Chapter 5
Locked lab doors. Skye had never been so happy to see locked lab doors in her life. Locked lab doors meant that they were on the right track, and hopefully they would soon have her missing, scary charge found and back in bed where she belonged once more. If there just were a few less labs in the building, though, that would be a real plus. And a few less flights of stairs, too. Surely Agent Hand wouldn't have tried the stairs, would have stuck to the elevators, but she couldn't help but fear every time they opened a stairwell door to be on the safe side that they were going to find her crumpled in a heap at the bottom. "Jemma, is this going to make her worse, wandering all over the building, instead of being in bed resting?"
"I'm not sure. I'm honestly not sure." Jemma said a moment. "Right now, rest and saving her strength is the best thing. Fighting off the flu is going to take a lot of energy, and if she uses everything she has trying to do her job, it's going to make recovering difficult. And if a secondary infection sets in…" The idea of any of the sick agents developing a secondary infection was terrifying to her, especially the potential for pneumonia. If that happened, but surely if things got to that point, Director Fury would send more help even if they hadn't got the issues with the flu shots straightened out yet. She was a PhD, not a regular doctor. If pneumonia set in, if anyone got bad enough to need to be put on a ventilator… She paled and almost started to hyperventilate at the thought.
"Secondary infection? That's bad, that's really bad, isn't it?" Skye paled herself at the expression on Jemma's face. "How bad? Are we talking miserable sick for a month bad, or… or call the funeral home bad?"
"It could be either?" Jemma said reluctantly. "But I'm sure… These are Shield agents. They're in good health. They have to be. Complications are much more likely in the elderly, or children, or people with health problems, not healthy agents."
But where did Agent Hand fall on the scale of likelihood of developing complications? That was what Skye was worried about. Why hadn't she gone to look in on her right away when she saw the name on her list? If nothing else, then she would have found out she was wandering around sooner, and they could have found her and drug her back to bed sooner. She shivered slightly as images of Agent Hand deathly sick and of coffins joined the already nightmarish ones of falls, head injuries and comas dancing through her head. "We've got to find her. Does anyone have any ideas, besides checking the labs one at a time until we get lucky?" And they couldn't split up to do it, either. It was probably going to take all three of them to drag Agent Hand back to bed when they found her. Being short, and having short teammates, definitely not good when you were facing lagging someone who was six feet tall and feverish off for bedrest.
"Keep going down is the only thing I can think of. Most of the labs are on the lower levels for the shielding in case of accidents." Fitz said after a moment. "If the computers weren't locked down, we could maybe see if any of the labs are still open, but…"
"But unlocking the computers might undo the locks on the labs, right?" Skye said. So checking every lab they could find, and all of the stairways too looked like their only option. Why did this place have to have so many labs, though? Labs just full of things that a sick person could get hurt with? "We have got to find her."
"Why is it so hot down here?" Jemma asked the moment the three of them stepped into what they were hoping was the lowest level of the building. "We don't use furnaces, do we, Fitz?"
"A furnace? A thing that has a fire, and seems extremely dangerous for a sick person to be around? Please tell me we don't have one of those!" Skye moaned as the thought of burns or worse joined the horrible images of what could have happened to Agent Hand that were dancing through her head. It had taken them an hour to work their way down this far, and they were going to be seriously late checking the agents on their lists again, but Agent Hand was still missing. All they had found was locked lab after locked lab, and no sign of the missing agent. What if there was a furnace? What if she had fallen IN?
"No, no furnaces. I'm not sure what it is." Fitz said as he pulled out some sort of device and waved it around before frowning. "It's not radioactive, anyway. That's good, right?"
"Finding Agent Hand, that's what would be good." Skye murmured. What were they going to do if she wasn't down here? She headed down the hallway, dragging her cart behind her, tugging at doors on one side while Jemma and Fitz took the other side.
Locked. Locked. Locked. Locked. She was so used to doors refusing to open, she almost jumped when one swung open at her touch. It was supposed to be a lab, but it looked like someone had converted into a storeroom instead, a storeroom that felt like an oven. Skye stepped in with the cart behind her and hit the lights. At first she only saw the piles of equipment and other discarded items, and then she looked down and spotted the lump wrapped in a blanket, curled into a ball on the floor, and the flash of red in a bit of dark hair.
"Jemma, Fitz, down here!" She shouted before hurrying over and dropping to her knees. "Agent Hand?" she called as she reached out and touched her. "Jemma!" She called again as she felt the almost burning skin. But she was alive, and breathing, and even if she felt like she was on fire, it didn't look like she was hurt. And maybe she was a large, scary, sick, sleeping bear, but… Before Skye could thank about it, she was hugging her hard. Large, scary, sick sleeping bears who had been lost and were found again definitely needed hugs.
Spmething had hold of her. Victoria's eyelids fluttered, but she couldn't find the energy to open them fully, but she shoved at what had her, trying to push it off.
"Hey, it's okay. It's just Skye, from Agent Coulson's team. We're here to help, okay? It's just the harmless hacker from Agent Coulson's team, and the two scientists who failed all of their field tests are coming. They're harmless too, I swear."
"Completely, absolutely harmless." Jemma called as she hurried in and joined Skye on the floor. She cringed as she reached out and felt the hot skin. "Can you get me some of the water and a thermometer? I want to see how bad this is. Here, ma'am, let's try to make you a bit more comfortable, alright?" She said as she somehow pried the edges of the blanket out of Agent Hand's fingers and tugged it off of her. Flushed, skin, burning hot to the touch, but no sign of sweating, oh, this wasn't good.
"Here. We should probably get her jacket off too, right?" Skye said as she handed over the thermometer. "The water isn't exactly cool, but do you think wet cloths might help?"
"Sponge off her neck and face. It might make her a little more comfortable in any case. Here we go, ma'am. Let's see if we can get this off, alright?" Jemma said she between the two of them they lifted the sick agent and somehow tugged her jacket free.
"Why was she still in here, anyway? This place is an oven." Skye murmured half to herself as she tugged at the jacket and somehow pulled one of the sleeves free. She she soaked it in water from one of the bottles and gently pressed it to Agent Hand's forehead.
She still couldn't open her eyes, couldn't move to protest the hands touching her, but as she felt something being poked into her mouth she whispered. "The door."
"The…Fitz!" Skye turned and shouted as she heard Fitz come into the room. "The door! Don't let the door close!
"You think the door locked on her?" Jemma looked up, horror in her eyes as Skye jumped up and hurried around Fitz to tug the door open.
"Oh, yes, the door locked behind her. And it's locked on us too." Now what were they going to do? Skye thought as she pulled and hit everything that she could think of that might make the door open without a response. Trapped in a room that was practically an oven with a terribly sick person. What were they going to do?