30 Days of Fitzsimmons- A NaNo Attempt

Prompt Six: Fitz gets sucked inside the Monolith instead of Jemma

Fitz had just asked Jemma out to dinner. He wasn’t sure but he could see the excitement boiling under her skin. She practically skipped out of the room the Monolith was to shower and get ready, leaving Fitz to complete the diagnostics on the mysterious rock. He was shutting down one of the machines when it slipped off the side of the table, and broke one of the clasps on the container. Before Fitz could close it up, the Monolith shook. It quickly liquefied, and in a moment Fitz was sliding across the floor, his body being enveloped by its mass. Soon there was darkness.

Fitz wasn’t sure if a moment had gone by or a hundred, but his body began to be jerked around until he realized he had been thrust into air. Denser air. His body immediately felt the change, and a sticky warmth that felt like a tropical climate in the winter. With his eyes still clenched shut he could feel the light around him change from pitch blackness to something a bit lighter. In an instant, his body landed on an unfamiliar terrain. Whatever was under him was powdery, but yet still dense. It knocked the wind right out of him, and he struggled to regain his breath, bot even sure he could.

And as the dust cloud cleared around him, Fitz opened his eyes.

The change in color was because he was surrounded by a shade of blue, so depressing, Fitz was sure he had died.

Fitz grunted, rolling to his side to cough. His back sore from the fall, but he could feel nothing broken or shifted. A good sign. And the fact that he could feel pain must mean that he was alive in some sense. Had he just been swallowed by the Monolith? Although it had just happened, Fitz was convinced it could have happened ages ago. Stumbling to his knees, his shortened breath began to return to him and he twisted around to get a more conclusive view of his new surroundings.

He couldn't imagine where he was. But his brain chipped away using the little evidence around him to make scientific deductions. The first thing he marked off the lift that he was definitely not on Earth any more. This barren wasteland was devoid of anything for miles. Just strange rock formations and hills. No trees, no flowers, and thankfully no strange creatures that were going to eat him. Just plains of absolutely nothing.

Fitz made it to his feet, still huffing a bit from the fall. He put his hands on his hips and crouched, sucking in the air. It wasn't just him, but the air here was denser. And luckily there was oxygen here.

"Well, this isn't good," Fitz lamented at his current predicament.

He debated on what he should do next, and began to fret knowing he probably wasn't going to get back to Earth, to Jemma, for their date. Oh, she will be mortified, he thought. He asked her out on this date and when she finds that he didn't show up, well, that would surely put a dent in any burgeoning relationship they had.

And what if he were to never see her again. What if he was going to die here? All these thoughts swarmed his mind. He could feel tightness close in on his chest again, a panic attack was making itself quite comfortable. He sucked in air in big gulps, like a fish freshly picked from the ocean. He had been doing so much better, but now, now he felt like all the recovering he had done in the past several months at reversed. He could feel his hands vibrate forcefully.

No, he wouldn't let it win. He wouldn't let what Grant Ward do to him take him out again. He had enough problems to worry about at the moment, and this shouldn't be one. He regained control of himself, closing his eyes to meditate and let his mind clear of constricting thoughts.

Now, as a scientist, how should he handle the following. He addressed the elephant in the room, now he knew what the Monolith was, a space portal. And, while it would probably be terrifying for him to meet some kind of alien life form, nothing around him gave him an ounce of comfort.

But could he survive here? He knew he wouldn't be getting back, if at all, anytime soon. There was nothing here and Jemma wouldn't know straight away what to do. She probably wouldn't know he was gone until later.

And then he thought about her. She had probably just taken her shower, and was coming to her room to change. Knowing Jemma, she probably picked out a slew of outfits, and weighed heavily the pros and cons of each of them. He remembered what it was like when she was packing her bags for a weekend trip to visit her parents. She made herself forty different outfit combinations and ended up bringing eight of them, for a two-night stay. That was Jemma though; she needed to thoroughly weigh every option to find the best one. She did it with outfits, she did it when they were trying to find a cure to the Chitauri virus, and she would do it now, hopefully, to help him get back. Because Fitz knew if it didn't happen soon, he would die out here.

Fitz was right about Jemma. She was getting ready for their date. They had picked a really nice restaurant. Fitz had known she wanted to go there for awhile, seeing how she longingly looked at it whenever they passed it by on their way to a mission or something. He brought it up, and Jemma had blushed. He knew her too well.

And just like Fitz also predicted, she had picked out several outfits ranging from dresses to cute skirts. But then she considered wearing pants and something a little more casual. This was tough. And then she would still have to do her hair and her make up. And how serious was this date going to be? She wanted it to be serious, but she knew Fitz might want to take it a bit slower. He looked a bit terrified when asking her, so she knew it took a lot out of him just to ask, He wouldn't want to rush things, right?

Jemma sought out Skye for help. She would have brought in Bobbi as well, but she couldn't leave the room, and was awaiting more surgeries.

Skye was still reeling from the events that transpired with her parents, so it would probably be very good for Jemma to grab her for something completely unrelated to work.

Jemma knocked on Skye's door and told her about the date. Sky leapt off the bed and, without another word, ran with Jemma back to her room to help pick out an outfit. They passed Coulson on the way, who also had been having a rough go of things with his missing hand among other things. He smiled at their happiness. It reminded him there could still be joy and things to look forward to even with all the bad that has happened.

Skye looked at everything before her. Jemma had far too many clothes. All of them were also so cute and adorable looking. There needed to be something in here that screamed sexy. To start, Skye began to put all the pants back in Jemma's closet.

"What are you doing, Skye?" Jemma asked, calling over the hum of her hair dryer. She was working on drying her hair in the mirror across the room. She could see Skye put the pants away.

"You're not wearing pants to this date, Jemma, let's be real for a moment," Skye called out.

Jemma paused from blow-drying her hair. She twisted around.

"And why not? Trousers are perfectly acceptable-," Jemma began lecturing.

"Not for this date, you're going to look so hot you will scare the heck out of poor Fitz. He'll have to pick his jaw off the floor, although he already practically does that every time you walk into the room," Skye laughed.

Jemma dropped her own jaw.
"Skye! That's uncalled for, he does not!" She countered.

"Oh yeah? He worships the ground you walk on," Skye added.

That was something Jemma had worried about, and why she had been so hesitant to explore her own feelings about Fitz for a long time. She didn't want to be put on a pedestal, and she knew Fitz was the most well-meaning person out there, but the glorification of her, terrified her. She couldn't and didn't want to live up to expectations.

Skye rolled her eyes. She knew Jemma over-analyzed everything. But she didn't know how much Jemma feared being held up to a standard, perhaps because Jemma set such high ones for herself, she didn't want to have to live up to anyone else's.

"Your clothes are adorable, but they aren't going to cut it for this date," Skye finally said, matter-of-factly.

"Oh, Skye, we're going out together, it's not exactly a date," Jemma feebly corrected.

"When you explained it to me, you explicitly said the word date. Stop kidding yourself, god! I'll be right back!" Skye shouted as she exited the room.

Jemma this time, rolled her eyes and continued drying her hair. Her hair didn't take long, and it was practically dry by the time Skye bounced back into Jemma's room. She had a single dress on a coat hangar.

"This, is what you will be wearing," Skye said, holding it up next to herself. Jemma shut the dryer and turned around.

A little black dress hung from the hangar. But it wasn't just any old plain looking little black dress. Its plunging front neckline had a mesh fabric that stretched across the crevice of the chest area. And when Skye flipped the dress over to show off the back, it was revealed to Jemma that her whole back would be exposed, and she was quite certain that it plunged so deep her bottom would probably be peeking out.

"Oh no, no, no, Skye, that it way too much, especially for me," Jemma protested.

"And where did you ever get a thing like that?" Jemma followed up, knowing Skye would probably not wear this either.

"Have you ever been in the undercover mission closet?" Skye asked. Jemma furrowed at Skye. That was under lock and key. Jemma scowled, knowing Skye didn’t get in there because she had free access to it.

"How'd you get in there?" Jemma asked.

"It's amazing what my powers can do sometimes," Skye stretched out her free hands fingers in front of her and laughed.

"Well, I'm not wearing that, that is just too much," Jemma said.

"You're trying it on right now, and I'll make the final judgment of that," Skye said, crawling over Jemma's bed in between them and shoving the dress into Jemma's hands. Jemma sighed; she knew she could only appease Skye.

Jemma put the dress on without looking the mirror, too afraid of what she would see. She was certain it wouldn't cover anything. And then she walked out from her closet, and showed Skye, prepared to hear her laugh or say something like her bottom was sticking out.

Instead, Skye mocked a wolf whistle and told Jemma to spin. Jemma hung her head, almost shamefully, and turned around dejectedly.

"This is smoking hot," Skye said, grabbing Jemma by the shoulders and planting her in front of the mirror. Jemma was at first too scared to look, whipping a hand to cover her eyes. But she caught the image of herself from the corner, and slowly peeked through her hands.

The dress wasn't as scintillating and scandalous as she had thought. Yes, it was a very sexy dress, but it was also very elegant.

"Just put on red lipstick and you will kill Fitz," Skye laughed, seeing Jemma's expression change from mortification to adoration.

"I do look damn good," Jemma finally burst out.

Jemma had now worked herself into a frenzy of excitement. Skye had been a great help, picking out the dress, and finishing off her make up. The two of them visited Bobbi, to show Jemma off. Bobbi, although in a great amount of pain, gloated over how lovely Jemma looked. It cheered Bobbi up. As Skye and Jemma left, Hunter was just walking in Bobbi's room.

"Wow, Jemma, poor Fitz will have to gouge out his eyes after seeing you," he remarked, and Jemma knew his backwards humor very well. It was the highest form of compliment.

"Have you seen him?" Jemma asked, hoping that he could tell her what he was wearing, because if he was underdressed she would definitely changed.

"Nope! I haven't seen him since this afternoon. He's probably getting dolled up in his room though, door has been closed all day. Maybe he'll come out wearing the same thing and one of you will have to change," he joked.

Both Skye and Jemma rolled their eyes. Hunter was too much at times. Jemma bid Hunter a good night, and Skye walked with Jemma to Fitz' room.

"Wait, I should knock on the door, and then video him and you come around the corner looking like a bad ass. We have to get his reaction on this," Skye had said, stopping Jemma in the hallway just before his door.

"You're going to scare the daylights out of the poor man," Jemma countered, she was now wearing a grin so wide her cheeks were beginning to become sore.

"You're right, I'll let you two, enjoy this moment," Skye said, hugging Jemma before walking off.

"Have fun you two!" She called after winking and making a crude gesture. Jemma feigned a surprised look but, if Hunter was the cheeky guy of the bunch, Skye was certainly that of the women at the base.

Jemma approached Fitz' door, nervously. They had agreed to meet by the exit of the base, but Jemma didn't want any one else to be around, so it made sense for her to scoop him up. She had the feeling Fitz would have everything planned out like a gentleman, but she wanted to let him know it was okay with her to just go with things. She was feeling spontaneous, and that was probably the dress helping her along with that thought.

She knocked. No noise came from inside. Odd. She knocked again, louder. Zilch.

"Fitz?" she called out, hoping maybe her voice would get him to stir. Perhaps he had taken a nap? That was a ridiculous thought.

Jemma knocked once more and announced she was coming in the room. Fitz usually left his door unlocked.

Jemma turned the knob, and opened the door. It was empty. Fitz wasn't in here. That was odd, too.

She stepped in and looked around. Behind his door he hung his towels for the shower. She grabbed each of them with her hand; none of the towels were wet or damp. He hadn't showered either. What was going on? Did he just forget, or was he leaving her hanging?

Feeling a bit deflated; she left the room, closing the door after herself. In the hallway, she nearly bumped into Mack, who was headed to his room.

"Hey Mack, have you seen Fitz?" Jemma asked. Her voice wasn't as spritely as it was just a few minutes before.

"No, I haven't seen him all day," Mack said, "and you look very nice by the way, he told me he had been planning to ask you out to dinner, I assume this is for that?"

Jemma nodded. She excused herself and walked down the other side of the hallway, not sure where to go next. She checked the exit of the Playground next, and no one had seen him there.

Maybe, just maybe, he was still working? She doubted it because she knew he had been excited and was just adjusting the machines in the Monolith room. Maybe he lost track of time, it was possible. Science does often do that to a person. She made her way there.

Fitz wasn’t in there either. She thought he was playing a game on her, but just as she turned to exit the room, she noticed the machine on the floor. And then Fitz’ badge lying next to it. Strange…

Her eyes lifted from the ground and looked up at the Monolith. The door was closed, but, wait, the lock on the side…

Jemma squinted her eyes to see better, and took a few steps forward from the door, her hand still lingering on the knob.

And then, with a sudden jolt of horrifying clarity, she realized the lock was broken.

“Fitz?!” she called out loudly. Maybe he was pranking her, maybe this was a joke. This wasn’t a very funny joke.

“Fit?!” she called again, more exasperation in her voice. Nothing. The room was silent. The Monolith, unchanged.

With horror, Jemma exited the room, slamming the door. She raced down the hall, to the security center of the Playground. The high heels she was wearing proving no obstacle for her fear.

She wheeled around the corner so fast and burst into the office at such a speed, she nearly slipped. She tapped her badge at the door, and entered the empty room. The security room usually had an agent or two inside watching the monitors, but the base’s security did a thorough enough monitoring that if something or someone were to attack the base it could go into protection mode.

She dashed over to one of the computers and tried to pull up the security footage for the Monolith’s room. She was denied access.

“No, no, no, come on!” Jemma slammed her hands on the desk, just as an agent walked in. At first they startled each other, but Jemma waved her badge in the air.

“Please, please help me,” she begged, going in to an explanation.

The technician had her scoot over and pulled up the footage for the Monolith’s room for the past several hours. Jemma gave him a time frame of when she left the room to begin at, and the tech rolled the footage from there.

She watched again as Fitz stumbled through his words to ask her out. She felt a fluttering in her chest, just watching him get all worked up. Then came the part where she exited the room. Oh gosh, did I skip? Jemma wondered to herself for just a spit second.

Just a few moments after she closed the door behind her, the video revealed her worst fear. Fitz had knocked a machine running a test on the Monolith, off the table, and in its descent it smashed the latch. The door became unhinged.

Just as Fitz went to lock it back up, the Monolith sprung to life, pushed open the door. Jemma watched in horror as he was knocked to the ground, his badge flying off his chest in the motion, and then dragged into the Monolith. The scariest part was how the rock returned to form, like nothing had happened at all. Even the door was pulled closed by its motion.

Fitz was gone.

With tears erupting from her eyes, Jemma got up without a word to the technician, and dashed out of the room. She found herself banging at Coulson’s office door in a panic.

“Sir, Sir!” she called out, causing Coulson to jog to his door to open it.

Jemma stumbled as Coulson opened the door. She had put so much weight on it that Coulson had to help steady her.

“Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on, now?” Coulson said concerned. He guided Jemma to sit on an armchair, and kneeled in front of her, grabbing a box of tissues and handing it to her.

“Fitz.. the Monolith…,” she hiccupped.

“What happened to Fitz?” Coulson probed. He had assumed that maybe something happened between Jemma and Fitz and she was reacting out of a broken heart or something, but that was what he considered worst case.

“The Monolith… it took him…,” she coughed out. Coulson’s eyebrows lifted. He stood upright and poured Jemma a glass of water and instructed her to drink.

“We’ll get him back, Jemma, we will get him,” he said in a soft voice. He wasn’t sure of that statement.

On the other side of the galaxy, or wherever Fitz was, some time had passed. He wasn’t sure how much, but he was certain the date would have already started by now. He hoped Jemma didn’t think he was standing her up. He wasn’t sure Jemma would think of any of this.

Fitz had begun roaming the area; there wasn’t anything to see for miles and miles. The horizon continued on and on and the landscape played tricks on his eyes. He could feel hunger and thirst set in as he moved about. And began to look for something that was edible. But there was nothing, how could there be nothing here?

He headed to a rock formation that was about 20 feet off the ground. He figured if he would rest he would have to be somewhere high for safety, in case there was anything else roaming the planet. On his climb up, he noticed small weed-like planets. They looked nothing like anything he had ever seen. But he applied the same science about most plants he knew back home, uprooting them from the ground. He dusted off the odd looking root as best as he could, and hoping it wouldn’t kill him, took a bite out of the rope-like root, It had a gooey texture to it, which he hadn’t anticipated at all. It was like biting into a toasted marshmallow, but tasted like… like pure alcohol. Humans were conditioned to stay away form bitter tasting foods as many poisons had a bitter taste. He wondered what an alcohol tasting plant-like thing would do to him.

But he survived. He didn’t feel sick, which came as a surprise. It did make him think of the steak he had been thinking about ordering at the restaurant. And he had selected the very wine that was Jemma’s favorite. He enjoyed it too.

Fitz looked around the abysmal landscapes, yup, no beef here.

Using the powdery qualities of the terrain, he drew a map of where he had walked from, so he wouldn’t forget. He would return there in the morning, but for now, he felt like maybe sleep would do him some good. He could explore more in the sunlight.

Except sunlight never came. Fitz woke up to an unchanged sky. The large suns or stars or other type of celestial bodies, in a stage of eclipse did not show. He checked his watch. It had stopped working. Great. The time on his phone had stopped too. And yeah, there was no cell reception on this planet, unfortunately.

There was a lingering panic looming in Fitz’ mind. Where was this damn sun? The landscape looked completely unfamiliar from when he went asleep. He was so thirsty, he needed to drink something. He climbed down from the rock formation, stuffing some more of the strange plants in his pockets. Maybe they had water in them. You do need water to make alcohol, no?

He wished he had Simmons with him. Not to be selfish, but because she could tell him about biological properties of things. She would probably do so well surviving here. He needed technology… he didn’t know what to do with a barren wasteland of a planet.

He surveyed the area. There was nothing prominent about the landscape where he could point out where a body of water, or something similar to water would be. He stayed up on the rocks, for hours. Although it was difficult terrain, it gave him a vantage point.

And with this reasoning, Fitz saw something in the distance… it was… orange. It struck out to him so much because everything else was blue. He changed his direction, and ventured out of the area he designated to follow the orange orb. When he got closer, he could see it was fire. Fire was good. Fire was very good. He trudged on.

And then, he saw a man, yes, it had to be a man. He was holding the fire. There was a man on this damn planet. When Fitz got close enough he called out, “Hello!?”

The figure turned, and upon seeing him started to flee in the opposite direction.

“No, no, I’m not here to hurt you, I’m a friend!” Fitz shouted. He ran after, realizing how much of a threat he must look like. The light disappeared, and so did the man.

However, Fitz came upon a body of water. It was a formidable size. He ran his hands in it. It was warm, just like everything else on this planet. He cupped his hands and began scooping the water into his mouth. It tasted like water you’d find in a foreign country.

“Oh thank God,” Fitz sighed. Feeling some relief.

Then before he knew it, someone, or something, struck him in the back of his head. Fitz passed out. He woke up in a cage. His head was throbbing. A cage was a good sign that he wasn’t dead, or eaten. So there was that. Fitz struggled to remain positive.

He waited, and waited. He passed the time by deleting things off his found to extend its battery life even more. It was hard for him to not look at his phone all the time, since he wanted to see Jemma so badly.

After what must have been hours, a figure appeared around the corner. Fitz was terrified, but held his ground.

“Hello?” he said.
“You speak English?” a voice said, sternly. It was a woman’s voice.

“Yes, yes I do. My name is Leo Fitz. I got swallowed by a giant space rock and got sent to this planet or wherever this is. Do you know where we are?” Fitz responded, so surprised.

“No,” she said. She stepped forward.

For a second Fitz had to do a double take, she looked much like Jemma, with fair skin, shoulder-length brown hair, and dark eyes. He had to pinch himself.

“What’s your name?” he asked. She didn’t respond. Fitz asked again.

She stepped even closer, so that she was just outside the cage.

“Can you let me out, I promise I’m no threat, I just want to get back to Earth,” he said, pleadingly.

She remained unchanged.

“Annalise,” she finally said.

“It is, err, nice to meet you Annalise,” he replied, feeling a tad awkward with the manners.

“Are you real?” she asked.

“Yes, yes, of course I am, back on Earth I’m a scientist, and engineer,” he said, confused by her. He had picked up a tactic from the agents that sometimes giving more information made you more trustful.

Her hands moved to the cage’s door. She took a knife out of her pocket and cut open the thick rope she had tied to lock the cage. She slowly swung it open, and Fitz moved in just the same pace as to not frighten her.

“You’re an engineer?” she question, blankly.

“Yes,” Fitz confirmed.

“Maybe you can get us out of here,” she said, stepping out of the cage’s doorway to let Fitz out. There was something off about her, so very, very off, but Fitz didn’t linger on it. He was just overjoyed that he wasn’t along anymore.

She brought him to an underground cave, and showed him all this old NASA equipment.

“I can work with this,” he said, inspecting all of it. Ideas churned in his head. He wasn’t sure how they could get back to Earth, but he knew having something to work with would lead him to the answer. He’d have to figure out how the portal worked, and f there was a way on this end. But it was a start.