They looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Jemma tried to suppress the fear that welled up in her throat like a clogged drain. "All right." She nodded her encouragement. "In that case, what's the plan?"

"Right. The plan. Yes." Fitz's anxiety was bouncing through his torso now. "We need to… erm… we've got to…" The ah-hah moment crashed over him like daybreak. "We'll disperse the energy! If we can channel it into the wiring, create a power surge-"

"-it'll keep the device from self-destructing! Fitz, that's it!"

Fitz was already running. "C'mon, Jemma! The fuse box!"

Fitz had never moved this fast. And with blistered feet, no less. When they reached the staircase, Jemma stopped on a dime, heart trapped fast under her tongue. "Fitz! What on Earth are you doing?" He'd hopped up on the smooth wooden safety rail and was sliding down to the warehouse's street level. Daft muppet. She raced to catch up.

At the bottom of the steps, Fitz beamed at her triumphantly. "I've always wanted to try that."

They spilled out of the side door together, into the alleyway, with barely the presence of mind to prop open the door before Fitz was yanking the metal panel off the circuit box, his hands miming a piano piece over the switches and multicolored wires within. "Bring the component," he bit off, motioning with snapped, impatient fingers. She was still holding tight to the glowing power source, countering the violent quiver as best she could. Realizing he had nothing to protect his hands, she kept the old bear around the core and passed him the Hoggle mask. Never mind the explosive battery, if he keeps up like this, Fitz will electrocute himself the old-fashioned way. He nodded his thanks and pinched two wires through the mask, preparing to attach them to the brilliantly flashing object, wrapped up immobile in Jemma's grasp.

"Fitz!" He paused and looked at her, his face set in determination and fear. "How certain are you that this will work?"

He sucked in a breath."Hard to know… but it's our best chance to salvage the tech and save the TOBII project."

The Hell with the tech, and their jobs. This isn't safe. I can't let Fitz connect those wires. For a moment, Jemma was tempted to dash off with the battery. There was no way Fitz would be able to match her pace, not at the moment. She could run back to the abandoned lot, try to bury the device, get away from people, wait it out. She tried not to think about the possibility of the core melting down in her hands. We don't know that'll happen. These energy fluctuations might not cause a blast at all -

As if he could guess she was debating whether to play martyr, Fitz's sharp gaze harpooned her. "Either way, time to find out." With no further warning, he connected the wires he was holding to the power source in her hands.

In a split second, the power component went dark. There was a moment of stillness, elated relief and the optimistic certainty - of course it worked out, we're the good guys - that went part and parcel with Jemma's ideals. Then all Hell broke loose. Every light in the building came on at once. Music and speech entwined, blasting towards them like a drunk linebacker, a dissonant jumble of radio stations and movies being played on the home theater equipment all around the sales floor. They could distantly hear the animatronic statue at the main doors of the store calling out to customers: "Who needs a knight in shining armor when you could have a bright and shiny armoire!" and "Never mind fair maidens - at Castillo Furniture, we have fair prices!"

Over the din, Simmons became acutely aware of the wee-oop wee-oop of the burglar alarm going off in the store. Well, that's one drawback of electrically flooding every circuit in the place.

"Time to leave!" She grabbed Fitz's sleeve and pulled him back into the street, not keen to test the police response rate for this neighborhood.

"Shouldn't we check on-" Fitz motioned back towards the store before stopping himself with a small shake of his head, "What am I sayin', let's go!"

They half-stumbled, half-skipped down a ways until they reached the bus stop. Flopping down onto the bench, Jemma realized she was still holding on to the charred remains of the dirty, decrepit teddy bear. "Well, this little fellow's done for," she clucked, gazing at the plush with a hint of melancholy.

"Is that what I've been smellin'?" Fitz grimaced in distaste and gestured towards a large trash can just beside the bus bench. "There's the bin, then." Jemma didn't move. "What are you waitin' for? A eulogy?"

"Of course not." She leveled him with A Look. "I was just thinking about all the places this bear has been, who it's belonged to, how it ended up here. It seems wrong, somehow…"

"Look at you," Fitz grabbed a sheet of newspaper from a rack of free classified ads and gingerly took the plush from her, careful not to touch it with his bare hands. "The years I spent keepin' you company during late night study sessions, and never once," he wrapped up the bear expertly, like the world's foulest burrito, "did you start gettin' sentimental about a toy."

"Oh, you were just keeping me company, I see," she nodded. "Because it's not as if you ever needed to revise…" she scoffed, sense of humor coming back as she reclaimed the bear from him. "I do like the funeral shroud." She stood and walked slowly to the bin.

Fitz mirrored her, clearing his throat. "All right then, here goes: we've gathered to pay our last respects to this filthy, disgustin' pile of synthetic-"

"Fitz!" she chuckled, "This brave soldier gave himself up so we could get our tech back."

"Fine. What should we call 'im, then, Steve Rogers?"

She hummed in thought. "David," she announced finally, "I had a plush named David that I absolutely loved."

"Fine," Fitz put his hands on the wrapped-up package, fingers grazing hers. "We pay our last respects to Dumpster Dave-"

She gave him a good-natured scowl and took over. "-who, despite being surrounded by rubbish, didn't allow it to define him - a bear who once knew love, and gave his final moments to the pursuit of science."

"Trashes to trashcan, dust to dustbin," Fitz intoned with mock solemnity, as they tipped David into the wastebasket, where it landed with an unsatisfying rustle. He pulled out a lighter.

"Fitz. What do you think you're doing?!"

"Well, Simmons, this whole thing's gone a bit twee for my taste, so I was tryin' to honor our fallen fr-"

"By calling the fire brigade down on us? I think after tonight, we've tallied up a fair few black marks already, don't you?"

"Okay," Fitz put his hands up in surrender. "I won't light anythin' on fire. Christ's sake, Simmons, you're such a girl sometimes."

"I am a girl!"

Fitz scratched awkwardly at the back of his head. "Yeah, erm, actually, I'd noticed that."

"Oh." The air in her lungs turned to smoke. Now that it was here, she realized, she wasn't ready for this discussion.

"So…" Fitz was blushing just to get the words out, "What was that back there, anyway?"

No, no no no no. Honestly, she'd just wanted to kiss her best friend without any consequences. Now he wanted her to explain herself? The cheek.

"Well, you know…" she fought off a blush of her own. I still have plausible deniability. "He was being awful to you. And there's just no talking to someone like that."

"So that's- you were just… bein' a good friend?" Fitz's eyes narrowed, uncertain and searching.

Her fingernails became absolutely hypnotic. She shrugged. It would be easier if she could lie, then she could pretend the kiss meant nothing. Then again, if she could lie, they'd be able to hide a relationship from SHIELD. This was all too much for half three in the morning, but she knew with total clarity that she wouldn't risk the most important thing in her life. We've got time. We'll get another chance.

She met Fitz's eyes, willing him to drop it, to let things go back to normal. "I got him to shut up, didn't I?" Change the subject. "And saved our project, most of it, anyway." She smiled, holding up the slightly-melted battery.

"Excuse me? Who did what now?" The teasing note he adopted when she tried to take credit for his fix lifted the cinderblock off her chest.

"Well, if you're going to argue semantics," she bumped his shoulder with hers, standing as she saw the bus round the corner a block away, "I suppose we saved our project." She handed him the power core and watched as he scrutinized the fused metal. "Is it going to be okay?" Simmons knew she wasn't only referring to the tech. She thought Fitz knew it too.

"Yep." Fitz tossed the component up into the air, catching it easily before standing and tucking it back into his coat. "Nothin' we can't handle."

They watched the bus pull up with a whine, door swinging open with a hydraulic shhsssssssst. "C'mon, Jemma." He smiled at her, drowsiness smudging his edges, filling her with feathers. "Let's go home."

So that's it! Yep, I'm a pansy, I couldn't hurt the kids. But they got a good scare, and the police are gonna come and find them in the warehouse, so they'll probably get in trouble with their Dad, and probably no one'll believe them when they spout off their crazy story, so that's a crappy feeling.

Also, David the teddy bear is a reference to bookishandbossy's Lost & Found - a really lovely AU that you should definitely read if you haven't.

Thanks of course to my awesome beta amandajbruce who is a toasted piece of cake. I am not even kidding. Next time you have cake, toast a dang slice, you will not be sorry. I mean, you'll have to use the oven or toaster oven, and don't do it with like, buttercream-icing birthday cake, but… y' know, yellow cake. Although Amanda would obviously be angelfood cake because awww.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Hopefully I remember before too much time goes by.

I'll be working on something else soon, for sure, but probably nothing related to Season 2 for a long while. In the meantime, check out my other fics if you haven't read them.

Thanks y'all!