There Are Few Reasons
Disclaimer:
Y'all oughtta know the drill, by now...
Rating:
T
Genre:
Family/Drama
Lyrics Used:
Tiffany Giardina "Hurry Up and Save Me"
Hurry Up and Save Me
Show me your colors | Show me your colors | Show me your colors | 'Cause without you, I'm blue | (Without you, I'm blue)
Hurry up and save me | Hurry up and save me | Hurry up and save | Hurry up and save me | I just wanna feel alive | And, I do when I'm with you
"It means you've been infected." Richelle deadpanned, never once taking her eyes off of the bright red lasers. Alexis, Richelle, Leo and Jemma all exchanged worried glances. Without another word, Jemma set off toward the lab to work on the anti-serum. Deciding he'd rather be anywhere else-in the world, at that moment-Leo silently followed the bio-chemist, leaving the two sisters alone in The Cage.
"Am I gonna end up like Carlyssa?" Alexis asked, fearfully, upon hearing her diagnosis.
Trying to calm her sister, Richelle took the red-head's hands in her own black-gloved ones. "Of course not." She replied, staring directly into Alexis' eyes as she spoke. "I will personally see to that. Jemma's down in the lab, working like a mad-woman, to get your anti-serum ready." The agent explained, gently.
Before another word could be said, either way, there was a hesitant knock on the door before Grant carefully stuck his head inside. "Richelle?" He greeted, still nervous from his previous encounter with the senior agent.
"Yeah, Ward?" Richelle replied, keeping her voice and demeanor. She wasn't an idiot. She knew it was in everybody's best interest to just let bygones be bygones and leave the past alone.
"Simmons needs you in the lab." Grant Ward replied, simply. "Said she needed to talk to you about the anti-serum." He elaborated before offering Alexis an apologetic glance.
"All right." Richelle replied, simply, turning to Alexis. "You gonna be okay for a few minutes?" She asked, warmly.
"I cou-I could...Ya know..." Grant stammered, clumsily. "I could stay with her, if you want..." He offered, before turning to Alexis. "If that's all right with you, that is..."
Intrigued by the specialist's offer, Richelle turned to see the red-head's reaction. "Well, it's your call, Alexis." She offered, shrugging lightly.
"He can stay." Alexis replied, finally, while eying him curiously before turning to Richelle. "Besides, this sounds important. You should go check it out." She elaborated.
Glancing back and forth, between her sister and Ward, Richelle stood as she made her way to the door before stopping to whisper in Grant's ear. "Take care of her." She whispered, dropping her voice low enough that only the specialist would hear. Receiving a curt nod in response, Richelle turned to her sister. "Go easy on him, will ya?" She asked, playfully.
Answering her sister with a playful mock-salute, Alexis replied "Yes, ma'am." Both sisters and Grant all had to share a laugh at that one, before Richelle spoke once more.
"I'll be back, soon..." Richelle stated by way of farewell, before slipping out of the door to the cage.
"Tell me ya got good news for me, Jems." Richelle declared, entering the lab.
As the bio-chemist looked up at her, she immediately knew she would not like what she was about to hear. "I really wish I could, Richelle..." Jemma offered, lamely. "But, I just completed my autopsy on Carlyssa Matthews..." She began, hesitantly, as her voice trailed off, nervously.
"And..." Richelle prompted. The combination of the waiting and Jemma's uncharacteristic behavior were driving her crazy and if she didn't get some answers, soon, she would completely lose it.
"I'm afraid Ms. Matthews died of a different strain of the Chitauri Virus..." Jemma elaborated, finally, bracing herself for the senior agent's reaction.
Richelle studied Jemma for a moment. She wasn't at all certain how to take the news she'd just been given. "Okay..." She began, attempting to digest everything that was thrown at her. "Okay, so...She suffered from a different strain. We still have our anti-serum-"
"Which was designed to fight a different strain of the virus." Jemma interjected, cutting the senior agent off, mid-sentence. "I've already run tests with our current anti-serum against this new strain and it doesn't work. The anti-serum would kill your sister instead of the virus killing her..."
Richelle Rogers remained deadly silent as she paced back and forth in the lab while she analyzed everything Jemma had just told her. "You're telling me we're right back at square one?" She asked, a dangerous, unreadable tone in her voice.
"Unfortunately, it would seem so." Jemma replied, bracing herself.
Nodding for seemingly no reason, Richelle continued her never-ending pacing as she fired off her next question. "I don't suppose there's anyway to give us a time-table on this thing?"
"The time-table appears to be the same as the prior version we dealt with..." Jemma explained, still on edge by the senior agent's behavior.
Richelle continued pacing, silently, as she processed everything she was learning. From what Jemma had just told her, they had approximately fourteen hours to figure out a new anti-serum. Just when Jemma thought she could take no more of the senior agent's mysterious and deadly demeanor, Richelle just turned and wordlessly stormed out of the lab.
"Whoa!" Phil chuckled, lightly, as he nearly ran straight into his partner on her way back to The Cage. "Where's the fire?"
"I don't-I don't have time for this, right now, Phil..." Richelle replied, in an uncharacteristic brush-off as she attempted to fight her way past the other senior agent.
"Hey!" Phil replied, his voice both firmer and warmer at the same time. He knew something was seriously wrong and nobody was going anywhere until he got to the bottom of it. "What's goin' on, 'Chelle?"
Sighing heavily, Richelle knew she wasn't getting out of this without reading Phil in. Plus, he did need to know what they were up against. "I just talked to Jemma..." Richelle replied, finally. "She said Carlyssa Matthews died of a different strain of the Chitauri Virus. She told me our current anti-serum won't work against this new strain. Given the previous time-tables, we have approximately fourteen hours to figure out a new anti-serum." She elaborated. She really hadn't intended to go on and on the way she had. But, once she'd gotten started, she found it impossible to stop herself.
Taking in everything his partner was throwing at him, rapid-fire, Phil came to a decision. "I'll get the rest of the team together and brief them on the update. You go talk to your sister." He suggested, releasing the arm he'd grabbed in his efforts to stop Richelle from leaving without an explanation.
Thinking it over for a beat, Richelle countered. "Let me brief my dad and Kate, too?"
Understanding the senior agent's need to look out for her family, Phil simply nodded his approval. "Of course."
"Thank you, Phil." Richelle replied, sincerely. She definitely appreciated her partner's understanding nature and his trust in her. Without another word, they both turned and took off in their respective directions.
"Richelle Hope, what is going on, here?!" Richard Castle demanded when his daughter entered the common area.
"Yeah, why is your team meeting in there and why are we not allowed to be a part of it?!" Kate demanded, just as frustrated as her fiance.
"Because..." Richelle interjected, halting any further verbal assaults. "I asked Phil to allow me to brief the two of you, seperately."
"Why couldn't we just join in the meeting?" Richard questioned, still at a complete loss as to what the hell was going on.
"Because, this briefing consists of highly personal subject matter and I felt it best that I talk to the two of you about it, privately." Richelle explained, drawing a steadying breath as she decided to just rip the band-aid off and be done with it. "I just spoke with Jemma, down in the lab...She finished her autopsy on Carlyssa Matthews...It appears that Ms. Matthews died of a different strain of the Chitauri Virus than we've previously dealt with..."
"Wait, so what does that mean?" Kate asked, feeling herself slipping into Detective Beckett.
"It means, Kate..." Richelle began, regretfully. Her voice and body language told her father and his fiance that they would not like the news they were about to receive. "...that the current anti-serum that we have, for this virus, won't work..."
"So, what?!" Richard demanded, rapidly losing his composure. "We just sit around here and wait for Alexis to die, like her friend?! Because lemme tell ya somethin'-"
"That's not what I'm saying, dad!" Richelle snapped, effectively silencing her father's tirade. "All I'm saying that this is a minor setback..." She added, more gently. "We still have approximately fourteen hours to figure out a new anti-serum. Jemma devised the current one with only two hours to work with..." She explained, her exterior belying the panic she was rather successfully internalizing.
"You're absolutely certain that Jemma can fix this, in time?" Richard asked. When it came to his daughters, he left absolutely nothing to chance.
"Phil said it best when we dealt with this virus, the first time around..." Richelle began, with an almost genuinely confident smile plastered on her face. "'There is only one person on this plane capable of finding a solution for this'..." Richelle paused to stare directly into her father's eyes and took his hands in hers as she finished her thought. "...'and, I'm willing to bet my life that she will'...Those were his exact words, then, and they're mine, right now."
Without even bothering to knock, Richelle stormed into The Cage, interrupting Alexis and Grant as they seemed to be sharing a laugh over something. As nice as it was to see a genuine smile on the specialist's usually stoic countenance, Richelle knew she needed to get down to business.
"Everything okay, 'Chelle?" Alexis asked, curiously, when she saw her sister's body language.
"Ward, Coulson needs you in the conference room A.S.A.P." Richelle replied, curtly, directing her attention to the specialist.
"You comin', too?" Ward asked, curiously, as he made his way to the door.
"I need to brief Alexis." Richelle explained, taking a seat on the bunk next to her sister. "Coulson has an update for you and the rest of the team as well. You go ahead." She added, all but shooing him out the door.
"All right..." Grant nodded, before turning to Alexis. "Catch ya later, Alexis." He offered by way of farewell while waving to the red-head as he took his leave.
"So, what's goin' on, 'Chelle?" Alexis asked, curiously, once Grant had left the room.
"Look, Alexis..." Richelle began, hesitantly. "There's something I need to tell you and I need you to let me get through it because it's...not exactly easy for me to say..." Watching as her sister silently nodded for her to continue, she began to elaborate her on what she'd learned in the lab with Jemma. "Jemma performed an autopsy on your friend, Carlyssa, and she found that...Carlyssa died of a different strain of the virus than we previously dealt with...which means that our current anti-serum won't work..."
Author's Note:
Okay, I know I'm a horrible person for leaving this on a cliff-hanger. But, I've had an emotionally draining couple of days and I seriously need some sleep. But, I promise to try to get the next chapter up, sometime, tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this little offering.
~Skye Coulson