14.Jan.06
The Cold
After being unable to rest and get rid of her cold at her own house,
Sally Evelyn drops by the Axalon for some rest. Unfortunately for Rhinox, he
agrees to let her sleep in the med bay. Is he in for one heck of a night!
Disclaimer: I do not own Beast Wars.
By:
“Rhinox?” A soft voice sniffled, and then sneezed. The medic looked up from his work and smiled at the young author standing in the doorway.
“What is it Sally?” He asked, setting his tools down. “You weren’t supposed to come back until next week. Won’t your parents worry?”
“No.” She rubbed at her nose and shuffled into the med bay. “I told them I was going to bed and not to bother me. I locked my door.”
“Oh,” Rhinox looked at her closely. She had shadows under her eyes and her nose was red. She looked terrible. “You look terrible.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Are you sick again?”
Sally swatted his arm. “No. Not again. This is different from the flu.”
Rhinox shuddered at the memory.
“Don’t worry, this is just a cold. But my sister's having a sleepover and I can’t get any rest. Would it be okay if I crashed here in the med bay for tonight?”
Rhinox hesitated a moment, the ‘flu bug’ incident fresh in his mind. That had been the most miserable two days of his life. “Well,” the girl looked up at him pleadingly, “yes, of course.”
She hugged his arm. “Thanks Rhinox. Don’t worry. I’ll sleep all night!”
A half hour later, Sally was curled up in a sleeping bag on one of the berths, and Rhinox was working once more on his new communicator. He was bent far over it, checking some of the wiring, when a horrid sound disrupted his thoughts.
“Snnnnnnnnrx…”
He sat up fast and looked about. Sally was asleep, and there was no one else in the room. Just a weird bird, he told himself as he went back to work.
“Snnnnnnnnrx…”
What is wrong with that bird? It sounds like its getting strangled by a worm! He stood up and stomped (quietly, minding Sally) over to the window. He pulled back the curtain and looked out at the dim twilight-lit world. He could just barely see a bird disappear over the horizon. Good! It’s finally gone!
“Snnnnnnnnrx…shooooooh…”
Rhinox spun around, looking at every shadow of the room. Nothing. If this is Rattrap's doing, I swear I’ll sit on him! He thought venomously. He glanced at Sally; she was still asleep. If it wasn’t bothering her, it must not have been that big of a deal. With a heavy sigh, Rhinox went back to work.
The noise disappeared a few minutes later and he let out a sigh of relief. It had probably just been Rattrap or Cheetor; they were both rather good pranksters. Rubbing at his optics, he looked down at his work. The new mini-com he was making for Rattrap to place in the Predacons meeting room was half way finished. It was supposed to have been down an hour ago, but the strange noise had distracted him from getting it finished.
“Snnnnnnnnrx…”
“Agh!”
He heard a shuffle and turned to see Sally sitting up, rubbing her eyes.
“Rhinox? What's wrong? You were shouting.” She muttered sleepily.
“Oh, uh,” he scratched his head, “it was nothing. Go ahead back to sleep.”
“I can’t.” She mumbled.
“Why not?” Rhinox asked, a bit worried.
“I’m thirsty.” She started to wiggle out of her sleeping bag. “I’m going get some water.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Rhinox set a hand on her shoulder, “I’ll go grab you a bottle from the storage room.”
“You don’t mind?”
“No, of course not.” He smiled. “You just rest.” He left the room and headed for the small storage room the authoress had stuck some spare supplies in. He ducked quietly into the room and ran right into a metal crate on the ground. He bit down on his tongue to keep from shouting as he jumped up and down, holding his dented foot. “Activate lights.” He snarled between his teeth and felt the dent. It wasn’t too bad, but it stung!
He looked around the small storage space and found Sally’s brightly painted boxes tucked into the corner. He pushed the other crates aside (watching where he tread) and popped open the plastic lid of the first crate. Clothes stared back blankly. He closed it and moved it to the side, then opened the next one. Canned food. He stacked it on top of the first crate and pulled the lid off of the third one. An extra sleeping bag and pillow. He pulled out the pillow then stacked the box up. Sally would appreciate an extra pillow.
“Next one,” he muttered. Data disks. “Fifth one,” he peeked in. “Finally!” Several bottles of water rattled as he reached in and grabbed one. Sealing the box and grabbing the pillow, he turned to find his way blocked by all of the crates.
Ten minutes later, after rearranging the crates so he could get out of the room, he found Sally fast asleep on the recharge berth. Placing the water bottle on the ground beside it, Rhinox turned back to the comlink. Sitting before his bench once more, he began to work harder on the comlink. He wanted to finish it so he could go ahead and recharge.
“Mer...”
Blinking at the strange sound, Rhinox turned to see Sally rolling over. Right off the edge of the bed.
“AGH!” He shot out of his seat and caught her three inches from the ground. She blinked up at him sleepily.
“Rhinox? What's going on? Are the Preds attacking?” She asked with worry.
“No. You rolled off the bed.”
“Oh. Sorry. You should have let me hit.”
“What? Of course not!” He lifted her effortlessly and set her back on her sleeping bag. “There. No more rolling around.”
“’kay.” She snuggled back into her sleeping bag.
“Rhinox?”
The medic jumped and dropped his screwdriver. Sighing in exasperation, he turned to face the authoress.
“Yes?”
“I can’t get to sleep. Can you read me a story?”
“A...story?”
“Yeah. Like Goldilocks, or Green Eggs and Ham.”
“You want me to read you a story at two in the morning?”
“Please?”
“Uh, I don’t think so.”
“But why not?”
“It will just make you think more and you won’t be able to go to sleep.”
“Oh...”
Rhinox had to cringe at the disappointment in her voice.
“Then again...”
“Yes?”
“I guess I could. What harm could it do?”
“Really?”
“Yes. Where are your books?”
“...”
“Sally?”
“Nevermind.”
He was almost done. Holding the nearly-finished comlink out in front of him, Rhinox grinned. All he had to do was double-check the wiring and make sure he had enough power cells in it to make it last a few months. He set it back on the bench and began to count the power cells.
One, two, three, four...
“Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine,”
Five, six, seven, eight...
“Fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five...”
Fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty eight—wait a second!
“Sixty-nine, seventy, seventy-one...”
Rhinox turned to look at Sally. She had her eyes squeezed shut and was counting to herself. He had heard of humans counting to go to sleep, but why did she have to do it out loud?
“Sally, could you please—”
“Aw, Rhinox, you made me lose count!” The authoress opened her eyes and pouted at him. “I was almost to sleep too! Think of all the sheep that will never be counted! Those poor sheep...” She sneezed.
Rhinox turned back to his work. “You were on seventy-two.” He said.
“Thanks! Seventy-two, seventy-three, seventy-four...”
“’ey Rhinox, you awake?”
Someone was shaking his shoulder. The medic groaned.
“What is it, Sally?” He asked in annoyance.
“Sally? Do I look like dat pint-sized gal to you?” The voice asked irritably.
Rhinox lifted his head and blinked wearily at Rattrap. “Oh. It’s you.”
“Yeah, its me. You finish dat comlink yet? Primal wants me to haul my tail over to da Darkside dis morning, before dey all wake up.”
“Yeah. Where’d Sally go?” He asked as he looked about his bench for the comlink.
“Headed home an hour ago, saying she couldn’t sleep ‘cause you were bothering her.” Rattrap snickered. Rhinox grunted and shoved the completed comlink into the rodent’s hand.
“Here.”
“Thanks.” Rattrap left with a nod. Rhinox watched him go with tired optics, and began to feel a little strange, as though he had pressure in his chest that was just building and building and building—
“ACHOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
The End