CHAPTER 1

The S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science & Technology is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s teaching facility for some of the promising scientific minds in the world. There they learn all the necessary skills they may need as a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist, both in the lab and the field.

Jemma Simmons sat in the Academy's sleek, modern library panic studying for tomorrow's exam. The library was the perfect place to go to avoid distractions and the neutral but unremarkable shades of greys and white which covered the walls, ceilings and floors helped Jemma keep her attention on studying. Jemma was a brilliant bio-chemical student at the Academy, so brilliant that she was about to graduate 3 years early. Tomorrow's exam was hugely important – it was the final for her speciality.

"Fitz!" she called.

She was careful not to shout too loudly but it was 11pm and the library was almost completely empty so she doubted that she was bothering anyone.

Leo Fitz was searching through the book shelves as he and Jemma had an upcoming test run for their joint project. Leo was another highly gifted Academy student. He had skipped 3 years with Jemma, although he was in a different field, he was an engineer. Jemma and Leo were so close that they had their own, rather unimaginative, nickname – FitzSimmons. Together they had created a drone that was wirelessly automated to retrieve forensics, or D.W.A.R.F. for short. They had to test the functionality of Swift, their latest prototype, before their presentation.

As Jemma's best friend, Leo knew her tone, he had to get her a cup of her favourite lavender earl grey tea. Jemma was a stereotypical English person in that she really loved her tea. Fitz had never found cultural stereotypes to be entirely accurate though as despite him being Scottish, he hated haggis, just the idea of it made his stomach turn. He grabbed the book he had been searching for, rolled up the sleeves of his grey cardigan and rushed off back to Jemma.

Leo arrived back at the study area that he & Jemma were using. Study Booth 3 was their regular study area and looked just like a small awning roofed booth. He saw that Jemma was engrossed in one of her neat stacks of study notes.

"It's just not going in Fitz!" she exclaimed, clearly exasperated.

She rested her head in her hands with her tightly tied ponytail resting on her deep blue blouse covered shoulder. Jemma was usually like this before an exam, she knew the subject inside out but she always got really worked up. Leo reached into his bag to get the tea and the filter that he carried in his bag at exam time. He placed the small metal filter over the cup and poured in the tea leaves.

"Here you go" Leo passed the cup to Jemma.

"Thanks Fitz" she replied as she looked up to see the tea.

She could always count on him to cheer her up.

"How's your studying going?" enquired Jemma.

"Not too bad. Fortunately I found that Jet Propulsion Systems book I wanted."

Their previous D.W.A.R.F., Nifty, couldn't stay in the air for more than three seconds. Prior to that, Jumpy was ironically unable to take off at all so Leo was determined to fix the propulsion issues. If Swift impressed at their upcoming presentation, FitzSimmons were proposing to create eight D.W.A.R.F.s, each with its own capabilities and purpose and named after Snow White and her animated dwarven friends. For the prototypes, they were using rejected names from the 1937 classic. Jemma took a sip of her tea.

"Ahh, that's calming me down already. Just what the Doctor ordered."

Leo smiled, he loved a good pun.

"Just stay calm and remember that you can do this, you just need to remember that you're the best at what you do" Leo tried to reassure her whilst steering the focus back to calming Jemma's nerves.

"Being good at what I do is an indirect correlation to performing well in a test Fitz! In a test you have to consider writing and memory speed, time constraints, lack of resources..."

"But think of all the achievements you've won. It's the most in the school." Leo interrupted.

If he hadn't stopped her she could create quite a list. He had learned that the hard way.

"I only have a few more than you. In fact the only reason you're not number one is because of Hunter" Jemma regretted that last line as soon as she said it, she knew how Leo felt about Hunter.

Leo's eyes rolled back in his head. Rachel Hunter was a genius engineer, much like Leo. She achieved some of the highest marks in the class just as he did. That was the problem. When they first met at the Academy Leo and Rachel had got along quite well, however as soon as they spoke about their entry tests their friendship turned sour. Leo had achieved one of the highest percentages on his entry test in the history of the academy's engineering department, beating Rachel by only a few percent. Rachel instantly grew jealous of Leo, she wasn't used to coming second to anyone. Since then Rachel had become more and more competitive with Leo at exam time every year and Leo worked hard to ensure he beat her whenever he got the chance. They both received many accolades as recognition of their brilliance and performance. With Rachel even being allowed to skip 3 years in the Academy along with Leo, much to his disappointment.

"Sorry Fitz, I shouldn't have brought her up" apologised Jemma.

"It's okay Jemma" he replied as he shrugged off the thoughts of his ongoing competition with Rachel.

The two of them sat there in silence, they were far past that milestone in a friendship where they could happily sit in silence together. Jemma looked back down at her books and continued taking notes while Fitz buried his nose in his recently found book.

Leo looked up from his book at his watch. Had that much time really passed? It was almost 2am!

"Jemma, we should probably head back to our dorms now. Your exam is in 8 hours."

"You're right Fitz, a good night's sleep is a very significant factor in exam performance. Far too many people overlook its importance."

Leo and Jemma packed up their things and left the library, taking a short detour to return the book Leo had borrowed. They headed back to their separate dorm rooms which were fortunately just down the corridor from one another.

As he lay in bed that night Leo couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned, hoping that Jemma was having better luck getting to sleep than him. He was far too worried about her to sleep, seeing her so stressed and worried was truly painful for him. He loved Jemma but despite their level of friendship where he could tell her anything and everything, he could ironically never tell her that without risking losing her.

In her dorm, Jemma also lay awake. She was often anxious before an exam but now she had a strange and horrible feeling. She put it down to the importance of the exam. Jemma double checked that she had set her alarm and settled down for some sleep. She was determined to get at least a few hours.