Chapter Text
Vander was at his wit’s end. He’d dealt with plenty of sick kids in his time, as was normal when one was a father of four, but never in his life had he encountered something like this. There was no warning, no coughing or fatigue or any other sign that something was wrong. Just a suddenly screaming child whose eyes shone a brilliant purple hue.
Poor Powder was as sick as a dog, unable to sleep or eat, throwing up anything she ate and struggling to keep down even water. She was pale white and dangerously feverish, constantly hot and woozy, her sweat and tears shining the same pinkish-purple of her lamplight eyes. She alternated between violent fits —screaming and yelling gibberish as her body jerked and thrashed with painful-looking twitching— and a death-like quiet accompanied by jarring stillness. It was so completely unlike anything he had ever seen before, and he didn’t know what to do.
At first, he closed the Last Drop for a few days, doing his best to take care of Powder as she screeched and bit and clawed at anything that moved —and even more worryingly, at things that didn’t move, reacting to nothing and glaring at empty corners and blank walls— but no medicine or remedy he tried seemed to have any effect. He was very quickly running out of time. And options.
He couldn’t keep the Drop closed for long, not when it was looking like he was going to need money he didn’t have to try and get medical treatment in Piltover, and so he was forced to leave Powder in the care of her siblings while he managed the bar.
Thankfully, none of the other kids were coming down with insane unknown illnesses, but they were all just as worried about Powder as he was, and trying to help her was taking a toll on them all. They all tried to hide it , both from him and from each other, but he could see through the walls of maturity they attempted to erect.
Things probably wouldn’t be as bad if some of Powder’s insane babble didn’t occasionally get close to making sense. Sometimes, when she wasn’t just incoherently screaming and crying from pain, she would say things. It was obviously all muddled up by her fever and illness, but the random things she strung together could be distressing nonetheless.
Sometimes, it just didn’t make any sense, but other times, she would fall into what he could only assume were hallucinatory nightmares. She bit Claggor in one of her fits of manic energy before immediately pausing to apologize for killing him.
At one point, she refused to let Vi touch her, convinced that she was a traitor who wanted to kill her. After she calmed down from that one, she apologized once more and told her that she should go home to see her girlfriend and forget about her. Vi was not pleased to be outed in such a manner —nor was she pleased with the insinuation that she would leave her sister while she was in distress— but Vander hadn’t commented on it. He had suspected already, but that really wasn’t any of their main concern at the moment.
Mylo got the worst reaction out of everyone; just the sound of his voice was enough to trigger another violent episode, with Powder screaming at him to shut up at the top of her little lungs. It wasn’t as confusing and creepy as some of her other reactions, but Vander could see the way the utter rejection of his very presence weighed on Mylo.
Really, it weighed heavy on them all, but Vander was too exhausted to properly comfort any of them. He just went through the motions of working the bar, mind spinning with worry as he tried to figure out if he could even get Powder medical care topside, regardless of whether he could afford it or not. Pilties had all these regulations and requirements and paperwork for every little thing, and he wasn’t sure he had the papers or knowledge he needed to even get them into a hospital. And that was if the enforcers let them over the bridge.
“You look like dogshit,” Came the sudden voice of Benzo from right in front of him.
He couldn’t muster up the energy to properly swat back the insult like he normally would, and as he looked up, he could see the concern on the shopkeeper’s face.
“Good gods Vander, what happened? You look like you haven’t slept a wink.”
“I haven’t,” He said, voice rough from lack of sleep.
“What happened? I heard that you closed the Drop.”
Vander nodded, “Powder’s sick. I’ve tried everything, but she’s not getting any better. Needed to reopen and try to get some coin. We already don’t have much, and unless a miracle happens, I’m going to need every cog to find someone who can treat her. ”
Benzo’s face twisted with sympathy, a robust but gentle pat on his arm jostling him a little more awake, “Powder’s a strong lass, she’ll get through this. And you just let me know if you need help, aye? I might not be able to do much, but if you need me, I’m here.”
Vander let out a long sigh , trying to untense his shoulders and remember that he wasn’t alone. The undercity might be a dog-eat-dog world, but they still had a strong concept of family and loyalty. The Lanes weren’t about to drop him on his ass just because Powder got sick.
Of course, that wouldn’t help him get the treatment he needed, wouldn’t help Powder fight off whatever she was struggling valiantly against, but it was something. He needed to remember that.
“I also wanted to warn ya that Sevika and her boys have been acting strange. She’s been watching ya the whole time I’ve been here, and I bet if I asked someone who’s been here longer, they’ll say the same.”
Vander glanced over at Sevika, who was, in fact, watching him. Her steady gaze was filled with a strange pit of swirling emotions he couldn’t even begin to decipher, and he wasn’t even going to try. He did not have the time or energy for whatever was going on with her.
“Unless she starts causing trouble, ignore it, ” He rubbed at his eyes, “Right now, what I need is a doctor who can actually do something to help Powder. I’ve never seen an illness like this before in my life, and it’s terrifying the shit out of me.”
He leaned his arms onto the bartop, burying his face in his hands as Benzo put a concerned hand on his back.
“...Ben, ” He whispered, voice cracking “Ben, I think she might be dying. ”
“ No, no! ” Benzo denied in that flustered way he always got when things got emotional, “I told you, she’s a strong lass! Some cold isn’t going to kill her Vander. She just needs some fluids and maybe some of that fancy medicine from up top and she’ll be right as rain!”
Vander shrugged off his friend’s hand. He understood the intended comfort behind the man’s words —he really did— but his heart ached with grief and his lungs burned with helpless anger because there was nothing he could do. Nothing he could do but watch another person he loved die a painful, horrible death.
“Unless a cold normally comes with psychotic fits and glowing eyes, I really don’t think some soup and medicine is going to cut it! ” He snapped, regretting his sharpness with the look it put on Benzo’s face, but his insides were full of a burning, blazing mania of love-turned-grief, and he couldn’t bring himself to take it back.
Before he could break one way or the other, suddenly Sevika was in his face, leaning over the bar with a wild look in her eyes.
“What did you just say? ”
“ Shove off Sevika, don’t bother the man while- ”
“I wasn’t talking to you. Vander, what did you just say about her eyes?”
Sevika was acting plenty prickly, just short of hostile, but something about the look in her eyes and the way she asked told him she knew something. And he wouldn’t pass up the chance to save Powder for anything, much less some minor disrespect.
“Her eyes are glowing, a bright pinkish purple, so bright she can light up the room all on her own. It shows up in her tears and sweat too, like a fungus or infection got into her blood- hey!”
Sevika interrupted his explanation by practically lunging for the door downstairs, viciously muttering several curse words under her breath as he blocked her.
“Sevika- ” He started, a warning strong in his voice despite his exhaustion, but she verbally bulldozed over him.
“I might not fully know what’s going on, but I have a better idea than you, so you’re going to move out of the way so that I can get her help right fucking now.”
Vander looked her in the eyes, the headstrong woman looking fully prepared to try and physically push past him if he didn’t move out of the way. In a normal situation, he would make himself bigger and layer on a few threatening words, move things away from the kids before attempting to deescalate and resolve things one way or another, but when he looked into Sevika’s silvery gray eyes, he saw his own all-consuming worry reflected back at him.
Without a word, he moved out of the way, allowing Sevika to storm into the basement with him hot on her heels.
Janna, he hoped he didn’t come to regret this.