Chapter Text
Since you joined as a proxy you have fallen into a comfortable routine. Today was like every other Wednesday, restocking your med kit, giving your grocery list to Tim, helping some of the other residents with small injuries. It was comforting to have some regular peace.
Toby had disappeared early in the morning, he always did whenever he woke up early and felt too energetic to stay quiet. Usually he'd go straight out for a mission or take a walk and he'd be back in time for lunch with all the stories of what he'd been up to.
It was exactly what you were expecting today, you were expecting to find Toby sitting at the kitchen table to complain about you being late or maybe on the couch watching TV but when you opened the door his heart sank.
Toby was laying face down on the floor unconscious, blood from a cut on his lip was mixing with drool, he very obviously just had a seizure and not a small one either.
You immediately rushed to his side “Toby! Are you alright? Wake up man…” you tried but you didn’t get a response. You hesitantly put his hand against Toby's forehead to confirm your suspicions, he was burning up badly. Really badly.
You dropped the med kit and immediately tried getting Toby up but you weren't strong enough. You hated yourself for not being able to carry Toby like most others would be able to but you had no time to wallow in self pity. You just dragged Toby to the bathroom and right under the shower before turning the cold water on, not caring that you were both still fully clothed. Toby needed to cool down and fast.
You stepped out for just a moment to get a thermometer to assess the damage. You were quick to return to Toby’s side and placed the device in his mouth.
You paused, your face turning pale as you looked at the reading. 42.5°C. That was a deadly temperature, there was no way you could treat that here alone could you? But you couldn't go out either, it was a 10 minute walk to even get to the mansion from their shared cabin and leaving Toby alone for a full 20 minutes just to get EJ didn’t feel right.
You just grit his teeth and removed Toby’s hoodie and undershirt to try and cool him down faster, not caring that you got wet and cold as well from joining him under the cold stream of water.
“Come on, you're going to be alright…” immediately you found the source of it all, a deep cut on Toby's shoulder that seemed to be going necrotic.
You cursed under his breath, you should've kept a closer eye on Toby, the guy can't feel pain so naturally he wouldn't realize he got hurt and this was the consequence of your negligence. Toby was already above the average age expectancy for someone with CIPA but he couldn't die now, not like this, he just couldn’t!
You turned off the shower and laid Toby on his side so he had better access to the wound. This was really bad.
You swallowed hard as you made a decision, you were going to cut out the infection as best you could and try looking for a fever reducer. You had a few sterile scalpels in the med kit you just restocked so you washed your hands nervously before getting the med kit, pulling out a scalpel, stitches, bandages and a bottle of disinfectant.
You weren't a surgeon and this wasn't going to be pretty but you had to try something, anything. You couldn't let Toby die from this.
You doused the infected area with disinfectant before peeling the scalpel out of the packaging. You took a deep breath trying to steady yourself before finally bringing the blade down.
Blood ran down Toby's shoulder and onto your hands, it didn't matter. You hated this but at the very least Toby couldn’t feel it, maybe he wouldn’t even know anything had happened.
You let the chunk of necrotic flesh fall down on the bathroom floor next to you before rinsing the wound with disinfectant again, hopefully you got everything. With a shaking breath you reached out to stitch up the open wound you created and added bandages for good measure.
Now that that was done you just sat there for a moment, unsure about what to do, you still had to cool Toby down but he didn’t know how, it was like he was paralyzed.
You got pulled out of your spiraling thoughts by a knock on the front door.
“You two home? You're both coming on a mission with me.” A gruffly voice spoke before seemingly entering.
You could recognize that voice anywhere, Tim. Tim could help. You got up and stumbled out of the bathroom, you didn’t care that you were soaked and covered in blood.
“Tim! I need you to help me find some aspirin or Ibuprofen… just… please, Toby has a 43°C fever and he's going to die!”
Tim paused for a moment, caught off guard by the sight of you covered in blood and actually demanding something instead of being your usual spineless self.
“Alright, just tell me where you guys keep your pills. What the hell happened anyway?”
You led him to the medicine cabinet, Tim probably would’ve told you to figure it out yourself if it wasn't for the fact that you looked like you were about to have a panic attack.
“It should be somewhere in there… I just… I came home and Toby was unconscious on the floor. I'm pretty sure he had a seizure too but I just moved straight to cooling him… he can't die, he just can't…”
You were trembling, hugging yourself with bloodied hands. You looked like he was about to cry.
Tim hummed as he looked through the cabinet, you didn't explain why you were covered in blood or how Toby had managed to get a fever that severe. It was information he needed to know so he asked once he finally found some paracetamol.
“So about the blood?”
He didn't have to ask much more for you to finally explain.
“While I was cooling him down I noticed a cut on his shoulder, it had gone necrotic so I thought… I thought cutting it out was the best option… oh god what if I made it worse?”
You looked like you were about to fully break down now, trying to make yourself as small as possible.
Tim grabbed you by the shoulders trying to ground you, you wouldn't be much help like this.
“Hey, breathe. I'll get some antibiotics for him as well and then take over for a bit. You should get cleaned up and get some dry clothes, he's the one that needs to be cooled down, not you.”
You nodded softly but still trailed behind him until you were sure Tim was doing things correctly, it seemed he had dealt with this before. Maybe Tim was the one that took care of Toby before you got here, it was mildly comforting.
Hesitantly you turned away, opting to clean up in the kitchen. Washing Toby's blood off of yourself felt so wrong and thinking about it too hard made you feel dizzy but eventually you were clean. You quickly moved to your room to gather a new t-shirt and dry pants before joining Tim in the bathroom again.
Toby was covered in wet towels and seemed to look slightly better. Tim had managed to shove the pills down his throat and had probably gotten rid of the piece of necrotic flesh since it was no longer on the bathroom floor next to them, thank fuck for that.
“Do you want to take his temperature again? I think he's going to be alright but it might help ease your mind.”
You nodded and hesitantly reached out for the thermometer to measure again. 40.4°C now, it was miles better than before and you let out a relieved sigh. Toby wasn’t out of the woods yet, his fever could get worse again and it might have already caused internal damage.
Without much of a warning though Tim moved over to pick Toby up, carrying him out of the bathroom.
“W-What are you doing?”
“Getting him to bed, the bathroom floor isn't very comfortable even if he can't feel it right now.”
“But he needs to stay cool.”
“That's what the towels are for.”
You finally allowed Tim to carry Toby to bed, laying him on top of the blankets. Once Toby was all situated Tim looked like he was about to leave.
“Where are you going?”
“Leaving, I have to find two people willing to take over your jobs.”
“What- no you can't leave! Please, what if something happens? Tim, please!”
Tim gave you a stern look “I have to leave unless all three of us want to get in trouble.” He pulled out a cigarette and held it in his mouth, not lighting it just yet. “So what's it going to be?”
“Fine… you can go.” you said, sitting down on the bed next to Toby, you weren't going to leave him. “Tim, thank you for helping out… I appreciate it” you added quietly.
Tim just gave you a nod in return before finally stepping out.
You stayed there for a long time, making sure Toby stayed cool with the help of wet towels until you eventually saw his arm move.
“Hey, you're finally waking up” you wanted to believe things would be alright from here on out but sadly things weren't that easy. Instead of getting a response Toby started twitching more, he wasn't waking up, he was having another seizure.
You were quick to move, making sure Toby couldn’t hurt himself. Luckily he was already in bed, somewhere soft.
The episode didn't last long, no more than a minute but to you it felt like forever. Toby was cooling down, he shouldn't be having seizures unless this was an aftershock or worse, the fever had already caused brain damage.
Once he was sure Toby's seizure was over you leaned over him in an attempt to check his tongue and pupils, luckily his tongue stayed unharmed from the earlier seizure. The eyes were next, you leaned in close as you held Toby's eyes open, trying to gouge if one pupil was larger than the other.
Right then Toby blinked, making you back up in record speed. Your face turning red from embarrassment, you had no business getting this close to Toby, what were you thinking?
Toby just curled up on his side with a groan, he was definitely feeling it now. “What happened…? Are you… an angel?”
You tried to shake off the lingering embarrassment as you sat down next to Toby again, a blush still on your face. “No, it's just me. You had a really bad fever, there was a wound you missed and it was starting to go necrotic so I cut out the infection and then Tim gave you the right antibiotics and-”
“You dragged Tim into this!?” Toby gave you a look, one that said ‘I'd strangle you if I wasn't feeling like shit right now’.
You were taken aback a little, you knew Toby and Tim didn't get along well but they didn't hate each other either as far as you could tell. Hell, Tim almost helped instinctively when he found out what was happening.
“I didn't drag him into it! He just appeared to give us a job and I only asked him to hand me antibiotics! Not my fault he wanted to help by cooling you down as well.”
“Well you should've turned him away” Toby swallowed hard, he really didn’t have the energy to argue but he couldn't help it.
“You had at least two seizures today Toby, I thought you were going to die!” you sounded almost desperate, you didn’t want Toby to hate you for this, you didn’t fully understand it either. There had been a handful of times where you had to jump in to cool Toby's fever and nurse him back to health so why was this different? Only because Tim was involved this time?
That seemed to shut him up and his gaze softened slightly. “I just… I don't want him to start fussing over me again, I'm perfectly fine on my own.” Toby grumbled as he looked away.
Clearly there was a history there that you didn't know about and you couldn't help but pry a little.
“Why would he? Tim doesn't care about anyone that much.”
Toby scoffed “before you came here he was the one that checked up on me once a day, to make sure I wasn't dying of heatstroke or an infection or anything like that… It wasn't fun”
“But I do that too, how is that different?”
“Well for starters you don't drag me out of bed to do it and you don't demand I take my temperature every single day.” Toby grumbled, taking a moment to think of a better way to explain it. “You don't make it a chore”
There it was, Tim was the one responsible for Toby not dying and he was scared Tim would be in charge of his health again after this.
“Well you shouldn't worry too much, I did most of the work, besides I know what I'm doing and he doesn't.” It was a lie, you had panicked and Tim had made sure Toby was doing alright but he didn't have to know that. Toby just had to feel safe now so he could rest.
Toby seemed mildly reassured but he was still very tense, it wouldn’t help him recover so you decided to switch the topic.
“So how are you feeling?”
“Like shit.”
Shivering Toby dragged the damp towels off of him and huddled under the blankets. It wasn't ideal but he needed some warmth despite already having a fever
“Just rest alright? I'll be right here if you need anything”
Toby smiled a little and nodded before closing his eyes and drifting off.
You just smiled, Toby was going to be okay and it was all you could ever ask for.