Chapter 40
John checked the tray of food one more time. Oatmeal, with bananas mashed up for ease of swallowing, making the thing a bit like a pudding. Dish of ice cream with sprinkles. Glasses of apple juice and some milk he had finally found in the fridge on Coulson's plane, hidden behind half of the things in the fridge to prevent it from being easily spotted. And it had taken him forever, but he had even figured out how to fold the napkin into the shape of a rabbit. Vic would probably figure that he had gone insane when she saw that, but hopefully it would make her feel better. And from the bags of fresh foods that Starks people had brought in to replace the stuff lost when the power to the kitchen had to be cut, he had fresh breakfast sandwiches for Coulson's girls.
"I have breakfast." He called as he knocked on the door. "How's Vic?"
"Still sleeping." Jemma replied. They had been able to wake her once the night before, and had coaxed broth and more ice cream down her, but she had been in so much pain that Jemma had gone ahead and given her a stronger dose of the pain medication to try to keep her comfortable. She probably wouldn't even remember breakfast five minutes after they fed her with what she was on, which was probably a good thing under the circumstances. She had never seen a flu virus that was this bad in her life, and then there was the other issue with the unnecessary funeral that Agent Hand definitely did not need to know about. "Just leave the food at the door."
"Right." John debated stepping back and hoping to catch a glimpse of Vic when the door opened, but then his phone rang, and stopped him. "Hello? Trip? Wait, what's going on?" He said when he answered and was greeted by the specialist's voice, sounding frantic. "What do you mean your grandmother's vanished?" Director Carter was missing? How in the world had she gone missing? Wasn't someone from Shield supposed to be at her nursing home keeping an eye on her? "Okay, calm down. She's got to be somewhere. She's ninety-seven. How far could she go? Does your Cousin Sharon know what's going on? Yeah, forgot about the lock-down." Something he wasn't paying any attention to, it was easy to forget. "What's the nursing home saying?"
"Agent Garrett, is something wrong?" Jemma asked as she looked out of the door after passing the tray in to Skye.
"Sort of. My man Triplett's grandmother has gone missing from her nursing home. He's a little upset. Would you have any ideas for where a ninety-seven year old who happens to be one of the former heads of our organization could have gotten to? Mind you her husband's dead, her former boyfriend is here feeding sick people, and everyone she knows at Shield happen to be trapped in the lockdowns of various buildings."
"Ninety-seven, you don't think someone could have kidnapped her, do you?" Jemma asked with a worried look.
"I wish I knew. Someone from Shield was supposed to be there to keep an eye on her, in case someone tried. No one thought it was a big risk, but as high up as Director Carter was, they weren't willing to take a chance. Trip, what about who was supposed to watch your grandmother? Did they fall asleep on the job? Oh, the flu shot thing. Okay, that makes sense. Listen, I'll check with Coulson and see if he has any ideas, and call you back, okay?"
"Flu shot thing?" Jemma asked as John ended the call.
"The nursing home found out about the defective flu shots Shield got and freaked. Insisted the agent assigned to Director Carter leave until they had proof they had been given a shot that works. There's got to be a logical explanation for this." Shield was in lock-down, Vic was about to have an unnecessary funeral, they really didn't need their former leader kidnapped on top of everything else. "I'm sure she hasn't been kidnapped or anything. I'm just glad Vic's sleeping, and won't need to find out about this."
Victoria's eyes blinked open at the sound of voices from the door. John. But wasn't he outside, and wasn't the building on lock-down? Why would he be inside? Her head was swimming and her brain was foggy from pain-killers, but something definitely wasn't right. Kidnapping? Did she hear someone talking about kidnapping? What had John managed to do while she was sick and unable to tell him that whatever he was about to try was a truly, truly idiotic idea? If her limbs didn't feel like jelly, she would kill him. What in the world had he done? She moved her head a bit, her vision blurry from the medicine and the fact she didn't have her glasses and her head bumped her phone.
Phone. Call Fury. He could deal with this. How many of John's messes had she had to fix before Fury could find out about them and explode? Fury could just handle this one on his own. What was the worst that could happen? She would be back on her feet before John could be executed if Fury messed things up too badly.
She fumbled with her phone, trying to hit the speed dial button that was set to Fury's number. But there was an icon flashing, indicating an urgent news update that her trembling fingers hit instead, and the next thing Victoria knew, a program was streaming in front of her. A funeral? Who had died? It had to be someone important. It looked like the funeral was being held in the National Cathedral to a packed crowd. Was someone dead whose funeral she should probably be at?
Then an image flashed up on the screen and the words "The Funeral of Victoria Hand" flashed across the bottom of the screen. Victoria's eyes went wide and she was suddenly sitting up, noticing for the first time that her office was filled with plants, including what looked like four enormous peace lilies. Peace lilies? Those were funeral flowers and they were in her office, and her funeral was playing on the news and…. Suddenly she was screaming, the phone tumbling out of her shaking hands. Dead? She was dead? Dead like Coulson? She didn't want to be dead like Coulson!
"Vic?" Screaming? That was her screaming. But Vic never screamed, unless she was shouting at him, and she sounded absolutely terrified. It took all that John had not to rush in there. "What's going on?!"
"Agent Hand?" Jemma rushed over to the shaking agent and dropped down beside her, her eyes going wide as she caught sight of the readings from the heart monitor she was still hooked too. Her heart rate had shot to over 160, not good.
"I think she was trying to use the phone and got this instead." Skye said as she spotted the phone and the funeral airing on it. "Wasn't the director supposed to cancel that?"
"What is going on in there?" John called again from the door. He risked looking in, but he couldn't really see anything, with both of Coulson's girls huddled at Vic's side, trying to tend her. "Vic?"
"I'm dead?" Victoria whispered. "I don't want to be dead." Her head was swimming, and there was a growing ache in her chest. "I don't want to be dead like Coulson. I don't want to be put on a plane! Don't let Fury put me on a plane like Coulson!" And tears were running down her cheeks. A plane, she would probably end up poked on the same plane as Coulson!
"Hey, what's going on?" John called again. "Vic?"
"She accidentally saw her own funeral, and with the meds Jemma gave her, she isn't taking it too well." Skye said. "Hey, Agent Hand, it's okay. That thing, it's just some stupid mistake. You're fine, we promise!" Was a heart supposed to be beating that fast, so fast that the rapid beeping on the heart monitor almost sounded like one solid beep?
"Agent Garrett, could you please get Agent Coulson up here?" Jemma called as she searched through the medicine she had on hand and then injected the strongest sedative she could find into the IV port. She didn't like the rhythm on the heart monitor at all. If she didn't get Agent Hand calmed down quickly, the poor woman was likely going to have a heart attack or worse, go into cardiac arrest. "Ma'am, it's alright. Please, just try to relax. I know what you saw was upsetting, but it was a mistake. Everything's fine, we promise."
"Vic, it's going to be okay." He didn't want to leave, but they probably did need Phil. "I'm going to get Coulson and I'll be right back. You just listen and let his girls take care of you, okay? You're going to be fine!" And if she wasn't, if something happened to her because the idiots they worked with couldn't cancel a funeral, then people were going to be dead, very, very soon!