"Her breathing's getting worse," Z muttered to himself, his fingers resting lightly against Josie's throat, taking her pulse. He turned back to the worried kids in the room.
Josie lay on her bed, her head lying to one side, a look of pain on her face. Vaughn sat next to her on the bed, holding her hand. The rest of the science club were anxiously positioned around the room, Corrine and Marshall on Corrine's bed, Lucas on Josie's desk. All four of them looked up at their professor's anxious face.
"So what do we do?" Lucas asked after a moment. He jumped down from the desk. "There has to be something we can do to help her." He looked despairingly around at the others.
"Aside from a cold compress to quell her fever," Z noted, "there doesn't seem to be a whole lot we can do, but wait it out. You've all decided not to go to the nurse for the time being, so there's not a whole lot we can do."
Lucas looked down at his hands in disappointment, while Corrine leaped off the bed, eager for something to do. She disappeared for a moment, into the bathroom she shared with Josie, and returned with a cold, damp washcloth. Corrine hated the feeling of helplessness of the situation; she was used to feeling in charge.
She handed the washcloth to Z, who folded it and laid it over Josie hot forehead, stroking back her hair.
Vaughn stood, dropping Josie's limp hand on the bed, and started to pace.
"I agree with Lucas," he said, barely glancing at the boy who he was so rarely in agreement with. "There has to be something we can do. We can just sit around here watching Josie get worse. We can't!"
Z sat in the spot Vaughn had just vacated, and shook his head. "I'm sorry. But either we get her to a doctor, or we just have to wait. That's all we can do."
Vaughn dropped his head into his hands, and then grimaced with pain. "Um… I don't know whether this would be the right time to mention it or not, but I'm not feeling so good."
Z looked at him in concern. "How so, Vaughn?" he asked, standing to place his hand on Vaughn's shoulder.
Lucas immediately slipped into Z's spot, and latched on to Josie's clammy hand.
"Just feeling kinda… queasy, like I could… you know. And I've got a bit of a headache." He moved one hand up, an imitation of Josie earlier, to shield his eyes from the sun.
"Sit down for moment," Z said, guiding Vaughn to Corrine's bed.
Marshall and Corrine hopped of the bed, to make room for Vaughn, who sat down. Z laid his hand against Vaughn's forehead.
"You've got a bit of a fever," he remarked.
Vaughn lay back against Corrine's pillows. "Can someone make the room stop spinning, please?"
He gasped slightly as realization hit him. "Z," he said weakly. "Josie was feeling the same way just before she passed out."
Z looked down at his student in concern, as Vaughn's eyes slipped shut. He shook Vaughn slightly, but realized at once that his actions were futile.
"What did he just say Z?" Lucas asked.
Z started to pace, one hand behind his back, the other on his chin. "Vaughn just said that Josie felt the same way as he did, just before she passed out. If Vaughn's got the same symptoms, it means he's got the same illness. I found Vaughn and Josie about 10 minutes after she passed out, which means it's now been half an hour. So, if this thing is contagious, I'll come down with it in another half an hour."
He stopped pacing, turned to his students, and clapped his hands. "Which means, if I come down with the same illness, all of you will. We've all been exposed. So I would like you Corrine," he pointed at her, "to go downstairs and call for a doctor."
Marshall looked at Z, and put one hand out to stop Corrine, as she started to stand up.
"Professor, shouldn't we look at this scientifically?" he asked. "If we call for a doctor, and you don't end up displaying the same symptoms as Josie and Vaughn, won't that look weird? As you said, we've all been exposed to this, we may all come down with it. But… But if you don't, and you've been exposed longer, then we know that we're dealing with something that's only affecting them two, and that means we're dealing with something to do with the Black Hole."
"Marshall! Are you out of your mind?" Corrine said angrily. "Vaughn and Josie are sick, possibly dying, and you want to do a little experiment with their lives? With Z's life? With our lives? Are demented? If we wait, then call a doctor, we'll look suspicious."
"No Corrine," Z replied. "Marshall has a good point. The only way to be sure of anything is to gather data. And this is just another way of gathering data, isn't it Marshall? Better to be sure then raise curiosity about what's really being going on in this school."
Lucas shook his head. "So now what, we just wait and hope that Josie doesn't get worse, that you don't come down with this?"
Z turned to Lucas. "Exactly. If we wait, and I don't get sick, as Marshall said, we'll know that we're dealing with the Black Hole. Which means we have a chance to fix whatever's happened, without anyone knowing about it."
"Or you could die," Corrine replied.
"It's a risk," Z admitted. "But it's a risk we're just going to have to take."
At that moment Josie moaned and tossed her head. Lucas moved back to the bed to take her hand. Corrine moved out to Vaughn, and felt against his forehead, before going to fetch another washcloth.
"No…" Josie moaned.
Z stood next to her and started to stroke her forehead. "It's all right Josie; it's going to be fine."