Thank you all so much for staying with me on this story!

As far as I know, they never really mention how they organise meals in the agency, so I made something up.

Disclaimer: I only own Alexandra, not Marvel. Though I would love to, really...

Chapter 10: Spaghetti a la Simmons

In the grey room, only the opening of the door ripped Alexandra out of her thoughts again. Hunter was standing in the doorway, giving her an unexpectedly kind smile.

"Dinner is ready," he announced, "I was sent to get you."

The young woman frowned.

"Wait what? Dinner? How much time has passed?"

"Enough. You should be hungry, actually. At least I would be if I were you."

Now as he mentioned it, Xandra cloud indeed feel her stomach growling. After carefully closing her notebooks, she left them with the rest of her equipment to follow the man upstairs again.

"I hope you are not too picky," he remarked, "we don't have cooks or anything. We all cook for ourselves when we have dinner at different times because of assignments or training. But usually a couple of agents eat together. So today Simmons decided to prepare the meal. I think we will have Spaghetti Bolognese ."

Alexandra's eyes widened in horror.

"But - with your research you definitely did about me, didn't you find out I am a gluten and lactose intolerant vegan?"

"Nope?!" he offered and sighed loudly, pretending to bang his head against the brick wall next to him.

When he turned back towards his younger companion, she really did have a hard time suppressing a giggle. Hunter was simply adorable - in her opinion. She knew that a lot of people would disagree, but the woman had caught a immediate liking to his snarkiness and loose mouth. Now however, his brows furrowed.

"What's so funny?" he wanted to know.

"That you actually believed the crap I just told you!" she laughed merrily, not at all fazed when he checked her in the ribs with his elbow.

"I have no allergies, but I don't like zucchini or green beans or green capsicum or green apples. Or lamb for the matter, which is kind of a problem in high society."

"What is your problem with green stuff then?" Hunter asked while they were still walking.

"Green is dangerous. It could eat me!" she joked, "I like cucumber though and peas."

By now, they could already smell the delicious aroma of pasta and the woman sighed happily. Now they could also here the chatter of many voices, both male and female. Alexandra registered the calm, borderline cold tone that she already associated with May, Skye's lighter chatter and Coulson's thoughtful answers. Then there was another voice which, after a moment, she realized must be Agent Morse who she had met earlier. The agents turned towards the couple when they entered, Xandra's focus was especially captured by the ones she hadn't seen before: A woman, probably only a few years older than herself who was currently stirring the sauce and a bulky dark-skinned man who would probably make a street gang back off.

"Edvardson, this is Mack," Skye called out when she saw the new arrivals and pointed towards the tall man who gave her a surprisingly charming smile.

"Nice to meet you!" the blonde Swedish woman responded equally pleasantly.

Then she stepped besides the cook who was also eyeing her curiously.

"Simmons, I suppose?" she asked, "this smells great!"

"Oh I hope you will like it. Could you maybe pour off the spaghetti?"

"Yea sure," Xandra responded, grapping the pot and carrying it over to the sink.

When the hot water got out, it steamed so heavily that she couldn't see for a moment. Her glasses were totally covered, making Hunter laugh.

"You look funny. Maybe geht some wipers?" Hunter asked cheekily.

It was really hard to keep her dignity and not stick her tongue out if the young woman was honest. So she settled for rolling her eyes and waiting until the "fog" in front of her eyes had cleared. Then she put the pot back on the stove, happy to have the weight off her arm. She really had to do something about her muscles! Skye put a stack of plates next to her so she and the British cook could dish up and hand the plates out to the team. She found herself sitting at the table in between Skye and another young man who had just appeared and introduced himself as Fitz.

Attentive as always, the woman noticed straight away that there was something unusual about him. Besides his apparent discomfort about a) being around a new person and b) being around Simmons, he seemed to be lost for words quite often. Skye had mentioned that he was a scientist, but Xandra didn't think that this awkwardness had something to do with his special talents, autism or something like that. It was rather as if someone had hit him on the head. Too hard.

However, as the rest of the group chatted away about various topics - from grocery shopping to ammunition shipping - she finally managed to gently coax him into a conversation about new weapons he was working on. When he apologized ed himself for talking too clumsily, she just shook her head, frowning.

"Don't you dare apologizing Fitz! I have worked with Stark who doesn't even breathe when talking and I tell you, it didn't make it easier for me to comprehend things."

She gave him a rueful half-smile.

"I might be smart on a theoretical basis but I am horrible when it comes to technical creativity. One has to explain it to me, then I understand, but Tony just didn't get that in his head!"

Slightly at ease, Fitz continued with his explanation. From time to time she supplied a couple of words and as a scientist she understood his frustration with not being able to express what wanted to say. Therefore she didn't really mind when he snapped at her, to his apparent surprise.

When they had all finished eating and put away the dishes into the dishwasher, the consultant was just about to ask for the way back to the conference room, when suddenly Fitz spoke up.

"Uhm, Edvardson, would you like to... like to have a look around in the lab?" he wanted to know.

The woman would have agreed right away but didn't know whether that was appropriate, after all she had been ordered to do a different job.

"You go and do that," May spoke up, who had overheard the conversation.

Even though her tone was neutral and firm, Xandra could see somw hope in her eyes. She understood it was for the young Scot next to her.

"Okay Fitz, lead the way!" she said, smiling brightly, "oh, and please don't call me Edvardson. I don't particularly like that."

Thank you so much for reading guys!