Chapter 3: Meeting the Team
After getting his orders from Coulson to go to a small, S.H.I.E.L.D Airfield just outside Washington, Ward had packed up the bare essentials: Toiletries, some clothes, a few books. Ward had done enough ops to know you should only pack a few things, just in case you had to move quickly. Anything else he would need he would just pick up during down time from missions.
Upon reaching the hangar where the Transport plane which would be taking them on missions was stored up in, carrying his bag over his shoulder, Ward came across two people, one a pretty, brown haired woman, short, slightly plumb but still slim, with a friendly face and warm eyes, the other a guy, with brown, curly hair, a cute if slightly sad face as if he was downtrodden, and a slightly mad glint in his eye, like any minute he was going to make something explode. Both of them were in the back of the plane, its hangar door open, and the back looked to Ward like a combination parking area, and science lab, with stairs leading up to the second level of the plane. Neither of them looked to be any older then early to mid-twenties. From the look of them [civilian attire, very lean but not muscular], and the equipment they were setting up in the aforementioned lab, Ward guessed they were science division kids. They were probably members of Ward's new team.
He suppressed a groan. If there was one thing worse than going into the field with an untrained, non-combat ready rookie, it was going into the field with two untrained, non-combat ready rookies who were science geeks. This really couldn't get any worse Ward thought to himself.
They were both moving large bags full of god knows what into the lab, one of which had something which looked like to Ward to be some type of high tech alien hunting rifle. When the girl made to move it from the bag, the guy yelped and immediately moved towards her.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Watch it! That's the night-night gun." His accent was Scottish, with a hint of some American influence.
"Well, it's on my stuff, and it doesn't work, And there's no way we're calling it the night-night gun." She too was British, but her accent was English rather than Scottish.
"The bullets work. Nonlethal, heavy stopping power, break up under the subcutaneous tissue-"
"With a dose of only 1 micro liters of Dendrotoxin. I'm not Hermione. I can't create instant paralysis with that."
"You should have run the specs-
"The bullets are hollow!" –
-by me before building the molds."
"It's a marvel I can keep them from breaking apart in the chamber."
"You could have used a higher-caliber round."
"Or you could have read a book. Have you ever heard of physics or what's the other one? Inertia? It's not particularly difficult."
Ward, who was getting bored with the back and forth arguing between the two [if also slightly amused] cleared his throat to get their attention. When that didn't seem to work, he dropped his bag to the floor with a fairly audible thump. Both Science kids looked up in surprise.
"Fitz-Simmons?" Ward asked, in a gruff, if friendly tone.
The girl was the first to recover. The look of surprise was replaced by a friendly, warm smile. "Fitz." She said, pointing at her colleague.
The Scots expression was friendly like hers, but also slightly apprehensive, probably for good reason: Ward had a good foot of so on him, and was much more muscular. "Simmons." He said as he pointed at the girl. "I'm engineering. She's bio-chem." Ward didn't miss the slightly mocking and dismissive tone in his voice as he said bio-chem; neither did the girl, who gave him an annoyed look, and moved off into the lab. "Agent Ward?" he asked.
Nodding, Ward said "Coulson said I'd need my comm receiver encoded." Passing the receiver to the Scot, he added " Don't know if you've worked with that model before. It's-'' before he could finish his sentence, the Scot [Was he Fitz or Simmons? I can't remember Ward thought] picked up a nearby hammer and smashed the receiver into several small pieces.
Ward gaped at the engineer, who had just destroyed thousands of dollars' worth of S.H.I.E.L.D Equipment, like he was smashing a wall nut. All he could say in response was " Brand-new."
The English girl gave Ward an apologetic look, along with a reproachful look towards her colleague. "Im sorry, he forgot to say that he'll re purpose the I.D.I.S. Chip." Seeing the slightly confused look on Ward's face, she elaborated "It means you don't need the external receiver for the inner-ear comms anymore."
Ward nodded, decided that the English girl [Simmons?} was probally the sane one of the two, and said "So, how does it-" he grunted as Simmons shoved a swab into his mouth without warning.
"Embedded sensor neural silicone matched to your DNA. It's very posh. " She answered, before pulling the swab out, and smiling to him like what she had just done was perfectly normal. Maybe they're both crazy Ward thought, already starting to regret his decision to come on board.
"So, are you excited to be coming on our journey into mystery?" she asked him, still smiling that warm, friendly smile. Wouldn't that hurt her mouth? Ward thought. He usually didn't smile. Smirked yes. Growl and Grinch, sure. But a smile? Not so much.
"It's like Christmas." He deadpanned.
Before they could say anything else, Ward, the science kids, along with a couple of technicians doing some minute checks, all turned their heads as a bright red vintage Corvette rolled into the plane's loading area, Philip Coulson at the wheel.
Fitz smirked slightly, moving to Ward's side as Simmons moved off to the lab. "One of Coulson's old S.H.I.E.L.D. Collectibles." Ward nodded. Coulson's obsession [ahem fascination] with old S.H.I.E.L.D and superhero memorabilia was legendary. One rumor was that, after his 'death' at the hands of Loki, Fury had stolen his Captain America trading cards from his locker, sprayed synthetics on them to make them look bloody, and used them to motivate the Avengers. Ward didn't know if it was true. Knowing Fury [or more specifically his rep] Ward wouldn't be surprised.
Fitz continued "Flamethrowers, world's first GPS. He's mad for this crap." As he talked, one of the Technicians made to touch the Corvette. Before he could, Coulson said "Don't touch Lola." In a firm voice.
Fitz's smile turned into a full blown grin. "And he calls it a girl's name." With that, he turned around, and moved off to the lab, after giving Ward a slap in the back. It didn't hurt at all, but Ward flinched slightly anyway; He wasn't very comfortable being touched by people he barely knew.
Coulson gave Ward a nod and a small grin, and gestured to Ward to follow him. As they climbed the stairs which led to the second level of the plane, at Ward's slightly raised eyebrows, Coulson said "Lola's not just a collectible, you know. People tend to confuse the words "new" and "improved."
When they finally reached the second level of the plane and started moving around the plane, Ward couldn't help but be impressed by just how well furbished the plane really was. There were leather couches, a Kashmir carpet, a kitchen with a fridge, stove and oven, a widescreen TV with the latest stereo and DVD System, and, Ward was happy to note, what looked like a fully stocked bar. Being used to staying in, if he was lucky, a dingy apartment on the bad end of whatever town he was stationed in, and if he wasn't lucky, staying in a small tent in the middle of a forest with rain pouring down on him, Ward couldn't help but feel just a little bit better about his situation now that he had seen what he was going to be in for. Maybe this won't be so bad after all he thought.
Seeing the impressed look on Wards face, Coulson said" These mobile commands, they were in heavy rotation back in the '90s". Then with a grin he said "But then we got a heli-carrier."
As they continued to go through the plane to what Ward assumed were the rooms where the team members would be staying, Coulson turned around and said "Hey. Did you hear the one about the guy who's afraid of flying?"
Ward, who didn't entirely understand what Coulson was asking, assumed he was asking him whatever or not he was comfortable with heights, and said "I've done a night jump into a drop zone under heavy fire, sir. I can handle it."
Coulson gave him a bemused expression in return. "That was a Joke. The first part of a…." Seeing that Ward still didn't get it, Coulson sighed and said "I'm not gonna tell it now."
Before they could continue talking, the door of the cockpit opened, and a lady, who looked Asian, with long brown hair and dressed in black tactical gear, emerged. She had piercing eyes, and was of medium height, but Ward noted her build was firm and muscular, like his. She was very beautiful, however her beauty was offset slightly by the fact she wasn't smiling, and her eyes seemed cold, and calculating. She gave Ward a brief, appraising look before saying "If you plan to unpack, make it quick. Wheels are up in five." He accent was perfect. Without another word, she turned to Coulson and said "We may have a hit on one of the Rising Tide's routing points."
Coulson nodded. "Good. We need to do some catching up." The lady [whom Ward guessed was the pilot] gave him a curt nod, gave Ward another look, almost as if she was sizing him up, before turning around to return to the cockpit.
Though Ward had not recognized her immediately, now that she was gone, Ward had a pretty good guess who she could be. At S.H.I.E.L.D there had been a legend about a Specialist, who had saved over a dozen Agents from over 20 armed, professional Assassins, with one pistol, and only one mag. This specialist had earned the moniker "The Cavalry".
Turning to Coulson, he said "Is that who I think it is?"
Inclining his head slightly [which Ward guessed meant 'yes'] Coulson said "She's just the pilot."
"Just the pilot." Ward repeated skeptically. "Melinda May is just the pilot. Come on, sir. What game are you really playing?"
Coulson gave him a neutral expression, and said "Better stow your gear." Before turning around and walking back down the stairs to the bottom half of the plane.
Ward let out a sigh. This is not good. May could be a problem, not least of all because she had taken down over 20 armed men by herself; There were other legends about her, one of them being that she held more black belts then the Black Widow herself. Nat had even mentioned her to him once, during combat training; She had called May 'deadly'. That one compliment was enough to make Ward very weary; any person called deadly by one of the world's greatest assassins was not to be underestimated.
As he stood, contemplating his situation, one of the science kids, the girl called Simmons, climbed the stairs from the lower level. Seeing Ward, she gave him another friendly smile, and said. "Hey. You want me to show you to your room?"
"No thanks, im fine" Ward responded, in a voice slightly gruffer then he intended.
Simmons, unperturbed, said "It's really quite all right. Me and Leo-"as she spoke she grabbed Fitz [who had climbed up with her but had tried going back down when she mentioned helping Ward to his room] by the scruff of his neck and dragged him up to her side. Despite her petite stature, she was surprisingly strong. She continued "would be happy to show you the way."
Fitz gave him a look which clearly showed how much he didn't want to show him the way, and he looked down the stairs, wistfully, towards the science lab. However, he didn't move away from Simmons side. He seemed resigned to his fate.
Ward sighed, and, deciding that it would be easy just to let this girl show him his room, even if she was a little earnest, he said "Okay, fine. Lead the way."
Simmons smile grew, if possible, even wider. "Lovely. Come on Fitz." With that she crossed the room [tripping slightly on the carpet, making both Ward and Fitz smile, just a little bit] and moved in front of Ward, all the while still smiling. "Well, off we go then."
Fitz, who was now standing right next to Ward as they followed Simmons, who was animatedly talking about some of the features of the plane, gave Ward a small, nervous smile, and said in a quiet voice so Simmons couldn't hear "You'll have to forgive Jemma. As you probably guessed, me and her don't spend a lot of time out of the lab, or with, you know… other people" he finished awkwardly.
Ward nodded. He didn't judge these guys for being a little awkward around new people, something Fitz seemed to be a little worried about. Ward was hardly a social animal himself. He could act confident and sociable if it was part of the job, but he was at heart a solitary person, and though he was cordial towards people in general, he was only friendly with people he trusted. He wasn't 100% comfortable in other peoples presence, and for good reason too. Their weren't a lot of reasons to trust people…..
A dark well… a little boy screaming for help….
Don't think about it Ward he chided himself. Block it out.
He turned his attention back to Simmons, who turned around and gave him another smile. She does that to me a lot he thought to himself.
"So Agent Ward. Is this your first operation in the field?"
Ward shook his head. "Far from it. I've been in the field for going on 8 years now."
Both Fitz and Simmons gave him slightly awed looks [Ward suppressed a grin at their reaction.] "Wow." Simmons said. "I mean you look so young, and…. Well built… and symmetrical and…um…" she looked at Fitz, in slight alarm, who gave Ward a knowing look. He seemed to be saying that Jemma did this frequently. Ward for the first time gave out a little smile. Just a small smile, of course, but a smile none the less.
Jemma, seeing Ward grin for the first time, merely coughed, and recovered her bearings enough to say "Well, what i meant to say you seemed to be really really young to be a field agent. I thought you were just out of the Operations Academy."
Ward continued to give them his little smile as he said "I got out of the academy when i was 23. One of the youngest recruits ever to go straight into solo field ops" he finished with pride. He remembered the day he had gotten his first assignment, right after graduation. Garret himself had given him the orders. He had smiled at him, and said "I'm proud of you son." It had been the first time he had ever called him son.
It was one of the happiest days of Wards life.
The looks of awe on the science kids face's became even more pronounced. "That's…."
"Cool." Fitz finished.
Ward gave them a small chuckle. These guys aren't so bad he thought. A little eccentric, sure. A little crazy. But aren't we all?
When they reached Ward's room, Simmons gave him another little smile, and said "Well me and Leo will just be a couple of doors down if you need us for anything."
Ward nodded. "So how long have you two been together? Wouldn't have been easy, S.H.I.E.L.D regulations and all." It was pretty obvious that these two were together. The fact that they argued like an old married couple, and the way they seem to hover around each other slightly, and the way they seemed to know the others body language so well gave it away pretty easily for a man like Ward, trained to observe people and how they interacted with others.
Both of them gave him a confused look for a moment, before their looks turned to shock.
"Oh wait, you think me and Jemma-"
"You think me and him-"
They both started to laugh nervously, shaking their heads frantically. It was actually quite comical, and Ward had to resist the urge to chuckle again.
Simmons finally said "Me and Fitz. No, no. no, no. Definitely not."
Fitz turned to her, a slightly offended look on his face. "Seriously? Four no's?"
Before either of them could speak again [Simmons was starting to get quite red in the face] a female voice over the intercom said "We will taking off in exactly 2 minutes, so buckle up."
The science kids turned to Ward, the nervous smiles and flushed faces still apparent. "We better go down to the lab, unpack our last bits of equipment." Fitz said.
Ward gave them both a brief nod [the small smile had disappeared, replaced by his normal, serious expression] and then he turned around, opening the door to his room.
"See you later then." Simmons said as she and Fitz went down the stairs to the lab.
"Yeah. Later." Ward responded, in his normal, clipped tone. With that he closed the door to his room, threw his bag rather unceremoniously onto the floor, and threw himself on the bed, sighing. The room was small, not a lot of room to wiggle around in, but the sheets, blankets and pillows were soft and clean, and the place smelled fine, which was more than he could say about some places that he had been.
He sighed again. Time to go to work he thought. Hopefully their won't be any more surprises.
Unfortunately for Agent Ward, there would be many, many surprises in the months to come. One of them was only an hour and 10 minutes away in fact. And it would be one that, though he did not know it yet, would change the course of his life, for better or for worse.