As soon as she enters her apartment she's greeted by a cheerful Ollie and her brother, Aidan.
"Hey." She says as she gives him a hug letting out a sigh then leans down to pet Ollie.
"Are you feeling any better?" She asks Ollie but he licks her cheek in response then nuzzles her neck.
"You look like crap." Aidan says to her, making her roll her eyes as she gets another wave of nausea.
"Feel like it too." She says in response as she slowly stands up.
"Wanna tell me what's going on?" He asks as she sways on the spot slightly.
"After I catch some sleep. Sure but not before then." She says to him as she makes her way towards her bedroom, Ollie following close behind. She doesn't bother to change her clothes as she flops onto the bed and almost immediately falls asleep.
After a couple of hours. Aiden enters the room to check on his sister to find the room so cold that his breath turns to frost when he breathes. He rushes to her still form on the bed and checks on her only to find she has a slight fever. He quickly rushes to the kitchen to get medication then gives it to her to help break the fever and hopefully regain control over her power.
A couple more hours later, she's able to wake up to see her brother passed out on a chair near her bed. She looks around the room for Ollie but he's sleeping at the base of the chair.
She checks her phone for the time only to see it's 1 am. She groans as she sits up. Ollie perks up as he hears her and nudges Aiden's leg waking him up.
"How are you feeling?" He asks, rubbing the remaining sleep out of his eyes.
"Better. What happened?" She asks him.
"You had a flux fever." He says to her and she runs her hands through her hair letting out some deep breath.
"What happened? It's been years since you had one of these." He says looking worriedly at her.
"Psychometry." She mutters loud enough for him to hear.
"Why?" He asks truly curious to understand why she used it all of a sudden.
"I was helping Ralph with a case." She says in response, looking him in the eyes.
"Ralph as in Ralph working in the F.A.U?" He asks and she nods in response.
"What's going on?" He asks.
"Underworlders are being kidnapped for some ritual. I was supposed to go to the community college sororities to see if we can get information but I guess that didn't work out." She says.
"Ralph passed this afternoon but I didn't click that he was that Ralph." Aiden says.
"How many places did you visit?" Aiden asks.
"There were 15 kidnappings so 15 places." She says to him with a slight smile. He takes a deep breath to calm himself then looks at her with a worried yet gentle gaze of an older brother.
"You pushed past your limit." He says.
"First I haven't used it in years and my limit is usually twenty so technically I was careless." Astrid says to him.
"Doesn't matter. You need to take better care of yourself." He says with a sigh.
"I'm aware." She says in response.
"Are you? Because you don't act like it." He says to her slightly annoyed.
"Well, I'm sorry if saving the lives of 15 innocents seems a little more important than my health at the moment." She hisses at him and he pauses looking at her. She's never behaved like that towards him before. She lets out a sigh as she rubs her hand over her face.
"They don't have much time left. Whoever is conducting the ritual needs a vampire and a human. If I can narrow down the suspects it makes the F.A.U's job slightly easier." She says to him then heads to the bathroom to freshen up leaving Aiden alone with his thoughts.
When she returns to the room, he looks up to see she's already dressed and some of her color is returning to her face.
"Dinner?" She asks and he nods his head in agreement with her question. All three of them head to the kitchen and while Ollie and Astrid wait, Aiden whips up a quick dinner for humans giving Astrid her share then gives Ollie his dinner before settling down to have his. After dinner, Astrid returns to her room to rest while Aiden takes the couch.
The following morning, Astrid is up early and has breakfast but doesn't wake Ollie or her brother, instead of leaving them breakfast before she leaves heading to the F.A.U headquarters.
When she enters the meeting room to see all the required members already there, Ralph rushes up to me and wraps me in a hug making me tense up for a few moments before I force myself to relax.
"How are you feeling?" He asks.
"Much better." I say giving him a reassuring smile.
"Mind telling me what happened?" He asks and I shrug in response.
"I had a flux fever." I simply say to him and his face pales as he realizes why.
"Sorry." Ralph says.
"Don't worry about it." I say to him as I place a gentle yet friendly kiss on his cheek.
"Let's get to work." She says as she takes a seat and the others look at her worried.
"I'll be fine. I just need to take it east so please stop looking at me as though I'm going to die." She says and everyone averts their gaze.
"Thank you." She says.
"What's flux fever?" Jemma asks.
"Flux fever is what we call fluctuations after overusing your power without rest and not being able to control it to the point you get a terrible fever that is usually hard to break." Astrid explains to Jemma.
"And you've recovered?" She asks Astrid.
"The fever is gone and I've regained control over my abilities but I can't use it for the next few days as a precaution." Astrid responds and Jemma nods as she processes all the new information.