Forgotten Bonds

Twenty - A Doctor in the House

November 12th, 2008. Wednesday, 8:13 pm. 

Slade carried the boy to his bed upstairs. Dick whimpered and moaned in Slade's arms. Sometimes he thrashed gently; his head swinging back and forth through his whimpers. Once Slade stopped his walk to the boy's bedroom and tightened his hold on him, the boy would quiet and rest his head against Slade's chest again. Slade wasn't sure how long the boy was trying to remain strong through it. Good grief, the boy was stubborn – Will, too. 

What really surprised Slade was that the boy was light as a feather. It truly attested just how young he was. Fourteen wasn't all that old, if one honestly thought about it. True, the boy was a bit smaller for his age, but it still amazed Slade just how small the boy was in his arms. 

Like a little child. 

Helpless, even. 

But Dick certainly wasn't helpless. He was a powerful kid and one who would stand by Slade's side as his heir. Slade smiled silkily. Yes, he might be young now, but one day the boy would grow into an all powerful young man – the perfect partner, the perfect heir, the perfect assassin; Slade had no doubt. 

The boy was perfect. 

At least that's what Slade had thought. But as three days passed since the boy had fallen ill, Slade was seriously reconsidering some things – temporarily, of course. He hadn't ever come across something like this before and he was just about ready to go crazy. 

The boy was a right little devil! 

He was terrible; a right little devilish terror. There was no doubt about it: Slade was ready to throttle him. But, of course, that wasn't really conducive to Slade's plans if his apprentice in training wasn't among the living. 

But good grief. 

The boy was not cooperative at all with Slade's attempts at helping him through this confounded cold. In fact, he was terribly difficult. Everything was a fight or battle with him. He never would eat the food that Slade brought him, not until Slade threatened five times to blend it all up and force him to drink it. 

Wintergreen was better by the second day that Dick had fallen ill, but he wouldn't take a turn at the cursed position of nursemaid to the spawn of the devil. Wintergreen expressly felt that this was a perfect time for the two of them to bond. 

Slade seriously doubted that – especially since he was about ready to kill the little brat. He could only bet that Wintergreen just didn't want to deal with this terrible little boy. 

Wintergreen gave Slade a number of antibiotics including some herbal remedies. Slade was literally handed a basket full of vitamins. As he looked through everything, he couldn't make heads or tails of the crap. 

He never needed this kind of stuff. It wasn't that he never got sick; he did, rarely. But such sicknesses lasted a day at the most. Trying to figure out this stuff was like trying to figure out a woman's mind. 

Impossible. 

So, he chose four out of the 'billion' that had been offered. He knew Vitamin C was a good one so he chose three different kinds of Vitamin C; some packets called Emergen-C – pink lemonade flavor, a bottle of crystals, and some standard tablets. Then, he chose something that Wintergreen swore would cut the cold by fourths. Some over the counter thing called Oscillococcinum. 

Slade didn't even bother trying to pronounce that. 

But as he tried to get the boy to take the blasted things, he was met with absolute resistance and just plain petulance.