Not good. This wasn't good, Ward knew. All of Shield's senior leadership were animals. Not good. When Maria Hill found out about this, that all of the senior agents were now animals thanks to an accident caused by the science babies he was supposed to be taking care of…. She had rated him porcupine on his last personel evaluation. He was afraid to think of what she would rate him as when she found out about this. What animal was lower than porcupine on the job evaluations scale?

The sleek black cat twining around his legs snapped him out of those thoughts, and without thinking he reached down and picked up the feline he was sure was Melinda. There had to be a way to fix this. "Okay. So the 084 is broken. Do the two of you think you could put it back together again?"

Fitz and Jemma looked at each other uncertainly for a moment before Fitz said. "Maybe?"

"We could try." Jemma added.

"Okay, that's what you're going to do then. Get all of the pieces of that thing together so we can get it back to the bus and figure out how to reassemble it."

"I'll help you. Don't want to miss anything." Trip offered as he grabbed a box from a counter to hold the pieces of the broken artifact.

"So, what do we do besides playing jigsaw puzzle with that thing?" Skye asked. "And is this a good time to tell you that I always lost at least ten pieces every time I tried working a jigsaw puzzle and could never figure out what parts were the ocean and what parts were the sky."

As much as he didn't want to, he knew what he needed to do now, call Maria Hill. He winced as he pulled out his phone. This wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Hello." Natasha stopped what she was doing, searching Maria's desk for cookies, in order to pick up the phone. "Agent Hill's office."

"This is Agent Ward. Is Agent Hill available?" Grant asked. "I have a situation that I need to report."

"She's trying to talk to head of the budget department down before he can drop half of our budget into some Salvation Army bell ringer's bucket. And don't ask where he found one of those because it isn't Christmas." And there were the cookies. Not as good as the ones Fury always had in his lunch but they would have to do. "This is Agent Romanoff. Can I help you?"

Agent… Grant paled as the phone slipped from suddenly numb fingers. The Black Widow! He had been talking to the Black Widow! Talking to the Black Widow and he had to deliver the news that all of the senior agents had been turned into animals on his watch. He felt himself starting to hyperventilate at the thought. He was sure that the Black Widow had never had something like this happen while she was in charge and wasn't she a friend of Coulson's? If she found out he was alive and currently a dog….

"Do I need to look for a paper bag for you?" Skye gave Grant a funny look as she picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"This is Agent Romanoff. Who is this?" Natasha demanded as soon as she heard someone on the other end of the phone.

"Skye, no last name. I work with Agent Ward who's kind of busy hyperventilating at the moment. Agent Hill isn't there? Do you know when she'll be back?"

"No idea. It depends on how long it takes to calm the head of the budget department down. Is there something I could help you with?"

"Have you ever thought about adopting a pet? Because we might have a few animals who need good homes soon." Skye said.

"What?" But before she could ask anything else, the door came open and Maria came in.

"Are you eating my cookies?" Maria demanded. "Who's on the phone?"

"Someone named Skye. She works with an Agent Ward." Natasha said as she stood and handed the phone over while brushing cookie crumbs from her fingers.

"Grant Ward?" This couldn't be good if he was calling. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Agent Hill? This is Skye from Agent Coulson's team." Skye said. Agent Hill knew Coulson was alive, didn't she? She was allowed to say his name, wasn't she?

"The hacker." Maria said. "What do you need?"

"We have a little problem here we thought you ought to know about. Our scientists kind of dropped and 084, and it kind of got activated. And the senior agents and Director Fury kind of got hit by the effects. They're all animals now. Congratulations on your promotion."

"Skye! Give me that!" Ward grabbed the phone. That wasn't how you broke news like this to someone who gave out porcupine ratings! "Agent Hill, this is Agent Ward."

"Agent Ward, was she joking? The senior agents were turned into ANIMALS?" Maria demanded.

"I'm afraid so." Ward winced as he spoke. "Our scientists, Agent Fitz and Agent Simmons, are sure they can reverse the effect but I'm afraid it might take awhile. What do you want us to do until then?"

"All of them? Coulson, Fury, May, Blake, Sitwell, Garrett and Hand? All of them?"

"I'm afraid so. The director and Agent Coulson are dogs, Agent May and Agent Hand are cats, Agent Blake is an owl, Agent Sitwell is a Guinea Pig and Agent Garrett is a peacock."

"They're all adorable if that's any comfort." Skye called from where she had settled on the floor to better pet Coulson.

"Skye…. " but…. "They are cute, Ma'am."

"Okay, but they aren't human. Do you have any idea how long it might be until they can be returned to normal?" Maria asked. Fury and the senior agents were animals. Why had she ever signed up for this job. Things like this never happened to her cousin Robin.

"Fitzsimmons are working on it, but they just started on the problem, so it might be awhile. We're at the Hub. Should we alert someone here?"

"No." The senior leadership were animals. If news of that got out it would be a disaster. "Until your people can return them to normal, your team is in charge of looking after them. I'll think of something to explain to Agent Hand's people and to anyone else who asks where they are. Call me as soon as you have an update." Really, why couldn't these things happen to Robin for a change? Or to anyone who wasn't her?

"What did Agent Hill say?" Jemma said as she looked up from where she was sweeping up 084 debris while Fitz and Trip gathered the larger parts.

"She's going to come up with something to explain where Director Fury and the senior agents are, but until we get them changed back, we're in charge of taking care of them. Which means getting them back to the bus."

"Which means a trip to the pet store, you mean." Skye said. "I've never had a pet before, but if we're going to be taking care of everyone for any length of time, aren't we going to need to get supplies for them?"

The pet store. "Let's worry about the pet store once we get them back to the BUS safely. Fitz, do you, Simmons and Trip have everything from the 084?"

"I hope so." Fitz said as he looked at the box and then at the floor.

"Good. Then let's go." But the second he opened the door, John was off, strutting down the hall, flashing his feathers. "Hey, get back here!" Get them back to the BUS? He was going to be lucky if they could get safely down the hall!