The cold air breezed into the small bunk of the detective. Nova had wrapped herself in the comfort of her many blankets and pillows, trying to ignore the freezing feeling she was enduring. After a good ten minutes of trying to ignore the feeling she took it as a sign to get out of bed.
The bus had been en route to Peru but for the night they stationed themselves in the LA airbase of SHIELD to wait for the arrival of Skye– who would be joining the team. Nova wasn't quite sure what Coulson was playing at, she wasn't an official agent for SHIELD but bringing in another? She didn't think it was a bad idea, compared to her teammate Ward, but she was curious how it would all play out.
After she decided she looked presentable in her black trousers and a simple white shirt, she made her way downstairs towards the lab.
"Good morning!" Nova smiled cheerfully to the pair of scientists she was glad to call friends already. After their first mission she had bonded quickly with the two of them, one of them a little more than the other.
"Good morning, Nova!" Fitz exclaimed happily from his workspace. Nova watched him a little and he seemed to be tinkering away on another piece of SHIELD tech she didn't quite understand.
"Morning!" Jemma walked past the detective in a quick motion. "Excuse me, I need the.. ah!" The biochemist had swiftly grabbed a device from the shelves in the lab.
"So-" Fitz walked up to her, his voice making her turn back to the Scot. "How did you sleep?"
"Not bad, I was freezing halfway through the night though."
"Oh, so not that good either?" He gave her an apologetic smile.
Nova laughed a little at his expression, finding it endearing how much he cared.
"I think they just set the air conditioning a little too hard here." Nova chuckled when the hangar door of the bus opened up. The three team members turned their heads at the sound and watched as Skye walked into the plane with a few boxes in her hands.
"Oh, Agent Coulson told us the news." Jemma quickly dropped the tools in her hands and walked towards the girl. "What a wonderful surprise. Isn't it guys?" She asked the two behind her.
"Yeah!" Nova said excitedly. She didn't mention that she secretly already expected it before Coulson had told the team in a briefing.
"No, it's wonderful."
"Yeah, a surprise." Fitz replied at the same time as Jemma turned back to Skye with a grin ever so present on her face. Nova looked at Fitz in shock, amused by his behavior. She chuckled and hit him on the chest, softly to not hurt him but to get his attention. The man turned his attention to the detective next to her in feigned shock.
"What was that for?" He whispered. The other two girls had already started walking up the stairs to show Skye her bunk.
"Play nice, Leo." Nova chuckled at the use of his first name she used and quickly walked off towards her other two found friends, just fast enough so she didn't embarrass herself with the man. She swore she heard a faint 'how did she even?' before she heard his footsteps follow.
***
"Hey" May walked up to the young detective at the side of the car. "Take this, just in case." The agent handed her one of her guns which Nova took hesitantly. The girl looked down at the weapon in her hand in confusion.
"Don't you need it?"
"I'll take a gun when I need one." May simply shrugged it off and Nova took that as a sign of friendliness.
"Thanks." She smiled. When May walked off, Nova looked back down at the gun which felt heavier now. Her smile dropped when she thought back to her training– she quickly shook her head, getting rid of the thought. She walked around the car, joining the rest of the team as she put the gun in her holster, she knew May gave her a night-night gun and the bullets were non-lethal so she wasn't worried about using it if she had to.
"Tire tracks 40 meters back. I'll check them against the site's trucks, make sure we're alone." Ward took the lead in front of the team, a gun in one hand as he scanned the area.
"Too much exposure here. I'm gonna find a place to park." May got back into the car they used to get here and drove off.
Nova decided to follow Ward, the rest following suit.
"I would love to see a capuchin in the wild." Fitz said, coming into step with Nova. "Maybe even a yellow-tailed woolly monkey. You know, um, Peru has 32 different species of monkey.
"They do?" Nova asked, intrigued.
"Yeah, and close to 200 species of snakes." Jemma said who now walked next to Nova on her other side. Nova quickly came to a halt, the two scientists stopping in their tracks.
"Snakes?" Nova's eyes were wide in disgust. "Please don't tell me they're dangerous."
"Oh yes! The Shushupe has a fascinating ven... venom..." Jemma trailed off when she saw the terrified look on the face of her new friend. "But nothing to worry about!" She walked up to the brunette and gave her a comforting shoulder rub. "If anything does happen I am right here to fix everyone up."
"Yeah, unless you are the one bitten." Fitz said softly but Nova still heard him and looked at him, her eyes widening even more. She really hated snakes.
"Fitz!" Jemma yelled.
"Oh right!" Fitz sent her a reassuring smile. "No need to worry, we'll be right beside you."
"Thanks." Nova shook her head in disbelief, these two really didn't know how to calm people down. She shook her head and walked forwards again where Skye,Coulson and Ward had been waiting on them.
"We should warn the people who live around here if the 0-8-4 is dangerous. They're already dealing with anti-mining rebels and the shining path guerillas. I could post something." Skye offered.
"No, I wouldn't risk it." Nova said.
"I agree with Miss Avery." Coulson cut in. "Remember the panic when that anti-matter meteor splashed down just off the coast of Miami, nearly devoured the city?"
"No..?"
"Exactly. Because we kept it quiet and contained."
"So what am I doing?" Skye asked.
"Well, if it gets out, I might need you to create some kind of diversion, put the public on the wrong scent."
"So everything that I'm against."
"Yep." With that the man walked off towards what turned out to be an ancient temple. Nova's mouth flew open in awe.
The team walked into the temple with the local man who had introduced the problem to them. Nova's task was to get as much insight as she could so when Fitz-Simmons and Skye inspected the 0-8-4 she went and talked to the man who had called them in. They engaged in a conversation about the first sighting of the device and the confusion it caused the local people who visited the temple; it was sacred to them.
The professor told her that the temple dated to at least 500 years back but the device had modern technology, definitely 0-8-4 worthy.
"The object's placement in fossiliferous rock formations suggests it's been here for at least 1,500 years. That pre-dates this temple by a millennium. Ah! Maybe it's alien." Jemma said, obviously talking to Fitz and Skye when Nova walked into the temple.
"Yeah, but the shape and the craftsmanship..." Fitz started.
"It's almost German." Nova finished, announcing her arrival.
"Yes! Exactly." Fitz smiled briefly and then turned back to his tablet, the little drones– or dwarfs as he likes to call them– flew around the temple in fast motion, one of them flew around her swiftly for a moment, as if it was inspecting her. She raised her eyebrows at it and heard a small chuckle from the Scot next to her.
"Fitz," Jemma patted him on the shoulder to get his attention. "Look at this."
"Oh right, yea." The man trailed off and Nova looked more closely at the device, curiosity taking over her once more. Her hand got a bit closer to the object but she was smart enough not to touch it. Sudden gunfire in the area startled the team and Skye accidentally leaned into Nova which caused her to fall into the wall, touching the 0-8-4.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" The girl said, apologetically.
"Yea, fine. Don't think it caused anything–"
"Guys, we have a problem." Ward entered the temple, somewhat distraught. Nova took note of his demeanor, she noticed how he was looking around, counting heads maybe? It felt weird to think that Grant Ward would be distressed in this situation, until she realized it wasn't for him but for them. "Rebels in the area and the military arrived, we need to go. Coulson is taking care of it but I don't know for how long."
It all went so fast after that. Turned out the military was a friend to Coulson, more specifically their commander. They had been rushed out of the temple with the 0-8-4 with them, pushed into Fitz' bag by Ward in haste with the military following them when more rebels turned out to be closer than they thought. They all barely made it out unscathed and their new guests had joined them in the Bus, on their way to the Slingshot.
The team got back in one piece but the situation had caused a tense moment between the group. Fitz was agitated, especially towards Ward and the way he handled the situation. The field agent was showing his frustration just as much.
The two agents walked into the lab, still arguing as it seemed.
"Are you mental? I did explain in great detail exactly what I meant, using the queen's bloody English!" Fitz was frustrated to say the least.
"I use normal English. Words like "duck" and "run" and "might blow us to pieces."
"Oh," Fitz walked towards the three girls in the lab, all three of them looked at the pair with raised eyebrows. "Oh! Well, congratulations, Agent Ward. You managed to string three words together in a sentence."
Silence followed after that, Ward shook his head in disbelief and leaned against the holo table, watching Jemma handle the 0-8-4 with a doubtful and judging look.
Nova walked towards Fitz and stood next to him, she didn't take her eyes off the 0-8-4 when Jemma laid it down as she spoke to him.
"If it means anything, I understood you, Fitz."
He smiled at her.
"Thanks Nova."
***
Nova was sitting in the cargo hold, her back against the wall while she sat on the floor. The team just had a talk with Coulson, more of a wake up call if she was being honest. Their teamwork was not great today and she couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty, especially for not trying her best to bond with everyone yet. However, more pressing matters were at hand right now.
Something in her gut told her something was off, she just hated it when she didn't know what it was. She had always been good at telling when someone was lying, great even. When Camilla talked to Coulson, she saw something in her face that looked like she was lying, but she couldn't go around and call her guilty of something she didn't know.
"You okay?" Fitz walked her way, a glass of water in his right hand. He handed her the water as he sat himself down next to her.
"I'm just- " She looked down at the glass of water and stirred it around mindlessly for a bit, she looked up at the man next to her and then her eye fell on Jemma in the lab. One of Camilla's men walked into the lab and talked to her and her eyebrows raised. "Something about this whole situation seems-"
"Off?" He asked.
She looked back at him and nodded slowly. She took a small sip of her drink and she quickly looked back at the lab, the man who had previously talked to Jemma was gone, but so was she.
"Fitz, why did you think the situation was off.." She whispered, she knew her gut was right.
"The men kept pestering us about the 0-8-4, it was weird. I came to you for clarification. I thought if anyone would know it would be you, you know, detective and stuff."
The click of a gun and the pressing weight of metal alerted the girl. Fitz's eyes widened in shock and before he could stand up another person held him into place.
"Should have realized it sooner, chica." The man behind Nova said, the gun pressing into her skull even harder. The woman was forced upright, Fitz following and the two held up their hands simultaneously.
"What did you do with Simmons?" Nova asked, her voice trembled a little.
"Shut up." The man pushed the two into the frame of the security camera in the lab, the man who held Fitz was pressing a small but sharp knife into his neck. Nova's heart sank, she needed Coulson or anyone for that matter to help them out– she felt useless.
***
When she awoke, the first thing she noticed was the stinging pain in her head. After that she noticed the pressure around her wrist, and especially the way they had been tight together. She looked around her, observing her surroundings. She was pressed against the wall, tied together with the rest of her team in the cargo hold. The only person who was missing was Coulson.
Slowly the moment came back to her. How the two soldiers had knocked both Fitz and her out of consciousness after she had spotted Jemma knocked out. She assumed that's what happened to Skye and Ward too. She wasn't expecting May to be with them but knowing she was, shocked her and gave her ideas of what their new enemy was capable of.
"Hey, you okay? Your head was bleeding pretty heavily for a bit." Skye asked the girl next to her. She looked at her confused. Had she really been hit that hard?
"Yea, i'm fine."
Stirring beside her caught her attention, Fitz woke up on her left side and the first thing he did was look beside him and he caught Nova's eyes.
"Bloody hell, he hit you with a fire extinguisher."
"He did?" Her eyes widened at the news. No wonder her head was still throbbing.
"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked her, ignoring her question to know if she was.
"Yea, just a headache." She gave him a small smile, the best she could mutter. "Everyone else? You okay?" She asked the rest who had now woken up besides May.
Everyone seemed to be alright but their main problem now was getting out and saving their leader. Nova was panicking until May woke up and she knew they'd be alright.
She was the cavalry for god's sake.
Let's just hope she didn't know Nova knew her like that.
***
They had done it.
The team came together as an actual team and they had defeated their common enemy. It only took some shared manpower and ideas to come up with the plan. Jemma had the brilliant idea to use the 0-8-4 against them which had worked. The only thing now besides gaining a closer team was a hole in their plane.
But they would work that out.
After they had watched a rocket launch back at the Slingshot they had enjoyed some beers together and blew off the steam from the events of the day. Nova was in deep conversation with Jemma and Skye when she noticed the absence of her curly headed friend.
"Hey guys, where is Fitz?"
"I don't know, I saw him walk towards the living area like an hour ago, maybe he went to bed?" Jemma said, shrugging her shoulders. She obviously drank a bit already since she wasn't that worried.
"Okay i'll be back in a bit." Nova got up and walked upstairs, looking for Fitz.
What she wasn't expecting was the man tinkering away on something in her bunk.
Two knocks on the side of the bunk made the man look up. His eyes were soft and they relaxed at the sight of the woman before him. He had a screwdriver in his mouth, using both his hand on the device he was working on.
He quickly took out the screwdriver when he saw her questioning look.
"Hey, sorry I'm in your bunk, I was just doing some repairs."
"That's okay, I was wondering where you were." Nova trailed off when she looked at the man in question. "What we're you working on that had you leaving the get together?" She chuckled at the expression on his face. He looked like a deer in headlights.
"I was just fixing up the air conditioner . This morning you said you were freezing and I didn't want that to happen again so-" He pointed at the device on the table, which she now recognised as the air conditioner.
Nova looked at the man with a smile of pure admiration.
"That is probably the nicest thing anyone has done for me in the past few months."
Fitz looked down shyly, smiling and fiddling with his hands for a bit.
"Ah you know me, just trying to do my part."