Jerry enjoyed his work at NASA more than he'd ever thought. Having the chance to fine tune his drug, test it on actual astronauts, and the prospect of going into space were thrilling. And, for once, he wasn't on call, there were no more goons out to get him, and he had routine and predictability.

The positive feelings came with some guilt. He missed Sarah so much, his heart ached, and the phone calls and messages they exchanged every day were hardly enough. Then there was the issue of his brothers and the utter misery and danger they still lived in. At least Jimmy seemed to be doing better, focused on his work as he was.

Sam also seemed much better. He'd found his excitement again and had actually requested a Skype conference which was programmed to start in a few minutes.

So Jerry joined Jimmy in the empty tech lab to see what Sam wanted from them. It must have been something very important, probably regarding his research on the jewels. He'd kept firing theories at them for a while now, even if he obviously didn't expect any answers.

Jimmy sat at one of the desks, his laptop already opened, scribbling on one of the many papers strewn in front of him.

"Any progress?" Jerry asked, approaching him.

"Not really," his twin mumbled. "I hate that they're only giving me bits and pieces of the blueprints and I can't figure out where everything goes."

Jerry frowned. "Didn't they give you blueprints of the defective part of the satellite?"

"Yes, but I need to see the bigger picture because I can't figure out why I have to fix this little thing here that looks like some sort of socket. What the hell do they need a socket for?"

And uncomfortable knot formed in Jerry's stomach. "I don't think they want you to know why, Jimmy. Just what."

"I'm sick of this. We've been in the Agency for four years. Maybe it's time they actually trusted us. And if the alignment is off, I need to see what it should align with."

"Maybe NASA doesn't want us to know."

Jimmy leaned back on the hind legs of his chair, pondering on the answer, twirling a pencil between his fingers.

Jerry didn't necessarily think it was wrong, but painting the Agency as the bad guys was getting really old. It was hard enough for him to stay in it as it was.

"Fair enough," Jimmy finally said. "How's your drug trial going?"

"Very well, actually. Roberta didn't throw up this time. So that only leaves Lee. But I'll figure out a way to make him tolerate it, too."

"Fucking Hannigan," Jimmy said with a smirk.

It was no mystery to anyone that Jimmy and Lee Hannigan couldn't stand each other. Jerry understood since Lee tended to be a little arrogant and wasn't easy to work with, but his twin didn't make the slightest effort to appease him and showed his dislike openly. Jerry didn't like him much either, but he liked to keep the peace.

Jimmy's screen lit up with an incoming call from Sam. He leaned over lazily and answered, then pulled back so the camera could focus on both him and Jerry.

Sam was just pulling back as well so that Tom and Kyle also came into view. Jerry was a little shocked. He hadn't seen his brothers in a little over a week, but they seemed so different.

Sam looked lively and well rested, finally resembling the person he was before the entire Christine debacle happened. His confidence engulfed him like a halo, bringing forth the leader he had worked so hard to become.

Tom still looked tired, but a little more peaceful than before. But Kyle was an entirely different story. The threatening air around him was so obvious, it seeped through the online connection and made Jerry shudder. He had no idea how Sam and Tom could be in the same room as him without cowering into the corners. The darkness in Kyle's eyes, the tension in his muscles, it all locked Jerry's words in.

Jimmy shifted in his seat too, obviously noticing that something was off.

"Hey guys," Sam said before they could ask anything. "Nice to see you."

"You too," Jerry said, his voice small.

"I'm sorry, I want to dive right into this before I lose my train of thought," Sam continued. "We can catch up at the end. Is that okay with everyone?"

Jimmy and Jerry nodded. Tom and Kyle didn't answer, but they'd obviously agreed on this before the call.

"Great!" Sam turned the laptop and it left their faces and focused on the opposite wall where a photo was duck-taped to the corner of a blackboard.

He moved the camera some more to make sure Kyle and Tom were also in the frame and everyone was seeing everyone, even if it made the blackboard a little hard to see.

"By now, you're all aware of this photo." Sam took it off the blackboard and gave it a proper presentation.

Yes, they were. Sam had showed them the Egyptian fresco and hieroglyphs the moment he got his hands on the photograph.

"I've managed to read all the text and it's a legend speaking of the lights of the gods," Sam continued, dropping the photo and picking up another one. "That reminded me of something I've read before, so I took this out." He showed them another photo, this time of Mayan writing. "It was on the walls of the temple in which we found the ruby and I keep thinking it can't be a coincidence. I mean sure, all ancient cultures became sun worshipers the moment agriculture replaced hunting as the main source of sustenance. Of course they needed to sun to grow crops. But the wording..." He turned back and returned with a different photograph.

"This is Shiva," he said, as if his brothers who'd been to India with him could forget that. "And, as you remember, his earring was meant to blind all nonbelievers. What does that translate to? The light of the gods. And then there's this." Sam pulled out another photograph of more drawings.

This one was clearly native american and depicted a field of corn, locals, and two suns.

"I dug a little into the culture of the native tribe whose descendants imprisoned us in Montana," Sam said.

"Why?" Jerry asked before he could help himself. He could see where Sam was going with this, but it seemed so unlikely.

"Because this is killing me." Sam put the Egyptian engraving in center stage again. "Ra's chariot is flying across the sky. Ra is the sun god. He's gifting his people with something. Something that broke into seven. This is what I wanted to talk to you guys about. This thing," he said, pointing at the chariot, "is a meteor."

Silence greeted Sam's words.

"Ra's chariot is a meteor," Tom said, blankly.

"No." Sam waved his hand around. "This thing that broke into seven was a meteor. You've all seen the jewels. They're not diamonds or any other precious stones. That ruby was surely not a ruby."

"That's true," Kyle interjected, his tone thoughtful. "That orange thing we found in Montana almost molded when I squeezed it a little harder. They're not precious stones."

"That would explain their strange properties when you shine any type of light through them," Jimmy said.

"Exactly," Sam said. "They don't reflect light, they amplify it in a way we've never seen before."

"Not even like mirrors," Tom added. "It's a really violent burst of light."

"Exactly," Sam said again. "So there's no way that thing is of this Earth. I've even done some geological research to make sure I'm not being full of crap."

Jerry shifted in his seat. Sam had been right. This was a reason to call and it was incredibly interesting. "Okay, I think we can all agree that's very possible."

"Here's my question to you," Sam said. "How did this thing end up with other ancient cultures? Why are some of them in America, others in Asia? I'm ruling out Europe for now because Europeans could've taken it from Egypt directly."

Everyone fell silent at the question. Jerry's mind worked feverishly to process everything Sam had said and come up with a potential explanation.

"If it's a meteor," Kyle said, "how can we be sure that it just didn't break off as it landed and just... fell? Ancient cultures were very fond of shiny rocks."

"That is one of the possibilities." Sam disappeared off camera and returned with a mobile wooden panel where he'd pinned a map of the world. There were colorful pins where they'd found the jewels and one in Egypt.

"Didn't you say the Europeans took the one in Egypt?" Tom asked. "It could be the same rock we found in France."

"We can't be sure," Sam mumbled. He started drawing lines from the pin in Egypt. "If we assume the drop point was Egypt, I've tried figuring out where the rest of the jewels could've fallen." He pulled back, drumming his fingers on his chin.

The other lines spread out to Russia to mirror the one in Montana, somewhere in Brasil for India, and the Philippines for Mexico.

"You're distances are wrong. And it's not like they fell in a pattern," Jimmy pointed out. "You can't even be sure this thing hit the stratosphere above Egypt."

"They're the only ones who mention seven," Sam said. "All the other cultures only mention one."

That was another good point.

"So you think it actually landed in Egypt entirely," Tom concluded.

Sam nodded, nibbling on his lower lip, his eyes glued to the map.

"There's no guarantee that there are just seven," Kyle pointed out.

"That's right," Jimmy agreed. "A meteor would be likely to break into a lot more pieces."

Sam moved the wooden panel and started scribbling on the blackboard. They waited in silence before their leader pulled back, the blackboard completely filled with messy writing.

"There are two main hypotheses," he started. "Either they fell in different places, or the entire block landed in Egypt. I think the second one is a lot more likely since it's the only culture who mentions there being more than one."

"And they all have the same shape," Tom said.

"That's right," Jerry said, shocked that he hadn't thought about that earlier. "It indicates the same craftsmanship."

"Another great point," Sam said, pointing his stick of chalk at him. "So we can safely assume that at least the bulk of it made it to Egypt."

"But that means there really are seven," Kyle said. "Same craftsmanship means they knew how many they made."

The load on Jerry's chest seemed to lessen as he accepted that Kyle's words were solving a huge problem. The chances that they would blindly search for years had reduced considerably.

"I need more information," Sam mumbled, tapping his chin with the chalk. "There were seven. It fell in Egypt, they were made in Egypt. They scattered. Why and how many of them?"

"You're thinking the other three might still be in Egypt?" Jimmy asked.

"That's the best and only guess we have at the moment," Sam said with a curt nod. "At least until I figure out some sort of pattern as to why the other four were where we found them. I need to get to Egypt. Even if to only see the place where this picture was taken and search for more information."

"You mean we need to get to Egypt," Tom pointed out. "You're not going on a jewel hunt without us."

Tom made a very valid point, but Jerry was a little concerned about the timeline. "Could this wait until Jimmy and I return?"

Sam hesitated and it was proof that the matter was eating him more than he let on. He didn't even want to wait less than the month it would take him and Jimmy to go to outer space and be back.

"I'm not sure it's going to be a jewel hunt per se. It's not like the Agency is in a hurry to send us off. It's more me wanting to see this business finished. If they ran out of research from Snitch Gravel, that doesn't mean we can't pick it up ourselves." A strange stubbornness settled over his face, as if he took the idea that Snitch Gravel could be more intelligent than him as an affront. It maybe was after the guy had had a clear hand in their father's death.

"You're not going anywhere without us," Kyle growled.

And just like that, the subject of their research was closed and Jimmy decided it was the right time to open Pandora's box.

"Okay, we'll talk more about this later. While we're all here, what happened?"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked with a frown.

"You're obviously doing better," Jimmy continued with his usual bluntness, "but it's safe to assume it's the therapist's work..." He faltered because a pink tinge caught hold of Sam's cheeks and he looked away from them.

Jerry would have probably missed it if he hadn't most likely made that face a million times himself lately every time Sarah came into conversation.

"Something you'd like to share?" he asked carefully. He liked Skye from that one time he saw her, but Sam was her patient, so this was a little unsettling.

"Oh, he doesn't share with us much anymore," Tom said, balancing on the hind legs of his chair. "I'm honestly surprised you didn't bring her into our meeting. Though you probably brainstormed this with her in the first place."

"No, I didn't. I don't bring her into Agency stuff if I can avoid it."

"She's Agency staff. Staff, stuff, same thing."

"Let it out, what's really going on?" Jimmy asked, even if Jerry noticed his focus was mainly on Kyle.

The chill around him seemed to be getting worse, and yet Tom and Sam had no reaction, busy as they were squabbling about Skye. Which could only mean one thing. Kyle had been like that for a while and they were used to it so they couldn't even see it anymore.

"Okay," Sam finally said. "I might have a sort of unhealthy dependency on her because I apparently have a pathological need to love."

"So you're in love with her," Tom concluded.

"No. I don't know. No!" Sam looked pissed at himself. "Why do we have to put labels on everything?"

"It is what it is," Tom said with a shrug. "Whether you label it or not. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. I mean look at Jerry and how happy he is since Sarah. You deserve that, too."

Jerry's heart tightened, both because Sam did deserve that and because he missed Sarah so much, but he wasn't sure his therapist was the best idea.

"Okay, Sam, congratulations on your wedding. Let's cut to the chase." Jimmy pointed at Kyle. "What's up with you?"

Kyle looked less than impressed at the question and even more threatening if possible. "Nothing's up with me."

"Bullshit. You've been one second away from beast mode from the moment we started this conversation."

The tension in Kyle's muscles only became more visible. Sam and Tom seemed to notice it this time too, because they pulled away from him. The muted anger only increased, until Jerry was sure Kyle would just black out and murder them all, even him and Jimmy who were thousands of miles away.

Then he just stood, the picture of perfect calm. Until he picked up his chair and flung it against the wall. It smashed into pieces, the sound deafening even over their connection.

Tom and Jimmy both swore, Jimmy a lot worse, his eyes narrowed and focused, his body tense as if ready to jump at Kyle and immobilize him.

Except he couldn't. He was not there and Sam and Tom were basically sitting ducks.

Only that Kyle didn't follow up on his sudden wave of rage. He took in a deep breath and remained standing, his hands balled into tight fists. Sam and Tom had pulled away enough to go off camera.

"It's getting worse," Kyle finally said, another few deep breaths later. "I'm not going to hide it from you guys."

Jerry opened his mouth, but closed it immediately, because he didn't need to ask what the problem was. Kyle had always been a ticking time bomb and his bomb squad had been Kay. He'd noticed the tension between them even before he left, and even if he had no idea what was really going on, it was clear that the bomb squad had left the building.

"Exactly how bad are things between you and Kay?" Jimmy asked, lacking all subtlety, as usual.

"I need space," Kyle answered. "But I can't stay at the house because I want to throttle Mom for her lies and what she and Freider put us through. And I feel like she's constantly watching me, acting all reproachful if I don't go home, as if everything in my relationship would be fixed if I just got married."

Jerry did a double take. "Um, what?"

"I'm guessing marriage is off the table then," Jimmy said, as if they were discussing what type of food they wanted to order.

Kyle let out a chilling huff. "Everything is off the table at the moment. People are off the table. It's so hard to control myself lately. The only one who actually helps a little is--" He cut himself off and looked at Jerry, pain and regret in his eyes. But those feelings numbed out the rage and he looked like the normal Kyle again.

Even if his stomach twisted uncomfortably, Jerry was not going to let his paranoia destroy his brother. He trusted him and, more importantly, he trusted her.

"Sarah," he said with a nod.

"I'm sorry, Jerry."

"You don't have to be."

"She talks about you all the time, you know. Haven't seen someone that smitten since..." Kyle faltered again, his eyes moving to Jimmy this time.

"Jessie," he mumbled.

Wounds were opening left and right, but at least Sam and Tom were back in the picture, both of them looking sad.

"It's just so hard when the people you love the most, trust the most, are the ones who let you down," Kyle said.

Sam and Tom both winced as if something of the sort had happened to them too along the way. Maybe it had. It was almost impossible to keep track anymore.

"We really lost control, didn't we?" Sam asked. "Of everything. And it just keeps spiraling."

"Not necessarily," Kyle said, his tone controlled and careful. "We can pick ourselves up. Look at Jerry. And Sam, I feel like you're on the right track. You should see yourself. Your confidence, your maturity. It will happen for all of us."

It was somewhat weird to be on the other side of the fence for Jerry. Not the lonely one, not the one living in constant tension, under immense pressure. Kyle was right. It had turned around for him. But he'd never thought the others needed any turning around. They'd always been so happy. Even Sam.

"If you think staying away from Kay for a while would help you, you can stay at my place," Jimmy said.

"I think I will," Kyle said with a nod. "I'm not... I mean..."

"Did you and Kay actually break up?" Tom asked, voicing what everyone was probably thinking.

"No." The answer was certain and immediate, but did it even mean anything given the circumstances?

Tom took a few steps away from Kyle as he prepared his next blow. "Don't you think you should?"

Silence followed his question. Jerry sucked air through his teeth, hating himself for thinking the same. If something didn't work, there was no use drawing it out. He knew that better than anyone.

"Life's not black and white, Tom. I think you're starting to get a taste of grey yourself."

Tom opened his mouth, but closed it again, realizing Kyle was probably right. He was. Jerry had noticed him and Angie at Freider's funeral. They'd been civil, talking. Close. There was certainly a longing on Tom's face every time she was brought up in conversation, and this time was no exception.

"You still love her," Sam said, his voice low.

"Of course I do," Kyle answered with a shrug. "We're just not agreeing on the way the relationship is supposed to evolve from here. We either find common ground again, and then we'll be okay, or we don't."

He left what would happen then unsaid, but it wasn't hard to guess. Though it was so hard for Jerry to think that Kyle and Kay would ever break up. They had always been the pinnacle of love and understanding, as much as he used to complain that they displayed too much PDA. The world seemed strangely grey with them running from each other.

"How's space going?" Sam finally asked after what seemed like hours of silence.

"Much as it always has," Jimmy answered.

"He means our training," Jerry said, rolling his eyes. "Great, Sam. My drug is working, Jimmy's calculations are going great and we're ready for takeoff."

"It's ten more days, so it pretty much feels like the final countdown," Jimmy added with a grin.

"I'm actually nervous for you," Sam said.

"I think we all are," Tom added.

"Can't I come with you?" Kyle mumbled.

It would've made Jerry feel ten times safer and maybe help with the Kay issue, but the answer was sadly, "I'm afraid not."

"Damn," Kyle said, even if he'd obviously never actually expected anyone to let him come along without proper training.

Though who knew how much Kyle's body could really take? Jimmy had adjusted to all the extremes easier than any of the other astronauts. He was a bit of a legend at the station, especially since no one knew he had the advantage provided by some strange serum.

"We should leave you guys to it," Sam said. "I'll let you know about the jewel hunt. You just focus on you mission and everything should be fine."

They all said goodbye and Jimmy closed the lid of his laptop.

"Well, shit," he said, as an eloquent conclusion.

"To what?" He had to be more specific.

"To everything."

And for once, Jerry had to agree.

♠️♠️♠️

So we're going on an adventure. Almost. 

Buuuut, you do get a huge chunk of master plot for the jewels. Do you think they're right? And if they are, how did the jewels get scattered? Will Egypt hold more answers? I guess we shall wait and see.

Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to vote.