Page 10 of Ice Princess

Chapter 7 ~Raven

“Dr. Ballenger, are you there?” She rubs her tired eyes and tries to smile at the jumpy image of Dr. Owens.

“I am here, can you hear me? See me?”

“I can. How are things faring there?”

“We lost patient Zero, but I was able to extract some blood. I am trying to make a serum and vaccine from his antibodies but it’s slow going. I have tried one mix, and it didn’t have any effect on my other two infected.”

She closes her eyes for a moment. Thinking of her friends as the infected is easier than remembering them as the bright and funny women they are. She can’t think of the last time that they had a girl’s night out she needs to focus on finding a cure so that she can save them. There will be time for emotions later but now is not the time. She needs to focus on saving them and then she can think of them as her friends again.

“I am doing the same, but nothing seems to be working. The antibodies from infected don’t seem to have any effect on slowing the virus or allowing the immune system to defeat it.”

“We will just have to keep at it. I will send you over some of my findings. You send me yours, and then we will work together. Two brains are better than one. Well, two and a half if you add in Benson.”

She laughs, “That sounds great, thanks Dr. Owens.”

“You get some rest Dr. Ballenger you look exhausted.”

“Thanks something you should always tell a woman.”

Dr. Owens laughs, “I am a charmer that’s for sure. Let’s schedule another call in a few days, unless one of us has a breakthrough.”

“Sounds good,” Raven says and ends the Skype call. Trudging back to the on-call room, she lays down on one of the beds there and tries to close her eyes. Thoughts swirl through her mind one after the other. Are there more infected out there? Was he able to infect others before he was caught? Will her friends survive?

Raven sighs and gets up she isn’t going to sleep there is no reason to lay in this bed and stare at the ceiling. A cup of tea and more research is in her future.

“Hey, I thought you were going to go get some rest?” She looks up from her phone to see Blade sitting at the table with his laptop and a cup of coffee.

“Tried, couldn’t sleep.” She takes a cup down and fills it with water before popping it into the microwave.

“I think I might know why our last serum failed.” She says taking the hot water out of the microwave and dropping a tea bag into it.

“Does your brain ever turn off?” He asks, turning around to face her.

She leans against the counter, taking a sip of her tea. “Nope. I think it has to do with the way that the virus infects its host.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I think that the antibodies don’t have time to multiply enough to fight the virus. I think it was designed to multiply rapidly even though it kills the host quicker that way. They solved the problem of being able to infect a lot of people by giving it a long incubation period as well as having it be able to survive outside of the body for a longer period of time.”

“So, if we can overcome that, we might be able to have a way to fight it. Any good ways to do that?”

She sighs and sips her tea, “None that I can think of.”

“You really need to rest. Your brain is an amazing thing, but it won’t work properly without rest.”

She grins at him, “Not true, I once worked three days straight as a resident, my brain still worked fine.”

“No, your brain worked at the average intelligence of the rest of the human population. We need you at your most brilliant.”

She raises her eyebrows, “Was that a compliment Master Chief?”

He stands up, caging her in between his arms and the counter.

“It was a fact, Dr. Ballenger. I can think of a few ways that we can work out some adrenaline and anxiety.”

She really likes him and what would it hurt to give in? He was a handsome, intelligent, successful man. She could do a lot worse.

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