AN: Not exactly sure where this came out of but again it all came in one sitting...five hours this time. Once again I am posting without the mandatory digestive and re-read period in play, so keep that in mind ;)
A small point of information can be found at the bottom of this fic that might help to explain my reasoning behind the 'cause' of Ashley's illness for those of you who do not already know or are interested in more than just the name mentioned. Either way I don't think knowledge (or lack thereof) should affect the enjoyment (if that is the right word) or understanding of this little humble one-shot. Please just read and take, on face value, the words that are below...
Unedited as ever for a one-shot. Tell me what you think and don't hold back, my motto is If I don't know it's broke how can I fix it?' :) Oh and Biggie, Big Guy, My manservant, the hairy one etc ... in this he is just called 'Bigfoot' as I believe that is his name. Always annoyed me that they never clarified otherwise in the show ;)
Summary: A sick child, a worried mother, a concerned sasquatch and a quiet onlooker. How will Magnus cope with her two year old's illness and what do the owners of that little set of dark grey eyes have to contribute to the situation. Helen/Ashley and the other two pre-series Family/Angst fic. K rated one-shot. Read, enjoy and review.
WORRIED SICK
Helen Magnus had been in a lot of situations in her life, she had put up with a lot of bull and suffered through countless things that had tested and tried her patiences. She had shot people, been shot, lost her temper, given lenience and even been pushed over the edge until she cracked. But nothing...and she meant nothing in her life was as difficult and as terrifying as what she was living through right now.
Ashley squirmed in her arms and squalled with snot and tears running down her face so fast that they were soaking her mother's shirt. The two year old was sick and had been for four straight days. Magnus had not slept and neither had her daughter. The child was fretful, obstreperous and stubborn. She simply would not rest and when she did finally fall into a fitful restless quiet turmoil her heartbeat was erratic and her breathing harsh and shallow.
Helen had never felt so worried and so helpless in her life and there was nothing she could do and no-one she could turn to. Bigfoot was there of course but his medical skills were more lacking than hers were. She had tried everything she could think off but she still could not figure out what was wrong with her fragile and beautiful child. "Ashley please!" she begged as the little girl choked and retched on her own tears and distress. "Mummy loves you, please, please stop crying." She hugged her daughter close, aware of the damp sweat and the heat that was enveloping and hurting her beautiful little child.
"Helen, what...what can we do?" rumbled an equally concerned voice.
Helen despaired, she just did not know. Trying to calm down she ran through the practicalities of what might be needed. "I think...I think we need another cold bath." she told her closest companion. "Her temperature is too high again." Tears pushed outwards until they stung her eyes and she clung even closer to the most precious thing she had ever held.
Helen shook as she thought about the starkness of her own situation. Other parents could phone for help, other parents could hand their child over, still feeling completely helpless, into the hands of someone with more expertise but Helen did not have that luxury. Her child had unique blood, her child had unique needs...her child could not be helped by anyone but her and she did not know what to do...she had tried absolutely everything she knew.
Sobbing hard now that Bigfoot was out of the room she allowed her tears to mingle with that of her sick child. For a few more moments she clung to the squalling frame that was growing weaker by the moment. Then she forced herself to once again begin the distancing process that went against every instinct she had but was oh so necessary to find the objectivity required to clearly see the problem in front of her.
She set the child down on the cold infirmary bed and began to strip her. There was still no heat rash or change in the child's skin, nothing to indicate that the effects she was suffering were identifiable and treatable. "Oh Ashley, what is the matter with you?" The child's blood results could be characterised as nothing but normal for that of a child with a high temperature...and therein lay the curse of her tainted blood. Because of her source blood legacy Ashley could not contract normal childhood illnesses like chickenpox and influenza, so that meant whatever she had was abnormal and therefore potentially deadly and Magnus had yet to pinpoint the source of the problem. All Sanctuaries worldwide were working to help but no-one anywhere knew what to do.
Ashley whimpered as her body went limp, beads of sweat rolling off her flushed skin. "Hurry!" Magnus shouted into the open channel intercom. She knew what came next...more convulsions. Her daughter would start to fit as the temperature affected her brain. Her small frame would contract and distort as the electric field around her brain became unable to deal with the erratic elevation. She re-clipped the indicator onto her tiny finger and as the erratic beeps started again she prayed that Bigfoot would return on time with the chilled water.
Desperate, using her fingers she first dampened with her own saliva then and blew on the child's skin, focussing on the edges of her neck and other heat sensory areas.
It seemed like an age but before long a shadow cast over the bed and a metal basin was set on the floor, water sloshing everywhere. "Magnus...now." Bigfoot said, moving to reach for the child.
"No! I've got her. Please, let me do it."
Bigfoot nodded and moved back.
The child screamed as if in agony as her tiny body was immersed in the icy water. "Please...sshhhh...please, please!" begged her mother. "I'm so sorry baby, I really am but this is for your own good, I promise you it is."
For a brief moment Ashely made eye-contact with her mother and Helen's heart constricted. She had not realised it but that was the first time in two days her tiny daughter had actually tried to make contact with her and it gave her strength. "We're doing the right thing." she asserted, all of her professionalism leaving her in an instant.
Bigfoot twitched as he saw the irrationality once again rise in that of his close friend and mentor. He knew he would not be the one to sway her out of her new belief but submerging Ashley was not the answer, it was merely a band aid that was prolonging the problem. Determined to once again try to get the frantic mother to see sense he opened his mouth to speak but a presence distracted him.
Looking over towards the still open door a young, worried and reluctant face peeped around the door frame. "Henry." Bigfoot whispered and with a quick glance to ensure that Magnus was still unaware he moved across and pushed the child out of the room and closed the door. "You should not be here." he scolded mildly. He could not actually be cross with the boy, he was just as worried about his sister as the rest of them.
At the age of six Henry stood no taller than the top of Bigfoot's knee but he stretched himself tall and stood straight up. He had to prove that he knew something that should be listened to. "I know that Big, but I need to tell you something."
Bigfoot held back the most of his frustrated growl. He knew Henry was probably feeling neglected and did not understand why he was not receiving his normal level of attention from both himself and Magnus but now was not the time. "Henry, please. Ashley is not well, I do not have the time right now."
"I know but it's important." the child pleaded.
"Not as important as your sick sister." Bigfoot told him in no uncertain terms. "Go back to your room, you have schooling in the morning."
As the big hairy guy that was the only father he had ever known turned to leave him Henry broke the house rules and briefly turned hap so that he could nip his leg. "Wait...please!" he begged. "I might...I think I might know something." he whispered shyly, his head drooped low out of guilt over what he had just done.
Bigfoot looked back in through the isolation room door he had jut opened at where Magnus was almost weeping and she hovered and fussed over her now quiet child and then returned his vision to the boy before him. "About what?" he asked, wondering if Henry was even old enough to know what was really going on.
Henry squirmed. "About...about why little Ashy is sick."
Bigfoot growled lowly, trying hard to not to feel hope at the youngster's simplistic words. He guided the child back round the corner, out of sight of the mother and her sick child, she did not need either the stress or the false hope Henry may have to offer. "Tell me." he intoned as he crouched down to Henry's level and placed a caring hand on the back of his tiny skull.
"I did a bad thing." the child confessed, shifting under the giant hand that offered him comfort and reassurance.
Bigfoot grred softly, unable to reprimand the boy for his honesty. "Go on." he encouraged.
"Ashley was playing with the Munchausen twins." Henry's face crumpled up, it was bad to tell tattle-tales on your friends but sometimes, when things got too scary you just had to. He really hoped Moonchie and Smoonchie would understand. He knew that they were not allowed to play with Ashley because she was too young to fight off their special powers but they had really, really wanted to meet her, so he told them where her playroom was. "I didn't mean it. They begged me to see her, so I let them free."
"How?" Bigfoot asked, intrigued by how the boy had passed the security protocols.
Henry shrugged. "It was easy. All I had to do was hook up a remote number generator, like the ones I saw on the computer that are used for getting into bad guys houses."
Bigfoot growled lowly suddenly aware of their needed to doubly secure their sensitive files from young and super intuitive hap eyes.
"They said they would not hurt her." Henry wailed as he bravely held himself tight, his bottom lip beginning to waver.
Bigfoot shifted his hand from the back of Henry's neck and squeezing his shoulder bid the boy wait where he was before throwing himself back into the isolation room. "Twin-Munchaun-Syndrome." he declared, all of his sasquatch instincts rising high and fast within him.
"What?" Helen asked, confused by the mere notion of such a thing in her own home, the twins were securely locked away.
"Henry...he said she played with them."
Every avenue of understanding opened with a flush of pure adrenaline. "The Munchausen twins? They were in her room?"
"Her playroom I guess." he offered. "Henry saw them." That part was not quite true but the big guy felt the need to protect his son too and with the potential rage Helen Magnus was capable of that knew she would regret he felt validated in protecting both of them. "Come with me." he demanded as he stepped closer.
"No!" Helen shot, her adrenaline spiking at the thought of having to leave her child. "Please." she begged as her closest comrade moved in on her. "What if you are wrong?" The thought of not being with Ashley if anything happened was too much to bear.
Bigfoot stalled, an active show of patiences. "Half an hour Helen." he reasoned. "Half an hour and we...we will know."
Gathering up every rational scrap of anything she ever possessed Helen tried to force through the blinding haze of irrationality that shrouded her. The secondary part of Twin-Munchaun-Syndrome was causing an overwhelming sense of desperate attraction for one parent to constantly be with their child. The first was creating a chemical that made the child reject their mother's love. The more Magnus reached out to the child the sicker she got. It fitted the pattern..but still Helen was reluctant to let her go. "I can't." she pleaded, her eyes begging Bigfoot not to do this, her hands instinctively wrapping around her unconscious daughter.
"You will!" he told her and turned towards the door. "Henry." he commanded and the boy stepped hesitantly into view.
Helen's eyes grew wide at the sight of her small and seeming frail adopted son.
"Mom?" he asked, unable to stop himself from quaking.
"Go." Bigfoot purred in his most reassuring tone. "I will take care of Ashley."
Helen's eyes snapped round to his. "But you love her too."
Bigfoot nodded. "And sasquatches are immune to Munchausen effects...you know this Helen. Go, be with your son."
Helen found herself nodding and instantly ran to scoop Henry up. She had to make the break now and she had to do it fast. "Come on little soldier, lets go find us some ice-cream." He wiggled insistently in her arms so she set him back down onto his feet.
Henry shuffled for a bit, feeling conflicted. He absolutely adored ice-cream but his worry for Ashley overruled that instinct. "But-" he protested looking towards the room his sister was in.
Magnus commanded his silence and his attention. "Hush now boy, Ashley will be fine. We know exactly what to do." She sank down and looked her son in the eye. "You, my wonderful child, may very well have just saved your sister's life." She tried not to let the last of her lingering doubt show through as she consciously transferred her motherly instincts from her ailing two year old to the six year old in front of her. Total emotional separation would be the only thing that could save her daughter, total emotional separation that would translate itself into physical pain for Magnus as a result of the mental manipulation the twins had imparted upon them both. But having Henry close by would help a great deal. "And because of that you can have anything you want."
Henry felt his heart flutter...anything he wanted? "So no school tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.
Magnus laughed. "Anything but that. How about instead of your history assignment I teach you how dismantle and reconstruct one of the new pulse pistols the tech team have been working on?"
"Including calibration of the individual and alternating parts?" Henry asked excitedly and Magnus's eyebrows rose.
"If I can keep up with you Henry, yes." she supplied.
"But you designed it." he asked wondering how on earth she would not be able to keep up.
Helen steeled herself and put as much into being as focused and as bright a mother as she could be as she drifted away from the doorway, her daughter was in good hands. "Yes I did, with more than a little help, but I have no doubt you will be the one to perfect it before you are eight my little techno genius."
Henry blushed as his mother ruffled his hair and together with his hand in hers they left to go get the promised ice-cream.
OoO
It took all Magnus had to resist the urge to go back and be with her daughter. She had done her best to help Henry and distract herself but ultimately she wanted nothing more than to be with her sick and fragile little child. And so, two full days later she found herself reluctantly wandering down the corridor towards isolation. As she approached the lockdown barrier Bigfoot appeared in front of her. "Helen." he voiced with a tooth filled smile. "There is someone here who would very much like to see you."
With that a sprightly little two year old girl came squealing round the corner. "Mommmyyy!" she cried and flung herself into her mother's arms.
"Oh Ashley, I have missed you." Helen wept as she squeezed her daughter tight, taking in the soft scent of her recently washed hair. "I love you so much my little darling."
"Me too Mommy." the child enthused and kissed Helen's cheek. "Where's Henney?" she asked.
Helen smiled and was about to answer when Bigfoot's small grunt caught her attention, her eyes flicked up to his and he indicated behind them. Helen turned with Ashley still clinging to her neck and saw a tuft of brown hair sticking up from behind a cargo crate. Two hands appeared, gripping tight to the top of the wood swiftly followed by two wary grey eyes. "Come." she voiced as she bent her knees, setting Ashley down when her feet became level with the floor. Encouragingly she extended her arm to meet him.
Henry buried his face in his mother's neck before he turned to kiss and hug Ashley. "I missed you." he whispered as his hands stretched out to reach as far round both of them as they could for a second and more communal hug.
Helen with tears in her eyes turned and looked up at Bigfoot. "Get down here, you great oaf." she told him as she reached out her hand towards his. Immediately he complied, enveloping his whole family into the depths of deep and meaningful sasquatch hug. Sickness made for worry and worry made for love. So long as all his family could always stay together Bigfoot knew he would be eternally happy, here within the grounds of the one and only sanctuary he had ever known.
END
AN: So that is the whole story on this one. Just a little peak into family anguish and relief, we've all experienced it...just not like this. Helen Magnus and her family really do live in a unique world and I hope this shows just a tiny bit of that :)
Please, please...if you don't mind...take five seconds to tell me what you think. It's important to me to know whether I am on the right trSack with these kinds of fics or just really, really ticking people off!
Why is this fic called 'Worried Sick'? Because it was Magnus's worry that kept Ashley sick...simple really...
Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (MBPS): a relatively rare form of child abuse that involves the exaggeration or fabrication of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker.
This fic is not intended to be offensive or insensitive to anyone who has any experience of MBPS. I was merely looking for a pathway to finding a Sanctuary style illness that Helen herself was exasperating and this was the best potential example that I could find. MBPS has featured in such films as The Sixth Sense and A Child's Cry For Help.
It must be said that while I recognise the seriousness of this illness this fic is slightly different in that it belays the blame onto an abnormal influence, hence the name of the aforementioned twins. There is quite a lot of information out there about MBPS and I hope you take the time to learn about it a little more. Thank for reading, I really appreciate it. :)