The Lab
The warmth of the summer air breezed through Maria’s hair, she couldn’t remember the last time she had let it grow out this long and messed with the ends. As if she could read her mind (Hill wasn’t convinced she couldn’t) Laura stood up, walked inside, and returned with her hair-cutting scissors, spray bottle, and brush.
“You’ve been messing with it all afternoon, do you want me to cut your bangs too?” The woman walked up behind her chair and ran her fingers through the Commander's hair.
“No, I think they were a bad call,” she messed with the hair over her eyes and pushed it to the side, “I think I’m going to grow them out.”
“I like them,” Clint smiled from where he was sitting across from her, “looks mysterious.”
Maria snorted, “thanks, Barton.”
“Daddy, Lellie, and I can fit together! I told you!” Cooper called from where he and the curly-haired child had squeezed into the tire swing, “Can you push us?”
“Can I push you?” Clint stood up and descended the stairs of the deck, “what kinda question is that? The real question is how high?”
The blond approached the swing and signed “ok?” to the girl who nodded before pushing them fairly high, much to the delight of the two children who laughed as they climbed higher into the sky before falling back down. Over the course of 10 days, the archer had taught Ellie a number of signs that she used with him. Maria would go on her morning run and come back to find Ellie and Clint communicating in the kitchen, the former showing her new words she had learned.
“God, I love that man,” Laura brushed out Maria’s hair and sprayed it down, “Li baby, please please stop chasing the chickens.”
The brunette laughed at the squeal she could hear from the youngest Barton who was no doubt still chasing the chicken.
“All of the parenting books say kids bully animals out of curiosity, peer pressure, or because they are bullied. She does it daily so there's no way she's still curious, the only peer pressure she has is from Coop and it’s not like that kid would hurt a fly, and her biggest bully is the toy machine that eats her quarter at the grocery store sometimes,” the woman started to cut as she sighed, “I mean I’m not saying that the books are bullshit, there’s a lot of good stuff in the ones I’m sending you home with, I just don't know why she does it.”
“She’s always been a bit of an evil genius,” Maria recalled how the girl had learned she could get one of her parents to give her extra dessert if she didn't tell the other one she had already had some, the girl got double dessert for months before Laura noticed, “maybe she’s plotting something and needs feathers.”
“Tilt your head forward,” Laura instructed and continued cutting, “I wouldn’t be surprised, can you imagine her as a teenager? She’s already got Clint around her finger.”
“I think he’s scared of her,” the Deputy Director would hear him give the same nervous laugh around his daughter that he did in the field when they were fucked or he made a mistake.
“He does the laugh like when he messed something up in an OP,” Laura straightened Maria’s head back out.
“I was just thinking that,” again, she wasn’t fully convinced the woman couldn’t read minds.
“He’s a dummy, but I wouldn’t trade him for the world,” she could hear the smile on the woman’s face.
It was easy for her to relax here, listening to the giggle of kids in the background as her friends talked about anything and everything. She cherished her routine of working from the home office as Cooper showed his new friend how to play with legos or his collection of leaves he had gathered the fall before. It made leaving that much harder.
“I added us to the flight out tomorrow afternoon,” she didn’t miss how Laura's scissors hesitated for a moment before continuing to cut, “they have a flight from Fort Dodge to Andrews and two open seats.”
“What if I swap you, just for a few weeks? You take Lila and I get to hang on to my little curly cutie a little longer?”
“As much as I think she would love that, I gotta get her back to Fitzsimmons,” she lowered her voice slightly, “I was supposed to take her in for evaluations weeks ago.”
“Does she know?” Laura dropped her voice to match, not wanting to startle the child on the swing.
“I told her that it’s going to happen at some point, she doesn’t know that it’s when we get back,” Maria felt a pang of guilt but knew that as soon as she told Ellie the girl would be a nervous wreck.
“I’m sure it will be just fine.”
It was the quote that Maria continued to repeat to herself for the remainder of their stay at the Farm. As she zipped up the duffle bag of Ellies freshly washed clothes (thank you Laura Barton) she repeated the quote and reminded herself that they would be back, it was the only thought that allowed her to carry the bag downstairs.
“Come on, just a few more days!” Laura called out from behind the chair Ellie was sitting patiently in.
“Trust me, if we could, we would” the Commander double-checked that they had all of their bags and nodded to Clint who quickly carried them out to the car.
“BYE!” Lila called out and waved her hand repeatedly.
Ellie smiled and waved back before looking at the other Barton child who was having a much harder time with their departure.
“I want you to have this,” Cooper held out a Lego figurine that was painted to resemble an astronaut.
The curly-haired child took it gently in her hands and stared at her new friend.
“That way you remember me and when you come back you can bring it because you’re going to be back right?” the little boy sniffled and wiped his nose on the back of his hand as tears welled up.
Ellie nodded quickly and ran over to her backpack where she pulled out a travel-sized flashlight that Maria had packed in case they lost her large one.
“You,” she thrust the item into the boy's hands, “lights up like mine.”
“Wow!” Cooper flickered the light on and off.
Laura looked over to Maria who smiled, “I’ll snag another one from work, he can have it.”
“Thanks, Lellie,” the boy sniffled again before starting to cry, the boy had always had a sensitive side.
*Bye Coop* the girl signed before squeezing her arms tightly around his midsection in an act of physical kindness that was rare.
“Bye,” he scrubbed his face, “By Ria.”
Maria was then the recipient of a tight hug of her own as they walked onto the front porch where she said goodbye to the remainder of the Bartons as Ellie got into her car seat and fiddled with the lego still in her hand.
“I’m sure I’ll be back at work here soon,” Clint smiled as he hugged the Deputy Director, “have a safe trip.”
“Thanks, Barton, see ya,” she knew they would be together again at work in the near future, but hoped the man could spend as much time as possible with his family in the summer months.
“Don’t be a stranger, come back soon okay?” Laura hugged her tightly.
“Will do,” she hugged her friend and got into the car, starting their journey back to the real world.
Ellie shook like a small wet dog as they stood in the elevator that climbed the floors of the Triskelion. Maria had explained what was going to happen after they got home from Iowa but was positive the little girl was running on minimal sleep due to nerves.
“It won't be like it was back in the old place,” the woman put her hand on the girl's shoulder, “it’s just going to be us and two other agents.”
The child grasped her backpack straps and continued to shake as the elevator dinged one final time to signal they had arrived. The two walked down the corridor and waited in front of the laboratory door.
“Do you want to breathe before we go in?” Maria had crouched down to eye level with the girl who nodded, “Okay, deep breath in…. Hold it…. And out nice and slowly.”
She stayed there and continued to breathe with the girl until she let out one final breath and signed *ok*.
“Hey Fitzsimmons, we're here,” the Commander spoke into the intercom on the door that promptly opened.
“Hi there,” Jemma took a step back to allow the two into the lab space.
It was cleaner than it had been in… well as long as Maria could remember. The lights overhead were dimmed and the speaker that normally played 90’s hits now played calming music, they were trying their best.
“Hi Jemma, this is Ellie,” Maria put her hand on the girl’s head, “Ellie this is Jemma.”
The girl pulled on one of her braids and hid her face behind Maria’s leg.
“Hi Ellie, I very much like your shirt,” the woman smiled, “space is very cool.”
To her credit, the child smiled slightly and nodded before gripping onto Maria’s pant leg when Leo walked over.
“This is my friend Leo, he likes space too.”
“Well technically, I prefer engineering bu- ach,” he cradled his side after his partner elbowed him in the ribs, “yep, space. Very cool.”
“They’re going to be the people who watch you show off your skills like I told you about,” she tried to make it sound as nonthreatening as possible.
“We’re just going to put these stickers on you and then you get to show us all of your interesting talents,” Leo smiled and held up a case containing wearable sensors with poorly drawn smiley faces on them, “and then you’re going to lay down in our special room with Jemma and we’re going to take pictures of your insides, how fun!”
Ellie’s eyes widened at the last comment, she clearly did not think it was going to be fun.
“And after that, we can go downstairs and get a cookie,” Maria spoke quietly to the girl who perked up at the promise of sweets.
“Okay, you’re just going to have to follow me into the testing area,” Jemma lead them towards a long-range-like area of the lab.
Ellie followed, trailing her finger along the smooth surface of the glass as they walked into the new section of the space. She stood patiently and only flinched twice as all of the sensors were placed on her skin, holding Maria’s hand the entire time.
“Okay I’m going to ask you a few questions, are you ready Elizaveta?” Jemma was writing on a file that contained the girl's information from her first visit to the Helicarrier.
*ok* the child signed and took a seat next to Maria who nodded at the scientist.
“Right here it says that you cannot control when you teleport, is that still the case?”
*little* the girl signed.
“You can control it a little or you cannot control it a little?” the Commander tried to clarify.
“Can control little,” Ellie said. Leo stopped what he was doing at the sound of the girl's voice, it was one thing to see how small she was, it was another to hear it matched with her accent.
“Wonderful,” Simmons smiled and corrected the note, “do you know how you control it?”
“See place or people and close eyes then go,” the child shrugged and pulled on her backpack straps.
“Very interesting, so you need to know the person or the place?”
*yes* Ellie signed and nodded.
The person aspect was a new development but it made sense given that she was able to teleport to Laura after Cooper had fallen off his bike. Maria had assumed that she had just teleported back to a place on the road she had been before, but it was a long driveway and she was able to get to the adults within a foot. She watched as the girl continued to fidget with her backpack before stroking one of the sensors and looking up at Maria.
“Hurt?” her body began to shake again as she asked.
“No little bear, no these are not going to hurt you,” the brunette shook her head, wanting to kick herself for not explaining that before. The child visibly relaxed and poked another sensor on her thigh.
“I promise you they are just so we can get some information and watch you move around,” Jemma gave a small smile, clearly thinking the same thing Maria had been, “Fitz spin the monitor.”
The man turned one of his screens around and showed the dots floating on display.
“Go ahead and lift your arm,” she encouraged.
The girl looked at the adults before slowly moving her arm up. She watched the dot on the screen copy her and that was all it took before she stood up and moved both arms in the air, then lifted one leg at a time and smiled. For the first time, the child relaxed and moved around the space freely just to watch herself on the screen.
“We can go over the rest of the questions later,” Simmons smiled as the girl was now shrugging repeatedly and kicking her legs around.
Fitz walked over and turned on another device, his appearance made Ellie slightly nervous and she returned to her spot next to Maria. The two scientists exchanged looks and nodded, speaking in a language of their own.
“Alright there Ellie, we’re going to get started on showing off what you can do,” the man gave the girl a big smile, “I’ll just have you walk down with me over here and you try your best to teleport back to this spot. You think you can do that?”
The child scanned the area with her eyes intently, taking in everything about the room before nodding. She walked slightly behind the man towards the end of the lane, stopping as they reached the end where she ran her finger along the wall.
“Okay how about I hold on to that bag for you?” Leo pointed to the girl's backpack.
Maria was far enough away to where she could only partially hear the conversation, but as soon as she saw the man point, she knew what was about to happen. Sure enough, the girl shook her head. She wasn’t sure the girl could teleport with something on her body, but she knew how much comfort the child found in the object and knew she would at least try.
“Can she do it with this on?” Fitz yelled back down the range, getting a wince from the child next to him.
“We’ll find out,” the Deputy Director responded.
“Ready Simmons?” he yelled once more.
“Ready!” Jemma gave a thumbs-up that was reciprocated by Ellie.
The Commander watched as Leo continued to talk to the girl who stared at the ground for a moment before closing her eyes tightly. A flash of blue and black cracked open and closed quickly as Ellie tumbled onto the other side of the room, the extra weight of the backpack pitching her forward. Maria stuck her hand out to catch the child who gave a lopsided grin.
“Happy with yourself?” she smiled back.
Ellie ran her hands over the straps of the backpack and nodded, clearly excited that she had found out she could teleport with an object.
*Flashlight* the girl signed.
“Yeah, I bet they want to see you do it with your flashlight, turn around and I’ll grab it,” the brunette nodded.
It wasn’t until she finished talking to the girl that she realized the other two adults were still quiet. She looked at Jemma whose eyes were wide as she looked at the screen, Leo’s mouth was clearly agape even from far away.
“That was brilliant,” the former finally spoke up, “I- Fitz can you come here for a moment?”
The two spoke in low tones as Maria fished the flashlight out of the girl's backpack along with a juice box.
“That can’t be right… right?” Leo typed away at the computer.
“Everything okay?” the Commander asked from her spot next to the teleporting child.
“Um- yes. I mean- Elizaveta do you keep your eyes closed the whole time you’re moving?” Simmons asked the girl who nodded and dangled her legs off the side of the chair, “would you mind showing us one more time?”
Ellie looked at her flashlight and nodded quickly, this time she left her backpack with Maria and walked to the end of the room alone.
“Okay, whenever you’re ready!” Fitz called out, the girl gave a thumbs up and closed her eyes tightly.
She reappeared and held her flashlight up triumphantly, looking slightly tired.
“Wow look at that,” Maria smiled and punctured the juice box, handing it to the child who needed it.
Ellie dangled her legs and sucked on the juice box, uninterested in anything else that was happening. The two scientists continued to talk quickly, staring at the screen in front of them.
“Are you cold right now?” Leo asked, the question seemingly left field.
*little* the child signed, Maria touched her arm which was colder than normal.
“A little bit, what’s happening?” The girl seemed as normal as ever, but the questions were starting to worry the Commander.
“She- well- it looks like and we… we could be wrong-” the man continued to stammer.
“This range is 250 meters long,” Jemma cut in.
“Okay?”
“Those sensors detect everything from heart rate to muscle activity and distance. I don’t know what the maximum distance they will record is so she could be going even further than what we can measure but she’s traveling over 200 Kilometers when she teleports,” Simmons turned the monitor around to show Maria, “she’s traveling in a way that cannot be properly tracked but I believe- Well I believe she may be traveling into space when she does that.”
Ellie perked up at the shift in conversation to space and handed her juice box to the woman next to her. She gave a lopsided smile and pointed to her shirt which had the outline of a spaceship on the side.
*Space* she signed.
“Ellie girl, do you know that you’re going to space when you teleport?” Maria furrowed her brows.
The child shrugged and then began kicking around again to watch herself on the monitor.
“This is incredible,” Fitz shook his head in astonishment, “absolutely incredible, how she’s able to physically withstand the temperatures let alone the gravitational force. Her body must-”
“I know I was just thinking that- She has to have some type of protection-”
“It's so fast do you think that- well I guess we'll see with the scans if-”
Maria cleared her throat.
“Sorry, Deputy Director” Jemma’s cheeks blushed as she looked at the other adult in the room, “we just need the scans, then you’ll be free to go unless you’d like to see the results.”
“Emails fine,” she gave a nod.
“Of course and don’t worry we remembered your threat!” Leo smiled.
“What he means to say is we created an encrypted drive so no one else has access to her data, right here,” the scientist held up a small metal device.
“Thank you,” she was glad the two had listened to her, “ready to have some pictures taken, kid?”
Ellie kicked around one final time before nodding.
They returned back to the main section of the lab before Jemma led them into a small room off to the side that contained what looked to be a modified MRI. Fitz walked to the other side of the wall where a computer was set up behind a glass divider.
“You and I are going to hang out here if that’s alright?” Jemma asked the girl whose eyes darted towards Maria, “it will take a little bit of time but this should be the last scan you have for quite some time.”
The child was clearly torn but gave a small nod once Maria reminded her of the cookie they could get after. The Commander followed the two into the room to get the child settled, noticing that she kept her eyes trained on the ceiling the whole time.
“Here, we have an extra pack for you to take home,” Jemma smiled as she handed Maria a set of glow-in-the-dark space stickers.
“I’ll be right out here okay?” the woman squeezed the child's hand, “I’ll make sure your backpack stays safe.”
Maria joined Fitz on the other side of the glass and watched as he began the imaging process, explaining to her what he thought they would see and how Ellie’s body adapted to protect her. It was a long process but the child laid still and listened to Jemma read stories the whole time. They were mostly done, the end was in sight, but that’s normally what occurs right before disaster. This time was no different.
“I just have one last question from before that I wasn’t able to ask you. Would it be okay if I asked you now?” Jemma’s voice was light and airy as the child signed *yes*.
“Do you remember the first time you were able to teleport? How you gained the ability to do it?” She asked quietly.
The Commander watched as the child visibly tensed at the question, but signed “yes” once more.
“Can you tell me about that?”
“Was man… said can help me and Kyra but-” her chest started to rise and fall quickly at the mention of Loki and the older widow.
Maria wanted to go into the room and pull the child into her own chest, but she knew they were only a few minutes away from finishing.
“Man did not- he- he did not help and then- and then touch me but cold- and cold- and blue and-,” her speech was coming in quickly. The woman went to tell Leo to cut the rest of the imaging but before she could say anything, he pressed the speaker button and talked into the room.
“About 3 more minutes,” It was the sound of the man's voice over the speaker that finally set her off.
Ellie closed her eyes and began to fall through a series of portals, Maria tugged on the locked doors that separated them during testing.
“Fitz,” she snapped at the man who stared at both the child and the scans on the screen, “open the door.”
“I can’t,” he finally spat out.
“Leopold Fitz, open the door right now,” The Deputy Director clenched her jaw and was about to lie into the man before she heard Jemma’s voice on the other side of the glass.
The small woman had been able to restrain the child back on the table for scans, pulling her from the portals and speaking calmly to the girl who was wide-eyed and ready to run. However, this wasn’t Ellie's first time, she had learned from the previous experiences and was showing that as she calmed her breathing and listened to the scientist.
“And that one right there is Canis Major, it has the brightest star in the night sky called Sirius,” Jemma continued to talk, though she was still clearly frazzled, “it would be that one, right there. Can you see it?”
Maria waited with bated breath before exhaling as the child sighed *yes*.
The response calmed the woman who was also in the room who smiled slightly, “its name means ‘glowing’ in Greek, the whole constellation is reminiscent of a dog if you look at it correctly. I have a book on constellations if you’d like to borrow it.”
“Please,” Ellie spoke.
“I’ll get it for you as soon as this is done,” the woman pointed out another constellation, “when I was your age I had a curve in my spine called scoliosis. I was made to lay down after the surgery so every night, my father would wheel my bed out, and talk about the stars.”
Ellie contemplated this for a while before asking “Fixed?”
“I am now.”
“I’m sorry Maria,” Fitz spoke quietly to the woman next to him.
“You froze, it happens,” she sighed and smoothed out nonexistent wrinkles from her slacks.
“I didn’t know she would react to my,” he swallowed, “to my voice like that.”
“She’s a child soldier Leo, she’s just learning that not all people are here to hurt her, men especially.”
The computer chimed to indicate the scan was complete and Maria opened the door immediately, walking over to the table where Ellie reached for her hand and squeezed twice. The woman didn’t hesitate to pick the child up and hold her tightly.
“You okay?” she asked the woman who had a large red mark on her forearm from where Ellie’s limbs had no doubt made contact when she was in free fall.
“Just fine, thank you. Thank you both,” Jemma nodded and showed them out of the lab, “I’ll send over everything we have once we compile it.”
“Thanks, I’ll fill in what I can about the rest of your question, “ Maria turned to exit the lab, Ellie was still pressed firmly into her side, “and tell Fitz not to beat himself up. It was an accident.”
The woman nodded and watched as they walked back to the elevator.
“Cookie?” Ellie asked into Maria’s neck.
“You got it, kid.”
They rode the elevator down to the cafeteria and selected two cookies from behind the counter after the curly-haired child couldn’t decide on one flavor. Maria brought them over to the table where she normally sat with Natasha, Clint, and Phil. It was different now, everything was.
“How you feeling?” she watched as the girl took a bite from the first cookie.
“Little tired,” the girl had heavy eyes but was doing much better than she had in the past after that type of event.
“Were you scared?” Maria asked adding “I was pretty scared” when the child hesitated.
“A little,” Ellie squished her fingers together to show the amount, something she had picked up from Cooper.
Ellie and Maria continued to eat their treats, the latter getting stares of shock from other agents until all that was left were crumbs.
“Center?” The child asked.
The original plan had been to take the girl to the Center after testing, but that now seemed unlikely.
“I still have a day I can work from home, we can go home.”
Ellie scrunched up her face, “Liam. Want see him.”
“Alright kid, let’s go see your buddy,” Maria shook her head and led them back to the elevators.
For the second time that day, Ellie shook, but this time it was out of excitement as she rounded the corner quickly and pressed her face to the glass outside of The Center. Having spotted her friend she beamed up towards Maria who was walking too slowly for her.
“Hey Ellie,” Grace smiled and let out a loud laugh as the girl waved quickly and waited for the half door to be open for her.
The blonde opened the door and let the child run past.
“Liam!” she called out to her friend who dropped the legos he was holding and ran over to her.
Maria couldn't tell if she was more shocked by the somewhat loud voice Ellie had used, or the fact that she let the boy hug her, and returned the hug. The two friends laughed and separated and then hugged again.
“God I love my job,” Grace smiled, “I see your vacation was good to you.”
“It was,” the Commander agreed as she signed the girl in.
She looked once more at the two friends, Liam already talking 100 miles an hour as he rubbed his eyes and showed off his legos. Poor kid probably has summer allergies, she thought before looking back at the woman behind the counter.
“You look like you got some color,” the blonde tilted her head.
“I got back into running when I was there,” she glanced down at her arms that had tanned.
“It looks nice,” Grace smiled, “and a haircut?”
“Oh, yeah. Well normally I keep it a little shorter because it’s always in a bun but then I was trying to grow it out and then I went with bangs but that didn’t really fit my style, not that I really have a style but…” why was she talking so much? The lady didn’t care about her hair!
“It suits you, I think I like it shorter,” the blonde reached out and brushed Maria’s bangs out of her face and towards the rest of her perfectly kept hair. How had they come out of the rest of her bun?
“Oh, by the way, she had an episode today so she’ll probably be pretty tired. You can let me know if she falls asleep and I’ll head down and take her home,” she gave a nervous smile.
“Liam’s been pretty lethargic today too,” Grace looked back at the two kids who were sitting at their usual table, “but that sounds good Maria, you have a good rest of your day.”
“Yeah, you too Grace,” she smiled, were her cheeks warm? “Bye Ellie, Bye Liam!”
The kids waved back and she left, heading back to her office to process what had just happened in peace. Of course, peace was the last thing she found as she sat down at her desk. Instead she found reports of strange energy readings in London and a missing astrophysicist.