Love In The Time Of Outbreak

Chapter 2

After Nadine left, Dean immediately turned to the doctor. "Nice kid."

She grinned. "She can be a handful, but her bedside manner is surprisingly remarkable. She's also kind with the patients." The doctor extended her hand to him. "I'm Thalia Ricafort. I'm a Filipino-American doctor."

"Dean Magallon. Also Filipino." He said and shook hands with the doctor. He was just surprised because the doctor's grip on his hand was tight, especially that her hands were so small and dainty.

In fact, everything about this woman was dainty. Delicate, even. Her height was average for a woman, but she was just too skinny for him. He doesn't care if a woman is chubby. Looks like the doctor needs to eat a little more. But in fairness, the curve of her body is just right. Her butt is also round.

Because he'd always been an ass man, the tantalizing sight stirred his groin, serving as a reminder of his eleven-month-long stint of celibacy. Getting laid wasn't something he'd given much thought since going into hiding. Granted, it was easy not to think about sex when your only company was two bad-tempered soldiers and a case of beer.

"How was your flight here?"

"Good thing, nothing happened to me."

"Sit down," she said, and motioned him to a small plastic chair. While Thalia went around her desk to sit on the swivel chair. Dean, on the other hand, fit himself into the very small chair and forced himself to be comfortable.

His shifting and sliding earned him another grin from Thalia Ricafort, and now that he focused on her face rather than her too-skinny figure, he realized just how pretty she was. Not classically beautiful by society's standards, but her face is very light and gentle.

"Okay, what do you want to know?" She asked directly at him.

"It looks like you want to send me right away." He couldn't help but tease.

"Actually, no. I'd rather just sit here at my desk all week. I'm really tired, I'm always hungry, and I can't remember the last time I talked to someone who was healthy and not dying in front of me." She let out a breath. "But what can I do? I knew what I was getting into when I signed the contract to be deployed here."

Her blunt tone and frank words intrigued him. When he'd set up this bogus interview, he'd expected to hear a bunch of praise for the MD International organization and heartfelt speeches about saving the world and making a difference.

"Sounds like running this clinic is a tough task," he remarked.

"Tough is an understatement." She stopped. "Aren't you going to take notes?"

Ah, yes. He should take notes. That is the job of a journalist.

He bent down and got a notebook, ballpen and mini recorder from his messenger bag. When he had the recorder in hand, he met Thalia's gaze and said, "Do you mind if I record this?"

"Not at all."

As he set up the recorder and opened his notebook to a new page, Thalia shot him another one of those no-nonsense looks. "I read some of your online articles just this morning. You are a good writer."

Thanks to Ina. His commander's fiancee.

Next time he should treat Tatum's fiancee better. He didn't like her when he first met her. Then again, when a mysterious chick showed up asking your commanding officer to risk his neck and kill a man for her, will you immediately give your trust?

But in the end, Ina proved that she can be trusted, and thanks to this, if it wasn't for Ina, Victor Ortez's evil doing would only continue to spread.

Also thanks to Ina, because of this he became a fake journalist. It had only taken Tatum's hacker fiancee a day to establish Dean Magallon as a bonafide freelancer, mostly by hacking into newspaper sites and changing the by-lines. The story wouldn't hold up under deep scrutiny, but they figured Thalia Ricafort and her colleagues wouldn't have time to do a thorough background check on the man who was coming to write a glowing piece about their organization.

"Thanks," he said, hoping Thalia wouldn't ask him specific questions about being a journalist. "Though I'm surprised to hear you have internet access here."

"We do it in the clinic, but it's expensive, so we only use it for work purposes. Communication-wise, we've got a radio we use to connect with other clinics on the island, and a satellite phone for emergencies."

"What about cell phones? I noticed that the signal of my cell phone here is gone."

"There's a cell tower somewhere around here, but like yours, the signal is always gone. Last night, we had a signal for an hour, and our midwife was very happy because she was able to call her grandchildren." She said with a smile. "I swear, it's like we're partying here every time we get a bar signal."

He also laughed at her behavior, and at that moment, he forgot about the interview he was going to do here. It seems that he enjoyed his simple conversation with Thalia Ricafort. It's been a long time since he's been talking to anyone other than Tatum and Pierre.

"Anyway, off-topic again," she said with a chuckle of her own. "You may begin your interview, Mr. Magallon."

"Just Dean."

"Okay, Dean."

"All right, why don't you start by telling me a bit about the set up you folks have going here."

With a nod, she leaned back in her swivel chair and gave him a quick rundown of the MD International organization. She described their goals, the way the organization was structured, the equipment they had on hand. Every now and then, Dean interrupted with a question to give credibility to the whole interview thing, but in his head, he was trying to figure out the best way to bring up the topic about the dying patients in the next room.

"So you do have an MRI," he cut in, pretending to be fascinated.

She nodded, her dainty fingers toying with the end of her long brown braid, which fell over one shoulder. "We do, but we don't have an on-site expert to handle the results. The scans are sent to the central lab in town, and the diagnoses and results are emailed back to us."

He asked a few more questions that he didn't really care about the answers to, except that he was amused to listen to the doctor's speech. Because this is not the type that he usually meets with doctors. She can actually speak Filipino sometimes, and her attitude was really Pinoy.

Also, her voice is beautiful to listen to - it's sweet and mellow to listen to. He felt suddenly warm when he looked at the doctor's lips. Those pouty lips that pursed each time she paused to organize her next thought.

Damn, it's just that he suddenly turns on by the doctor. He has to resist the strange attraction he feels for her. Not now. Just not now.

*****