NOTE: All chapters up to this point have been revised and updated (16 July 2014). Amendments to the whole Ward/Triplett situation and some minor grammatical changes.
Fitz woke up, much like he did every day, to the tedious buzz of his alarm clock. The far too chirpy noise signalled to him that it was 6:30 and time to start the day. Swiftly silencing device he slowly sat up in bed, pausing for a brief moment before having a bit of a stretch and a yawn then swinging his feet on to the carpeted floor. He grabbed his red and blue checked robe from the end of his bed, as always, and wrapped it around his blue matching pyjama set. Wandering out of his cabin he made his way to the kitchen in search of breakfast.
"Morning Fitz" greeted Agent Triplett who was enjoying a bowl of oatmeal as he leaned against the counter in blue sweatpants and a grey t-shirt.
"Morning." Said Fitz gruffly. He was not usually a morning person, as often he would stay up into the night in his lab with one project or another. Last night was no exception, as he had been with Simmons, combing through the data from what had been dubbed 'The Facility' in a last ditch attempt to glean more information before moving their focus onto the current assignment.
After exerting far more effort and time than it should take a top tier SHIELD engineer, half-asleep Fitz managed to assemble a breakfast of peanut butter toast, an apple and a steaming mug of coffee and then shuffle out of the kitchen in the direction of his lab.
On the way down to he passed Agent May, who was going through her usual tai chi routine. "Morning" he mumbled, receiving a brief nod in return.
He took the stairs one at a time, like he always did at this hour, careful not to spill his piping hot coffee as he made the familiar journey to his workbench.
But as the doors of the lab slid shut behind him, he noted something that was most assuredly not part of his morning routine.
Crouched over his bench was the slender figure of an unsuitably dressed Bella. She appeared intently focused on whatever she was working on, quite detached from the world. She wore only her sleep clothes, a loose white singlet and matching white shorts, both trimmed with lace. Her hair was tied up in a messy ponytail, the natural brown curls falling to just below her shoulder blades and allowing her to work without distraction. Fitz quite wanted to continue looking at the pleasant creature that had all but claimed his workspace; but instead his gentlemanly side told his cheeks to flush, his gaze to flicker away and his throat to clear.
Bella sat up at the sound, her trace finally broken, and turned to investigate its source.
"Good morning." She greeted Fitz with a slightly tired smile.
Upon seeing her full appearance, Fitz's embarrassment turned into concern. It was no secret that the three months she had been captive had caused considerable deterioration to her appearance. When he first encountered her she was thin and frail, with hollow cheeks and an ashen hue to her skin. But slowly she had been getting better, putting on weight and a golden tones returning to her caramel skin. But this morning, something looked wrong.
"Morning." Fitz replied, sensing he had taken a bit too long to reply. "Did you sleep well?"
A silence hung in the air for an uncomfortable moment before Isabella spoke again, "I, ah, I hope you don't mind but I found these on your desk, and I thought I'd optimise the adiabatic compression rate to increase the firing power. Um, I saw you had done it chemically, but I thought it was too combustible-"
"Yeah, I tried to explain to Jemma, but she said doing it any other way would make them to heavy."
"She's not wrong, usually it would, but by shrinking the chamber, I was able to produce the same results with the original compound without increasing the temperature or compromising the structure."
Fitz shuffled closer, placing his cargo down before examining Bella's work. "Huh."
"Good 'huh' or…"
"No, no, good huh. I, I like what you've done here." Fitz pulled up a chair and sat next to Bella as she ran through some of the other projects she'd worked on that morning.
About an hour later Jemma came downstairs, fully dressed and ready for the day. "You guys might want to go upstairs and get decent. We're landing in 15 minutes." She said upon spying the couple in deep conversation over some holographic blueprints on the table in front of them.
Fitz turned to his morning companion, noticing all over again her indecent attire and becoming flustered once more. "Oh, yes! Definitely, that's… we should do that." He shuffled past Bella, giving her a wide berth. He paused in the doorway, turning back and looking at Bella again. "It was nice, um, a nice morning. With you." He said, stumbling over his words, then quickly darting up the stairs.
Bella looked after him with a clearly confused expression. "That was…odd." She said, looking to Simmons for some sort of explanation.
Instead, Simmons told her "Go on, off you go!" in her trademark motherly tone, only to reveal a knowing grin once Bella had left.
The B.U.S landed on the outskirts of Houston 15 minutes later, exactly when May had predicted. Bella put the finishing touches on her outfit just a few minutes before the wheels touched down of the rocky terrain a few miles out from the crash site. She had opted for a simple outfit, a long-sleeve, striped crop top and high waisted skinny jeans. She tied her long brown hair in a ponytail, though struggling slightly to get her loose curls to behave quite properly. Skye had been kind enough to stop by and show her how to put on some eyeliner and mascara and disguise the bags under her eyes after a rough night's sleep.
She quickly made her way to the lower floor, joining Fitz in the lab and reclaiming her favourite spinning chair. Simmons reappeared a few moments later.
"We're here!" Simmons announced in a sing song voice. Almost skipping over to her side of the lab, she grabbed down some equipment from one of the steel shelves, handing them down to Fitz who placed them on the table in the middle of the lab. The two scientists then began to rush about the room in an organized whirlwind, grabbing all sorts of instruments.
"Anything I can do to help?" Bella asked as she rose from her seat.
"Ah, this needs to come too." Fitz said, grabbing down another black case down from the shelves and handing it to the brunette.
"What is all this stuff?"
"Just a bunch of bits and bobs to properly analyse the scene in an efficient manner." said Simmons as she collected a small silver case from below her workstation.
"Bits and bobs?" Fitz gawked. "I designed most of these 'bits and bobs', thank you! Perhaps they would be better described as works of engineering genius!"
Simmons sighed and looked at her affronted partner in crime. "Fitz…"
But before the argument could progress any further, agent Triplett put his head through the lab doors. "You guys ready? We're heading out."
"We'll be right there." Said Simmons, glad for the out.
Bella picked up her assigned case and made her way over to one of two black, SHIELD branded SUV's parked on the ramp of the plane. She deposited the case in the back before climbing in the back seat and sitting in the middle so she could have a clear view of the road ahead. Fitz and Simmons joined her a few moments later, their equipment also safely stored in the boot of the car. They rode with Triplett and Skye in the front, whilst May and Coulson took the second car.
Reversing off the ramp they headed off, arriving at the crash site about twenty minutes later. Fitz opened the door and jumped out before offering a hand to Bella, helping her step down. After getting their things, everyone made their way closer. Skye fell into step beside Bella, carrying only her phone, which she never seemed to part with.
"There aren't too many people around for a supposed UFO." Bella commented to Skye as they walked over together. There were two local police cars, the occupants of which were either standing and talking or lounging around. As for the public, there were only a group of teenage children, trying to get a closer look but failing rather miserably.
"Supposed? How do you know it's not real?"
"I don't know, because aliens aren't real."
Skye stopped walking, staring at Bella like she was stupid.
"What?" asked Bella, looking back at Skye with a similar expression.
"Battle of New York? The most blatant display that, yes, aliens exist and, no, there was no point trying to hide it?"
Bella paused, before shaking her head slightly, feeling slightly ashamed.
"Oh, right. Sorry." Skye said quietly, feeling stupid for not remembering Bella's memory issues.
"Don't worry about it." Bella said, trying to turn the conversation back around. "I'm sure I'll figure it out soon."
Skye smiled at her in return; a bit proud of how far Isabella had come from the jittery girl she had first seen.
"Hey, are you guys coming or what?" Called out Fitz from up ahead.
"Yeah, yeah we're coming." Skye yelled back.
Bella hauled her assigned black case over to where Fitz and Simmons had set up, noticing the black object, which was what she assumed they had been called to investigate. The terrain near the crash site was a little rocky, as the craft had caused a bit of damage coming down, so the team had set up a little way back. Coulson was talking to the officers with May close by and Skye split of to poke around with Triplett.
"So what's first?" Bella asked, setting down the heavy case.
"These are." Replied Fitz, opening a case with a flourish that was worthy of a magician.
An expectant silence hung in the air for a couple of moments while Fitz stared at the case fondly.
"Um, Fitz, perhaps you'd like to explain what they are to Isabella?" Simmons prompted.
Bella peered a little closer at the seven devices nestled inside the black SHIELD case. "They look like quadcopter drones." she stated "For information retrieval maybe? What type of data are they able to collect?"
Fitz shot a look to Simmons, clearly pleased that Bella was able to catch on so quickly. "Everything from matter density to radiation levels. They say you have to get your hands dirty when in the field."
"Something Fitz was not to happy about." Simmons said.
"So I made these babies instead. I call 'em DWARFS." Fitz finished whilst pulling out of another case, two sets of three screens; joined together by a frame. "This is where we control them, and we're able to do a basic analysis."
"But usually we take them back to the lab and sync them there." Continued Simmons, "We're able to do a more comprehensive and accurate analysis then. Also the information can be forward to SHIELD from there."
"What about the rest of the stuff?" Bella asked gesturing to the small amount of other equipment that had also been brought along.
"Hopefully we won't need that." Simmons replied, "They provide more detailed recordings, for things the DWARFS can't handle. You can't be to prepared if it's alien."
Bella decided to get a good look at the supposed UFO while Fitz sent his DWARFS up in the air.
As she approached it, Isabella gave the aircraft a quick once over. It didn't look like a complicated device. With a slim and streamlined design the thing was all chrome black, about six meters long and two meters at it's widest. It had an organic shape and a beautiful almost seamless exterior. Almost, because three distinct holes marred it's side. Something had clearly struck it, and not something conventional. There was no tearing or anything like a bullet might produce. Whatever had done this cut straight through the hard exterior, but didn't appear to have gone through to the other side. The holes were clean cut and circular, all of them the same diameter. Bella supposed that if there were aliens, this might look like what they'd create. But what was of more concern to her was whatever was able to take it down.
Bella heard Simmons call out in the background, "Sir! I think you should take a look at this."
Bella stood up to go see what Simmons had discovered, when she heard the beating of propellers above her. She looked up, expecting to see one of Fitz's DWARFS hovering in the air above her, but instead she spied three military green helicopters closing in on their location, fast.
Isabella abandoned her investigation and headed back over to Fitz quickly. Simmons was still trying to talk to Coulson, but couldn't be heard over the sound of the helicopters as they go closer and closer.
Agent Triplett and Skye came jogging over from wherever they had been, coming to stand with Isabella and Fitz.
"What's going on!" Skye shouted as her hair began to fly up around her face.
Fitz merely shrugged in reply; tapping at the screens he held to bring his precious DWARFS out of harms way, back into their case.
Bella placed her hands over her ears as the helicopters touched down, sending debris flying everywhere. Before the blades had even stopped spinning, a bald, sharply dressed military man in aviator sunglasses stepped down from the foremost copter.
As the blades of the helicopters slowed to a stop, the occupants all started to alight. Meanwhile, the bald man began walking over to the group of agents with his shoulders wide and chest puffed out.
"Who's in charge here?" He called out as he drew closer.
"That would be me." Agent Coulson said, moving to stand in front of his team and placing his hands together in front of him calmly.
The bald man, who was about half a head taller than Coulson, looked down at him before speaking in a curt tone, "Chief Master Sergeant Bimley, of the United States Air Force. And you are?"
"Agent Coulson. Of SHIELD." Coulson replied steadily.
"SHIELD?" Bimley repeated as if it were a bad taste in his mouth. "I've heard of you lot. Wherever you go trouble follows." By now, Bimley's companions had begun to surround the sleek aircraft creating some sort of armed human barrier, standing at attention.
"Well I can tell you this much, you people aren't touching this." The Sergeant said, gesturing to the crashed aircraft on his left.
Bella saw Skye tense up beside her, clearly struggling to bite her tongue.
"We aren't?" Coulson replied, feigning surprise. "Because I'm fairly sure that if you check with your superiors you'll find that this investigation falls under our jurisdiction."
Bimley let out a gruff laugh. "I think you need to get your facts straight little man. We have authority here. That aircraft is property of the US Air Force, and is the forefront of drone technology. Can't let anyone else get their grubby hands on it."
"Clearly hasn't seen Starks' designs." Fitz muttered under his breath.
"What was that son?" Said Bimley, turning his disdainful gaze onto Fitz.
Fitz, immediately regretting his inability to keep quiet, looked to the floor. Lucky for him, Coulson answered Bimley's question instead.
"He said, you're right. The aircraft is yours. But whatever took it down wasn't."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"As I'm sure Fitz can evidence, those marks weren't made by any weapon in use or in research or development. What we're looking at could quite possibly be alien, which, of course, means this investigation falls to us." Coulson explained.
Bimley's stood still, staring down Coulson with squinted eyes. His jaw was set squarely and made no attempt to refute Coulson's assertions.
"Those facts seem pretty straight to me." Coulson said, more to himself.
With that Bimley clearly decided he'd heard enough as he turned on his heel and made his way towards his men, barking out orders as he got close.
Bella felt slightly sorry for the soldiers who were bearing the brunt of the harsh man's wrath. But her attention was quickly turned to the group of SHIELD agents instead as Skye spoke up.
"So, what do we do now?" Skye asked Coulson
"Oh, we're done here. The DWARFS have got everything we need."
"Wait, so we don't need the aircraft anymore?" Skye said.
"Nope, just thought I'd have some fun with Mr Chief Master Sergent Bimley. He looked like he needed it." Coulson said with a slight smile before striding confidently back towards the SHIELD cars.
A/N: Thank you for reading this story. Thank you for your kind words in your reviews. Thank you for your patience in my updating. I promise this story is, and will continue to be updated, the next chapter is already started and I will try to make updates more frequent (reviews help with that a lot!)