Day Three
Dr. Lopez was more than happy about her quarantine.
"Maybe you take some vacation time before you come back."
She hadn't used a land line corded phone in a decade. It was strange, not being able to move more than six feet from the telephone base. "Jose', that's all right. I don't want to be away from the practice that long."
"Bella…"
It wasn't like him to hesitate. When she met with him the first time, he'd offered her the job before she'd had a chance to thank him for the interview. She waited for him to speak.
"A lot of the parents—I have emails, phone calls. Parents are scared. Better you take a few weeks, with pay, til this all calms down. Yes?"
"Sure, Jose'." Bella wasn't sure what to do with this surfeit of time. How often did she say, 'if only I had time,' and now she did. She couldn't go anywhere, but she had her laptop, whatever she wanted to eat, magazines, movies on demand. The fairly comfortable bed. She didn't miss Emmett as much as she thought she would have, even though as of tomorrow this would be the longest time she'd gone without seeing him. She should, with all this time, take the time to digest what that meant, that she wasn't particularly missing the man she'd been living with for the last three years.
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-21days-Day 3-
"Damn it Jasper!" He stopped short, the corded phone tying him to a six foot arc around its' base. "Did you talk to the Civil Libertarians, the media, Dr. Phil, someone has got to have some pull!"
He could hear Jasper sigh into the phone. "Once they uncovered the terrorist cell trying to contact one of the home quarantine people, trying to get the virus to be used as a biological weapon, everything shut down. You are not getting out of there. I spoke with every attorney for every other person this has happened to. This is beyond national health, now it's a matter of national security. Stay in there and you're a patriot. Leave, and you're a terrorist."
He knew due to the Ebola crisis he'd have to be quarantined when he returned from this trip, but he planned on spending the time in his apartment, doing some painting, catching up on the crap he never had time for. When he left, the deal had been that he would not be able to return to work for 21 days, that he had to monitor his own temperature and if, and only if, he showed any symptoms would his care elevate to some kind of medical facility. This being stuck in a room when there was no reason for it, was going to drive him crazy.
Edward banged his head against the wall. It felt slightly different, now that he buzzed his hair. They refused to give him scissors to trim the bangs that kept flopping in his eyes, but the electric razor was fine. He was tempted to shave his eyebrows off too, just to freak everyone out, but he wasn't sure if they would grow back enough for when he got out. He didn't want to ask his sister to bring him eyeliner to drawn in eyebrows. Tanya emailed some pictures of her last fitting for her bridesmaid's gown, or more specifically, herself in the lingerie she planned to wear under the gown. He could tell it was less to cheer him up, but more to show herself off. Had she always had this need to be the center of attention? If he was honest with himself, he knew. He knew, but he just didn't care. She was a fun diversion from his days as a pediatric oncology nurse. He brought his A game to the hospital every day, telling awful knock-knock jokes, wearing a collection of crazy hats, he even sang that song from Frozen with all the little girls in the unit. When he came home he wanted easy, and Tanya was easy. Real easy, which, he suspected, Tyler would find out when he took her to her sister's wedding. Which he suspected, was why Tyler offered to take her in the first place.
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AN: A short one. This posting every day thing is tougher than it looks. There's more than one MSF reader out there, hello and thanks for all you do! Thanks to everyone who is reading and reviewing, it's nice to see those familiar names. And in case anyone has any doubt, I don't own any of the characters you recognize, or Fort Monmouth.