Disclaimer: None of the Benedicts/the Savant World belong to me. I'm not Joss Stirling. Otherwise I would put the release of Misty Falls like… today!

Chapter Ten – Part One

"That was quite a trip" I say and let myself fall onto the bed, completely exhausted.

"Yeah, but at least those thugs are behind bars now" Xav replies and lifts me up so that he can pull the duvet over us. We just returned from a trip to Denver where we assisted in a Savant Net operation taking down a gang. It took three very long hours for all the Benedicts plus back-up to trap and arrest them.

"Are you alright?" I ask and turn my head to look at him. "That guy Rick didn't do anything to you while you were pretending to strike a bargain, did he?"

"Don't you worry, Cupcake. I'm completely fine" Xav responds and kisses me lightly. "Totally fine."

Two weeks later

"Xav, you need to go see a doctor about this!"

Xav shakes his head frantically and coughs again. Talk about proving my point.

Xav, please!

"I can do it myself" He says through gritted teeth.

I've been waking up to the sound of Xav coughing and retching in the kitchen every morning for the past three days. Thankfully, it's his week off so he doesn't have to take sick leave but he's been insisting that he can fix himself with his gift. To be honest, I haven't seen any of that fixing yet and am beginning to seriously worry.

"Xav, please, I'm worried about you."

"Don't be" Xav says and goes back to his revision. He's got med school exams coming up and this illness doesn't help his concentration. Sighing heavily, I shove aside his text books and seat myself on his lap, not caring about the infection risk. I cup his face in my hands and lean my forehead against his.

"Just hear me out." Xav groans in defeat and closes his eyes. "If you are too weak to heal yourself, please go to the doctor. Please just do it for me."

Xav turns sideways to let out a horrific cough and then looks back at me only to shake his head.

"Seriously?" I yell and slip off his lap. "So you're just gonna sit there and let this illness ruin what you've been working for for almost a year. I thought you said you could heal yourself!"

"I can" Xav shouts and gets up from his place at the dining room table.

"Then why aren't you?" I know I'm not playing completely fair because I don't actually know how hard it is to heal yourself but at this moment I'm too angry to care.

"Because it isn't that easy!"

"I'd figured that much but you've done it before. Shortly after we moved here you got the flu and you were up and running again after just one day!"

"It's different this time." Xav voice is getting smaller as he closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Different how?"

Xav is silent.

"C'mon, I'm trying to understand where you're coming from, Xav, but I can't if you block me out like this!"

Silence again. Then, a blurry image from his mind floats into mine and my eyes widen as I recognise the setting. Xav must have realized that I've seen something as he snaps his head up and slams his shields back up. The warehouse, that Rick guy staring at Xav intently almost as if he were –

"You told me nothing happened" I say and slowly back away from him.

Xav's silence is becoming almost unbearable. It physically hurts when he's blocking me out like this.

"Xav? Two weeks ago, when we came back from Denver, you told me that nothing happened with that Rick guy. That he didn't hurt you."

"He didn't." Oh so he can talk.

"Oh yeah? And what is this?" I gesture at Xav, whose clothes are slightly damp from the constant layer of cold sweat, and whose breathing is coming in short, shallow gasps.

"This is nothing. It'll pass."

I'm too pissed off to form coherent sentences so I grab my jacket, my phone and slam the door on my way out.

"Karla?"

"Oh, hi, Crystal dear. I haven't heard from you in a while. How are you?"

"I'm fine." I put the stress on the 'I', hoping she'll get the hint.

"Is Xav alright?" I can hear some clattering of dishes along the line and Zed and Sky's voices.

"To be honest: He's really not." I don't mean to worry her when she's 1700 miles away but I didn't know who else to call.

"What is it? Is it work? I'm sure he's just –"

"He's ill. Really ill."

I can hear Karla's breath hitch on the other end and that she's walking away from the voices.

"Crystal, what's wrong?"

"He's been coughing non-stop for the past three days and he's lying to me, saying he's fine and all and I don't know what to do." I almost laugh at how weak and desperate.
"Oh my God, that is indeed very worrying. Normally he's healed himself by now."

"I think that something may have happened in that warehouse in Denver two weeks ago."

Silence.

"But surely he would have told you."

"I only found out because his shields weren't up."

"You listen here, Crystal." Suddenly, the fiery and affirmative Karla is back on line. "You go home and take him to the doctor. I don't care how you do it but you have to get him to a doctor soon. Preferably a Savant one but at his stage, any doctor will do. You can't let him get worse. Call me when you've been."

I thank Karla and hang up to rush to the apartment. But what I see when I open the door makes my heart stop completely.

Shattered glass on the kitchen tiles, the smell of something burning in the oven, but worst of all, the trail of blood drops leading to the bathroom door that's standing slightly ajar. Just enough for me to see Xav hovering over the toilet bowl, dry heaving and crying.

I don't bother to take off my shoes or jacket as I rush to the bathroom.

"Xav?"

I'm answered with a whimper and more coughing.

"C'mon, Xav, we're getting you to a doctor. Now." I struggle to help Xav to his feet but manage to glance at the toilet. Oh Christ, this is bad. Today's breakfast mixed with blood and slime. And as I help Xav into a cab and make sure to dab his mouth with tissue and cool his forehead, I try to convince myself that everything will be fine.

Part 2 will be up at the weekend!

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