So this was a request from FrozenTinkerbellPotter-Lover15

I realized after I was done with this that this probably isn't the way I needed to go about this. But it's done and it's here, and I figured you'd all like another chapter instead of waiting on me to rewrite this whole thing. So, I'll be using that idea for a later chapter.

I've also learned I have no idea how to write someone being sick.

Hopefully it turned out okay

Enjoy~

"I'm fine."

If Félix heard those two words one more time, he would burn every dictionary he could find. His wife wasn't 'fine'. She tried playing it off, but he knew better.

It had been one week since Dolores's gift ceremony. Félix was happy for his daughter, but he was glad it was over. The last six months leading up to the ceremonies had been extremely stressful. Especially on his wife. She barely slept or ate. Not to mention she had to work harder than she usual would to keep up her happy façade. The last thing she wanted to do was ruin her daughter's, or nieces, special night.

He noticed the symptoms develop the day after the party. At first, he didn't think much of it. Just one sneeze. But one turned into multiple. Allergies, she said. But Félix knew better.

"Amor, I think you're getting sick."

Pepa rolled her eyes. "I don't get sick Félix."

"I wouldn't be so sure." He said with a teasing smile as he looked at the snow that floated down from the sky. Watching as she scrunched up her nose again, he handed her a tissue.

Snatching it out of his hand, she sneezed into the tissue. A gust of wind blew past them, rustling their clothes. "I'm fine. I told you, it's allergies."

"But Pepi, you don't have any allergies."

"I developed them late."

"Mi vida, please." Félix all but begged. He knew how stubborn his wife could be. "I think you've been pushing yourself too far. You've had a lot of stress these past few months. With both Isabela and Dolores' door ceremonies being so close. You need to rest."

The redhead didn't need to be told. She knew very well she had pushed herself. But, as her mother constantly reminded her, they needed perfect weather for the months leading up to the ceremonies. 'Just a sprinkle, we don't want the rain to ruin the flowers.' 'Not too much sun, Pepa. If you do, the crops we need will be ruined.' 'Clear skies, Pepita.'

The whole ordeal had her beyond stressed. Perfection. That's what was expected, from all of them. It was their mother's idea, to hold a grand ceremony for the gifts. At the time, it made sense. They all hoped that it would help ease the villagers into welcoming new gifts into the Encanto.

Everything went according to plan. No hiccups, not bumps. Just smooth sailing.

But then Dolores received her gift.

Her heart broke as her daughter covered her ears, begging her mother to stop the noise. Alma seemed to be the first to place the gift. Super hearing. Pepa wasted no time, scooping her daughter up and taking her into the room, praying Casita specialized her room like it had the others.

Luckily, it seemed like the room was, in fact, dampening the sounds. Her heart ached for her daughter while she held her, trying to calm her nerves. She wanted to cry for her daughter, but she couldn't even let that happen. What if her thunder hurt her even more? Pushing it down, she focused on Dolores, offering quietly humming a lullaby for her.

The following days, she made sure to be extra careful with her moods. Until Dolores could hone her gift, she didn't want to be thundering. She couldn't be the reason her daughter was in pain.

She also couldn't remember when she'd been so exhausted.

"Pepa, you're going to be late." Alma called out. Félix narrowed his eyes at his mother-in-law's awful timing.

"I know Mama. I'm leaving now." Her eyes softened as she could see the worry building in her husband's brown eyes. Cupping his face with her hands, she gave him a tender kiss. "I'm fine. Mi sol. I promise."

Félix walked through the doors of the Madrigal home with a slight frown. He and Pepa agreed to meet up after her work in the fields today. He began to worry when she didn't show. Pepa never stood him up. The nagging voice in the back of his head told him something wasn't right.

And then the weather confirmed his fears.

Dark clouds rolled in, covering the bright blue sky. Without warning, the wind picked up, nearly knocking him to the ground. Thunder rolled and lighting struck. The rain followed. Large droplets of rain poured down from the sky, soaking everything in an instant.

Félix ran towards his home, watching as all the villagers did the same.

"Casita!" Stairs formed instantly, taking him straight to his room. Pulling open the door, Félix froze.

Unlike Bruno, Pepa's room held two parts of it. When one first entered, it looked just as a normal room would. The walls were covered in rain dropped shaped wallpaper with teal woodwork that covered the bottom half of the wall. Once you looked further in, you could see the hardwood floors morph into a green grassy plain. The walls faded into a large open sky.

Or at least it should have.

Instead, inches of snow layered the whole room. A freezing wind blew past him, making him shiver. Rushing to their bed, he was greeted with more snow. He could see the faint red of her hair barely sticking out of the snow-covered blankets.

"Pepi?" Félix called as he peeled the blanket back. His heart skipped a beat. Pepa's skin, so pale, almost mirrored the snow. Her fiery hair stuck to her sweat covered head. Gently, he tried to shake her awake. Panic started to take control, as she showed no signs of noticing him. "Pepa?! Amor, wake up!"

"Papá?"

Spinning around, he watched as Dolores and Isabela's heads poked around the doorway. Dolores must have heard him. Panicking wouldn't help anyone right now. Instead, he took a deep calming breath. "Isabela? Please go get your mom."

Isabela nodded, running down the hallway. Dolores walked further into her parents' room, hands on her ears. She winced as another round of thunder shook the house. "Is Mami okay?"

"She's just not feeling well, Mija. No reason to worry. Your tía will make sure everything's fine."

"Félix?" Julieta called out as she looked around her sister's room. Agustín followed her inside. The eldest triplet nodded to the kids, a silent command to her husband. Agustín nodded, picking up both girls and taking them out of the room.

Once the door shut, Félix let the panic fill his features once more. "Julieta! Something's wrong!"

"Yeah, I can tell from the hurricane outside." Julieta muttered to herself. Brushing the back of her hand against Pepa's forehead, she began to worry. From the heat radiating from her, Julieta knew her sister had a fever. "Dios mio. She's burning up. Pepa, cariña? Can you hear me?"

Again, Pepa showed no sign of hearing either her husband or sister. "What happened Félix?"

"I don't know. We were supposed to meet after her work in the fields, but she didn't show. I came home after the storm started. When I came up here, I found her like this."

"Pepa. I need you to open your eyes for me." Julieta coaxed. Right now, it didn't matter what happened. She just needed her sister to wake up long enough to eat something. Afterwards they could figure it out. Julieta tapped her face a few times. They watched as she finally struggled to open her eyes. Her usual emerald eyes were clouded and unfocused. Julieta gave her a tight smile. Breaking off a small piece of an arepa she had tucked into her pocket, she brought it to Pepa's mouth. "There we go. Here, take a bite of this. It'll make you feel better."

Pepa's brows furrowed in confusion, but she did as she was asked. After eating the small offering of food, Pepa laid her head down, using her sister as a pillow.

"Why isn't anything happening?" Félix asked, panic filled his voice. Julieta's food hadn't worked. Pepa's cheeks were still flushed with a fever. His heart shattered as he wiped away the silent tears that rolled down her face. "Julieta? Why isn't she better?"

"I-I don't know."

"Where's Pepa?" Alma questioned as she and Bruno walked into Casita, soaked from the sudden rain. "She needs to stop this mess. The fields are going to be flooded."

Bruno paid no attention to his mother's irritation. Instead, he pulled off his poncho and rung out as much water as he could.

Agustín leaned over the banister. He had just shut the door to Dolores' room, when he heard his mother-in-law. "I think you two should come upstairs." His tone left no room for argument. Alma and Bruno shared a concerned look, before meeting him at the top of the stairs. He led the way into Pepa's room.

Alma stood in the doorway, stunned at the large amount of snow. She could see Julieta sitting on the bed, with Pepa's head in her lap. Félix sat beside them, holding her middle child's hand between his own. "What happened?"

"We don't know." Julieta shook her head. "I tried healing her, but it didn't work."

"What do we do Mama?" Four pairs of eyes stared at the older woman, waiting. Alma racked her mind, trying to think of something. Clearly, something was wrong with her daughter. But Julieta had given her food. Which she couldn't make sense of. Julieta's gift healed everything. Broken bones, open wounds, even fevers. So, why didn't it help now?

Were they losing their gifts?

No, if that were the case then there wouldn't be a hurricane assaulting the town.

"We need to figure out what's causing this." Alma rationalized. If they could figure it out, then maybe they could figure out how to help her. "If your gift didn't heal her, then it can't be physical."

"Maybe it's mental?" Bruno mused.

"What did you say?" Alma asked. Her tone had come out much harsher than she meant.

Bruno shrunk back at first, afraid he might have upset her. "I mean, it's like her body thinks it sick. Without her actually being sick. Because, if she were actually sick, Juli's food would have fixed it. Yanno?"

Félix ran a hand through his hair as he pieced it together. "I told her she shouldn't worry about it as much as she did. But did she listen? No."

"Worry about what?" Julieta asked.

"About everything being perfect. She's had this building anxiety for months." He whispered. The last thing he needed was for his daughter to hear them. "Haven't you noticed that other than at the fields, there hasn't been one rainy day in the past six months?"

"Now that you mention it..."

"But why would she do something like that? If it was too much, she could have just said something." Julieta questioned.

"And ruin the girls' celebrations?"

"Oh Mija." Realization dawned on the matriarch. Her daughter, her Pepita, was sick because of her. She never would have thought that her trying to keep the weather nice would have affected her daughter so badly. Placing a hand on her daughter's head, she apologized. "I'm sorry. I should have noticed."

"We all should have."

Pepa's eyes fluttered open.

Slowly, she sat up and looked around. A thick layer of snow and ice covered her room.

That's new.

Snow wasn't an unfamiliar sight in the Madrigal household. On the contrary, it was a common occurrence. But that tended to happen when one's anxiety brought forth the freezing temperatures and the snow. However, she'd never seen this much snow. Normally, when her anxiety hit, her cloud would offer small flurries.

Not inches.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar squeak. "Mami?"

"Dolores?" Looking towards her door, she could see Dolores standing there, wide and teary eyed. Without hesitation she ran to her mother, throwing herself against her. Pepa coughed, trying to get some air into her lungs. She hadn't been prepared for the sudden weight of her daughter. But, Pepa didn't care. She held her daughter close, trying to soothe her crying child. "Mija, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

Pepa tried to sit back, to look over her daughter, but Dolores only held on tighter. Resting her cheek on the top of the dark curly hair, Pepa spoke. "Corazón, I need you to take a deep breath with me. Okay?" Breathing in, she waited for Dolores to do the same. When she felt her breath in, Pepa exhaled. Dolores followed suit. "Can we do a couple more?"

Dolores nodded, keeping her head buried against her mother's chest. She copied her mother's breathing. Her own finally starting to slow down. Feeling more relaxed, the five-year-old sat back onto her mother's lap. "Excellent, mija. Now, will can you tell me what's bothering you?"

"Pepi!" Félix burst through the room, making both mother and child jump. Félix ran to the side of the bed, taking his wife's free hand in his own. He kissed the back of her hand, making the temperature in the room rise. "The storm outside stopped so I knew you'd be awake! Amor, I was so worried."

"Storm? What are you talking about?"

"You don't remember?"

"No, the last thing I remember is telling Juli that I was going to take a nap."

"You were sick."

Pepa rolled her eyes. "I don-"

"You do. And you were." Félix said as he held up a hand, silencing his wife. "Abuela seems to think it's all the stress you've been under the last few months. You had a burning fever. And even Julieta's magic couldn't heal you because you weren't physically ill. Please, don't ever do that to me again."

Pepa sat in silence, taking in the new information.

She could see the pleading look in her husband's eyes. He wanted reassurance. A promise that she wouldn't let it happen again. That promise wasn't something she could give him, and they both knew it. Her gift's abilities could be far too dangerous if she just 'let it go' as he told her to do so many times.

Instead, she settled for an apology. "I'm sorry, mi amor."

She watched as he shook his head, but gathered her and their daughter into his arms, hugging them tight.