Disheartened, the two Merlineans headed back to the lab.

Elaine headed straight to the Encantus once they were inside. She was determined to find something that would help them get the Grimhold back. As she leafed through the pages she learned a little bit more about the history of the battle with Morgana.

Balthazar sat beside her. He was exhausted, and his spell to diminish the pain in his ribs was wearing off. He looked at what Elaine was reading, and added his commentary. "When we arrived Morgana was going to blast Merlin into ashes. I tried to block her, but…" As he spoke he pulled his sleeve back and showed her his arm. It was covered with burn scars.

Elaine let out a soft whistle. The scars were impressive. She put the book aside and turned to face him. "So, I guess we should work more on that shielding spell before they release Morgana. Right?" She said with a hint of a smile.

Balthazar gave her a look of surprise.

"What? I need to be able to defend myself." 'And you' she added internally. "Then once I have that down, we work on perfecting my plasma bolts!" She said with a smile.

Balthazar felt his mouth hang open in disbelief. Was this the same person who, only hours earlier, had said that she couldn't do this?

"I want to be that person, the one who believes in herself. I want to be the Prime Merlinean!" Elaine said with conviction.

"What happened to you?" Balthazar asked as he studied her. Her determination was new, and he was impressed by it.

"I don't know," she said with a shrug, and averted her eyes for a second.

"You're still a bad liar," Balthazar grinned as he spoke.

She turned and stuck her tongue out at him, which made him laugh. The laugh turned to a gasp when his broken rib let him know it didn't like him laughing. Elaine made a worried noise as she got out of her chair and knelt in front of him. She moved his hand away from his side and pulled the shirt and vest up enough to see a horrible bruise forming on his left side.

"You're hurt!"

"It's nothing," He said, trying to make it seem less than it was.

"Liar!" Elaine accused as she examined the injury. She gently prodded the area around the bruise. His sharp intake of breath told her how bad it was. "You probably have a broken rib."

She got up and went to the cabinet where she kept a large first aid kit. She pulled it out and hurried back to Balthazar. She put the kit on the table next to the Encantus. With a look on pure concentration she opened the book and thumbed through it, looking for a spell she had seen earlier.

When she found the right page she left it open then turned her attention to the first aid kit. She got out the rolls of bandage.

Balthazar watched her run over to the cabinet then return with the first aid kit. He expected her to turn her attention to him, but then she leafed through the Encantus first. This made him wonder what she was up to. He was about to ask, when she turned her attention back to him.

"Take off your shirt," she said in a tone that said she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Reluctantly he started unbuttoning the vest, then the shirt. She had to help him get the shirt off, because moving too much caused him to make pained noises.

He watched her work as she gently starting bandaging up his side. He had to try and not make pained noises as she tightened the bandage to keep his ribs from moving.

"It's you," she whispered as she worked.

"What?" he asked her, not sure what she had meant by the comment.

She blushed, and turned to read the Encantus. When she turned back to him she was still bright red. "You're the reason I've changed," she spoke softly as she called a circle to spring up around them.

He couldn't answer because she placed her hands on the bandages, right over the broken rib. His breath caught with the pain of the pressure she was placing on the rib.

The ring on her finger was glowing brightly as she flowed her own energy into the injury, binding the bones back together.

If he had known what she had been planning, he would have stopped her. This kind of healing was dangerous to the sorcerer, because it took the life force of the healer to mend the injury. He couldn't stop her now that she had started, because it might backfire and kill her. He bit his lip and waited with held breath as she knit the bone with magic.

A minute later Elaine broke the circle and almost collapsed. Strong arms grabbed her as she started to fall. She sighed as his arms pulled her close to his chest. He made a soft noise as he pressed her to the bandage, which was still sore.

"That'll take a couple days to fully heal," she said weakly as Balthazar held her close.

"You idiot. Why did you have to go and do that? I would have healed just fine in time." He reprimanded in her ear.

"You need to be as strong as you can be now. We didn't have time for you to heal normally," Elaine explained as she leaned her head back against his shoulder.

Balthazar wanted to shake her in frustration. Instead he moved her enough to kiss her forehead lightly. "What about you? You need to be strong if you're going to defeat Morgana."

Elaine closed her eyes and smiled, enjoying the feeling of his arms around her. "I'll be fine. Just a few minutes of rest and then some sugar and I'll be good as new," she said.

"You didn't donate blood Elaine," he said with a frown. "You gave me some of your life force."

Elaine chuckled as she rested. "I know that, but the concept is the same."

"You're insane," Balthazar retorted with a snort.

Elaine just smiled and held up her fingers an inch apart, like had had done to her in China Town. Then she took a deep breath and got up. Her legs were unsteady for just a moment, but she pushed herself to stand. She walked over to the small dorm-style fridge that she and Karen had placed under the stairs. She pulled out a Poweraid and downed the blue liquid slowly.

Balthazar let her go, and watched her warily. She seemed to be a bit unsteady, but it didn't seem that bad. Once she finished the sports drink she looked much better. She grabbed a couple of apples from the fridge and tossed one to him. He caught it and took a bite.

She came back over, munching on her apple. She sat down in the chair across from his once more, and he found himself missing the feeling of holding her. He almost reached for her, but stopped himself. He needed to be a teacher at the moment, not a lover.

"So," she started, her voice soft. "Strong enough to go at it?" She asked with a sly smile.

Balthazar mistook her meaning and turned a bright shade of red. "I don't think this is quite the time for that," he said with a surprised tone.

"For training?" She asked, eyebrow raised. She wondered what he had thought she meant.

"Oh! Yes," he said with an embarrassed expression. "Training! That would be good, I think." He stammered out. "Put your old-person shoes back on." He added with a smirk.

Elaine laughed and went over to the cabinet and pulled out the shoes. She put them on and walked over to the Merlin circle. She stood at the far end of it and activated one of the smaller circles around her. "Hit me with your best shot!" she said, a wicked grin lighting up her face.

Balthazar stood, put on his shirt again and walked to the other side of the circle. He turned a bright shade of red once more at taunt. He really needed his mind to get out of the place it had sunk into.

"Ready?" He asked as he formed a plasma bolt. At her nod he released it, even though he was worried about her not having the strength to block it after all that healing. He was pleasantly surprised to see her not only block it, but send it flying back at him. He blocked it with his own shield, and a game of Pong resulted. The bolt flew back and forth between their shields for a few minutes.

Eventually Balthazar added blasts from the Tesla coils to the plasma bolt. She almost blocked each one successfully. A few made it through her shielding and hit her with a vicious zap. It hurt, but that only seemed to make her more determined.

Within an hour Elaine had it down pat. She was able to block each attack seamlessly, then take the energy and form a plasma bolt to throw back. She even managed to get a bolt through Balthazar's shield. It hit him and knocked him on him back.

Elaine broke her circle and ran to him with concern. "Balthazar, I'm so sorry!" she cried as she knelt down next to him on the floor.

He laughed and sat up slowly. "I'm okay Elaine, don't worry."

She bit her lip and checked his side, ignoring his protests. Once she was satisfied that his ribs were alright she stood and helped him up.

"I think you're as ready as we can get you in the short amount of time we have," Balthazar said as she pulled him to his feet.

Elaine held his hands for a minute before letting go reluctantly. "Are you sure?" She asked.

"No, I'm not," he answered honestly. "But, we don't have time to waste. We have to go now." He said as he grabbed his vest, coat and hat.

As he pulled on the rest of his outfit, Elaine went to grab her leather jacket from the cabinet. She didn't think she was ready, but she knew they were out of time. They were hoping to get the Grimhold back before Morgana could be released.

"The tracking spell is ready," Balthazar said as they headed to the car. He triggered the bio-metric spell as they got in the car, and drove away. A cloud appeared above a high-rise, in an upscale neighborhood. They took off in that direction.