Late Night at the Hospital

[gregorio]

The doctor who padded down the hallway from a lounge towards the pediatrics wing looked nothing at all like any of the doctors on staff. His long hair was pulled neatly back into a ponytail. The white lab coat was new, as was the nametag on it, proclaiming him to be "Doctor D'Ambrosio". The ID pinned to his coat proclaimed him to be a doctor from the Alberici Group research center in Venice, Italy. It was late and most of the children were asleep, but he stopped at one particular door and smiled it its occupant.

"Clara, you should be sleeping." Gregorio's English was good, but his Italian accent was strong, and she smiled at him wanly, as she usually did.

She sat up in bed, reading a book. Harry Potter, the title said. He smiled. When Gregorio had learned it was one of her favorites, but she didn't have them in the hospital, he'd bought them for her to read. She was more tired today, he noted, but she still sighed at him. "I can't sleep, I've tried. I'm too restless." Her arms bore fading marks from when she'd been more energetic, clawing at herself when she couldn't move around. Her neck was dotted with strange marks that most of the doctors thought were needle marks. The race was on to identify the poison she was given and save her life.

Gregorio knew the truth, that a vampire had been using her to feed upon and the only reason she'd been spared worse was because her parents grew alarmed and demanded their doctor do something for her. He cupped her cheek in one of his cold hands. "Shall I sing you to sleep again?"

She laid her book down, but bowed her head. A tear fell down her cheek to the blanket. "What's the point?"

"Bella." His nickname for her, spoken in a reproachful, cajoling tone, made her look up at him. He stroked her hair back from her face. "We always fight, even when it seems hopeless. I've seen your results. You feel worse, but I think you're going to get better soon."

"But...they don't even know what's wrong with me." She sniffed, and Gregorio reached behind him to hand her a kleenex.

Gregorio smiled. "Trust me, bella. You'll be back home in no time. But you do need rest." He reached over to close her book and set it carefully with the others, then held her hands in his. His singing was more of a chant, in a language that was neither Italian nor English. For a moment, her skin shone with health, even as her eyes closed and she surrendered to sleep. As long as he continued to chant, she appeared perfectly healthy. His voice faded away after a few minutes, when he was sure she was asleep, and he turned to leave the room.

And nearly smacked straight into one of the hospital staff. He bowed his head. "Ah, sorry. I was just checking on her."

Comments

[gregorio]

"Oh, no. Now is perfectly fine. I prefer working nights. Always have. It's quieter." Gregorio frowned as he followed her, thinking hard. It would have been easier had he more resources at his disposal, but he couldn't move Clara to Venice without ruining any hope he had of bringing the culprit in line.

Hesitantly, he said, "The patient did draw blood. We are fairly certain the virus is spread through contact with bodily fluids." He grew silent, restless, until they reached her office. Once they were inside, he closed the door. He ran his tongue over his fangs. "It would be easier if I were at home, but I don't think putting Clara through an international flight would be good for her."

[just2hands]

She knew that feeling. Wasn't that why she was always working late herself? Because without the politics and the visitors, it was much easier to get work done.

"Would you shut the door please?" The late-night environmental staff had two associates down the hall that were buffing the floor, and the noise just seemed to get on Dr Nuttal's nerves. Walking around the office, she took a seat at her desk, and indicated the other chair with a nod of her head.

"I don't know whether it would be good for her, I don't know if her parents would let her go - or even be able to afford to let her go (although we can get around that one I think); and I don't know what will happen if the newspapers get hold of the fact that we put a potentially infectious patient on an international flight."

Her office was pinpoint neat, dark woods and natural fibers, with comfortable chairs surrounding a dark wood, simple table-like desk upon which her laptop rested. In front of thickly-curtained office window a long, comfortable leather couch rested.

Starting up her laptop, she pulled up Clara's files, started skimming the information and began pressing buttons. Across the room the printer began whirring as Dr Nuttal printed out paper after paper of information.

[gregorio]

"I was mostly just lamenting not having my assistants and my own facilities. I know she can't board a plane in this condition." He looked around the office appreciatively, a hand running over the rich, dark wood before he sat down. "The Alberici Group would prefer to keep as much of a lid as possible on the whole situation, anyway."

Restlessly, he stood, turning to the window. "There is one more symptom, and if she starts to show it, she needs to go into isolation and someone needs to call me. Extreme photosensitivity. To the point her skin blisters and burns after a few minutes' exposure." He took a deep breath. A call to Venice was definitely in order. "I think she's out of the woods, though, as long as she isn't reinfected."

"What did her parents say about that?"

[just2hands]

Taking an extra moment to skim ahead, Anika began to read. There were reports from Clara's parents, and additional reports from other relatives, neighbors, even teachers. It took her a while, as she mentally began to put together a timeline of noticable symptoms of the little girl's poisoning.

Finally she looked up, finishing her recitation. "And that's all we have. Which is quite a bit if you consider everything. The police report found nothing at all, but I can print out a copy of that as well. Clara's parents have already signed paperwork stating that you can obtain copies of test results and any other findings needed. It might just take me a while to get everything into a folder for you."

"Blistering in sunlight? But" She looked again. "Some of the medications that she was put on have a photo-sensitivity. I take it that this is considerably more intense?"

"And, other than sleeping in her room myself - we are doing the best we can. How do we keep this child safe? A locked ward? Isolation? If I have to... I really didn't want to go that far."

[gregorio]

"Far more intense. The patient I treated blistered in sunlight within minutes, and when he wasn't moved quickly enough, his skin blackened in places most exposed." Gregorio took the records from Anika and read through the parts that stood out to him, once again.

"Strange marks on her neck, puncture marks in pairs. Appeared over a period of several weeks while her condition declined. I'd be interested in learning if anyone besides her immediate family had any contact with her on the nights preceding them finding new marks." He flipped through the paper again. "I see a period of three days or so between discovery of new marks, with the last being found a week ago, just after she was admitted to the hospital." Privately, he was intrigued at the girl's strength. She'd fed a hungry vampire for several weeks. No doubt due to the transfusion she received after she was diagnosed with severe anemia, she'd been able to live longer than many other young vampire victims he'd seen.

He gave Anika a friendly smile, his bright red eyes crinkling. "I think she's going to be fine. Perhaps restrict her visitors to her immediate family only for a few days while I look over some of this information and she recovers a bit."

[just2hands]

Ani listened to his words, her eyes closed and her foot tapping as she pondered the strange symptoms of the patient they were speaking about. A quiet hum of concentration came from her lips when he was finished. He did have a wonderful accent as he spoke, that was for certain.

Shaking her head, she breathed out a sigh of frustration. "I had to speak to a couple of the day nurses. Because of where the poison was injected, and the fact that there were two injection sites, they suggested getting silver crosses and giving Clara garlic tablets of all things." Dr Nuttal met her fellow doctor's eyes for a moment, shrugging before she turned away.

"I had to put an end to that kind of talk. It was neither professional, nor conducive to a healing, helpful atmosphere." Her voice had hardened as Anika spoke. Besides, she privately said to herself. She'd met vampires before, the real thing and not some hollywood construct. They had almost killed her when they overran her hospital back in California. Vampires were raging, near-mindless beasts that ripped throats out; they did not leave delicate little holes in their victims' necks.

[gregorio]

Gregorio watched her carefully. The hard note to her voice was puzzling, and he frowned as he considered her. Despite the Council's rules, there were humans working for them. It was impossible to conduct business in the human world otherwise. None knew the whole truth. Did she have some inkling of the truth? Or a bad experience with rumors gone wild? Gregorio narrowed his eyes. He could tell her. He would catch hell later, but research and medical science was his territory, and Danilo would cave in eventually. He decided to test the waters, carefully. "Garlic wouldn't work. It's just a spice. A strong smelling one, true, but nothing special beyond its uses in cooking and medicine. I think that rumor started around the time of the Plague. We grew lax, and the smell of garlic hid the smell of death from a body that seemed to have died for no reason."

"The cross would probably just distress her unnecessarily until she's fully healed. No child likes to find herself on the wrong side of God. Children have so much more faith than adults."

[just2hands]

Dr Nuttal had pulled out a pad of paper from the drawer behind her, and was busy writing down the signs that Dr D'Ambrosio had just been informing her of. Skin turning black in... What did he just say?

Her writing stopped, her hand still as AnikaAmadi attempted to make sense of those words he'd just uttered. Was this some sort of joke? Was there a problem in the translation of words between Italian and English? Her mind seized on the first thing she could think of.

"Her parents are agnostic, so I really doubt that she's made that sort of connection between the cross and god." Deliberately Anika put the pen down, sliding her hand under the desk as she raised her head up to the neatly dressed, highly articulate doctor standing in the office with her. He wasn't joking. There was nothing humorous showing through his - were they red? - eyes.

Anika chose her next words very, very carefully. "That doesn't mean that the cross, or other symbols of faith won't work, however. Does it fall under the label of 'god believes in you even if you don't believe in god?"

[gregorio]

"We can't escape something encoded into our very DNA. DNA doesn't care whether someone believes in it or not, it just is." Gregorio stood very still and watched as she reached under her desk. "I...lied a bit to you. This is far from the first or even second case like Clara's that I've seen and treated. Or tried to contain. It can become a dangerous situation."

"I am truly a doctor, Dr. Nuttal. I mean you no harm. I could use your help. One of our kind was slowly poisoning Clara, feeding on her a little at a time. There may be others who haven't come to my attention yet. I need to track the vampire down before this gets out of control."