Chapter 4
"Where is she?" Jemma looked around the room, and behind the desk, trying to figure out where someone who had to be six feet tall and sick with the flu could be hiding.
"She was here, anyway." Skye murmured as she knelt by the makeshift bed and picked up a strand of Agent Hand's oddly red streaked hair that was caught on one of the pillows. Why, oh, why hadn't she came here first after spotting Agent Hand's name on her list of people to tend instead of panicking and saving her for last? If anything had happened….
"We need to tell Coulson." Fitz said. Although the amount of trouble they were going to be in when they had to tell him a level eight agent had gone missing….
"No." Skye took a deep breath and ordered herself to calm down. "We can find her. She couldn't have gone far. The doors were all locked until Coulson sent the override. She's got to be somewhere in the building. Bathroom, maybe?" The bathroom. She paled slightly thinking of the disaster a feverish, shaky person in the bathroom could be. What if she fell, hit her head on a sink and knocked herself into a coma? Why, oh, why hadn't she came here first, no matter how frightening Agent Hand could be?
"Bathroom. That's possible." Jemma said with a hopeful tone. "If the headache is as bad as some of the people we saw are saying, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't cause a degree of nausea. Or maybe she went for water? I don't think that would help much as far as fluids go." she gestured at the half empty bottle of liquor as she spoke.
"Okay, we'll take the bathrooms. Fitz, go and look, check for water fountains or maybe a kitchenette on this level. She couldn't have gone far." And wherever she had gone, Skye sent up a silent prayer, please let her be on her feet, or curled up asleep and not injured from a fall.
They were back in Agent Hand's office twenty minutes later, and Skye felt like crying. Nothing. There was not a single sign of here anywhere on that level, or anywhere on the levels immediately above and below. Of course, they hadn't found blood, strands of black or red hair on sharp edges of counters, or signs of a fall or other accident, which was sort of good but still, Agent Hand was missing. Why hadn't she came up here first, or at least followed the list order instead of saving checking on her until the very last?
"At least…" Jemma started to say, but stopped, not sure of anything slightly positive about this situation. "Her fever wasn't seriously high," she finally came up with. "And it looks like she did try to take something for it, although aspirin and alcohol might not be the best mix."
"And she was trying to do her job even with the fever, wasn't she?" Fitz added. "Putting everything in lockdown. We're probably worrying for nothing."
"She…. Wait. Wait." Skye lifted her head, her eyes bright as something hit her. "She was doing her job! That's where she is! She locked down the building, she locked down the computers and the weapons rooms, but what about the labs?"
"The labs. But couldn't she have locked them down from here?" Jemma asked.
"Not if she didn't remember the labs until after she put the computers into lockdown. Fitz, could she lock down the labs manually if she had to?"
"With the computers locked down, that's the only way she could do it." Fitz said with a nod.
"That's got to be where she is! Come on, let's go and get her, and get her back to bed where she belongs." And please, please don't let her end up in the middle of some sort of lab accident before they could find her, and drag her back to her sick bed.