March 20th: Tenth day of observation.

It was quiet.

Birds trilled and warbled out in the courtyard as they darted amongst the trees, audible through the wide-flung windows. The late afternoon sun stained the curtains a deep, wine red. A breeze wafted through the room, carrying with it the smells of bread and pastries being cooked in the kitchens below. If Anna concentrated, she could hear the trees bending in the wind, leaves rustling against one another as if in time.

Elsa's breath whistled softly between her lips as she slept, her side pressed against Janice's, hip to shoulder through the blanket, her gloved hand covering one trembling beneath its bandages. Elsa's scratch had nearly disappeared against her pale skin. They no longer looked like twins. Only the bags under their eyes were the same.

Nadya held Janice's other arm as she consulted her pocketwatch, gloved fingers pressed against the weak pulse at her wrist. She waited for a time, nodding silently to the passing seconds. She withdrew her hand and picked up a pencil, noting a number down in a ledger on her lap. She fiddled with the pocketwatch, running her eyes over the recordings. There was a general, gradual downward trend.

Dr. Diesbach sat at his desk, consulting the journals that his assistants had brought him. His well-pressed shirt, starched high collar and elegant vest were stained with a mixture of ink and sweat. A small, thin pair of glasses perched atop his nose, giving him the look of a man peering out at the world through a pair of peepholes. Papers were arranged across the desk according to relevance and scientific worth. Most sat by his feet in the discard pile. He was calm as he read, his bloodshot eyes steady. He was half-way finished with his fifth cup of coffee.

Anna's brush scratched the canvas as she dragged it along in thick, heavy strokes. She'd long since covered up the thin pencil marks indicating where the small boat was to be. It sprang out from amongst the wide cuts of varying shades of blue, a white, shining beacon in the center, pointed determinedly at the horizon. The sail was a pale blue, dotted with flecks of white, and behind it were three shadowy figures. It had taken her three days to finish the fine details on the boat, having been interrupted constantly. It had taken her one to finish the rest of the painting.

Janice had become unresponsive four hours ago.

Anna's hand twitched, the worn muscles spasming, and she grimaced at the sight of a swatch of intense blue covering the edge of the sailboat. She licked her thumb and rubbed it against the side, and then unthinkingly licked her thumb again. Diesbach looked up as she spluttered and gagged, grabbing her throat, a blue thumbprint affixing itself to the side of her neck. She spat a trail of blue saliva in her palm. "Oh yuck, that was dumb." Nadya eyed her curiously. Elsa slept on.

Diesbach chuckled and flicked through his papers with fingers that trembled only a little. "Don't worry: the paint's non-toxic. I wouldn't go around eating it for fun, but it won't hurt you."

Anna rubbed a handkerchief over her hand. "How'd you know that?"

"It's made from an inert combination of iron and cyanide, which produces the deep blue pigment – 'Parisian blue' is the shade, if I recall correctly – and you can consume even a large handful and be all right. I wouldn't have allowed it in if I thought it would har-"

There was a sudden noise.

Elsa snorted through her nose and woke up, blinking sleepily; Anna frowned and turned her head; Diesbach looked up from his papers, raising one bushy eyebrow: Nadya had dropped the pocketwatch to the wooden floor with a ringing clatter. Her eyes were very, very wide.

"Blue," she breathed, and jerked her head towards the painting. She caught Anna's eye and held it. "Blue paint, pigment, I…blue…it was…important…" For a moment Anna believed she was having an out-of-body experience. "Parisian…somehow, blue, it…not Parisian, Prussian…blue!" The three of them stared at her in total confusion, Elsa in particular looking completely out of the loop. Nadya stood in a rush, sending her chair crashing to the floor, and dropped Janice's wrist. "I…I have to," she said, backing away, and slammed into the bedside table with a yelp. She sidestepped quickly. "I have to go!"

Diesbach stared at the agitated nurse in bewilderment. "Ms. Gedroitz, what are Ear-" His head followed her as she bolted out the door, leaving it open in her haste, her skirts hiked up and feet flying. Anna moved to the door and watched in astonishment as the nurse turned the corner and disappeared. She jerked her head at the empty doorway, and the doctor just sighed and turned back to his desk. He hadn't the energy to be worked up for long.

Janice made a small noise.

Anna gasped and ran to her side, banging into Elsa, who was struggling to sit up without touching Janice directly. "Did you hear…?"

The two of them held their breath for many long, aching seconds, watching the woman breathe, her chest rising and lowering with each shuddery inhale and exhale, evidence that she was still alive, still here, still had hope for…for…

Janice was silent. Anna felt her shoulders slump, and she sat beside her sister, leaning into her. Elsa stroked her fingers into Anna's hair wordlessly.

Tell me something, Anna: how did your parents die?

"They died well. I'm sure of it. I have to be, for their sake," she whispered. Elsa didn't ask, just brought their foreheads together, and Anna, if she could not feel happy, could at least appreciate the comfort. She laughed weakly. Years ago she would've given up anything to be here, in this moment, where Elsa needed her, her touch and her love and her person. She glanced down at the too frail woman on the bed, eyes following the path of bones visible against cracking skin, stretched to breaking, the messy hair that she longed to kiss and pet, the eyes shut tight beneath pained brows, so hauntingly familiar, and yet like nothing she'd ever seen before. It wasn't fair that the something she had to give up was actually a someone. She was too tired to cry.

"I've got it!" Nadya cried, feet pounding against the rug as she rushed inside the room, holding a fat journal aloft like a dog carrying a downed bird back to its master. She slapped the journal down on the desk in front of Diesbach, causing the man to flinch, and began flipping the pages rapidly. "I know it's in here…"

Elsa turned her head, and Anna laid her forehead on her shoulder with a tired exhale. Elsa watched Nadya's jerky movements with a slowly growing sense that something, something was finally happening, that maybe…maybe it…

"I didn't mention it, or even really pay too much attention, because in all honesty I accidentally looked through the wrong collection, but I remembered…" She wet her thumb and scrambled through the pages, almost tearing them, as Diesbach remained seated, blinking at her over his spectacles.

"We were looking in the most recent medical journals, because we thought that thallium had to have been invented recently if we'd never heard of it, and we were looking specifically for heavy-metal poisoning treatments because of the arsenic comment, right?"

Diesbach frowned. "Well, I did consider that, as per my notes, but we have only hearsay evidence that that's even relevant, let alone chemically similar."

Nadya completely ignored him, one hand waving wildly in her excitement. "But we weren't going to find any there, because one had already been invented a whole century before-AHA!" She stabbed her finger into the page, almost tearing it in her enthusiasm, pointing at the 18th century article. "Prussian blue!" She picked up the journal and began to read: "A chemical compound originally made for use in paints, in hues known as Parisian or Prussian blue, has proven effective multiple times as an oral means of combating heavy-metal poisoning in human subjects, including arsenic! See? I didn't note it down the first time I read it because I assumed it was out of date, but if it's still in use in paints today, and it's safe to consume, it could work!"

The doctor sighed. It sounded painful. "Ms. Gedroitz, I think you're jumping to conclusions. I appreciate your interest-" Elsa's eyes widened, and she jerked away from her sister. She stared slack-jawed at the door, and then slowly drew her gaze to the painting. "Oh my God," she croaked, "she knew."

Anna, who had been watching the scene unfold with dull, exhausted disinterest, turned her head. "What?" Elsa grabbed her hands and shook them emphatically. "She knew, Anna!"

Anna was still confused. "Knew what?"

"She…she wanted you to paint her a picture of the ocean. Of the sea. She wanted you to use blue paint and-" Her eyes bulged further. "Oh my God." She was suddenly brought back to a time, so many months ago, a lifetime ago, when Janice was healthy and hale, talking softly about the chemical interactions present in paint to her slumbering sister. "You…you were asleep with me, and she had made us think we'd have sex together but was actually lulling us to sleep because you were so tired from your upcoming marriage, and I pretended to sleep while she talked about chemistry and paint and Anna she knew."

Anna's gaze searched her sister's face, taking in the agonized hope, so different from the look of belabored endurance it had borne for weeks now, and her eyes lit up. "Oh my God," she repeated, and Elsa dared to smile, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "Yes, she might-"

The two of them stiffened in sudden realization, and they turned as one to the startled doctor and his motionless assistant, her finger still pointing to a new line of text.

"I…" Elsa said, looking quickly between the two of them.

"Whoa," Nadya said.

"No! No, it's not what you-we're not, I mean, well, it is what-but please, don't take it out on her!" Anna pleaded, her knuckles trembling in her sister's tight grip. "It was all us, she doesn't deserve any hate for-"

He held up a hand, and she bit her lip, hard enough to bruise. Elsa clutched her hands to her chest, and Anna could feel her heart hammering through the skin. Diesbach smoothed a hand over his bald crown, and Nadya slowly seated herself, eyes never leaving the pair. He chuckled softly.

"As I understand it," he began, "this woman, this patient of mine, who was originally Queen Elsa until she was given a new name by her recently revealed as murderous sister, who shares the same magical powers that our own Queen does, until she didn't, traveled through a mystical mirror into another world, our world, was only allowed in at set times, and is now laid low by a compound that may or may not have been invented yet, as evidenced by her insistence on being from the future, and our dismal failure at finding information about said compound, although this may not be the case." Elsa opened and closed her mouth, then nodded slowly. He shook his head.

"Your Majesties, at the risk of insubordination," he said, and removed his glasses, folding them up and slipping them over his shirt collar before fixing them with an bemused glance, "an incestuous lesbian love triangle is hardly the strangest part of this story."

"Yeah…I guess…yeah," Anna mumbled.

"And even if it were," Dr. Diesbach said, solemnly, straightening in his chair, "I swore an oath over two decades ago to maintain at all times the health and safety of my patients, and I see no reason to abandon that oath now."

"That and I could completely understand why you both would want to-" Everyone looked at her. Nadya dropped her gaze to her lap. "Um." Her eyes darted to the side. "Sorry, it's just that you're all three of you rather…uh…" She swallowed hastily, and then yanked the forgotten journal onto her lap. "Right, our patient. Um. Dr. Diesbach, I know that you don't think arsenic is the same as this thallium but…if it's generally safe for people to consume samples of Prussian blue anyways…we could try that for now, and then have chemists synthesize the active drug…"

He was scratching at the stubble on his chin, gaze distant. "Yes," he murmured, "I have been averse to trying things before, for fear of hurting her, but…"

"If you're certain it can't harm her…" Elsa said, at the same time Anna said, "If it could help her, please…" He looked at them, holding his silence for so long that Anna's breath burned in her lungs.

"I cannot be certain that it will help, your Majesties," he said, face grim. But then his eyes grew warm. "But if you are willing to let me try…"

"We'll try," Elsa said firmly. She looked down at the woman on the bed, at the fine hairs across her brows fluttering with each breath, and she felt her chest tighten as she lifted her eyes to her sister. Anna nodded fiercely in response to her unspoken question.

"We'll try whatever we can, if it gives her a chance."

March 20th: Tenth day of observation.

First day of treatment.