"We have a problem." Elizabeth didn't have time to respond before Dr. Patrick Drake was dragging her down the hallway. On a normal day, the hall would have been familiar. Considering that it was the one she'd travelled so often in the past six hours, volleying between the NICU and Luis's room, it was even more familiar.

Elizabeth was practically thrown into the room, and was only inches away from Carly when she stopped the forward momentum. Any other time, the two would find something to argue about instantly. Right now, they apparently had something in common. They had people they cared about in this hospital, growing increasingly worse.

"He's getting worse, and it's not the fever." Patrick turned towards Luis, his back to Diego. "His test results are coming up increasingly erratic, and we can't find his brother. Carly doesn't know what the problem would be. Do you know what could be causing this?"

"Me?" She looked up at him confused. "I'm not a doctor. I'm not even a scientist. I'm just a nurse."

"You're also the closest person to him, next to his brother."

Elizabeth shook her head. "Where is Lorenzo?" She turned to Carly and asked again, "Where did Lorenzo go? Wouldn't he know what's wrong?"

"I sent him to get something to eat. He was driving me crazy with the pacing." Carly sighed and Elizabeth thought the woman had to have been extremely worried for her to be giving up so much information. The two were usually very curt with one another. A dislike stemming from affections over Jason turned into bitter resistence over the Alcazar that she had less use for than the other. "I know as little about Luis Alcazar as I can survive without knowing. You're his girlfriend. If anybody other than Lorenzo knows, then you would."

Elizabeth hated that the ball was in her court. The doctors didn't know anything. Lorenzo wasn't around. But, maybe if she waited long enough, Lorenzo would return and she would be out of the hot seat. There was so much medical history at the front of her mind from Cameron, that she didn't know if there were room for anything regarding Luis.

Though, she was grateful that he was unconscious. She'd spent so much time travelling the halls because she could only handle so much of his conversation. His lucid times were so laden with coughs and shivers that her heart broke for him. She could barely stand to watch it. His delusional moments were filled with confessions of love that no one in this room needed to hear. Especially considering that they were all things he probably wouldn't have said were it not for his fever.

And yet, according to Patrick, this had nothing to do with his fever. But, something was making him delusional. Something was also pushing him further and further to the top of the list of worse cases. For all she knew, there wasn't time to wait for Lorenzo to return.

Elizabeth racked her brain, and she thought that she was thinking too hard. It should have been on the tip of her tongue. She was just confident enough to believe that Luis had told her everything she would ever need to know about his medical situation. He'd told her even more when she agreed to leave Cameron with him. She hadn't asked, but he just seemed to know that she needed to know more than she'd already been told. So… what had he told her?

"His leg," she muttered. "His leg and his back." Elizabeth shook her head and tried to think of exactly what he was on, and how often he was taking it. Had she not seen him in the throes of agony before, she probably would have told him to stop taking them. That it was all in his mind.

But, she knew better than that. Elizabeth had once seen his x-rays, transferred into General Hospital from his doctors in Venezuela. They would need a copy in case he ever came in for anything, and he had to have medical records to get his prescriptions. His entire back had been broken, then pieced back together with bone and metal plates. His right leg had been shattered and put back together with metal bolts. The broken bones combined with nerve damage made it a sure bet that he would be on pain medication for the rest of his life.

But, what the hell was the name of the medication?

"Dammit," she muttered, looking around the room. "Where are his clothes?" She looked at Carly and was almost frantic as she shouted, "Where are his clothes!"

Carly looked at her shocked, and across the room, Diego started to stir. Carly moved to his side, taking his hand and trying to hush him back to sleep. That was probably best for him, anyway. At least asleep, most of the patients weren't feeling the intense ache of their bodies. But, that wasn't helping anything, and Elizabeth thought she'd have to yell again until Carly said, "They took them. Robin's father had everyone's clothes burned who were actually sick. Why? What's in his clothes?"

"His pills!" She whirled back towards Luis. He was starting to move, but he was still unconscious. Elizabeth stepped up to the side of the bed and gently took his hand in hers. "What was it, Luis, huh? I should know this, because it's common and strong and—" She stopped and her body went rigid. "Oxycontin!"

She turned to see Patrick looking at her with pause, then move to scribble something on his chart. "I need to know everything you know, Nurse Webber. What's the dosage? How many does he take, and how many would he have had today?"

"I…" She shook her head. "He always has them with him, but if they burned his clothes, they're gone. I don't know how much he's had, but he eats 'em like candy sometimes." Patrick looked at her in disappointment, and she didn't blame him. She was a nurse, and she should have known better. "I know, alright? But, you didn't see him. His body was shattered, and he's not an addict. He doesn't take them because he's addicted. He takes them because he really needs them. He gets them from the hospital, for crying out loud!"

"Wait, he gets his prescriptions here?"

"Yeah, he sees Dr. Jones, because he's also got a lot of nerve damage. Tony should have it on file."

"This is just great." Patrick rolled his eyes. "Even if we could find that damn chimp, we have drug interaction issues with Alcazar. We've been giving him medicine to bring down the fever, and all it's doing is making him worse. Until we flush his system, we can't treat him at all."

And enter Lorenzo. "What do you mean, flush his system? What have you done to my brother that now can't be treated?"

"Mr. Alcazar…"

"Lorenzo, it's the pills. For his back and legs." Elizabeth took in a deep breath and shook her head. "Nobody thought to say anything about what he was already on, and I know I should have. I'm a nurse, I should know these things. But, with Cameron so sick, I just—God, I'm horrible!"

"Neither of us were thinking very clearly." Lorenzo stepped into the center of the room and looked between his son and his brother. His eyes passed the door, and his features took on a more stern expression. He turned towards Carly and only when she started to move did Elizabeth see Jason standing in the doorway. Carly left the room reluctantly, and when neither she nor Jason were in the doorway, Lorenzo said, "What will happen to my brother if you flush his system?"

"He'll be in a lot of pain, Mr. Alcazar. I won't lie to you. It's going to hurt like hell. It'll be similar to withdrawal, but the pain will be the actual pain he was taking the pills for originally, instead of his body getting used to the drugs not being there."

"And if you don't do it?"

"He'll probably be among the first to die." Did he have to be so blunt about it? Elizabeth wanted to slap him, but Luis was starting to wake up, and he held her hand too tightly. Not tight enough that she couldn't get free, but enough to know that he was aware of her presence. If she left him now, he'd wake up for sure, and he'd be in even more pain. "If we don't get the Oxycontin out of his system, we can't treat the fever. We're working on some kind of cure for the encephalitis, but until we get it, we can only treat the fever. I won't do that with the Oxycontin in his system. It's not doing anything."

Lorenzo looked to Elizabeth with… what was it? Pleading? Did he not want to make the decision, either? She couldn't blame him. She didn't want to be the cause for his pain, either. But, at the same time, neither did she want to have to stand over his final grave and know that she could have made the decision that would have saved his life.

"Lorenzo—"

"Elizabeth, Luis has kept a lot from me since his return. We're brothers. We're twins. But, he's been angry with me. He hasn't shown his pain to me as much as he might have to you. How severe is the pain?"

"Lorenzo…" She sighed. "It's bad, and he doesn't think I see it, but I do. God, I should have noticed that he didn't have his cane when he came in, but he was leaning on one of your guards. His leg is weak. But, if we don't get the Oxycontin out of his system…"

"He'll die."

"Yeah." Elizabeth let out a shaky breath and turned back to Luis. "I don't want to hurt you," she said softly, "but I can't afford not to." She turned to Patrick and asked, "Once the fever's down, he can go back on it, right? Or at least you can give him something that won't interfere with the treatment?"

"Yes, but there's no telling when the fever will break, and anything we give him won't be as strong. He'll still be in pain."

"But, he'll be alive." Elizabeth took in another deep breath and let it pass her lips slowly. She looked up at Lorenzo and he only gave her a nod. Great, he was going to make her say it, too. Another deep breath and she said, "Fine. Flush his system." She turned back to Luis, lifted his hand to her lips and lightly kissed his knuckles before whispering, "I'm so sorry, Luis. And I'm even more sorry that I can't stay here with you through the entire thing. But believe me, if Cameron weren't here, there's nowhere else that I'd be. But, right now… I just can't stay."