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How to properly care for your Subject.
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Subject is Sick!
Subject slept in and did not come down for breakfast which is not like him at all. Aang was worried but didn't want to bother him after yesterday. I have no qualms about bothering Subject. I bother Subject all the time. I was sure he would have recovered from his drunken revelry.
I went to seek out Subject and I found him in his room. He was still in bed and had a high fever. He was sweaty and shivering and tossing about the place. He was a bit delirious and in his delirium he seemed to be really happy to see me. I put my hand on his forehead and he felt like he was on fire! Literally and no pun intended. I know firebenders feel a bit warmer than the rest of us but I did not think this was normal.
I went to get some water and tried to heal him with it, right then and there. Waterbending can heal injuries but not most common illnesses like colds and flu. Yugoda told me that they have to be allowed to run their course. I still thought it was worth a shot. Not only did the waterbending healing not work, Subject picked up the bucket of water and poured it all over himself. Subject's shirt clung to him when it was all wet and I was momentarily distracted. I asked Subject how he felt and eventually got a mumbled dreadful in response.
Chit Sang is unsurprised at Subject's condition and he feels a little guilty because he forgot to tell Subject that you can't firebend in the coolers. Well, you can but it makes firebenders really sick when they do that. Apparently most firebenders make the mistake of using their firebending to keep them warm the first time they get thrown in there. According to Chit Sang, a sickness would hit them a few days afterwards and they'd be down for the count, and then bad things would happen to them in prison and they'd never firebend in the coolers again. Chit Sang did not elaborate on what bad things entailed and I am grateful. I have a feeling that I really do not want to know. They called it "cooler fever" in prison and it has something to do with expelling too much heat and energy (firebending uses a lot of both) absorbing too much cold from the sub zero temperatures in the cooler that makes them sick. Chit Sang with his vast medical knowledge has prescribed that Subject just needs rest.
Chit Sang is a bigger idiot that Subject. I didn't think it was possible that there was a bigger idiot out there than my Subject, but there is. Who forgets to tell someone something like this before you get them thrown in a cooler? I mean really now, who does that? Chit Sang said, in his defense, that he was so excited about escaping that he just forgot to tell Subject. I am beginning to suspect Chit Sang is not especially bright.
Sokka is feeling guilty because the cooler was his idea and they didn't even end up using it to escape and now he has made Subject sick for nothing. Sokka is doing the woe-is-me-guilty dance that is normally the domain of Subject. I am checking on Subject frequently. I don't have time to sit and hold his hand after all. But I come back at least every two hours. Each time I check on him, he says he feels dreadful but is no worse.
Later that day…
As I am the closest thing to a medical professional our group has, the care of sickly Subject has fallen entirely to me. Subject will just have to get better the old fashioned way. I have made him comfortable and every two hours I check his temperature and make him drink water, every four hours I make him have a hot honey lemon tea. Subject is dozing fitfully and is most grumpy when woken.
Delirious Subject is prone to mumbling incoherently. Once I thought Subject was coherent, but he obviously wasn't because it became apparent that he thought I was his Uncle and he was in Ba Sing Se again. I was slightly offended by this. Do I look like Subject's Uncle? When I last checked I was not a portly, hairy, old firenation general.
When he thought I was his Uncle and he apologized to me at length for everything Subject feels he has ever done wrong to his Uncle. It was a long list. Subject apologized in chronological order, working backwards. When he started apologizing for stealing the last dim sim, even though he knew his Uncle wanted it, at some port town restaurant they were in two years agoI stopped the flow of apologies because for crying out loud, I get it, you're sorry and you are being ridiculous. You're apologizing for a dim sim incident that happened two years ago. As Subject's Uncle, I magnanimously forgave him all his foibles, even his last dim sim thievery. This calmed him somewhat.
The next time he was less delirious and seemed to know it was me, but he is obvious still incoherent because he kept asking me why I was always so mad at him. Normal Subject knows the answer to this. I have many reasons for being mad at him, but all of them escaped my brain in that moment. He also told me that I was pretty which assuaged my anger somewhat at being mistaken for his Uncle. We have had a very unusual conversation about my prettiness and angriness that I know Subject will not remember at all. I am strangely jubilant that Subject thinks I am pretty. I asked him if I was prettier than Gloomy Hairbuns, though I used her actual name so Subject would know who I meant. He said yes and that he thought I was definitely the prettiest girl he knew. But he is delirious at the moment, so I don't know if he means it. But still. Go me!
Take that Gloomy Hairbuns!
Apparently Subject still feels dreadful.
Things I have learned about Subject:
Subject, when sick, is soothed by some ice on the back of his neck or a cold compress on his forehead.
Subject feels incredibly irrationally guilty about his Uncle and Ba Sing Se, Dim Sims and various other things.
Subject thinks I am the prettiest girl he knows. I am prettier than Gloomy Hairbuns.
Subject is starting to show other flu like symptoms. Chit Sang says it is not contagious except for him as he is the only other firebender and cooler fever normally only affects firebenders.
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early the next day…
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Am sitting with Subject at the moment. He is mumbling in his sleep. I am trying to make out what he is saying but I can't. So I am just sitting here. Watching him. Have been here a long time. I gave him a rather cross speech about how he should bloody well snap out of this and stop wasting my time and just get better already. I don't think he heard me. He normally does what I say when I say it in that tone of voice.
I don't know why I am still here. There are plenty of other things I could be doing.
Subject always seems so healthy that it is very disconcerting to see him so sick.
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Later the next day…
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Good thing that I was sitting with Subject because Subject's fever suddenly spiked terribly. He stopped mumbling and just lay still and it was freaky quiet. He was too hot, even for a firebender. I couldn't wake him up, not even to get him to tell me that he felt dreadful. I called Toph for a second opinion and to make sure I wasn't imagining it. She felt his forehead and her eyes widened in alarm and she declared that something was wrong.
Ice baths are used as a last resort for treating fevers at the North Pole, only when a fever reaches absolute dangerous levels. I decided that this qualified as a dangerous level. I got my Dad to carry Subject to the fountain. I waterbended ice into it. Do you want to know what happens when you put a hot, feverish firebender into an icy fountain?
They'd do not like it!
At all.
He dropped Subject in the fountain and Subject came to himself with a loud yell. He was most irate at being put in an icy fountain and there was much ado! Everybody within close range got splashed with icy water. There was much shouting and swearing and poorly planned escape attempts on Subject's part.
I was able to get some sense out of Subject. I explained to him that he had to stay in until his fever dropped a little. After much grumbling and three attempts to escape (feverish Subject does not move as quickly as healthy Subject and thus is easier to subdue) Subject complied and stayed in. When Subject's fever felt like it was dropping, I took him back to his room and waterbended the ice water out of his clothes.
I… gah, I am embarrassed to even write it…this is even more embarrassing than tucking him in when he was drunk. I brought Subject some healing soup and made him eat it all and then I…I tucked Subject in (again), and sat with him for a bit. Subject, still feverish and disorientated, asked for a lullaby and…I sang to him, a little water tribe nursery rhyme. Then another one. Maybe even a third, until he fell asleep.
What is wrong with me?
Singing to Subject?
Sickly Subject has brought out my maternal side and it is most distressing. All I want to do is make him feel better and that is very weird, because normally I just want to annoy him. I wish him to recover so we can revert to our previous antagonistic friendship and never mention this lullaby singing weirdness again. Still my song seemed to comfort Subject somewhat. He is sleeping now. The last time I checked on him, it felt like his fever had broken, thank goodness.
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Went to check on Subject again. Subject is sleeping normally, but very deeply. He is back to normal temperature. While I was leaning over Subject to check his fever, Subject said my name in this fluttery little voice that I have never heard from Subject before.
It was just a soft little Katara.
I thought he was awake, but he was still sleeping. Subject is dreaming about me! And it is obviously a good dream. I feel strangely elated.
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The third day of Subject's illness.
What is the most annoying creature in the world?
It is Subject!
Subject in his present state of sickliness, who just needs to lie down and do what I say.
Subject is much better. I know this because Subject has not stopped complaining all day! About how dreadful he feels, how sick he is, his runny nose, his headache, about his various other flu symptoms, about how flavourless the soup I am making him eat is. Hmph! I am sick of Subject complaining. I had to get Toph to metalbend all the spoons back into shape just so he can have soup, but does Subject appreciate this? No, he does not!
We have had a small argument about the soup. Subject thinks fireflakes sprinkled on the soup will improve it. Subject has spoken at length about the immune system boosting qualities of fireflakes. I think Subject just wants fireflakes, but we have run out of the disgusting baked good Subject is so fond of (Chit Sang has consumed the last of them) and he cannot have any. Subject was most despondent when I told him this.
I am not surprised in the least that Subject is a bad patient who cannot just relax. I have chased many of Subject's less relaxing visitors away. Aang has come to see Subject and they talked at length about firebending and what Aang should work on while Subject is sick. Aang has been practicing with Chit Sang and he can now do something called the leaping tiger form very well. Aang wants to show this to Subject and Subject wants to see it! But they will have to wait till tomorrow. Because Subject is to stay in bed until he feels better. Subject, naturally, keeps trying to sneak out of bed and past me to help Aang with his firebending. Aang encourages him in these various attempts to escape. I have caught him seven times already today. I do not think Subject fully appreciates how sick he was yesterday and how worried he made me. I mean us. How worried he made us. He thinks I am just being a bossy boots at the moment.
Toph is a frequent visitor who is frequently ejected. She punches Subject to show affection and this is not conducive to the healing process. Toph disagrees with me. We had a small argument. She accused me of wanting to keep Subject all to myself. Within Subject's hearing! Who would want to keep a grouchy, mumbly, disobedient, sickly, cranky Subject all to themselves! If she had any medical skill what so ever, I would gladly hand care of Subject over to Toph. Subject was looking a little confused and I think vaguely smug when I came back into the room. I have told Subject that my medical attention to his person should in no way be construed as a desire to 'keep him to myself.' I just want to help him get better so I can go back to being rude to him.
Sokka has come to see if Subject was up to sparring with the space sword yet. Eight times. No Sokka, and the answer has been no for the past eight times you've asked. Subject thinks he is much better than he actually is and wants to get up and whack Sokka with his swords. Another small argument ensued. Subject is now pouting.
In short, Subject is a most difficult and disobedient patient. Subject must rest if he wants to get better and he keeps getting up and trying to do things and we have had many arguments about this today. I actually think I am argued out. I have no more arguments. Just crossness and frustration. And it is all Subject's fault.
I miss normal, stoic Subject who had forbearance and didn't complain every five minutes.
I miss sleeping, docile Subject.
Oh what the hell, I even miss feverish, disorientated Subject.
Sick, but alert and complaining Subject is the most annoying thing I have ever encountered.
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The fourth day of Subject's illness….
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Went to the shops with Dad because he feels we've had so little time together, just to two of us, since his break from prison. We needed to get some new supplies and I am going stir crazy looking after Subject. Even when he's not doing anything but lying in bed he drives me crazy! I left Suki on Subject guarding watch. She is to make sure he stays in bed. I trust Suki with this job. I would not trust either Aang or Sokka or Toph. They all miss their boyfriend now that he is sick and wish to play with him. They are only encouraging Subject to make various escape attempts and spar with them. It is most frustrating.
While at the market I bought sweet chili fireflakes for Subject (I know these are his favourite because I wrote it down in here) as well as a cream made out of eucalyptus that is meant to ease flu symptoms. Subject's firebending is obviously melting my brain because I just parted with good money for that unholy, disgusting baked good known as fireflakes. But they will cheer Subject up and at least it will stop him complaining for the few seconds it takes for him to chew them.
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Later still…
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Suki is banned from Subject sitting.
In my absence, Suki and Subject had a conversation about whether Dao swords were the superior weapon to Suki's Kyoshi fans. Subject apparently said something unflattering about Suki's kyoshi fans and it became a matter of honor. They had to settle it like warriors- even though Subject is still quite sick and just needs to bloody well stay in bed and stop goading people into fights.
Suki allowed Subject to get up and help Aang with his firebending and spar with Sokka to practice for their upcoming duel in which Kyoshi fans would be found victorious.
Okay. I left her with two instructions.
1 Subject stays in bed.
2 No sparring, no matter how much the other boys plead.
Imagine my dismay, when we returned to find that Suki had not only ignored both instructions, but she was sitting on top of Subject after having beaten him in their duel, Kyoshi fans in hand, waving them in Subject's face until he took back whatever he said initially about the Kyoshi fans (neither Subject nor Suki can quiet remember what it was). Aang and Sokka and Toph were cheering them on.
I was most irate! I was a bit beside myself with crankiness actually. I gave a big long lecture about how ridiculous they all were and how I was the only sensible one and I couldn't leave them for five minutes. Suki, in her defense had stated that he really seemed much better and the boys really wanted to spar with him and she had to avenge her fan's honor. Subject voiced his approval of the avenging of honor and they both felt my wrath.
Subject is back in bed now and there he will stay!
Even if I have to stand at his door all night and glare him into submission.
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Later again….
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Subject is feeling dreadful again. I am not surprised. It serves Subject right. I will not give him the bloody fireflakes or the bloody eucalyptus cream in retaliation for his antics.
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Later still…
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I have relented!
I was going to withhold the eucalyptus cream and the fireflakes to punish Subject for his earlier antics. When I went to check on him again Subject apologized for a being a difficult patient and explained that he hardly ever got sick and he really hated being cooped up and not being able to do anything. Subject then thanked me for taking care of him, quite sincerely and it was all very touching.
How does Subject do this? I wanted to stay mad at him and then suddenly I found it impossible.
Subject has tricked me with his Subject-ness. He is so devious.
I went and I got him his stupid, nasty, horrible, disgusting fireflakes and he was overjoyed. He was happier than I have ever seen Subject previously. I got the cream and had to rub it on his chest and back like the lady in the village said.
May I just say that Subject's muscular chest is extremely distracting when you have to rub a cream into it. I got a bit distracted by it and… anyway. I massaged it into his back first and then his chest and that lovely eucalyptus smell filled the room and then we looked at each other a long moment before Subject said that he probably had enough eucalyptus cream on him.
Quite right. I had put a rather large amount on.
I hope it helps Subject feel better.
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Things I learnt about Subject while he was sick:
Subject is normally very healthy and hates to be sick.
Subject, when sick, is a terrible complainer.
I hope that Subject never gets sick again because he is even more impossible to deal with than he normally is when he is ill.
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Time for another frighteningly long Authors note:
Once again hello lovely readers! You have made it to the end of another chapter! Congratulations! You now know how to properly care for your Subject. This one was a lot of fun to write and it gave me a chance to show Katara's softer side. Sure, she acts like Subject still annoys her, but would you sing at the bedside of someone you truly didn't like?
Huge thank you to everyone who reviewed! You know I love you guys! As a special treat for you lovely reviewing readers, I have gotten this chapter out at lightening speed. I do think reviews help me write quicker! So thanks!
Cooler fever: Yes, this was my take on what would happen to firebenders who bended in the cooler. If I were a firenation prison warden, especially if I was that warden, who seemed like bastard covered bastard with bastard filling, I would firebending proof my punishment system. And I'd be pretty snappy about doing that. Because otherwise, that's a pretty glaring loophole in my warden badassery.
For the coolers to work as a punishment, they have to suck for firebenders as well. A few of you were extremely clever and hypothesized that Zuko has special firebending techniques that he learned form Iroh or the dragons. This is great idea. Which I unfortunately did not think of! Oops! Fail whale for me!
I would like use my magical handwave for this oversight. I like to think that, as much as I love Iroh, there are some other sort of intelligent minds in the firenation. They've been attacking the poles for years! And those places are cold. I would like to think someone, at some point, would have thought – Hey I can make fire! Fire makes things warm- but how can I make that work for ME in this frozen tundra of DOOM. If nobody but Iroh has ever thought of this technique and the firenation continues to attack the freezing poles with no way of using all that fire to keep themselves warm, then frankly, the firenation is just full of dumbasses.
Which is quite possible.
Anyway!
As we've seen in show, it is extremely difficult to take someone's bending away… unless a magical lionturtle happens to be passing by. But there aren't any of those near the boiling rock in my fic! I think, if you couldn't take someone's bending away, the other option would be making the consequences of bending quite severe. You can't stop them from bending, but you can really make them regret that they did it. I thought an illness would be the most logical consequence and would probably be feared and dreaded in prison. It'd be the sort of mistake you'd only make once. Bad things happen to sick people who can't defend themselves in prison. Just bad things. Lets leave it at that.
Chit Sang, because he isn't the brightest button (even though he does know the correct usage of whom, bless his heart) really did just forget to pass this little tidbit on to Zuko, in his excitement over possibly escaping. When he realized last chapter, that he'd screwed up there, he was a bit worried about Zuko's health (because he does feel a little guilty) but he's hoping that maybe the kid will pull through and it won't affect him. Then Chit Sang won't have to tell everyone that he's a dumbass. Alas, it was not to be. Dumbassery is always revealed.
But if Chit Sang wasn't a dumbass, I would not have written this little comforting chapter. And we all wouldn't have had a chance to see Katara soften a little towards her Subject.
Katara and her embarrassing acts of kindness: Katara acts like she's the only person with any sort of medical knowledge and so the care of Zuko HAS to fall to her, but really…She volunteers for the job and she chases away all other would-be-nurses. I thought it would be nice for her to see a slightly more vulnerable side to Zuko and a very important step in their relationship. She feels a bit embarrassed about all these nice things she's doing and she doesn't want to analyze why she's worrying, and caring and doing all these things. But at the end of the day, she buys him nasty, disgusting fireflakes just because she knows they will cheer him up.
Why can't her water bending heal him: I got the impression that Katara knew a lot of battlefield medicine and could heal injuries pretty well, but may struggle with common colds and flus and other sorts of illnesses. I think natural illnesses in the body would be resistant to water-healing, where as external injuries would be a lot easier to heal. That said, she does know a lot about natural healing normally, from Gran Gran and Yugoda.
Ice baths: according to my dear old mum, who I think knows all things, but who is also a nurse, so she is my authority on all things medical: Ice baths are only given in extreme fever cases. Body temp over 40 Celsius type fevers… Err… I think that's 105 Fahrenheit for my dear American readers. But they are not otherwise recommended.
That eucalyptus cream: is the avatar alternative of vicks vapour rub. I love that eucalyptus-y smell when I am sick and there is nothing saying that eucalyptus doesn't exist in the Avatar world. So, it turns up in my fic. Because it is awesome.
Zuko: suffers from the man-flu as well as cooler fever; symptoms include complaining and lots of it, irrational behavior and general grumpiness.
If you have reached the bottom then I have oodles and oodles of love for you and I hope you've enjoyed this chapter!