Right. Don't kill me, please, for taking so long before uploading another chapter. This one has actually been lying around on my computer for months now. I never got round to posting it though. I'm terribly, terribly sorry and to make matters worse I can't even give a proper excuse...

I hope, some people are still with me in this one and that you will enjoy this chapter.

I won't go ahead and promise you a certain date or time for the next update, just know that I have the story lined out. I know where this is going. I just need to write it down. I'll try and do so in a reasonable time.

Anyway, enough rambling. Enjoy the read.

(Also please note that this hasn't been betaed. All the mistakes you find are mine.)

Disclaimer: Not mine. Well, the story line is mine, I guess, but that doesn't really count, right?

"You did what?!" Seldom did my voice take on such a high pitch.

"I - I left him sitting on the steps to - to come here and to – to get you..." Shame flooded my mind when I saw the girl covering in front of me. She had become so much more confident over the years that I had known her; and here I was: Again making her cringe and avert her gaze. Scottish Dragon indeed.

"I'm sorry, Daisy. I didn't mean to get angry. Not at you, anyway. Him, however… What did you say he was doing?"

"He sat in front of Crawley House and he was drunk and when he got up he lost his balance and fell and he was unconscious and he didn't react when I called his name and I pulled him back on the stairs and he wasn't wearing no shoes and -"

"No shoes?!" Again, my voice sounded foreign to me. Who knew I could produce such a sound?

"No ma'am." Came the timid answer. "I didn't know who to turn to for help. And I don't know what to do and he'll freeze to death, surely and I don't know what to do. What am I to do?" She broke into tears when she had finished speaking. Apparently, seeing the good doctor in such a state had rattled her to her very core. I stood in front of her rather awkwardly, not knowing how to comfort her, when suddenly my brain processed just what Daisy had told me. He would freeze. It was snowing outside.

"Charles!" I called into the house, startling the girl in front of me. "Charles!"

Heavy footsteps announced the arrival of my husband.

"Yes, wife?" He said before he reached the door, not realizing that Daisy stood in front of it. "I, I mean, uhm… Yes, Mrs. Carson?"

"Oh drop it, Charles. Get your cloak and bring along mine. I need your help." He merely raised an eyebrow before turning around and grabbing our clothes. He helped me into my cloak before putting on his jacket.

"Keys, love." I called back to him over my shoulder, already on my way towards Crawley House. I vaguely registered Daisy walking some steps behind me, still sobbing. Charles would follow. I was sure of that.

#-#

"Richard." This time, my voice didn't sound shrill at all. His name was barely heard, not more than a whisper on the breath that left my lungs. He was sitting on the stairs of Crawley House, just like Daisy had said, still unconscious or sleeping. I couldn't tell from the distance. My legs wanted to run the last paces towards him, but I commanded them to keep taking normal steps. When I finally reached him my hand went to his forehead instantly, feeling his temperature. He was freezing cold.

"Charles!" I cried. "I need your help. We have to get him inside. His place or ours, I don't care. Just help me get him inside." Towards the end of my last sentence, my voice cracked and I felt tears brimming my eyes.

No crying now, Elsie Carson. That won't do no one no good. Still I couldn't help but feel my throat constrict.

Wait until you know how he really is. Get him inside, warm him up. There's no sense in thinking the worst now.

But how could I not think the worst? My best friend was sitting positively frozen on the steps of an abandoned house in which up to a few days ago the woman he loved had lived. Aside from being sure that he couldn't come out of this intact health-wise, I understood only now, the depth of his despair.

Oh Richard. Why couldn't you just talk to me?

#-#

We must have looked quite a sight. Between the three of us (technically only between Charles and myself. Daisy wasn't much of a help.) we carried Dr. Clarkson through the village towards his house. It was closer than our cabin and due to it being a doctor's home there would be some medicine. I didn't know all that much about most of it, but it was better to have something there rather than to have nothing at all.

When we reached his home, I noticed that the front door stood wide open. He must have forgotten to close it. That in itself made me frown, a frown that deepened once I realized that the result was that the house was as cold inside as the world outside.

"Start a fire, Daisy. Make it nice and big. We need it to be hot. Warm this place up. It won't do him any good if it's as cold in here as it is in the snow." The girl did as I told her

"And we will get him into his bedroom, Charles." My husband merely raised one eyebrow at me. I loved him all the more for not commenting on me entering another man's bedroom, for just doing as I told him to do.

When we reached his room, I left Richard with Charles and turned down the sheets on his bed before starting a fire in the fireplace. It wouldn't do him any harm to have a source of warmth here as well.

When I turned back around, Charles had already placed Richard on his bed.

"I, um, Elsie. You see, his clothes, well, um -"

"Out with it, husband.", I snapped. Charles immediately straightened his spine.

"His clothes are wet, Elsie. I'm going to remove them and would very much appreciate if you were to leave the room while I do so." I had to suppress a smile at his formal words. While I very much wanted to stay by Richard's side, I knew that arguing with my husband now would only lead to prolonging the time before Richard got rid of the clothes that were keeping him cold. Besides, I knew that he would be in good hands. Charles was a butler, after all, who knew how to handle the work of a valet. He would be able to help him change clothes.

"As you wish." I said, as I left the room. "I'll prepare some tea for him in the meantime. He'll need some once he wakes up." I simply refused to think about the possibility of him not waking up anytime soon.

When I entered the kitchen, Daisy was already busy preparing soup. I didn't know where she had found the ingredients, for I was sure, that Richard didn't keep anything edible in his house.

"I thought, a soup might help, once he wakes up." Daisy said. She had stopped sobbing and had instead again become the organized, efficient woman that I knew she was nowadays.

"A very good notion, Daisy. I was going to prepare some tea for Doctor Clarkson."

"I have already done that." she answered without turning away from the stove. 'Efficient indeed.' ran through my head as I went to the cupboard in order to retrieve a cup. I then went to the stove where Daisy was keeping the tea warm and poured some of the steaming liquid into the cup.

Before I left the kitchen, I stopped and without turning around to face her, addressed Daisy once more: "Thank you." My voice sounded so much smaller and weaker than it usually did.

"You don't know what this means to me, Daisy, you helping, I mean. He- , He's a very, very good friend of mine. If anything were to happen to him… Thank you for finding him, Daisy and for helping me now. Thank you so much." While talking, I had slowly turned to look at her. She just nodded once before turning back to preparing the food.

#-#

When I entered the bedroom again, Richard was lying in his bed, the blanket pulled to his chin, his clothes hung close to the fire in order to dry and my husband sat on a chair close to the bed, looking absentmindedly out of the window.

"Has he awoken once, Charles?" He startled when I started talking, his attention having been elsewhere.

"No, not once, love." Still his mind seemed to be somewhere else. He never called me 'love' in public or anywhere outside of our house. I sighed and crossed the room towards the bedside table where I deposited his tea. I then went back to Charles and rested my hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you, my darling, for helping him. I know, you and him aren't exactly friends and that you don't usually deal with each other. This means a lot to me." I looked directly into his eyes and felt tears gathering in mine.

"Elsie, he's your friend and while it's true that I don't usually interact with Doctor Clarkson, I know how much his friendship means to you. It's nothing, really."

Before I could answer, I heard a groan from the bed and immediately turned my head to look at my best friend.

"Richard!" I grabbed his hand in both of mine. "Do you hear me? Richard, come back to us. Open your eyes." Very slowly, he did as I had asked him. Carefully, he turned his head in my direction.

"Elsie? Cold…", he whispered before his eyes closed again. "So cold…"

"Drink some tea against the cold, then. Here let me help you."

Before I had even reached for the cup, he was asleep again.

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