Halt felt as if a wedge was helpfully assisting a large wooden mallet in its valiant efforts split his skull in two.
Accordingly, he was not particularly happy when Will, whistling cheerfully, stepped into the cabin, allowing the heavy wooden door to swing shut behind him with a loud thud. He groaned softly over the paperwork he was supposed to be reading and closed his eyes for a moment, seeing white circles dance before them. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and a rush of agony hit him with such ferocity that he grunted in pain before he could stop himself.
"Halt? Are you alright?" He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, but he was too exhausted to be particularly embarrassed. "Yes, can't you see, I'm practically dancing on the ceiling", he muttered, wincing slightly as each word drove the wedge deeper into his skull. Halt decided it was probably a cast-iron war hammer hitting it, not a wooden mallet.
Will put his other hand on the Ranger's spare shoulder, gently rubbing them. He hurriedly removed them as the older man grunted in agony. "I'm sorry", he said quietly. There was no reply, but he hadn't been expecting one. Will paused. He had taken care of quite a bit of fieldwork after the incident with the Kalkara; forms were nothing compared to that. He took a slow breath, mentally preparing to give his mentor orders.
"Halt, I think you should get some rest." He tried to say it quietly, but with an air of calm authority. He was not sure it worked, especially when the older Ranger protested, as he'd known he would.
"I've got work to do! I can't just go and leave it there." Halt tried to say it firmly, but that caused another wave of agony and he grunted again, his hands going to his head in an ineffectual attempt to stop the pain. He blinked several times and forced his eyes open, seeing the blurred shape of his concerned apprentice. "I'll do it", Will said firmly, then his voice softened as he quietly added "please."
It was the last word that did it, of course. Trying to convince himself he was simply doing this to get his apprentice to stop bothering him, he forced himself to stand, dropping his quill onto the desk as he did so, leaving spots on ink on the weathered desk as it rolled slightly in a circle.
It must have been Will's trained instincts that first realised Halt was going to fall. He moved just in time, catching the older Ranger as his legs buckled. "No need to apologise", he said gently, pre-empting his mentor's words. He half-dragged, half-supported Halt to his room, quietly pulling the rough blankets over him. He paused as he watched his mentor stir feebly. He'd attend to the paperwork in a minute, but there was one more thing he had to do.
When Halt woke, his body aching and his head still giving the occasional stab of pain, he glanced towards the window to check the sun's position, but as he did so, two things on the stool by his bed caught his eye. A glass of water, and a vase of wildflowers.