Elijah wakes up with a fever, and immediately knows that today is going to be awful. It's not anything crazy, it's not like when he just knows something that he isn't-supposed-to or couldn't-possibly know, it's just that… he feels so gross he wants to curl up in a ball and die.

"Do I have to go to school today?" he asks his grandpa when the man comes by to check why he isn't up yet.

"No," his grandpa says. "It's Sunday, Elijah." He crouches down in front of him, and puts a hand on Elijah's forehead. It's businesslike and to the point, and Elijah doesn't move mostly because he doesn't have the energy to. "You have a fever," he says.

"I know I do," Elijah mumbles. "Ow…"

He thinks he sees sympathy there, although it's always a little hard to tell with his grandpa. He just doesn't have a face that's easy to read. "You'll have to see a doctor," he says. "You might need to go on antibiotics."

"I don't want to go," Elijah protests. "I don't feel good…"

"And you'll feel worse if you don't do anything about it," his grandpa points out. "The sooner we get you to a doctor and on medicine, the sooner you'll feel better."

Elijah has had this argument more than once with his mother, and he's never lost once. He'd rarely lost fights with her, after… well.

His grandfather doesn't argue. He leans down, wraps his arms around Elijah, and hauls him to his feet. "Get dressed," he said. "I'll find a doctor that will take you this morning."

"But—"

And still his grandfather doesn't argue. He's out the door and heading downstairs before Elijah can get a full sentence out. He rubs at his face, trying to get the world to stop spinning, but it doesn't, and his face is warm, and he really wants to go back to bed.

In the end, the only thing that stops him is that he really needs to find some tissues. He feels like everything in his head is dripping out through his nose, because there's no way he could ever make that much snot. And then when he finds the tissues, he has to go to the bathroom so he does that, and then he decides that he might as well get dressed, and then his grandpa is back to drag him downstairs so they can go to the doctor.

That part's kind of a daze. He has vague memories of telling the doctor how he feels, and his grandpa adding a lot of fake names and stuff. Then the doctor writes a prescription for Elijah, and soon enough they're at the pharmacy, waiting for it to be ready. Elijah is tired, and already nodding off again, leaning against his grandpa's shoulder because he's too out of it to think that it might be a bad idea.

"Why are you doing all this?" he asks.

"Taking you to the doctor and getting you medicine?" his grandpa asks. "Because you have a fever of one hundred and two."

"It would go down eventually."

"But that doesn't—" He lets out an exasperated sigh. "Why are you doing this, Elijah?"

"Doin' what?"

"Doing. Why are you fighting me about doctors and medicine? These things aren't optional when you're sick."

"Because. I don't know." He sniffs, and wipes at his nose with the back of his hand. His grandpa hands him a tissue and Elijah blows his nose, burrowing deeper into his shoulder. "I don't like doctors."

"Do you like being sick?"

"No—"

"Then you must know that you have to come to the doctor," his grandpa says. "Like it or not, you're smart enough to know that this is how you get better."

"But Grandpa…" He looks up at him, eyes squinty because he's tired. "They always want to test me. And I'm all messed up inside, I don't want them to find out…" His mom had always made him do all the tests the doctors asked for, even the psych ones that he always fails because he's not normal at all. Then he got old enough to fight her on going to the doctor, because it was the only way to keep himself safe.

"The Templars found out about you because an Abstergo clinic took a sample of your DNA," his grandpa says.

"See?" Elijah says.

"But that's because your mother had no idea how special you are," his grandpa says. "And she had no idea how to protect you. How many tests did the doctor do on you today?"

Elijah shakes his head. "Blood pressure, and weight, and temperature," he says. "But… those don't really count as tests. And he wanted to do a strep test, but—"

"But that would have meant he took a sample," his grandpa says. "And anyway, even he said strep was unlikely."

"So…" So for the first time, Elijah isn't on his own. Maybe to some people, it would be a bad thing to have someone hovering around, stopping doctors from checking everything that might possibly be wrong with them. Elijah is just so, so happy that someone else is going to be looking out for him from now on. He lapses into silence, and then kind of dozes off. Eventually they must have left to go home, because the next time Elijah is fully conscious, they're back home.

An indeterminable amount of time later, his grandpa comes back for him, carrying the medicine that Elijah is supposed to take. He sits up dutifully, and manages to swallow the pill. Then he says, "Grandpa?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you really not care that I'm broken?" He wishes he knew that already, but he doesn't. Out of all the things he does know that he shouldn't… he can never tell if people like him.

Or maybe he just can't ever make himself believe that they do.

"I care that your fever's high enough for you to even ask that question," his grandpa says. "Because any other day, I know you'd realize how absurd it sounds."

"Please," Elijah says.

His grandpa crouches down in front of him, and for a moment he seems to search his face for the right answer. Then at last, he says. "I love you. And that's the only answer I'm going to give you to that question, because nothing else matters."

"No wait," Elijah says quickly. "Wait… do you think… when my dad comes here… if he wants to see me…."

"If," his grandpa repeats. "If. Elijah, once Desmond gets here, he is never going to let you go."

And with that reassuring thought, Elijah slips back into sleep.

-/-

So last chapter was Khemu and Bayek, now we have Elijah and William, I guess next chapter will have to be Elina and Berg?