C.J. Miller - Colton Holiday Lockdown

It was wearing on everyone.

Rafe, on the other hand, didn’t have someone to confide in. From what she could see, he was married to his job and without an outlet for his stress, he was a time bomb. He behaved as if the patients at the clinic and finding the cure for the virus were his responsibility, and that was too much pressure for anyone. Rafe seemed to believe that the health and welfare of every single patient rested solely on his shoulders. Though Dr. Goodhue was leading the effort in finding a cure and lending her considerable expertise and experience, Rafe was driving them hard and closer to a breakthrough.

Gemma had tried to be a friend, but Rafe was a hard man to get close to. He was standoffish and prickly, bullheaded at times, and a strange combination of self-centered and completely selfless. Self-centered in that he thought he had control and selfless because he did it for his patients.

The most difficult trait for Gemma to deal with was how intensely handsome she still found Rafe Granger. Bad-boy-turned-doctor, wild-teenager-turned-disciplined-man and, oh, what a man he was. Sexy and brooding and someone she should stay far away from. Her brothers had warned her in high school about Rafe and her instincts warned her now. He was a twelve out of ten on the scale of her top temptations. Better than wine. Better than chocolate.

If she let him, he would burn her. He would break her heart. She knew it, but even that didn’t stop her from thinking he was the single most fascinating man she’d ever met.

She was closer to her brother and Rafe now and she wished she had minded her own business and stayed inside to help Anand. She had often stood between her brothers Theo and Flint when they argued, but this was different.

She didn’t know Rafe as well and he didn’t have a soft spot for her the way her brothers did.

The tension between Flint and Rafe was palpable.

“Everything okay?” she asked, knowing it wasn’t, but looking to tamp down their mutual frustrations.

“We’ve lost hundreds of hours of research,” Rafe said.

“I know,” Gemma said. “But we’ll get it back.” She didn’t know how they could do more, but they would. Too many people were relying on the clinic to succeed.

Rafe stared at her incredulously. “How is that, Nurse Colton? Do you have the test data and the lab results and additional samples we can work with?”

His sharp tone stung. He was mad and having trouble controlling his temper.

“You know that I don’t,” Gemma said, countering his anger with a cool tone.

“Then how can we make this right?” he asked.

“We have the data we uploaded to the CDC. We have what we’ve learned. We won’t make the same mistakes and we already know what doesn’t work,” Gemma said, thinking of the time they had lost because they’d stored earlier samples at the wrong temperature and killed the virus.

“Mistakes?” Rafe asked.

He and Dr. Rand insisted the temperature issue hadn’t been a mistake. It was research. Gemma preferred to call a spade a spade. “I’ll give you that if we could lower our patient’s temperature to zero degrees Celsius for a time, the virus would die.” A concession.

He scowled. “We learned from that same failure that the virus can’t live off a live host for more than a couple of hours.”

“See? We have dozens of those observations that we can start with. We’re not starting from a blank slate this time,” Gemma said. “We’re past the initial confusion. We know better what we’re doing.”

Rafe looked away, though his shoulders relaxed a fraction of an inch. She was calming him and she took it as a win. Every little forward step with Rafe was progress.

“Hey, easy,” Flint said, patting Rafe’s shoulder. “She didn’t do this. She’s trying to help.”

Rafe rubbed his eyes, perhaps trying to shake off his exhaustion. “Let me tell you what I don’t get. How did someone break into the clinic, trash my office, destroy the storage room and then decimate the lab without anyone hearing it? It took a flaming fire to set off the alarms and summon help.”

Gemma agreed the timing was strange. “Dr. Rand, Anand and Felicia were in the virus wing. You know it’s hard to hear inside the suits,” she said. At least, it was her understanding that Felicia, Anand and Dr. Rand had been alone. The overnight shift was bare bones. Dead River wasn’t big enough to support a hospital, so the clinic provided the town’s medical services. Before the outbreak, complex and inpatient cases were referred to nearby Cheyenne Memorial. Now, they were short staffed, trying to run the clinic twenty-four hours a day.

“I’ll look into it, Rafe,” Flint said carefully. “Maybe someone saw or heard something that will help.”

Rafe looked at the sky and then nodded at Flint. “Let me know if I can help. In the meantime, I have more samples to collect. We’re starting over and I don’t have time to waste.”

He turned on his heel and stalked away.

Gemma stared after him for a few seconds, deciding if she should tag along to help or give him time to cool off.

“Careful, Gemma,” Flint said.

Gemma inclined her head at her brother. “Careful about what?”

“He’s not sticking around. I know that look in your eyes. You can’t save him. Rafe is a man with too many demons.”

Gemma straightened. She wasn’t thinking about saving Rafe, but she could be a friend, one he sorely needed. If he could stop seeing her as his friend’s annoying kid sister, they could have a real relationship. “The look in my eyes is a look of concern. I am worried about you. I am worried about everyone on staff here. I am worried about my patients.” She threw up her hands and gestured around them. “I am worried about everyone in this town if we don’t find a cure.”

Flint slid his arm around her shoulders. “I know you are. You have the warmest heart I’ve ever met, except for maybe Gram Dottie.”

At the mention of their grandmother, Gemma’s heart fell. “I’m worried about her,” Gemma said. Their grandmother had contracted the virus and had been admitted to the virus wing because her case was severe. Gram Dottie was tough, but the virus was proving tougher. As yet, not a single person had recovered.

“Me too,” Flint said. He kissed the top of his sister’s head. “Go help Rafe. He’s always been rough around the edges, but he’s smart. I’ve got my money on you and him to find the cure.”

Gemma was doing everything she could, but virology and epidemiology weren’t her fields of expertise. “We’ll find the cure. You find who did this,” Gemma said. She hugged her brother goodbye, smiling when she smelled Nina’s perfume on him. She was happy to know her brother finally had someone special in his life.

Gemma returned to the clinic and put on her protective suit. She entered the virus wing, where she knew she’d find Rafe. She didn’t hear him over their comm system. He must have shut off his microphone.

He was in one of their patients’ rooms. From his demeanor, if she hadn’t witnessed it herself, she wouldn’t have known he’d been upset. With his patients, he was warm and concerned. He joked with them, laughed with them and didn’t rush them, taking time to answer questions at length. With the influx of critical cases, they were short on time, but Rafe didn’t make anyone feel that way. He had an easy way about him that was disarming.

Rafe was the only doctor on staff who drew patients’ blood samples. Dr. Goodhue, Dr. Rand and Dr. Moore always called for a nurse to take care of the task. It was another way in which Rafe was different. From the time Gemma had started working at the clinic, she was an assistant to the doctors. Rafe didn’t make her feel like she was helping him. When they worked together, she felt she was pulling her weight and making important contributions.