A/N: So after the preview for next week's episode and how amazing it's going to be because Monrosalee and sick and kiss, I decided I needed to do another update. So here I am!
I wanted some Rosalee/Nick interaction, so that's what you get here. Sorry it's so short!
Regular disclaimers apply.
Spoilers for parts of season 1 if you haven't seen it.
Chapter 9
"Stay here, Monroe," she said gently, pressing a kiss to his feverish brow. "I'll be right back." Monroe didn't even speak. He barely nodded, starting to doze off despite the intense pain racking his body. He was exhausted from the toll the disease was taking on him. Rosalee left the room reluctantly and brought the ground ingredients to the kitchen, where she found Nick at the sink filling a pot with water.
"Thank you," she said, taking the dry ingredients and dumping them into the pot. She then brought out the rest of the herbs and began mixing those in methodically as well.
"No problem," Nick said, eyeing her curiously before going to put another pan of water on to boil. "What is that?"
"Stage one of treatment," she explained, biting her lip as she finished adding ingredients. "Did you use hot water?"
"Yes," he said. "What's stage one?"
"The painful stage," she said. "It's supposed to stimulate healing of the skin. It's extremely excruciating." She pulled out another pot, knowing exactly where to find it. "Fill this with cold water please." Nick stared at her.
"Excruciating," he repeated.
"Yes," she said defensively. "The materials used burn, but they clean and heal the wounds. There's a stage two, which is why I need the cold water. That soothes the rash and cools it down."
"So what does he have to do?" Nick asked, watching Rosalee stir the pot. "Drink that?"
"No," she said. "I have to apply this directly to the rash."
"Yeah, speaking of which, nice detail you forgot to mention," he said sarcastically.
"I'm sorry, Nick," she said. "Lupofiebre is something everyone in the Wesen world knows about, and I forgot you were new to it."
"Yeah, well, that was a nice little surprise," he said, watching her crush mint leaves and add them to the cold water.
"Again, it wasn't the first thing I thought to tell you," she said. "You handled it fine. You kept him from hurting himself or others and I really appreciate that."
"No problem," Nick said. "But… what is that?"
"The rash?" She asked, adding liberal amounts of camphor to the solution with the care of a seasoned chemist. Her concentration never left her work, though she was still able to explain things to Nick. "It's the most striking and unique characteristic of Lupofiebre. Basically it's a fever rash that crops up during the disease. It's painful and causes a lot of the delirium and hallucinations. It's also the most dangerous part of the disease because most Blutbaden are stubborn as hell and won't go for treatment so other diseases set in due to the open wounds. Thankfully we don't have to worry about that seeing as I'm treating him."
"Oh," Nick said. "That sounds particularly horrible."
"It is," she said. "My mother used to treat Lupofiebre patients sometimes. The ones who would swallow their damn pride and drag themselves in. I've seen the disease in multiple stages and no matter where it is in progression, it's always so… horrible." She silently added oatmeal to the mixture.
"By the way," she said, not looking at him, "you still owe me an explanation as to why Monroe had a run-in with reapers."
"Right," Nick said. "I should've known you weren't going to let that go."
"He never told me," Rosalee confided softly, stirring the medication slowly until it gained consistency. "I've known him for months and he never said a word."
"I'm sure he didn't want to worry you," Nick explained carefully. "It's probably something he didn't want to put on your shoulders. I haven't heard him talk about it since the incident either now that I think about it."
"Tell me what happened," Rosalee said simply, setting down the spoon and staring Nick down. It wasn't a demand exactly, but pretty close to one. Nick did not need to be told twice.
"It was… a while back," Nick said. "I don't have all the details but what I do know is Monroe got a call to work on a clock and when he got there a bunch of reapers roughed him up really badly and vandalized his car. He claimed it was because they didn't like the two of us messing with the status quo. I was going to stop asking him for help to take him out of danger since this was the second time he'd been hurt because of me, but he refused to let that happen." Rosalee was silent for a long time, letting that sink in. Inside, she was seething, wanting nothing more than to punish the men who did this to her Monroe. She wanted to slip nightshade into their wine or a cobra into their beds and make them pay with their lives. Externally, she was the picture of calm, for Nick's sake mostly.
"He's brave," she said finally, turning back to the bowl. "And maybe a little bit crazy. But brave."
"That's why we love him," Nick responded coolly. He wondered how it was that she could take it so easily but decided not to dwell too much on it.
"I need to go get these on him," Rosalee said finally when both stages of treatment were mixed up. The first and most painful stage was a cloudy, red-tinted liquid. The second stage was a clear gel. Rosalee quickly added a few things to the boiling water on the stovetop. "It's your choice now. You can either come watch me torture the man I love, or you can stay here and watch this so it doesn't spill over." Nick barely batted an eye at her "man I love" comment. In fact, privately, his only thought was finally. However, there were more pressing matters at hand and he pushed that thought aside quickly.
"Torture him?" Nick asked. "Rosalee, really, it can't be that bad."
"It is that bad, Nick," she responded harshly. "This treatment is so painful it used to be used by the seven royal families as a method of torture on political prisoners and captured opponents." Nick raised his eyebrows.
"Really?" He asked.
"Yes," she said, suddenly feeling close to tears. "I've seen one scarred victim in my life. It's… horrible. They figured out that the treatment was more excruciating than the disease itself, like rubbing salt in a wound. They would slash their victims and then pour this in and watch them suffer. Over and over again."
"Hey," Nick said, noticing how emotional she was suddenly becoming. "Relax. I'm sure he'll understand you're not trying to torture him. And if it makes you that uncomfortable, I'll do it." But Rosalee shook her head.
"It would be worse coming from a Grimm," she said. "I don't care how close you two are, the second he realizes that a Grimm is causing him that much pain, he'll lose his head and wolf-out, and then we'll all be in trouble. It has to be me." She didn't look happy about this prospect at all, but Nick couldn't argue with her logic.
She reached into his cabinet and grabbed a medicine dropper. She then grabbed the big pot containing stage one of treatment.
"Grab stage two if you're coming," she instructed. "I'll need you to come turn the water off in about five minutes or so too, okay?" Nick nodded, picking up the other bowl and following her. She took one detour to the bathroom and found the two softest cloths she could, ones that weren't nubby or coarse, before reentering the bedroom with Nick at her heels.
A/N: So it's more of a transitional chapter. Hooray! Reviews are wonderful, as always, and are much appreciated. Thanks for reading and see you soon with the next part!
~PG22
