All that glitters is not Gold

Thanks for samcamstargate1's, goldeneyegirl's and Broken Bells' help. And thanks to everyone who reads this and doesn't think it's boring.

Chapter 4: Routine

Half an hour later, 1.30 pm

Dr. Mina Minard couldn't believe it. The clinic was bursting with patients, they stood or sat everywhere, but there was not a single good case. Or better to say, not 'an extraordinary case', as Mina had longed for during their lunch break. She had looked into every patients' file – but there was simply nothing there. It was basically cuts, cases of diarrhea, or infected wounds. Let's just pray I won't doze off in the middle of my examination, Mina sighed, and grabbed the piece of paper from the reception desk that told her the patient's name, "Señora Morales?" Mina asked, and saw a young woman coming up towards her. She had a shawl draped around her head and smiled carefully at Mina, who extended her hand to greet her, "Yo me llamo doctora Minard. Sígame, por favor!" And with that both women entered the large examination room.

It was stuffed mostly with cots, only sometimes a gurney had been put in between the neatly arranged camp beds. Patients were sitting or lying on top of those makeshift beds. Sometimes, and in order to guarantee at least a little bit of privacy, a curtain had been draped around the cot. The whole clinic was made of wood, and so was this room. The planks had been painted with a light blue colour from the inside and outside, preventing the building from warming up too much in the merciless sun in this equator region. Unfortunately, some parts of the clinic - as well as the painting -had seen better days. There were lots of spots where the colour came off the walls, revealing the wood underneath it. Some windows were broken, and nearly every tile on the floor had a crack. But it still worked, and it still had to. Right now, every doctor, except for Zitajalehrena Alvarez, was in that big examination room.

Tommy and Ryan stood at the far left end side of it, discussing something, while their patient, a fifty-something Colombian man with a deep gash across his forehead, lay on his back. Although Lily Brenner could not be seen, she was standingin the middle of what could have also been mistaken for a family gathering at the far right hand side of the enormous room. Her patient was a little boy, and his complete family - or so it seemed - had come to the clinic, as well. Otis and Ben were right beside the door, while Mina and Señora Morales walked past them and headed for a free cot next to Ryan and Tommy.

The air was hot, and although the room had four large fans whirling above their heads, it helped only slightly. Outside, the sun was shining mercilessly, with the rays of the sun touching the earth in a perpendicular angle. Nobody was walking. The image was the same Lily had seen this morning, it was as if nobody lived around here. In reality, they were all clever enough to stay out of the heat during mid day.

Ben licked his lips and rolled up the sleeves of his azure shirt, while Otis started to use his stethoscope on the patient in front of them, checking the sounds of the man's heart and lungs. "So, Raoul – what can we do for you?" asked Ben, and looked closely at his patient. Raoul was one of the bartenders who worked at the cantina. Ben didn't really like what he was seeing, though – Raoul was sweating, he looked like his pulse was racing, and obviously seemed to be in pain.

As Otis's stethoscope came into contact with Raoul's skin, the young man hissed audibly, "Dios mio, everything hurts."

Otis and Ben shared a look. Was Raoul telling the truth? Or just exaggerating a bit? "What do mean by 'everything'?" Otis asked, and tried to put his stethoscope over Raoul's heart again.

Raoul pinched his eyes shut, his lips formed a thin line, "I … mean … everything. My skin … it feels like it's on fire. It's so sensitive and then, on another occasion, I feel this constant tingling everywhere," he sighed and looked up into Otis' and Ben's eyes, "I've never had something like that before."

"When did it start?" Ben asked, taking notes.

"It's only this bad since this morning, but I've felt the tingling before … a week now, I guess," Raoul shook his head in disbelief, "At first, it felt as if my skin had fallen asleep, you know? Like your feet sometimes do. Pins and needles?"

Otis, who had finished taking the man's blood pressure, said, "BP is 150 over 80, pulse 115 bpm."

Ben wrote it down, as well, "Alright, listen, Raoul – we'll take a blood sample and then Dr. Cole and I will get you some pain medication to help you relax," Ben said, and motioned for Otis to draw the blood, "after that, we'll figure out how to help you." With that he started walking towards the 'pharmacy', as Otis tested Raoul's pupillary light reflex.

Lily didn't notice Ben walking past her, as she tried to find the actual parents of Miguel Vargas, a four year old boy with enormous brown eyes. He'd had her wrappedaround his little fingers the minute Lily had seen the boy sitting on the cot, totally calm. "Lo siento …" All adults were talking at the same time, leaving Lily no opportunity to cut in and ask something. Let alone the fact that I wouldn't even know what to say to stop them from talking! "Por favor!" she tried again, but with her size and her rather retained attempts to gain some attention, nobody really listened. Lily assumed there were grandmothers and grandfathers here, as well as aunts and uncles, cousins and maybe even siblings – and they were all talking at the same time. Do they even understand what the others are saying? It was then that she decided to simply take her shot – and forcefully yelled, "HEY!"

Everyone in the room stopped doing what they were doing, the conversations died down, and Ben stopped dead in his tracks, turning around to see Lily standing in the middle of a group of people, who were now quiet. Ben grinned to himself. No wonder he felt intrigued by her.

Lily's large blue eyes met 15 other pairs and she carefully smiled at them, ""¡Hola! Soy Dr. Lily Brenner …" and she would have had to leave it at that if it weren't for Charlie, who popped into the room at that exact time. Lily grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him forward, "Great, Charlie – I've never been happier to see you." And with that, they started talking to the family of Miguel Vargas.

As Charlie and Lily started talking with the family, Ryan looked back to her patient. Fuller had started cleaning the gash, carefully applying an antibacterial fluid to a sterile cloth, before dabbing it at the wound, "You have a really deep gash there, Señor Munez. Mind telling us what happened?"

"Don't move," Tommy ordered, even before Señor Munez had had the chance to say something.

Ryan grinned and waited for Señor Munez to speak.

"You know, doctora, I have a donkey," he started and then cleared his throat, "and she really is as stubborn as a mule … when I wanted her to work this morning, pulling the plough, she simply kicked me."

"In the head?" Tommy asked and looked into Señor Munez' eyes, "with her hoof?"

Señor Munez nodded in reply.

"Do you feel dizzy? Lightheaded? Nauseous? Having headaches?" Tommy asked.

"No."

Tommy exchanged a look with Ryan, who simply shrugged her shoulders. "Well, good for you, Señor Munez," said Ryan and came closer to the cot. On a small table next to her patient was a tray with a syringe. "Dr. Fuller is going to suture the gash as perfectly as possible, while I'll be giving you a tetanus shot."

Mina took a quick look at the tetanus shot on the tray next to her patient's cot as she heard Dr. Clark talk about it. The syringe was old, its barrel was made of glass and could probably be sterilized by boiling. Less expensive, thought Mina who had only seen those syringes once before – in an old textbook. With that thought she turned around to Señora Morales and smiled at her. She must be my age, thought Mina and reached for the pen that had rested behind her right ear, "Alright, ¿Habla íngles?"

Señora Morales nodded with a light smile and answered, "Un poco, but yes."

Mina sighed and was grateful that her first case after the lunch break didn't require any translation, "My name is Dr. Minard, what can I do for you?" Rosa Morales swallowed and took a careful look around. One could sense that she was either frightened or embarrassed to start talking – and so Mina caught it on, as well. "Would you like me to close the curtain?" Mina questioned the woman in front of her with a soft tone in her voice and she got an answer with an immediate nod. And with that, Mina gave her the privacy she wanted, "Okay, so … how can I help you?"

Rosa reached up towards the shawl that was draped around her head to loosen the knot and reveal her head and hair. "It's getting worse," Rosa said, tears in her eyes.

That's not what I suspected, Mina came closer to have a better look at the young woman's hair. But the problem was, there was only a little left. Mina assumed that – from what remains were still visible – Rosa must have had beautiful, longs locks of black hair. But right now – huge areas had gone bald or only flimsy strands were left.

Rosa touched her head, felt the loss of her hair as if it was physical pain, and with a slight brush she had a handful of it to present it to Mina, "What is happening to me?"

Mina swallowed and felt sorry for this young woman, "Well, Rosa … this is indeed … rare. How old are you again?"

Rosa sniffed, "I'll be 25 next month."

Too young to be in her menopause, Mina thought, and tried to find the right words for her patient. "When did this start?"

Rosa shrugged her shoulders, "About a week ago?"

"Any other side effects? Something unusual?"

Rosa moistened her dry lips and nodded, "I am so tired, lately … I feel exhausted all the time. But I sleep well and rest enough, especially since my hair started to fall out." Her eyes began tearing up again up again, "I am really scared."

Mina nodded and came closer. After what Dr. Clark had told her about being a physician as well as a doctor, Mina felt the need to get better at the physician-part, Small steps every day! Carefully, Mina sat down next to Rosa Morales and smiled at her, "So, here's what we are going to do, Rosa. There are a lot of possible causes for your hair lossand unless we haven't ruled out the unlikely ones, it's going to be real hard to give you any treatment, okay?"

Rosa nodded.

"Great, so … I'll be taking your blood and running a few tests, and then I'll get back to you as soon as possible." Carefully, Mina put her hand on Rosa's shoulder, squeezing slightly, "I'll be right back." And with that she left the confines of the curtain and hurried over to the 'pharmacy'.

Otis and Ben were standing inside, both leaning against a shelf and talking to each other about Raoul's symptoms, as Mina strolled into the room.

Zee's head shot up as the blonde woman started searching the supplies for a syringe, gloves, ultrasonic gel and something else. Zee was doing the inventory, checking if everything was in its correct place and if they needed to stock up any drugs or equipment. "Can I help you with anything, Dr. Minard?"

"Um, actually, I am looking for a pregnancy test?"

Zee smiled as Otis and Ben looked up.

Mina rolled her eyes, "For a patient, of course? Do we have something like that here? Using blood or urine to detect the hCG?" Or how do they detect the human pregnancy hormone around here?

"I'm afraid not," replied Otis Cole, "we usually use the frogs."

Mina turned around, "I beg your pardon?"

Zee nodded, "Yes, we use frogs. Female African clawed frogs, to be exact – you take a urine sample or some blood serum of your patient, prep the frog and inject the fluid subcutaneously into its dorsal lymph sack. 12 to 24 hours after injection, the frog begins to spawn if your patient is indeed pregnant."

"You are joking, right?" Mina's eyes travelled from Zee to Otis to Ben, "Making fun of me, because I'm still a 'newbie' around here?"

Ben shook his head, "I'm afraid not … we had too many false positives with the purchasable kits. It's too humid around here."

I can't believe it, Mina thought and sighed, then it's gonna be the frogs. She turned around and wanted to leave the room, as she heard Zee calling, "They are kept in a tank behind the kitchen hut."

Zee shrugged and looked over to Ben and Otis, before checking another drug off her list and started leaving the room for her medicinal garden, "I believe she thinks we are making fun of her."

Otis shrugged, "Well, this time, we are not."

That's it for now – see you next chapter, K.

* Spanish translations and additonal info in Chapter 4:

"Dios mio, everything hurts." - Raoul, a patient, saying: "My god, everything hurts."

"Lo siento …" - Lily is trying to talk to the family of her patient, but nobody listens. She says: "Excuse me ..." And then: "Por favor!", meaning "Please!". As she finally gets through to them, she introduces herself with: ""¡Hola! Soy Dr. Lily Brenner …" - "Hello, I am Dr. Lily Brenner ..."

Señor - Sir

doctora - the female form of doctor - English doesn't make that distinction between male and female doctors, but Spanish, French, Italian and German, for example, do.

"Alright, ¿Habla íngles?" - Mina is talking to her patient, and the first thing she asks is: "Alright, do you speak English?"

"Un poco, but yes." - that's what Mina's patient answers: "A little bit, but yes."