Vah'nya laughed as Eli chased her around the stars. With a graceful leap, she crossed a nebula.

"Wait for me!" Eli called. Lacking Third Sight, he had to wade through the swirl of colors.

Vah'nya danced around a planetary ring while she waited.

"Hurry up, Eli!"

"I'm coming, Vah'nya."

"Vah'nya!"

"Vah'nya! Vah'nya!"

Vah'nya's eyes popped open.

Rubbing sleep from his eyes, Eli weakly pushed himself up on his elbow. " I dropped my comm, and I need to call Thrawn."

"The 'fresher?" Vah'nya sat up, reaching for own comm.

"No, can't you hear it?"

She listened. "I hear the rain. It sounds like it's slowing down."

Eli fell back on his pillow. "So much water. Can't you feel it?"

Vah'nya's heart almost stopped. She thumbed on her comm. "Thrawn, hurry! Something is wrong with Eli ."

The door opened before she even had time to put away the comm. Thrawn hurried to the side of the bed and lifted Eli in his arms.

"Tell me what happened."

"Too much water," Eli insisted, his fingers tracing feebly over a row of blue squares on the Double Planetary Ring quilt.

"He woke me, calling out my name." Vah'nya scooted closer, squeezing Eli's hand. "Then he started talking about hearing and feeling water. He wanted you."

"I am here." Thrawn smoothed a strand of Vah'nya's hair. "I will stay with you for the rest of the night."

"Is he going to be all right?"

Thrawn began unwrapping the quilts from Eli. "I see no signs of excessive moisture. He is perspiring slightly. Perhaps he had a fever-induced dream."

"Or something could be terribly wrong and he doesn't know how to tell us."

Thrawn nodded slow agreement. "In either case, it would be prudent for me to remain here."

"Eli! What happened to my Baby?" Lydia rushed into the room, fastening her night robe.

"We are not yet certain." Thawn placed Eli back on the bed and swept up the discarded quilts. "It may be a fever-induced anxiety. His fever has risen again, in spite of his medication."

" Then we'd better cover him up, so he can sweat it out." Lydia turned to her husband. "Would you bring the quilt from the Sitting Room, Honey?"

Daniel nodded. He caught up the Chaos quilt that Thrawn had tossed on the couch. "Here's this one, too." He hurried out, quickly returning with the extra blanket.

"Cooling him down is the best approach." Thrawn stepped closer to Eli.

"Sweating it out always works with Eli." Lydia tucked the quilts back around Eli.

"Indeed? How many time have you used this approach?" Thrawn's eyes narrowed.

"Why, a dozen or more, at least, with fevers every bit as high as this." She snugged the Chaos quilt tighter as Eli gave a feeble cough.

"And it has always worked?"

"Every time. One time, it took less than an hour."

"Very well. We will try your method for one hour." Thrawn carefully sat on the edge of the bed. "However, if his temperature rises, we shall resume cooling measures immediately."

Vah'nya lay back down beside Eli. His parents sat awkwardly on the couch to watch and wait.

Eli coughed again, shivering under his blankets. "So cold," he muttered, "so hot."

"Poor Eli." Vah'nya wrapped herself around him, pressing her tiny swelling against his cocoon.

The minutes trickled by. Thrawn hooked up a new IV bag, taking his eyes off of Eli long enough to ensure that the drip line was working properly.

"How's his fever?" Lydia asked.

"There is no change in his temperature." Thrawn laid his hand on Eli's chest. "However, his breathing seems to have worsened."

A rattling cough shook Eli's body as he tried to draw a breath. He twisted under the quilts, his eyes fluttering open. His gaze darted wildly around the room.

Vah'nya reached through the pile of blankets to squeeze his hand. He turned to her with a soft whimper. His mouth formed a soundless word.

Thrawn.

Thrawn leaned over him. "I'm here, Eli."

Eli's free hand appeared above the quilts groping weakly. His lips tried to form words.

"What is it, my Eli? I know you are unwell." Thrawn slipped his arm under Eli's shoulders.

Eli blinked down at the quilt. Slowly, he stretched out his hand towards one of the fabric scraps. He gasped, then turned pleading eyes on Thrawn as his fingers clutched the quilt.

"What are you trying to tell me?" Thrawn bent closer to examine the cloth as Eli's parents hurried to the bed.

"What is it?" Daniel asked.

"A pale blue, almost white." Thrawn mused. "What does it signify to Eli?"

"It looks like ice," Vah'nya pointed out, stroking Eli's pale face. "He did say he was cold."

Eli shook his head minutely, stared again at Thrawn as he gasped for another breath.

Thrawn's eyes widened. "It does signify ice, but not that he is cold. He is drowning."

He pulled Eli into a sitting position. Eli wheezed and rasped.

"Mr. Vanto, please bring me the medical box that is next to the couch."

"What do you mean, he's drowning?" Lydia frantically pushed closer to Eli.

"His lungs are filling with fluid." Thrawn held Eli tightly as he opened the box. "If we act quickly, we may be able to ease his distress without surgical intervention."

"Surgery?" Daniel's mouth fell open. "Do you know how to do that, sir?"

"If necessary. Mrs. Vanto, will you help me position the breathing mask?"

She hesitated. "Wouldn't you rather have Vah'nya help you? She knows more about medical equipment than I do."

"I do not wish to expose her to the medicine inside at this time."

Vah'nya watched Lydia's face, trying to gauge her reaction to Thrawn's strange explanation. Eli's mother seemed to be thinking only of her son. She reached around Thrawn, holding the mask he indicated. She managed to fit it over Eli's nose and mouth with Thrawn's guidance. Easing herself back onto the foot of the bed, she watched anxiously, her husband's hand on her shoulder.

"How did you know, sir?" Daniel asked softly.

"The pale blue represented the ice of my homeworld. When I last took Eli for a visit, he fell through the ice."

"Eli didn't tell us." Lydia frowned.

"I pulled him out immediately and we treated him quickly. There were no lasting ill effects," Thrawn assured her.

"He's still in respiratory distress." Vah'nya leaned closer. "You're going to have to drain his lungs, Thrawn."

Author's Note: I am quite certain that Thrawn is skilled and knowledgeable in emergency medical skills. In my Thrawn and Baby Eli AU Adopted, Thrawn even delivers a baby. I keep thinking I should do a one-shot where Thrawn is trying to teach the Chimera crew some first aid skills, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Eli's mother is apparently a proponent of my grandfather's old-fashioned fever-breaking method: sweating it out under the blankets. Thrawn is relying on conventional modern methods of cooling a person with a high fever, the ones recommended in my child development textbooks. Thrawn has now discovered the real problem, and he is going to save Eli's life in the next (and last) chapter!

Thanks for reading and God bless you!