Author's note

Some lines are taken from episode 7 'The Hub'

Chapter 13

"Are you ever going to tell me what's going on?" May asked Coulson once the three of them were in an elevator alone.

"What do you mean?" Coulson asked in reply, knowing what she was talking about but trying to pretend he didn't.

"I mean," she started, turning to look him in the eye. "That the little meeting down there in the lobby was clearly not the accident you are trying to play it off as. You played it well, even I couldn't actually tell that you were expecting it, but it's too much of a coincidence. The two of you have a private meeting with Fury and Hill and then not even two weeks later we run into Barton and Romanoff. There's clearly something more going on here. And I don't like being left out of the loop."

"You're right," Coulson responded. He wasn't going to tell her anything right now, but he wasn't going to try and play her for a fool either. Melinda May was far too smart for that. "There is something going on, but we can't tell you yet. We-"

"Why can Ward know and not me?" she demanded. She didn't want to sound petty, but she thought her and Coulson were closer than this. She thought she would be the one he confided in, not the younger specialist.

"Ward knew before me. It's a situation he brought to me and that's all I will say on the matter for now. We will tell you, we will bring you in on this. But for right now, I need for you to trust us. To trust me, when I say I can't tell you anything right now. And I will as soon as I can."

May stared at him carefully, before turning to Ward who was watching the play between them closely. "How about you? Can you tell me?"

"Not at this time," Ward replied, his stoic specialist mask firmly in place. She knew that there was no way she would get any answers out of him if he didn't want to give them, there was a reason he was so good at his job.

"Fine," she replied, turning away from the two men. If it was anyone else she probably wouldn't care that they were keeping secrets, but she didn't like Phil keeping things from her.

The meeting with Hand was going as expected until she said that they needed someone who could disarm the device on the spot with no specs. It took Ward a few moments to realise who she might mean and he couldn't stop the expression on his face, he just barely managed to stop an eye roll.

"Do you mean-"

"I think she does," Coulson said, turning to also look at Agent Hand.

"Agent Fitz," Hand said. "He's the best there is; he's what we need for this. And we need you to get him in and out Agent Ward."

Ward just stared at her for a few moments. Why did things like this have to happen to him. He was going to have to take his surrogate little sister's best friend into dangerous territory and protect him. He liked Fitz, truly he did. He was like an annoying little brother himself. But the engineer just had a way of wearing on his patience, and now he was going to be responsible for him. This was just great.

"Sure. Of course," he said in reply, keeping the rest of his thoughts to himself. He could do this. And Fitz wasn't as incompetent as when they first met. They could do this.

A little while later, watching Fitz – genius-IQ-Fitz – being outsmarted by a door, Ward was rethinking that statement. He really didn't know if they could do this.

"Seriously?" he asked Coulson with raised eyebrows, before shaking his head. This was not going to go well. The only plus side to this whole mission that he could think of was that he could avoid having that talk with Skye about having Romanoff as a trainer.

"You know I will do everything I can to protect him, right?" Ward asked Simmons quietly as he stepped up beside where she was watching Fitz get ready for their mission.

He had been shocked when he found out the young engineer was going to be accompanying him for the mission. He was still a little wary, but he knew when it came to the device, Fitz would be the best man for the job. That didn't stop him from being concerned about going into dangerous territory with an untrained man though. Especially an untrained man that was important to his surrogate little sister.

"I know," she replied with a smile, leaning her head against his shoulder and wrapping her arm around his waist. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a one armed hug.

"And I will make sure he gets back to you, I promise."

"I know that too." Simmons turned her head so she could look at Ward's face. "And I know that a promise from my big brother means something. But you better not do anything stupid to make sure he gets back here. I expect you to come home with him. No sacrificing yourself," she said sternly.

He smiled softly at her. "I won't do anything that isn't absolutely necessary," he responded. "Now it looks like he could use a hand and I need to go and finish getting ready. I'll see you before we leave." With that he gave her a quick squeeze around the shoulders and then quickly walked away.

Simmons watched him walk away then entered the room where Fitz was. He heard her coming in and looked up, offering her a small smile.

"Are you and Ward together?" Fitz blurted out suddenly. He had been trying not to say anything but something had changed between the two in the past few days and he just couldn't stop himself from asking.

"What? No! What are you talking about? Why would you even ask that?" Simmons sputtered. How could Fitz think that?

"Well it's just that you've been spending a lot of time together since you jumped and something seems to have changed between you and-"

"Yes things have changed between us, of course they have! He saved my life and we were alone in the middle of the ocean together for hours! But not like that! He is like my big brother and he thinks of me like a little sister! Not like whatever it is you are thinking!" Simmons stated indignantly.

"Oh. I guess that makes sense. But you have to be able to see that that isn't how it looks from the outside. And I don't think I'm the only one who thinks so either. I think maybe that's why Skye was so-"

"Oh no," Simmons moaned, interrupting. "Oh no, oh no, oh no. That's why she was… she thinks… oh goodness. This is not good. I have to go, Fitz, I will be back soon."

With that she took off running before he could respond, leaving the engineer feeling very confused. But at least Ward and Simmons weren't dating, so that was a plus. He was still curious though, so he followed after Simmons to see where she was running off to.