Jennifer Keane knew that what she had seen yesterday in the schoolyard was not routine, and the fact that none of the girls were sitting in her class confirmed it. In fact, it told her that whatever was wrong with Bubbles might be very serious indeed. All that morning, she had done her best to not think about it and keep her kids focused on their lessons. So far, it was working. They didn't seem too worried. They all knew what the flu was and it would make sense to them that maybe now all three of the Powerpuffs had it. That meant all she had to do was keep her own thoughts buried. The ringing hotline changed all that.

She was used to it ringing when the girls weren't there. Often, when she was alone in the room after school, hanging the children's artwork, straightening up or something, it would go off. But it was always answered quickly, she knew, at their home or in the professor's car. She'd learned to treat it like background noise. But for it to be ringing now was wrong. Certainly the mayor knew the girls were at the hospital, so what would he be doing using the hotline? When it wasn't answered after seven rings, she picked it up, as the children watched her with questioning looks.

"Hello, Jennifer? It's Sara."

After a minute of listening, she became aware the children were watching. She didn't know what she might have told them by her expression. She turned away from the kids and whispered, "Sara, the children are all watching...I'll be there as soon as I can."

She listened for another minute, then turned back to face the class. "Well, I do hope the phone company gets this problem fixed soon. We can't have these interruptions during school hours. Thank you...have a nice day!"

She said these words into a dead phone; Sara had already said goodbye. To the class, she said, "Well, they'd better get that fixed before the girls get back...now, I think it's time for recess, don't you?"

"Yay!" The children all jumped out of their seats, and some headed for the door to the playground.

"I'll be right out...NO RUNNING!"

After they were all outside, she went to her small office and burst into tears, giving in to her emotions. This couldn't be happening...she looked at the clock on her desk...nearly four hours until school let out. She couldn't call all the parents to have them come get their kids, she couldn't arrange for a substitute this far into the day. The hospital staff were professionals and had their jobs to do in spite of their personal feelings... she was a professional and must do the same. She had a responsibility to her young charges. The news would be made public soon enough and they would look to her to help them make some sense of it. No point in worrying them about it ahead of time. She composed herself and left the office to go supervise her students.

* * * * * * *

Sara wiped the tears from her eyes with a tissue, then got up and left to go back to sit with Blossom and Bubbles. She hadn't meant to be away this long and wondered how Blossom was doing, sitting alone with her thoughts, watching her sister lying there. Of course, she didn't know that Bubbles had been taken down to the O.R. and that Blossom was now all by herself. That would have made her feel even worse. But something was going to shock her even more in the next few minutes.

* * * * * * *

As hard as Blossom tried, sleep would not come. A jumble of thoughts ran through her head. She'd been about to say something important to Bubbles but now that chance was lost. Why couldn't she say what she really felt? Why was it so hard to tell someone that you loved them and that you were sorry for the hurtful things you said when you were upset and not thinking? Why was this happening? It was so unfair! Everything her sister had done for the world and this was how she was rewarded, to not ever get the chance to grow up, to live out her dreams, all the things she used to talk about but Blossom had only half-listened to because she was too wrapped up in herself.

She heard a noise out in the hall. A man dressed sort of like a cop stuck his head in and said he was just there to keep an eye on things, then stood outside in the hallway. That was good. She didn't really feel like talking to anyone right then. Her thoughts drifted along with her eyes, back to the empty hospital bed in front of her.

Empty. That's how she felt, and would feel forever. The emptiness in the blue skies that Bubbles loved so much; two streaks when there was supposed to be three. The empty spot in their bed. The empty hole in her heart that would never be filled ever again. Why?! How was she going to go on without Bubbles? She would have to, she and Buttercup, because it was their duty. She just couldn't imagine how she would do it.

It had been a mistake to stay here. She should have gone with Buttercup and the professor. At least she would be doing something to help. What was he going to do? Could he do anything when the doctors couldn't? Or was he just feeling the need to do something, anything, to try to take away that feeling of helplessness?

She rubbed her forehead. "All this thinking's giving me a headache. I need a drink of water."

She floated to the small bathroom and went inside. She took a small paper cup from the dispenser and drank three glasses full, then looked at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. "I'm a mess!" she thought. Her eyes were puffy from crying and lack of sleep. Neither she nor Buttercup had slept much the night before, worrying, though they never imagined it would ever be as bad as this. That and the stress, she knew, were what was causing her head to hurt. She tried to open the mirror, thinking it would be like the medicine cabinet in their bathroom, but it was just a mirror. She'd have to ask a nurse or somebody for an aspirin. The pain caused her to close her eyes for a second and she massaged her temples. When she opened them, what she saw made her hands fly to her mouth in horror.

"Oh, no! I'm doing what Bubbles was doing! It's happening to me, too! I'M GONNA DIE, TOO!"

* * * * * * *

Her panicked screaming alerted the security guard. While trying to make some sense of her frantic babbling, he pushed the 'call' button attached to the side of the bed and within seconds, two nurses barged into the room. The child was too wound up to understand clearly, but one nurse made out enough. She bolted from the room to her station to summon help, thinking, "Why didn't anyone think to check?"

Blossom's shrieking could be heard throughout the wing, and it wouldn't be quieted until a familiar face could offer her some comfort. That face was Sara's. She heard the screaming, recognized it, and ran the rest of the way, glad that she'd thought to put on a pair of flat shoes and leave her heels in the car. When Sara got to the room, Blossom nearly knocked her down and held onto her for dear life, bawling out her fears for herself and for Buttercup, too. They were all doomed!

Sara sat and let the shaking girl cry out that fear, doing her best to reassure her that her headaches were just from being tired and stressed out. Not trained to deal with this, the guard made a hasty exit and took up his post once more. The one remaining nurse assured Sara that a doctor would be there soon to look Blossom over, but that's what it likely was, stress and fear. It started to make sense to Blossom, too, and she began to feel embarrassed for creating such a scene, but she was content to remain where she was, in Sara's arms.