Team RED

Story 5 Part 1: The Virus

It was a ceasefire weekend and Miss Pauling had a load of jobs to do. However, she was able to finish a bit early.

"Hm... I'm near the base so I might as well drop by and see how the boys are doing..." Miss Pauling said to herself. She quickly knocked on the door and waited for a friendly face to answer it. There was no one. Miss Pauling brushed a loose hair strand out of her face and knocked again. This time, the door slowly opened.

"Uh... Hello? It's Miss Pauling," She said. Scout happened to be the one answering the door.

"Oh!" He quickly swung the door open and coughed. "H-Hello... Miss Pauling..."

He looked terrible. His eyes looked red and puffy, his hair was a mess, and he looked as if he could barely stand.

"Oh my god!!" Miss Pauling was shocked. She shoved her way inside and looked around. All the mercenaries were sitting at a table, looking just as bad as Scout.

"Oh my god!!!"

---

"Sick?" Miss Pauling paced around the room. "How on earth can you be sick?"

"It appears we've caught a sort of... virus," Medic explained, sneezing afterwards, "I would try and... and help but I'm afraid my medigun only cures injury."

A few mercenaries had a coughing fit. Miss Pauling stepped back cautiously.

"So what are you all going to do?" She asked them.

"Oh come on men! This cold is NOTHING! We can just deal with it!" Soldier announced. Engineer coughed.

"Actually Soldier, it's not necessarily a cold. It's worse than that I'm afraid... We can't just wait it out so easily."

Sniper tried to say something, but he broke out in a coughing fit.

"Okay. Yeah I can't be here like this," Miss Pauling turned to leave. Scout coughed and reached for her.

"W-Wait Miss Pauling! You're just gonna leave us like this??"

She paused.

"Well Scout... I mean... You're all grown men right?-"

"We need help! We are all sick!" Scout coughed again... and again. Miss Pauling sighed.

"I'll be right back..." She slammed the door.

"Heavy does not need caretaker," Heavy claimed, crossing his arms.

"Zhis might be for zhe best, mein friend," Medic gently patted Heavy's back. Heavy huffed, but listened to him anyways.

Suddenly the door swung open.

"Alright men! You are officially under quarantine!" Miss Pauling was wearing a mask and gloves. She was holding a bunch of equipment.

Spy leaned towards Scout.

"I'll bet you were hoping for some kind of nurse outfit, no?" He smirked.

"Shut the hell up," Scout mumbled.

---

"Okay no one is allowed to leave their rooms without my permission, got it?" Miss Pauling stated.

"Absolutely not," Medic coughed, "I have much vork to do-"

"Oh no you don't. You are all going to rest, whether you like it or not! This will help with your recovery!" She ushered the sick doctor back into his room.

"M-Miss Pauling...?" Scout weakly called out. She rushed over to him.

"Scout? What is it??"

"What about food? I'm starvin!"

Miss Pauling sighed.

"Really?... Well uh..."

"I could probably cook, darlin," Engineer said.

"No Engineer. I can't ask you to do that. Plus, a sick person shouldn't handle food," she explained.

"Yeah! Besides, I want Miss Pauling's cooking!.... Ah... I mean... I think it'll heal me quicker..." Scout wedged out a cough.

"Faker..." Demoman mumbled loudly from his room.

"Hey! I'm not fakin' squat! I'm actually-" Scout couldn't stop coughing.

"Alright alright let's all relax... I'll just... Order food or something. There's no time to cook. Since you're all so high maintenance..." Miss Pauling mumbled to herself. She pulled out her phone and began dialing.