Chapter 51: Phineas and Ruddiger
I apologize for waiting so long to update, and that this chapter might be a bit shorter than intended, But it was the only way to make it… sort of whole. I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.
Phineas was being rather quiet when he closed the door to the sickroom and turned towards his laboratory. The reception room was rather quiet, but the young boy's loud desperate sobs and cries could still be heard behind the closed doors.
If one looked at the Physician's face, one could see how much his brain was working. But there was a sadness in his small dark eyes as well. It wasn't before he stood before the door to his laboratory he let out the heavy sigh that he had carried inside.
He stood there a moment to gather his thoughts, but a sudden croon interupted his thinking mind. He opened his eyes and looked down to see Varian's little faitful companion stare up at him with black eyes full of concern.
«Your master is a lucky one indeed to have such a loyal companion like you.» he said and smiled warmly down at him. «You seem rather wise fro you being. Just too bad you cannot speak, or perhaps so much damage could have been avoided.»
He grabbed the door to his laboratory and opened it with greater force than he intended, and he sighed again of his own frustration.
«Oh, how to approach… I wish I had more time.» he moaned while he walked towards the sink. «Nobody is ready for this yet!» he mumbled to himself, pumping water into a little black kettle that he put on a little fire stove beside the sink and lit the fire underneath it. «Least of all the boy himself. And now that we were doing so well…» he shook his head, feeling desperate. «What in the world should I do next?»
Ruddiger had followed him inside and jumped uppon the wooden table in the middle of the room, and were watching him. As he spoke.
«Whatever was going on, and still is, inside his already wounded head is impossible to imagine.» Phineas turned to face Ruddiger once in a while as he spoke. «And also, how much had returend and how much remained? Would it be a good idea to tell him everything if there was only a little part of it his memory?»
Ruddiger crooned back, looking down in the floor, as if he struggled to find a good reply when there really wasn't much he could say.
«And what part? Where did he even begin? Would the boy even have any memory of interacting with him at all? With the King?»
As the Physician let the water boil and he kept on talking, he went to find new, clean bandaches and a towel, along with a washing cloth that he put on top of a low boal he found in another shelf. Putting them on the table, he searched through his littel apotecary shelf to find a certain little bottle that he put inside his left large sleeve. Then he stood a moment, lost in thoughts as he pondered out loud to himself.
«It could be that I have had too much confidence in my own theories to see what we're actually up against. I may have had too much faith in… my own skills…» The Physician stopped and let out another heavy sigh, and placed both hands on the table in front of him, letting himself rest on them a moment ans he lowered his head.
Then he felt something touch his arm, and he turned to face the animal. For a moment he had forgottren he was even there, and yet, when he saw him, he got a soft look in his eyes and allowed himself to let his hand stroke the soft fur on the critter's back.
«You see, I did that mistake once before… a long time ago. And it… cost me too much… more than I can ever repay…»
Ruddiger looked up to see the sad look in his eyes returned, and he pressed both his eyes and his lips together tightly. So the raccoon did what he knew would be the best way to comfort him.
He nuzzled his snout against his hand.
The Physician opened his suprised eyes to look down ad him, smiling warmly as he gave him a scratch under his chin, something he seemed to enjoy.
«Oh well, I suppose everything happens for a reason.» Then he turned around and grabbed a hold on the bowl with the clothes in one hand, and walked over to the oven and grabbed the kettle with his free hand.
«Now, come along, my little friend. Your master needs us!» he said gently, with a hint of seriousness, and Ruddiger understood the intention and jumped down on the floor and followed the man as he walked out of the room, closing the door with his elbow.
As they approached the doors to the sick room again, they could both hear the boy's sobbing from inside, going on like before, perhaps a bit slower. Phineas sighed again. If the boy was running out of tears, it could either mean that he would be exhausted and vounrable, or…
Phineas cleared his throat and took a deep breath. Looking down on the raccoon, he could see that the animal seemed to share his concern for what would come. The elder Physician chuckled as gave him a weak smile.
«Well, my friend… None of us are ready for this! But I have always said that the only way to deal with a fire is to face it directly. He's going to need us both now. Are you ready, Ruddiger?»
The raccoon's respond was sto stand up on two legs and look uppon him with the most confident look he had ever seen on any being in his life. The old Pshysician could even swear he gave a nod.
«Then, let's do this!»
By this, Phineas turned sideways and opened the door with his right elbow.
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The sound of Varian's loud crying incresed as the door opened, and Phineas found the boy just where he had left him; in Violet's embrace with his face burried into her chest. It was hard to say how much time had passed sinse the boy's sudden breakdown, but the rays from the windows had changed and become a bit longer.
Varian didn't look like he was going to stop crying at all, although his sobs had become more horse and mixed up with a couple of coughs now and then. His nose was all stuffed up so from time to time he gasped deeply for air between the sobs. But he kept clinging to Violet as his life were depending on it and the elder maid looked like she was holding her own child as she stroke him over his back to sooth him. It pleased Phineas to see that the fear she had had for him earlier had practically siezed to exist, so at least he ha done less problem to deal with.
However, his concern for the boy was the same.
Ruddiger didn't wait in the door like he did, but walked over towards the bed and jumped up behind his master, looking around him to see how he was doing.
The raccoon's action made the Physician confident, and next he walked over to the boy's bed and put the kettle on the night stand and the bold with the clothing on the bed beside.
«How is our young friend doing, Violet?»
«He's out of breath and soaked, but I think he'll be fine.» she said and gently pushed his shoulders a little upwards so she could get a glance of him, stroaking aside his damp hair that were now stinging to his face, all while he still shook and sobbed. «Pass me that, will you?» she said, pointing on the floor beside him.
«Hm?» he replied confused and lokked down at his feet, and found the nakpin that Varian had tried to retrieve earlier. He bent down and picked it up, but he had barely handed it over to her before she ripped it out of his hands and started to gently rub the boy's soaking wet face, removing his wet bangs with one hand. As she went on, the boy found himself forced to open his eyes to view his surroundings and became slightly aware of the change in her actions, and though he looked a little confused and distracted, he wasn't able to stop his sore whimpering.
«Now now, you're gonna drown us all going on like that, dearie.» she said in a gentle tone and refolded the halfwet napkin and wrapped it around his nose. «Now go ahead and blow!» she said, a bit more demanding this time.
Still looking rather confused and disturbed, the whimpering boy one way or another managed to somehow gather up enough breath underneath the cloth to blow with what he had of strenth, mostly likely because he realized that he really needed it.
"There now. You're all better!" Violet said before she wiped his nose. "Try to calm down now. Breathe slowly."
Then he took a couple of desperatly needed breath through his now open nose that seemed to calm him down a bit. It seemed somehow that the boy finally ran out of strength, because he looked rather exhausted. His coughing gasps mixed with whimpers, but it seemed like he would be able to calm down at last.
Phineas realized it was now or never and took a silent breath himself beforte he spoke with calm voice.
«Varian?»
«Huh?» the young lad turneed to him, still panting and looked up at him. His face was swollen, his nose and eyes bright red from harsh crying and made the irises in his eyes look bluer than ever. But it was the expression in his eyes that was most stunning. It was fear mixed with plain confution. The boy was terrefied, but also didn't seem to understand the situation. The way he was biting his bottom lip made him look even younger than he was.
Phineas gave him a calm, warm smile when he spoke again. «If you're feeling a bit better, I suggest we change your bandages.»
The Pysician realized too late that might not have been the first thing to say, as the boy looked like he got rather startled with sudden fright.
«M-my wha-hh…» Varian's quivering left hand moved up to his head to touch uppon the already loose bandage, and it fell off and allowed Varian to lift it in front of him. The already shaken teen got even more distrubed when he saw it, and automatically he used his right hand to check on the sudden ithcy feeling behind his head, and his face paled and his sore eyes got wide as he spotted the small stains of blood on his fingers.
«I… I eh-eh-Ahhh..» The boy started to hyperventilate in panic, but it didn't take long before his huge eyes rolled backwards, and neither Phineas or Violet got time to react before the boy's head got contact with the pllow behind him, the boy lost all contact with the world around him.