Chapter 17 - Natalie's sick

"John, wait." Helen says as Druitt teleports away she sighs. They all then went to work to make sure that everything was back up and running correctly, Henry and Natalie went to Henry's lab to double check the system while Will and Magnus went to go and find Kate and the Big Guy. Finding them hanging at the top of the evaluator shaft they make quick work of getting them out safely. With everything no back to normal Magnus decide to let the team have the night off, after all that they had been through today they deserved it.

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It was now a few days after John had disappeared, everyone one busy working except one. Magnus had just returned to her office after lunch and having spent most of her morning down in the lab running some tests, she had some paperwork that needed to be done. As she had been going through the paperwork she suddenly realised, she hadn't yet seen her daughter that day. Usually she would have at least seen her once or twice by now, but to have not seen her at all was a little worrying to Helen. She tried to contact Natalie on both her phone and the radio, but with no answer she went on to see if anyone else had seen her. With no-one having seen her Helen then went to go search for her, starting with her office which was just down the hallway from her own. Knocking at the door, she receives no response so she opens it to find it empty, next she tried the kitchen, maybe she had been so busy that she was having a late lunch. No she wasn't there either, so the next place she thought could be the records room, Natalie had been spending a lot of her time down there as there was so many old files that she was determined to go through. This is where Helen went to next, detouring through the abnormal levels just to double check her daughter wasn't somewhere there checking on some of the patients, Helen had now reached the record room, looking inside she was surprised that Natalie wasn't here either. This was one of the last places she would have thought her daughter to be, the only place she had yet to check was Natalie bedroom, but she couldn't possible still be there Natalie was like her and early riser and would get straight to work first thing in the morning. Figuring this was her last option before really starting to worry that's where she headed.

Will had bumped into Helen on her way to her daughters room,

"Hey Magnus, any luck finding her?" He asked

"No nothing, I've got one last place to look. But if she's not there I don't know where she would have gone."

"I'm sure she's here somewhere, maybe she's been moving around and you keep missing each other." He said trying to point out there could be another reason she couldn't find her,

"Maybe your right Will, but surely she would have answered her phone or radio when I called."

"Maybe she left them sitting somewhere and forgot to pick them up when she left. I'm sure you find her and everything will be fine, I better let you go, call me if you need help." Will said before heading back down the hallway. Helen thanked him before continuing on to Natalie room, upon reaching her destination Helen knocked on the door,

"Natalie." No answer, so she tried again,

"Natalie are you in there?" Still no response so she open the door, she doesn't expect to see what she does. Usually Natalie's room is kept neat and tidy, she would never leave her room in the state it was currently, her bed wasn't made, dirty clothes on the floor also dirty dishes on the table she had. This made Helen worry even more, something had to be wrong, but she first needed to find her daughter. She made her way towards the bathroom door wanting to check to see if she was in there first before leaving, that's when all of a sudden she heard a loud noise coming from the bathroom. The sound of glass breaking and something heavy hitting the floor, Helen quickly covered the last few steps to the door. Opening the door she looks in to find her daughter collapsed on the floor, she makes her way to Natalie checking her vitals, she finds that her daughter is running an extreme temperature. That would explain why she had collapsed, but what caused her temperature she didn't know. Helen quickly radioed for someone to help she needed to get Natalie to the infirmary as soon as possible, Will and the Big Guy were the ones to answer her call. When they arrived they saw what was going on and helped get Natalie onto a gurney and begun to make they way to the infirmary, Helen stayed back so she could see if she could find any indicators as to what was going on, but before they left she instructed them that when they arrived to get an I.V into as soon as possible.

Looking around the bathroom, Helen spots something next to the sink. It was an open notepad that had something written on in, upon closer inspection she saw that her daughter had been keeping track of her illness. Writing down when see did temperature check or when she took any medication, Helen also saw that Natalie had written what she had thought she had. Seeing this had made Helen both happy and sad, happy that her daughter had been keeping track of her symptoms but also sad she had let it get this bad and hadn't called her. She grabbed the notebook and made her way out , double checking the bedroom quickly to see if there was anything else. Not seeing anything she quickly made her way down to the infirmary, she needed to find out what was making Natalie so sick, and stop it. Will sees her enter,

"We got her hooked up to the monitors, Big guy got an I.V. in so she's getting fluids. But Magnus her temperature its alarmingly high." He explains. Hearing this was not what Helen had want to hear, unfortunately there wasn't anything else but I.V. at the moment until she worked out what was causing it,

"Until we know more, I can't give her anything. According to what I found on this, she already tried a few different treatments, they don't seemed to of had any affect. She's gone down hill very fast." Magnus said, looking over and saw that the Big guy had now moved to taking some blood so they could begin test quickly. She silently thanked him, walking over to grab the blood. Turning she makes her way out and down the corridor to the lab, Will followed that way he was on hand if she need his help.

After what seemed like years, but was really only an hour Magnus had finally begun to get answers. The test came back indicating that Natalie had some sort of flu, Helen began to try different treatments on some of the sample she had, trying to work out the one that would work for Natalie. It took almost another half an hour before she found the right one, showing that Natalie had a highly aggressive type of the flu, one that would take a lot of work to combat. Knowing this Magnus made her way back to the infirmary to begin treatments. She had sent Will back to he office telling him there wasn't anything he could do at the time, she would call him if she needed. Helen walked in and saw the Big Guy keeping an eye on Natalie, they had such a close bond considering how little her daughter had been there growing up. Natalie's temperature hadn't gone down, but also hadn't risen anymore so the I.V. was helping some. Seeing her daughter laying there unconscious was hard for Helen, but now she new what she could do to help, she took the medication she had brought in with her and injected it into Natalie's I.V., she would need to repeat this every couple of hours until Natalie recovered. Helen then sent the Big Guy off to get some food and take some time to himself, she knew that Natalie wouldn't wake for awhile so she didn't need him at the moment. Taking this time to just sit with her daughter, that's how she spent the rest of the night. Will, Kate and Henry had all come down to check in at some point, wanting to make sure that Helen didn't need anything. It was close to midnight when the Big Guy returned for the last time, ordering Helen to go and get some rest, as she would be no use to her daughter if she exhausted herself.

"Go, I'll watch her. If something happens I'll call you." He told her while almost pushing her out of the room. Helen didn't like this but she knew he would not allow her back in unless she went and slept for a few hours or at least tried.

The next morning Helen returned to the infirmary, having not been able to get any sleep she had gone back to her office for a few hours any got some work done. Even though he knew that she hadn't slept Biggie allowed her to enter, she checked Natalie vitals which hadn't changed much, but they were showing the signs of returning to normal. The Bug Guy left to go get some food as he knew that Helen wouldn't have eaten anything yet, he return with a tray full of food and a pot of tea. Magnus smiled at this and thanked him, even though she wasn't hungry she ate what he brought her knowing that she really should to keep her energy up so she can help Natalie. There was a few times during that day that Natalie began to decline again, luckily both Helen and the Big Guy were there to administer more medication and get her back under control. It was now night time again, this time it was Will who agreed to take the nights shift. Knowing that Magnus and Biggie had a rough day, and now that Natalie had stabilised he didn't see the need for them to be here. He kicked them out Helen making him promise to call her the second anything went wrong, he agreed shutting the door behind them. A few hours into the night and having received a decent amount of medication Natalie began to stir, her temperature had lowered considerably after her last couple of rounds of injections. She looks dover and saw Will asleep in the chair next to her bed, this made her smile. Continuing looking around the room she can see the set up that she had connected to her arm, this told her something bad had happened and she knew she was going to be in trouble for not telling her mother sooner. Trying to sit up a little she groans, not having the strength to do this, this brings Will attention he wakes.

"Nat, your awake. Magnus will be so happy to hear this." He says as he gets up and makes his way to the phone. He calls Magnus telling her she needed to come down straight away, but left out that it wasn't because something was wrong. Turning back to rejoin Natalie he notices that she is still trying to sit up but failing, he runs over to help, helping by raising the head of the bed a little but not too much that she was fully sitting up.

It hadn't taken Magnus long at all to make her way back to the infirmary, after receiving Will's call she thought that Natalie had began to decline once again. Entering the infirmary Helen was shocked, not only was Natalie ok she was sitting up and awake,

"Hi, mom." Natalie said, a little croaky. She looked sheepishly at there mother not knowing what to expect, was she going to be yelled at for not telling her she was sick. Or was her mother going to be just glad she was better now. It took a few tries before Helen was able to speak, getting over the shock her daughter was in fact ok.

"Dear God Natalie, don't ever do that to me again I was so worried." She told her daughter while coming over to give her a hug, before quickly checking her vitals making sure they where still good.

"I'm sorry mom, I was going to tell you. Things just went from bad to worse so quickly. How long was I out? Did you find out what it was I have?" Natalie asked Helen.

"Over a day, luckily I was there when you collapse otherwise I might not have found you. I don't want to imagine what would have happen then."

"Then don't mom, you were there. That's all that matters. So what my diagnosis?"

"Somehow you manage to catch a very resistant type of the flu, luckily it was one I have a treatment for. We will need to keep up with the injections until you have fully recovered, don't give it a chance to come back." Helen explained while finishing checking her daughter's vital, she then went on to continue.

"You should get back to sleep, you need the rest. Now that I know your ok I need some too." She looked over to Will, "You'll stay still just in case?" He nodded and said he would stay as long as he needed to. With that Helen gave Natalie another hug before heading of to get some sleep of her own.

Helen allowed her daughter to leave the infirmary the next night under the pretence she would stay in her room, that way she was still close where Helen could keep checking on her. She informed Natalie on the medication she had to continue to take, but with her daughters own medical training she was leaving this up to her to do, that way she wouldn't need to stay hooked up to anything and would just need to do injections every four hours. It took almost a week for Natalie to get back to normal, and it was only then that Magnus told her off,

"You really should have come to me sooner."

"I thought I had it under control, I mean you saw my notes."

"Still things escalated quickly, if I had know I would have allowed you to continue monitoring yourself. I would have just check in more frequently to make sure, I would have been more prepared when things went bad."

"Alright I know, next time I'll tell you. Even if it's the smallest thing. I promise only if you do the same." Natalie said, adding in that last bit. She knew her mother would have don the sam for maybe even worse, trying to work through and pretending she wasn't sick at all. It wouldn't have been the first time she had done it, Helen was notorious for putting others before herself.

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