Her hand was cold. Probably it had normal body temperature, but that was enough for him. Opening his eyes Jesse saw someone sitting at his bedside and smiled wearily. "Hi Amanda", he croaked, realizing that he wasn't able to do anything else. His throat felt as though he had swallowed a gravel pit.

"Hey", she said softly, "how are you?"

He grinned wryly. "Actually I had hoped you could tell me as for me I guess that I'm slowly gettin' cooked from inside."

'Won't tell you how damn right you are!', she thought sadly, caressing his cheek. "Don't worry Jess, everything is ok. You'll be fine soon." She had never before lied so cheaply.

He gave her an indignant, almost hurt look, which was even more melting than usual. "C'mon, Amanda, do ya really think I'm that dump?"

She shook her head and bit on her lip. No, he wasn't dump, he was one of the smartest people she'd ever known. He was friendly, he was kind, he was funny, he was sensitive and he was...her friend. Hardly able to avoid it, she felt tears whelming up in her. One of it rolled over her cheek, but she wiped it away immediatly, hoping that he hadn't seen anything.

But Jesse had seen enough crying people in his life to know if someone was bursting into tears. His view was blurred, but he could still recognise her slightly quivering contours and he heard her sobbing suppressingly, obviously she didn't want him to notice anything.

Not having suspected that it would cost him so much strain, he moved his fingers and after a few seconds he touched her hand. She starred at him in silent astonishment that even increased as he whispered: "Thank you!"

She sniffed one more time, then called herself to order and let out a self- tormenting laugh. "For what? For sitting here and howling? For not being able to control my emotions? Or for forgetting that you probably don't need someone to tell you what's wrong and making you feel as though I don't even know you're a capable doctor?"

Jesse patiently waited until her little speech was over. "No", he started and was suddenly interrupted by a bad cough, "for...", he stopped and chuckled shyly, "for making me feel that someone cares about me."

Now she closed hers around his hand and realising again how dreadfully hot it was, she squeezed it tightly. She didn't know how long they had been sitting there in silence. Jesse started to breath slower and calmer and drifted back to sleep.

When the door opened a crack and Mark peered askingly through it, Amanda indicated him to stay outside because she didn't want Jesse to be woken up again and then she followed Mark.

"Hey, what is it?", she enquired. The way he looked at her told her that the sight of her had to be terrible, she wiped her hand once over her face and as she scrutinized her fingers she saw make-up, which had been washed from her eyes, sticking on them.

"Steve needs an autopsy report about that guy who was knocked down in prison", Mark informed her.

Steve was nowhere to see, he had just got a phone call and had walked around a corner over to one of the windows to have a better receiving.

Amanda nodded. "No problem, let's go!"

She was already about to leave when Mark grabbed her arm gently. "You sure you're ok?"

She nodded, but it wasn't as confident as the last time. "I guess I'm ok. Just worried. Oh Mark, I'm awfully worried!" By her last words she seemed to break down, but got herself under control rather quickly. She lifted her head and looked at her old friend. "I'll go! You wanna join me?"

He knew she didn't want to be alone. And he didn't either. So they headed together for the pathology lab.





"Peter Berrow!", mumbled Steve while Amanda pulled back the covers of the corp and started with the examination. "Why do I think that I should know this name?"

Peeking over Amanda's shoulder, Mark gulped and also Amanda suddenly froze. They knew this man! And both of them exactly remembered the time they had met him.

Mark took a deep breath. "Steve, you remember the time when Jesse and I got infected with a mutated small pox virus?"

"How could I forget that?! Jesse nearly died of it and also you were not in the best condition when we had finally found the antidote!" Steve inwardly shuddered in the memory of this horrible day. The time Amanda and he had spent to follow senseless traces to find the stolen antidote, knowing that they hadn't much time left.

When Steve had pointed his gun at the man who stood in his garage, injecting himself this damn serum, which his dad and Jesse needed so urgently, he had really considered if he should pull the trigger. He almost had. Almost.

The man had watched him, his small cold eyes had pierced Steve, not even a spark of guilt had been in them. And suddenly Steve could remember him The man on the autopsy table was no one else than the man whom he had really wanted to see dying years ago.

The three of them stared at each other and didn't really know what to think.





"I don't believe that. That can't be a coincidence!", Mark paced around in the doctor's lounge, a cup of steaming coffee in his hand. He actually didn't want to drink it now, but wait 'till it was cold. It was late afternoon, but still terribly hot outside and the air conditioner still made no move to work again.

They could hear the mechanics cursing in the halls. Normally Mark hated cold coffee, but more he hated only to sit there, wondering what would happen next. Jesse's condition had become even more serious, his fever had increased and Mark in secret wondered how long he was able to battle that illness, whatever it was.

"Mark", started Amanda calmingly, "those things happen. There is not always a link or a connection between two events. Though I agree with you, it's really weird."

Steve got up, shaking his head. "I don't know, guys, my feeling tells me that there is something foul..."

"You are right, leutenant, there is something foul..." Jen Andrews was standing in the doorway, holding two files in her hand. The gang hadn't noticed her and they didn't know how long she had been listening. It didn't matter anyway.

"I have the results", she lifted her hand with the files in them. While using these as a fan, she walked over to the table and sank onto a chair, sighing absent-minded. What she was up to wasn't easy for her. Not at all.

"This is the file with the results of Peter Berrow's blood examination." She handed it out to Amanda, who opened it and quickly read the notes on the front paper. "Peter Berrow's blood was diluted?!" She confusedly starred at the young Head of the Laboratory who nodded agreeingly.

"But why? I mean he had no problems with..."

"You are right, but some one administered him anticoagulants. We just don't know how."

"That means Peter Berrow was actually murdered by someone else?" Steve didn't get much of the profession's stuff, but he clearly understood what they were talking about, though.

Jen shrugged. "More or less. His blood was strongly diluted, even a little cut would have been enough to kill him, let alone a chair onto the head." She took a deep breath. The more uncomfortable part of the news was still in the offing.

Mark seemed to read her thoughts. "What is in the other file?" He didn't believe that he really wanted to know.

The look she throw to him acknowledged his concerns. "These are the results of Jesse's blood analysis. We haven't found any toxic liquids, acids or something like that." She hung her head.

"Isn't that good?", asked Steve. The strange feeling in his stomach was stronger than before. He had also felt it when he had asked his dad if Jesse...

"I wish it would be, Steve, I really wish, but no. Fact is that there is something in Jesse's blood that makes the immunity system fight the blood corpuscles. You could say that the body is fighting against the own troops. That's causing the fever and I'm sure it's painful. But that's not the biggest problem..." She hardly could admitt it. She normally had answers for every question.

"There is no antidote...", she continued, grimacing depressedly.

A few seconds they sat just there. Mark couldn't even remember if he had breathed during this time. Amanda felt her blood pounding in her head. And she had told Jesse everything would be fine.

"But why?..." Steve looked completely stunned as he got up and build up in front of Jen. "There must be an antidote. And if you don't know it, you'll have to find it! My gosh, that's your job!!", he yelled.

Dr. Andrews was suddenly very interested in her shoes. "It's unfortunately not that easy, Sloan! We can hardly figure out what the substance consists of. The guys in the laboratory are still working on it. I haven't seen anything like this before and I can't just play Harry Potter and mix some things together and hope they help."

"But isn't there any way we could get an antidote...quickly?" Quickly, yeah, that was Mark's main concern. Jesse could hold out a lot, Mark knew that, but not for an eternity. That was impossible for any human being.

Jen looked the old doctor straightly into the eyes. These eyes were so worried, but there was still a spark of hope in them.

"My suggestion would be to find the guy who administered Jesse this stuff and ask him!" Now it was out.

"WHAT?!?!" The three cried out so loudly that the nurses in the hallway jumped almost one feet into the air.

Jen Andrews looked like a sheep that was leaded to the slaughter. Mark felt a bit guilty for shouting at her without waiting for an answer. After all she couldn't do anything about the reality.

But she didn't seem to be mad. She only pressed her lips together, then opened her mouth and started a sentence, hesitated and started again. "It's virtually impossible that could have got this illness in a 'normal' way. It somehow else got into his blood system. Considering the high dose that is in his body, I'd think that he ate or drank something that contented that poison..."

"Then it's easy!", said Steve truimphingly. The detective in him saw a chance to help his friend. "If you know how long it'd last till the poison has an effect, we'll know what he ate and..."

"The poison has an effect after about four or five hours. That's something I know definatetly. So if we count back from the time Jesse showed first symptoms..." Jen had just decided to speak as long as she was able to. She knew what no one else knew. And she was quite certain about that.

"The conference!" Amanda muttered, thinking concentratedly.

"Yeah..." Mark mumbled grimly. He had understood Jen. Looking at her told him that he was right. He took a deep breath. "The water! I gave Jesse my glass of water because there wasn't one for him..."

Steve and Amanda suddenly looked up. Mark was as pale as chalk and his fingers were clenched thightly. The feeling he had at the moment couldn't be described with words. Shock, anger, guilt...he didn't know it.

Steve could see it in his father's eyes. Somehow he was sure about what it meant, though he couldn't really figure out what it was. Mark horrorfiedly starred at his son. "I should be the one laying there, Steve. Not Jesse! It should be me!"









******Hi again! I know what you are thinking, but I promise, the story is really starting now. I just needed a bit of a run up! (Well, if you can call four chapters 'a bit') I'm sorry if I didn't get these medicine terms right, but try to write something like that with an ordinary Langenscheidt! lol

As I have loads of good friends in England and the topic came to my mind while reading some reviews of stories here, I wanna wish all British guys and everyone else, who needs it, good luck for their exams! Ich drück' euch die Daumen! ;-) ********