Should've Had A V8

The Fall of the Immaculate Mr. Blackbourne

Everyone was stock-still.

Victor, Silas, Kota and Gabriel were all frozen in various states of eating. Silas even had some food falling out of his mouth which he didn't seem to notice. Luke and Nathan were gaping at me, their eyes and mouth wide open. Dr. Green had his hand reached out towards me, suspended in mid air. Even Mr. Blackbourne had his eyes wide open, shock written all over his face. North looked horrified, just staring at me in despair. And me? I still had my hand raised toward him, my own mouth open in shock and my chest covered in vomit.

The silence was broken when Luke erupted into boisterous guffaws. I heard various degrees of laughter from around the room. North's face was steadily turning an alarming shade of purple. He started trembling, balling his hands into tight fists.

"That's certainly one way to answer. I take it you'll be joining the sick team over there." Dr. Green quipped.

Before anyone could respond to that, Mr. Blackbourne recovered from his shock. "This is hardly the time for jokes and laughter. Let's help Ms. Sorenson clean up. Ms. Sorenson, go ahead and clean up in the bathroom. I trust you'll find a suitable change of clothes in Mr. Morgan's closet." He said as he gracefully nudged the bridge of his glasses with a finger.

I slowly complied, still in a state of bewilderment. By the time I came out of the bathroom, almost everyone had recovered, although Luke still kept bursting into fits of giggles every now and then, triggering Gabriel to start as well. Meanwhile, North was sitting in the chair, hunched over, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands in his hair. He had an air of defeat and dejection around him. Nathan, Dr. Green, Luke and Mr. Blackbourne were all cleaning up the carpet. The others had taken advantage of the disarray and put their plates of food away.

I went up to the bed and had all the boys take medicine. As I was doing this, Gabriel leaned over and took a whiff of my chest. I was startled and I felt heat hit my cheeks. "Oi Trouble. You'd better take a nice long bath. Wash the smell away." He intoned, his crystal blue eyes sparkling with amusement.

I was mortified. I was certain I had cleaned up properly. I lifted the neck of the shirt I was wearing and took a deep sniff of my chest. I didn't smell anything other than Victor's cologne. Maybe I was desensitised.

"Don't listen to him Aggele. Gabe is just playing with you. You smell nice." Silas grinned, pulling me into his arms and enfolding me in his muscular warmth.

"You do." Victor agreed his fire eyes blazing. "You smell like me. I like my smell on you."

"You okay Sweetie?" Kota asked, directing his strong gaze at me. His face seemed more handsome than usual without his glasses and made my heart flutter.

"I'm fine. Though I am rather worried about North. I'm going to go check on him." I said as I got up and made my way towards North.

I crept up to North and gingerly touched his face. He sighed before he directed his dark, glistening eyes towards my face. "I'm so sorry baby. I can't believe... I'm.. Fuck I'm so sorry.." He gulped.

"It's fine North. I'm just worried about you. You should probably freshen up a bit and lie down. You need to take some medicine as well." I assured him.

After reassuring him some more I finally managed to get him to comply. I made my way towards Mr. Blackbourne, Dr. Green, Nathan and Luke who had finished cleaning up and were gathered in a corner conferring together.

"...is weird. It seems like it's the flu, but they shouldn't be getting sick since we've all had shots. And I haven't heard of any flu going around either. And it's even worse since any one of us could get sick as well. It's too late for precautions now. The symptoms seem to be showing up after some time has already passed since infection. It's likely others have gotten sick as well. If any of you feel any nausea or headaches or anything, tell me immediately." Dr. Green was saying.

Luke who had looked to be in deep thought said. "You don't think it could be Volto do you? Last time he got us infected with strep and we all only noticed after it was too late. Maybe he infected us with something again."

"That is certainly a possibility, however it's very unlikely. Doing the same thing twice? And for what reason? It seems to me that this was a random, unfortunate incident though we mustn't overlook Volto's involvement." Mr. Blackbourne replied.

"Well, either way, I'll only be able to figure out exactly what this is after some time has passed. It's not surprising that so many have gotten sick since we've all been in close contact. Let's just take this one step at a time." Dr. Green sighed.

His words gave me the opportunity I needed to introduce what I'd been thinking of doing. "Dr. Green." My finger hovered over my lip. "I was thinking, since it seems like the others may get sick, we should get something where everyone can lie down on. Victor's bed is big, but not big enough for everyone. Right now North doesn't have any space to lie down on the bed so could we maybe get a futon? Or perhaps, we could bring in the sofa in the meeting room. It's big enough for two people to lie down on both ends." I said, my voice breaking with nerves from having them all direct their strong gazes on me.

"That is an excellent suggestion, Ms. Sorenson. Usually we use inflatable futons when we sleep here. It's more comfortable than sleeping bags and Mr. Morgan has enough space here. We shall find those and set them up." Mr. Blackbourne replied. His tone sounded pleased as he said this, although his collected expression didn't change.

Nathan, Luke, Dr. Green and Mr. Blackbourne retrieved the futons from Victor's closet and had them set up in record time. North finally got up from the arm chair and settled down on the bed. I made my way towards him, feeling concerned, and let him pull me into his arms.

"Fucking shit! Not fair. I wanna be cuddled up to trouble too! I don't wanna be with these bozos. Fuck. Shit. C'mere trouble." Gabriel pouted.

"None of that now. Both of you are sick and she's not so she'll be staying away from your cooties. It doesn't matter whether or not it's too late. We're not taking any risks." Dr. Green stated to the disappointed of Gabriel.

After all the worrying I was feeling drained so I went and lay down on one of the futons where Luke was laying on. Next thing I knew, the room was dark, I was being cuddled on both sides by Dr. Green and Luke and I heard light snores around the room.

I was drifting back to sleep when I sensed a disturbance. I went alert and saw a shadow move stealthily past me and was hit with the scent of spring soap. "Mr. Blackbourne?" I whispered.

He froze in his tracks and carefully turned towards me. He raised his forefinger towards his lips in an elegant motion, gesturing for me to be quiet. Unfortunately, it was too late and Dr. Green stirred beside me, his eyes blinking open. "Owen?" He murmured. "What are you doing? Where are you going?"

"I have to go. It's an Academy matter." Mr. Blackbourne said as he straightened his tie with precise movements.

Dr. Green's eyes narrowed and he sat up, alert. "No you don't. Don't you lie to me. You always fondle your damn tie when you lie to me. Besides, we already cancelled whatever academy matters we had due to family health reasons. Now fess up."

Mr. Blackbourne cleared his throat and said. "I don't know what you're talking about. I was merely adjusting my tie. And it's a last minute problem. I really need to go now." I noticed that his fingers twitched in the subtlest movement as he said this.

"Mhm. Sure." Dr. Green said and then suddenly lunged at him.

I gasped and scrambled to my feet as they both went crashing down. Luke and Nathan jumped awake at the sudden crash and scrambled up,appearing bewildered. Even the boys who were sick woke up, looking disorientated.

Dr. Green seemed to be holding Mr. Blackbourne's face in both hands as Mr. Blackbourne desperately tried to push him away, a resigned expression on his face.

"Owen! You have a fever!" Dr. Green gleefully proclaimed.