Captain Chandler and the rest of the men coming home with her monkeys, meant that she had to get to work on tests. She had set up cages, far enough away so that each monkey wouldn't infect other monkeys simply by breathing. The cages were large enough and had holes for breathing, so her subjects didn't drop dead of anything else. The Captain was eager to know about the process, which she enjoyed talking about.
This was her zone. She knew how to do this. How to test on animals, ethically and responsibly. She knew how to make her vaccine prototypes. She knew how to make the lab run smoothly and efficiently, even when she was the only one working in it. Truly, it felt like a dream. Well, as much of a dream as you could have about running successful testing when you were at the end of the world and on a US Naval Destroyer in a makeshift lab that wasn't designed for this. She never thought about that for too long. It would hurt if she did.
Of course, when Chandler gave his speech about how they couldn't help those people yesterday, but maybe they would be able to help them tomorrow, she rolled her eyes and sighed. And he gave her, what a week? To find the right elements of a vaccine that would work for everyone? Well, she hoped that he was right. That she could find it in a week, otherwise, it would be a long time before people trusted her on this ship again, if at all, anymore.
Tex didn't bring Rachel's book to his stateroom with Danny, though he had offered, so whatever other reading material was available, he would have to do with. Currently, one of the only pieces he hadn't read was a trashy women's magazine that included gossip about celebrities like the Kardashians.
When he flipped the page, he saw a big "they split up" story with those classic zig zagged down the middle to make it look like it was ripped in half pictures. Danny was doing his best to ignore him. This is what they did. Tex often bantered to Danny who tried to not give into Tex. It was hard because Tex was persistent.
"Oh man," Tex cried, "I hate hearing about people breaking up. I may not look it, but I'm a big softie. I like seeing people get together," He said as he looked at Danny finishing up at the sink.
Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, man, I bet you do."
"You know, I got a theory about you," Tex pointed at Danny, who looked up at him. "You keep going on about this no fraternization business, and I think maybe you just want me to keep my grubby hands off the girl you're sweet on." He said with a bit of a smirk as he stroked his well kept beard. "You better tell me amigo, don't want our swords crossing by accident," He said. Although, he was sure there was never going to be anything like that.
He was definitely sure that Danny wasn't into Rachel and vice versa. But it was fun to pick on Dnany, who made himself a bit of an easy target when it came down to it. His face was an open book on this topic.
"I'm just messing with ya," Tex said and laughed it off, "Cause I already know who she is,"
"Yeah, keep talking, Tex." Danny warned as he got into his bunk.
He never turned down an invitation to keep talking, even when he knew he should. "Alright, I will." He promised. "I'll bet you ten to one that she's a lieutenant and her initials are KFC, without the C," He cracked, and then faked coughed, "Kara"
Danny pounded the bottom of his bunk and he jumped, but he still got a good laugh out of the whole thing. The poor boy was so in love and he was just trying to sit there and deny it and stew in it. But he was just making the whole thing worse. You had to have love. It was the only thing that meant anything in this world. And that he knew. Even if it was hard or volatile, you had to have love. You had to accept it and let yourself ride the wave. Some waves were longer than others. Some you only spent a brief time with, but they were all equally valuable.
"Tex, I swear to god, if you say anything," Danny seethed a little.
That he knew, he could hear the clear threat and decided to try and bring the mood back to where it was when Danny was ignoring or going along with his sense of humor. Still, it was funny to him to think of someone being so in love and trying to hide it so badly, he chuckled. "Buddy, your secret's safe with me," He told him as he flipped through more pages of the magazine.
"Doesn't matter anyway, it's over," Danny replied.
Tex smiled, "Didn't look over to me," He said, and he so wanted to look at the angry man he knew was under his bed.
The conversation was largely over and the rest of the night went smoothly for them. Rachel, on the other hand, had her hands full with vaccine prototypes and dying monkeys. She muttered under her breath and banged her fist on her lab table.
She blew out a breath and started charting the progress of the monkeys. How well they did, what concentration they had, how the virus and the prototypes worked in the monkeys blood. It was progress, she reminded herself. It was progress. And it would be continued progress. There would be failed attempts, in order to get to something logical that would make a vaccine.
When all of the monkeys started to get sick, she sighed. She took the blood and analyzed it to see what was working and what wasn't. It would be all night before these monkeys died, but that didn't stop her from starting new vaccine prototypes for the new test monkeys. She would eventually get it.
Captain Chandler came to see her work in the morning, all but one of her initial test subjects was dead and she felt bad about it. Felt bad for the monkeys certainly, and the only remaining initial test subject was not long for this world, that she knew.
"I increased the concentration of her vaccine and gave her some epinephrine, though I cannot say I am altogether hopeful," She sighed as she looked at the data on her computer, some of the analyzed blood coming back to give her some more helpful information.
"But you expected this could happen," Chandler said, almost asking a question.
She treated it like one, "I expected there might be some setbacks." She said as she came over to another table, putting some extra clean supplies back in the box where they sat, "The virus seems to be a little bit more complicated to target than I anticipated. And the added gene might not be one that I've identified as of yet"
"So you don't really have an answer for what's going on," He covered his face with his hands.
It stung a little to see him so disappointed in the truth, and she had yet delivered the bad news. Answers? They weren't in the picture anytime soon. "I'm still trying to figure out what the right questions are."
"You've got to be kidding me," He raised his voice, just a little, not angry, just frustrated.
"This is all part of the scientific process," She rebuffed him, writing labels on vials.
"You heard what I told the crew earlier," He explained.
"I did," She noted, "And I kinda wish you hadn't been so optimistic," She had given them hope, but it was not hope that needed to be overly glorified. This was not a game of telephone.
"Really?"
"I said I was ready to test." She reminded him, "I did not say that I had the vaccine,"
"You brought tea." He said and made big sweeping grand gestures. She mused that he thought this was her big gesture to the crew. To be ready with the vaccine, "You said you would've brought champagne,"
"I am making progress," She reminded him. This was just the initial batch and she had learned a lot about the dosages that were currently needed for humans to scale. How well it would have to work in the bloodstream, et cetera.
"It doesn't seem like it," He said in a voice that clearly expressed his disappointment in the facts that were presented to him.
"The biggest breakthroughs almost always come after the most enormous setbacks." She pleaded with him. She wanted him to understand, desperately that she couldn't just conjure it up now. That it would take time, but she was doing her best. "You just need to be patient,"
"And how you going to dispose of them?" He asked, still laced with disappointment, looking and pointing at the monkeys.
This, she admitted to herself, had been a bit of an obstacle, especially with the optimism he served to the whole crew, "They're going to need to be tossed overboard." She told him as she looked up at him, "I can't leave them there rotting."
"Do it at night." He told her, trying to reclaim the damage that had already been done, by his actions of not understanding. He breathed through his nose and gave her a stern look, "Flight Deck. If anyone asks, just tell them it's a hazardous waste, which is what it is,"
Over the next twenty-four hours, she hadn't gotten to see Tex at all. And all that talk with the Captain, certainly made her angry enough. Work was good for her stress level, but Tex had a way of making her forget all the insane things that had happened in a day. He was good with that too. It had actually been several days since she saw him, she thought, often only getting to sit down and share any time at meals, which she had to eat quickly, because she needed to chart and test and label and all those many things. She might have seen him for a sum total of an hour in the last few days.
Since that day in the wardroom, he'd been making sure that she spent some time watching television or reading something that wasn't in her scientific inquiry because fun was needed. If you lived too long without having fun, well then that was just sad. He didn't always have the greatest reasons for doing things, but it was good enough for her to give him her hand and to step away from her critical work to do stuff with him. Sometimes, he came and read aloud to her like her did that night. And just like that night, when she woke up, he was gone.
They never talked about what it was that kept him at an arm's length, but maybe it was the rules around this place. They seemed to permeate everything, even if you weren't technically beholden to those rules. It seemed especially true to her, now that the Captain was practically standing over her, watching her work, and reporting it to the X.O. too. She knew that it wasn't personal, but what did he gain from being here and watching her, instead of being anywhere else, doing stuff that was part of his job?
Tex was in the crew lounge, with Burke, Miller, and Cruzwho were all talking about the virus worked and where they had seen it and how disgusting it was.
"I hope those CBR suits really work," Miller worried.
"Course they work," Burke groaned.
"Yeah, but when were were at Gitmo, we never even put our masks on," Miller countered.
Burke wasn't having it, "It was just the protocol man, to save oxygen,"
"And when you got near those sick people in Nicaragua, how long did it take to get you masks on?" Cruz asked.
Tex slammed his hand on the table. "Jesus! Will you fellas just relax?" He asked them. "Nobody got exposed and the lady doc gave us a test when we got back on board," He promised them. After all this time, they still didn't believe that she was trustworthy. That didn't matter to him. He would put his whole life in her hands. It would be a good life like that.
"Now, we gonna play cards or what?" He asked, as he more fully slammed on the table, chips bounced and he grinned. He started listing off card games that they could all play as Danny came in.
"Wild cards? Where you from, man?" Burke asked.
"Would've thought you were more of a purist, Tex," Miller added.
He shook his head, "Ain't nothing about me that's pure, I thought you'd figure that out by now," Tex told them. Although, if they knew what he had been doing with Rachel, the reading, eating, and television watching, they might have ragged on him for that statement. Thankfully, they seemed to be keeping a low profile.
When he saw Danny fully in the room, drinking his water, he smiled, "Hey! Look, what the cat dragged in," He said, trying to poke at Danny as much as he could. It was bound to end up with a laugh or two.
And then Danny went down and it was all chaos from there. Thankfully, he hadn't hit his head, but he was pale and looked like he had the sweats. It was not good. Tex was the first one by him, trying to make sure that his head was okay, it lifted alright, which meant that he didn't have a head injury. They probably would have seen that.
"Hey buddy, buddy, you alright?" He asked, all the glee gone from his voice.
This was no laughing matter and after it looked like he was not going to be able to get up on his own, Burke took charge, making sure that other people stayed away from Danny and that other people, stayed out of the lounge. He called for the medical emergency announcement to be sounded so that they could get the Doctor in there.
Except Rachel and the Captain were closer and as they passed the threshold, Burke was there again, "Sir, you shouldn't be here. You need a suit on,"
Rachel rolled her eyes and went into the mess, where Tex was still kneeling close to Danny. "He's not infected," She said, "What happened?"
She didn't miss Tex soften when he gave her the lowdown. The Captain gave her a soaked rag to help her and she patted him on the forehead and covered his mouth when he coughed. She noticed that Tex had backed up to give her space to work but she didn't have time to think about their connection when something was so obviously wrong with Danny.
She saw blood on the rag and everyone who was standing over them did too and when he asked if he had the virus, she rolled her eyes, "No, you do not have the virus," She told him, confidently. There wasn't much that they could do for him on the floor now. "Let's get him up," She told Tex who did perfectly and asked for some help and got him to the couch. It would be easier to work on him there.
Of course, Doc Rios came in full CBR gear, something that Tex laughed at, "Holy shit, doc. Is it halloween?" He asked.
Rachel apparently thought similarly to him, which he was a little proud of. But Doc Rios was not taking any of that with sincerity. He had his doubts about things and he tossed the Captain a CBR suit as well, amplifying the distrust in the room.
"Everyone just needs to stop panicking," She replied as the Doctor found his way to Danny to do his thing. She was a trauma medic and a scientist. She had many skills, but the doctor would be more informed than she would and would have access to the rest of the equipment that would give him a good differential diagnosis for Danny.
At the stop panicking, Tex raised his eyebrows impressed with Rachel who sauntered to the side of the room that he was on, now that she was no longer needed in the middle of the action. He gave her a sly wink since everyone else was focused on Danny and he caught the blush rise up in her cheeks. She straightened up though and looked to the middle of the room and waited to hear what they thought would be the best thing to happen.
Doc Rios was going to run a full comprehensive blood panel which would take four to six hours and only might be able to find out what was going on. If it didn't, he would have to come back for more blood, but he had a bag of saline and gave him something to sedate him.
The Doc insisted on coming back to rehang a new bag and Rachel shook her head.
"I'll do it, you just figure out what's wrong with him," She told Doc Rios who nodded and left the crew lounge. It didn't seem like he wanted to be in there for that long anyway.
As soon as the door shut on Doc Rios, Burke was in the Captain's ear. "Sir, you need to lockdown the ship," He said.
Rachel looked appalled. "No he does not. I tested everyone before we boarded," She told them. This was as much a reminder to the Captain as it was to Burke that everything that had happened in this room was probably not contagious, and if it was, everyone would be infected soon anyways. There was no need to make everyone hysterical.
Of course, Burke did not know the finer points of the virus and so he had a fear based attitude for the whole thing, which she had to be okay with. They hadn't had a whole lot of information get out on the ship about how the virus transmitted or how long it would take to show symptoms because mostly that would make everyone hysterical. There was no need for that. They were out in the remote places of the world anyway. And they had tests.
"Alright, everyone let's put our panties back on, and see how we can help our friend," Tex said, pointing to Danny. This got a fearsome look thrown at him by the Doctor, but he would try to make that up later. If he wasn't his normal self in this room, everyone would clearly see how sweet he was on her and that was something they hadn't discussed yet. They had not discussed what their relationship would be like.
"You said the virus mutates. How do you know the strand in Nicaragua isn't different than the other ones you've seen?" The Captain asked.
She shook her head. "Even if it was, its essential core would be the same, that" She emphasized,
"Is what test for,"
"But what if you're wrong?"
"The mistakes that I made with the vaccine are an entirely different matter," She groaned. How could he be like this? The distrust made her so angry. "That was an experiment, this test I am certain of. 100 percent."
Burke was right alongside her though, making sure that the Captain knew the devil had a proposition. Normally, she wasn't opposed to stronger safety precautions, but what he was asking was just ridiculous. There could be no foolproof way to make sure that no one else got sick if he was already infected. They would just have to figure it out.
And the Captain heard Burke out. And called for the highest level of safety precautions that they could take. He made sure that the XO knew and that they weren't leaving this room. When the Captain looked at her, she purse her lips and tried not to roll her eyes. This was madness.
Before everything was fully finished though, Kara burst into the room, and now there was one more person to worry about. Of course, Chandler did not have any kind words to say in the situation, and Tex just looked at it and laughed a little under his breath before remembering they were in a very real situation in which they might all die if Rachel was wrong.
He didn't think Rachel was wrong.
Rachel was nursing Danny, keeping the soaked rag on his head and fiddling with his bag to make sure that he was getting the right drip down. She didn't have time to think about how this relationship would or could affect anything. Right now her focus was Danny.
After the first hour though, there wasn't much to do and all they could was sit in silence. Tex looked at Rachel, occasionally take measurements or fiddle with things like the rag to make Danny feel more comfortable, and she did have to move in such a way that Kara almost always had to move a little, but it wasn't malicious. Tex could tell that Kara knew that. That Rachel was just being a doctor.
Another hour went by and Rachel dutifully changed the saline bag for Danny's IV. She also made sure the proper amount of sedative was in the IV before he woke up in tons of pain, asking those crazy questions again. When she was done, she stood by Tex who gave her another wink. Despite the remark about everyone getting their panties back on, he'd been remarkably kind and quiet this whole time. She wasn't sure if it was because of all the people in here, worry about Danny, or something else, but she enjoyed him like this.
Tex watched Rachel squirm as the hours seemed to drag on. She was pacing around the room, never quite in one place for more than about ten minutes. She idly checked the flow of Danny's IV bag and then went back to move around the room. Sometimes, she did stand in one place and just looked like she was pondering things.
She hadn't talked much either through this whole thing. No one did. Miller and Burke and the other guys, they talked amongst themselves, but Kara, Captain Chandler, Tex and Rachel were all solidly silent. They just wanted to know what the hell was going on and each minute that ticked away felt like they were both closer and further away from that answer.
Eventually Doc Rios did phone down to them, it was Dengue Fever. It would be rough, but it was contagious and more importantly, it wasn't the virus that they were all so afraid that it might be.
Kara looked at Rachel who was fiddling with Danny's saline bag and asked her, "What does that man? Is he gonna be alright,"
Rachel honestly wished she had better news for the lieutenant, "The only treatment is fluid replacement and acetaminophen for the fever. The next twenty-four hours are crucial," She told her.
It was the truth, but that didn't make it any easier to swallow. Danny was a good man who deserved more than to be felled by an insect.
The Captain dismissed all of the men, Rachel noticed, it was only the men he had dismissed. Tex had hurried out of there, was basically one of the first people out of the room. It was then when the Captain had asked her to leave him and Kara alone too. She did not envy that conversation.
She stayed around to keep watch on Danny, but she had her thoughts that she had to give to the captain. He didn't get it though. He was angry that they all had to go along with the plans so that she could make this vaccine.
He didn't get that she didn't want to keep all of that from them. It was in the interest of security that she did. It was in the interest of making sure that the work could be kept as pure as possible. Hell, it was so they didn't become targets in the Artic. It had been for their safety as much as hers. Deep inside, she thought, he knew it too. He was just angry and his anger didn't always allow him to see clearly.
"You might wanna figure out a way to trust me, or I have a pretty strong feeling that this whole thing is going to fail," She told him as she walked away from him, back to the lab.
The lab made her feel safe but she had to figure out how to which gene it was that was making it so hard to vaccinate these silly monkeys.
"Just tell her it's Prince Charming," He said.
When she heard that and grinned into her mug looking at the virus sequence on her computer. She had made some real progress with the trials she had already finished and the markers for her vaccine were working on some things but not others, and she hadn't identified something crucial it made her crazy. The only thing there was to do was to keep working.
"She'll know who you're talking about," He pleaded.
The crazy thing is she would have thought it was Tex if they had told her that. None of the soldiers were crazy enough to come down her unless they had to stand guard and when the Captain came down, they let him waltz right into the lab.
"Ask her or I'm gonna start singing," He continued. "Hmm? Country? Western?" He asked.
She rolled her eyes. She'd had about enough of this back and…well, it wasn't really a back and forth. It was Tex wearing the guy down. But still. "Oh, just let him in, for pete's sake," She cried.
He made a sound of contentment, hearing that he'd won. When he burst into her lab, she visibly relaxed. He was a good man. He'd been in here before, but that was because the guard had been asked to leave, so that she and the Captain could talk alone, and it had been just between the time that he'd been asked back.
"You shouldn't be down here in your fortress of solitude," He said as he nosed as he looked around. It looked a little bit different than what he had seen before, but it was still the basic set up with the biohazards locked away in the middle and the computers and safer stuff on the edge of the set up.
She looked up at him, "Except I have no superpowers," She told him,
"Oh, I don't know about that. I got a feeling about you." He said. He didn't want to admit to himself that it was a couple of feelings. Some of which he had pushed down, trying to wait until they could actually have some real alone time. "Sounds like the Captain did too, but he…well, he got a little spooked,"
Could she detect some jealousy in his voice? Of course, Captain Chandler was a good looking man, who could probably catch a lot of beauties if he wanted to, but among serious thoughts, well, she had to work. And Tex had more goodwill than Chandler. Though, she thought that might a good thing to keep close to the chest for now.
She sighed though, "Well, he did what he had to do."
"Oh, come on," Tex said, as he sidled up next to her, close enough that their arms touched on the desk. Her body jumped a little and then calmed down and he grinned, "Don't tell me that didn't smart? That lockdown"
"Who believes in me," She looked at him, "And who doesn't," She tapped a few keys, "Seems like a fairly trite manner compared to what I have on my plate right now," Tex knew what that was. The wall was back up and the funny stuff wasn't going to get through, so he changed directions.
When he didn't leave, she thought that he couldn't possibly have more to say. She looked at him, with confused eyes.
"You're gonna figure it out," He told her as he got up. He kissed her temple and closed his eyes for a minute, "I believe in you," It came out no higher than a whisper and when he opened those soulful eyes, she looked at him with urge to make it more, but he swallowed the urge to return that look and grinned. "Find some time for dinner at a normal time, we can read,"
And then he walked away, afraid of making a mess of her lab if he stayed any longer.