It's business, it's business time! I know what you're trying to say, You're trying to say it's time for business - it's business time, Ooh!

Dalia and Bruce couldn't stop gazing at each other. He would be working, tapping images and opening sources on the clear touch screen monitor, then suddenly, he'd lose concentration and start staring at Dalia. She would be across the room, either small talking with Joey, or reading up on the results that Bruce had found on a tablet, when she'd feel his stare and meet his charcoal eyes with her hazelnut ones. Then came the love struck smiles and faint giggles.

"You guys have to stop this!"

They both turned to Joey. He had been so quiet throughout the whole time that his sudden outburst was startling. "You're actin' like high scholars!" Suddenly realizing his temper, he softened his tone, bashfully. They were not acquainted enough yet, to be yelling like such. "What if Fury came by and saw you two makin' googly-eyes at each other?"

"Googly-eyes...?" Dalia tried to stifle her laughter but Bruce just rearranged his glasses and set his eyes back down to the work on his desk. She turned back to her tablet and after a moment, smiled to herself.

That was their first kiss. It had only lasted a couple of seconds before she was well aware of her actions and released the hold she had on his purple shirt to pull away. The room had, once again, filled with an awkward silence. Joey scrambled off to the side, beat red, the moment Dalia latched onto Bruce and continued to stare at the metal wall, as if it contained the most interesting artifact he had ever seen. The two stared at each other, completely stunned, but then Bruce's lips twitched into a shy smile. He pulled her back to him and bent his head to place a small peck on her lips.

Suddenly, a loud buzzing and vibration broke Dalia from her thoughts. At the same moment Joey pulled a pager from his back pocket. Following him, she reached into her own pocket and produced her own pager. A message read: "Agent Hayward- Report to the training floor immediately."

"Did you get the same message?" Joey nodded without even looking up from his pager, knowing what was coming next.

"I'll see you later."

"I'll be...here." Bruce assured her, laughing. "They won't be asking me to perform any heroic tasks anytime soon."

Dalia took his hand and squeezed it, leaning up to kiss his cheek. He moved his head away, grinning at her puzzled expression. She thought she was being rejected. Tightening his grip on her hand, he blurted: "We're back to that, are we?" making Dalias eyebrows shoot up as she smirked back at her lover, understanding why he moved.

Bruce bent down and softly pressed his lips to hers, weaving his hand through her hair. In return, she pulled him even closer, arms going around his neck.

And poor Joey stood awkwardly at the doorway, looking everywhere but at the couple.

"..This is new."

The training room had equipment ranging from tire tracks, ropes, and punching bags to shooting ranges, with moving targets, and spike pits. Joey raced over to the weights and instantly set his sights on a 100 pound dumbbell. "Hey, 'Lia! Watch this."

Dalia shook her head. 'What a child...'

Joey grabbed the metal bar and tugged upward, grunting. It didn't even budge. He tried again, shifting his position.

"Joey! You'll break your back! Head up, head up!" Dalia cried, rushing over to him.

Popping noises echoed the room as Joeys joints cracked, as well as his grunting and groaning. Dalia threw her hands up in the air, "Spread your legs!" He squeezed his eyes shut, sweat pouring from his forehead. "I'm tryin'!"

Maria Hill had only just arrived to greet them but stood outside, shocked at what she had heard from the open crack of the metal doors.

"Don't stop breathing! Continue breathing! Joey-"

The metal doors opened and Maria stepped in, deciding to intervene, but what she witnessed was not the foolish scenario she had imagined up in the heat of the moment.
Instead, she found a very flushed and clammy Agent Adams on the floor, being pinned down underneath the bar of a 100 pound weight. Dalia stood over him, pulling on her locks of hair in anxiety.

"Adams. What are you doing?" She snapped.

He jerked at the sound of her voice and bumped the bar, making it shift and screech across the floor a little ways.

"Maria, hello!" Dalia stepped in front of him and smiled at the older woman.

"Adams, get off the floor and act your age." She continued to snap, craning her neck around Dalia to shoot daggers at him through her eyes. Clearing her throat slightly, she switched to a more pleasant tone, "Hello Dalia. Welcome back to the operation."

Dalia was about to once again, enforce that she wasn't staying but Maria cut to the chase.

"It has come to the conclusion that you two will be working together on this mission."

"What!?" Both the agents exclaimed. One of disdain and the other of regard.

Joey had just finished squirming out from under the dumbbell and stood up, only to trip over it and fall back down on the floor, earning a loud smack.

Ignoring him, Maria proceeded to explain, "Adams is new but he knows his way around. He's useful with more of the hands-on jobs, He may not look it, but he's a fine handyman."

'Who can't even lift a dumbbell?' Dalia questioned, silently. How, oh, how did he even get a position at SHIELD?

"Hayward, on the other hand, has only just returned, but she has good tactics and strategies. We felt you would complement each other. And I quote, from one of the agents, "It's a perfect partnership."

Dalia reluctantly glanced at her new partner. She knew better then to argue, though it looked like Joey was having a hard time keeping his mouth shut. Anyone who has encouraged people to ask more questions had clearly never given orders to Joey.

"Am I understood?"

"This'll be fun..." She murmured.

'It's fine. This will be over soon enough. I'll only have to bear with it for a few more weeks and I'll be back in Calcutta with Bruce.' She kept telling herself. Sometimes SHIELD missions would take months to accomplish. This would not be one of them. She was sure of it.

I'm kind of running low on ideas for this story. I have a general idea of how it's going to turn out and how she is introduced to Loki, but other than that, I'm sunk. Any suggestions would be welcome!