"All right," he'd asked a moment later, "what happened?" They'd been facing each other by then, sitting on the forest floor a few feet away from the site of her… episode.
"Nuh…nothing." She'd still been shaking – all of her, even her voice. But she'd already been getting a handle on it, reasserting control. "Nothing happened. I just… it must have been something I ate."
Gunther had frowned. She'd been able to see it, the change in his expression, even in the darkness – or a hint of it, at any rate. But much more, she'd been able to hear it in his voice.
"You have not eaten anything," he'd said flatly. "All day."
Jane had tensed immediately. "Then maybe it was a result of not eating. I –"
"I do not think not eating leads to… that."
"I do not know, all right!? What do you want me to say, Gunther?"
"The truth, Jane!"
"Oh, so now I am a liar." The fact that she had, indeed, been lying had not been lost on her – but it hadn't made her feel, or sound, any less bitter. "This conversation is over. Go to bed."
"What, after that!? You are the one who is going to bed; I will take your watch."
She'd stiffened all over. "Absolutely not. I neither need nor want you to do my job for me, Gunther!"
"For God's sake, Jane, will you stop being obstinate about –"
"No!" Quite suddenly, she'd felt herself on the verge of hysterics. "We are done talking about this! What is the point of talking about anything, anyway, when in the morning you will not even look at me? Right!? That seems to be how it works, so just… get an early start on it and go to bed! I – am – fine."
He'd sat stock-still for a moment, then had gotten to his feet. "Have it your way," he'd said in a frighteningly inflectionless voice, and then he'd been gone.
A new wave of nausea had threatened her then, but it had been weak this time, probably because she'd had nothing left to expel. She'd fought it back savagely even as her shoulder had throbbed slow, sullen beats of pain beneath her clothes. She'd drawn up her knees and dropped her head into her hands, gulping for air, her body still shuddering, feeling on the knife-edge of panic even while insisting to herself that she didn't understand why.
There was no reason to panic. All right, she wasn't feeling great, but she'd be home in two days. Two days, that was all. She could keep it together for two days, by God! She had to. And the less interaction she had with Gunther in the interim, the better.