The Flu

"Doctor?" Sharon called as the doctor she had been talking to reappeared, still holding on to his phone. She sent up a silent prayer that the police, the FBI or who knows what other law enforcement organization wasn't on the other end as she hurried over. "Would it be possible for me to speak to Director Fury to let him know that Shield's concerned about him and hopes he's better soon?" Probably better not to mention anything that seemed to go against the doctor's belief that Fury had lost his mind and possibly the rest of their organization wasn't far behind.

"I'm afraid that visitors wouldn't be a good idea at this time." the doctor said and then frowned. "Weren't there two older women with you?"

"What?" Sharon turned and groaned. "Aunt Peggy!" Her aunt was gone and wherever she had gotten off to, it looked like she had taken Agent May's mother along for the ride. Not good. This wasn't good. She didn't know how she knew, but she was suddenly sensing a disaster in the making, as if the current disaster they were dealing with with poor Agent Hand having a funeral of epic preparations when she wasn't dead wasn't bad enough.

His head was swimming and something was very wrong with the vision of his good eye, Nick Fury realized as consciousness came back to him. Hospital, he was obviously in some sort of hospital, although he had no clue how he had got there, and why his head was swimming like he had taken leave of his senses and allowed himself to go out for an innocent drink in the company of Tony Stark. And that pounding noise, was that in his head or something outside the room?

"Nicholas J. Fury, get up from that bed at once!" A British voice called out. "What in the world are you doing to the organization that I trusted you to look after?"

Fury tried to force his vision to focus as he somehow pulled himself to his feet and staggered worse than Stark after a visit to Vegas over to the door. The locked door. He blinked hard, although he wasn't sure why he thought that had a chance of clearing his vision. Where in the world was he? Had he accidentally taken leave of all sanity and made the mistake of going out somewhere with Stark?

"Nicholas J. Fury, what in the world is wrong with you?" Peggy pounded again on the glass of the door's tiny window to attract his attention. "Did you actually fake Phil's death?"

Director Carter. Fury looked through the window with very confused eyes. What was Director Carter doing here, wherever here was, and why did there seem to be three of her? Had someone let her into the LMDs? "Phil?" Fury muttered.

"Yes, Phil. Phil Coulson, did you actually fake his death? Do you know how many people were very upset about that? Steve still talks about him, and Tony, well, I know that boy has his issues, I'm fairly sure he has more issues than most magazines at this point, but still, he was very upset too. Did you actually fake Phil's death to get that team you were planning to work together?"

Fury felt a wave of pain wash over him, followed by a wave of dizziness. "Didn't fake his death. Wish I had faked it."

"I talked to Agent Coulson on the phone." Lian May said with a confused look at Peggy. "He's definitely not dead."

"Nick, what did you do?" Peggy asked softly.

His head was swimming and it felt like his brain was made of fluff. And apparently fluff couldn't keep secrets, because Fury found himself talking. "Coulson was dead. But there was something, a program we had been working on. Something we found in the 084 storage. Don't know what it was, some sort of blue skinned humanoid. I'm not sure how the scientists who wanted to play around with it figured it out, but one day I get a call from them and they say they've extracted something from this thing that has some sort of healing properties." His head was swimming more, and the three Peggy Carters increased to six. Six Peggys. He wasn't sure the world could survive six Peggys. He was pretty sure he couldn't survive six Peggys. "We started testing it. Phil was in charge. Agents with terminal illnesses, agents that were dying. It gave them a second chance." And seeing those agents coming back from the brink, well, he had never really been an optimist, had always looked for the potential disaster in things, had seen that as the way to keep people safe, but seeing those agents healing, he had felt so much hope. The drug had been intended for the Avengers, of course. The world needed the Avengers. As dysfunctional as some of them were, and as much as Tony Stark needed a full time babysitter most of the time, they were good people and the world needed them. But his agents were good people too, and to suddenly have a drug that could save them when they were willing to sacrifice themselves to protect the world…. Hopeful, he had been so hopeful.

"What happened, Nick?" Peggy asked him.

He felt sick. Nick didn't know if it was from whatever was wrong with him or from what he had done, but he leaned heavily on the door as his head swam and he tried not to throw up. "There were side effects. We found out there were side effects. Mental instability, catatonia, this crazy automatic writing thing, it was bad. Phil wanted the program shut down. Said it was too dangerous." He closed his eyes, trying to force the nausea and the swimming, cotton headed feeling away but it didn't do much good.

"But you didn't shut it down." Peggy said.

"I shut down the human testing. I told the scientists to keep looking at the drug, trying to figure a way to make it work without the side effects. Then when Phil…. I had a way to bring him back! I knew there was a way to bring him back! How could I not use it? Shield needed him? How could I not use it?"

"So you used it and hoped you would find a way to fix things? I don't suppose you thought of asking Howard's boy for help, did you? Although I know he is a handful, he is at least as clever as his father. Or what about that Doctor Banner? He seems a nice sort, Or, never mind. I suppose I can straighten it out later. Back away from the door." Peggy said with a shake of her head as she reached into her purse and pulled out a gun.

"Aunt Peggy!" Sharon jumped when she heard the gunshot. A gun in a mental institution with her aunt on the loose, this was going to end in disaster and where had Aunt Peggy got a gun in the first place, and didn't they think to search her before they let her into the White House? "Aunt Peggy!" She shouted again as she took off running in the direction of the noise.

Oh, yes, this was as bad as she thought it would be. There was a door to a room with the lock shot open, and Sharon didn't know how, but somehow her ninety-seven year old aunt was dragging Director Fury into the hall, practically carrying him. "Aunt Peggy!"

"Help me with him!" Peggy demanded. Whatever these people had done to Nick, it seemed like his legs and his head weren't working the best now, and even though she was fairly sure she could still manage carrying someone and laying down covering fire, it didn't mean she particularly wanted to do it. She frowned at hospital security charging down the hallway towards them, before letting loose with a burst of carefully placed shots that sent them diving for cover. "Sharon, come along! Honestly, what is Shield failing to teach you these days?"

Sharon wasn't sure how they got outside. All she remembered was gunfire, on the part of her aunt and Agent May's mother, and what in the world was the White House thinking, not searching these two senior citizens? Gunfire, and somehow between herself and her aunt pretty much carrying a drugged Fury. Before she knew how they had managed it, they were out of the building and she was tumbling into the back seat of Lian May's car with the director. Then the car was in motion, shooting out of the institution parking lot at lightning speed, throwing her against the back of the seat, and it was all she could do to somehow get her seatbelt on and secure the director before she pulled out her phone and dialed.

"Agent Hill, good news, we got Director Fury out of the mental institution. Bad news, it wasn't an authorized release. It involved Aunt Peggy and a gun and…." Sharon's eyes went wide as she suddenly spotted something in the rear-view mirror, something that sent a cold chill up her spine, her Aunt Peggy was behind the wheel of the car and…. Was that the wrong side of the road they were on? "Aunt Peggy, we're not in England! Other side of the road! Agent Hill, tell Captain Rogers how much I've enjoyed being his neighbor and that he's the second bravest man I've ever met after my uncle who actually married Aunt Peggy! Aunt Peggy, slow down and get on the other side of the road!"