Robin’s smile remained plastered on her face but inside she growled quietly in frustration and gave up on the patient, turning back to the camera. Her cameraman took her cue and focused in on her again, “Well, isn’t that just great?” she said, “And for more information on that, I have Armondo’s doctor here, Dr. Lawrence.” She turned to her other side and the camera zoomed out again, this time to include a young, tired-looking doctor.

“Doctor,” said the reporter, “this all sounds very interesting, maybe you can tell us a bit about the case?”

The doctor nodded, looking at the camera. He looked a little disconcerted, but it was really the case, not the camera, that was baffling him. He shrugged for a moment and then said, “Well Robin, it’s a heck of a thing. The patient was in an advanced stage of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome associated with infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. As I’m sure you know, HIV is, in and of itself, not fatal, but its effects on the immune system make the sufferer much more susceptible to other infections that our bodies’ white blood cells would normally be able to handle.”

The reporter nodded and then, feeling the need to say something, she put in, “And in this case, Doctor, what has happened that is so unusual?”

“Well,” continued the young doctor, “actually, we really don’t know.” He shrugged again, “Since the patient’s last check up a month ago, there has been a dramatic reduction in viral and other foreign bodies found in his blood, and this has been matched by a notable increase in his white blood cell count, though not by nearly enough to account for the drop in foreign bodies.”

Robin knew the network would expect her to stick in her line now for the masses and prompted, “A miracle, Doctor?” glancing suggestively at the screen and smiling.

“Well, if you want to think of it as a miracle, then I suppose you can do that,” said Dr. Lawrence, slightly impatiently, “though I can tell you that we have also seen a similarly anomalous set of symptoms in two other patients in the last month.”

Robin froze. Wait, what did he just say? More cases? More cases meant a bigger story and her long-subjugated journalistic instincts kicked in. She responded in a serious tone, “So there have been other cases of this, Doctor? Could this be an epidemic? Should folks at home be worried?”