‘WE’VE ISOLATED SEVERAL men and women who have tested positive for Hep E,’ Oti told Lukas a few days later when he popped his head into her temporary medical tent. ‘But one of them is pregnant, and another has a pregnant wife. I really need you to isolate the source before we leave, or the entire camp is going to come down with it.’
‘Clay and I checked the water supplies HOP set up and they’re all clean. Plus, we’ve done a random check on households in the camp and they’ve all been clean too.’
‘There’s definitely a source somewhere.’ She frowned. ‘I have too many patients suffering.’
‘Which part of the camp do your patients live in?’ Lukas asked. ‘Maybe that will help narrow it down.’
‘Yes, that might work.’ Turning to her translator, Oti asked her to get the locations of their tukuls.
Although there was little she could do for the patients with waterborne illnesses, she’d taken the opportunity to run a children’s measles drive out of the camp, and at least a thousand new displaced kids had turned up.
‘Here’s the list,’ Oti said, thanking her colleague as she took the paper with a sketch of the area of camp and the homes. ‘I’m coming with you.’
She grabbed a bagful of testing kits and instructed her staff to do the same.
As Lukas had predicted, they were clustered fairly closely together. On the downside, the tightly packed area coupled with the transmission method for the illnesses meant she was anticipating many more patients.
On the plus side, at least it meant it was likely it was something they had locally, and not a main pump or water source that had been contaminated.
‘How much longer do you want to stay out here?’ he asked. ‘Or does your team need to get back to the main compound?’
‘No, we’ll be here for at least another couple of days. The number of kids who are here, and who we could vaccinate, makes it more than worthwhile. Are you and Clay heading back, then?’
She tried not to look too disappointed. It had actually proved a good idea, she and Lukas working together. Taking their various teams out of the main camp seemed to also be giving the two of them a fresh outlook, and the odd awkwardness that had settled over them ever since they’d slept together finally seemed as though it was dissipating.
‘No. Even if the problem turns out to be a communal bucket which they’re filling from some kind of surface water pool instead of the clean water source the charity has set up, we found one of the pumps in a deep water well on its last legs and we want to swap that out before we go back. Clay’s due to be leaving in a few days so he wants to close off any jobs like this whilst he can.’
‘Okay, that’s good.’ She fought to suppress her grin of delight. ‘So we’ll probably head back to camp all together the day after tomorrow.’
‘Yeah, well, that’s the night Clay’s leaving party is scheduled, so he’s pretty determined to be back by then.’ Lukas laughed.
It was hopeless not to grin back at him. ‘Ah, that means barbecue and beer. I can’t let my team miss that or they’ll never volunteer to come out with me on another away mission again.’
‘Maybe we could have a drink together.’
Oti tucked her hands into her shorts pockets, just so that she didn’t throw them around in delight. ‘That would be nice.’
‘Good.’ He dipped his head as though that confirmed it. ‘Then we’ll have a drink at the party.’
‘Okay,’ she managed quietly, but he was already going, leaving her to watch his retreating rear for far longer than she knew was acceptable.
* * *
It had been a good mission, Lukas thought two days later, back at the medical camp, as he made his way across the compound to finally get a hot—hot-ish—shower.
Several days away and, despite the T-shirts and field washes they’d had, the work had been manual and gruelling, even without the heat to contend with. But it had been as satisfying as ever—the feeling that what he was doing was really making a difference out here.
Money was all well and good back home, but what he did here wasn’t about money—it was about saving lives. Literally. And somehow it left him feeling more at peace with hi
mself than he thought he’d ever felt.
Or maybe that was the effect Oti had on him. He couldn’t deny that working alongside her had been harmonious and somehow...right.
But now what?
Sharing a tent with Oti the past couple of days had been taxing enough, and that was before they’d broken that invisible barrier between them. Tonight they would be back in their tukul—back to sharing a bed—and Lukas was forced to admit, as he crossed the compound again, he wanted her more than ever.
Perhaps he could commandeer one of the outside hammocks? It might avoid any further conflict with Oti, and he was tired enough to sleep on a clothesline, and the mosquitoes weren’t a real problem during the heat of the day. It was only the evening and night when you seemed to get eaten alive.