“Exactly,” Lindsey piped up. “The cilia almost act like armor when the virus goes dormant, so we have to find a solution that will kill it before it falls asleep.”
“Good,” Doctor Mars said. “I’ll update the CDC, hopefully this won’t turn into a pandemic.”
As though on cue, Dr. Mars’ phone pinged. Her brows furrowed as she looked at the notification. She tapped a few keys and put the phone back in her pocket before looking at them all with pressed lips.
“Double time, Doctors, we just received two more patients.” She turned on her heel and walked out the door.
The arrival of new patients added a certain weight to the room, but the air was still celebratory. They were finally getting somewhere.
Within a few hours, they had found something that they believed could work. It was a long treatment, that involved multiple rounds of the antiviral with a few hours of wait time in between, but they had started the treatment on the patients, and so far, they were responding well. They wouldn’t know for certain for a few days, however, as waiting for the virus cells that fell dormant to wake again was a tedious task at best.
Ava found herself later sitting in the staff lounge, eying the vending machine for some sustenance, when Elizabeth walked in.
“Are you hungry?” Elizabeth asked, and suddenly Ava’s heart quickened its beat.
“Very,” she answered with a shrug that was not nearly as casual as she hoped.
“Are there any good places to eat here?” Elizabeth asked, Ava couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like Elizabeth was almost nervous.
“There’s a sort of pub across the street, it’s mostly fried comfort food, but it’s good,” Ava answered.
“Want to join me then?” Elizabeth asked, and Ava’s heart skipped a beat.
“I’d love to,” she said with a smile and stood up. She caught Elizabeth’s grin as she turned toward the door.
They crossed the street, and Ava kicked herself as she stole glances at Elizabeth while they walked. Again, she felt as though she was acting like a silly teenager, but Elizabeth was beautiful. Awe-inspiringly beautiful—the way she walked, the way she smiled. Everything about her was impressive in so many ways, and Ava had no idea how to say that to her, and instead took to stolen glances and stifled giggles.
They found a table at the small pub. The music was loud and the room a little crowded, but the atmosphere was so much more relaxed than it was in the hospital. Ava nodded at a couple of the patrons she knew from around town, and they sat down to eat.
They ordered drinks and a couple of burgers, and while they waited for their order, Ava toyed with the coasters on the table. When she finally looked up, she found Elizabeth’s light-colored eyes watching her.
“What’s something that makes you happy?” Ava blurted out, trying to quell the awkward silence with an equally awkward question.
Elizabeth blinked in surprise. “I’m not sure how to answer that,” she said with a chuckle.
“Something small, something most would consider stupid, I guess,” Ava said. “Like, it makes me happy to see Lindsey smile. She’s so young and excitable that everything is fresh and new for her and she gets all giddy with some things. I think it’s cute and it brightens my day.”
Elizabeth blinked at her a few more times then put her finger to her lips as she considered the question. “I spend so much time in books and research, I haven’t really though about what makes me happy. I guess I could say my coffee. I look forward to it in the mornings.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Ava said with a smile. The silence stretched for another moment. “So you went to Emory for your undergrad, right?”
“I did, it was an interesting school,” Elizabeth answered.
“I loved it there,” Ava said a bit wistfully, “but I always missed home.”
“You grew up here,” Elizabeth said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah,” Ava said with a sheepish smile. “My father has a landscaping business and my mother teaches high school science. She’s the reason I became interested in medicine.”
“That’s interesting,” Elizabeth said, and suddenly Ava was self-conscious about her upbringing. “What about you?” she asked.
“We moved around a lot,” Elizabeth said, a bit dismissively. “I was all boarding schools and research trips.”
Ava’s brows lowered; she wasn’t sure how to interpret the information.
“Most of it was on the East Coast, my parents’ work was based in Boston, mother was a Harvard Professor and my father was a Public Health Official. Everything they did was in service to thegreater good.”
“That sounds lonely,” Ava said and immediately regretted it.
