"Jemma Simmons has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. She was my only friend, really… What? Oh, we met at SHIELD Academy. Yeah, the shutdown was a surprise, but… we're both very grateful for the jobs offered to us here at Stark Industries."

Leo Fitz sat somewhat awkwardly in front of the camera trained on him, wishing he could just return to his desk. After everything that had happened in the past year, he hardly thought a documentary was appropriate, but apparently some bloke wanted to do a story on SI so, as an employee of the company, he didn't have much say in the matter.

It all happened virtually in the blink of an eye. One day he and Jemma were working in the lab at the Academy, perfecting a dendrotoxin gun, and the next the entire operation was being shut down. No more funding for their projects, no more classes, no more nothing. No more SHIELD, to be exact; word had finally got out that it had been infiltrated by Hydra, and the government's first plan of action had been shutting down the Academy to prevent them from adding onto their already astounding ranks.

Leo and Jemma had both been astounded. The Academy couldn't shut down; that was mental! The mere thought of it had terrified the two of them. Before the Academy, their lives had been lonely ones. Always too smart to be taken seriously in the ranks of friendship, until they met each other; without the Academy, would they be split up?

To their astonishment, it had been none other than Tony and Pepper Stark who eased their concerned minds. They were each offered jobs at the company, given their beyond incredible intelligences, and they clamoured to accept. What they had failed to realize was that they would have to work their way up to genuine lab positions.

"There must be some mistake," Jemma had told the man who showed them to 'their workspace' on their first day on the job, upon seeing that he had taken them up to an office of some sorts. The space was filled with high tech cubicles, all glass and holograms and projection screens, but the gist was the same as the less tech-savvy offices in Los Angeles; answering phones and placing orders for customers. Leo was to be in one of the cubicles, answering any questions that customers may have about their tech, and Jemma was to be filling a recently vacated PA's position, aiding the overseer. Overall, the positions were not what they had expected when they were offered 'jobs at Stark Industries'.

"There's no mistake," the man, whom the two later learned was named Happy Hogan, informed them. "Mr. and Mrs. Stark came to a consensus that they couldn't just throw you two in with the other scientists upstairs; they wouldn't have taken kindly to two kids being handed over jobs they had to work years for. So, that's what you have to do; work for the positions."

"That's bloody mental!" Leo had shouted, furious at the thought of having to work at such a mundane job after all of the time and effort both he and Jemma had put in at the Academy. "We're SHIELD's highest ranking research scientists for our age demographic-"

"And, I hate to break it to you, kid, but SHIELD doesn't exist anymore," Happy had told him, walking over to the empty cubical that now read L. Fitz in the typical Stark Industries' green font on the glass. He'd picked up a headset and handed it to the young engineer before gesturing to the front desk a few feet away for Jemma.

"If you'll follow me, Miss Simmons, I'll introduce you to Mitchel Frost, your overseer."

Jemma, after tossing Leo a rather hopeless look, had followed. They didn't have a choice but to accept the jobs that had been offered to them; there were no alternatives. Nowhere else would hire them with SHIELD Academy in their credentials because, technically, the Academy didn't exist.

Now, a year later, they were still stuck in the same office space, without the slightest hope of being promoted anytime soon. How could they be? Working in tech support and as a personal assistant gave them little to no chance to show their skills and, while Leo still dreamed of obtaining more, Jemma had virtually given up on the dream and settled into her present position. It was better than nothing, after all.

Leo thought doing a documentary on the company was stupid. People didn't care about the faces in the building; they only cared about the name on the sign, and the man behind that name. People cared about Iron Man, not the people who worked for him and his wife.

"No, Jemma and I are just friends. Good friends. She's… engaged, actually."

The word tasted foul on Leo's tongue as he answered a, pointlessly personal, question about his relationship with his past partner. That was all he and Jemma were; best friends. Her fiancé, Tim, made sure of that.

Tim worked in Engineering; the exact sector where Leo wanted to be, rather than answering phones and constantly asking, "Did you try turning it off and turning it back on again?"

Being Mr. Frost's PA, Jemma often had to do errands for him, and one of those errands happened to be a trip down to Engineering a few months ago. There she met Tim; tall, strong, blond Tim; Prince Charming Tim; Tim the Slick Git Masters. Leo hated the bloke, although he'd never say so aloud. Jemma was happy, and that was all that mattered. Of course, Leo didn't think the American prat deserved to have Jemma wearing his ring, but what could he say about it, really?

"She's engaged to Tim Masters, in Engineering. Yes, that's my field of expertise, how kind of you to know that," he said through gritted teeth when asked who Jemma was set to marry, and then heard the comment about how the interviewers had heard he studied Engineering before the Academy was shut down. Upon being told he could go, Leo rose from his chair and walked out of the office's conference room, fixing his tie with a heavy sigh. There was no telling how long this blasted documentary was going to last, and he didn't like the thought of his every move being filmed.

"You look awfully gloomy."

Looking over at the front desk, Leo managed a small smile when his eyes locked on Jemma, seated behind her computer. No matter how miserable things got, he took some small amount of comfort in the fact that they at least got to work here together. Things could have been much worse with the Academy shut down; they could have been permanently separated.

"It's all the cameras," he explained, leaning against the desk and stealing one of the peppermints from the bowl located there for visitors- not that they got many up here. "They're making me a bit… paranoid."

"Paranoid?" she asked, looking up from her computer to give him her full attention- a habit he was eternally grateful she seemed to have, "Whatever for? You've got nothing to hide, Fitz."

"Doesn't mean I like it," he disagreed, wrinkling his nose as he glanced over at the conference room, lowering his voice. "Between you and me, I think they're looking for dirt."

"Dirt?" she asked, laughing a little and leaning her elbows on her desk, "Why?"

"It's like they're trying to turn us into some sort of reality television program," he remarked, taking another peppermint. "I wouldn't be surprised if Stark comes in here himself, looking for his next apprentice, and starts picking us off one by one until-"

"Fitz!"

Leo jumped upon hearing his name being shouted from across the office and turned toward the source of the noise- the staff's break room. He had to bite back a grin when he saw Grant Ward stalking toward him, looking absolutely furious.

"You did it, didn't you? I know you did. He did it again!"

He shouted the last part for the entire office to hear, and several people removed their headsets to curiously watch whatever was going on. Leo, however, had put up a façade of innocence, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his trousers and tilting his head as the older ex-agent stalked over to him.

"What's the problem, Ward?"

"How many times have I told you not to touch my stuff?" Grant spat at him, and Leo had to try his damnedest not to laugh.

"I haven't touched anything in your possession, Ward; I haven't the foggiest what you're talking about."

"Oh yeah? Then explain this."

Jemma jumped when he dropped a plate of red gelatin onto the desk in front of them, and she rolled her eyes as she turned to her past partner.

"Honestly, Leo?"

"What?" he asked, a laugh escaping him now. "It wasn't me! Why on Earth would I ever feel the need to submerge Ward's stapler in gelatin?"

"I know it was you," Ward ground out again, and Leo simply shrugged and shook his head, lifting his hands as if for inspection to prove his innocence.

"Can you prove it, Grant?"

Narrowing his eyes, Grant stuck his hand in the dessert and tugged his stapler out, pointing a threatening finger at the younger man.

"I'm onto you, nerd, and I will prove that it was you."

Leo shook with further silent laughter as Ward walked off, and Jemma shook her head.

"What a waste of perfectly good gelatin," she observed, and the two were quiet for a moment longer before bursting into a fit of giggles. It was no secret that Leo had taken a shine to taunting the older man the second he took up the desk space beside his about three months earlier. Working at SI had been painfully boring for Leo up until then, and he had all but jumped on the chance to have a bit of fun when the newest member of tech support had taken to criticizing his workspace, mocking his accent and calling him "nerd" far too often. Leo'd had his share of bullies in school; he didn't need one at work, too.

"Ah, he deserved it. He called me 'Merida' yesterday," Leo stated, to which Jemma giggled all the more, and he huffed with a smile. "Don't laugh at that! Bloody hell, woman, whose side are you on?"

"Mine, I should hope."

Leo's playful demeanor shrank back when he heard the voice behind him, and he cleared his throat, turning hesitantly to face the taller man. Leo wasn't short, by any means, but 6'1 still towered above his 5'8, and certainly over Jemma's 5'4. He was too tall, in his opinion.

"Hello, Tim," he remarked, politely, and Tim simply nodded in response before walking around the desk to greet Jemma with a kiss. Doing his very best not to make a face of disgust, Leo made his way back to his cubicle, sitting down and snagging his headset. At least with that, he could drown out the conversation they were having that he undoubtedly didn't want to hear.

Bringing up the call at the top of his list, Leo tapped the screen and struggled not to sigh as he said, "You've reached the Stark Industries helpline, and you're speaking to Leo; how may I help you?"

"Hi, yes, hello; I think my hard drive has been wiped. I purchased a Stark computer months ago for my business, and now all of my files have vanished…"

"Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again, ma'am?"