Protector's Bond (Two-Shot)

Chapter 15: The Sickness

The situation was hot for some time. Which is why Trixie wasn't surprised when Eli called her upstairs with a rather sore voice (hmmm, I wonder why...?) and a painful cough proceeding. She was not even shocked to see the young Shane in bed, pale, weak, feverish and worst of all in pain.

She recalled the events of last night.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Pronto's voice echoed across the walls of the house. "Psssht, come on, friend Pronto, it doesn't hurt to sneak just a little fish in there, right? I mean, it's not like Eli's gonna have an allergic reaction or something. Later that night Kord saw Eli puking in the bathroom. When he asked, the answer went, "Oh, the fish just tasted a little bad." Later, for some reason, Eli had an itchy nose and sneezed so much that it irritated even the slugs. The others were left skeptics when he went to bed at 8:30 when the normal time for him to hit the sack is 9 pm.

So here he was, shaky and obviously hurt. "Who had the..idea of sneakin..fish into...my dinner?" He asked with a voice so weak Trix was afraid he would go to bits simply by talking. "Junjie had the idea as an optional prank but Pronto being the idiot did it without knowing the consequences." She knew he was having an allergic reaction to the fish so she gave him strict instructions for him to rest and stricter instructions to the others to watch over him and make sure he doesn't try anything. He began to protest, but he ended up coughing hard. Even Doc tried his best to use his healing power over the young protector but nothing seemed to work. The best he could do was watch over him while Trixie dragged Pronto on every single mission and was out the whole day. Although Trix had instructions to keep him in bed, he insisted that he be moved to the couch so that he doesn't feel lonely. When they resisted even more, he called all his strength, pulled Jun by his collar and said...

"Listen here, y'all. Pay close attention because I ain't gonna repeat this. I'm the Shane, so y'all follow my orders or suffer the consequences. Either you get kicked out of the Shane Gang (no not kicked, tossed) or you maintain your position here but surrender to massive amounts of slug-fire. Got it?"

Now Doc was sure his powers worked over him.

Kord and Junjie were cooking corn soup with noodles downstairs in the kitchen while Eli rested after the encounter with them. They doubted if he was sick anymore. They wanted to call Trixie and report the incident, but they couldn't attempt it under the Shane's watchful eyes. While he was asleep, Jun tried again, but his slugs warned him not to because Eli was...if I would put it...half asleep. In the midst of his weakness he managed to watch the phone. No calls to Trixie were placed that night. Oh, were they really terrified.

It wasn't until Trixie and Pronto got home that they were in really bad trouble. First off, she yelled at them for moving Eli when he was supposed to be in bed. Second, a good 3 or 4 distress calls went unnoticed, so the duo had to do all the hard work themselves. Third, they nearly overcooked the soup. It was half the normal amount they cooked because they left it boiling to attend to Eli and possibly sneak in a call (but no, they did not). And because they were so busy, they almost forgot to get the patient some antihistamines for his allergy and antibiotics for the fever, which was 42.7 degrees on the thermometer reading.

But the situation reached boiling point when they asked Eli to take the meds after dinner. He hated pills! Then they all had to hold him down while Burpy popped out the pill. As he held it up, Eli warned, "Burpy, I'm telling you, if you dare, I will disown you!" However, he didn't really intend to, right? He was the only living connection he had with his father. So it was just words. But nothing worked. As the little Infurnus approached him, he screamed so loud, they almost, just almost, let him go. Their grip on him was firm, though he struggled intensely. Then the pills were popped in, and soon enough, he was asleep.

Then the next morning, they were relieved to know his fever went down to 38.2 degrees, his colour and strength returned, his coughing stopped, his sore throat was gone and he wasn't so weak anymore! They had a reason to celebrate this victory over sickness.

Until Eli admitted over breakfast that he was only pretending to be sick.