Henry had gotten use to watching Javert, making sure he's alright. The truth was he felt guilty. He was sure that some how his fellow constables illness was his fault.
Dr. Garland said that there was no way it could be, but it had to be. He was the only one there when Crabtree fell ill. If he had been over hydrated, Henry thought he should have stopped him from drinking so much.
"It's not hyponatremia." Dr. Garland straighten up over Javert's still form. "I'm sorry William, I have no idea what's wrong with your constable."
"Could it not be alcohol intoxication, then?" Detective William Murdoch paced at the foot of the bunk were his seventeen year old apprentice had been laying in a dazed stupor for three days now. " If perhaps…."
Constable Higgins picked up his head. He was sitting on the bunk across from Crabtree's and had been staring intently at the mattress not wanting to look at Javert withering away.
"No,sir" Henry snapped "He was drinking water, I saw him refill his bottle from the well twice. There was no way he could have been drinking alcohol."
"Besides" he added more quietly. "Why would he? He won't drink whiskey, even when the Inspector offers it to him."
"Oy Higgins." All three men in the bunk house jumped at the unexpected voice from the doorway. Inspector Brackenreid stepped into the room. "Don't talk to your superiors like that."
Higgins hung his head again.
"It's alright inspector." the detective defended him. Then to Henry he continued. "Henry are you sure no one could have put something into his water. Did your water bottles ever leave both of your sights?"
Higgins shook his head. "No sir, Javert's keep his bottle with him the whole time. And we were never separate."
Brackenreid looked curiously at Murdoch. "I thought Ogden said he had hypo, hypoemia or what ever she called it."
Murdoch slowly shook his head. Dr. Garland spoke first though.
"Hyponatremia," He corrected the Inspector. "and it's not. If it was he would most like ether be better or dead by now."
Murdoch glanced away at the word "dead".
"You think someone put poison in his water?" Brackenreid asked
"I don't know, perhaps I'm being paranoid." Murdoch sat down on a chair by the bedside.
"Why would anyone want to poison Javert." Higgins asked angrily.
"It's a dangerous job." Murdoch said simply
Dr. Garland had been packing up his bag and was presently picking it up to leave.
"I'll come back tomorrow, and see if there's any thing I can do."
Henry stood up. "I'll walk downstairs with you Dr."
Doctor Ogdon was in the lobby area when they arrived.
"Is he…?" She began to ask her husband. Garland shook his head.
"I have know idea what he has. His conscious but in a sort of unaware state right now."
With that graland left the station. Higgins watched him go with a distant look.
"How are you faring Henry?"
"Uh?" The coroner's sweet voice pulled Henry from his sorrow. Mostly he was surprised by the doctors use of his first name. Until now he had never heard her address any constable except Constable Crabtree by first name.
"I know this is hard but he'll pull through."
"What if he doesn't? You and Dr. Garland don't even know why his sick."
"He will pull through." Julia said fiercely almost like she was making a promise. "He has all of us rooting for him."
"I know but…" Henry's voice died out. When he found it again it returned with a new thought. "I don't see why he had to get sick on my watch. I mean,why with me, why not with the detective?"
Realization hit Dr. Ogden as though someone slapped her. "Henry this isn't your fault, sometimes people get sick. It just happens. Now go back upstairs your friend needs you.
Henry slowly walked off as if he was obeying but once he got to the other end of the station instead of going back up to the bunkhouse he veered off through a doorway and made his way into the jail.
"Detective told me to relieve you." He told his colleague on jail duty. The other constable was surprised
"Really? My shift is supposed to last another hour." Then suddenly he caught a glimpse of the pain written on Higgins face. "Oh I get it, I'm sorry Henry."
The constable stood out and left the jail. Higgins immediately took his set, unaware of the jail's current soul inmate watching him with interest. Henry set his hands palms up on his knees and stared at them.
Just three days ago, Javert had been fine. He was perfectly healthy. Now he was at deaths door. And no one knew why. It didn't add up. People did get sick unexpectedly, Henry could excepted that. What he couldn't accept was that when Javert had gotten sick, he was the only one with him.
One day a week he and Higgins would go on patrol around town together. Other then that most of the time Javert was with the detective. If it wasn't his fault somehow, then why did Javert get sick on that one day?
Just three days ago everything had been normal, now Henry was scared that because of the last three days nothing would ever be again.
