A/N: Ha ha! I'm back with another chapter! And a thanks to Tahra and Proops for reviewing chapter six. It's what keeps me going! Without father ado, Enjoy!

There were so many thought spinning around in his head, it was hard to relax. Professor Z tried to sort through them, but it was no use, they just kept popping up.

I have an impossibly low temperature. By normal means, I should be dead, but…I'm not and I feel fine! I don't have any of the symptoms…He paused, his brow furrowed, Do I? He shook his head rapidly No, I don't have any symptoms.

Noel stopped shaking his head feeling slightly dizzy. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again.

Then, of course, his thoughts turned to his mother.

Noel's gaze slid to his desk drawer. He sighed, here I am worrying about my problems when then odds are that my mother won't last through the day.

Professor Z's eyes widened, he couldn't think that. If he thought that, it let in the possibility that it might be true.

Z ran a hand through his hair and opened his drawer, freezing the front of it. He looked in and there sat his mother's note, and under it the doctor's letter. Noel started to reach for it, then stopped and grabbed two pencils from the cup on his desk. He used the ice-covered pencils as tongs to bring the note to rest on the desk in front of him.

Z stuck the pencils back into the cup and turned his attention to the note.

He reread it a couple times and went back to his childhood.

His mother driving him to guitar lessons…going for ice cream on hot summer days…the look on his mother's face when he told her he was giving up guitar to join the science club…the tearful grins and embraces as he headed off to college…the phone calls to Blake Holsey just to see how he was doing…the note saying: I love you, and I always will…

The tears had been welling up before, but they spilled out now. Professor Zachary took off his glasses and wiped his eyes with his shirt cuff.

He put his glasses back on, only to find that one of the tears had landed on the word Mom.

Zachary let out a choked, mirthless laugh and moved to brush it off. He paused above it, remembering just in time, but even the close proximity of his hand froze the water into white crystals that blocked out the word.

Noel was looking for something to wipe it off when he heard a knock at the door. He looked up in time to see Vaughn walk into the room.

Vaughn looked around in disbelief. Finally, he asked, "Uhh… Professor Z? What happened here?"

Professor Zachary really wasn't interested in explaining it again. "It's difficult to explain Vaughn. Why don't you head down to the library? Corrine and Josie are there, they can fill you in."

Vaughn paused and seemed to accept it. "All right, I'll go find them." He turned to leave, then turned back. "Oh, wait, Z? I'm sorry I missed Science Club the past couple days. I didn't mean to, it's just, with football season coming up…it's hard."

Z nodded, understandingly, "It's all right Vaughn, I know you're busy. As it so happens, no one else was at yesterday's meeting either. Corrine was tutoring students, Marshall had a performance and Josie and Lucas went to the mov…" Z stopped realizing what he'd said, and what it would mean to Vaughn, "…ies."

Vaughn stared at him. In his eyes, Noel could see disbelief, anger, confusion and hurt.

"I'm sorry Vaughn, I didn't think, I—,"

"No," Vaughn cut him off, "it's not your fault Josie didn't tell me." He turned quickly toward the door; and slipped on the ice.

He crashed to the floor and Z hurriedly got out of his chair to help him, "Vaughn! Are you okay?"

Vaughn grabbed Z's arm and pulled himself up. "Yeah, I'm fine. I've taken worse falls during practice."

He took a step, but, still wobbly from his fall, slid again. He swung his arms out to catch his balance and Z grabbed one arm to help stable him.

"Whoa, Vaughn steady there." Z let go and watched Vaughn's feet to be sure he wouldn't slip again.

After a moment, in which Vaughn didn't move, Professor Z got a sick feeling in the pit of his gut. He forced himself to look at Vaughn's face.

It was unmoving. The expression was one of surprise, as he had been about to fall a second time.

Z was horrified. He brought his hands up and looked from them to Vaughn and back.

"I didn't…" he could hear the pleading tone in his voice.

At that moment, the door opened again. Josie and Corinne stepped in, laden with books of various sizes and colors.

"We found some books that might help…" Josie started, then trailed off as she looked up to find, Vaughn standing frozen with his arms outstretched and Z staring dismayed at his own hands.

"Z! What did you do?" Josie demanded, shocked, dropping the books to the floor and rushing over to stand in front of Vaughn.

Corrine set her pile of books o the counter and went to do the same to Josie's.

Josie meanwhile was waving her hand in front of Vaughn's face, while Z went over to his desk and sat down.

"It was an accident, "he said miserably, "he started to slip and I tried to help."

"You tried to help?" Josie demanded in the same tone, "Did you forget about all this?" She waved a hand around the room.

"Josie, calm down." Corrine went over to her.

"No, I will not calm down Corrine! Are you seeing what he did?"

Z listened half-heartedly to their argument before noticing his mother's note. He inconspicuously brushed it into his drawer with the back of his right hand and shut it quietly.

"Professor Z," Corrine turned to him, "Can you tell us exactly what happened?"

"Yes." Z replied slightly relived to be sure of something. "Vaughn came in, he wanted to know what happened so I told him to see you two in the library. He started to leave, and then apologized for missing the Science Club meeting. I said it was okay and mentioned that no one else had been their either. I said you," He gestured to Corrine, "were tutoring students and Marshall had a performance and that you and Lucas…" He turned to Josie and hesitated, "…had gone to the movies."

"You told him? Why?" Josie demanded outraged.

Z flinched at the outburst and then shrugged, "It just slipped out."

Corrine broke through Josie's sputtered replies, "What happened after that?"

"Well," Z adjusted his glasses, "he turned to leave and slipped on the ice. I went to help him up. He took another step and slipped again. I caught his arm as he started to fall, and he…" Z trailed off.

"Froze." Corrine finished.

Z put his elbows on his desk and propped his head up with his hands.

How could I have let this happen? All this time worrying about one of them being harmed by the wormhole, and it's me, in the end, that hurts them. I not only let this happen, it's my fault! I made it happen. First Mom, now Vaughn, who's next?

Corrine watched her science teacher with concern. Something was wrong. He helped them out with so many things and now, he was the one who needed help.

Suddenly, Corrine saw a flicker of something pass through Professor Z. "Josie?"

Josie stopped circling Vaughn and came up beside Corrine, "What?" she asked tartly.

Corrine didn't answer, she just looked closer at Z and then waved a hand in front of his face.

When he didn't move, Josie frowned in confusion. He couldn't freeze himself, could he?

Corrine gasped and took a step back.

"What is it?" Josie asked.

Corrine took a deep breath, turned to Josie and said slowly. "Josie, he's not breathing."

A/N: MUHAHAHAHAHA! How evil am I? You don't know the half of it, yet. However, you will in a second. I'm going to Yellowstone Park until the 17th, and I'm leaving tomorrow. You know what that means? No updates for ten full days! Review for more! I didn't think it was a very well written chapter but I hope I got the points across. Thank you, Read and Review!