TRASH - UPDATED 10-15-2015 / 9
CHAPTER SEVEN
The sound of his phone woke Coulson from a pleasant dream that he wasn't ready to relinquish. He sighed and reached for the noisy thing.
"Coulson."
"She's gone sir," Simmons reported. "I've looked everywhere I could think of."
"I'll be right there."
Coulson pulled himself from his bed and got dressed. He knew now that he should have put Ward on her. Obviously she was on the bus, but where... or was she? He shouldn't have trusted her. What was she up to? Simmons said she'd looked everywhere she could think of... but he knew of other places she could hide. He strode quickly to Simmons' lab, took in the scene and froze.
"I came in to check on them and she was gone," Simmons reported. Coulson looked at May's empty bed dumbfounded as Simmons continued. "I've checked her bunk, the cockpit, anywhere I could think of where she tends to be. I can't find her." He'd been certain she was talking about March. Now that she wasn't...
"I'm sure she's okay," he soothed. "Have you tried the dock..."
Dossi woke to the commotion that May was gone. Simmons and Coulson were discussing where to find her.
"Let her be," she suggested. "Wild creatures like Melinda don't like to have others see them when they are injured."
"But what if?"
"You've done what she's needed. Now she needs a little time. I could use a shower and a little time myself."
"Simmons can show you where to shower," he told her. "And a place to rest. You're restricted to the common rooms. Simmons can show you those as well."
"Understood."
"I'll go look for May," Coulson told Simmons as he moved to leave.
She nodded and watched as Dossi expertly pulled herself to a seated position.
"I can give you something for the pain," Simmons offered.
"The pain reminds me to be careful," Dossi smiled. "It isn't bad. If you ask him, Coulson can tell you how many times I've broken this rib. I just can't seem to learn to defend this spot."
"Can you get down on your own?"
"Yes, I can. And would you also show me where I might find Skye. I promised to tell her about the past."
"You probably shouldn't do that. Coulson and May don't talk about the past." Simmons warned.
"Then I'll be careful what I say. Now, about that shower..."
Coulson scoured the plane. He'd been so certain that Simmons had been talking about March, not May. Something was bothering him about her... something he should know. But now he needed to focus on May, where would she be?
May's attention was pulled from her Tai Chi by the sound of someone approaching. She wasn't ready for people yet and stepped back into the shadows. An obviously worried Coulson stepped onto the dock and looked around. She considered speaking, then didn't. Instead she tailed him as he stalked through the bus checking the cockpit, checking storage rooms, pausing at Ward's room but quickly moving past... that brought just a hint of a smile to her lips. He couldn't find her. He'd even checked the wheel well of the bus... which brought an honest grin. After he counted all the parachutes, he headed back toward the common rooms and she returned to the dock to continue her Tai Chi.
Fitz headed down to the lab in search of Simmons, but instead found a small hole in the metal on the side of the holotable.
"What the hell?" he asked the room in general. "No."
Fitz, not certain how to clean his slide, actually had dropped the slide into the glass jar when he'd finished with his observations. Then he resealed the box... all 31 moves... could he have missed something? Fitz looked at the small hole on the table again and realized that it went all the way through the table to the bigger hole on the floor. He quickly darkened the room, but small lights and dial glowed from everywhere. He examined the floor as best he could with the limited light. The hole didn't penetrate the floor... yet.
Then he found a shattered glass rod on the floor beside the hole. He grabbed his tablet and searched for anything a level five could know about the living metal... and how to capture it.
Coulson finally gave up and went back to the common room where March was sitting on the couch with a book.
"Theatrical Acting?" he asked with a grin.
"I was thinking it was time to take up a new career," she teased.
"Good place for you I think."
He found himself settling in next to her... and they talked. Mostly he learned about her, then he found that she was coaxing information out of him... nothing dangerous... just about who he was now.
"Do you think I'm different?" he asked carefully after they'd talked for a couple of hours.
"More mature, definitely," she responded with a wicked grin. "Why?"
"It's been a long time. Things have changed."
"I don't really see it," she promised him.
"Do I... remember everything correctly?" he skittered.
"In as much as I do. Phil, some memories are supposed to abandon us as we get older. It's okay to forget a few things."
She saw a change come over him at that moment.
"Yes, I suppose it is, isn't it?"
"What are you worried about Phil? You have years to be an agent. You aren't old, any more than I am."
"It isn't that March... it's... well, other things."
"Nothing you should worry about," she told him firmly. "Now, you should go do your job and I should walk a bit before my body freezes in this position. Yesterday was a bit tough."
"Hand?"
"Hold out an arm instead and let me pull myself to you."
He did and soon she was off the couch. "Unless, of course, you'd like to go for a walk," she offered.
"Would you like the full tour?" he asked instead.
"Absolutely, yes."
He offered her an arm and the two headed out for their walk. And so he led her to the cockpit where they found Ward on stick.
"This is traditionally where you would find May," he told her.
"Alone, no doubt?"
"Have you heard about the Calvary?" Coulson asked carefully.
"Just the one that rides over the hill to save the day in all those westerns you used to watch," March replied. "But I gather that isn't what you are talking about."
"No, I'm afraid not."
"Agent Coulson?" Fitz call came over the speaker.
"Coulson here."
"Sir, I've a... situation here in the lab that I need to discuss with you."
"I'm on my way." Coulson turned to Ward. "Would you tell March everything you know?"
Ward nodded and flipped the controls to autopilot. He rose quickly and helped Dossi settle into the copilot's seat. Coulson headed back out the door.
"May should probably tell you this herself," Ward began.
"And she might, if we get to spend some time together. Do you know where she is?"
"She's not in Simmons' lab?"
"She disappeared on them this morning," Dossi smiled. 'Perhaps, rather than tell me about the Calvary you should instead tell me about May. Is she happy? Does she have someone who loves her..."
A tint of red crept up along Ward's ears. "She has all of us, we're a family now..."
Coulson walked into Fitz lab.
"It sounded important. What is it?"
"Sir, I need more information on the living metal... and how to capture it..." Fitz admitted.
"Are you sure some has escaped?"
Fitz pointed to the hole on the table and the hole in the floor. "Yes sir, I am."
"If this comes anywhere near Lola..." Coulson warned.
"I'll capture it, I promise. But does your clearance level have anything on the best way to capture it? There is nothing on mine."
While Coulson used his clearance level to see what he could find, Fitz took a look at the spectral analysis to see what was missing... what compounds was the living metal absorbing...
"There is no copper in this section of the floor," Fitz commented as he worked. So, if the little beastie likes copper perhaps I can lure it over here with a penny..."
"There's hardly any copper in a penny anymore," Coulson warned him. "You'll probably have to find something else."
"I have copper wire," Fitz told him, moving to his workbench.
"I'm not finding anything on living metal," Coulson warned. "Is there anything else that it could be called? I really don't want to call Agent Hand on this one."
"What about your friend, the other Agent we recovered?"
"I can ask March, yes. Let me go get her."
Coulson left the room and Fitz lay a piece of copper wire in the hole on the floor. Using a lens attached to his tablet, Fitz scanned the area around the hole. He could see the living metal as it munched away at the floor, and he switched his tablet to spectrometer to investigate further.
May was in her usual corner of the dock stretching on one of the mats when Coulson hurried through. He was grateful to see her there as it indicated she was feeling better, but now wasn't the time to talk. He ran up the circular staircase and hurried through the bus back to the cockpit. It was quiet when he entered, which surprised him.
"March, I have some questions I'd like to ask you... if you will come with me."
March carefully pulled herself from the copilot's seat, then turned to Ward.
"Thank you."
"But I didn't answer many of your questions."
She smiled at him. "You gave me enough."
"Then, you're welcome."
Coulson was holding the door to let March exit first. Once she had he followed her until the room opened up and they could walk side-by-side.
"Is there an issue Phil?"
"What do you know about the living metal?" he asked in return.
"Little..."
"How did you get it?"
"My clearance gave me access to the lab. While it was still in the containment area I poured a little into a glass bottle and sealed it. Then I packed it safely into the container Agent Ward retrieved." She looked at his face and frowned a little. "It's out, isn't it?"
He nodded.
"I know they've had a couple of containment breaches. They ended up losing an expensive table and part of the lab floor before they got it under control, but I don't know how. It wasn't why I was there... but I thought HQ should know about it. I don't know how they even knew it was gone."
"Maybe that isn't what gave you away."
"Maybe. I don't know."
Simmons returned from a late lunch to find Fitz sitting on the floor with a variety of things around him and a hole in the floor.
"Fitz?" she asked walking in.
"Some of it got out," he told her simply.
"It?" she asked. "I spent yesterday doing nothing more than analyzing an antidote to the poison that May and March got into. What are you talking about?"
"Living metal. It's really quite fascinating. It seems to like the floor... a lot."
Simmons joined him on the floor and he showed her the enlarged images of the living metal. That's where they were when Coulson and March arrived. Fitz looked up quickly.
"Do you know?" he asked her.
"No. I don't. But it certainly seems to enjoy the taste of the floor, doesn't it?"
"The floor is made out of Alclad," May commented from the doorway.
He looked up at her with hopeful eyes. "Do you have another piece... something you could part with?"
"Sure," she replied. "But why would it leave the meal it has to go to a different one?"
Fitz and Simmons looked at each other simultaneously and said "Icing!"
May looked stoically at their enthusiasm and shook her head. "I'll find you something."
March stood by Coulson with a wisp of a smile on her face. Coulson glanced down at her.
"She's changed from the girl you knew," he commented quietly.
"I can see that."
"What did Ward tell you?"
"Not much. He seemed uncomfortable so I didn't pry," she responded quietly. "Basically he said that this team is a family. I'm anxious for her to be ready to talk to me," she admitted quietly. "But I guess I'll have to wait."
He indicated the door with his head and they started walking toward it. He knew that the situation was in the best possible hands. They headed up the staircase and across to the lounge.
"If you'd like to go up to my office, I can tell you what I know about May," he offered.
"I'd love to see your office... that is, if you still have your collection..."
"I do."
"Then we can talk about your collection. May will tell me what she needs me to know when she is ready. I can wait. Being back to back with her again was a joy, and if that's all I get, well... I'm okay with it."
"You are a unique individual, Doris March."
Then he took her to the other staircase and indicated that she should go up. Soon they were settled in his office talking about Coulson's collection.
Fitz and Simmons sat on the floor trying each of the metals in Alclad... aluminum... copper... manganese and even magnesium, but nothing was interesting the metal more than the floor. They tried other metals, iron, brass, bronze, aluminum-copper alloys... They tried bullet casings, condenser tubing, screws, nuts, bolts...
"Fitz... look... there's an interest in that bolt..."
"Which one is that one?" he asked, knowing she had a list. She always had a list.
"Anodized aluminum..."
"So, if we anodize the Alclad..." Fitz started.
Together they said "Icing!"