A/N: This is my first submission to the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. past and present playlist challenge, my first song being a personal favorite of mine, Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas.


Wayward Son

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Leo Fitz seemed like an open book to most people, but there was one odd habit that he had that almost nobody knew about, one thing that he would do when he thought that he was alone that if his parents found out they would no doubt be ashamed. Leo Fitz was in fact, such a lover of American classic rock music that then there was nobody else around he would sing and dance around to what he thought were some of the best songs ever. Some would say that no true Scotsman would ever sing along to an American song like he did but then again, it wasn't called the no true Scotsman for nothing.

Of course Simmons knew about this, they went to uni together and were flatmates when they went to the academy so even though he tried to not sing when she was around she did once rush into the flat when he was in the middle of the yell from "Dream On" because she thought that he was dying. It was by far the most mortifying experiences of his life thus far but it taught him a very valuable lesson about his singing, do it somewhere you can't be heard. That's why Fitz was here right then, parading about the lab belting out the chorus to what he thought to be one of the best songs ever whilst simultaneously playing air guitar at three AM. The fact that the lab doors were soundproofed and nobody was up at such an ungodly hour probably made him more than a bit careless, which led to-

"Nice pipes, but the air guitar needs work."

"Skye, I didn't notice you come in." Fitz managed to stammer out as Skye made her way through the now open doors to the lab. Depending on how things went in the next minute or two Fitz may have a new most embarrassing moment.

"I figured as much. I mean, imagine my surprise when I walk downstairs to find the source of the weird rhythmic shaking that my bunk's floor is doing to find you prancing around the lab whaling on an imaginary guitar."

"First of all, I do not prance about. Secondly, was the music really so loud that it shook the bus?"

"Really I'm surprised that Ward and May didn't rush down here guns a-blazing the second you turned on the stereo. I sleep like a comatose bear in winter and I woke up because of it if that gives you any idea." Skye explained walking over to the stereo that was still blaring Kansas and turning it off. "So, what's the ultrascott doing up right now having a little jam session?"

"I couldn't sleep and the music helps me blow off steam besides, I like the song."

"Really, I didn't realize that from the screeching that you were doing. Now how does a guy like you find himself liking Kansas?"

"Honestly?"

"No, I want you to lie to me, yes honestly."

"Well, I started listening to it when I was in school because my father hated it." Fitz admitted

"Wow Fitz, I never had you pegged as the rebellious son type. Why'd your dad hate it so much."

"You try growing up in the Scottish highlands as a kid genius who's the son of a farmer that cares about nothing that isn't sheep, football, or independence from England and and a mom who believes that children should be neither seen nor heard and not end up acting out against your parents." Fitz explained, getting progressively angrier the longer he spoke. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. Do you remember when we went to the academy and I really started liking that kid Donnie?"

"Yeah, he seemed like a good kid who was corrupted by Quinn."

"Well the reason that I liked him so much wasn't just because he was smart, there are plenty of smart kids there. It's because I saw myself in him. I came to the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. after I caused a village-wide blackout trying to make a wireless fuse box for my house at the age of fourteen. They came and spoke to my parents and when they said that I could be going to uni for engineering in two years at the very most and that they would be willing to pay if I went to the academy after my father said 'what's that matter to me, he's no use here?' Do you have any idea how that feels Skye? To have a man who you've looked up to for your entire life basically tell say that you're worthless, do you know what that does?"

"I accepted almost immediately afterward, after hearing that, knowing that what I did meant almost nothing to him, I did whatever I could to make it known that I didn't care what he thought about anything I did, I got accepted into uni when I was fifteen, started doing what I wanted to, and when the day rolled around that I was supposed to head off I just up and left. After that things changed, I was finally somewhere my intelligence was admired instead of being told to not be so odd and to not speak at all. I met Simmons too, she was the same age as me and had been recruited by S.H.I.L.E.D. as well and was just as smart if not smarter than I was. We became fast friends, being the only people below the age of majority being headhunted by a secret organization does that to you. When I had known her for two years I finally took her to meet my family, you need to realize that she was and still is my best friend in the entire world and I had visited her house countless times without her ever meeting anybody in my family. During the summer holidays she came around for a visit and do you know what the first thing my father said to me after she left the room was?" Fitz asked angrily.

"What?"

"He said, 'That's one fit bird you managed to pull Leo, it's a shame she's English though.' I the second that Jemma came back I walked right out of that house and I never looked back. It's one thing if you think that what I do isn't important, but if you refuse to be at least civil and respectful to my friends it's a whole different mater."

"Fitz, can I ask you something?" Skye asked, tentative after such a big admission from her friend.

"Anything, pretty much all of it is out in the open now anyway."

"Was it hard, not seeing your family for almost ten years?"

"It was at first but it's been so long that if I did see them today I wouldn't even know what to say to them. I'm so much different than the boy that walked out of the door all those years ago the academy changed me, S.H.I.E.L.D. changed me. Hell, I don't even know if they would recognize me."

"Listen Fitz, as somebody who doesn't know their family those people are important. They may not like what you do now or your decisions but they are the people who raised you and they're a part of you. I'm not talking in the sappy emotional way either, being friends with a genius biologist like Simmons you must know that even if you did different things with them your genes are from those two people and they are directly responsible for you being here right now. Even if you don't find them to be the most agreeable people you need to be thankful for that because I sure am and I know that everybody else on this plane is too."

The two of them talked like this until the morning, Skye encouraging Fitz to do the one thing that he feared and go back to the place he had not seen in nearly a decade. When Agent Ward came down at 6:30 to start his workout he was greeted by a sight that surprised him, his rookie was sitting on the floor of the lab with her back against one of the work tables and her head resting against Fitz's shoulder while Fitz sat in the same position with his head on top of Skye's. For once he decided that she deserved to sleep in. After all she dealt with Fitz's music last night, that guy tried and failed to be surreptitious about it but really he didn't have a sly bone in his body.


(Three months later)

Standing outside that door, the same door he walked through almost every day for 17 years, for the first time in so long in and of itself was an accomplishment. When Skye heard that their next mission would be in Scotland she gave Fitz one of those knowing looks that she had perfected in for situations like those and after the briefing rushed straight down to the lab to somehow talk him into coming here. Looking furtively around to see if anybody was watching him Fitz knocked quickly on the door, not even sure if anybody is home.

"Just a second, just a second. Hello, what do you-" the woman answering the door trailed off as she opened the door and looked up. She looked the same as she had the last time that he had seen her, a wind beaten face that everybody from the high lands had with bright blue eyes, gnarled hands from working on a farm her entire life, and those same tight curls that she gave to her son. Though she looked the same as she did before he left there was a different air about her than there was when he had last known her, like the entire world had weighed her down and she was still fighting against it and winning, but only just so. "Is that really you Leopold?"

"Hi mum." That was all he said. It was all he could say, but it didn't matter to him or his mother. It didn't matter because Leopold Fitz had finally come home.