AN: Set maybe a day or two after the last chapter - the one where Bloom was delirious and thought Sky was Thor. Turns out a really sick Bloom doesn't make a whole lot of sense most of the time, not unless you know her entire life story at any rate. I'm thinking massive fevers that would kill anyone else, for the most part. She's got fire powers, after all. And maybe things blowing up, as she's not used to being sick.

Bloom wakes up in a room - that alone is cause enough for concern to her, she hasn't been in a building in a long time. The panic coursing through her has her sitting up straight, despite her spinning head, and looking around at the place.

After a full minute sorting out details - because the room is spinning with her head - she realizes she's in the Alfea Infirmary. That calms her panic, and then she remembers what happened on Pyros - the Winx and Specialists finding her, the dart getting propelled into her shoulder, waking up on the Owl, talking with Sky. Her hand instinctively moves to her shoulder, but there's no hole or mark there - her entire body hurts though, and she feels like she could throw up if she stays sitting up like this.

Weirdly enough, she also has a really fuzzy memory of talking with someone who might have been Sky, but she doesn't know when that was or even if it was Sky.

Ember gets her attention suddenly, jumping up onto the bed and licking her face with her sandpaper-rough tongue. It's like getting licked by a cat, and it's soothing to Bloom at the moment. "Come on, Ember. Let's see about getting out of here - this room, at least."

She stands up unsteadily, and the whole room starts spinning around three times as fast as before - she doesn't care, and makes her way over to the door. She gets out of it this time, and makes her way through the hallway - leaning heavily on it, but still. Of course, not even a minute after she gets out, she walks around the corner and right into Stella, Flora, and Sky.

Stella crushes her in a hug, Flora hugs her not nearly as hard, and asks "What are you doing out of bed, Bloom?"

Bloom breathes out "I'm alright…" and closes her eyes against the whole world's spinning.

Suddenly she's leaning against Sky's chest, and he says "Yeah, I'm not buying that. Considering you just fell right into me, I'd say you still need to be in bed, Bloom." He puts his hand to her forehead, and finds she's still burning up - fire magic or not, she won't survive a fever if she just keeps making it worse.

Stella says "We'll get Techna, Musa, and Aisha, tell them your awake. Sky, can you-"

"Right, take her back to her room. On it." He picks Bloom up bridal style before she can protest, and starts carrying her back to the room she just got out of. She tries to make him put her down, but she's still too weak to do much - and she stops when Ember climbs up Sky's leg and curls up in her stomach with her head in the crook of Bloom's neck.

Sky places her on the bed, despite her still verbally protesting, and sits down on a chair next to the bed saying "Bloom, listen. You're still not over whatever poison it is Diaspro used. You could hardly stand in the hallway, and you feel like you've got the fever to end all fevers. Also, you were delirious before, you were hardly coherent and called me 'Thor.'" Before she can try to argue, Sky grabs a piece of ice from a nearby bucket of it, and presses it to her forehead - it starts melting immediately.

She doesn't try to argue after that, but she does try to pick Ember up - likely so she can sit up. Sky takes her nearest hand in his, and Bloom starts stroking Ember's scales instead. As the young dragon thrums and wriggles around so Bloom can pet more of her body, Sky says "You're not good at being sick, are you?"

Bloom says "Never been sick a day in my life, Sky - not counting the day after the Millennium Party. And I'm not about to start laying around all day just because of Diaspro." She sounds annoyed and frustrated, but the not-letting-Diaspro-win-this-round thing is ruined when she starts coughing out smoke and embers. When she stops coughing, she weakly says "Damn, what was in that thing?"

Sky says "Some poison, Professor Palladium says it should have killed you." He leans forward and wraps his arms around her again, whispering "Don't ever get kidnapped like this time ever again, Bloom. I've been so worried about you."

Bloom immediately tenses up in his arms, and Sky asks "What's wrong? Bloom, what's wrong?" Instead of answering, her whole body starts trembling and the room temperature starts rising.

Ember starts growling and nuzzling Bloom's neck and cheek, almost like she's trying to comfort Bloom or calm her down - or just get her attention away from the topic. Bloom's breathing hitches, and Sky wraps his arms around her protectively, saying "Bloom, it's over. I promise, it's over. He's dead, you don't have to be scared."

As an answer, Bloom grabs onto his shirt and doesn't let go or even loosen her hold - she's got one heck of a tight hold on him, despite the fact that she's so much thinner than he remembers. That's worrying him a lot, she was not a challenge to carry - on Pyros or here at Alfea - and he definitely remembers her being at least fifteen pounds heavier than she is now. All in all, she looks like a bony stick of a person, at least she can still eat a normal amount of food and her stomach isn't caved into her spine.

Suddenly, the door opens and five girls run into the room. Musa throws herself into a hug with Bloom, Techna calmly walks over, and Aisha jogs over to the bedside. Ember twists underneath Musa to get facing the right direction to start sniffing her face and neck, making Musa laugh because her smoky breath tickles.

Bloom lets go of Sky's shirt at the sight of her friends, and relaxes into Musa's hug immediately. "Hey girls, how's it been?"

Musa nearly screams "We missed you so much! You've been waltzing around a forest all this time? And raising this little cutie dragon?!" Musa starts tickling Ember on her softer belly, making her squirm and crawl under Bloom's arm to escape her fingers.

Bloom laughs and says "Aw, come here. It's alright, Ember. Musa wasn't hurting you." Ember looks out from Bloom's side, and growls something, making Bloom laugh. "Silly hatchling, come here."

Bloom pulls Ember out and places her on her lap, and Flora says "She's so adorable!"

Stella says "She'd better not eat any of my clothes, or we'll have some boundaries to work out." Even so, she runs her hand along Ember's spine, making the small dragon arch up under her hand.

Bloom laughs and says "Don't worry, Stell. Ember likes fruit, not fabric." Bloom swings her legs out of the bed, but five girls tackle her at once and push her back onto the pillow. "Hey!"

Techna gets out of the pile and does a scan of Bloom, which shows she's still feeling dizzy, her temperature is elevated over ten degrees past her normal temperature. "Girls, I'm fine! Look, sitting up, talking, want to go get something to eat, any of this sound like normal behavior to you?"

They all stare at Bloom, and Musa mutters "This is gonna be a looong recovery, girls."

Flora snaps her fingers, and a bow full of liquid appears in front of Bloom - it's a sleeping potion she made, turns out she might have to make more though. Bloom drinks it dry, then yawns to reveal a glowing throat and asks "That was a sleeping potion, wasn't it?"

Flora says "Yeah…why aren't you sleeping yet?"

"Jus' slept for how 'ong? Don' wanna…lay 'round….all day…" Bloom closes her eyes and leans against Sky, making all of them sigh in relief, and Ember start sniffing Bloom's face and the bowl she's still holding.

Musa asks "Exactly how long can we keep her in bed if we all have classes? The school nurse can try, but…"

Stella finishes "It's Bloom we're talking about. She found a way out of that cell, the school Infirmary is not nearly that hard."

Techna says "On the bright side, her own innate Healing magic should make for a faster recovery. Sky, was there anything else? Coughing, vomiting, etc.?"

Sky says "Yeah, she coughed up smoke and embers. Don't ask me why, maybe it's related to how strong she is at times despite, well…" He gestures to her, and they get the message: she's so thin she doesn't look like she could carry a textbook, much less crush them all like she did back on Pyros.

Techna does another scan, and says "Alright, remember what Mrs. Faragonda told us? About how Bloom mixed her magical essence with that of Pyros?" They all nod, and she says "Well, looks like it had a few side-effects. Fire-breathing, the strength of a dragon, etc."

Musa asks "Do you think maybe it made her even warmer than she already was? Like her fever isn't as bad as we think, because her body got even warmer than before with the fire-breathing and stuff?"

Techna says "It's possible, but we won't know for sure until she's beaten the poison."

Bloom turns over in her sleep, growling something and setting the corner of the sheet on fire unconsciously, and they catch Valtor's name. Flora says "Bloom, sweetie, it's alright. It's just a bad dream."

Sky puts a hand on her shoulder, and she tosses and turns over and faces him - and then his leg and arm are in a death-grip worse than anything he's ever experienced before. He swears she's strong enough to snap his femur in two like a brittle twig if she moves wrong, and he starts working at her hands to keep that from happening. "Girls? Little help! Not that I don't like Bloom holding onto me - especially after losing her - but she's holding on just a little tightly!"

They all get the hint, and try to free Sky's leg before he can't walk - they get it after a few minutes, but largely with Ember's help. Ember curls up in Bloom's arms, and she settles down after a minute or so.

Aisha says "Musa? Scratch what you said before. It's going to be a really, really long recovery if Bloom gets nightmares about what happened."

Flora frantically asks "What did they do to Bloom?!"

Techna says "We'll just have to ask when she wakes up. Which should be in about six hours, assuming Flora's calculations were right."

Flora looks indignant, and says "You know everything there is to know about technology, and I know plants and potions!"

Sky doesn't say a word, running his hand through Bloom's hair - he can tell more damage was done than Bloom let on back on Pyros, but he's pretty sure she won't want to talk about it. Just like refusing to stay down and let herself get better - despite burning up with a fever or even still having poison in her system, on the Owl for instance - he's certain she won't admit that whatever it is that happened to her while Valtor's prisoner was anything more than annoying, boring, and a very long time to de-spell a brick.

Get better, Bloom. I need you to get better.