Embarrassing Moments

A/N: In honor of hitting 10,000 reads, we're going back in time to revisit Samantha and Grant's most embarrassing moments. There will be multiple POV shifts in this chapter, so just know that Samantha is the normal font and Grant is in bold. Thank you to kath112 for the awesome idea, I'm so excited to write this!!!

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I was almost done with my first year at the Academy. Honestly, I was having a hard time believing it. I had officially decided to become an Specialist, and now my friends and I were getting some training in before we officially started the program.

"Go Samantha go!" cheered one of my friends from the ground. We were outside on the obstacle course, and I climbing through it in record time.

I reached the top of the ladder to a platform, then zip-lined to a lower platform with no harness,  getting a running start in order to go faster. I didn't pause as I moved from my new platform to the massive rope net that spanned a forty-foot gap.

I tried to run straight across, putting my feet at the places where the rope made a cross, and I made it about halfway. I had planned to drop down on all fours to finish crossing when I couldn't run anymore. Unfortunately for me, that's not quite how it turned out.

My foot slipped through the gap between the rope and I went down. Thankfully, my foot got tangled in the rope enough to keep me from hitting the ground, but I still ended up dangling upside down from the middle of the net.

Even worse, I was face to face with my unfriendly guide from the beginning of the year, Grant Ward.

"Hi!" I said brightly, refusing to be embarrassed.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked, not even returning my hello.

"Getting ready for the Specialist program."

He scoffed. "If this is how you'll get ready, you'll wash out in the first week."

"Whatever. I'll be top of my class and you'll have to eat your words."

"Uh huh." He started walking again without another word.

"Wait! Aren't you going to help me down?" Grant ignored me and kept walking. "Ugh. That guy is the worst."

My friends were on their way to help me down, but I managed to do an upside down sit up and untangle myself. If I was going to make Ward eat his words, I needed to start being as much of a badass as possible.

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I graduate the Academy in two weeks. I was top of my class, and I was going to make Garrett proud. He'd given me a second chance, and I was going to make the most of it.

One of our final tests included fighting a dozen agents at once, and I was getting all the practice I could. I was in one of the private gyms, whaling on practice dummies. I was meeting up with some classmates for live practice later, but now I was working on a move Garrett had showed me.

It included a twist midair, and I hadn't been able to get it down yet. If I could figure it out before my final, I'd definitely get a hundred percent.

The better I did on my test, the better position I could get in at SHIELD.

I ran towards the dummy, determined to get the move right this time. I jumped and turned, but instead of hitting the dummy and landing on my feet, I missed and fell flat on my back.

"Dammit!" I cursed. At least no one had seen that.

Then, I heard a laugh from the doorway.

I whirled around to see that girl, Samantha Slater, standing in the doorway, covering her mouth and clearly trying to suppress a laugh.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, quickly picking myself up off the ground.

"Sorry I just— Uh, I was looking for a room to practice in for my test. I'm almost done with year 2 now," she said, breaking halfway through her sentence to laugh.

"Well this one's occupied," I said angrily.

"Maybe we could practice together," she suggested. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"No. Get out."

"Well fine. Maybe I could've helped you keep from falling next time, but whatever. Good luck with whatever you working on."

She turned and walked out the door, and I felt a little guilty, but I quickly put her out of my mind. I was going to need to focus if I was going to learn this move, and she was just going to distract me.

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Slater and I had just gotten back to the Hub after our first assignment together, and I was forced to admit that I was wrong about her. I didn't think she had what it took to be an agent, but if it weren't for her, I would've fallen in a pit trap.

Although going to the beach was unorthodox, I actually enjoyed myself. When Garrett talked me into mentoring somebody, I thought it was going to be a nightmare. When I first saw Slater, I thought it was going to be more of a nightmare. Now, I thought we might have some hope.

I was giving her a tour now, walking her through the Hub, and she was amazed by everything she saw. It was kind of cute.

"So where to now," she asked, practically bouncing down the hallway, "This way?"

"No! That's a--" Before I could stop her, she threw open the door to a high security clearance area, setting off an alarm.

"Oh my gosh what did I do?" she asked, whirling around to look at me.

"You didn't listen to me. I tried to tell you that door is to an area you don't have clearance for."

Slater gave me an exasperated look, but before she could protest, the hallway was flooded with guards.

"What are you doing?" one of them demanded, pointing a gun at Slater. She threw her hands up, but looked a little worried.

"Sorry guys, she's new," I said, stepping in.

"Yeah," Slater piped up, "I was getting a tour of the Hub, and I didn't realize this door was off-limits. I'll make sure to stay far away until I'm a level..."

She looked at the guy pointing a gun at her, waiting for him to finish her sentence.

"...Seven."

"Great! I'll stay far away until I'm a level seven." She actually smiled at the guy, and then he lowered his gun.

"Alright... we'll let this one slide, but be more careful in the future."

"I will! Thank you!" The guy nodded and the whole team headed out.

"Phew. Where next?" asked Slater, seeming completely unfazed.

"You sure you want to keep going? You're gonna be in some serious trouble if you try to break into another SHIELD secure area."

"Oh whatever. You just need to be faster on the 'STOP!' and I'll be fine."

I shook my head and started walking. She wasn't even shaken! I guess I really underestimated this girl.

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Grant and I were starting our second week in Spain without finding anything about the orb. We had been frequenting cafes all over the city, hoping to overhear something that might be useful. This morning, we were in a cute little place downtown. I was sipping tea and Grant, as usual, was sipping his black coffee.

"It's so nice out," I said, "I seriously think I could live here."

"Yeah... I don't think I could stand the driving for more than a few weeks."

"Are you kidding? You're easily the most dangerous driver on the roads." Grant just shook his head.

"Okay, let's take a look at this," he said, pulling out a map and spreading it on the table. We had been keeping track of where we went in the city and when, so that we could cover as much ground as possible as efficiently as possible.

"Did you mark this cafe yet?" I asked.

"No..." said Grant, grabbing a pen to make a mark. He leaned closer to the table to get a better look at the details of the map.

I waited, sipping my tea while he poured over the map. I was happy with most activities he suggested, since we were in Spain.

"How about we... ah... ah... achoo!" Grant sneezed, which made his head swing forward, violently slamming into the table.

My mouth dropped open.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he muttered, rubbing his forehead.

"Then that was the funniest thing I've ever seen," I said, not even trying to hold back my laughter.

"Whatever Slater," he said, still holding his hand to his head.

"Oh my gosh. Is that swelling up?" I reached across the table and pulled his hand away. A small bump was already rising on his forehead.

"It's not that bad," he mumbled.

"Oh Grant. I'm sorry," I said, still laughing and not at all sorry, "How does that even happen though? I mean really? Aren't you supposed to have better reflexes than that?"

"Okay, okay, keep talking Slater. But remember, one of our first encounters you were hanging upside down from a net."

"Yeah, but I didn't sneeze my head into a table," I said, still laughing, "I hope you know I'm never going to let this go."

Grant sighed. "Yeah. I know."

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Samantha and I were in the belly of the Bus, finally getting some training done now that we were together again. We'd been at it for half an hour, and I was impressed. She was even better than I remembered, which I didn't think was possible.

"You've improved Slater," I noted.

"Yeah, that's cuz I trained with May for awhile," she answered.

"Wait really?" I knew she and Samantha were closer than I thought, but I didn't realize they'd even trained together.

"Yeah, you better be worried. I'm gonna kick your butt."

"Oh, okay. I'll believe it when I see it."

"Let's go then." She dropped into a fighting stance, and I mirrored her. We went back and forth for a few minutes, neither of us landing a solid hit. We knew each other too well.

Finally, Slater pulled a move I wasn't familiar with. She would've punched me right in the face if May hadn't banked the plane.

Instead, Samantha fell over mid-punch, rolling into the wall and laying on the mat in defeat.

"Ugh," she groaned.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"No." I knew she was fine.

"Wow, that was a great move. I definitely didn't see it coming," I said, laughing.

"I know right. It's all about the element of surprise. For real though, you would've gone down if May hadn't banked."

"Uh huh. You keep telling yourself that Slater," I said, still grinning ear to ear. I walked over to her, where she was still laying in defeat, and offered her a hand up.

"Ugh. Thanks." I pulled her up, and she just stared at me, seeming completely deflated.

"What's wrong Slater? The plane take you down?"

"Yeah, yeah. At least it wasn't a table that got me." I rolled my eyes.

"That was almost four years ago."

"And yet, it's still funny."

"I guess you're right. I can't think of a time when this won't be funny."

"We're still gonna be laughing at each other when we're old, retired SHIELD agents, aren't we?"

"I sure hope so, Slater," I said, throwing one arm around her and heading for the stairs, "I sure hope so."

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"Hey FitzSimmons," I said walking into the lab. I was bored, and they were usually working on something interesting. "Whatcha doin'?"

"We're looking for something, actually," answered Simmons.

"Yeah, have you seen a small petri dish full of blue powder?" asked Fitz.

"No, not recently. How important is it to find?"

"Not that important, I guess. Just don't touch it if you find it."

"Uh... okay... I think I'm gonna head back upstairs." I don't even think FitzSimmons heard me, they were so focused finding the whatever-it-was.

Despite the momentary excitement, I was still bored. I decided to go find Grant.

"Grant," I called, knocking on the door to his bunk.

"What, Slater?"

"Let's play a game or something. I'm bored."

"Not now."

"What? Why?"

"Because. I'm busy."

"Doing what?"

"None of your business."

"Grant, come on."

"No."

I sighed. I was getting nowhere, so I decided to try a different approach. I went around to my bunk, which was next to Grant's, and stood on my bed to peek over the divider.

"OH MY GOSH!" I yelled when I saw Grant, "YOUR FACE IS BLUE!"

"Slater!" yelled Grant, looking up at me. He was sitting on his bed, trying to scrub his face clean.

"What did you do?" I asked, climbing over the wall and landing on the bed next to Grant. He stared at me in disbelief for a minute, then went back to scrubbing his face.

"There was this dish of something in the lab. It looked interesting, so I was checking it out."

I gave him a look like really? "You were in a laboratory, full of experiments, and you touched something without knowing what it was?"

"I was trying to take an interest in science, okay?"

I shook my head. "Grant, you should've just talked to FitzSimmons. They could've helped you out and you wouldn't look like an Oompa Loompa right now."

Now it was Grant's turn to give me a look.

"Really Slater?"

"Yup. This is why social skills are important. Why don't you start by talking to FitzSimmons about how to get your face back to normal?"

Grant just groaned and flopped back on his bed.

"This is so much worse than hitting my head on the table."

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A/N: And that's the end of our Embarrassing Moments collection! Hope you guys enjoyed it, and thanks again for all your support!