Chapter 13
Jemma sighed in relief when she heard the knock at the door. Agent Hand was looking a bit better with the fluids from the IV and the cooling blankets, but it would be a relief to get some actual medication into her, and to hopefully make her more comfortable, and to try to ward off the risk of seizures until they had that fever under control.
"Why did you have them bring that?" Skye looked up at the sound of Jemma opening the door, and her eyes went wide when she saw some of the equipment she was dragging in. EKG monitor, and a couple of other monitoring items that she recognized but wasn't sure of the names for. Those weren't too alarming, but the portable defibrillator from the BUS, that was super scary. Did Jemma think… Cardiac arrest, shouldn't they be getting her to medical, no matter the risk of germ exposure? Or better yet, to a hospital and intensive care with a ton of doctors to hover and tend her?
"It's just a precaution. She's responding. I'm sure she'll be fine but I just want to have it on hand to be on the safe side." Jemma told her. But better to put it out of sight somewhere, though. If seeing it had alarmed Skye, she didn't want to think of how Agent Hand might react if she opened her eyes and caught sight of that particular equipment. She tucked it behind the desk and drug the rest of the supplies in, medicines, more IV fluids, it looked like everything was there, even a hospital gown to replace Agent Hand's wet clothes with. Perfect.
Skye stole another frightened look as Jemma drug the defibrillator out of sight, but then she forced herself to look away. Surely if Jemma thought that there was a serious danger of cardiac arrest she would be freaking and insisting on more help, no matter what the director or anyone said. "What do you need me to do?"
"Just talk to her, make sure she knows that someone's with her until I get the medicines in, and then we'll have to get her into the gown." And the only practical way she could see for doing that would be to cut her clothes free. Jemma really hoped that Agent Hand hadn't picked today to wear her best outfit to work. She moved the IV fluids from the pole attached to the stretcher to a portable pole as she worked. That would give them more room, anyway. "Ma'am, I'm going to go ahead and start you on antibiotics as a precaution, and then a low dose of midazolam. That's going to make you a little groggy. Don't try to fight it, alright? Sleep's the best thing for you, right now." And hopefully if there was something going on that might lead to a seizure, the medicine and sleep would help, and would give them time to get the fever under control before damage could be done.
Bees. It still sounded like a hive of bees was buzzing around her, but Victoria did catch the word sleep. Sleep, one part of her was afraid to sleep. Something was wrong, something was seriously wrong, she could feel it, and if she let go, and let herself drift off, she was terrified she wouldn't wake up again. But sleep, letting the pain and confusion go, it was so tempting, and she could feel something racing up her arm, pulling her down, and all she wanted to do was to let go and let herself drift off. She tried to fight none the less, the fear of letting go, of not waking up, of… "No, please." She whispered, even though the words sounded funny in her ears and she wasn't sure that whoever was there would understand them. Sleep, sleep would lead to death, her foggy, feverish mind was screaming, and she had to make the people who were touching her understand. "No. Please, no."
'Hey, it's okay. Jemma isn't going to give you anything that would hurt you." Skye said as the two shared a worried look. What damage could Agent Hand do if she tried to fight the drug or them? But how were they going to convince her it was okay, if it seemed like she couldn't even hear them? Skye reached out and took her hand, and started to stroke her hair, hoping that the touch might calm her slightly.
"Ma'am, it's okay. It's a low dose, I promise, and I have the drug to reverse it right here. If it looks like you're going to far under, I can bring you out of it in a minute. We're not going to let anything happen to you, I promise. Just rest. Please, you try to rest. That's what you need right now, to rest and get your strength back."
Whatever they had given her, Victoria couldn't fight it, and she felt herself drifting off against her will. "Please." she whispered again as the fog took her, and pulled her under. "Please."
"Jemma?"
"It's a low dose, I promise, and I can reverse it if by some chance she starts to react badly." Jemma felt tears in her eyes even though she knew she was doing the right thing, giving Agent Hand something to make her sleep. She had sounded so afraid. But before she could think about and worry more, there was a knock on the door.
"How is she?" Coulson and the others stood well back as Jemma eased the door open a bit. Did that look like a tear slipping down her cheek? Not good, that couldn't be good.
"Sleeping. Here, we could use the space this is taking up." Jemma said as she pushed the stretcher out into the hall.
"Is there anything else you need?" Coulson asked.
"Someone needs to look in on the agents Skye and I were supposed to tend to. That's the best thing you can do right now, tending the others and letting us tend to Agent Hand."
Tending the others. Other people, some who should probably be on IVs. "I know how to patch a bullet wound. May, Ward, do either of you…"
"We can call my mother." May said. "I think she's done it or seen it done before." And at least a call to her mother would provide a distraction from what might be happening behind that door. "And at some point, shouldn't someone call Director Fury with an update?"
"I will, as soon as I know something more to update him with." Coulson replied. "Let's just worry about checking on the rest of the agents, and phoning your mother for now. Fury can wait." And why make someone else worry? He felt like he was doing enough worry for ten people.
"I've got the lockdown complete, Sir." Maria said as she came back into the director's office to find him confronting a different doctor. "Have you heard from Coulson?"
"Nothing." Fury shook his head. "Doctor, are you agreeing with your colleague, there's nothing that can be done?"
"Without seeing Agent Hand, we can't be 100 percent sure, but…." Was that a gun on the Director's desk? Please don't let him shoot the messenger! He hadn't arranged for the defective shots either! "Fever over 106, with how fast she got sick, the only thing I can think of is that it's a cytokine storm."
"But there are possible drugs for that, right?" Maria asked. "Couldn't we contact them and tell them what to start? Put her on life support until they can kick in?"
"The drugs aren't the sort of things they would have available in medical, and by the time that we could get medicines there…." The doctor closed his eyes, not wanting to think of what he was picturing. "Less than 24 hours, the mortality rate could hit fifty percent. Agent Hand, I don't see a chance for her, or for a number of the other agents. As for life support, is anyone on Agent Coulson's team capable of initiating that? Isn't the person with the most training just a bio-chemist?"
Fury shook his head. 50 percent mortality and if Victoria wasn't already dead, she was well on her way to it. And there wasn't a thing he could do. Not a thing but… "Hill, get Rogers up here. Hopefully with that formula he's got running through him, he's safe from this thing. I need someone out there to look into why this happened and make sure that it was an accident and not an attack. If we're loosing a good level 8 agent along with possibly 150 others, I want to know why and who's to blame!"
"Maria?" Jasper was in the the hall, listening at the director's door when she walked out, phone in hand, with Felix's voice coming from it and what sounded like an additional voice coming from another phone on Felix's end. "Is Victoria actually dying?"
"Or already dead if what the director heard and what the doctors are saying is right. I've got to go find Captain Rogers. Hopefully we can investigate this and stop it before anyone else ends up on their death bed."