Lost and Found
By: Jackie & Athena13
We are not doctors, so if this is mumbo jumbo please excuse us
Chapter 2
"No! I'm not going anywhere and I have nothing to say to you right now!"
Patrick stopped in his steps and moved closer to the file room door, listening for what had sounded to him like the self-contained Doctor Scorpio yelling at someone. Someone not himself. With a smirk he pressed his ear to the door.
"But, Sweetheart. This virus…"
"Don't Sweetheart me! I have work to do. You can certainly understand that!"
Hearing footsteps storming towards the door Patrick had just enough time to jump back as the door was pulled open and Doctor Robin Scorpio stormed out past Patrick, not even sparing him a glance.
Patrick watched her stalk down the hall, surprise and curiosity marking his handsome features. He had never seen Robin Scorpio so riled up, not even by him. Curious, he walked into the file room to find an older looking man without hospital ID standing there looking frustrated. Patrick could relate; he often found himself feeling that way after an exchange with the short doctor.
"And you would be?" he asked imperiously.
The older man looked at Patrick in askance, clearly surprised to be so abruptly addressed by the young doctor. He answered nonetheless. "I guess the secret's out of the bag now. I'm Robert Scorpio."
"Scorpio. As in?" Patrick pointed a thumb over his shoulder towards the door Robin had just stormed through.
"Her father."
"Father? I'd heard that you were, um, dead."
"Clearly the stories of my demise were greatly exaggerated. Or maybe not so much." He looked towards the door. "She's got her mother's fire and my stubbornness."
"Really?" Patrick crossed his arms, readying himself for some gossip about the thorn in his side who took such good pleasure in dispensing advice about his relationship with his father.
"Another time, perhaps, Doctor Drake. I'm with the Medical Rescue Agency. We have a situation to deal with here. I need to see Doctor Quartermaine now."
"This hospital is now officially locked down and quarantined. No one goes in or out without my say so." Robert turned to his men and ordered them to fan out amongst the crowd. Alan Quatermaine, in the meantime, moved forward and began to assign personnel to various posts and duties, announcing the cancellation of all non-essential surgeries and other proclamations that Robert had ordered him to put in place.
"Doctor Scorpio," Robert's strong Aussie tones broke through the murmur of the bustling crowd.
Grim-faced Robin turned from her conversation with the members of her lab to face her father. He walked over to her holding a folder which she silently took and began to rifle through.
"You do good work. I want you to work on..."
"She needs to leave." Mac came up behind his brother, his voice laced with anger.
Patrick, standing nearby nodded in agreement and moved closer. Robin had refused to look him in the eyes since he had found her tossing files around angrily at the Nurse's station. When he had seen how close to tears she was, he tried to pull her aside but she went at him with both barrels, throwing his own words back into his face about not running her life and not knowing her or her father. Before he could argue his way past her angry barbs Robert and Alan had gathered everyone and instituted the lock down.
Robin looked up at her Uncle and her Father facing off against each other. "I'm not going anywhere," she informed them.
"She's probably more susceptible to this than anyone else, right?" Mac asked.
"I tried to get her to leave, but I guarantee you she won't be working with patients, she'll be in the lab," Robert said impatiently.
"Will you be safe there?" Mac asked Robin, clearly pissed at his brother's seeming lack of concern.
"I've already been exposed if it's been in this hospital. I know the risks and the precautions." She put her hand on her Uncle's arm to calm him down. "I'm not abandoning my job to sit home and wait for people to die so I can be all right, maybe."
"Robert, good to see you." Noah Drake walked up to Robert and held out his hand. "I can help Robin in the lab."
Robert shook his old friend's hand and with a look at his implacable daughter he started to turn away, just then something, or someone, caught his eye. He turned back to his daughter, his eyes lasering in on her face for a reaction.
"Luv, I have a colleague from WHO here to work with you in the lab. Top virologist. He's been following this virus for a while."
As he spoke, a tall dirty blond man who looked more like a surfer than a world-famous virologist appeared through the crowd.
"I believe you know each other, Sweetheart."
Robert's words, however, weren't necessary. Robin's face confirmed the fact that she knew this man and was less than pleased to see him. Yet, within moments her expression changed and she took a step back, looking back and forth between the tall doctor and her father, knowledge clearly dawning in her expression.
"Robin, good to see you again," the Doctor said in clipped English tones as he stepped forward to greet her.
She shook her head and took another step back; bumping into Patrick whose hands shot out and clasped her shoulders.
"You work for him." She quietly accused the man as she wrenched herself out of Patrick's grasp. "You son of a bitch!"
"It's not what you think, not entirely," the man moved forward again to defend himself.
"Don't bother." Robin's face settled into an expression of quiet fury as she looked up at him. "I'll work with you, but I won't talk to you. I'll be in the lab." As she turned she caught a sympathetic look from Noah and forced a small smile at him before walking away.
"What was that about?" Patrick asked his father, impatience at the connection between the young doctor and his father evident in his voice.
"What can I say, she likes me." Noah clapped her son on the shoulder and went after Robin.
Patrick turned and faced the other man who seemed to throwing Robin off her game. "Now who the hell are you?"
Lab #7
"Here's what I have so far on this virus." Simon held out a memory key.
Careful not to touch his fingers, Robin took the mini computer data storage drive and walked into her glass enclosed office at the side of the lab. She got behind her desk and slid the memory stick into her laptop and waited for the data to be called up. As the colorful diagram of the virus filled her flat screen monitor she sat down, now engrossed by the information unfolding in front of her.
"This is either an obviously engineered virus or it's a mutation like I've never seen before. And it causes the same symptoms as regular encephalitis," Simon said, a determined look in his blue eyes as he watched Robin study the data and moved in closer behind her.
Robin looked up at Simon as Noah sat down on the other side of the desk, Patrick following closely behind to take the other chair.
"It hits faster and stronger than a normal virus and we haven't found an antiviral that will work in the lab or the field."
"This started as a standard herpes simplex virus." Robin grabbed a pad and pen and began to jot down notes. "Symptoms? Any different ones?"
"None. Generally patients with encephalitis suffer from fever, headache, vomiting, confusion, drowsiness and photophobia. Basically, it presents like flu, which is how GH has been classifying these patients until today." Simon directed his commentary mainly to Noah and Patrick who were looking at the paper files that Simon had handed them as Robin looked at the more detailed analysis on her screen. "Less common symptoms are stiffness, clumsiness, all depending on the area of the brain affected. You won't know yet if these are presenting because they are often hidden by the more common symptoms – fever, photophobia."
"The symptoms are just a result of the brain's attempt to fight off the infection," Robin continued, looking at Noah and Patrick for the first time, nothing showed on her face now except concentration for the task at hand. "Ultimately, what occurs is brain swelling, small intracranial bleeds and cell death. What area of the brain are we talking about here? How fast?"
"Same. Temporal Lobe, except in children when it can hit any area. Matter of days." Simon ran a hand through his spiky bleached blond hair.
"Not good." Robin Leaned back in her chair and looked up at Simon, looking more worried than before. "The drugs we worked on to halt and back-track the effects of encephalitis in the brain?"
"Have helped brain healing in those who naturally fought off the virus, but nothing has proven effective in stopping this particular virus." Simon sat down on the corner of her desk, his concentration completely on her. "It takes advantage of gene activation."
"Perhaps if I had seen this particular virus before," Robin bit out with a glare. She held up a hand when Simon opened his mouth to respond. "Don't, there's no point now."
"Of course there is." Simon leaned over Robin. "We work best when we're yelling and screaming at each other." He turned and looked at the two Drakes. "We're famous for our battles in the lab that lead to brilliant results."
"So you worked together?" Patrick asked, looking back and forth between the two doctors, noting Simon's amusement and Robin's death glare.
"Yes. We worked together. Have you looked at genetics? Maybe there's a gene that helps people combat this virus permutation?" Robin continued.
"There's only three survivors alive. There were more, but they eventually succumbed to other illnesses or causes of death."
"It weakened their immune systems?" Robin asked, worried about the long-term effects.
"It doesn't appear to be the case. The cases have all been in third world locations where other conditions have caused death."
"I want DNA samples, blood. Can you get those?" Robin stopped and frowned. "We're going to need a lot of ventilators."
"The ventilators are on their way. The CDC is helping coordinate. The data on the blood samples are on the key."
"I need actual blood and samples, you know that."
"I'll get it."
"And how did this virus get here?" Robin asked.
"The monkey Luke brought back with him from wherever he was," Patrick said.
"Where's the damn monkey?" Robin and Noah shared a knowing look on Luke's propensity for attracting trouble. Heck, finding it.
"You're not getting near the monkey." Patrick stood up, his voice edged with warning.
"I need to study…" Robin stood up and glared up at him.
"We'll get you samples. You're not going near the monkey and that virus. You won't listen to your father and leave, but you damn well will stay in this lab," Patrick insisted.
"Because you haven't already been exposed and aren't carrying it into my lab right now." Robin continued, ignoring Patrick's curse at her truth of her point. "Just get me blood samples from the monkey and from Luke and all of the patients. We have a lot of brilliant minds to work with here. Let's get this solved."
Simon and Noah walked out to get started coordinating the gathering of samples, Patrick, however, lingered behind.
"What?" Robin lifted up her pad and was about to head back into the lab to organize
"I want you to let me or someone know if you feel even the slightest bit sick."
"I can take care of myself. I've lived with HIV for a long time."
"Can you accept that we're all going to be extremely busy and we need you well?"
Robin nodded and they stood looking at each other for another moment before Patrick turned and walk away.
"Patrick," Robin called out before he was out the door. "Be careful." He turned, gave her a brief nod before disappearing from view.
