Lost Boy | Carlisle Cullen |

SEVEN

Three doctors stood in the same room at the same time, they all eyed the machines and tried to predict the amount of time they all had to repeat the same basic rounding and medication administration in the same room under the same lighting that was, quite frankly, irritating the shit out of Doctor James Monroe.

"Well," Jeffery rocked back on his heels and shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'll be the first to say too-many-cooks, I'll just go tackle some cases out there," he jammed his thumb toward the door which led to the rest of the progressive care unit, even though he definitely meant the emergency department. He turned and walked out of the room with a bit of urgency and disappeared down the hallway.

"That was," James started.

"Interesting," Carlisle finished.

"Yeah, interesting," James nodded with an arched brow.

"So, plan of care. You'll finish the narrow spectrum antibiotics tomorrow and, provided your vitals remain stable and in good standing, be able to be discharged after phlebotomy gets a CBC."

"Great, any discharge instructions?"

"Aside from probiotics and a protein rich diet? Maybe don't clean your work bench without gloves again, especially since you work in a lab," Carlisle made a sly comment, the right corner of his mouth turned upward as he finished his remark.

"Very funny, I'll bet there are plenty of things you shortcut because you've never had consequences."

"Absolutely not," he grinned and immediately went to fix the beeping on the IV pump that signalled the antibiotics had finished infusing. "Let me flush your catheter since you aren't getting fluids anymore."

The saline felt cool moving through the catheter and into James' veins. It wasn't like dialysis solution, it didn't have to be warmed, but it still felt awkward as it flushed through his arm. No bubbling or bloating of the skin around the catheter was noted so the line was still intact. No signs of infection at the area, probably because a doctor who had been practicing for decades had performed the insertion; James wasn't aware of that tid bit, though.

"So," Carlisle stared off at the white board that needed updating. He had been acting rather shy and awkward around James since he had woken up. It was completely out of character. "Ovarian cancer?"

"Yeah," James nodded, "I'm more just studying how it behaves, you have to know the disease before you can learn how to treat it."

"Chemotherapy, right?" Carlisle almost seemed unsure when stating the obvious.

"Actually, and bear with me on this, there is ground breaking research of using dead AIDs pathogens to kill off cancer cells. So far the test subjects have had results of the cancer cells being completely cleared. It's still on the low, though."

"How does that even work?"

"Well, think about it. AIDs attacks rapidly developing cells, like chemotherapy, and cancer cells are rapidly developing. If AIDs attacks cancer cells like it does blood cells, and the inactive pathogen can accomplish that, it's a game changer."

"I never thought of it like that," Carlisle was in awe.

"Because no sane person would consider treating one disease with another lethal one," James laughed so hard he almost began to tear up.

Carlisle smiled, "Do you want to have dinner sometime?"