She's falling again. The clouds and the sea are spinning around her in a disorienting white, grey and blue swirl as the mad rollercoaster ride is making her nauseous and terrified. The cold wind bites into her and tears at her skin. She wants to think of something peaceful, like the infinite blue of his eyes, but all she can feel is the terror. It will be over soon, but not soon enough. 30,000 feet is a long way down. Long enough to know exactly how her bones will shatter on contact. The shiny surface of the water is getting closer, she screams in fear…

Jemma woke up panting in the dark, her pyjama shirt soaked with cold sweat and her mouth dry. She tried to slow her shaky breaths. She was safe, she was home – she tried to remind herself. She sat up and rested her chin on her knees. Things were stressful – and nightmares have become more frequent. Suddenly, she felt Fitz's warm palm stroking her back along her spine in slow motion. He sat up next to her and put an arm around her. Jemma let her head fall on his shoulder. His touch calmed her and centered her as always.

"Bad dream?", he asked softly.

"Yeah, I'm OK.", she replied. She didn't want to worry him unnecessarily.

"What kind of nightmare?" He kept circling his thumb on her shoulder in a soothing motion.

"It's nothing, Fitz, really. Go back to sleep." Jemma smiled at him, though in the dark they could only see the contours of each other's face.

"No, I want to know what's bothering you," he insisted quietly, his breath hot against her neck.

"It's not…fine," she wanted to deflect but she remembered they promised each other not to keep secrets, and try to work through problems together. "...just a bad dream about falling…through the sky…", she whispered. She could feel his body tense at the memory and his thumb froze in place.

"I dream about that too", he said, his voice thick, after a short pause. "I think that was the day I realized…that you were more… that you were everything." He pressed a kiss on her forehead. Jemma felt tears piercing her eyes – painful and happy moments were bound together in intricate knots on the fabric of their love. As much as they tried to avoid talking about the painful memories, sometimes there was no way around them. "It feels like every defining moment we have, happens during a major disaster." Fitz added with a sigh.

I don't even want to think about what our wedding will look like, Jemma almost quipped, but stopped herself. They had been together only for a few months, and they have never talked about it. It was probably too early, she knew Fitz well enough not to rush him. He had to arrive to these conclusions at his own pace. "Now we are together, and make new memories. Better memories," she said hopefully. Jemma never liked dwelling on the past. The future was theirs and things were going to be OK now.

"An excellent idea," Fitz said and kissed her lips.

When Jemma finished her last meeting of the day, she headed over to the lab. Sure enough, Fitz was there immersed in a design, absentmindedly scratching his head and furrowing his brows – a tell-tale sign that he was stuck on a problem.

"What is that?" she asked looking at the screen over his shoulders.

"Just playing with some ideas on the next generation Zephyr." He shrugged. "I'm thinking how we could improve the manoeuvrability in space." Lincoln, Jemma thought. Fitz was still thinking about what he could have done, about how to prevent it next time. It was so much like him – trying to come up with a tech solution for every problem under the sun. Sometimes she wondered if one day he would invent something to beat death. "But for the moment it doesn't really work - I'm still missing something…with gravity…"

"Come on, let's make it an early night," Jemma suggested with a smile placing her hand on his shoulder.

He looked up at her. "No, wait, I have a surprise for you," he said and pulled out the headsets for the Framework he had been working on.

"Oh, don't tell me you built me the meadow," Jemma laughed, "because we could just take a car and drive to an actual park, you know."

"No, not quite. It's a new training scenario, I wanted to show you." Fitz said. "What you said last night about happy memories got me thinking. Put it on", he said as he handed the headset to Jemma. He put the other one on his own head.

"You're coming in with me?" she asked.

"Yes, of course. It takes two to make happy memories, no?" he looked back at her with a lopsided smile.

Jemma bit her lips a bit apprehensive about what shenanigans he may be up to, but she put on the headset. She froze in terror as she found herself on an open cargo-ramp of a plane. She felt the wind on her skin and her stomach lurched violently.

He grabbed her with both hands and as Jemma tore her eyes away from the frightening sight of the open sky, she saw his face close, eyes shimmering.

"Is this your idea of fun?" she asked angry.

"Trust me. This is safe," he replied. "Nothing can happen to us – it's just a simulation."

"A terrifyingly realistic one." shouted back Jemma over the howling wind.

"I hope so, I put serious hours into it," he countered with a cocky smile. "But remember, you have a parachute, and I programmed our headsets so we can still hear each other's voice during the jump. Come on Jemma, let's slay this dragon together." He extended his hand and after a moment of hesitation she took it. They walked to the edge of the ramp hand in hand.

"On the count of three…," said Fitz. Jemma closed her eyes, let a slow breath out and jumped. The air currents tore their hands apart immediately and she started flailing in panic and spinning uncontrollably. She let out a scream. Then she heard Fitz's voice, although she couldn't see him.

"Still yourself, Jemma, don't fight the currents, use them. Birds can do it, so can you."

"Birds have wings, Fitz," she snapped back, but the panic subsided a little from his voice and she managed to spread her arms and legs, just as they taught them at the Academy, all those years ago. The freefall slowed a little. She managed to lift her head and look around a little to see Fitz was just above him arms and legs spread trying to stabilize himself. "and bone structure built for this," she added, but felt her mind calming as she pictured the magnificent soaring birds: cranes, frigate birds, whooper swans, mallards.

"Yeah, but it's just basic physics, Jemma. Thrust must equal drag and lift must equal gravity, and you get level flight. That's really all there is to it," he ducked and managed to level himself out next to her. He extended his arms and their fingers touched, but the current threw them backwards. They turned back towards each other and tried again. This time they managed to grab a hold of each other. Jemma arched her back and they were falling in perfect tandem.

"Did you know that the Ruppell's griffon vulture is the highest flying bird ever recorded? But of course it's easy for them, as their blood contains a special type of hemoglobin and makes the oxygen intake more effective." she rattled on. She had found out a long time ago that

"Yeah, it's truly impressive", Fitz said and she could hear in his voice that he was smiling. "I've read about this recent experiment they did on frigate-birds to figure out how they sleep. And they found out that sometimes slow wave sleep happens on both brain hemispheres simultaneously." Jemma knew he sometimes leafed through her scientific journals, mostly looking for inspiration for his gadgets and, she suspected, to be able to throw random facts at her from her own field. "The researchers concluded that birds don't need uni-hemispheric sleep for aerodynamic control." he finished.

"That's amazing Fitz. I just wish I didn't have to think about flying when I sleep…" Jemma said.

"Ok, time to open the shutes…" Fitz said and let her hand go.

They both gut thrusted backwards. Jemma pulled the string and her fall immediately started to slow until it felt like she was floating; suspended in the sky. For some reason, the story of Pooh floating in the sky with a balloon popped in her mind that used to make her laugh incredulously as a child whenever her dad read the story to her. "But where did Pooh Bear get the helium from, Daddy? And even then, he'd be too heavy surely?" she used to ask. Only now did it occur to her that in a story with magic forests and talking stuffed animals, the most ludicrous thing she found was a balloon that did not obey the laws of physics.

"So?" Fitz's voice brought her back to reality.

"It's so peaceful here, Fitz. It's breath-taking." she looked around at the serene blue sky, the fluffy clouds above and the azure sparkling sea beneath. "We'll land in the ocean?" she asked a bit sceptically.

"No, it's just over there," Fitz said pointing north-west. Jemma saw the contours of an island with white sandy beach and palm trees. They floated towards the beach.

"Remember…" Fitz started "Bend your knees on impact and roll with it, I know." Jemma finished. Once the fear was gone, her training came back. She landed softly and felt the warmth of the sand as she rolled over. She detached the parachute and looked around – the palm trees were gently swaying in the sea breeze and she could smell the salty sea air.

Fitz stood next to her fighting to untangle his straps then asked with a proud smile "So what do you think?"

"Quite the experience. Are you going to have everyone land on a tropical beach?" she asked.

"No, this is only ours. You know, to make up for that Seychelles holiday we never had. The others will get a boring green field." he smirked.

"I wish we could stay here – it's amazing."

"I'm afraid there is not much behind that dune," Fitz said with a grimace. "I didn't have time for the details… But we can stay and watch the sunset." he said plopping down in the sand. Jemma sat next to him and held his hand.

They watched the sunset in silence, listening to the crashing waves, as the golden rays of the sun cast an endless, but narrowing golden bridge over the water, until it fully disappeared behind the horizon leaving only orange clouds.

"This was perfect, thank you." Jemma said standing up and pulled Fitz into a hug. She lifted her head and kissed him slowly, tenderly, savouring the hint of salt on his lips.

"I just hope it works." Fitz murmured softly into her hair.

"Time to go home." Jemma sighed and took off the headset.

That night she did not fall in her dream, but was floating in the sky peacefully. She looked up, and instead of a parachute, she saw a giant blue balloon above her head… Then her father's exasperated face had come into her line of vision as he floated next to her with an open book in his hands. She woke up with a laugh….