The Flu

"Jemma?" Coulson called as he knocked on Victoria's office door. "Any changes we should know about?"

"Agent Hand's still sleeping, which with how the lights seem to be blinking seems to be a good thing." Jemma called. "What's going on? I thought Fitz and Mister Stark were fixing that."

"They're working on it." And Coulson just hoped that Stark could manage to stay focused on fixing the power and wouldn't get distracted and lead Fitz into the temptation of building a robot. "Is what you gave Victoria enough to keep her out for awhile? I don't want to tell you how to do things, but I don't think she's going to be very pleased with the light situation, and it looks like it might be lingering."

"She should sleep for some time with what I gave her, so that shouldn't be a problem." Jemma said. "Has there been any more news about the director?"

"If they wait long enough, maybe they can just follow the smoke. Didn't the British burn a lot the last time they were loose in Washington?" Skye said.

"That's what Agent Hill's hoping to prevent." Although Coulson was very afraid that preventing it was more than a bit of a futile hope. He really hoped the property insurances had finally dropped that Peggy clause. "I did want to warn you about something, though. Jemma, do your parents drive?"

"Yes? We do have a good transit system in England, I know, and maybe they could do without a car to help the planet, but…"

"You might want to encourage them to help the planet." Coulson told her. "Help the planet and avoid a possible hazard I just learned about. It seems that Director Carter knows your queen and gave her a few pointers on driving."

"Okay, so I was fearing the wrong things when we were cleaning up all of that alien technology in Greenwich, then." Skye said. "That's good to know. And there I was worrying about getting an alien virus or something, when I should have been fearing a senior citizen would run over me."

"The queen knows Peggy Carter." Jemma murmured. "My mother loves taking tours and she's been wanting to do Windsor. Maybe the next time I have a bit of leave I should take her up on that. We could take the tour and maybe we would get lucky and actually get to see Director Carter in person!"

"Stick to seeing Peggy Carter on CNN and every network that's issuing breaking news reports." Skye rolled her eyes at the lightly awe-struck look in Jemma's eyes. That look was one of a willing accomplice just waiting to happen. "It would be a lot safer. AC, I've been trying to call Agent Hand's girlfriend but she isn't answering, and I'm thinking she's probably disabled her phone somehow. I'm guessing if she was dating Agent Hand, she would probably know how to do stuff like that, right?"

"Definitely." Coulson told her. "Agent Morse and Agent Trippett are going to look for her, but they have to get out of the Cube first, so that might be awhile."

"Okay. If someone could get me my laptop, I've got a program I could try, that might at least give them an idea of where to start looking for her." Skye looked down at Agent Hand with a worried expression as she spoke. She had seen a few pictures of the senior agent with her girlfriend when she had poked through her phone trying to figure out how to contact her to let her know that Shield had made a gigantic mistake and the two had looked so happy, happier than she had ever pictured Agent Hand looking. If she ever found out about this she was going to be so upset. Surely there was something she could do to fix things. "If someone can just bring me my laptop…."

"I'll go get it." Coulson said and then frowned as he caught sight of Stark at the end of the hall. Wasn't he supposed to be doing something about the lights? "Stark!"

"They're flickering a bit less." Stark looked up and frowned. "Or I thought they were. Fitz is working on rerouting things." Obviously they hadn't rerouted things enough, though. "We'll try something else. I'm pretty sure there's something else we can try, at least until Pepper can find the parts we need to fix things."

"What did Tuttle mess up that you don't have the parts immediately available to fix?" Coulson was getting a bad feeling about things and turned to the door again. "Skye, I'll get your laptop. Jemma, you can make sure Victoria is going to sleep through this, right?"

"That would probably be best for the moment." Jemma said as she frowned up at the lights herself. What in the world was wrong now?

"We'll take care of her. Don't worry." Skye added a second frowning look at the lights before settling down on the floor at Agent Hand's side, determined to do whatever she could for the sleeping senior agent.

"I'll be back." Coulson called. "Stark, what's broken now?"

"Circuit relay. Which wouldn't be a problem to replace normally, not counting the time to get it shipped here, but it seems the only circuit relay currently available at Stark that would work is on the eleventh floor, which is currently inaccessible. Pepper's looking for another one, but she thinks it might take awhile."

"Do I want to know why the eleventh floor of your building is inaccessible?" Coulson had a feeling he didn't want to know but he couldn't help himself. "Why is the eleventh floor inaccessible?"

"Because Quentin Beck from the R&D department is disgruntled."

"Isn't that what Happy's there for, to deal with disgruntled employees?"

"He tried. When Pepper fired him for cause a couple of hours ago, Happy went down to escort him out of the building, but it seems that Beck took over control of the holographic system he was working on and hooked it up to these drones I've been trying to decide what to do with. I've been torn between a security system or a massive frisbee game. The eleventh floor is very inaccessible, at least until Pepper or the legal department figures out what to do about it."

"Do you need to go back?" As much as Coulson feared what Stark and Fitz working together could lead to, with the current condition of the building, he had to admit they needed him. But he did like Pepper and if she needed Stark's help….

"No, I've actually been ordered to stay far, far away until the situation is dealt with because I am apparently why Quentin Beck is disgruntled." Stark pulled out his phone as he talked and frowned at the series of text messages. "Evangeline Whedon from legal just let me know if I showed up before they have Beck out of the building, she will personally roast me in my little tin suit, so I'm all yours for as long as you need me. Or possibly longer. Pepper was talking about cutting the water to the eleventh floor to try to force him out, so I'm thinking there might be a prolonged siege."

"Wonderful. So, the lights?"

"We jury-rigged something, which isn't working as well as I hoped." Stark said with another frowning look up at the lights. "We'll try something else. Maybe if we rerouted the power from….. Is anyone using the elevators now?"

"There are ten people in the building who are on their feet at the moment. If we have to, I feel confident all of us can manage the stairs. Do whatever you have to. Fix the lights!" Coulson knew Jemma had said she had Victoria sedated, but if she was wrong and she woke up to this, he didn't want to imagine how she would take it.