All that glitters is not Gold

Thanks to samcamstargate1, goldeneyegirl and Broken Bells.

I decided to give the village the clinic is situated in a name – Villanubla.

I am sorry for the delay in my updates, but I have to write two important term papers till the end of March with an advanced course in human biology. Be patient with me.

Enjoy nonetheless.


Chapter 7: Curious Cases

The next morning, Tuesday, 9.17 am

"Charlie, tell me one thing," Tommy yelled ahead, adjusting his sunglasses, "do you guys experience any weather changes around here?" Was the sun brighter today? Or could it maybe be the fact that you and the girls had a little too much to drink yesterday? Tommy asked himself and trotted , the days down here felt as if they were repeating themselves: sunrise, rain showers, the rainforest heats up, the sun comes out, arduous heat and all compassing humidity, sunset, thunderstorm. No change. And this Tuesday had started with the same self-repeating pattern over again. As if the weather was computer-controlled, following strict re-enactment rules.

Charlie was moving over the well-walked path, not noticing the colours of the rainforest anymore, wondering if Tommy could even see the colours with his sunglasses on. "Of course, sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't."

"No kidding?" Tommy snorted, while his eyes locked onto a huge and velvety passion flower blossom above his head, brushing his sunglasses up into his hair. With the sun hitting its petals, the flower seemed to glow iridescently. "I was kind of wondering, if there is anything else besides rain or no rain? Like a storm? Fog? Maybe hail? Snow?"

Charlie stopped and turned around to face Tommy, whose interest was still focused on the passion flower. "We are in the jungle, Tommy … I'd say snow is the last weather phenomenon you can expect around here anytime soon."

Tommy shrugged and smiled at the kid, "Just wanted to know if it's shorts and thongs forever."

Charlie grinned in return, before he started walking again, smiling about Tommy's airiness. He liked Tommy very much, especially his funny and relaxed way of going about things. Charlie found that it was a welcome difference from Keeton or Cole, who were just too grown up for Charlie. Tommy on the other hand, still had an adolescent easiness about him that Charlie could relate to. Although he had to admit to himself that he liked to make fun of the white 'gringo' sometimes. Teasing Tommy about his Spanish skills, making up some fake Colombian customs or sayings with Mina and Lily, only to be able to watch Tommy using these sayings in actual conversations with others, was hilarious. However, Tommy didn't really mind, he had laughed with them every single time, not believing that he had been fooled once again. Charlie liked that: the ability to make fun of himself, and laughing about one's own stupidity with others. Charlie knew that Tommy was not only a guy you could fool around and have fun with – he had a kind heart, he cared for the people down here and he loved what he was doing. All the more tragic, Charlie thought, that he can't tell his parents about all that he's doing down here. "It's shorts and thongs as long as you like."

Tommy grinned, "Great!"

The two had been hiking through the woods for about an hour now, but Charlie still talked to Tommy about this being the 'outskirts' of the village the Clinica Cruz del Sur was situated in.

Tommy shook his head – this was way too much walking for a simple house call, let alone the fact that he didn't even know where they were. "Seriously, Charlie – you guys should put up road signs or signposts. What if anything happens to you? I wouldn't know how to get around here! I'd be lost in the forest." Tommy looked around, "Every tree looks the same."

Charlie grinned, knowing that they were close to La Cortina, a small municipality just on the outer rims of Villanubla, named after the shape of a local cliff. "You'll just get used to it with time – not every tree will look the same." With that they came around the last bend, left the rainforest and stood on the market place of La Cortina, "and not every village will."

Tommy came to a halt next to his friend. "So, this is La Cortina, huh?" The view over the ocean was nice, the deep blue felt calming, and the shape of the brownstone cliff on the southern side of the beach did look like a curtain. "Next time, we'll go by donkey," Tommy said and flipped his sunglasses back onto his nose.

Charlie chuckled, before they started towards the village's center.

Back at the clinic, Tuesday, same time:

She couldn't quite explain why, but the day had started off fairly calm. Only few people had come to the clinic, which gave Mina more time to think about her patient from yesterday. Yesterday was really nice, Mina thought, and carelessly played with a pen, her eyes not focused on anything. The cooking had been nice, the others had really liked her dinner and Mina was sure that she hadn't had that much fun with friends in a long, long time. Even as everybody had bid their good nights, Tommy, Lily, and her had stayed up. Yesterday had been a good day, Mina smiled. Yesterday! Mina suddenly thought, jumped up from her chair, grabbed the chart, turned around and bumped into Lily Brenner with an 'uff'. "Oh, I'm sorry, Lily," Mina said, gathering some loose sheets from the floor.

But all Lily could do was laugh – it started as a suppressed and quiet giggling, but soon turned into a full-hearted laughing fit, causing others to stop and take a look at the doctor. "My bad, totally my bad," she muttered between inhaling, thinking back to what Ben Keeton had told her about a certain habit of bumping into things.

Mina grinned, "You okay?"

Lily nodded and straightened herself up, cleared her throat and inhaled deeply, hoping that she wouldn't crack up again. Especially not in front of every colleague – or worse – every patient. "I'm fine, I'm fine!"

Mina had started walking again. She had a destination and a thing to check, so she left the clinic and started walking towards the kitchen – all the time accompanied by Lily. "Why are you following me?" Mina asked perplexed.

"I'm not," Lily answered, shrugging her slender shoulders, "I just wanted to ask you something … but you seem very focused, so I thought I'd wait."

Mina grinned, had reached the kitchen hut and went to the back of the corrugated shack.

Lily frowned, stopped, and second-guessed Mina's strange behaviour, sneaking around the back of the kitchen. "What are you doing here exactly, Mina? Feels like I'm about to witness a drug deal."

Mina chuckled, the shadow of the hut making her realise just how hot it already was outside, brushing her arm across her forehead and smiling at Brenner. "I'm checking on my pregnancy test." With that, Mina bend down towards three large tanks, covered with wooden or metal planks.

"Your what?"

Mina kept grinning, making a disgusted face as she reached with her arm into one of the water-filled tanks. "Believe me, yesterday, I had been as stunned as you!" Her hand came back up, dripping with water and a slimy frog between her fingers.

"Mina … don't you think one pet is about enough?"

"This is not a pet – it's my pregnancy test," Mina took another look into the tank, where her frog had stayed the last 18 hours. No eggs visible yet. "It's negative."

"Stop right there!" Lily said and brushed a few loose strands of her hair behind her ears, with her ponytail whipping slowly back and forth. "You lost me as your hand came back up with a frog!"

Mina couldn't stop grinning, "Apparently, if one wants to test for pregnancies down here, they do it with frogs. hCG triggers them to spawn."

Lily couldn't keep her eyes off the frog. It was sitting between Mina's hands, glistening with water and mucus in the daylight. "And what did you inject it with? Blood? Urine?" Lily carefully reached out to touch the frogs long, muscular, and slimy leg.

"That's the beauty of it – you can use whatever you like. Works both ways."

The beauty of it, Lily grinned about Mina's choice of words and smiled, her blue eyes shining, "Not a bad test."

"Yeah, right?" Mina put the frog back into its tank, she would come back in another six hours to check her again, "unconventional, though." But what is conventional down here, anyways? "So, what did you want?" Mina's question was directed at Lily, who still stared down to the frog tanks.

Lily's head shot back up, deliberating for a second and then finding her thoughts. "I need your expertise."

Both women had started walking back towards the clinic.

"On what?" Mina asked.

"There's this patient I have, a small boy. I thought that I was dealing with a case of scarlet fever. You know, he has the rashes, the fever … textbook example."

"I sense a BUT …"

Lily smiled softly. The sun was hitting them hard from above. Lily felt the heat on her scalp. "And here comes the BUT – I swabbed his throat and examined it for the presence of streptococcal bacteria - but there are none."

Mina frowned, tried to make sense of what Lily was telling her, making sense of the medical facts, comparing them to numerous symptoms for other diseases she had in mind. "What does your boyfriend say?"

Lily rolled her eyes and sighed. She couldn't quite understand why Mina kept calling Keeton her boyfriend. "He's not my boyfriend." It came out like something Lily was tired of saying.

"Well, while there's life, there's hope," Mina answered absentmindedly.

Lily waved the statement aside, "Stop it! Can we just focus on my case, please?" And leave Keeton aside? Would be helpful right now!

Mina held up her hands apologetically, "Hey – might I remind you that you were the one telling us that we lived in a Spanish soap opera down here?" Both women ascended the stairs to the clinic, brushing past patients and nurses, happy to be back in the shade of another building. "And since there's nothing else to pine over, let me have my fantasies, Lily! Besides, you two sometimes undress each other with your looks!"

"Undressing whom?" Ryan asked and stepped between the women.

Lily smiled, feeling as if she was blushing, but pushed Mina towards the pharmacy, "Nobody, really." And then they were gone. Inside the pharmacy, Lily came to a halt, while Mina hopped onto an empty table and observed her friend.

"Have you thought about Impetigo?" Mina asked.

Lily nodded. Of course she had – Mina might be the infectious disease specialist, but Lily was a good and clever doctor, too. She knew that the bacterial skin infection was common in pre-school children. "I did take samples from a few lesions to check for bacteria again – no Staph or Strep infection either."

"Huh," Mina said and shook her head, "strange."

Lily nodded, sighed and leaned carefully against the hardwood shelf.

"Just like my case."

Lily looked up, focusing on Mina. "What's so strange about yours?"

"Female in her mid-twenties, extreme hair and appetite loss combined with unnatural fatigue."

"Iron deficiency? Is she a vegetarian?"

Mina shook her head, "Nope. Did a complete blood cell count and I am pretty sure nobody down here has ever heard of vegetarians."

"Cancer?" Lily asked.

Mina shrugged, "Could be, of course – but that's a needle in a haystack. She doesn't even have swollen lymph nodes. I don't know where to begin looking."

"The pregnancy test is hers?"

"Yes."

Lily sighed again – what a pair they were! She thought, referring to her and Mina, trying to help each other with their cases, but yet – failing. "Welcome to the We-Suck-Club!"

Mina grinned, "I've been there for a while now, Brenner … but new members are always welcome."


Thanks for reading – and special thanks to those who take the time and review. K.


* Spanish translations and additional info in Chapter 7:

Villanubla - the name of the village/ town, in which the Clinica Cruz del Sur is situated. Somebody mentioned that the village already has a name on the show, but I couldn't remember. So, if anybody can, please let me know! Until then, the village is called "Villanubla", meaning "Cloudy village".

La Cortina - the name of the village Tommy and Charlie are visiting; it means "the curtain" :-).