*Author's Note*

Thank you for the faves, follows, and reviews.

I hope everyone is having a Happy Holiday Season. Happy New Year!

You Do Work, I'll Do School, And…

Gem POV:

"I'm not going here, Uncle Rocco." I told my uncle as we walked around the Hudson U. campus behind our tour guide, some sophomore that was too cheerful to be a true New Yorker. She had to be a transplant.

"Cause your soulmate doesn't like it or you don't like it?" He asked drly, giving me a curious look, as our tour guide pointed out something that we could care less about. Was it a dorm building or a library? I dunno.

"Both." I honestly told my uncle.

"So, out of all of these schools we've visiting on this trip how many do you two agree on?" He asked as we started to slow down in our walk, causing our guide and the rest of our group to fly past us.

"Six."

"What six, cause I'm not wasting my time going on campus tours of places you're not even considering anymore."

"You mean we don't have to do every tour for every college I applied to?" I asked, a bit surprised that my uncle wasn't going to make me visit every single college I sent an application and essay to.

"No, now tell me where we're going so we can get out of this shithole." MY uncle told me before looking around and muttering, "I swear, too many jerkoffs and sluts running around this campus to make me comfortable with you being here.", as students milled around us as they went about their day.

"First, we gotta go to Elmira, upstate, and then Penn State. Oh, there's also Johnson and Wales in Rhode Island too. I also have Culver in Willowdale, Virginia on my list along with Tulane, in New Orleans and San Diego State in California."

Clasping me on the back, my uncle grinned, "Okay, let's hit up those six and make one hell of a road trip out of it, Tesoro."

"Okay, let's go, Uncle Rocco." I nodded, causing my uncle to usher us away from our tour group and towards the direct the parking lot was in.

The campus at Elmira was beautiful and reminded me of something out of an old English novel, but it just didn't feel like a place I wanted to spend the next 4-years at. Yes, my tour guide and the few faculty members I meet were nice, but for some reason my heart just wasn't with Elmira College. That fact made my uncle sigh and sag his shoulders since he would've preferred me close to home. The next college we toured was Penn State. The small college town of Happy Valley took my breath away. It was quaint in a northen country charm type of way. There was even an ice creamery there too. The college campus was large and beautiful. The large Nittany Lion statue in the courtyard was very cool. Penn State was definitely somewhere that I could see myself. Once we were done with Penn State, we went to the tiny state of Rhode Island to check out Johnson and Wales. Unfortunately, I liked the college better in the pamphlets then I did in person. Yes, the college looked nice, but it just felt a bit too small and constricted to me. I mean the dorm buildings looked very small and I didn't want to be crammed into a room with 4 girls. I was fine with a roommate, not three of 'em. So, yea, I crossed that college off of my list.

Currently, we were in Willowdale, Virginia taking the Culver University campus tour. We were in a small group (It was just twins and their parents with me and Uncle Rocco) and our tour guy was some Junior that looked like a baby Rick Moranis. He was going on and on about how the college was well known for academics and how scientific breakthroughs along with legal and human rights crusaders emerged from the school. I was taking in the beautiful scenery of the college whenever a girl my age strode up to me and my uncle. "Sup, my dudette. You thinking about coming here?"

"Yea, I am." I nodded with a polite smile on my face while my uncle just looked at this girl like she was nuts. I mean she was wearing a I'm Cute But Pyscho Happy Bunny shirt over a turtleneck so I couldn't really blame him.

"You know some super-secret government SHIELD agents were here a few weeks back. Surrounded the science building; when they left they took Bruce, well Dr. Banner but since my mom's a professor here I know him and call him Bruce, away too cause of his research." The darkhaired girl in a burgundy beanie and thick framed classes told me in a very informative, but also casual way.

"SHIELD was here?" I asked, feeling a jolt of hope shoot thru me. At hearing the word SHIELD, I felt as if it was familiar. With my soulmate bond I knew it was possible that I felt familiar with the word cause of Brock. He knew it well, meaning I got a sense of familiarity with it. I knew from my AP Gov. class that SHIELD was a top-secret government security agency that had only the best of the best agents in it. That SHIELD took care of world, not just national, security and it was founded by Peggy Carter and Howard Stark while they were searching for Captain America after he crashed a plane into the Northern Atlantic. I could just feel it in my soul (yea, corny, right?) that Brock was in SHIELD. Everything he told me about his dangerous job (that he was praying would wrap up soon) pointed to SHIELD.

"Oh, Jesus H. Christ, she's gonna want to go here." Uncle Rocco grumbled under his breath, having come to the same conclusion I had about Brock and SHIELD.

"Yea, they were." The girl next to me confirmed with a nod. "This grumpy jack-boot thug told me and my soulmate to leave the science building when we asked what was happening. He totally interrupted our lover's spat about my mom's drinking and thinking that Billy's a total Dorian Gray creeper too."

"Jack-boot thug?" I asked, my face skewed up in confused. What was she talking about?

"You know, a guy that's jacked and looked like he can kill you in 2.5 seconds with his bare hands. Wears tactical clothes." Dacy explained in a 'you know what I'm taling about' tone before quickly adding in, "Jack-boot thugs are cool tho. My soulmate, Billy, is one. He's station in an undisclosed area in the Middle East's desert doing some super special Marine work."

"Hmm, bet he's in a death squad." Uncle Rocce remaked to me under his breath.

"Uncle Rocco! Don't say that…" I hissed while giving him a mean side-eye.

"What? Usually, super special work means death squad or extralegal or at least it did when your uncles were in Nam."

"Oh, how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself, like such a silly dumb-dumb." Holding her handout for a shake, she smiled, "I'm Darcy Lewis."

"Gem Rizzo-Schulze." I smiled, shaking her hand. Hitching a thumb over my shoulder, I added in, "And that's my Uncle Rocco."

Looking at my uncle, Darcy blurted out, "You look like Sonny Corrinthos. Are you in the mob too?"

"You can say I'm a personal mechanic for Don Salieri back in Bensonhurst." My uncle said as a way to avoid confirming or denying his role in the mob.

"Yep. Totally in the mob. I know what a mechanic is, my dude. I watch movies, you know." Darcy rambled, causing my uncle to shake his head. Turning her attention back to me, she said, "You should totes come here tho. It's a great school." With a smile, she added in, "I'll add you on Facebook, my dudette. Bye.", before skipping off towards the area that our guide had said the faculty housing was at.

"We're not finishing our road trip. You're going here cause SHIELD made an appearance, aren't you?"

"Yea, I wanna go here, but not just because of SHIELD."

"But that's a big part of it, huh?" My uncle knowingly asked.

"Yea, it is." I nodded.

"Well, let's finish up this tour and then buy you some sweatshirts and souvenirs from the bookstore." Uncle Rocco sighed before trudging off to catch up with our tour group. I didn't say a word, just smiled and quickly joined my uncle in the search for our tour group.

Me and Uncle Rocco decided to stay a few more days in Willowdale, which meant that we had to check into a hotel. The only one with vacancy was one that gave off some real serious Bates Hotel vibes. I must've been a little freaked out cause the next thing I know is that I'm sitting in the hotel room, while Uncle Rocco was down the street getting something some a diner, with Brock's worried voice popping into my head with, "What's wrong, baby?"

"Nothing, I'm just alone in a very Norman Bates-y hotel in Willowdale while Uncle Rocco's out getting us some food." I answered Brock, instantly feelings a bit better that he reached out to me when he sensed my iffy mood.

"Oh, yea, you're on your college tour road trip."

"Yea, but it's wrapping up a bit early."

"Why, you decided where you're going already?" Brock asked me as some commercial for some chicken place I've never heard off appeared in the tv.

"Yep." I mentally popped my tongue. "I've decided on Culver."

"That's good, baby. Culver's a good school for Poli Sci; you'll like it there." Brock replied in a very supportive tone.

"It's also close to you too." I boldly added in.

"Gem…" He sighed mentally sighed out in a low, but weak toned warning.

"I want to see you Brock" I revealed, causing me to feel tension rolling off of him thru our bond. Before he could even start one of his 'no' lecture, I told him, "And before you say no, just listen. We don't have to meet in Norfolk or DC, we can meet here in Willowdale. Nobody from SHIELD'll figure it out either since there's hundreds of people here for University tours and stuff."

"No and how did you find out about SHIELD? I thought I told you not to google me."

"I didn't google you. Some girl talked to me and told me about how some government agency called SHIELD was here earlier to lock down the science department. I figured out you work for SHIELD cause the name instantly felt familiar; I just put two and two together that it felt familiar cause of you."

"SHIELD's not what it seems, baby. I can't have you near it." He firmly told me in a dead set tone. "Not until I'm done with my risky work." My soulmate added in as an afterthought.

"When will you be done, Brock? Cause I don't wanna be alone just waiting on you forever."

"I don't know, baby. I really don't, but you're not alone. We've got the bond."

"I know we've got the bond, but when I see happy couples together, I want that too."

"Well, you can't have that right now cause my job's dangerous."

"When can I have that, Brock? Hmm?" I snapped since I truly was tired of this cat and mouse game with him. I just wanted a normal soulmate relationship.

"I told you, I don't know. I got put on a risky long-term job before our bond formed; I can't ust up and quit to be with you. I got to make a fucking living you know."

I nodded my head even tho he was miles away and couldn't see me. Letting out a sigh, I sadly told him, "Maybe I should leave you to your important and risky long-term job for a while and just, I dunno, see what's out there."

"What?" He gasped thru our bond, sounding as if he'd just had the wind knocked out of him.

"Your job's clearly more important to you then me, so I'll stop pestering you to be with me. You do work, I'll do school, and…" I told him, my mental voice trailing off and cracking up at the end of my heavily weighted words.

"Fuck, you trying to tell me that you wanna see somebody that ain't me?" Brock bitterly asked me.

"No, I'm not saying that."

"No, but you're implying it."

"Don't be a jealous hypocrite, Brock. Only one of us here's a virgin and last I checked it wasn't you." I spat instinctively before I could even think better of it.

I could feel Brock seething thru our bond at my words. "Fine, do whatever the fuck you want. Just know that I'm not sealing off the bond with you; I'm gonna stay in regular contact. Okay?"

"Okay." I told him before closing off the bond.

I've heard that breaking up or fighting with your soulmate hurts, but I didn't expect it to hurt this much. God, it felt like somebody had torn a hole in my chest or squeezed my lungs so tight that I could barely breathe. The ache I felt was awful.

But what was more awful than the ache I felt post-soulmate fight was the endless loop of Chicago's Hard To Say I'm Sorry that played in my head due to Brock sulking and listening to a popular '70's soft rock ballad (that was very breakup/makeup-ish).

Oh god…what's taking Uncle Rocco so long to get our food? He didn't run out on me to do an impromptu job, did he? Shit, I hope he didn't.

AN:

This was a filler chapter, but I hope you guys liked it. It just sets up for some future events. In the next chapter we'll have a time jump to Gem's prom, graduation, and early summer semester move to Culver. YAY! Don't worry, only a few more slowburn chapters until Brock and Gem actually meet.