Hello hello everyone!
I have been one busy person and so I do apologise, but I intend to follow this chapter with another one to make my lateness up to you! A double chapter weekend! I hope you all have had an absolutely wonderful Saturday (or Sunday depending on your location!) and will continue to have a great week!
KaliAnn: Thank you very much! I've always wondered how hero's feel about breaking the law themselves to stop other law breakers. So yes, an interesting discussion indeed. I'm glad you enjoyed and will continue enjoying :)
soccernin19: Thanks a lot! I hope you enjoy these next chapters too! It's always a pleasure writing for you! :D
Karce: Thank you, do enjoy the next chapter. Thanks again, my new sister's a sweetheart!
Foniko: Oh my dear. There is no such thing as 'without incident' where you are involved! I'm so glad you're enjoying my work but seriously you NEED to be careful. BEES AREN'T EVEN FULLY IN SEASON YET! You're bad luck astounds me... Still, I can always try *straightjackets you*. Try that out for size :3
weathergirl17248: Thanks, it's always good to know :)
BlueJayRobin: Thank you thank you thank you! Hahaha! You'll have to wait and see, but hopefully things will begin to unravel quickly from next chapter on! Hoping to wrap this up with a neat little bow soon!
ArkieR: Thanks pal, I'm glad you're enjoying! I can't wait to see what little Amoli is going to make of this crazy world we all live in. She certainly has a whole bunch of stuff to learn! Hahah :')
On to the story!
M'Gann felt her head swell in pain as she forced her Bio-ship's form to change and reveal an opening for her to quickly slip through. It was moments such as this one that she really wished she had already learned from her uncle how to density shift. It was impossibly hard and took long, long weeks of training to master the technique but she was certain now that it would have been worth every second to make situations such as this one easier.
Stepping out into the cold was no challenge for her, but M'Gann still knew that every moment keeping the gap in the ship open made the inside colder and with her ship resisting her there was no way of keeping the interior of the ship warm, also the effort increased the pain in her head. Those two combined was enough motivation to make sure her venture outside was a quick one. So, wasting as little time as possible, M'Gann dropped to her knees and began to scoop up snow and put it back behind her inside of the ship. She couldn't use her telekinesis: it seemed that her energies were just simply too sapped. Artemis and Connor waited for the snow and then brought it further within the ship to place around Robin.
M'Gann stepped back through the gap in the ship once she was satisfied that she had gathered enough snow to last at least until Kaldur and Wally made their way safely back to them and closed it quickly. She released a long, slow breath to steady her head which was now throbbing with the exertion she had put it through over the last few days. The Martian wasted no more time and sat herself down to allow herself a period of recovery. As she sat she glanced over at where Robin was between Artemis and Connor and watched them carefully for a few moments before allowing her eyes to shut. She didn't need to sleep, but what she did need was rest: taking away as much sensory stimuli as she possibly could.
Artemis was going to ask Miss Martian for her assistance, but the poor girl just seemed far too tired. To be honest, they were all tired but out of everyone M'Gann was the person who deserved the rest the most. She had been on the last expedition for help out of the ship and that must have been tiring in the deep snow and on top of that she had been burdened with controlling a ship that was resisting her with all that it had. She had to be completely exhausted. So instead of demanding assistance, Artemis figured that she and Connor could manage for the moment.
Connor had grabbed a piece of Bio-ship debris, perhaps something that had been torn from the ship in the crash, and was using it as a container to hold water. He knew for a fact that there were water bottles somewhere and there were probably better containers around, but for all that he had searched whilst M'Gann was out gathering snow he just simply couldn't find anything. For all he knew the supplies could have gotten lost outside of the ship during the crash, and the water that e had been using to care for Robin not so long ago had long since run out. Still, the debris that he had was clean (he had meticulously cleansed it himself) and it was shaped almost like a bowl so it was effective enough. He had been systematically grabbed a clump of snow, melting it using his own body heat, and then carefully encouraging Robin to drink it.
Connor kept on looking back over at M'Gann who looked as though she was asleep. He would have believed that she was asleep were it not for the fact that she never looked so orderly in her sleep and she was sitting neatly and tidily. She was clearly just in need of a well-earned rest. M'Gann had been resting for a good hour or so now and Artemis was still changing the rag lying across Robin's forehead frequently. The whole vessel was just silent. The only sound was everyone's breathing, Robin's occasional whispered delirious comments and the rare yawn from Artemis who seemed much in need of further sleep. Since her nightmare, she had refused the offer of sleep but there seemed to be something else holding her back too. If Connor could take a guess from what he had been witnessing recently he would say that perhaps it was Wally's being out there in Siberia that was keeping her awake as well.
The silence didn't last long as Robin's delirium seemed to disperse after a little while and for the first time since he had first collapsed next to the train tracks he gave Connor a look that actually held some understanding behind it. Artemis seemed to notice Robin's slightly better state and called to M'Gann to come and see. The Martian jerked her eyes open roughly and blinked, the rest really hadn't done her all that much good in the end. But hearing the news that Robin may just be getting slightly better, M'Gann didn't care too much about her aching head and inside got up and walked over to seat herself beside Connor.
There was a fog, it was a strange fog: it wasn't that awkward whitish grey colour that should have been expected. This fog was black, a dark empty black that seemed to linger on the corners of Robin's eyes. He originally had a few theories about his current situation, and the one that he had been rooting for up until the point when the fog spontaneously cleared was that he had somehow gotten himself knocked out whilst trying to escape from a burning building. It was only now as he looked into the faces of his worried teammates and really took in the pure fear and uncertainty in them that he realised the burning building that he had supposed he was in was actually his own body. He remembered it all after that, waking up that morning however long ago and being told by Alfred that it would be unwise to continue and being taken aside by Bruce to be sure that he was well enough to carry out a mission: all of it. Great, Robin thought, Why's Alfred always right?
Judging by the looks on Artemis, Connor and M'Gann's faces Robin guessed that he hadn't been in the best of forms recently. They looked as though they had been in a state of panic for however long this had gone on for. Even more worryingly, there was a distinct lack of sound in the ship and that meant that there was also a distinct lack of Wally. Aqualad didn't seem to be around either. It seemed as though the Team had been having a rough time of it for whatever reason and he sincerely hoped that it wasn't all down to him. Although the young acrobat had this horrible guilt descending on him that whatever had gone on in his mental absence had been his fault in some way. There was a sickening throb troubling Robin's head each time his heart beat and he wondered where exactly that pain had come from. It felt like his head had been smashed against something or other.
All Robin really wanted at that present moment was to stop his team from worrying about him, and the best way for that to happen would be to get him better. It had taken the boy just moments to figure out what exactly was wrong with him and he honestly couldn't understand why his team hadn't figured it out. He only had the flu and while it was still a dangerous ailment, it wasn't exactly difficult to diagnose. Robin knew that his team weren't paying the best attention to their instruction whilst she was teaching them about first aid and disease, but he was unaware that they had allowed themselves to be this ignorant of the possibilities. If they were trained by the Dark Knight they never would have made the mistake and they would definitely pay for it later. But for now he didn't want to think about it, he wanted to speak.
Robin opened his mouth to tell his team that he had the flu but although he tried to speak, it would only come out as a whisper. That suggested to him that he had spent more than a few hours unconscious for his voice to become so disused, it was a worrying thing to note but it only motivated him further to get his message out. Artemis leaned down usefully and held her ear closer to Robin's lips so that he could struggle out what was probably his first coherent message for a long while.
"I've got the flu," Robin whispered painfully. He waited for Artemis to draw back and stare in astonishment at him before he coughed to clear his throat. He then looked around him, seeing the state that the ship was in and realised that it may be a little too ambitious to think that the medicines were in the cabinet that they originally were stored in. Robin caught Artemis' eyes and held them before mouthing the word 'ibuprofen' at her. She nodded and scrambled to her feet to search; Robin looked after her and rasped a tiny, "Thank you."
To M'Gann and Connor it had simply looked as though Artemis had leaned over and then run away, they hadn't realised that Robin had delivered a message that made sense for once. M'Gann turned to watch Artemis in confusion as she stampeded around the ship looking for something or other. Connor got up, releasing M'Gann's hand that he had taken when she had sat down earlier out of distress, and then went to Artemis' side before putting his hands on her shoulders and rooting her to the floor for a moment. She had tears in her eyes, but she wasn't allowing them to fall and she seemed to be carrying a guilty look in her eye.
"What's the matter? Is there something I can help you with?" Connor asked softly. He worried that if he raised his voice any louder then he's only startle Artemis. The arched looked into his eyes for a few moments. It was as though she had forgotten that there were other people there to help her for a moment and she had gone into the same panic mode that she had been in during the Reds' invasion on Happy Harbour. She shook her head and rooted herself in the present moment: she registered everything that was around her, everything that wasn't and everything that she needed to fulfil Robin's request.
"Robin just told me what's wrong with him. He has the flu and we need to give him some ibuprofen. I know that there was some in the first aid kit – I know it because I packed it myself and did the equipment check!" Artemis said calmly. The calm didn't stay long and the frustration that she felt towards herself returned and pushed Connor's hands off of her shoulders and frowned, "I've had the flu before. I should have known! Honestly, how did I miss it? It was so obvious!"
"Calm down, none of us figured it out so don't beat yourself up about it. He's alive isn't he?" Connor responded quickly. It wasn't really for the purpose of comforting Artemis, more he wanted her to just relax a little bit because her acting as though everything was on her was getting on his nerves. Everyone had a part to play in this and that even included Robin. It sounded harsh to lay any blame on a sick person but it was true, the kid should have skipped the mission but he didn't. Everyone had their own share of the blame and it wasn't fair that Artemis was acting as though everything was her fault somehow.
"He could have died, Connor. It would have been mainly on me, and don't act as though any one of us could have known because that's a blatant lie. I'm the only one here who's actually human aside from Robin and to recognise something as basic as the flu should be hardwired into my brain." Artemis stressed. Connor held his hands up in defeat; he wouldn't waste any further time on this. He simply responded that he would help her search for wherever the ibuprofen had gotten to and she merely nodded in return. The two of them began searching, leaving M'Gann to keep a close eye on Robin for any change in his condition.
Robin was looking searchingly at M'Gann. She seemed tired and there was a pained look in her eyes. She clearly needed sleep and a lot of it. If he could breathe properly then he could imagine himself telling her to sleep and her refusing. But his breathing wasn't feeling as easy as it should and he could still feel a fire raging around his body using his blood stream to get everywhere. There was no inch of his body that wasn't burning. It only made the Boy Wonder think about how close he may have come to losing brain function. Perhaps his non-existent luck had made a timely appearance sometime recently. All he knew and cared about was getting better and somehow getting back to Bruce. All he wanted now was his comfortable bed, Alfred's cooking and Bruce's comfort.
Connor rose to his feet triumphantly pinching a bit of plastic packaging between his finger and thumb, he had found the scattered medicines underneath a large duffel bag that he assumed belonged to Artemis giving the case for her bow was inside. 'Ibuprofen' was scrawled across a white sticky label on the top of the blank white packet in Artemis' messy hand. The Kryptonian called to Artemis just to double check that he had obtained the correct item and after confirmation he returned to Robin's side. The protégé to the Dark Knight's eyelids were drooping and his cheeks held that same red glow that they had a while ago. He was exhausted despite having only really being properly awake for a few hours.
Connor propped the top half of Robin's body up and smiled gently when the smaller boy opened his mouth obediently. M'Gann grabbed the makeshift container full of water and waited for Superboy to pop the small pink pills into Robin's mouth before slowly pouring in a bit of water for him to swallow them down with. Artemis recalled that ibuprofen didn't always work on flu patients so she realised that this didn't mean any of them could relax. But this was a promising first step towards Robin's recovery. Perhaps Wally and Kaldur would come back to a recovering Robin – it was only a hope, but a girl could dream.
Thank you all for reading! I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and do feel free to leave a review if you have the time!
Can't wait to hear what you think, love Varishi x