S.H.I.E.L.D. had me hyperventilating with excitement last night, so if you haven't watched it yet, you should. For those of you who have, you know what I'm talking about. Sorry about the delay on this one, but AP testing has started and I have three to get through, so the next chapter might be a bit slow to get posted as well. Thanks for reading!
The Playground
"Why don't you leave one of them here?" Isabelle looked uncertainly between the two stuffed animals in her arms. "Leave Thor, he's already gotten the tour from Fitz before you got here," Bobbi suggested. Her daughter hesitantly placed the monkey on the bed, propping him up on his many limbs carefully. Bobbi smiled. "Now, are you ready to go?" Isabelle hugged Hoppity and nodded.
"Okay then," Bobbi opened the door and they headed out into the hallway. Skye and Triplett were waiting for them in front of the next room over.
"Hey!" Skye greeted them cheerfully. She gestured to the door. "Isabelle, this is my room. You can visit me any time you want."
Isabelle smiled up at Skye, ready for the tour. Isabelle slipped her hand into Bobbi's, and Skye and Triplett fell into step beside them. "I thought first we'd show you where we all hang out; it's pretty comfy," Skye suggested, turning around the corner. They entered the common area with the large U.S. flag pinned up on the wall, the squashy arm chairs, and the large couch facing the widescreen TV.
"The kitchen is just through that door, but you've already seen that," Bobbi added, gesturing toward the door in question.
"This room literally has the best seats in the whole place!" Trip said.
"Maybe we could watch a Disney movie here later?" Skye added. "When we're finished with the tour, I mean." She glanced at Bobbi, who nodded. "What's your favorite?" she asked Isabelle.
"Tangled," Isabelle answered. "I want my hair to grow as long as Rapunzel's, but Mommy wouldn't let me."
"Well, that makes sense," Skye laughed. "You'd get so many knots in your hair! Or spend all of your time brushing them out."
Bobbi looked at Triplett, confused as to what exactly they were talking about, but she only got the same bemused look back.
"We should watch it," Isabelle said to Skye. "You look like Rapunzel after the funny nose guy cut all her hair off and it turned brown like yours."
"Umm...thanks?" Skye said with an amused glance at Trip. "We'll watch it after, okay? I promised Fi—Leo and Jemma that we would visit them on our way."
"Okay!" Isabelle agreed.
Bobbi stepped closer to Skye. "Do you have the Disney movies?" she whispered.
Skye nodded. "Downloaded a bunch last night, don't worry." The young hacker grinned. "I'm prepared!"
"Let's continue then," Trip said with a smile. "You don't mind if I crash the Disney-watching party later?"
"Of course not, the more, the merrier," Skye told him.
"Party?" Isabelle asked.
Skye looked uncertain for a moment. "We'll have popcorn," she promised. "And I'll get a bunch of blankets so we'll be all cuddly. Sound good?"
"Yes. Now, Leo!" Isabelle insisted. Bobbi laughed at her antics. The group turned around and headed back out the way they had come. Isabelle pulled free of Bobbi's hand as they neared her room door, running up to it and tugging on the handle but failing to get it to open. "I need Thor!" she announced.
Bobbi blinked before following her, gently moving Isabelle's grasping hand out of the way and twisting smoothly. "Why do you need Thor?"
"Because we're going to see Leo!" she replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Bobbi had barely gotten the door open before Isabelle slipped through the crack and into the room. She placed Hoppity down neatly on the bed and picked up Thor the Monkey instead.
"Ready?" Bobbi asked. Isabelle nodded and returned to her side.
Bobbi took them back to Triplett and Skye, both of whom were laughing at the stuffed animal swap. "I'd forgotten what little kids are like sometimes," Trip grinned as they rejoined the two of them.
Bobbi could hear the low tones of Coulson and May as they neared his office. Isabelle peeked inside. "Let's not disturb them," Bobbi advised, giving a slight tug on her hand, but it was too late.
Coulson broke into a smile and ushered them inside his office, while May pursed her lips and said nothing, standing off to the side until she could finish her report. The director showed off the model Lola Mack had built for him, taking it off the stand and allowing Isabelle to roll it across his desk a few times. When the girl was finished exploring the office—Coulson encouraged her to open and investigate the various cabinets around the room; perhaps his talk with May was really boring—they bade goodbye to the director and continued on their way. As they approached the lab, Bobbi could see Simmons staring frustratedly into a microscope and then consulting the file in front of her on one side, with Fitz and Mack sequestered on the other.
Almost the instant Bobbi had opened the lab door Isabelle took off toward him. "Leo! I got Thor!"
"Isa—" Bobbi began before starting after her daughter. Fitz looked up from his work and promptly shut the black case on the lab table. She caught up right as Isabelle reached him, ignoring the amused look from Mack.
"Isabelle!" Fitz greeted her with enthusiasm. He smiled as she waved Thor as close to his face as she could lift it—which was not very close at all. "I see he's been going on the tour with you. That's a good thing, because he's new here too."
"He is?" her daughter asked curiously, tilting her head adorably with the question.
"Yeah," Fitz confirmed. "He also really likes science experiments. Do you like science?"
Isabelle shrugged. "I don't know."
"Well, how about we find out?" Fitz suggested. "Just give me a minute to get it set up..." He turned away, rummaging through the cupboards behind them. "Hey, Mack, give me a hand here?"
"Sure, Turbo," Mack said, exchanging a look with Bobbi as he moved to help out the engineer. Skye and Triplett looked on interestedly from the sidelines.
Isabelle watched in fascination as Fitz pulled on thick rubber gloves. "For the, uh..."
"Dry ice?" Mack supplied.
"Yes, that," he said. "Simmons put it in the..." He trailed off as he located the correct temperature-controlled container in the corner and unlatched the lid, removing a large chunk of ice with curls of mist coming off the top of it.
"Smoke!" Isabelle pointed. Fitz dropped the ice into a beaker and then filled a graduated cylinder full of water at the sink. He poured it into the beaker, and Isabelle clapped her hands together as the mixture began to froth and fog began to spill out the top of the beaker.
"It's not smoke; it's water vapor," Fitz told her, "from the sublimation."
Isabelle took a step closer and peered into the beaker. "It looks like smoke…"
"Well, the difference is…" Fitz began what sounded like a dumbed-down but still long-winded explanation. Bobbi stepped nearer to Mack.
"It's cute seeing them like this," she said quietly, watching the two of them.
"I think little kids being cute is a law of nature," Mack replied. He paused. "How're you doing?"
"We're adjusting well."
"How are you doing?"
Bobbi's lips curved upwards slightly. "I...don't know. I feel like I'm treading water with all of this, trying to keep my head above the surface. I never know what she's going to do next."
"I know how much you like predictability," Mack nodded. "That's not going to happen with a kid. You're sunk on that one."
Bobbi gestured toward Skye, Triplett, Fitz, and Isabelle, dropping her voice volume even lower. "She likes Fitz, and Coulson, and Skye… You saw her when she got in here. Will she ever run toward me like that?"
"Of course she will."
Bobbi gave a wry smile. "Currently the only person she likes less than me is Hunter. And May, because May's radiating disapproval all the time. But I'm the one who took her here—the one she might blame for taking her away from her parents. She...she told me she wanted to go home, and I was the one who had to tell her no. What if she never likes me?"
"She will," Mack said without hesitation. "When she settles in here, she will."
"But not now."
"You're trying too hard," Mack told her. "You're terrified—" She gave him a look. "—yes, Bobbi, terrified, of making a mistake with her. You're trying to be her guardian; the others are trying to be her friend."
"But I am her—"
"Yes, you are. And I'm not saying you should act differently. You do have responsibilities that the others don't. In a way, you're acting like May."
"That really doesn't—" Bobbi stopped abruptly as fog exploded across the table, engulfing Isabelle for a moment before settling further towards the ground. Bobbi leaped forward, pulling her daughter from the midst of the white cloud that was still erupting out of the beaker. Fitz jumped backwards as well, and Skye was nearly doubled over with laughter while Triplett grinned appreciatively.
"Wow, I didn't expect such a large…" Fitz said. "Maybe not have the water boiling next time. He fanned the top of the beaker with his hand but it showed no signs of slowing its fog production. Whiteness began creeping across the ground, not-so-slowly expanding outwards.
Isabelle pulled free from Bobbi's grip, jumping up and down in the murkiness. "So cool!" Fitz saw the look on her face and smiled shyly back.
Bobbi ran to hit the red emergency ventilation button on the wall. After a moment, there was a loud whirring and the pearly gas began to be sucked up through the ventilation grates. "Okay, maybe we shouldn't be disseminating noxious gas that sinks to the floor when we've got a small child standing a foot away," she said.
"Right, no, not a good idea," Fitz admitted, taking the beaker away to the sink. The cloud floated along with him, the beaker still frothing away. He turned back to Isabelle. "So that's what science looks like. What'd you think?"
"I love science!" Isabelle proclaimed. "Can we do some more?"
They all laughed. "Maybe some other time," Mack said as Bobbi opened her mouth to reply. She gave him a grateful glance, knowing he had just saved her from having to be the bad guy again. "Fitz and I have to get back to work."
"Want to go see Jemma now?" Skye asked. "She's right over there." Skye gestured towards the far end of the lab. At the sound of her name, Simmons moved her microscope to the center of the table—where Isabelle wouldn't be able to reach it—and closed the HYDRA file out of which she had been working. The biochemist eagerly gestured for them to come over.
"Hey, Isabelle!" she greeted her cheerily as the girl bounced up to meet her with Bobbi right behind and Skye and Trip following at a more sedate pace. "I saw Fitz's experiment; it looked really—"
"Hey, Simmons, I cut my hand cleaning out that bloody supply closet of the SSR's; any chance you could patch—" Hunter stopped abruptly as he saw all of them standing there, staring as he had been at the red streak on his palm. Isabelle immediately attached herself to Bobbi's leg, and despite everything Bobbi was secretly glad that it was her leg Isabelle was clinging to for support.
"...Uh, sure," Simmons said quickly. She opened a drawer and pulled on a pair of blue latex gloves before going over to him and peering at his hand. "I'll get you an alcohol wipe just to be safe, but it doesn't look too deep," she told him. She walked away towards the cabinet, leaving the rest of them just standing there.
Hunter shifted on his feet. "Hi, Isabelle," he said uncertainly. She didn't reply, just stared up at him with wide eyes. Bobbi put a hand on her back comfortingly, and she'd be damned if Hunter's eyes didn't narrow slightly at her action. She wasn't trying to be possessive...okay, maybe a little bit. But Hunter was the one with the real problem. If he didn't act like anything more than a jackass this time around…
The tiny scratch on his hand would be the least of his worries.
"Here we are!" Simmons said brightly, producing a box of wipes. "Rinse your hand in the sink first." Hunter followed her instructions and then proffered his injured hand to her. She attacked it with a hand wipe.
"Ow!" he protested. Bobbi gave him a disparaging look.
"Well, we don't want it to get infected now, do we?" Simmons asked, finishing up with the wipe with Hunter's palm in her surprisingly iron-like grip. She released him and he reclaimed his hand quickly.
He turned to Skye with a scowl. "I see what you mean about Dr. Simmons being kind of mean."
"Told you," Skye laughed. She caught Simmons's eye. "I said strict. But...yeah."
"I'll be right back with a bandage," Simmons said, letting the moment pass.
Hunter looked down at Isabelle again, hesitating. "I—I know we got off on the wrong foot the first time, so...I'm Lance." He held out his hand to her, the opposite from the one he had injured. She crept forward and took it. Hunter shook her hand gently before letting go.
"You have a boo-boo," Isabelle told him, stepping back closer to Bobbi again. "My mommy kisses my boo-boos better. Who kisses yours?"
Hunter looked at all of them. He raised an eyebrow.
"No thanks," Skye said with a small laugh.
"Don't look at me, dude," Triplett told him.
"Ah, no, I don't really think that kind of behavior's appropriate in the doctor-patient relationship…" Simmons said, returning with some tape and a roll of cloth. "Plus, it's not really the most sanitary of actions with an open wound…" She set about wrapping his hand.
Bobbi simply gave him another look.
Isabelle looked around at all of the adults expectantly, but when no one did anything walked up to Hunter as Simmons finished bandaging. "I'll do it," she told him sincerely. She stood on her tippy-toes and planted a kiss in the middle of the wrapping. Hunter just stood there looking stunned, but the girl didn't seem to notice. "There, all better!" she said happily, retreating a few paces to admire her handiwork.
"Thank you," Hunter told her after a moment. He had an odd expression on his face.
Bobbi couldn't help but smile.
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