I don't own The Sorcerer's Apprentice, 2010.
He stood over his apprentice, shaking as he felt for a pulse in the feverish Sorcerer. Balthazar had abandoned his attempts to wake his young charge after he had blacked out moments ago, but he needed to get to work. Dave's pulse was weak and irregular, pounding with a fluttering tempo that wavered every few seconds.
Not good.
Balthazar placed the back of his cool hand on Dave's stressed forehead only to recoil at the high temperature. He was running a very high fever, possibly brain damaging.
Also not good.
But this wasn't right! He knew that when a person has a fever the pulse is supposed to get faster to cool the body down faster…
The elder Sorcerer, with a glint of concern swirling in his irises, called a wash cloth laced with frost and filled with ice cubes from the kitchen, fearing for just conjuring a frozen cloth. Magic could conflict… Sickness could get worse… No good possibility really existed when it came to magic and sickness. He laid it on the apprentice's red forehead, watching the rapidly melting water droplets trail down the tense lines ingrained in the young man's face, and down the tired violet circles under Dave's eyes.
Balthazar then put his ear to his apprentice's thin chest. He could hear the quiet thump of his heart, and the eased flowing of oxygen from his lungs.
Regular breathing, check.
The elder man ran his fingers through his curly hair. He needed to get that fever down before Dave started to have some really serious effects like memory loss or something to that nature. Standing up, Balthazar all but ran to the kitchen, grabbing a thick towel on his way to soak it in the cold water in the sink.
He massaged his temples as he waited for the towel to saturate with the cooling liquid. This was bad. Dave was potentially dying with that high of a fever, and Balthazar couldn't use his magic to help him. Be sure to apply this with the fact that he hadn't taken care of a sick person in a long time.
The sea foam green towel was now at least three pounds denser with the water as he carried it back to Dave's weakened form with fast strides. Kneeling back next to the couch he peeled the sweaty t-shirt off of his apprentice's torso to replace it with the wet towel-
Balthazar did a double take, dropping the towel in the process. Shock filtered across his face that was quickly changed into fury that morphed into compassion. "Oh Dave," he whispered as he looked at the scene before him.
His frail apprentice's upper body was littered with bright white scars from deep lacerations. Then there were the prominent ribs that just about protruded through the skin of Dave's abdomen. The thing that infuriated Balthazar the most was the long, two inch thick ribbon of scarred tissue that wrapped around from the end of his right shoulder blade around Dave's midsection, and to his left hip.
When he figure out who did this… They were going to pay.
Balthazar let out an angered breath as he gently laid the towel upon Dave's fever ridden body, and made himself focus on the task at hand. He needed to bring down that temperature and get Dave out of that unconsciousness so he could get some rest.
"Dave." His firm voice called as he patted Dave's wet cheek. But nothing happened-
"Dave!"
His apprentice was suddenly wracked with tremors as Dave started to seize. The apprentice twitched and jolted from his spot on the couch, and Balthazar stood frozen. Dave twitched for a moment before it got more violent. Limbs flailing, the young man threw himself off of the couch only for Balthazar to catch him at the last possible moment.
Balthazar clutched Dave tightly as the younger flailed in his arms, scaring the living daylights out of the man. He had no idea what he was supposed to do!
"Dave! DAVE!" He screamed, hoping his charge would wake, but he kept twitching madly.
Tears were now streaming down the apprentice's face as a torturous look fell upon the young one's facial features. But Balthazar could only hold the weak student in his comforting arms as the shaking subsided. And when it did, the older Sorcerer couldn't help but sigh in relief.
Then suddenly a sharp inhale of oxygen broke Balthazar's thoughts as he looked down at his now waking apprentice. Relief flooded through his being along with an unshakable motherly instinct that must have crept up on him like a black cat in the dead of night.
"Dave? How are you feeling? Dave?"
There was no reply for a few moments. Until Dave's glazed eyes looked up at him."B-b-b-bal…tha….zar?" He whispered, but his eyelids were drooping with fatigue and Dave was forcing them to stay open. This didn't escape Balthazar's attention.
Rubbing his charges forehead soothingly with his circling thumb, Balthazar said with a smile, "Of course, who else?" Dave let a ghost of a smile light up his desolate features before Balthazar continued. "Now go to sleep, Dave. I will be here when you wake up."
He didn't need to be told twice. Dave was out like a light in seconds, drifting into a peaceful sleep.
Balthazar had a long night after he had placed Dave back on the couch. He rotated melting and frozen washcloths in and out of the freezer, re-soaked the towel, and even ran to Dave's section of the subway turnaround to find some Tylenol or Advil to lower that fever. This cycle continued well into the morning of the next day and into the afternoon until Dave's one hundred and five degree fever lowered to an easier to deal with one hundred.
Now, at least he won't be getting any drain bramage- er, he meant brain damage. (Maybe staying up for who knows how long was taking its toll…)
But Dave did look much better. The dark purple raccoon mask of dark circles was receding to the regular skin color, also the stressed lines on the young man's face had lessened as he slept without any dreams, and the flushed skin had gone down from fire engine red to an angry pink as his fever dropped. Yes, he was better, but the apprentice was still not well.
And to make it worse, he and Dave needed to have a chat about his childhood when he was well again. Sooner would be better than later…
"Balthazar?" A hoarse voice abruptly ended his train of thought as Balthazar rushed for a glass of water to shove down his apprentice's throat.
Punctuating his demand with a commanding, "Drink, you still have a fever." the elder man helped his apprentice sit up to consume the beverage.
As soon as the well rested Dave had finished the glass, a confused look passed over his features. "I distinctly remember having a shirt on earlier," He said with a raised eyebrow, "and Balthazar, why am I wet?"
And the older man couldn't resist. He said with a smirk, "Sounds like a personal problem to me."
"Balthazar, seriously?" Dave blushed at his master's dirty mind before breaking off into a rough coughing fit. Wheezing and hacking, Dave painfully heaved up air for a long while until Balthazar slammed a glass of ice water into his shaking hands.
"Drink."
"Thanks, I appreciate-"
"Drink the damn water already!"
And that was about how the next hour and a half went for Balthazar and his young apprentice, only stopping the tedious cycle for the occasional Advil to keep Dave's fever maintainable. It eventually dropped to ninety-nine degrees, making two Sorcerer's very happy- the elder especially. But the relief would not last long. Soon would come the awkward conversation between Dave and Balthazar and the older Sorcerer was expecting screaming and one angry David.
He was kidding himself if he thought Dave would be all right with his little divergence into his apprentice's person dreams. Yes, maybe the conversation would go like this:
"Hello Dave, you know how I invaded your privacy and scared the living hell right out of you?"
"Yeah, it was pretty disturbing."
"Well, you forgive me right?"
"Yeah, sure. Here, oh wonderful master of mine, have a cookie."
Yeah, he was pretty confident that was not how that was going to go down... Although cookies would be nice... However, for now, Balthazar needed to mentally prep himself.
This conversation was going to be hell.
So.. what do you think? I've been trying to crank out another chapter, but I've been having severe writers block. Sorry!
Please leave your thoughts and reviews! Thank you!
kirby