Simmons made Fitz wait on the shore near the door while she went to get the key. He was still choking a bit on all the water he'd swallowed and besides, she was the stronger swimmer.

Diving down she felt her ears pop and shook her head uncomfortably. Everything was so blurry, she wished she had goggles. Lungs burning she fumbled around for the key and managed to grab it before she was forced to spring off the bottom of the pool and rush to the surface for a breath of air.

Fitz applauded when she held up the key and she swam back to him, happy he was with her. They should have tried this ages ago. As far as she remembered there was nothing in the rules against it (they would have been disqualified by now if there was) and, although the perch in the tower offered genuine advantage, it was nothing compared to what she knew they could do working together on the ground.

There were two doors at the end of the room. Fitz had gotten the tablet soaked jumping into the pool so they were traveling blind now but he swore he remembered that it was the door on the left they needed to go through and she was trusting him to be right.

"Ready to go partner?" she asked playfully as she swung her backpack back on. His lay uselessly on the ground. There was nothing in it they needed and so no point in lugging it with them.

"Ready," he smiled up at her but she saw him wince as he stood and put weight on his left foot.

"Let me take a look at that," she instructed, feeling a hard knot of dread form in her stomach. If he couldn't walk they were in trouble.

He sat back down and she examined his ankle. It was swollen and red but it didn't seem to be broken, just sprained.

"Ow, ow, ow," he complained, pulling away when she touched it.

"How did this happen?" she wondered. searching her bag for a first aid kit.

"I jumped into the pit," he mumbled, rubbing his leg above the swelling.

She froze and stared at him incredulously. "You could have broken your neck!" she exclaimed furiously, "Why in the world would you do that?"

"I thought you were drowning in case you've forgotten," he reminded her hotly.

He had a fair point there. She tried to imagine what it would be like the other way around, seeing him disappear under the water and having the coms go dead. Her anger evaporated.

"How did you get out with your ankle hurt like that?" she inquired more gently, finding the first aid kit and taking out a long piece of gauze to wrap his ankle with so it wouldn't move around too much.

He seemed baffled by her question. "I don't know," he said, staring into the distance, "It all happened very quickly but I don't really remember it hurting until just a minute ago."

That would be the adrenaline she guessed. She must have really given him a scare.

"We need to communicate better," she told him and herself.

"That'd be nice," he agreed, flinching as she wrapped his ankle in the gauze.

"Both of us," she added sternly, thinking of the ledge.

He must have been thinking of it too because his face turned suddenly serious and he nodded. "I promise," he vowed, holding out his fist.

"I promise too," she swore, placing her hand over it after she finished with his foot.

She debated giving him some of the painkillers but decided against it. It was better for it to hurt a little bit. The pain would stop him from hopping around on it and damaging it more as he probably did climbing that wall.

"Do you still want to do this?" she asked, kneeling in front of him and looking him in the eyes. "Because we can stop now-"

"No!" he interjected, the determination in his voice clear. "We're winning this year. I don't care if Jack and Sam are our friends now, we're still kicking their butts for that twizzlers trap."

Simmons felt a grin stretch across her face. That was the Fitz she knew, her tireless Jack Russell terrier. They could still win this if they worked as a team.

"FitzSimmons rules," she cheered and they punched the air together.

Fitz leaned slightly on Simmons on the way to the door and on the concrete wall as she inserted the key and unlocked it.

"What's behind door number three?" he joked.

"A bag of twizzlers probably," she teased.

"Let's hope not," he said half seriously. The last thing they needed was another damn trap. Simmons might trust Jack and Sam to play fair but he wasn't so sure. He didn't really think they were dangerous but the pair had a mischievous air about them and it wouldn't surprise him if they decided to break the rules.

The scene on the other side of the door confused them at first.

The room looked like a roofless play room with a padded green floor that had a blue strip running across the middle, crossing their path to the door. On their side there were three toys; a stuffed wolf, a stuffed sheep, a stuffed carrot and a toy boat.

"It's the river game," Simmons realized first.

Fitz felt himself relax. It was a puzzle. There was no need to for him to struggle along in this room, he simply had use his brain. The puzzle wasn't even difficult. He and Simmons had solved it plenty of times before, more difficult versions too. 'Probably meant to trip up Operations students,' he thought smugly.

"Aren't you clever," came a voice from the side of the room and they jumped but it was only the judge. "Did you think we'd just take you're word that you solved it?" she chuckled at their reaction. "You move all the plushies across to get the key from me, but there are rules. You can't-"

"Leave the wolf with the sheep or he'll eat it," Simmons began.

"Or the sheep with the carrots," Fitz finished. "Because he'll gobble them up."

"Why are there two of you?" she asked, looking slightly annoyed at their interruption.

"You're coms are defective," Fitz explained.

"You really should make them waterproof," Simmons concurred.

"I could fix them after if you want," Fitz offered good naturedly. They hadn't meant to interrupt her like that, they'd just gotten a bit excited.

"That's cute," she said but she didn't really sound like she thought they were cute, "you kids are adorable." she returned to her post mumbling something about Science and Technology gibberish and how she wished their school would teach them some respect for their superiors.

"You know we can hear you," Fitz called after her but she ignored him.

He exchanged a glance with Simmons who shook her head disapprovingly.

"Let's just solve this so we can leave," she whispered.

"Agreed," he whispered back.

They did so in the minimum number of moves possible and sauntered proudly up to the judge to receive their key.

She looked unimpressed as she handed it to them.

"A congratulations would have been nice," Simmons muttered to Fitz as they headed for the forth door and he nodded in agreement.

"Hey Simmons!" came a jolly voice from the other door.

It was Sam.

Simmons waved cheerfully at him but tugged on Fitz's sleeve and said quietly, "We'd better hurry and get ahead of him."

"It'll probably take him forever to solve the puzzle," Fitz guessed in a hushed voice.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Simmons disagreed in a whisper.

He tilted his head questioningly at her but before she could explain Sam shouted excitedly from across the room.

"Yeah Jack, it's the river game." he chirped but he wasn't talking into a coms device. He was chatting with a small, insect-like drone that buzzed around his head like a tail wagging puppy.

"What is that?" Fitz marveled taking a step forward and stumbling when pain shot up his left leg.

"Fitz we have to go," Simmons insisted, catching him and pulling him back up.

He widened his eyes pleadingly at her, letting her know that he wanted very much to go see what it was.

"After the competition," she promised and he pouted at her even though he knew she was right.

Sam must have seen him staring though because he whispered something to the drone which flew over and hovered in front of them.

"Hey Fitz," Jack's bubbly voice greeted through the bug. "Hi Simmons."

"Hello," they said waving.

"Can you see us?" Fitz asked. Where was the camera? Was it in the eyes of the bug? No that would be far too obvious. How had he gotten it to buzz around like that with those tiny wings?

"I can see you both," Jack laughed. "But you better get going before Sam solves the river game," he advised. " We've done this like a million times and this isn't even a hard version. I can show you more of Gene, that's my drone's name, later." he assured them.

He wanted to stay and ask all his questions but Simmons was pulling him away and he really did need her if he wanted to stand without hurting his foot.

There was only one door at the end of this room and she was chuckling and shaking her head at him as she inserted the key into the lock.

"Bye Jack," he called over his shoulder.

"Bye!" Jack answered before Gene zipped back to Sam.

"Sorry about that," he said to Simmons, feeling slightly embarrassed at being so easily distracted.

She beamed at him and her eyes were filled with such warmth he could feel it on his skin. "Don't be," she told him, "I'm glad you made a friend." She kissed his cheek quickly before turning the knob on the door. "C'mon, let's go win this thing."

Fun Background

Thank you to everyone who liked, read or reviewed my other stories and this one. You're all winners!

The Fringe reference in this story is that the drone's name is Gene. Gene is the name of Walter's pet cow.

The river game is actually really fun and the original is much more difficult than this. This version was simpler to explain though. haha.

The judge in the puzzle room really is a nice person, she was just in a bad mood because her boss made her volunteer for this.