Fury jumped back a few steps, staring at the equally shocked doctor. Her glowing veins dwindled and she stared at her hands incredulously. She looked at her arms and back at her hands. "What... was that?" She breathed. Her intrigue piqued considerably, she studied her hands.
The hospital room door opened and Romanoff, Barton, Coulson and Meyer ambled into the room. "I think," Barton said. Ackerly looked to him for answers, "that somehow you absorbed the energy from O.R.B.S."
Ackerly blinked at him, "It... seems plausible, I guess."
"Try and do it again." Romanoff said.
"Oh no, no, no, no!" Ackerly exclaimed. "I'm not doing it again. I don't even know how I did it the first time!"
"You were angry with me." Fury uttered stepping forward.
"Yeah, and you still haven't answered my question," She said still sounding slightly bitter.
"They worked for H.Y.D.R.A. Don't worry, we sorted it out." Fury told her. Ackerly narrowed her eyes at Fury, something nagged her, was he lying? "Could you at least try to do it?"
"I told you, I don't know how I done it!" She snapped. Her eyes glowed slightly. "Sorry... Sorry."
"It's alright." Coulson told her.
A doctor stopped by the door and rasped on it loudly. He opened it with an unhappy expression. "Excuse me! Doctor Ackerly only has one visitor at a time!"
"We'll be right out." Romanoff said.
"J-just go. I need to think." Ackerly said to them.
"Ok," Coulson said, "let's go everyone." They said their goodbyes and filed out of the room.
"I'm gonna get the doctors to run some more tests on her. I need to know what's going on." Fury uttered, glancing at the agents. "Romanoff, Barton, go back to the lab and see if your idea is plausible, search the data Ackerly got from O.R.B.S." The two agents nodded.
"I'm going to stay here." Coulson said. "Just in case something happens."
"I'll stay here too," Meyer voiced. Fury nodded in understanding at the two and he, Barton and Romanoff headed to where they needed to go.
Ackerly stared up at the ceiling. My leg. Why did this happen to me? Why did O.R.B.S do what it did? Clint's right, it did absorb into me. I don't know how, but I know. I guess I wasn't going crazy when I saw sparks similar to what happened with Fury and me. But why did it do it at all? I should be dead. Did I do something to make it... merge with me? Could I have stopped it? She sighed. I've got to stop snapping at everyone. It's not helping. I really don't know if I can do it again and I don't want to. Ackerly sighed again. I need some sleep. I need to think.
Ackerly settled into bed and tried to get as comfy as she could, she never liked sleeping on her back. Ackerly glanced at the clock 6:30pm ticked away. She closed her eyes. She could hear Phil and Teagan chatting to each other outside. A bird chirped in the distance and the smell sickly hospital coffee lingered in the air. I think Teagan needs to cut down on the coffee. Orion snored loudly at the end of the bed. For some reason she could the sparking energy running through hospital machinery around her. She shuddered a little, it felt weird. Ackerly swore her prosthetic in the chair was staring at her. A prosthetic. She'd have to learn how to work again, no doubt about that. I wonder how Orion coped without me. Something tells me he never left. I may have lost my leg but... but I have my life. I have my life.
Ackerly opened her stinging eyes and glanced to the clock above the door. 6:35pm. God damn it! It's only been five minutes. I'll try again.
Ackerly closed her eyes again.
"I gotta see if the containment field is still working." Ackerly said quickly. She hurried over to the control panel and punched in the cods for the containment field. It failed. "No, no, no, no, no!" She put in the sequence again. It failed again. "Damn it!" Ackerly frantically searched the panel, "Damn it, it's been sabotaged!"
Something grabbed her leg and yanked her to the ground. She landed hard and gasped in pain. Ackerly's eye widened. The person who stood by O.R.B.S survived the gunshot to the head. "What?!" She exclaimed.
The woman smirked crazily at the doctor and kicked Ackerly in the side.
The woman put a finger to her lips and hushed the doctor.
Ackerly screamed and jolted awake. The blazing eyes of the dead woman glared at her in the dark. Tears streamed down her face and stained the sheets as she snivelled into them. Meyer rushed into the room and immediately was at Ackerly's side comforting her. She put am arm around the crying woman. "Gabriella, you're alright. You're safe." Meyer cooed.
"Her eyes." Ackerly murmured. Meyer looked confused. "Crazy eyes. She didn't die, Tia. She didn't die." Ackerly glanced up at Meyer with glistening, wet and sore eyes. She sniffed and wiped her nose on her the sheets.
"You mean... that woman in the lab?" Meyer asked. Ackerly nodded. "Holy sh- A-anyway, she's dead. We found her body, she is dead." Ackerly sniffed and leaned against Meyer. She continued to snivel as the other woman hugged her. Meyer noticed Coulson standing at the door. He wore an extremely concerned expression for Ackerly. Something was off with her, he was worried for her.
"So it's possible that O.R.B.S absorbed into Ackerly." Romanoff said looking at the doctor's data. "She says it's a strange object capable of anything. It even says 'I have found what looks like some sort of separating mechanism within O.R.B.S. I speculate that if any of the parts are separated from the heart of O.R.B.S and it may be able to come together to form a new more complex structure.' and that 'complex structure' is whatever's inside Ackerly."
Barton nodded. "Man, this thing is more alien than we first thought."
Romanoff agreed with a nod. "Let's head back to Fury and tell him what we've found."
"And make sure you get the results to me as soon as possible. I need to know what's wrong with her." Fury told the doctor looking after Ackerly.
The doctor nodded, "I'll get them back to you as soon as I have them, Director Fury." The doctor hurried away.
Coulson knocked on the door in three soft taps. He poked his head through the door. "They want to run a few more tests on you. I told them I'd check with you first."
"What kinds of tests?" Ackerly asked wiping her eyes and nose.
"Bloods, CT-scan, MRI, basically any scan they can think of to help get to the bottom of your... outburst." Coulson revealed.
"Ok, they can. Maybe I can sleep while they do it." Ackerly chuckled.
Coulson nodded and gestured for the doctors to start running their tests. As a nurse passed he whispered, "Take care of her." To which the nurse nodded and continued working.
Thanks for reading everyone. Let me know what you think as there's two more chapters to go!
wolftattoo- That's the reason I added that to the story. I have a headcanon that Fury's defineity done something like it before and though why not? I'll have Ackerly be part of it.