Rewind

Two

He lifts his bag down from the SUV and looks across the runway at the small group of people. They are standing by the largest plane he's ever seen, and while it's hard to tell from where he's standing it looks like there's already three people there. Good, that means he's not the last one.

He walks over the concrete, his footsteps making barely any sound, occasionally kicking the odd piece of gravel. It feels like forever before he's in front of his new team, and that's either because he's walking very slowly or that he's leaving his old life behind.

"I'm Agent Coulson," the man in the dark sunglasses and grey suit says, and he offers out a hand for Fitz to shake.

"Leopold Fitz - but please just call me Fitz," he replies, stumbling a little on his words.

"Pleased to meet you. Fitz, this is May and Ward - Simmons is already making herself comfortable in the lab, why don't you go and see her? It's just up there," and he points up the ramp. Fitz nods at his teammates, dejectedly thinking that he's late - or maybe everyone else is just really early.

He isn't prepared for what he sees when he enters the spacious lab. When he was informed that he was going to be working on a plane, he thought small, confined spaces: but this is the most well-equipped lab he's ever seen, including the one at Sci-Ops that he'd worked in a few years prior. He also didn't expect his new lab partner to be, well, quite this gorgeous.

The woman lifts her head from under the bench where she has been putting items away and subtly flicks her mid-length brunette hair to the side. She has clear, pale skin and warm, amber eyes; her smile is soft and friendly. She reminds him of autumn, in a strange way, like he would remind himself of an icy drought in the middle of winter.

"Hi, I'm Simmons, you must be Fitz?" she enquires, and her voice is chirpy and upbeat. She too holds out a hand to shake and he takes it, feeling her warm skin in the palm of his hand, so unlike Coulson's.

"Yeah. Pretty impressive lab, isn't it?" he says, gesturing vaguely around at the room, and she grins back at him.

"Yes, although the one I had at Stark Industries was, I have to say, a very small cut above." She's turned her back on him now and has gone back to unpacking, and he bends down to help her.

"You worked for Stark?" he asks incredulously.

Simmons nods.

"So why did you leave?" He feels like he's asking too many questions, but she doesn't seem to mind.

"I guess I just got tired of waking up in the morning to see the same old lab, the same old people, the same old routine. I needed a little bit of adventure, do you know the feeling?" she says almost wistfully, her hair a curtain covering half her face as she takes some things out of boxes.

Fitz shakes his head. "Nah, I've never really liked change," he says, and she surveys him with a penetrating look. "What are you staring at me like that for?"

"You're an interesting person," she states, and goes back to unpacking.

"Me? Nah, I'm as ordinary as they come," he scoffs. The box is empty now so she tosses it aside and stands up, resting her elbows on the bench top and leaning forward.

"If you are, then what are you doing here?"

Fitz shrugs. "Dunno. Shall we go see our new teammates?"

She gives him one last inquisitive look before they leave the lab, her hot on his heels.

🐒

"Ah, good, you've found each other," Coulson says. They're standing in what appears to be the lounge on this giant plane, with a flat screen television lining one wall and fancy white leather sofas on the other.