The Flu

"Fitz, how does it look?"  Coulson asked as he entered the communications run.  At least the smoke had cleared and the fans they had rigged up had vented it out a window before it could get upstairs.  Finally, something was going right.

"It's hard to be 100 percent sure with the fire.  It damaged a lot, but between the wires I pulled, and what I'm seeing here…."  Fitz called as he squirmed out from under a panel.  "I'm about 90 percent sure we're looking at pure stupidity, not sabotage.  I am 100 percent sure that it wasn't an explosive.  I can tell you that now."

"Not an explosive.  That's good.  So, what is wrong with it?"  Coulson asked.  At least he wasn't going to have to explain an explosive device in her building to Victoria.  He didn't even want to think of how he would tell her if a bomb had gone off while she was sleeping and he was in charge.

"It looks like instead of ordering new parts, to replace damaged things, the idiot has been pulling the parts from other areas of the building, probably places like the lab downstairs that aren't used too much.  The problem is that he has no clue what he's doing.  He's damaging things, either when he takes them out, or puts them in, which isn't good, especially since it looks like the things he's pulling are already showing signs of strain."  Did this man have no pride in his work?  Every engineering instinct Fitz had was offended by such sloppiness.  Okay, had had done things and created explosions before, but that had been from trying new things, not taking shortcuts that weren't called for with run of the mill repair work.  "Sir, I need to access the computers to try to pull up the repair schedules, to make sure we have the right tech, and to see what other little non standard repairs he's made.  If it's bad enough that a bottle of water triggered a small explosion and fire, I hate to think what might go wrong somewhere else."

More explosions.  Definitely what they didn't need.  And more smoke….  "I'll undo the lockdown on one of the computers for you.  Do whatever you have to do to fix this.  What about communications?  How bad's the damage there?"

"The main communications array is out.  I can fix it but it's going to take some time.  Until then, communications in and out are going to be via cell phone only, or possibly from the BUS."  And where was his cell phone?  Fitz looked around, but didn't see it, and he was sure that he had dropped it in here.  Not that it really mattered.  No one besides Jemma and his mother ever called him on that phone anyway.  He could look for it later.

"With the Hub shut down, communications isn't a priority, anything that might endanger the safety of the agents or the structural integrity of the building is."  Coulson finally found a computer that he could get on, and entered the code to unlock it, then pulled up the schedule for maintenance performed by Edwin Tuttle.  And hadn't he been a busy, and likely negligent little beaver?  At least it didn't look like he had ever done maintenance in Victoria's office.  That would have been a disaster.  "Here.  Get Ward to help you go over all of this."  Coulson said as he sent the record to print and locked down the computer again.  "May and I will handle the rest of the sick agents   until you're done."

"You're sure?  There are three hundred of them, and this is going to take awhile, just looking over everything, never mind trying to fix anything that needs repairing."

"We'll manage.  Ward, you're helping Fitz."  Coulson called as they exited communications room.  "May…"

"Manage the other agents."  May said as she took the list of agents who needed to be checked from the other two.  "Those two techs are still coughing.  We probably need to talk to Simmons and get a suggestion for medicine to give them."

Coulson nodded, and the two started for the elevator, before remembering the current maintenance issues, and opting for the stairs instead. 

"Skye, Simmons?"  He called as he knocked on Victoria's office door a few minutes later.

"Thank goodness!  What's going on?"  Skye sit the bottle of liquor she had been holding like a baseball bat down, but she wasn't ready to move the table blocking the door yet.  "AC, we heard something that sounded like an explosion.  What happened?"

"Problem in communications.  There was a small fire, and a lot of smoke.  How's Victoria?"

"Sleeping.  Jemma gave her something to help her rest.  A fire?"

"It's out and Fitz and Ward are working on fixing the cause.  Can Jemma give us a hand, though?  We've got two techs with smoke inhalation that we need suggestions for."

"Smoke inhalation?"  Jemma almost moaned as she stood and motioned for Skye to take her place sitting by Agent Hand.  Smoke inhalation, not good under the circumstances.  "What sort of fever did they have before this?"  she called as she hurried to the door, paper and pen in hand.

May handed him one of the papers with the techs names marked.  "101.4 and 102."

"Okay.  That's good.  That's one thing that's good."  Jemma said with a sigh.  She would really prefer to be able to examine the techs for herself, but hopefully she could instruct Agent Coulson and Agent May in what to do and that would be good enough.  Agent Hand was still much to sick to leave with just Skye to tend her.  "They're going to need antibiotics as a precaution, though.  Oral would work, but at least one dose IV or injection would be better."  She wrote the name of the best drug and the dosing instructions and passed it under the door.  "And inhalation treatments.  Best they have those as well."  She wrote out another drug name and more instructions and slid that paper under as well.  "They're going to need to be checked, at least every thirty minutes for the next four to six hours, and then every hour for the next twenty-four."

"We'll manage.  How is Victoria?"  Coulson asked again.  What Skye had said sounded good, but he would like a few more details to ease his mind.

"Temperature's down to 105, and she's sleeping.  She's still tachycardiac, but all of her other vitals look good so far."

"Finally something that's going right.  Just take care of her.  We'll handle everything else."  he said before he and May turned to head downstairs.  "Have you ever done inhalation treatments?"  he asked her as the opened the stairwell door.

"I'll call my mother.  At least her agency has a medical department not overwhelmed with the flu."