Grievous was in luck. He had stumbled upon the forest's ranger's cabin. It was shaped like a large dome, and was built with stone to prevent invasion from snow-burrowers. After he killed and discarded of the two Hoosthregardee, penguin-like beings that were stationed inside, he raided their medical supplies. He found a pack of nutritional fluids that would make a decent substitute for his own formulae. Grievous plugged up the cracks in his organ sack before letting the fluids drip into him. He fastened the nutritional pack onto his arm with tape so he did not have to carry it around. As for his head injuries, there wasn't much available to help him with that.

He sat down in a chair made from furs in front of a small fire that was roasting a strange eight-finned fish, letting himself heat up. A lot of the pain the cold had numbed out had returned, and intensified as Grievous sat in front of the heat. After an hour of the fluids dripping back into him, Grievous finally felt his organs begin to rehydrate. Since it was not the formulae made for his organ sack specifically, they made him feel ill, but it was tolerable. His eyes began to droop as he stared at the fire, and without realising it, he fell asleep.

When General Grievous awoke, the aroma of burnt fish penetrated his senses. He looked over to the pack of nutritional fluids that was hooked into him to see it was almost gone, so he got up to replace it. Without warning, intense pain soared into his head, and it surprised him so much that he stumbled over. He found his footing again and supported himself on the bench which held the medical supplies. Grievous let out a gag of sickness and distress. He shut his eyes, trying to overcome the throbbing in his skull. It did not leave him though, so he was forced to work through agony. He felt himself shaking within his mechanical body with effort, but his limbs worked smoothly. Grievous got out a new nutritional pack, and replaced the old one. When he had finished, he looked outside the window to see the blizzard still raged on into the middle of the night. He also spotted a small ship. It was designed only to carry two, but Grievous recognised the design. It was adequate for space travel. Grievous was uncertain whether leaving the cabin would be in the best interest for his health, but he knew he couldn't survive on these nutritional packs, and someone would probably come looking for the Hoosthregardees he had slaughtered. The stress of space travel in such a small craft would not be good for him, but neither would be getting caught by the Republic in his condition.
Grievous took the remaining nutritional packs and placed them in a small sack that had sat at the end of a bed. He replaced his tattered cape with a furred blanket to shield his body from the blistering winds. When he got outside, he felt miserable all over again as his lungs were infiltrated by -17°c winds. He moved quickly to the ship, and got in it by spinning his body upwards once he had raised his leg on it. He regretted this as he felt like a hammer had smashed into his skull, but he hurried into the ship. Once he closed the cockpit, Grievous sat silently for a moment, getting to know the unfamiliar controls. He started the engines up, and considered where he should go. He would need to find a place that wasn't far and also possessed the necessary means for his repairs. When he figured his lair was too far away, he grudgingly realised that Dooku's manor was closer. Grievous didn't have much of a choice. He input the co-ordinates into his nav-computer, and began his ascent.

Half a week passed when Sith Lord, Count Dooku, was drumming his fingers on his desk. He was trying to figure out a strategy that would force the enemy to send troops away from a Republic controlled planet. If he could capture this planet, the wealth they could salvage would produce thousands of new battle droids or dozens of battle ships at no expense to both he, and his master. Dooku was having difficulty in deciding what order he should attack the surrounding systems. Some had civilian filled planets, some supplied resources, whereas others were strategic military positions.
His thoughts were interrupted as a droid entered his study. It was a small, clean, white robot that talked in a female voice.

"Good afternoon sir," the droid greeted, bowing its head once.

Dooku frowned, and turned his attention away from his studies, "Yes, what is it?"

"Our scanners have detected a ship entering the atmosphere. It is headed our way."

"Were you able to establish contact with the vessel?"

"No sir," the droid said apologetically, "it appears the ship is on auto-pilot. Shall we eliminate it?"

Dooku had considered this course of action initially, suspecting a trap or even a bomb on board the approaching ship. However, his curiosity got the best of him.

"Let it land, but be on guard."

The droid nodded, and headed back out the study. Dooku followed it out.

Dooku, his personal guards and a few battle droids waited at his manor's landing bay, watching the ship in the distance come closer. He eyed it suspiciously, but his feelings told him there was no threat aboard the vessel. He didn't recognise the ship, so he wasn't sure who it was.
The ship landed a short moment later, landing as smoothly only as a machine could pilot it. Its engines turned off, and no-one exited the ship. Dooku approached the ship with the battle droids in front.

"Open it," he ordered.

A droid moved forward and pressed a button on the ship. The cockpit popped open, and it slid open to reveal…
"General Grievous?" Dooku said, seeing a white mechanical body in the cockpit. However, there was something wrong. The General wasn't moving, and at closer observation, Dooku could see that he was unconscious. There was dried blood smeared on the right side of his face plate, and there was black crust covering the General's left eye. His body had dents and stray blood everywhere. A bit of Grievous's chest plate possessed some sealant for an obvious crack, and dried fluid from his organ sack stained it in places. He had a fur blanket around him, and attached to his arm there was an empty nutritional pack.

To the droid that had opened the cockpit, Dooku asked slowly, "Well, is he alive?"

The droid took out a small device and scanned the General over, "Barely. But he is showing life signs."

Another droid turned to him, "Shall we call a medical droid?"

Dooku wasn't sure if bringing the General back from the brink of death was worth the time or expense. He had failed his invasion on Hoosthregard, and lost the battle. However, Dooku spotted a shimmer of silver in the General's hand. It was a lightsaber, and one that Grievous had not shown him before. It was a new trophy, which meant another fallen Jedi. Perhaps the General was still useful after all. Besides, Dooku had spent many hours training Grievous in the Jedi arts, and it would be such a waste if he let him die.

"Yes, tend to his every need," Dooku said, turning away.

Grievous came to four days later, after being in a critical state. His entire droid body had to be replaced with new parts, his organ sack had been repaired and refilled with his personal formulae, his brain had to be exposed in order to clot internal bleeding and to reduce swelling, and his eye was repaired surgically to help the damaged pupil and broken blood vessels heal. After the doctors had finished, the only remnant of Grievous's escapade was a bandage that was fixed under his helmet, on his damaged eye. He would have the bandage removed in a week or two, depending on how fast it would heal, but he would have full use of it returned.
Dooku allowed Grievous to recover in his manor, as returning to his lair by the means of space travel would be too arduous. Dooku didn't pay any mind to his guest at all, as Grievous stayed out of his sight. It was such a large manor that it was hard to run into each other. Grievous was the only person who had a problem with his own presence, feeling ashamed that he had returned to his master in such a pitiful state. Still, he had avoided capture from the Republic and killed a Jedi knight, and that was enough for Dooku to let Grievous live.
Grievous spent the days either sleeping or receiving treatment from his doctors. He read over intelligence reports to keep his mind busy, but head-pain limited this to short bursts.
He grew more adventurous on the tenth day into his stay. Grievous walked into Dooku's study, expecting to see him there so he could get his reprimanding over and done with. However, Dooku had gone somewhere more private to talk to Separatist politicians and representatives. Grievous took the time to observe the battle strategies Dooku had been planning. The General wasn't even aware that they were even planning to lead another attack yet, but it appeared it had been postponed anyhow. Grievous could tell that Dooku was having trouble deciding what order they should attack the systems surrounding their primary objective. The wheels in the General's head already began turning, especially with the knowledge of the intelligence reports he had read under his belt. Without permission he started to play around with a hologram projector, already beginning to devise battle strategies for hypothetical Separatist troops and guess the defensive tactics of his foes. Grievous felt like he was back in his element, and had the best time in weeks playing with Dooku's expensive holo-projector.

Dooku walked in two hours later, and was taken aback to see that Grievous had violated the security of his study, and had obviously been there for quite some time. Like leaving a destructive puppy home alone, Grievous had reports sprawled over Dooku's desk and he looked like he had been developing holograms for a little while.

"What is the meaning of this?" Dooku asked, insulted that Grievous had violated his workspace with such a mess.

Grievous had not noticed Dooku come in, and his head swung around in surprise. "Count Dooku… My Master, forgive me."

Dooku raised an eyebrow as he approached to overlook what Grievous had been up to. He walked slowly across the reports he had opened, and Grievous even had the nerve to permanently highlight important sections. Dooku suspected his General had no intention of covering up the fact that he had sullied his master's study. The General's apology had only been hollow words, but Dooku decided to see what he had been up to before he would lecture him. A lot of the bits Grievous had highlighted were things that Dooku overlooked in his frustration of not being able to think up proper battle tactics. The Count then looked towards the holo-projector to see Grievous had planned a strategy of attack.

"I see you're as ambitious as ever, General," Dooku said.

Grievous gave a small, but vicious laugh, "No rest for the wicked."

"What have you done here?"

"I could see you were having…" Grievous paused, looking for the right word, "difficulty in planning an appropriate assault for Gedrun. I thought I'd have a look at it."

"A look?" Dooku said, glancing towards the reports sprawled out across his desk.

"I believe I have created an attack strategy that will ensure that your goals are met," Grievous said, "It is not completely perfected, but once I work out the flaws-"

"Perfected?" Dooku cut in, "Did you not use the same words on me before? Did you not say that Hoosthregard will be ours by the end of your assault?"

Grievous had been anticipating this, but he already had an argument prepared, "I asked for more troops to distract the surrounding systems, and you would not give me more. If those useless battle droids had held off the Republic longer, victory would have been ours!" He had not meant to shout at the end, and certainly not at his master, but his ambition and anger was beginning to get the best of him.

"You should learn to adapt to the numbers given to you."

"What of the Jilliad and Throton systems? Their leaders agreed to join us, and yet we still have thousands of battle droids stationed there, standing idle, when both have surrendered to us already!" Grievous yelled, and continued to ramble on about where those troops would be better placed.
Dooku did not appreciate his General's defiance at all, and he put a hand up, and held Grievous's oesophagus lightly with the Force, then tightened it. Grievous came to a stand still, and his eyes widened as his air supply began to slowly run out.

"How dare you. You come into my office without permission, and yell at your master about things that have already come to pass," Dooku hissed through gritted teeth. He held on a little longer, waiting for Grievous to reach the point of primitive terror before letting go. Free, Grievous coughed and gagged, clutching at his throat. Grievous made himself shrink a bit, lowering his head and posture as he coughed. It was something Grievous's race did, to assert the dominance of their betters. Dooku understood alien body language enough to know that the General regretted his actions.

"Clearly, you have forgotten your place," Dooku said, "Perhaps you need more time to recover."

Grievous looked back up at him, letting his one good eye burn in Dooku's own two. He did not say anything at first, as he had to push down his vast amount of rage before he was able to manage something like an apology. "It will not happen again."

Dooku had affirmed himself as Grievous's master again, and decided that this power struggle was over. He looked over at the holo-projector, interested in what the defiant, but brilliant General had planned.
"Well, let's see what you had in mind."

Author's Notes

I wrote a mini-dialogue exchange between Count Dooku and General Grievous a little while ago, and took great pleasure in it. The two of them are both alpha-males, but Grievous is the one who has to back down, even though he is the more ferocious of the two. I wanted to express how much Grievous would have to struggle to balance his loyalty to his masters and how he has a strong opinion about the effectiveness of his strategies. Grievous has been portrayed as a genius in understanding and creating battle strategies, and I wanted to reflect on that. I think if Grievous was given Clones instead of battle droids, he would be a force to be reckoned with.
I also noticed in the cartoons, Dooku holds Grievous in his favour but also is cruel to him. I thought it would be deliciously ironic for Dooku to choke Grievous with the very thing that the mighty General lacks, the Force. Then, Dooku would turn around and respect him as a General again.