Quarantine {Virus Plot}

[Claire Burton]

This had meant to have been a fun week end. Krys was having a birthday party, a surprise at that, and Claire and Lily had been invited. Claire hadn't felt every comfortable taking her four year old daughter to the large city, but once Lily got wind of the party there was no telling her no. The little girl loved Krys, and Krys loved Lily. So Claire and Lily boarded a plane a day before the big party. Claire figured that nothing was going to happen. They would be near a bunch of FBI agents most the time anyway. She decided to go earlier, though, because she had never seen New York before. And in truth was very exited about the trip, even if she didn't tell anyone. Once they were there she let lose a little, afraid that Lily would read her body language and would know that she was scared. If they stayed in the good parts of town with a lot of other moms and people then they would be okay, that's what Claire decided.

That night Claire had decided to take lily to the movie, there wasn't much the little girl could do in the big city that wouldn't bore her to death. Luckily the little girl was mature past her years and was smart enough to enjoy being in a big city, not that Washington, D.C. was any smaller. The buildings here were really tall, unlike Washington. The movie was a family comedy, but there weren't that many young kids there, actually Lily was the only one under fifteen years old. The theater itself wasn't all that full. When they went back to the hotel room is when the symptoms started on Lily. The first was vomiting and fever. Even before the bleeding through orphaces and delusions started Claire knew something was wrong. Lily had never been a very sickly child as a baby, and rarely ever got sick now a days. So what did the mother do, take her to the hospital.

At first the doctors said it was just the flu, not making the connection to some of the other sick patients. But then the deaths started to come, and they quickly realized that Lily was infected. How Claire didn't get it was still a mystery, there were some doctors that thought that she was on a delayed reaction and would get it, which would be most likely fatal to her baby and wanted to take her in for further testing, but Claire refused to leave her daughters side. So they took some blood and set them both in the quarantine room, Claire in a full body suit to try and protect her if she hadn't been infected before then. With Lily lying in the bed next to her Claire held her hand, fighting back the sobs. She didn't want to scare Lily by crying. She had to believe that her child was going to be okay.

[lily]

Lily starred up at her mother, too weak to even offer her a small smile and letting her know she would fight this, whatever it was. With all the strings and wires attached to Lily's body it was hard not to be scared, but she tried to be brave for her mother.

She was lying in a bed, in a hospital room which had one door that locked once it closed. If her mother wanted to talk to someone on the otherside without leaving the room there was obviously a little window and a button you had to push to make your voice heard. Lily glanced around in the room. Along the far wall stood a small table with purple and pink plastic flower, not exactly the most beautiful flowers Lily had seen. On her right was a heart monitor which registered her heart beat. How scary wasn't that? Everytime Lily started to feel more scared the green peaks on the black screen would go up and down faster. She tried not to look at it too much, but at the same time it was a little interesting. On her left side sat her mother, holding her hand tight. Lily tried to squeezed her hand lightly, but failed. Gathering more strength she soon succeeded to squeeze it hard enough for her mother to feel it. She couldn't hold back the tears any longer. She couldn't be brave. She felt way to sick. After all, she was only four years old. She was still a child and allowed to cry.

A cool tear sought its way out of the corner of her left eye and built a path down her rosy and warm cheek for the other tears that was to come. "Momma, I'm scared." Lily whispered afraid to close her eyes. She was afraid that if she closed them she wouldn't have the strength to open them up again. With all the body fluid she had lost through vomiting, crying was the least thing she needed right now.
"How am I..." Lily paused to breathe a few times and tried to speak up for her mother "...supposed to give Krys my drawing? Do you think she will like it?" She finished, the tears still sliding down her cheeks like raindrops on a window.

[Kara Barnhill]

"Kara, why don't you just head up for a visit? You know, before finals?"

That was how it had happened. Kara didn't have the heart to say no to her this time. Not since the accident. In truth, some part of her wanted to be back with her family. She had almost lost them, after all, and something about snagging the chance made her extremely eager to go ahead and hop onto the train. It seemed a low-expense, low-impact way to blow off some steam. Dancing hadn't been freeing her lately; school and work had been enough to consume her life. She was just about to set out for finals. It would mark her one-year-left milestone---something Kara was incredibly thankful for---but she wished to make sure her grades did not suffer too horribly. She had been quite overtaken with other things, so her grades had been slightly less perfect than she would have liked.

"Oh, hunny! It is so good to see you!" Kara couldn't help but smile. She hadn't come across anyone so happy to see her in some time. Her mother was instantly over and locking the petite woman in an embrace.

"Hey, Mom." She had managed to say.

"You must be hungry. Let's go out to eat." It had been a quick outing, one that was long enough to catch up with her parents. But the next morning, they had been called off to duty. Something of it bothered Kara a slight, though she would never let herself bring it up to her family. She, after all, had a bit of pride. Instead, she took a taxi down to Times Square; there was always plenty to do to occupy yourself.

She had simply walked around for most of the day, poking her head into a few of the shops, buying a new top and a pair of flats. Shopping wasn't something that Kara did often; she was actually quite frugal with her money. But she hadn't purchased anything new for a while, so she thought that perhaps she could splurge.

Her phone rang, and she fished it out of her purse. "Hello?"

"Kara! Sorry we had to run off like that, hunny. Your Dad and I want to meet you for some coffee. Where are you?"

"Times Square." Kara offered, though did nothing but stop her walking and shifted her weight. Her mother and father were always busy; it was something that she was used to. She had spent most of her youth with her Aunt Cecilia.

"Oh, that's perfect! Head over to that coffee shop you like so much. We'll meet you there!" And it was with these cheery words that Kara had hung up on, and caused her to head on over to the shop. She had been there almost two and a half hours, and her parents had yet to show up. Disgruntled, the brunette reached for her phone and dialed her mother's number.

"Kara, oh, gosh! I'm so sorry, hunny. Someone wants a private lesson---we couldn't say no. They have been with us forever! I hope you understand. We will definitely get dinner."

"Yeah, okay, Mom." Kara sighed and ended up taking another coffee and sitting alone. Some trip home this had turned out to be. It's hot, she thought slightly uncomfortably. Something about this just didn't feel right. It was like she felt sick. But that was impossible, wasn't it? She was feeling perfectly fine that morning. She dropped the cardboard container back to the table and took a deep breath. It wasn't hot outside---not unbearably so, leastways. So why was she so uncomfortable?

She took a quick glance around. Many of the other people there seemed just as uncomfortable. Well, at least it wasn't just her. She stood then, and moved off back toward the street. She would just head home to take a nap or something. It had been a long day; perhaps she was just tired.

The second she had arrived home, she had fallen asleep. She actually hadn't awoken until her mother and father had poked their head into the spare room. "Kara, c'mon. Dinner is ready."

Her father's voice was soft and gentle, a rousing that was quite delicate. Though, when she sat up and looked at them, their faces warped a bit to concern. "Kara, you feeling okay?"

"Hmmm?" Kara responded dully, rubbing her eyes slightly. No. She wasn't feeling okay. Actually, she was feeling pretty miserable. "No. I'm kinda feeling sick." She added as an afterthought.

"C'mon hunny. Lets just get you out to the hospital." Her mother's voice sounded a bit concerned. Nonetheless, she couldn't argue. Something seemed to have sapped all of her energy. All she knew was that she was admitted to the hospital that night. Was it a bit excessive?

[Claire Burton]

Late in the night, maybe it was early in the morning, Claire couldn't remember, a girl, around her own age was wheeled into the same room as her and her daughter. The only difference was that her parent, Claire guessed they were, weren't aloud in the room. This broke the young mother's heart. She couldn't imagine what she would do if the doctors refused to let her sit by Lily. Yet she knew it was because of Lily's young age that they let Claire be with her, even though she was pregnant and risking her own life just to be with her daughter. She looked at the sleeping girl and wondered if she was going to be okay, she had been told that it was some sort of virus, but nothing more. She didn't even now the terrorist plot behind it, or the massive number of people that were sick, and all those that had already died. The doctors had told her that there was the cure for it, and it killed fast. Claire was just hoping that they would figure out what it was before her daughter died. Ever since Charlie died Lily was all that she had left, she wasn't going to let her family fall apart.

Finding it hard to hold back the tears as Lily started to cry Claire shut them, just for a minute. The small voice came through the room and Claire tried to smile. Lily was so scared. This was to much for a four year old to go through, she should have to deal with things like this. She had already been through so much with her father dieing, then her mother becoming slightly depressed because of the rape. No one should have to deal with all the crap that the young girl had gone through already. And now the doctors were telling her that she had a less than 50% chance of living.

As one tear rolled down Claire's face she said in a soft voice, trying not to let the sobs be heard. "It's okay sweetie, we'll be out of here in no time, you can give it to her then." She said pushing a strained of hair out of the girl's face. At one point Claire had thought about calling Krys and telling her what had happened, but that would mean leaving the room, which she wasn't about to do. "She'll love the drawing, you are the best drawer that I ever saw." She smiled a half smile, weakly looking down at her. Praying that she wouldn't lose her daughter either. She needed her to live. Subconsciously Claire was aware of the other lady in the room, though she had yet to wake up.

[lily]

Lily glanced sideways at the girl that was wheeled into the same room as they were in. It looked like she already was dead. Her eyes were closed and she was really pale, almost white and her dark hair made her look even more pale. Was it like that Lily would look like if she didn't get better? She decided that she would get better and listen to the doctors when they spoke to her. She would do everything to get out of this hospital. Hospitals smelled funny and were kind of creeping Lily out a little bit.

Lily turned her head away from the girl and looked at her mother as she spoke.
"Pinky swear?" She asked inbetween hickups the crying was causing. She tried really hard to bring up her left hand to do the 'pinky swear' shake with her mother to get her thoughts on something else, but she was too weak and could only bring it half way up. Even though she was only four years old she wasn't stupid. She knew she was really sick but she was a tough little girl who believed she could fight this off.
"Momma? Do you think they will save some cake for me?" Lily spoke camly and slowly closed her eyes as she was struggling to keep them open. She felt sleepy.

[Kara Barnhill]

Kara wasn't truly feeling deathly. She might have looked it, though whenever she was ill she seemed to look like some kind of zombie. Downside of being pale with darker hair. She was slightly confused, completely frightened. The brunette hated hospitals to begin with; had she just been taken to Quarantine? Wasn't that reserved for people who were going to be dangerous to other people? She sat up and looked around frantically for a moment. Her parents. Did she have something that infected them, too? No. They weren't there.

She looked through a plexi-glass window and saw them looking in at her with concerned eyes. What the hell was going on? As if her thoughts came to her without thinking she muttered to the air, "What is this? Isn't it just a cold?" Of course, now her heart was rampant. Hospitals. It was like a nightmare. She thought about crying, though a little figure kept her from doing such a thing. It was a child. Her heart immediately ached all the more. It was a lovely child, blonde hair and bright eyes, though they were reddened with tears.

She couldn't cry in front of a child. That little girl needed to know that everything was going to be okay; not that an adult was having a breakdown, too. She took a staggered breath and tried to calm herself well enough to speak. She offered a weak smile to the little girl. Best to try and be friendly. "Don't mean to eavesdrop." Kara offered calmly, though her hands were gripping the side of the bed she was sitting on well enough to turn her knuckles white. "But I do believe that whomever is having a party will be happy to save you cake. And if not, when this is all over, I am sure we could all go out and have our own."

Children were one thing that could keep Kara even-headed. God she felt sick. She had to fight through this. She looked to the mother for a moment, and almost brought herself to ask a few questions. Still, nothing came. She didn't want to frighten the little girl.

[Claire Burton]

Claire looked at Lily with wide eyes. Could she really make a promise to her daughter that she had no idea if she could keep? Claire had never been one to lie to Lily, that was one of her rules, though she rarely told her things that she thought the little girl didn't want to hear, or rather things that Claire was afraid to tell her. Charlie had started to tradition by telling her stories of what he did, he never lied to Lily about the danger that he faced day in and day out. Yet he never told her anything to violent as to not scare her. That's what Claire did. If she made the promise it could back fire, but if she didn't it would scare her. So Claire slowly wrapped her pinky finger around Lily's. "Pinky swear." she muttered finding it even harder to control herself because Lily was to weak to lift her hand more than a few inched. Was she really that weak? That was a bad sign wasn't it. She also looked tired, and that scared Claire even more. What if she feel asleep and never woke back up? It took all of her will power to not shout for a doctor then.

That's when the other lady woke up. She sat up with a shot, obviously startled at where she was. Looking over at her, still holding Lily's hand in her's after the pink swear. "I'm not sure what it is." She said softly trying to keep Lily from hearing, but in truth she was pretty sure that she already knew that. Looking back at Lily she smiled. Kara was right they could always get more cake. "Listen, Krys is a very nice person, I'm sure if she could she would save you the entire cake." She said petting her hair. Looking back over at Kara she knew that she was confused and wanted to ask more questions. And Claire wanted to answer them, her mothering instincts kicking in on high gear. "I'm Claire." She answered suddenly very aware of her Australian accent all of a sudden. "It looks like we're going to be roommates." She tried to make it sound like a joke, but couldn't. In truth she was sure they would get many more roommates before the day was over, this thing seemed really bad, and wide spread. Claire just wished she could watch the news or ask some questions with out worrying Lily.

[lily]

Opening her eyes, Lily offered her mother a sleepy smile after the promise was made. According to the promise she was going to get better and get out of this creepy hospital. She almost felt like a prisoner. Charlie, Lily's father, had many times told her that bad people went to jail, and for a little while Lily actually thought she was in some sort of a jail. Until a doctor with a mask had come to check her vitals earlier. She saw in his face that something wasn't right and that he was concerned. Even though he tried to hide it.

Lily squeezed her mother's hand and quickly turned her gaze to the brunette as the woman sat up hastily. She wasn't dead after all. Maybe Lily was exaggerating a little before when she thought the woman looked deadly pale. Truth be told, the woman was actually a little pale. Lily was probably too but since she hadnn't seen her reflection in a mirror since they left for the movies yesterday morning, she couldn't tell.

The tears had stopped flowing down Lily's cheeks now but her eyes was still watery. If she didn't blink, it was like trying to look through a window which the rain was pouring down on. Her breath started to turn into small sobs as she listened to what the brunette had to say. The four year old didn't know the other woman but her friendly and warming smile assured Lily that she was a nice person. " I'd like that." Lily replied in a low voice to the brunette's comment about going out for cake when they got out.
Lily saw the people on the other side of the plexi-glass window looking at them and suddenly she started to feel like an animal in a zoo. Now she knew how they felt. She turned her head back to her mother. So much was going on around her so her heartbeat started to increase a little which was shown on the heart monitor. She was also starting to bleed just a little from her nose...without her even noticing it.
"How long do we have to be here. I want to go home" Lily spoke sleepily once she realised that if she had a conversation going on she wouldn't fall asleep.

[Kara Barnhill]

"I'm Claire."

"Kara. Pleasure to meet you," or, it would have been if the circumstances were a bit different. She forced a smile, and sighed uneasily, crossing her arms for a brief moment before once more dropping them to her side to grip the sheets. Hospitals made her so antsy. Her parents were being shooed away from the window by a passing nurse; it was probably for the better. Kara didn't want them to see her like this. Especially if it was going to get worse. And diseases always got worse. She turned her attention back to the little girl for a moment to chase away such foul thoughts.

"And who is the little one?" She cooed sweetly in a gentle voice. Something in her heart adored children. She could never understand why anyone would not love them---they were the picture of innocence and love. Kara was young, still in school for her second degree, and as such had not taken any time to truly consider settling down and starting her own family. Perhaps it was the circumstance of the situation, but she almost felt angry at herself. All of the plans she had set off and not done anything with...they could all go up in smoke right here. If she didn't make it out of here, the only mothering she ever would have done would have been to peers that she had cared for and doted on, or the children she had crossed paths with that were not of her own blood.

"How long do we have to be here. I want to go home."

Kara's heart twinged a slight. "Don't worry, sweetie. We won't be here any longer than we need to be. They just need to make us better." She hoped it didn't sound too terribly dramatic, and she also hoped she hadn't frightened the child any more. Home sounded nice. Damn it, if she ever made it out of here she would spend a lovely few days in her apartment and home. Maybe even make a step or two toward the other plans she had for herself. A career wasn't everything. Something that seemed ridiculous to say just a few days ago seemed to be a flashing neon-sign to her now.

Sighing once more, Kara threw her eyes around the room once more. It could be worse. She could have been there alone.

[Claire Burton]

Claire smiled at Kara. Then looked down at Lily. She didn't seem to be strong enough so lightly touching her head. "This is Lily." She answered. She wanted to add something like, "A very brave girl." or something like that but couldn't get the words out of her mouth. It didn't matter. She knew that she was brave. Looking over at Kara she wondered how she get it, she didn't look familiar, she hadn't been in the movie theatre, which was a bad sign because that meant that it was more wide spread. She wondered if it was nation wide yet or just in New York. She didn't mean to be so negative, but while Charlie had been on the force he had explained his cases to her, and in a way she had a mind like the investigators, yet she used it in her field, child psychology. But that didn't matter right now.

Claire was finding it hard to talk now, afraid that if she opened her mouth she would start to cry and one thing that Lily did not need to she was her mother crying in a situation like this. She needed to be strong and let Lily know that everything was going to be okay. That was made harder when she looked down to find blood coming out of her nose. The doctors had told Claire that that was the next step in the lander, next was delusions. This only scared Claire more. Yet she kept it hidden, though all she wanted to do was break down and cry and pray that her child was taken from her. But she was able to resist.

It seemed Lil didn't know that her nose was bleeding, which was good. What Claire wanted to do was wipe the blood up with out scaring her. Which would be hard because as soon as Lily saw the blood she would get scared. Pulling a tissue off of the night stand, even though the doctors had told her not to touch any of Lily's fluids, especially blood, because they had learned that it was transmitted through bodily fluids. Claire ignored that, she was her mother, and wasn't afraid to touch her child. She would be careful, and not get any on her skin, or in her mouth, or however she would get sick. Softly she wiped the blood off her face, trying to make it seem like she was just wiping her nose. She was pretty sure Lily saw the blood though. Claire didn't need the heart monitor to know that she was frightened.

[lily]

The child smiled softly at Kara hoping she was right and that they would get out of there as fast as possible. In other words, when the were all better.

Lily tried to turn her face away as her mother tried to wipe her nose. As any child, she didn't like getting her nose wiped. If she had to she wanted to do it herself. Why was her mother wiping her nose anyway? She didn't have a runny nose, did she?
The doctor had never told Lily she would start to bleed from her nose or told her about any other symptoms of the disease she had, so when she saw a glimpse of the blood on the tissue, Lily's eyes widened. She had never really liked blood. To her it sybolised that someone was very hurt or in pain. She wasn't in pain. In fact, she felt fine, except her fatigue and her fear at not knowing exactly what was going on.

_____
OOC: Just a thought. Could Kara and Claire like talk to each other so I can have Lily falling into a coma? I have always wanted to try to roleplay someone in a coma after I read a book with a similar situation. If you don't think it's a good idea I totally understand.
Sorry for my very, very short post too :S

[Kara Barnhill]

"Lily? Well, that must be because you're just as pretty as a flower." Kara managed to say with a rather light and cheery tone. She must look something atrocious. She certainly felt like a living terror. She wasn't quite sure if her smile was being read as friendly or not; situations like these seemed to pull people together. Still, Kara didn't like the idea that her friendliness could be misconstrued as creepy or sickly. She simply was trying to occupy her own mind, as well as those that were with her.

Claire reached over with a tissue to wipe Lily's nose, and the trickle of red seemed to stand out quite well. It instantly drew Kara's attentions, and for a moment a frown passed over her face. She herself had not started bleeding. Though, she seemed to recall hearing somewhere that children were affected quicker than adults when it came to such things. Certainly because Lily was so small, the symptoms were coming on faster.

That meant that she would be able to watch what would begin to happen to her by watching the girl. That sickened Kara immensely. Once more she shifted uneasily and pressed her lips into a hard line. She saw the young girl's eyes wide at the sight of the blood, but quickly began to try and ease her worry. Stress wasn't precisely something that would help any of them at the moment. "Don't worry, Lily. Nosebleeds happen all the time." She, once more, tried to make it sound effortless. She forced herself to stand. She wasn't in such poor shape that she couldn't move about on her own yet.

It was probably smarter for her to stay put, but that wasn't stopping her now. Kara sometimes had a blatant disregard of self. At times, it was more apparent than others. She did care deeply for others, though like many others trying to make it in the field of law enforcement, it did not always carry over to herself. She flicked her brown eyes back to Claire and asked delicately, "How long have you been in here?" She kept her voice low, as to not frighten the child, though the room was not too large. It was probably impossible to have a private conversation here.

[Claire Burton]

((ooc: Sure Lily, that's fine with me.))

Claire softly touched the little girls hair when she became slightly panicked. "It's okay, sweetie." Kara made a good point, too. Cliare wished she could have added something like, Where at a higher elevation so that gives you more nose bleeds. But sadly New York and Washington, D.C. were the same elevation, as far as Claire knew. So she left it at that stroking Lily's hair lightly. She had a thought that she could braid it for Lily, but figured that wouldn't be to comfortable to lay on, though Lily did like her hair braided and it would have her feel better. At least they gave her a pink hospital dress.

Turning her attention over to Kara, still softly petting her daughter she said," What time is it?" She quickly looked around the room for a clock. Claire had forgotten all about time. Seeing one outside the glass wall she found it was 9:45 am, or at least she figured it was am there was no way of telling with out a window to see the sun. And Claire really doubted that they had been there almost an entire day. "Well if its in the morning then almost eleven hours, if it's night time then twenty two hours." She answered keeping a even tone of voice so that Lily would think everything was okay, that was if she wasn't listening to the words really.

((ooc: sorry it was so short.))

[Kara Barnhill]

"It is morning. It...took them a while to admit me." Kara murmured quietly. They had at first insisted that all she needed was some rest and a few antibiotics. Of course, that had proved not to be the case at all. God, she hated doctors. It seemed that their answers were scripted; antibiotics and rest was always the cure-all. Though, in their defense, this time it wasn't expected. Who would have thought someone would admit themselves with an unidentifiable disease.

Unidentifiable, and thus far, incurable.

She shuddered slightly, though she couldn't tell if it was because of the ill-news that swept through her mind, or the fact her feverish state was a slight bit worse than she had realized. Damn fevers. You could never truly satisfy yourself when you had one---you were always an extreme of warm or cold. Never a happy medium.

She dropped her voice into a whisper, so that Lily could not hear and be frightened, "Do they know anything about this yet? Are we the only ones in quarantine?" Half was from a curiosity, that as an aspiring agent, she found it hard to ignore. Perhaps keeping her investigative skills going would make this all seem less of a toil. Though, some of it had still come from fear. Nobody would have blamed her for such thoughts. Even the toughest of agents and people would be frightened when faced with such disease. Lily was, perhaps, being braver than Kara could have ever dreamed of being.

[Claire Burton]

Claire looked over at Lily and saw just how tired she was. I would have been a crime to try and keep her up, even with the fear of her not waking up. The child needed rest, that was the best thing for her. Softly Claire leaned close to her face, careful to stay away from any blood or what not. "It's okay, sweetie, get some rest. I'll be here the whole time." She whispered softly then kissed her check, knowing the risk that she was taking, but ignoring it. Still holding Lily's hand she turned away and moved her chair as close to Kara's bed as she could while still being able to reach her daughter. They needed to talk, no doubt about that, but Claire didn't want to scare Lily at all.

Keeping her voice at the same level as Kara's was she answered, "No... we're not the only ones." She said thought in truth she knew never little. "As I've sat here I've seen several other's wheeled passed... none of them look very good. The doctors wont say anything though." She know that the reason that the two of them had been in the small room alone for so long was because the doctors had refused to put Claire in any more danger than she was. With Kara there that meant that they were running out of room. "I only wish I could watch the news.' She added after a pause. It wasn't confirmed in her mind that this was anything more than a few cases of sickness until she knew what was going on in the world out side of the hospital. The way the doctors where acted made it seem to her that there was something else going on. Something that they didn't want her to know.

Fear passed over the young mother as she thought about what was going on. There seemed to be no cure, and her daughter was infected. She was going to die, she just felt it. Everything else had gone wrong in her life, why was this any different? Some how Claire hadn't gotten sick though, and the two of them had gone the same places since arriving in New York. It didn't make any sense. Maybe that was a good sign, a sign that they would make it through this. Claire hoped with all her life that it was. The child wasn't suppose to die before her parents.