Lowest on the Totem Pole

Chapter 34

Shaking, Anna stared at her reflection in the mirror. She opened the first drawer on the right side of the sink, pulling out a pill bottle. After reading and rereading the instructions and warnings, Anna opened the bottle and pulled a pill out. She rolled the pill between her fingers for a moment before tossing it in her mouth and swallowing it. A couple of deep, shuddering breaths later, she looked back in the mirror.

Greeted by the sight of Elsa behind her, Anna jumped and turned around. Elsa wasn't there, and when Anna looked back into the mirror, there was no one but herself. She rubbed at her eyes and looked again, confirming that she was the only one in the bathroom. With a sigh, she shrugged and pushed open the door, slowly making her way back to the dining room.

"About time!" Kristoff said as Anna emerged from the hallway. "I was about to eat your pancakes too!"

"You were not, liar, I'd have cut your hand off before that happened," Elsa grumbled. She looked up at Anna with a smile, and was surprised to see the girl's face flush yet again.

Anna avoided meeting Elsa's eyes, but sat down in the chair next to her, where a large stack of pancakes and a mug of hot chocolate sat waiting for her. "Th-thanks f-for breakf-fast," she choked out, drowning her pancakes in chocolate syrup.

Elsa watched Anna eat, wondering what was bothering the girl. Something that happened in her Drift had weirded her out, and Elsa was relatively sure that it had something to do with her. She became more concerned as Anna began sweating, and even more so when Anna's hands started shaking. When the shaking got so bad that Anna couldn't get her fork to her mouth without dropping most of the pancakes, Teresa spoke up.

"Anna," Teresa said. "What are you doing?"

"T-trying t-to eat, th-thank you," Anna snapped, her pancakes once again falling from her fork. "If I c-could just st-stop shaking-"

"Anna, you're sweating too, are you sick?" Elsa asked. She reached up to touch Anna's forehead, but stopped when Anna flinched away.

Once she realized what she had done, Anna looked up at Elsa in shock. "I-I'm s-s-s-s-sorry," she choked out. "I-I don't know wh-whu-why I d-did that. I j-ju-just - w-wow, I c-can't breathe."

Elsa frowned, placing one hand on the back of Anna's neck to hold her still and the other on her forehead. "It's not a fever," she said, her frown growing deeper. "What's going on, Anna?"

"I-I d-dunno, all I d-did was t-take my m-m-m-medicine," Anna stuttered, dropping her fork onto her plate. It wasn't really doing her any good anyway.

Teresa glanced quickly at the clock, standing up quickly and cursing. "Anna, it's two hours too early for that! The last pill you took is still in your system!"

"I-it w-wasn't doing me a-any good," Anna grumbled.

"That doesn't matter," Teresa stressed, walking around the table to stand behind Anna. She pulled Anna's head back so that she could press two fingers against Anna's pulse. "Your heart's racing; you're going to give yourself a heart attack. Come on, you need to lie down."

"B-but my p-pancakes!"

"They'll still be here when you recover from being stupid," Teresa snapped, pulling Anna to her feet. "Come on, Baby Anna, to the couch."

"I'm n-not a b-baby," Anna mumbled, stumbling after her mother into the living room. She dropped onto the couch without argument and allowed Teresa to throw a blanket over her. Teresa knelt next to Anna for a moment, wiping sweat off of the girl's forehead.

"M-Mama," Anna said as Teresa turned to stand up. "M-Mama, I'm s-s-sorry. I d-d-didn't think th-this would h-happen."

"It's okay, baby Anna," Teresa said softly. "It's just… You're on the maximum dosage already, and that's why you can only take your medicine every eight hours. It's so easy to overdose on that stuff, which is exactly what's happening now. Stay here for a couple hours, okay? And tell me immediately if your chest starts hurting. We'll have to get you to a hospital if that happens."

"Y-yes, Mama," Anna said weakly. "C-can I have some w-w-water?"

Teresa smiled and patted Anna's cheek before standing up and walking to the kitchen. Not a moment later, Elsa was by Anna's side, sitting herself on the floor in front of the couch.

"H-hey, Essa," Anna said, managing a shaky smile. "S-sorry, g-give me a couple h-hours and I'll b-be as good as n-new."

"Anna, what happened in your Drift?" Elsa asked. Anna's face flushed even more, and Elsa reached up to grip her hand. "I know you'll be okay, but… Are we going to be okay?"

"I- I- uh, It's, uh.. M-my Drift is a-always something I w-wish w-would happen. Th-this time i-it was just s-something I d-didn't know I w-wanted. D-don't know if I w-want. I-I've gotta th-think on it. B-but we'll be fine. N-nothing's gonna change," Anna said. "Ooh, bendy straw!"

Teresa chuckled as she held a cup of water in front of Anna's face. "Slow sips," she said. "And don't try to hold the cup yourself, your hands are shaking too badly still. Elsa, can you hold it for her?"

Elsa nodded, grabbing onto the cup with her free hand, squeezing Anna's hand with the other.

"I'm going to make a phone call to make sure we're doing all we can for Anna," Teresa said, more to Elsa than to Anna. "I'll be back in a few minutes. Hopefully we won't have to go to a hospital."

Elsa nodded, making a noise of affirmation as Teresa walked back out of the room. The slurping sound of an empty cup called her attention back to Anna, who was weakly pushing the cup away from her face.

"Do you want more?" Elsa asked.

Anna shook her head. "'M gonna sleep," she said. "'S it okay if I sleep?"

"Probably not, baby Anna," Elsa said. "You need to be awake to tell us if you start hurting. What if you have a heart attack in your sleep? I can't… I can't lose you, Anna."

"Okay, I'll stay awake," Anna mumbled. "An' I'm not a baby."

"You'll always be my baby Anna," Elsa said softly.

Kristoff stood in the kitchen, covering Anna's plate of pancakes in foil. Sven was sitting at his feet, and they looked blankly at each other.

"Sven," Kristoff said, "Do you ever feel like you're the only one who doesn't know what's going on?"

Sven looked blankly at Kristoff, his mouth opening slightly and tongue lolling out to the side. "Never, because we're always out of the loop together!"

Kristoff sighed and smiled, reaching down to pet Sven's head. "You're a good boy, Sven. Now go figure out what's going on so that I can be of some use to them."

Sven licked Kristoff's hand, seemingly smiling, but he didn't move. "But Kristoff, why don't you just go and find out?"

Kristoff groaned. "I would, but they've got a weird mood going. I mean, what if they just start making out in front of me? I wouldn't even be surprised!"

Kristoff could've sworn that Sven rolled his eyes. "But what if they need you?"

"Augh, fine! You're right!" Kristoff sighed and pat Sven on the cheek before turning and nearly running straight into Teresa.

"Kristoff," Teresa said, concerned that more than one of her kids was sick. "Were you just… talking to Sven? And making him talk back?" She reached up and placed a hand on his forehead, not sure if she wanted to find a fever or not.

"It's a thing," Kristoff admitted, grinning sheepishly. "Now, if you don't mind, Sven just reminded me to be there for my friends and I'm going to do just that."

As Kristoff ducked under Teresa's hand to walk to the living room, Sven stood and followed him, tail wagging and making sounds that could almost be called laughter.

"This just keeps getting better and better," Teresa said with a laugh, watching Kristoff and Sven in disbelief.

A/N: Once again, barely still Thursday but I'm here! This chapter was not in my plans at all, it just kind of happened. Next chapter, we'll be off to the sauna!

Thanks to everyone for reading, and I look forward to your reviews!

~Matt