Chapter 4- Discover Me

And he did indeed give the potentially hidden cameras the show of their lives.

But their little bubble of togetherness ended with a blaring alarm that pierced through the room.

Ward groaned, kissing Fitz's shoulder quickly. "That's the alarm for first session."

Fitz smirked. "You're back at school?"

"Something like that. Our days are tightly structured, though we do have quite a lot of free time provided we're on schedule with the projects."

"Sounds a lot like high school to me," Fitz mumbled. "Actually, it sounds more like the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy."

"Combat training was no walk in the park either. I don't know how rigorous it was down in the nerd division, though."

Fitz scoffed. "That group of nerds save your damn life on a daily basis."

Ward held up his hands. "I retract."

Fitz kissed his cheek. "You're lucky you're nice to look at."

"So I've been told."

Ward walked Fitz to orientation as planned, and the latter was astounded by the gravity of these projects. He passed all sorts of stations in a lot of different technical areas. He longed to get his hands on the quantum physics section, but Ward reminded him that everyone was there to serve a very specific purpose and Fitz would only be allowed access to the Engineering division.

As Ward handed Fitz off to the engineers, a familiar face popped up from behind a machine.

"Leopold Fitz!"

Fitz smiled. "Jesse. Hey. I'm here for my orientation."

Jesse nodded, turning a screw a few more times as he moved. He slid his chair out of the desk area and gestured to the large space around them.

"Welcome to the Engineering Division. This entire room is ours."

Fitz's eyes bulged from his head. "Wait...there are only two of us?"

"On this particular part of the project, yes. Other rooms are designated to other areas of engineering, such as biological and chemical. But for us tool guys, this is what we get. Two engineers, one huge ass room. So, I thought I'd start by answering any preliminary initial questions that you might have about the project. I'm not sure how much you know already, so feel free to delve into the basics first."

Fitz hummed. "What is the project?"

Jesse smiled. "I'm glad you asked that first. No beating around the bush here. So, you know you're not to reveal any of this to anyone, correct? Not even your supervisor. As it stands, Warner and I are the only people who know about this, soon to include yourself."

Fitz nodded. "I can do that. I don't know anyone here yet anyway."

"That'll come in time, Leo. Basically, this machine is going to be a radar which factors in advanced variables and only targets certain types of people. That way, when an enemy needs to be taken out, we can pinpoint their exact biological signature and prevent mass casualty."

Fitz was reluctantly impressed. They had something similar back at S.H.I.E.L.D but it was rather unreliable and only a last-resort type of tool. "So who are we targeting?"

Jesse shrugged. "HYDRA. Who else?"

S.H.I.E.L.D, Fitz thought absently. But that was a problem for another day.

"This way, we can wipe out every last member of HYDRA without them really even knowing anything about it, if that's how we want to play it."

"Is that how we want to play it?" Fitz chose his pronouns carefully, selecting to prove his allegiance to whatever the cause really was. He was still suspicious of Warner's neutrality and didn't believe it for a second. If it was true, it just meant that he wanted to wipe out both HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D and then fill the empty vacuum with his own organisation so there would be no interruptions or conflicts when the time came for him to serve up with his endgame.

"Honestly, I don't know. Just between us, I was told that the weapon was more of a precaution and an empty threat than an actual indicator of things to come. Something to prove that we're serious and that we have the means to wipe out a whole group if it means putting a stop to the war. It's quite noble, I think."

Fitz didn't dare ask the next question that bubbled on his tongue, but he felt like Jesse already knew he was thinking about it.

"You're wondering if there's a similar weapon built with S.H.I.E.L.D in mind," Jesse said, interrupting his thoughts.

Fitz shrugged. "Is there?"

"Truthfully," Jesse replied, "I don't know. I only know the details about this project. Like I said, it's very low profile. Need to know basis only. Only Warner has overseen the whole project. I think it's so that if somebody gets captured or interrogated, they only have a very small piece of the puzzle. Sure, it takes a little more time to plan and prepare and execute, but it protects the group on a large scale if anything were to go wrong."

Fitz actually thought that was a very smart plan. It ensured that no secrets got out to their enemies and couldn't be used against them. Fitz suddenly thought of all the S.H.I.E.L.D intel he knew. He had the highest clearance now, he knew practically every cog in the machine very well. He was an asset, but also a threat. If Warner were to gain access to the information he knew...well, it would have been like it probably was with Ward when he delivered his intel to Warner. The difference was that he had S.H.I.E.L.D and HYDRA. That was when Fitz realised that Ward was the most valuable asset Warner had. It made Fitz feel relieved that he'd probably be safe until he stepped out of line, but also that Ward probably knew more than he was letting on...

Fitz barged through Ward's bedroom door breathlessly. "Did you know about it?"

Ward stood by the window, blinking slowly. "You're gonna have to be more specific."

"My orientation. The other engineer, yeah there are only two of us by the way, told me all about what Warner brought me here to do."

"Fitz, I'm still not following. Just explain."

"I was brought here to build a weapon. One that will specifically target those with HYDRA bio-data. I'm guessing you collected the roster and that's being implanted into the device for when the times comes. Which means if there's one for HYDRA, there's one for S.H.I.E.L.D, too. What I'm asking is, did you know about them?"

Ward shook his head. "Fitz, no. I had no idea. I'm guessing you weren't supposed to tell me that, but you assumed I knew anyway."

"You had to have known. You're the HYDRA representative or whatever. There's no way you weren't informed."

"I'm not lying to you, I didn't know about it."

"You...you really didn't?"

Ward smiled, shaking his head again. He took a step closer to Fitz. "No. I know it's hard to believe, but I really am on your side here. All of us here are, in fact. Everyone wants peace, right?"

"But everyone wants to go about it in different ways," Fitz retorted darkly.

Ward sighed. "I think we need to recalibrate. Just start completely fresh, build trust from the ground level upwards. We can't just sleep together when you still don't trust me fully. So no more sex until we've made some progress with us."

Fitz gaped. "I'm supposed to just...hold out?"

"You can do it, Fitz. If I can resist you, you sure as hell can resist me."

"Not true."

Ward stretches out a hand in offering. "Hi, I'm Grant Ward. It's nice to meet you."

Fitz stared at his hand for a lingering moment. "Leo Fitz."

When Fitz entered the engineering division the next day, he had a new spring in his step. He had thought basely about the possibility of destroying HYDRA for good and thought it was a good play. He would investigate about the S.H.I.E.L.D directives when he could and had gained some trust here, but for now he would work on the HYDRA device and find out how exactly it worked. The more knowledge he possessed about the operations, the easier it would be for him to take it down if he needed to.

Jesse was already there when he arrived, even though Fitz had made a point to arrive early.

"You live here or something?"

Jesse quirked his lips into a smile. "I believe you're already seen my living quarters."

"Right. So I have. I thought we might use this morning for you to take me through exactly how this works. Or is going to work when it's assembled."

Jesse nodded, stepping closer to Fitz. "There's time for that later. I thought we could use this morning to...properly acquaint ourselves with each other." He put a hand on Fitz's shoulder. "If you know what I mean."

Fitz paled. "I don't...I mean...you're nice and all, but—."

Jesse smiled. "Don't say any more, Fitz. Just think about how nice I am." He pressed a kiss to Fitz's lips experimentally. Fitz immediately pushing back, using his S.H.I.E.L.D core training to throw the boy backwards.

"I'm not...interested in you like that."

Jesse shrugged. "Okay." His eyes flickered upwards, a small smile playing on his lips.

Fitz whirled around, spotting the camera that lay above them. He knew instantly that Ward would have been manning the cameras that day.

He knew that Warner would try to isolate the two of them. Any collaborations between people even associated with S.H.I.E.L.D once upon a time wouldn't have been good for his endgame. Even the risk of Ward turning was enough. And he had done it before, he had it in him.

Fitz was already a wildcard, the loose cannon who had been forced to co-operate or risk his life. He knew that Warner would expend of him if he needed to, without compunction. He wasn't an important player in this game.

He just wondered how far Ward could go before he overstepped his bounds.

His immediate thought was 'not as far as he might need to'.

But that was a problem for the future.

Wasn't it?