Leo was buried elbow deep in the chest cavity of a victim when his mobile rang from his pocket. Sighing to himself he let it ring, he would see who it was after he had cleaned himself up. His phone stopped ringing and Leo went back to the body in front of him but when it rang another two times he got worried. Extracting himself from the deceased he pulled off his gloves and washed his hands before pulling out his phone and seeing he had three missed calls from Harry. He re-dialled the number on the screen and it was picked up almost instantly.

"What were you doing?" came Harry's voice instantly down the phone and Leo could tell by the tone of voice something was wrong.

"I was elbow deep in a chest cavity if you must know" Leo replied "What's wrong?"

"Nikki went into shock and I had to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital" came Harry's reply and Leo could tell he was fighting tears.

"It was that bad?" Leo asked and Harry made a noise of confirmation. As Leo was about to continue the doors to the cutting room burst open and a exhausted looking lab tech ran in, not bothering to scrub up. Leo was about to ask why when a folder was thrust upon him by the young male.

"The results from Dr Alexander's tox on the deceased farmer" the man panted and Leo opened the folder to see what the rush was about. He saw what was written on the page and looked up at the young lab tech who nodded solemnly.

"It was run twice to make sure but it is correct"

"Harry…" Leo started but his phone was dead where Harry had hung up "Shit" he swore, surprising the lab tech. He then rushed from the cutting room telling the lab tech to call someone to clean up the body he was working on and he then made his way as quickly as he could towards his office where he closed his door and picked up the phone, hesitating slightly as he did so.

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"Sir could you tell me how long your wife has been ill?" the doctor at the hospital asked Harry as Nikki was wheeled into a room behind them.

"Um..three days" Harry replied "We called the doctor and he said it was just the flu"

"I'm afraid it's more serious than that sir" the doctor informed him "What is Nikki's job?"

"We're both pathologists" Harry told him "She was working on a body from a farm I think..nothing to hard, he apparently died of alcohol poisoning. There was nothing to suggest anything else. Can I see Nikki?"

"I'm afraid not Dr..?"

"Cunningham" Harry replied quietly and another doctor walked up to them, he spoke in whispers to the other man who then walked away and left the new doctor with Harry.

"I'm Dr Roland Winters" he introduced himself "You may work my brother, Paul Winters"

"Oh yes" Harry nodded "Nikki was…" he stopped himself as he thought of the state his wife was in in the room behind him "What's wrong with her?" he asked weakly "She was alright a few days ago"

"What was she working on?" Dr Winters asked and led Harry into a room where they both sat down on chairs that lined the room "In your line of work you can be exposed to..things that other people aren't"

"She was working on a farmer who had apparently died of alcohol poisoning" Harry tried to remain calm as he recalled the details of Nikki's work "Everything pointed to it but Nikki sent some blood to tox just to make sure, she hadn't got the results before she was ill though"

"Have any of the other people who have been exposed to the body had the same symptoms as your wife?" Dr Winters enquired and Harry shook his head.

"Not that I know of. I think we would have known if there was"

"Okay thank you" the doctor nodded and stood up "We're doing tests on your wife at the moment to see what we can do for her"

"Can I see her please?"

"I'm afraid that's not possible at the moment Dr Cunningham" Dr Winters shook his head and Harry knew he was really sorry "Is there anyone you can call?"

"Yeah" Harry mumbled and nodded as the door opened and a young man poked his head in and asked to see Dr Winters in the hallway.

"We've just had a call from the pathology lab where Dr Cunningham and Dr…Cunningham?" the younger man asked as he looked at Nikki's record in front of him.

"Dr Alexander" Harry told him as he walked past them "She kept her maiden name for work"

"Thank you" the young doctor replied and waited until Harry was out of ear shot before continuing "We've had a call from the pathology lab, they've had the tox results back from the deceased farmer that Dr Alexander was working on and it says he died of.." he looked around and whispered "anthrax"

"You're joking?" Dr Winters asked even though he knew there was no joke "She's had the flu symptoms for three days, you know what that means"

The young man just shrugged slightly and shook his head.

"We can do our best for her, that's it" he paused and looked the way Harry had gone to make a phone call to Leo "Shall I tell him or you?"

"I'll do it" Dr Winters sighed "He will know what it means as soon as I tell him what she has been infected with" he looked around "Keep this between us and the staff caring for her. There is no transmission of anthrax between an infected human to a non-infected human but we don't need a panic"

Yeah so I researched anthrax poisoning as I said in the chapter before, it was rather interesting actually.

xxx