Gathering: Summer Party

[concierge]

Outside of the Nexus Hotel, waiters and hotel staff had begun to set up the umbrellas and the tables in the middle of the day. Soon, it became clear that something was happening in the shadow of the Nexus. White tablecloths were draped on the tables and drinks and food were brought out with the help of several waiters and servers, staffing tables with hot and cold foods beside bartending stations. Summery drinks in bright, neon colors are laid out one by one and soon, the afternoon light casts a radiant look on the scene.

Music plays faintly in the background and a note at the front desk invites all the Nexus guests to head outside and join in on the summer party, which promises to continue going as long as there are people to stay and continue keeping the warm atmosphere rolling.

On the lawn, social games had been set out -- lawn bowling, croquet, and tables were set up with chairs for anyone who didn't quite have the will or the spirit to get into such games. Soon, a small number of people had begun to mill around, but as with all parties, there's always room for more.

Comments

[shes_biochem]

"I'll have you know that while I might have two doctorates, I also learned how to hold my drink at the Academy," she says, quite proudly, lifting her chin and her drink in tandem, as if showing off the accomplishment that she hadn't quite earned a degree for. "I've been...well, I've been simply okay. Still struggling with finding a place, not to mention trying to help Fitz get better."

[on_your_right]

"How's that going?" Sam guesses that if she's drinking this much, maybe it's stressful and not going well but that's an assumption he's not willing to voice out loud. Jemma might be small but she wasn't weak by any stretch; Sam is pretty sure she could run circles around him in most things that weren't physical.

"Good so far? Do you need any help?"

[shes_biochem]

"Go back in time and prevent Hydra from burrowing into SHIELD?" she notes off-hand, her gaze slightly to the right of Sam as she intones those words she's continuously thought about. "What happened is past," she says, knowing that lingering on what-ifs will only drive her mad. "All I can do now is go forward and hope that Fitz gets all of his mental acuity back."

[on_your_right]

"Well, you know. You can always ask for help," Sam says. He can volunteer himself, certainly, and he's reasonably sure that Steve would do anything in his power to help. He's good like that.

"We're here for you. Can I take your mind off it for a little while?"

[shes_biochem]

"If I could ask for help, I would," Simmons promises, because with all her heart she wishes this were as easy to mend as asking for help and receiving it. "Unfortunately, I already have all of SHIELD's fleeting medical help and some from the hotel, but it comes down to Fitz," she says, but when he offers the second bit of help, her smile widens. "I think number six might get my mind off things, finally," she says. "And you should be catching up!"

[on_your_right]

"Six is it and I'm cutting you off," Sam says, watching her carefully. "Because I don't think I could forgive myself if something happened and I didn't do anything about it. But I'll join you for two and six."

He thinks he could use another beer, after all.

[shes_biochem]

"I suppose that would be the gentleman-like thing to do," Simmons concedes with a flash of a smile on her face, thinking that Sam truly is a wonderful example of a human being. Then again, she'd also thought the same of Ward before he'd turned into a Hydra killing machine. "Are you enjoying it? The party, I mean?"

[on_your_right]

Sam nods. "Oh, yeah. It's been a while since I had a chance to go do something fun and relaxing. Being friends with Captain America cuts into your leisure time." Sam isn't exactly an Avenger, or anything, but the past few weeks have required an awful lot of his time and dedication to the cause.

He gets another drink for Simmons and another beer for himself, handing hers off with a little flourish. "Here you go, drink number six."

[shes_biochem]

"My thanks, sir," Simmons replies cheerfully, with an edge of teasing in it. She's still a bit tipsy, really, from everything but the world is swimming in such a nice way that she isn't sure she can be upset about it. "I met him," she says, stars in her eyes. "He's very dreamy, exactly what I expected. I felt a flare of patriotism and I'm the furthest thing you can get from being an American."

[on_your_right]

"I think he could make anyone love America. Maybe even a Nazi," Sam teases. "It definitely didn't take much for him to recruit me to the cause, that's for sure. I'm glad to work with him. It makes me feel like I can make a difference."

[shes_biochem]

She remembers that feeling. She's fairly sure it's still there, buried under several layers of worry and regret and anger, but it's there and she thinks of how Agent Coulson had pushed her to feel that way. "How did that happen?" she asks. "I mean, I saw the news coverage, clearly, but I don't think I recall how you two wound up allies."

[on_your_right]

"He came to me and asked for help," Sam says. He doesn't know if he should reveal all of it. He trusts Simmons, sure, but trusting someone and being willing to put them into potential danger are two different things. He isn't willing to risk that.

"Being the do-gooder I am, I helped him out for a little while."

[shes_biochem]

Simmons smiles fondly, giving Sam a look (a drunken one, at that) that said she wanted to believe that people could be that kind and good without worrying that they were Hydra agents behind the scenes. "Why can't people have genuinely good intentions?" she wonders, forlornly. "Instead of watching one of my dearest friends betray us by trying to murder us." She's distracted, as if seeing Ward in the distance.

[on_your_right]

"You never know what someone's colors are until you're in a fire fight," Sam agrees. "Sometimes...I don't know. Sometimes people take the easy way out even if it's not the right way. I'm sorry about that."

[shes_biochem]

"I'm not even sure it's his alliance that makes me so upset," Simmons reasons, trying to think through the complicated tangle of emotions that Ward now brings up every time she lets her mind drift to him. "It's that he spent so long lying to us. Now I look back and I wonder if any of it was real, whether he was spending all the time thinking of ways to kill us," she says, wringing her hands. "I thought he was our friend."

[on_your_right]

"Don't know. I've never been cut out to be a spy," Sam says easily enough. It's true. He's always been true to himself even if everything else is crazy and he doesn't know how people like Natasha can do it, can completely change themselves.

"Romanoff would know."

[shes_biochem]

"We have the Cavalry," Simmons says, not sure May wants her name to be distributed around to strangers, even those who actually know the world that they're a part of. "I've only really ever heard stories about Romanoff. Obviously Agent Coulson knows her, but I'm a bit down the classified levels than he is."

[on_your_right]

"I don't know that much of anyone knows about her," Sam admits. "I think I only do because of a couple lucky circumstances and the fact that she and Steve needed to crash at my house for a little while."

[shes_biochem]

"I'm sure that was an exciting bit of socializing," Simmons remarks, eyes wide at the very idea of having the Black Widow and Captain America over to entertain. It's practically a wild dream and here it is, having happened to Sam. "You're a very kind man to have let them in," she says firmly.

[on_your_right]

"What was I going to do? Captain America shows up and needs your help, you give it," Sam says, as if it's just that easy to make the decision. For him, it had been.

"You do what you need to do."

[shes_biochem]

"I know that I'd do an awful lot for Captain America," Simmons says with a nudge-nudge-wink-wink sort of nod, given that she thinks he's rather dreamy and her heart is currently tangled in its own complicated mess. "Not that I'm suggesting you did it for the same reasons of course. And if you did, no judgement."

[on_your_right]

"Uh, no. I love him but he's like a brother not...no," Sam says, flustered. Truth is, he's a lot more interested in Simmons than he is in anyone else but it's pretty clear that she's more interested in her friend.

[shes_biochem]

She's fairly sure that Captain America can cause feelings of patriotic service and devout friendship in anyone, but she's also one of Coulson's agents and his stance on Captain America is hardly a secret. "Well, I think that your duties are every bit as important," she says firmly. "Perhaps even more so, given that I doubt you have a serum running through your veins."

[on_your_right]

"Yeah, I'm just me. Well, and the suit," Sam says, grinning at her. "You know, I took some damage when I landed and wound up here. I don't know if that's your thing, but do you think you could fix my wings?"

[shes_biochem]

"That's more Fitz than me," she admits, the bittersweet manner of saying it hitting her harder than she expected. "He's engineering. I'm biochem," she says, a faint echo of how they'd been introduced to Ward all those years back. "I'm no slouch. I can always take a look, but Fitz is the one you want for repairs of that nature. At least, when he's in fighting shape."