The receptionist, a woman who appeared to be in her forties or fifties, looked up at me with mild interest. “Are you family?”

“I’m his girlfriend.”

Her gaze returned to her computer. “Then you’ll have to wait in the waiting room,” she said, sounding bored.

I splayed my hands on the chest-high counter and leaned forward. “And if we were married? Would I have to wait then?”

“No,” she said as though I’d asked the stupidest question in the world.

“Can you at least tell me if he’s okay?” My voice rose in frustration.

“We only give that information to family members.” She glanced up at me with disdain, then said, “But you’re welcome to sit in the waiting room.”

I wasn’t about to take no for answer. “Will you at least tell him I’m here? He’s been a patient here before, and I sat with him in his exam room. Just a couple of months ago.”

She shook her head, looking irritated. “Sorry. I can’t relay messages from the waiting room to patients. You’ll just have to stay where you are.”

I walked away from the counter and pulled out my phone, dialing Mason’s cell phone. My anxiety grew when it went straight to voice mail. I considered calling Maeve, but I didn’t know if anyone had informed her yet. I didn’t want to scare her, since I didn’t know anything other than what Joe had told me.

I stared into Neely Kate’s face, pulling back my shoulders. “I’m not gonna wait. I’m goin’ back there.”

She gave me a slight nod, a determined glint in her eyes. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you in to see him. Just wait until the receptionist is distracted enough, then run back there.”

“What are you gonna do?”

She laughed. “Create a distraction.” She started moaning and grabbing her stomach. “Oh, I feel like I have the flu.”

There were about twenty people gathered in the waiting room, and a few looked up at her.

She coughed several times, spinning around in a circle, spreading her “germs.” “Hypothetically, if I had just gotten back from Africa a few days ago, and I might have been on a bus with some people who were throwing up blood, what do you suppose they had?” she asked, wide-eyed and innocent.

A couple of people jumped out of their seats in panic.

“Ebola!” one of the men shouted, pointing at her.

The waiting room became deafening as people screamed and scrambled to grab their things.

The receptionist stood up, looking over the counter. “What’s going on in there?”

“She has Ebola!” an elderly woman shouted.

The whole room was soon in an uproar, and the receptionist started for the door to the reception area.

“Someone call security!” a man shouted.

Neely Kate leaned close to me. “When that receptionist gets out here, you make a beeline for the back.”

“Thank you,” I murmured. Neely Kate was bound to get into a lot of trouble for this, but she was grinning ear to ear.

The receptionist waddled next to Neely Kate, clearly irritated. “What is the meaning of this?”

I edged back to the door, slipping through the opening. I would have made a clean getaway except a woman pointed at me and shouted, “She was with the girl who has Ebola! She must have it too!”

I knew I didn’t have much time, so I hurried down the hall to the first exam room. I peeked through the window in the door and saw a little boy with his mother.

The receptionist burst through the doors, flinging them open so hard they bounced off the walls. “You can’t be back here!”

I looked into the second room and found it empty, then quickly moved on to the next room. “I’m sorry, but I have to see Mason.”

She was shorter than me, but she had to outweigh me by a good seventy pounds. Still, she was faster than I’d expected. “You are in a lot of trouble. Security is on their way.”

I moved to the next window. An older couple looked up at me with alarm, not that I could blame them. Shouting was still streaming in from the waiting room, and now some crazed woman was playing Peeping Tom.

The receptionist had quickly gained ground and was several feet away. My desperation grew. I wasn’t leaving until I saw Mason with my own eyes.

“Mason!” I called out. But what if he was in a coma hooked up to wires and IVs? He wouldn’t be able to hear me, let alone find me.

“Miss,” she hissed, her fingers digging into my arm as she caught up with me. “This is a hospital filled with sick people. You are being disrespectful by shouting like that.”

“I don’t want to make trouble, really. I just have to see him, then I’ll leave. Please!” I shouted.

I put up a good fight, but she started tugging me back up the hall.

Just then a door at the end of the hall opened, and Mason appeared in the opening. “Rose?”

The sight of him upset me instead of giving me relief. A nasty cut about two inches long ran across his forehead, and the left side of his face was covered in dried blood. The front of his shirt had a large bloodstain on it, and his face was paler than usual. “Mason!” I jerked hard and broke loose, running down the hall toward him.

“Hey, it’s okay.” He pulled me into a hug, and I clung to him, even though the thought registered that this was all wrong. I was supposed to be the one comforting him.

“You’re covered in blood.” My voice broke.