runningred | OOM: Travelling with Jemma.

"Oh goodness, we may never get anywhere with that sort of leeway." She grins self-deprecatingly as she follows. "Don't you know everything is interesting?" But she settles back behind him without making any mad dashes for More Studying back amongst the ruins.

There are some agents who would be duly impressed. Or at least a bit surprised.

"I'll keep us on track, don't you worry." Jay laughs, kicking the bike into gear.

He takes them off the highway and onto some back streets. There is so much history here, so much time invested in the land. He finds interesting places to stop along the way - little villages and old ruins, outcrops of coloured stone and interesting plants.

As the afternoon ticks away, Jemma's glad she managed to pack more than one notebook - even in her cramped shorthand, she's filling pages and pages with questions and comments and descriptions, sketches scattered throughout to break up the wall of text. She's also learned how to move with the bike (somewhat), and what fun it is to not have to worry about what time it might be now.

"Is that Talassemtane up ahead?"

"That's it. It's one of the larger national parks in Africa."

There's a rather large four-wheel drive waiting for them at the gate. The very tall, very dark African gentleman is sitting on the hood. "Mr Todd, I presume? We've been expecting you."

Jay brings the bike up next to him, flipping up his helmet with a smile. "Nice of you to meet us."

"Your donation was more than generous, the least we can do is drive you in." He greets Jemma with a very wide smile and holds a hand out to her. "I'm Chilogola but most people call me Chill."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mister Chill." Jemma replies warmly, shaking his offered hand with a friendly, professional air. "Your park is terribly lovely, thank you ever so much for offering your services."

At the very least, years of boarding school have drummed manners into her. Even if she's pretty sure at this point that there's no possible way she's going to be able to get off this bike gracefully, after a long day of riding.

"Just Chill," He smiles, "And I'm happy to be your guide. We've put a lot of work into this place, we're pretty proud."

Jay offers her an hand off the bike. "We're looking forward to seeing it. Mind if I put the bike on the back of the truck? I'm guessing it's a rough track in?"

"Sure, no worries." Chill opens the door of the truck for Jemma, offering her a hand up before helping Jay to manhandle the bike onto the back.

Given the truck only has a bench seat, Jay elects to ride in the tray, smiling happily as he grips the bar across the back. "You okay in there, Jem?"

Definitely not graceful, she decides, but thankfully no one seems to feel the need to comment on it.

(Fitz would have. And then she would have commented on his helmet hair, and then... well. That's usually the point the conversation devolves into them talking over each other anyway, with most other people backing away hurriedly. She does hope Fitz is doing alright. Even though he's not even going to have time to miss her, really.)

"Doing quite well - you will be careful back there?"

"Always!" Jay grin, letting the breeze make an even bigger mess of his hair. Jay managed to be scruffy at the best of times.

Chill drives them up into the mountains, navigating the almost invisible track with ease. "I know Mr Todd's been involved with us before but what brings a lovely lady like yourself to our reserve?" He asks, politely friendly than flirty.

Here, Jay. Have a prime example of the number one reason no SHIELD agent has yet given Simmons a job remotely resembling field work.

She can't come up with a story on the fly to save her life.

"Ah..." She can't say 'motorcycle' because that's daft and the elaborate story she thinks up involving three international murders and a case of ebola is just ridiculous and oh lord he's still waiting for an answer and she doesn't know what to say.

"Well..."

Jay still has his comm. in his ear and ducks down to call through the back window of the truck. "Jemma's a biologist. She wanted to meet the Barbary macaques."

"Ah!" Chill brightens. "A scientist! As long as you're more interested in protecting than dissecting, you're more than welcome here!" He jokes good-naturedly. "Our sanctuary has the second largest population of Barbary macaques on the continent and is by far the better protected."

The truck trundles between two very large rocks and through a squeeze in the cliff that looks like it should take paint of them as they slide through. Something clicks and a massive gate ahead of them slides open, allowing them to drive down into a forested valley. "Welcome to Eden."

The valley stretches out before them, so full of life that is echoes with the calls of birds as the sun sets against the rim of the mountains that protect it.

She beams back at Jay in thanks - she just never knows what to say in these sorts of situations. Jemma will never admit to clinging to the door handle like her life depends on it as they squeeze past the rocks, but forgets entirely about holding on when the view opens up.

"Oh, good heavens, that's gorgeous!"

She's so distracted by the view (and all of the bird calls - she's going to have her hands full categorizing them all - that she doesn't even mind that the ground drops off into the valley below beyond the road's edge.

Chill knows this road by heart and seems quite happy to steer the truck along the narrow road, ignoring the sheer drop. There's a rustle in the trees above them as they wind their way down and Chill calls back to Jay. "Duck!"

There's a thump as something large and heavy lands on the roof of the truck and seconds later, Jay is bowled over by a cheetah.

Chill laughs. "Don't mind her, she's a big softy, She knows I take the truck out to buy meat."

Jay finds himself being licked by a rather large cat, purring for a pat.

There's a startled panicky yelp from inside the cab from Jemma - she obeyed the 'duck' command as well, and dear lord something landed on the roof.

Luckily (or perhaps just from so much practice) she recovers quickly, and is soon twisted in her seat to get a better look at the cheetah (a cheetah!), fascinated by the wonderful creature (if she could somehow translate its cornering ability into a propulsion system that's be marvelous.

"Is it a Northern African Cheetah, or a transplant from farther south?" She asks Chill curiously.

"South African." Chill answers, smiling as Jay sits in the back scratching behind her ears. "She got messed up my poachers but we were able to get her free. She's too tame to be released into the wild so she lives with us. Her name is Rápido."

Chill pulls the truck up out the front of a series of buildings that look like they've been built and rebuilt over time. "It doesn't look like much but this is home."

"I'm sure it's perfectly lovely." She assures Chill with a distracted smile - she's not much thinking about rest and relaxation, even though she was when she first got off the bike. Give her some coffee and she's good to go - there's so many things to go study!

Jay jumps down from the back of the truck, laughing as Rápido runs over to Chill for a pat and then to Jemma, sniffing her on the hope she's carrying food.

"Let me show you to your room." Chill nods towards to door. "And don't mind the animals - this is their place, they have free reign here."

Jemma shows a remarkable lack of self-preservation instinct, crouching to get a better look at the cheetah's array of whiskers.

"Oh, right, room!" She realizes belatedly that at least part of that was addressed to her and perhaps maybe she should pay attention.

Rápido has other ideas and sniffs at Jemma's cheek, licking her playfully before trotting inside.

Chill follows the cheetah, showing them around the facility. The sanctuary is part vet clinic, part research centre, part make-shift home for the staff here. Birds and animals roam through the buildings, relaxed and unafraid.

Jay stops at an open window, looking out at an albino chimpanzee who is sitting in the branches. The chimp studied Jay just as hard as Jay studies him. Something about him makes Jay frown.

Jay almost loses Jemma to the research lab - she's about a half-step away from pulling on gloves and glasses and diving into whatever needs doing when she realizes he's frowning at something. And really, she needs to pay attention if there's trouble.

Maybe it's nothing. Hopefully it's nothing. (He still may lose her to the lab, sorry).

"Jay?"

Jay doesn't hear her at first but then his attention snaps back and he blinks as if coming out of trance. "Huh? Sorry what did you say?" He shakes his head as the chimp vanishes into the trees.

"You looked a bit pre-occupied - are you well?" She asks concernedly, fishing through her pack for a pen-light. 'Unexpectedly dazed' doesn't often translate to good things in the world of SHIELD, no, so she already has a list of worries (undiagnosed head trauma, toxin/sedative, sleep deprivation, 0-8-4 exposure), and her demeanor switches from giddy scientist to working science agent.

"It's nothing." He shakes his head again. "It's okay. Just... realised something. Something I don't expect. Don't work about it."

Chill watches Jay from the other side of the room, his expression intentionally blank but clearly knowing. "This way." He leads them to a room off one side of the research centre. It's not much - just a big bed and a table but the balcony looks out over the valley, a Peregrine Falcon preening himself on the rail.

Jay coughs softly. "Jem, you okay sharing a bed tonight or shall I ask for an extra cot. I can sleep on the balcony if you like?"

He may say don't worry, but she's got him on her radar now. He'll be dodging watchful looks all night.

Well.

Once she gets done focusing on the falcon. The falcon is really cool.

"Hmm? What? Oh, no, it's fine, I'm sure it's fine, people do it all the time and... definitely fine." She babbles, internally wondering how she can be from the country that supposedly produces the like of James Bond. That... that was the opposite of cool and collected. That was a mess.

Chill smiles, "Hold your arm out, he'll come to you." He turns to Jay, letting Jemma enjoy herself. "I'll let you settle in. Feel free to wonder around. Just don't touch any of the animals in the cages. Mostly they're here because they're hurt or sick so be careful. Dinners on the deck just up the hall in about an hour. And if you like I'll take you to visit the two vervets you rescued later. I'm sure you'd be glad to know they're doing really well here."

Jemma is delighted when the falcon swoops onto her arm - seriously, that's some grade-school giddiness going on. She can't quite bring herself to pet the bird - she is pretty sure the amount of pressure that beak can apply in pounds per square inch vastly exceeds the amount her fingers can withstand, but Lord it is gorgeous up close.

"Thank you!" She calls (slightly belatedly) when Chill leaves. "You didn't tell me you were rescuing monkeys."

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