Hey guys! Sorry this next chapter took so long. I had a hard time writing it, but it's finally here! I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for all the support and reviews, keep them coming!
I do not own the rights to any of the Agents of SHIELD characters. This is all simply for fun.
"What do you mean they disappeared?" Coulson yelled.
"Sir, we were talking with them, and they were inside the restaurant, we told them to hold on and that we were blowing the doors. Once we got inside, they were gone." Ward said.
"It doesn't make sense!" Skye exclaimed. "Why didn't they say anything on their earpieces?"
May stepped forward, "They were probably knocked unconscious. It's what I would do."
"Oh that's just great!" Skye yelled in frustration. "So, if it's what you would do, what would you do next?" she pointed at May, while the whole team turned towards her. She paused momentarily.
"I'd take them underground."
Skye let out an exasperated sigh, trying to release the panic and worry that was very quickly rising in her chest. Fitz and Simmons were like a brother and sister to her. The team had to save them.
"What we need, is a plan." Ward said.
"Everyone back to the BUS," Coulson said. "We need to think tactically."
Fitz didn't know how long he had been working. Time passed in bunches. There were no clocks anywhere, no windows, nothing that could indicate how much time had gone by. The only way he could guess how much time had passed, was by his lack of concentration due to no sleep. Fitz and Simmons were proficient at working through the night till they found a solution they needed. It's something they had perfected throughout the years, through the Academy. Sometimes they'd work for 72 hours straight, hyped up on caffeine, laughing hysterically at one moment, then shouting at each other the next, but they did it together. When he was on the brink of utter exhaustion, he'd get a pain on the left side of his temple, and he would know he had hit his max.
He had that pain now, and that was without any caffeine. He guessed it had been somewhere between 35-40 hours that he had been working straight.
He looked away from his tinkering, and towards one of the goons stationed by the door.
"I need to sleep," he said, matter of factly.
The goon ignored him.
"Did you hear what I said?" he said, anger rising once again, "I need to sleep."
The goon looked up from his magazine, "We ain't running no hotel here. No sleep. Get it done, then you can sleep," he said.
Fitz weighed his options. He knew he was no use once he was at this point, plus he really hoped they would let him see Simmons.
"Look," he said, "this is complicated stuff. I need a break. I'm too tired to work on it properly. Do you want me to accidentally blow up the place because I was too tired? Things like that can happen, you know," he finished, looking up towards the security camera that had been watching his every move.
The goon, whom he was going to start referring to as the Terminator, slowly picked up his phone that had started ringing, grunted, put the phone down, and looked at Fitz with an annoyed look on his face.
"Fine. You get a few hours of sleep."
Fitz wondered who was on the other line. Probably Sharon.
He walked in-between Terminator 1 and now Terminator 2 towards what he was guessing was his 'room'. It was in fact, a cell, with bars on it, and a tiny mattress with dirty sheets.
"Where's Simmons?" he asked firmly, with no response from either of them.
"Where's Simmons?" he asked again. Still no response.
"I expect to see that she's unharmed and well, otherwise my work for you is done."
They still refused to answer. It seemed that Fitz was talking to himself. He walked into his 'room,' and sat on the bed, while the goons locked him in. He leaned his head back against the concrete wall. Where are you Jemma? He thought, when he heard shuffling and the distinct sound of Jemma's voice from down the hall.
"Where are you taking me? Where's Fitz? What time is it? I demand you tell me!"
"Jemma!" Fitz yelled, jumping up from the bed, running towards the bars of his cell, pushing his arms through.
"Leo!" she said, from the other side of the bars, coming into view. She quickly grabbed his hands through the bars and brought herself as close to him as she could manage through the bars.
One of the goons unlocked the cell door and said, "she doesn't know when to shut up," and roughly pushed her inside, Fitz caught her, their bodies collided, while the goons shut them in.
"Night lovebirds," they said, while laughing chaotically and walked away.
They both collapsed on the dirty bed and held each other tightly in their days old clothes of a dress and suit, not exactly romantic like a couple days previous. Neither of them said anything. Neither of them needed to. They stayed like that, firmly gripping each other, for what felt like hours, but may have only been a few minutes. Finally, Fitz took his arms out from around Jemma, and turned her face towards him, placing the palms of his hands on either side of her face, and their eyes met.
"Are you ok Jemma? Did they touch you? Did they hurt you?" he said, while still holding her face in his hands.
Simmons looked him deep in the eyes, "I'm ok. What about you? Did they hurt you?"
"Nah, just pushing me around."
She hugged him again, and buried her face in his shoulder.
Jemma cried that night. Not loud and dramatic like one would expect, but silently, with large tears rolling down her cheeks. Fitz was amazed at how this woman in front of him could be so strong, and not be wailing like expected. They sat, propped up against the wall, holding each other as tightly as possible, his arms around her, with her curled into his side. Fitz reached his hand out, and softly wiped away the tears under her eyes, making Jemma give a small smile.
"Don't worry Jemma, we'll be ok. We're going to get out of here, I promise."
She looked back up at him and very quietly said, "Liverpool?" with a questioning look.
"Liverpool," he said in a whisper, with a nod, in case anyone was listening to their conversation, and Jemma gave a small nod. Quickly after that, they both fell asleep against one another, their body heat comforting the other.
When Fitz and Simmons met, they were both freshman at the Academy. And things started changing for Fitz. But the froshing...that was something he couldn't avoid. And it didn't even come from the science and technology division, it came from operations cadets that snuck over to trick the science cadets. The worst of it all, was that the operations cadets were never caught.
"Blast them and their bloody covert training," Fitz yelled to no one in particular as he and Simmons cleaned a murky green substance off themselves that "accidentally" happened to be sitting on top of the lab door. They couldn't even catch them on cameras, because the operations cadets already had training on how to avoid being detected. It seemed they had no way to stop them.
"Wait Fitz..." Simmons started, "what if we trick them at their own game?"
Fitz looked up from his goo soaked shirt. "What do you mean?"
"We trick them. We set a trap for them. Something they can't get out of." She said.
Fitz stared at Simmons long and hard and a grin broke out on his face. 'You Simmons, are a bloody genius," and with that Simmons broke out in a grin as well.
"We can call it project Liverpool." Fitz said with excitement.
"Why Liverpool?" Simmons asked.
"I dunno, it's the first thing I could think of."
"Ok, project Liverpool it is."
There was noise that woke Fitz and Simmons. They both slowly opened their eyes, and were startled by one of the goons watching them. He had been running a key along the bars, creating an awful noise. "Wakey, wakey," he said in a mock voice. "You," he said pointing at Fitz, "back to work you go," and opened the cell door, grabbed Fitz roughly by the arm and pulled him up. Fitz ripped his arm away, yelled at the guard to give him a minute, shook his arms out of his suit jacked and gently put it around Simmons' shoulders.
"Stay warm, and safe," he said as he lightly brushed his hands along her face, and then he was gone.
Simmons stared at where Fitz had previously stood, and touched the spot on her cheek where his hand has so tenderly touched her, and tears spilled over once again.
As far as Fitz could tell, they hadn't sensed that he was planning to trick them. Not yet anyways. There was a reason they needed him, and him in particular. What Sharon wanted, was an overkill device, like the one Fitz had managed to disable during his mission with Ward. Fitz knew how to build one, and he could have done it already, but he was putting on a show, and he wanted it to look convincing. He was building something far more exciting.
He had built this exact "bomb" before at the Academy, with Simmons. Her particular area of expertise, the human body, helped him finish it and ensure it would work properly. Thankfully he remembered all the specifications.
His mind wandered back to the academy while he was working.
"So Fitz, can you explain how this is going to work?" Simmons asked with intrigue.
"Well we know the cadets are sneaking in during the night and can't be detected, right?" Fitz asked as Simmons nodded, "well, we set up this little beauty," he pointed to the device, "near the center of the lab, where they always seem to rig something. It will be motion sensored, so if they don't strike, nothing will happen..." he paused, "but if they do, the device will let off a sound at the perfect frequency, a frequency that you concluded...will knock them out. No permanent damage will be done. But once the device goes off, it will send a message to us, where we can then prank them whichever way we like," he finished with a large grin.
Simmons nodded her head and broke out in a huge smile, "It's perfect."
They high-fived and got to work.
Simmons sat in the small cell where Fitz had left her. One of the goons was pacing outside her cell and would not stop staring at her. She felt disgusting, like she needed to take a shower from the way her was looking at her. She wrapped Fitz's suit jacket tighter around her and hoped Fitz would come back soon. She felt useless. For once, her expertise was not needed, and she was only there as a guarantee that Fitz would deliver. She didn't like it. What are you doing Leo? she thought.
Fitz knew the device was going to work, he had all the proper components to build it, and in the meantime, he disguised it by making it look more and more like the overkill device, biding his time. He had to make sure Simmons was clear on what he was building and that she knew to protect her ears when the time came, otherwise she'd be knocked out on the floor as well.
Fitz was done making the device. Now he'd truly lost track of time. All he knew, was that he needed to see Simmons again. "I need a break," he said to the goon. "You can tell your boss it's almost done. It'll be done by tomorrow. Now bring me to Jemma."
The goon picked up his phone, muttered something into it, put it down and gave Fitz a toothless grin, "You finish it now."
"Bring me to Jemma," Fitz said sternly.
"Your little girlfriend will just have to wait a little bit longer. She's keeping the guard company," he said with a disgusting chuckle.
Fitz erupted in rage, "IF YOU TOUCH HER, I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL," he shouted, then continued calmly, "Don't think I'm not capable of it. You'd be shocked to see what I can build. I can make it look as if this place never existed. Obliterated. Not a trace. I can do it, and I WILL if you touch her. Now," he paused briefly, "bring me to Jemma," he said once again.
The goons phone rang again, he picked it up and angrily muttered something into it and sighed dramatically.
"You finish the device, we'll bring your little girlfriend to you." He said angrily.
This wasn't the outcome Fitz was looking for. He needed to tell Jemma she had to cover her ears, and that she had exactly five seconds before the sound went off. But, she'd be with him, and that's all that mattered.
A few minutes later, the door opened and Jemma walked in. Fitz breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing her. She quickly walked towards him and wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could.
He pulled himself away from her to look her in the eyes, "Are you ok? Did he...did he...touch you?" Fitz asked carefully, searching her eyes for an answer.
"No..." she started. "I think he was going to try though. It's a good thing you called me when you did." She said with scared eyes.
Rage burned through Fitz and he enveloped her in his arms, and buried his face in her hair. This may have looked like a simple loving gesture, but he also did it to have a quiet conversation with her.
Face full of hair, Fitz spoke quietly and quickly in her ear. "Remember Liverpool. Five seconds, cover your ears." She gave a tiniest of nods, undetectable to the others, but Fitz could feel her move.
There was a bang and the door opened again, and Sharon strode through. "Enough of that, get back to work," she barked. "It's been too long now for this device. Finish the job."
"And what about when I finish? What happens to us?" Fitz demanded.
"We'll discuss that later," she said with a smirk.
"That's not good enough," Fitz said, as he lazily walked towards the device, and slowly moved his hand towards the switch, out of view from Sharon and her goons, but in view of Simmons, and she watched him carefully.
"I need to know, that you'll guarantee us freedom," he said, waiting for her answer.
"We'll sort out the details later, love," she said sweetly, and Fitz flicked the switch, started counting in his head, glanced over at Simmons quickly and she gave a nod.
"That's what I thought." He said simply and quickly stuck his fingers in his ears as fast as possible, and watched as Simmons did the same.
They watched as Sharon and the goons looked momentarily confused by their actions, then immediately had looks of extreme pain while trying to cover their ears. Then they all dropped to the floor.
Fitz and Simmons both unplugged their ears and turned towards each other.
"You did it!" Jemma said as she jumped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"No Jemma, we did it." He said as he looked at her adoringly, "But we have to get out of here. I don't know how long it'll last, let's go," he said as he took her hand in his, and they quickly moved towards the door.
Fitz stopped above one of the knocked out goons, sighed, and picked up a gun that was attached to his belt. He looked at it carefully, looked at Simmons and said with unsure eyes, "we might need this." Simmons nodded. She knew there could be more of them in the building. She quickly let go of his hand, ran back to the table, and grabbed a large metal pipe that had been unused.
"I'm not going to let you fight alone," she said, and he gave her a small smile.
They quickly and quietly exited the door to the "lab" Fitz had been working in and made their way through the hall. Fitz led them, with a gun in his right hand, and Simmons' hand in the other. He kept her slightly behind him in case of any trouble. They had come across a few other guards that had been affected by the sound, and were lying unconscious on the floor. The stepped around them carefully, not waiting to prematurely wake them.
As they were making their way around a corner, they heard the loud footsteps of another guard. Seems like he was just outside of the affected zone. Fitz put his arm out, stopping Simmons from moving forward, and put his finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet. He peered around the corner and to his excitement; the guard was walking in the opposite direction. He quietly followed the guard, gained his courage, and hit the guard on the head with the butt of the gun. The guard made a strangled sort of cry and collapsed to the ground. He ran back to where Simmons was waiting for him, grabbed her hand and continued forward. As they walked by the unconscious guard, Simmons looked at him with curiosity.
"You did that?" she asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah, hit him with the butt of the gun."
"Wow..." was all she could muster. She was seeing a new side of Fitz that she had never seen before. The James Bond that he wanted to be.
"We have to be getting close," Fitz whispered, "we've been walking for a while".
They stopped suddenly, and saw what looked to be a staircase going up.
"There it is," Simmons said excitedly, "that's our way out". They heard shuffling. It sounded like someone was guarding the door.
"We need a plan," Fitz said, "how good is your damsel in distress?" he asked.
"Oh, I can be quite convincing when I need to be," she said with a smirk.
A few minutes later, the guard at the top of the stairs was bored out of his mind. All he wanted was hallway duty, but for some reason, he was always confined to door duty. Nothing exciting ever happened to him, until Simmons ran into view at the bottom of the stairs.
"Help!" she shouted, "please help!"
The guard jolted out of his daydream, "what? What happened?" he yelled to Simmons as he started making his way down the stairs.
"I don't know, people started collapsing! Please help!" and she ran out of view. The guard quickly ran down the stairs and turned the corner, and a metal pipe connected with the back of his head. Fitz emerged from the corner and looked down at the guard.
"I didn't mean to hit him so hard..." he said, looking guilty.
Simmons examined the guard's head, "he should be fine. Just knocked out. But we need to get out of here quickly," she said, and they made their way up the stairs and towards the door that was surely their way out. There was a large lock on the door. Simmons quickly ran back down the stairs and searched the guard for keys, "he doesn't have any keys on him!" she shouted and ran back up towards him.
"Oh bloody..." Fitz said angrily. He took the butt of the gun and started hitting it against the lock. It wasn't working, the lock was simply too big.
"Jemma, I need you to stand back." He said, putting his arm out, moving her behind him.
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to shoot the lock and pray it works." He said seriously.
Simmons grabbed his hand and squeezed it, "good luck" she said, from behind him.
"Cover your ears," he said and Simmons firmly pressed her hands over her ears.
Fitz placed both his hands on the gun. He was a good shot. He knew that. He'd worked around weapons for a long time, he just hoped that this worked and that they could finally get out of wherever they were.
He aimed at the lock, and the precise spot of weakness, took a breath and fired.
The sound was deafening. It reverberated through the metal walls and shook him to the bone. He looked at the lock, which now hung in broken pieces. He smiled and turned around to grab Simmons, who still had her ears covered.
"Let's get out of here."
Fitz wrenched the door open, and the Sun seared their eyes. They had been underground for who knows how many days, and it took them a while to adjust.
When they finally adjusted, they took in their surroundings of a mountainous countryside, and vivid green grass. They were not in Greece anymore.
"Where are we?" Simmons asked in despair, searching for something that would give them an answer.
They connected hands and quickly ran in one direction, towards a sign. Once they reached it, they stopped and tried to read it.
"That's..." Fitz started
"Romanian." Simmons finished.
"We're in Romania," they both said at the same time.
That's all for this chapter! Did you enjoy it? Please let me know :)
Next one is coming soon!
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