AN ~ Before I get to the waffling part of this AN, Important question: How many of you have not seen any/enough Agents of Shield to know who I am talking about? I don't want to waste time with lots of characterisation if everybody knows what I mean but I know the AOS fandom is way smaller than mainstream Marvel and I don't want anyone to miss out or for the story to be lost on people. The AOS team, especially Fitzsimmons, are big in this fic so it's important. Let me know.

Short Waffle: A slightly longer chapter than usual but you guys deserve it because I did promise it to you the other day. Also I had to fix the angst. UGH this show will be the death of me I swear. Just a heads up this is now officially set between season 1 & 2 of AOS. You may notice certain elements of foreshadowing. Sorry about your souls but I just had to. Likes, Reviews & Requests are most welcome, and in the mean time, I'll be over here crying

Chapter 3

Shield Prodigy Jemma Simmons certainly didn't look like she'd been through all that Coulson said she had: her eyes were clear, her hair pristine, her dress neat and her collar crisp. But there were signs. She had to take conscious efforts to keep her arms by her side instead of wrapped around her body, and sometimes, even keeping her head up seemed to take more effort than swimming that 90 feet of water.

When Coulson had buzzed her to collect Stark and Banner, she had found herself relieved for the brief respite from the lab. Now, waiting in the elevator, she wrung her hands and repeated to herself that if she started picking or biting her nails, people would notice. She dug her nails into her skin instead – but only enough to leave indentations that would pass.

The elevator gave a cheerful bing! to announce its arrival on the ground floor, and the doors opened to reveal Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. For a moment, Simmons forgot her worry. A smile lit up her face; she could feel it burning in her cheeks, making her giddy, and it was good. She couldn't remember the last time she'd smiled like that.

"Mr Stark! Mr Banner!" she greeted. "What a pleasure! It's such an honour to finally meet you."

"And you, Doctor Simmons," Banner replied as he and Stark stepped into the elevator. It was a small space, and in the light of what they had just seen and been told, the small, beaming scientist already inside had a strangely large presence.

"Me?" Simmons scoffed and shook his hand. "Nonsense. You're the one who's quadrupled the research available on gamma radiation and technology - and Mr Stark, is it true you created a new element based on your grandfather's map? You really must tell me more about that I mean I know potentiality and all but that's a remarkable achievement and I'd love to hear more about it and I won't tell anyone I swear. Well, not that there's really anyone to tell except -"

Her garbling stopped. She still had her hand wrapped ferociously around Stark's. Her smile flickered like a gaslight flame, her eyes desperately trying to keep her face alight as she swallowed the rest of her sentence and let Tony's hand fall back to his side. She cleared her throat and faced the doors of the elevator as a bing! announced their arrival on the lab floor. The way that Simmons brushed her already-pristine skirt smooth and checked her posture and her hair did not go unnoticed by either of the scientists who followed her into her lab.

She knocked on one of the silver tables.

"Fitz?"

"Hm?"

"They're here."

For a moment, the shoulders remained hunched under their blue cardigan. Then Fitz drew a deep breath, straightening as he turned to catch sight of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner here, right here, in his lab, just a few metres away.

His eyes widened. His jaw slacked.

"Um. I. Hello. I'm – help?"

His hand started to shake. Simmons rushed forward and took the microchip and the tweezers from him, putting them safely on the table as Fitz stepped forward, curling and uncurling his fingers in an effort to keep control of them.

"He's very happy to meet you," Simmons explained. "He's having some trouble with words at the moment. Got a lot on his mind, you know."

That gaslight smile again – but her eyes were gentle and sincere this time, as she hovered behind her partner, watching carefully as Fitz hesitantly approached two of the greatest living minds of his age.

"Doctor Banner. Mr Stark. It's. I'm. Sorry, words." Fitz pinched his nose, screwing up his eyes as he searched his scattered mind. "I'm proud – no, ah…honoured, that's the one. Big, uh…big-" He waved his hand next to his face.

"Always nice to meet a fan," Tony said, offering his hand to shake and smiling as Fitz's face relaxed.

"Especially one as brilliant as you, Doctor Fitz," Banner added. "I'm glad to see my scholarship went to the right man."

Fitz snorted and lowered his eyes, drawing his hand back so that it crossed his body. His fingers worried the material of his cardigan. Bruce opened his mouth to amend his statement – with what, he was not exactly sure – but closed it again when Simmons intervened.

"Don't," she whispered, putting a hand on Fitz's shoulder. "Don't do this, come on. You know he's right." Fitz didn't turn to face her. "If he was right, I wouldn't be stuck."

"Fitz."

"Jemma."

He turned his head, just slightly. It wasn't even enough to lay eyes on her, but she felt the heat of his glare. She dropped her hand from his shoulder as he stalked off toward the back of the room. She stepped in front of him and conjured that inexhaustible smile from the depths of her bone marrow.

"I'm sorry, we're very busy at the moment. We should get back to work. I'm sure Coulson has more important things for you two to be doing than chatting down here with us."

Simmons gave a short, shrill laugh of false nonchalance and touched up her still-perfect hair as she waited for their visitors to leave. Hesitant to rank Coulson's mystery meeting 'more important,' Banner would have refused to leave if it hadn't been for the desperation in Simmons' eyes.

"Come on, Tony," he beckoned.

Stark waved him off with the packet of pretzels. "Fill me in."

Banner glanced at Simmons to check that leaving Tony was okay. She nodded reassuringly, and Banner mimicked her smile in what he hoped was an earnest and supportive way. He had half a mind to call Pepper before Tony said something stupid and insensitive, but as Simmons settled back into her workspace, head bent over her microscope, he realised that Doctor Fitz already had his guardian angel standing by. Banner sighed and pressed the button for the elevator.

Tony Stark, on the other hand, made a bee-line after Fitz, toward the holotable. The design on display seemed to be a computer system of some kind, or perhaps a battery? Stark frowned and stepped closer as the younger scientist – with almost none of his former hesitancy - flipped the containment system over and pulled out one of the chips, enlargening it so that he could see the circuit that ran over it, and flicking the rest of the design away.

Stark pulled it up again.

"Hey!" Fitz turned, about to slap him away before he realised to whom he was speaking.

"Sorry," he mumbled, turning back to and glaring at his work, praying his fingers wouldn't betray his incompetence and frustration with the task. "I don't usually like people – people messing with the, um…but you would…I mean, go."

Fitz sighed. Tony frowned.

"Stuck, huh?" he mused. "Yeah, I see, like it might work on a clear blue sky but there's no way this can really call itself cloaking."

"I know, right?" Fitz nodded. "I think it's the circuitry but every workable configuration I've tried just won't-"

"Translate large scale." Tony nodded thoughtfully and popped open the bag of pretzels.

"It's for the Bus," Fitz explained. "It's a plane. The Bus. It's gotta be go high speed, high altitude, operate convincingly in cloudy conditions and with shielding. Gotta be controllable from the cockpit, too - switchable on and off - but that'll probably be the easier part."

"Got any hard copy designs?"

"Of course."

Fitz all but sprinted back to the desk he'd been sitting at when Stark and Banner had walked in. He had scattered over the surface a number of prototype units, and in the priority rack, what Stark guessed were his newest set of circuit components.

"Right. Let's have a look under the hood." He slid into Fitz' chair and in one hand, used the tweezers to pick up and examine the chip that Fitz had been holding earlier. With the other hand, he held the open snack bag out to Fitz.

"Pretzel?"