A/N: Okay I've come to the conclusion that I must be a little cray cray, or at least obsessed. Once again I've thrown my love over epi 1x06, so here's another little missing scene for you. Fitz introspective.
Spoilers: For 1x06 F.Z.Z.T.
Disclaimer: I'm just filling out a little blank intermezzo, I own nothing on either side of it, or anything else recognizable from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
It was a shrill noise, the alarm, blaring disruptively loud from the speakers. Not a sound he'd heard before, but then again, they hadn't been here that long. Everything was still new. And every day presented a challenge. One thing he knew for sure though was that this couldn't be a good thing. Alarms seldom were.
He put down the bowl of pretzels he'd been snacking on. He had opted to stay in the kitchen while Simmons was still examining tissue samples and the lab smelled like dead guy. First things first, who had turned on the alarm and why. He went down to the lab, maybe Simmons knew what was going on.
However he didn't get very far before running into Coulson, who looked a lot bleaker than he usually did. "Sir, what's going on?" He asked and got an answer he wasn't expecting.
"It's Simmons." Fitz's first thought was that she had discovered something important, but then his brain factored in the alarm and his stomach dropped even before Coulson continued. "She's been exposed to the Chitauri virus."
The few pretzels he'd gushed down a minute ago, felt suddenly unwelcome, his stomach churned and he wanted to throw up, but he couldn't, he needed to see Simmons, needed to know for himself. This just couldn't be right, Coulson must have gotten it wrong somehow. Simmons wouldn't go around getting herself infected with an alien virus, she wouldn't, she was always so careful and methodic in her work.
As Coulson went in search of the rest of the team to update them on the situation, that couldn't possibly be true. He found her just as he'd left her, her back to him, hunched over a microscope. Nothing changed, except for the fact that the glass doors were now closed and looked locked, the red light on the display a sure indicator of something being awry. There were some things you just didn't lock up, you couldn't, and it would be wrong to try, they demanded freedom by their very existence.., a ray of sunshine, knowledge, wonder, imagination... and Simmons.
He went over and knocked softly. She turned and when she saw him she smiled reassuringly. He couldn't help scanning her face for any signs of the infection. To his relief she looked nothing like any of the firemen. "Not yet," a small voice whispered in the back of his mind.
She told him what she thought had happened - the electrostatic shock, the time frame, everything - to keep him from continue staring at her funnily most likely. It helped somewhat, he concentrated on her words, allowed them to wash over him, while he tried to filter out the doubts that clung to him like seaweeds.
When she was done he automatically asked her what he could do to help, but without the usual giddiness that came with starting up a new project together. Turned out she needed him to make a device that could conduct electricity while it suspended the vaccine... "antiserum" he heard her voice in his head, correcting him. He could do that. He just needed… he had to list all the things, so she could get them for him, put them in the box and he could take them out on the other side. No contact. He tried to remember everything he required at once, so that she didn't have to run back and forth more times than necessary. It would have been much easier could he just go in there and get them himself. This was a waste of their time, her time, time she could have used to figure this out. To fix it. But he couldn't do anything about it, a quarantine was a quarantine.
As soon as he had everything essential to the construction of the device he went to work. An idea on how this thing was going to look to work properly already in his mind. He sat down right outside the door, leaned against the smooth, cold surface. Even with his back to her, he felt her moving around in there. But he couldn't worry, not now, he needed to concentrate. When the movement stopped briefly his heart skipped a beat.., before he once again felt her, she was leaning her back against the same glass that he was and slowly slid down into a sitting position behind him. He turned ever so slightly, she looked a little lost, but still managed a smile. She was waiting for him to finish his part to continue with hers.
One by one the others gathered into the cargo hold per Coulson's request. As he updated them Fitz only half listened being busy perfecting the device. "Think of it like an exam, you don't want an F." Previously uttered words swirled around in his head. No he definitely did not want an F, "an F equalled failure." And failure was unacceptable, especially in this case.
A/N: No point with this one really. And naming it was tough. My muse is being weird.