14.

In the morning, Will and Cecily marched behind their father down the corridor of the children's hospital in Ealing. Cecily carried a large jigsaw puzzle under her arm and had a large blue plastic picnic mat stuffed inside her backpack. Will's backpack was full of snacks, video games and books.

Elias and Colette were in Jem's room when they got there. They looked exhausted, as though they had not slept the entire night. Jem was sitting up and had a plastic plate of porridge and scrambled eggs in front of him. He too looked like he was ready to crash and sleep for a week.

"Good morning!" Will greeted brightly. Everyone turned to stare at him.

It was very awkward until Jem let out a "Morning, Will. I didn't expect you so early. Hey, Cecily." Cecily waved at him. She was a little quiet upon seeing Jem hooked up to all the tubes and machines.

"I had to go to work so I thought I'd drop these two off here," Mr Herondale explained. "Weren't you supposed to fly off today, Elias? Did you stay here all night?"

Jem's uncle nodded. "The flight's not until the afternoon." He yawned widely.

"I'll give you two a lift home," Mr Herondale offered. After a few more pleasantries, the adults went out to speak to the nurses, leaving Will, Cecily and Jem behind.

Will went up to Jem and stole a bite of his porridge and eggs. He grimaced. "Who the hell made that? It's worse than when I tried to cook."

"Thank god; I thought it was just me," Jem said, pushing the plastic plate away.

"Did you eat anything?" Will asked. The plate looked practically untouched.

Jem shrugged. "What have you got there, Cecy?" he asked, changing the subject completely.

Cecily hopped up to sit on the opposite end of the bed. "It's a puzzle. I thought it would be fun." She held up the box to show a picture of dolphins frolicking underwater next to a reef teeming with marine life. "And I've got a mat so we can spread it all out on the floor."

"That sounds like fun," Jem encouraged. "Why don't you set up by the window?" He struggled to push himself off the bed. Will tried to help and grabbed his pillows, placing them carefully so Jem could lean against the wall when he was sitting on the floor. Cecily had spread open the picnic mat, opened up the puzzle mat and dumped out all the puzzle pieces.

"You turn them all the right way round, Will can sort them according to colour and I'll pick out the edges," Cecily ordered.

The boys obeyed. Jem was slow in his task but he did it very meticulously, passing Will and Cecily appropriate pieces. Will quickly got bored and began to make little pyramids out of the various piles. When that was done, he began turning them the wrong way round, so the blank cardboard faced up, and fitting the pieces together based on feeling.

"Will, stop it, that's not helping," Cecily whined. "Why can't you just make the puzzle like normal people do?"

Will carefully flipped over the largest segment he pieced together. Surprisingly, they were all in the right place and formed part of the picture. He gave his sister a smug look. Cecily pouted and pointedly ignored Will.

"How did you do that?" Jem gaped.

"It's a miracle," Will exclaimed in mock awe. "Call the pope. I might be the undiscovered patron saint of puzzles."

"No you're not. You just got lucky," Cecily huffed. "I bet you can't do it again."

"You're on!" Will accepted. He flipped over the next pile of puzzle pieces and began putting them together. His expression grew even more smug as he completed the segment. "And now, for the big reveal," he announced, flipping it over to show the picture.

Unlike before, this one was not perfect. There were a few pieces that, although they fit together, did not form the whole picture. Cecily got up to dance a mocking jig around her brother. Will threw the remaining pieces at her. She threw them back and soon, Jem joined in. The three of them quickly abandoned all thought of putting the puzzle together and were more absorbed in a minor war.

Their shrieks drew the attention of the nurse, who threw Cecily and Will out for being too rowdy. The siblings were undeterred. They left the hospital as ordered but returned a few hours later with a large sausage and cheese pizza for lunch. The nurse eyed them suspiciously when she saw them walking down the hospital corridor but let them through on the condition that they made sure Jem ate something.

"You're back!" Jem cheered happily when he saw them.

"And we bring gifts," Will added, dragging the tray table over and placing the pizza box on it. "Lovely gooey cheesy pizza. It's a little bit cold by now, but pizza is pizza. Eat up."

Jem obligingly took a slice and bit into it. He chewed hesitantly.

"What's wrong?" Cecily asked. "Don't you like pizza?"

With seemingly great difficulty, Jem swallowed his mouthful of pizza. "I just haven't had much of an appetite lately," he admitted.

"You have to eat, Jem," Will admonished. "You're skin and bone. You'll fade into nothing or blow away in the wind pretty soon."

"I'll finish this slice," Jem promised. "You guys have to help me with the rest."

"That was the plan," Will said. "What? Did you think this whole pizza was for you? Don't be greedy. Sharing is caring." Jem burst out laughing.

The Herondale siblings demolished the pizza. Jem struggled through his one slice but managed to finish it.

"Why don't you tell us what food you like?" Will suggested, wiping away stray smears of tomato sauce from his mouth. "Then, we can go get it for you. And don't you dare say soup. Solid food."

Jem thought about it for a long time. Then he said shyly: "There's a shop in Chinatown that serves very good noodles and dumplings. I'd like that." Then, in a louder voice, he added: "But I don't want you to go to any trouble."

"Shut up. It's no trouble," Will assured. "Now, where do we find this wonderful shop?"

Jem drew them a map and gave them detailed instructions on how to navigate the little side streets of Chinatown to get to the shop. The Herondale siblings then set out to find the place. They soon discovered what a warren it was.

"I told you, we should've turned into that alley next to the shop with the roast ducks," Cecily insisted, taking the map from her brother. They had been wandering around Chinatown for more than half an hour but still had not located the shop.

"No, we were supposed to turn into the alley after that," Will argued. "Look, it's the shop selling the Japanese snacks, like Jem said. We're going the right way."

"Those aren't Japanese snacks! Those are Korean."

"How the hell would you know Japanese from Korean?"

"How do you?"

Cecily pouted. Then she suggested: "Maybe we should ask someone. Jem told you the name of the shop, didn't he?"

"He did, but it's in Chinese. I can't say it."

Cecily slapped him on the arm. "We're going to be wandering around here forever!" she wailed.

"No, we're not," Will said firmly.

"This is all your fault. You should've listened to me. I knew the directions."

"Well, you take over then."

"I don't know the way from here!"

"Oh, fod yn dawel, Cecily!"

To Will's great surprise, she obeyed and stopped talking. It lasted for about a minute. "I'm sure we've passed by that creepy lion statue before," she observed. Will ignored her. So she continued: "Why don't you just call Jem and ask him for more directions?"

"I don't want to bother him. He's supposed to be resting," Will said. He made another turn and found a group of people queuing in front of a shop. He observed carefully for a few moments before concluding: "This is the one."

Cecily stood beside him and frowned. "Are you sure?"

"There's a queue, it's a noodle shop and those things look like Chinese dumplings," Will pointed out. "Here," he held up the paper where Jem had written some Chinese characters that was the name of the shop. "They look the same, don't you think?"

They joined the queue. When it was their turn, Will said: "I'd like three servings please. To go." The Chinese man behind the counter gave him a blank look. He then said something in Chinese. It sounded like a question. "Er… yes?" Will answered, even though he had no idea what the man just said.

The man shook his head and gestured at some of the cooking implements. Will looked to Cecily but it seemed like even she could not decipher what the man was saying.

Will tried again, gesturing expressively as he did so: "Look, we'd like just three bowls of noodles with the dumplings. And we'd like it to go, please. You know? Three? In a bag? To take away with us?"

"Maybe you should call Jem now," Cecily suggested.

"I said we're not going to bother him," Will snapped. He continued to try and talk to the man, with each of them getting visibly more frustrated as time went by. The people behind them in the queue began muttering in Chinese. Finally, someone in queue took pity on them and stepped forward to translate.

Having secured three plastic bowls of noodles, Will navigated more successfully back to the main street. Cecily made him stop at one of the more English of the Chinese restaurants to buy cilantro pancakes and fortune cookies. Thus laden with goodies, they made their way back to the hospital.