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The doctors decided their treatments weren’t enough to cleanse her blood of the toxins. Although she wasn’t getting worse, she wasn’t getting better, either.
“I think a blood transfusion or two are in order,” the doctor said the next afternoon. “We’ve tried adding a protein to increase the production of white blood cells, but it would appear your red blood cells are low too.”
Lauren whimpered. “I can’t keep going like this.”
“Hold tight.” He patted her arm. “We’re going to get you feeling better, but you have to do your part.”
“What’s that?” Lauren rolled her head towards him.
“Rest, eat well, drink lots of fluids ...”
“If it gets me out of this lumpy bed faster, I’ll do whatever you tell me.”
“Those are my orders.”
Lauren raised a shaky hand toward her brow. “Aye, aye, Captain.”
* * *
As soon as Rowan picked her up from the hospital to take her home a week later, she insisted he stop by the studio so she could record her voiceover for the episode in post-production. He protested, but realized arguing would only make things worse, so he acquiesced. Fortunately, it didn’t take long. Lauren was a pro.
Lauren’s apartment on Ambrosia Drive featured floor-to-ceiling windows that brightened the rooms and provided spectacular views of the city surrounded by palm trees and hills. The pool outside her patio seemed to stretch to the horizon, meeting the ocean. She plopped down on the sofa as Rowan placed her suitcases by the bedroom door.
“Jean-René made soup and brought it over last night. I think there’s some French bread too, if you’re hungry.”
“I’m tired,” she admitted. “I thought after spending a week in bed that I’d be more anxious to do stuff, but all I can think of is a nap.”
“So, take a nap.”
Lauren didn’t move to the bedroom. She sank more deeply into the sofa, staring out the window. “I can’t keep going like this.” Her shoulders slumped as she lay her head in her hand.
“You won’t,” he said. “This too shall pass.”
“What are we doing with the show?”
He sat down across from her, running his hand through his mop of rusty-brown hair, tugging at it as he groaned. “We keep looking for the truth.”
“What if we never find it?”
He turned and looked away, staring out the window rather than looking at her. “I don’t know.” He stood and paced to the kitchen. “I guess we find something else to do.”
“I don’t want to end up working for a university...it got me my PhD, but I hated being stuck in a lab all day.”
Rowan came over and put his hand on her back. “We’ll figure something out. I sure don’t wanna be an EMT again, and I sure ain’t going to work at Burger King.” That made Lauren laugh through her tears. “Now, go lie down and get some rest. This is the worst possible time to try and make any decision, when you’re tired like this.”
Lauren nodded, reaching for a tissue to dry her eyes.
“I’ll come back by this evening and check on you.”
“No,” Lauren caught his hand as he started to leave. “Please. Don’t go.”
A little surprised, Rowan nodded and helped her to her feet. He took her to bed and lay down beside her, letting her use his shoulder for a pillow. Her leg snaked over his as she melted into him.
“What’s our next investigation?”
“We were supposed to go to Washington State,” he said, surprise ebbing away. “They’ve had some recent alleged Bigfoot activity.”
“Wonder if Bigfoot will be as helpful as his cousins, the Yeti, were. Maybe they’ll leave us better prints.”
“You’re not up to traveling yet, least of all a hike through the mountains at high elevations. You saw what the altitude did to Bahati. And she was healthy.”
Lauren nodded against his chest. “We need to start planning, at least. We should be ready to go as soon as we can.”
“Maybe in a couple of weeks.” Rowan bit his tongue. For her, everything was job, job, job. “You need time to mend.”
“I will do nothing but rest for the next few weeks.” She yawned. “I promise. Will you get with the Network and make travel arrangements?”
Rowan stiffened, but as always, he gave in to her. “Sure.”
* * *
Much to his surprise, Lauren did exactly what she had promised. She spent most of her time in bed, though with her iPad, reviewing the remaining video and photos from Peru from every camera and every angle. If she wasn’t curled up in bed, she was stretched out on the sofa. Rowan brought all her meals and tidied the apartment. One afternoon he came in with Chinese food. She seemed more her old self, and that put a big grin on his face.
“When are we leaving for Spokane?” She fidgeted with the tassel on the sofa cushion.
“I’m still waiting for word from the Network. Maybe in three or four weeks. The weather should be better by then, though it’s still early in the season. We’ll see. Do you think you’ll have a doctor’s release by the end of the month?”
Lauren nodded. “I’ve got a follow-up appointment next week. I feel tons better and I’m getting restless.” She joined him at the table. “There’s just so much to be done here before we leave.”
“It’s being done,” he insisted. “You don’t have to worry about any of it. All the samples were sent off. We’ve reviewed all the film footage and other evidence, but we haven’t come to any kind of a consensus yet. The team will handle the analysis.”
“I’ve been looking at the video, but ... I’m just as stumped as you are.”
“Maybe the lab will have better luck.”
She inhaled the perfume that wafted from the plate, taking the chopsticks out of the paper wrappers, snapping them apart. “Mm I smell egg rolls.”
Rowan placed one on the plate in front of her. “I’m glad to see you getting your appetite back.”
His phone rang as he was about to sit down. He noted the number on the Caller ID. Odd that the lab would call so late. “Rowan Pierce.” He left Lauren to her feast and took his phone call out to the patio, closing the door behind him.
“Hey, Rowan. It’s Glenn. What the hell is this stuff y’all sent me to analyze?”
“We were hoping you’d tell us.”
Rowan turned his back so Lauren couldn’t see his reaction, just in case she was watching. He tried to be casual as he leaned on the railing overlooking the pool.
“I’ve got three lab technicians in the hospital with radiation poisoning and I’ve had to move the samples into containment. I can’t even get them analyzed to find out what kind of radioactive materials they contain. I don’t have the resources for that here.”
Rowan tensed straight up. “That explains a lot. Lauren carried the samples. She did all the evidence collection.”
“She’s not sick, is she?”
“She spent a week in the hospital. We never put two and two together.”
“Well, what do you think these samples are? Where did you get them?”
“A mummified corpse in a cave in the Peruvian desert. The anthropomorphic data has our scientists puzzled. They think it could be mammalian, but there’s conflicting evidence.”
Rowan pressed the phone hard to his ear, waiting apprehensively through the pause on the other end. “You’ve sent me lots of crazy stuff over the past few years, but this takes the cake,” Glenn allowed. “Are you thinking it might be extraterrestrial?”
“That’s the theory,” Rowan said. “But without those samples, we have nothing.”
“So, what do you want me to do with them?”
“Any chance they were contaminated after collection?”
“Knowing Lauren and her chain-of-evidence collection procedures? I’d have to say no. Why do you ask?”
Rowan didn’t mention the incident with the police in Cusco. “Never mind. Are there any labs that can analyze them?”
“I’ve made a few phone calls. I found one in New Mexico that can.”
“Ship it and send me the bill.” If it’s not one thing it’s another. The Network was gonna have kittens when they found out they’d made the lab folks sick too.
“How’s Lauren doing?”
“She’s resting at home and getting stronger all the time,” Rowan said. “She’s hoping we’ll be able to leave for Spokane in three or four weeks.”
“Well, don’t bring me any other radiated samples, okay?”
“Just fuzzy brown hairs. At least, that’s the plan.”
“Going ‘squatchin’?” Rowan could hear the grin. “Be sure to bottle any fecal samples in alcohol. That’s the best way to preserve the DNA.”
“Which is better, vodka or rum?”
“Isopropyl.” And the line went dead.