Hey, this is a continuation of chapter 13, encouraged by KaylaDestroyer (thanks for that, by the way). I don't own Ice Age.

A hollow, haunted sound drifted over the waves, rolling across the mist clinging to the surface and rising into the air, echoing around and filling the area with a miserably fearful mood. If you'd approached the large ice ship right then, you'd think there was some poor creature up there, moaning and groaning, being slowly tortured, slowly dying, moaning in agony as their life force slowly slipped away. It truly sounded like someone was dying.

Of course, they weren't, but they sure felt like it. Nobody was comfortable or happy; everyone was sore, no one could breathe through their nasal passages, and all were overly heated with a high fever. Yes, the pirates were all down to the flu, thanks to someone- they wouldn't name names (*cough* Shira *cough*).

Squint sighed tiredly and practically collapsed face first on the deck. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. It had been, what, nine days? That sounded about right. He'd been waiting on his crew hand and foot, but nothing he did seemed good enough. There was always something else they wanted. Any quiet time, even a few scarce seconds, to rest, was greatly appreciated. "Squint!" he sighed in annoyance.

"Yes. Raz?" he asked stiffly.

"I'b oudda orange juice." She stated simply, sounding congested as ever.

He sighed and face palmed. Ever since they'd caught the flu from Shira, they'd decided they were paralyzed and it was his job to do everything. The only thing they moved to do was throw up over the side. He was beginning to regret drinking the medicine for a vaccination. If he hadn't, he probably would've gotten sick too, but at least he wouldn't have been caring for seven cranky other pirates with the flu. Which is by no means an easy task.

He got up and brought an orange over to her, puncturing it with his knife so Raz could drink the juice. "Squint?" Shira popped out of her pouch.

"What?"

"We're oudda dissues ind here."

"Yeah we… we…" Raz's face scrunched up, and suddenly, Squint found himself splattered with something warm and wet, tensing in disgust. He stiffly wiped off his face as she sniffed and wiped her arm across her face. "Sorry."

He shook off and exhaled tensely, grinding his teeth, forcing himself not to attack her. "Ok, look. I've been slaving for you guys for nine days straight, and that's the twenty third time today that you've done that. Would it kill you to cover your mouth?!" he yelled that last part.

"Sorry." She repeated. Her face contorted again and she was quick to cover her face with her paws. "ACHOO!" she sniffled and brought them away, cringing in disgust. "Ew…" she wiped the slimy substance now coating them off on a nearby tree.

"Squint!"

He turned. "What?"

"Where's by dea? You said you'd ged be somb dea! With hondey!"

"Just a sec Silas!" the bird doubled over coughing, leaving him a moment to turn back to the eight foot marsupial and maybe foot and one fourth tall saber cub. Grabbing his bone knife, he tossed it upwards, slicing a multitude of leaves off before it came back down, the foliage falling down around them. "There. Happy?" he didn't give them a chance to answer.

He went to hurry off. "Squint!"

"What?!" he exclaimed, exasperated as he turned back to the seven year old.

"Can I hab another 'ize pag? I'b hod."

"Just wait a minute!" he had gotten pretty good at juggling so many different requests and demands from his family all at once, and his increased natural energy and speed helped. But it was still difficult to keep up. With his ability to zip from one place to another in just a few seconds, he could practically be in two places at once; sometimes almost three if he really pushed it.

If it hadn't been for his practically endless energy, he would've collapsed from exhaustion long ago. He had hardly slept at all the past few days with all the commotion at night, the coughing and the sneezing and wretching over the side and whatnot, he couldn't get any rest. Still, there was that rare, sweet little half hour every now and then when they'd all doze and he got a quick nap in.

Then they'd yell for him again and he'd lose his blissful sleep. After giving Silas his herbal tea, with honey (who knew someone usually so subtle could be so demanding?), he moved on to Gupta, who was complaining that he wanted cranberry juice.

He was tempted to put some sleeping medicine in their food, but he didn't for two reasons. 1) he didn't have the ingredients. And 2) they'd probably kill him once they awoke.

After getting Gupta his juice, he hurried back to Shira, giving her the ice pack (which was really just a large cube of ice wrapped in dried seaweed) she requested, laying it across her forehead. He was glad Raz seemed to grasp the 'sneeze in the tissues and not on him' concept, because he was tired of getting sprayed on like that.

He couldn't make himself hold grudges against them (at least, not for long). He'd had the flu a couple times when he was little and they were low on medicine for a vaccination, so he knew how painful it was. But did they have to act so paralyzed about it? They seemed to thin they were incapable of moving and made him do everything.

Still, miserable or not, you'd think they could at least try to go easy on him. But nooooo, they simply had to make him do everything. And it didn't help that he was being blamed by one in particular, even though it wasn't really his fault. How was it his fault that Shira didn't know how to cover her mouth?!

Raz, of course, didn't blame her daughter, though. She blamed Squint. He was the not so secret medical genius and should've been able to come up with a cure. Of course that was like asking pirates not to be vicious, which is impossible, but still. He could do anything else medical related. She remembered a time, years before Shira came, she'd been thrown off the ship during a storm and broke her leg.

Naturally, of course, it had to be a serious fracture and she may as well have been paralyzed for those six months. She couldn't get up and move around, because she naturally hopped, if she were to try, he informed her she'd never move around on her feet again, because she'd only injure it further.

To ease the pain, he'd created a pain reliever paste, one that numbed her sore leg to the point where she couldn't feel it when it became especially bad. The only downside was when her leg finally did heal, she didn't get the entire feeling back in it for another week.

But that didn't even come close to this.

Only one word described their predicament: miserable. Absolutely, one hundred percent, horrifyingly miserable. She felt achy all over, her nose, resembling a cherry in color, was so stuffed up the likeliness of her getting air through it was about as good as the ship sprouting big, feathery rainbow wings and flying away. It just wasn't gonna happen.

She'd developed a vicious cough, which always attacked at the worst times; when it was unexpected. Her throat already felt like it was being attacked by narwhals and had acid spilled on it, and all the coughing so violently most certainly didn't help.

Everything hurt, absolutely everything. It was so bad she just wanted nothing more than to go dig her own grave and lay down to die. Well, maybe not the digging part, because that would require hard work. She was too exhausted to barely lift her head. But, fortunately or unfortunately, she had another sick symptom to do it for her.

She felt that annoying little twitch and quickly reached for her pouch and grabbed a leaf, bringing it to her face just in time to sneeze into it. "Bless you." Squint, who was chopping up bananas to blend for a smoothie for Silas, said.

She sniffled and blew her nose, before responding with a gracious, nasally "Thenks." Her head throbbed and the room spun. Her stomach lurched and she clamped both paws over her mouth, rushing to the side just in time to lose her food.

She wondered for the millionth time how it was possible; she hadn't eaten anything in ten days, and she'd thrown up at least five times every day. How could there still be anything left in her stomach to discard? It didn't seem possible, but the painful hacking that brought up a very foul tasting substance proved otherwise.

She finally collapsed, chest heaving slightly, still coughing- but at least no longer torturing her stomach. She nearly choked on a sudden throatful of phlegm and spit it out, noticing with dismay that it was slightly tinged red from the force. Now she was no doctor, but she knew that couldn't be good.

She dragged herself back closer to the center of the boat, not wanting to roll off, thinking a bunch of very violent, unkind words and things about her illness… and Squint.

She couldn't bring herself to blame her precious little girl, but she knew deep down that it was kind of her fault. She had been the one that had spread her germs to everyone. But the child was suffering, just as she was. The saber cub was currently passed out from lack of oxygen due to coughing. She didn't deserve the blame, she was in plenty enough pain as it was, and a guilty conscience wouldn't help.

A sudden thought hit her. "Hey…" she winced inwardly at how raw and sore her throat felt. "How are you dod sig?" she asked the little rabbit, who was wrapping up a piece of ice in dried seaweed.

He came over and felt her cheeks before laying it on her forehead and shrugging in answer. "Took the last of her medicine; kept me from gettin sick."

"WHAT?!" she instantly winced and grabbed her head, watching with a woozy expression as the ship dipped and twirled around her, momentarily turning a dark shade of royal purple, willing herself not to pass out and not let everything got black.

He had the nerve to create a vaccination and drink it all for himself?! How selfish could he get? While they had to suffer, he got to stay perfectly fine because he took the last of it and didn't even bother sharing?! How low could he stoop?!

…Then again, they were pirates; selfish and cruel were one the things they did best. But still…

"Ya shouldn't yell like that, y'know. Hurt yer head."

Well duh! "Ya think I don'd dhow thad?" she snapped, watching everything slowly return to normal. He slid a chunk of ice across her forehead, which helped numb the headache just a tiny bit.

She gave him a look as he gave her an innocent smile. "What?"

"I hade you." Squint just smirked at her and shook his head before rushing off to complete more tasks. She watched him go with sleepy eyes; she was glad for his care, she supposed. But it was still his fault.

So, what'd you think? Sorry, I wanted to explore more of the ending of chapter 13. I just thought it'd be kinda humorous. I'll have another chapter up in the next hour or so, I just need to reread one more time.