Nalini had been surprised that most of the rest of the team had apparently followed her all the way down to Kent after a single call-out. They had also had to introduce her to Kate, but now the group of them were gathered in a small private room close to the intensive care ward.
"Why the sudden interest?" asked the group's medical officer, dark eyes flitting between the faces of her colleagues.
"Something else significant came up in the local area," said Helen, "very local, in fact. Can you tell us what you've found?"
"A patient was brought in to A&E with unusual symptoms. Delirium, fading in and out of consciousness, sudden sweats, irregular breathing, occasional convulsions, intermittent tachycardia and bradycardia... which is a rather odd combination. The best I can come up with is some sort of dysautonomia or adrenergic storm, but it..."
Helen held her hand up, "English, please?"
Nalini sighed before continuing, "there seems to be something very badly wrong with his nervous system. He's in a state of collapse, with contradictory symptoms that come and go. This is a general hospital; they're not set up for anything like this, although they're managing to keep him alive. I've arranged for him to be transferred to Queen Square in London, although I'm not entirely sure what they will be able to do, either."
"And this was a sudden onset?"
"So far as we can tell. He's not in a fit state to tell us what happened, and we don't have any recent medical history."
"Does he have a dog?" asked Rebecca.
"Yes... it was the dog barking that alerted his neighbour. She looked in, saw him unconscious in the hallway, and called the ambulance. They had to break in." Nalini was looking more confused than ever, "what is this about?"
"We're not entirely sure yet," said Rebecca, "but he's been in contact with something that he evidently shouldn't have been. And we need to find it, fast."
"I'll get the police to cordon off his property," said Richard, tapping a number into his phone as Nalini read out the address.
"And tell them not to go in," said Helen, all business, "we have to search that place. Fortunately, they shouldn't have had any reason to do so yet, since it isn't a crime scene. What happened to the dog?"
"With the neighbour, I think."
"We need to speak to her anyway."
"And find out if the dog is showing any symptoms," suggested Rebecca.
"It can't be in anything like his condition, or the neighbour would have said something," pointed out Nalini, "you wouldn't need to be a vet to notice."
"Even so, it's a good idea," agreed Helen, "let's get the patient transferred, since we're obviously not going to get anything out of him for the moment. And then we get down to this address as soon as we can, and find out what's caused this. "
***
"WHAT THE FUCK?"
With a shriek of surprise, Lucy pulled herself free, and Liam found himself desperately scrambling to his feet, hands covering his rapidly shrinking erection. Denzel shouldn't have been back today! What was he even doing here?
"It's not what it looks like!" he blurted out, without even thinking.
"How the fuck can it not be what it looks like?" shouted his flatmate incredulously, glaring at him with fury in his eyes.
Liam didn't really have an answer to that one, and evidently, neither did Lucy, who had backed behind him, using his body to shield her own. It occurred to Liam that, from his vantage point by the door, Denzel would have been at just the right angle to see literally everything. Not just that his girlfriend was stark naked and holding on to his equally naked best friend, but to have a perfectly clear view of Liam's hard white cock sliding in and out between her spread lips.
He had to admit that this would make it difficult to persuade Denzel that he was mistaken about what they'd been doing.
[Emotions rising in Targets Two and Five, raising susceptibility to take over. Project that violence is likely, and may impair subsequent full functioning in either or both targets: undesirable outcome. Redirect emotions in Target Five to reduce probability of physical damage. Working to acquire access to Target Six.]
"Look... Lucy and I... we, uh..."
"What is going on?" said a new voice, sounding a little worried.
Liam looked across and his heart sank even more than it already done. As if it wasn't bad enough that Denzel had caught him doing something there was surely no going back from! But now, against all the odds, bloody Emma had just followed him into the flat. Where the hell had she come from?
Lucy let out another squeak of fear and embarrassment, and tried to hide herself even more thoroughly behind Liam's back. Emma's mouth dropped open as she took the scene in and, even without Denzel's direct visual evidence, clearly had no difficulty in drawing the obvious conclusion.
"Oh... my... God..." said Liam's big sister, flushing crimson as she did so.
[Emotional surge in Target Six has permitted access. Alternative emotional pathway activated in Target Five. Subversion of executive function in all targets no longer viable. Working to restore possibility of desired outcome.]
Liam half-expected Denzel to punch him, and didn't know whether to raise his hands defensively in front of his face, or keep them where they were. He couldn't see Lucy from his current vantage point, just feel her hands on his shoulder, but he imagined that she must look just as worried.
Instead though, his flatmate just collapsed into the nearby armchair, as if his strings had been cut, all the fight suddenly knocked out of him. He put his head in his hands, and it looked to Liam as if he was on the verge of tears. Emma, at least, had the tact to close the door, although he'd have preferred it if she'd stayed on the other side of it, and left them to sort it out.
If nothing else, the flat share was surely at an end, and neither of them could afford to keep it on their own.
"Lucy..." said Denzel, after an uncomfortable silence, looking up with sadness in his eyes, "how could you? I knew we were going through a bad patch, but I never expected... how long has this been going on?"
"It's the first time," she said, speaking up at last, "I swear it."
"But there must have been more before this... you don't just leap into bed with a guy on the first day that you kiss."
Which was a fair point, now that he said it. How to explain the sudden wave of desire that had come over them both? Yes, of course, he had fancied Lucy for months, but she had never reciprocated until today. There had been nothing in it. To be honest, if anything, he'd just assumed that she preferred black guys anyway.
