Chapter 19
12 hours. Coulson looked at the clock on the wall after checking the two techs once more. It had only been twelve hours since their arrival at the Hub. Honestly, it felt more like twelve days to him. Maybe the clocks were broken?
"Sir?" Fitz called as he came in. "We have another problem."
"Of course we have another problem." Coulson murmured under his breath. Because 300 sick people and a building that the fire inspectors would probably condemn if they checked it wasn't problem enough. But he had to deal with it. "What's wrong?"
"Ward and I just finished checking the work Tuttle did, and…." Fitz shook his head, not even sure of where to start on the disaster he had found. How had this man ever made it through the academy with such poor work skills, and as for his ethics, unless he was brain dead, he had to know he was endangering people by using worn and damaged parts. "I'm surprised Agent Hand hasn't had a fire before now."
"The damage is that bad?"
"I couldn't find a single thing that he actually fixed correctly." Fitz told him. "The repairs he made might hold for awhile, but then you're going to get disasters like what happened in communications."
"And we don't need a repeat of what happened in communications." Coulson said. "How long to fix things? Or at least to fix the things that are most likely to burst into flames?"
"Days, hopefully a day for the most critical repairs." Fitz said. "But we have a problem with the repairs. Tuttle was stripping parts from seldom used areas of the building instead of ordering new parts. I don't know if he was doing that so he could claim he had cut expenses for maintenance, or if he was saying he was ordering the parts and pocketing the money."
Tuttle might have tried to embezzle money from Shield right under Victoria's nose? Apparently the man was insane on top of his other problems if he thought he could get away with that with a former accountant in charge of things. But they could worry about that later. Currently Tuttle was collapsed with the flu, down in the cafeteria. He wouldn't be doing any embezzling or whatever he was plotting for a good long while. "We can deal with that later. What's the problem with the repairs?"Fitz, why
"The problem is that a lot of the parts that need replaced haven't been purchased. I've taken stock of what's on hand, and what we have on the BUS and I can fix roughly half of the damages he's caused with what I have on hand."
"So we'll have half as many fires, then?" May said as she came in.
"That's what the problem is. The only thing I can think of to do, at least until the issues with the flu shots get worked out and we can get more help here is to shut down the power to any areas I can't repair immediately. The problem is that's going to require moving people and I don't know if that's a good idea or not."
"I'll go check with Simmons and see what she thinks. Fitz, why don't you map out the list of areas you think we'll need to close. May, figure out how many people that we'll have to move and see where we can put them." Coulson told them before heading for the stairs.
He could hear soft voices as he knocked on the door, and if he didn't know better, he would swear that he was hearing Skye telling some sort of strange version of The Three Bears. 12 hours of tending sick people and other disasters. It was getting to him worse than dealing with Tony Stark. "Skye, Simmons?"
"Yes, sir?" Jemma called as she got up and went to the door, motioning for Skye to stop with her story. She hoped that there weren't any other problems with some of the other agents. Even with Agent Hand responding to a combination of IVs, the cooling blankets and the medicines, she was very reluctant to leave her bedside, not to mention the risk of bringing potentially dangerous germs back in if she did leave to look at the others, and then came back. "Are there any other problems?"
"Hopefully not. Or hopefully it's something that can be managed. The problem is that Fitz doesn't have the parts on hand to fix a lot of the things that our insane maintenance man damage. He's thinking shutting off power to anything that he can't immediately fix is the best option. That's going to involve moving people, though. Is there any reason medically that it wouldn't be safe to move them?"
"Secondary infection." Jemma said. "The more people you have in one place, the more germ exposure and the greater the risk of secondary infection." But then leaving them where they were, with potential fire and smoke hazards wasn't a wonderful option either. "You can move them, but try to limit the number to two to a room. And anyone who has a fever of 105, signs of dehydration or who has needed and IV, you need to keep them isolated. I know it makes things harder, but we really have to take every precaution we can at this point to keep secondary infections like pneumonia from sitting in. If they do, I'm not sure how we would manage to treat it."
"Right. We'll work out something. How's Victoria?"
"Her temperature's down to 102.7, and the tachycardia is starting to subside. She's sleeping, and I'm going to try to keep her that way for at least a few days. She needs to rest and get her strength back. It will be at least six to ten days before she's out of danger of contracting a secondary infection, but for now, she's stable."
Stable. Coulson sighed. One thing going right. And it was a big thing too, so he was just going to count that as a major plus. "The two of you just stay here and look after her. We'll manage everything else."
Jemma sat back down next to Agent Hand as she heard Coulson's footsteps moving away, and she motioned for Skye to go back to the story she had thought up, The Three Shield Agents and the Girl in the Flowered Dress.