Disclaimer: Characters are not mine, no copyright intended
A/N: I hope you enjoy this. Comments appreciated.
"Time of death, 18:31."
Dr. Marie Leaver glanced at her watch to confirm the time and leaned forward to close the eyelids of the patient she had been tending to for the last three days. She took a step back to allow the nursing staff to prepare the body for the mortuary and tried to detach herself from the emotions she could feel stirring up inside.
She'd become a doctor because, perhaps naively, she believed she could save lives. When she lost a patient she would feel an overwhelming sense of failure. Of course, she knew that some patients were beyond help and it was simply her job to make the remainder of their life as comfortable as possible. That was relatively easy when the patient had had a long, happy life or was someone who had suffered terribly from some terminal illness and would finally be getting some relief in death. Finding a positive in cases like today's was almost impossible. This man was barely in his thirties and had presented otherwise fit and healthy. The tattoo on his upper arm bore an insignia and motto that suggested he'd served some time in one of the armed forces, and his medical records indicated that he'd not even visited his own GP for so much as a sore throat until three weeks ago.
On reflection, it was a tragedy. The patient had not responded to any of the treatments they'd tried and his condition deteriorated rapidly after being admitted to hospital. Marie thought she should have been able to save him, but she hadn't. What kind of crappy doctor was she?
Now she had to face another difficult task. The longer she dwelt on it, the harder it would get so no point in putting it off. "Nurse Jones, could you find me the contact details for his next of kin?"
"There's no next of kin listed as far as I can tell," the nurse replied, handing Marie the patient's files. "But there is a young woman in the family room waiting for news. She came in with him, think she might be his girlfriend."
Marie thanked the nurse and set off to the family room to go and look for the girlfriend. She found her curled up on the sofa in the private area and put a hand on her shoulder to make her sit up. As she did, she realised that she was very obviously pregnant. As if this wasn't hard enough already, Marie now had a fatherless child on her conscience.
The girlfriend was called Lucy, and after she'd informed her of her boyfriend's death as clinically and emotionlessly as possible, Marie left her in the capable hands of the resident bereavement counsellor. She was glad she didn't have to provide the shoulder to cry on because right now all she wanted was a shower and some sleep. It had been a long day and she only had five hours before she was due back on shift. Deciding it was pointless going all the way back to the flat she shared with another young doctor, she found a private room just off one of the wards and shut herself away to try and catch a couple of hours sleep and to clear her head. Tomorrow was another day and maybe there'd be a life that she could save.
-o-
"Need you to sign a release form for me, Dr Leaver," Andy Price said. He worked at the hospital mortuary and only ventured up onto the wards to collect a recently deceased patient.
"Release form?" Marie took the paperwork from Andy and flicked through it.
"Your patient, the guy that died last night – Scott Byard. They're doing a full post mortem on him this afternoon."
Marie frowned. "Is that really necessary? His GP had been treating him for three weeks before he was admitted here, and he's been under my care for three days."
"Orders from the Department of Health apparently," Andy sniffed. "This is the fifth death in a month with the same symptoms."
Marie looked at the files. Four other deaths, three men and one woman, in their early thirties. All had been previously healthy and presented initially with severe flu-like symptoms that gradually worsened over the period of two to three weeks until hospitalisation was needed.
"I still don't understand," Marie said. "These deaths are miles apart and there's nothing that could possibly link them. Hardly an epidemic is it."
"Just following orders," Andy said. "If this is some new, deadly strain of flu or meningitis then they want the scientists working on a vaccine before there are more deaths and it does become an epidemic."
Marie shook her head and signed the form, handed it back to Andy and went off to see what was waiting for her in the men's general medical ward.
##
Suzanne Griffiths switched on her Ipad and waited for today's edition of the 'Daily Telegraph' to download. She pulled her duvet around her and tried to focus on the screen. This flu had dragged on for almost two weeks now and she felt no better. In fact, if anything she felt worse. She'd decided that she'd go back to her doctor if she still didn't feel any better after the weekend and ask for some blood tests or something.
She skimmed over various new articles trying to find something of interest. She paused on an item in the medical section because a name caught her eye. Scott Byard. She'd trained with him for some years before they'd been sent on their separate assignments and it was quite a shock to read of his untimely death. As she read on, she noted that there had been other deaths with similar circumstances. Although she didn't recognise their names, she knew exactly what and who they were. She was one of them too, and if five were already dead then she needed to try and warn the other fourteen before it was too late for them.
It was easier said than done. Although the twenty soldiers had trained as one unit, they were discouraged from forming any kind of relationship with each other to make being sent on their individual assignments easier. They weren't even supposed to know each other's names, but she'd become friendly with two guys anyway. With Scott dead, she only had one other name to go on. She had to find him.
Getting dressed as quickly as possible, Suzanne headed straight out of the door. She had no idea where to start her search but she knew she had to do something. It had been several days since she'd set foot outside the house and the cold, fresh air made her feel light headed. Just before she hit the pavement, she felt someone catch her and ease her slowly down onto her back. The passer-by had seen her sway and managed to stop her fall.
Suzanne desperately tried to keep herself awake so that she could ask someone to find her friend and warn him. She knew that once she closed her eyes, she probably wouldn't wake up again and she would be the sixth victim of whatever this illness was.
"It's OK, Miss," a soft voice said. "There's an ambulance on the way. Is there someone I should call for you? Your husband?"
"My friend," Suzanne managed to gasp out. "Please tell my friend, Matt Anderson. He needs to know that..."
And then it all went dark.
##
James Lester couldn't quite understand why the Minister had insisted that he should come and see this woman and not Matt himself. There'd been a heated discussion and the words 'security breach' bandied around. Matt essentially shouldn't have been known outside of the ARC or the Home Office, so the fact an unknown woman was asking for him set off all sorts of alarm bells.
It had also been decided that Matt shouldn't be told about her yet, it could be a mistake or she could simply be some ex-girlfriend of his looking him up. Or she could be some crazed lunatic with malicious intent. It was too risky – although it was OK for Lester to go and meet her and put himself in potential danger.
Lester stood at the side of the woman's bed, feeling incredibly awkward. He'd never seen anyone looks so ill before, and now he knew exactly what "death's door" looked like. He shuddered and then prepared himself to quiz a dying woman about how she knew Matt and why she needed to speak to him.
He turned to the nurse that was checking the IV line. "Is it possible for Miss Griffiths and I to have a few moments alone?"
"Of course, Mr Anderson. If you need anything, just press the alarm button at the side of bed." She smiled and left Lester alone with Suzanne.
"You're not Matt," Suzanne said as soon as the door closed.
"I'm afraid he wasn't able to come, so he sent me in his place instead."
"I don't believe you. Why should I?"
Lester pulled out his wallet and showed her his Home Office ID card. Suzanne's eyes widened. "Matt got the assignment at the ARC?"
Lester felt uneasy. How on earth could this woman know about the ARC unless... "You're like him, aren't you? You came from the future to try and find out who interfered with the anomalies."
"There were twenty of us," Suzanne began, then had to stop speaking because of a fit of coughing.
Lester waited patiently for her to stop and then cleared his own throat. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that more than just one person was sent." He hoped she'd tell him more, but Suzanne was clearly struggling so he didn't want to push for any more than he needed. "You said you needed to speak to Matt? That there was something you needed to tell him?"
"We're all dying," she gasped. "Five already dead in the last month, and I'll be the sixth."
"I'm sure that's not..."
"Read the files. It's too late to save me, but Matt and the others..." She began to cough again, clearly getting weaker by the second.
"There's a cure if we get it to them early enough?"
"I don't know." Suzanne closed her eyes and Lester sensed she was slipping away.
"Miss Griffiths, I need more information if I'm going to help Matt. Is this some kind of disease from the future?"
"We all knew of the potential consequences of our changing the past," she said, her voice almost a whisper. "But at the same time, the consequences of us not doing it were far worse." She sighed and her face changed. A look of peace. Lester knew she'd passed away and he stood up and pressed the alarm button to summon the nursing staff. He watched helplessly as they tried in vain to resuscitate her, then slowly slipped away un-noticed. He had no place here now and he should let the staff do their job.
He paused only to re-gather his composure and headed to the car park. Watching someone die in front of his eyes was an experience he didn't care to repeat, and yet it was in the back of his mind that this was not over. How on earth did he tell Matt that he could possibly be about to die and that they had no idea how to save him?
