"Thou best know'st what torment I did find thee in: thy groans did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts of angry bears; it was a torment to lay upon the damn'd…"

----Prospero, Act I, Scene II, The Tempest

THE TEMPEST

---The Magical Malediction---

At first all he could feel was pain. Blindingly hot pain that reverberated through his leg. It shook every marrow of his bone, every sinew in his muscle, every nerve in his calf.

It was so intense that the moment he regained consciousness, he nearly passed out again.

With all of the strength he could muster, he tried to focus on his other senses. It came hazily at first, a dull pounding in his ears, but then it intensified and all of a sudden, he could hear.

Sounds exploded into him. People were screaming, cars honking, thousands of footsteps, voices everywhere. And…was this asphalt? It wasn't very comfortable…he couldn't remember for the life of him why, inthe bloody bullocks, he would be lying on the street.

It barely registered that he was clutching something soft. There was a shuffling above him, then the sounds of a woman sobbing and crying a name.

Neenie.

Suddenly, it all came back to him.

Waiting for the light to change, smiling at a little girl, a gust of wind…something running passed him, a woman's deadly scream, a child's shrill shriek. Then he was running faster than he had ever before, soaring through the air, a blaring horn, and falling…falling with the girl clutched tightly to his chest...and then…

Nothing.

Hector felt something being wrenched away from his arms. He tried to stop them…to move…but he couldn't. Someone was tearing his pant legs, checking his pulse, screaming for a …what was that word?

He pried his eyes open. There was more exclamation above him. He opened his mouth to speak, and a gasp came out. He nearly vomited…but he needed to know whether…that little girl…but no one seemed to understand that.

"Nee…nee…" he croaked sorely.

"Give him some room! He's trying to speak!" a man yelled above him. Someone knelt down next to him and brought his face closer so Hector could see him.

"What was that you said, son?" the person said. Hector saw a red cowboy hat perched on the man's head.

"The…that girl…is she…" Hector gasped.

"She's just fine, boy, she's with her mother right now…not a scratch on her. See for yourself." The man moved aside so Hector could see the golden-haired woman holding her daughter tightly, whispering soothing words in her ear.

Neenie looked over at the man on the ground. When she saw he was awake, she squirmed in Mummy's arms until she was put down. She ran around the people to the man lying on the ground.

She peered into his face. "…Hi…" she whispered shyly.

Hector smiled slowly, though pain was still evident in his eyes. Around him, people were craning to get a look at him; mothers shielded their children's eyes from his leg, bent at a crooked angle, and the blood seeping through his clothes.

Cordelia pushed through them to get to her daughter and her rescuer. Ignoring the strange man with the cowboy hat, she cradled Hector's head in her lap.

"Thank you," she sobbed. "Thank you for saving my daughter! Please let me help you…does it hurt anywhere else? Is it just your leg?"

"Yes…" Hector grimaced as he tried to move it. "I'm fine…I…I…just…need a…a…" His eyes rolled to the back of his head.

Cordelia slapped his face frantically, shaking his upper torso. "No! No! Stay with me! Stay with me! You have to stay awake! The ambulance is coming, somebody called them, they'll be here any minute! Sir? Sir!"

With a gasp, Hector opened his eyes and tried to sit up. He grabbed the man's purple vest and pulled him closer. "Madam…Madam…" he gasped.

Cordelia watched him, perplexed. "What is he trying to say? Does he think you're a woman?"

The weird man just looked at Hector strangely. "No…I don't think so…"

He finally was able to force Hector to lie down, but the more Hector thrashed around, the more he moved his leg, which made him scream in pain and twist in agony some more.

Hermione watched her mother and another man try to calm the man who had saved her. More people kept coming out of stores to look. Others just left, carrying on with their business.

She heard his screams in her head. She didn't know why he was hurting…but he was and Mummy was trying to make it better. She wanted to help too.

The large lady on the bench saw the little girl in the crowd watching. "Oh the poor dear," she said and made her way to the child. "Come here, darling…come here, you don't need to see this. Your mummy is helping him, let's leave them to it. Up you go…" She hoisted Neenie onto her hip and moved back to her bench. "Oh, and look, dear, I found your hat for you! Such a pretty hat it is…"

Neenie slowly took the hat into her small hands. She craned her head to look through the many people to see her mother and the nice man who smiled at her, but everyone was in the way…she couldn't see anything.

Cordelia glanced up to see a woman walking away with her child. At first a wave of anger swept over her…a wave of protectiveness. Her daughter nearly died today…and Cordelia didn't want Hermione out of her sight…not after what had just happened.

The man in the cowboy hat beside her fumbled inside his long coat, feeling inside one of its many pockets. On the ground, Hector was slowly ceasing his movements, calming down, though once in a while he would move sporadically.

The man whipped out a small glass bottle with purple liquid in it. "Aha!" he exclaimed. "Here we go…tip his head up so he can swallow…that's the ticket…" He poured the bottle's contents down Hector's throat. Hector coughed and nearly spat it out. Some trickled out of his mouth and onto the pavement.

Cordelia's eyes widened. "What are you doing? He's going to choke! Are you a doctor? Who…who are you? That's not even medicine!…it doesn't have a prescription or anything!…stop it!" she shrieked.

But the man didn't heed her. Cordelia watched as the man in the cowboy hat dumped the bottle's entire contents down the poor boy's throat. She knew medicine…she knew what morphine looked like and pain killers. She knew that you should never make a hurt person drink or swallow something before the paramedics showed up. Yet, here was a man who looked like he belonged in a mental facility, and he was starting to pour what looked like Kool-Aid down the throat of the man who saved her daughter's life!

Who is this guy?

Then, suddenly, adding to her ever-growing amazement, Hector stopped thrashing around. His screaming and twitching died away, leaving him lying settled…almost looking relaxed…on the street.

For one wild moment, Cordelia thought he had died, but no…he was breathing, all right…and opening his eyes…and massaging his throat…

…In fact, a few minutes later he was even conversing with the paramedics who had shown up, explaining all about how much pain he used to be in, but now he couldn't feel a thing! His clothes were mightily bloody, and he certainly couldn't walk yet…every minute or so, he would grimace and moan in pain, hunching over and clutching his leg as it shook convulsively…but after ten seconds it would stop shuddering, and he would straighten up, exhausted, but relieved.

Cordelia stood beside him with Hermione until his convulsions stopped.

The paramedics wanted to take him to the hospital so they could take a look at his leg some more, but he refused. He felt fine…perfectly normal, in fact, if not even better than how he felt before the accident.

They cleaned up the blood from his leg, but were astounded, above all, that minutes before, eye-witnesses had been going on about how his leg had an enormous cut running down the shin and there was blood everywhere. Some thought they could even see the whites of his bone. But when Hector lifted up his leg to show them, there was nothing…not even a scratch or a scar to show that anything had been there.

So they left, shaking their heads about false alarms, and wounds disappearing…just like magic.

Grandfather looked at the clock on his wall for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

Where is that boy? He should have been here by now, its past time to eat!

Ach, he's probably off hally-doodling with the girls and cruising the town, by the looks of things.

He straightened up, stretching his creaking back. It just wasn't what it used to be.

If I didn'ta know better, I'd say he got lost…either that, or he's been clean run over…

He chuckled and shook his head. Ha! No idiot would be that stupid!

Along the M-4, two brothers also chuckled with laughter.

"Oh, weren't those the good ol' days…makes me wish I could relive 'em again." Will said, glancing over at his younger brother at the wheel.

"Yeah," David said, smiling. "Though I'm quite certain that Cordelia's glad they're over. She wasn't all too happy when you and Becca threw that cheesecake at our wedding."

Will grinned. "At least we spared her the humility of it! Philly Greengrass wasn't so fortunate…do you know, she came to me later and screamed out that I should pay her back for her 'horribly ruined Cashmere dress'…though, seriously, that thing was horrible even before we ruined it. She was furious! It took me, Dad, and Sebastian to calm her down!"

"What did you do, throw her in the fountain?" David asked sarcastically.

His brother gave a loud bark of laughter. "No! She did that by herself, thank you!"

"So that's why she sent us a bar of soap for a wedding present…" David muttered.

Cordelia just couldn't stop thanking him. She offered him lunch, a ride to the hospital, even a ride to his house…but he refused everything.

"No, really, ma'am. I feel perfectly fine and someone's expecting me. I really must go," he said, edging towards his car.

Cordelia just could not believe it. He'd saved her daughter, nearly dying in the process, and now, for some odd reason, he was shrugging it all off.

"Please, Hector, at least let me have your telephone number! It's the least I can do," she pleaded.

Hector walked over to the curb, where he had dropped his grocery bags. They were now severely squashed. He carefully picked them up and threw the bunch of smashed bananas into the nearest can.

"For Hermione?"

Hector sighed and gave a weak chuckle. "All right! I give up----I'm staying at the Hidendale Inn for now. Room Nineteen. Will that do?"

Cordelia reached up and pecked him on the cheek before he got into his car. "Thank you so much, Hector!" she said softly.

Then she left for her own car where an exhausted Hermione was already nearly asleep. And they drove home.

When they arrived at Number Sixteen, Cordelia saw that her husband and brother-in-law were already there, just getting out of David's car.

Neenie, awake again, squealed and ran to throw her arms around her daddy. David immediately caught her and tossed her up into the air, making her shriek with laughter.

Will laughed and moved over to squash Cordelia into a hug. He helped bring the groceries in, all the while asking his sister-in-law about what had been going on since he'd been gone. "She looks so big!" he said, following Cordelia through the door. "Last time I saw her she was…"

"Just learning to walk," Cordelia finished for him. "And now she's everywhere…I can hardly keep track of her! She's been running all over the aisles in the store every time we go, and at the park…" she sighed, exasperated.

Will grinned. "Why? What happens at the park?"

Cordelia rummaged around the grocery bags to find the gallon of milk. "Last time we went, she was on such a sugar high that she tried to run up the slides like all of the other bigger kids, and fell off. Of course, that was after she pitched a fit in the sandbox and threw sand at all the other children."

Will chuckled. "It's the terrible twos'! So what did she do this time?"

David walked in with the last of the bags and Neenie seated on his shoulders, fitting her 'durling hat' onto her father's much bigger head. Cordelia looked up and stared David in the eye. "She ran out into the middle of a busy intersection and the man who saved her got hit a car."

Will's jaw dropped, and the grocery bags actually slipped out of David's hands. There was a slight crunch as the carton of eggs inside it landed roughly on the floor.

"She did WHAT?"

Cordelia told them. It took a while for David to calm down, as he kept hugging his Neenie over and over, telling her never to do it again. Will looked for a bit like he was about to vomit, but finally gained control of his innards. It was up to Cordelia to clean up the cracked eggs, separating them from the good ones.

"…So, he's staying at the Inn, he told me. At least for now. But…David, I really want to do something for him. Not just everyone would throw themselves in front of a car to save a little girl, but…I just don't know what," Cordelia told her husband.

"Well, what is he doing here in Bridgewater, anyway? Did he say?" David questioned, sitting down at the table with his wife.

"Why…" Cordelia thought. "No…he didn't. Just that he had another engagement and had to leave. All I know is that his car was a rental, he's staying at room nineteen, and he was given some 'miracle medicine' that healed his leg within minutes. It was so odd…"

"'Within minutes'? How badly was he hurt again?" Will asked from behind the refrigerator door.

Cordelia sipped on her cup of tea, absent-mindedly watching Neenie as she stuffed the banana in her mouth, smacking her lips loudly.

"It was horrible…there was blood everywhere…you could see the whites of his bone sticking up through the muscle and skin…" Cordelia recounted softly.

David watched her with anxiety written on his face. "But he's all right now? You said the paramedics showed up, right?"

Cordelia abruptly stood, massaging her forehead, thinking. "Yes…yes, they came, but it was like I said: that odd bloke and me were holding him down while he thrashed around, talking feverishly…I don't think he was in his right mind. Then the man made Hector swallow this…stuff…and all of a sudden, Hector was just fine! There was still blood on his clothes and all that, but his leg looked perfectly normal…not a scratch or scar on it! It was just so----" She broke off, searching for the right word.

"Unusual?" Will threw out.

"Alarming?" David asked.

"----Abnormal, I think would be the best word for it. I mean to say that how is that even possible? Have your leg completely savaged one moment, and then have it be perfectly normal the next? Mind you, it did jerk a bit every once in a while, but on the whole…" Cordelia ceased her walking around. Even Neenie, previously occupied with sticking the banana peels on the wall beside her, was watching her every move.

David leaned down to get his daughter's hat, which had fallen to the floor sometime during Cordelia's tale. "I think…" he started saying slowly.

Will waited for David to finish talking, and when he didn't, he decided to finish the sentence for him.

"You think…that you have finally realized you're a snarky git?" he asked in an attempt at a joke.

David, though, appeared not to have heard him. "I think…I've heard that name before…Hector, I mean…but where have I heard it…?"

"I don't know, but you need to help me come up with something to do for him," Cordelia said.

"Mummy! Done, see?" Neenie cried from her booster seat at the table. Cordelia went over to unbuckle her and wash her gooey hands.

"Oh! It's almost time for you to leave," she said, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Will, can you get Neenie changed? She acts the perfect angel, usually, when it comes to her clothes, so she shouldn't be a problem. They're laid out on the rocking chair in the corner."

Will looked at her. "You want me to change her?"

"Of course I do! Isn't that what I just said? She can't very well go fishing in this dress and I need to finish packing your lunch…" Cordelia trailed off when she saw his face.

Will looked over at David, who was staring at Cordelia.

"Oh, honestly, you two!" She threw her hands in the air, "It's not like I'm asking you to hike the Great Wall of China! She's two years old, it's not that difficult!"

Heaving a sigh, Will muttered under his breath. "You'd be surprised."

David chuckled at his brother.

Walking over to a very surprised Hermione, Will seized her and threw her over his shoulder. "To the bedroom!"

In the end, Will only managed to strip Neenie from her dress before she tore from his grasp and ran around screaming. Apparently she loved the idea of being naked twice in one day; and having a man she couldn't even remember change her clothes was quite exciting.

So that was how a very chagrined Cordelia switched jobs with Will so she could tend to Neenie instead. She snatched up her nude daughter and proceeded to the bedroom while Will smeared mustard on the sandwiches and David laid pickles on them, sticking more than half of them in his mouth rather than on the bread.

At twelve forty-one, Cordelia couldn't find Hermione's other shoe, David and Will got into a fight over which drinks they should put into the cooler ("Don't forget Neenie's orange juice, David!" Cordelia reminded him) and the next-door neighbor rang to see whether "that little girl of yours…you know, the one with the dreadfully long name?" would like to come over and play dolls with her child.

At twelve forty-six, Cordelia was finally able to hang up on the prissy woman and resume the search for the missing shoe. David and Will reconciled their differences in the kitchen, and Neenie came crying to her daddy about her poor stubbed toe.

"Kiss, Daddy? Kiss, Daddy? Kiss, Daddy, pwease?" she cried.

It wasn't until twelve fifty-five, after many agonizing minutes of searching in closets and turning the couches upside-down (which Hermione thought was the silliest thing), that they finally found the missing article.

It stumbled upon them quite by accident in the form of an orange kitten, who'd got his head stuck while sniffing inside. Poor little Puck wandered around, crying pitifully, with a little shoe stuck on his head until David released him of this most awful predicament.

At last, he was released from his prison. The orange kitten next found solace in the half-open tuna-fish can lying on the counter, which a certain person had left forgotten in the hustle and bustle of lost clothing.

With a cry of dismay, Cordelia chased Puck away and threw the empty can into the garbage. She glanced one look at the kitchen clock and grabbed her purse in one hand and her fully clothed daughter in the other.

Finally, they were out the door.

Author's Note: So, now you know what has happened to Hector. And, now, we are this much closer to finding out exactly what is going to happen!

Oh, yes...by the way my estimates are going, this will end up being around twenty chapters long, just so's you know.

And please, don't forget to review! It helps me update much faster, and write better. Just saying which parts you liked best isn't going to take up too much of your time, now, will it? That little purple button is very tempting, I've found out.

Cheers!