Worlds Apart | Leo Fitz Book Five

Chapter TwentyEight

Notes:

TW: Sexual Assault

Chapter Text

Asia paced back and forth in the control room in front of Leo's desk. He alternated gazing at her to gazing at the screen. She had been doing this since Jemma had taken Coulson into her lab room, unable to sit still. She had tried, only to find herself fidgeting with every item Leo had placed on the desk and she knew that annoyed him. So. She paced. And she thought.

Of course Daisy was wanted to be the next leader of Shield. Asia couldn't really be upset about that - she had no desire to lead. And on top of that, she had been wanted for the Avengers herself. Which was cooler, in her opinion. If there even was a team of Avengers to join anymore. Who knew what was going on out there since the fight at the airport. She hadn't even been able to reach out to either of her former mentors to try and find out. Pace, pace, pace, pace. You're losing your touch, Monroe, the Ward in the far corner said to her, arms crossed as he leaned casually against the wall. You never used to worry like this. Not so outwardly where everyone could see it. What happened? Cracks in the fortifications?

She wanted to turn towards the Ward over in the corner and scream at him but she couldn't do that. Their team was falling apart around them, she didn't want them to all think she was going crazy on top of that. And she wasn't. Going crazy, that is. This had to be some sort of after affect of the time travel. She would be fine she just needed to sleep it off.

And of course there were cracks in her once unpenetratable walls. Who the hell did he think shattered her open in the first place? Only a level of betrayal that deep could open her up and dig out her worst fears.

Suddenly, footsteps interrupted her thoughts. Coulson strode into the control room from one wide set of doors, followed quickly by Jemma from the opposite side of the room. All eyes turned to her, not wanting to hear Coulson tell them everything was fine. They wanted the truth. For once.

"It's not good," she said quietly, looking away, unable to meet any of their eyes or feel the weight of what they were all going through right now. Instead, she grabbed a tablet and began to type, pulling up images on screen, finding solace in the scientist she could always revert to when things were too difficult. "The MRI shows there is necrotic tissue branching out from the scarred areas, stemming initially from the wound of Coulson's life-threatening...life-ending injury to his heart and left lung prior to the Battle of New York." She turned to look at Coulson. "This is the primary reason you lost your breath, Sir."

"So," Leo said, sitting up a little straighter to look at Jemma, his finger absentmindedly coming to rest above Asia's where she had braced herself against the table. "It's an infection then?"

"No," Jemma said, shaking her head and staring down at the tablet again. "It's...it's unlike anything I have seen previously. Ever. Not in theories or studies." She hated to admit defeat in her primary field. "It's...it's composed of tissue which appears to have been dead for several years." Years. She needed to make sure everyone else in the room felt that sink in too.

"So what can we do?" Asia asked, trying to find Jemma's gaze, the redhead finally meeting it shakily, occasionally glancing away only to meet her again moments later. "How do we cure it?" Agent Monroe had been across time, across space, had fought aliens and robots and people. She refused to watch their leader succumb to some sort of illness.

"No," Jemma shook her head. "You don't understand. The tissue is already dead, it cannot be brought back to life. From my estimate, it's progressing at a very rapid rate."

"So, so..." Asia trailed off, looking to Leo for help, his eyes just as wide and afraid of the answers as her own. "What are you saying then? Say it."

"He's dying," May said for Jemma, so that she would never have to utter those words in front of the team. May had been around long enough now to understand the killing blow could come from a gun, or from a sentence uttered. She didn't want Jemma to become their assassin. Then, May turned and leveled her gaze on Coulson. "But you knew this already, didn't you? Since Ghost Rider."