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Melinda had been watching the young scientist on and off through this whole meeting. It had started with a light tap of her pencil on the table, a small rhythm being played out. Something totally innocuous to the vast majority of the room but not to her. She watched as it progressed to tapping her fingers on the table, the movements jittery, and then she started picking at her clothes, grabbing at the collar of her blouse and lifting it away from her neck occasionally which May knew meant something was happening. The meeting dragged on, looking over at a barely audible yelp she realised the person next to her had brushed passed Jemma's arm in their haste to stand up and present and she was rubbing over the spot with her hand now. Yep, it was definitely one of those days.
Melinda observed Jemma, who was now more preoccupied with repeating a soothing phrase to herself hoping to calm down, barely paying any notice to the meeting. She let it naturally taper off a little before softly calling for the girls attention, offering a smile as she looked over. "Okay?" She asked quietly as not to disrupt the presentation. Jemma nodded and tried to look confident but Melinda could easily tell that wasn't the case. All of a sudden an emergency alarm sounded and everyone in the room scrambled to their feet. Melinda, somehow unfazed possibly with her years of training, looked over to the girl who had fallen to her knees on the floor, her face scared as people rushed her. The older agent then exchanged a quick look with Phil, who looked at both at them and nodded, mouthing "We can manage" before he left the room to deal with whatever the emergency situation was that had arisen.
Melinda made her way over to where Jemma was knelt down, the girls aversion to touch in these situations meant she couldn't just hold her and soothe her like she wanted to do, she felt it important to respect the girls wishes on that part.
"Hey, Jemma" she called softly, crouching down a couple of feet or so away from the younger woman's shaking form "It's okay, take your time. We're not needed so it's okay. The alarm will go off once they're in the control room"
She needed to assess what was best to do in this situation, Jemma still had her hands tightly pressed over her ears and tears dripping down her face so May took an educated guess that the noise was causing the most pain right now. She could start with that. She offered her hand over to Jemma, gently encouraging her to stand up. The dorms were really too far away from here, plus she didn't think Jemma would last that long without going into a full scale meltdown from the sensory overload but she knew where they kept spares of several useful items in the lab and luckily that was right next door.
"We're gonna head to lab, okay? We'll get your spares" May told her, offering an encouraging smile when Jemma took her hand after a few moments. They moved fairly swiftly over to the lab and Jemma sat on a stool, hands both back clamped over her ears until she saw Melinda standing there with her noise cancelling headphones. She made the gap between releasing her hands and the headphones being placed on her as short as possible though it was still scary. Blissful silence finally covered her ears, she could still feel the shakes in her body but the removal of the most painful stimulus out of what she had been feeling was starting to help. Melinda lifted up something else that she had held under her arm and Jemma nodded, now able to lift her arms as the older woman slipped the weighted vest on her. She finally felt herself begin to unclench at the soothing pressure, watching her hands relax from the tight claws they had been held like. The older agent was still watching, a mixture of slight discomfort at seeing the girl in distress but relief that she was now calming down. The alarm went off after a few more minutes once Jemma had calmed down some more and Melinda tapped her own ears, letting her know it was okay to remove the headphones if she wanted.
"Sorry" was the first word that left Jemma's lips. It always was. She felt like she had to apologise a lot, for being this extra burden on their lives and sometimes just not being able to cope even when she was meant to be fully focused on her work. Melinda cut off her babbling gently, the voice one she only used with people dear to her.
"Jemma, you're not a burden. Never, okay? Not to me, and if anyone did say they would be out of here straight away" Melinda told her, a serious yet still caring look on her face. She saw the girl tug at the weighted jacket and helped her lift it off, putting that and the headphones back to one side for now. She opened a small bag and let Jemma pick a stim toy, watching her squish and stretch the ball covered in small rubber spikes.
"Thanks...for helping me, and knowing when I need help" Jemma told her and Melinda, carefully gauging the situation and asking permission first, rested a comforting hand on Jemma's shoulder and rubbed it in soothing circles with her thumb.
"We're always here for you" Melinda told her and in that moment she was finally starting to believe it, to know that no matter what she had a little family here who loved her just for who she is rather than having to pretend.