DISCLAIMER: Not mine. No money made. Maca, Esther and (to my great disappointment also Cruz), along with the entirety of Hospital Central, belong to Telecino. All I own is my brain and a very vivid imagination. I only lay claim to the journey I'm sending the characters on.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: After taking refuge in the Hospital Central fandom almost a year ago, I am delighted to see the growing interest for Maca and Esther in the international community, where Ralst's call for submissions finally convinced me to post this story here as well. It is originally being written in single chapters on the Spanish Maca y Esther board at miarroba (Ralst has kindly added the link to the HC link section, and if any of you speaks Spanish, I'd advise you to run and don't walk over there and take a look at the fan fic section) and is as of yet unfinished.
TIMEFRAME: uh… let's call it al Alternative AU, which is like an Über, but not quite. The Spanish folks on miarroba write nearly exclusively in this form.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.

By Nordica aka Nique Bartok

Part 31

That evening, they didn't enter the medics' quarters separately, with an appropriate distance between the two of them and a dishonest 'good night' at their respective doors. No, this time, for the first time, they walked down the hallway together, their fingers linked.

Maca stopped at her own door as Esther walked on. "He… where do you think you're going?" Esther asked, not letting go off Maca's hand.

"To bed, I'm kind of tired…" Maca said, but she could only remain serious for a few seconds, Esther's disappointed face making her laugh. "You don't think I'm planning on sleeping much tonight, do you?" she questioned in a low voice, stroking the fingers in her grasp. "I just have a few things for you I need to get first."

"What kind of things?" Esther couldn't think of anything she might need right now except for the woman next to her. She waited impatiently as Maca rummaged through her room, reappearing moments later with a few packages, and Esther all but pulled the two of them into her own quarters, hearing the door scrape closed behind them with satisfaction.

"This is from Azuka," Maca explained, holding out the painting. "See? It's a lion. It even has your hair ribbons!"

Esther made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob as she took the drawing and turned toward the window to see the it better. "I miss him."

"So do I." Maca said from where she stood behind her, placing the bags with her gifts on the small table by the door. "When I went to tell him goodbye, I almost took him back here. But he's fine." She sighed. "He was back out playing with some other kids before I had even left the room."

Esther sensed that Maca needed to be held right at this instant, the resigned sadness in her tone cutting through her. "He's too young to know what it all means," she said gently, wrapping her arms around Maca and feeling her rest her head on her shoulder. Azuka might not know this, but when Maca left a room she was in, she felt it, with senses she hadn't even known she possessed until Maca had kissed them awake. Involuntarily, she held on tighter, breathing in this blend of scents that was Maca. "I missed you, so much," she murmured, closing her eyes. "I was so scared that something might have happened to you…" And even though she held Maca to her at this moment, safe and unharmed, she still wanted to cry, something she didn't quite understand herself. There was so much she wanted to tell her, so much she felt, but the words seemed to duck out of her grasp, leaving her unable to do anything but hold Maca close.

"I missed you too…" Maca's voice sounded right next to Esther's ear. "I can't even tell you how much. And Azuka kept asking for you… and I just wanted to say, 'me, too!'" She laughed softly, drawing back a little. "Really, he is taking after me," she joked.

"Yes, I can see the family resemblance," Esther teased gently, carefully extricating Azuka's picture from between them before it could crumple too much. "Perhaps we should have children of our own," she said easily while she set the drawing down on the table, but it came out a lot less jokingly than she had intended and she halted at her own words.

Where had that image come from? …Maca, with that unearthly soft smile, looking at her, and Esther herself, her own eyes radiating happiness, both cradling a small infant between them…

Esther blinked, thrown even more by the feeling of absolute certainty and joy that accompanied the image than by the image itself.

She felt Maca's hands on her shoulder, gently urging her around to look at her.

"…Esther?" Maca's eyes were liquid and frightened as they searched Esther's gaze, leaving Esther wondering how she could ever have thought that she'd be able to resist this woman, in any way.

She took a deep breath, looking straight at Maca. "When we get back to Spain, I'll break it off with Miguel," she said calmly. She had known this, she realized, but not with this clarity, not until this very moment. "I want to do it face to face… He deserves that at least." Esther looked down at her own feet, torn between guilt over her betrayal and the inevitable truth of her own emotions. "I feel lousy for what I'm doing to him," she stated after a moment. "But I can't pretend it's not you I love."

There. She had said it, and now she felt strangely vulnerable and naked in front of Maca's gaze. And while Maca had been incredibly happy that she had prolonged her contract, there had never been any big words between them, no declarations or plans for what might be after they returned. "I won't say I'm not scared," Esther allowed, wondering how she'd explain to her friends and her own mother that she had abandoned her boyfriend for a woman, cheating on Miguel without remorse. But none of this mattered now. "I want to be with you," she said with determination. "Indefinitely. No matter where."

This was what she had needed to say, and only then, faced with Maca's pale expression and the way she stood motionlessly, seemingly not even breathing, Esther reminded herself that this decision wasn't hers to make and that she had no right to assume that Maca would feel the same way about her. "If… if you'd like, that is," she amended.

Maca stared at Esther for another endless, breathless moment. "Esther…" she finally murmured, and it sounded as if she was saying that name for the first time. "If I'd like?" She shook her head, giving a Esther a teary, happy smile. "You don't know how much I… No… look at me." She interrupted herself, seeing how Esther turned her head away like she always did when Maca tried to tell her just how much she was feeling for her.

She reached out, gently grasping Esther's chin between her fingers and lifting it, so that she could look into her eyes. "Esther… you're marvelous and beautiful and amazing, and whether we met out here, or whether I'd seen you somewhere on a crowded street between hundreds of other beautiful women… I would still only have eyes for you." She smiled tenderly, her tone teasing as she tucked a few loose strands of hair behind Esther's ear. "Silly… I want nobody else but you. Don't you get that through your thick skull?"

It was too much. Esther thought she was overflowing, swept away by her own emotions and by everything she could see in Maca's eyes. She was helpless to stop the tears that were running down her cheeks and when she fell into Maca's arms, embracing her tightly, she still couldn't stop crying, so incredibly happy and yet so incredibly frustrated that her mind and body seemed too small to fit all the joy that was surging through her.

But underneath it all, at the core of it, there was Maca's breathing next to her own, and Esther finally allowed herself to believe in this – that they had a chance at a future together, that this perfect, perfect woman wanted her for real, and that she would have fallen in love with her anyway.

She tilted her head up, blindly finding Maca's lips with her own, and when she reached to cup Maca's face between her hands, her fingers came away wet.

They stood like this for long minutes, their kisses almost shy, as if they were the first ones they ever gave each other, and then they just stood holding each other, their bodies long since having arrived home in each other's arms while their hearts still listened in awe to the silent connection that was spanning between them with every single of their breaths.

Part 32

"Oh, I have more things for you…" Maca remembered, breaking the solemn mood from which they crawled like new butterflies from their cocoons, with cautions steps and their wings still humid, unconscious yet of their abilities. "Here." She held out the small wooden box that contained the earrings and when Esther opened it, her smile lit up Maca's face in return.

"They are beautiful…" Esther trailed her fingertips over the filigree metal and small, polished jewels. She held them up against the light and then tried to put them in.

"Wait… let me help," Maca offered, taking her time in carefully pushing the hooks into place. She smothered a smile when she felt Esther shift under her fingers and her own hands trembled a little in reaction. This was new, this unhurried touching, now that they knew that their time wasn't limited.

"There you go," Maca said as she stepped back with a smile. "Fit for a princess…or a queen…" She stroked her fingers across Esther's temple. "My queen."

Esther laughed, reaching up to her ears and feeling the gemstones against her fingers. "But if I'm your queen, what are you?" She tried to see her reflection in the small hand mirror that she took from her desk.

"I don't know." Maca shrugged disarmingly. "Simply yours?"

The playful smile slid from Esther's face at that remark, replaced by something much more deep and intense. "You're everything," she murmured, dropping the mirror carelessly back on the desk and drawing Maca's face within inches of her own. "Everything," she repeated before she kissed Maca within an in of her life.

"Mhmm… so you don't want your other gifts?" Maca murmured against her lips when she came up for breath.

"More?" Esther perked up, but then she shook her head. "Really, Maca… you don't need to give me anything." She hooked her hands together behind Maca's neck. "You don't need to charm me anymore. You've got me already."

"All the more reason to treat you like a queen…" Maca replied with a grin. "Bear with me. I'm shallow and rich and not so good with words."

"You're not shallow, and I don't care if you're rich," Esther stated sternly. "And as for words, you already had me when you said my name, so there."

"Really…?" Maca smiled mischievously. "Like what… 'Esther'…?" she breathed in a half moan that raised every hair on Esther's neck and made her knees feel like jelly.

"Uh…" Esther blushed beet red and she knew that Maca could probably feel the goose bumps on her arms under her fingers. "I think I'd like my other gift now," she mumbled meekly.

Maca just smiled and handed her the package that contained the shirt. She decided that she loved giving Esther gifts when she saw her unwrap the shirt with an immediate joy that was almost childlike and for a moment she wondered whether perhaps Esther had not gotten too many gifts as a kid.

"It feels so soft," Esther said admiringly, running her fingers along the fabric. "Thank you." She looked up at Maca, and then back down at the bright turquoise in her hands. "Hmm… I might have to try it on right away."

Fingers wandered teasingly underneath the hem of Esther's top. "That might require you letting go of this…" Maca informed her in a low voice.

"Uhm…" Esther squirmed against the hand that was slowly stroking op her side. "…really?"

"I'm afraid so…" Maca murmured against Esther shoulder where she had found a very kissable spot while she pushed the hindering top higher and higher. She quickly deposited the other small package she was still holding on the desk, but when she wanted to nudge it out of sight behind the picture frame that had always been there, she noticed that the frame was gone.

"What's that?" Esther asked curiously over her shoulder.

"Just another little something I brought," Maca said, embarrassed by her own impulsive idea when Esther unwrapped the cheap paper lantern. "I thought since we usually have the lamp on late… as a shade…" Before she could go on, however, Esther silenced her with a finger against her lips.

"You know…" she began pensively, only to lean in and kiss Maca sweetly for long moments. "You may act all abrasive," she stated then. "But underneath, you're the sweetest person I've ever met."

"Nah… I don't do sweet." Maca tried to protest and was dismayed to find herself actually blushing.

"Yeah right," Esther said dryly, which did nothing to lessen Maca's blush. She lit the small lamp and carefully closed the lampion around it. "Look," she said, taking in the soft orange glow that now bathed the room. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Yes." Maca only had eyes for Esther and the way the light reflected off her skin. "Incredibly beautiful."

Part 33

Between them lay a distance of perhaps three steps and Esther watched Maca take them, without hurry, but purposefully. And then Maca was standing in front of her, leaning in to kiss her with infinite tenderness.

Esther let herself fall into the gentle touch, but then lost her patience after a few moments. Granted, they might have all the time in the world, but all the time in the world wasn't enough when it came to Maca and it had been two very long, frustrating weeks. Esther needed more, and she needed it now.

Throwing her arms around Maca's neck, she pushed their bodies closer together, noticing how the familiar shiver ran down her spine and then she couldn't contain herself any longer, drawing Maca's bottom lip between her teeth and biting down lightly. If she could have, she would have devoured her at that moment, and then Maca responded, her tongue pushing past her lips and moving hotly against her own.

This was what she had missed, Esther thought with a groan as she let herself sink fully against Maca, this was what she had lacked for two terribly long weeks – those lips against her own and those hands on her body.

She felt Maca's hands sliding around her waist, half pushing and half carrying her backwards until they tumbled onto the bed, Maca coming to rest atop of her. Esther bit back a moan, her arms only wrapping more closely around Maca's neck. She loved this feeling, every curve of Maca's body pressing into her own with reassuring heaviness, leaving her nowhere to move but into Maca and her hands and her lips which were closing around her earlobe at that moment, sucking with intent, pulling ever so lightly on the earring she was still wearing.

Esther squirmed under the sensual onslaught, and under Maca's hands that were moving all over her torso. She arched her back, finding herself without her top a moment later and her hands moved across Maca's back as if looking for a place to hold onto to not melt away under these lips that were now moving down her neck. Maca knew exactly that this was driving her crazy and she showed no mercy, smoothly trailing her tongue along a tight cord of muscle.

Esther had begun to breathe through her mouth without even noticing it, and she couldn't have opened her eyes if her life had depended on it. She groaned when finally, with a near inaudible rasp of wire and fabric, her bra gave way under a quick move of Maca's fingers and she found herself bared to those hands. Her eyes still closed, Esther bit her lip in anticipation when she felt Maca's breath against her skin, a loose strand of hair trailing over her chest like a caress. Maca was so close, so close… Esther could almost feel her own body straining into the warmth above and she unconsciously arched her back, desperate for the touch she knew was about to come.

But then the warmth was gone and she heard Maca's voice from a little farther away. "Your shirt."

Esther blinked her eyes open to find Maca holding the new shirt out to her. "Wha…?!"

"Your shirt," Maca repeated patiently, as if she hadn't been driving her body mad with want just a moment before. She had sat up and was brushing the soft fabric across Esther's stomach. "I thought you wanted to try it on?"

"You want me to put something on… now?" Esther asked with difficulty.

Maca nodded placidly. "I want to see how it looks on you."

Esther sat up, somewhat peeved by the interruption, and reached to don her shirt, her arms unsteady. The fabric slid coolly along her skin and she had to suppress a shudder when it grazed over her breasts, finally settling over her body.

"…and?" she asked, somewhat annoyed, but then she realized that she wouldn't even have needed to inquire because if Maca's look was any indication, the shirt seemed to flatter her. Esther looked down her own body, seeing that the garment was cut like a tunic, a low slit letting the fabric gape open a little bit right down to between her breasts.

Maca didn't reply, instead reaching for the hem of the shirt and pulling it tight against Esther's body so that every outline of her torso was cast into view. "Beautiful," Maca decided without once lifting her gaze from the body in front of her. She leaned in and, in one smooth movement, licked along the entire length of that slit, from between Esther's breasts right up to where there was the small indention between her collarbones, languidly twirling her tongue across it.

Esther fell backwards onto the thin mattress. "Maca…"

She could feel Maca smile against her temple, and when she looked down, she saw the outline of Maca's fingers through the shirt, slowly trailing underneath it and up her stomach…. and down again… and, yet again, upward once more…

Esther didn't even realize that she had raised her head from the bed, curving forward into this touch that had to come, seeing the fabric of the shirt whisper against Maca's hand, and feeling it against her skin, together with Maca's fingers that were teasing her mercilessly.

At one point, seemingly satisfied with how shallow Esther's breaths had become, more gasps that anything else, Maca curled her fingers into the cool, soft tissue and pulled it tight again, making it graze sensuously across Esther's breasts, her nipples forming a sharp outline against the fabric.

"Unghh…" Esther jerked at the sudden, much too brief contact that was gone as quickly as it had come, making her wonder whether Maca was trying to make her pass out before she even had touched her. "Maca…" she pleaded, her hips having begun to move minutely even though Maca didn't do anything, having positioned herself between Esther's legs in a way that made sure there was no immediate contact, holding her own body consciously above Esther who could feel nothing but the tantalizing warmth of skin close by without actually feeling its touch.

Oh, but Maca loved seeing Esther like this, moving with such abandon, completely attuned to her body. Nobody could possibly desire her as much as Maca did, nobody needed her as much, or could have reveled that much in the tiny hitch in her breathing whenever Maca's fingers moved higher, along the curve of a smooth breast, but never quite high enough…

Nobody else would ever touch Esther again this way, Maca swore. Nobody, and certainly not Miguel. She bent down, her lips open, but not quite closing over an aching nipple that clearly stood out through the thin fabric of the shirt. Instead, she simply breathed out, feeling Esther shudder underneath her as she felt the teasing humid warmth that was so much like a touch, and yet not quite.

Maca saw how Esther's fingers were curled tightly into the sheets, her eyes drawn shut, and how the fabric of the shirt was now lightly beginning to stick to her stomach with a sheen of sweat. It was the sexiest image Maca had ever seen and, overwhelmed by her own game, she couldn't hold back any longer, thinking she'd come from just watching Esther like this if she didn't do something right now.

She let herself fall into the body beneath her, reveling in Esther's moan of relief, and then her lips closed over a nipple, right through the shirt, sucking hard. With one hand, Maca fumbled to maneuver Esther's pants out of the way, leaving them halfway around her knees, but there was no time now, no time at all as Esther impatiently pushed into her touch, her hips moving off the bed with urgency, and then everything was a blur of need and trying to get closer, beyond the borders of their bodies. Esther's fingers were clawing into Maca's back.

Maca buried her head against Esther's neck, between the heat radiating off her skin, the salt of her sweat and the race of her pulse under her lips and she breathed in deeply, feeling her move against her.

Mine, she thought possessively, and right then, she didn't even hate Miguel anymore because nobody would ever be with Esther like she was, nobody's body fit against her own like Esther's, and nobody could ever have felt as perfect with Esther as she did right then. And then thinking became too difficult when the movement of Esther's hips turned frantic and Maca bit her lip in concentration, thrusting harder, and then Esther sharply dug her teeth into her shoulder to muffle her own scream, not quite succeeding while her whole body convulsed, leaving Maca above her, trembling and unable to catch her own breath for long minutes while minute tremors kept running through Esther.

Maca distantly thought that Vilches would probably be glowering at them over breakfast again, complaining acidly about the noise, but so what, this was worth it. She just hoped nobody would ask funny questions about the mark that she would no doubt carry around on her shoulder for a few days.

"Ah… I think I like my new shirt…" Esther stated groggily when she could speak again, her throat parched from panting. She pushed the hair out of her eyes with a trembling hand. "Jesus, Maca…"

Maca grinned. "I like your shirt, as well." She was still somewhat dazed as she looked down at Esther, taking in the relaxed happiness in her eyes, the rosy tint to her cheeks and the fine line of sweat still beading her forehead. She was everything Maca had ever wanted without even knowing it. She looked at Esther seriously for a moment. "There is something else I have for you…"

"Give me a minute, or you will kill me," Esther pleaded breathlessly, but she winked at Maca while she said it, her breath still not quite having slowed down to normal again.

Maca smiled. "Not that…" She reach up to her neck wordlessly, needing a minute to untie the leather string that she hadn't loosened in over a year.

For a moment, she looked at the hardened wood pendant in her hand before she held it out to Esther. She could see in Esther's eyes that she wanted to protest at first, but upon seeing the seriousness in Maca's gaze, she nodded and then she sat up, pushing her hair over one shoulder and silently offering her neck.

Maca solemnly tied the small leopard's head with its glinting teeth into place, observing how it came to rest low against Esther's neck, and she wondered why it felt so damn much like putting a ring on her finger.

But perhaps this was what it was. "There…" she murmured, adjusting the pendant in the small indention between Esther's collarbones. She wanted to lean in to kiss Esther then, but found herself being stopped by a hand against her chest.

"Wait..." Esther got out of the bed, walking across the room in nothing but her new turquoise shirt that did not quite cover her hips. Maca grinned contentedly at the sight until Esther turned back around to face her, and the easy expression slid off her features when she saw that Esther held her small wooden lion statuette in her palms. She walked closer, without a word, her eyes holding just a trace of nervousness and Maca thought she might have been a priestess of a long forgotten ritual, with her hair open and falling freely over her shoulders, with those earrings and this shirt that looked like a robe. And in a way it was a ritual, a promise that had no words because there were no words needed, and Maca reached out to accept the small statue like an offer, with equal earnestness.

For a long moment, they looked into each other's eyes, and then Esther was leaning in, the leopard pendant dangling from her neck as she bent down and put a knee onto the mattress. She stopped just short of kissing Maca when Maca had already parted her lips involuntarily, but Esther merely exhaled against her mouth, just out of reach, their breaths mingling like a touch while Esther was still looking into Maca's eyes as she pushed her back down into the bed.

Slowly, surely, her hands trailed down Maca's stomach and Maca trembled under the confidence of that movement, knowing that she was being taken, and on a level far more intricate than just physical. Esther's eyes, dark and soft, were just inches from her own, her hot breaths caressing her lips like kisses.

And Esther made love to her like that, with slow and deep strokes, unhurried and frighteningly intense, and she gazed into her eyes the entire time.

Maca found that she couldn't look away, bound by the depth of emotion in Esther's eyes, and even when her body began to quiver and her eyes started to close on their own volition, she valiantly fought to kept them open, struggling against the pull and she managed to look at Esther the entire time. And she looked at Esther when she came, their eyes wide open and shining with emotion, their lips still less than an inch from each other.

And only then did Esther close the tiny distance, brushing their mouths together and giving Maca the most reverent and loving kiss that went on for long, timeless moments and simply made Maca melt away.

And it left Maca with the absolute certainty that she was Esther's, branded by every kiss and claimed by every caress.

She had never thought that the sensation of belonging to someone could feel so free and so good. She had always imagined that such promises were compromises, leaving people feeling tied up in a way. Instead, she felt liberated, as if she could go anywhere and yet always be at home, knowing that Esther loved her.

"You know…" Maca said contentedly where she lay with her cheek pillowed on Esther's chest, playing with a few strands of hair that had fallen in disarray over Esther's shoulders. "The first thing we should get ourselves back in Spain is a nice, hug bed…"

"If we spend as much time in it as in this one… yes," Esther agreed in a tone that made the hair on Maca's neck stand on end and she had to move, burying her face between Esther's breasts, breathing in deeply before she kissed the soft, fragrant skin. God, but Esther was going to kill her – with the way she breathed her name, and with how good she smelled, and with how she could leave her trembling with desire with nothing but a glance.

"And we'll… ah… put it in your apartment…?" Esther mused, squirming under Maca's mouth. "Because I don't have one right now..." Her things were at her mother's, or perhaps already at the apartment where Miguel was waiting for her. Esther shook her head, unwilling to think about any of that now, now that she finally held Maca in her arms again and had much more important things to do, like tracing her fingers through Maca's hair and watching her eyelids flutter like butterflies' wings when she blinked.

"Neither do I," Maca pointed out, snuggling back into Esther's arm. The place she had bought for herself and Azucena in Madrid she had hastily sold again before she had signed up with 'Médecins Sans Frontières'. And her old apartment in Jeréz, she had given up to go to Madrid, before she had known that Azucena wouldn't leave her husband and was trying to get pregnant. It was odd, Maca thought. These memories that had always been so bitter now seemed washed out, as if they hardly counted anymore.

"We can find us a place on our own," she said casually, not sure whether Esther would think this too soon. Maca didn't even know what city she'd move to back in Spain, having severed all ties, but she knew it would be where Esther went. "Imagine, we could have real coffee together every morning…" she said dreamily.

"And we could argue who has to cook in the evening," Esther suggested playfully. Coming home to Maca in the evenings sounded like the most wonderful idea imaginable. Actually, Esther couldn't really picture herself going anywhere where Maca wouldn't be. And there was not much use in the both of them getting separate places when Esther thought they might move in together sooner or later anyway. Or so she hoped. "We could simply go out around the corner for a beer at night…"

Maca sighed. "Fresh, cool beer from the barrel…" There really were a few things the planes of Kasaï-Oriental did not provide. "And no more 'blue' meat… – I promise, the first thing I'll do is take you out for a classy dinner."

"I'll remember that," Esther agreed, raising her head to press a kiss to Maca's hair. "And afterwards we can go home and I'll peel you out of your classy dress…"

"I'll be wearing a classy dress?" Maca asked with a smile.

"Not for long," Esther promised, smiling at the tiny hitch in Maca's breathing. "And that brings us back to the nice, huge bed…"

"The really nice, really huge bed…" Maca interjected, vowing to get the most comfortable bed in the entire country for them so that Esther would never want to leave it again.

"Exactly," Esther murmured, her fingers stroking down Maca's neck and following the slow curve of her spine. "Where I will proceed to make love to you… with the lights on… and no mosquito net… until you beg me to stop."

Maca tilted her head up to find Esther smiling at her with sensual promise. "Hmm… never?" she challenged with an arched brow.

"Possibly," Esther allowed, her hand coming to rest on Maca's hip with quiet possessiveness. "And then, we can do this."

"What exactly?" Maca asked, her entire being relaxed and at peace under Esther's hands.

"This," Esther said softly, noting how the light of the small lamp across the room grew weaker; the oil must have gone out. "Falling asleep in each other's arms."

Maca wrapped her arms more tightly around Esther, shifting so that she could hear her heartbeat under her ear. "Sounds perfect," she sighed happily.

Part 34

"It's nice to see that at least some of us are enjoying their not getting any sleep," Vilches remarked sardonically, glaring across the breakfast table where Esther was giggling while a very playful Maca kept drawing hearts into her porridge with her spoon.

"Maca… use your own breakfast for that…" Esther admonished, but it didn't come out very annoyed since she was smiling all the way. Seeing Maca that unguarded just made her melt away on the spot.

"I already finished mine…" Maca pointed out with an equal smile that made it very clear whom she held responsible for depleting her reserves like that and leaving her hungry.

Vilches rolled his eyes. "God, Wilson, seeing you that disgustingly happy is almost worth the lack of sleep," he growled and noted with satisfaction that Maca actually blushed at that. "Before you got here I didn't even know she could smile!" Vilches said to Esther, leaning in and pointing Maca at with a thumb. "What is your secret recipe?" He cocked his head to the side, listening after his own words before he frowned. "On second thought… don't answer that."

But neither Esther nor Maca minded the friendly ribbing, both of them too happy to care much. Besides, now that all their colleagues were aware of their involvement, they were relieved to see that everyone took it rather well.

Esther was still thinking about that later when she helped Mbele and Begoña at the well, drawing up buckets of water. So now she was living in a relationship with a woman, but really, she didn't feel any different. Just happy.

She had just bent down to pick up another load when Mbele in front of her suddenly stopped in his movements and when Esther looked up, she could see him staring at her with unexpected seriousness.

Looking down her own body, she realized that in bending down, Maca's necklace had slipped out from underneath her shirt and was now sparkling in the light with its embedded jewels.

"Congratulations," Mbele said, bowing his head for a moment.

"On what?" Begoña asked, coming back around the corner with an empty bucket at that moment. She only needed a moment to figure it out and Esther felt the smile slide off her face when she witnessed Begoña freeze, her expression turning to ice for long seconds. But then it was gone, and Begoña smiled at her. "Congratulations," she said in an oddly light tone. "Hmm, it doesn't really go that well with your hair, but that's not the point, is it?"

Before Esther could figure out whether this had been a joke or whether she should be insulted, she was distracting by the tall, emaciated silhouette of a man tumbling through the entrance of the village, swaying left and right before he collapsed to the ground.

The three of them started running, but Begoña was the fastest. "Not again…" she muttered, sliding on a pair of gloves as she kneeled down next to the fallen man. "Mbele, get Maria, quick!"

"What is it?" Esther asked, crouching down next to Begoña to help, but she already had her answer when she looked at their newest patient.

Malaria.

The man died the same afternoon, and until nightfall, three more patients had arrived at the clinic, shaken by fevers, their eyes glassy.

"It's a fucking mutation," Maria swore, tearing off her mask in frustration as she left the next patient's bedside. "And you can bet that this is only the first one of a long line – when it's progressed to this state, there is nothing I can do! We need to find someone who comes here before they're in the last stadium already!"

"We got an outbreak once before, last year after rain season…" Begoña said quietly, and she looked scared. "But it wasn't this bad… the people didn't look like this… and we had it isolated in days."

But this time, it proved to be different. More patients trailed in over the next days, with the same symptoms over and over again – throwing up, cramps, fevers. They arrived with glassy eyes, their noses running, first clearly, then with blood.

Maria worked around the clock with Pablo in trying to find a medicine cocktail that would ward off the pathogen and even Vilches was nervous, and Vilches was never nervous. It frightened not only the patients, but also the medics. "Wear your fucking masks," he barked at Esther and Begoña when he found them disinfecting instruments, the masks dangling from their necks in the heat. "In case you forgot, we're on the verge of a goddamn epidemic here, and gloves won't help you if we have anything that mutated into spray infection!"

Esther was to exhausted to even protest – they had of course made sure everything was covered in disinfectant before allowing themselves to breathe more freely – and wordlessly pulled her mask back up. She understood that Vilches was scared. They all were, their nerves lying blank from too many long hours and too many helpless, fearful faces they couldn't save.

What kept her sane were the nights, small oases where they lit candles against the sharp smell of disinfectant and could lift the masks from their faces where the skin behind their ears was beginning to chafe from having to wear them all day.

It was Esther's favorite moment of the day, when she could see Maca's face again, her lips, those lips she hadn't been kissing for long, dreadful hours. And even though the smile around them was small and tense these days, it was still a smile, and it was all Esther's.

Despite the humid heat, the two of them curled up together, the mosquito net carefully draped around them, and they dreamed of cool autumn days at the Atlantic sea, of having to wear shawls in winter and of November rain falling into the streets of Madrid.

But the next morning found them back in the oppressing heat, the humid air seeming to purport fears and infections alike.

"Eight more overnight," Mbele said when they entered the cafeteria tent. "Dead. Not a chance."

"Seventeen more remaining ill," Maria added in clipped voice. She looked exhausted, still not having found a combination of antibiotics that would work against the infection. None of them pointed out that this would most likely mean another seventeen deaths over the next few days, but everybody knew it.

"It's not a good season," Mbele said with worry. "It's like a storm coming up, I can feel it in the earth." He shook his head. "The people are scared. And there is more Shaba movement down in the forest again… too close to us…"

"We have no time for politics – the people need us!" Maca stated angrily, crossing her arms over her chest. "We have an epidemic on our hands, and a few rebels more or less crawling through the forest won't change that. They have nothing to do with us, anyway – they have their feuds out in the East!"

"They won't be stupid enough to attack us," Maria agreed. "Besides, with all the superstition… they'll stay away to not catch the infection." She sighed. "And we have other worries at the moment." She nodded tersely at the others. "Mbele, we need to get the corpses out of the clinic. We don't have enough dry wood to burn them, not after rain season, and we can't spare any fuel, but we need to get them away to minimize infection risks. – Karim and Malik are trying to explain to the families why we can't release the bodies them."

"You know as well as I do that many of them will try to recover the bodies and bury them traditionally anyway," Mbele pointed out calmly.

"Yes, and infect their entire villages," Maria said with frustration. "We're already overstrained in our capacities now… and I don't want more deaths, not if I can hinder it."

"So we leave them out in the planes?" Esther asked, aghast. "Just like that?"

"They're dead, Esther," Maria said quietly. "We have our hands full with trying to keep the others alive."

Esther nodded, her lips drawn into a tight line. "We will need to cover them at least will a line of earth," she reasoned practically. "And do we have anything to confine the infection… a layer of disinfectant, perhaps?"

"We need the disinfectant at the clinic," Maria said, shaking her head. "Every last drop of it."

"What about the bleach we use for the laundry?" Esther suggested, pushing piety aside. "It is disinfecting, and we have barrels of it."

Maria nodded gratefully. "That might help. Good idea." She didn't like having to do what they had to do anymore than the others, but they had no choice.

They didn't speak much, but there was little talk now anyway. Quietly, they organized the transport during the morning, aided by the patients who were healthy enough to help. Everyone was wearing masks for protection, and Esther thought that this image would follow her into her nightmares for a long time to come – the white masks against the dark, scared faces of their helpers, and the jumble of motionless legs that looked out from under the canvas cover when the cart with the bodies left the clinic.

Esther slept badly that night, and the night thereafter as well. The mood was tense overall, and even for Maca and Esther, trading happy little jokes over breakfast porridge was a thing of the past. Instead, they got up hastily in the mornings and barely finished their breakfast, already knowing that another day had commenced where they would lose patients without a chance of helping them, the infection still a riddle to everyone.

Dinners were a quiet affair now, everyone still mulling over the day's images before they quickly dropped into bed to regain some energy for another long, harrowing day.

But at night, when Esther and Maca closed the door to Esther's quarters behind them, it was their time, even if just for an hour, before they fell asleep in exhaustion from their shifts, too shaken to make love, instead crawling into each other's arms as if the mutual touch could keep the world outside at bay. And for those precious minutes between the gory work day and the oblivion of sleep, they lay cocooned up in the bed while the last rainfalls sounded on the roof above, and they talked about all the things they would do back in Spain, half ashamed to be making happy plans while around them, people were dying, but at the same time knowing that these plans were the only thing that kept them going.

"When we get back…" Esther began, and all their phrases began like that, when they would return and never if. "We could try to get jobs at the same hospital."

"Sure," Maca agreed placidly. And if Esther had suggested they abandon their medical careers and instead open an ice cream parlor, she would have agreed as well. Anything as long as it involved Esther.

"Just some little private clinic…" Esther murmured softly. "With no malaria cases… where nobody bothers us…"

"All right… and where? In Madrid?" Maca asked. "Or perhaps in Sevilla? I did my residency there…"

"Doesn't matter," Esther decided, snuggling more closely into Maca' shoulder. "As long as it is with you…"

Part 35

It was six long days more until Maria and Pablo, half accidentally, discovered a mix of antibiotics which even though it did not stop the infection, made it run its course in a lessened form, thus offering a chance of survival for those whose resistances hadn't been used up by fever and exhaustion already.

Not only the patients, also the medics and everyone else around the clinic were plagued with fear and exhaustion. There had been two random break-ins into the storage tent over the past week, but nobody had the time and the energy to look for a culprit, instead stacking things back into order as good as they could and getting on with the day's work. Small riots and fights among the people who had set up camp outside the clinic – sometimes whole families, waiting and hoping for the recovery of a father, a sister or an uncle – were the order of the day, fear and superstition destabilizing the situation further.

Into this tense atmosphere, the news of a possible antidote spread like a wildfire. Maria had finally broken down the components over treating a young man who had originally merely accompanied his befallen uncle who had died a few days after. Since the young man had been plagued with dizzy spells, Maria had preemptively medicated him, a thing that had probably saved his life when had had fallen ill with the typical symptoms days later. It had been touch and go for two nights, but once he had been past that, his recovery had been speedy.

He was the first patient they could release. Two more seemed on the way to recovery with the same cocktail of medication, but they were still helpless to aid most of the other patients. Those that hadn't arrived in a stadium where medication came too late were often simply too exhausted from malnutrition and the journey to the clinic, their defenses too low to fight the illness successfully.

But with a possible antidote in sight, Vilches had finally dared to send Mbele and Malik off into town, both to inform headquarters about the outbreak, and to organize more medication, now that they knew which antibiotics seemed to work against this particular stem.

Of course, the work that Mbele and Malik did around the clinic now remained undone or fell unto the medics as well, but Vilches had been adamant about sending off both men, claiming that the situation was too risky to send just one. He had even insisted that both of them were armed.

The shortage of staff left Esther and Pablo in charge of the clinic laundry for now, which meant cooking out sheets and gowns in bleach in huge kettles that they had set up behind the last row of patient huts. It looked like a witch's kitchen, Pablo had observed, and it had not even been that much of a joke.

Right now, he had taken a small break to bid their first healed patient farewell and Esther stood alone between the steaming tubs, blankly staring at the ground, her back aching from handling wet, heavy laundry all morning. Despite the gloves, her hands were dry and cracked from the bleach and she absently thought that she would be ashamed to touch Maca like this, with her fingers so rough and numb.

She remembered how she had sat in this exact same spot with Maca, sharing a cigarette and gazing at the stars. It seemed so long ago now, as if it had been years and not mere months since then. She blinked against the acid vapor of the bleach that was supposed to etch the blood and the grime out of the sheets and left them threadbare and stiff.

"He left," Pablo announced with the first truly relaxed smile in days when he walked back around the corner of the huts. "This is the turning point!"

"Seems like it," Esther assented, too exhausted to even feel the happiness about this change of events that she knew she should be feeling. But even if they had released one patient, there were still too many others crammed into their few huts, with frightened, but hopeful eyes, eyes of which she had had to close shut too many over the past weeks. Esther absently wiped her fingertips on her nurse's gown, trying to shake off the sensorial memory of cold eyelids. She leaned against the wall of the hut behind her, for the hundredth time counting the months and days until all of them would go back to Spain and hoping that they wouldn't go crazy beforehand.

"You okay?" Pablo asked, giving her a curious look.

"Sure." Esther nodded tiredly, pushing the hair out of her face with the back of a forearm. "Just a little dizzy."

"Dizzy?" Pablo's gaze became more inquisitive. "Are you sure you are okay? Esther…"

"I got my malaria shots more recently than you did," Esther interrupted him. She shook her head. "It is just the exhaustion. With Mbele and Malik gone, it's so much more work to do." She shrugged, a small smile curling the corners of her mouth upwards. "And Maca and I were up late talking."

"Talking?" Pablo teased with gentle innuendo, and Esther's recognized his try to induce a touch of normalcy into the craziness that surrounded them. Pablo knew as well as Esther did that they fell into bed with exhaustion most nights, gratefully welcoming a few hours of oblivion where they hopefully wouldn't be haunted by the images of glassy eyes and thick sweat. Lovemaking wasn't high on the list of priorities these days.

Esther shook her head. "We were decorating our imaginary apartment that we will have back in Spain," she explained with a trifle of embarrassment.

Pablo smiled, knowing that it was things like that which kept them going. "Will I be invited to visit once you have it for real?"

Esther gave him a grateful look, both for acknowledging the idle fantasy, and for keeping her mind off their surroundings for a moment. "Of course," she said, imagining how she and Maca would invite all their colleagues to inaugurate their apartment. She even pictured Mbele and Karim and Malik there, even though she knew that they would stay behind with the new team that would take over for them.

The mood was slightly more hopeful this day, as if the release of their first healed patient had magically improved the condition of even the worst cases. The mood was palpably calmer, with almost no fights among the waiting crowd outside the village walls, and Esther thought that she finally understood Mbele when he said that the earth under his feet was moving, seeming restless or at peace. Today, it seemed to breathe with more calm, the people treading across it with less anxiousness in return.

But this timid ray of hope was shaken the same afternoon when the patient they had released in the morning stumbled back into the clinic array, aided by a few of the people camping outside, the half-unconscious figure of a woman between them.

Esther, Pablo and Maca were the first ones to rush toward the small group.

"I found her at the edge of the forest," their former patient said helplessly, and when he gestured, Maca could see that his fingers were streaked with blood that he had tried to wipe off.

The woman he had accompanied – a tall, slender figure, with her hair cropped close to her skull – slid down the wall without any resistance as he let go off her. Taking a closer look, Maca saw that the skirt the woman wore was torn, her thighs bloodied. She looked as if she had just given birth.

"Where is the baby?" Maca asked, looking at the young man – he really was barely more than a teenager – and feared the worst.

Next to her, Pablo shook his head. "No, Maca…" he said in a very quiet tone. "No baby." He moved to pick the fallen woman up in his arms as gently as possible, but as she still instinctively shied away from him, the picture came together for Maca.

"Oh no," she whispered numbly, feeling how the color drained from her face. "Oh no…" She felt nausea rising up her own stomach, her palms feeling cold and sweaty, but there was no time for this now as they rushed into the operating theatre where Vilches and Begoña had just finished up an operation and hastily pushed their patient's cot with the IV line next to him out of the way when they saw the others enter.

Pablo bent down to lay to woman out on the operation table, one of her thighs sliding to the side and falling open as if she were a broken doll. And even though she was barely conscious, again she shied away from the tall figure of Pablo looming over her.

"Pablo, step back," Maca ordered harshly. "I don't think there should be any man around her right now." She walked closer, making sure that she was in the woman's field of vision. "It's all right now," she said, and she had difficulty speaking past the horror that seemed to sew her own throat shut. She gently placed her head on the woman's forehead. "Nobody will hurt you here," she promised, and her tone seemed to calm the woman enough to allow Esther to move the torn skirt out of the way.

"Oh no…" Esther murmured under her breath in a voice thick with shock, as if she couldn't believe what she had to face and as if, if she only blinked her eyes close tightly enough, this wasn't real and this wouldn't have happened. "They didn't shoot her… Not up…" She couldn't even say it. "Not like this." She looked at Maca over the maimed body of the woman, her eyes brimming with helpless, angry tears.

"There is fucking nothing we can do," Maca stated with revulsion, her mouth drawn into a thin line. "She will bleed out." The words seemed to echo through the small operating hut, and they all knew the protocol – to make room for the next patient, the next one they might be able to save. Maca didn't care, not this time. She waved Begoña over and together with Esther they cleaned the blood off the woman's body, mindful of the bruises that were beginning to show on her torso. At some point, the patient reached out, clearly held conscious by nothing but pain, and took hold of Esther's hand. And Esther simply remained standing like this, torn between helpless shock and nausea, holding the woman' hand while Maca very gently closed the torn dress over the prone body before she stalked over Vilches' post-operative patient and ripped the IV line out the man's hand.

"What the hell are you doing, Wilson?" Vilches demanded angrily.

"He may be in pain, but he will live," Maca said curtly, cleaning the needle with a few practiced moves. She pointed at their victim, her tone full of accuse. "All we can do for her is to make sure she can die peacefully, and I'll do my damnedest to at least give her that."

Esther adjusted the IV line, immediately taking the woman's hand again who tried to move, looking around wildly. Esther reached up and pulled off her mask. "I'm not scaring her further," she stated in a tone that brooked no arguments before Vilches could even say a word. "I could recognize malaria blind and in my sleep by now, and she doesn't have it." Seeing a face across from her own, even though it was white, seemed to calm the woman and Esther nodded at the others over her head. "And for God's sake, let's take her out of here."

The woman – they hadn't even managed to learn her name anymore – died not even an hour later, but the fear had been gone from her eyes and she had relaxed under the pain medication, her body turned towards Esther, still holding onto her hand.

Maca had had to take care of two other patients in the meantime, and when she came back, Esther just looked up at her, her face stony, tears running soundlessly down her cheeks.

And Maca had hastened back around the nearest corner, throwing up for the second time. They all knew about this cases, they had heard about them, but she had never had to treat one, not one of such brutal abuse where any help came too late.

That night, they lay awake in Esther's bed, nearly ashamed by the healthiness of their own unmarred bodies, their hands numb and their hearts full of fear.

"I've never seen somebody die like this," Esther said with a shiver as if it were cold in her quarters, even though she could feel the sweat on her neck and at the back of her knees. "How could anyone do that to anyone?"

"War strategy," Maca replied in a clipped voice, knowing that it hadn't really been a question and that she couldn't really give an answer. She didn't feel anything right now, she couldn't feel, and as much as she told herself that Esther was with her, right here, her body warm under hands, and that she was safe and whole, nothing could shake the terror she was feeling.

She is safe, Maca repeated over and over to herself, like a mantra, but all she could see in her mind was the unknown woman sliding down against the wall of the village, her legs simply giving way under her. She curled her arms more tightly around Esther.

"But those are human beings…" Esther said helplessly, still struggling to comprehend when perhaps, there was nothing to comprehend.

"They're not." Maca pressed her lips together. "Animals," she spat out.

"No animal would ever do that to another one of his own kind," Esther stated quietly. For a minute there was silence as she listened to Maca's even breathing. "If anything like that…" Esther interrupted herself and paused, unable to give voice to her fears. "If anything would ever happen to you…" She felt Maca bury her head against her shoulder and she threaded a hand into her hair, trying to concentrate on this endlessly cherished and precious body against her own, warm and alive. "If anything would ever happen to you… if anyone ever hurt you… I think I could kill someone," she finally said.

"I would kill." Maca didn't even think before she answered. The thought alone of somebody touching Esther against her will made her blood run cold.

Esther started to cry again at that, and Maca just held her close, sliding down in the bed until she could cradle Esther's hips in her arms and pillow her head on Esther's stomach, as if she could protect her with her touch. She prayed that Esther would always be safe.

Long minutes passed until Esther spoke again. "If anything ever happened to me…" She felt Maca hold onto her more tightly at that, but yet she ventured on, needing to say this even though it scared her. "I wouldn't want you to become bitter, you know," she said softly. "I would want you to go on."

Maca raised her head, looking at Esther imploringly. "Nothing is going to happen to you," she said, her tone intense, as if she could conjure up Esther's safety and well-being by the sheer force of her wishing.

"But Maca… we're out in the Congo," Esther tried to point out. "We knew it was dangerous when we signed up."

"Yes, but when I signed up I had nothing to lose," Maca argued quietly. Her voice was even more quiet when she continued, bespeaking her fears. "Now I do."

"You can't lose me," Esther said with decisiveness. She sat up and took one of Maca's hands, placing it on her chest, right above her heart. "You are right here," she stated simply, reaching out with her other hand to brush a few unruly strands of hair out of Maca's eyes. "And whatever happens to you, or me, or the rest of the world, that will not ever change."

And Maca simply leaned in and kissed her, the touch soft and loving, and like that they curled up together, finally falling asleep in each other's arms.

The malaria therapy showed success with a few more patients over the following days, but those were still outnumbered by the patients who lost their struggle against the illness, a long nightmare of emaciated bodies, dried blood clinging to their lips, and again the legs under the canvas cover of the cart, and the sharp, acidly smell of the bleach.

There was still no word from Mbele or Malik, and the team continued to work shifts to complete exhaustion, their capacities overstrained between being understaffed and having to deal with too many patients. There was another break-in into the storage tent, but it only bespoke the general exhaustion that nobody really cared.

In two cases, released patients were attacked, superstition and fear of the epidemic brewing up a dangerous cocktail of frustration and aggression.

That same afternoon, Maca and Maria got into an argument, more out of frustrated exhaustion than anything else.

Maca was questioning their ability to do any good in their overworked state, and Maria tried to make them hold on just a little longer.

Esther was tiredly leaning against the wall next to Maca, listening with half an ear while she counted the hours until nightfall, when she would be able to get some sleep. She was so tired.

"How long will we be able to hold up against this storm?" Maca asked angrily. "For every released patient, we get five new ones, and the work for us stays the same!" She glanced to the side at Esther who had just finished with the laundry and was paler than she ever remembered seeing her. This whole situation was insane. "Look at the double shifts, and the extra work with disinfecting and with the laundry, now that Mbele and Malik are missing… We need more people, period!"

"You know as well as I do that the only chance of getting more medicine or more personnel is Mbele and Malik informing headquarters," Maria barked. "And if it gets too bad, the government will evacuate us."

"Yeah right," Maca replied derisively, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "And we've never heard that one before… as if they care whether we have an epidemic on our hands or not…" She wanted to say something else, but didn't get any further when next to her, she saw Esther suddenly sinking into herself in slow motion.

"…Esther?" Maca questioned, panic creeping into her voice. She barely managed to catch Esther in her arms, only to find her forehead beaded in cold sweat, her cheeks flushed an unhealthy red. Her eyes were closed.

Maca brushed the hair out of Esther's face with shaking fingers, but there was no reaction.

"…Esther?!!"

Part 36

"She should never have gotten it… she shouldn't have!" Maca had her head buried in her hands, her tone plaintive even after two nights of ignoring everyone's good advice and even Vilches' outright threats that he would kick her ass if she didn't go rest for a while and would be stupid enough to get herself and the rest of them infected as well.

But Maca stayed, kept awake by fear, dozing off only for minutes at a time. She was immediately awake when Esther's breathing changed or when she moved. By now, she was so attuned to the way Esther breathed in her sleep that this shallow, unrhythmic struggling for air frightened her at every turn, another reminder of how serious things were.

Vilches had just walked into the hut where she was sitting at Esther's bedside, most likely to tell her again that she needed to take care of her patients and not exhaust herself further by staying up all night long in a folding chair, but Maca didn't care. From the moment Maria had looked up at her from that first, cursory examination when she had carried Esther into her office two days ago, Maca had not been away from her side for even a full hour. Even in between patients whom she absently treated on the side, she always walked over here, praying on the short way for a sign of improvement, any sign, however minuscule it might be.

But there was none.

They had moved Esther to a patients' hut, much as Maca had wanted to keep her in her own room, in a space Esther knew and would recognize in between bouts of uneasy rest that were so typical for malaria. But Vilches was right, they could not afford any risk of contamination in the medics' quarters and even though Maca had ranted and raged, scared more than anything else, reason had won out, if anything even had a reason anymore.

In here, there was no space, and Maca was always left with the urge to throw open a window that didn't exist. The air was always warm, too heavy and too sweat, and even though Maca wore her lightest shirt, it was sticking to her skin.

"Maca…" When Vilches didn't even call her 'Wilson', things had to be bad and Maca refused to look up, shaking her head without taking her eyes off the still form on the bed.

"It shouldn't have happened," Maca repeated, as if she could argue the illness away with reason. "She had all her shots… she was so careful…"

"Maca…" Vilches tried again. "Her defenses simply were low with all the stress." He took a step closer, just as helpless as Maca. "I'm sorry."

"But…" Maca wanted to protest further, but then she trailed off, not knowing at what to direct her anger and her fears.

"Maca," Vilches said intently, finally making Maca raise her head and turn to look at him. "You need to keep a level head now," he reminded her sternly.

They couldn't afford to panic, least of all with Esther having fallen ill, leaving them even more understaffed. And even though he understood where Maca's priorities lay, they needed her to take on her share of patients. "What good would it be if she makes it and loses you because you catch it and are too exhausted to fight it?" He didn't name the disease, as if putting the proper name to it would make the malaria even more tangible and threatening.

Maca just shrugged in that damnably arrogant way of hers and silently turned her attention back to the bed, her attitude not changing in the least.

"For God's sake, would you take a look around?" Vilches exploded. "This is a goddamn clinic: Virus Central! And right down there? The goddamn jungle: Mutation Central!" He took another step closer and breathed out heavily before he put a gentle hand on Maca's shoulder. "We gave her the antibiotics, and she has more reserves than most of our patients. She's not malnourished, and she has a shot record. Her chances are good."

In a way, Maca was grateful that Vilches didn't lie to her about Esther's condition, promising her that she would make it when none of them could know. On the other hand, though, she cursed her own medical knowledge and experience that made her unable to ignore just how serious Esther's condition was.

"And now pull that damn mask back up," Vilches ordered gruffly, sounding much more like himself as he stepped away. "I want both of you alive. You survived a bunch of fucking guerillas, I'll be damned if I lose one of you to malaria!"

And even though Maca hated to do it, she knew he was right. She pulled her mask back up, wincing as the string cut into the skin behind her ears. It seemed so wrong to put this kind of barrier between her and Esther, Esther whose body belonged against her own without anything in between them.

Part 37

And it was another night where Maca stayed by Esther's side, leaving only twice when Begoña alarmed her about a patient. There were three more deaths this night at the clinic, but Maca didn't care, she had no reserves left to feel anything, instead clinging to every one of Esther's uneven breaths and bartering with destiny for her recovery.

The sounds of the night were more subdued than usual, but Maca didn't really notice it, staring into the dark unseeing and then back onto the bed where the pale white of the sheets shone starkly under the thin light.

The night gave ample space to Maca's frantic thoughts that circled round and round in her head. Sometimes she dozed off, waking with a start and, for a scant moment, she was able to believe that everything had been a bad dream and that she would only need to turn over, and Esther would be there, safe in her arms, her skin not that unnaturally warm to her touch. But then the terror and the exhaustion reminded her immediately of where she was, and what was missing.

She longed for one of Esther's unguarded, happy smiles like a small child for the next Christmas the week after New Year's – hopelessly, but with such yearning conviction that it might move the earth and the mountains after all.

And in between, Maca's tired brain tried to find a reason for how things had come to this point. She was angry with herself for not refusing Esther's offer and making Vilches deny the prolongation, sending Esther safely back to Spain. Anything as long as Esther would be safe. Maca couldn't remember why either of them had ever come down here in the first place. It seemed like insanity now.

"Why did you come here?" she had asked Esther once, late in the evening when they had sat talking on the wall. It had only been a few weeks after Esther's arrival when they had barely begun to form a friendship of sorts.

"To give something back," Esther had replied, and suddenly Maca had found her own reasons shallow in comparison. She remembered how back then, she had thought with some derision that nobody could be that genuinely caring and that Esther was imagining things, but now she knew better. Esther was like that, brave and caring and committed, and that was why anyone should be in that bed, any of them, except Esther.

"You can't take her," Maca pleaded with gods of whose existence she wasn't sure, staring up into the rectangle of night sky that was visible through the door opening. "She's a better person than I ever was. And I need her." She tenderly stroked her fingers through Esther's sweat-matted hair, her voice quiet and terrified as she spoke again. "I need her so much."

Maria came by in the morning with a drink and some breakfast, shaking her head at the sad tableau – a motionless Esther whose every breath sounded painful, and a pain-stricken Maca, the shadows under her eyes sharp and deep.

"I know you love her… but what good will it do her if you fall sick as well?" Maria admonished gently as she handed over the bowl of porridge. She had given up to talk to Maca with reason, instead appealing to her obvious state of exhaustion. "Why don't you go back to your quarters and sleep for a bit?"

"I can't sleep when she isn't there, Maria," Maca replied in a voice thick with anguish. "I just can't…" She shook head, staring at the figure in the bed helplessly.

Maca ate mechanically, only because she knew she had to. She didn't look away from the bed, thinking over and over again that this had not been the plan, that this wasn't what had been supposed to happen. It had to be a terrible mistake.

There had been hard cases every week, and they lost patients, sure, but there still had been the good things to balance it – they had saved patients, sending them back home with smiles and new hope. Life had been stressful and modest, but they had been happy.

Now, everything was just one long, fearful nightmare and Maca could scarcely remember how just weeks ago, she had been playing soccer with Azuka in the courtyard, or how she had danced at the celebration for Vilches' daughter. And Esther, always Esther, holding hands with her under the dinner table, and falling in love with Esther while she sat with her arm around her under the stars of Kasaï-Oriental.

Was it really just a few weeks ago that she had come back from Mbuji-Mayi, back home to Esther, and they had made plans for a future together…?

Even now, Esther was wearing the leopard pendant Maca had given her that night, and even though they had taken off anything else, like the bracelet Azuka had given her for her birthday, Maca couldn't bring herself to take away the necklace.

She had even brought the lion statuette over here, the lion that was now hers, and it made her feel a little better when she had to rush out and take care of a patient, knowing that there was somehow at least part of her in here, watching over Esther. Maca had never really believed in Mbele's legends of the totem spirit animals, but the fear for Esther had humbled her to a point where she would have tried anything to aid her recovery.

But Mbele and Malik had still not returned, and there was no word from them, either.

Later, Pablo came by, taking away the empty bowl and helping Maca to wash and take care of Esther, carefully infusing the dose of antibiotics, the same one every eight hours, and still there was no change.

"I didn't pay enough attention," Maca said in desperation when she gently drew the sheets back up around Esther. "I should have seen that she was even more exhausted than the rest of us… I should have made her rest more."

"Maca… how?" Pablo asked helplessly. "All of us are exhausted to the point of no reserves. You couldn't have done anything. It could have been anyone of us."

"It should have been me, then," Maca said angrily.

Pablo was silent for a moment. "You know she would smack you for saying that," he then pointed out.

Maca snorted, the sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh. "Yes, she would."

There was silence for a while, nothing to be said that they hadn't been repeating over and over for the past few days already.

"But she got all her shots…" Maca said forlornly, reaching over to dab the sweat off Esther's face with a towel. "It shouldn't have happened to her."

"It's a mutation," Pablo replied, just as lost, before he left her alone again, trying to take on as many patients as he could so Maca could remain with Esther as much as possible.

Both Pablo and Maca knew that the first patient they had released had been feeling better at this point already, but then, he had been treated preemptively. And Maca didn't trust the antibiotics, not since during the most recent break-in into the storage tent, the fridge had been unplugged from the generator. They didn't know for how many hours, but it made Maca fear that the antibiotics might have been spoilt. Otherwise, they should have been showing some effect by now, breaking down the fever at least.

"Don't you dare dying on me," Maca demanded adjuringly. "Don't you dare!" She gestured helplessly, letting her head fall forward for a moment. Her tone gentled when she looked up again and she reached for Esther's hand atop the covers. "Esther…" she whispered imploringly. "Remember, we have to go out for dinner back in Spain… and for beers… around the corner from our apartment…"

Esther struggled to open her eyes for a moment, and their unhealthy, glossy shine made Maca flinch. "Tell me about our apartment…" Esther requested, the quiet plea making tears pool in Maca's eyes anew.

"Our apartment. Of course…" Maca said, taking Esther's hand between both of her own and blinking away the tears. She couldn't lose Esther, she simply couldn't, the universe couldn't be that cruel. "It's small, but it has all the important things," she began, as if she would tell a fairy tale. "It has a dishwasher… a huge, comfortable bed… and a real bathtub…"

"Sounds great…" Esther murmured unsteadily, as if she had difficulties to remember how to speak in her delirious state.

"Yes, it does," Maca agreed, blinking against more tears as she leaned over the bed again, brushing the sweat off Esther's tired brow in a tender gesture.

Esther let her eyes close shut at the gentle touch, too exhausted to fight and keep them open. "What else…?" she mumbled.

"A kitchen…" Maca promised. "With no termites…"

Esther smiled weakly, and then her lips twitched when her nose started running again.

Maca kept one hand linked with Esther's, reaching for a tissue with the other in a now well-practiced movement. She turned back and froze.

Esther's eyes were still closed, but the trail of clear liquid that was trickling downwards across her lips was streaked with a thin line of bright red.

Part 38

The next morning, the figure of a lion was drawn into the dirt outside the village, adorned by strange marking and with blossoms and bundles of brushwood thrown into it like offerings.

The notice that one of the medics had fallen sick had put everyone around the clinic in a state of laming shock. If even the doctors could get the malaria, what hope was there for the other patients?

The epidemic continued to raid the planes of Kasaï-Oriental, new cases appearing daily at the clinic. They were beginning to run low on antibiotics and still there was no sign of Mbele and Malik so that even Maria, who usually tried to be optimistic, had to admit that something might have happened to them on the way back.

Vilches gruffly ordered her to shut up, unwilling to have them spread any kind of rumors that could cause a panic – with all the people they had camping outside the walls, rumors were a dangerous thing – but his rudeness didn't cover up the fact that he was just as scared.

Maca thought that at times, he had to be thinking about canceling the entire mission.

And Esther's state was still not showing any real sign of change. If they had had the car, Maca would have taken Esther up to Mbuji-Mayi days ago, not caring if she would have had to do the driving herself. But the transporter was gone, as were Mbele and Malik, and nobody knew what had happened to them.

The antibiotics still didn't seem to have the desired effect on Esther; they could release more locals on the side, but Esther remained in critical condition. Her fever was running at a standstill, not rising, but not falling, either, slowly sapping away her last reserves. She had become weaker, her face almost gaunt now and so pale that the veins at her temples were visible through her skin.

Maca hardly left her side anymore at all, even though Esther's waking periods had become less and she had difficulty recognizing people when she was floating up to consciousness.

Again and again, the liquid oozing from her nose was streaked or dotted with red.

"Esther, don't you dare leave me," Maca pleaded, too exhausted to even fight her tears any more as she threw another bloodied tissue to the ground. "Don't you dare…"

The desperate tone seemed to get through to Esther even in her half unconscious state. "Maca…" she mumbled. "I'm so tired…"

"Hang in there… you'll be fine," Maca said imploringly, stroking the hair away from Esther's brow, endlessly relieved that Esther was reacting to her. "You won't die on me here," she stated firmly, shaking her head and closing her eyes before she murmured. "God, promise me that you won't leave me…"

"I promise…" Esther's voice was so quiet that Maca could hardly hear her, but it was a promise.

"That's my girl." Maca leaned in to kiss her temple, through the face mask she still had to wear. She was sorry she had to, but Vilches was right, at this point, she had no reserves left herself, and she needed to stay healthy, she needed to be there for Esther. And as soon as Mbele and Malik would get back, Maca swore to herself that she would take the transporter and take Esther to the city, their contracts be damned, and she would buy tickets to fly them both out to Spain.

With her face still close to Esther's, she could feel how Esther was struggling to speak. "But you don't get to leave me, either…"

"No way," Maca promised with a relieved laugh. "I swear." She clasped Esther's hands tightly between her own. "You and I… we will be sitting in our apartment at age eighty and dunk cookies in our morning coffee and bitch about the stairs being too steep, and about the children not dropping by more often…"

But as Maca leaned back to look into Esther's eyes, she saw that she had slipped back into unconsciousness. She sat back beside the bed and dipped a small towel into the bowl of disinfected water to her side and padded the sweat off Esther's face and chest with the utmost care.

There was still hope.

Maca's quiet vigil was interrupted by noises that seemed to ring up from the forest, like gunshots or car tires exploding. For half a minute, there was silence, as if not even the animals in the planes outside were moving, but then a cacophony of anxious voices could be heard at a distance, yelling and shouting.

Maca had long since passed the point of exhaustion where something like that would have raised her from her chair. Instead, she sat very quietly, holding one of Esther's still hands between her own while she watched the door.

Nobody would get through to Esther without going through her first.

"Bullshitting superstitious idiots," Vilches blustered, pushing through the door into the hut a good half hour later. "Sounds like some disparate rebels got into it in the forest and the next thing you know, we have half a panic on our hands in our clinic suburbs outside the walls!" He snorted angrily. "Two hurt by knife wounds, some idiot fired a fucking gun in the air, and then I had to listen to some self-anointed voodoo guru going on about how the gods sent this epidemic to 'wipe out the bad ones' – that would be us with our government contract – and that the clinic should be burned down…"

"You're kidding," Maca said in disbelief, ire rising up her tired body and fueling her with new energy.

"Wish I was," Vilches grumbled, but then he grinned. "But you should have seen how fast that idiot shut up after I told him he's welcome to try and heal his son's malaria with his voodoo magic…"

"Wipe out the bad ones?" Maca repeated with fury. "Bad like whom – like Esther?!"

"Of course not…" Vilches said, his tone placating. He was interrupted by Pablo who rushed into the hut.

"You better hurry…" Pablo said in a tone that made both Maca and Vilches look up on the alert. Pablo, who never lost his calm and gentle demeanor, stood in the door shaken, the expression in his eyes pure fright. "Maria just ran out of consultation and threw up… I think she's running a fever…"

Part 39

The first thing she saw when she blinked her eyes open was a dark ceiling of loam and brushwood. For a moment, Esther had no idea where she was, but when she turned her head to look into the direction of the light, she recognized the door opening of a patient hut. Outside lay the courtyard and next to her bed, a slumped figure sat in a folding chair, passed out in sleep.

Maca.

She looked terribly exhausted, with dark shadows under her eyes, her hair in disarray and the fine the lines around her nose and lips thrown into relief much more starkly than usual. Esther wanted to reach out to her, but her arms were so weak that she could barely lift them. "Maca…" she tried to say, her throat parched. She had no idea how long she had lain here.

At the sound of her voice, quiet as it had been, Maca jerked awake, staring at her for a moment, and then she was leaning over her, her hands moving over Esther's face and shoulders frantically as if she needed to reassure her own eyes that what she saw was indeed real. "You… your fever is down… it's down!" she exclaimed happily and she didn't care to pull her mask back up as she bent down and covered Esther's face in kisses. "Your fever is down!" She stroked along Esther's temple with two fingers, gazing into her eyes with an expression that bespoke the past days of panic. "Don't ever scare me like that again!"

"I didn't mean to," Esther amended slowly, her voice still not quite obeying. "I'm hungry…" she noticed.

"Good," Maca nodded, shakily stroking the hair out of Esther's face, tears pooling in her eyes. "Good." She took one of Esther's hands and pressed it against her face. "My princess… I'll get you something."

"I should do that myself," Esther protested, struggling to sit up in the bed. "And I should be back out and help with the patients… I'm sorry…"

"You should be in bed," Maca said sternly. "And the only thing you should do is get well." She sat down on the side of Esther's bed. "Because we need you." She looked down onto the sheets. "I need you," she added softly.

Esther reached for Maca's hand, but before she could say anything they were interrupted.

"And what you need is some sleep," Vilches voice rang from where he leaned in the door. "So you'll scurry off to bed for a few hours." Maca opened her mouth to protest but Vilches shook his head. "No arguments, Wilson. You're dead on your feet and look the part, too. And we need you, too." He nodded at Esther. "It's never been so good to see you up and about. And now please tell your girlfriend to go get some shuteye."

"Maca…" Esther frowned as she took in exactly how tired Maca looked. "You really should get some rest…"

"Ha." Vilches grinned triumphantly, the relief over Esther's recovery written all over his face. "You better listen to that woman of yours!"

"But…" Maca tried to protest. She was bone-weary, but entirely unwilling to leave Esther's side.

"I promise to watch over her personally until you return," Vilches raised three fingers as if he was swearing an oath. "And now off with you!" He looked at ceiling for a moment when Maca bent down to kiss Esther's temple and whispered something into her ear that he couldn't hear. He watched Maca stumble from the hut, so worn out that she could barely hold herself upright.

Maca was right, Vilches thought. Between malaria and the crowd outside, with half their staff gone or ill, the situation had become impossible to manage. All they could do was to hold on and pray for a miracle. And one miracle had already happened.

Vilches walked closer, looking at Esther in silence for long moments. "Fucking scare you gave us there, García," he stated finally and Esther knew that if he had gone back to calling her by her last name, things couldn't be that bad anymore. "Maria's still out, though… she caught it, too." He absently patted the little lion – Maca's lion – that was standing at Esther's bedside. "And the situation in front of the walls is impossible. The malaria is calming down a little, but if people keep camping out there under these hygienic circumstances, give it another week and we'll have cholera to add to the mix." He pressed his lips together, shaking his head. "Mbele and Malik still aren't back. And Maca is right, like this we can't hold up much longer. We fired the signal pistols last night… although God knows if anyone will see them. I just thought you should know."

Esther knew what this meant: Vilches had officially given up on the mission. Firing the signal pistols was the sign for an evacuation request. Although whether anyone would pick up on the signal, with as turbulent as the situation was at the moment, no one could know. And for Esther in her exhausted state, the waiting mob in front of the clinic didn't really matter. To her, only one person's safety was elemental. "How is Maca?"

"It's a damn miracle she didn't catch it herself," Vilches growled. "Refused to get even a wink of decent sleep while you were out, stubborn snob that she is."

"Yeah, that she is," Esther agreed with a huge smile.

She still felt terribly weak, falling asleep at frequent intervals throughout the day, but overall, she felt alive. She didn't have many memories of the past days, other than heat and thirst and not being able to breathe; and faint images of Maca, Maca holding her hand and Maca's voice in her ear, and the knowledge that she couldn't leave Maca.

"I think I can get up again tomorrow," Esther proclaimed in the evening when a much more rested looking Maca had come back with dinner for the both of them. Everyone, safe for Maria, had come by during the afternoon, not saying much, all of their faces lined with exhaustion, but the silent relief in their looks had told more than words could have.

"You have to be very careful now," Maca reminded her with worry. "And take things slow…"

"I will." Esther smothered a smile, reclining against the pillows. There was not a trace of Maca's trademark abrasiveness left, instead she seemed almost afraid that Esther would break into pieces if she did as much as lift her hand. "Maca… I'm all right. I'll be fine."

Maca shook her head. "But I came so close to losing you…" She trailed off, tears filling her eyes and leaving her unable to go on.

"I know, sweetheart." Esther gathered Maca in her arms, holding her close against her body. "I know." She bent down to press a kiss into Maca's hair, feeling her tears soak the hospital shirt she was wearing. "I'm sorry," she murmured, wishing her arms were not so weak, so that she could hold onto Maca more tightly. "I'm so sorry."

After days of stoically holding on, taking care of Esther and pleading with all known and unknown gods for her life, the roles were now reversed as Maca crumbled in Esther's arms, the exhaustion and the bone-gripping terror of the past few days finally catching up with her. Esther just held onto her, gently rocking them back and forth until Maca's sobs lessened and she just rested against her, calmed by the scent of Esther's skin and the sound of her heartbeat close to her ear.

Esther took Maca's hands, joining them with hers, and placed them against her chest. "Remember?" she asked, drawing back a little so that she could gaze into Maca's eyes where teardrops were still clinging to her lashes. "You can't lose me."

"Yes, I remember…" Maca's eyes ran over Esther's face, caressing it hungrily as if she still couldn't believe that Esther was truly on the way to recovery.

Esther kept their fingers interlaced, and when Maca tried to draw back, she held on, pulling Maca close again. She waited until their faces where within inches of each other. "And I'm holding you to dunking cookies in our morning coffee when we're eighty."

Maca laughed at that, but it was still half a sob. "You do that, my girl…" She smiled, blinking away a few last tears, and pressed a kiss to Esther's forehead and then another one, just because she could.

Esther leaned her head against Maca's shoulder, breathing in slowly, savoring every moment of knowing this woman close by and thanking which ever gods there might be for giving her another chance to do this, and to hopefully keep doing this for as long as she would live.

Excited voices outside interrupted the moment, a commotion seeming to go on just outside the clinic. "Holy Mother of God!" They could hear Vilches yell across the courtyard. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Esther giggled into Maca's shoulder, and for Maca, it was the most precious sound she had ever heard.

"You better see what is upsetting him now," Esther suggested, pushing Maca away a bit with a hand against her sternum.

"I guess," Maca agreed reluctantly, not wanting to pull back from the reassuring warmth of Esther's body that was not ridden by fever anymore. She leaned in again and gave Esther a quick kiss on the lips. "I love you, you know," she murmured and then she turned around again in the door and winked at her. "Just in case you forgot."

Esther smiled, one of those precious smiles that lit up her whole face, easily outshining the dark circles under her eyes and the paleness of her skin for a moment. "I might forget my own name, but not that."

The smile still played around her lips when she watched Maca hurry from the room, her step lighter again as if the cloud hanging above their heads had been lifted, and this was enough, this had to be enough, for the both of them.

PARTE DEUX

Part 40

Esther lay back in the bed, a small smile still playing around her lips as she listened to the excited voices outside. She perked up when she heard the noises of a car motor over the cacophony of sounds.

So Mbele and Malik were back, she thought, but the motor didn't sound like their transporter. It sounded like something bigger. But perhaps they had had it fixed, perhaps that was what had delayed them… Esther was jolted out of her thoughts by a scream. The voices didn't sounds excited now, they sounded…fearful?

She tried to sit up to look out of the door opening at the other side of the hut. For a minute, there was nothing but yells, and, louder and louder, the sound of car motors and then suddenly shadows were rushing past the hut, green, and with gleaming metal thrown across their shoulders.

Esther cursed her weakened state, deciding that she needed to get out of bed and see what was going on, but before she could move to sit up fully, a shadow stood in the door opening, blocking the daylight in a way that only his silhouette was visible, outlined by the daylight that streamed in from behind him. Esther tried to move backwards on the cot as much as she could while the man walked closer, feeling fear rise up her throat when she felt the loam structure of the wall against her back. She was trapped.

"Stay calm." The man raised his hands as he walked closer, palms outward, and Esther could see that he was dressed in green military fatigues. Most of his face was covered by a white, medical decontamination mask that stood in sharp contrast to his dark skin.

"Who are you…?" Esther asked fearfully. She looked at the door behind him, trying to see whether any of her colleagues might be coming to her aid. She knew that she was too weak to run anywhere in her foreworn state. "What is going on?"

"We were sent by your headquarters," the soldier tried to explain, struggling to keep his voice soothing. He was out of breath, a if he had been running. "Your co-workers reported a malaria outbreak… You will be evacuated out of here with a military convoy."

"…out of here?" Esther echoed, getting out of bed on wobbly legs. The masked soldier reached out to help her and she stumbled forward, feeling his military boots chafe against her bare legs. "…where are Mbele and Malik?" she asked, not really understanding what these foreign people were doing here.

"Your colleagues?" The soldier shrugged, motioning for her to come along with him. "In quarantine back in Mbuji-Mayi." He waved at her impatiently. "Come on, we need to get you out of here, quick!" He made as if he was trying to drag her out of the hut right then and there.

"But our things…" Esther tried to protest dazedly. "Our patients…"

"Move it!!!" The soldier yelled, grasping her by the arm and dragging her over to the door. He was probably at least a sergeant, judged by the signs on his shoulder pieces, but Esther didn't know what exactly they stood for. His large hand was digging painfully into her arm. She wanted to protest, but didn't say anything when, at the close distance, she could see that his eyes above the mask were full of fear.

Getting out of here… Esther still didn't quite manage to wrap her mind around this sudden change of events. Getting away from all this… going away, with Maca… Maca… She stumbled along a little faster. She had to find Maca… and the others… and then they could go away…

They were startled by a row of loud, explosive noises and the soldier instinctively pressed both of them against the wall next to the door opening. She could hear him breathe, quickly and shallow, for a few moments before he dared to move again, still holding onto her arm as he walked her out of the hut and into the chaos of heat and screams and the acrid smell of smoke outside. Something was burning close by.

"A military convoy…" Esther murmured, blinking against the harsh light of day that hurt her eyes that were still sensitive. There were shouts and rushing green shadow at the edge of her perception. And screams, like through a fog, and sounds like exploding car tires, and her eyes hurt so much…

It took a moment until Esther in her dazed state realized what was going on: The rebels down in the forest must have thought that the convoy had come for them and had started a helter-skelter attack.

And those weren't car tires. Those were shots.

Esther held onto the doorframe, not even cognizant of the fact that she was an easy target, with her pale skin, in the white hospital gown. More people in green ran in between the huts around the courtyard, and Esther thought that it was near impossible to tell military and militia apart in their camouflage outfits, only by the state of their equipment perhaps.

Three huge military transporters stood at the entrance of the village, soldiers trying to keep frightened patients from climbing into them. People were scattered like dots across the planes, fleeing into the open under the sun.

Esther still looked on without any real comprehension, too shocked to feel anything. She felt the soldier's body pressed against her like a shield and she bristled because only Maca was allowed to be that close to her, to touch her like that.

Maca…

Jolted out of her haze, Esther's eyes tore across the empty space of the courtyard while the soldier pulled her along towards the transporters, always making sure they remained behind the walls of one hut or another.

More screams and staccato round of shots sounded from the entrance of the village and the back wall, and a throng of people cowered away, dispersing like a swarm of flies roused away from a body – and leaving a body behind, as Esther could see then, tanned pale skin and the white of a medics' coat, sprawled on the ground unmoving and there was a scream close by and only then Esther realized she had been the one screaming as she recognized Pablo, his body motionless. And there lay others, scattered around the huts…

Panic rose up Esther's body like bile. She needed to find Maca. She needed to find Maca, nothing else mattered, not even Pablo, nor their patients, nor anything else.

And there – as if her fervent prayers had been answered – there was Maca, at the edge of the courtyard, guiding a few of their weaker patients out of the huts, together with Begoña. Endlessly relieved, Esther stared at her across the distance, drinking in the sight of Maca, not noticing that she had stopped moving.

And something about this lack of movement must have alerted Maca because she looked up from where she was just aiding the last patient – a limping teenage boy – into the relative safety of the huts' shadows.

For a few brief seconds, surrounded by the absolute melee of running people, lurking green shadows and scared screams, they stared at each other across the distance, unmoving. Maca's warm, dark eyes were meeting her own, like a caress amidst this insanity, and everything faded to the background, the thick stench of smoke, the fallen figures on the ground, the chaos in front of the village walls, even the sounds of the gunfire.

Until, at that moment, another round of shots rang out across the courtyard.

Part 41

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