The alarm on Mack's phone went off, startling him awake. He was disoriented for a moment, wondering why his alarm had been set for seventeen past two in the morning, then realized what the alarm was actually for.

It was the perimeter alarm for the Monolith.

"Shit," he cursed, throwing on pants and shoes, and grabbing his ICER and tablet off his bedside table. He rushed out of the room and saw Bobbi at the end of the hallway, dashing around the corner. Of course, she had the perimeter alarm linked to her as well, in case it went off while he was out with Daisy and Hunter. But that didn't mean she should be sprinting through the halls on a busted knee.

"You're going to regret that in the morning, Barbara," he muttered under his breath, pushing himself to jog faster.

He whipped around the corner to see the room's door, with its "Warning: Deadly force is authorized beyond this point" sign, open. What the hell? Had something come out of the rock? Was it wandering around the base?

He raised his ICER, wishing he had brought a real gun. If that Inhuman they'd met at the hospital was back again Mack would need more than a handful of dendrotoxin rounds to take him out.

Bobbi had been ahead of him, so Mack took a deep breath then whipped around the doorframe, ICER held ready. He scanned the room, seeing nothing out of place except… Except the open door to the Monolith's containment unit and a curly-haired Scot leaning against the Monolith, an abandoned gun on the floor.

"Fitz, are you alright?" Bobbi asked cautiously, her ICER not at the ready, but not hanging by her side.

Fitz didn't respond, didn't even move.

"Turbo?" Mack asked warily, inching forward. "Fitz? Come out of there, slowly."

The Scot shivered slightly, but he was still unresponsive.

Bobbi sent Mack a questioning look, nodding her head toward the large glass box. He nodded back and he and Bobbi switched places so he was closer to the case than she was. If there was a fight they both knew she would have a disadvantage with her knee still mostly out of commission.

"Fitz?" Mack asked again. "If you don't get out of that box right now I'm going to drag you out of it. We have no idea when it will liquefy again and we can't risk losing you too."

Fitz looked up at that, tracks of tears glimmering on his face. "I canna let her go," he said, the words choked. "She's not dead. She's not."

Mack glanced back at Bobbi in confusion. She shrugged and shook her head. Where the idea that Simmons was dead had come from neither of them knew, but what was important was getting Fitz out of the Monolith's box.

"We're not saying she is," Mack said carefully, gesturing for Bobbi to follow him as he approached the cube. "But your safety is top priority, Turbo. Get out of there now."

Fitz stood shakily, but it wasn't fast enough for Mack. That rock was unnatural and he'd be damned if he let another team member get swallowed up by it. So Mack took two long strides forward, picked Fitz up (which was far too easy – the engineer had no doubt been skipping meals in his obsession with finding Simmons – he'd have to help him fix that), and deposited him outside of the box, then turned to help Bobbi close and lock it, sealing the stone away once again.

"Contact Coulson, Barbara," Mack said, ignoring the eye roll at her full name as he always did. "I'm bringing Fitz to the lab for standard scans."

"I'll page him and meet you there," Bobbi said, nodding.

She left the room and left himself and Fitz alone, though the smaller man was standing rigidly in place, trembling slightly, eyes downcast to the floor.

"Got something to say for yourself, Turbo?" he asked, a bit harsher than he had meant to, but Fitz had been completely reckless and there was no reason he should have gone in there, especially with the Monolith's lack of regularity.

As if it had sensed his thoughts the black rock suddenly splashed against the clear walls of the cube it was contained in. Mack flinched and gave it a wary stare over his shoulder as it resolidified into the tall Monolith.

"Let's get out of here," Mack said with a sigh, placing one hand in between Fitz's shoulder blades. "Come on, down to the lab."

The Scot stayed silent as they walked, his steps robotic and his head hanging low. It wasn't until Mack had guided him to a chair in the lab that he even seemed aware of his surroundings.

"She's not dead. I'm not giving up on her," he said again, his eyes focused and set but still tearful.

"I don't doubt it," Mack said. "But that doesn't mean you should go breaking into the Monolith's cage. God Fitz, what if you had been sucked up too?"

"I would have been with Simmons."

"But we don't know that," Mack reminded him, as gently as he could.

Fitz seemed to ponder that for a moment, though he snapped out of his thoughts when Coulson practically stormed into the lab, Bobbi limping behind him.

"Fitz!" he exclaimed, "why the hell would you do that?"

The curly-haired man in front of Mack seemed to shrink into his seat, but his voice was still strong when he spoke. "I couldn't let her go sir, I'm sorry. But I know Jemma's not dead."

"Fitz, we've talked about this," Coulson started, with a resigned look on his face. "We have no idea-"

"She's out there somewhere," Fitz said, jaw set. "I know it."

"And how do you know that?" Bobbi asked, speaking up as she grabbed a scanner to run over him. Since Simmons had disappeared Bobbi had taken over quarantine and biochem duties, and she was one of the only agents who would be able to detect anything out of place from his exposure to the Monolith.

He held up the fingers of his right hand, a thin layer of sand covering each.

That's not possible, Mack thought, staring first at the sand, then at Fitz's face. "But the Monolith's cage was clear. Contaminant-free."

"This had to have come from where Simmons was taken," Fitz replied with certainty, his left hand moving to fiddle with the hem of his sweater. "Which supports my original theory – that the Monolith is a portal of sorts, and that Simmons is out there, just waiting to be rescued."

"Fitz, we don't know if she's alive," Bobbi tried reasoning, and Mack winced inwardly at the potential truth her words hinted at.

"I'll need to see it to believe it," Fitz said with finality, squaring his shoulders. "Now I'm going to go analyze this. And then we're going to find Simmons."

Mack exchanged glances with both Coulson and Bobbi. "I'm not gonna stop you, Turbo," he said with a nod. The others also gave their assent and their own words of affirmation. "Bring her home."

So, as you might be able to tell if you've seen "Purpose In The Machine", this story is mildly AU, but picks up again when Fitz discovers this lovely otherworldly sand that proves Jemma's out there somewhere. I started writing it immediately after "Laws of Nature" came out, but didn't end up finishing it until a couple days ago. The beginning is how I originally imagined the second episode would pick up, though I'm not complaining about how it did. And I was originally going to end it with Mack and Bobbi comforting Fitz and basically just giving him support, but it didn't feel quite right. I love Iain de Caestecker's acting though. He's brings such emotion to his character.

I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you thought by leaving a review!

For those of you following my story "Birds of a Feather" the next chapter is due to be released tomorrow or the next day if all goes well.

And, if you needed a reminder about where the title came from:

"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down... never gonna run around and desert you." -Rick Astley