“Agreed,” Ava said and hung up the phone. “Agreed,” she muttered out loud. She pressed her lips together. They had hit a block and she didn’t know how to get around it. They had to find something, though.
Finally, she decided to go and find Elizabeth after all, maybe if they learned something about how this virus worked, or how it replicated, they would have a better shot at treating it. Ava hesitated then shook her head. This was not just her wanting to be in the same room as Elizabeth; she needed to learn more about this virus.
Ava quickly walked down the corridor to the main conference room, her pulse tripping at the thought of being close to Elizabeth again. She did her best to ignore the implications of this and held her chin high as she opened the doors. The room was large with a table sitting directly in the middle, and about seven young interns and residents were situated around it. Almost the entire surface of the table was littered with medical papers and textbooks as the young doctors searched for anything that might help with the current situation.
Elizabeth was standing directly behind one of the women, her hand resting lightly on the woman’s shoulder as they scanned what appeared to be an article from a medical journal. Ava had to fight against the urge to walk over and stand close to Elizabeth. Glancing up quickly from the page, Elizabeth acknowledged Ava’s entrance with a slight nod before returning her focus to the paper in front of her.
The woman, Ava was pretty sure her name was Dr. Stephens, was looking up at Elizabeth with admiration in her eyes. Ava shifted uncomfortably but forced herself to focus.
“Come see this,” Elizabeth said with a slight wave. Ava’s heartbeat skipped at the permission to come and stand close. “I think we’ve found something.”
“What is it?” Ava asked as she made her way around the table to stand over the other shoulder of Dr. Stephens. The young woman glanced back and forth between the two, holding the article awkwardly in front of her so that both women could see it.
“Well, this is from some years ago, but there was in infestation situation in London, and they had some similar sicknesses,” Elizabeth said and gestured toward the paper.
“Did they find a treatment?” Ava asked.
“It was pretty devastating, at first,” Elizabeth pressed her lips together. “But eventually, yes, though they had to induce a fever to burn it out; it’s not exactly the safest of practices.”
“How high of a fever?” Ava asked.
“Well, they don’t really know,” Doctor Stephens answered for Elizabeth. Ava’s eyes narrowed before she could school her expression, and Dr. Stephens’ wince told Ava that she’d seen it. “From what I can see, they had similar treatments to what we are doing, but when they stopped controlling the fever, which was a total accident, they ran out of the necessary drugs, the patients started to recover.”
“What happened?” Ava asked.
“It was still pretty bad, this case is almost a hundred years old, but more people survived once they stopped controlling the fever, but as you can expect there was some complications to that, some of them weren’t able to handle the fever and well…” Doctor Stephens shrugged.
“Okay, well, it’s something,” Ava said. “The virus can’t handle heat.”
“But how do we do this without boiling the patients?” Elizabeth asked.
“Baths?” Ava suggested then turned back to Dr. Stephens. “How long did they have to keep the fever for it to kill off the virus?”
“It’s inconclusive,” she answered, pressing her lips together. “There’s also no clear indication of how high the fever has to be.”
“Will the fever kill it even if it’s dormant?” Ava asked.
“It seems that way,” Doctor Stephens answered. “They were doing much the same as we are, and the symptoms would stop long enough for them to believe they had cured it, but the patients would soon be right back in when the virus reactivated, they accidental ‘cure’ was when they were still treating the virus, so theoretically it should have been dormant.”
“Well, it’s something to work with,” Elizabeth said and gave Dr. Stephens’ shoulder a squeeze. Ava eyed the friendly gesture and her skin prickled, but she managed to keep her expression neutral. Still, Dr. Stephens glanced between the two of them uncomfortably.
“Should we talk to Doctor Mars?” Ava asked.
Elizabeth nodded, then turned back toward the young doctors. “Keep looking,” she said with a nod. “Maybe there’s something else we can find.”
The doctors murmured their assent and dove back into the books and papers on the table as Ava and Elizabeth walked back out the doors. Ava glanced sideways at Elizabeth, trying to ignore the heat between them. They stepped onto the elevator and Elizabeth turned to face her. Those piercing blue eyes cut right though her and Ava’s mouth suddenly went dry. She wet her lips, her pulse jumping when she noticed Elizabeth’s eyes drop to her mouth.
“Wow, your eyes are…” Ava said and reached out to touch Elizabeth’s cheek without thinking. She was surprised Elizabeth allowed the touch as the elevator came to a stop on the first floor. Ava pulled her hand back and cleared her throat and Elizabeth took a step backward.
As the elevator doors opened, Ava saw Dr. Mars standing just outside her office with her phone to her ear. She glanced up at the women and gestured for them to give her a minute and waved them into her office. Ava followed Elizabeth in, fighting the urge to touch her, and they sat down and waited for Dr. Mars to finish her call.
When Dr. Mars came into the office, the lines on her face seemed deeper and her skin drawn. Ava furrowed her brows and waited for whatever Dr. Mars was about to say; she knew it couldn’t be good.
“We have another patient coming in,” Doctor Mars said and fell into the chair behind her desk. She looked exhausted.
“From where?” Ava asked.
“One of the team members who had been cleaning the storage room. I guess there may have been a malfunction in their bio-suit, I’m not sure, but it’s bad.”
