For A Candy Cane A Day on the Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry Forum.
When Kate drops like a stone at the press conference, Megan goes into autopilot without even realising. She picks fights with people in authority. She presses Ethan and Curtis to work harder, get results faster, and look more closely. She stares at the bodies. She speaks to the bodies. She racks every corner of her brain for a solution.
She wants to see Kate, but she can't do that before she has answers—not before she has hope. But hour after hour passes, and eventually Megan can't stand it anymore. Before she knows it, she's at the hospital with her hands pressed against the glass.
"I came as soon as I could," Megan says. "I'm sorry."
Kate smiles at her. "You can't catch the guy who did this from here."
Megan searches her face and, not for the first time in her life, wishes she wasn't a doctor. If she weren't, she wouldn't see the jaundice or bloodshot eyes. She wouldn't see that her friend—were they really friends?—only had a day more to live.
"Megan…" Kate calls her name softly. She raises her own shaking hand, letting it match up with Megan's on the other side of the window. "Thank you for coming, but you need to go. You know that."
"I had to come." The words slip out before she has the chance to catch them. All of a sudden, Megan's mouth feels dry. "I needed to see you."
"I'm fine." Kate splutters through a laugh. "All right. I'm not fine. But you being here—here with me and not other there catching this guy—won't make me better."
Megan knows it's true. Even on the brink of death, Kate is the poster child of rational thinking.
"Right." Megan's hand drops. "I'll be back."
"I know. When you've caught the guy, you'll be back."
Megan hopes it's true.