What Else?

[Nai-ru]

It seemed that all Theo did with her life- and with her job, incidentally- was paperwork.

Lots and lots of paperwork.

Perversely, she welcomed this paperwork, because the fact that she was doing paperwork in the records room of her lovely, lovely Weyr meant that she was home. It had been several months, and neither she nor C'rin had shown any signs of illness, so they had elected to return. After all, it had taken only three sevendays for Baran to fall ill after his first exposure to the disease, and R'hel only five. If the illness hadn't set in yet, then it probably wasn't going to.

Maybe the cold of between killed the disease, and whatever infectuous substances that had lingered on R'hel's, Shinth's, and Baran's bodies had been destroyed by the time they reached the Weyr.

It only made sense.

So Theo was back to doing paperwork, and she had never been happier to do it.

[blacklight]

C'rin smothered a yawn, not quite as excited as he should have been to be back in the Weyr. He'd started to get used to being around Theo all the time. Or at least, more time than usual. In the old settlements there hadn't been far to run. In the Weyr there were too many places to hide.

And he was feeling a bit lonely after sleeping by himself. Mith had deserted him to cuddle up next to Lykath. Even Minnie had decided to sleep elsewhere.

Raking a hand through his hair, he ambled his way over to where he knew Theo would be. Sure, his hair looked like a mess, and ...well...everything about him looked like a mess. He didn't much care about appearances anymore. Or ever.

Smothering another yawn, he pushed open the door to the records room. "Already back to paperwork? I'd think you'd want to take a break from it." The Darknessrider smiled, although a bit sleepily. It was so much nicer to sleep in his cot than back where he had been.

[Nai-ru]

"Did you just walk through a hurricane, or do you always look like that?" Theo asked, pointedly not looking up from her work. She knew what his hair was going to look like. And his clothes. And his face. Yes, he probably looked as though he had just walked through a hurricane.

Or a tornado.

Or a tidal wave. Well, maybe not a tidal wave. Too clean. Water, you know.

She giggled at her own train of thought. Well, maybe she had been working a little too hard, if it was that easy to distract her. Oh well. She turned in her chair to grin at him. They'd developed by necessity a way of getting along without trying to kill each other every ten seconds. They often made it a whole ten minutes now! Wasn't it fabulous? And Theo still had all her hair, about which she was immensely proud. She loved her hair.

Hee.

Okay, she'd definitely been working too hard. Her brain had, apparently, imploded.

And she had a headache. It was driving her insane. It was probably all that staring at papers all day.

"Sorry," she added, just in case he was grouchy enough to break the no hair-pulling rule. "Oh, but I do have some reports for you," she added, turning back to her papers as she remembered something.

"Just stay right there," she added, since he was still in the doorway. "I'll find all the right papers for you and then we'll get out of here... It's about two hours 'til sundown, right? Time for food." She smiled again, eyes crinkling at the corners. Food, properly cooked and prepared in the Weyr. They'd been back for a sevenday already but she was still overjoyed to get it.

"And maybe we can visit Teydrin." She brightened further at the prospect. She didn't view the little girl as a daughter so much as an adorable little niece or something. She couldn't quite think of herself as a mother. She wasn't old enough, really, and anyway she'd never much liked mothers.

Unless it was going to be getting too late...

Why on Pern had he just been sleeping? Lazy bum, randomly napping... Oh well. He'd probably just missed his furs.

[blacklight]

Actually, for the entirety of the day, C'rin had only dragged himself out of his cot to eat. For some reason, no one was happy enough to have him back that that they wanted to bring him food at his call. He hadn't even bothered to eat in company, taking the food back to his room. No one much wanted to see him, and he didn't much want to see anyone, either. So it worked out fine.

So what if he was being lazy? Didn't he get to do whatever he wanted anyway?

If he wanted to look like he just walked through a tornado? He should get credit that he was able to walk through it and not get blown to the other side of Pern. At least, that's how it worked in his mind.

A lot of things were kind of weird in his mind, but hey, that's why he's here and not at a different Weyr.

C'rin leaned into the doorway and shrugged at her comment, not at all offended by it. Why should he care what she thought of how he looked?

He didn't care.

Nope.

He ran his hand through his hair again while she wasn't looking.

The Weyrleader knew better than to complain when she mentioned reports and papers. He stifled his groan and submitted to the work he'd have to do in the end anyway. It was probably something boring, like numbers. He never had liked numbers.

He decided to change the subject. "You mean like...eating in front of people?" C'rin had gotten used to not being around people. He was not thrilled to be back around them. "Can't we just grab our food and go eat with Teydrin?" That sounded like a good idea. They'd be like a family.

Why did that sound like such a good idea to him? And why was he smiling? Weird.

[Nai-ru]

"Aha!" Theo had found the right papers. She scooped them into a pile with one hand, brushing her hair back with her other. She really needed a proper hair tie; hers all kept breaking. She turned in her seat to grin at him. "Aww, are we being shy?" she teased. "But that sounds like a great idea. Let's do that."

Gathering the papers into her hand, she pushed herself out of her chair.

It hit suddenly. She had just gotten up to hand C'rin the papers, hadn't she, when the annoying headache turned into fireworks of agony behind her eyes. She blinked rapidly, the buzz of pain draining the color from her face until it was bone-white... bloodless as Baran's cold skin, as R'hel's lips when he had tried to apologize for his last mistake. Her limbs all seized up, trembling violently; the report slipped from her fingers and fell apart to scatter across the floor. Her hands remained frozen, level with her chest, her fingers curled as though they still held the papers.

Oh Faranth, no. Please, no. But she had been so sure. It had been so quick for everyone else- she couldn't believe that it would have taken this long- this must be something else-

But it wasn't. She could tell, because even though her thoughts were flashing and sparking in odd ways and she swayed on her feet, she knew that this couldn't be anything else. She was strong; she didn't often get sick. This was far out of the league of simple illnesses.

She was going to die- she had gotten used to that idea. What hurt was that her stupidity in returning was going to take everyone else with her.

All this had taken far less than a minute; her momentum still propelled her forward and she stumbled toward C'rin, sagging visibly to one side. What a strange angle he stood at, she mused. Automatically her hands flashed out to catch at his jacket, looking for support. She couldn't get a grip for long, because her hands were shaking. She tried to look up, to see his face- surely he would know why the world was going insane. She certainly didn't. What on Pern was going on? Something bad... but she couldn't remember.

The look of shock on her face as her knees collapsed from under her would have been comical had the circumstances been different. Lykath's agonized scream hurt her head, but then again everything hurt. For half a second her hold on C'rin's jacket supported her, but her fingers slipped and she fell sideways. Then it was dark. The sun had gone out...

((-stares at post- . . . UBER-DRAMA! -flails, thus ruining the uber-drama- I just wanna see how he reacts to the drama. =D
NOT dead.
Just sorta... fally... over... y... Yeah.
News update thingy will be put up tomorrow.))

[blacklight]

He just rolled his eyes at her comments and glanced out through the hallway. He didn't want anyone to walk by and see him with that smile on. So he stifled that, too and let his eyes drift back to where Theo was probably shuffling through her papers still. It was the sound of those papers falling that made his head move faster. She wasn't the type to go dropping things unless she intentionally threw them at you. And he wasn't feeling any paper on his face, so she had to have dropped them.

She had, and she looked terrible. Maybe he just hadn't looked at her close enough when he first walked in, but she looked pale. Paler than she should have been after spending all that time outside the Weyr. C'rin stopped trying to rationalize, tried to do something other than just stand. But he couldn't. He couldn't move, eyes attached to her trembling body. What the shards?

He knew what it was. How could he not after hed thought about it for as long as he had? It had been the only thing on his mind up until everyone decided they were healthy.

They were supposed to be fine! This wasn't supposed to happen. He didn't even care about the Weyr. The thought didn't even cross his mind that everyone else was in danger now. All he knew was the Theo was going to die.

His mind blanked out as he saw her stumble forward toward him.

Instinctively his hands moved out to support her...but they wouldn't move. All he could do was stare down at her as she tried to cling to him. He didn't know any more than she did why this was happening. Pern didn't matter to him. The only thing that mattered was the woman in front of him.

And that woman had just buckled and fallen over. And he couldn't make himself move to catch her. His mind was still defying the idea that this was happening.
Mine! Mith snapped at him, and paired with Lykath's scream, C'rin was compelled into motion.

C'rin knelt and gathered Theo into her arms. He already had the sickness, touching her wouldn't matter now. His mind went to who she had been in contact with during the sevenday, trying to think of anyone who wouldn't have been affected. But it was hard to keep his mind there, and it kept drifting back to the idea that Theo would die.

So would he, but it wasn't so devastating. He'd thought about death enough to be okay with the idea. The idea he wasn't okay with was losing her.

And then it hit him.

He didn't want to lose her because he loved her.

All these thoughts of wanting her around, all the images of them as a family...the fact that she was the only person he ever wanted to be around...it was the only explination. And the idea was repulsive, just a bit weird to acknowledge.

His breath hitched and caught, refused to come out in anything but short, sputtery gasps. C'rin pulled her close, eyeing the door briefly. He kicked it shut, or mostly so. He still didn't want anyone to walk by. If they did, they'd probably insist that both of them get thrown out. Not that it would matter...the entire Weyr was probably affected now.

Mith, is Lykath still there?
Yes...
Good.

That meant that Theo wasn't dead. Of course, he could have told that by checking her pulse, but he didn't think of that.

Okay, C'rin, what to do?
He wanted to keep holding her, hoping she'd come back soon, but he knew that might not happen. No one knew how to treat this disease, so taking her to the infirmiry wouldn't help. Alerting someone was probably the best action.

But wait, Lykath probably let everyone know what had happened, so there would be people coming soon. Which meant that he only had a bit of time left with her before someone broke in. Probably K'lee, with his luck.

Knowing that someone would come, C'rin hugged Theo's body to him, holding her in his lap. He didn't want to lose her. Couldn't lose her. Not now that he knew...well, he didn't want to think it again. So he just cried. He didn't know what else to do. There was nothing else he could do. There was no cure, no way to prolong her life...nothing.

[Megami]

In K'lee's own Personal Time Zone:

...
SOMEONE WAS THINKING ABOUT HIM, SHARD IT!
K'lee sat up, his head lifting from the table where he'd been taking a nap while being ranted at by Leulove.
He was going to find out who!
....
....
....
....
When Leu stopped ranting.
You didn't disrupt Leu when she was ranting.
Ever.
Unless you didn't like your head.
...
....
Yeah.

Back to Theo and Crin now.

[Nai-ru]

At the moment, Lykath was throwing herself at the walls of the Weyr, shrieking and clawing at the stone. Mine! she screamed, over and over again. Mine! She didn't really understand what was going on, because her mind was focused entirely on the pain. All she knew was that she had to get to Hers. The fact that she had given more than half the Weyr a heart attack didn't much register.

It took only a few minutes for Theo to stubborn her way back into consciousness, but it was long enough.

The first thing that she noticed- after, of course, the lingering pain in her head and just about everywhere else- was that her face felt wet. Rain? Was she outside? Faranth... she was so cold... Why was it so cold? Determined to find out what was going on- and why everything hurt like sharding... hurt- she wrenched her eyes open.

And it was dark. Why the shard was it dark?

"What....?" She was horrified to hear her voice rasp and shake. Ugh. She became aware that someone else was there, holding her. Shards. Someone else seeing her weakness... "It's cold," she complained to whoever it was, deciding that a show of bravado was best. Temperature complaints counted as bravado, because otherwise she would be complaining of much worse things. It was not, of course, actually cold. Her temperature had jumped suddenly, and fever made her biased.

Lykath calmed a bit when she felt Hers become aware again, at least to a muddled extent, and disentangled herself from the wall to land merely on the closest ledge. (She shoved Faith off to do this, making the Forest squeak indignantly and flash between.)

She continued to moan, scratching absently at the stone. I want a Healer in the Records Room this instant, she snarled at everyone in the Infirmary, not bothering to narrow her order. Mith, tell Yours to listen to the Healer WHEN HE GETS THERE. This last was screeched in favor of the Healers who had better be hurrying.