Chapter 36
"Romanoff let you live?" Maria asked as Fury came limping down the hallway.
"And you still have an eye." Jasper added. "Is she feeling okay? She's not coming down with the flu, is she, because lockdown or not, I am not staying in the same building as Natasha Romanoff with the flu."
"She seems to feel that Agent Barton should have the first shot at me." Fury grumbled. "And I appreciate two of my senior agents fleeing at the slightest hint of danger so much."
"I think Victoria has the first shot at killing me, when she finds out about that obituary." Jasper said with a wince. "I wouldn't want to let Romanoff get me first and deny her the pleasure."
"Speaking of Victoria, have you heard anything about her family yet?" Maria asked. "I've been checking the news reports, but all they're showing are ambulances, and the police running everywhere. They're not even making wild speculation about what might have happened yet."
"Ambulances? As in more than one?" Fury said. More than one ambulance? How many relatives did Victoria have?
"Three so far." Maria said after checking the footage streaming on her phone. "And what looks like every fire truck and police car for a three county area."
Not good. Ambulances, fire trucks, the police. Wait, the police. "Have you tried contacting the police and explaining the situation to them?" He asked Maria. Surely the police would be willing to assist them in passing along the news that Victoria was okay.
"I tried the police. I tried the fire department. I hope no one else has a fire or needs to report a crime today, because the lines were busy at both places. I even tried the local 911. They're busy too."
"We killed them, didn't we?" Jasper moaned. It was finally sinking in, the damage that their giving up on Victoria had caused. It had been bad enough thinking about how she would take the news. Finding out that her friends and fellow agents had given her up for dead, instead of trying to help her, was going to be bad enough. Victoria would be rightfully mad and hurt over that, but if they had hurt or worse killed her family…. "I'm going to go ahead and start writing my obituary now. Apparently I'm pretty good at that. Do either of you want me to handle yours while I'm writing?"
"We're not assuming her family's dead yet. We assumed that with Victoria and look at where it got us." Fury said just as his phone rang.
"Director Fury?" Pepper said as soon as he answered. "This is Pepper Potts."
"Ms. Potts." She still sounded mad, but not as upset as she had been before. Possibly that was either a good sign, or she had managed to talk to Coulson, and he had calmed her down. "Were you able to…."
"I dispatched someone from our closest office to talk to your poor agent's family and let them know that Shield is apparently ran by idiots who apparently think it's perfectly fine to plan funerals for people who aren't dead. What's next, burying them before they're dead?"
"I can reassure you that Shield has never buried anyone who was not dead. In recent memory."
"Wait, what about Agent Hopkins?" Jasper said.
"That was an accident. And we dug him up. He was fine."
"I wouldn't say fine. He still runs screaming at the sight of a shovel." Maria muttered.
"I don't want to know. Just if Tony ever drops over while he's with you, just ship him back to me and let me deal with it. Or Natasha. Or…. Never mind. Why don't you just let me take dealing with your dead people, or people you think could possibly be dead at some point off your hands entirely. I think it might work out better that way." Pepper said. "Director, I think you have a serious problem with your agent's family. The police have the entire area blocked off, and my people couldn't even begin to get close. No one's saying anything officially about what's going on, and I wouldn't trust what the reporters were speculating on, but the report I got back was that the coroner had been called out. You really need to get someone official down there to find out more. The police aren't going to answer questions for someone from Stark, but they would pretty much have to for Shield, right?"
"Shield is in lockdown at the moment, though, due to the defective flu shots." Fury said. Coroner. I couldn't believe this. How had the situation gotten so far out of hand? Just a few days ago he thought the worst thing he was going to be dealing with was a sick and cranky Victoria and now this.
"Garrett got out of the lockdown. Maybe someone else would be willing to do the same?" Maria said.
"Or you could call Barton. He's not locked down." Natasha said as she came in.
"How did Barton avoid the lockdown?" Fury demanded.
"He was out getting schwarma when everything went into lockdown and he couldn't get back in. Is that a coroner's van? What did you do this time?" Natasha asked as she looked at the footage still streaming on Maria's phone.
"Hopefully not what we're afraid we might have done. Ms. Potts, I appreciate your assistance."
"If you appreciate my assistance, then maybe you'll do me a favor and learn something from this. Telling people their friends and family are dead when they're not is a BAD IDEA!"
If only she knew how bad an idea it was. The director ended the call and pulled up Barton's number. He just hoped that it hadn't turned into a truly disastrous one.