NOTES: This is the first of the summer hiatus chapters. Who knows how far away from the show I will be once September hits and the show comes back. But hopefully you'll enjoy the ride.
Anna steps off the elevator onto a floor of Stark Tower she has yet to visit. She doesn't know if it's her imagination or whether the air is actually filled with the scent of antiseptics, but either way, her stomach rolls. She hates hospitals, has for years; visiting them usually means going to a funeral a few days later.
She stops at the clerk's desk and asks where she can find Leo. Once the woman verifies that Anna is on his visitors' list, she directs her his room. Anna clutches the gift she brought for the young man tighter in her good hand as she tries to keep her breathing even. But her lungs refuse to function at all when she finds an empty bed in the room assigned to Fitz.
"He's been taken to do more tests," a soft voice lilts behind her.
Anna turns to find a woman about her height with tight brown curls. Her face and body posture scream exhaustion, and Anna knows exactly what that feels like. "You must be his mother."
She nods and extends a hand, which Anna shakes as best as she can with her cast. "Bonnie Fitz, and you are?"
"Anna Ellis. Nice to meet you."
"Are you part of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Or what's left of it?"
Anna shakes her head. "Oh, no. I could never be an agent or anything, and I'm nowhere near as smart as your son."
Leo's mother gives a shy yet still proud smile. "Very few are."
"True," Anna chuckles.
"If you're not part of S.H.I.E.L.D., then how do you know Leo?"
"The man who put him in the ocean was the same one who attacked me," she explains, holding up her injured hand. "Leo was on the team who rescued me. I wanted to see how he was doing."
It's obvious that Bonnie is trying to put on a brave face, but there are deep cracks in it. "The good news is that he woke up from the coma." Her eyes go a little blank as she looks at the empty bed. She's probably imaging her son lying there, helpless and hurt. It wouldn't take much work for her mind to conjure the image, Anna knows. It will be burned in the woman's eyes for the rest of her life. "But once he woke, other… issues began to appear. He can't remember what happened to him, which is probably for the best. He's clumsy with his hands. But his arm is healing nicely. Broke it in the same two places as when he was a child, which is odd."
Her eyes remain locked on the empty bed, and Anna looks down at her shoes. She doesn't mind ferrying information back to Jemma, Phil, and the others on how Leo is doing, but being here in the medical section of Stark Tower twists her insides.
"What's his prognosis?" Anna asks.
"Doctor Banner said it was still too soon to tell." She pauses at that and swallows. "I was about to get some coffee," Bonnie says. "Would you like to join me?"
Anna wants to make some excuse, but she knows Phil wouldn't be happy about that. He'd understand as best as he could, but he wouldn't be happy. "Sure," she answers anyway. She follows the other woman down the hall to a small lounge for families of patients, not that there are many here. At Maria's suggestion, Tony's brought a select number of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were injured during the internal fight with HYDRA. Maria didn't bother telling Anna anything beyond that, which is just fine with her.
Bonnie pours a mug of coffee before offering the pot to Anna. She shakes her head. Thankfully, there's a bag of mint tea available, and Anna chooses that in hopes of it calming her stomach a bit. "I wanted to give him this," Anna says as she passes the gift off. "Jemma said he would like it."
The other woman's eyes light up at the name. "You know her? She's such a sweet lass."
Anna smiles and nods. "She is indeed."
Bonnie laughs when she peaks through the pieces of tissue paper to spot the sock monkey inside. "Thank you for this."
Anna shrugs. "Sorry it couldn't be the real thing. I heard he's pretty stuck on that."
"He's wanted one since he found out they exist," Bonnie answered. "He was three and my father and I took him to the zoo. The monkeys were the second exhibit we saw, and he threw a fit whenever we tried to walk away to see the other animals." She pauses and smiles a little at the memory. "He was a wee thing, always has been. I was so nervous when he told me who he wanted to work for, but he was so very determined. And now all these terrible things…"
"Leo is one of the good guys, trust me. Very kind, always seeing the good in people. The world could use more people like him."
Bonnie thanks her quietly before sipping her coffee. "I feel like I'm going mad in here, but I can't leave his side. He's all I have. Do you have any children?"
Anna's tongue ties in her mouth. She can easily sympathize with the woman across the table, but she has no desire to dredge up those memories any more than she has to. "No," she answers.
They sit in silence for a moment after that. Anna finishes her drink and slides a piece of paper across the table. "This is my phone number, if you need anything. I live in the Tower, so I can come to you quickly, as long as I'm not traveling. And I can contact Jemma if you need any message passed along to her, too."
"Very kind of you, thank you. Will you tell her she was the first person he asked about when he woke up?"
"I will," Anna promises.