Love's So Contagious

We Know

Mew practically had to drag Gulf back home. He made sure to wait until all the people from Vihokratana Enterprise had been safely evacuated to other hospitals before insisting on leaving. It was understandable that Gulf was worried about his patients, which only further proved his innocence. Plus, Gulf was still pregnant and needed to take extra precautions.

Even if Gulf wasn't pregnant, he still needed to take better care of himself. Dealing with a caseload like this meant that the meningitis outbreak would continue for quite some time. Gulf had already been working on it for weeks, so he had to pace himself. If he couldn't do it on his own, Mew would be there to support him.

The next morning, they both got up and returned to the office. Gulf had managed to get a decent night's sleep, but his usual cheerful demeanor was noticeably diminished. "What's the matter?" Mew asked as he poured them both some coffee. He had secretly researched pregnancy restrictions while Gulf was busy with his lumbar puncture marathon, and it turned out that a couple of cups of coffee in the morning were perfectly fine for pregnant individuals. They just had to avoid excessive consumption.

Sure, Mew wasn't a doctor. However, Gulf accepted the cup with a shy, happy little smile, so everything was fine.

"I'm just trying to think of people who could be capable of doing something like this. It's not... Phuket is a city. It's a medium-sized city. It's not Udon Thani or Lampang, but it's not Mayberry either. That said, the medical community isn't that large."

They were seated at the breakfast bar. "No," Mew nodded. He couldn't quite grasp what his boyfriend was hinting at. "No, it isn't." Maybe some more coffee would help.

"The killer has to be someone we know. They know enough to know how meningitis is spread." He swallowed. "And they know enough to choose targets they don't mind seeing die."

"Understood." Mew took a sip from his coffee. He waited for a moment to see if Gulf was going to elaborate on his thoughts or not.

Gulf gazed into his coffee cup, lost in thought. "Whenever there's an illness, there are always indications. Sometimes they're too subtle to be visible to the naked eye, but a comprehensive metabolic panel or blood chemistry test would easily detect them," he explained, snapping his fingers. "Other times, the symptoms are obvious, but they're often minor or vague enough to be mistaken for something else. You know what I mean? Like how everyone experiences gas, but it's only when you're diagnosed with GERD that you realize your specific gas issue was a symptom of a larger problem."

Mew looked at his boyfriend, slightly perplexed. Were all their early morning conversations going to revolve around gas?

Gulf chuckled softly. "Gas is just a minor symptom, and perhaps if someone had recognized it as a symptom earlier, they could have diagnosed the condition sooner. But at the time, it didn't seem particularly strange to anyone. Or maybe it did, but not strange enough to mention." He returned his focus to his coffee cup.

"I trust your expertise," Mew reassured Gulf, patting his back. "You won't find the killer's face lurking at the bottom of a cup of dark roast, babe. Besides, it's not your responsibility to catch the killer. Your role is to help heal the patients. If you can assist in identifying the killer through science, that's amazing. But delving into the mind of a sick individual like that? No, that's my job, not yours."

Gulf leaned his head on Mew's arm briefly. "Yeah, maybe. It's a natural reaction though. That, 'What did I miss?' thought. We're going to find out who it was and it's going to seem like we should have known the whole time. I'm going to be so mad that I couldn't have figured it out a month ago and spared all these people from having to go through all of this that I'll probably just explode and make a big sticky problem for Housekeeping."