The Flu

"So you think she'll be alright, then?" Jemma asked the doctor currently on the screen of Skye's phone, doing a teleconference via Skype.

Jeff Kaplan looked down at the EKG readouts Jemma had sent to him, and then at the readings on the monitors he could see on the screen before replying. "It looks very good. Of course, it to be on the safe side, I would recommend that you have Agent Hand do a stress test once she's over this flu episode to be totally sure, but right now, I would say that I'm a good ninety-nine percent sure that she's going to be fine. And if there might be some issue going on, it looks like it's probably something that would respond well to medication."

Jemma let out a sigh of relief. Even though she had felt like Agent Hand was stable and no in any danger, it was good to hear an actual cardiologist confirming that there didn't seem to be any need to be worried at the moment. "You won't believe how happy I am to hear you say that." She told him. "Is there anything that you would recommend that I do differently than I'm currently doing?"

Dr. Kaplan looked at the EKG readouts again. "She's definitely stable right now. The medication combination that you've got her on seems to be working really well. I would continue the nitroglycerin drip for at least the next twelve to eighteen hours, and then start reducing it. If she does alright with that, you can probably discontinue that entirely within twenty-four to thirty hours."

Jemma nodded. "What about the sedation?"

"I would continue that at the current levels for at least the next forty-eight hours."

"Do you think I lightened the sedation too soon?" Jemma asked. "She seemed to be doing fairly well as far as the flu went so I thought it was alright to let her come around. And she was doing well when she was awake, besides the pain, that is. She was able to eat, and she was oriented and responding appropriately, but then she saw that news broadcast and…." Should she have kept Agent Hand sedated for longer? Seeing what had happened, she was worried that she definitely should have, and was kicking herself for lightening the sedation much too soon.

"I'm pretty sure that seeing your funeral on television with thousands of people in attendance would bother anyone." Dr. Kaplan said with a slight laugh as he looked at the readings again. "Her vitals were steady, there wasn't any indication that there could have been a problem. I would have started to lighten the sedation when you did too. It was an entirely reasonable, appropriate decision given the circumstances and the information that you had. I wouldn't beat yourself up for it at all."

"It's a bit hard not to, seeing what happened." Jemma reached out and gently stroked Agent Hand's forehead as she talked, brushing back her hair, that did look so much better now that they had given her a bath and washed it. "So, keep her sedated for the next two days at least. We were able to get her to eat a bit even with the sedation before. Can we try that again, or should be just stick to the IVs?"

"If you try to feed her orally, just take it slowly to make sure she is able to swallow and doesn't get choked. Honestly, I think this is going to be fine." Dr. Kaplan told her. "If you want, I can contact you again tomorrow or whenever would be best for you for another consultation."

"That would be wonderful!" Jemma told him. "I do hate to trouble you with all of this, but since I'm not an official medical doctor…."

"You're doing better than a lot of the doctors that I was in medical school with. Don't let the lack of a title make you doubt yourself. Billy, I thought I told you to help your mom with your brothers while I was taking this call." Dr. Kaplan said as his door came open and his six year old son came rushing in.

"Dad, those people are from Shield, aren't they? I thought I heard you say something about Shield!" Billy said, bouncing around the room excitedly as he talked. His dad was consulting with Shield, which had ties to actual superheroes! How fantastic was that? "Their director's on the news! We were watching cartoons while mom was making dinner and someone interrupted them, and their director's on the news! Who are you talking to? Do they know Thor? Ask them if they know Thor!"

"Just a minute, Billy." his father said as he flipped on his office television and found what his son was talking about. "Doctor Simmons, were you aware that your director is on television? Apparently he started a gunfight at a mental institution and took hostages while escaping?"

"Dad, ask about Thor!" Billy called.

"Oh, and my son wants to know if you might know Thor. He's determined to be a super-hero when he grows up and Asgardian's one of about a million names that he's thinking of using."

"Our team leader knows Thor. If you would like, he could get an autograph for your son." Jemma said. With Captain America, Tony Stark and Doctor Banner knowing that Agent Coulson wasn't dead now, Thor was sure to find out soon, so surely Agent Coulson could talk to him and arrange that. "Skye? What in the world?"

"They're saying that Director Fury broke out of the mental institution he had been put in for trying to disrupt Agent Hand's very unneeded funeral." Skye unlocked Agent Hand's phone and quickly found the news that Doctor Kaplan's son was talking about. "And they're saying he's taken hostages." Although, really it looked to her like the senior citizen that the news was trying to say was Fury's hostage was the one who was practically dragging him along. "I'm calling AC."

"Hello?" Coulson looked at puzzlement at his phone for a moment before answering. The number showing said Victoria Hand but hadn't Skye disabled Victoria's phone to prevent another incident?

"AC, it's me. Director Fury's on the news. Did you know he got locked in a mental institution?"

"Yes. Maria's trying to get him out right now." Coulson said. "How's Victoria? Was Jemma able to do the teleconference with the doctor Stark recommended?"

"She's talking to him now. He says Agent Hand's doing fine. You need to talk to Thor and get his autograph for Doctor Kaplan's son. Jemma said you would. And as for Agent Hill getting Director Fury out of the mental institution, she's a little late. He's already escaped."

"He's what?"

"Hey, Agent?" Tony said as he came in and held out his tablet. "Bad news. There was a gun fight at the mental institution they threw Fury in, and they're saying he took Peggy Carter and a couple of other ladies hostage when he escaped."

"What?" Steve appeared at the mention of Peggy's name, and looked over Coulson's shoulder as he took the tablet to watch the footage. His eyes went wide as he took the scene in. "Peggy took Director Fury hostage? That poor man!" And was that his next door neighbor, somehow caught in the middle of the entire situation? What was she doing there?

Coulson couldn't believe what he was seeing. That was definitely Peggy Carter, dragging Fury out of his cell and down the corridor while laying down covering fire, although for some reason the news was saying that Fury was the one doing the shooting. How in the world did they get the idea he was doing the shooting? Okay, the footage from the mental institution was kind of dark and fuzzy but how hard was it to see that Peggy was the one with the gun? And was that Melinda's mom there serving as her accomplice? "Skye, I've got to go and call Maria to find out what's going on. Tell Doctor Kaplan I'll get that autograph for his son as soon as possible. And he would, even though calling Thor would probably mean an encounter with Darcy Lewis and her complaints about her stolen Ipod. Right now he had more serious problems to deal with, though. What in the world had happened to poor Nick?