Emilia continued to lie in her bed, softly talking to Bill. She hoped that Bill was correct about the Blood Replenishing Potion idea. She was ready to be out of the hospital. Even though it had only been a few hours, she hated it. All hospitals were alike, even wizarding ones, and she felt nauseous just due to the fact that she was in a hospital. It brought back painful childhood memories, which she was able to suppress if she was away from those reminders of her pain. But being in a situation like she was in, she was not able to suppress those memories.

She once thought working in an animal hospital would remind her of the time her appendix was taken out, when her father was so cruel, but that never happened. The animal hospital was like a haven to her… a place where she could escape away from her father's fury.

The worst years were the years that her brother was away at university, while she still had to be home. It was difficult to escape the home when her brother wasn't there to take her some place or to defend her. She started visiting the local animal shelters more and more on those weekends. She just needed to get away from her father. He usually didn't care about her so long as she was away.

Emilia turned her head to view Charlie walking into the room, while Hermione walked slightly behind him. Her worries seemed to dissolve as soon as Charlie entered. She felt like she had someone she could rely on when Charlie was there. Gone were the days that he worried her. He was reliable and he would find a way to help her out. She was sure of that.

"You're back," Emilia said, as Charlie immediately grabbed onto Emilia's hand and gentle kissed it. He continued to hold on, while Hermione approached next to Charlie. Emilia realized Charlie wasn't afraid to admit that something was going on between the two of them. That meant a lot to her.

"Did you think I'd just go and run off?" Charlie amusingly asked.

"Well," Emilia spoke. "I guess not. I'm just happy to see you now."

"I was only away for a little bit," Charlie said. "Bill couldn't have been that terrible, could he have?"

"No, no," Emilia defended Bill. "In fact, Bill was great. I think he found something that might work against this crazy thing that's taking over my body."

"Really?" Charlie asked, while Hermione pulled a seat into the room for herself, as well as Charlie. Charlie sat down before he began to speak again. "But that's my job. I left to go find a cure, or at least someone who could find a cure. You're not supposed to figure it out. I'm supposed to help."

"Jealous much?" Bill asked. Emilia was beginning to like Bill a lot. Not only did he accept her and encourage her from the beginning, but he was pretty good at reading people, especially his brother. He seemed to know Charlie's intentions better than maybe even Charlie knew.

"What?" Charlie asked, a bit confused. "No, not at all. No, that's good. What did you think of Bill?"

"The chimaera blood infects her blood, doesn't it?" Bill asked.

"I think so," Charlie answered, wondering where Bill was going with his explanation. If he could figure out a quick way to cure her, he wanted to do it.

"The only way to get the infection out of her would be to cleanse her blood, wouldn't it?" Bill continued to explain.

"Yeah," Hermione finally said, adding input into the conversation. She saw where the explanation is going. "So you think a Blood Replenishing Potion would work?"

"Possibly," Bill answered.

"Or something more like a blood transfusion," Hermione added.

"That's what I said." Emilia was excited to have actually contributed to the conversation. She didn't know much about magic, but she knew medicine, and she wanted to show that she could help. It was her life they were trying to save after all.

"It would probably have to be something more like a total blood restoration," Hermione said, working it through her brain. "In order to get rid of all of the chimaera blood, we'd have to take all of her blood out and replace it."

"Wait. Hold on a second," Charlie said. "You can't take all of her blood out. She'd die."

"I'm having to agree with Charlie on that," Emilia said, squeezing Charlie's hand tighter. That couldn't be the cure. She wouldn't live through a total blood replacement. She knew enough about medicine in dogs to deduce that.

"You're forgetting that magic can be pretty powerful," Hermione started to explain. "I'm pretty sure I can find a spell that can keep her alive for at least a little bit without any blood in her body. We can take out the blood pretty quickly and we'd be able to give her a potion right after it's all gone. She'd only need to be kept alive for minutes, possible only seconds."

"Do you have to take all the blood away?" Charlie asked. He was concerned and he wasn't liking the idea of keeping Emilia alive by some unknown spell, while her body was without blood. He didn't know too much about healing, but he was pretty damn sure that blood was important. "Can't you just use the Blood Replenishing Potion and allow the bad blood to be filtered out?"

"I don't think that's going to work," Hermione answered. "Chimaera blood is pretty powerful stuff from what I've read. Pouring more blood into her system isn't going to help. We're going to need to get rid of all of it."

"Doesn't the chimaera blood look green to you?" Emilia asked, trying to find a way out of replacing all of her blood.

"Yeah, it does!" Charlie shouted, suddenly excited. He knew what Emilia was thinking. "We can just sort out the green blood. We don't need to replace everything."

"I don't think that's going to work," Hermione doubted.

"Way to be Ms. Positive." Charlie was beginning to get angry at Hermione. He wanted her help, not her skepticism.

"I'm not here to give false hope," Hermione explained. "I'm here to be realistic. You wanted my advice and this is it. It's not going to work because her blood is most likely already completely mixed with the chimaera blood. You can't sort that out. It's either all or nothing."

Charlie stared at Emilia hearing those words and noticed Emilia staring her eyes forward into nothingness. Her cheeks were dull and her mouth was halfway open as she breathed heavily. Charlie knew she was beginning to become afraid. She had trusted Charlie up to this point, but now Hermione was scaring her with the reality of the situation.

"Hey," Charlie said, scooting even closer towards Emilia. "It's going to be okay." Charlie started to act as if they were the only ones in the room, zoning out Bill and Hermione. "We're going to figure this out and you're going to be fine. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise."

"I know," Emilia said focusing herself away from her daze and back to Charlie's assuring eyes.

--

"I've tried paging ten times," a blond-haired lady said facing her somewhat plump boss. "She's not picking up. I have no clue where she went."

"Aren't you two friends?" the plump lady asked, flicking a piece of her black hair out of from in front of her face.

"Yes," the blond-haired lady explained. "But the last time I saw her, we were fighting."

"What exactly happened?"

"It was stupid."

"What happened, Ms. Bernard?"

"I guess I had a little bit too much to drink last night," Talia started to explain. "I went by Charlie's shack afterwards, and I saw Emilia walking out of there. I kind of got mad at her when I saw her."

"Why?" Kristen Baker asked her employee.

"I told Emilia that I liked Charlie," Talia revealed. "I thought being my friend she'd think he'd be off bounds for her. I might've jumped to conclusions, but even if she was seeing Charlie, I don't care right now. She's my best friend, and we need to find her."

"She just disappeared," Baker said. "I told her to wait while I put Yuri away, and when I came back she was gone."

"I don't think she has her pager with her," Talia said. "She always picks up, and she hasn't picked up at all now. Have you contacted the hospital? Maybe she was able to get their on her own somehow."

"Yes," Baker said desperately. "I've tried them several times, but no one fitting Emilia's description has been in."

"Keep trying the hospital," Talia demanded. "I'll go to Charlie's place to see if he knows anything."

"Fine," Baker said. "But I don't like this drama that's going on with him and you two. You're acting like teenagers."

"I know," Talia revealed. "And it won't happen again."

"Good."

--

"Thank you," Emilia said, facing Charlie. He was her hope. He was the one person who was going to help her get through this. Hermione had the brains, but Hermione wasn't exactly pleasant. She may have been realistic, but she terrified Emilia with her realities. Emilia's life was going well as of late, and she wasn't ready for such a curse upon her fate right now.

"I'm sorry Hermione was like that," Charlie said. "I guess I don't know her as well as I thought. I thought she was smart enough to know when to quit it. I guess she's not perfect."

"No," Emilia answered. "She's real. I don't blame her, I'm just glad you got her to go away for a bit. I'd rather her ideas come to her when I'm not around."

Charlie had asked both Hermione and Bill to step out in the hallway to talk, allowing for some privacy for the two and allowing for Hermione to share her views, without Emilia having to overhear them. Sometimes it was best not to hear the complete truth, especially in the development of a plan.

"Are you doing okay?" Charlie stared at her and asked her seriously.

"Yeah, I guess so. It's just weird. One moment I was perfectly healthy, walking to work. The next moment I was attacked and had you by my side and was told that I'm going crazy and there's no cure to my craziness. Life can really take that quick turn on you, can't it?"

"Yeah," Charlie answered, immediately thinking of how his life had changed. One moment he was watching his dragons in Romania, content with his life, and the next moment he was in Newberry meeting Emilia. He would have never guessed how much she could have changed his life. He would have never guessed out of the three people he met that fateful night that Emilia would be the one that captured his heart. Okay, so at least Emilia was better than that Irma girl, but Talia was the one that caught his attention. Now he couldn't even think of Talia in the same way he used to. She was a pretty girl, but she wasn't Emilia.

"Do you think I should call my brother or anyone?" Emilia suddenly asked worriedly. "Is it serious enough to let people know this is happening to me? I'd want to at least talk to my brother if something were to happen."

"I…" Charlie was afraid of the answer. He wanted to confidently tell her it was no big deal and they'd figure it out. Family wouldn't have to be called at all. But he knew that wasn't the truth. He couldn't look at her and lie to her. He'd want to know the truth as well to be able to talk to those he cared about. But he also promised her that she'd be fine. If later he realized not much was going to work, he'd tell her the truth no matter how much she'd hate him, but now there was still hope. "No, you don't need to. You're going to get better."

"Thank you," Emilia said.

"Wait a second," Charlie suddenly had an idea. "I think I know what'll help. I've got to talk to Hermione. Are you okay here by yourself for a bit?"

"I'll survive," Emilia said.

Charlie walked outside to the hallway where Hermione and Bill were talking. He listened in on them before he made his presence known.

"Even if we do that, we don't know if it'll work," Hermione spoke. "Cleaning her blood is a good idea, but what if it's already spread to the rest of her body? The blood won't even matter. She'll still have the infection elsewhere. I just don't know if that'll help."

"Can't we try?" Bill asked. "We can't just sit here and be too scared to try to help her. And the longer we wait, the more it'll spread."

"That's true," Hermione said.

"I've got it," Charlie said, jumping in. He couldn't take any more of Hermione's doubts. He had to announce his idea and hope for the best. "What about a bezoar?"

Hermione contemplated it for a second, while both Charlie and Bill stared at her, waiting for her to decide if it would work. "I'm not sure," Hermione said.

"I think it's perfect," Bill said. "It heals most poisons. Why couldn't it heal someone who's been infected with chimaera blood?"

"Is that really a poison?" Hermione asked. "It's just blood."

"But it's blood that's acting like a mood altering potion," Charlie said. "It makes whoever is in contact with it act differently. Bezoars are antidotes to some potions."

That did make a bit of sense to Hermione, but she was still not sure. "That's too easy," she said, though clearly in the back of her mind she was thinking of the time Harry used a bezoar to impress Slughorn. "I'm sure they've tried that already in trying to come up with a cure."

"I'm not sure if there've been too many people that have been infected with chimaera blood," Charlie said. "They just might not have had enough people to test the cure with. We could at least fine out."

"Fine," Hermione said, though she was still in doubt. "Why don't you ask the Healer?"

"That I will," Charlie answered, happily.

Charlie set out right away to find Healer Smethwyck. He wanted to find the cure right away and he knew he had to hurry anyways. Time was an issue, even if Charlie didn't know exactly how much time he had.

He searched around the Dai Llewellyn ward, hoping to find the Healer. He eventually did, where the man was checking into another patient's room. Charlie waited until the Healer exited the room, so that he could ask him.

"I have an idea," Charlie said, focusing into the man's bright blue eyes. Charlie realized that Healer Smethwyck always seemed to have a scowl on his face and it was especially apparent now.

"Go on," Smethwyck said encouraging him on.

"What about a bezoar? Have you ever tried that?"

"Bezoars are very difficult to come by," Smethwyck said, leaning against the white wall of the hospital. Charlie came to stand right near him, not minding the closeness in order to put pressure on the man. "We haven't had too many people infected by chimaera blood, but we've never been able to test a bezoar with any of them. They are rare and we only have them in store for things we know are sure to work."

Charlie folded his arms as he sighed. "But do you think a bezoar would work?"

"I have no way of knowing," Smethwyck said. "My guess is as good as yours."

"But you're a healer!" Charlie yelled frustrated. Smethwyck didn't seem to know at all what he was doing. Charlie couldn't understand at all how he got his position. "You should know."

"I'm sorry," Smethwyck said, as he began to walk trying to avoid Charlie's pressures. He was becoming quite uncomfortable, especially with Charlie so close to him. He knew that was Charlie's intent, but he was struggling to find out much at all about chimaera blood. "I don't even know exactly what chimaera blood does. It might infect the blood. It might infect the body. It could be a poison or it could just have an ingredient inside the blood that attacks humans in some way. I'd have to know all of that in order to find a cure."

"Well we don't have time for that." Charlie walked with brisk footsteps to keep up with Smethwyck. "She's going to change soon. We have to find a cure before that happens."

"It wouldn't hurt to try the bezoar," Smethwyck reasoned.

Charlie listened to his words carefully and realized he was right. What was the worst thing that bezoar could do? Leave a bad taste? "You're right," Charlie said as he ran off.

"Where are you going?" Smethwyck shouted.

"To find a bezoar."