Miracles

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, some of you may know it as NASA. Many people come up to me and say how ‘weird it is’ to use my doctoral skills for NASA…of course you have your flight surgeon, but what about when they come back down to earth? Who’s going to run all of those tests and monitor their health? Me. That’s my job.

“Doctor LaVeau?” I turned around from peeling an apple to come face to face with my intern. “May I ask what are you doing in the research lab?” I smiled and placed my instruments back in order.
“Peeling an apple with a surgical tool helps with the steadiness of your hands. What may I do for you?”

“Oh, um there is a man by the name of Nicholas Fury on the phone, he said it was urgent.” I mentally groaned at myself for getting involved with S.H.I.E.L.D, NASA and the organization both met when Thor was banished from Asgard to Earth; I was assigned to monitor him while he was unconscious. Ever since then, Fury appointed me to almost every S.H.I.E.L.D related injuries that their doctors could not handle. I politely took the phone and pressed it to my ear. Nick Fury was very intimidating, just talking to him made my heart race.

“This is LaVeau”

“I need you to come in.” His deep voice said. I waved my intern out of the room and pressed speaker. “I have arranged a quinjet with Maria Hill in it to come and pick you up.” Nick Fury may be the greatest spy in the world but his communication skills are absolutely awful. Maria Hill would be here any moment and I haven’t even gotten the chance to pack some clothes.

“Are you kidding me, Fury? You couldn’t even give me a heads up? I do have a job, a very fun and difficult job that requires me to be here, I just can’t leave.”

“You do know that I know the astronauts do not return from the International Space Station for another year and there isn’t any flight training going on so what I sense here is that your schedule is very empty.” I smiled to myself and looked over at my calendar. How does Fury find out about this stuff so quickly?

“You know me well Nick, don’t you?” I heard him chuckle (something that seemed very rare for him). “What is the situation? I need to know what to bring.” I asked standing up and walking over the supply closet.

“One of our STRIKE agents passed out during a mission, our doctors are unable to find out why.”
“Are you serious Nick?”

“Yes, Madeline. We cannot have our mission compromised like that again; our doctors don’t know what it is so I’m calling the best doctor in the United States for help. Hill will likely be there in an hour, bring no one, do not tell anyone where you are going.” Before I could even reply there was a long dial tone letting me know that Fury had hung up on me. Thanks Fury for not really giving me a choice on whether I want to go or not. Thanks a lot. Hiding my rage, I walked out to see my second in command and my interns.

“Sounds like you were having a heated conversation in there. Is everything okay?” Doctor Wen asked. I shrugged and turned to my interns. Leaving them was going to be difficult, they were like my children.

“Listen up, guys I have some important news to share with you all.” They gathered around me once I received their attention. “I will be away for a while on some personal business; do not ask why because I am not allowed to tell you and I don’t want to get in trouble. I’m leaving Doctor Wen in charge while I am absent. When I return, whenever that is, I expect all of the patient charts to be updated and on my desk. I do not know how long this business will take; it could be weeks, months, maybe even a year. But, I promise you that I will be back for you Board Exams. Until then, I will miss you guys. You are dismissed.” Why didn’t I just work in a hospital? Everything would’ve been much easier.
***

I stood the helipad and watched as the quinjet landed before me, when Maria Hill walked out a smile was planted on my face.

“You know how hard this area is to find?” She walked up to me and pulled me into a giant hug.
“Well this building is separated from Mission Control, so we miss out on the fun. It’s good to see you, Maria.” I followed her onto the quinjet not knowing what to expect when I arrived at the Triskellion. After the whole ‘Hydra infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D’ thing S.H.I.E.L.D finally got a chance to rebuild in New York. I won’t lie, ever since they rebuilt they seem stronger than ever. “What the hell are you wearing?” I asked looking at her outfit.

“When Captain Rogers, Sam Wilson and Natasha took down S.H.I.E.L.D, we all needed to find work. I work with Stark Industries now.” I rolled my eyes at the name ‘Stark’

“I can’t trust Stark anymore, he almost cost me my job.”

“That must be a hell of a story.” I smiled at her. The quinjet landed on the helipad, once I removed myself from the plan I was bombarded by a series of doctors one handed me a chart and I looked at a man probably in his early twenties.

“Nathan Croft, 24, he collapsed during a mission and his breathing was faint when they brought him in, all of the tests we ran came back negative CT, MRI, we even did an EEG.”

“How is his heart rhythm?”

“BPM was normal” One doctor told me as we arrived in the medical bay. Nathan looked over at me and sighed. “He did complain about numbness in his hands though”

“Hello, Agent Croft. I am Doctor LaVeau; I was assigned to your case. Do you want to tell me what happened out there? Your blood pressure is kind of low” I grabbed a rolling chair and sat next to his bed.

“If I may say, miss. You are very beautiful." A blush came onto my face and my hand began to lightly shake. If I am this nervous in front of handsome men, how the hell am I supposed to find a beautiful man and get married? I threw my thoughts back and focused back on Nathan. "We were raiding a Hydra facility and I just remember feeling lightheaded, my hands felt like static and then I just fell out.” I began tickling his foot and he had a delayed reaction. I immediately grabbed my stethoscope and placed it on his chest, when I heard his heart I couldn’t help but to roll my eyes. ‘His BPM is normal’ my ass. I smiled at Nathan before I walked out to greet the other doctors.

“You missed one small test, ECG, I would like to order one, get those results back to me as soon as they’re in, and I’ll be in Director Fury's office.” I handed the doctor the chart and began looking around for Director Fury's office.

S.H.I.E.L.D has changed since the last time I've been here; it seems as if all of the agents were on high alert. As if they watched my every move because maybe they thought that I was some sort of secret agent for Hydra or something. They never took their eyes off of you if you were new to the facility, it kind of scared me how focused and controlled they were.
“Fury” I walked into his office and casually sat down, he spun around in his chair and I was faced with a smile.

“Welcome to the new Triskellion, Doctor LaVeau. Did you get a chance to see your formidable patient?” I scoffed for a brief second before I remembered that his doctors were always a pain in my god damn ass. I slammed the file on the table in front of Fury; he calmly opened the file carefully as I knew he was ready to feel my wrath.

“I did, it’s most likely Cardio Dysthymia, I ordered an Electrocardiogram, and I hope you don’t mind but I need to get to more important things.” Fury stuck his hand out and motioned me to continue. “Are you telling me that S.H.I.E.L.D, the best organization on the planet with the greatest doctors cannot detect a heart problem? Sorry, Fury but that’s really sad and not to mention pathetic as well. If I was the director of S.H.I.E.L.D I would seriously send your doctors back to medical school, because if they cannot detect something like this, then they are not real doctors. You need to do something! You need to do something and fast, because I’m yelling at you and I am pretty positive that this is highly inappropriate!” I pointed at him and I stopped to catch my breath, I dropped my hand when I realized that I had nothing else to say.

“What is an Electrocardiogram?” He sarcastically said dodging the big rant I just threw in his face. I clenched my jaw and balled my hand into a fist, Fury’s smart comments are going to get him seriously hurt one day. One day.

“They place electrodes all on the patient’s body and they detect electrical changes on the skin. It shouldn’t even take long.” I sharply replied back. Fury was going to reply but there was soon a knock on his door.

“Sorry to interrupt, Director Fury, but The Avengers have just arrived; they’re on their way up to Operations Control.” A blonde quickly said before she walked out. Why on Earth are the World’s Mightiest Heroes back at S.H.I.E.L.D so suddenly? You would’ve think after the Battle of Sokovia and losing Pietro Maximoff that they’d request some time off. But I guess villains don’t take breaks like they should.

“Why are they here? The greatest people in the world deserve a little time off after what happened, don’t you think?” I questioned Fury.

“Well after what happened at the Potomac and with Captain Rogers, Wilson and Romanoff all taking down S.H.I.E.L.D; a lot of Hydra bases didn’t fall with headquarters. There are still some bases out there that we need to take down, and we can’t do it alone.” Fury stood up and I followed right behind him.

“That could be a severe amount of casualties that your doctors probably won’t know how to handle, I’ll extend my time here if you don’t mind.”

“Be my guest.” We arrived in the elevator and Fury ordered the elevator to take us to operations control, a doctor slipped into the elevator with us and handed me a computer that contained the results of Nathan’s ECG.

“Look at his QRS complex, it’s really low and his heart isn’t in a normal sinus rhythm. I think and I’m pretty sure that it’s Tachycardia. We better be glad that he’s stable because if he wasn’t, his organs would be affected and he would have gone into cardiac arrest. I want him on Amiodarone and someone monitoring him 24/7.” I explained shutting the computer and handing it back to the doctor.
“He’ll be fine?” Fury looked over at me.

“Well you did call in the greatest doctor in America and now that I’m here he will be fine. You better be glad, Fury, I just saved this man’s life.” The elevator stopped at the Medical Bay and the doctor and I both got off.

It looks like I’ll be staying here for a while, what’s the worst that could happen?