‘I thought TB could be cured with antibiotics. How does a strain become drug-resistant?’
‘Do you really want to know, or are you trying to be polite?’ She pulled a wry face, only too conscious of the fact that he’d touched on a topic that bubbled inside her. ‘Only we’re meant to be here to celebrate Mattie’s promotion.’
Despite all her usual social awkwardness, her job was a subject about which she could chat to anyone, any time. It was more than just a job, it was a passion, and she loved being out there, helping people who wouldn’t have had anything otherwise.
‘Is it something we’re likely to encounter where we’re going?’ he asked, and she liked it that he seemed to have actually taken a moment to think about his answer.
‘It is,’ she confirmed. ‘The fact is that TB thrives in communities that live very close together, and where their immune systems are already weakened. We’re heading into an area where there are refugees and displaced persons with no homes, no access to fresh water, and who will be malnourished. Their immune systems would already be in the toilet, if it weren’t for the fact that the sanitation will be poor, too.’
He laughed. A deep throaty sound that made her feel insanely good about her attempt at humour. Like he found her fun, and amusing. Mostly people found her too serious back here in the UK. It was strange how she felt like a different person as soon as she stepped out of that plane in a foreign country, ready for her next medical mission. Freer, and more herself than she had ever felt back here.
‘There you go, then. I’m genuinely interested.’ Hayden stepped closer, making something surge inside her, even as she told herself it was just so they could hear each other better. ‘I’ve spent almost half my life as an officer in the army, I’ve completed multiple tours in war zones, and I’ve been part of hearts and minds missions before. But this is the first time I’ve ever been part of one quite like this. I’m curious to know what to expect and I think you’re the perfect person to tell me.’
‘I don’t want to bore you,’ Bridget said.
It was the truth, but without the inconvenient fact that a part of her wished she was the kind of sexy, confident woman who could hold a guy’s attention without having to resort to conversations about what, halfway around the world, they called sputum positives.
‘Besides...’ he grinned, as if reading her mind ‘... I can’t say I’m much of a club-goer. I wouldn’t even be here if this wasn’t about the only time all our group had downtime at the same time. At least teach me something to make my night feel less wasted.’
He was teasing her. She knew it, and his words rolled through her, making heat bloom wherever they went. Making her feel interesting.
‘Okay,’ she began, unable to help herself. ‘You want to know about drug-resistant TB, or XDR TB, as we call it. So buckle up.’
‘Consider me warned.’ His eyes glittered with amusement, though Bridget didn’t realise she’d been staring into the deep blue pools until she ran out of breath and realised she’d forgotten to keep breathing.
‘We’ve been running TB clinics out in places like Jukrem camp for years. The main problem we face is that treating TB usually takes about six months in normal conditions, and necessitates oral drugs and daily injections.’ She pulled a wry face. ‘Painful injections. You have no idea how long I spent on my first mission, thinking that the local people were particularly susceptible to hip or leg bone problems, only to discover they were in pain from the injections they had to have in their bottoms.’
‘Ah.’ Hayden winced in empathy, and she liked it that he seemed to get it.
‘They’re confined to small wards or mud huts, and can’t really mix with others. Often they’ve been separated from family. All too frequently, they leave before their treatment course is complete.’
‘I’m beginning to see where you’re going.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘If they leave before they should then they won’t be fully cured, but their body will have been exposed to the drugs and begun to build up resistance.’
It had to be the least sexy conversation in the club, and yet she could have kissed him for making her feel so engaging.
She ignored the voice in her head telling her that she could have kissed him for a very different reason, too.
‘Right,’ she continued, dragging her mind back to the infinitely less sexy conversation. ‘So, we end up with a patient who comes back to us later, having developed XDR TB. As it is, we often get an all-clear patient returning home, only to be reinfected by a family member who hadn’t yet been treated, or even screened, for TB. But the worst thing about XDR TB is that it can be spread the same way. So suddenly we get swathes of villages or cities that all have the drug-resistant strain, and there’s very little we can do about it.’
‘You’re passionate about this, aren’t you?’ Hayden said suddenly, making her blink as she met his gaze.
‘It sounds silly, doesn’t it?’ she noted, her voice flat even to her own ears.
‘It doesn’t sound remotely silly. It sounds like you care about other people and about trying to do what’s best for them. And it sounds like you love your career, which is something I, of all people, can truly understand.’
Bridget didn’t answer, she could only jerk her head awkwardly up and down, entranced by the quiet intensity in his eyes. As though they were forging some kind of bond. Here. In the middle of a nightclub.
And it was suddenly inexplicably important to her that Hayden see her not as a socially awkward wallflower but as the confident, competent woman he would be working with over the next few months.
Is that all it is?
She stamped the needling voice out quickly, scrabbling around for something to divert her and falling back on the safety of their previous conversatio
n.
‘It’s hard sometimes,’ she heard herself admitting. ‘Especially when it’s a husband and wife where the wife is afraid to sleep away from her husband, but they need to because one of them is entering an intensive phase of their treatment. And they may only live in a one-room hut or shed.’
‘So what do you do?’