They came out of the incident with the underground city battered, bruised, and broken. But not beyond repair, not even close. No one knew how to feel, let alone what to say. When they emerged from the underground tunnels, they went numbly onto the Bus , and went their separate ways to their separate bunks or to the couches and just sat there for hours, unmoving, numb, and beaten down.
They all reacted eventually, and their reactions were so them, it was almost painful for May to witness, despite her own feelings on the situation.
Skye cried in her bunk and wouldn't let anyone but Jemma in. The plane almost went down four times due to Skye's abilities, and eventually, Skye, eyes red and puffy, told Jemma to sedate her for the good of the team. She was reluctant, but did it anyway.
Mack, shaken to the core, was put in the medbay and sedated, as he had come out of the underground screaming, kicking, and shaking.
Lance locked himself in his bunk and let no one, not even Bobbi in.
Bobbi in turn could usually be found at the bar, a whiskey in one hand, phone in another. (One night in their four day journey back to the Playground, May walked passed and heard her say "H-hey, Nat, it's Bobbi. Is he there? I just...I...something happened and I need to talk to a friend and...yeah. Thanks Nat." )
Coulson locked himself in his office and rarely came out.
May stayed active, not just because she was the pilot but because she needed to to stay sane.
Fitz had, for the first day and a half, locked himself in his bunk before moving to the lab. May was fairly certain he had a blanket and pillow locked up in there.
And Simmons, like two powerful magnets that had been held back before finally being released, could be found in the lab along with Fitz. Whether or not the two were entirely aware of the other's presence wasn't certain, but May, and Coulson after she told him, was calmed by this somewhat normal behavior.
So they went back to the Playground, regrouped, and patched up, and then kept moving.
Skye, May, Bobbi, Jemma, and a team of agents went back to the Bus and took off.
Coulson, Mack, Fitz, and Hunter stayed at the Playground and continued to work as they were.
Tripp was with all of them in spirit.
Life (sort of) moved on.
Jemma noticed it one day after they'd stopped at the Playground to refuel and get more supplies. She'd been so busy with work and a new lead on a case she'd been looking at on the side, crashing from exhaustion in her bunk at the end of the day, that she didn't notice them at first, but the next day when she went into the lab.
"Is that...is that a Christmas cracker?" Jemma asked one of the techs when she saw it on her desk.
"Looks like it Dr. Simmons." They replied, some confusion on their faces as well.
"It's my favorite pattern too...what...?"
It keeps happening. December starts up and the skies are unknowable with the weather but they manage. They try to make it back to the Playground once a week, but at one point there was a stretch of about ten days where they were stuck somewhere and couldn't make it in. Jemma continued to work and continued to find things, Christmassy things, on her desk in the lab. They're docked at the Playground December 13th, and that's when she starts to notice a difference in the items, the little gifts she'd been finding.
"Looks like you lot are stuck here till after Christmas. The conditions are too bad for you to take off. There's a massive storm coming." had been Hunter's greeting one day when he walked into her lab on the Bus, only coming in because Bobbi had been in there chatting with her. (Jemma had become convinced he was afraid of her for some reason.)
"Well then, looks like we'll all have to come up with Christmas presents . Time to pull out our arts and craft skills." Bobbi commented, staying where she had planted herself an hour before, on a chair off to the side from the table Jemma was working at. "Just no more knitting, right Hunter?" Bobbi eyes her ex, her eyes glinting with amusement, and Hunter huffs and turns to stalk out of the lab.
"Whatever Bobbi, whatever. You loved that scarf and you know it."
Jemma goes with Bobbi to get food and comes back an hour later and there it is. A tiny, plastic, fake pear tree with ...yep, a toy partridge nestled in it. Jemma side-eyes Bobbi who isn't even trying to hide the smile on her face.
"How festive." is her only comment on the matter.
Skye is with her the next day when she finds a small plastic bag with Christmas print on it, and inside there are four chocolates. Two turtles and two pieces of Dove chocolate.
"Two turtle doves..." Skye sings under her breath, smiling when she catches Jemma's look. "It's creative." Indeed it was.
A print of three hens on a white backdrop of snow.
Four things, all with the Twitter bird on them, are next: A mug, a scarf, a notepad, and a pen. (There was a note attached saying simply "The irony is overwhelming considering we can't say anything." in typed letters.)
"Any word from Ward?" Jemma can't tell if she meant for the joke-ish sounding pun to happen but it did. Skye set her mug down and sat back on the couch they were occupying on the level three living area and sighed.
"Yeah. He's been calling."
"Do you...?"
"Say anything? No, not usually. He just...gives information, and then there's this silence near the end of the info reel where he hopes I'll say anything except 'We'll see.' and I don't quite know what to feel...or do." Jemma nods and looks at her friend, feeling her heart ache for her. What a position to be in. Try to cheer her up? She wasn't sure how to.
"So, earlier today, guess what I found on my desk?"
"Another Days of Christmas present?"
"Yep. This time it was five onion rings on a plate."
Skye bursts into laughter, the room shaking slightly, and tears are streaming down her face while Jemma blushes. Skye sings 'Five golllden rinnnngs!' every time she sees her after their tea that day but Jemma didn't really care. It didn't matter when Skye was laughing again after what happened. Anything to see her smile.
Six toys, all geese, the next day.
Swan Lake: the ballet music cd, a print of a painting, little toys, several things, seven of them to be precise, the next.
Eight packs of Maiden milk biscuits.
Nine cds, all female rockers or other artists arrive next.
A collage of pictures of Hunter pasted onto ballet dancers leaping, ten dancers in all.
A book about eleven different dating methods for pipestems, a holdover from her possibilities of becoming an archaeologist, something she'd only ever told a few close people, were next.
And then...
They decided to have a Christmas party, how could they not? (As Hunter insisted.) In an attempt to boost moral, Coulson okayed it and the party was on. Music was in full swing and they were oddly comforted by such a normal occurrence.
Music featuring drums came on. One by an orchestra that had hired twelve drummers as Mack told her earlier that night. She was in a corner talking to Fitz when she heard a loud crash and looked over to see Skye, slightly tipsy, point at her.
"What..."
"OH HEY! LOOK!" Skye shouted before hiccupping.
"What?"
"You two, hey, you two come closer."Skye made a 'come here' gesture and they walked not two feet before she threw her hands up and told them to stop. "Look at that, mistletoe."
Oh shit.
Jemma looked up and saw that they were indeed under some and she panicked.
"Oh...I...I..."
"Come onnnnn! Kiss and get it over with so the sexual tension will decrease. KISS!" Yep, Skye was drunk.
"Fitz, you don't..."
"And you, Simmons, I..."
"Oh no, look at that." Skye said innocently as she jumped off the table she had been standing on and walked towards them.
"What?" Fitz asked.
"Guys, guys, okay, I may be Quake, but Simmons, Fitz, okay, Simmons, she can rock your world. I'm sure of it."
"Skye!" Jemma was as bright red in the face as she was in the top she was wearing.
"Come on." Skye insisted.
"Jemma, really you don...mph!" Skye walked away, triumphant, as Jemma pulled Fitz impossibly closer, deepening the kiss as much as she could.
Cheers erupted as they broke apart, and Jemma looked at him, eyes smiling.
"Hey." she greeted.
"Hey." he replied, flushed.
"I didn't get to say it before, but I love you." Jemma pulled him into a hug, which he tightened.
" I love you too."
"You've been sending me the Twelve Days of Christmas stuff, haven't you?"
"Yep."
"How? When we were gone...?"
"Bobbi." Of course it was. Jemma pulled away and looked over at her friend, but she was too preoccupied by decorating her ex with ornaments and bows, Mack laughing close by, and Hunter helplessly asleep on a couch.
"What a family we have here..." Jemma commented, still holding tight to him.
"Yeah, but it's a good one."
"Yes it is."
The End.
Happy Holidays!