Chapter 7 #2
“Welcome,” Doctor Mars said. “But it would be best if we could let the public know t hat we have a way of fighting this virus.”
“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 search ed 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 t o 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 sk in 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 bac k 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.”
Elizabeth nodded, her eyes tightening.
“We have found a potential treatment,” Ava said quickly. She paused waiting for Dr. Mars’ acknowledgement, but the woman just waved at her to proceed. “The virus can’t withstand a fever.”
Ava looked over at Elizabeth, she was the expert on these things, so Ava allowed Elizabeth to take over the conversation at this point.
Elizabeth explained everything that they had learned so far, and the possible options for generating heat in the bodies of the patients without putting them at risk.
“Do it,” Doctor Mars said without any further discussion. Ava knew there was a lot of risk involved in the treatment options, but Dr. Mars looked exhausted and ready to try just about anything.
They opted to try their usual hypothermia protocol in combination with the antivirals. Hoping that it would raise their temperatures enough to kill off the virus while it was still dormant. As with the previous attempts at treatment, it would take time to see how well, or even if, it was working.
The rest of the day was spent poring over test results and observing the remaining patients.
Their newest patient was a younger woman who worked with the CDC and had been on site helping to clean up where the pathog en originated, though she couldn’t say how she had managed to come in contact with the virus enough to have been infected.
But Ava wasn’t surprised. If she had made a mistake or had not correctly put on her suit, she was unlikely to admit it.
Sadly, though, she was in much worse shape than the other patients.
The virus had been running rampant for a while in her body, probably for the same reason she had been unwilling to admit to making a mistake, and therefore unwilling to come in sooner.
It felt both like no time had passed and that they had been waiting forever on results when it was dark outside and Ava was struggling to keep her eyes open.
She sat in the lab with Elizabeth, waiting for any update on the patients’ statuses, but so far there had not been much news.
They had decided to keep the patients warm overnight, then in the morning they would check for any signs of the virus again.
There was not much else they could do for the night.
Ava opened her mouth to say as much, but something held her voice.
She wanted to invite Elizabeth back to her apartment for some rest, but she didn’t know how to bring it up.
Her mind drifted to last night, how Elizabeth had felt against her, how she had tasted, her lips, her touch, her skin.
Ava felt her body growing hot with the memory.
Elizabeth stood up from where they were sitting and stretched, yawning wide. “I think I’m going to head back to my room and get some sleep,” she said.
Ava nodded, but her heart started pounding in her chest. She knew that she needed to say something if she wanted to keep Elizabeth with her for another night.
This all felt like some sort of fevered dream.
She knew Elizabeth would probably disappear once the case was over, and the thought terrified her, but at the same time, she knew that there was nothing that could be done about it.
She wouldn’t want to give up her home, and she very much doubted that Elizabeth would settle for a small-town life such as this one.
Someone who is used to the hustle of a place like New York City must find Phoenix Ridge terribly boring.
Still, she couldn’t let Elizabeth walk out the door.
“Elizabeth,” Ava called to her back as Elizabeth retreated toward the elevator.