Infection Runs Deep

CHAPTER TWELVE: BLOOD TEST

After a few hours of no word of our incident and nothing from Luke, Ian and I headed back to the apartment. I dozed fitfully, too worried about Luke, Ian, and Anna to get much sleep.

We tried to continue the semblance of normalcy. I had a bad feeling that the captain would be waking up soon. We had to do something about that.

It was best to go back to the clinic, so we did just that. The day in the clinic passed without consequence. Triage, treat, and try to keep it together. By mid-afternoon, Ian was fed up with this facade. He wanted to find Luke. More importantly, he was bored.

"Lizzi," he drawled, adding a few extra syllables to my name with a childlike whine. "When are you done in the clinic?"

"I'll be done when there are no more patients to treat and no more charts. You're free to go whenever you like. I don't need a chaperone." I shoved a chart back into its rack at Marge's desk. "Feel free to relay that sentiment to the Colonel."

"Don't be like that. This is supposed to be fun."

I turned to face him, planting my hands on my hips. "For you, maybe. I have a job to do, Ian. Helping people comes before your entertainment." I resumed charting, signing off on treatment plans and writing prescriptions that might not get filled.

"What about Luke?" Ian stood up from his chair. "What about helping him?" I didn't know if Ian was just bored or if he knew something that I didn't. Luke was going to get punished, but I didn't think that it would be something that I could really help him escape.

"That's a low blow. You think that I don't want to help him? That I don't know it's all my fault?" I scoffed, slamming down the chart. "Fine. You wanna help Luke? Let's go. Right now before I get any more patients." Ian hesitated, balking at my tone. "Come on. I thought you wanted to help him."

Taking the bait, Ian accepted my challenge. "Fine." He jumped up and started towards the door. "Let's go."

As much as I did it to get Ian to back off on the minor complaints, I was really concerned about Luke. Judging from what happened last time, I figured he would get yelled at and maybe roughed up a little. Ian seemed to disagree.

Marge informed me that she could handle the clinic for now. "If I really need you, doll, I'll radio Ian and get you back here real quick." She waved for me to leave. "See you later."

Friend. I guess I never really considered Luke and I to be friends. Acquaintances with a common goal and a common enemy, sure. But friends... I always thought of friends as people you had to be really close with. The people that you saw everyday of your life and chose to spend time with. Not your coworkers because some of them you just don't get close with. I didn't choose to be here, at least not originally.

Was I making the right decision in staying? Was there a point to hiding away on a military base? Could I do any good here?

The small voice inside of myself reminded me that I was saving people, just by helping treat a cold or a minor wound, that I had already done good here. A more prominent thought invaded my headspace. I wasn't doing all that I could. I wasn't helping the greater good. I wasn't living with the ones I cared about. I was on my own to figure everything out.

Unless I made new friends here. Luke could be a friend, just like Marge had said. But did he even want to be a friend? All I had done for him was complicate his life. Make him get hurt. Get him in trouble. Who would want a friend that only caused harm?

"You're quiet," Ian said as we snuck towards the Gard. To the best of our knowledge, Luke was still there. "I didn't mean that. That you don't care. I know you do."