The Flu

"Okay, I got Tripp and Agent Morse on hopefully finding Vic's Izzy." John said as he rejoined Coulson. "Wait, do you think I ought to call back and tell them how I got out of The Cube?" Maybe he should have thought of that before ending the call. "It can be a little tricky if you don't know what you're looking for."

Before Coulson could reply he spotted May coming down the hall glaring at the phone in her hands. "Is something wrong?" The last time he had seen that look on her face was right before Nick had pulled out the tiny bit of his remaining hair.

"My mother decided that as if helping Peggy kidnap Nick wasn't enough, that she would find a way to drag ANDREW into the disaster they've created." Melinda said with a slight growl. "She stole his car and left him trapped at a hotel in Washington."

"I'm sure it will be okay." John said. "He probably has car insurance, right? And it's been awhile. I'm sure the insurance companies aren't putting the Peggy clause in their policies any more."

"Peggy clause? What did Peggy do to get insurance companies to give her her own clause?" Steve said with a slight laugh as he came over to join them when he heard Peggy's name mentioned.

"I heard that clause was combined with the Stark clause in a lot of policies." Tony called as he strolled by. "Which was my father's fault, not mine, in case you were wondering. Agent, I was wanting to let you know that now they're claiming that Fury ran over some unidentified woman and kidnapped her too. Does your friend have a bigger car? Because at the rate they're going with this, they probably needed an upgrade."

"Let me see that!" Coulson waved a hand for Stark to hand him the tablet with the footage, and then winced at what was on the screen.

"I don't think that they actually hit that poor woman." Steve said as he looked over at Coulson's shoulder at the footage. "It looks like her shoe broke and she slipped."

"Considering she was just tossed into the back of a car and driven off to who knows where, I'm not sure that's much better." Melinda muttered. What were her mother and Peggy doing?

"We did it before in the war. I'm sure it will be fine." Steve said. "I was wondering about that lady who's with them, though. That looks an awful lot like my next door neighbor."

"That's Peggy's niece, Sharon." John said. "Bet Fury's going to have to bump her up a few levels if he gets out of this alive. I wonder if Trip's heard about this yet? At least it still looks like Sharon's in one piece. That ought to make him feel better."

"Why was Peggy's niece living next door to me without saying a word about who she was?" Steve asked with a puzzled expression. "Wait, was Shield having someone spying on me?"

"If anything that Shield could have prevented happened to you, Nick's the one who would be in charge of informing Peggy. He was taking a few precautions." Coulson told him.

Steve stopped for a moment, thinking before speaking. "Maybe I ought to be a little more cautious, at least give a parachute a try once in awhile."

"I'm sure that Nick would appreciate that, if he survives this." Coulson said. "Melinda, do you have any idea of where they might go? Does your mother have any safe houses she might use?"

"She has them, but I'm sure she would stay clear. I'm pretty sure I know almost all of them, and she knows that I would tell Maria if I had any clue where to look for them." Melinda said.

"What about Peggy's family?" Steve suggested. "I mean, the family she hasn't kidnapped."

John shook his head. "They don't have a clue. They'd at least try to free poor Sharon if they did. Their next family reunion's shaping up to be a little tense at the moment."

"I don't suppose that Andrew has GPS or some sort of locator on his car." Coulson asked.

"If he did, my mother would have disabled it before she took the car." Melinda replied. "Andrew said he was going to look and see if he could find them when he called to tell me about the car."

"Maybe if he can find them he can talk them into releasing Sharon, anyway. And that poor other woman that they kidnapped, whoever she is." Phil said. He really didn't like the way that poor woman had seemed to have hit her head.

"Or maybe my mother and Peggy will drag him into the middle of whatever they're up to." Melinda said. "Shield's caused Andrew enough problems. He doesn't need to end up in the middle of this mess too."

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Steve tried to reassure her. "Peggy's really good at handling stuff like this."

"The Shield academy had classes that covered exactly what Peggy Carter's done over the years. Being reminded of it isn't a comfort." Melinda muttered. If something happened to Andrew over this, she would never forgive herself.

"I can try to think of some place Peggy might pick to hide out if you think it could help." Steve offered. "If you already know the places your mom might go, then maybe we need to look at where Peggy might be heading if she was wanting to go to ground." He thought hard, trying to come up with a possible hiding place. "What about the Howling Commandos, or one of their relatives?"

"I could call Tripp, see if he could make a few calls. He knows most of the other descendants." John offered. "And I probably ought to let him know how I got out of The Cube anyway."

"Stark, what about any properties that your father might have had?" Coulson asked. "Peggy worked with Howard for years. Is there something he might have had that she could have gone to if she was trying to stay off radar?"

"Dad had plenty of places. I think Pepper finally got around to organizing them all, and she didn't mention any that seemed like hiding places." Tony said. "Of course, she might have thought I would just use them for hiding. I'll call her and get her to check things."

"I'm sure we'll find them." Steve tried to reassure her. "Try not to worry."

Her ex-husband was somewhere, possibly about to join her mother and Peggy Carter's merry crew of kidnapping victims. What in the world could Melinda do except worry? But at least they had some ideas now, for how to locate them. Surely something would work. If Andrew got hurt because of this…. What in the world was her mother thinking dragging him into the middle of things? "I'll keep trying to call her. Maybe she'll eventually decide to answer."

"Mother, where are you?!" She hissed as voice mail kicked in again. "Bring Andrew's car back this instant and let poor Sharon, Nick and whoever that other woman you decided to amuse kidnapping go!"