Rewind

One

It's around four in the afternoon when he gets the first call. He picks up his iPhone 5S and holds it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Is this Leopold Fitz?" a voice asks, and it's male, calmly assertive with a slight American accent.

"Yes," he replies. He's not expecting the call from Quinn for a while yet, so he wonders who this could be.

"My name is Phil Coulson, and I'm calling to ask you if you want a place in my team."

He sits in silence for a moment, indecisive, weighing up the pro's and con's. He has never been a team player, always an individual, and this could risk blowing his cover.

He speaks within the next few seconds. "Who would I be working with? What would I be doing?"

"You would be our team's engineer. It's a team of five, me included, and we already have the other three signed up," Coulson responds, and he crosses his legs, reclining in the desk chair.

"Who are the other three?" he asks, and Coulson is quick to answer.

"Melinda May, she's just the pilot. Grant Ward, specialist. Jemma Simmons, biochemist, that's who you'd be working with. She specialises in human and alien biology and has two PhD's in fields I can't pronounce."

Fitz taps his chin thoughtfully  with the 2B pencil in his hand. "Hang on, let's just get this straight. Melinda May is just the pilot?" he asks incredulously.

"Yes."

"Oh."

This conversation turned awkward quickly.

"And wait... Phil Coulson died in the battle of New York!" he remembers, exclaiming loudly. "So who are you? Why are you pretending to be him?"

"I'm not pretending," he says, "Tahiti is a magical place."

Fitz's brow furrows in confusion. "Wait - what - Tahiti - um - Okay, sir, I'll think about it," he decides, uncrossing his legs and bumping his knee on the underside of the bench. It stings and he rubs it idly.

"Good. Call me back when you've made your decision," and he hangs up.

He stands up, places his phone down carefully on his untidy desk, and start to pace around the room. Should he join? But he knows that the decision isn't his, it's Garrett's, so he picks up his phone again and dials the older man's number.

It's a while before his boss answers the call. "What now, Leopold? You just ruined the punchline of my favourite story!"

Fitz sighs. "I told you not to call me Leopold. And I'm calling because Coulson, who I thought was dead, just offered me a place on his team."

Garrett chuckles. "Ah, Phil... Yeah, he's not dead. And he has a plane now. Sure, join, why not? Get in close with him, earn his trust - and Grant's going, you're not the only traitor on the team." His voice places slight emphasis on the word traitor and Fitz's stomach drops unpleasantly. He's never thought of himself as a traitor, only - a double-sided agent, a coin with two faces.

"What if this blows my cover? I've kept it for so many years, think about the consequences if they find out -"

"You worry too much, Leopold. And anyway, Grant said there was a biochemist on the team? Your new partner?" he asks, and Fitz feels odd hearing that word. Partner. There's something definite about it, something new and strange but almost forbidden.

"Yeah, Simmons, I think her name was."

"Get in close with her. Dig up some dirt on Coulson. I want to know why he's still alive, maybe it can save me too."

"Yes, sir." And that's that. He has a new mission.

He calls Coulson back and accepts the position.

Fitz lay on his bed, thinking. There's so many 'what if's' about this mission. What if he can't keep his cover? What if he get's too emotionally attached to the team? He scoffs at this. Leopold Fitz has never been emotionally attached to anyone.

He's never had a family, not really. His father died when he was small, his mother unable to cope with him. She sent him to boarding school, and he found himself an outcast. And when he went to the Academy, he became more so, hiding behind his drawings and inventions and ideas, building a wall that no-one could penetrate.

And that was when Professor Hall intervened. He saw Fitz's ideas, recommended them to his old friend Ian Quinn, and it all spiralled out of control. Garrett heard about the budding young engineer and decided to put his blooming talents to use for the greater good.

Fitz had been a member of HYDRA for a while now, and he'd never turned back. Never found it necessary to rewind, to start again. He almost belonged there.

And now he is part of a S.H.I.E.L.D. team. At least he has Ward to be a traitor with.

An introductory chapter for my new fic.

It all started when I read a little fic where Simmons joined HYDRA. Then I got thinking, what if Fitz had ended up like Donnie Gill, lost, and wandered straight into Garrett's welcoming arms?

I'll be exploring the bad side of Leo Fitz (if something so perfect even has a bad side).

This will be a rewrite of AoS Season One, in which Simmons and Fitz never met at the Academy, and Fitz ended up as a member of HYDRA working for Ian Quinn, and Simmons left her position at Stark Industries to join Coulson's team. Overtime, he begins to develop feelings for her, and is torn between being a traitor and leaving to be with Simmons, even if it would mean he was forever in danger from the men he used to call his co-workers.

I hope you enjoy it!

isabella_maeve 🍍