Desperate Measures (MCU fanfiction)

Chapter 2: Camellias and Daffodils

February 10th.

It was almost midnight when Mary went downstairs and snuck into the lab. She figured Simmons and Fitz were already asleep (as was usually the case at that time of night) and they probably wouldn't find out. See, Mary was curious about the famed holo-table and how it worked. She was fascinated by how large the holograms often got. Once, she observed Fitz blow up a hologram with one swift movement of his hand and it complied, expanding rapidly. It went on to fill the entire room! Mary tried not to let her astonishment show but lost her control to the impossibly bright holographic images.

So, one could imagine how tempting it was to meddle just a little bit. Of course, Mary knew she wasn't supposed to touch the holo-table nor anything it was projecting, but it was so enchanting - hence her being in the lab, lying underneath the holo-table, trying to reconnect a piece that she will later swear up and down just, out of fucking nowhere, fell off.

Just as she got the cursed metal thing to latch on it's own (hallelujah), she heard footsteps to her right, outside the lab. Sure enough, when she slid out from under the table, a pair of legs clad tightly in denim and sporting a pair of dark flats had just come into view. Mary panicked only momentarily, quickly slipping into stealth mode. A split second decision - cabinet or table? - was straightened out when she bolted toward the cabinets along the far wall of the room and hastily found a mostly empty one to stuff her lithe figure into. Breathing shallow, Mary listened for Simmons' steps. It almost sounded.... as if she were approaching. Then she stopped dead.

Mary held her breath, hoping her ever-minty scent wouldn't give her away. She hadn't thought she had to be too discreet because the two lab occupants had retired for the day and wouldn't be in until the next. For that reason, Mary did not dispose of her chewing gum before entering the lab.

For an eternity that was probably, in reality, only about 40 seconds, Mary heard nothing but the distant sound of breathing and sporadic metallic clatters, but then, the crescendo of yet another pair of steps (Lord help her) sounded across the level. It was softer this time though, the light padding that of uncalloused, naked feet. Mary was suddenly grateful for how she'd wisely refrained from turning on the light when she entered the lab.

The faint breath hitched and the high, resonant clinking increased in frequency considerably - almost desperately - before cutting off abruptly with the slamming of a drawer.

"Fitz!" Mary heard Simmons' voice cut like a sushi knife in the silence of the room and she flinched - well, as much as a girl could flinch in so little space.

There was a small and significantly awkward silence before said engineer responded. "Jemma.... What 're ye doin' down here so late?" His voice was thick with suspicion. Although Simmons usually retired early, it couldn't have been that unnatural for her to be in her own lab late at night. She was renowned for being quite the hard-working scientist, completely dedicated to her work.

Or was this not why Fitz was so suspicious?

All of the agents and scientists in the team under Coulson (and then some) knew very well how terrible of a liar Simmons was. In fact, she was well known for a particular lie she'd told just a few years before Mary'd joined S.H.I.E.L.D., back at the academy.

Back then, Simmons was new to the whole "being selfish" concept. She'd never once told a lie and the lies she'd seen unravel had never ended well - at least, not for the person being lied to - and she made note of that. Yes, she had observed people make away with the most vile lies. She never could bring herself to give them away, though, because then she'd be a snitch and, although she had never actually heard the saying until much later, she always understood the notion that "snitches," do, indeed "get stitches." Despite how quiet and reserved young Jemma had always been, watching innocent people simply going about their lives only to be undeservedly tripped by a leg that belonged to a person they'd never even met in their entire life left her considerably offput - would it not anyone else?