❝THIS COULD BE PARADISE.❞
In which Jenna Rivers always thought working for S.H.I.E.L.D would be her paradise, only to find out that it was merely a path towards one.
[AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D AU - SEASON 4]
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JENNA RIVERS WAS, simply put, a genius. She was also quite the humble, kind, quiet girl but about her brilliant mind, she was proud of and put very little effort into hiding. As a child, she was always the first one to complete the tasks at kindergarten, the one to solve puzzles the quickest, the first child of three to learn how to read, write and do math. It was always something her mother and father were very proud of, the girl's irrefutable intelligence and the great things she was destined for. Inspired by her father's work as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, which led to him giving his life in the line of duty, Jenna decided as a teenager that her future had the same initials — she wanted to be an agent, too. Of course, she just didn't desire the action and working in the field, but she knew that she held the right cards to become a scientist, lab technician or work with the computers for the agency.
She knew it wasn't going to be an easy to road to success, and that it would take her years, plenty of energy and lots of sleepless nights, but Jenna was willing to work hard for her future. For her dream. And indeed, it took a lot of time and power from the young woman, but with a few years of pure work and utter desire to fulfill her dreams, Jenna got her PhD which then allowed her to apply for the Sci-Tech Academy of S.H.I.E.L.D.
And in a blink of an eye, she already found herself standing in the long hallway with her curious gaze wandering around and her clever mind trying to comprehend that she was truly there, on the path to becoming an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. It felt unreal, literally a dream come true — for the longest time, she had wanted this, and at last, everything she had hoped to achieve was there for her to take and make hers. Not to mention she could finally follow in her father's footsteps, and make him proud — even though her work drastically differed from his action-packed life, it was the same agency, one where the name Rivers wouldn't be forgotten.
That was why the wide, enthusiastic smile on her light pink lips had no intentions to falter.
Or, so she thought. The happiness in her came crashing down as a loud honk sounded from right behind her, replacing the joy in her suddenly racing heart with panic and shock whilst the ringing continued to blare through her ears. Wincing, Jenna lifted her hands to her head and let her eyebrows knit together whilst she twirled around and came face to face with two boys, who high-fived as their proud, snotty laughter then broke through the barrier in her ears — and when she looked down, she found an air horn in the other guy's hand to confirm her suspicions of a mean prank.
"Hey, come on!", a new voice then earned Jenna's attention, before she herself could offer a meek attempt at sass or a scientific fact of stupidity and the irrelevance of pranking, and when she turned around once again, she noticed an adorable, curly-haired boy coming to her aid in a rush. "Pranks are meant to be funny, not damage someone's hearing", the boy defended Jenna, his brave voice gaining a more shy shade to it, lacing his cute accent with awkwardness when he turned to face the girl he had suddenly rushed to help. As the stranger blushed and then turned back to the guys who had executed the poor prank, Jenna couldn't stop her lips from twitching upwards — but she did try.
"He is correct, you know. Pranks have a 80% success rate, so I'm assuming the 20% are your poorly executed attempts to be funny, hm?", Jenna finally spoke up as she crossed her arms and let her eyes dart back to the amateur pranksters, only for the two boys to scoff and sheepishly scratch the back of their heads. Clearly uncomfortable in the situation that had turned against them, the boys then sauntered off, leaving Jenna alone with the friendly stranger that had come to save her.
Impressed with the new girl's knowledge of statistics, the boy's eyes lit up and he found himself devoid of words, or anything remotely reasonable to excuse the silence and the staring he was unable to stop. "Uh—", he then eventually began, and as Jenna let out a little chuckle — but not a mocking one, by any means — his hand lifted to scratch the back of his head awkwardly. "That's— that's impressive. How did you, uh, know that?", he questioned shyly, referring to the fact about pranks which Jenna had thrown in the pranksters' faces, successfully scaring them off.
"Honestly", Jenna giggled, "I just made it up. Guess not everyone here is so smart, after all. But they do assume so", her pink lips were widened with an amused, happy smile, one that the boy ended up mirroring. The two of them ended up laughing awkwardly just to fill the silence that was quick to land between them yet again, both unsure what to say next — until the shy boy came to the realization he hadn't even introduced himself.
"I'm Leo Fitz. But you can just call me Fitz, really, uh, most people do. So it's okay", his Scottish accent vibrated with agitation as he offered his hand to Jenna, who let her gaze drop from the boy's beautiful blue eyes to his shaky hand, earning a fond smile from her.
Firmly, the woman took Fitz's hand and shook it. "I'm Jenna. Jenna Rivers", she smiled. And frankly, as they looked at each other with their lips pulled upwards and their hearts racing in their chests, Jenna felt like S.H.I.E.L.D was going to offer her so much more than she had expected or imagined.
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OHMYGOSH i am so excited!! jenna is my smol scientist nerd and i already love her so much 😭😭
i have so much planned for this fic already, especially part one, which will probably be around 7-10 chapters.
