Wilson stopped her. “He’s worried about the baby.”
“But he’s been decontaminated, right?”
“Once outside the containment room and again in here, after he started displaying symptoms.”
“So we’re good?” said Laura.
“At this point, whatever he inhaled or absorbed is a threat to him, but it shouldn’t have any effect on you. Or the baby.”
“Bobby,” she said in a voice loud enough to carry, “do you hear that? The doc says the baby’s going to be fine.”
“I’m not doing it, Laura,” he called to her. “I love you, but please go home.”
“Maybe he’s got a point,” I said to Laura.
She wouldn’t hear me. “You have to talk to him,” she said to Dr. Wilson. “Explain that it’s safe.”
I glanced at Mary Lou. She had brought us here, so she obviously didn’t think it was dangerous for Laura and Bobby to be in the same room together. But she was the same person who hadn’t been ruffled by theMirfieldarrests or theChartridgegrounding or the fact that three babies without skulls had been born in the same tiny hospital within a year of each other. At least she hadn’t acted ruffled. It occurred to me, looking at her, that maybe not acting ruffled was her whole trick.
“I’ll talk to him,” I said to Laura.
“You will?”
“Yeah,” I said, and that was when I knew that, regardless of what happened between Paul and me, Laura and I were going to be fine.
155.
AFTER MARY LOU LED LAURAto the wardroom, Wilson suited me up in a lead apron and steered me behind the curtain, where Bobby was gowned and lying on a gurney. He had a kidney-shaped basin resting across his chest and an IV stuck in his arm, but what was most jarring was his skin, which was pale and clammy, and his eyes, which were extremely red.
“You look like shit,” I said to him, determined to keep the mood light.
He laughed a little. “I feel like shit, too.”
I touched his forehead with the back of my hand. He was feverish, and when he called me Ellen instead of Eileen, I remembered what Wilson had said about him being disoriented.
“What hurts?” I asked, but the question wasn’t going to get me anywhere, because Bobby was thinking only of Laura.
“Is she okay?” he asked. “This had to have freaked her out.”
“She’s fine,” I said. “Just worried about you, that’s all.”
“I don’t want her around any of this.”
“I know. But the doc is saying you’re not a risk to her. Or the baby.”
“What does he know?” said Bobby, and I peeked around the curtain to see if Wilson was in the room. The infirmary was mercifully empty.
“You shouldn’t be in here, either,” he added.
“I’m not worried about it,” I lied, and pulled up a stool.
Bobby let out a long sigh, and I got the impression that if he hadn’t been so exhausted, he might have fought me harder.
“Where’s Canady?” I asked. “And the two other guys?”
“I don’t know about Marty and Punk, but they’ve got Canady next door. In dental. He got the worst of it.”
“Really?”
