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While 3/4ths of the chalk boards that line the bullpen walls are still filled with case notes and the like, one has been entirely wiped down and remade into a blue print like sketch of the Triskelion and the prison beneath. The notes are what has been constructed so far, ideas for specialized cells to hold different kinds of super-prisoners, and a timeline. It's like both a progress and an idea storming board. Peggy is currently adding a line which says 'Acid Bath' to two of the cells. And while that might not be an exactly comfortable idea, practicality must win.
The office is a bit quieter today, the phones still going, but people seem almost uncomfortable that the Director has decided to grace them with her presence in the front area, not just from her office. The fact that her pet project is now dominating a corner of the room doesn't help either. And that she's quite pregnant and, rumoredly, beyond cranky? Well, that's the last nail in the coffin. People are walking on eggshells
*
Enter the new guy.
Leopold Fitz, a transfer from New Zealand, is one of the agents moved here specifically to work on the prison project. His personnel file had several alerts, including one relaying his reliance on Jemma Simmons. Without Jemma in tow, the sweater vest wearing professional nerd fidgets and twitches. The briefcase in his hand is ridiculously large-sized and the blue crystal everyone has been on about.
He peeks around the room and pads up to the chalkboard. His eyebrows draw together and he shakes his head, "No, no, no, no, no — that's not, undoubtedly that would make the whole thing — but maybe if you," his hand props his chin up as he stares at the board and then his head shakes, "but then you couldn't get around the problem — maybe if you change — " his tongue clucks.
"Ah-ha! Building error," he manages a lopsided smile and adds a few beams to the building. "Better." His lips twitch again and he issues Peggy a very small, very shy, nod. "Director?"
*
A slow brow is arched as the man comes up behind her. A man she recognizes, of course. She knew the file, even if she never met him in person. She knows every SHIELD agent, like it or not. She looks him up and down for a heartbeat or two, standing straight and proud herself (despite being 6 months gone with a kid and still wearing high heels.) She's strong and confident enough to keep shoulders squared and still look somewhat intimidating, no matter how ridiculous that maternity shirt is.
"…Leopold Fitz. It's good to finally meet you. I trust the flight wasn't too awful? And, you know…it helps if you *actually* finish a full sentence, or at least a full thought, if you are trying to explain something. So, look at the board and try again. What are we fixing here?" The tone of Peggy's clipped British voice probably doesn't mean to make it sound like a test, but is so very much sounds like one.
*
"It's not…" Fitz's head cants to one side then the other "…I'm not…" he looks over his shoulder, longingly waiting for Jemma to appear. His lips quirk down into a frown. "The calculations were out, you see?" His eyes narrow. "This part of the building would've faltered. Couldn't possibly hold — assuming — " his lips quirk again and then his head turns to Peggy. "Assuming weapons testing." His throat clears and his eyebrows draw together sharply.
Rewind. Reboot. Start over.
"Alright. See this component here, if you aim to run even target practice, over time it would build a fault line in the engineering. So. If you pause and consider calculations for vibration… this will make the building last much longer without cause for repair."
*
"Ah. And this is why I had you transferred. Of course, I am no architect, but, apparently, neither are the engineers and architects." Peggy states with a dry, flat sort of tone that says she's not happy there was already a flaw in the plans. She steps back from the board where she was working and abruptly hands him the file she had in her left hand, and the chalk in her right. "This is yours, now. I'd like the staff to see the actual updates we are making as we make them, and the progress which is being made. We'll have a car on call every day to get you to and from the site as you need."
Then, as if personable warmth and such things are an afterthought, Peggy does realize she did not confirm who she was. "And yes. Director Peggy Carter. You can call me Director or Director Carter while we are on the clock. I don't imagine you are much for socializing after work and neither am I, so that won't be a worry otherwise. THis is the bull pen. There's an open desk for you in the far corner. Do you have any questions?"
*
Fitz squints at Peggy as she speaks, and again, finds himself (rather absently), peeking over his shoulder, willing Jemma to present herself. But when she doesn't come, he manages a tight-lipped smile and another over-exaggerated shift of his weight. "Director," he offers back in his own Scottish accent. "Fitz. Please. No agent. No doctor," even though both are correct. "…Just Fitz." The smile falters and his fingers rake nervously through his hair.
"Director… I'd…" he peeks about the bull pen and his eyebrows scrunch into a tight line. "…I'd like…" he frowns "…the lab?" He frowns. "I can't just… Jemma and I will need…" his throat clears again. "We need to work in a lab. Simmons and I. Working with," he lifts the briefcase containing the crystal, "means testing. And testing is dangerous for the rest of your agents. Unless in the lab. To contain it all. I don't need a desk aside from the lab. I won't use it. Lab bench is sufficient. For both of us."
*
"…Are you married or just hopelessly joined at the hip? Agent Simmons flight isn't for six more hours, so you can stop looking for her, Fitz. She won't be coming yet." Peggy can just read a person, that plain and immediate. Not that it's really hard to figure out who he is looking for with the way he talks about the woman. Peg clears her throat and gives a small shake of her head, slightly disapproving of just how close the pair is. She read, but seeing it in person is a different thing.
"You will have to learn to work indepedently. It's a risk to be so codependent on another Agent, you know. But yes. The lab is this way… Come. The actual lab. Not the one filled with nazis. We can't risk the Paperclip contingent getting access to that thing." Peggy practically growls those words, her dislike of the now fairly long running program still clear. She turns on the ball of her swollen foot and leads the way down the hall, towards the stairs that go into the deeper levels of HQ. There are labs here on site, buried deep under ground. Old SSR labs which have been repurposed over the years.
*
The question about Simmons has Leo frowning, and apparently finding some semblance of his confidence. "No." He blinks several times and then shakes his head. "Director? You may understand field work in a way me and Jemma never will, but believe me when I say, in the lab, your output depends entirely on your team. Ideas only turn into projects with the help and consideration of those you trust. I trust Jemma Simmons. Without Jemma, I will not work on this project. I will resign, and I only agreed because Jemma wanted to come. There are few people who come close to the trust I have for her in the lab."
Fitz gapes at Peggy as he follows her to the lab. "You… have a lab filled with Nazis?" he winces at the thought. "…why?" he follows her easily through the halls.
*
The fact that the mouse of a man *actually* finds his back bone when she discusses pulling him from Jemma makes the woman pause. She stops in the hallway, before they get to the elevator, her brows arching. "Mm." Is the only comment she makes, just that sound in the back of her thraot, and then she's turning and walking on again. She pauses at the lift and inputs a code, the thing lighting up a heartbeat later to come and pick them up.
"We have a lab filled with a thing called Operation Paperclip. Nazi scientists were given pardons by NATO if they would come and help SHIELD work on the air and space program. So… we've had to pull some of our most brilliant scientists off to do baby sitting duty in a special facility we set up down the block. Part of the reason you are here. The home labs are now short staffed." And into the lift they go. It's been updated since SHIELD came into the building, but it's still a little rickety.
*
"That seems…" Leo's eyes hone in on the Director, and he treads lightly "…interesting." Because telling the Director of SHIELD her plan is batshit is probably not a wise move. Impression management and all. He tugs on the bottom of his sweater vest. "And here I thought I was here because I'm a top-notch engineer. Turns out the rest of your engineering staff are just babysitting nazis." He shrugs.
*
"You *are* here because you are a top notch engineer and we need someone like you… and Agent Simmons… to handle this prison before more people get hurt. But yes, much of our staff are out with that project. It is insane. It also was not my idea. NATO funds us and if you all like receiving paychecks on occasion, we have to, sometimes, play ball with awful ideas." Peggy mutters. Down, down they go, to the forth floor. The doors open to the scent of science (if that's possible) and more sterile areas. Other than the first lab, which has a very large, coffin-like case in it and… a body shaped hole in the wall? Plastic is up over it, but clearly that place isn't in use right now. She leans back to the far end of the hall, and empty, clean and quiet lap all for himself. "This is yours."
*
A grin edges Fitz's lips as they find his real home. His first home. His love. His shoulders shift and he pads to the bench. Haphazardly, he knocks on its surface, prompting a smile and a nod. Yes, this will do nicely.
Fitz set the case on the bench and opens the case to show Peggy the crystal inside it. He doesn't grasp it, and even instructs, "Don't touch it with bare skin, but it's the key to the problem. Regardless we need to test it further."
*
"Just…ah, ignore the lab down the hall. Once it's fixed, you can spill into that one too. But we had someone wake up from a… project a bit earlier than expected, and go through the wall. You'll meet him sometime. Dum-Dum Dugan. Good man." Peggy states, her voice an odd mix of shock about the matter and weird pride? Yes, Pride. Her old friend slammed through a wall!
Then her dark eyes are drawn to the crystal and she goes dead quiet for a moment. She breathes out slowly, palm coming up, hovering over the light of it even as she's told not to grasp it. "…it's…Beautiful. What… capabilities do you think it has so far?"
*
Fitz's grin turns boyish as he gets to SCIENCE! at Peggy. Excitedly, he reaches for a rubber glove that he'd stored in the case adjacent to the crystal. He slides it onto his hand and lifts the crystal carefully, "It can both create and channel energy — I'm inclined to believe it's not the original energy source thanks to," he lifts it higher for Peggy and he motions at a specific mark not he crystal, "that. Just saying."
He squints, "As far as what it can do. Weapons applications, certainly. And powering the prison, and what Jemma and I have envisioned," because they already have a vision, "definitely. I'm going to try to make a prototype down here in the next bit. It should be able to hold your alien races — Jemma will require samples if at all possible though. We'll need to attune it to biochemistry as much as possible."
*
For a few moments, something softer in Peggy comes out. Seeing Fitz' true worth, the little boy in his eyes, the brilliant, excited scientist? Who could not be proud of that. She leans against the high counter of a lab table, happy to not be going anywhere but actually listen to the miracle that is going to power their prison and make this whole world safe. "…And what is that mark? Why don't you think it's the original source? You must forgive me. I… I'm not a scientist, I'm a soldier." Peggy admits without shame. She knows where her skills are.
"…We already have some sample from this Kree… and we have an Asgardian agent, her blood should be on file. Will those do? Not to mention samples from the monsters that Loki summoned when we cleaned them up after the Ed Sullivan show…"
*
"That will be perfect," Fitz replies with a toothy grin. "We'll be able to connect the DNA and see if we can match the frequency with the people. It is truly incredible! The biochemical-electric interface is elegant in ways we couldn't have imagined — it's like the crystal is alive, or," his eyes turn upwards, "more accurately it was infused by something alive. It's amazing."
He shoots her another grin, "And I think it's not the original source because it's almost like this emits power rather than creates it. The energy came from somewhere, but this doesn't look like the source. The first law of thermodynamics tells us energy is neither created or destroyed, just converted. This can't be the original source — the black mark suggests something forced energy into it. And while I don't understand it the point of centrality means that it also has a very particular location to which it was infused. The energy was almost… injected is what I'm saying. And it flows out the same way. This is like… a battery. Whatever the original source was, well, I'd think of that like a power station — something far beyond nuclear power at that."
*
"…Fascinating. Though, that brings my next question — if this is a battery, will it run out? We cannot afford to build this entire prison and only have it work a year or two. If this runs down, we will have to figure out where it gain it's original energy and.. send some sort of mission to tap it again." That makes Peggy exhale deeply, running one hand across her face tiredly. THat is a bigger worry than she wanted for this project, but she can't lie to herself about it.
*
"Our calculations," not just Fitz's, "suggest it won't run out for a minimum of ten years. That said, it could be drained under extremity. It's vulnerable to people who can pull apart particulates. By which I mean… those who impact density or draw particles apart." His lips quirk up on one side. He shrugs. "But these weaknesses are anticipated, and Simmons and I have a few ideas to circumvent them. Including protecting the crystal form others. It won't be easily accessible."
*
"…Well then, that's a good start, at least. It's worth going forward with the project. A decade will buy us a lot of time for contengencies. Especially with minds like you on staff." Peggy actually gives the younger man a touch of a game smile, reassuring and a bit more of a pep talk than any of her other words. "…and…I am sorry earlier, about what I said concerning you and Agent Simmons. While I still do not know if it's wise to have such a need of each other, I can see your brilliance also relies on each other. She should be here soon… Meanwhile, you can get your work space ready, yes?"
*
Leo shoots Peggy a flicker of a smile, "Of course, Director. I'm more than capable." His grin extends and he emits a quiet sigh. "I'll even get things relatively ready for Jemma. It'll help us find our rhythm and focus immediately." Peggy wins a dimpled grin and he turns to the briefcase where he sets the crystal once more. "Thank you, Director. I won't need any more attention. Appreciate you showing me this space."
*
"My office is not hard to find, should you need me, Ag… Fitz." Peggy can respect the name he wishes to be called as well. After all, she needed this one more than most, especially with the crystal in his care. So, he's given a warmer, reassuring smile, her attempt to set the nervous man at ease, and then she picks up her pregnant frame from leaning against that bench and stands straight again. "Be safe settling in. If you need anything more, ask Markus at the front desk or Heather, right outside my office." With that, she turns on the ball of her foot, moving to leave again.