Chapter 2
Fitz had walked into his office that afternoon with a smile on his face. Coulson had no idea why he was there because he was supposed to be watching Ali.
"Ali wanted me to tell you that she was going to help me test some of my experiments."
Coulson's confused expression stayed on his face and Fitz felt that he had to elaborate but wasn't sure what to elaborate with.
"Just doing what Ali asked me to do while she spoke to Daisy."
The look on his face still didn't change as he tried to think of the reasons why he was being told this.
He had not told Ali that he needed to know when she was testing Fitz's experiments because he trusted Fitz and knew that he wouldn't give her anything that he hadn't already tested himself.
Ali had wanted to get rid of Fitz but why? She loved spending time with him and everybody knew it. The only logical explanation that he could come up with was that she was setting up some sort of a prank.
That last theory was completely destroyed when May strode into his office without even knocking. She had some papers in her hand, but she set those on his desk.
If Ali and Daisy were planning a prank, then they would have found May to tell her the plan.
Without even pausing to think Coulson got up from his chair and ran out of his office. He ran down the corridors and followed the familiar path to the training room.
May was following him. She had no idea what was happening but knew from the look on Coulson's face that it was nothing good.
Coulson could hear something as he rounded the next corner but what he saw frightened him more than anything else.
It was clear that Ali was about to collapse. She had blood dripping down her nose and from the puddle on the floor he knew her nose had been bleeding for a while.
He couldn't see her face, but it only took him a few seconds to establish what was happening.
They had been trying to track down this shapeshifter Inhuman for months and yet here she was in chains of ice.
May was already preparing herself for an attack as she rounded the corner. Before she could run over to Ali, she saw Coulson put his hand on her shoulder.
When Ali turned around to look at him, he was shocked to see that her eyes were red with blood.
"I'm sorry."
There was no possible way that anyone other than Coulson had heard her and as soon as she had said it, Ali collapsed to the floor.
Coulson wasn't quick enough to catch her and so she landed with a thump on her wrist. No one heard a snap.
May was already there before Coulson could turn around to protect himself. She had pulled out her ICER the moment that Ali had collapsed and fired it as soon as she had gotten a clear shot.
The shape shifter Inhuman was now lying unconscious on the floor a few metres away from where Coulson was leaning over Ali's unconscious body.
As carefully as he could Coulson picked up Ali's body. He turned to May before he left and said,
"Drag that to a cell and lock it up before getting someone to guard it."
May nodded to show that she understood. She wanted to go with Coulson but knew that she would be no use when he found Jemma. She hated feeling useless. At least this way she had something to do.
Coulson saw her nod before he sprinted down the corridor with Ali in his arms. When he got to the med bay Jemma was already there.
She had been doing a stock check of what they had in the med bay when Coulson had run in with Ali.
Blood was still dripping from Ali's nose as she was carefully placed on the bed. Jemma didn't need any explanation as to what had happened. All that mattered at that moment was to make sure Ali was alright which she clearly wasn't.
"Go and get Fitz now!"
Coulson sprinted out of the room once again and Jemma got to work.
She placed every signal monitor that she could think of, on Ali.
Her heartbeat was weak and she wasn't getting enough oxygen.
Jemma put a nasal cannula in her nose and thankfully Ali's oxygen levels went up to just below average for someone of her size.
Her face was white and she was still losing blood so all Jemma could do for the time being was to try and stop her nose from bleeding.
It felt like forever before Fitz actually arrived with Daisy, May and Coulson in tow.
As soon as he saw Ali on the bed, he immediately adopted his professional stance and got to work doing whatever Jemma told him to do.
May, Daisy and Coulson got ushered out of the room and were still sitting in the corridor 30 minutes later when Fitz came out.
"Jemma has stopped her nose from bleeding and she is now in a stable condition. She is still asleep and we don't know when she will wake up but you can go in and see her."
Daisy had silent tears streaming down her face and Coulson seemed close to crying. They could all hear the if in Fitz's last sentence.
May didn't know what to do but she knew that she couldn't just sit by Ali's bed especially knowing that she could do nothing to help her. That was why she started walking towards the cell of the Inhuman.
Coulson saw her go but didn't stop her. Instead, he walked into the room with Daisy beside him.
Ali looked as white as the sheets that she was lying on.
Seeing Ali hooked up to all those monitors was almost too much for Daisy. If Coulson hadn't been there to pull her into a hug she would have collapsed onto the floor. She didn't know what she would do if her little sister died again.
Coulson managed to get Daisy into a chair right by Ali's bed.
"What happened?"
Jemma hadn't needed to know in order to treat her, but she did need to know in order to give them the most accurate facts.
"She pushed her powers to the limit and collapsed onto her wrist."
Daisy looked up slightly shocked. She had done the same before, but she had never ended up unconscious in the med bay because of it.
Jemma simply nodded her head before looking at Ali's wrists.
Her left one was slightly swollen though it looked like it was just a sprain, so Jemma quickly slipped a splint onto her wrist. Until Ali woke up, Jemma was not going to risk an x-ray.
She also hooked Ali up to a drip so that she would stay hydrated and so that it would be easy to administer any medicine later on.
"You need to call Natasha."
Coulson nodded his head but didn't move his eyes from Ali, so Jemma pushed him out of the room.
Natasha's didn't pick up her phone, but it did connect Coulson through to FRIDAY who then passed on the message of what had happened.
He got a phone call two hours later from a very distressed Natasha. All of the Avengers arrived the next day. Not everybody could fit into the small med bay at once so Jemma had limited it to three people at a time. Whenever the Avengers couldn't be with Ali, they were down at the training room destroying punching bags or down in the lab building things all night.
Nobody got any sleep that night but by morning everybody could see that Ali was less pale than she had been the day before.
By lunch many agents were starting to suffer from Ali's family's lack of sleep and that was why Yo-Yo had put her foot down and told everyone who wasn't in the med bay to go to bed.
Everyone begrudgingly did as they were told as they all understood why they needed to sleep.
Yo-Yo, May and Daisy were left alone in the med bay. With nothing changing Yo-Yo had also forced Jemma to sleep but only after she had promised to wake her if anything did change.
Daisy was fast asleep on the chair in the right of Ali. She was leaning her head against the bed and was still holding Ali's uninjured hand. May was sat staring into space on the left of Ali and Yo-Yo was stood leaning against the wall.
Neither were looking at Ali so neither saw her eyes flutter open.
"What time is it?"