I Believe in You

Run, Doctor, Run

"Conrad! Get in here!" I called trying sedate the man fighting Devon and Irving on the stretcher.
He threw Irving away from him and lashed out at me but Conrad caught his flying fist before he could hit me.
"You don't want to do that." He said firmly holding his wrist.
"You have two options. You can calm the hell down yourself or you can let Dr. Bishop sedate you."
"You have to listen to me. The damn paramedics wouldn't listen to me." He said staring at Conrad.
"We are listening to you." Conrad sighed releasing the man's wrist.
"She's sick. She's really sick. You have to help her." He exclaimed.
"Who?" I asked.
"Mrs. Claudia. Claudia Webb. You have to help her." He looked at me.
"You let Dr. Pravesh and Dr. Feldman take care of you. Dr. Bishop and I will go find Mrs. Claudia and get her the help she needs." Conrad assured him.
Conrad and I drove out to the address Felix had given us to find Claudia Webb.
When we knocked on the door another man who looked to be younger than Felix opened the door.
"Who are you?" He growled.
"I'm Dr. Conrad Hawkins and this is Dr. Meghan Bishop. Felix told us the Mrs. Claudia needs help." Conrad answered.
"Fine." He moved aside and let us in.
Inside we found a woman who looked to be in her early to mid seventies laying on the couch. She was pale and lethargic.
"Hi. I'm Dr. Meghan Bishop. Can you tell me your name?" I asked crouching down next to her.
She looked at me a long moment.
"Claudia Webb?" She finally said.
"Okay, Mrs. Webb, I need you to try to tell me about your symptoms."
She just stared at me.
"Before Monday she was active. She's a caterer. Now she can't get moving. She draws a blank all the time. She complains of headaches then refuses to take medicine because she doesn't need it. We're scared, Dr. Hawkins." I overheard Ray tell Conrad.
"Meghan and I would like to take her to Chastain and give her a full examination. We'll figure out what's going on." He assured him.
He nodded and Conrad called for the ambulance.
Back at the hospital Conrad and I ordered a full workup with a barrage of tests and bloodwork.
I found myself sitting alone in the sleeping quarters while awaiting the test results.
I heard the door open and turned to find Lane closing the door behind her.
"I know it was you who jumpstarted the investigation into my practice." She hissed walking towards me.
I stood up and took a step backwards towards the door on the other side.
"You won't get away with this." She growled.
"No, Lane. It's you who won't get away with what you've done." I stated evenly still backing away from her.
I caught sight of the glint of the metal blade in her hand.
"What are you going to do, Lane? You're going to stab the daughter of the district attorney? A fellow doctor? How do you think that's going to look for your investigation?" I asked as my back hit the door.
I slid my hand across the door to the door knob and pushed it open walking out into the hallway suddenly surrounded by others.
"Meghan! Help!" I heard Nic call from the emergency room in front of me.
I pushed back the fear from what I'd experienced with Lane and rushed to Nic.
On the gurney beside her was a younger blonde woman.
"It's my sister, Jessie. She overdosed on oxy." Nic told me.
"The paramedics administered Narcan and got her breathing again."
"Start an IV with fluids and push two milligrams of Naloxone. How's her breathing?" I asked as Conrad joined us.
"Breathing is shallow and laboured." A nurse answered me.
"Push another two milligrams of Naloxone." I instructed.
Her O2 saturation was below eighty. After the second dose it jumped back to normal range: ninety eight.
"Monitor her closely and call Conrad or I if something changes."
Nic, Conrad and I walked out of the room.
"Has she been using a long time?" I asked gently.
"On and off since she was sixteen." She answered.
"She'll be okay, Nic." Conrad assured her.
"I have a meeting with an oncologist." She sighed.
"Go on. We'll keep an eye on her." I smiled softly .
Nic thanked us and left.
"Lane knows she's in trouble." I told Conrad as we walked around the hospital's courtyard.
"She came after me in the sleeping quarters."
Conrad stopped and turned to look at me.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"I think she had a knife. I can't be certain. She told me that I'd pay for having the investigation opened." I sighed.
"I told you this was getting too dangerous." He sighed.
"We're so close. It's only a matter of time." I assured him.
"I don't want you to be anywhere in this hospital alone until she's removed." He insisted.
"I know. I agree."
I closed the distance between us and laid my head on his chest as he wrapped his arms around me.
"Meghan! Conrad! We have Mrs. Webb's results back." Devon called from the doorway.
We rushed inside and up to her room.
"She has a parasitic infection known as Babesiosis. Has she been out of the country recently?" I asked Felix and Ray.
"About a week ago she came back from Indonesia." Felix answered.
"We're going to administer treatment. There are two different medication combinations to treat the infection so if she doesn't show improvement with the first one we'll switch it, okay?" Conrad asked.
"Like most antibiotic treatments the regimen will take seven to ten days to fully eradicate the infection, but we'll know if she's responding to the treatment in the first twenty four hours." I added.
Both men nodded.
We started Claudia Webb on a combination of atovaquone 750 mg every 12 hours and azithromycin 1000 mg once a day.
Conrad and I were laying in bed late that night when my phone rang startling our puppies.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Meghan. They set me up." Nic said frantically.
"Where are you?" I asked sitting up in the bed.
"Atlanta Correctional Facility."
My heart stopped and I looked at Conrad.
"Nic's been arrested."