Chapter Seven

Taste of Your Own Medicine

"Hey! He's waking up!" the youthful voice announced. It sounded foggy and far away, though, like something in a dream.

The first thing Pitch saw when he opened his eyes again was North towering over him, arms crossed over his chest. His face displayed both anger and concern and then relief when he saw that the nightmare king was waking up.

"Is he all right?" Toothiana asked, fluttering up beside North. Jack Frost appeared on his left.

"He has regained consciousness, so that is good sign." North replied. "When it comes to everything else, it is hard to tell just yet." he bent over and peered at Pitch. "Can you hear me, Pitch? Do you know who I am?"

Pitch gasped as his eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright clutching his chest. It took a moment for his head to clear and for his brain to catch up with everything that was going on around him. He realized in quick order what had happened kicking up snow as he backed away from the guardians, "No! No! I... I was so close." He stopped now curling over to sit in a ball as he stared at the ground shaking his head in his defeat. He had failed, and worse there was no possible excuse he could use to state anything other than what this was, an escape attempt.

"Take it easy," North said. "You can explain later. And you will." North's voice had an edge to it as he had said that last part. "But for now, we must get you back to bed so you can rest." he motioned for one of the yetis to pick Pitch up and take him back to his room.

Pitch was still a bit disoriented, but otherwise he was fine. The tone in North's voice made him think better than to actually voice the fact he was okay just because he didn't wish to face the man's ire anytime soon.

The yeti made quick work of scooping Pitch off the ground surprisingly gently for such a massive creature. Pitch nonetheless let out an undignified yelp at being picked up, "Put me down! I want to walk on my own!" The last thing Pitch wanted was to be cradled like a baby all the way back to the Pole.

The yeti seemingly confused as to what he needed to do when regarding Pitch gave North a quizzical look and a grumbled word in yeti.

"Take him back to Pole." North answered the yeti. "Have doctor make sure he is okay."

Folding his arms, Pitch pouted. He couldn't even win in this, but knowing he was likely already in enough trouble, he only sighed unhappily letting the yeti continue to carry him back to the Pole. All he could keep thinking was that he had thrown away his likely best attempt at getting away as the guardians surely would ensure such endeavors would be put to a halt if they didn't just decide to toss him away back to his nightmare realm for being too much of a headache.

"I think I'll go with them." said Toothiana, flying forward to catch up with the yeti.

"I had a feeling he was up to something." Jack Frost mumbled when Tooth had left.

"What do you mean?" North turned to the boy.

"Pitch wanted me to give him a tour of the Pole earlier today." Jack shrugged. "I didn't think there would be any harm in it. Since he's doing work for you, I thought it would help him if he was more familiar with the place."

"And?"

"Well, when we finished with the tour he said he wanted to see the reindeer stables. I thought it was odd, but I went along with it anyway, just to keep him from blowing up. He bonded with the deer so well, North. It was incredible. They weren't afraid of him at all, and Pitch actually looked happy for the first time since he's been here." Jack shook his head as he thought back on it. "I told him if he wanted to take care of the deer as part of his work that I would talk to you about assigning him to it, but he refused. I thought it was a bit strange since he seemed to get so much enjoyment out of being near them." Jack sighed. "Now I know that he was just scouting out the place for an escape. He used me! I'm sorry, North. I really am. If I had known I would have never-"

North patted Jack's shoulder. "It is not your fault. Pitch is cunning and devious, even for you. Let us all be glad that reindeer do not leave unless they are hitched to sleigh." North chuckled. Jack's lips turned into a smile. "Come; let us go back to Pole. Pitch has much to answer for once he recovers."

Jack couldn't help but laugh amusingly, knowing full well what North meant.

The yeti was making good pace, and seeing Toothinia flutter up next to the yeti with obvious concern for him on her face made Pitch blush as he ducked his head to avoid conversation.

Luckily for Pitch, they were already approaching one of the entrances to the Pole, and as they were moving through the doors Tooth had stopped seeing Sandy coming from the opposite direction obviously having also been looking for Pitch. He seemed relieved that Pitch had been found once the reindeer had come back without a rider, and all the guardians except Bunny had set out a search party to find him.

The yeti continued through a set of double doors and into a medical wing with several beds to which most housed elves since they tended to find a myriad of ways to hurt themselves it would seem.

Pitch looked about curiously having never seen this particular wing before as the yeti that held him brought him over to a bed and another yeti that obviously worked in the ward due to its strange dress and face mask, moved to pull down the sheets for the yeti holding Pitch to set him down.

Pitch watched on inquisitively as he was settled into the bed as gently as he was picked up. The truth was, he was very sore and slightly bruised from his fall. He'd suffered worse, but with the fact that his powers had been so significantly diminished, this fall really had taken quite a lot out of him.

The yeti that had brought Pitch harrumphed back and forth with the nurse yeti as they glanced here and there at Pitch.

Nodding, the nurse yeti walked over to Pitch's bed and brought up the metal sides of the bed latching them in place, and it was then that Pitch grew weary as he noted the sides had wrist cuffs, and the nurse was grabbing his wrist preparing to insert it into the cuff.

"Hey! No! Get your grubby hands off of me!" Pitch screeched yanking at his wrist violently trying to wrench it free from the creature with no success as it latched the cuff and moved to strap his other wrist to the bed. He twisted now fighting to get off the bed as the nurse worked to get him under control.

"Pitch!" Toothiana yelled over the yetis' grunts and Pitch's screaming. She was fluttering this way and that around the bed as she spoke. "It's okay! They're just trying to help you. You need to remain calm and let them look at you to make sure you didn't break anything in your fall."

"They're tying me down! I don't want to be chained to this contraption!" Pitch raged and thrashed, but the nurse yeti was finally able to lock down his other wrist. Pitch still writhed shouting insults at the nurse as the yeti looked him over opening up his robe to reveal a lot of nasty bruising on his shoulders, chest, and abdomen. Pitch's eyes darted around nervously as his body shook with tremors of barely contained anxiety and fury.

Tooth rolled her eyes and flew down around Pitch's head, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Just relax, okay? They're trying to prevent you from hurting yourself. And… they probably don't trust you that well either."

Pitch did calm enough taking in short shallow breaths while the yeti pushed and prodded against his wounds although Pitch growled angrily at the nurse whenever he pressed against a particularly sensitive area. Having seen enough, the nurse took the bed sheet and covered Pitch as he moved to write down his diagnosis on a clipboard.

Having the yeti finally finish its work Pitch let out a long sigh closing his eyes trying to wrap his head around the mess he'd created for himself. This was messy. He'd botched his escape horribly, and he was nervous what would come next. He found his gaze drifting up to Toothinia now more than a hint of worry painting his face as he asked, "Is he really mad?" He swallowed hard, "…Do you think he's… he's going to throw me back to the nightmares?"

"He is pretty upset," Tooth said, fluffing up and fingering Pitch's pillow. "But I don't think he'll throw you back to the nightmares."

The worry didn't leave his face as he frowned thinking of what else North would do to him. His eyes flitted back to Toothinia now looking rather nervous, "I… I don't suppose you could talk to him… calm him down maybe?"

"I can try," she answered.

Pitch pouted looking away, "That doesn't sound very reassuring."

Sandman, North, and Jack were finally making their way over to the hospital bed, but Pitch only glanced at them briefly before looking back to Toothinia imploringly.

Tooth nodded at Pitch and patted his shoulder.

"So how is he?" North asked as he walked up beside the bed.

"I'm not sure," Tooth replied. "From what I saw, he has a lot of bruises. But other than that, I don't know." she quickly glanced around. "None of the nurses have given us news yet."

North nodded. His facial features still showed a hint of annoyance and anger as he looked down at Pitch.

"Um... North, you aren't going to send Pitch back to the nightmares, are you?" Tooth timidly asked.

"Send him back?" North repeated. "No, I'm not going to send him back. He has much to answer for, but I have no plans to send him back."

"North, you know I don't agree with your methods, but I suggest that you wait until you calm down to deal with him." said Tooth.

"Oh, I think I will be calm enough by then. I do not plan to deal with him until after he is well."

Pitch gulped not liking the sound of that at all, but what he did hang on to was the 'after' clause as Pitch contemplated how long he could play the unwell card to keep North at bay.

Sandy noticed the chart the yeti had left on Pitch's bedside holding it up for North to see.

Thinking about his wrists still being manacled he looked at Tooth asking, "Now that they've done their examination, would you mind…" he shook his hand lightly not really wanting to call attention to them while North and Sandy had their backs turned looking over the charts.

"I wish I could, but I don't think I'm supposed to." Tooth's eyes studied the straps. "The nurses will do it when they come back."

Pitch looked disappointed, but with North and Sandy in such close proximity he didn't dare say anything rude. Instead he sighed deciding to play up his level of pain for the benefit of deceiving North later as he groaned pitifully, "I… I think I need to sleep now."

Tooth reached out and ran her hand over his hair.

Pitch inhaled deeply closing his eyes. He'd wouldn't say as much, but Toothinia's touch radiated something inside of him that made him ache for more. Her contact was always soft and delicate leaving the hint of her natural smell which to Pitch reminded him of a mixture of the sea and lilacs.

North turned around, placing a hand on the side of the bed. "His charts say he has bruising and possible internal damage."

"Wow, that must have been some fall." said Jack.

"It says possible internal damage. Is not clear that he actually has it."

"Is that why my insides feel like they are on fire?" Pitch exaggerated with a wince. "You know… you keeping me here like this… away from what I need to do has left me weak. You have believers to strengthen you… all I have is the small stipend of fear I was able to squander. Now what do I have? You keeping me here like this just might be the death of me."

North shook his head wearily, turning a look to Sandy.

"Are you in pain?" Tooth asked with concern.

Pitch nodded weakly trying to keep his eyes closed for the most part only glancing at Toothinia feeling she was eating his act up, "It …is quite agonizing."

Sandy's brows raised as he shrugged unable to offer any advice.

Concern on his face now, North patted Pitch's shoulder. "It is okay. You are in good hands here." he waved one of the yeti nurses over. "Pitch says he is in considerable pain. Give him something that relaxes him and takes pain away. He needs rest."

The yeti garbled an affirmative as he trundled off to get Pitch something for the pain.

"Yes, rest…" Pitch whispered doing his best to look on the verge of passing out as he closed his eyes turning his head away from North. Inwardly he was smiling, not only would this give Pitch an opportunity to evade North but also maybe come up with another means of escape not to mention not having to do any bothersome chores. Now he just needed to work on getting Toothinia to take these cuffs off of him.

"Where does it hurt?" Tooth asked. "Is there anything I can do to make you feel more comfortable?"

Pitch was eating up the attention Toothinia offered, "My whole body aches. But maybe some of that lovely hot cocoa might warm me up." He had to fight hard to keep the smile off of his face as he stared into her eyes.

A broad smile appeared on Tooth's mouth. "You bet! I'll run and get you some right now." Tooth flew off in a flash, nearly running into North.

A few moments after Tooth left, the nurse yeti returned, walking up to Pitch's bedside. It grunted as it held up a syringe, stabbing it into a bottle to draw out some liquid.

"Uhhhh... you know... I think I'm going to go now." said Jack, smiling nervously as he backed away from the bed.

Pitch did smile as he watched Toothinia race off to go fetch him hot cocoa. He could get used to this he thought happily. Those happy thoughts melted away in an instant when he felt the yeti nurse rummaging in his sheets and gently turning him on his side. Annoyed he looked back behind him, but the big hairy arm and shoulder left him blind to what the yeti was doing. Alarm registered on his face though when he felt the yeti tug a corner of his pants down leaving one of his cheeks exposed, "What the? What are you doing back there?"

Pitch twisted more adamantly to see, but the restraints on his wrist gave him no leverage. He felt a dab of wet and cold from a moist wipe swabbing his flesh and then the explosion of pain came that caused Pitch to squeal like a girl as the large needle was jabbed unforgivingly into his hind quarters. "YeeaaaAAAH! OW! You! You! I'm being viciously stabbed!" Pitch was jerking to get away now, but the medicine in the syringe made his vision blur as his head hit the pillow and he let out a small whimper his eyelids fluttering. Whatever was in that syringe was pretty powerful. It helped that Sandy was right beside him now sprinkling a bit of dreamsand over him to calm Pitch as the yeti moved the now limp form of Pitch back into place on the bed. It only took moments before Pitch was out like a light.

Jack put a hand in front of his face to hide his laughter. "Boy, would Bunny have loved to have seen that."

"There, he will rest now." North smiled. "I think it best that we all leave."

Jack nodded and followed North out of the room.

Sandy seeing Tooth coming down the hall with a cup of hot cocoa made a depiction of Pitch sleeping, and she nodded in understanding turning to follow the others out.