After that little "grand entrance," Tony, however, felt the need to redeem himself a little bit, and prove that he hadn't actually gone off the deep end over Coulson's resurgence. He really was glad to see his old acquaintance; now he just needed to find a way to prove that he could be a valuable member of the man's ever-growing team.

"I don't see why you had to insist that we get stuck somewhere far away from the lab," Tony groused to Pepper the morning after their arrival while they sat eating cereal at the bar.

"There's an elevator to get you straight there if you want to be there, Tony," Pepper replied. "I thought being farther away might just give you a teeny bit of a reason to stay among the land of the living."

"There are already two scientists down there, right?" Tony asked, remembering snippets of what Maria had told them on the plane. "That means that I will be among the living." He finished his cereal and took his bowl to the sink, saying, "I'm going to check the lab out."

"Just… be good, Tony, okay?" Pepper asked desperately. "Maria said both of those scientists are just twenty-six. I'm thrilled with the idea of you making decent friends; just don't scar them for life – not with a physical explosion or a mental trauma, got it?"

"Oh ye of little faith," Tony said, giving her a quick kiss before he headed for the elevator.

"No, I have perfectly good faith in the fact that you are entirely too capable of causing trouble down there." Tony just rolled his eyes, not really paying attention when his girlfriend added, "Oh, and Coulson wants us all in the conference room of level seven in an hour for a team meeting."

Then the elevator doors closed and Tony began to mumble a Black Sabbath song under his breath as he descended. He stepped out and into the lab a minute later to find a man and a woman both huddled over a set of simulated blueprints. Geez, Pepper was right; they really were just kids!

Tony cleared his throat, and the duo jumped before whirling to face him – the girl on her feet and the boy in a simple wheelchair. "Hi," Tony said, waving a little as he stepped further into the room. "I don't think we got to officially meet yesterday; I'm Tony Stark."

They both shook his hand when he offered it, and the lady said, "I'm Jemma Simmons, a biochemist, and this is my partner, Leo Fitz, who is an engineer."

Tony nodded, asking, "Whatcha working on?"

"Fitz is trying to figure out a more efficient way to keep track of what's going on at the bunker's parameter," Simmons explained.

"Tell me what you've got so far, kid," Tony requested, knocking his knuckles against a handle of Fitz's wheelchair.

The boy jotted down a word in a notebook and held it up for Tony to read, his expression flickering with frustration. Problems.

Tony's eyebrows drew together as his mind jumped onto another train of thought and he asked suddenly – and tactlessly, "You're that doctor Maria was talking about, right? The one who can't talk or walk because of a near-drowning or something?"

Fitz nodded, thankfully seeming only mildly put-out by Tony's blunt manner.

"Is that how you normally communicate then?" Tony asked with distaste as he pointed to the notebook in Fitz's lap.

"Coulson, Romanoff, and Barton are all helping us learn sign language," Simmons piped up. "He's very good and learning quickly."

"But that's only good for as many people as know the language," Tony pointed out. "Otherwise, Dr. Fitz, your means of communications are a notebook and your girlfriend just speaking for you, am I right?"

Not my girlfriend – but yes.

Tony narrowed his eyes at the paper answering, "One: liar; if she isn't already she will be soon. Two: we're SHIELD here, people, we've got to be able to do better around this joint than just a notebook for you!"

Fitz's eyebrows drew together and his eyes brightened with curiosity as he held up what was his next question: Like what?

"How about…" Tony thought for a second before he had a proverbial light bulb over the head moment, declaring as if where the most obvious thing in the world – because it kind of was, "An electronic text-to-speech board!"

Simmons turned absolutely pale as she asked dumbly, "How did we not think of that?! They've got bloody apps for that!"

"Yeah," Tony said. "But I still maintain that a SHIELD man deserves better than even that."

"So what sort of a device are you talking about?" Simmons inquired.

"Like one of those apps, but a step up. Do you have any recordings of his voice?"

"Me?" Simmons asked in confusion. "No – but I could ask Keonig if he knows of some sort of security camera footage kept in the bunker or something."

"Good;" Tony said approvingly. "You should go do that now."

Simmons disappeared into the elevator to go to level seven as Tony started getting comfortable at an unclaimed work table and Fitz held up his notebook, asking, How long will it take you to build the communications device?

"Depending on how soon your girl gets back here with the recording… how long do we have until that meeting with Phil?"

Fitz beamed and Tony couldn't help but grin back.

"If I make this for you," Tony bargained. "And I really do want to, I have one condition." Fitz raised his eyebrows and Tony said bluntly, "The first words that you make come out of this gadget are 'Jemma, I love you.' Do we have a deal?"

Fitz glanced nervously towards the door through which Simmons had just disappeared, biting his lip as he thought this through. Eventually he nodded at Tony, smiling ever so apprehensively.

"You'll do great, kid," Tony promised him. "From what I've heard of you two, it's pretty obvious that you love her – and she loves you. The words just need to be said."