A/N I'm not sure if this counts as an Anita Blake crossover or just an AU because I'm not using any of the characters from the books, only the idea of lycanthropes (were-animals) as described in them. You don't need to have read the books to read this fic.
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"Hi Mrs Deacon, I'm Dr Valleta." She smiled at the old woman sitting neatly on the hospital bed, clutching a large purse and looking more than a little scared.
"The nurse says you've been having some abdominal pain, do you think I could examine you and maybe see what the problem is?"
The woman nodded and put her purse down by the side of the bed. "I wouldn't usually make a fuss, but it's really been quite bad lately."
"OK, we'll take a look, just let me know where it hurts"
When the exam was finished, Valleta said "So, we're going to need to do a few more tests. I'll send someone along in a little while to take you for a scan."
"That sounds serious" said the woman, looking anxious.
"There's nothing for you to worry about right now, I just want to be thorough" This seemed to reassure her patient, who leaned over and pulled a half-knitted sweater out of her bag. "Might as well keep myself busy while I wait!" she said, as the needles started clicking merrily.
"OK then" Valleta left the cubicle and headed for the desk. "Hey, Frank, curtain 2 needs an MRI, suspected liver cancer"
"Sure, add it to the list, I'll be there in no time"
She ignored the sarcasm in his voice and carried on filling in Mrs Deacon's chart. She'd known it was cancer as soon as she'd gotten near enough to the patient to smell the familiar sickly sweet smell. Still, before she could go any further she had to check the diagnosis using normal medical procedures – she used her lycanthrope instincts to point her in the right direction but then it had to be backed up with scientific fact. Not that she'd ever been wrong…but still, she understood why. She'd lost count of the times her diagnoses had been confirmed and other doctors had looked at her, half envious, half suspicious and said "But how do you do that?". She normally gave some vague but convincing lie about it being some kind of sixth sense, an intuition of sorts, because it was easier that way. If you said that you could tell people were sick because they smelled sick, the question inevitably arose "So what do people normally smell like?" She'd told the truth once or twice, just often enough to know that humans really didn't like hearing it. Healthy people smelled…tasty, like hamburger meat, a vague, delicious aroma that she hardly even noticed anymore. But people didn't react well to a lycanthrope telling them they smelled like food, so she'd learned to keep it to herself.
"Dr Valleta?" She looked up and didn't immediately recognise the doctor in front of her – wait, wasn't he from the Diagnostics department? Dr…Cameron – no, that was the girl.
"I'm Dr Chase, I work in-
"Diagnostics isn't it?" He looked flustered, she thought. She could hear his heart beating a little faster than normal and he clearly hadn't been home in a couple of days as she could smell his body odor coming through over the general hospital smells. Case couldn't be going well.
"Yes. I was hoping you might have five minutes to take a look at our patient. He-"
"Look, I'm pretty busy with a few patients of my own. Note the plural." Valleta had only been at PPTH for a little over a month, but she'd already managed to develop the feeling of resentment that a lot of the staff had towards the Diagnostics department with their light caseload, their preferential treatment from the Dean and their maverick – to put it politely – department head.
"Do you think you could put your grudges to one side for five minutes and give me a chance to explain?"
She could hear the strain in his voice and felt a twinge of pity. That feeling of having a patient slipping away from you and not know what to do to stop it, every doctor knew what that was like."OK, go ahead."
"We've got a 10 year old male, his kidneys have failed and his liver's going the same way. We've gone through about six different possible diagnoses but nothing fits all of the symptoms. It just doesn't seem to make sense" Chase's words tumbled out as he tried to explain the situation. "Our first guess was a toxin, but none of the tests have shown anything, so the others have moved on to testing for infections, but…"
"But?" Valleta prompted.
"But…I'm not convinced. Do you think you could just take a look at him?"
She sighed, thinking of the one hundred and one things demanding her urgent attention in her own department. But five minutes to help steer them in the right direction….
"Alright, lead the way"
Chase let out his breath. "Thank you," he said, turning and heading out of the ER.
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When they reached the patient's room, it was dark and quiet.
"We told the parents to go home, get some rest, and they actually listened for a change."
Valleta was relieved at not having to explain her presence in the room. She approached the boy lying in the bed, noting his thin frame and shock of dark hair. His breathing was difficult and his skin had a slight jaundiced tone. The dialysis machine whirred quietly at his bedside. "It's not a toxin" she pronounced. "Some kind of infection, maybe in the blood." She turned to look at Chase. "Sorry for nuking your theory" she said, with an apologetic smile.
"Don't worry, with a boss like mine I really am used to it. It's just good to have some idea where we should be looking."
She could see the relief on his face, and felt glad she'd taken the time to help.
Chase followed her out of the room. "So…"
"Here it comes" she thought, trying not to roll her eyes.
"-how exactly do you do that?"
She paused. "Well, it's just kind of a sixth sense I guess," shrugging her shoulders.
Chase narrowed his eyes and gave her an appraising look. "Right, yeah, thanks, that's really made it clear to me" he said dryly.
Valleta flushed a little and looked away. "See you around"
"Yeah. And…thanks."
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A/N Any offers of a beta would be appreciated, especially to let me know when I'm letting Britishisms slip in. Ta!