All that glitters is not Gold

Author's note: Sorry for the delay in updating … but life's demands have to go first. Here's chapter 8 - and you'll finally learn what's wrong with the patients.

Once again, thanks to samcamstargate1, Broken Bells and goldeneyegirl for the beta-jobs they do and have done. And furthermore, I'd like to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to leave me a comment and review … that always made me smile and still does.

Enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 8: The Answer is Milk

Tuesday, La Cortina, 11 am

Going on a house call didn't naturally mean that the doctor visited only one certain patient down here. The definition of a house call was a little bit more complex. As soon as the people noticed or heard that a doctor was in the village, they came from everywhere – and with literally everything: they brought their pets, livestock, and looked for treatment for every ailment possible.

Tommy knew that one couldn't compare a house call in the States with what it meant down here, but was taken aback with the mass of people waiting in front of the humble hut. "Wow," he said, and brushed the sweat off of his forehead.

Charlie nodded in agreement. Most of the people from this quarter of town were farmers. The amount of work they did in one day determined their economic success. They simply couldn't afford to get sick. And if they did, they couldn't afford to waste a day going to the clinic, which was why a lot of them used the opportunity to meet a doctor on one of his house calls. "Looks like we'll be here for a while," Charlie replied.

Tommy nodded his head, too. He had thought the same thing, "Yup, that's what I thought. Tell them to line up, and keep them coming, please!" Tommy said, and strolled over to a shady place beneath a Feijoa tree, carrying loads of its chicken egg-sized, green fruits between the foliage.

Charlie agreed and started translating right away, while people started lining up and approaching the tree.

La Clinica Cruz del Sur, same time:

Otis leaned against the front desk, checking his patient's file, when Mina Minard and Lily Brenner walked past him, deeply engulfed in a conversation about their cases. When the two women entered the main examination room, Otis's view trailed over to Ben Keeton, who just came out of the pharmacy, heading straight towards him. "From the looks of it, you have news."

Ben nodded, "But I am afraid not good ones."

"Raoul?" Otis asked.

Ben nodded, his blue eyes looking darker than usual, "I could detect elevated serum triglycerides, elevated cholesterol levels, elevated serum creatinine, and anemia."

Otis shook his head in disbelief, adjusting the lollipop he had between his lips, "What has Raoul gotten himself into?"

Keeton shrugged, "I don't now. He seems to display all kinds of symptoms, not in the least related to each other! Triglyceride levels and cholesterol levels usually increase as the body weight increases, too, and Raoul's fairly normal in that respect."

"High creatinine levels are a marker for a diminishing kidney function and anemia could be anything," Otis hated it. How I hate needles in a haystack. They had this 28-year-old guy lying in one of their hospital beds. Yesterday, he had been fine – and now? What do we miss? Otis asked himself and sighed. You just have to keep digging. "So, what are your thoughts?"

Ben licked his lips, "I'll do a creatinine-clearance test to check the glomerular filtration rate. Then we'll hopefully know more about his kidneys by tomorrow."

Otis agreed silently, "I'll get the collection bags."

"And I'll talk to Raoul." With that, Ben started towards the examination room and entered the airy hall.

Zee, Mina, Lily and Ryan were already there. Minard and Brenner stood next to Mina's patient, while Ryan and Zee tended to own patients, as Ben entered the room and strolled over to Raoul's cot. The bartender was sleeping – or at least he tried to do so. As Ben came closer, the dark brown eyes of Raoul cracked open, but he didn't even try to smile. "How are you feeling?" asked Ben, and he checked the IV bag.

Raoul carefully moistened his lips, "I've been better."

Ben nodded, so it would seem. "We'll do another test, Raoul. To check your kidney function."

"You do what you have to do, doctor" Raoul muttered, feeling sleepy and restless at the same time.

Ben reached for the young man's shoulders, "And you promise me to hang in there, alright, mate? We will find out what's wrong with you."

Raoul nodded weakly, his eyes already closed again.

Lily's eyes had landed upon Keeton, as soon as her boss had entered the airy hall, and she sighed. How could she overcome her 'girly crush', if she couldn't stop staring at him? And how obvious was her staring to others? Lily would have hated it, if everybody detected her looking. She wasn't someone who shared her personal life with others. She wanted to keep things quiet about herself. No wonder either Tommy, Mina, and practically everybody, except Keeton, knew nothing about her fiancé'sdeath.

Maybe you should talk to him, Lily thought, just to clear the air between you two. That seemed like a good idea. Lily knew that Ben wasn't even near being ready for another relationship. The ghost of his wife was still too vivid. But that didn't stop Lily from thinking about the what-could-be. Just get this awkwardness over with – show him that you are a valuable asset to the clinic, show him your commitment, and stop pining over him – HE IS YOUR BOSS! Lily swallowed and looked back over to where Keeton was standing next to Raoul's bed – clad in a burgundy linen shirt with rolled up sleeves. Revealing his muscular lower arms, slightly tanned, muscles flexing beneath the skin … thanks to Mina, Lily had to stop looking and thinking.

"So, what do you think now?" The blonde woman asked.

Lily cleared her throat carefully, trying to avoid the image of Keeton's strong arms … and what he could do with them, in her mind. Lily's focus shifted from Keeton back to Mina's patient – the young woman and her inexplicable hair loss, "I stand by the same diagnosis, Mina."

"Wished you had had said something else," Mina replied and smiled at her patient, whose eyes had lit up with hope, as two doctors had approached her. As if her mind was telling her that two doctors have to bet better than one.

It was then that Ryan Clark left the room with a syringe full of drawn blood.

Lily smiled apologetically at Mina, while her eyes trailed back towards Keeton, who was busy leaving the room, as well. "Uhm, Mina … would you excuse me for a second?"

Mina's eyebrows travelled upwards, as she saw Lily leave the room, right after Keeton. Hormones! Mina thought and turned back towards her patient.

Lily brushed past Zee, leaving Dr Alvarez standing there and feeling the swoosh of air brushing past her. Zee knew where Lily Brenner was headed. She didn't need to hear Lily's "Uhm, Dr. Keeton – do you have a minute?" to know that the young and ambitious woman was headed after the clinic's founder.

Zee sighed. She wasn't exactly sure if Lily Brenner was aware of what she was getting herself into. Let alone, if Brenner even consciously knew what she was headed towards. Zee knew of Ben's karma, and his intoxicating charms, and looks. Who would not? His brown hair and those steel-blue eyes were hard to overlook. The man was a walking god – even Zee had thought so in the beginning. But she had never given in, realising from the start that Ben Keeton was a package of damaged goods. More trouble than completion.
Ben was not the kind of man, who chatted up every woman that came across him – it was much more the other way around. Keeton's gentlemanly manners and good looks served him well, and Zee often deliberated if Ben took conscious advantage of that. But at other times, Zee simply couldn't believe how naïve Ben seemed to be when it came to women. Him using his good looks to talk women into something, seemed totally out of the picture. But that didn't keep him from talking and flirting with women. The truth was that Ben Keeton didn't really seem to see the reason for 'keeping things professional' at all times – he hadn't done so with Ryan and from the looks of it, he wasn't planning on doing so with Brenner, either.

Zee's nearly black eyes trailed over to where Lily Brenner stood opposite Ben Keeton, leaning against the banister of the clinic's inner veranda. From her perspective – and maybe from every woman's perspective – it was clear that Lily Brenner was attracted to Ben. Zee saw how nervously the petite brunette brushed her hair back behind her ears, and remembered yesterday, when she had "caught" those two in the pharmacy. If one could even call it "caught". The fact was, Lily Brenner's fair skin had blushed sooner than the sun set around here, which meant something was definitely up.

Zee saw Ben smiling in response to something Lily had said … and that was when she stopped redressing her patients' infected insect bite. Keeton smiles were rare. No wonder, with a history like his, and even more impressive that Brenner seemed to have caused it. Maybe there's more to her, Zee thought and observed the two together, maybe there's even more to his feelings for her, as well, or his intentions.

"What are you looking at?"

Zee nearly choked on her own tongue as Ryan Clark's face appeared before her eyes. "Pardon?" Her pulse quickened.

Ryan smiled, "Daydreaming, Zee? That's so unlike you."

Zee smiled, "Yeah, daydreaming." And with that, Ryan moved back towards her own patient.

Zee sighed, Poor Ryan! She had been Keeton's latest proof of 'unprofessionalism'. A good woman and an extraordinary doctor, who needed to run away first, before realising that her life was more than just revolving around Ben Keeton. But deep in Ryan's heart and in her eyes, Zee saw that Ryan still hoped or had hoped for a sequel of her time with Ben. Hope is the last thing to die, Zee thought and felt for Ryan. From the looks of it, Ben's interest had shifted – to Lily Brenner. Accepting that could be tough on the redheaded doctor, if she didn't already knew that there was only little to no chance of getting back together with Ben. Zee only hoped the best and remembered her words from yesterday: "Don't make her run away, Ben. She's a good one."

La Cortina, two hours later, 1 pm

More people than huts in this village were gathered around Tommy's makeshift 'doctor's office' beneath the Feijoa tree. They had come from everywhere. Whenever Tommy looked up to see if the queue had become shorter, he was disappointed. During the first hour, he even felt like the queue was growing in length. His medical supplies were getting fewer by the patient. He mostly handed out drugs against nausea, stomach pains, and headaches. A lot of people, especially kids, seemed to suffer from Scarlet fever and Tommy felt like he had tapped right into an epidemic. He needed to tell the others and come back here, because soon his meds would be empty.

A middle-aged woman sat down in front of Tommy and started talking to Charlie in Spanish.
Tommy observed the woman closely, while she described her symptoms to their young interpreter. She looked pale, weary, and exhausted. She reached for her hair and brushed through it, coming up with a hand full of loose, black strands. "Another case of hair loss?" Tommy asked.

Charlie nodded, "And she's feeling nauseous, as well."

Tommy shook his head. What do I miss? What do I not see? The young man asked himself and started rummaging around in his shoulder bag again. All his dimenhydrinate pills were nearly gone, but he looked for some left-over blister packs, nonetheless. "I will give you some antiemetic drugs, they are effective against vomiting and nausea," Tommy started, and Charlie translated along, as Tommy's fingers suddenly brushed against a glass thermometer in his bag … and he stopped rummaging.

His voice faded and his fingers took hold of the fragile instrument, slowly bringing it out from the depths of his bag. The mercury inside the column shimmered like silver, as the sunlight fell upon it. "Mercury!" Tommy sighed and couldn't believe how stupid he had been, "It's mercury poisoning!" His face turned into a relieved smile, "They are all poisoned!" Tommy shouted and jumped up, his eyes never leaving the mercury thermometer in his hands.

Charlie just looked at his friend. Maybe the white gringo had lost his mind completely, now.

Tommy then focused back on the people surrounding him and started talking towards Charlie, "They are all poisoned, Charlie! All! It's mercury! That's the reason. That's why they are all sick – all suffering nausea, vomiting, bowl problems, hair loss, arrhythmias, and symptoms mimicking Scarlet fever." Tommy shook his head disbelievingly, "How stupid of me not to notice!" He grinned and felt like he had cracked a major riddle, but at the same time thinking about what had caused the poisoning. "Must be the water …" Tommy mused aloud, while his view trailed towards the peaceful, little stream running past the village, "The stream."

"What?" Charlie asked, and couldn't quite understand what Tommy was mumbling.

Tommy tried to focus again, and started talking, "Alright, Charlie. You have to listen closely now! I'll run back to the clinic. The others need to know what's going on around here and I have to get more medicine. In the meantime, gather all thepeople and tell others to spread the news that they can't drink or use water from the stream, alright? I think there's mercury in it. Of course, we'll need to test it, but right now, I am pretty sure. They all have textbook symptoms." Tommy started packing his things, while Charlie stared at the white doctor confused. "Tell them they have to drink milk instead – loads of milk. It will help to compensate the symptoms of the poisoning!" And with that Tommy dashed away.

"Wait!" Charlie screamed, but Tommy was long gone. The boy shook his head and stared after Tommy, just like all the people from the queue did, "Milk?"

Thanks so much for sticking with me and the story – spoilers for next chapter: Maybe some Ben and Lily fluff + the formation of a hunting party to travel into the jungle and find the source of the poisoning! See you then. Take care, K.

* Spanish translations and additional info in Chapter 8:

La Cortina - name of the village Tommy and Charlie are in. It's referring to a geological cliff of brownstone, which has the form of a curtain. Cortina means curtain.

Feijoa tree - the Spanish name of a tree called Pineapple Guava in English, botanical: Acca sellowiana.