Okay, I'm a sucker for giving my fellow Doccubus fans what they what but I SWEAR, after this one I'm leaving you hanging... .

Chapter Twelve – The Healer & The Blessing

Generally, Elves were known for their abilities as healers, their gifts (among others) were mainly that they could heal and make ill and were considered themselves to be immortal. They hardly aged and the same was true for Tue, though he obviously had an old soul and lived through many lifetimes, his features were that of a young man, maybe in his twenties. She had asked Trick over the phone about why he wasn't able to heal himself, but Trick had explained that it was because of the Korrigan's curse, she had affected his abilities to heal and that was what was killing him.

Lauren had not left Tue's side. She had been there a long time, a few days at least, it was hard to tell because her phone at stopped working and she didn't wear a watch. Plus they were so deep into the dense forest that it rarely got any light except for a few hours in the afternoon.

Lauren applied another cold compress to Tue's forehead and removed the one from his bare chest and replaced it as well. She'd removed his shirt and the blanket that was on him to apply compresses so she could try and keep his temperature down. He hadn't woken up since his first seizure so she'd hooked him up to IV bags which she' thankfully had in her kit. The bad thing was, he was hooked up to her last one right now. Thankfully she had a bottle of 5% Dextrose that she'd mixed herself so she could make her own IV bags.

The last thing she wanted to do was leave the hollow to get supplies. She'd try to call someone for help getting him out of the hollow but her cellphone had had no reception in the middle of the dense wood. He might've been little but he was not light, she'd already tried to lift him on her own to get him onto the table which she had planned to use as a makeshift stretcher to transport him out of the woods in case he'd broken any bones during his seizure but she couldn't get him to budge off the bed.

She really wished she could be in her own lab where she could run more scans on Tue and see how his body had responded to the injection and why he'd seized. But sometimes you had to make do with what you had and she'd had experience in field medicine before. At least this well stocked little hollow was better than anything she'd ever experienced in the Congo.

Her stomach woke her from her thoughts. She was starving. It was odd not being able to follow time, she didn't know how long it been since she ate. She found some slightly stale bread and some kind of dehydrated meat, she thought it might've been deer but she was too hungry to care what it was at this point, as long as it was edible it was going in her stomach.

After her dry sandwich, the bread was finished. She knew she needed carbs to keep her strength up and she saw a battery operated bread maker in the kitchen area so she went about making some bread, she decided to make enough for two loafs. As the first was cooking, the smell warmed the cold hollow and made her feel more at ease about this awful situation. She knew that soon someone would come looking for her, likely Trick or someone he'd sent, she'd just have to wait it out.

She got up and changed Tue's compresses out for new cold ones. She felt his forehead and decided to take his temperature, she was surprised that it had dipped down a few degrees, but not enough that she thought that it would be safe enough to stop the compresses.

The smell of the bread was making her hungry again so she gnawed on a bit more jerky and went about making some tea. When it was done she sipped on it quietly, curling up in the large wooden chair that she'd taken to sleeping on. One night she'd even cleared the kitchen table and slept on that just so she could stretch out a bit. Her large chair was beautifully crafted by hand by someone who was obviously very experienced at wood working. Honestly for a wooden chair, it was one of the most comfortable she'd ever sat in, sleeping in it however was a different story. She sipped her tea some more and when she felt the exhaustion setting in, she crossed her arms and laid her head on the table, using her arms as a makeshift pillow.

She awoke sometime later to the sound of someone clearing their throat. Finally help has arrived, took you long enough Trick. She thought to herself as she opened her eyes, she immediately looked towards the door and saw that it was closed. With barely any space for anyone to hide, she was extremely confused, sleep still clouding her mind.

"Miss?" The voice asked. Lauren turned her head back around and saw Tue looking at her.

Lauren gasped and jumped up, running to his side. She dropped to her knees by the bed and gave him a hug. She laughed when his compresses wet her shirt a bit and pulled back, removing the compresses. "Tue! You're awake, oh my gosh. I'm so relieved I was so worried about you."

He smiled at her warmly and patted her hand as she sat on the bed, his gratitude was already palpable in the air. Though he'd been unconscious for most of the time that they'd known each other already, they'd somehow formed a deep bond, having gone through the ordeal together.

"How long have I been out?"

"For a few days at least, it's hard to count time in this place."

"Have you left? Gone home to see your friends and get some rest?"

"No, of course not, I couldn't leave you." Lauren told him earnestly. She noticed that tears had begun to well in his stunning eyes and she tilted her head curiously, confused.

"Are you alright?"

"Oh yes ma'am. More than all right, I should be dead by now. You've not only cured me but you stayed here to take care of me selflessly when you needn't have."

"Of course I had to, Trick cares for you deeply and I care for Trick deeply and in turn, I also care for you deeply, though we've only just met. I trust his judgement in people and if you mean that much to him, you must be a very special person, so you mean that much to me too."

A single tear fell from one of his emerald eyes.

"I must give you something to show my appreciation." He pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"No, no. You have to lay down, you've been unconscious for days, I had thought you were in a coma which you might've been. You need to rest."

"No dear. I feel fine, just hungry. I've been laying down long enough." He carefully stood up, holding the bed for a moment as his legs were a bit stiff and weak. He walked over to his hutch and opened a drawer, removing a box. Inside was the biggest Sapphire gem that Lauren had ever seen. She gasped. He held it out to her. "Here, to show my gratitude."

She shook her head firmly. "Absolutely not Tue. We're friends now and friends take care of each other. I'm not accepting a gift like that from you, it must be priceless. I'm sorry but I have to refuse. I honestly didn't do this for any kind of reward, simply to help a friend and in turn I made a friend, which is enough of a gift for me."

"And I refuse to let you go without a token of my appreciation. It goes against Elfish tradition not to bless someone that has done you a kindness with utmost selflessness, especially a kindness of this magnitude. You completely saved my life Doctor Lewis and if you don't accept a gift you will deeply insult me."

She tilted her head and scrunched her brow in frustration. The last thing she wanted to do was insult the poor man whom she'd come to love and care for in their short time confined together in his hollow. Call it the healer in her but she generally got attached to her patients on a regular basis, that's what made her want to become a Doctor in the first place, she deeply cared for the wellbeing of others, it was who she was to her core. But she honestly hated to get gifts, maybe it was because she didn't like to admit that she deserved them. However, she realized this time, she'd have to make an exception.

She sighed and raked her hand threw her hair, nodding. "Okay Tue. I'll accept a gift, I don't want to insult your traditions but I need you to know that I didn't help you because I was expecting something in return."

His eyes sparkled and he beamed at her mischievously. "Good. That my dear, is the definition of selflessness, which is why I must give you something, I know exactly what to give you and it's not this ostentatious gem. That was merely to test your intentions." He was smiling so deviously she almost felt uneasy. She smiled at him suspiciously, wondering what he had in mind.

He returned to the hutch, removing a ring of keys from a hook on the wall near the hutch. He found the key was looking for and stuck it into a drawer in the hutch. The lock clicked and he removed another box, this one was different from the first in that it also had a lock on it. He removed a key from a string that was tied around his ankle that she hadn't noticed before.

He placed the key into the lock and turned it. Before opening it, he handed the box to her. She looked at him uneasily and he gestured for her to open it. It was a simple stone, nothing fancy or garish, just a simple looking rock. She picked it up in her fingers and flipped it over and took in a sharp breath. There were raw, uncut crystals on the other side of the almost hollow rock which had been vivisected. Its inner walls were encrusted with crystals that seemed to give off a glow, the glow spoke to her, called to her… its energy seemed a part of her and she was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. She had never experienced a magic like this before.

"What is it?" She whispered reverently, utterly entranced. When she looked up he was smiling even wider at her, almost giddy. She giggled at his expression.

"It's everything you want Lauren Lewis. Are you ready?" He asked her, suddenly very serious.

She quirked an eyebrow at him again, maybe he did have a bit of brain damage after all. "Ready for what?" She asked, she was almost uneasy again but with this stone in her hand, she couldn't seem to feel uneasy.

"To become Fae."