
*
The moment Fitz said that she was missing, it felt like her stomach had dropped. Those were words she did not want to hear. Once was enough. Why must the disappearing act still continue? Then again maybe they were jumping to conclusions. “Maybe she’s somewhere else. Is there anywhere else she would go?” She was really hoping that Jemma was just somewhere else. Here. In this world. With no cell reception. Not gone-gone. Like last time.
*
"Nowhere that she wouldn't tell me first." Fitz was certain of that much. He couldn't say it was for his own sake, but she would never leave Alya without word if she had a choice. It was the choice part that was the problem. Considering what had happened with the Lighthouse only two weeks earlier, she could be gone and not even know it had happened, like he had been. "I hate magic and time travel and portals—" He groaned in frustration again, because there were really no words he could say to express the aching pit of his stomach. "I need—security. Maybe there's something on surveillance." He'd already started walking before he realized he couldn't actually leave and stopped again. "Alya. What am I going to tell her when she wakes up and asks for her mum?"
*
“We’ll figure it out,” Daisy calmly said, trying to get Fitz to follow suit. But that didn’t seem to be happening. Understandable, of course. But they couldn’t lose it if they wanted to figure out what was going on. “Hey, I agree with you in the hate here.” She totally was on the same page with Fitz right now since too many things and people keep disappearing and reappearing. It was annoying. “Oh, and we’re moving,” she said more to herself as she started to follow Fitz. “Right now, nothing. There is no point in making her worry. If she does ask for Jemma, say mommy is taking a nap or busy with work. Just don’t tell her she’s missing. Not yet. Not until we really know.”
*
"She's far too smart for that," Fitz said, the inevitable pride in his daughter's intellect tempered by the frustration that he'd have to tell her something. Jemma had managed it when trying to explain Fitz himself to her, so he knew it could be done, but he'd never had to do it before. They'd only just gotten past the talking puppy debacle. "We have our own cameras here, don't we?" It was something he hadn't actually explored at the Lighthouse. He'd been far too busy with the labs and the hangar and was content to leave that to the others. It wouldn't help if she'd disappeared from medical, but if she'd made it back into this building….
*
“True. She is a combination of the both of you. Well, when the time comes, you’ll just have to tell her and I can be there too when you do it. If you want.” If not, she’ll let Fitz do it alone. “Yeah, we do!” Why hadn’t she thought about that? Mostly because she thought Jemma hadn’t been at the Lighthouse. She was thinking that whatever was happening was probably back at the compound and not here. Duh.
She quickly moved past Fitz and towards the control room. “If she was here and something happened, it will for sure have been caught on camera.”
*
Fitz noted the location of the control room as they approached. He'd passed it a hundred times now, but he'd always been so focused on his destination he'd never really paid it much attention. He wondered how many other things around here he'd been training his brain to skip over. One more thing to add to the list of what he needed to work on. Those thoughts were enough to keep his panic at bay for a few more seconds and to allow him to focus on their mission.
He went immediately to the workstation, but the setup was unfamiliar enough that he slid out of the way to all Daisy to pull up the footage. "She'd have come back sometime after four." It wasn't always the same time, and he didn't always immediately see Jemma, wasn't sure whether she had today, but they needed a starting place. "Check between four and seven."
*
A small smirk crossed her lips when Fitz moved out of the way. She wasted no time in taking his seat. She started typing, adding in the information that Fitz was telling her. After a minute, she found the bit of footage that she was looking for. “Okay, got it. Let’s see if Jemma is here…”
At first, she didn’t see anything and then Jemma popped up, heading to Alya’s room. “There…she was here.”
*
Daisy's words echoed in Fitz's head as he watched Jemma's image walking down the hallway, his heart thumping painfully in his chest the whole time. At the time stamp indicated, he was still in the lab, so it made sense that he hadn't seen her there. Seeing her slip into Alya's room made perfect sense, too. Even still, he kept expecting to see someone jump out of the shadows and grab her, or something equally as terrifying.
He hit the button to speed up the video, only turning it back to normal speed when Alya's door opened once again. He had to switch to another camera to catch her at the other end of the hall, slipping into her own bedroom. Again, he sped up the feed. He stood with his arms crossed over his chest, chewing on his knuckle as he watched impatiently, eyes flicking periodically to the time stamp. Hours passed. And then Fitz walked up to the door and went inside.
"She never left the room." His voice was flat, shaky. "She's just...gone."
*
When Fitz pretty much took over the controls, Daisy leaned back in her chair and watched the video. Everything had seemed normal up until Jemma went to her room and then never came back out.
This wasn’t the outcome that she wanted. She had hoped that Jemma would just pop up again. But no matter how long either one of them stared at the monitors, Jemma wasn’t showing back up. “I’m sorry, Fitz.” She glanced up at him. “Maybe she’ll show up again.” The Lighthouse had shown back up with everyone inside. So, why couldn’t Jemma just show up once again? “What are you going to say to Alya?”
*
Fitz shook his head. His hands still lingered over the keyboard, as if he was only a couple of key presses from discovering something they'd missed. Except this evidence was as clear as it could be. Considering everything that had been happening, he couldn't even say it was surprising. But it wasn't acceptable. He shook his head again. "No."
He pushed fully upright, wobbling a little on his feet as the question sunk in. He'd been wondering the same thing only a few minutes ago, but it seemed far too real now. "That her mum is gone for a little while, but she's coming back. And I'm going to make sure of it." He'd been researching the portal some. He'd been researching magic some (in the form of Quentin's "broken" sense). And now he was going to put both of those together and figure out how to get his wife back, no matter what that took. "I'll be in the lab."
*
Was Daisy surprised by the things that Fitz was saying? Nope, not one bit. She just hoped that he didn’t do something too stupid to try and bring Jemma back. “If you need me, for anything, I’ll be here.” She’ll let him have his space and then check up on him later. Until then, she watched as he headed out.