Page 72 of Sherry and Sunflowers
"No."
"Any chance you could be pregnant?"
"No." She sensed Reaves shift in his chair and didn't look around.
"And you've eaten this morning?"
Alara nodded at the basket. "You've seen the evidence."
"Good." Caroline wrote something, then said, without looking up, "And no allergies at all? Nothing that’s ever given you any trouble?"
"No. Nothing."
"I'll ask you three more times before we're done. Don't take it personally." She set the clipboard down and reached for the blood pressure cuff. "It's the only question that matters."
It hadn't occurred to Alara until that moment that anything about this could go wrong.
Caroline took her blood pressure and her pulse, then slipped a fresh plastic cover onto a little handheld thermometer and touched it inside Alara's ear. It beeped almost at once.
"All good. Vitals done." She made a note, then snapped on a pair of gloves and picked up a syringe.
At first Alara thought it was a joke. The liquid inside it was a startling, bright pinkish red.
"The color, right?" Caroline said. "People expect anything in a syringe to be clear. At least this one's pretty." She turned Alara's left arm gently and swabbed her skin. "It shouldn't feel too bad going in—just a sting. But it'll probably ache afterward. Small price."
Alara turned her head away and looked at the wall until it was done. It didn't feel too bad at all.
"There. Now for the cannula, and I'll let you choose. Back of your hand, or the crook of your arm?"
"Crook of my arm, I think. Please."
"That's what I'd have said. But I don't like to influence you before you decide for yourself." Caroline rolled her stool round to the other side. "Other arm, so we're not making a pincushion of you."
Alara kept her head turned. She felt Caroline's fingers close around her arm above the elbow, then the band pulling, and the cold of the swab.
"Okay. Small scratch."
She looked at the wall. There was a poster on it about hand washing, and she read all of it.
"We're in." The tourniquet released. "I'm going to flush it with saline first, to make sure it's running properly."
Alara nodded and didn't turn back. Then, after a few seconds, she had to ask. "Is that going through my system already? Or am I imagining it? I'd swear I can taste the saline."
"Yep. Surprises most people. Not everyone gets it, so you must have a good sense of taste."
She heard the crackle of a bag being opened, and Caroline reading something quietly to herself. Then, "Can you give me your full name and date of birth?"
She gave it.
"Perfect. Right—if the B12 was pretty, this one might surprise you the other way."
Alara turned her head at last.
The bag Caroline was holding up was almost black. She stared at it for a moment before letting out a short laugh. "That's iron? If I saw someone hooked up to that, I'd assume you were giving them strong tea. Or molasses."
"There are days I wouldn't mind coffee through an IV." Caroline reached up and hooked the bag onto the pole beside the chair. "This will take thirty minutes or so. If you're going to reactto it at all, it'll happen in the first few, so I'll be staying right here until we're going properly." She sat down on the stool where Alara could see her. "How are you feeling?"
Alara hadn't looked at her arm once. "You've started it already, haven't you?"
