Chapter 9
"Fitz, is the door co-operating at all?" Jemma didn't even look up, she could just sense what the expression on Fitz's face would be and what he would say if he could bring himself to say anything at all. The door just wasn't coming open, and it had been so long, too long, since Skye had crawled up that vent in her attempt to get them help. She gently ran one of the wet cloths over Agent Hand's face and neck, although at this point she didn't think it was doing anything to cool her, even though the water was as cold as she dared use. At least the touch might help, though, would let her know that she wasn't alone. Jemma couldn't imagine anything worse than that, to be alone and… No, she couldn't let herself think that. She wouldn't let herself think it. Agent Hand was still fighting this. They had to help her fight somehow, that was all there was to it.
"lWires are fused, parts are missing. My best guess is that someone didn't want to fill out the papers to requisition more parts, so they've been stripping things from here." Fitz called over his shoulder. "Agent Hand, ma'am, when you're feeling better I'll make a list for you of what whoever did this pulled. I'm afraid it's likely some sort of fire hazard if they installed things the same way they removed things."
Jemma smiled slightly at Fitz's words before picking up the thermometer again. "Let's check your temperature again, ma'am, and see if the medicine might be starting to work, finally, alright?"
"Lights." Her eyes were closed, Victoria knew they were closed, so how in the world was she seeing lights dancing across her vision? She tried to reach out, but her hand barely twitched in response, and then there was someone there, taking hold of her fingers and holding her still.
"The lights are just from the headache, ma'am. Just try to keep still, alright? Moving will just make it worse." Not to mention Jemma was more than a little afraid that movement, or anything really might be enough to push Agent Hand into a seizure at this point. The thermometer beeped, and she had to force herself to look down at the reading after she removed it. 106.7. She blinked hard, but a tear slipped down her cheek anyway. She was doing everything she could, and poor Agent Hand was fighting so hard. Most people would have slipped into a coma by this point, but somehow she was still clinging to consciousness. She was fighting, but unless Jemma could think of something to try fast, it was a fight that she had no hope of winning. She blinked again, and felt more tears slipping down her cheeks. Surely there was something she was missing! Okay, she wasn't a medical doctor, but she was a bio-chemist. She knew something about heat and the human body. Sure there was something she could think of to try to help this, or at least some way to prevent a seizure!
"Jemma…" Fitz said as he came over to her, with an expression she had never seen before on his face.
"You can't fix it?"
"Not without more parts, or better tools." Fitz felt a tear running down his own cheek at the expression on Jemma's face, like she had just lost all hope. And Agent Hand, so she had sent him on a suicide mission without telling him, that didn't mean she deserved to be facing a death like this. This was heat. This was science. What were both of them missing?
"You tried, Fitz. That's all you can do." Jemma said softly, before turning her attention back to Agent Hand, and running the wet cloth over her face once more. Even if the odds were against it helping, she had to keep trying something. "It's alright, ma'am. You just hold on a little longer and we'll have this fixed, I promise."
Fix it. There had to be some way to fix things, or at least keep them from getting worse. He couldn't open the door. He had let the door close and lock them in. There had to be something he could do to fix this. And then it hit him and he rushed into the piles of discarded and broken equipment.
The first crash made Jemma jump. "Fitz! What are you doing? Stop!" More crashes and louder crashes filled the room, and it sounded like he was taking a hammer to everything he could find. "Fitz!" She looked over in the direction the crashes were coming from, and then down at Agent Hand, her eyes going wide with sudden horror and fear. Could sudden loud noises be enough to trigger a seizure in someone who was on the edge of one? She had to stop him, but at the same time if she moved and Agent Hand did start to seize… Without medicine there was very little she could do, but if she wasn't there at all when it happened… Seizures, likely respiratory arrest, brain damage. Jemma teared up again imagining it. "FITZ! STOP!"
And then there was a yelp of pain followed by another crash, and suddenly everything was silent for a moment before Fitz called. "Jemma, I broke it!"
"You broke what?" Jemma didn't dare look up. There were warning signs indicating a seizure was about to start, weren't there? Something besides the auras?
"What was making the room into an oven. It looks, well, it looked like some sort of heater from a nightmare. I'm surprised that thing didn't start a fire. That ought to help, right? I know it isn't getting the door open and getting Agent Hand somewhere cool, but if it doesn't get hotter…"
"Fitz, I could kiss you!" Jemma called, and barely kept from jumping up to do just that. If she wasn't having to fight the rising heat in the room along with the infection induced fever… A wave of hope washed over her. They just might be able to do something, and if nothing else get her stabilized. "I need more water, and do you see anything we could use for a fan?" Keep sponging her off, and if they could get some air circulating around her, that had to help!
"Ostrich feathers? I think they're ostrich feathers." Fitz hurried over, several giant feathers in his hand. "Would those work?" He dropped them to the ground and scooped up the bowl, wincing slightly as it touched his burnt fingertips. But what did burns matter when faced with a possibly dying woman? Jemma could fix them later when they were out of there.
"Ostrich…" Did she even want to know what ostrich feathers were doing in a Shield lab turned storeroom? What mattered was that they might just work as a makeshift fan. "Take the feathers and fan." She ordered as soon as Fitz came back. "I'll handle the water." This probably was crazy, but please, it had to work!