Disclaimer: see chapter 1
Robin woke up and began to gather some food from the kitchen for his breakfast. Soon all of his gang were awake and ready to do the morning deliveries. All apart from one.
"Hey, where's Much?" Robin asked, noticing his friend's absence. "He is still in bed, but he is not asleep, I think he has a fever" Djaq said. Robin nodded to show he had heard before going down to see Much.
He walked over to Much's bed and saw that he had gone back to sleep, but something was wrong. He face was flushed and sweaty and he was whimpering and wriggling in his sleep. His breathing was shallow and rushed, as if he were having a nightmare. Much was seriously ill.
Robin went back to his gang and told them that he was going to stay and care for Much, as he was very ill. The gang nodded, they knew how close Robin was to Much, of course he would want to stay with his friend.
Robin went back down to Much, who was now wriggling and whimpering more than ever. He sat on the end of Much's bed and brushed his hair of his sweaty forehead. Suddenly Much started shouting in his sleep. "No, not Robin, please not Robin, no, not Robin, please!"
Much opened his eyes suddenly, tears streaming down his face. "No, Robin" he muttered. Robin wiped the tears from his friend's face, wondering what on earth Much's fever induced nightmare could have been about to make him so scared that he was crying.
Robin gathered the trembling, crying Much up in his arms and whispered words of comfort to him. Soon Much's crying stopped, and Robin got up to get his sick friend some water.
He brought the water back to his friend and set it on the floor. Robin helped the weak, shaking Much to sit up, supporting him with one arm. With the other arm he raised the water to Much's lips, letting him sip it slowly.
When Much had had a sufficient amount of water, Robin helped him to lie back down. He then put an old scrap of material into cold water, wrung it out, and mopped Much's forehead with it, in an attempt to soothe the burning fever.
Robin did this all day; helping Much to sip water, mopping his boiling face with a rag, talking to him all the time and listening to Much's croaky, whispered answers to his questions.
Eventually the gang came back and found Robin sat on the edge of Much's bed, mopping his face with a rag and talking to him quietly.
They all tried their best to be as quiet as possible; they didn't want Much to suffer anymore than he needed to. "Guys?" Much croaked. The gang all gathered quietly round his bed and began to tell him about the day. Little John brought some water over and passed it to Robin, who helped Much to sit up and slowly sip it.
That evening, Much said he felt a little better so Robin gave him a small plate of food to nibble at. He ate most of it, and then the gang agreed that they should try to go to sleep or at least whisper quietly to each other as Much needed his rest. Soon enough they were all asleep but Robin waited for a while in case Much began to have another nightmare.
It soon became clear that Much was going to have an undisturbed sleep that night, so Robin decided to get some rest too.
