Athena woke to insistent knocks on her door. Groaning weakly, she let her eyes flutter open, gaze perching on the white ceiling, and then on the door as she cocked her head to the left.
Who was knocking? she wondered as the knock ca again, twice in three succession. Whoever it was must have an ergency, she concluded, her mind straining to push away the sleepy clogs swamping it.
Exhaling softly, she stretched like a cat, rolled her shoulders, and stood on her feet. Her eyes found the ti on the wall clock—just past six. A furrow marred her brows. An ergency, surely.
And when her mind wheels backtracked to the episodes of yesterday, to the episodes of last night, her heart imdiately sank to her stomach, her mind going off in different directions, different projections of bad news.
She reached for the robe by the bed with hurried hands. Has Kael’s second gift arrived? Her steps quickened as she moved to the door, pulling it open to see Ewan standing right at the post.
"What’s going on?" she asked imdiately, noting his countenance, not bothering with greetings. Seeing the eye bags underneath his eyes, she wondered if he had slept at all.
"So female is here. She said she is one of the doctors at the hospital? She looks scared..."
Athena darted out of the room, shutting the door after her. Her feet were light on the air, her robe brushing her ankles as she all but flew to the sitting room where Ewan had said the latter was waiting.
She was sure—no matter how much she wanted it not to be so—that it was the second gift promised by Kael.
"Doctor Athena, good morning..." The doctor, who had been sitting on the single sofa, stood to her feet, her eyes flicking here and there, panicky, scared.
"Stella, what is going on?" Athena cut straight to the point, aware of the emptiness in the room, of the fact that only Ewan was present. It ant that the others were still sleeping, that Ewan hadn’t slept at all after their last check-in with Spider.
What had he been thinking, working all night? His health... She shook thoughts of him off her head, anxiety for Stella’s presence in her house taking over. This was a first, after all—an unannounced visit.
"Patients, ma’am. They ca in an hour ago. The doctors on duty had alerted , alerted you too, but it seed that your phone was switched off..."
Athena shut her eyes, pain ransacking her entire being—emotional pain. She gripped her robe tighter. She had silenced her phone during the etings, or rather after Antonio had started bombarding her with texts—lovely, mushy ones and then inquiries.
She had been too tired to check them out or answer his calls, and so had silenced the phone. And now, she had been absent when her patients needed her.
"What’s new about the patients?" she finally asked, opening her eyes and eting Stella’s scared ones. Already she knew it wouldn’t be a good one.
"They had the symptoms of the Grey disease, a varied coloration on their necks though, but we thought that the dicine would cure it, or at least put them underwater long enough for the constituents to work on them. But instead, it aggravated them, made them violent..."
Athena raised a brow, lifting one finger, discontinuing Stella’s reports. "What do you an by violent?"
Stella, one of the chief doctors, swallowed hard. "Violent, like mad. It’s like the dicine aggravated whatever is the causative agent. We have not seen this type... So of the nurses and the guards, who had aided in putting away the patients—about ten of them—have been quarantined too, as we figured this virus is a new one. I was sent to call on you..."
Athena nodded, clasping her hands, tears of frustration and anger burning behind her eyes. "Okay. Okay." She muttered, glancing around the room as though seeking an answer from the walls.
Inhaling deeply, she looked up, released her hands—which were beginning to sweat—and wiped them on her thighs, only to clasp them again. She bit her lip when a blinding headache started at her temples. She needed her drugs.
To Stella, she said, "You can get going. I will et you in the hospital. Keep everything contained. And thank you..."
Stella nodded, shifted on her feet like she had more to say, then thought better of it. She gave a nod to Ewan and then started out of the sitting room.
"Who brought her in? I don’t see the servants around?" Athena muttered absently, really unaware of the content of her words, as her mind was moving into overdrive.
"One of the security knocked. Luckily I was in the sitting room." As he spoke, he placed his hands gently on her shoulders.
"Breathe in, Athena."
Athena obeyed, as if operated by a remote.
"And out."
She obeyed too, even as the tears stung her eyelids. Any mont now... A tear slipped from her left eye.
"This is cruel, Ewan."
"I know, Athena. I know. But we will get past it."
She shook her head slowly, turning around—his hands falling away as a result—to face him.
"But people will die. Maybe more now than before. I’m yet to work on a cure. I’m still trying to understand the virus." Her voice cracked with the weight of it.
As much as she had anticipated this, she had hoped... oh, yes, she had hoped, that it wouldn’t be until later.
"Those people have only three days, Ewan. Three days to live. And what if more are infected—the nurses, the guards, the doctors... What if the virus is highly volatile, very communicable unlike its predecessor. What if..."
"Athena..." Ewan called softly, drawing her close to him, into his warmth, placing her head on his chest. His right hand dropped soft, steady taps on her back. "We will work everything out, I promise. You just focus on the drugs, doing the best you can, and I will focus on Eric’s news and Kael."
A pause.
"I am also sure that the country will understand the situation. You are not a superwoman, Athena. You are a doctor, and a mother. Surely, empathy will be tendered by the public. And if not, I will make them offer it."
This last statent of Ewan elicited a sad chuckle from Athena’s lips, even as she disengaged from the hug.
"And how will you do that, Iron Shoulder?"
Ewan smiled, pleased that she had gotten her humor back. What was that about Iron Shoulder, though?
"It’s a secret."
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