Coulson and May had approached him the moment that Jemma had left the room, they stood side by side, Coulson in his black suit and May in her black body suit. The mission had been top, top secret and they hadn't told him a thing until they'd sworn him to secrecy. A mission to the middle of proverbial nowhere, alone - him, little Leo Fitz, with only the creations he had made with his bare hands to keep him safe. But he'd agreed to it before they'd told him the real clincher.
"Simmons can never know." May added as he shook Coulson's hand, and he'd stopped instantly, staring at her closely, silently wishing that he'd imagined the words.
"Come again?" He asked, tilting his head at the pair of them and blinking his eyes at Coulson, half expecting him to contradict her. He didn't.
"Obviously." Coulson nodded. "It's a top secret mission Fitz; she can't have any information about what's happening. On orders from up high." He added, a sympathetic look covering the familiar features. He straightened his tie professionally. "And we'd hate for her involvement in all this to get her hurt, now wouldn't we?" Damn. Damn him to hell for his extensive knowledge of just how important his partner was to Fitz.
"Yeah, suppose." Fitz shrugged, pulling up the years of pretend nonchalance he had tucked under his belt to keep his face clear in front of the big boss and the cavalry. He'd kept it up in front of some of the most important people in his life; it made no sense of why he shouldn't have been able to do it in front of them, even if they where super spies. "But, uh, how exactly are we going to do that? We've practically been stuck together for the last nine years, I'd like to think that she'd notice if I just up and left. Hopefully." Coulson looked uncomfortable as he shuffled his feet slightly, and even the famous Melinda May managed to look slightly awkward.
"Um, about that." Coulson said uncomfortably, fiddling with his tie again. "We have an idea for that, but... Well I'm afraid you're not going to like it."
"Let's do this." Ward clapped his hands together as he slammed the door, talking to the quiet as the younger agents (and the non-agent) slipped out of the back seats; the quite was a rare occurrence. Skye had already been told twice to shut up by Ward and had zipped her lips before he began to threaten her and Jemma had shut up the moment they had driven up on to the ridiculously high bridge they were on, her face paling. Heights were affecting her less and less, but a bridge this high... it was enough to make even him queasy. And Fitz himself was far too busy panicking about what was about to happen to start a friendly argument with his beat friends about anything. So the team walked in silence towards their designated zones, designated by Coulson of course, with Coulson, Ward and May shooting the odd worried glance at him whenever they could get away with it.
"Simmons! Look at this!" Coulson called over from the other side of the lot, and she trotted over to him, pulling her loose curls back into a ponytail when she set down her case. He followed her over, half running on instinct to stay as close to her as possible, half running on the pointers Coulson had given him before they'd set out. Be normal, he'd told him as he touched a comforting hand to his shoulder, you can't let her think that anything's wrong. Just... stay near her. He shook his head at the memory - what had Coulson expected? For him to just... desert her?
Out the corner of his eyes he saw May give him a small nod. Ready or not Fitz, here it comes.
"Hey Fitz!" May called back to him, "What's this?" May was over by the SUV again, too far for Jemma to run if it she deemed it was needed. With a deep breath in, he reached out and touched her shoulder where she was crouched at his side, opening her case. She smiled up at him.
"I'll only be a minute." He offered her a small smile in return and tightened his grip on her shoulder in comfort and she nodded, turning her head to press her chin down gently on the back of his hand affectionately, her hands too full of gunk to return the squeeze. He winced as he turned, letting her go, not believing that she'd brought it. He rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand.
"You ready, Fitz?" May asked as he dropped down to kneel beside her.
"As I'll ever be." He nodded. She turned to stare at him, in that over analysing way that only agent May was capable of creating.
"What's wrong?"
"I told her I'd be back in a minute." He huffed unhappily, casting a worried glance back at the other half of his duo unhappily.
"Did she buy it?" May asked, seemingly unconcerned.
"Yeah. I'm a better liar than she is, at the least." He sighed, fiddling with the walkie-talkie May had handed him to make it appear like he was at least doing something, if Skye or Jemma where to turn around. "I just... I don't think I've ever lied to her as much as I have in these past few days." May placed a hand on the sleeve of his shirt comfortingly, her lips firmly shut and he shrugged her off.
"It's for her own good, Fitz." She reminded him instead and he rolled his eyes when she couldn't see, pulling the back off the walkie-talkie to give his hands something to do.
"Yeah I know." He grumbled, glancing back to Jemma. "You don't have to remind me."
He stayed knelt down when his watch hit twelve past, despite May's departure. Any second now, he realised as he buried himself deeper in the insides of his walkie-talkie, it'll start any second now. Glancing behind him, he realise Ward was leading Jemma further away from him and that she was looking back at him. She beamed at him when she met his gaze, and he had to remind himself to smile back. Focus Leo, either don't let her see anything's wrong, or don't look at her, is it really that hard?
"COULSON!" Skye hollered from where Ward and Jemma were walking away from. She was pointing behind him, yet Fitz knew exactly what she was pointing at. The three teams of (obviously) unarmed men, as unarmed as Ward, Coulson and May where, all in black bundled out of black vans, parked in the near edge of the bridge. A handful took Coulson down easily, and another team kept Ward and May busy while Jemma and Skye hid themselves behind one of the parked cars on the bridge. The last group made a beeline straight for him.
"Fitz!" Jemma shouted at him, and he turned to sprint towards her, yelling her own name back at her. She jumped up from her hiding place and began towards him, her lab coat catching the wind and pulling her back and slowing her down. And her eyes went wide as someone, who was clearly faster than he would ever be, seized him by the shoulders and hauled him back. "Fitz!"
He put up a fight with his 'assailant' as Ward broke away from his own fight to charge toward Fitz and his attacker, pushing Jemma back as he passed her.
"Simmons! Stay back!" He told her fiercely as her paced, seconds before he took a blow straight to the chin and fell to his knees, taking the new aggressor down with him. And suddenly a thin, sharp object pierced the skin at the side of Fitz' neck, one thing that he hadn't been expecting, only to disappear into a puddle of shattered glass on the concrete by the time he'd brought a hand up to touch the mark it left. Slowly, very slowly, sound faded and colours blurred. It reminded him slightly of the night they'd finished their exams; the headache was in a completely different place, he'd never felt this parched before, even after an extensive night of booze and he'd never stumbled that much when he was drunk. Really, the only thing that was a constant between all those years ago and now, was that he lost consciousness with the same brilliant young Brit hollering his name as his head hit that pavement.
"Leo!"
Ha! First AoS multi-chapter fic! Yes you heard me, Multi-Chapter! The lack of 'complete' icon at the top was intentional this time!
All but the last chapter of this is done (and it's going to be so goddamn big that's why!) But I'm not actually sure when I'm going to be able to update. Sorry about that if you actually wanted an update!
Oh and thanks to my darling Jenny, for helping me get this started in the first place!
IIHH Xxx