Rookie 3 | Ethan Ramsey

Chapter 8~ Drawn Lines

"You're not wrong... but there are more patients here than we can ever hope to treat. For now, we should proceed with caution." Ethan told her with a light sigh before turning to Blue with a slightly more hopeful gaze. "Moving on, Blue did you learn anything from Baz?" he asked her and she nodded in response.

"Apparently, Bloom is fast-tracking any research projects focusing on harmful compounds, reactions, or immunoresponses." Blue answered. She watched as her boyfriend's frown deepened into a harsh glare.

"You mean anything that might have a chance of curing him and his wife." he gritted through his teeth and Blue nodded with a frown as well.

"Still... anything he uncovers will help with the treatment of those conditions in general. And they don't get enough attention." Harper replied, her mindset towards this issue of sorts, completely varying to the other two.

"That's not all, though." Blue backed up her point. "Apparently, Baz didn't decide to go into research on his own. Bloom strongly encouraged him to make the switch." she informed them, locking eyes with Ethan in a knowing gaze which signified that they were right in guessing that Leland was the reason for Baz's withdrawal. On the other hand, Harper did not seem to have expected that piece of information probably due to the fact that she was not fully privy to the the billionaire's capabilities and motives like Blue and Ethan were.

"So Bloom poached Baz from the team? Does Baz know why?" Harper asked Blue.

"What does it matter?" Ethan answered instead, his features clearly trouble once again. "We're all just pawns to our new leader. Especially the patients. While you two were doing your rounds, I spent more time digging into the preliminary data on this compound." He turned the screen of his tablet to show what he had researched to the two ladies. "It's not even intended to bind to amyloid proteins. They're only including patients like Suzette on the off-chance it acts in the way they hadn't anticipated."

"So you're saying." Blue trailed as she averted her gaze from Ethan's tablet to his aquamatines that seemed to hold a combination of frustration and helplessness.

"The chance that it does anything for her are slim to none." he finished the sentence for her. Blue pursed her lips for her second, wondering if she should tell the two senior doctors what she had found out in Leland's office, half afraid that she would be reprimanded for spying in the literal hospital owner's office. Nonetheless, she felt that they deserved to know.

"Actually... it's even worse than that. I was able to get a look at the patient files." Blue told them. "Suzette's been put in the placebo group."

"Oh no..." Harper let out, finally being able to realize the downside to this circumstance.

"Are you absolutely certain?" Ethan confirmed again with her, not wanting to jump into conclusions all to soon, in case any of them were to make a rash decision that would only make the team's standing with the biilionaire any worse. Blue nodded mournfully in response. Pinching his eyes closed for a long moment, Ethan got up to his feet, pacing back and forth the conference table and his desk with a deep frown. "So she'll be delaying regular treatment, getting her hopes up, and there's no chance whatsoever this can help her. In six months time, she'll be back to the starting line, dispirited and behind on her disease management."

The three of them stayed silent for a prolonged moment, letting the whole reality settle on them for a second, before Ethan spoke up again.