"Thanks for coming so quickly, mom!" Megan greeted her mother at the door, still angry about the fact that her day off with Kate and Lacy had just been ruined by an "urgent" case at least that is what Curtis had called it. "Kate and I have been called in, we are both supposed to be off but something has come up." Her mother smiled and nodded, "Its fine Megan, I wasn't doing anything. Is everything alright? Wait a second, Megan, what happened to your face?" Megan cringed "I will explain later, mom I promise. All you need to know now is if Todd comes to the door, do not answer it."

Her mother was about to say something else when Lacey came flying round the corner and wrapped her arms around her grandmother's waist. "Well, hello to you too, sweetheart." Joan then looked up to see Kate coming around the corner, "Kate what... I didn't know you were...ah here." There was no disguising the bruises on Kate's face either, "Joan, lovely to see you again," she smiled and turned to Megan, "I think we should get going, Curtis did say this was an emergency." Megan rolled her eyes; Curtis thought that it was an emergency when they ran out of peanut butter in the break room. Lacey hugged both her mother and Kate and the two women then hurried out the door.

Both woman sat in silence as Megan drove them to the office, neither one of them knowing what to do. It was ok when they were shut up in Megan's apartment, locked away from the outside world but out in the open was a different story altogether. Kate was trying to push it to the back of her mind though; she was really beginning to worry about the case.

She couldn't understand why Curtis was being so cryptic. She had zoned out and was completely oblivious to the fact that Megan was talking to her, until she felt a warm hand wrap itself around her own. "It is going to be ok, I am sure Curtis is overreacting." Kate smiled weakly, hoping Megan was right. They arrived at the morgue a few minutes later. When they reached their floor Kate went one way and Megan went the other, "Megan, where are you going? Curtis asked to see us first." It was clear that Kate was in Dr Murphy mode and so Megan decided it was time to kick start Dr hunt mode too. "I have a job to do, so am going to go do it. If it really is that important the quicker it is done the better."

Before Kate could say another word Megan was gone, she rolled her eyes and preceded to Curtis's office, she knew fighting with Megan was futile. She knocked on the door and Curtis waved her in, "What is going on, Curtis" She could tell from the look in his eye that it was bad, "Where is Megan?" Curtis asked concerned, "She went straight to the morgue, didn't want to waste any time." She watched as the man dropped his head in his hands, "Aw Damn! Look Kate, the person in the morgue...the victim...its Dani Alvarez."

Kate looked up in shock. "She was supposed to meet Peter at a bar but when he got there she stormed passed him, he said she was disorientated, she stumbled out into the middle of the road and she was hit by an oncoming car. All injuries were non-fatal but she had a seizure and then just stopped breathing, COD is still unknown." After being filled in on the details Kate rushed to the morgue and found Megan standing over Dani's body, "What do you think happened" she asked as Megan looked up at her. "Slight jaundice, Peter could be right, if Dani had a seizure she could have been drugged." Kate approached the table, "Ethan has been assigned for now."

Megan looked up to see the young doctor enter the room, "Are you going to be ok to do this?" she asked genuinely concerned, "Is anyone?" Kate smiled sympathetically at him. "Peter has been told to take as much time off as he needs." Megan had begun to examine Dani's hands and contusions most likely caused by the accident. "Didn't I just see him in his office?" Megan stopped and looked up at Kate. "Oh yeah apparently he has been here since six am, bar receipts and video surveillance in hand." Megan had begun to examine the body further, "Good!" Kate was taken aback by Megan's comment, "Megan he's in shock, not even shock, he is in full blown denial." The older ME snapped back. "He is angry, wouldn't you be? If it helps us solve the case any sooner I am all for it!" Ethan quickly interjected the last thing he needed to happen was for a fight to break out. "Peter showed us the surveillance tapes, some creep spiked her drink."

"Curtis has Bud trying to track him down. He just needs cause of death." Ethan stopped mid photo, "It wasn't the SUV?" Megan lifted Dani's top to reveal a rash on her abdomen. "This rash didn't come from getting hit...Whatever that creep gave her was attacking her before she was hit...this isn't your garden variety date rape drug... this is a hell of a lot more powerful."

It wasn't long until Bud had tracked down the suspect Marcel Trevino, but when he too collapsed in interrogation from the same symptoms as Dani, the case seemed to be taking a turn for the worst. Kate, Megan, Bud and Peter all followed the ambulance to the hospital. "So our only witness is now comatose." Kate stated as she watched the nurses hook Marcel Trevino up to a drip. "Witness you mean suspect." Peter angrily corrected her. "I mean we don't know what he is!" Peter looked disgusted with his boss, "the symptoms are identical, and he probably got a taste of his own poison."

The awkwardness of the situation was interrupted by Megan, "Pulmonary oedema, Tonic clonic seizure activity, not symptoms of a date rape drug...was he perspiring in interrogation?" Megan directed her questions to Bud, "They all do!" Megan's head hung low, "Peter I am sorry to have to ask this but do think that Dani could have been involved with this guy...she might have got it from him." Peter shook his head, "I don't know I hope not."

"You think he spiked a fever," Kate questioned, "It's a theory, what if it is not a poison but an infection." Megan saw worry flash over Kate's face, "then there would be a lot more sick people." With that doctors burst into the room with another patient rushed in for the ER. Suddenly their surroundings become clear, as they looked from one patient to the other it was clear they all had it, the four of them stood still, glued to the floor with fear. "Oh my god they've all got symptoms, this wasn't a poisoning." Kate breathed out as she leant on the glass partition, she told herself it was to get a better look but deep she knew it was because the case was getting more and more dangerous and it felt like her legs were going to give out on her. She turned to the only person she knew she could find solace in, unfortunately Megan had no words of reassurance "We better get the morgue ready, I think we've got an outbreak!"

Megan and Kate rushed back to the morgue to be met with 3 new bodies, all presenting with similar symptoms, but bar the fever it didn't seem like cause of death was in any way similar. A heart stopped at mercy, difficulty breathing and coughing blood, followed by seizures. They had yet to determine Dani's cause of death, "Someone say something?" Ethan looked so defeated, tears began to well up in Megan's eyes, and she knew it was up to her to say something. "We will all miss Dani, the best way that we can honour her and all of these people, is to do our jobs and find cause of death."

"We need to find out where all of our victims have been, when they first started showing symptoms and most of all who got sick first. Patient zero." For Kate she couldn't focus on anything but the case or she was going to crumble, she had tried to convince herself otherwise but she knew that this was more that they could handle. Megan was going to hate her for what she had done but she didn't know what else to do. She had zoned out again, she could see that Megan was talking again but none of the words were getting through. And then as if right on cue, the door of the lab burst open.

"Couple of airlocks... one here and one here. A BSF3 cabin set up, move man, a new auto clamp and swap this table out." Kate hung her head, government idiots can never come into a situation gently, "Hey...Hey nobody is swapping out anything without my approval." Kate stepped in quickly to avoid confrontation, "Curtis... I am Dr Kate Murphy." The man Kate was addressing stopped what he was doing, "Sorry introductions, rude...very rude. Dr Charlie Stafford, with the Centre for Disease Control." Kate could see that Megan was already pissed. When she found out it was Kate that contacted him in the first place, invited him and that he was kicking them out of their lab, she thought the anger was going to boil over. Once Dr Stafford had them cleared from the lab, they went straight to de-contamination. Megan hadn't said a word to Kate until they reached the other side to change into the outfits provided by the CDC.

Kate had attempted to step into the cubicle beside Megan but the redhead had grabbed her arm and pulled her into hers. "You have got to be kidding me, Kate... You couldn't have at least ran this by me, before you got me kicked out of my own lab." Kate rolled her eyes, "Megan we were in over our heads, and you know it. What if this thing is airborne and we are already ill? I mean my god Megan, four people are dead already and there are more to come, you said that yourself. I mean what if it is one of us, on one of those tables next." For once Megan saw past Dr Murphy her fearless and driven boss, to Kate her very scared and upset girlfriend. "Hey hey, everything is fine, everything is fine...Come here." She opened her arms and Kate practically fell into them. "I mean if we were going to get sick it would have happened by now." With that Kate pulled back from the hug, "God damn it Megan, can you for once in your life admit that you have no idea what this is, what it does and how these people got it. We have no idea how this effects someone, one person could be very different from the other."

Kate turned very swiftly on her heel and stormed out of the cubicle, she loathed the 'God Complex' Megan conveyed a lot of the time. She could tell that Megan was right behind her, as she dropped her gown into the contamination bin. She also knew that 'I am sorry' wasn't often heard coming out of Megan's mouth. Megan herself was fuming now, how dare Kate, this was their case. They spent the next hour and a half in the isolation area of the de-contamination zone, and Megan insisted on yelling constantly about how they were fine. Once they were released from the contamination area, Megan really got into it with Dr Stafford. And of course in true Dr Hunt fashion, she somehow got herself back on the case. And within the hour of that happening she had the rest of her team to.

She merely texted the rest of the team but she went looking for Kate personally. She found her in the break room all alone. "You didn't head home?" Kate looked up from where she sat, "No I was waiting for you. Besides I am not sure home is any safer for me than here, thanks to Todd." Megan shuffled in the room a tad more, dragging her feet, the sting of an apology at the back of her throat. "Kate, I'm...I'm ...oh for the love of.. I'm sorry ok! And ... you are right I need to learn when to admit that I don't know something." The blonde ME looked up in shock, "well well how did those words taste?" Megan cracked a smile, she couldn't resist the smile on the beautiful blondes face in front of her, it could light up a room. "Like vinegar!"

Kate stood up and the two women approached each other slowly, "I am sorry too! You were also right, you and the boys had a right to know that I had called the CDC and..." Kate fell silent when she felt Megan's arms circled her neck, seemed to be that if that woman came within a few inches of her she couldn't breathe. "Mmmm.. I apologise..." she blanked as she felt the feathered touch of Megan lips on her neck. "For that... Megan...oh just kiss me ok." Kate couldn't take it anymore; Megan nibbling on her earlobe had sent her over the edge. Megan happily obliged and threaded her fingers into Kate's hair and pulled her in for a searing kiss.

The two women broke the kiss seconds later, breathless and flustered. "Not once the whole time, that I was married to Todd did he ever apologise, so neither did I. But with you, I want to... no I need to because I can't stand you being angry with me. "Kate smiled and placed another quick kiss on Megan's lips, "Well you can show me how much you appreciate it later, are we back in?" Megan looked at Kate confused, "How did you?" Kate laughed, "It is you Megan, only you could persuade someone they needed our help...only you are that stubborn." The two women laughed and left the room holding hands relishing at how well they fit together, but casually dropped each others as they got closer to the morgue. And as they entered they helped each other on with their haz-mat suits, taking one last longing glimpse before entering the now somewhat fuller morgue.

Body count had doubled over night, but it seemed like they had found their patient zero, John Kim, whatever he had, he had it in spades. Then a video was flagged by youtube and sent to Bud, Megan and Stafford realised at that point that it was not a just an epidemic, it was in fact an act of terrorism. After this was discovered a meeting was called and everyone was brought in for an update, where they all found out that the FBI was also involved and apparently in charge as well. For the hours following Sam and Bud sat down with the families of the victims and tried to piece together their last few days. Megan and the team worked on cause of death.

"You are looking at Neisseria meningitides, rare strain." Megan announced as Agent Johnson approached. "We have positive Id, it fits all symptoms." Megan rolled her eyes, "In one patient, we found the organism in one patient only; we need to confirm it in other cases." It was Charlie Stafford's turn to roll his eyes. "Negative, how is it spread?" Agent Johnson interrupted Megan as she began to speak again, "It's aerosolised!"

"Damn its airborne...I'll start spreading the news, you start treating the bug."

It seemed their little truce wasn't to last long, when Kate agreed to go on TV to make an announcement, one that would give the public false information. They got into again the lab, while Kate was stitching up a body. The argument got heated and Kate stopped paying attention for a millisecond, but was brought soaring back to reality when she felt the needle pierce her skin. Kate couldn't believe what she had done, she finished up what she was doing and rushed to the sink, taking off her gloves to reveal the pin sized prick on her finger. Her heart sank; all that talk with Megan about someone ending up on the table and it turns out it was going to be her.

For the next few hours Kate checked her own temperature regularly but it didn't help that Megan had just disproved the airborne theory and confirmed that it is in fact spread through body secretion, blood, sweat, saliva etc. After another blow out between the two women over the press conference again, Kate broke down, she was so scared and Megan was making impossible for her to tell her. By the time of the press conference Kate was running a high fever, she was sick and she knew it. And everyone else knew it when she collapsed on the stand. "She is going into circulatory collapse...I need an EpiPen!" A policewoman and another man stepped forward with one each, "I need both," Charlie questioned Megan, "One is not going to do...one my count 1, 2, 3." Almost as soon as the EpiPen was used Kate breathing evened out. "Oh Thank god," Megan had never been more scared in her life; her heart was beating like a bass drum against her chest. Kate was sick; the realisation hit her like a steam train. "Megan..." she looked down as she heard the woman whisper her name and tears were in real danger of escaping her.

The ambulance arrived soon after and Megan had not left Kate's side, "Hey, don't you die on me. I will not lose you, ok?" All she wanted to do was lean over and kiss her, but this disease was preventing her from doing anything. But she was damn sure she had all the incentive she needed to figure out what the hell they were dealing with.