During class on Thursday, Dr. Bartlet expounded upon the many hereditary diseases babies can be born with and how they can be detected ahead of time. Among other things, she spoke extensively about chromosome number twenty-one and Downs Syndrome. While the rest of the class was thoroughly engrossed in the discussion, Joshua Lyman, as usual, hadn't been paying as close attention as he should have. Dr. Bartlet had promised to return their papers at the end of class and he could not, for the life of him, get it off his mind. He was sure his new professor had taken a liking to him, after the conversations they had had before and after class on several different equations. That was generally enough to guarantee him an A.
Had he not been so preoccupied, Josh would have noticed, as the rest of the class did, that their professor was not her usual self. On an average day, Abbey Bartlet was enthusiastic, thorough, energetic. She would get the class involved and do everything in her power to keep them awake. On that particular day, however, she was sat on a stool in the front of the room and did not move the entire period. She was withdrawn and appeared to be almost putting herself to sleep with her own lecture. Not only that, but she was pale and every so often, she would wince in pain. The class was too afraid to mention anything, assuming that, as a doctor, if there was something medically wrong, she would handle it herself.
Towards the end of class, she called them up one by one to receive their graded papers. The majority of them had been a B with a couple As, a couple Cs, and one D. Josh sat in his seat tapping his foot incessantly until finally his name was called- last. He jumped out of his seat and all but ran to Abbey's desk.
"Saving the best for last, Dr. B?" Josh said, approaching her desk with his usual swagger.
"Well, I figured since you're always the last one to arrive, you should bet the last to get your paper."
She spoke with no warmth in her voice and her glaring eyes seemed to pierce right through him. He frowned in confusion and skeptically took the paper when she handed it to him. She watched as he flipped through it, his eyes widening at all the red marks he discovered on each page. When he reached the last page, he stared in awe at the grade, printed in one big red letter, he had earned.
"A D!" Josh exclaimed, appalled.
"Don't act so surprised, Josh. What did you expect, an A?"
"Well…yeah! I've never gotten below a B on anything in my life!"
She shook her head.
"Every word of that paper was something you pulled right out of your ass. If you didn't think I would notice, you're insane. You have no works cited, no citations, and if I wasn't so positive that entire paper was just Josh Lyman on an Ego Trip, I'd accuse you of plagiarizing."
"But the information…"
"Was wrong! All of your information was wrong. Somewhere in that twisted, convoluted mind of yours, you convinced yourself that if it came from your brain, it had to be correct. It took me nearly an hour to grade your paper, time that was better spent elsewhere, I assure you. I should really take off points for wasting an hour of my life." She stood up then, so slowly that it gave Josh pause. "Listen, Josh, you're a bright kid. I have no doubt that you've got an A in every other class and I understand that maybe Genetics is not your thing, but this is really inexcusable. A paper like this…all you needed to do was research and learn. Even if you understood nothing I've been teaching, all you had to do was pick up a book or two and you'd have been fine. But you didn't. You didn't because you were hoping your charm and magnetism would get you by again, as it always has. What upsets me more than anything is that you didn't try. You couldn't give me the time of day, and I find that personally offensive."
"It's not you, Dr. Bartlet, it's…" Josh trailed off.
"It's my class. It's me. If you had any respect for me at all, you'd have put a little effort into this paper. If you had…" She paused them, drawing in a sharp breath. "If you had…"
This time, all hopes of finishing her sentences were thwarted. Her hand rose up to clutch her stomach and she bent forward. Josh instinctively lurched forward in case she fell. Instead, her knees weakened and she slowly lowered onto the floor, aided by Josh. He glanced over at the staring group of students across the room.
"Somebody call an ambulance!" Josh shouted. "Now!"
The group scattered in search of a phone. Josh propped the ailing woman against the wall and held her up.
"What is it, Dr. Bartlet? Can you tell me what's wrong?" He asked frantically.
"It's okay, Josh," she managed to whisper. "You can go."
"Are you kidding me! I'm not leaving you here. Even I'm not that big of an asshole."
She chuckled faintly, so much so that he almost couldn't hear her.
"You don't know what's wrong?" Josh asked again.
Abbey shook her head.
"Some doctor you are."
She laughed quietly again, causing Josh to smile down at her.
"It's gonna be okay," He reassured.
She nodded. A few minutes later, the ambulance arrived and a number of paramedics filed into the room wheeling a gurney.They immediately lifted Abbey onto the stretcher and strapped her in while one of them interrogated Josh.
"What happened?"
"I don't know," Josh answered. "One minute she was yelling at me, the next thing I knew she was on the floor."
"Frank!" One of the other paramedics called out.
"Yeah!"
"This is Abbey Bartlet!"
Both Frank and Josh ran over to the stretcher as they began wheeling it out of the classroom.
"From the hospital!" Frank asked.
"Yeah, thoracic surgeon."
They reached the ambulance and lifted the gurney into the vehicle, hopping in as well. Frank jumped in and turned to Josh.
"You coming?"
"Me?"
"Yeah, you. Are you coming?"
"Oh, uh…yeah, okay!"
He climbed into the back as Frank shut the doors behind him. Josh nervously took a seat beside the stretcher and watched, feeling incredibly out of place.
"Dr. Bartlet, my name is Frank. Can you hear me?" Frank questioned.
Abbey nodded.
"Good. Do you know what happened?"
She shook her head.
"Okay. We'll be at the hospital in just a few minutes." He turned to Josh. "I want you to keep talking to her. We need to keep her awake."
"Okay," Josh agreed. "Uh…maybe now's not the best time, but I'm a little peeved about that D you just gave me."
Her lips curved into a smile, to his utter surprise. He continued.
"You enjoy doing this to me, don't you?"
She nodded.
"And you know, maybe I deserved a lower grade, but I think a D is pushing it, don't you?"
She shook her head.
"That's only 'cause you're not a real professor."
She smiled again.
"I think it's a little strange that you smile every time I insult you."
"Jussakid," Abbey whispered almost incoherently.
"What?"
"She said you're just a kid," Frank clarified.
"Oh," Josh said. "So, what, my opinions don't matter?"
She shook her head.
"Nice, Dr. B. That's real nice."
"Donneedtobe."
"What?" Josh asked again.
"She said she doesn't need to be," Frank said.
"I forgot, you must have a lot of experience in interpreting the incoherent," Josh said to Frank, raising an eyebrow in Abbey's direction.
She frowned, then slowly reached up and poked him in the arm with her long, sharp nail.
"Ow!" He moaned. "Even strapped to a gurney, you're lethal."
The ambulance pulled into the hospital and parked in front of the entrance to the emergency room. As the paramedics lifted the stretcher onto the pavement, Josh followed behind them and they wheeled her into the hospital.