"Oh my God," Donnie, gasped.
They were watching the news report on an old television in the cheap motel room they were staying in. He was sharing the room with his teammates Dave and Kenzi.
"Damn it Kelvin," Dave exclaimed, sounding furious.
Good, it wasn't just him. Dave thought this was messed up too. Two people dead? Their faces were displayed on the television screen and he couldn't look at them. This was crazy! This wasn't what he'd signed up for.
"It was an accident," she defended, waving her hand dismissively. "Our boss won't care."
"I care," Donnie shot back, looking to Dave for back up but his friend glanced away, silent.
Kenzi glared at him. "Sometimes sacrifices need to be made in the name of self preservation," she insisted.
"We didn't need to kill them," he argued furiously.
"We needed a distraction," she spat back, rising to her feet and and towering over him menacingly. "Did you want to get caught? Go back to Shield and be treated like some new species of fish in a jar again? We need to take down those power hungry maniacs and to do that we need money. So we rob places and we don't get caught. You got that you little weirdo?"
Donnie flinched away from her, unsure what to say. He looked to Dave for help again but he was focused on the television, his lips pressed together and his eyes narrowed uneasily. Some help he was.
"I need some air," he mumbled, ducking around her.
"You better come back after freak or we'll find you," Kenzi warned aggressively as she allowed him to leave.
He walked past the people smoking outside their rooms and onto the lamplit street to think.
He could believe that Kenzi would find him. They'd send others too and she wasn't even the scariest person in his new group, not even close. He wasn't going anywhere. Besides they were right, Shield needed to be taken down. Hydra had weakened it and now they may actually have a shot at finishing off the over controlling organization.
He only wished they weren't so reckless with people's lives, including his. They valued him as a tool but they didn't care if he was happy or safe. They were a lot like Shield that way, they hadn't cared about him either.
Seth had cared about him once. It had mattered to him if Donnie was safe, if he was happy.
/-/-/
October 31 2013
"You sure you don't want a Snickers?" Seth asked, tossing a candy bar at Donnie.
He smiled at him but tossed it back, continuing to draw out the blueprints for his new airgun. If he made it smaller he could... Oh that was a great idea! Could that work?
"Hey," Seth called, amused. "Space case, have some candy. It's Halloween."
"I'm not hungry," he brushed off the offer.
A packet of rockets landed on his paper.
"Are you going to draw that all night?" Seth chuckled at him. "Don't you want to go down to the boiler room for the party?"
"You can go have fun with your friends," Donnie assured him even though the thought of him leaving made him a little empty inside.
He didn't really want to be alone.
"You are my friend," Seth said seriously.
"Yeah?" Donnie looked over at Seth, his heart warm like a crackling bonfire as he grinned at him.
They were friends? He had a friend. Huh.
"Of course," Seth rolled his eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be some sort of super genius?" He teased.
"That's what people say," he chuckled, opening the pack of rockets. "Do you want one?"
"I want two," Seth told him, laughing as he came to stand beside him, looking down over his work. "Can you build this?" He gasped, surprised as he munched on a rocket.
"Maybe," Donnie told him.
"Cool," He beamed at him and the loneliness which had glazed over Donnie's heart like ice began to melt.
If he had to choose someone to be his friend, and it wasn't as if he could afford to be picky, Seth would have been his first choice.
/-/-/
"Just a short document, a couple of pages, five or six at most," Jemma requested.
They had arrived at the scene of the robbery and Jemma had shooed Leo ahead of her before hanging back to have a quick word with Coulson.
"Five or six?" Coulson asked incredulously.
"At most," she repeated, smiling hopefully.
"What exactly do you want me to put in five or six pages?" He wondered, almost sounding annoyed.
Maybe he was a little irritated with her. He seemed stressed, distracted.
"We... Well I just wanted a short guide, so there's no misunderstandings," she explained.
She didn't think Leo was as worried as she was about following the rules and she hoped he realized what was at stake: their relationship as well as their partnership. She wanted to keep all of him but if they had no clear boundaries that might prove difficult.
"Look, Simmons I don't have the time to write something up," he sighed and she guessed his new job was keeping him on his feet. "I know you feel more comfortable with set rules but they must be pretty obvious right?"
He smiled at her and she chuckled nervously. "Haha, right. Obvious, yes sir... But... Maybe you could let me in on a few...umm more tricky ones."
"When we're on a mission you're FitzSimmons," Coulson explained. "He's your teammate, not your boyfriend. And keep the... What do they call it now?" He frowned as he searched for the word. "Keep the making out to a minimum on the Bus."
"We'll save it for special occasions," she kidded and he raised an eyebrow at her. "Er... Or... When it's appropriate." She added quickly.
"I trust your disecration," he said, nodding.
'OK,' she thought uneasily.
"And as I've already told you I don't want anyone having sex on the Bus," he reminded her and she nodded quickly. "Which is why you need to-"
"Stay out of each other's rooms, right of course sir," she nodded.
"Good," he nodded. "I'm glad we understand each other."
Not entirely, Jemma still had many more questions but she held them back. They were on a mission, it could wait.
"Any clues?" She asked, coming to stand beside Skye.
"Fitz doesn't seem to have found anything," her friend told her, watching as the engineer steered Happy around the charred train car. "You going to join him?"
"Yes," she replied. "But first I wanted to ask you-"
"I really was scared Simmons," Skye smiled, amused. "Good job making those sheets float. Really convincing."
"It was just magnets," Simmons scoffed modestly but she grinned at the other agent's praise. "But that wasn't what I wanted to ask you. I was wondering when I could take a blood sample for... You know." She kept her voice low and gazed around to be sure no one would overhear.
"Oh... Ummm well we're kinda busy right now Simmons," Skye answered, glancing around as well and frowning.
"Well obviously not now but-" Jemma began.
"Why don't you go help out your boyfriend," she suggested, wiggling her eyebrows as she changed the subject. "You two gonna kiss if you find something super sciencey?"
"He isn't my boyfriend on a mission," Jemma corrected her, wondering why she had been avoiding this topic for the past week.
Skye had displayed... Well they had to be telekinetic, just because Jemma couldn't explain it didn't mean she was going to deny what she'd seen... abilities on their last mission. She'd only shown Jemma so far and on top of trusting her with the secret had agreed to let the biochemist run a few tests, just to be sure she was alright.
She'd agreed a few weeks ago anyway but now it seemed as if her friend had changed her mind.
"That's not a rule is it?" Skye asked skeptically.
"It is," Simmons let her know.
"So... Wow. OK. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense," she raised an eyebrow. "What do you break up before a mission and get back together after?"
"I think he meant it more as a symbolic guide to our behavior," Jemma clarified. "Anyway, you're right, I should go help Fitz. Think about the tests though alright? I want to make sure you're all fit and ship shape."
"Yeah OK," Skye mumbled as Jemma headed over to Leo and she wondered where the sudden hesitation had arisen from.
"Can't say I didn't see this coming," one of the agents helping them search the train was saying. "I knew Donnie back at the academy, I taught there the year he was kicked out. That kid was too young to be there, always causing trouble with the other students. Nothing most of the teachers noticed of course, just little arguments. I swear though, a few times he must have used one of his gadgets to mess with them. He was a crafty one."
"I thought he seemed like a nice guy," Leo was protesting. "And are you sure the other students weren't starting these arguments?"
"I think they mostly tried to ignore him," she answered defensively.
"Maybe that was the problem," Leo muttered irritably.
"Do we have a problem agent Fitz?" She asked, crossing her arms.
Jemma was certain he was about to shoot back a sharp retort when she interjected.
"Hello," she greeted brightly. "I'm agent Simmons, I don't believe we've met."
"Agent LeBlanc," she introduced herself. "Are you with him?" She jerked her head towards Leo as he caught Happy and placed him back in the box.
"Yes," she replied, smiling his way before turning back to agent LeBlanc. "He's my partner," she added for clarity.
Leo hadn't seen her, he was busy grumbling on as he packed up the D.W.A.R.F.
"Is he always such a charmer?" Agent LeBlanc asked sarcastically, frowning at him.
"This mission is... it's...," she stumbled as she attempted to explain his attitude to the other agent.
"It seems personal," agent LeBlanc guessed and Jemma sighed.
"We knew Donnie, sort of, and Fitz...," but she stopped herself because agent LeBlanc didn't need to know. She didn't need to know how much of himself Leo saw in Donnie. "It's complicated. Excuse me."
She left search the train car with her partner.
/-/-/
October 31, 2005
"Hey are you going to the Pumpkin festival tonight?" Tom whispered beside him and Fitz turned, surprised by the invitation to see it wasn't for him but the girl on his other side. Mandy was her name, he recalled.
Of course, Tom wanted a date. He likely figured Fitz had found one too, he was a cute guy, good looking and charming why not?
He hadn't even thought to ask anyone though. He hadn't known this was a bring a date event. Besides most of the other students would probably find him a little too young to be asked out by. They seemed to think he was seven not seventeen.
"I'm in," she replied over Fitz and he leaned back so they could talk over him.
Wouldn't want to get in the way of a possible budding romance.
"Cool, how about you Samson?" Tom inquired.
"Sounds fun," he answered. "Meet you at the usual place?"
"Yeah sure, six o'clock," he agreed and they returned their attention to the lecture.
Samson? The usual place? What the hell? Fitz had been working in the same lab as Tom for almost a month now and he was hanging around with Samson instead of him? Who was this Samson guy and what did he have that Fitz didn't? A bitter seed planted itself in his stomach.
What stung the most was the casual way in which Tom had ignored him, talked over him as if he wasn't even there. As if they hadn't had over a hundred hours of lab time together already. As if he didn't know Fitz at all.
Whatever, it was a stupid festival anyway. 'Pumpkin festival', just call it the Halloween festival, that was what it was.
/-/-/
Fitz was at the stupid festival, throwing out his plate and fork from a slice of pumpkin pie, when he ran into Tom, Mandy and Samson.
He called out a greeting as he waved at them and they glanced in his direction, expressions like they'd never seen him before.
"It's me," he reminded them irritably. "Fitz."
"Oh Liam was it?" Tom asked, recognition flickering across his face.
Seriously? Liam?
"It's Fitz," he corrected.
"Yeah but you have first name," he pondered, frowning as he tried to remember. "... Something weird... Leonard?"
Something weird? His name was not weird.
"Leopold," he told him hotly and Samson snickered.
"Sorry," he chuckled. "It just sounds like such an old man name for someone so young."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," he snapped back, a hot ball of anger bouncing around inside him. "I'm a babyface and I have a stupid name."
"Hey, what's your problem?" Tom demanded and he scowled at him.
"Nothing, whatever, never mind," he muttered, turning to walk away.
"This is why Shield shouldn't recruit children," Mandy sneered and Fitz snapped.
That did it, that was his breaking point. Fitz shattered. He'd meant to test his new device on his own phone but if they were going to harass him like this he was going to have no choice but to retaliate.
Reaching into his pocket he removed a small square box which appeared similar to a remote control with a switch in the center. He aimed it at Tom and flicked the switch. There was a loud beeping from the other student's pocket and he reached in, pulling out his cell phone.
"What the hell did you do?" He exclaimed angrily, frantically pushing buttons. "Come here you little weirdo," he growled but his tone was filled with aggression and he seemed ready to hit someone so Fitz bolted.
"Come back here you freak!" Tom exclaimed taking up the chase.
Fitz ran away as fast as he could, terrified of what would happen if Tom caught up to him. Would he beat him up in a crowd like this? Maybe not but he wasn't going to risk it.
He hid beneath a wagon, hoping none of them had spotted him going under however it soon became clear that they had when Tom grabbed him by his shirt and hauled him out, stretching the fabric and causing it to dig painfully into the skin on the back of his neck as he struggled.
"Thought you could run did you coward?" He demanded. "Some Shield agent you'd make. You fix my phone right now or else."
"No," he spat back, glaring defiantly.
He was not a coward and Tom didn't deserve a working cell phone. The jerk.
His stubborn reply enraged his attacker who wrestled away his device from him roughly, hurting Fitz's wrist by twisting it around when he tried to resist.
Tom then took the device, threw it onto the ground and stomped on it with a loud crack.
"Hey! Don't!" Fitz protested but he pushed him down as he tried to stop him from continuing to crush it with his foot.
There were several people who walked by and some stared but no one did anything. No one cared.
Fitz was silent, his stomach filled with cold rocks as he watched his work be destroyed after falling on his butt in front of everyone.
When it was over no one helped him pick up the pieces, no one asked if he was alright. It didn't matter to them what happened to him. He was a nobody.
He should have gone back to his dorm, it was late, but he didn't want to sleep, he wanted to fix his device. He'd named it the Silencer before Tom had crushed the life out of it. It was his Silencer and he wanted it back in one piece.
So he made his way to the lab, because he still had the key in his pocket, and set on fixing it.
It took a few hours of toying with it and digging up spare parts from the supply closet but he managed to get it working again. He tested it out on his own cell phone, signal off, signal on. It worked both ways and if that brute hadn't smashed it he would have turned his back on. Fat chance of that now.
Not that he couldn't probably get it fixed anyway. Tom was an inorganic chemistry student but he had a few friends in engineering. People liked Tom, they cared what happened to him.
No one cared what happened to Fitz, no one in the whole damn country, the whole stupid continent cared about him.
His eyes stung as he moved on to another project, keeping himself busy because he wouldn't have been able to sleep even if he wanted to.
He rubbed them harshly, refusing to let himself cry. Tom was wrong he wasn't a weakling, he wasn't a coward. He just wanted someone to see him, to like him and to actually be happy when they ran into him or to -crazy thought- even invite him to come to the dumb festival with them.
Anyone really, he wasn't going to be choosy. Was that really such a huge request? He only wanted someone to be his friend.
/-/-/
"There's nothing," Leo exclaimed angrily, kicking a charred seat. "It's all burnt to a crisp. Not one of Donnie's powers by the way," he added, glancing meaningfully her way.
"Fitz there's footage of him getting onto the train with the other two," she reminded him gently, his unhappiness shooting a pang of sorrow through her heart. "He was here."
"But he didn't do this," Leo asserted gesturing to their surroundings with his arms.
"No, probably not," she conceded. "But he-"
"I know, I know," Leo muttered. "He was here. That doesn't mean he meant for anyone to get hurt... It doesn't mean any of them did. What's going to happen when we catch them?"
"We need to catch them-" she insisted.
"I know that!" He hissed, making her flinch in surprise but he softened instantly. "I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm sorry Jemma this isn't your fault... That wasn't... I know. I'll do my job, I just wish I didn't have to."
She'd been ready to snap back at him about... Actually most of what he had just said but he had apologized and now he was hunched over, sad and defeated and still her darling however much she tried not to think of him that way while they were working. He was her darling and he was distressed and hurt and looking as if he was seeing all that was wrong in the world all at once.
What was the point of ignoring that? She wouldn't have before, as his partner and his friend so why do it now?
"Leo we're going to make this right," she told him firmly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "That's what we do, we're Shield, we protect people and that includes Donnie. No one wants to hurt him."
"I think he's hurt anyway," Leo said softly but he smiled at her. "You always did know what to say," he murmured touching her face for just a moment, his eyes filled with a pure, undefined love.
"That's because I listen," she smiled back, mirroring that love.
/-/-/
May 31, 2006
Fitz and Simmons were at the flower festival, (Simmons had suggested they go, bribed him with an ice cream cone actually) discussing possible applications of the surface tension of water. He had finished his ice cream and was licking the chocolate off his fingers as Simmons handed him a napkin, shooting him a disapproving look concerning his poor manners.
"All I'm saying is that if bugs can walk on water, we could certainly invent a tiny robot that could-" he was telling her but she'd spotted a distraction and interrupted him.
"Oh look Fitz, a bouncy castle! Can we go in?" Simmons exclaimed before realizing what she had said and turning slightly pink around her cheeks. "Umm... That is... I mean I used to love those when I was a child," she said quickly. "You could just bounce and bounce away all your worries and..."
Bouncing away worries, that sounded pretty good just then. With all his projects and exams he had so many fears nagging him like chattering ghosts circling his head that he doubted if he could bounce them all away but he could certainly try. He had no reason not to...
Except for the fact that everyone already treated him like he was about ten years younger than he was and he fit in with the other students as well as a left hand in a right handed glove. What if someone saw?
"Simmons I think we're a little old for this don't you?" He asked, raising his eyebrows at her almost scoldingly.
She was silent for a few seconds, staring at the bouncy castle. Then she glanced around nervously, looked back at the bouncy castle and seemed to come to a decision.
Slipping off her shoes so that her white socks touched the grass, she turned to him and told him, "I'm doing it."
"Simmons," he called after her, half amused half afraid someone would see her. "I'm not going in there."
"Suit yourself," she shrugged, and he saw her through the screening beginnng to bounce with a thump, thump thump. "I. Think. I'm. Burning. Out." She announced, each word coming on a bounce.
"What? That's ridiculous," he argued.
Simmons burn out? She was the smartest person in the whole academy. If she was failing everyone else was in serious trouble.
"What did you say?" She shouted through the fabric door and over the sound of her bouncing.
"I said-" he began.
"What?" She shouted again.
"Oh the hell with it," he grumbled, giving up and kicking off his shoes so he could climb in after her.
"Fitz! So nice of you to join me," she smiled and he wondered if this whole 'I can't hear you' business had been an act to draw him in. Maybe not, deceit wasn't really her strength.
Her bouncing was sending waves across the ground, setting him off balance and he struggled not to fall on his butt.
"You need to bounce," she instructed. "Or you'll fall over."
"Fine," he conceded.
Why not? He was in here already, the damage was done. He only hoped no one was watching.
He began to hop up and down, feeding off of Simmons' bounces and fueling hers so that they were hopping around like a pair of grasshoppers and if Fitz was honest with himself he was enjoying it.
He was enjoying the way his stomach dropped as he sprung into the air, suspended for a moment before landing on a wave from Simmons which catapulted him back up again. It made him feel like he was ten years younger but not in the embarrassing, too young to do anything way the other students made him feel but in the boundary-less, excited for life way he saw Simmons display all the time. He could do anything and right now he wanted to bounce like he'd landed on the moon.
"What's this about you burning out?" He demanded, sobering a little as he remembered her comment. "Who's been telling you this nonsense?"
"I had my psychological evaluation yesterday," she informed him, jumping away and not meeting his eyes.
Oh, that. Suddenly he was back from the moon. He hadn't done as well as he'd thought on the evaluation but he didn't see what Simmons was getting so worked up about. She was the perfect Shield agent, even brave enough to want to work in the field someday.
"Apparently. I don't. Lie. Well. Enough." She bounced miserably. "I'd. Make. A poor. Choice. For. Employment. In the. Field."
That evaluation must be a sham, Simmons was ready for anything. So what if she couldn't lie? She was a scientist not a specialist. She'd be examining alien parts or superhero bodies... Er... Their powers.
Poor Simmons, she must be crushed they'd say something so negative about her. In the time he'd known her he'd gotten the sense she had a hard time when she didn't meet people's expectations.
He didn't have any compulsive need to meet anyone's expectations and even he'd taken his results poorly. The truth in them had stung.
"At least. You're not. A coward," he pounded with his feet on the bouncy castle floor.
"What are you talking about?" She scoffed. "You aren't a coward, that's ridiculous! Who said that?" She leapt back over to him, eyes narrowed and challenging his imaginary attacker.
"The people who did my evaluation," he told her.
They hadn't said that exactly. Their exact words had been 'Demonstrates apprehension when asked about field work. Employment in field not recommend,' and they had been written not spoken however he'd read the accusation behind them. 'He isn't brave enough to be an agent, unless we keep him tucked away in a lab somewhere. Leo Fitz is a coward, too scared to do anything really risky.'
"Bloody morons," Simmons swore and he snapped his head up to face her in surprise. He'd never heard her insult anyone of authority and here she was doing it in his defense.
It was the first time he'd thought that maybe she loved him. Not love like I want to kiss you until my lips fall off or I want you to be my honey but love like he was a friend. A good friend, the kind you stood up for. The kind you maybe tricked into going into bouncy castles with you to confess your fears to.
"Damn stupid blind idiots!" He shouted and her eyes grew round before a smile crept onto her face and she giggled.
This confession thing was working out pretty well, he was less stressed already. He wanted to do more.
"I zone out. During the history. Of Shield," he hopped. "I am. So bored in. That class. I'm actually worried. I'll fail. Of boredom."
She laughed and he didn't tell her he was only halfway joking.
"I fell. Asleep. In Mr. Vaughn's. Class," she shot back and now it was his turn to laugh because she actually appeared guilty about it.
"You and. Everyone. Else," he assured her and she grinned at him.
"I actually was wondering if I could borrow your notes from last week," she requested.
"Didn't I just tell you I was asleep?" He teased and she rolled her eyes at him.
"Poor silly Fitz," she chuckled affectionately, her face lit with delight as her hair bounced around it.
She seemed so happy in that moment and it made his heart fill with joy to see her smile stretch from one ear to the other. It was then that he realized he loved her too. She was his someone, his someone to stand with him so he didn't have to face the hard things in life alone. And he wouldn't have chosen anyone else.
/-/-/
Thanks for all the likes, follows, reads and reviews! You are all hoppin' good!
The Fringe reference is the wagon hiding at the carnival. In One Night in October a boy hides under a wagon at a fall carnival from his abusive father. His father finds him and in our universe he manages to get away and finds a nice woman who adopts him. In the other universe, however, he doesn't get away and his father beats him up. That night sets them on very different paths to become very different people.
I feel like the superhuman team is feeling a bit like X-men haha, but that's fine right?
So this had been Chapter of Flashbacks. I think this is it for a while on those but I could be wrong. I will probably do more Donnie ones.
Oh ya! Leopold is a great name. It means brave person and reminds me of Koromon (Digimon) which means brave little warrior.