Chapter Text
Ward didn’t like to leave the girls downstairs, out of view. He didn’t want to head upstairs with fewer exits but as they climbed he realized there were plenty of glowing red signs and as a bonus he could watch the table and stage from the bar area with pool and darts. He relaxed minutely. The area was contained but he was far from in control there. Too many people and more crowding in all the time. Mostly women, mostly non-threatening except for the one She-Ra looking security bitch that Skye was hugging. If he had to get to her quickly, it’d be simple enough to go over the railing and slide down a support pole.
Now was the time to concentrate on little Leo Fitz though. He reluctantly put Skye on the back burner in his head, though he couldn’t go a minute without glancing in her direction. The goal tonight was to make friendly with the team, to become a friend, a confidante. After jumping out of a plane to rescue Jemma, her trust was earned for good, he’d have to work to shake her if wanted. Given the obvious affection that Fitz has for her, Ward had thought he would have gained more brownie points with him as well. Unfortunately, that had just translated to Fitz being jealous of his heroics. So, tonight, get in good with the brilliant Leo Fitz and become his go to guy.
The obvious way to go about it would be to play wingman. Maybe get the little guy laid. Truth be told Ward felt kind of bad for Fitz. While the Scot is gifted like Einstein, he is small, socially inept and so backwards that he can’t do anything but be slobberingly in love with his best friend even though they seem like siblings. Ward is achingly aware of an incestuous vibe within the FitzSimmons dynamic and it grosses him out a little bit. Definitely, he should get the guy laid, then Fitz could feel some more confidence in himself and quit mooning about over Simmons’ luscious butt.
Ward would prefer a cleaner op. He would prefer mercenary work. Assassinations. Demo. Anything but getting in close with these children and spending months, hopefully not years with them. They are weak, not ready for field work, but useful in technology. They are clever, all of them are clever. None are any kind of threat to himself. Except May. She’s not weak or young or unsuspecting. She’s inscrutable at best. Dangerously unknowable at worst. He’s proud that he has managed to develop a ‘special’ relationship with her, she’s never going to give him anything though. Wooing her would have been a waste of his time and talents, if it hadn’t have been so much fun.
Ward easily concedes to Fitz buying the first round. Concedes to throwing darts. He’s not sure how hard or easy to take it on him. Losing wouldn’t be an option. He’s a trained specialist, his aim is great but he doesn’t want to destroy him so badly that he feels bad about himself. It sucks always trying to find the fine line and walk it. Maybe he could give him brotherly advice on throwing. He’s glad Fitz is a talker so he doesn’t worry about keeping up his end of the conversation. He’s pretty sure he’ll have talked his ear off before the night is over if plied with much alcohol.
“Hey y’all. I’m Jenna. I’ll be your waitress tonight. What kind of tail y’all chasin’ tonight? We got pretty much everything down there waiting for some man meat.”
Fitz blushed from collar to ear tip and beyond at the friendly greeting.
Ward looked the girl up and down slowly. She’d do. Long tan legs showing from daisy dukes to her boots, blond-highlighted hair pulled back in a ponytail, Mama’s t-shirt tied tight to her waist and sliced strategically to show skin and curves. He offered up a quick, charming smile. “Just hanging with my bud tonight, getting in a little recreation.”
“Well what’ll you have while you’re recreatin’? It’s going to be pretty slow up here until after the show. Got some specials if you want to give’m a try.” Her pretty plastered smile not faltering as Ward checked her out thoroughly. She was more than used to men looking at her.
“I think a couple of beers for now would be fine.”
“Yeah, none of that American crap though. I can’t stomach the piss flavored soda you Yanks drink. Can you get me a proper pint of heavy? I’m sure a Tennant’s would be asking too much.” At the sound of Fitz’s voice her plastic smile gained 500 watts and turned into something truly spectacular. Ward, thought to himself, that this was going to be easy.
“I sure can do that for you, Sugar. I just have to hope a Guinness is heavy enough for you. I like that accent of yours. Where are you from?”
“Scotland. I suppose a Guinness will do, definitely for a slow night. ”
“It must be a nice place" she let the statement linger a second longer than necessary. "I’ll be right back with your drinks,” she smiled widely at Fitz again and flossed off to the bar.
“She likes you,” Ward smirked at Fitz.
“Nah, she likes the accent.”
“Same difference. You should ask her where she’s from” he said as he opened the dart cabinet.
“Ehm, she’s not my type,” Fitz hedged as he made a show of inspecting the handful of mismatched darts Ward laid on the table.
“Man, what’s not to like? Did you see that ass?” Ward shook his head appreciatively. “If that doesn’t do it for you, what do you need?”
“I dunno. An IQ over 130 at a bare minimum.”
“You’re assuming she isn’t smart because she’s a waitress. Shame on you Fitz. She might be working her way through college.” Ward grinned mostly to himself. This might be easier than he thought.
Fitz raised a brow at Ward while fingering the fletching on a ragged blue dart. “Probably not.”
“Wanna bet?”
“Sure” Fitz said with a sigh as he zinged a dart to the bull’s eye.
“Nice.” Ward said, impressed. “If she’s not in college I’ll buy the next round, your choice. If she is, then you buy, my choice”
“Fine. Community college doesn’t count.”
“OK but you kill what you got if she is in the sciences.”
“Deal.” Fitz agreed easily. “But how do we find all this out?”
Ward couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “You are a spy. You could interrogate her. You could research her. Or you could play human and ask her about herself. Trust me, she’ll answer. She likes your accent.”
“Right” Fitz swallowed nervously. Jenna was on her way back to the table with two foamy headed masterpieces.
“Here ya go!” Jenna fixed him with another dazzlingly bright smile as she set down the drinks at their high table.
“Yeah. Thanks.” Leo fumbled a little. “How much do I owe you?”
“Uncle Ed called up and said to run you two a tab. You’re covered if you don’t get too crazy.”
“Oh. Um. Yeah. Thanks. We won’t get too… too crazy.” He screwed up his courage “You know your accent is really nice too. Where are you from?”
“Culloden.”
“What?” he couldn’t disguise his shock.
“Culloden, Georgia. I’m a small town girl” she grinned again, knowing exactly what she just did to him.
“This is a long way from Georgia, further from Scotland, of course, what are you doing here?” he paused then shyly added “if you don’t mind my asking.”
“I’m working on my master’s at UNO. I just wait tables for Uncle Ed on the weekends. It’s great pocket money for a starving college student.”
Ward made no pretense at hiding his snickering on the other side of the table. Jenna gave him a quizzical look, knowing she was missing something.
“It is, I’m sure. What’s your major?”
“Bioinformatics. Mostly it’s developing software for interpreting biological data. I tell people who don’t know, which is most everybody, it’s where computer science, engineering and biology meet to make data babies.”
“Oh my god that’s fascinating” Fitz sputtered out genuinely impressed.
“You think so? I’m getting time for my project on the firefly at the end of this month. If all goes well, I am getting my paper and getting out soon.”
“The firefly? Supercomputer, you mean?”
“Yeah, you’ve heard of it?”
“Oh yes. I worked on some hardware for it a while back. I have someone here you’ve got to meet.”
At this Ward interrupted. “She’s busy Fitz, let her enjoy her time off too.” He waggled his eyebrows meaningfully at Fitz but had no faith that he understood.
“Oh. Yeah. We’re just having fun tonight.” Fitz could not have sounded more disappointed.
“You’ve got a girlfriend down there huh?” Jenna asked.
“Oh. Who? Me? No. My friend. Partner. Umm. Colleague really. She’s down there. Biochemist. I’m sure she’d love to talk to you.”
“Well, to be honest, I don’t have a ton of time to talk shop. It’s slow right now but once those dancers get done I’m going to get flooded by every local yokel within 50 miles. I turn the Southern up real high for these cowboys. They like it a lot. I’ll be back around to check on you on a little bit, Sweetie.” She gave Fitz a wink and a smile, ignored Ward completely, and hustled over to a nearby table of bearded camouflaged twenty-somethings.
Fitz’s eyes followed her closely. “Wow, that IS nice.”
“What? Her IQ?” Ward teased.
“Yeah and her arse.” Fitz whistled softly to himself. “So what’s your game?”
“Uh-uh kill what you got. You got out of buying but you’re going to have to drink and I get to pick the next round. I’m thinking a nice American whiskey.”
“There’s no such thing” countered Fitz. He picked up his beer, eyeing Ward seriously. “This is not a chugging beer” he said regretfully and then swallowed it down like a marathoner would a Dixie cup of water. Ward’s eyes widened in surprise. “Now, what’s your game?”
“Uh, cricket.”
“20 to 10?”
“Sure.”