Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. She tilted her head in thought and her lips parted, but still nothing came out.
“I like you,” Ava said. “I like spending time with you, and our sexual connection.. is shall we say… strong? So how about this,” Ava paused and took a breath. “We will both think about it, and then we can have this conversation later, tonight maybe?” Her dark eyes looked hopeful. “No judgement, just see where we both are.”
Elizabeth smiled in elation. “You’re unlike anyone I’ve ever met Doctor Ava Jackson.”
“Same to you,” Ava said with a smile before pressing her lips gently to Elizabeth’s. Their kiss was interrupted by Elizabeth’s phone ringing on the table next to them. She reached over and picked it up, Dr. Mars’ name displayed across the screen.
“Elizabeth Grant,” she answered quickly and looked at Ava.
“Sorry if I woke you, but we have a problem,” Doctor Mars said though the line. Ava’s eyes tightened as they waited for her to continue. “The heat treatment isn’t working, and since we scaled back the antivirals to see if they would react, they’ve gotten much worse in the last hour.”
“How much worse,” Ava said then flinched.
“Doctor Jackson?” Doctor Mars asked, though she didn’t sound surprised.
“Yes, Doctor Mars, it’s me,” Ava said and grimaced. Elizabeth’s heart started pounding again. This was not a distraction they needed right now.
“The convulsions and paralysis have started up again, and Amy has taken a bad turn, they’ve had to shock her already,” Doctor Mars answered.
“Restart the Baclofen,” Ava said and got up from the bed. “We will be there in a few minutes.”
“Already done,” Doctor Mars said and ended the call.
Elizabeth looked at Ava with concern. “We need to get to the hospital,” she said.
Ava nodded and headed for the bathroom to change clothes but came out again when she realized that she didn’t have any here. She looked around a little awkwardly before saying anything. “I guess I need to stop by my apartment,” she said with a guilty smile.
Elizabeth couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’ll see you at the hospital then.” She watched as Ava quickly pulled on her clothes from the day before and headed out the door. She wasn’t sure how to respond to Dr. Mars’ knowledge that Ava was with her this morning, but she decided that she was just going to leave it alone for now. If anything came up, she would deal with it then.
She quickly showered and dressed, making herself ready within minutes. She just pulled her hair back in a tight knot on the back of her head and dressed in a cream-colored pantsuit before heading downstairs for a quick breakfast and asked the barista to call a cab for her. The barista just smiled at her, knowingly, which only made her that much more uncomfortable. She ate a quick slice of toast and headed for the hospital.
When she arrived, she saw that camera crews were already setting up in the front of the building, and she belatedly remembered the press conference Dr. Watson had called yesterday. She shook her head as she walked quickly into the building, but she noticed a couple of people pointing at her with questions in their eyes. Doctor Mars practically met her at the doors.
“Amy isn’t doing well,” Doctor Mars said and Elizabeth lifted her brows. “She was one of the original three to contract the disease,” Doctor Mars explained. “But she’s gone into cardiac arrest a couple times now, it is unlikely that she will last more than a couple more hours.”
“Did anyone know her?” Elizabeth asked.
“No, she was from out of town. We’ve tried contacting family, but we can’t seem to get in touch with anyone. We’ve enlisted the sheriff’s department to assist with that.”
Elizabeth nodded. “And the others?”
“We’ve had to sedate Yasmine, the EMT who was first on the scene, and we are getting ready to do the same for Heather, the olderof the sisters that came in. Their parents are here and they are scared as you can imagine.” Doctor Mars took a breath. “Lacey, the younger sister, and Elsie, the other from the survival group seem to be doing alright, though they are complaining of muscle cramps. The other two EMTs are sedated, but Maria from the clean-up team has gone into full paralysis.”
Elizabeth pressed her lips together. “I will check in with the lab then I will talk to each of them individually, hopefully Lindsey has come up with something.”
“Where’s Doctor Jackson?” Doctor Mars asked and Elizabeth almost flinched. “She’s on her way.” She tried to make her voice casual, but the tightness in Dr. Mars’ eyes told her she hadn’t pulled it off. “Alright, go,” Doctor Mars said and turned her back to Elizabeth. She pulled in a deep breath and headed for the elevator, quickly pressing the button for the third floor. She worried briefly about Ava and how her supervisor was going to react to her when she came in, but those thoughts left as soon as the doors opened.
“Warming them didn’t work,” Lindsey said without preamble as Elizabeth walked into the lab.
“So I’ve heard,” Elizabeth said and walked over to the tables.
“I think it’s just that we aren’t getting the temperature hot enough to kill the virus, but if we make them any hotter then we risk a lot of other side effects,” Lindsey said. Her eyes were red and had dark circles underneath them. Elizabeth wondered if the tech had slept at all.
“Has it helped at all?” Elizabeth asked.
“It makes the virusslightlymore susceptible to the medicines but not enough to really make a difference,” Lindsey said and shook her head.
“It’s something, we just have to keep looking, we will find it,” Elizabeth said.
