After quite some persuasion, Fitz managed to coax Isabella from the 'cage' and back down towards the lab. Although, when they reached the lab she was understandably somewhat reluctant to go inside; but once Fitz kindly explained it was only a workspace and Simmons was simply trying to help her before, she seemed more content with the situation.
Once inside the room Isabella sat on the swivel chair at Fitz desk, quickly discovering the chairs exciting turning capabilities. In the hour or so that they had been in the lab, she had stopped spinning in the chair only long enough for the dizziness to subside before starting up again.
Fitz, all the while, had been bouncing around the room, identifying and explaining all sorts of things; from the very chair Isabella sat on; to the lights above them; to the earlier prototype 'night-night gun' that lay on his desk. Isabella would then repeat what he said back to him, struggling occasionally, before Fitz would hurriedly move on to the next thing. Isabella found the whole experience quite exciting, not to mention informative.
When she heard the hiss of the sliding doors open behind her, Isabella brought the chair to a very abrupt stop.
"Hello Fitz, hello Isabella" said a chirpy, yet tense voice bringing Fitz' tsunami of information to a halt.
Slowly Isabella turned around to face the woman Fitz had earlier referred to as Simmons. Her face was void of expression and a tense silence hung in the air. Fitz had said that Simmons was helping her before, but Isabella still felt uneasy towards the biologist.
After a few moments of consideration, her trust in Fitz outweighed her skepticism and she offered Simmons a small, tentative smile.
Simmons let the breath she had been holding before crossing the threshold into the lab and continuing on. "I just came down with some food,"
"Oh excellent." Interrupted Fitz, grabbing one of the take out containers and digging in.
"And to see how you guys are getting along." Finished Simmons.
"Pretty well I think." offered Fitz through a mouthful of chinese food
"Fitz." Simmons reprimanded in a motherly tone.
She extended the other box of take-out towards Isabella. Leaning forward, Isabella peered into the box, examining the contents before taking it off the female scientist. Using the fork that Simmons had kindly provided, Isabella lifted the food up, smelling it experimentally before taking a small bite. Chewing slowly, she considered the taste for a moment before bursting into a radiant smile directed at the other woman.
"Ah, well then." said Simmons, returning the smile as the last of her apprehension melted away. "So Fitz, what teaching method have you been utilizing?"
"Um, just, you know, going 'round and showing her stuff really." He replied before helping himself to another forkful of food.
"Surely there must be a more orderly way. Have you tried reading?" Simmons asked
"She can barely even talk, how could she read?" Fitz asked slightly exasperated
"Well you could give it a try at least." Simmons replied before walking over to her side of the lab. She retrieved a tablet, and tapped on the screen for a while before returning to stand near Isabella once more.
"Here we are." She said, offering the tablet to the girl.
Isabella, quite pleased with the last thing Simmons had given her, placed her food to the side and looked at the strange device.
"It's a tablet," Simmons explained "I've loaded on some childrens books along with some interactive learning programs. You can keep it if you like."
Isabella stared at the tablet intently, tapping it experimentally until she got the hang of it.
She gave Simmons another beaming smile before speaking to her for the first time "Thank you!"
"Not a problem." replied a slightly chuffed Simmons. "Oh, and I believe there's been some sort of temporary sleeping arrangement prepared for you in the holding cell." she added.
Both Fitz and Simmons helped Isabella begin on the programs for about a half hour whilst they finished off the meal; after which they decided it was time to retire for the night.
Once she had been dropped off at the cage, both Fitz and Simmons said their goodbyes and encouraged Isabella to visit either of their bunks should she have any problems.
Isabella entered the cell and took in her surroundings, it had been changed since she had been there earlier that afternoon. The table and chair had now been removed, and a bunk, which was attached to the wall, had replaced it.
She stripped off her clothes, a plain black t-shirt and black tracksuit pants she'd been wearing as long as she could remember, before slipping under the covers and turning on the tablet. She tired of the childrens programs quickly, finding them much to rudimentary, but was thrilled upon learning of the internet browsing app and the wealth of information that it held.
After many hours and a plethora of new information, Isabella felt herself struggling to stay awake and decided it best to retire for the night, or more accurately, the morning. She placed the tablet on the floor next to her bed when a small marking on the back caught her eye.
"Stark" she read aloud, tracing her fingers over the letters and small symbol.
She frowned slightly, the word seemed quite familiar, although, much unlike everything thing else she had learnt that day, the answer stayed slightly out of her reach.
As another yawn fought to break free she decided to look into it more the next day, laying her head onto her pillow and drifting off into the first good sleep she'd had in months.
"Good morning! Sleep well?" Asked a chirpy Fitz upon spotting Isabella emerging from her makeshift bedroom.
Isabella turned to face the scientist with a slow, sleepy expression and grunted in reply. Staying up half the night with the tablet had really taken it out of her.
"Ha ha, never mind." Said Fitz, moving on quickly "Simmons said she could lend you some clothes, something about your tracksuit being boring, although I'd always thought it was quite functional really. Anyway, she's the bunk at the end on the left, come to the kitchen when you're done though, we'll fix something to eat."
After another quick smile Fitz turned and departed toward the lab, leaving a slightly stunned Isabella behind. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes Isabella made her way to the bunk Fitz had mentioned. Once she found the correct bunk she pulled the door open, slightly startling Simmons inside.
"Oh! Hello there!" Simmons said, placing the tablet she had been looking at on the bed "Perhaps next time just a bit of a knock on the door wouldn't hurt. Just a little thing." She suggested kindly.
"Oh, sorry." Isabella replied distractedly, in all honesty she thought it was a silly thing to do and was more keen on dealing with new clothes and perhaps a turn in one of those things she'd seen on the tablet, what was it called? The shower, that's it.
"Well then," Simmons continued, gesturing for Isabella to join her near the small wardrobe at one side of the cubicle. "I'm afraid I haven't got too many things, you know, not much space or anything. But it looks like you're going to be here for a few days at least, until we figure out this whole thing. So if you'd like you could pick out a couple of outfits you can borrow them for your stay."
"Thank you!" Isabella replied, smiling gratefully at the other woman. Simmons sat back on the bed, scanning through the tablet whilst Isabella turned towards the cupboard and began sifting through. It mostly consisted of button up tops, sweaters and various types of pants, but after a few minutes she had picked out two outfits she liked and laid them out on the bed.
One was a cute dark blue dress with long sleeves, white cuffs and collar and buttons down the back. The second outfit was a little black skirt, paired with a simple but smart long chiffon sleeved white blouse with black buttons. Simmons looked up from her tablet once she heard Isabella finish with the clothes.
"Good choices, although I'm not much of a dress wearer myself. My mother insisted I pack them." Simmons said getting up from the bed once more. She went to the cupboard and grabbed a pair of shoes.
"Oh, actually these might be a bit big." She said glancing at Isabella "No worries, I'll grab some from Skye, but i'll show you where the shower is for now." Simmons said with a smile.
"Okay, thank you very much Agent Simmons, you've been very kind." Isabella said gathering the clothes and following Simmons out of the little room.
"It's no problem, and just Simmions or Jemma will do." Reaching the small on-board bathroom, Simmons stopped and turned to face Isabella. "Well, here we are. You're fine with working everything?"
"Yeah, I'm fairly sure I can figure it out." Replied Isabella, glancing in the small room.
"Excellent, well i'll go find you some shoes and we can get some breakfast when you're finished." Said Simmons, before heading off back down the hall.
Isabella finished up in the shower quickly and adorned her temporary clothes. The whole process gave her a lot less trouble than she had anticipated, the eerie feeling of deja-vu being ever present.
Simmons was waiting outside once she emerged and quickly offered to take her old clothes and gave her a pair of white and black ballet flats. She then directed her to the kitchen where she met Fitz.
"There you are! You look much better. Oh, not that you looked bad before though. It's just, um. Are you hungry?" Greeted Fitz in a flustered manner upon seeing Isabella.
"Starving." She replied with a large grin at seeing her favourite scientist.
Fitz helped Isabella get everything she needed together and when Simmons entered the room again Isabella was at the table enjoying a large bowl of overly sugary cereal.
"I was wondering," began Isabella, setting her spoon down. "You said your name was Leo, but everyone calls you Fitz. How come?"
"Well it's like a nickname I suppose. Like everyone calls Jemma by her last name." Fitz replied gesturing to Simmons.
"Hmmm." said Isabella, pondering this over another mouthful of sugary goodness. "Well then what's mine?"
"Well not everyone has one, you get given them." Simmons explained.
"Then give me one." Said Isabella, slightly confused as to what the issue was.
Simmons, slightly taken aback by the bluntess of the the girl, turned to Fitz for help.
"How about Bella?" Fitz offered, picking the first nickname that came to his head.
Isabella chewed her spoonful of cereal slowly, as if thinking about it deeply, before finishing with a quick nod of her head. "Yes, I think that will do."
"Right. Okay then, now that that's settled," began Simmons confused by the peculiarity of the situation. "Coulson has called for a briefing in 10 minutes and I need to pop down to the lab."
Simmons left the room and the Fitz and Bella fell into an easy conversation. 10 minutes later Fitz excused himself to join the others in the briefing room, Bella assuring him that she would be quite fine on her own.
The team had gathered around the holographic table as Coulson began questioning them.
"Can you shed any more light on her condition?" he asked Simmons.
"Yes actually, it seems her accelerated learning isn't what we once thought." Began Simmons "Whatever process was used to erase her memories doesn't appear to be all that permanent. More like putting a blanket over the her mind. All she needed was a little push and bits and pieces come back to her. She's not exactly learning so much as remembering."
"That's good to hear, maybe she'll be able to answer a few of our questions soon." said Coulson "If she is able to recall some skills or something more specialised, it might help in identifying where she came from. Any information from the Dwarfs?"
"Not really, everything was trashed, so not many files could be retrieved. The ones that we did get are going to take a while to reconstruct. The equipment that we could identify was rare." Reported Fitz
"Does that mean we can track it?" asked Agent May.
"No, when I say rare, I mean really rare. They're all custom made from bits and pieces. We won't be able to trace them."
Disappointed at the dead end, coulson turned to the next team member."What about you Skye?"
"I kept digging but apart from the alias, i really can't find much on her. I've been as far into Stark Industries as i can get, which, really, wasn't all that far. I've gone through public records and as much of S.H.I.E.L.D as I can. Nothing."
Coulson sighed before turning to the remaining two agents. "What about you guys?"
"We went to Stark Industries and asked around, people seemed to know her name. Said she was a good kid, smart, but didn't know anything about her outside of work." Agent May reported.
"Tried to talk to Stark himself, but we were told he wasn't around." Triplett added
"Alright then." Began their leader "I want to know what was going on in that facility, top priority. But it seems that the girl herself is the best lead in this case. Apart from Stark Industries she doesn't appear to exist, so we need to nudge her in that direction and see what she remembers. "
"Speaking of," Said Agent May looking around. "Where is the girl?"
"Oh, I left her in the kitchen." Said Fitz calmy. But, upon receiving several incredulous glares, he became slightly more panicked. "It alright, i'll just go and get her. No problem." He said before rushing off towards the kitchen.
A minute later, he ran back. "She not there." He reported, panic now laced throughout his voice.
"What?" Yelled May "You had one job Fitz!"
"I know, but she said she'd be fine and she was in the kitchen and i didn't think-"
"Okay." Said coulson, taking control of the situation "She couldn't of gotten too , Skye and May check this floor. FitzSimmons, we're checking downstairs."
And with that they sprung into action, all quite concerned as to the damage that this mysterious girl could do.
It didn't take long to find her though. Fitz had sped down the staircase, feeling quite particularly concerned, only to see the girl focusing intently on something on his workbench. Coulson called up to the others and within the minute the whole team was standing outside the lab staring at the girl within.
Bella hadn't even noticed though, completely absorbed in her work.
Triplett sighed in relief "I'm going to take her back upstairs before she blows something up."
He stepped forward and the doors of the lab slid open, letting out a hiss as they did so and, unfortunately for Triplett breaking Bella's concentration.
She looked sharply and freaked out when she caught sight of one her least favourite people.
She flicked a switch in the mess that she was working on and a small object flew up from the desk and straight toward Triplett, lodging itself into his neck and administering a small dose of dendrotoxin sending him straight to the floor in an instant slumber.