Day 8: Contagious
The rescue was difficult yet rewarding. Evacuating hospitals was never easy, and with the children's ward being the one in the most immediate danger of the fire, it had been all hands on deck.
There had been screams from many of the children when they had arrived, and not all of them were happy squeals of recognition, which had resulted in Scott, Gordon and Alan breaking one of the cardinal rules of International Rescue – don't take off the helmet. (Not that Scott had ever particularly listened to this one anyway.)
Once the hospital had been evacuated and Virgil had put the flames out there had been many hugs from the kids. There were lots of thanks from the adults too, and Scott only half noticed as one of the nurses took Virgil to one side and had a chat with him.
No, Scott was too busy, kneeling down and surrounded with children hugging and patting him, broad grin on his face. Gordon may have taken a sneaky picture.
No one thought anymore about the incident until a couple of days later.
Scott woke up with a sore throat and a slight temperature. By the end of the day his glands were up in his neck and he was thoroughly miserable. Virgil had quarantined him in his room, aware of how bad a patient his brother was. At the same time he was worried – when Scott got ill he got really ill.
It wasn't until the morning after that Virgil realised that this was more than just a touch of strep throat.
Scott was still asleep, but he was tossing a little. His face was pale, except for his cheeks which were bright red. As his suspicions mounted he gently pulled Scott's top aside to see the whole of his torso covered in one large red rash, full of small red spots and blisters.
Virgil bit his lip. The words of the nurse at the rescue had mentioned one of the children had a serious case of bacterial meningitis. That could be the cause of Scott's illness, they came from the same root bacteria.
There was one way to be absolutely certain that his suspicions were correct, and he'd ned to wake Scott up to check. Fortunately, Scott chose that moment to wake up, coughing. After helping him to drink, Virgil asked him to stick his tongue out, and sure enough, there were the white patches and peeling skin.
Scarlet fever.
Scarlet fever, which is highly contagious.
Conferring with Grandma, they began him on a course of antibiotics and regular pain relief. And they sat back and kept watch.
Within four hours of diagnosing Scott both Alan and Gordon began to show similar symptoms. By the end of that day Virgil had moved all three to the infirmary. And still he kept watch.
By the morning they had been joined by Kayo. By lunchtime Brains had been banned to his room. By the evening Sally had put International Rescue on Emergency Response only and had banned Virgil (and John) from going anywhere near his brothers and Brains.
One week. One whole week they were out of action. And while they were technically only contagious for the first 24 hours after starting antibiotics, Sally preferred to err on the side of caution.
Scott, as expected, had it the worse. He spent most of that week sleeping. Gordon, Alan and Kayo just seemed to have a mild case of 'flu with itching, and antihistamines were given to all of them. Brains treated himself and reappeared a week later as if nothing had happened.
But Scott was still weak and ill when the others were recovered. By the time the others had been out of the infirmary for a couple of days and Scott was no better, still coughing and still with shallow breathing, Sally began to realise that he was going to be the unlucky one.
Sure enough, scans revealed he'd developed a nasty case of pneumonia. Another round of antibiotics. More rest and sleep. Much more. Thankfully, Scotty was fit and young, unlikely to get any complications.
Five weeks. It took five weeks to get back to his full health. It was a long and frustrating road to recovery, but his brothers did all they could to help him.
Six weeks since the hospital fire Scott was back there, this time to see the child who started all this as he was released from the hospital after successfully beating his meningitis.