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Chapter 15:
Eddie woke up the next morning feeling elated, she was starting to finally feel secure in herself. She had a boyfriend she loved dearly and was back on good terms with Liam too. She just wished she didnt feel so nauseous today. She hadn't been feeling herself for the last few weeks but had put it down to the heat in Afghanistan. She tried not to let the sick feeling dampen her mood. She got showered and dressed and went to meet Luc for breakfast as usual. When she arrived at his tent he was alone.
"Morning" she said with a smile after he had told her to come in and she had saluted him.
"Morning my dear" replied Luc in a equally happy mood. He walked over to her and gave her a good morning kiss.
"How are you this morning?" he asked.
"Feeling a bit queasy" she replied. "Are you ok?" she continued.
"Yes, fine. Why?" he asked concerned.
"Oh, nothing. I thought it might be due to something I ate but I had the same as you last night so it mustn't be that. Probably just the heat getting to me" she replied.
"I can run a few tests on you if you want, now where's my stethoscope!" he said with a cheeky smile.
"That'd be fun, but we have to get to work soon" she replied smiling. " Come on, lets get breakfast" she continued while heading for the door.
They made their way to the mess tent and got in the queue to be served. Billy was behind the counter serving as usual but Eddie noticed he wasnt his usual self.
"Hello Billy, are you ok? You dont seem your usual self this morning?" Eddie asked concerned when it was her turn to be served.
"I had a call from home this morning, my little Tommy is in hospital, he's not good" replied Billy sadly.
"What's wrong with him?" asked Eddie.
"That's just it, they dont know" replied Billy.
"What are his symptoms?" asked Luc.
"Vomiting, fever, diahorrea, and he's dehydrated. They've run all the usual tests but can't find anything wrong" replied Billy almost in tears.
"Oh, Billy. I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure they'll figure it out" replied Eddie as she grabbed his hand to comfort him.
"I dont know what we'd do if anything happened to him" replied Billy sadly.
"We'll say a few prayers for him" said Eddie.
Billy wiped his eyes and replied "Thanks, that means alot" with a sad smile. He went about serving their breakfast.
Eddie and Luc made their way to a table and sat down. They started eating their breakfasts.
"It must be so hard to know your child is sick and there's nothing you can do because you're thousands of miles from them" Eddie said. "Billy's such a sweet guy. He was so good to get you the strawberries for me yesterday. I wish there was more we could do for him" Eddie continued.
"Yes, he's a great guy" replied Luc absent mindedly. "That's it, the strawberries!" cried Luc as he got up from the table in a hurry.
"What?" asked Eddie but Luc was already at the food counter.
"Billy, you said yesterday that your wife grows her own vegetables organically, right?" asked Luc.
"Yes" replied Billy puzzled.
"What fertilizer does she use?" asked Luc.
"She uses farmyard manure she gets from a local farmer, why?" replied Billy.
"I was hoping you'd say that. I think I know what's wrong with Tommy then. Come on, we need to call your wife" replied Luc. Luc and Billy ran out of the mess tent and headed for the communications tent where the phones were.
Billy grabbed a phone and tried calling his wife's mobile but it went to voicemail. "Damn, she must have it switched off" said Billy.
"What hospital is he in?" asked Luc running to a computer.
"Leeds hospital" replied Billy. Luc got the number for the hospital on the internet and Billy rang the hospital. They got through to the children's ward. They were put through to the doctor treating Tommy and Luc took the telephone.
"Dr Patel, nice to speak to you. My name is Dr Hemingway and I am a family friend of Tommy's. His father has told me his symptoms and I wanted to ask if you have tested him for a Cryptosporidium infection yet?" asked Luc.
"No" replied Dr Patel.
"I believe Tommy could have come into contact with it in his mother's garden. Can you test him for it?" asked Luc.
"Yes, I'll get onto it straight away" replied Dr Patel. Luc handed the telephone back to Billy who thanked the doctor and asked him to ask his wife to call him.
Billy turned to Luc and asked, "What is that you're getting him to test for?".
"It's a parasitic infection you can pick up from contact with farmyard manure and unclean water. It doesnt show up in the normal tests you'd do for an infection, there's a special test for it. If it is a Cryptosporidium infection then they can give Tommy some special drugs and he should recover it a few days" explained Luc.
"God, I hope you're right" said Billy.
"So do I" replied Luc. They headed back to the mess tent.
Luc rejoined Eddie who was just finishing her breakfast. "What was all that about?" asked Eddie.
"Oh, I was just asking Tommy's doctor to perform another test on him" replied Luc innocently.
"You can't help yourself, can you?" replied Eddie smiling. Luc quickly ate his breakfast and they headed out of the mess tent.
They were heading to the hospital to start their shifts when Private Nicholson approached them. He saluted Luc and Eddie. "Camp Commander Davis would like a word with you both. Can you follow me?" asked Nicholson.
Luc and Eddie were brought into the Commander's office. Luc and Eddie saluted the Commander who saluted them back.
"Good morning, I'm afraid something has been brought to my attention and I need to ask you both if it is true" the commander said.
"Yes, Commander" replied Luc and Eddie in unison.
"I have been told that the two of you are in a romantic relationship with each other and as you know this is against the rules of the army. Is this true?" asked the commander.
Luc and Eddie looked at each other. "I'm afraid it is true commander" replied Luc, he didnt see the point in denying it.
"You are both very good at your jobs and your clinic trial is very important to the army, Dr Hemingway, so I am not going to report you. However, I must ask that one of you requests a transfer off this base immediately. I will give you 24 hours to decide which of you is to transfer" replied the commander.
"Yes, sir" replied Luc and Eddie in unison. They left the office in shock. However, as they left the commander's office a helicopter of injured soldiers landed on the helipad and they were both called into action treating them. They'd have to leave discussing their problem until later.
Chapter 16:
Later that day, Eddie had a few minutes to herself in the hospital. She had been thinking about Billy's son Tommy and something crossed her mind. She went to the hospital store cupboard and picked out a testing kit. She took it to the toilet with her. She sat looking at the result on the test kit in shock. Wow, I wasnt expecting that, she thought to herself. She smiled to herself.
After her shift was over, she made her way to the commander's office and asked to speak to him. She was leaving his office 10 minutes later when she ran into Luc.
"Hey, what were you doing in there?" Luc asked.
"Come on, we need to talk" replied Eddie as she caught Luc by the hand and lead him to his lab where she knew they could talk in private.
"Eddie, what's going on?" asked Luc nervously.
"I solved our problem, I handed in my resignation to the commander" she replied.
"Why, you didnt need to do that? One of us could have just transferred to Camp Bastion" he replied.
"Luc, I only have a few weeks left here and besides, I thought it was the best thing to do for the sake of the baby" she replied smiling.
"What baby?" asked Luc puzzled.
Eddie walked up to him and took his hand in her hand. She placed his hand on her stomach. "Our one in here" she said beaming.
"You mean you're..." asked Luc.
"Yep, I did a test earlier" she replied. "It must have happened that night in the hotel for your birthday" she continued.
Luc grabbed her and lifted her up off the ground, twirling her around. When he put her down, he kissed her passionately on the lips. When they had finished kissing she said "I take it you're happy about this then".
"The happiest man on the planet" Luc replied beaming.
When they had finished celebrating their news, Eddie explained that she would be leaving for the U.K. two days later with a group of soldiers who were returning home.