Under These Lights {fitzsimmons marching band au}

Chapter Seven

Quick Note: oh my gosh I haven't written in ages sorry! I'm supremely busy.  But I hope your marching seasons went well and I hope you're enjoying this season of shield as much as I am!

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Director Coulson approached the two immediately, almost hyperventilating already.

"How could they know what we were doing? This show was top secret, was it not?"

"Yes, sir," Fitz replied, and Jemma's stomach tightened.

"Could there have been a Hydra scout at rehearsal? Is our band room bugged? Maybe a student snitched, who's their drum major?"

"Grant Ward," Jemma whispered, and Fitz glanced over at her, realizing what she'd done. She took a deep breath. "Sir, I had no idea--"

"Simmons saw Ward in my room last month, looking at the show music, and she didn't say anything because she thought Ward was from Shield," Fitz interrupted quickly. "It's entirely my fault for having him over and leaving my music out and I'm so sorry, sir."

Coulson heaved a sigh. "It's fine, Leo. Let's just hope we've got cleaner choreo and better sound than them today. I'd be so embarrassed if they beat us with our own show."

The ballad began and Coulson marched away to the judge's room, hoping to notify the state director Rosalind Price that their show had been stolen as soon as possible. Jemma stared at Fitz as he tried to recalculate any extra measures they could take to improve the show now.

"Thank you, Leo," she whispered, unsure of how she could make this up for him. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," he replied through gritted teeth, half paying attention.  "Go talk up the band, I'm going to see if there's anything I can pull to fix this."

Jemma nodded and wound her way through the swarms of whispering band kids, stopping every few feet to exaggeratedly whisper about stepping it up.  "High toes, snappy changes, play every note like it's your last.  We've put so much into this show, we're not going to lose it now."

The message spread down the lines and each student turned to face the field, steely eyed and serious.  The quiet concentration was broken only by the sounds of warm breath whirling through horns, keys clunking as fingerings were rehearsed, and the shuffles of feet marking time.  Jemma thought maybe they could manage this, maybe they would be bonded together through such an experience and maybe she'd go without blame.  That was until Henry the tuba grabbed her shoulder and stopped her in her place.

"How'd Hydra find out about our show, huh?  Did you tell Grant Ward every detail before or after sucking face?"  Jemma didn't respond verbally, knowing her face was too red and her throat too tight to defend herself.

"Henry," Fitz scolded, ushering Jemma back to the front of the lines.  "I need you to double down with Katie on the solo in the ballad, think you can transpose it really quick?"

Jemma rubbed frantically at her eyes before hot tears could spill, and instead ran about some more, encouraging people to play loud and clear.  She checked in with the colorguard, which was clearly shaken by Hydra's cloned performance, and aided them in planning extra choreographical measures to earn more points.

"Jemma," Director Coulson called just as they'd finished with the ballad.  "The judges said there's nothing they can do without proof, so it looks like we're doing this full out.  Listen for the time to call the band to attention, I'll go find Fitz.  Good luck."

The guard ran through her changes quickly, missing half of them, and he felt like she could scream, so when it was time to call the band to attention, she did scream.

"Band ten hut!"

"And hit!" they screamed back, knowing that dedication and hard work was the only way to top Hydra now.

"Band forward harch!" And the band steadily advanced towards their spots on the field.

The opener went exactly as expected, and Jemma sighed in relief as the final note was played.  Fitz's ingenious spontaneous duet saved the ballad from total mediocrity, and the band's intensity and dedication pulled out the best possible closer they'd ever done.  Jemma should've been relieved when they were off the field, but she wasn't.  She felt like she was going to puke.

"Bad news, Katie hates Jane Austen," Fitz announced as he took a seat next to a reading Jemma after their performance.  She had changed as quickly as possible after they'd left the field, then slipped out of pit loading duty before her bandmates' critical stares caused tears to fall.  She had been reading in between other schools' performances to calm herself down, and she'd almost forgotten about the band entirely until Fitz had approached her.

"That's dreadful," she tried to joke before she began crying.

Fitz didn't seem phased, just shifted himself so that nobody would see her tear-stained face.  Then reached out to comfort her, settling his hand on her knee as she ducked her head further down.

"You didn't know.  Nobody's holding that against you," he said, and she almost believed it.  She just shook her head in response.

He let a beat of silence past between them before casually swiping a tear away with his thumb, like it was the most natural thing to do.  A second passed and he seemed just as startled by the intimate action as she did.

"Hot chocolate?" Fitz asked quickly.  She nodded, then fumbled around in her jacket pocket to try and give him two dollars, but he was already bounding away by the time she found cash.  He stumbled on the ramp down to the concession stands and she let herself laugh quietly before returning to her Lizzie Darcy dreamworld.

Fitz set the steaming styrofoam cup down on her bleacher, then sat two rows down, shooting a quick, almost unnoticed smile over the book cover.

Hydra took home first. Shield second. Jemma expected as much, but that didn't stop her emotions from getting the best of her.  She hurried from the stands after awards to be first on the bus, throwing away her half-full hot chocolate on the way.

She hid her head.  Fitz stayed quiet on the ride back to the school.  When she looked up towards the end, he was tapping out a message to Katie, canceling their movie plans for that night.

"Do you want to do dinner?" he asked as the bus pulled up to the school.  "I mean after unloading and meeting with Director Coulson."

Jemma stared for a moment.  "Is that why you cancelled with Katie?"

"Wow, snoop much?" he teased before realizing Jemma was serious.  "No, actually.  Katie wanted to do pizza with the flutes instead.  We agreed that we both need some sectional time to recoup today."

Jemma almost laughed at the notion that the two of them qualified as a section.  "You're sure?" she asked instead.

"I can show you the texts if you want, it's no big deal."  He pulled out his phone and began tapping before Jemma stopped him.

"Okay, it's fine, I believe you.  Where to?"