triplett.

no need to think the worst 'til it shakes your hand and says hello. [trip. 27. ops.]

[professorleofitz]

“I know you aren’t.” Fitz paused. “I just… she paid a lot of attention to you.” It wasn’t like Simmons even ignored Fitz for Trip when they first met him, it was just… annoying. Which was stupid. He stayed quiet for a long time after Trip gave the whole speech thing about fighting. It wasn’t true. “A whole lot of good I do. You can save people. Protect them.” Fitz regretted saying that as soon as he did, with the circumstances. Nobody saved Agent Fields. 

[antriplett-blog]

“So do you,” Trip insisted. “You ever seen an episode of any crime show, ever? They’d get nothing done without their scientists, their doctors, their computer nerds. Saving people isn’t all about the physical fight. And we can’t win this fight without you.” He reached up and put his hand gently on Fitz’s knee. “Please don’t discredit yourself. Please, just. We need you. I need you. We’re nothing if we’re not a team.”

[professorleofitz]

Fitz went quiet for a couple of seconds. “Because of Simmons,” he mumbled softly. “And you know everything. And can fight.” He hated admitting things, it was so embarrassing, but he just felt more guilty than anything. Guilty about everything. He turned over so he was facing the back of the couch, so Trip wouldn’t see his face.

[antriplett-blog]

“Simmons?” Trip turned to look at Fitz, who had his back to him and the blanket pulled over his head. “Simmons and I aren’t… we’re friends, yeah, but nothing more. Truthfully, I…” He trailed off with a sigh. “Skye. Yeah.” He looked at his hands, twiddling his fingers. “And I don’t know everything. No one knows everything. Sure, I’m a fighter - but look at you. You’re a fighter, too. It’s not all punches and guns, Fitz. Most of it’s the struggle you fight within - and you’re one of the bravest fighters I’ve ever seen.”

[professorleofitz]

“No,” Fitz repeated, more firmly. “I–it’s not that. That’s not–why I…” He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment. “I was jealous of you. That’s why… I talked you like, ehm. Like I did.” That’s all he said before he went quiet, pulling the blanket over himself more, face red with embarrassment.

[antriplett-blog]

Trip thought about this for a moment. Jealous? Of what? “Why?” he asked. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. Take a nap. Relax - don’t worry about this right now. Worry about yourself. I’m fine.”

[professorleofitz]

“No,” Fitz responded softly after Trip’s whole spiel thing that was probably inspiring to anyone who could manage to pay attention to more than two sentences at a time (and that kind of person was not Fitz at the moment). He bit down on his lip, fiddling with his blanket. “I. Ehm. Sorry, for, the… way I’ve been… treating you.” 

[antriplett-blog]

Oh. Of course. Only Fitz would be going through a traumatic experience and manage to make himself feel worse about it by adding another thing. “Dude, it’s okay,” he said, trying to wave it off. “I was the new guy on the team, you had no reason to trust me yet. It’s good to have a healthy skepticism about people, and I shouldn’t have been trying to force it. No hard feelings, though. This can be a new start.”

[professorleofitz]

antriplett:

“Of course,” Trip said with a small, forced smile. There was nothing he wanted more than to pass out on his bed and cry his own guilt away, but he hadn’t been the one who found the body, and Fitz needed him right now. Needed someone, anyway. “Why don’t you lie down? I can turn on the TV and we can watch bad infomercials or How It’s Made or something.” He moved to the floor in front of the couch and patted where he’d been sitting, trying to make it clear to Fitz that he was welcome to spread out.

“Yeah. Okay.” Fitz nodded a little, watching blankly as Trip moved from the couch to the floor. Why was he–oh yeah, he told him to lie down. Fitz very slowly laid down on the couch, still curled up underneath the blanket. Despite everything, he somehow managed to feel a twinge of guilt over how badly he’d treated Trip before. “I… I’m sorry.”

[antriplett-blog]

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said, looking up at Fitz. “It’s a traumatic experience for anyone, to find someone you worked with suddenly dead, especially with such malicious intent. Someone had to find the body, though, and unfortunately it happened to be you. This isn’t your fault in any way - none of us saw it coming. Maybe it can lead to new breaks in the case, though. We can stop them. We’re a team.”

[professorleofitz]

Fitz pulled the blanket tight around himself, huddling in it. He stared at Trip for a long moment. “I–he–” He bit down on his lower lip when the sentence wasn’t forming right and curled in on himself more. This couldn’t be real. This had to not be real. He wanted nothing more than this to be a really bad dream from all the  alcohol. “…Thanks,” he managed to say, although he was starting to dissociate again, eyes fixed on Trip but unfocused.

[antriplett-blog]

“Of course,” Trip said with a small, forced smile. There was nothing he wanted more than to pass out on his bed and cry his own guilt away, but he hadn’t been the one who found the body, and Fitz needed him right now. Needed someone, anyway. “Why don’t you lie down? I can turn on the TV and we can watch bad infomercials or How It’s Made or something.” He moved to the floor in front of the couch and patted where he’d been sitting, trying to make it clear to Fitz that he was welcome to spread out.

[professorleofitz]

Fitz took the water and slowly sipped it, cupping it with both hands and gripping it extra tight, somewhat scared that he’d lose focus completely and drop it. He was slowly starting to come back from his dissociation, very slowly, but still. Trip’s voice was seeming a little more real. “Uh….” Fitz stared at the wall straight ahead, scrunching up his face. “Yeah.”

[antriplett-blog]

Trip grabbed a blanket off the back of a chair and carefully draped it over Fitz, sitting down a respectful distance away to give him some space. “You’re safe, Leo,” he repeated, trying to make eye contact with his teammate. “You’re safe, it’s going to be okay, and we’re going to do everything in our power to catch these sons of bitches before they can lay a finger on anyone again.”

[professorleofitz]

It was both a very quick and very short journey to Trip’s place; Fitz was still very much in a daze as well as drunk, so he wouldn’t have been able to recall anything that had just happened if he wanted to. He just sat down on the couch, bringing his knees back up to his chin and curling in on himself. At least his brain seemed to be catching up fast enough. “Okay,” was his soft response when Trip suggested the water, but he hesitated on the part about his dog. He wasn’t sure what he preferred. “That’s fine. Ehm. Whatever’s fine. It’s fine.”

[antriplett-blog]

Trip saw Fitz hesitate when he brought up the dog, and quickly waved it off. “She can stay away for now,” he said. “You’re welcome to let her out later.” He gave Daisy a bone through the slits of her cage and poured a glass of water for him and Fitz. “Anything else I can get you?” he asked, giving Fitz his water. “A blanket? You’re welcome to crash here tonight - the couch isn’t half bad.”

[professorleofitz]

Fitz hunched his shoulders a little, the lights seeming especially bright. He was hanging on Trip’s arm, clutching him tightly as he walked alongside him. “Ehh… yeah. Fine.” He blinked a couple of times, trying to get the image out of his head. He raised his head to look at the buildings. It was like he didn’t even recognize them. “Okay.”

[antriplett-blog]

Luckily, Trip’s room was on the first floor, so he didn’t have to lead Fitz up a disastrous flight of stairs while they’re both not entirely sober. He fumbled with his key in the lock for a bit, hearing Daisy’s excited yips from the crate. Finally, the door opened and Trip led Fitz inside, guiding him to the couch. “I’m going to get you some water,” he said, “and then I’m going to let Daisy - the puppy - out. I can keep her on a leash if you’d like, or even leave her inside the crate. Whatever will make you most comfortable.”

[professorleofitz]

It took Fitz a couple of seconds to realize Trip had just offered to help him up–he felt like his brain was having major lag. He reached his hand up and let himself be pulled up by Trip, immediately leaning against him, feet dragging as he stumbled along. “Okay,” he muttered softly, “Yeah.”

[antriplett-blog]

Trip helped Fitz along the path - the sun wasn’t even up yet, and the streetlights were flickering slightly, like some sort of horror movie. “You doing okay?” he asked Fitz, looking over at the other man. He pointed toward the building ahead, where the staff dorms were. “We’re almost there. It’s okay. We’re safe now, and we’ll be safe there.”

[professorleofitz]

Something about helping…. Trip’s place… puppy… trusting…

Fitz’s eyebrows knit together as he tried harder to focus on what the other agent was saying. Okay. Come on Fitz. He was probably offering to take him to his place and calm down and play with the puppy–yeah, that felt familiar. That’s probably what he said.

Fitz swallowed, very slowly raising his head a little and stretching out his legs. “Yeah.” His voice felt incredibly distant and quiet. “Okay.”

[antriplett-blog]

“I’ll help you up,” Trip said, getting to his feet and offering Fitz a hand, bracing himself against the tree for stability. “Lean on me - it’s gonna be okay.” He’s drunk himself, but the adrenaline and anxiety managed to keep him stable as he led Fitz away and toward his room. “It’s not far; we can do it, I promise.”

[professorleofitz]

Fitz couldn’t hear anything Coulson was saying. It was like someone had stuffed something into his ears and he didn’t have the willpower to move to take it out. He stared straight ahead, eyes on a patch of grass, but all he could see was the body hanging from the tree in his head. 

So he didn’t hear it when Trip approached him, or even when he started talking. It reminded him of the time he had to get his wisdom teeth removed and they gave him laughing gas and all the words anyone said were jumbled and just… not words.

Trip was saying something about wanting to be friends by the time Fitz finally managed to focus to tune in. He turned his head a minuscule bit, murmuring, “What?” He wrenched his gaze away from the grass to look at Trip, his vision coming in and out of focus.

[antriplett-blog]

Fitz seemed to be disassociating... completely unfocused and... empty. “I’m here to help you,” he said quietly. “Tell me what you need. I can walk you back to my room - or my place, even, if you don’t want to be alone. I have a puppy, she’d be happy to snuggle with you...” He trailed off, following Fitz’s empty gaze a patch of grass in front of him. “You can trust me, Fitz. I know you haven’t been sure before today, but... please.”

[antriplett-blog]

“Fitz?” Trip approached his teammate slowly, sitting down next to him against the tree. It’d been only an hour since Fitz had found Agent Lewis hanging from the branch right above them, and he hadn’t much moved since then. “Coulson told me to check up on you. Anything I can do? Help? Something?”

He sighed, making sure to respect Fitz’s space. “Look. I’m not sure why we got off on the wrong foot, but we did. I want to help you, Fitz. I want you to trust me. I want to be your friend. Just tell me how.”

[coulsyn-blog]

Volatile Times } Semi-Open Para

[coulsyn-blog]

Coulson took a deep breath. His head was spinning, but he had to keep calm. For the good of everyone. “I’ll send out a notification in the morning. We’re going to need to be there for students–and anyone else–who are in shock. If Simmons is up to it, we can figure out all the specifics and try to get a profile on whoever might have done this.” He paused and glanced over at Fitz. “For now… I need you to check up on Fitz. Make sure he’s okay.”

[antriplett-blog]

“Fitz?” Trip said. He glanced over at the engineer, still huddled beneath the tree. “Sir, with all due respect - he doesn’t like me very much. And I’m not sure why. Maybe you should ask Skye, or something. I don’t want to upset him even more.”

[coulsyn-blog]

Volatile Times } Semi-Open Para

About ten minutes later, Coulson had called in the rest of the team. Skye, Simmons, Ward, Trip. The body was on the ground, May basically standing guard next to it, Fitz still curled up next to the tree, his face now in his hands. The rest of the agents came soon enough, looking worn out and drunk. 

Coulson took a deep breath.

“I have… unfortunate news.” Everyone, besides Fitz, was too fixated on Coulson to look past him. “Half an hour ago… Fitz, uh… he discovered Professor Field’s body strung to the tree.” Coulson took a deep breath, looking away from the horrified faces of his agents so he could keep talking in a calm manner. “We’re going to say it was an accident from the rave, but it’s… absolutely foul-play. There’s every reason to think Hydra’s involved. What I need is for… for everyone to stay calm. We’ll work out what to do, and–” He broke off. He had to remain calm. For everyone. “–and do not, at all, let anyone know what really happened.”

[antriplett-blog]

Trip’s first thought was that this was their fault. All of their fault. HYDRA was running rampant around base and they’d been foolish enough to go party like a group of reckless rookies.  And now a professor had been killed right under their noses.

“Is there anything else we can do?” Trip asked quietly, eyes drifting toward Fitz, who looked like an empty shell of himself, curled up on the ground. “Should we go comfort the students? Start an investigation?” His head pounded, the world was spinning - still drunk, still unable to think straight. But this was his job, his duty, and there was no way he could possibly give up on them now. He’d push until he was physically unable to do so - and he wasn’t quite there yet.

[hacking101-blog]

“That’s really offensive to the colorblind, you know?” she grinned, though it didn’t quite translate to her eyes. “Now that we’ve reached a consensus, it being that I’m always right, are you gonna name all of your children after French royalty? Consider Clovis while you’re at it.”

[antriplett-blog]

“Colorblind people can see some colors,” Trip said. “And they certainly can see grey, at the very least.” He smiled and shook his head slightly. “Not a huge fan of the name Clovis, unless you can convince me otherwise. Just because I’m named some French name doesn’t mean my children have to be.”

[antriplett-blog]

hacking101:

“Then we’re gonna beat Hydra. It’s as black as white as that. And, if we somehow fail, you’re still not going anywhere. Not on my watch. You deserve to have everything you’ve ever wanted and I kinda want to be there to see them happen to you.”

Trip smiled, watching Daisy run playfully back and forth between the two. “Nothing’s black and white,” he said, rubbing the puppy’s head. “But you’re right. If we think we’re gonna fail, we will. Thank you, Skye.”