[flashback] sick day

[2goodarms]

A decade isn't enough time for illnesses to evolve from their pre-freeze state. So many of them start the same way they always have: with a chill. A lot of times, people don't even know they're sick. What's feeling a little colder than usual, needing to curl up a little tighter under your allotted blanket?

So Curtis doesn't know, for a good forty-eight hours, until the shivering doesn't quit even after Gilliam loans him two more blankets. As soon as Tanya feels his forehead, he's whisked away to the very back of the Tail, stumbling a little as the train heaves along the tracks. Everything's tilted just a little too far off-kilter, and weaves just a little too sharply whenever they go over a bump. He's grateful when he finally has a chance to sit down.

...Actually, maybe he'll lie down for a bit. Yeah. Just a couple minutes.

Comments

[hate_gettin_older]

And as they get him settled to the floor, Edgar reappears, out of breath, lugging an armload of blanket.

"Brought 'em," he says, out of breath, "from th' infirmary. Floor's too cold."

[snowpiercer_npcs]

Evie raises her eyebrows -- surprised, pleased, it's hard to tell -- and snags the blanket out of Edgar's hands. "Thanks," she says; then, to Curtis: "You can rest here for a little bit, but we'll have to get you all the way to the back soon. Okay?"

"Okay," he mumbles, as Evie unwinds the blanket and settles it underneath him.

[hate_gettin_older]

Edgar watches, bouncing on his heels a little in nervous agitation.

"They said three headcounts in a row," he says, "so you don't have to come to the next one or the one after that if you still feel a bit shite."

[2goodarms]

"Yeah," he manages. "Evie told me. Thank fuck."

Evie tests his forehead with one hand and sighs at what she finds. "We'll see about getting some more broth in you later, too. Might have to be cold, but..."

"Ugh."

[hate_gettin_older]

There should be more hot water. There should be more everything, and asking for it is worse than useless.

Edgar grinds his jaw in helpless fury.

[snowpiercer_npcs]

She looks up at Edgar.

"Thank you." Quietly. "You're a good friend."

[hate_gettin_older]

He bites his lip. "I just wanted t' help."

[snowpiercer_npcs]

"I know," she says. "That's a good impulse to have. Don't lose it, okay?"

Macgregor nods in silent agreement.

[hate_gettin_older]

He isn't sure what she means, but he nods anyway. "Right."

And adds, on impulse: "And thanks. For helping him too. Both of you."

[snowpiercer_npcs]

"'Course," says Macgregor. "We're all stuck in this shit together, you know?"

He glances to Curtis. It's hard to tell if, sick as he is, he's tracking the conversation, but he does manage to focus on Macgregor for a second.

[hate_gettin_older]

As does Edgar -- more than he usually focuses on anybody.

It's not as though Macgregor has said anything but a simple and obvious truth, and yet somehow the way he says it ... well, it sounds truer, dumb as that seems. Deeper. More important somehow.

He nods, solemnly, trying to sound adult when he says "Yeah."

[snowpiercer_npcs]

Macgregor holds Curtis's gaze a moment longer, then looks up at Edgar. People squeeze around them, casting mildly irritated glances at the way they've parked themselves in the middle of the floor, but nobody says anything. Not with how Macgregor reacted to Reese; not with how Curtis looks right now.

He reaches out to pat Edgar on the shoulder.

[hate_gettin_older]

Edgar draws in breath, holds himself a little straighter.

Somehow he knows this is a moment that isn't going to come again.

[snowpiercer_npcs]

"Wanna sit here and eat your dinner?"

Because let's be honest: Curtis isn't going to move back to the infirmary any time soon, much as Evie may want it.

[hate_gettin_older]

"Yeah," he says again, quieter than he means to, and folds down to sit next to Curtis.

Hunger's woken up in him; he saved his protein block from last night in case they needed to trade it to somebody for help, and his belly is jabbing him with reminders of its emptiness, and he tears into the gummy protein without another word.