Heero

"My name is Jauffre, I will take a good look, but first, please tell me all you know," the doctor said, looking at me kindly, yet with that air of haughty superiority that doctors always possess. "I was told he belonged to the late Geordi Raven, but I do not recall ever meeting or being told of this lad."

He waved a hand at the boy in my arms.

"I don't have any reason to believe that any of the townsfolk knew about him," I said. "We found him locked in the old man's cellar."

The inn was warm, almost hot. One of the girls was preparing a tub of hot water for a sponge bath, the matron tended the roaring fire, and I sat on the bed with Little One still wrapped in my embrace, back asleep in my arms.

The blanket we were wrapped up in was warm, as some kindhearted soul had the forethought to set it to warm next to the fire for us.

I was going to leave these people the largest tip they would ever get.

The doctor could only see Little One's hair, as he was wrapped up in the blanket, settled on my thighs with his face in my neck.

The girl left the water on a stool next to the bed with a washcloth and soap, then nudged her mother out of the room, nodding to me respectfully as she left.

I mouthed a 'thankyou' to her and she smiled as she closed the door.

Only Wufei stayed with me, Little One, and the doctor. Wufei cleared his throat. "He would have been in there since at least when Geordi passed, but we have ... prophetic reasons to believe that he was sick before that. He has some marks, a lot of calluses, a lot of bruises - "

"He's delirious and mostly blind," I added.

"He's blind?" Wufei questioned. "He's been looking around."

"He can't see past arm's length. He gets terrified if I am not in that distance, and he starts trying to feel around for me."

"He's not talking, then?" the doctor questioned, as he leaned in closer, sitting down on the foot of the bed, and began peeling the blanket from Little One's shoulder.

"He's delirious. I think he's also been seeing things. The only thing he has said to me is 'Master', but he says it as though he's trying to figure out who I am."

The doctor was deliberately gentle and careful about my Little One's modesty as he slowly pulled his hand out from under the blanket, then tucked the blanket back into him. He began doing those "doctor-y" things that all doctors do, but I didn't understand the relevance of.

"Was there food and water with him in the cellar, or evidence that he had been left with any before Geordi passed?"

"I didn't stay to look," I said.

"There wasn't any food, or empty dishes," Wufei said. "And there was plenty of wine, but none of it was touched, no empty bottles."

"Good," the doctor said. "Wine would have done more harm than good."

He pinched the skin on the back of Little One's hand, but not hard, then harrumphed, turning his hand over to see his palm. "Calluses like these?" he asked, showing his hand to me, where I saw many on the meat of his palm and fingers.

"Yes," I said. "And bruises like that one," I pointed to one on his elbow, "Everywhere."

"And the red spots, are they everywhere too?"

"They converge around his left ankle, but they're everywhere too."

"Do you have any idea how long he had been in the cellar?"

It was the dreaded question, the one I had been trying not to ask. I didn't want to know how long he had been there. The mere thought of it scared me.

I shook my head numbly.

Wufei spoke again, clearing his throat. "There's also the matter of ... why he was down there. It's quite likely that he's been ... raped." He fumbled around the word as if it were gunk in his mouth, grimacing as though it tasted bad.

I looked at him angrily. "Quite likely? Quite likely?" I spat. "For what other reason does anyone keep a naked slave in their cellar?"

"We shall have a look in a moment," the doctor said. "Have you fed or watered him since you brought him out?"

"Yes," I said. "He's had a full waterskin, a bowl of broth, and some water-soaked bread."

"And has he retched any?"

"No," I said. "But he doesn't eat or drink fast, and I've been throttling the speed I will give him anything."

"Good, good," the doctor said. "He's quite lethargic, yes? He should have woken up with all this going on around him. Has he been sleeping like this the whole time?"

"No," I told him. "He's been awake. He stares at me a lot, like he's confused. I think it's exhausted him."

"Hmm," the doctor said. "Alright, out of the blanket. Lie him on his side. We'll get this over with quick."

As I did, Little One woke up a bit, and was lucky enough to be close enough to see me at the time. "Rest now," I said, putting his head gingerly on the pillow.

"Good Lord," the doctor said under his breath as Little One was laid down. "Hard to gauge size under a blanket, but really. Geordi, you old bastard, what were you thinking?"

My Little One was very thin, I knew it, but it had surprised the doctor even. I looked at him, trying to guess from his expression exactly how bad things were. Then suddenly Jauffre had his head cocked to the side as he looked at the thin form on the bed. "I wonder," he said quietly. "Open his mouth for me?"

I gently prized apart Little One's lips, opening his mouth for the doctor to see. His teeth were nothing special, quite bad, but it was his gums that worried me, as they were bright red and raw looking. The doctor chose the moment when Little One was staring at me, confused and distracted, to quickly move his leg to check his opening.

Then, equally as quickly, without even touching him there, he closed his legs back and pulled the blanket up over him again. "A little wider," he said to me, and I opened my Little One's mouth further, as Doctor Jauffre looked inside.

Then he surprised us both by cracking a grin. "Avast!" he said jokingly. "Ye scurvy dog!"

"Scurvy?"

Jauffre smirked. "Once he's eating solid food, give him two oranges a day. Until then, juice of a lemon in his soup. Oh, and the paleness - he needs an hour of sun every day. Sit him in front of a window. No medication. It looks far worse than it is. He needs to eat better, but I'll warrant you good folks knew that already."

"How did he get scurvy?" I asked, thoroughly confused, as I pulled the blankets back up over him.

"All humans have scurvy," Jauffre said. "But the treatment for scurvy is fruit, which is something we eat all the time. The only reason anyone gets symptoms is that they go too long without the appropriate treatment." Jauffre cleared his throat, but lowered his voice. "He's not bleeding, or raw. If there was serious internal damage, it would be bleeding, or there would be dried blood. It is as you said though, there are not many other reasons a man keeps a slave in their cellar and doesn't feed them properly. It is likely there is damage, but unlikely that it will not repair itself. Best leave it alone at this point, and I will give you a salve, if he complains, let him apply it himself. I don't think I need to tell you that the chances of him accepting you in his bed are entirely non-existent."

"They were non-existent before all this."

"Well, yes," Jauffre said sadly. "That is what they say about it." He peered at me out of his knowing, educated, doctor's eyes. "You saved my son, you know," he began. "When the lighthouse fire went out, over two years ago."

"I don't recall," I said truthfully.

"I didn't expect you would, busy man such as yourself," Jauffre conceded.

"It may have been Trowa."

"Lord Barton? No, he had his Seerbound by then."

I paused. It was highly unlikely that Trowa had done anything to help anyone after the arrival of Quatre, especially not something as momentous as prevent or give warning about a lighthouse fire. It had probably been me, but I felt the need to stand up for Trowa, to stand up for Seerbounds. Even if that meant standing up for Quatre.

"They don't make us completely useless, you know."

Jauffre looked at me quizzically. "As I understood it, they're supposed to heighten your power, if they behave. Why is it that a Seer, such as yourself or Lord Barton, can be captured and forced to serve, and you do it willingly, and yet they cannot? And they're so bad at it that they dampen your ability instead? It just angers me, that is all, my Lord. You are the last person I would wish this on."

Eventually, after some tense silence, Jauffre huffed and moved on. "I wish you the very best of luck with him. I'll have my boy send over the salve, and a written report for your city doctor. I recommend you stay put for a day or two, to get him adjusted to warmth and a good day's rest before you travel. He should be moved in a covered wagon, where he can sleep as peacefully as possible. I'll write all these instructions down, also."

"Do you recommend one day here, or two?"

"Two would be best for his health, but if he perks up, the one is fine, if you're in a rush."

Wufei nodded. "Two then. His health is our only concern at the moment, though we are in a rush. Why do you recommend a wagon?"

"A multitude of simple reasons," Jauffre said. "If he falls from horseback, it's likely to shatter his bones. Could kill him, no one wants that. He's too sick to be stable on a horse on his own, and far too sick to be outside all day, sitting upright. Though he's not in any immediate danger, now that he's being fed and watered, he's not going to recover quickly. He's malnourished. Judging from the colour of his skin he was inside that cellar a long time. You can't just take a sick man from a cellar and thrust him straight into the world and expect him to cope."

"What about his eyes? Will they get any better?"

"It's impossible to tell. I've no expertise in eyes. I suggest you take it up with your doctors at the capital, I'm certain there will be one there who will know. Scurvy does not usually bring about blindness, at least, not at this stage of development. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the sight problems are due to the dehydration of the last few days, and the cellar. There's no point in good eyesight if you're stuck in a tiny dark room."

I nodded, and kept my eyes on my Little One. He had begun to wake up. I could tell he was faring better, though, even though he hadn't opened his eyes. He had pursed his lips, his brow furrowed, and his eyes twitched. He was concentrating, listening to the doctor.

I had to fill him in. The poor thing was waking up halfway through what was probably the most important thing in the world to him. He had clearly thought he was going to die. He hadn't wanted to when I had dreamed with him earlier. Now I had the wonderful job of telling him he would be alright.

"So, just to go over this again," I said. "He'll be alright, he just needs rest, food, specifically fruit, and a little bit of sun."

"Precisely," the doctor said.

I saw my Little One's jaw set. He'd heard that, and understood it, I was fairly sure. But I didn't know what the set of his jaw meant, or the increase of the furrow of his brow from concentrating to determined meant. Only that I hoped it was good.

I was dead wrong.

Over the next few days, Quatre, the boy who had to wear shackles to bed for fear of trying to murder people, was going to earn the tentative title of 'The Good One'.

A/N:

Duo is suffering from two diseases (and it's a miracle he ain't got more). Scurvy, as we all know, is a lack of vitamin C, in which the medieval diet was sorely lacking to begin with. Scurvy was actually not truly found and understood until the 1900s, but I've taken creative license.

The red spots are called petachiae and are something everyone gets every now and then, they are a bursting of blood vessels under the skin. Harmless, and they go away fast. They are caused by either a weakening of the blood vessels (scurvy can cause this) or excessive force on the area (drunkards can cause this). They are frequently caused by: excessive coughing, vomiting, crying, and believe it or not, you can get them in your mouth if you suck hard enough while giving head.

Duo also has a vitamin D deficiency (also lacking in the medieval diet). Vitamin D is also absorbed through sunlight (of which there was none in cellarland). The diagnosing factor for this disease would have been how retardedly pale he would have been. The excess callusing is a fairly rarish result of this (called hyperkeratosis).

Other symptoms that they don't know about include bone pain, muscle pain, lethargy, serious confusion, memory loss, (vitamin D deficiency leads to dementia in late stages).

As for the blindness, you can all mull over that for yourselves. I can't be expected to tell you everything :P