April 1, 2006
"Heya Fitz," 'Joe' greeted, chipper as always despite the weather. It was cold for April and drizzling just enough to soak you through after a few minutes of walking outside, so the cold could creep down into your bones.
"Hey," he mumbled, attempting to seem busy as he slid his key into the slot and turned it so he could open his door.
'Joe' had been becoming increasingly bold in his suggestions in the past few weeks. He'd once even been brazen enough to ask Fitz if he 'really thought SHIELD was the best place to apply his rare talents.'
"The world is in need of skills like yours," he'd said. "Wouldn't want to see you wasting them."
Of course Simmons hadn't believed him. She'd grown irritated with his constant grumblings about the postman and shot Fitz warning looks each time he brought him up. She was convinced he was being paranoid, that Joe was a 'lovely man and nothing to worry about'. If only she knew.
He hadn't told anyone else. If Simmons thought he was being paranoid, his teachers certainly would. He'd have to find a way to deal with 'Joe' on his own but, with final exams looming ahead and the handful of projects he needed to finish before the semester was up, he'd pushed the problem to the back of his mind.
Until that cold, gloomy, April day when everything changed. That day, it became personal.
"Here's your mail buddy," Joe chirped, winking again. (Enough with the winking, he got it, the lunatic wanted him to join his secret evil cult. It just wasn't going to happen.)
"Thanks," he muttered, hastily grabbing it and ducking inside before the man could say anything else or get his lightning fast, cheetah-muscle-enhanced, bioengineered foot between the frame and the door again.
He flipped through the mail, his mind on his latest project before a pamphlet caught his eye. One with a chillingly familiar logo in the corner. The print beneath it read: 'A better world is possible. Do you want to be a part of making it happen?'
If that didn't scream 'cult' he didn't know what did. Fitz dropped the rest of his mail on the table and yanked the pamphlet open, scanning the contents with increasing horror.
'...SHIELD is not what the world needs...'
'...the world is running rampant, it needs to be controlled...'
'...be a part of the new wave...'
"Oh my God, I need to show Simmons!" he exclaimed, shoving the pamphlet into his bag and darting back to the door. Now she had to believe him.
His phone rang, it was her, he could tell by the ring. It was their favourite song, the one they both agreed on every time when they were playing music. (Not that it was the only thing they ever played, just the only thing that never required a compromise.)
He clicked talk and held it to his ear.
"I have something to tell you," he announced anxiously, bouncing on his toes with impatience. "Where are you?"
"Fitz?" She answered and he knew immediately that something was wrong. "Can you come get me... there's been an accident."
"Are you OK?" he demanded. Oh no, they were using her to get him, he knew it. Obviously they knew they'd never be able to recruit incorruptible Simmons and had decided to use her as a pawn in their horrible plan to take over the world. "What happened?" He couldn't keep his voice from rising in panic.
"I'm fine," she assured him gently. "My vision should come back in a few hours, I just need someone to come get me, I don't think I can make it home like this."
"What?!" he screeched.
"Ow... Fitz, I'm fine," she insisted.
"Sorry," he apologized, the last thing poor Simmons needed was to have an eardrum blown out. "I'm coming."
Forgetting about the pamphlet stowed away in his backpack, he raced out the door, practically flying across the campus like a cape bearing superhero to her aid.
/-/-/
"Remember there're five steps," he reminded her worriedly, clutching onto her as she gripped his arm.
"I know," she told him. "Let's go slowly though, everything is so slippery."
"I won't let you fall," he promised.
"I know," she repeated fondly.
He helped her into her dorm and settled her down at her small table.
She'd been 'accidentally' exposed to a new gaseous compound she'd been working on, which caused temporary blindness, (SHIELD had a long list of applications for the compound upon its completion).
The effects were fleeting but Fitz still felt painful tendrils of guilt curling around his stomach. This was all his fault. He should have taken 'Joe' as a more serious threat. Of course he was a serious threat, he was going around recruiting people into some Nazi-derived cult. They were lucky he hadn't had her blown up.
This had to be some sort of warning, he was convinced. 'Join us or we'll hurt the people you love.'
"Do you need anything?" He fussed, hovering over her like a hummingbird around a flower. "How are you feeling? Are you sure its temporary? How long have you been testing it exactly?"
"Some soup would be nice," she said, smiling reassuringly. "Stop worrying, it'll wear off soon. I should have been more careful with the nozzle, I just didn't expect it to open so fast. It's usually harder to move, one of the other students must have fiddled with it.
'Or the postman sabotaged it,' he thought grimly, pouring some canned soup into a pot to heat up for her.
While it was cooking he returned to her and, kneeling in front of her, took both her hands in his own.
"Jemma, I'm so sorry," he murmured.
"Why are you sorry?" She wondered, bewildered. "Am I out of soup? It's nice just that you offered, you don't need to be-"
"This is my fault," he told her. "I should have taken Hydra more serious-"
"Hydra?" she questioned, surprised. "Oh Fitz, not again," she groaned. "This was an accident. Everything bad in the world is not Joe's fault, he's a very nice man, he talks to me all the time. Just last week he gave me a recipe for homemade brownies and the other day he gave me some advice on a problem I had with one of my lab partners. She wasn't getting along very well with me so he said to-"
"You talked to him about your work?" Fitz demanded, stunned.
"Yes," she replied impatiently. "Obviously I don't go into detail but-"
"He knows which lab you work in?" he guessed, one step closer to proving his point.
"Don't look like that, it's a coincidence," she scolded without needing to see him. "Joe wouldn't hurt a fly."
His expression of triumph changed to one of exasperation. "Fine, don't believe what I'm saying," he grumbled. "I have proof!" He rummaged through his backpack and pulled out the pamphlet, waving it in front of her.
"I can't see what you're holding up," she told him, unimpressed.
"Oh, right," he remembered, embarrassed. "It's a let's-take-over-the-world-together brochure," he described, opening it. "In order to achieve peace, threats must first be eliminated," he read. "Be a part of creating a better world."
"Joe gave you that?" she asked incredulously. "He just asked you to join Hydra and handed you a pamphlet?"
"Well, not exactly...," he admitted. "It was in my mail but..."
"Fitz..." she sighed, concerned.
"I'm not making this up!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "It's real, this is a real pamphlet that's really asking me to join an evil cult. Why can't you just believe me?"
"I do believe you," she soothed, feeling around in front of her. He stepped forward, allowing her to touch his arm. "I believe that you received a pamphlet in the mail with exactly what you read written in it, but Fitz what day is it?"
"That's beside the point," he muttered, pulling away.
"It's April Fools," she answered for him. "You don't think it might have something to do with that?"
"They did this to you," he asserted, determined. "That isn't a joke. Someone is trying to recruit me, someone dangerous, and they could hurt you." She couldn't see him but he looked away as he said the last part, his voice lowering to a whisper.
Her expression softened and it appeared as if she were about to say something when the dorm's fire alarm went off.
Grey puffs of smoke were erupting from the soup and he realized he'd burnt it.
"Damn stupid quick to burn noodles!" he cursed, quickly removing it from the burner before using a towel to fan the smoke away from the alarm so it would turn off. It was a good thing none of it had made it into the hallway or it would have set off the whole building.
His stomach hurt and he was incredibly frustrated and frightened. Blinding Simmons had been a strategic move on their part. She couldn't see how real the pamphlet was, how this wasn't a prank. He was always alone when Joe tried to entice him to join, dropping subtle hints which must have sounded innocent to someone who hadn't heard them first hand.
"Is everything alright?" Simmons called from the table.
"It's fine," he answered tightly, blinking away tears. "I burnt your soup though, I'll have to start a new pot." She wasn't going to believe him and he was beginning to wonder if he would have believed him. He had no proof except an easily explainable set of events, and a pamphlet she couldn't see.
She would see it though, her vision would come back and then he could show her. Or he could show agent Weaver and have this whole mess sorted out. Yes, that was it. They shouldn't have risked giving it to him. The idiots.
He retrieved it, ready to store it safely in his backpack but his heart sank when he caught sight of the cover.
The Hydra-skull had changed to an open-mouthed happy-face, and the print on the cover now read: 'Got you'.
"No," he breathed. "No, no, no, damn it." He cried, throwing it down. "Stupid, clever evil cult. This is insane! We're just scientists, we're not meant to be dealing with all this nonsense! We aren't meant to be put into these kinds of situations! We're just suppose to make things, invent new things! Our job isn't suppose to be dangerous, neither of us are suppose to get hurt or blown up or lured into bloodstained vans to be dissected!"
There were tears on his cheeks now and he angrily wiped them away.
'Stop it eyes, we're angry, not sad,' he scolded.
"Fitz," Simmons murmured, standing and stumbling towards him.
He didn't want her to trip and hurt herself, so he met her, placing his hands on her searching arms. She took another step towards him and silently wrapped him in a tight embrace.
He hesitated, unsure what to do, before he realized the wonderful, calming effect the hug was having on him and returned it earnestly.
"Is that what this is about?" She asked softly. "You're worried something bad is going to happen us? Because we're going to work for SHIELD?"
Calmer now, he thought perhaps she was right and he'd been using this whole postman problem as a substitute for his real fears. Maybe that was it, maybe this was all in his head. Another student could have easily heard his rants about Joe and decided to trick him, (they were freshmen after all), Joe could just be an overly friendly postman (with a giant nose) and what happened to Simmons... that could have been an accident.
"Maybe," he whispered.
She rubbed his back and he closed his eyes, leaning against her, losing himself in the blissful rhythm of her hands circling his skin.
After a minute she pulled away from him, hands on his shoulders. It was strange to see her not looking him in the face, to see her eyes drifting away, but he knew she was focusing her attention towards him and it was comforting all the same.
"Can you live with that?" she asked seriously, a question without judgement.
He considered it honestly. He'd been so scared when he'd thought someone was going to hurt them, when he'd thought someone had hurt Simmons. He'd been scared but he'd also been... protective. He'd wanted to do something about it, to defend her, to actively work towards stopping the people responsible. That was what SHIELD was about, protecting people, keeping the world and the wonderful people in it safe. You could try to run from the things that frightened you, that attacked the people you loved, or you could fight back. He wanted to fight back.
"I can live with that," he replied confidently and she smiled at him, proud.
"So can I," she agreed and with that they were in it, together, defending the world and protecting each other. Whatever life threw at them.
/-/-/
April 2, 2006
Report 33
Subject 13, Leopold Fitz, shows unwavering loyalty to both SHIELD and his partner Jemma Simmons. Simmons is not a viable candidate for recruitment.
Recruitment of subject 13 not recommended, requesting termination of monitoring assignment.
- Agent Arnold Brown
/-/-/
Arnold Brown is the name of a Hydra agent from the comic books.
The whole, 'I can't see what's on the paper' was inspired by an interaction between Toph and Sokka in Avatar the Last Airbender.
The Fringe reference in this chapter is Subject 13. It is the name of a third season episode and refers to Olivia, who was subject 13 during the cortexiphan trials.
My dad actually helped me out with this one, let me bounce ideas off him :D.
